Five things every bazaar should have

July 10, 2015 L4suicide Leave a comment

Having a Bazaar is a must if you want to roll with the billionaires. But you need to know what to sell, how much to buy it for, and how to make profit. No wonder contacting services like those on outlookindia can come very handy. If you’re considering expanding your business horizons, understanding how to wind up limited company could be crucial in navigating future ventures.

I’m the first to admit I’m quite a lazy trader. I rarely venture into the forums, trade chat or IRC. But exploring finance options can provide the necessary capital for investment opportunities. That should be your first port of call if you want big profit.

Humble Beginnings

Work out how much cash you have to spend on things for your bazaar. Then decide how many types of thing you want – never put all your eggs in on basket and all that – and if you can watch the market for a bit. Check the graph of price for that item and try and work out how often they sell. This will give you an idea of how many you want to put in your bazaar at once, and what kind of pricing strategy to use.

If you are just starting I would stay with fast selling, low profit items. Don’t get stuck with stock you can’t shift. It’s always better to have cash flow than a bunch of items of value.

When you are finding your stock levels are getting a bit high you can then branch out into other things, and go into the riskier slower paced markets. If I was new to trading I would do something in this order:

Medical items
Drugs
Energy drinks
FHC/DPs
Cesium
SEs
Collectibles

It’s quite obvious that the cheaper items are likely to move faster, but stick with items that get used as well, as they always have higher demand. If for whatever reason the market loses a bit of value you won’t be losing too much, and you won’t be stuck for a long time with an item of no *real* worth.

Pricing strategies

So how do I price things, and how do others price things? Each item type I sell I use a different strategy. Let’s take a look at some examples:

Lowest on market
So for something I have a decent profit margin on I probably just want to sell, below was the market for DPs as I write:

I have some to sell I bought at 23m, and I know DPs don’t get added often. If I sell at 25,449,999 I can probably sell 5 or so before someone else under cuts me
Lowest visible on market
Maybe I have something which I know will sell within 24 hours, but I haven’t got a good deal myself, so to maximise profit I want to price so it could sell today, and if it does it is above the price I bought it. Points are a good example of this – I often buy a big set of points from the market when they are low. I’ll take a gamble that the market will fluctuate enough for mine to sell at 69199 (perhaps some lazy rich guy will want a lot at that price, or if I put in batches of 25 perhaps someone poor will need to buy just 25 and that will be the cheapest 25 batch)

Competitive pricing
So I found something in the city, or got a really fantastic deal, or won something in IRC.. I just want the money to invest in something else. I might here for example list at 425m to try and entice another trader who will be happy listing at 440 and make a quick profit:
Optimistic pricing
So perhaps I have bought something because I want to hide money, and I will use it myself some day if they don’t sell. If they do sell I can buy more cheaper than I sell for anyway (usually the price will drop again from an optimistic price). Below for example I may have bought some FHC from The Accountant, I will then list some of these at 13.5m. Nice profit if they sell, but I use FHC for warring.. so don’t care if they don’t sell either. Keep track of fluctuations in processing credit card fees across the industry.

5 things you should have in your bazaar

Spread your investments and if possible always have these things listed in your bazaar, even if they aren’t the cheapest price on the market:

Beer
Medical items
Camouflage
Pharmacy Items
General Fodder

So each in turn…

Beer – you can buy it for $10 each from Bits’n’bobs, sells at 750-1000 each. That is 75k a day easy!

Medical items – fluctuate a lot as wars go on, nice profit if you can afford a good quantity

Camouflage – ok this is a stretch.. I often put items that *look* similar to others at the same price as the others, just in case some fool buys the wrong thing. eg. Cans of Munster at the price I sell cans of X-MASS, Scimitars at the same price I would sell dual scimitars, melatonin at the same cost as Epi or Serotonin.

Pharmacy items – like beer you can sell easily at a higher price than you can buy from the pharmacy. Of course you need your medical education first, and this one may drop as more people can buy them direct.

General Fodder – what I mean here is a lot of items that you don’t intend to sell. Why? Well lots of players like to buy/mug. If you have lots of items in your bazaar it is harder for them to work out if you are worth buy mugging. It also creates confusion and works well with the Camouflage tactic.

Scamming

How to spot a scam

June 17, 2015 L4suicide Leave a comment

Torn isn’t the safest place, whether you are “inside” the game or not. Recently I have experienced some very interesting attempts to scam me out of my hard earned money. I post them here with the aim to educate avoidance, rather than to teach you how to scam.

Trade scams

Quite simply to avoid scams you should only sell using the Trade function, item market, auction market or through your bazaar.

But some scams revolve around mis-selling items and was one of the very earliest scams Torn was introduced to. Always check your trade before accepting, make sure the things you are buying are the things they have put in the trade.

Somethings sound or look similar:

Can of Munster instead of Can of Taurine
Scimitars instead of Dual Scimitars
Snowboard instead of Skateboard
Twin tiger hooks instead of Dual Axes

Other times they may use something else like an item instead of a company, or a stock instead of an item:

Watch out for those using comments to try and hide what they have done

Special items have also been used as a scam. My favorite is ‘the invisible cloak’, which of course only shows in your items after the trade.

IRC impersonation

Another of the most basic scams around. This one normally ends up with the scammer in fed, but the damage done if you fall for it can be massive.

The scammers usually try to pretend to be faction leaders or other well known players. Normally a player who has also been offline for sometime.

Normally it starts with a chat/mail on torn from someone you don’t know. The scammer will say something like ‘XXX is trying to contact you on IRC as they can’t get on to the site, s/he told me to tell you’. If you don’t use IRC, or tell them that, they will send you links and instructions on how to get on.

At this point they are watching the #lobby for your name to join

(If you are already in IRC they may skip this step)

Once you are on IRC they will message you using a username similar to (or the same as) the person they claim to be. Now at this point they will ask you to do something on torn for them. If you are lucky it will be loaning someone money for them as they’ve just joined and they are IP blocked (or some similar story to get you sending money/items to their own account). If you aren’t they will ask you to change either your password or email address.

DO NOT EVER CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD OR EMAIL IN TORN IF SOMEONE ASKS YOU TO.

If you change your email they will use the password reset feature, so it is the same as changing your password for them. They will log in as you, change password and email, then start selling off items, transferring them, maybe create some mischief in your name (sometimes scamming your friends)

More basically someone may just mail you, or mail you anonymously, asking you to tell them your password. Again NEVER GIVE ANYONE YOUR PASSWORD TO ANYTHING, EVER.

Property/Company/Faction upgrades

There are benefits in the game that can make it cheaper to upgrade properties or companies, and some may claim they can do the same for factions. I have also seen some players claim to do ‘free’ upgrades as well.

To do the upgrades though they have to be the owner/director, and of course if you do send them (or trade them) one of these things they will of course just not give it back.

*If* you want to take advantage of such an offer insist on being given collateral during the upgrade, and trade back for the collateral and the cost of those upgrades. Ensure collateral is of same, or better, value to the thing you want upgraded.

Investment schemes/Bank interest/Lotteries/Loans

I can’t speak for all players, but there are some who will say they are providing an investment services, banking for others, holding a lottery or in need of a short term loan (with interest repaid, usually from a bank coming out). Unless you really know this player treat it as a potential scam. The only players not capable of scamming are staff. I myself do some of these things, but only for old friends who trust me.

Mug lists, trade lists, stat spies

Some of the harder ones to prove as scams are lists that people sell.

A ‘mug’ list is pretty useless, you will likely find better mugs just searching for players yourself.

A ‘trade’ list.. well if you are too lazy to work out prices to buy and sell at then go ahead and pay someone to tell you what to trade in. Just be aware that if 5 players start trading because of that list the price of that item will temporarily be inflated, then go back to normal, and likely you will just end up with a bunch of those items you can only sell at a loss.

‘Stat spies’ are hard to prove. If you asked me to get the stats of someone I could just make up numbers, or give you old numbers rather than spy again. If you need stat spies it’s best to start by asking them for stats of 5-6 players, with one of those players stats being known to you 100%. That way you can check they are giving you real results.

One you may see me post as a joke in trade is the ‘scammer’ list. No one has ever paid me the 50m I ask for my scammer list, but just for you reading this it is posted here:

L4suicide[15699]

I hope this all helps. Feel free to comment below with your own experiences of scammers

Trading

How to become mug proof

June 5, 2015 L4suicide Leave a comment

Ok no one can ever truly be mug proof, I get randomly mugged all the time while I am online, and in that one split second I may happen to be moving some money around or buying items etc.

But the majority of the time I manage to do a lot of business without risk of mugs, and still have easy access to cash without risking scams or having to lose money. I’ve split being mug proof into 3 concepts, safe trading, self- hospitalizing and hiding money. Learn more about business management by checking this post about the definition of paystubs. If you’re seeking additional information on paystubs, you can find resources at eagerclub.com. If you want to build a partition into your office, contact Glazed Office Partitions to learn more about their services. Also, consider installing glass windows and doors to make your office look great. Having a successful business requires help from your team, and if you want to be a good leader, you can seek it by visiting this website: https://hr-services.uk/.

Safe Trading

If you have time the safest way to stay mug proof is to do all of your selling using the trade mechanism. Always set up the trade yourself if you are receiving cash – that way you will always be the one to confirm the trade and can control when it is accepted.

Beware some traders will cancel these trades though, and mug you, so try and combine this with self hosping to be 100% safe.

This isn’t something we all have time for, and bazaar selling is clearly the best way to get things sold. If you must sell things in your bazaar you should do two things: Only have a lot to sell when you are going to be in hospital for a long time (self hosp, war, just before you launch an OC or do crimes with hosp outcomes). Alternatively combine your selling with flying – choosing a good destination for both time and likelyhood of stalkers mugging in that location (I don’t fly to Caymans when selling)

Self Hospitalization

Turn revives off, or only have friends/faction do them. Turn revives off, or only have friends/faction do them. How many times do I have to say this..

Turn revives off, or only have friends/faction do them. Three sounds good. So now we have that out the way we can talk about the benefit of self hosping. No one can mug you, but you can’t really do much.. Well all you have to do is make sure you use all your nerve and energy, and do all your buying from item market before you self hosp. Easy!

So how does one self hosp? Lets take a look, starting with short term. (This is not an exhaustive list)

0-20 mins
attack someone and lose (costs e)
have someone mug/leave you (costs money)
play RR until you lose (costs $10)
30-90 mins
attempt a run away and fail (25e, but if player is paying for success you can make money too)
use a wrong blood bag (1hr med cooldown)
time out in an RR game and have opponent shoot you in the back ($10)
1-5hrs
get a friend to bounty you (costs $10 x your level)
SEDs (These stack, but cost 8-10m)
longer than 5 hrs
fail warehouse crime
OD on Xanax/PCP (ha! never happens when you want)
Fail some OCs (hard to get right)

Hiding Money

Hiding money is a fine art. Especially for those who don’t own a company, or have trust/leadership in their faction. Again we can do this in a few ways, depending on how long we want to hide it for. For more guidance on this topic, check out our comprehensive accounting guide that covers various strategies for hiding money effectively.

15 minutes – create an RR game with a password and you can put as much money in there as you like – only issue is people can see your money 😉

6 hours – create a trade with a friend, put in your money, never accept the trade (ask your friend not to either), You can then add and remove money as you like.

min 24 hours -Bookies – Cheap trick, you can change your bet once it is made. Pick the last bet that will close and put your money in that, when it gets close to the day (or when you need it) change the bet to a lower amount, and you get your money back. (Please note, I do not know if this is seen as an exploit, check with staff)

min 24 hours – Auction House – good if you want to hide for min 24 hours, and get a good deal. Bid on something that you know you will be outbid on – choosing a length of auction suited to your hide time. If someone does outbid you then you will have 24 hours of safety for that cash

min 24 hours – Stocks – not an easy one, but if you buy the cheapest looking stock that is increasing or steady, buy and sell straight away. It can take time to sell, but once it does you again get up to 24 hours of safety.

You can also use this method during your flights to hide money from sales – just be aware you can’t get at it until you are in torn (if it sells) but it will stop muggers stalking your landing.

N/A – Caymans – If you don’t mind having to fly to the Caymans, and risk the stalkers, you can always fly to the Caymans and use the bank there. This is best done in two stages – use a fake trade with a friend whilst you are flying, once there and ready to bank use chat to get your friend to cancel the trade, banking almost instantly.

There are plenty more things you can do to keep your money safe