A lesson from the Greedy Vendor
Come closer, coin-bearer. Folk call it scavenging when they lack the imagination to call it commerce. Every counter keeps two inventories: what the merchant means to sell, and what passing adventurers have foolishly sold to them. The first is dependable. The second is where opportunity hides.
“A fair price is any price paid before the customer reconsiders.”
Learn which merchants attract which goods, inspect their wares often, and never confuse possible stock with a promise. The world changes, customers come and go, and so does the good rubbish.
The dependable part
Commerce
Commerce is the real non-combat skill behind buying and selling with NPC merchants. It has a chance to improve when you purchase from or sell to them.
A quick training method
- Find a shady or greedy merchant selling a very inexpensive item—ideally something available in a stack.
- Buy it for 1cp, then sell it back for 1cp.
- Repeat the exchange. Each transaction can improve Commerce, though a gain is not guaranteed.
Commerce 25 · Player-observed
Haggle
Current player testing reports that Haggle becomes available at Commerce 25, sometimes only appearing after zoning or logging back in. Select an item the merchant is selling and use Haggle before you buy.
- Haggle applies to purchases, not items you are selling.
- The price may stay the same, fall, fall greatly, or rise if the merchant takes offense.
- Each specific item on a merchant can reportedly be haggled once until you log out and return.
- Haggle itself has not been shown to raise Commerce, though the purchase afterward may still do so.
Charisma changes ordinary merchant prices. Its precise effect on Haggle remains unverified, so the Archive does not calculate a promised discount.
Know the counters
Where resale goods tend to gather
These are merchant affinities, not guaranteed stock. They describe where players are likely to sell related finds.
| Material | Likely merchant families | Other reliable path |
|---|---|---|
| Gems | Mining and Blacksmithing | Mining |
| Sap and wood | Lumberjacking and Survival | Lumberjacking |
| Food ingredients | Cooking and inn merchants | Drops, Fishing, Foraging, or recipes |
| Hides | Bag, hide, and Leatherworking | Creature drops |
| Cloth | Adventuring, cloth-armor, and Tailoring | Humanoid drops and Tailoring |
Shady and greedy merchants may accumulate most player-sold materials. Sap and wood are the notable exception: do not expect to find them there.
“Unattended bargains belong to the attentive.”