Selling in open chat

I seem to accumulate lots of stuff like upgrades and inscriptions that are too good to just sell to a merchant. I've tried selling some of them here in the sell forum but posts there seem to be drowned out in a matter of minutes, so it requires some patience to wait for people to notice your stuff.

As an alternative I'd like to sell some of my stuff in open chat, hence the reason for this post: I assume there is some sort of proper etiquette to doing so? I would appreciate some pointers on that, along the lines of do's and don'ts.

My goal is to attract as much attention as possible to the items I call out in chat, while annoying as few people as possible...I know about the trade channel, but hardly anyone seems to be using it, so I am guessing it would put me at a serious disadvantage if I did so?

Any advice would be appreciated, especially advice delivered without banging me over the head for asking...

Well, the trade channel is your best bet as you will be flamed if you use local. Also, advertising in party search trade section is common. As for the message itself, in my experience anything goes as long as you don't say it too much and it's not offensive...

Did it ever occur to you why people would turn off trade chat?

Maybe because they don't want to know about what is offered for trade.

So you using the all chat channel would annoy them no matter how you would do it.

I never trade with anyone using all chat, spamming their trades or using all caps. Don't buy from them, don't sell to them, don't help them.

The only thing you may accomplish is that alot of people will turn off all chat as well. Effectively making GW a single player online game.

If you read the forums you will see alot of threads in that direction. I think the chat spamming is one of the reasons. normal interaction with other people is impossible through chat channels because of the spammers.

Well, the people who are actually in the market to buy something are going to turn on trade chat or search the party search. If they turn off local or trade chat, they don't want to buy something so don't try to sell to them. The trade section in the party search is a good way to try and sell stuff because part of it is you reach more people over more districts and it's not as repetitive as sitting there spamming WTS WTS WTS all day with no results. Lions Arch, Kamadan, or Kaineng District 1 (sometimes 2 as well) are prime places to trade, so I would go there and put up the party search. Don't worry about people in district 1 of those cities who start saying "use trade channel" because it is an unwritten rule that the 1st district of the major port cities like Lions Arch, Kaineng, and Kamadan are made for trade spam. Plus if they were all in trade channel, they would fly by so fast it would be impossible to see what's being sold.

Yes, it did occur to me...the fact that not many people seem to be using the trade channel is one of the reasons for this post, as you may have noticed that I asked for tips on not annoying people while still garnering attention. There's really no need to jump on me like that when I am asking a civil question...

Anyway, I still got a few tips from these posts so far: In other words, always use the trade channel, don't use all caps, and don't spam.

Now, what would be considered spamming? Obviously it is spamming if I yell out my items 3 times in a row with no pause, but other than that?

Also, no caps but are other methods of "highlighting" my items acceptable? I've seen some people use various symbols like ~~~~~WTS My Old Mother~~~~ and such...Is that frowned upon or considered fair advertising?

Again, I appreciate any advice before I start my career as a market salesperson

As the guys above have said, keep it to trade chat and the trade option in party search. If you start trying to sell in all chat you're likely to have someone send you a whisper or two asking you to use trade, that's the best case scenario, the worst case is that someone takes offense and harrasses you constantly.

As for using the trade channel, don't make the common mistake of thinking 'if I spam it like mad people will notice', this annoys people and you'll be getting the wrong kind of responses. Keep your message as short as possible while giving the relevant details of the item.

Couple of things that seem to really wind people up (myself included)

Selling in all chat, Spamming any of the chat channels, Randomly running up to people and trying to open trade windows.

LOL! That one hadn't even occurred to me...people actually do that??

What you said about ~~~~~WTS My Old Mother~~~~ in my opinion is inappropriate and immature, I wouldn't recommend doing it.

And yea, some people do run up to me and open trade. I'll go with it and just pretend like they're giving it to me for free, not offering any money when they put their offer up. They promptly close trade at that point.

If i made you feel i jumped on you, i'm sorry about that. That was not my intention.

What i meant to say is that you should not force your wares on people who don't want to be informed in a channel that is not meant for that sort of chat.

If i turn of trade chat i am not interested in trades. So i don't like to be "harassed" with it in all chat.

It is so hard to filter the chat for relevant messages that i often find myself not reading chat at all. Knowing that i am a player who likes to help others with their questions the net effect is that they won't get that help.

I often try to "educate" people who spam etc by whispering something like "i would be interested in your trade but my god does not allow me to trade with people who don't use the proper channel or have a broken caps-lock key"

Many times i get an answer that reflects the many threads about the generally perceived attitude of GW players. I don't believe rudeness is the general attitude. It just stands out more than nice behaviour. Makes more of an impression.

However on a few occasions people will react in a positive way. Admitting they did not know the proper etiquette, thinking this was normal because they see it all the time etc.

But i do think the war is lost unless Anet comes up with a solution for the trade problem. I really believe they are working on something and i hope we will see it soon.

If anyone does that to me i accept their offer, offering nothing myself assuming they want to give it to me.

I use the trade chat along with the party search. I avoid the big sellers markets - LA d1, Kamadan d1, etc. I'll go to d2 or d3, that way my post won't get scrolled away within 2 seconds by all the spam. I don't know how much the party search window gets looked at, but it's still new and people aren't used to it yet.

Being creative in your ads is OK, as long as it's done with a bit of common sense - Saying "WTS my old mother" is very distasteful. Saying something like "WTS Leather squares, made from the finest Shiverpeak Minutaur hides" or "WTS VIcto's Axe, It slices, it dices, it juliennes!" is OK, sorta corny, but still OK.

As for Spamming, right now, I avoid it by using my drunkard title progress bar to gauge when to repost my ad - Drink a Spiked Eggnog, then post. And every time it goes up by a minute, I post again. That seems reasonable to me.

Selling things in GW is a pain in the ass. I had 3 black, 1 white dye, 8 greens which were quite high quality and it took me 3 hours to sell the dyes, and another 4 days to sell my greens.

The new search function is a good addition, but shame to those who never look at it. At the beginning it was quite usefull but now people just ignore the function and you're doomed to spam the chat to try selling something.

I've tried the trading channel and afther 1.5 hour typing once in a while "WTS Black and White Dye" I was soo sick of it that I spammed the general chat as last option to sell something, and afther 1 minuut I sold all my 3 black dyes, 10 minutes later my white one. This is exactly why people spam the general chat, because the new search function is almost never used, the trading channel is set to ignore to most people and the general chat is the last one were people see something and make in a few seconds a dicission if they want it or not.

So in my oppinion the only way you can stop spamming tradings in chat is to remove the trading channel and the new search function and add a real auctionhouse, so that the last and only way to sell things would be the auctionhouse or trading 1 on 1 by wispering each other. In WoW are loads more players involved and if you play that game you'll see that hardly anyone spams in the general chat.
Right now Anet filters the WTS from the channel, except W T S still works, but with some minor tweaking it can be easely filtered, even spams like --W#T#S-- can be filtered quite easy.

Also me and some friends had an discussion about why Anet didn't add an auctionhouse to GW, this could be that Blizzard got a patent on it because they use it in WoW so everyone using the same techniek ingame has to pay for it. We don't know if this is really the reason why Anet didn't add this feature, but it could be a good one since USA is quite famous about there silly patents law which they tried to get into Europe (but failed).

There are still loads of things towards gameplay which should be improved or at least thought about it how to solve these problems. If I was Anet I should host a place to discuss these things and let people find a good way to solve it and use those ideas to improve the game. Still I think we'll never get that auctionhouse even when we cry day and night about it, same for the extra storage space, but that's another story.

Thanks for all the replies, and thank you Shaq for clearing up my misunderstanding

I need to clarify one thing: When I wrote ~~~~WTS My Old Mother~~~~ I was not actually planning on yelling out something like that...lol
I just wrote it as an example, my intended question was do you consider using special symbols like the ~~~~~ around whatever you are calling out acceptable, or is that frowned upon? (Hope I made myself more clear this time).

Also, one final question hasn't really been answered: How frequently can I call out my wares before it is considered spamming? Once every 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes?

And oh boy would it be great with a auction house - or even better, the ability to set up our own little stalls in selected cities....*dreams*

I like to "accept" the trade window and then offer 10 gold and hit "Submit Offer".

I usually have only trade chat turned on when trading, put it up and then wait untill I can't see it any more with ONLY trade chat turned on. Well some might concider it much but don't think many would concider it real spamming as long as it stays in trade channel and it's a nice clean advertisement say:

WTS Long Sword || req9 15^50 20/20 +30hp || 50k

Keeps it easy to read for people interested, first the type of weapon, if they want that they'll see it first, then stats so those interested can see if it's what they're looking and then finally the price, sometimes put 'or nearest offer' behind it so they know it's negotiable and if interest dwindles even take price away.

Usually stay in a big trading center (LA1, AscalonInt1, Kaining1, Kamadan1) and put it up in trade channel there, and put it in trade windowe for people looking to buy in other districts will be able to see it. Then the key is just patience I usually just keep my guitar on my lap, volume of comp up so I can hear when someone pm's me and just play guitar for the rest of the time, or I'd go insane at times.
In terms of annoyance just think what would you concider annoying if your weren't out to buy anything, the people who have trade chat turned off and aren't looking in trade window generally aren't interested in buying.

My thoughts exactly. I've tried using the party search tool here and there and there really isn't that many people using it. Considering it contains all the WTB, WTS, LFG....etc for "All" districts and not just the one you're in then I'd say a lot of people don't realize it's there or don't know how to use it.

I have 5 characters now and my inventory for my whole account is getting quite full especially after wintersday. I'm looking to sell mods and greens and whatever else, but it does take a long time and patience to do so. In the 14 months I've been playing the game I have very very rarely sold anything because it is the biggest pain in the rear end. I just hope as time goes by the party window becomes more popular because so far that seems to me to be the best method for buying and selling stuff.

One other thing to that I have wondered about, but don't recall anyone talking about is with the update before Nightfall came out allowing you to choose mods when salvaging had to have made some sort of impact on the market. Now that it is easier to obtain mods then they are probably less sought after now and harder to sell.

Yes they do, but you'll have 99% chance that the person closes the trade windows or just puts in a very low random amount of money

Here's something else that I don't believe anybody has mentioned yet.

Please be sure to put enough info in your "WTS...." chat message to allow the prospective buyer to decide if he wants your item. I am constantly seeing messages like.....

"WTS Nice daggers - 5k"
"WTS GOLD SHIELD!!!!! 10K"
"******WTS SWORD FORTITUDE MOD*****"

First off, I might want your daggers but then again I might not since I don't know anything about them. Same problem with your shield. Just because it's Gold doesn't mean it's worth 10k. The fortitude mod also might be a great deal for me, but how much HP does it add? +25, +26, +30? And how much money do you want. I don't feel like wasting my time contacting you only to find out your selling a +26 Fortitude mod and want 8k-10k for it.

Personally, I don't mind trade requests in open chat as long as it's in one of the main selling cities, but obviously a lot of others do mind. I'll always advertise on the trade channel but I have no problem buying from the spammers.

The spam that does annoy me however are the trade requests in open chat in outposts. If you go someplace like Tahnnakai Temple or Nahpai Quarter where the main chat revolves around trying to find a group for a mission you don't what to be bombarded with "WTS..." over and over. Especially when there aren't enough people in the town for a viable market.

This is my stance on it also. It seems mainly accepted that in KC/Kamadan/LA District 1 People will use both the trade and local channels for adverts. Any other places sellers seem to get pounced on pretty quick if they use local for advertising.

People who spam just seem desperate to me...but not as desperate as the guy I saw the other say spamming in local chat:

WTS <non-max dmg hammers> lower price than before PLEASE BUY IT!!!!!!!!!

I LOLd.

The one thing that gets on my nerves more than anything is:

WTB GOOD CHEAP STAFF!!!!!!

It seems 9 times out of 10 they mis-type "good" instead of "gold"....so you whisper them explaining that you have an unmodded purple max damage staff you will sell for maybe 200g...to get the reply "I want gold or green only" - it also transpires that by "cheap" they mean a perfect fully modded gold max damage staff worth 10 times more than they're willing to pay. Another I came across was "WTB Good Gold Spear". I whispered the guy to say I have a max, perfect gold spear....only to be told that it wasn't perfect. Apparently it's not perfect if it's not got Sundering and Fortitude mods on it! I find it odd I didn't know that!! Must write it down for future reference... LOL

Ugh, I don't even bother trying to sell things in game, but I do look to buy ectos and shards. If I need to sell something I just put it on the auction site. No haggling prices, no spamming, I don't have to watch the auction (notification emails do it for me) and if it doesn't sell it can be relisted automatically.

Some of these have been touched on, but some general rules that I've found to be successful in trading are:

• Keep it simple.
• Post a reasonable price, but expect to settle for less.
• Consider trades. (25 Winterdays gifts for one black dye is a pretty good offer)
• If someone asks you a question about the item, answer them.
• Don’t say things like: “No Noobs” & “No Window Shoppers”
• Trade on the weekends - there are generally more people playing & buying.
• If you have a toon with a name that could be considered rude or obnoxious (like – “ U Suxit Bietch” or “Pwned Leet Pimp ) ,don’t use it to trade.

I never sell anything, and rarely buy anything, as its not worth the time
I do watch the trade channel to see whats being sold

I find it annoying that people that are selling dont post a price, I might even buy from them if they posted a reasonable price and I wanted the item.

I would think that if you post the price in your ad and post it once every 30 secs or so (pull the chat window up, so its as tall as the screen, and repost it when it scrolls off the screen), then that would not be considered spamming.

Also, I have decided that since they added the search button, I will not buy anything that isnt posted in there, as that is what it is for. If more people did this, it would get used.

but remember, I very rarely buy or sell on GW.

As for the people saying "Looking for a good cheap xxx", Ive PM'ed them and given them the specs on the item, along with a reasonable price (usually less than 1K), only to be abused, or ignored, so I dont reply to them anymore.

Most of my good stuff goes to my guild, I just offer it up for free on guild chat

I merch anything unless I think it's worth more than 20k. I'm too lazy to try to sell things.

Howerver, when I do try to sell things, I always use the trade channel, I use ~~ ~~'s to highlight the main focus of my add, and add other information after.

Eg. WTS ~~Req 9 Chaos Axe~~ +15%/al-10, +30 health

1) Use trade channel exclusively (besides party search). Turn off local chat. People who are serious about buying will look there, not in local.

2) Look at player behaviour. They don't stand around window shopping. They zone in and buy. Logical conclusion is, that WTS is waste of time. WTB is what makes money. Those are the ones you need to catch. In about 5 seconds, before full-time traders get to them.

3) Don't bother selling non-max stuff. From time to time someone will want one, but it's not cost effective

4) Markets are at an all time low. Even mods are getting slow to sell.

5) Supply exceeds demand in LA and Kamadahn. You'll usually have less than 30 seconds to close the deal before someone beats you. This is extremly true for most mods.

6) If you do need to spam, say what you're selling clearly. WTS: Strength and honor, 15^50, 3k. If you don't specify the price, it means you want to haggle, or that you don't know what it's worth. You'll get scavengers looking to underbuy it, or people won't bother to even contact you.

7) Keep a full inventory of items to sell. Parallel aproach is much better than trying to sell one item after another.

The biggest advantage of the new trade search window is that its cross multiple districts... So you can sit in LA D1 (the traditional Trade district) and post up a trade message in P and basically sit back and wait. Post a occasional message in trade channel and it will help advertise your location in the district.

As to the spam filter, the game client will tell you when you are spamming. There are way around it, but you get the idea when you see it.

What little business I have done of late has been 100% exclusive on the Trade search window. All chat and Trade chat have been turned off for months now. I rely exclusively on my Alliance chat, guild chat, whispers, and TeamSpeak now for people to play with. Its unfortunate it came to that, but it did. So now that this new feature is here the more use it gets the less spam will happen and the happier everyone will be in the end.

The only thing that will make it better is the Auction House service in the guild hall so that you can leave your wares for sell and come back later to collect your profits or recollect your wares. Unfortunately that particular model was challenged in court By Blizzard and not allowed in GW under an agreement between the two. So Anet needs to develop a new and unique way to handle this functionality. the Trade party search was a good first step in that direction... I'm sure more will come later.

For real? Any sources to verify this? Because it just sucks and is a good example of how wrong the US patent system has become... :-/

Here's one people missed : Make sure your status in the Friends menu is set to online. It's really annoying to try and sell somebody something they advertise they want, or to buy from someone when I can't whisper them for details(such as if they still want it)
And I'll have to second the motion on stating a price. If you don't state a price on something I know is valuable, I have to assume you don't know what it's worth(i.e. I can get it cheap and resell it, or you'll try to overcharge despite me giving a good price rather than lowballing)

but that's just my two cents

/edit and the rule(imo) for all chat: if its already being spammed so fast you're eyes bleed, ignore using it and it will make you look more professional. If you are in a situation where you feel you need to put something into all chat, do it sparingly and none too often. Occasionally you will get a buyer this way if they notice something you're selling(which they hadn't planned on buying, but since you have it available...) but its not as consistent/surefire/etc as the party menu or trade channel.

The way I always sell is this:

Selling: 15^50(4k), e5^50(3k), Ghial's Staff(20k), Exuro's Will(20k) so on and so forth (9/10 times I sell greens)

As you see I don't draw attention to my self, if people are wanting to buy it, they will. Nor do I spam it hard. When i first get to the district I may do it a couple times in 10-15 seconds, after that I do it once every 10 - 20 seconds.

When I see those hard core spammers, I think to my self: If you have to spam it that much, it's a piece of junk no one wants. Those triple/quadruple spammers

Setting a reasonable price will get people interested as well.

***WTS*** Big sweet ass purple sword +23 health only 79k!!!!!!!
and then 5 minutes later i see the same person asking for 50 .. and then 10 minutes later it's 20k.

I also leave districts that seem like the same 5 things are being sold and spammed. I hate those people .. no one is talking, the chat window scroll is fine and yet they still triple/quadruple spam it EVEN THOUGH NO ONE IS TALKING .. shut up