Buying/Selling with the Auction House

[Lord Ravenclaw]

I've noticed that the various crystals seem to be going for large amounts of gill - 12 Crystals going for around 4,000 Gil (on Phoenix).

I've read that the crystals are important but would this be a time efficient method of earning money early on? I'm only a Level 8 RDM in Bastok.

Would there be any downsides to using this method?

[cidbahamut]

Re: Buying/Selling with the Auction House

It's a good way to earn money early on. Don't sell your crystals to the NPC vendors, put them on the auction house and make some gil. Be sure you have signet on when you leave the city so they'll drop.

[Lord Ravenclaw]

Re: Buying/Selling with the Auction House

Excellent. Thank you ^_^ *goes to find more crystals*

[Firewind]

Re: Buying/Selling with the Auction House

As a general rule of thumb: don't buy or sell anything to an NPC until you have checked the Auction House.

Also the Auction House runs on a Japanese style "Blind" Auction system so you can very often get something for cheap if someone is undercutting or missed out a zero in the price listing. I remember saving 100k on my Noble's Tunic by doing that.

[Lord Ravenclaw]

Re: Buying/Selling with the Auction House

*nods* That sounds a reasonable enough suggestion; I've found that I'm definitely in need some armour/weapons and spells for my Red-Mage so the Auction House may become a good friend for me - alas there is more high level stuff than low level stuff but meh :/

[DakAttack]

Re: Buying/Selling with the Auction House

When I first started FFXI I would make all my gil by farming Ghelsba for fire crystals.

[Lord Ravenclaw]

Re: Buying/Selling with the Auction House

I'm currently in South Gustaberg farming the Stone Eaters, Vultures, Goblins etc for the crystals and other stuff they drop.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Buying/Selling with the Auction House

If someone hasn't pointed it out to you already, ffxiah.com is a brilliant resource.

[Firewind]

Re: Buying/Selling with the Auction House

If you can get to Windurst you can farm Beehive Chips (and turn them into Wax if you have the skill) and Silk Thread for a lot of gil.

Rabbits are nice to farm too since you can turn the hides into Glue. Sheep Leather is okay too since they are low level Synths that crafters buy in bulk to power level crafting skills.

Also remember to always do the kill mobs stuff Field Manuals and Grounds Tomes. You can repeat the "Kill X of Y and A of B" quests as often as you want and even set them to auto repeat. You get Gil from doing it but only once per In-Game Day (60 minutes)

[Lord Ravenclaw]

Re: Buying/Selling with the Auction House

If someone hasn't pointed it out to you already, ffxiah.com is a brilliant resource.

I found the site earlier and am looking through it now, thanks

If you can get to Windurst you can farm Beehive Chips (and turn them into Wax if you have the skill) and Silk Thread for a lot of gil.

Rabbits are nice to farm too since you can turn the hides into Glue. Sheep Leather is okay too since they are low level Synths that crafters buy in bulk to power level crafting skills.

Also remember to always do the kill mobs stuff Field Manuals and Grounds Tomes. You can repeat the "Kill X of Y and A of B" quests as often as you want and even set them to auto repeat. You get Gil from doing it but only once per In-Game Day (60 minutes)

I'll head to Windhurst as soon as I'm able, I'm a hume so decided to start in Bastok.

I've used the Field Manual in the mine, I'll go back to it later, thanks

[Firewind]

Re: Buying/Selling with the Auction House

It might be tricky to get to Windurst at Lv8 but thankfully all of the starter areas have some way of getting started with building up a big pile of gil.

Best thing to do to make gil fast is watch ffxiah.com and see what niches you can fit into. Things like Crystals and materials used in low level crafting will always make you something at low levels. When I played I did quite like crafting consumables via Cooking and Alchemy. Popular foods like Mithkabobs (loved for levelling since they are cheap and give a nice bonus) and things such as Silent Oil/Prism Powder and Iron Bullets for Corsairs and Rangers. Fishing can also be very profitable and Moat Carp always sell due to you needing about 100 stacks of them for a quest to get the best Fishing Rod in the game.

[Lord Ravenclaw]

Re: Buying/Selling with the Auction House

That's useful advice, thanks
I'd "thank you" for the post yet I can't seem to use the feature yet.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Buying/Selling with the Auction House

There are a handful of quests in each town that hand you some free gear, really not that many but every bit helps, if you're able to complete them by the time you've outleveled the equipment.

[Icemage]

Re: Buying/Selling with the Auction House

It's worth elaborating on the auction house system, since this is someone sort of new to how it works.

When Firewind spoke of a "blind" auction, what he means is that the buyer has no idea what price the sellers have set their price at (nor does each seller know what price the other sellers have set at).

Say for instance you want to sell a stack of 12 Earth Crystals on the auction house.

The auction history might look something like this

3800
3900
4000
4000
4000
3900
3100
4000
4000
4000

That just tells you what the last 10 successful sales were. A sale is successful when a buyer bids enough to at least match the minimum price set by at least one seller. That part is the obvious bit.

What isn't obvious is that the buyer is matched with the seller with the lowest reserve price.

Let's say there are 4 other people selling a stack of earth crystals already, and (unbeknownst to you), they've priced their stacks like so:

3500
3800
3901
4100

Let's say you put your stack up at 4000.

So what happens when someone buys a stack? Well, it depends on how much they bid.

If they bid 3500 or higher, the first stack at 3500 will be sold to them at the price they bid, no matter the price offered. Even if someone offers 5000, it will still choose the person who set their reserve at 3500 first. On the minus side for that seller, if someone is smart and starts bidding at 3500, that sale will also be valid, and they'll only get 3500 for their crystals.

So now there are 4 stacks left including yours, and the lowest acceptable price is 3800. That 3800 stack will get sold next. Then the one at 3901. Then your stack at 4000. (these are all assuming people bid at least these amounts natrually).

Note that the one at 4100 is the last to be sold, and if no one offers at least 4100, it won't be sold unless someone gets desperate and raises their bid because now a 4000 bid won't get that last stack, so until someone offers at least 4100, those crystals won't get sold.

This is why you see fluctuations in the auction price history. People who are interested in moving their wares faster can set lower reserve amounts, but that means buyers can offer less, which drives the price history down and devalues the item being sold. Conversely, if demand is high, sellers can choose to do what the hypothetical 4100 gil seller did, and try to drive up the price to take advantage of the increased demand.

In other words, lower price = faster sale, but risks making the market weaker. Higher price = slower sale, maybe even a risk of getting the item returned to you and not selling at all, but for items in high demand can also increase your profits if the item does get sold because of impatient buyers. That would be why your 4000 price stack won't sell even though you might see a whole list of sales at 4000, because maybe people are pricing at 3999 or something.


Icemage

[Lord Ravenclaw]

Re: Buying/Selling with the Auction House

That is much more informative, thank you