Trading tips

Hi, I'd like to help people out with trading. Here are some of my tips. Hopefully this helps people realize what options they have in order to get some good offers or deals! This may be a bit too detailed and actually insignificant in the grand scheme of things ha ha. My other blog about reselling also covered some of the other details I have not discussed.
Feel free to comment below if you have something to add or critique on!

When selling consider:

People are more likely to offer when you are offline because they are not sure if you will accept or not if you aren't.
People love to do stuff with their mp or like seeing a lot of it on their profile. They will get antsy if you don't respond immediately. What I try to do to counter this is say in the caption that you are online daily or will be back immediately.

Know when to back off or stand your ground when someone under offers on your item!

Negotiation is extremely important, and some people will inevitably try to offer for a little less just to see if they can test you. Whether or not you accept their offer depends on the item. If it is retired and popular like an enchanted raulf plushie for example, it is generally better to hold off on under-offers because a fairer offer may come your way soon. On the other hand, if it is something hard to sell like an enchanted non-le plushies, it may be best to accept slight under-offers because not many people buy those kinds of items except certain collectors and sometimes missions. Use your best judgment!

If you can't get rid of an item no matter what, just stick it in auctions or in your shop and advertise your item in forums with words like UB(unbuyable)or quicksale

Sometimes an item just won't sell no matter how much you advertise. If that happens, those are the only other options you can use. Just don't expect to get a high price if you do use auctions or your shop.

Huge vs individual trade lots
There are pros and cons to selling items in these ways.

Huge lots

Pros:
Less annoying to create a trade lot for each individual item, so it is good for people selling a lot of items at once.
Cons:
People will be less likely to offer because they may want only a single item in your trade and will feel too lazy to mm you to separate.

Individual lots

Pros:
More offers generally because people will have the mp to offer fairly though you do get some bad offers occasionally.
Cons:
Extremely frustrating to create a trade lot for each item. Not recommended for people selling a large amount of items.

The trade lot caption

This is actually rather important to getting offers that you want. Will cover each option pros and cons in detail.

Blank caption or ambiguous mm offer caption

Pros:
Occasionally you will get over-offers in items or currency, but generally I don't particularly recommend doing it for this reason. My least favorite option.
Cons:
You also get the most bad offers by doing this. It's harder to get the price you want by just leaving a blank caption.
Prevents price gouging too as does blogs. More below.
Priced caption aka something like
"1.5 mil or 1 au(account upgrade credit and 500k"

Pros:
Generally recommended for people who know exactly how much they want for an item.
Cons:
Other traders who see your price will try either to match it or lower their price. A keen example would be the Rejected trading card. Before where there were only a few the lowest trade lot was priced at 4 mil, but as more people put their items in trades it is now closer to 1 mil. Price gouging doesn't happen often, but it can definitely hurt!

Check my blog caption
Pros:
A surprisingly effective way to sell multiple items at once. It allows you to sell items in bulk, and making a blog means you don't have to remember prices for each individual item! Highly recommended for people selling a large amount of items.
Cons:
People may be too lazy to check your blog or won't be able to find it. Make sure it is easy to find or you may deter a potential customer.
END FOR CAPTION SEGMENT. sorry for being really long, lol

People will typically not offer on an item if they see a large supply of it
if there is a large supply of an item, people will be skeptical about dipping into their pockets because a high supply often means that the value will drop because demand will be satisfied easier. Be careful about displaying a large amount of the same item at once. It is generally good to sell one at a time unless you are looking to sell something like crystals or chocolates at a bulk discount.

Communication is key. You'd be surprised at how much negotiation can take you
You can ask for items from someone's gallery as payment if they don't have any currency or ask for a discount if you're feeling lucky. It's really that simple. All it takes is a couple of maramails.

Refresh your trades once in a while
This is important because sometimes another seller will try to go a little cheap on another item that you're both saying, so it's very important for you to match that price!
Also, sometimes trades is flooded with swap or blog trade lots which are really massive and can bury your trade lot out of view from a potential seller. Re-posting your trade lots is an annoying task but necessary if you want to sell your items quickly by exposing them to more users.

Advertise in forums
Like I said before, sometimes your trade might be hidden from a potential buyer due to how fast trade lots can add up. Therefore, it is important to advertise in forums, so that buyers who lurk there more may be interested in your item. Collectors generally will pay more than some random user in trades. Remember that!



When buying:

Quicksale
Don't be fooled if someone says quicksale. Make sure to determine the popularity or usual price of the item before buying. People will often say quicksale to catch a buyer's attention, but it might not actually be too far from the actual price. Inflation and newly released items are the biggest culprits of being more expensive than they actually are. A good way to determine if an item is actually valuable is to check rarity instead of (ss)shop search price. The item could also be (hts)hard to sell. You generally want to avoid hts sell items as a reseller.


Under-offering directly is generally not recommended
Instead of under-offering directly and getting rejected. You should talk to the user politely through maratalk or maramail for a discount. If you do this, they be more likely to listen depending on the item and their mood.

When an item is priced too cheaply, it is usually too good to be true
If someone is selling a enchanted yellow chibs plushie for 4 mil, wouldn't you think that's a suspiciously great bargain? Normally, you would offer the price asked for, but I don't recommend this because smarter users will try to offer a bit more to convince the seller to accept their offer instead. Think about what is the best price you are willing to pay for the item in these situations. It is better to pay a little more than to lose out on the deal entirely.

Ask a buddy. Is the item really worth buying at that price?
I can't tell you how much mp I saved by talking to someone before purchasing an item that I wasn't sure about. Sometimes you may not be thinking correctly at the moment. By asking for another person's opinion through forums or maramail, you can avoid potentially over-offering on a trade that you may regret in the future.

Check their wishlist or ask if they accept items
Sometimes people will trade items for what is on there wishlist. You can get some real bargains this way if you find an item on their wishlist that is a lower price than the item you're trading! Make sure not to just pass off "swap" trade lots as rip-offs. Some of them can be really profitable.

All of this is was what I learned in my career as a reseller. I have another blog that covers the topic of reselling in a bit more detail. I hope you found my blog interesting!

Pet collectors

The names of people who have a collection of that certain species! Really incomplete list ha ha, but I'll add more in the future.
Please comment if you know one, so I can add it.
Arinya:
Astro:
Basil:
Chibs:
Crikey:
Daisy:
Dakota:
Decadal: Decadork
Ercuw: sweetninnocent101
Figaro:
Gizmo:
Gobble:
Hump:
Huthiq:
Ike:
Justin:
Kronk:
Kujo:
Lati:
Limax:
Lorius:
Mordo:
Nino:
Oglue: IamJasper
Phanty:
Poera:
Pucu:
Quell: Strawberries.
Raulf:
Rofling:
Rusty:
Sindy:
Snookle: Kevin
Sybri: Sassy
Tasi:
Troit:
Viotto:
Vixen:
Vlad:
Willa:
Yuni: Rue
Zoink:
Zola:
Zoosh:

Tips when buying and reselling

When it comes to buying and reselling for profit, people can get very frustrated when they don't sell anything at all.
Here are my tips for those looking to get into this risky but profitable business.
Acronym useds : shop search(SS), unbuyable( UB )
When buying always consider these factors:

Unbuyable:

If an item is UB, people will typically pay and demand it more. Unless there is a huge difference in price from shop search, not many people will be willing to buy a non-UB item from you if they could just buy it from SS.

Popularity:

ALWAYS consider how popular an item is when selling. An item such as a Desert Costume is very popular because of the new pet colors being released, so you can easily find,buy, and resell one for a decent price. However, a Red Panda Costume is not as popular because its pet colors are not as recent. The same goes for different types of items. Stamp collection is less popular than plushie collection, so it may be harder to sell a retired stamp than it would be to sell a retired plushie. If you buy an item with low popularity, expect to take longer to sell the item even if your price is lower than other competitors'.

Difference in price to other competitors:

Make sure that the item you are buying is cheaper than in SS, trades, forums, or auctions. The difference must be significant enough because the more expensive the item is the more negligible a difference can be. A 100k mp difference would be noticeable when selling hieroglyphics, but it would not matter much when selling expensive costumes such as minipet or splatter costumes which cost millions of mp. Use your best judgment to determine whether the difference in price is sufficient enough for you to make a profit.

Trades:
MM the person you're buying from if you have to negotiate. Communication is important, not just your offer.

Auctions:
Auctions are a great place to find good stuff to resell! Learn how to time yourself to bid how much you are willing to pay for an item at the last second by using a stopwatch. That way you have a higher chance of snagging the item. Make sure to check Enpiah Alien especially because his items start at 1mp, but some of them are worth a lot more than that. Meaning, you can usually get a good deal.
Count:

This factor specifically applies to SS, but it is also really important. Say you see a retired minipet in SS for 500k. Normally, one would jump at the chance to buy and resell it, but HOLD YOUR HORSES. Make sure to check the count of the item first. What if they had 40 Punk Minipets, and you just bought 2 by mistake? You would now have a really hard time reselling them because there are so many of them in SS at the same price. Furthermore, now that there is an abundance of the item in the market, there will be less people who would want to buy the item in the first place.
BE CAREFUL when buying from SS, or you can kiss your profits goodbye!

Price:

Some people will simply not buy an item if it is outside their price range. Imagine if someone was selling the last mutant costume for 50 mil less than its expected price. It might be a really good deal, but there will also be a lot less people who can pay for it.
When you are first starting out, you generally want to avoid buying very expensive items because if you can't sell them then your profits stagnate. It's better to buy multiple small items at once and sell them for profit, unless you're SURE that you can sell an expensive item quickly through forums.

Wanted Ads:
Wanted ads are great because sometimes you can get a lower price for an item. Try to be reasonable. Don't offer anything idiotic like 250k for a 1000 Dukka coin. No one is going to fall for that.

NEVER BUY photos/plates, colored minipets, "used" items or (non-mp)bought items.

Photos and plates are easy to reproduce with a photo machine or webcam; meaning, the market will eventually have an influx of items that will decrease its price. Also, most collectors will be looking to SWAP photos or plates not buy, so long story short try not to buy these items.

Colored minipets have a deceptive value. A Treat minipet that sells for 100k can be turned into something like a Grey Treat which is not in SS. However, just because it is not in SS doesn't mean that you can sell the item for 500k. Most smart players will realize they could just change the minipet's colors through Fasoro Falls or a yarn ball and not buy your item. Minipets are also very hard to sell in the first place in comparison to other items, so avoid these items at all cost.

Used items are unique in that they require to be used in order to be produced. Examples are some plushies and empty soda cans. Make sure that the original item is cheaper before buying items such as these.

Non-mp bought items. These are very miscellaneous, so let me explain. Basically, RP right now is at a 1:6 ratio, BP at a 1:2 ratio, and Dukka Coins are at a 1:8k ratio. People will sometimes try to fool you by buying items that can be only bought with these currencies and selling them for more than they are worth. Take for example, Kwazikujo items. Teasing Nymph Leaves sells for 12.5k rp at his shop which would be 70k mp through conversion. Now look at shopsearch, people are selling it for more than 400k! For items like these, ALWAYS make sure to convert the item's price in another currency to mp in order to make sure you are getting a good deal.

WARNING

NEVER EVER price check(PC) for a person and then try buying from him or her if you are not 100% confident with your PC. This is seen as manipulation and can get you reported if you manage to buy the item for a lower price, even if you yourself didn't realize that.

When selling always consider these factors:

Advertisement:

AlWAYS advertise. Go to forums and post like mad in PC and advertising. Edit your profile as an advertisement. MM or maratalk people who seem interested. Create an advertisement in trades that advertises your item by making a trade lot with a random item.. If people don't know you are selling something, they won't buy it! Don't be afraid to use all the tools at your disposal.

Count:

This is for shopkeepers who want to sell retired items from their attics. Make SURE to sell a UB item 1 at a time and not all at once! Buyers buy from SS in the first place because they want to make a profit. If they see there is a large number of the same item selling for the same price, they will often be less likely to buy. If you sell one UB item at a time, you will get multiple resellers coming to your shop at the right moment, and you will not risk having another competitor selling your item for 1 mp less.

Trades:
Always make sure that when you sell in trades to have the lowest OR most updated price (first in the trades) if you want to match other prices. BE CAREFUL though. Your price may be matched by other competitors, so watch your toes.

Wanted Ads:

Wanted ads are good for selling too. Sometimes if you really can't find a good price in trades, just try wanted ads. To be honest, most of the time the prices there aren't that fair, but you may get lucky sometimes.

Auctions:

More people use auctions than trades or forums, so it's good way to get rid of UB items you found in shop search if you are having trouble finding a buyer. Generally, if you know an item is not that popular and you still want to make some profit, just sell it for 50k more than what you bought it for. Since it is not in SS, people will be still willing to buy it and make a profit themselves. There may even be a bidding war depending on how popular the item is which can get you a larger profit than you may have anticipated. Make sure to do auctions at the right times when people are active and to calculate what increments would be best to set a bidding war in your favor. Like shop search though DON't SPAM the same item in auctions! Buyers will be discouraged from buying an item even if it is a good deal if there are like 10 of them circulating in auctions. I know I would.

FINAL NOTE

Lastly, always remember there WILL be a time in your reselling career where you make an overoffer by mistake, are unable to sell an item, or purchase something useless like a colored minipet. When those times occur, just keep calm and continue selling. Everyone has trouble selling sometimes; you just have to do your best to keep your losses minimal and profits consistent as much as possible.

Feel free to add on or critique my blog!