Auction System

In RF Online, an auction system is used for buying and selling items between players. Here is a guide on how to use this system.

Three "Automated Transaction Machines" are located in:

Armory 213 [Accretia]

Solus Settlement [Bellato]

Haram Stockade [Cora]

Sale.

Select "Item Register".

And the registration window will appear.

Drag or Shift-click on the item you want to sell and set the price. You will be required to pay a certain tax on the amount for each registered item.

You can view registered items in your inventory at any time.

If you want to cancel the registration of an item, click on the cross.

Re-registration of things.

Even after logging out of the game, items remain on the auction for 3 days, and the money from their sale is credited the next time you log in. A tax, set by Archon A, is deducted from the proceeds of the item sale automatically.

Select the items you want to re-register and click "Confirm".

You can purchase an auction pager from the NPC Merchant for 55,000 racial currency. This pager is designed for remote use of the auction.

Right-click the "Pager" item in your inventory. The following message will appear:

Click "OK".

Despite the seemingly rich gameplay, there are not many ways to earn money in RF Online. You can obtain it from monsters (in the form of items), receive it as quest rewards, and, finally, through trading. High-level population areas—and of course, within the race—don’t make it easy for beginners. There are opportunities, but they clearly won’t make you rich or significantly affect the economy.

Let’s focus on trading. What makes it so remarkable?

Trading level doesn't depend on character level. Well, not at all: a player with a thousand platinum can even become a level 1 character if they can scrape together a meager starting capital and make it to the auction.

The hero, summoned to specialized trade, spends most of his time in the city. Therefore, he doesn't get caught in the crossfire, and the urge to measure bones arises, and gain double experience for a long time.

Trading doesn't require investment in development. The auction works even when you, quite sensibly, are enjoying offline play. Playing the auction with any degree of confidence does require an investment of time, yes.

So, let's get going! A fascinating and exciting world awaits!

This is important: obviously, you can trade both items you've produced yourself and those you've found. But you can also trade items you don't personally need, but that are valuable to others or are unique to your race. This is the classic scenario: your character doesn't produce anything at all.

Auctions are hosted by the Archons and are located on the territory of Outpost-213, by Bellato in Solus, and by Cor in Haram. Many people's buttons call up the "Enter Auction" program, but in reality, instead of the desired program, it opens the "Homeland Screen." Simply type it a second time, and then you can enter your item for auction and click "Search."

The essence of listing an item on an auction is to specify the item type and the total amount for which you want to sell it. You have a total of 5 listing slots (Specialists have 10). If an item doesn't sell, it's returned to you. If it does sell, you receive your payment the next time you log in. You can only list an item for sale once in a row, and it cannot be removed. You can't quickly list an item twice if it has disappeared from the auction. If you want to sell in bulk (for example, ore), you can't list it on the auction — ​​I repeat, the number of slots counts. A certain tax, determined by Archon A, is also charged upon sale.

Some myths of beginning traders

Resale of goods at auction is prohibited.

It's strange, but true—I've heard this myth several times. They say the honest way to earn money is by completing quests or dungeons. But playing on the auction house, buying cheap items and re-selling them to customers is practically an exploit, which leads to persecution, confiscation of your earned gold, and even account closure. Keep in mind: this is not true. The auction house is designed for buying, selling, and bargaining.

The market is stable

Nothing of the sort. The auction is completely updated every 72 hours—as is well known, this is the maximum time an item can be listed for. After three days, the list changes completely, and even within these three days, with a small amount of capital, you can play a fairly active niche in the auction. You can artificially inflate prices, you can adjust prices, you can manage demand, and you can implement a host of other mechanics.

The merchant does not need to know what kind of goods he is buying or selling.

Nonsense. The specifics of a product determine demand, price, and customer base. Not everyone uses everything the same way.

If people don't buy something, then you need to lower the price.

This isn't always the case. Those engaged in speculative trading at auction have a rather abstract idea of ​​ the buyer—if the price is inflated even once, it's immediately obvious. So the buyer might simply overlook your item. Or avoid listing it daily if the only expectation is that the buyer won't find the item they're looking for and will take yours, even if it's more expensive. Prices vary significantly between mass-produced and unique items— ore, resources, and trophies—while more unique items tend to have inconsistent prices.

Market laws and self-interest

The fundamental law of a market economy is always formulated very simply: "Buy low, sell high."

It works in RF Online too. Before you consider whether the seller who listed the item is really happy with the price, consider whether the price is happy with you. If it is, and you're not losing money, "Buy." If the price seems high, but the item is unique, "Isn't it more expensive in the store?" Ask yourself this question every time you buy, and your transactions will be surprisingly profitable.

Time to gather and scatter

Some goods sell better individually, while others sell better in bulk. For example, high-volume items like stones and ammunition are essential for mass production and skill training. Rarely do people buy them individually, but that's not all.

It's not always easy to tell by eye: are these 16 items cheaper or more expensive? Others buy them in batches of 20—it's more convenient to use the tapes, and it's much easier to measure them in whole stacks. A typical purchasing manager will choose the cheapest full stack of consumables and buy it, while the partial stack sits unused. So, if there are 13 and 7 identical items next to each other, and the lot of 13 costs the same as one full stack of similar items, does it make sense to buy them and combine them, and then list them for more than the total price?

However, there's another more common case where you can sell retail for more than wholesale. Put materials aside if you don't have more than enough for a full stack. But—a reasonable question— isn't that why you often have to dump them? Because the item doesn't sell, regardless of its price, if it's not in the volume it's used in, typical for a given race or profession. And you don't want to transport food, breaking it up into many pieces, because if you don't need it anyway—either in parts or whole—then there's no point. Or vice versa: it makes sense to sell in bulk, plus you can take the wholesale order, break it up, and sell it individually for a higher total price.

Always try to think of yourself as a buyer, not a seller. You're the player who comes to the auction, searches, finds, bids, and buys what they need. After all, your job is to get them to buy. This means you need to adapt to "your" client and anticipate their needs.

For dear clients

Buying up the rarest batches of valuables, all that's left is to sell them. No matter how successful your last purchase was, as long as you have three gold pieces in hand and another hundred in the item, you won't sell another one of three, let alone one hundred and three. Experience shows that practically nothing sells wholesale unless the customer, as a loss of three, can afford two, or even more. So, it's worth preparing for the sale with the utmost care, as much as possible.

Browse the auction. If there's already a similar item, that's great. The main thing is to critically evaluate the prices. Don't lower your price if you're already at the bottom. Otherwise, you'll end up with: and they'll end up buying from both us and the other seller, but you'll end up losing money, not them. And conversely, if your price is unreasonably high, then listing your item "just a little higher" will still lose you a customer. Yes, your competitor will also lose returns, but who will they go to? Yes, your competitor will also lose returns, but who will they go to?

By the way, it's also important to keep in mind that there's more than one client. Let's say you've brought an amulet to sell, and you're the first seller at one, another at five, and a third at seven, and the buyer starts to wonder: Shouldn't I go lower? Feel free to bid fourth. Even if you don't want to buy the amulet (and why not?), don't let it bother you. Soon it will be bought, and you'll be the one making the offer.

It's important to distinguish between unstable, painful markets and stable trends. If a new skill is suddenly introduced today, no big deal: most likely, a group of adventurers suddenly decided to take up alchemy or something else. A week will pass, and half the textbooks and infusions will disappear from their auctions. The rest will be depleted in storage, and the price will stabilize. But the price of ore is always noticeable: whether it's low or high, no matter the week—demand is stable.

Regarding your questions, there's no other product like yours on the market. Then compare it to other items—either by cost or functionality. For example, by damage price, or by price per unit of strength. There are topics like the price of an uncorrupted slot in stat items. Item? Equipment? Pet? Use your best judgement. If the item is unique, increase the price. Experience is just as important as mere stats—and perhaps even more so. The more unique the item, the more profitable it is.

The key, by the way, is that your item is unique and has no comparable existence . What's the price? Then think twice – is it possible, even if you don't use it at all? Or not sell it at all? If such pagers are a rare commodity in a trading house, then they'll sometimes even look for them. And in a secret moment, unnoticed, and then they'll find the opposite after the loss. There are also private transactions between players in the game.

Globalization and financial "swings"

As your capital grows, you can engage in more decisive manipulations, targeting not individual positions, but entire categories. For example, you buy up all the black ore available at auction. And not all of it, but two-thirds of the cheapest, leaving only the frankly overvalued positions unattended.

A shortage occurs when you can easily sell your goods at a high price, while simultaneously quickly buying up single, cheap bids in this area. It's advisable to place bids for sale under the names of several characters, so as not to focus players' attention on a single seller. Then, fix prices to avoid further speculation. Traders specializing in fast, special processing realize that black ore is currently in demand and rush to mine it. The price will fluctuate, and later we see a different picture: the market is literally flooded with this resource. And that's when you can scoop it up. It's good if the timing of the "second wave" coincides with your interests, and your prices are driven down below the purchase price. But even if this isn't the case, there's no reason to panic. Now is the time to buy—not to sell. Buy, buy, buy. And then wait for prices to rise again so you can calmly sell your entire inventory.

We've done everything we could with Fatixia—we've slightly "stirred up" the market to make a nice profit twice in a row. However, keep in mind that this is a risky option, and if you misjudge the timing of your buying and selling, you'll end up with a dwindling price of stones.

Cinderella's Trap

Let's say someone gets their hands on several packs of rare but completely useless items. Toad tails, spider legs, fish scales (yes, none of that stuff is in RF, but it's crap anyway, even in RF— crap)—the kind of junk that no one in their right mind would put up for auction. And, having acquired enough of these packs, they put them up for auction. One for 200k, another for 180k... And then, a couple of days later, they add another one to the list—maybe for 50k. What does the auctioneer say to that? "Yes! What a bargain!" And indeed: usually these things sell for 200k, and here—what luck!

But someone will definitely fall for this scam, buy a useless scale, and, trembling with anticipation, write in the chat: "Selling a pack of scales for only 150k!!! PM"...

Obvious and natural

Finally, here are a few simple patterns from the worlds of RF Online that, one way or another, influence demand and prices, and therefore, merchant policies.

Inflation occurs on all servers. The longer a server lives, the more money circulates on it: money, after all, isn't "soulbound" and disappears from the world much more slowly than items.

The older the server, the more valuable stale, low-level items are. A paradox? After all, most players are already level 50+? That's the point. Wealthy players create new characters, level them up with hundreds of thousands of coins, and then mercilessly remove starting ones for the "junior" ones. But on younger servers, flooders and final (final) items from early levels, for example, are out of demand: no one has the money for them or the buildings. And certainly not enough to replace them as they level up.

It's more profitable to sell when the server is full, for example, half an hour before or after the CW (during the CW, normal people are either looting or fighting).

99.99 is much less than 100!

You've probably noticed that many advertisements, magazines, and television ads feature products at odd prices—$19.99, $149.99, and so on. Why is this done? One reason is that reducing the price by a cent creates the perception of a completely different price.

$100 is a three-digit number, and $99 is a two-digit number. It's a small thing, but it's very important.

Take advantage of this too. List your item for 99 coins instead of 100, or 999.99 instead of 1000. This will kill two birds with one stone: first, you'll undercut your competitors' "round" prices, and second, you'll make your price "psychologically pleasing."

Trading channel in chat - quick deals

Even if you've become a powerful financial mogul and control half the auction, don't neglect this method of buying or selling.

Firstly, by selling directly to the buyer, we don't pay commission to the reseller or put up risky collateral. Secondly, it's faster. Thirdly, it helps us make useful contacts.

Even if you've already listed an item for auction, you're free to sell it in chat. And the price may be the same at your auction, or it may be lower, depending on the situation. The item is yours—you can sell it however you want.

The main thing is to let potential buyers know where to find you in the game, so you can find each other more easily in a large city. If you're frequently followed for trade, it's best to arrange a meeting at any portal (for example, Solus), or in any city, even if it's not the central one. This always works.

Don't post your item too often. This will only irritate people in town and, instead of selling it, you'll get ignored.

Agree on the price beforehand. From the first few words, it's clear whether the person wants to buy, is refusing the offer, or is simply trying to avoid the deal and negotiate down the price. Don't play the silent game or be mysterious—if you're selling something, tell them the price, and then don't try to persuade them. Be polite, and if they ask for more details, simply confirm the price.

If you got an item by chance—for example, someone dropped a quest or a bow—then don't rush, and it's best to first ask the trade channel about the current weapon prices. This is normal practice: if players start jumping beyond the market price range, they are simply ignored or ignored. If you've acquired particularly desirable loot, it's easy for it to be immediately responded to, but that doesn't mean you'll make a profit several times higher than on the auction house. That's not the case in the trade channel.

If you regularly sell items within your guild, don't overcharge. However, it's generally advisable to avoid financial relationships and guild-wide attachments. If you don't separate trading from friendship, both can suffer.

Dumping

Generally speaking, lowering prices ultimately isn't worth it. For starters, it will incur the righteous wrath of other merchants, many of whom are members of powerful clans. But, let's say this scenario doesn't bother you. Let's explore the situation further...

Other merchants are faced with a choice: wait until you and your goods disappear, or follow the bad example and also lower their prices. In both cases, they lose money, so they'll likely set their prices even lower than yours to make things more difficult. You respond, and prices gradually fall. Ultimately, everyone is selling at a lower price than they could, and therefore losing. Meanwhile, some buyers have time to get used to the new prices...

As a countermeasure to dumping, it's often justified to use the same methods to force a competitor to lower their price, then buy up all their inventory and restore the status quo. Unprofitable? Blow the weighted average price (the amount spent on all goods divided by their total quantity). As long as your selling price is above the weighted average, you won't lose.