Bulk Farming

Essence Snow

Essence Snow

Unbridled Enthusiasm!

Join Date: Nov 2009

EST

DPR

I was browsing the "high end" section, u know the one for items or "packages" above 100k, and I can across multiple examples of bulk items. Whether it be stacks of cookies, party points, cupcakes, alcohol, or collector items, there is always someone selling "Bulk" of these items. Now here is where my question comes in and where I hope to get some insight that I must have overlooked. How in the world are people able to acquire so many items in bulk? I know when keg farming was viable (i mean 1-2min runs) you could churn out several stacks in a weekend event, but the numbers I see people selling are rediculous.

Even at my best I could not even compare to farm these numbers without buying them from other players. Even if one were to buy such quatities the ROI is so low is it actually worth it. I mean why buy 10 stacks of alcohol for 40k and sell them for 50k when u can simply purchase a singular "high end" item for 400k and sell for 500k. The time spent searching for both deals could be equated to farming itself. I guess I expect to here a Wal-Mart response....selling vast quatities at a low profit margin has served them well....but alas I don't have warehouses to store my product.

So the conclusion I have come to is that people must (and yes I know everyone knows) be using macros aka bots to farm such bulk. But here is where I find that interesting.....People are selling "tainted product". By that I mean that people are selling out in the open items that have been procured by banable means, almost like drug money if u will.

Now I know what your thinking. Why do I give two hoots about this? I don't really. It was just something I noticed and atm I am burned out from DSC (rocked out 730k today) so I have to take a break and rant for a moment about repetitive farming. Plus I didn't want to add to the already overwhelming amount of content about SF~~we get it already...the horse has been dead for some time...put down the sticks~~

With all this being said I hope to see some feedback on what you think about "bulk farming". ~How it's done~When it's done~Who's doing it~Then I guess I'll add (because we all know it's comming) I am curious to read the comments the "trollers" will leave.

Thanks and take care!

Darkkis

Darkkis

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Feb 2006

Finland

Mo/

Bots , Multiple GW clients open... or you just pop online to farm during the events and save them and wait for the right moment to sell...like just before xmas when people are in xmas mood or just when you think there is more demand than supply in the market atm so you can ask a little bit more for you event booze/candy/sweet.

Killamus

Guest

Join Date: Oct 2008

I love how some people think that just because they can't do something that everyone else is doing it via a bot.

This weekend I got a stack of pies and 2 stacks of cider from farming for about 3 hours, total. This is because I made a build that gets about 15 kills per minute in HM.

If you want to be able to farm as much as these people do, there's two options:
(A) Be good at farming
(B) Buy stuff cheap from newbs in Ascalon. You see people spamming "WTB PIES 100G/EA" in Rata Sum? Yea, they get A LOT, and quickly, then sell them a month later for 200-300g/ea. That's how 90% of my guild makes it's profit, the other 10% from farming DoA/UW/FoW. It's called power trading.

Riot Narita

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Killamus View Post
I love how some people think that just because they can't do something that everyone else is doing it via a bot. ^This. Also love how the OP - while asking for comments - has decided from the start that any comments disagreeing with the "must be bots" stance are simply trolls. Well, here's my "troll"...

I found Raptor farming was better than my usual averages over Thanksgiving. I farm for 1 hour at a time, and religiously track my drop rates. I frequently got over 200 drops/hour (pies+ciders), and I don't think I had less than 180 in a single hour (No bot of course, no macros - I use E/Me with a Paragon hero (W/N style). No assists, other than assigning short-cut keys for my hero skills).

My farming build is more efficient these days, thanks to stealing the W/N hero idea... but even before that, for most events over the last couple of years, I've averaged about 150 event items per hour from Raptors.

Do the maths - an efficient and dedicated farmer can pick up a LOT of stacks during an event - especially the longer ones like Thanksgiving. eg. 180 drops/hr, 5hrs/day, for 5 days -> 18+ stacks pies/ciders.

On top of that, you'll always see low-ballers on the trade channel or party screen... buying stacks cheap, to sell higher later. Plenty of people (including me) will sell cheap, just to make a quick sale and avoid wasting time trading.

Yes, they could do the high-value power trades... but when the event items are dropping why wouldn't they do this? Its money for nothing.

Nechrond

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Oct 2009

Netherlands

Utrecht Usurpators

D/

Perhaps the OP is farming with a full 8-man team? When I need some trophies for a collector, I kick out all the henchies and go with only my char + heroes. I kill only slightly slower and get twice as many drops. Of course, if you can go with only 1 healer hero, or if you can solo-farm, that would be even better.

prey monkie

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2009

[OhNo] Mallyx and Friends

Mo/

Rata Sum in a weekend event with candy drops or any other drops is EASY money for people WITH money. all those raptor farmers who have maybe 100k max on their account and try to farm some more money but do not really know wtf they are doing. those people are worth money <-- for people WITH money ( like 3 million in cash to spend on a weekend--> multiply accounts to storage it on) just stand in Rata sum buy the even dorps for a low price and sit on them till they get to the righ tpoint to sell. it's not lame or soemthing u just supply a service. you have the money and time to stack things up, farmers dont have the money to get BULKS so they sell them to u so u can make BULKS. the farmers get some money for it and the BULKER get some money. --> Grog buy for 250gea sell for 450gea. ToT Bags buy for 200gea open them average money inside = 280gea --> etc , etc etc, anywya what im just trying to say people who sell BULKS stand in Rata Sum all day spamming WTB // Pie xxxgea // alcohol 90/min/point // sweet 100g/point //party points 150gpoint. open a thread on GWG sell 1 min alcohol for 125gea+ sweets 200gea + party points 250gea. sit on crazy things like candy corn candy apples birthday cupcakes and pie and c their money grow by the month. GL

Spiritz

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2007

DMFC

Some items can be pre-farmed before an event eg..
Orr emblems , caromi scalps , termite legs etc
This means before an event a person can have a huge amount of stacks - ppl were buying orr emblems from august/sept and soon as halloween hit they exchanged for items ( party stuff etc ) and sold them in bulk for gd cash.
Gailes leaving even last yr was a winner for me as i was collecting orr emblems for several months and within 30 mins of the event starting i had 7 stacks of party items - i didnt have to do anything for that event as i was prepared.
Some do as the above - buy and sell bulk others actually team up with friends/guildies and farm items then split profits.

As for High end goods - selling 7 stacks of party items can actually be faster than selling 1 high end item - ive seen that myself many times with an event on , one person tryin to sell a 100k+ mini and still tryin an hr later and the stack sellers were selling fast.

Knowing what and where to farm plus having the dedication ( or stubborness ) to farm it also matters and yes raptors gets real boring to most after 30 mins lol.

Essence Snow

Essence Snow

Unbridled Enthusiasm!

Join Date: Nov 2009

EST

DPR

Ok I guess that when I said "bulk" my idea of the word was different than most. By "bulk" I meant 50k alcohol, 60k party points, so forth and so on. Ten stacks of an item is not what I meant. I'm pretty sure even the most inexperienced players can farm decent amounts during events normally, via raptors, vatteirs, griffons, or the numerous other options possible. The post was meant for the obsurd amounts, not the common farmers' take during an event. I would love to see and give props to a farmer that can farm 60 thousand party points during an event. That's like working on a production line, doing nothing but twisting on toothpaste caps for 10 years. It would be horribly repetitive to the point of agony. (anyone catch the reference there?)

I absolutely agree that raptors get really boring after 30mins...lol. I also understand that some event items i.e. orr emblems and the like can been farmed in advance. I simply just cannot justify dedicating soo much inventory space to those stacks for an extended period of time.

I am sure some of ya'll are familiar with Bergen "Bot" Springs or am I to understand that's a sterotype and all those people are actually farming manually.

As for dedicating a substantial amount of time to "power trading" in GW. I cannot justify that either. If I were going to spend the majority of my time in GW trading, I think it would be more beneficial elsewhere....oh idk maybe in a real market, for real money? I guess some ppl do enjoy simulation stockmarket games.

And finally I'll address the buying of such items in large amounts. I have a couple of issues with this. During Halloween I purchased 20 stacks of tots and started to regret it shortly there after for 3 reasons. 1)Buying the stacks took a decent amount of time alone. 2)Storing the items meant I didn't have room for items of more value..you know b/c I do keep other things. 3)Opening 5k items really sucks! And this was not even a lot of items or what I would consider "bulk".

Thanks and take care~* I enjoy the replys~keep 'em comming!

MisterB

MisterB

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2005

Planet Earth, Sol system, Milky Way galaxy

[ban]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Essence Snow View Post
Even at my best I could not even compare to farm these numbers without buying them from other players. You have answered your own question here. As to why they buy it, there are more possible reasons than the one you have outlined. Different people play the game in different ways and for different reasons. Some people enjoy power trading.

The most efficient method by far to obtain event items, or any item, in bulk is to simply buy them from all the other people collecting them.

byteme!

byteme!

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

On Earth

W/P

WE BUY FROM OTHER PLAYERS!!!!!

simple answer...

Why spend hours upon hours farming for chump change when you can buy in large amounts in-game for a small discount and flip them here on Guru for profit?

Simple math.
buy something for 150g each
sell for 200g each
make 50g per unit
that's 50g x 250 = 12,500 per stack "profit"
multiply that by the number of stacks you have and you can make a pretty penny.

The thing to keep in mind is a lot people fart around screaming, "RIPOFF" or "SCAMMER" etc.... when in fact you are playing fair within the exceptable market values of an item. No items in-game have a fixed market value outside of what you can get from a NPC ie. ID kits etc... If you know the value of a certain item ranges from 150g-200g for example you can buy at the low end and resell at the high end. You aren't screwing anyone over and you make money too. Some people are just plain assholes and they spite you because you're making a profit. You can tell them to flip off. Don't let them discourage you because chances are they don't know any better.

It takes a fraction of the time compared to farming to make the same amount of cash if not more. I don't farm Raptors. I farm farmers. They're like the bottom of the food chain. My time and money is better spent paying these farmers a "commission" for their hard earned work. As the saying goes, "You need money to make money".

Expherious

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Dec 2007

Wolfenstein Fuel Dump

Melandru's Elite Hunters [Hunt]

D/

Quote:
Originally Posted by byteme! View Post
we buy from other players!!!!!

Simple answer...

Why spend hours upon hours farming for chump change when you can by in large amounts in-game for a small discount and flip them here on guru for profit?

Simple math.
Buy something for 150g each
sell for 200g each
make 50g per unit
that's 50g x 250 = 12,500 per stack "profit"
multiply that by the number of stacks you have and you can make a pretty penny.

The thing to keep in mind is a lot people fart around screaming, "ripoff" or "scammer" etc.... When in fact you are playing fair within the exceptable market values of an item. No items in-game have a fixed market value outside of what you can get from a npc ie. Id kits etc... If you know the value of a certain item ranges from 150g-200g for example you can buy at the low end and resell at the high end. You aren't screwing anyone over and you make money too. Some people are just plain assholes and they spite you because you're making a profit. You can tell them to flip off. Don't let them discourage you because chances are they don't know any better.

It takes a fraction of the time compared to farming to make the same amount of cash if not more. I don't farm raptors. I farm farmers. They're like the bottom of the food chain. My time and money is better spent paying these farmers a "commission" for their hard earned work. As the saying goes, "you need money to make money". thank you thank you thank you!!

Essence Snow

Essence Snow

Unbridled Enthusiasm!

Join Date: Nov 2009

EST

DPR

Quote:
Originally Posted by byteme!
View Post
WE BUY FROM OTHER PLAYERS!!!!!

simple answer...

Why spend hours upon hours farming for chump change when you can by in large amounts in-game for a small discount and flip them here on Guru for profit?

Simple math.
buy something for 150g each
sell for 200g each
make 50g per unit
that's 50g x 250 = 12,500 per stack "profit"
multiply that by the number of stacks you have and you can make a pretty penny.

The thing to keep in mind is a lot people fart around screaming, "RIPOFF" or "SCAMMER" etc.... when in fact you are playing fair within the exceptable market values of an item. No items in-game have a fixed market value outside of what you can get from a NPC ie. ID kits etc... If you know the value of a certain item ranges from 150g-200g for example you can buy at the low end and resell at the high end. You aren't screwing anyone over and you make money too. Some people are just plain assholes and they spite you because you're making a profit. You can tell them to flip off. Don't let them discourage you because chances are they don't know any better.

It takes a fraction of the time compared to farming to make the same amount of cash if not more. I don't farm Raptors. I farm farmers. They're like the bottom of the food chain. My time and money is better spent paying these farmers a "commission" for their hard earned work. As the saying goes, "You need money to make money". NICE!~Now that's what I was hoping for. A concise yet articulated answer. Well Done! Thank You!

byteme!

byteme!

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

On Earth

W/P

A lot of times I get my posts deleted because I don't sugar coat anything and get straight to the point. Glad this isn't one of those times. =D

The Mountain

The Mountain

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2006

Realm of the GWAMMs

Teh Academy [PhD]

W/

The example byteme! provided is actually conservative. I don't bother PTing event items unless I double my money. The problem is that many players want their return from farming instantly. If you can buy 50k of an item, however, and sit on it for 6 months without hurting your liquid assets, then it works well to trade these items.

As byteme! said, it takes money to make money.