My first mmo was Everquest, not too long after it went live, back in July ‘99. Its main currency was platinum pieces. Everquest was the campathon game extraordinaire. You and a group of 5 others plunked yourselves in one spot, and “camped” the respawning creatures there until either a) you got enough experience to level, b) dropped dead tired and went to bed, or c) got that super rare item that dropped so you could gloat to your online companions. What a life!

Anyway, platinum was kind of rare back in the day. There was no auction house so people started trading in a channel in the commonlands every Sunday at a set time. This was intentional by the developers and advertised on their site. At the time, the highest level one could achieve was 50. At around level 42 to 44, you might rarely see the occasional wizard or mage wearing what was called the Shiny Metallic Robe… or SMR for short. This robe was an uber rare drop by some frog wizard in a place called Lower Guk. I can’t even believe I remember the name. Well, it was also purple, and a status symbol to those wearing it… made someone immediately stand out as elite.

In EQ, the thing I learned was “trade up”. I’d take anything, and if I saw something that was valued more, I would offer the thing that was valued at slightly less for it, and here’s the catch… plus some other junk. It would “seem” like an even trade, but really wasn’t. Then I’d have the more valuable thing, and trade that for something even bigger. It really didn’t matter what. Something more rare. Knowing the game, you’d begin to know what was rare when you saw it.

The key here was to actually talk to people, and just see if they would do it. Ask for a deal but pretend you knew what you were doing:

Me: I’ll give you x for y.
Them: No thanks.
Me: Ok, fine, I’ll give you x plus two z’s for your y.
Them: Can you throw in an o?
Me: Hmm, alright.
Them: ok….

And the deal was made. The point is that you will always be able to make deals with people. I have continued this practice in WoW. Many times someone will have something up for sale in the auction house, and I will see if they’re on, and let’s say their item is for 60g… and I know it can sell for 75-100g. I will still whisper them, “Hello. Would you mind selling that to me for 50g? You can CoD it to me if you like”. You know what? More often than you’d expect, people will say yes. And then you’ve likely made a 25-50g profit instead of a 15g. Just ask people what their willing to do, what they want. Negotiate. This will save you SO much money in the long run.

Back to EQ. By the time I was bored with the game - I was an adventurer by nature… always wanting to explore the land and just find people to hang out and do quests with, and take risks in places we weren’t supposed to be - I had amassed just an incredible amount of stuff. Very rare, worth thousands and thousands of platinum. Just by trading. Never camping… I hated to camp… utterly hated it. But at level 40… lower than almost anyone on the server, I had my Shiny Metallic Robe… and not by camping as almost everyone did, but by trading.

We were out in the open ocean one night when out of the blue someone advertised they had an SMR for sale. Do you know that I traded lots and lots of relatively lower valued junk for that SMR? It seemed like I was giving away a mint, but none of that stuff was worth, even bundled, this SMR. But that bundle made the seller, a female paladin, feel like it was her that was getting the deal.

Tips of the day:
1. Trade up.
2. Ask people directly, “I’ll give you x for y”, and have a solid number… not too much lower than what they’re selling it for, but enough so that you’ll be even richer after your own sale. You don’t want to scare them away with an utterly ridiculous offer. Unless that is you know the price they’re asking is too high. Then it’s ok, go ahead and give it a shot… nothing to lose. Have a concrete number in mind that you want for it.
3. Bundle things if possible to make a trade up to something more rare. In WoW, this really isn’t possible unless you’re dealing in trade items. No one is looking for a lot of anything really because it’s all so easy to acquire. In games like Everquest, and Diablo II, it is. For Diablo II, you might say “I’ll give you 14sojs (a ring that was once used as currency), this, and this, for your that.” The idea is this. Whatever is being used for currency, bundle things in order to trade for that currency…

Assignment if you dare: see if you can start picking up on what is usually traded for in the channels. Also, get a feel for what tends to sell for the most money in the game. Is it weapons over armor? Is it trade recipes? In WoW, probably the current hot item is rare to find recipes… See you next time.

Tags: auction house, People Skills, trade channel