Weirdness at the rune trader?

I thought the rune trader's prices were based on how many of the runes they had in stock?

I've been selling a few runes I found, about half a dozen or so, and all I get for them is 25 gold. The only one I got more for was a minor absorption, and it gave me like 112 gold for it.

I've been helping this new guy in the game, and I told him to sell the few runes he found to the rune trader. He takes a minor energy storage to the trader, and it pays him 600 gold.



Confused, I grab my minor energy storage off my El, which I'd been saving for a different piece of armor, take it to the rune trader, sure enough 25 gold.
I take my MAJOR energy storage, 25 gold.

Eh?

Does anyone understand what's going on? Apart from the game hating me ofcourse

Creston

maybe 600g was total of all runes.

No it's just the rune trader hasn't really adapted to the economy well I think. Cuz yes you can sell a minor vigor to the rune trader for more than some superior and major runes. Also the other day I bought a major rune, can't remember which one, for like 500 gold. The rune trader, IMO, was a bad addition, but ah well, that's just what I think.

I've given up on trying to make sense out of the rune trader. It seems to have a stock supply of runes it sells for a certain price, which increases as more people buy that particular rune, but gradually decreases overnight as people buy fewer such runes. The buying price appears to be 25g except for the truly popular selling runes (superiors and minors - can generally forget about majors fetching any decent price). There's some weird threshold that locks them at 25g, I assume linked to the stock of a particular rune.

And then there's the minor vigor mystery, which the trader usually refuses to buy, yet when he does he suddenly offers large amounts of money for them.

The reason vigors go for so much is because ALL classes can use them, not just on type of class. That, and who wouldn't want more HP?

Well, since they're in such high demand, it would be logical for the trader to buy them at all times. I wonder if there's a set number for the amount of runes of one kind he will buy at a certain time interval - minor vigor should definitely be the most common rune, so maybe he's just not tweaked properly to deal with the supply/demand of that particular rune.

It seems to be a simple matter of supply and demand.

i think you guys are missing the point of the original poster's problem:

his friend sold a minor storage rune for 600. he then sells HIS minor storage rune and gets 25.

yes, that IS strange.

Ah, I quickly read through and only read major. I have noticed the same thing when I have sold single pieces of steel to the rare material trader. Usually they sell for around 200 each but sometimes I seen them offer 30g each. If I go back five minutes later it's back up to 200.

Is this a bug, or the way it is intended to be?

I am assuming you tried this on the same district as your friend?

During the betas while there sometimes was less trading with materials going on you could watch the price change while you unloaded a big pile of something.

First 10 iron: 32g
Second 10 iron: 32g
Third 10 iron: 30g
Fourth 10 iron: 27g
.
nineth 10 iron: 10g
.
n-th 10 iron: 10g

2 hours later.
10 iron: 45g

Yup, that's it exactly. And at the same rune trader too (Although I think they all work out of a common pool?)

It's no big deal, it's not as if I'm screaming, "ARENANET U ST0LE MI G0LD!!!1!eleven!!!1!" or anything, but it's just very strange.

Well, to be honest, no. But I've gone between districts from time to time, and even jumped from Ascalon to Lion's, and have noticed no difference in prices. So while it's possible they're all separate, I think the rune traders all just work out of one pool.
If districts make a difference, sigh, I guess we'll all be jumping through 50 ascalon instances to try to find one where it sells for proper money.

I think the rune trader has really made runes worthless. It used to be a pretty nice find if you found a major something, it might take you awhile to find a buyer (although I'd package them by class for cheap, like 2 majors for 2500 or so), but at least it was a nice find. Now you find a major rune, and sometimes you wonder if it's not better to just leave the rune IN the armor, since the armor is worth more...

Creston

People have learnt that they don't want majors now that they can "more" easily than before get superiors.

Minors are still nice because of no penalty but if you are going to take a hit to your health you might as well get the most of it and go with a sup.

Creston, I have received a very similar bug.

Just a few minutes ago, I was browsing a Rare Material Trader and checked the price for selling some Parchment, and it read 90 gp. I came back 10 seconds later after grabbing more Parchment from my Storage, and it read 20 gp! However, the Buy Price had not shifted at all, which means the price it should have been was still 90 gp.

I completely exited Guildwars and logged back in, and the price was back up to 90. I sold half of my Parchment, but, when I went to sell the next half, it dropped to 20 gp again! I completely exited and then logged back in, and the price was back to normal.

There must be a bug of some sort in the system. The specialized traders are only paying the base value of the item (the number it lists on the item itself) when this bug occurs, even though they should be paying more. There is no way it can possibly be "price changes" of 70+ gp in fractions of a second that reverse themselves when you completely exit unless there is a bug.

Well I had the same experence i sold a minor tactics to the trader for 600 odd gold and then found a major a day later and thought this will be worth a bit and only got offered 25 gold for it. So i checked loads of other runes even a sup rune and the only thing that i got offerd more than 25 gold for was a major absorbtion which was about 7 plat i think. Seems the prices where reset.

Ok. If you found those runes BEFORE the graphics were changed on them, then they will sell for about 25 gold.

The traders seem to follow some more rules than just supply&demand.
While selling tanned hide squares some days ago the price dropped from 115 to 30 instantly for example. Same goes for runes....

so if no one buys superior vigor rune than logically it should drop heaps

Well, if the demand was increasing yes. I'm beginning to think that the rune trader is not just destroying the rune market, but is also bugged. It makes no sense that some people are seeing one price, while others are seeing another. I mean, what's next, I ask five friends to check the rune trader's price, and the guy who sees the highest price sells my loot for me? That's just retarded...

Also, there NEEDS to be a minimum ceiling for runes. 25 gold for a superior rune is just a joke.

Anet?

Creston

It's supply and demand. If you think the price is too low for you to sell, then just keep it in your inventory until the price goes up. You don't have to sell if you don't want to. If enough people do this, then the price of that rune will gradually rise up until it's at a level where people feel comfortable selling them.

the rune trader doesn't work...I got 673 for my minor Absorption...I got 125 for my other 10 minor runes combined....ArenaNet, in an effort to appease the complainers, rushed a Rune Trader into the game...and most probably never checked the code to make sure it worked. From a programmers point of view....ArenaNet has failed in many aspects of scope development and feature implementation. I applaud them for their willingness to seek out the problems by visiting the fan sites....but seriously...scope analysis is your friend.

Selling prices don't vary by district. The prices are the same anywhere in the game. The supposedly change according to supply and demand or the occasional bug as seen here.

First of all, the minimum sell price for any rune is 25 gold, so with 10 minors, u'd have made 250 gold at the least. Absorption is worth that much more because there is a very significant percentage of the population that plays warriors. Every warrior will want a absorption rune because it gives no penalties.

Normally it would, except for the fact that there is ZERO demand for 99% of all the runes. Ergo, the rune trader's stock stays the same, so his price stays the same.

You can sit on that rune till the cows come home, it won't go up from 25 gold.

Which is fine, I guess, except that half the items dropped by a lot of enemies (ie, their named armor which serves absolutely no purpose BUT to supply runes) has now become an almost worthless drop. I'd rather they drop weapons or side items. At least those have a CHANCE to be worth something.

Funny how one innocuous change has such wide reaching ramifications.

Creston

if it aint a absorption or vigor rune and i have no use for it i leave it in the armour and sell it. Better than 25g for the rune itself when the amours go for over 100 sometimes