The World of Avlis

I keep seeing bids on item in hours go from 10k to 1 mil.

What's the deal? Am I the only poor one? I am looking for a response but I do not know of what kind.

But really how does one aquire 1 mil or 2 or however much to buy just random things. Nice things but random. I guess I get to excited about auctions when I first see them but I get blown out of the water by the fifth post.

I hope my question or post is not out of line.

My level 39 character has never had more than 400 000 gold, so you're not alone.

hehe Moredo.. some people have never had more the 100K (not me of course)


mermaiden here is a poll done sometime ago
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=94558&hilit=poll+gold

My main spent lots and lots of time crafting her way to having millions of gold, she gives it away more than she spends which is why she does not participate in a lot of auctions but when she does she actually has a budget.

My other PC which is starting to become a second main instead of an alt is dirt poor but can make a few thousand gold by gathering various herbs and selling them to the player owned shops.

I know there are some folks who get their wealth by stealing it, some get it from dungeon crawling and other various activities.

The gold is out there its easy to get, just dont expect it to fall in your lap you'll have to work for it some but its there.

There shoudl be a poll somewhere... maybe it's time for a new one?

I can tell you that there are some behind-the-scenes coalitions bidding on some of these items, to benefit their group as a whole.

There's often more than meets the eye around here...

wolfwielder wrote:My main spent lots and lots of time crafting her way to having millions of gold, she gives it away more than she spends .

Geef goldz plz!

For the record my main usually has around 40 to 50k in gold, at the moment I am sitting on about -120 000 if i win a certain auction. Being in negative figures makes me the poorest person on avlis?

It's not easy to get rich quick, else everyone would be rich!


A lot of the people that are bidding on the auctions have dedicated a lot of time towards what they have. It takes work, interacting with the right people, RP, and dedication to get it.

Or lots and lots of crafting.

I WILL HAVE ALL OF YOUR GOLD SOON. ALL OF IT!!!!

spool32 wrote:
I can tell you that there are some behind-the-scenes coalitions bidding on some of these items, to benefit their group as a whole.

isnt that just wonderful *voice drips with sarcasm*

Vilne has about 1.2 mil, and Doug hasn't ever had more than 150k of his own. A lot of it is not spending gold on trivial things, or having an inn room, since those actually cost quite a bit (It adds up!). Really, being miserly is the best way to get along. To save even more money, try not to use the portals, that sort of thing

You don't want to know.

MOST of my PCs are relatively poor.

Grumpy has ~1.1 million
Rego has ~90k
Aisyle has ~300k (every last penny from looting mikona)

No one else has more than 20k. And I said "most" above, because I've got 10 other PCs that are all scraping bottom.

I agree with Ninjar. Being a miser really does save up money. I rarely take the portals, I pick up all the loot that drops, I sell it to biomerchants. I don't have an inn-room I have to rent. Grumpy used to have an inn-room, but not anymore.

Shosin has never had no more that 150k on her at a time, and that was borrowed. right now, she has between 7k and 15k. somewhere in that area.

Remember that much of the coin involved in these auctions is simply changing hands over and over again. After Character A buys something from Character B for a million gold the coin doesn't just vanish! Sooner or later Character B will go buy something from Character C for a million gold. Other than gold sinks (portals, artificing, player housing, etc), there isn't much you can buy that doesn't place your character's money in the pocket of another character. Even if you buy something from a Bioware merchie they will probably end up giving that coin up to another PC who pawns off some dungeon junk before the reset.

Also some character builds tend to do get by without spending much money on consumables. So their purse keeps getting fatter until they finally decide to spend it all on something. Figure out how to do the bulk of your adventuring without ripping through expensive consumables. Try to buy and sell from other characters and their P-merchants. Yes there are exceptions and things that PCs simply don't buy/sell, but usually you will get better deals if you avoid the Bioware merchants when possible.

Finally, what may appear to be a "random thing" to you could be a particularly useful piece of gear to that highest bidder. Some items happen to fill a gap in a character's abilities or is a particularly relevant item for RP reasons so it goes for far more coin than it would seem worth. I guess its sort of a "one man's trash is another man's treasure" situation.

sinn wrote:mermaiden here is a poll done sometime ago
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=94558&hilit=poll+gold

A more recent poll: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=107705

My main spent lots and lots of time crafting her way to having millions of gold

This is how.

My main has lots of old money, mostly from working at shops before the P-merch markets went in. He still makes a fair bit on smart trades here and there. Gold is hard to get until you get to a few hundred thousand. Then, if you make a concerted effort at smart trading you can start increasing fairly well.

As a sideline, as this seems something of a commentary on the recent glut of auctions and the amounts bid, previous comments hold true. Many of these bids are with loaned money, coalitions, or very rich people who buy for others. The only thing that really chaps my ass is seeing Mr/Ms uber-rich stomp on lowbies because they can. They are buying for some other lowbie often enough, but frequently they are out for a profit later on. I take huge issue with that. Some OOC consideration is due. I have always made an effort not to bid against lowbies, even if I wanted the item and could bid the under the table. Is it IC for my PC in the slightest? No way in hell. It's just the right thing to do for the enjoyment of everyone.

I play a lot. More than a lot. My characters dont ever seem to have much gold. I dont think I've ever broken 400,000. Usually hover around 50 to 150 k. Then again, I dont auction stuff, craft, or take any go-get-'em steps to become profanely rich (like camping NFM or selling millions of ice crystals/fire potions). I dont have much to spend on auctions either, but get most good stuff via friends. Some of that is real good. I also try to share nice stuff when I get it rather than sell it. So even though I rarely buy anything from a merchant or at auction, all in all, I'm pretty happy with my loot/gold situation even though its not so much.

Over 10 million, last I checked. She got most of that by being in the right place at the right time (guilds, selling, making really great deals, marrying at the right time, etc.) She is level 40.

Most of her gold has gone to housing or gifts, rarely on herself.

It's not necessary to camp a dungeon or spam fire potions to make millions... it's possible to do so without abusing the system. In fact it's easy, if you're a rogue. A skilled, dedicated thief can clear 30K a day AND have fun doing it. This perception that you have to be an exploiter or a mad rabid crafting whore or a dungeon camper to get rish is not the case.

My main is rich because he belongs to a guild where each member supports the others. We make all our own consumables, so every gold piece he makes goes into his pocket. This lets me buy things from time to time - for myself, for other people, and for plots. I can't recall the last time I bought a potion from another player, because we're self-sufficient and we work toward a common goal. I'm blessed with fantastic guildmates, and that makes everything a lot easier.

All you players with poor PCs: do they belong to a guild? If not, why not? If so, what have you done for the other members lately? What have they done for you?

Being a loner is always going to make amassing a fortune harder.

Yeah, if you end up being the quartermaster to a guild, you can have the potential to steal a lot of gold. Not that I'd know anything personally about embezzlement.

Also, CoPaP allows for interworld marketing. What might be rare on one world, is common on another. What can be bought for 5k and sold for 50k turns a quick profit. Also, just visiting pmerchants frequently, youll find cheap potions and turn a profit, or youll find an item the seller wants rid of, and you can turn around and sell it again for profit.

I've purchased potions of heavenly healing for 200 gp from pmerchants and sold them for 300-350 gp. Repeat that a hundred times and thats 10,000 gp profit.

Also it depends a lot on your playstyle. You make more money killing lots of lowbie humanoid enemies than you do pwning the darkfortress of evil nemeses. UMD makes you tougher but at the cost of $$$.

None of my PCs have ever been 'crafters', Richy got to level 3 or so in herbalism and tailoring and maybe 4 in mining.

To make a revision on spool's comment. It is getting harder and harder for thieves to make money in cities as more and more NPC homes are being converted into player houses. But you can still make a bunch of gold if you like tedious unlocking and walking around in stealth. (Its about as exciting as mining iron on average). But you could probably still make 30k or more in a day if you work at it, but it won't be as fun as standing around at the rock drinking and fighting unless get interrupted by certain unnameables.

Uhh. Right. Money can be fun, but don't let a lack of it ruin your fun. And generally you'll end up with enough anyway.

Not enough to bid on any auction to "win" something.


Though I don't & never did regret rp'ing for hours instead of powahomfgcraftz0ring or going on a mindless crumping spree (depends on the mood, that).
I love it when the Mint Tea gets cold.

Thank you for all the inpiration. Would be wrong to ask what crafting would be profitable?

Tailoring is only $$$ at high levels. Unless you want to crump through 6-7 levels of useless clothing items (mostly skimpy and tasteless clothes intended for women characters played by men) avoid this one. However, if you like customized clothing, tailoring is for you. Above level 5, using the sewing machine is really cool.

Mining can get you a fair bit of coin. Even mining iron ore. A newb with 3,000 to 5,000 gold can buy alot with that (martial weapons feat / one trip / eight ore placeables mined - takes quite few hours RL though).

Alchemy, which I've never done really, I'm told is lucrative. It's all consumables, which always need refilling. Add a p-merchant into the mix you have a 24 hour a day seller of your wares to those who need them. Also saves you the gold of having to buy consumables if you can make them for yourself.

P-merchant. Yup. The most successful ones I've seen either sell high end crafting goods or low end crafting components, or both. Set up and maintained properly, and in a well traveled location, it's a money making machine. A small basic shop with a merchant and maybe a storage chest can cost between 200-350K. That's pretty reasonable. Add in crafting placeables the cost goes up to about 700,000 to 1 mil.

itsabughunt wrote: Also some character builds tend to do get by without spending much money on consumables. So their purse keeps getting fatter until they finally decide to spend it all on something. Figure out how to do the bulk of your adventuring without ripping through expensive consumables. Try to buy and sell from other characters and their P-merchants. Yes there are exceptions and things that PCs simply don't buy/sell, but usually you will get better deals if you avoid the Bioware merchants when possible.

I think this is a big part of it. my character spends most of his gold on healing supplies and buffs. If he was say, a cleric, suddenly I would have all those things as spells. Gold would add up pretty quickly for me then. Some builds don't need consumables, some do. From what I've the use of consumables draws a neat line between the rich and the poor. Excpetions include people who have the time to run a sucessful P-Merchant.

My first Avlis character is a rogue/bard. between stealing and always being near the back of the group, and having some buffing spells, he uses almost no consumables. Gold adds up fsat for him, and he has some damn good bought stuff for a level 10.

Just my experience.

My main (who is four and half years old) gained his gold in many ways:
1. Careful shopping at merchants
2. Hoarding goods in inns to sell later at prices better than biomerchants
3. Selling/auctioning a few high-priced items
4. Almost completely avoided using consumables
5. Some crafting
6. Picking up everything
7. Eventually, owning/running a shop

Getting to 7 took a lot of time and gold in the first place, but once it took off it really became a money-maker. I had a lot of stock for it immediately, too, because I'd been hoarding merchandise for years, keeping it in inns. Whenever I found something on a biomerchant that was uncommon, I'd buy it and save it to sell later. I loathed purchasing consumables with him, too, and would avoid using them whenever I could. Ones that were more important to have around, like healing kits, he made himself.

About 6: I'd pick up every drop, even if it was just 30 gold here and there. I was always shocked when people would just walk right by the remains of things they killed! Trails of riches were left in their wake. Combined with a refusal to spend gold on consumables and gold-sinks, over time this adds up.

Including the value of his shop, he is now worth quite a lot in gold.

All my alts, though, pretty much never have more than about 150k: I don't play them enough to make it worthwhile to keep inn rooms, so I don't hoard items with them; I use consumables with them; I don't craft with them at all; and none of them have gained any items that they could sell/auction for a large amount.