5 How to lower the prices of the items you are buying
6 Don’t ever use dirty prices
7 How to make the price go up
8 Don’t Go into a war with another Wolf
9 The risk in wolfing
1) INTRODUCTION
Hi, I'm pelida77 and this is my guide to make Gil through Wolfing.
What is wolfing? You might be asking; Well is a practice that you sure must know
(only that probably not by that name) Wolfing is the act of buying for cheap
at the Auction House and then re-selling at a profit to a vendor. And the person
that consistently make his Gil through this method is called a Wolf.
It's an ok method to earn Gil at lower levels (especially when you don't have
yet any
skills, like cooking or whatever) and also for people that don't really know
the game; but you won't make a magical or easy profit from it, like everything
in this game takes a LOT of effort.
The good news is that once you established your market and kind of understand
what you are
doing it doesn't really consume much time. You can do it probably in 1 hour per
day perhaps.
And of course you can also combine this method with another method of Gil
making, like farming or whatever.
This guide is intended for the Newbies (which I feel part of).
So, if a little profit of maybe 20.000 Gil a day sounds good to you, keep
reading. Perhaps that's not good enough because you have an easier or more
profitable method, Well good for you: but go ahead, and Share!
2) ESTABLISHING YOUR MARKET
This is the really hard part, not because of its risk but rather it is really
boring.
All the products in the Auction House are classified in different categories.
You need to pick one category - it should be one
you suspect you can make a profit from - sort the category alphabetically or by
level,
and go through each single product checking their prices in the Auction House.
That is, looking
at the Price History (last 10 sales of that item)
After you know for how much an item sells in-game you should check for the
RESALE PRICE
on a Wiki (this is the price the wiki says a common vendor, any vendor of the
game, will give you for the unity of that product)
If you see that you can buy for cheap at the Auction House and then Resell this
product at a profit to a vendor, you are going to write down on a notebook or
piece of paper the following:
CATEGORIE: NAME
Name of the Product (Level XX) $Resale Price$ ???
Name of the Product (Level XX) $Resale Price$ OK
Next to the items name you'll write the level (if it has one) to find it easily
later.
In the Price section you have to write down the wiki RESALE PRICE.
Sometimes in the Wiki you have a minimum and a maximum RESALE PRICE - always go
by the minimum price -
Sometimes the Resale Price has not been listed by anybody yet.
Also be careful not to mistake the RESALE PRICE with the GUILD PRICE (you won't
look at this one, at least not for now)
The question marks ??? by the end serves as a safety clause. Because you don't
really know the real RESALE PRICE yet, until you actually checked with a vendor.
That is, the price in the Wiki could be wrong by mistake or maybe on purpose
(more on this later).
Sometimes according to the wiki you can make a profit, but there is not an item
for sale for now, but you need to be ready to jump on your prey as soon as it
becomes available... so, write down
the wiki price and just leave a question mark next to it until you are able to
check in-game.
If you actually managed to buy a single item of the product and checked with a
vendor, and got
a price from him, then adjust/correct the price of the item if need to, and
instead of the question mark you can now use Check Marks or OK or whatever you
want (to remember that this priced has been checked).
Rest assure, that price will never change for the worse (though it might improve
a little bit related to your fame)
You also need to calculate the price of the Stack. The RESALE PRICE in the Wiki
is always
for the unity, so of course, you multiply that by 12 (or 99); and if you can buy
the Stack at a lower price in the Auction House and then resell at a profit you
write down that items name (and next the UNITY RESALE PRICE and then a ??? or
OK)
Always buy a single item (just one) of a product you don't know, that is, you
haven't checked in-game yet. Once you know the in-game vendor price you can buy
all you can, the availability and your greed are the limits.
Of course, you can already see that going through an entire category, checking
out the prices on the wiki, it is extremely boring, so... I'll give you some
tips to make it a little less painful:
- If the price of the common version of the product is not good, it's highly
probable that the quality version, that is the +1, won't be good either (so
don't even check that one)
- You have to check the price of both the unity and of the stack. Sometimes
there is a profit to make on the single item but not in the stack and vice
versa.
- When you are looking at the Price History, if the price of the product is
really high, like 200K
or 1,5 Million or whatever just discard the product (don't even check on the
Wiki)
The most I've found you can resell a product to a vendor is 15K.
So, you want to focus on the products which are below 15K. Because maybe,
there's a chance,
you can make a little profit from them.
- Most of the units of products that are going below 100 gil are not really
worth to check; because most people when they see prices like 20 Gil per unit or
similar don't even bother to sell on the Auction House and in any case the
profit won't be good either.
- If you are in a category that is sorted by levels try to take a good look and
make yourself an idea on what is a natural price for an item at a particular
level. For example: if you see an item at level 70 that in the Price History
sells for around 1000 Gil; I'd say there's something not entirely right, there.
You need to double check this item.
The price is weird... some of these items resell for 700 Gil (so you are not
making a profit) but in
some cases you could even double or triple your investment.
- Also looking through the Price History take notice of the Buyers names. If you
see a player's name repeatedly buying the same product, he's probably doing some
kind of business there. But beware, cause in most cases the profit could be
something else than Wolfing. It could be a high-level player that is buying in
order to desynthesize and then resell or re-use the materials, or any other
practice. But there are also players that are very clearly Wolfing
(buying-reselling at vendor)
You want to remember their names (make a list of the ones you suspect are
Wolves).
They are your competitors; and most of them are fierce...
If you see a gathering of Wolves in a Price History; there's probably blood
there...
A profitable product that you need to properly check.
- While establishing your market try to go through just one category per day. At
the end of the Week you'll
have seven well established Hard Checked categories to buy items from. The
reason for not doing more than one or all of them is because you pretty fast get
burned. Also, you need to realize that there are other Wolves out there, and
soon enough they'll know your character's name by heart. If you do all the
categories at once, and establish all the profitable products, they'll take
advantage of your hard work and simply start looking for your name on the Price
History lists. You are doing the job for them.
Do it slowly but consistently and you'll make less mistakes and it won't be
painful but rewarding.
3) HOW YOU SHOULD BUY THE ITEMS
Ok, you know an item and you are making a profit from it. But how much is a good
profit? Any profit is good, right? As much profit as I can make, right? Be a
devious buyer, right? Well not exactly...
The profit always should depend on the particular item you are dealing with. Not
all items should give the same profit. Some items give a 100 Gil profit per unit
or even stack, and some 1000 Gil or even more.
As a general rule, you want to have a big profit from an item that isn't offered
that much or frequently.
A medium or even a small profit is fine when the item is available a lot, that
is, you have at least let's say 15 units or stacks of that item (and you have
plenty of renewable sellers continuously offering the product).
Your permanent job as a Wolf is always trying to make a profit but controlling
the price (make the price stable). That means, sometimes lowering the price of
the product (look below) but also sometimes, when the price goes too low, buying
at a higher price (though of course never at a loss. Always still making a
profit or at least not losing money)
A very common mistake of a Wolf that doesn't know what he's doing is lowering
the price as much as he can:
"Hey, it's more profit. I make more, right?"
NO! you will crash the Market. And in the end, you will make less.
4)DON'T MAKE THE PRICES GO TOO LOW
I know an item we Wolves were consistently making a 1000 Gil profit per unit. It
was great. We were buying for 1000 Gil and then reselling at 2000.
Then a couple of wolves started to lower the price. First 900 which is fine,
then 800 still ok, 700, 600, 500, etc. They managed to take the price of the
product all the way down to 100 Gil (Hey its 1900 profit!!!) No, silly!!! What
happened is that people stopped selling the
product altogether because the price was too damn low (so nobody sells anymore,
that market is lost, probably for months)
Sometimes I really can't understand other wolves: How could someone ever sell a
stack of a product at 100 Gil? It's obvious that most people won't! So why would
you want the prize to go there?!
Even worse, when you see such a terrible price in the Auction House you gonna
check out for options to sell. So, the first thing players are gonna do is check
the price at a vendor... When they finally realize the vendor offers a MUCH
better price, they gonna stop selling ALL their items in the Auction House
without checking the price first. Or worst case scenario, you have created a new
Wolf that realizes the profit you've been making and wants a piece of that.
Don't be greedy (Don’t be a Greedalox). You want to make a profit and keep the
availability of the item steady. An item with a 1900 profit it is great, but
being able to buy in a couple of weeks 20 stacks or more at 1000 Gil profit is
much, much better, and if nobody crash it, it will
keep on giving money to the first Wolf that gets there. You need to learn to
share.
So, again, what is the ideal profit for a product? It depends. If it is a highly
available product a 100, 200, 300, even 400 Gil profit is fine... The profit
should never be less than 100 Gil; in some products 60 Gil or even less is
acceptable...
But remember, each time you buy you put your name in the Price History list, so
you don't want to expose your name too much for Wolves in the making to see
(definitely not, if the profit is not good enough). Let's imagine a product that
is giving a 20 Gil profit per unit; you need to buy 10 of those, and occupy the
10 slots of the Price History list just to make a 200 Gil profit, the price of a
Chocobo ride... Is it worth it?
With products you are making a medium or huge profit I'd say the price should
never go below 60% to 70% of the real value.
(Relatively speaking: Always depending on the product!)
If the real value is 10.000, the price should never go below 6000-7000 (or maybe
just leave it at 9000 Gil depending on how hot or not the product is; in any
case a 1000 Gil profit on a product it is fantastic profit!
And I can tell you; even a well knowledgeable player would sell at a 9000 Gil
prize in the Auction House if the vendor prize is 10.000 Gil; is too close, most
won't realize the profit you are making. And sometimes that's the way you want
things to stay.)
You should know the products and then make your mind around what their ideal
prize should be.
5) HOW TO LOWER THE PRICE OF THE ITEMS YOU ARE BUYING
There are two ways of lowering the prices of the items you are buying: naturally
and artificially.
- Naturally: Any Seller of the game wants 2 things. Sell at a good price of
course and sell as fast as he cans. There's a saying in the game: "Players want
their Gil yesterday". Because of this rush or impatience, sellers start cutting
prices of the item, usually cutting by 100 Gil but sometimes more, much more.
The whole idea is to sell before the other persons, taking a risk with a lower a
price in the hope that it will sell more or less at the same price the item is
being sold.
The problem is that this way the prize of the item goes to the low.
So, knowing this and knowing the item, with an ideal prize on your mind. You
will first offer this ideal prize. Let's say the product is being sold in the
Auction House at 2800 Gil. It resells at a vendor also at 2800. So, you want to
lower the price.
First you offer 2000 Gil for it (which is, according to your conclusions, the
ideal prize for this item) you most probably won't get it.
Then offer 2500 Gil. Then 2600. Then 2700 Gil, here you most likely will get at
least one item... So, you can buy and make a profit of 100. But let's say
another day you find that the prize at the Auction House for this same item is
now at 2500 Gil... you then offer lower or buy at this same prize to confirm it,
but don't offer at a higher price!!!... you'd probably get one or a couple of
items at 2600 or 2700 Gil but this way the prize will never go low. Don't be
greedy. Maybe someone else will take the profit? Well, too bad, better luck next
time. In any case, that price doesn't belong to you exclusively: Wolfing could
be a collaborative effort.
If you are trying to lower the prize of the product, the only acceptable
circumstance where you can offer a higher price is when you know that the
availability of this product has grown by a lot since the last time you checked.
For example, there are 10 more units of this product since last time, so is
highly likely that by destroying the price you will still make an important
profit (in our example you buy 10 units at 2600 Gil, that is you make 200 Gil
per unit, that is you make 2000 Gil total in a hot available product) Of course
it's a gamble, sometimes you will just destroy the prize and sadly get just one
unit, but sometimes you'll hit the jackpot, and the destroying of the price
would be worth it.
But remember don't be greedy, in the end if you crash the market, you'll regret
it.
- Artificially: Well technically both ways are not natural. But in my opinion
this one is particularly nasty, a devious way of Wolfing; and should be
forbidden or at least not encouraged.
Some Wolves artificially create a lower price on the Price History list by
selling and buying to themselves.
Of course, they have 2 or more characters, and one of them sell at a lower price
and the other one immediately buys. So, they can create a fake Price History
list; then a real seller sees the price and sell the item for cheap (which then
the devious player will get). Like I said, in my opinion this is low... One
thing is buying for cheap from players that don't check the real prize of the
items (maybe even trying to lower the prize a little, you are not doing nothing
wrong you are just trying to buy for cheap), and to the silly sellers I say:
Well, wizen up people!!
But a very different affair, a nasty affair, is trying to actively deceive
players by creating a fake price through selling and buying to yourself. (Even
Wolves like me have a moral code, right?)
Measures could be taken by the game designers to discourage this behaviour
(for example, not allowing people to buy and sell amongst characters of the same
account... Or maybe just one transaction per day)
6) DON'T EVER USE DIRTY PRICES
Many players won't sell their items at round numbers. That is, they won't sell
their items at 1000 Gil but rather at let's say 905, 910, 911, 912, 921, 922,
953 etc. and all sort of different variations. They want to get the full 1000
Gil price and at the same time beat the other sellers to it: sell the item
faster. Wolves know this, so some of them will try to "increase" their profit by
trying to buy, offering these "not round-dirty prices".
Let's imagine in our example that the vendor real price of the product is 1200
Gil; you could keep buying on the Auction House at 1000 Gil but buying at 921
Gil will increase your 200 profit in 79 Gil (279 total) which, true, little by
little it stacks and then makes a lot.
But at the same time, the player that was selling at 921 Gil won't probably use
that prize again and soon would realize that something funny happened there...
As a Wolf, you don't want that!
Is preferable to keep the seller happy. Make him think that he won those extra
79 Gil, make him think that he beat the other sellers and that he's selling
faster than them, he could even still be making profit from the product; but in
reality, he could always do a little more by selling directly at a vendor. So,
he's losing and you are winning. That's the ultimate truth you want to hide.
Also, if you see a Price History list filled with dirty prices, you'll realize
that there's something weird there. Is preferable for the business to have a
clean round numbers Price History list.
Worse. I know a very dumb Wolf that always offers 101, or 501, or 901 (always
that extra 1 Gil, is like his signature move) He could absolutely get those same
items for 100, 500, 900 but he does it anyways: just in case... What a foolery!
He's dirtying the Price History List and at the same time calling all the
attention in the world to his name: I call him 01 guy! The Number 1 guy!
All these applies also to the way you should lower the prices. Let's imagine a
product that sells for 1000 Gil and to make a profit you need to lower the prize
to 900 Gil... But no can do! people are selling for 1000... Well, some Wolves
would try to lower the prize by offering 922 or whatever combination... Let me
repeat: Don't do that. Don't ever use dirty prices!
If you want to lower the prize you always do it by offering round numbers.
Similar can be said for semi-dirty prices... Ok, let's say you are buying a
product at a rounded number of 2000, and re-selling at 2800; but you decide to
lower the price to 1800 cause of "more profit", and yeah you make then a 1000
Gil... but the price in the list becomes a little weird... That doesn't mean you
should never do this (it depends, always!), but mind that we humans tend to like
and trust rounded numbers (because they are easier to calculate) multiple units
of 1000 - 1500 - 2000 are easier to calculate than idk multiple units of 1300,
2700, 1800...
Of course, it is perfectly acceptable to use semi-dirty prices if you need to
lower the price.
Finally, semi are not as bad as the dirty prices... I mean if you can make a
nice profit: go for it!
But if you are going to ruin the price just for the sake of it, you might want
to give it a little though first. That's all I'm saying, sometimes I ruin a
rounded number with semi-dirty prices,
but always because I have a good reason to believe it might be worth it.
7) HOW TO MAKE THE PRICE GO UP
I already explained why would you possibly want to make the price go up.
You should do it the same way you make the price go down: little by little. If a
product goes for 100 Gil and you start suddenly to pay 1000 for it, you call the
attention to yourself and to the product.
But sometimes you are struggling against bad Wolves that care only about getting
right now as much profit as they can (or even righteous buyers that naturally
just want to get the product as cheap as possible)
Well then you might have no option but to make a big "jump" in the Price History
list, in order for the price to stick around there.
But mind that other Wolves won't take it gladly. Some could even send you a
message: Why would you ruin the price! etc... Always explain your reasoning
politely: you don't want to get into a war with a goddamn Wolf. So, about
that...
8) DON'T GO INTO A WAR WITH ANOTHER WOLF
Not because a sense of camaraderie. I hate every single one of those damn
bloodthirsty Wolves (that is, the ones that are not me).
I remember one time an episode in the Auction House in Jueno. Two Wolves started
screaming/writing at each other for everyone to hear... like a couple of elderly
women quarrelling at a market over the last apple... Which was hilarious of
course... up until the moment they started naming products, and bad tactics, and
past mistakes... and became clear to all the people hearing what these two
fellas were doing for their Gil... Yikes!
Of course, you never want things to escalate this far. But as a general rule Is
never a good idea to go into a war with another Wolf.
FFXI is an MMORPG. The people that play this sort of games are amongst the most
addictive behaviour people in all gaming universe. If their fun and objective in
life becomes to mess you up, you are going to suffer (and all wolves really).
So, don't ever get into a fight with another Wolf. If they recognize you and
salute you: say hello back. Never send a message to them, unless they ask you or
recriminate something first; and in that event always in private. Always be
polite, always be gentle and nice...
Don't explain anything unless you are asked for.
And if you realize a Wolf is trying to "steal" from you every single market you
know just to piss you off; and as the glutton he is, gets in-game 10 times a
day, buying everything and even destroying prices: just let him be.
Suffer him in silence. Soon enough he will burn, and there would be one less
Wolf (at least for a couple of weeks)
9) THE RISK IN WOLFING
As you can probably tell it is a pretty safe activity. There are some traps laid
by other players and even other Wolves.
You can never fully trust what the wiki says a Resale Price is. Sometimes
devious players will change the price in the Wiki to make it look that you can
make a huge profit (for you to fall for it and buy their garbage item) They can
even use multiple characters to buy and sell from themselves and "fake" the
price history list.
As always, the practice of buying just one single item of a product you don't
know yet, works as a safety clause (mostly as damage control, because you
probably will fall at the trap at least one time)
Try to look at the Price History list. And over the internet you can find pages
that list more than the last 10 sales. See if there's anything weird or out of
place, similar names, etc...
But the single best thing you can do to avoid falling into traps is
understanding this rule: If the profit is too good to be true, it probably
isn't... So, watch out!
In any case falling into traps is not the worst thing that could happen to you
while Wolfing.
Your worse enemy is Boredom. Is not funny business offering 5000 Gil when you
intended to buy just for 500 (or 50.000 when you want to buy for 5K!!! Yikes!)
Of course, you should always check the market while you are fresh and rested.
But also, it could be a good idea to invest your money. Develop professions to
find other ways to make money, buy items, furniture, gear, etc.
Well that's it. Good Luck, I gave you here a present, some of my wisdom (foolery
some will call)
but hey:
Let the sheep be sheep and farm for their gil... You and me pal, we gonna wolf
that bitch!
