Negotiating A Trade As A Seller

     Last week I brought you an article all about the art of trading as a buyer, how to know what kind of negotiating you can do depending on the item you want. It covered ideas about how to look at the item and the difficulty the seller might have getting rid of it and leveraging that into a great deal for you as the buyer. This side of that piece will cover what it's like from the seller's perspective. How you can grab items and put them on the Trading Post and effectively navigate all the offers you get so you can maximize the profit you get from your purchase. Some points are relevant to both buyers and sellers, so some concepts will be repeated, but I highly recommend checking out my last piece on the subject!

      SELLING

     There are really two types of items, as I outlined in the buyers edition, and those are "easy to sell" and "hard to sell" items.

     Items that are easy to sell tend to circulate quickly through the economy, they are highly prized items like powerful Battledome weapons or avatar items (like stamps). Hard to sell items tend to be more niche, items that only serious collectors would go after, things like TCG cards, plushies, poor-performance Battledome weapons, Neohome furniture.

     Your first step is determining which of these the item you want to sell is, because that will determine how you can go about accepting or rejecting offers. If you were out restocking and obtained an easy to sell item, that is great news! That means it will be easier for you to get full price for it and make a very great profit. If it's hard to sell you will need a bit more patience, or you will have to be willing to take a cut to move it quickly.

     Easy To Sell:

     Maybe you were out in the book shop and you restocked a Super Secret Guide to the Defenders of Neopia Headquarters. Books tend to be a little easier to sell since they are expendable, meaning they disappear upon use like food, and that there is a trophy and reward system in place for pets who read the most books. Items that are rarity 99 also tend to be a bit easier to sell since they come up more often in Jhudora and Illusen quests (but this doesn't mean all rarity 99s are easy to sell). So you have this book and you toss it up on the Trading Post, asking for 2,000,000 NP. Now it's time to sit back and let the offers roll in!

     You are going to get a few lowball offers, of people trying to snag it so they can resell it for more. It's often better to ignore all offers on the first day that don't come close to your asking price. Eventually, if the item is easy to sell, someone will come along within a few days and offer your asking price or very close to it. Don't settle just because you are excited or anxious to get the money. Take your time and evaluate each offer and think "am I willing to take this?"

     Hard To Sell:

     Let's say you obtained a Lord Kass Gnome. This is a very rare gardening item, but isn't terribly useful unless you have a specific gallery like a Lord Kass collection, a Neohome, or a gnome gallery. There isn't a large market for this item, and because it is so expensive a lot of people won't splurge on it unless they see it as essential. You can expect to have this sitting on the Trading Post for a while with offers trickling in maybe every week or two. You have to options: be patient and try to hold out until you get full value, or wait a bit and just take the best offer you get.

     If someone Neomails you and offers on the item and you notice they have a Lord Kass gallery, you are going to have a little more leverage in getting close to full price for it. They need the item, and since it is rare there aren't many out there. Make sure to Neomail them back with a counter offer, since it is hard to sell you can't really afford to say "no thanks". If they accept your counter offer, congrats! If not you really need to decide if you are that desperate to sell.

     You will also get a few Neomails from resellers, people who try to be very rare items for obscenely cheap and then they'll spend the time it takes to sell it. Usually they offer half price or less on these items, and if you are really really desperate to get rid of it you may find this to be worth it. It really is up to you to decide what the item is worth in terms of your time spent trying to sell it.

     If it is really rare, it might be a good idea to post on the Neoboards in both the trading section and spotlight area, trying to find a collector with interest. Advertise it as "discounted for collectors", this will still get you a better buying price than selling to a reseller, and make your customer feel like they are getting a nice discount.

     Just like with buying, there is a whole art of negotiation involved with selling. Determine what your time and energy is worth, as well as the item, and don't accept less. If you take a reseller offer of 500,000 NP on an item worth three times as much, you are going to be kicking yourself when you see that person turn around and sell it for full price. A lot of people also prefer to deal only in easy to sell items, they don't like to spend a lot of time selling things so they just restock at places like stamp and book shops. On the other side, dealing with hard to sell can get you a nice profit and there is a market, although small, for those items.

     I hope this guide was comprehensive enough to give you an idea of how to get the most out of your items, as well as the most out of your money when buying. Practice makes perfect and you will make some bad deals sometimes, just use them as learning experiences and do better next time!