12 Oct 2008 at 10:53 - 3
Seems to me like Kamadan is still the main trading town, followed by LA. District 1 is the hot spot. Whenever I've looked, I've found American D1 to be more active than any of the other English-language districts or the International District, but that could be a time of day issue. Peak hours are when you can't keep up with the window. :/
A couple of suggestions:
1) Try making your chat window bigger. I won't even attempt to watch the trade spam without hitting F11, then going to the interface tab and making the chat window fill about half the screen. It still goes by fast, but I find that makes it easier to just scan in general. If you see an ad of interest, it hasn't scrolled off the window before you can read it more carefully and find the name to send a whisper.
2) Put up a short WTB ad that fits in the Party Search window. Doesn't hurt to repeat your WTB ad to the trade channel once in a while, too, but the ad will stay in Party Search. (Tip - hit enter and then up arrow to activate chat and repeat your last chat entry.) Not all, but some sellers do watch the WTB ads in there.
3) Finally, I'd agree with Marty - post a wtb thread on the Ventari's Buy forum here. Whenever I'm in the market for anything less common than the popular mods (fortitude, sundering, enchanting, etc.,) I post a thread there. Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I've had a lot of success finding sellers that way. I think the only thing I ever asked to buy here that I didn't get within a week turned out to be something that doesn't exist.
Oh, and depending on what it is you're looking for, there may be other places to try. If I were looking for, say, a shocking dagger tang (something most people don't keep around for resale) I'd try towns where a lot of farmers are likely getting daggers and merching them ... the Raptor farmers in Rata Sum spring to mind. Of course, this requires that you know of a place where a lot of folks are likely to have the kind of thing you're looking for.
Cheers & GL!
Luny