Okay, so I've been playing a bit of The Settlers online (a bit as in I'm halfway to the maximum level of 50 lol... I'm a sort of power player I guess :P but I don't spend recklessly either - am sitting on 1200+ gems) and the AH there - its actual name is Trade Office, TO for short - got me hooked. Being economy-minded, I know that if I can earn enough gold coins there, then my leveling and stuff would be pretty set.
And well, I thought I could share my experience with you guys after a week of scrutinising the TO for the price ranges of various items. I'm probably not playing anymore though but I believe the market is pretty stabilised there. Unless someone with plenty of resources or money to spend decided to inflate the prices. I do not include special items like building deeds and stuff, coz well, those stuff are pretty easy to inflate with all the demand, but so little of supply.
Anyway, you can use this guide as a reference for trading. I've noticed that people are usually more reserved about spending their coins since they are SO hard to get (from quests that is getting harder after level 25). So, in order to know the rates at which people would be willing to trade the stuff you want for your item (that you want to sell), this guide can work as a rather good conversion system.
Also, for new players, take my advice, don't get conned by people. It's good to educate yourself by observing the market trend of items on the Trade Office BEFORE trying to sell anything. You can undercut other people, but don't simply sell off items for 1/10th of their original price, especially not if you plan to play the game for quite some time - you'll need all the leverage you can get. And don't waste the gems either.. you'll need them later on.
On another note, for new players or players who doesn't care much about events/ event rewards/ decorative items, you should sell all the event quest items or decorative items that you get. And since these stuff can be a bit hard to get, you can get a nice sum of coins (10+ coins per piece is a pretty good deal for some event items. You can also sell decorative items or buffs that you can do without). You can get tens to hundreds of coins depending on rarity.
Furthermore, you should do some calculation in terms of (for example) the number of ores needed for the conversion to bars as well as the individual prices for ores and bars. This rule can also be applied for any produced goods. Taking iron for example, you need 4x ores (plus a load of coal) just to create 1 bar. Hence, it is definitely more worthwhile for you to sell the raw ores themselves for around 100c each 1k stack (total profit 400c) instead of 250c for a 1k stack of iron bar (total profit 250c, excluding the loss you sustain as you have to use your own coal to make bars). See what I mean?
In fact, you can earn even more if you sell the ore refills - you can get them around 1c per 2 iron ore refill... so for 150 iron ore refill = you can get at least 75c... Even more than getting 1k iron ores right? :) Don't even get me started on steel... simply not worth it (unless it is for personal use).
Oh and you may say, building iron mines cost something as well. Yes, you're right. You should include the cost into consideration and it depends on how many ores you can get per mine. For example, currently I can get around 500-550 ores for iron mines. So, in order to sell 1k of iron ores, I'll need to spend 400 tools (around 16c), 500 marble (25c) and 500 hardwood planks (15c). Total cost: 56c for the production of 1k iron ores. So, yeah, after deducting the cost per mine, it's still worth your while to sell your iron ores at around 70c (14c profit!). (and yes, I'm dumb enough to give away my trade secrets lol)
In fact, you can earn even more if you sell the ore refills - you can get them around 1c per 2 iron ore refill... so for 150 iron ore refill = you can get at least 75c... Even more than getting 1k iron ores right? :) Don't even get me started on steel... simply not worth it (unless it is for personal use).
Oh and you may say, building iron mines cost something as well. Yes, you're right. You should include the cost into consideration and it depends on how many ores you can get per mine. For example, currently I can get around 500-550 ores for iron mines. So, in order to sell 1k of iron ores, I'll need to spend 400 tools (around 16c), 500 marble (25c) and 500 hardwood planks (15c). Total cost: 56c for the production of 1k iron ores. So, yeah, after deducting the cost per mine, it's still worth your while to sell your iron ores at around 70c (14c profit!). (and yes, I'm dumb enough to give away my trade secrets lol)
The same goes for the conversion of gold ores into bars (2x ores plus coal) OR gold bars into coins (4x bars + loads of coal to make 1 coin). It's funny to see people buying gold bars at 100c per 50 bars. IT IS NOT WORTH IT... seriously, do your math! You need to buy gold bars at 25c per 100 bars just so you can get 25c back at a lost (coz you gotta supply the coal) lol. So, the only time you can buy gold is definitely 20c per 100 bars. For ores, it should be even less... In addition, considering that each gold mine cost like hell, it's best not to let your gold mine ran out of ore. However, gold mines, IMHO are not very cost-effective especially when you are using those gold to make coins.
Copper bars and ores are easier to calculate since their conversion ratio is 1:1, but do note that you will need to supply your own coal to make those bars. However, from the prices that I see on the TO, the copper ore/bar market is pretty much okay (i.e. reasonable prices with little margin for profit). Though considering that it has very little profit margin, it's not exactly something that I would go into lol :P
The highest profit margin item for the moment (I haven't done an in-depth analysis yet) is possibly water. If you fill your island with wells (the level 1 version which has 1k water in it), you can sell those stacks of 1k water for 5c each... ridiculous turn over if you ask me since the materials to build each well is so darn cheap. :P
Oh and to counter the over inflated prices of marble (75c per 1k marble? Seriously? No, thank you), it's best for you to craft Lonely Marble Blocks (you can find it in the Provision House) using cheap Stones that you can buy off TO at very low prices. You'll need 5000 Stones to convert into 1000 marble and these stones, if you're savvy enough, can be bought at 5c per 1k or even lower (that's at most 25c for all 5k Stones, folks). So, in all actuality, 1k marble should only cost 25c and at most 30c (like the old prices). For hardwood planks though, the prices are still pretty reasonable, so, it's still not very worth it for you to craft Hard Plank Door.
The highest profit margin item for the moment (I haven't done an in-depth analysis yet) is possibly water. If you fill your island with wells (the level 1 version which has 1k water in it), you can sell those stacks of 1k water for 5c each... ridiculous turn over if you ask me since the materials to build each well is so darn cheap. :P
Oh and to counter the over inflated prices of marble (75c per 1k marble? Seriously? No, thank you), it's best for you to craft Lonely Marble Blocks (you can find it in the Provision House) using cheap Stones that you can buy off TO at very low prices. You'll need 5000 Stones to convert into 1000 marble and these stones, if you're savvy enough, can be bought at 5c per 1k or even lower (that's at most 25c for all 5k Stones, folks). So, in all actuality, 1k marble should only cost 25c and at most 30c (like the old prices). For hardwood planks though, the prices are still pretty reasonable, so, it's still not very worth it for you to craft Hard Plank Door.
Also, another quick tip, if you're willing to spend gold coins, you can offer very low amounts (like 50% reduced price or more) for stacks of items that are listed at the cheapest price and usually, people will still buy your listing.
Important notice!
Okay, well since the start of this new colony PvP system, the market change at my server (Ares) is huge! Then, I was away for a couple of days and when I returned, what I saw shocked the hell out of me.Coal used to be priced at around 20c per 1k stack... now it's going up to 70c per 1k stack. Ridiculous! And not to mention, iron ores used to be around 120c per 1k stack and now, it's up to 200c PLUS! And I'm talking about the average price here guys! Simply ridiculous... guess now I'll have to try to press the price down by offering lower prices and non-exhaustible stocks of resources (time to upgrade those resource producing buildings!)
And because of this sudden and large inflation, the check list below no longer applies (I'm not sure whether the trend will stabilise itself at the higher price or whether the trend will drop back to usual/ semi-usual... hence, I will not be updating the price check list until the prices are more stable.)
Price check list (in alphabetical order)
P/S: 'c' stands for 'coin' btw. You can definitely buy anything that is way below the listed prices here. However, this list is definitely, by no means, complete. I'll add more when I get the time, enjoy! :)
And note that prices may fluctuate greatly from time to time and may be inflated by some people gaming the TO (like I do from time to time :P)
And note that prices may fluctuate greatly from time to time and may be inflated by some people gaming the TO (like I do from time to time :P)
| Items (per stack of 1000 units) | Cheap pricing | Average pricing |
|---|---|---|
| A Sip from the Kettle | 150c | 200c |
| Bread | 20c (if you're lucky, 10c per 1k bread :) ) |
30-40c |
| Brew | 20c | 35-45c |
| Coal | 10c | 15-25c |
| Copper bar | below 40c | 40c |
| Copper ore | 30c | 40c |
| Exotic Fruit Basket | 150c | 200c |
| Fish | below 10c | 15c |
| Flour | 20c | 30c |
| Gold | below 1000c | 1000c (1c per gold bar) |
| Gold ore | - | - |
| Granite | Priceless, so don't sell and if you buy, be prepared to spend a lot of coins/ items | Priceless |
| Hardwood | 10-15c | 20-25c |
| Hardwood planks | below 20c | 20c |
| Hide Glue | 200c | 250c |
| Horses | below 35c | 35-40c |
| Improved Drill Plan | 100c | 150-160c |
| Iron bar | 120c and below(that's 30c per 250 bars) | 150-200c |
| Iron ore | 50-80c | 100-120c |
| Iron swords | Below 300c (that's 30c per 100 swords) | 300-400c |
| Love Potion | 100c | 150-250c |
| Marble (Inflated prices) | 40c | 50c |
| Meat (Inflated prices) | 20c | 35-100c |
| Medipack | 400c | 450-475c (can go up to very high prices) |
| Pinewood | - | - |
| Pinewood plank | 5c | 10c |
| Red Flying Settler | Can get very low if you conned a newbie off his/her buff (but don't do that!) 350c | 450c |
| Sausage | Around 50c | 65c |
| Stone | 5c | 10c |
| Tools | 30c | 40-50c |
| Water | 3c (if you're lucky, you can get them at 2c per 1k units) |
5-7c |
| Wheat | 20c | 30-35c |
Also, check out this to learn how to add tables into your Blogger - http://blogknowhow.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-add-table-blogger-blogspot-post.html
Update 12/11/14: Updated the chart since I've noticed that for the Ares server, there's a price hike for a lot of items... due to low supply and high demand.
Update 10/09/14: So, I took almost a whole month off because of a stupid bug that prevented me from logging into my account. But now that I'm back, I'll try to keep this list as updated as I could. :)
Updated 3/10/14: I added a long rant about doing your calculations and also I leaked my trade secrets lol. (Please don't undercut me at the TO? :D)
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