Question about "playing" the GTN

[Pingonaut]

A long while back I hear "playing the GTN" is a good way to make credits. I tried to get into it, fell out of interest with it, and forgot about it. Recently I was reminded and became interested again.

 

The problem is, I don't even know where to start. What tips you off to 'trends,' how do I know what I should and shouldn't be buying, and for someone who has no experience in a market, like this, how do I start? Any suggestions and tips would be most appreciated.

[Infernixx]

A long while back I hear "playing the GTN" is a good way to make credits. I tried to get into it, fell out of interest with it, and forgot about it. Recently I was reminded and became interested again.

 

The problem is, I don't even know where to start. What tips you off to 'trends,' how do I know what I should and shouldn't be buying, and for someone who has no experience in a market, like this, how do I start? Any suggestions and tips would be most appreciated.

 

Starting from scratch is not easy, but the basics are these: Playing the GTN is a matter of buying and relisting, and selling your own trade goods at a price you're comfortable with.

 

Find something that sells. No, I won't tell you what 'I' sell on the GTN to make the most because this is a public forum and I'm on a big server and I don't want the competition. Find something that sells that you can make and/or farm.

 

Your goal at the beginning is to make yourself a big enough cash stockpile to get into buying and relisting. This is generally a good chunk of cash, in the millions. Until you get this, sell your trade goods and do dailies until your eyes bleed.

 

Once you can get into buying and relisting, it gets easier, but more boring. You'll spend more than a little time on the GTN, just watching your sales. The more common your sale goods are, the more likely someone will try to undercut you.

 

The rules to this are very easy: If they undercut you by a little, undercut them by a little. If they undercut you by a lot, buy theirs and relist them at a higher price.

 

The CM factors into this, but only slightly. Generally the first few hours after a pack 'unbinds' for the first time is when you'll make your biggest profit in relisting. You see, there are a ton of people out there that will immediately jump in and buy up new packs the first hour that they're available. DO NOT BE ONE OF THEM. They're going to buy those packs and open them to see what they get. Exactly 36 hours from those first couple of hours, they're going to flood the GTN with all their CM stuff that they want to sell and they're going to be ruthlessly undercutting each other.

 

This is when you selectively buy up those pieces and relist them at a higher price or sell them in Gen Chat and you 'have' to sell them before the first 12 hours post-unbinding are gone. Once that 12 hours is up, the GTN is flooded and your high end items are now nearly worthless and the price floor will crater.

 

Over the long term, you'll make more money off of crafted goods than anything the CM has to offer, though. Just find something you can make and sell it at a competitive price and be prepared to have enough cash to buy out stupidly low priced goods.

 

Luck.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Infernixx

[jahshuwaa]

Infernixx nailed it... Do you have any experience holding CM items until their respective packs are embargoed? I imagine there will be a few highly-collectible items whose prices skyrocket. But what about the 'meh' items? Does embargo-induced rarity increase demand for anything but the most popular items? Are embargoed items generally out-of-sight, out-of-mind until the embargo passes (as we've recently seen with the Shipment 1 Hypercrates)? A new pack release creates item awareness, while previous pack items fade into the background like any unadvertised product.

[Infernixx]

Infernixx nailed it... Do you have any experience holding CM items until their respective packs are embargoed? I imagine there will be a few highly-collectible items whose prices skyrocket. But what about the 'meh' items? Does embargo-induced rarity increase demand for anything but the most popular items? Are embargoed items generally out-of-sight, out-of-mind until the embargo passes (as we've recently seen with the Shipment 1 Hypercrates)? A new pack release creates item awareness, while previous pack items fade into the background like any unadvertised product.

 

I do. And even the cheap-o bargain basement pieces gain in value once the supply is shut off. The Relaxed Uniform set, for example. Not so long ago, you couldn't 'give' that set away, it was so common and so cheap on the GTN. Now that it's embargoed, some of the pieces have jumped up into six digit range.

 

The prices will vary and servers differ, so YMMV. That said, anything embargoed will sell for more than non-embargoed stuff.

[Pingonaut]

Starting from scratch is not easy, but the basics are these: Playing the GTN is a matter of buying and relisting, and selling your own trade goods at a price you're comfortable with.

 

Find something that sells. No, I won't tell you what 'I' sell on the GTN to make the most because this is a public forum and I'm on a big server and I don't want the competition. Find something that sells that you can make and/or farm.

 

Really helpful post, thank you! One problem I have, though, is finding out what sells. What do you look for?

[MaximilianPower]

Really helpful post, thank you! One problem I have, though, is finding out what sells. What do you look for?

 

One thing I would suggest is looking at what you buy. There are certain items everyone needs (armoring, mods, enhancements)...and others things that only a subset of buyers will be interested in (droid parts, augments). I don't sell a lot, but what I do sell became familiar to me because it was stuff I constantly found myself seeking out for my own uses. So I kinda knew the market before I jumped into it. And making those items myself saved me the trouble and expense of buying them from someone else. Selling extras sort of ended up as a bonus.

[Infernixx]

Really helpful post, thank you! One problem I have, though, is finding out what sells. What do you look for?

 

I can't go into detail without spilling my own secrets, but consider your audience. What do they want? More to the point, what do they want that you can make and that they will continue to buy from you on a regular basis?

 

What do people need for Raiding that can be crafted?

 

Consider each of the crafting professions and what they offer at 450. What can be crafted and bought by most players?

 

You don't just want customers, you want a regular demand for your sale goods.

 

Once you get your millions, you can then look at things that aren't crafted, but still needed for crafting. That's where you buy up the cheap ones and relist them for a better price.

 

Again, good luck.

[Andryah]

Really helpful post, thank you! One problem I have, though, is finding out what sells. What do you look for?

 

As a very successful GTN market player, here are the key tips that have worked well for me. [note: I do not craft, nor work the materials markets... I work strictly world drops and CM drops]

 

1) you have to pick a series of niches in the market. What you pick is less important then actually picking. Why? because it is impossible to watch and run the market on every item.. it's too much data. So you have to pick a series of item to work. My method is to work items I actually like, and have an interest in. That makes it more fun for me. The important thing is to not be overly invested in any single item or market niche.

 

I'll give you one example:

Relnex Robe. I like the robe a lot. It's iconic enough that I also believed a lot of other players would like it too. Further, it was not rare when the pack dropped... so these were in abundance for less then $10K. I bought every copy I saw listed that sold for under 10K for the better part of 2 months on my server. I'm sure others did as well. I stored them.. and I pretty much needed an new GTN alt for storage of this and a few other choice pieces. I sold almost every one out of my stock for >50K (some as high as 150K) over a period of months. And just about the time I sold my last one.. the pack came off embargo and the market flooded with cheap copies again... so I'm in the middle of a large rinse and repeat cycle. I have made millions over time just off this one item.

 

2) You have to diversify. Why? Because you could always be wrong about an item and you do not want to take a huge loss. So spread your buy/hold/resell choices. This also helps you with respect to market timing as the demand for older items moves in waves in most cases and the trick to buy/hold/resell is to always have older inventory to sell, to keep regular cashflow going. Cashlfow is what enables you to scoop up the next in the series of items you will buy/hold/sell.

 

3) Chest pieces and headpieces tend to be the better investments, but do not disregard pants, gloves, and boots. I have made a truck load of credits working the pants/gloves/boots end of the market too.

 

4a) you need other strategies then just buy/hold/sell. So, go bottom fishing the market as well. I bottom fish everything in the CM armor and weapons space. You would be amazed how often something is listed for a silly low discount price. If something is listed for less then 50% of market rate, that is a quick profit opportunity to be had. But you need to be aware of what the market rate for the item is (which is easier now days with the filters then in the past.

 

4b) There is a weekly market cycle that you can play as well. Once you are active in the market, you will gain a sense for the shift in market prices in many items between weekends, and mid-week. There is a good amount of profit to be had buying on weekends (when items are unloaded) and then selling mid-week when supply is low and market demand is still strong.

 

4c) Take advantage of the binge/purge cycle around new Cartel Packs. There is a short cycle profit to be made from harvesting the surplus about a week to two weeks after the pack drops, before prices return to some higher stable price about 3 weeks or so after the pack drops. I make a lot of money in this area of the market, and in a short period of time. But it requires the best understanding of what your servers tastes are for items, so that you minimize risk of holding a turkey item or two. But again.. buying low during the binge means even a turkey can be unloaded at "break even" if need be.

 

Bottom fishing = quick profits. Buy/hold/sell = regular ongoing high profits.

 

5) Be nice. If someone obviously mis-listed a very rare item at default prices, or absurd discounts (that very much look like they simply missed a "0" on the end).... check with them and offer to return it if you are convinced they made a mistake. This is called "market karma". I have offered-to-return/returned some very expensive items that I knew the seller had simply made a mistake with their listing. What goes around, comes around, even in MMOs.

 

All in all.. the items you choose to work in the market is up to you. There is no completely right/wrong answer. I just know that if you work items that you personally like and find interesting.. that makes it much more fun and interesting for you to stay invested as a player in the market. And.. you will have hot days and cold days, both in buying and selling. So you need a deep enough pocket to ride the cold days, because the hot days are extremely fun. I average about 1M credits earned per day in the market.. but some days it's almost zero, and other days it's multiple millions. I started small, and with one GTN alt. I'm now up to 5 of them, and about to start a 6th. They each have certain segments of the market they work.. and I have one that works dyes and only dyes for example.

 

A few things to steer clear of IMO (other then lucky bottom fishing): Mounts, Pets, Toys. You can make money here, but it's not easy as there are so many to choose from that there is very little real upside here unless you are willing to hold them for a long time and they are a clearly desirable model.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Andryah

[Alec_Fortescue]

Why'd you reduce yourself to this level? Earn your millions by honest man's job - craft!

[Andryah]

Why'd you reduce yourself to this level? Earn your millions by honest man's job - craft!

 

Because anyone can be successful playing the GTN.. with no need to skill up a skill, work for rare recipes and materials and stay ahead of your competition.

 

Besides.. there are trade crafters and trade merchants. Room for everyone.

[Merouk]

You have the following categories of items:

 

- Cartel Packs. Source = cartel market, whatever's advertised on the front page. Profit = either buy with cartel and sell on GTN, or buy from GTN and hold until the cartel market sale on the front page expires (typically a few weeks).

 

- Adaptive (orange) Armor Sets. Source = cartel packs. Certain armors look nice, and you may find deals on the GTN from impatient sellers. Also, the same "hold until their cartel packs move off the front page" tactic can be used. You can use the Collections interface to see how the armors look and what cartel pack they come from.

 

- Mounts, Pets, Color Crystals, Orange Weapons. Source = cartel packs. Same as above; you may find impatient sellers, or you can buy and hold until the packs move off the front page. Unlike the armors above, these are single items where you don't need to worry about the whole set.

 

- Crafting Materials. Source = gatherers. These continually get put on the market by people who are leveling up, and get consumed by crafters. Most of the time it's a losing proposition, as there's way more supply than demand, but once in a great while someone decides to powerlevel their crafting alt to max, and at that point the demand for the mats they need will increase for a while.

 

- Crafted armors and equipment modifications. Source = crafters. If you're a crafter, you can make a pretty good profit by selling the popular stuff, especially modifications. Or you could lose money; it costs several million to raise 1 crafting skill to max, and it may take a long time to make those several million back in profit. The mats will cost you money, so whatever you make has to be popular. Modifications are also sold by a variety of NPC vendors for various commendations and coins, and a lot of people choose to buy from them rather than from the GTN.

 

- Unlocks and access passes. Source = Cartel market. These are needed weekly by non-subscribers, and you can try to re-sell or you can buy from the cartel market and put them on the GTN so that the F2P players can access them.

 

- Companion Gifts. Source = crafting missions (diplomacy, underworld trading, treasure hunting, investigation). Quite a few people want to take their companions to max affection, and there's an ok trade going on for rank 3, 4, 5 gifts. The missions cost you money, so acquiring the gifts isn't "free" but there's room for a bit of profit. Or you can try to re-sell.

[Millardkillmoore]

Crafting tips: Crits are your friend. Max out every companion's affection and purchase the 'legacy of crafting' perks. Only use companions that have a bonus crit chance to craft. Treek and HK-51 can be used for this if none of your other companions have a crit bonus. My market is usually very competitive, so I can't sell my items for much more than their cost to produce. Thus, most of my margins come from the extra item I gain from a crit. Maximizing crits maximizes profits.

 

You can also try manipulating the market. When there are only a handful of one of the items I craft selling for a low price, I like to stockpile that item and then buy all the ones on the market. I then relist them for a huge markup. I also try to immediately buy out anyone undercutting me. For about 12 hours or so, I'll have a temporary monopoly and can sell for ~50% higher prices than usual. Be warned that this might cost you a few million to pull off. So don't try it unless you're willing to risk the loss of a sizable investment. It's always paid off for me, but it might not for you.

 

 

Finally: Limited time items are a license to print credits. I bought one of those infected womp weasels for 150k when it first came out. Then it was removed from the CM. After a few months, I resold it for 3.5 million. Even if it seems like something that won't be in high demand, the low supply will still drive the price up eventually.

Edited February 9, 2014 by Millardkillmoore

[Pingonaut]

As a very successful GTN market player, here are the key tips that have worked well for me. .

 

Thanks for the input! My problem is still finding a niche. Right now I'm only dealing in crew skill crafting missions, which has been alright.

 

Why'd you reduce yourself to this level? Earn your millions by honest man's job - craft!

 

Can't a man have a hobby?!

[branmakmuffin]

A long while back I hear "playing the GTN" is a good way to make credits. I tried to get into it, fell out of interest with it, and forgot about it. Recently I was reminded and became interested again.

 

The problem is, I don't even know where to start. What tips you off to 'trends,' how do I know what I should and shouldn't be buying, and for someone who has no experience in a market, like this, how do I start? Any suggestions and tips would be most appreciated.

You watch and you wait and you learn. There's no shortcut.

[Pingonaut]

You watch and you wait and you learn. There's no shortcut.

 

I'm not looking for a shortcut. I'm just overwhelmed with how much of everything is on the GTN and I had no idea where to start. I'm getting a bit better, but not sure how to move away from only crafting missions and materials here and there.

[jimbothirtytwo]

As a very successful GTN market player, here are the key tips that have worked well for me. [note: I do not craft, nor work the materials markets... I work strictly world drops and CM drops]

 

...snipped....

 

All of Andryah's tips are excellent. I'll add a rule of thumb that I almost always apply when playing the GTN - when buying to re-list, I almost never buy anything that I can't double my money on. The only exception to this is would be a relatively expensive item (ie 200k+). In cases like that, I usually like to make *at least* a 50% profit (buy for 200k sell for 300k, for instance). Also, don't buy with the intention of re-listing unless you're pretty much positive that you can get a decent return. If you don't *know* that something can be resold for a good profit, you're basically just gambling - which is an awesome way to lose your creds.

 

Like the market in any game, it can take a while to get a feel for prices. Start slow, pay attention to what sells, and you'll eventually have a nice flow of creds.

[Pingonaut]

All of Andryah's tips are excellent. I'll add a rule of thumb that I almost always apply when playing the GTN - when buying to re-list, I almost never buy anything that I can't double my money on. The only exception to this is would be a relatively expensive item (ie 200k+). In cases like that, I usually like to make *at least* a 50% profit (buy for 200k sell for 300k, for instance). Also, don't buy with the intention of re-listing unless you're pretty much positive that you can get a decent return. If you don't *know* that something can be resold for a good profit, you're basically just gambling - which is an awesome way to lose your creds.

 

Like the market in any game, it can take a while to get a feel for prices. Start slow, pay attention to what sells, and you'll eventually have a nice flow of creds.

 

Oh, really good point. I'll always be sure to keep that in mind when considering buying something to resell. Thank you.

[abercromb]

Some really great advice on here. Not sure I have much to add without giving away to much of how I make my money in game. But like other posters I have multiple characters selling at the same time. What I would say is buy what you like. Some armour sets are very popular because of how they look, same for many items that come out of cartel market packs. If you like the look of them and they are cheap then buy some up. Prices are dictated by supply. If there are lots of them prices drop. This always happens in the weeks after a new cartel pack hits. As supply dries up prices started to clime. That is when you make your money, buy at the low start selling as they clime. Recognising when those points are is what you learn as you go along.

[Suzina]

A long while back I hear "playing the GTN" is a good way to make credits. I tried to get into it, fell out of interest with it, and forgot about it. Recently I was reminded and became interested again.

 

The problem is, I don't even know where to start. What tips you off to 'trends,' how do I know what I should and shouldn't be buying, and for someone who has no experience in a market, like this, how do I start? Any suggestions and tips would be most appreciated.

 

Like in real life, taking advantage of capitalism isn't easy without capital. You need a bank of credits to play with, and you need to understand the value of items better than the average player.

 

All that means is you pick something you always check the GTN for, check it daily for, like a particular crafting material or cartel market pack, and watch for patterns. Patterns like "When a new pack comes out, it tends to sell for _____, but later it sells for ____, and after they embargo it, it sells for...____" Then it's just a matter of buy-low, sell-high.

 

The easiest way to play the GTN is to look for items that are marked very cheap, cheaper than they should be. If you search for a cartel pack and see a bunch up for 300k and one up for 30k, you would probably buy the 30k one and put it up for 300k to make a nice 270k. That's playing the market, it just means watching the GTN everyday for changes and opportunities.

[Kurkina]

To make your first 10 million, I would simply run dailies and gathering missions. Don't craft anything, exploit the crafters needs for materials, especially those from archaeology and scaveging, bioanalysis as well. Engaging in buying/reselling with a budget of less than several million to invest at any given time is in my opinion a waste of time, time that could be spent making easy money from dailies.

 

At the 10 million+ point, where you can dump 3, 4, or 5 million into the GTN, go for markups of single high-end items. From a profit/time spent on the GTN perspective, I believe this is the most efficient way to make money. Here's why:

 

 

1. The high-end items of a given type are easy to find (on the GTN), i.e. you don't spend hours and hours searching for them
   
2. The discrepancy in listed prices of high-end items tends to be huge, even in the millions (dyes). That is a chance for a big one-time profit that takes very little time to find, buy and repost.
   
3. In the long run, one or two high-end items (in the millions) might be much easier to sell than dozens of mid-ranged items (in the 100's of thousands).

 

Again, my main criteria is time spent on the GTN versus profit. Consider the following scenario:

 

 

• search for a [black-black], [black-white], [white-black] or [white-white] dye
  
• with these items, there is often a discrepancy in the 200-500k range between the 2 cheapest listings, even a difference of 1M+ can be seen on a weekly basis
  
• buy this single undercut item and repost it at close to the next highest item

 

This procedure will take exactly one or two minutes. A profit of 300k-1M+ in one or two minutes. Of course you need millions in reserve to be able to do this, but I find it ultimately much more effective than spending hours on the GTN looking for dozens of bargains on which to make much smaller profits. Of course if you like combing the GTN for such things, by all means do so, but consider how much money you can make in an hour of dailies or chest runs on Makeb, and consider why you're playing this game in the first place.

Edited February 9, 2014 by Kurkina

[ZETA_SCORPII]

I sell about 20-30 Isotope-5's per week for an average of 85k per unit (used to get around 120kish before 2.4) and most BOE drops I get. If you feel like spending real $ then buy the $100/14500 CC option and buy 2 hypercrates to make a fast 15 mil (If you value your marriage then don't let your wife see your bank statement lol)

[CosmicKat]

Reminds me of an old Steve Martin joke... "How to be a millionaire, and never pay taxes!... First, get a million dollars...."

 

It's easy to get richer if you are already rich. There's no real skill or strategy to it, it's just basic "buy low, sell high" stuff.

 

At the end of the day though, it's spending $15/month to play a spreadsheet for the reward of make believe money. All the fun of Excel without the death penalties and waiting for boats!

Edited February 9, 2014 by CosmicKat

[Infernixx]

Reminds me of an old Steve Martin joke... "How to be a millionaire, and never pay taxes!... First, get a million dollars...."

 

It's easy to get richer if you are already rich. There's no real skill or strategy to it, it's just basic "buy low, sell high" stuff.

 

At the end of the day though, it's spending $15/month to play a spreadsheet for the reward of make believe money. All the fun of Excel without the death penalties and waiting for boats!

 

It's an optional form of play that has little bearing on anyone other than the people partaking in it.

 

Of course, you're completely free to turn up your nose and sneer at people for partaking in game play that doesn't appeal to you personally.