How to set up a stall correctly
1. What is a stall ?A stall is a personal shop by a Player, where he offers Items, Equipments, Ores, Hp/Sp Pots and many other different stuff for sale. Another Player can have a look into it by right-clicking the person and choose "view stall". Then he will see all the items and their amounts + prices listed which the other Player offers for sale. If he finds an Item which he likes and agrees on the price (which the other Player has set up before) he can buy it from him and his money will be transfered to the seller's inventory. The buyer then of course gets the bought item and can use it as he likes.
2. Is setting up a stall important for the game?
Definitely yes ! Putting up stalls is one of the main sources in TOP to gain money from and make a good profit with your character. And money is of course essential to get new equipment for your character later once he levels up, plus to be able to buy the daily stuff which you need, like for example food for surving or tickets to teleport etc. Of course, you also could just sell your loot to the npcs and get a few bucks fast by doing that, but often other players are wiling to pay a lot more for an item than you would get from the npc for it. So the more clever thing to do is usually sell your stuff in your stall if you want max profit.
3. What do I need to do, to be able to set up a stall?
For being able to set up a stall, which is a life skill, you need at least 1 Life Skill point and the Stall Skill Book which you can buy from every Grocery in any of the 3 cities. After you double click on the Stall Skill Book your Life Skill point will be used and you learnt this skill.
Life skill points you can gain by getting Life skill experience first and this experience can be earned through the Story Quest in TOP, which is detailed explained here:
http://www.talesofpirates.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=46
http://www.talesofpirates.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=47
http://www.talesofpirates.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=49
I recommend you to max the skill ( 3 Life Points), so you can sell a lot more stuff at once and gain more Profit with your stall in a shorter time.
How to set up a stall correctly?
Basically my strategy is to level at days and set my stall up when I'm sleeping or not at the Pc. Like that you don't lose any important time for leveling, doing quests or other things. So the first thing to remember is: Set your stall up when you are not around at the Pc, washing dishes, going out with friends, reading a book or sleeping. The only condition is that you got a flatrate for your internet, otherwise your bill will get immense, but I think nowadays almost everyone has that.
1. The Choice of the right name
Choosing the right name for your stall is very important. Many people think it doesn't matter a lot what you write up there as a name for your stall, but believe me it has a lot effect on how many costumers will visit your stall. The more creative your stall name is, the more costumers it will attract. Noone likes to have a look into a stall which is named with just a simple "Shop". Be creative with your names, experiment a bit and you will see more costumers will visit you.
Another possibility is of course that you write in the "name field" what you are actually selling. But since the space is limited it's more an option if you don't sell a lot of items. So for example if you are selling 2 items like wood and sashimi you can easily write them in your stall name. For example: " Wood & Sashimi for a cheap price"
That's of course not the most creative name, but like that People who are searching for wood and/or sashimi will immediately go to your shop and buy from it.
Disadvantage of this kind of name is that probably most of the people who don't need Wood or Sashimi won't look into your shop -> less probable costumers
Furthermore if you have let's say 5 equipment parts for sale which are for Ami & Lance level 20-35, your name could also imply this information. So all Ami and Lance characters who are around these Levels and in search for equipment will have a look into your shop. Disadvantage of this sort of name is that all other classes and levels probably won't have look into your shop -> less probable costumers
But personally I prefer the "creative name" option. Usually all the people who are at least a bit nosy will look into your shop and it pays off at the end.
2. Where to position my shop?
Most shops you can usually find in Ascaron at the marketplace. I'm on the mermaid server and it's usually most crowded there with shops. There are always at least 20-35 shops around and therefore it lags already.
Is that an info for you? Yes it is !
People don't like lags...don't put your stall into the middle of where 20-35 stalls already are. Chances are pretty low your shop will be seen and looked in by other players when there are so many stalls around you and a big lag going on. Of course it is THE marketplace in TOP, but that doesn't mean that people will actually have a look into every of the 20-35 stalls there.
I for myself actually prefer Shaitan main entrance to set up my shop. Usually there are a lot of people going in and out...also many new players who are sometimes willing to buy things which are totally useless ;) lol, but shhhhh. Furthermore I haven't seen there more than 3-5 shops set up at once, so the chances your shop will be seen are pretty big, especially if you have chosen a creative name ;)
So basically you should remember to put your stall on special postions, like for example near the main entrances, near important npc's (not directly next to them, because that's not allowed) etc. You have to guarentee that many people will come across your stall and see it -> so more probable costumers.
Also if you have for example several equipment parts for 1 certain class, let's say Hunter, which are also sold at the npc just with less bonus options ...why not position your shop in Icycle? Near the Tailor or Blacksmith? People who want to buy equipment and go to the npc will automaticly have a look into your stall and compare your price and the npc's one. Of course you put the price slightly under the npc's one....and Booom ! the money is yours and the items sold in no time !
3. What to sell & for what prices?
Well basically we can say, almost everything can be sold...it just matters a lot on the price you put for it. It's always a question of supply and demand, nothing else.
For example things like dyes, hair gels, hp/sp pots always go...there is always a demand for them because they don't depend on 1 certain character class as a buyer.
Other things like equipment then is of course class dependant and only people from that class will maybe buy it, so maybe on 1 day you will be lucky getting rid of it and on another you won't sell a lot, don't let this discourage you. If you notice that 1 item noone wants to buy after a lot of tries and price reductions from your side, it's better just to npc it after a while and make space in your inventory / vault for new stuff, since the space is quite limited there unfortunately.
A personal tip from me is to sell quest items in your stall. When you sell them at the npc these normal monster drops usually won't bring a lot...often not more than 50 gold or something. But if you put them in your stall for a cheap price, like for example 300-400 gold, a lazy player who doesn't want to do the quest will buy them and you made an excellent profit with them. Of course this is just an example and some monster drops will go better than others and some aren't bought at all. Here you have to be clever and set up clever prices.
It's better to make a bit cheaper prices and everything is sold at the next day than making very expensive ones and you will keep more than 50% of the things you actually wanted to get rid of. Like that you won't have enough place for new things at the next day and will maybe have to npc a lot where you won't get so much money from as we know.
If you think you might have found a "rare" item or equipment part, try to find out on the website what's the use of this item and if it's actually worth a lot or not. It's better to check first what's the item worth before selling it for some peanuts. Also compare prices in other stalls of players to get a good "feeling" for all the prices.
At the end I want to say that english isn't my mother-tongue, but I still hope everyone understood me at least a bit. These are all my personal experiences and maybe other players will disagree with me on some things, but I still hope I could help any new players with my thread.
