How to be a trader~

i found this thread at forum and i feel is very useful tips for people who wan earn mesos with trading item, nowaday at maple even wanna up level also need to use mesos(leeching), hope this thread will help u guy~ happy mapling.

How to be a trader

Firstly, you need to have a small sum of money to begin. For me, I started with 5 million mesos . It was a donation from my BL members (Buddy list).

The first item I ever bought for trading, was a 10% staff for magic attack scroll. Back then, they were 600k each. I went to FM Channel 1, and bought one for 400k. I spent my 5m on 12 staff 10% in total. Thereafter, I sold them at 200k above the bought price. I earned 2.4 million mesos.

Ok, now you know a rough idea on how to be a trader, I shall move deeper.

Trading and Price Checking

Learn the market prices of everything that's money making, and purchase them below the market price,
and sell them AT the market price, or above the market price.

As some of you people may know, FM Channel 1 is a very laggy place, and some of your computers can't take the lag, you wouldn't want to go through the Free Market to get the items you want right? That's why Free Market rooms have higher potential to sell items.

And most of the people spamming in FM Channel 1, are trainers. Meaning that they prioritize training their character and would not want to waste time selling their items. These people, are the easiest to bargain with. Or, you can megaphone to buy in mass. I used the word mass, because megaphone is money, and each megaphone is worth more than 1 million mesos. (A-Cash for meso value) So, make sure that you profit more than 1 million from your mass purchase.

Tips

As traders, we just have to AFK or go off-line while our Elf stores or Teddy Bear stores do the selling for us.
So, we take advantage of this opportunity and sell their items at a higher rate.

During trading, your spot is your foundation.
You can sell your spot or keep your spot to earn you money. To learn about the market prices of some items, just browse through the Free Market.

Get a 1 day Elf Store each day.
They are 1.5k cash each, and can be opened 2 times . Open them, they show the timing of 24 HOURS . At the last hour, reopen them, and they show 24 Hours again.

As a bonus, even once the permit expires, the elf store would still be happily selling your items for you.

*Ask me why only the 1 day Elf store? Will answer you privately.

And each time there is a patch coming up, and they are coming up with a new area, the minute you find out that they drop a particular item that was in demand, and you have that item, sell it ASAP. The price of it is going to drop a lot. Mainly because if there are more monsters dropping the same item, the price of the item will drop because very few people are NPCing that item and there is more supply of particular items.

*If a price is dropping, another price would increase.

Oh yeah, you can know whether the prices are going to rise, by foruming.

If you see people starting to post about how lousy or good is a 4th job character, and everyone thinks that it is lousy, people would not want to train that character or want to quit their character right ? So, they will sell their items, which would result in that particular job item prices dropping .

And, if everyone found out how good a job is, and is going to start that particular job, they would need that particular items to start right ? So, the prices of that job's items would rise .

What goes UP and what goes DOWN

Items that are necessary to compliment another item.

Example. As most of you know that now, Pink Adventurer Capes (Pink Cape for short) are quite common, the prices of Pink Capes are dropping drastically. But what is rising? 60% Cape LUK scrolls, because people buy their Pink Capes, and they commonly scroll it with 60% Cape LUK scrolls.

*There are more Hermits and Assassins than Mages, Bowmen or Warriors, that’s why I am using Cape LUK scrolls as an example.

Most people do not dare to scroll their Pink Capes with 30% scrolls because 60% scrolls are a safer option than 30% scrolls as 30% scrolls have a 50% chance of totally removing the item from your character if it fails. As a result, cape scrolls got from 1.2m to 2.2m (now) ever since the new Gachapon came out.

Now, 60% Cape LUK scrolls are quite hot in the market. And if you want to know which items are on the rise, think of the new items that prices are dropping. E.g: If the price of Steelies drop, no one would dare to buy them right? Therefore they will find a substitute - buy other stars. Therefore, other stars market prices would rise.

If the price of something is dropping, another item's price would increase. It is your interest as a trader to find out what that item is.

Oh yeah, you can know whether the prices are going to rise, by surfing forums.

(I helped you edit this part but I strongly believe this is very wrong - Julliant)
Learn what will come in the future. The 4th job advancement for Dragon Knights, Dark Knights yeah? Some believe the Dark Knight skills are not up to standard, therefore thinking Dragon Knights are not worth playing anymore. Ultimately the price of Dark Knight necessities will drop. Due to the amount of people quitting that job, and selling their items.

In the meantime, more people would move on to play a Priest, looking forward to the 4th job advancement, Bishop, skills. Items like Lama stff will go up in prices.

Why do market prices go down?

Firstly, a new supply for a particular item such as a new map, new quests or new monsters. If the demand for the item remains the same or drops while the supply increase, the price drops.

Secondly, price competition. Store owners who have set up their stores in the rooms far behind would have trouble getting traffic, since people would supposedly be lazy and just search the front few rooms. As so, they'd price their items a little less than the shops beside them and more importantly, the shops in the 'better' rooms. Consumers would then prefer the cheaper goods, hence forcing the store owners at the front rooms to lower prices as well.

Why do market prices go up?

Increased supply. A sudden motivation to train a certain job for example (otherwise known as bandwagon), would mean the necessities of that job would increase in price. If for example, people decide to play a Bowman due to the anticipation of the 4th job skills, the prices of bows and bow scrolls would rise.

Market monopolization. This means a particular person or group of people with a lot of capital, go out to buy all of a certain item that they can find. Since they would now be owner of almost all of that item, for example Glove ATT scrolls, supply for Glove ATT scrolls would go down drastically while the supply remains the same. In desperation, people will offer higher prices and the monopoly mastermind can also choose to raise the price further since he has most of the Glove ATT scrolls.

*Most people hate people who try to monopolize the market.

Why do some items have crazy prices?

Because each time the new Gachapon items are released, or new items from a new area/quest/monster comes out, there would be no stable market prices for those items. Prices would then fluctuate, going up and down over and over again until there are enough of that item to secure a stable price. It is strongly advised that anyone who wants or needs such items to wait for the price to stabilize.