Faithful of Talos
An Elder Scrolls Online Guild
Trading
Set-Up
Becoming a trader is perhaps both the easiest and most complex thing you can do within ESO. If you are into this kind of thing you already understand that statement.
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The first rule of trading is: "Buy Low, Sell High." seems pretty straight forward right? And really it is. So, how do you get started in this activity?
1) Find 2 or 3 'good' trading guilds. Sorry, while we hope to one day qualify for that designation FoT is a ways off from that.
2) Hop over to www.esoui.com/addons and find some help with monitoring the market. I'll list a couple suggestions at the
bottom of this section but it is likely your trade guilds will have their own suggestions or requirements.
3) Find, or buy, some things to sell. Keep in mind that most overland gear does not sell well. So, you're better off grabbing
some Jewelry and Alchemy Materials to get started with.
4) List your items! You can't sell if you don't list! You will need to pay the 1% listing fee up front so you will need gold on hand.
5) Watch the gold roll in. If your item sells you will receive the gold, minus a 7% tax, via in-game email. Keep in mind that
your guild gets 50% of the tax and ZOS gets the other half; so they can pay the dev's wages. (Just Kidding about the wages!)
If your item doesn't sell you will get it back instead of the gold.
Caprika's_Kirito's Add-On recommendations for Trading
Tamriel Trade Centre, or TTC, will allow you to see the average selling price for an item throughout Tamriel. It has some limitations, but in my opinion it's still a good tool if you're serious about trading.
Master Merchant will show you what an item's average selling point is within your guilds and can be used to track what you've been selling across all your guilds, even the ones that don't have a merchant.
The Process
The hardest part about succeeding as a trader is finding the right stuff to stock. The game's economy can be fairly volatile. which means, what was selling like booze in a dance club yesterday may not be worth the listing fee tomorrow. This is made even worse by the dev team manipulating the drop rates for certain high-value commodities, especially during events.
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It will likely take at least a year to figure out the best times, and things to sell so don't get frustrated early on. While you are studying the market to find your niche, spend time each day collecting mats for Alchemy, Blacksmithing, and Jewelry Crafting. Unrefined materials, especially jewelry crafting materials, usually sell well and have a fairly stable price point which will allow you to make enough to pay reasonable guild dues.
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Speaking of Guild Dues, don't be surprised to see guilds listing dues in the 100's of thousands. It cost tens of millions in gold each and every week for a guild to keep its Guild Trader and the guild's share of your sales just doesn't cover that cost. You should also be aware that some Trading Guilds that advertise "No Dues" or "Free Membership" have a specific list of items they feel are "Appropriate" for listing on their merchant, and if you list the wrong items, or try and sell below what the guild's leadership thinks those items should sell for, they will kick you from the guild (usually without explanation).
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So, for those just starting out, or who just want to "dip their toes" in this activity, I recommend finding a guild like 'The Trading Council' (aka TTC, not to be confused with Tamriel Trade Centre). TTC requires its members to pay 3k per week for the privilege of listing their items with the Guild Trader and doesn't have an "Approved Items" list. If you think you might want to join TTC pop over to Craglorn and drop a shout-out in zone chat, there will likely be someone there to get you hooked up.
The Rewards
The rewards for this activity are quite simply cold fake currency. As you become more successful in buying and selling, you will be able to watch your character's bank balance go up, up, and up.