>I really like barter as it has been implemented, but I'm
>thinking that a way to promote its use more would be to make
>it more feasible under certain circumstances. From my
>standpoint, if I have something that a shopkeeper isn't
>"interested in" but happens to be worth 9X what an item is
>that they won't swap me for it, it's annoying.

Well, they have their own motivations too. They're just
thinking "Dude, give me something I *want*".

>In many of these cases, I can sell the said item and buy
>what they're selling.

From the same guy? That borders on buggish.

>In a rapidly growing number of scenarious,
>I can sell the said item and still not attain what I want that
>they were selling, because they're not down with currency.

Some folks prefer to barter. There's only a couple of them though
and they don't have anything that you really couldn't get somewhere
else if you wanted to.

>I guess what I'm saying is, should I really have to trade an
>item worth ten times what it is that I want to receive back,
>just because one given shopkeeper isn't necessarily written to
>sell that type of item, or can we show them that all things
>have worth, and that it's just a _little_ less opportune for
>the armorer to sell an axe or diamond treasure than it is a
>leather shirt?

Or you can offer them something they want. There's two sides
to the transaction; they have something you want, you don't
really have something they want.

>And yes, this is all because I bartered in front of someone
>who proceded to ask when I had joined Outlander. Barter
>should not be a sign of the Outlanders, it should be the sign
>of someone not wanting to spend money, or not being allowed to
>by barterer shoppies. I'd like to see it more used as I bet
>you would.

Outlanders are freakishly bad at bartering. I know my
personal intent was that it was right up their alley, but man,
they just don't do it nearly as much as everyone else. Tell the
person who thinks bartering is a sign of Outlander's disease that
those tree-hugging weirdos couldn't barter gold for copper.

Qaledus (lost his password again)

Maybe I was too blunt. My point is just that even though I personally like collecting knives and swords, if someone came to me with a diamond worth 5x what I was selling, I'd swap them for it even if its not my specialty. Keep it as is, change it...I just thought I'd offer an opinion.

>Maybe I was too blunt. My point is just that even though I
>personally like collecting knives and swords, if someone came
>to me with a diamond worth 5x what I was selling, I'd swap
>them for it even if its not my specialty. Keep it as is,
>change it...I just thought I'd offer an opinion.

I get where you're coming from, but I'm not sure the ratio is
too entirely out of whack. They *will* take things they don't
particualarly want if the value is high enough.

But I'll talk to some people and review the math.

It just makes sense that merchants are good at estimating the value of what they specialize in and bad at everything else. Without the internet, most people who aren't jewelers would have a relatively hard time placing any value on a diamond. Quick, how much is a .75 carat VSI color E emerald cut diamond worth? If you aren't a jeweler, how are you going to know if it is E or G in color? How are you going to tell if it is cubic zirconium vs. a diamond? VSI vs. VVSI?

Since they cannot accurately judge the value of something they aren't familiar with, natural instinct for profits is going to lend to grossly underestimating.

There's a taint out there that is grossly under-tapped. His goods come at a very high price, and only to bartering. However, he's not interested in the average item. So what happens to the player? He has to find something worth 20k to trade for a single item that's "sold" for 2100cp. My entire point is that this sort of thing may be a bit extreme. Not that I should get three, but that maybe a 10k value item might be good enough for 1 of these items, since 10k items are alot more common to find than 20k ones, though still not overabundant. That, and it's still worth over 4x what the item I want is. Maybe it doesn't make _perfect_ sense in the economic viewpoint, but it'd really make alot of sense in the game.economic viewpoint. We're here to have fun. It'd be alot more fun to be able to barter for the items that are meant to be bartered for than to have to jump through loops for an item that you could just as easily get another way, if you were so inclined.

Anyways I think I must just be missing something about what items I can barter and where, so I'm going to close my responses on this topic until I've spent another hanful of hours trying to figure it out.

I do appreciate your analogy though. I know gems and wouldn't know where to start with what you asked. I just think "valuable".

Just check what out-of-place items merchants have, you can bet they got them from another player bartering. Another tip is there are more and more multi-item merchants that will give you full value on a variety of object types: they just aren't in Galadon, so anytime you see a mob in or near a major city, type list. You might be surprised.

If I have time to tonight I'll look him over. You're right that he
is a sort of unique case and he might could use minor adjustment.

He also responds to sayto and is a bit of a grump.

Qaledus