My Treatise On Bazaar EtiquetteFollow

1) (NEW) TRADER UP!!!: Does this really need to be announced with the enthusiasm one might think reserved for the resumption of certain male physiologic and anatomic functions in a 90-year-old man who'd until that moment given Sir John Thomas up for dead?

If you have *new* merchandise, say so; better yet, say what your new merchandise *is*, giving links to it. That you've just resumed selling the same old things that you had yesterday and that 50 other folks have today is neither news nor anything about which to get excited. Sorry.

2) Lowest Prices In The Baz!:

a) This is seldom true;

b) Most customers never check to see if you're telling the truth, but the ones without a finger permanently stuck up their noses generally look up the *item* in which they're interested, in the Bazaar Search Window, and *gasp* sort by price. In this case, you'd better actually *have* that "lowest price", or your name along with your price won't appear at one end of that list.

c) If it was true when you said it, there's no guarantee it's true 30.5 seconds later after the last person to also promise "LPitB!" looks up your inventory and re-prices to undercut you.

In fact, a much better statement for you to make is simply "If you can find a price lower than mine, I'll beat it", though perhaps two or more other sellers working in tandem would use that promise as a way of scamming you-- and buying up your stock for resale at *their* (higher) price.

d) When this is true, it's also sometimes true that your price for Item X is the Lowest because you're the only one selling Item X... meaning you've also got the Highest Price, and the Median. The chances of you having an objectively low price on something, the *only one* available of which is that you have for sale, are themselves low.

e) We all still remember the gal we had to put on /ignore because she opened trading with a message that said "I have just lowered my prices!", etc., somehow set it to repeat itself every 30 seconds, and then remained logged in for *three days*. We swiftly calculated after the first 12 hours that if she had 'just lowered!' her prices by even one plat each time, her item listed originally at 1500pp would be down to 60pp. Of course, nothing of the sort had taken place. A large neon sign, placed over her head, and flashing "IDIOT" off and on would have been superfluous. (And, no, I can't remember who she was, so don't even begin to suggest that her sales tactics at least had annoyance value or produced name recognition. All they did is to have her effectively fall off the face of Norrath for me.)

3) Call me a jaded and suspicious shopper, but any appeal along the lines of 'Come check out my stuff!' makes me think I'd be better off looking up your inventory in the Bazaar Search Window without moving... if you really had great items, you'd link them, and if you had great prices, then you'd show up at the top of the list when I searched for my desired item and sorted by price.

I am *not* going to browse individual inventories and buy on impulse. This is *not* Real Life [TM]. If Real Life provided me with a central location for shopping along with a list, updated at small intervals, of *who* had *what* for sale for *how much* that would also assist me in finding *where* the vendor and his item were located (in a world without brands, where all items and produce were of precisely the same quality *every* time, and I could always find *my* color, and *my* size, and I never got hungry for chocolate...), it's very likely I wouldn't do any browsing or impulse buying *there*, either.

4) Call me picky, finicky, humourless, and overly proud of myself, but I don't find appeals to "Come buy my s**t | my c**p | mah shiz!" (etc.) at all... well... appealing. Or appetizing. Or cute. Or funny. Or provoking. I have never answered such a call in any way (least of all ways, by making a purchase), so you're wasting your time. Such statements are as semantically null and devoid of real information as others, like "Buy My Nice Stuff!", but have the added implication that you think I'm the kind of person who's interested in "s**t". This is supposed to make me want to shove game tokens (plat) at you *how*?

5) Likewise, I probably don't want to buy WhatEver Item You Have at the price you're asking and then resell it at the price you suggest (Example: "WTS Snot-smeared Tunic, 1k, you can resell for 2k!!!"). The message here is that if you really thought someone would pay twice as much for it, outside of your dreams, you'd ask that much for it yourself, at the beginning. Sure, eventually, someone will pay just about any unlikely price for most things. *Eventually*. Realistically, buying for resale is a gamble, and when done successfully usually does not proceed from 'suggestive sales' like that above.

6) Link your Items. Link your Items. Show me what you have. Link your Items!

7) Find the CAPS LOCK and toggle it off before I bust one in your head.

8) I (and all other shoppers) do not pay extra for your Items according to how many EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you put in your sales pitch. Seriously.

9) If Cutebazaarmulename and Gamegeneratedname both have the same item for sale, and I only want to buy one, guess what? I'm buying from whoever has the best price. (Note that 'cute' is subjective.)

10) This is a primarily a merchant-to-merchant issue, but I'd remind everyone that other sellers also are part of the consumer community, i.e., they also are out there deciding if they will or will not hand you their plat for whatever Item you have for sale: The smaller your sales 'Toon, the better. The better, and the easier it is for all other folks trying to move in and out from beneath those awnings and to and from the stalls. Ogres have *no* place in the bazaar except as customers, and Trolls, Barbarians, and Vah'Shir are questionable. As a buyer, I can find you one of two *very* convenient ways (by using 'Find', or by right-clicking on your name in the Bazaar Search Window to spin and face you) and I do not need to visually locate your 'Toon. (In fact, like most folks in the Bazaar Zone, I'm navigating by staring at the floor or up in the air most of the time.) All your big ugly 'Toon does is take up collision detection space, and p**s off the other sellers around you *and* those occasional customers who have difficulty reaching the person with whom they wish to do business around your fat body.

If you ask me, all 'Toons, NPCs, Traders, and Customers alike, should default to something like Male Human upon entering the Bazaar (something like what happens in battle in Grieg's End, only less amusing), no songs or spells should be possible there, and the Palaestra should be a Zone of its Own. Yes, in my dreams. (Of course, the real radicals go farther and wish for NPC Traders that players could set up when they're not logged in (something like the merchants in forges in ShadowBane) and from which anyone could buy at any time from any zone through a new interface.)

Thank you
/em climbs off barrel

I agree with most everything you said - bazaar sales pitches have very little to do with purchases for many people. Spammers have filled my ignore list completely making me wish that the list could hold 500 instead of only 100.

I have a trader on my wife's account and that trader is up 24X7 selling unless my wife actually wants to log in. The trader sits there and quitely sells everything I have ever put up for sale without ever once auctioning anything in any chat channel. I could never understand why people were in such a rush to sell, sell fast!, and even sell at sub-average prices until my wife /bonked me on the head and said "some people can't keep a trader up 24X7, they have dial-up and pay for their connect time, or they play from internet cafes". So there you go... some people come to the bazaar, want to make fast sales, then get back to playing - so they spam their goods in every channel possible hoping that they can sell it all in 5 minutes.

So I now understand why people advertise gear. I even feel a little sorry for them. But if they feel the need to spam me with advertisements, I'll make room on the ignore list :)

What really boggles my mind are the ones that stand there auctioning "want to sell 3 bags of gear by the SH steps". Sheesh, if you are that nostalgic, go back to the EC tunnel...

*Sniff* Selo's helps combat the slowdown from Bazaar lag

Ahhhh.

When even if you wanted to read the spam you can't because of some bardic person next door putting

"Darnedbard tries to cast a spell on you but you are protected"

it makes you intolerant. If they could just block AE songs that would be fine and you could zoom in slomo thru the lag.

I wonder just how many people don't know how to use the /bazaar command though? Even though both the /bazaar and /trader commands are listed in a message when you enter the zone, and both are pretty simple to use, I can't help but think that some people just must not use them.

The number of "soandso is looking at your wares" but with no purchase message that I see on my trader after a session is staggering. The only reason I *ever* look at someone's wares is becuase I found an item I want to buy from them, decided that it was a good deal, then used the nameclick thing to locate them, and then clicked on them to buy the item. Now maybe there's a heck of a lot of people who accidentally click on me when they mean to click someone next to me (it does happen), but it shouldn't be that frequent. The only thing I can figure is that some people really do just wander the isles so to speak. Which just seems bizaare on so many levels...


The other thing that kills me is the folks who will sit there spamming about "buying X for Y amount". Everytime I've ever looked up that item using the /bazaar tool, their asking price has been significantly lower then what the item is selling for.

Look. If you want to wheel and deal, then why not do a search for the item, and then send a tell to the seller and see if they want to take a lower price for a sale right now? If the person is afk, they wouldn't have seen your /OOC message anyway, right? That just seems like a vastly better way to do it, unless you are expecting that some people might not know how to look at the going prices for items.


Same will people advertising their items for sale. I can at least kinda see this one, since lots of people do tend to focus on a small set of the most popularly known items. I have on occasion seen an item link that I've never heard from and made note that it's something I might actually want to buy. Of course, I then do a search for the item using the /bazaar tool and buy the cheapest one. If you're advertising a sale for a lesser known item, it's a really good idea to make sure you've go the best price, or you're just giving your competition free advertisement. Again though, if your target is people who don't know how to use the /bazaar tool, then you might get some sales and make some cash.


I guess the old saying: "A fool and his money will soon part" just goes double for the bazaar. It's annoying that people spam in a spot where there *shouldn't* be any need for it, but as long as there are gullible people, then they'll make money doing it, and it'll keep happening.

just wanted to add, don't sit down or just stand there when you zone in, please move out of the way so the rest of us may shop too.

Lol! Just wanted to add...

If you click on the "post message" button. It really did post the message, even if it doesn't automatically bring up a new page. Just manually click on the forum link to the left and bring up the thread you posted in. You will see your message there. If you don't, *then* you can always hit the back button a couple of times and repost it.

na its the internet at work, it freezes up sometimes =/

Actually you shouldn't dismiss those OOC calls for lowered prices so easily Jophiel.

I never worry about having 1mil plat in the bank, or whatever goals these full time traders are shooting for, so if I don't need cash for a spell, armor upgrade or other various things, I'll get in wierd moods sometimes when I'm in trader mode. I'll drop my prices to insane levels....amulet of insight for 500pp, sword of the crypt creeper 100pp, velium wedding rings for 10pp or so, flowing black silk sash for 100pp, and so on, then announce that I had lowered prices.

It's always fun to wait the two or three minutes for the people who are awake to open thier bazaar lists, then seeing in OOC, "OMG, I just bought a wurmslayer for 50pp!"

wow dan what server ya play on? ima keep a lookout for that fbss for my rogue =P

I don't use caps personally, and hardly have much to say in bazaar. One thing confuses me though. Why on earth are people so overly offended by the use of caps, exclamation points and the like. Get over it. What, is it like someone's yelling in your ear. Are you going to go blind from seeing caps? (oh my god, how dare that person). If it really is a problem for you, get used to it now cause people aren't gonna quit doing it.

Iluien is correct.

All caps is considered to be yelling. Because the written word usually doesn't carry "tone of voice" well, you must use what tools you have at hand to try to get the point across.
You wrote in response to people using all caps:

It's a sign of disrespect and no one need accept disrespectful behavior. Would you? If it's not being used with the intent of disrespect then it's usually ignorance, which isn't really a great deal better. I also don't "jump" on someone for using all caps either. Sometimes it has a proper place and context. Most of the time though, it's merely hyperbole or a cry for attention, or even a 9 year old playing grown-up.

No, people won't stop doing it, but as I said, it has proper places and times. people of a mature character tend to like playing with other people of a similar maturity(Note I said maturity and not AGE(Age is not indicative of any specific levels of maturity)). When they see people acting like fools though it will annoy them, and you can't blame them. Personally I just have this to say....

I usually filter off everything I can when I send my traders into the bazaar. One question though, how do you shut off the
/random stuff?