Newbie - lost on prices

I've been reading up on the various price check lists, trying to get an idea of what is valuable and what is not. But frankly there are so many factors playing in, not to mention that I don't understand half the terms bandied about by the experienced players that now I am just even more confused than before.

I finally decided to post the specifics of the one gold weapon I have in the hopes that someone will break down for me what parts of the weapon might raise the price and what parts might lower it.

Here is what I see when I look at the weapon:

Zealous Spiked Axe of Warding
Slashing damage 6-26 (requirement 8 axe mastery)
Energy: +5
Energy gain on hit: 1
Energy regeneration: -1
Armor +7 (vs elemental damage)
Value 160 gold

I bolded the parts that are written in gold. What I get from reading the price lists is that modded weapons are not worth very much - but the parts written in gold are mods, are they not? In other words, the mods are what make the axe a gold weapon (and thus probably worthless)?

Sorry for asking what is probably a very stupid question, but I spent 3 hours last night trying to decode the price lists - I badly need help....

Well... It is not the mods on a weapon that decide its color. Weapons are just the color that you find them in. There are 5 colors, which are ranging from common to rare are, White, Blue, Purple, Gold. That means 1 color left and thats Green. Green is weapons dropped by bosses and can not be changed in performance.

Gold is the rarest form a weapon can have and are usually worth the most.

Some weapons have rare skins (they are not found much) and have a set price depending on skin, not their mods.

If a weapon is fairly common dropping, but it has perfect mods on it, it is worth more as well.

So mods do not make the color, its the weapon itself. And the better the mods, the higher the sell price.

Thats about it in generall... If you have any questions.. PM me

A short addition to this post. Beside the skin, the requirement of the weapon is important. In your example, the 8 axe mastery makes it worth a lot more than an axe with exactly the same mods but with 13 axe mastery. This is because the mods can all be changed, but the requirement is fixed (unchangeable). So a combination of the skin and the requirement decide the value of the item.

From top to bottom:

Skin is the most important factor in determining the value of any item, followed closely by the inherent bonus(s) and req of the item. Inherent bonuses are those bonuses that cannot be added to or salvaged from an item.

In this case the skin is "Spiked Axe", a very common and frankly unwanted skin type. The fact that it is such a common and undesirable skin reduces the items value significantly.

If this is a Prophecies or Factions item then the "Energy +5" is the inherent bonus of this particular axe. This is generally a decent bonus that will fetch a good value on an axe or sword, but only if the skin is desirable. Generally Prophecies and Factions items must have inherent bonuses (1 for martial weapons, 2 for caster items and shields) in order for them to be worth anything more then the merchant value. Nightfall items do not have inherent bonuses and therefore the value of those items are based solely on the skin and req, with a slight increase in value based on added inscriptions and mods. If this is a Nightfall item then the "Energy +5" is the inscription.

Additional mods, those which can be added to and/or salvaged from an item, tend to increase the value of an item only slightly and never more then the sum of the items core value + the value of the mods. In the case of your axe the added mods are the "Zealous", which is the "Energy gain on hit: 1 / Energy regeneration: -1", and the "Warding", which is the "Armor +7 (vs elemental damage)". Different mods have different values. These mods can be over-ridden by simply adding different mods to the item.

The mods are not what determine the color of the item’s text, rather it is the item’s text color which determines weather or not said item can have max stat bonuses and max mods when said item drops from a kill or chest.


All this having been said;
Spiked axe req8 +5 energy is worth about 10k-15k. In this case the additional mods will not likely add any value. +5 energy axes are generally a runners weapon and therefore neither of those 2 mods are beneficial to the inherent mod.

Hope this gives you some idea of the whats and whys of pricing.

Another addition... You have put in the damage correctly and is it 6-26?

Because sadly this is not max damage for an axe (max is 6-28), so this reduces your weapon in price very much..

Anyone wanna add something to this?

All was pretty much covered in above posts

I'd like to add that certain skins in Guild Wars are so rare (i.e Crystalline Sword) that if one happens to have non max of that skin, it's still valuable.

This only applies to handful of skins.

Just to clarify, the order that each element affects the value of an item is as follows:

Details Skin > Req > Inherent Modifier > Components

Colour Gold > Purple > Green > Blue > White



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The lowest recorded max damage gold req in the first two chapters is 7.

The lowest recorded max damage gold req in Nightfall is 8.

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The rarest/most desired skins in the game currently include:

Cystaline Sword. Colossal Scimitar. Elemental Sword. Dead Sword.
Dwarven Axe. Serpent Axe. Sephis Axe.
Magmas Shield. iridescent Aegis. Sun and Moon Shield. Gloom Shield.

If you find any max dmg versions (or even close to max) of the above skins, gold or purple, ask for a Price Check before you sell if you're unsure.

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Mods affect the value of an item to an extent: An item with 'perfect' mods (20/20 +30 for sword, for example) will gather a lot more interest than a clean version. However, adding those mods to an item that's only worth 10k clean will not raise the value of the item to the combined total worth of it's components.

You must gain a sense of balance when considering whether or not to modify a weapon for sale, ie: "It will sell faster if I attach xx components, but will it be worth it financially?"

Also, an item is only worth as little as its most valuable component. So if an item is only worth 10k and it has a 30k component attached, the component value is the one to go by. In an instance such as this, it's usually better to salvage and sell seperately.

If an item is of low value and holds valuable components, and you don't want to risk the salvage of one incase you may lose the other, then you should value the item at the cost of the most expensive mod + a little more depending on the strength of the second. The chance to salvage both for profit will be tempting to other traders.

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If you're considering trading as a money making scheme, then make sure you keep an eye on the market, and learn to evalute trends. It's no good if you buy a certain item for what you think is cheap if it turns out to be the new standard. Time is money when you buy and sell.

The main trick is to find the balance between the cost of the aquisition, what the current considered hi-end value is for the item, and how much time will be spent trying to sell that item at it's hi-end value: Sometimes it's best to sell a little under if the item was a drop or if the profit you will make will be substantial enough to take the cut. Once more, time is money.

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There's lots more to learn, obviously. If you're going to be trading casually, and you're unsure, just use the PC forum. That's what us 'pros' are here for

That is subjective..

50% if not more of the Elona greens will sell for more then the average purple.

hmm have req 8 golds dropped in NF as max? i havent seen any myself.

Yeah but they are extremely rare..kinda like golds back in the early days of chapter1.