How I opened a Bass Pro Shop in Archeage

How It Started 

One day a little bug sneezed and ultimately it made me want to be a Day Trader.  Day Traders, aka Flippers, buy items on the auction house and then relist them for a higher value to turn a profit.  I didn't have much gold but I figured I could start small and work my way up.

I started out with around 50 gold.  It wasn't a lot to a lot of people but it was over half what I had at the time.  I planned to invest my 50 gold into anything that could turn a quick profit.   I went to the auction house and started looking around for an opportunity.  

It became very apparent rather quickly that I had no idea what I was looking at, what I was looking for, or what I was even doing.  I didn't know where any of the items came from.  I didn't know what they were used for.  I certainly didn't have a clue as to what they were worth.  I was completely lost.  Once I was confused enough, I said "Fuck it", shut the auction house and went to level my fishing proficiency. 

I had read on the forums that sport fishing was extremely lucrative so I wanted to be a fisherman.  I bought a Wrapped Bamboo Rod and some bait worms and off I went.  I was going to be a rich fisherman one day.  Needless to say, I almost went broke buying worms loooong before I could sport fish profitably.

I was spending way more on worms than my fish were bringing in.  My need for worms finally got me to the point that I couldn't afford to buy another Bamboo Fishing Pole.  Seriously... worms are like crack to a lowbie fisherman.  You cannot get enough of them.  You will do very immoral things for more of them.

So there I was,  I needed more gold to buy a fishing pole so I could level my fishing high enough to sport fish and make some gold.  It was quite the predicament.  Without gold I couldn't make more gold.  I needed rod gold to make worm gold to make more rod/worm gold but couldn't make the damn rod gold to even get started.  What... The... Fuck... I gave up and went questing...

I quested for a few hours and made a few gold that way.  It was dreadfully boring though so thought perhaps I could afford another rod now with the gold I had just earned.

It wasn't enough.  I could sell my worms and buy one but then I would have a rod with no bait, which is just as bad as bait with no rod.  Not having gold was a terrible predicament to be in.

The Epiphany

At that moment, I had an epiphany: "If I craft the rod, it should be cheaper than buying one."  I opened the folio, looked up the Bamboo Rod and wrote down all of the materials required to make it.  I price checked each of them and what do ya know, I could actually afford to craft one. 

I bought all of the materials and crafted my rod.  Off I went, set on going fishing.  About half way to the dock I had an idea. "If I sell this rod I could make a couple of gold profit from the sale.   I could then use that gold to make another one to sell.  If I sell it too, I can use the profit from both sales to make two rods.  I could then sell one and use the other one for me!"  If I kept doing this, I could basically get my rods for free and maybe pay for my worms too!

I made the rod.  Sold it almost instantly.  I made more rods which also sold very quickly.  Needless to say, 20 or 30 Bamboo Rod sales later I had no interest in sport fishing.  I had found my calling.  I was going to open a Bass Pro Shop.  

My Bass Pro Shop 

I started selling Hooks, String, Reels and Rods.  I was even flipping worms that I had picked up cheaply.  Anything that I could craft that was fishing related I made and sold.  Why?  It was the only thing in the game that I had any bit of knowledge about.  I exploited that little bit of knowledge to make a profit.  I had found my niche!

I started to learn the markets.  I started learning what sold and what didn't.   What was profitable and what wasn't.  Since I was crafting all of the components myself, I was also starting to learn what the base materials sold for as I bought them off the auction house.  This allowed me to stock up on materials that I found to be cheap (using bids or low priced buyouts) which in turn gave me more profit on my crafted items.

I also noticed something really strange with pricing quantities.  If I buy a 100 stack of something, I can get it at a cheaper unit price than if I only buy 5 or 10.  This lead to me buying my materials in bulk, which lowered my costs and allowed me to keep up with the now lowering sell price of my crafted items.

A side effect though was that I was ending up with more materials than I really needed.  As a result, I would break these extra materials into 10 stacks (dimes), 5 stacks (nickels) and 1 stacks (singles) .  Next I would relist them for higher than I bought them for in the 100 stack (a benny)*.  This process, called "Vertical Integration", allowed me to not only profit from my crafted items but their base materials as well.  It also gave me an edge against my competition.

   
* I could buy Bamboo Stalks at the time for 9 silver each in a benny.  If I sold those same 100 bamboo stalks in nickels, I could sell them around 18 silver each.  Singles could sell for as much as 25 silver each.

Now I was profiting not only from my fishing gear but also the materials required to craft them (known as the "Sub-Market" or just "Subs").  This gave me a VERY firm grasp of the Bamboo Fishing Pole market.  It also allowed me to predict price increases/decreases of items that I sold.  Since I was invested into the subs of my primary markets, I could craft cheaper (using profits from the sub sales to offset my expenses) and thus sell cheaper than other merchants.  This lead to lower profit margins but a higher turnover volume, increasing my profits.

I ran my Bass Pro Shop for about a month using my profit to invest into more profitable ventures.  Once my auction slots filled with higher profiting items, I stopped trading in the lower profit ones.  I finally closed my Bass Pro Shop altogether when I sold my last Bamboo Rod.

That was my first business venture in Archeage.  It's how I got seed gold I needed to actually get started in the Apex and Workman's Compensation markets.  Since then, I've grown my net worth rather quickly.  I've began crafting more expensive items, as well as, trading in their respective sub-markets.  My dream of finally becoming a day trader came to pass.  I trade in several different markets, as well as, flip occasional items that I find in /faction chat.  While I'm no where near being rich ingame, I would consider  myself very successful.

I owe it all to that Bass Pro Shop.  The lessons it taught me were invaluable in my continued success.

And to think, it all started because a little bug went achoo!