Talk:Rare material trader

Exchange rates
Any idea what the exchange rate is for the traders Werewolf nr 08:13, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
 * The buy and sell amount is dynamically determined based on demand and supply (i.e. how many players are selling a particular material compared to how many players are buying them). There's no fixed "exchange rate", although there might be a min and a max. -- ab.er. rant [[Image:User Ab.er.rant Sig.png|sig]] 08:31, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but what determines the ratio (or the "spread") between their buy price & their sell price?--War Pig5 21:35, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Part of what defines the cost / sale value of the rare materials may be the cost / sale value of any common materials needed to craft that rare material. I have not found it possible to make money by buying common materials, crafting them into rare materials and selling the product - after frequent calculations over the last six months or so. The best it is ever possible to do is break even. It may therefore be that the cost of the rare materials rises and falls according to the market, and the resale value of the rare materials is capped by the current cost of the common materials each 'contains', such that money making in this way is impossible. I realise that many examples are not proof of a rule, but if this is the case it might be very difficult to predict the resale value based on the cost.--Son of Batman 15:15, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
 * The sell amount is always 100g less than the cost to buy, with two exceptions; Deldrimor Steel gets you 200g less and materials that only cost 100 to buy will get you 40g from selling.
 * The buying of 100g less than selling price only applies to things that cost less than 500. After that, the cost gap increases. 550 sell = 440 buy. 1000 sell = 750 buy. 8000 sell = 6500 buy. Sometimes these change as well. I have seen prices widen in gap, but this seems to be a general default setting. Kyubiko 15:42, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

Research and patterns
I did a little research. It seems that every material with a trader sale price of 500g or less is bought at 100g less than the sale price (with a minimum of 10g for the buy price- at the time of writing, Monstrous Eyes had a sale price of 100g and a buy price of 10g). For higher valued materials, buy-sell price difference was 150g with a sale price of 700g or 750g, 200g at 900g or 950g, 300g at 1100g (Monstrous Claws), 500g at 2400g (Diamonds), 1100g at 3800g (Obsidian Shards), 2000g at 8500g (Globs of Ectoplasm), 2000g at 9000g (Rubies). The curve seems a bit "hand-drawn", but it also seems to reliably stay between 20% and 30% of the sale price for materials above 500g. Also, while materials below 500g in sale price can vary in price in increments of 10g, materials between 500g and 1000g seem to vary in increments of 50g, and materials above 1000g seem to vary in increments of 100g. --Son of Urza 01:49, 13 June 2011 (UTC)


 * I've been recording prices for mats for about 2 years; some of the above patterns apply only during stable markets.
 * Minimum prices: Every mat has a minimum NPC WTB price that is identical to its merchant value, e.g. 10 for Fur, but 100 for Monstrous Claws. There's a corresponding minimum WTS price that pairs with the item's value, e.g. Fur doesn't drop below WTS 100.
 * Increments: I've observed the same increments: 10, 50, or 100. The cutoffs are probably at WTB 500 (I've seen 460) and 1000 (I've never seen 1050).
 * Spreads: During stable markets, I've seen the same spreads as noted above. However, during volatile markets, the WTB/WTS prices vary more, e.g. they can get closer or further than during stable markets. The spread also seems to have cutoffs, e.g. WTB/WTS for ecto can vary by 2 when the average is 8, but they vary by closer to 1.5 when the average is is closer to 5 (admittedly, been a long time since we've seen ecto that cheap).
 * One of my friends has observed that the prices reliably go up by one unit (the increments above) if the NPCs sell out several times within a short period; this also applies to the rune trader. I presume there's a similar mechanic for price decreases, but we have no independent way to measure NPC surpluses. — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 02:12, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

List?
Anyone else think it would be a good idea to list all of the traders? This page is not very informative... Spotina Talk 22:16, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Click on the category. -- Arduin  [[Image:User_Arduin_Companionship.jpg|15px|talk]] 22:34, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I got pwnd. Spotina Talk 22:36, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Happens to the best. -- Arduin  [[Image:User_Arduin_Companionship.jpg|15px|talk]] 22:37, 24 June 2010 (UTC)