Buying and Selling is one of the most important activities done in Maplestory. Maplestory Mesos are the currency used in MapleStory and without it you will not get anywhere. This guide will help you with the many problems of Buying and Selling.
Selling - Free Market
The first way to make some mesos is by using the Free Market also known as the FM. When you have something of value (example: ore, rare equipment, quest items) which you don't need, why keep them? Instead, free up your inventory space while earning some Mesos on the Free Market! This process of selling in the FM can be quite stressful, though. There are many scammers, "noobs", and other users who can take advantage of you, so be careful. When you have something you want to sell, make sure you follow these steps.
How to Sell
Price Check. Check the average price of your item. You can ask a friend, use MapleStory Help Sites (such as MapleTip or Basilmarket - a site used just for buying/selling MapleStory items), or just use the NPC x1.5 Method. This method requires you to go into any store, double click on the NPC (Non-Player Character) Shop-owner who's there, and check to see how much they will buy your item for. Now, just multiply their price by 1.5. This works for some items, but not all though, so be careful. Since the shop usually buys the items for 1/2 the price it's bought, you would basically be selling the item for 75% of it's total value. Some items such as snowboards and other event items may only sell at 1 meso at the shops so use your common sense and check at a site.
Find an FM. Now you know the price of your item, let's sell it! You must now find a FM portal. These are located in: Henesys, Perion, El Nath, Aqua Road, Lubidrium, Omega Sector and Orbis(You'll most probably use those in Henesys and Perion more often as the other portals are in locations with higher-leveled and considerably tougher monsters). When you get to the town, enter into the large blue-oval portal, find a good spot to advertise and sell, sell, sell!!
Note that there is only one FM in a channel. This basically means that the Henesys, Perionm El Nath (etc) Free Market portals lead to one place. Tip: Make sure to use either Channel 1 or 2 when selling in the free market. Most people have established the first two channels as the unofficial location of the "Main" Free Market.
Create a Catchy Message. When sell something, you'll need to make your item's advertisement stand out from the rest of the crowds', or at least be noticeable. There are several ways to do this:
Use @. After you've created your selling message, insert in as many "@" signs as you can fit in your message. This will raise up your speech bubble, so it can be seen above the smaller speech bubbles. Or, when there's a load of people doing this, don't use the @ sign, or use less @ signs so yours stands out among the smaller speech bubbles.
Ducking and Jumping. If many people have taller messages, try ducking under their speech bubbles (using the DOWN arrow) to show yours. Or if there aren't too many people broadcasting tall bubbles, try and jump above messages.
Advertising Spots. If you're lucky, you can find a space where no one is advertising. Take this spot so people will be able to see your speech bubble clearly. These occurrences are rare, though.
Retyping. The most important tip - don't advertise just once. If you don't get a trade request right away, (which you shouldn't) retype the message, or, when you're able to type, press the UP arrow to get to your last message - presumably your advertisement. Keeping doing it until you get a request.
Note: If you type the same thing too many times, or give too many messages, a popup appears telling you that your messaging system has been disabled for a few seconds. Try to wait to the last second possible before your speech bubble disappears and you have to type again or make your messages slightly different, add a full stop or take away an '@'.
This isn't all you need to successfully sell an item on the FM though - you need to know some FM lingo.
Free-Market vocabulary
People who frequently use the FM, or trade with people a lot, know the FM slang (FM talk). But, as a beginner, you may not be able to figure it all out (though it's mostly abbreviations). So, here are some of the more important FM terms.
Message Beginners
S> means 'selling'. Look for this when buying items, or to compare prices.
B> means 'buying'. Look for this when selling items, or to compare buying offers.
T> means 'trading'. Not as often as the others, but you will see it from time-to-time. Generally people use a message like this: T>Snail Shells for Mushroom Spores. The first item is usually what they have and the second what they want to trade it for.
Tid-Bit of Info: When you PQ (Party Quest) (Kerning_PQ or Ludibrium_PQ), you may see J>, meaning Joining. And you could also see D>, meaning 'Dropping'.
Meso Terms
k or K, kilo, meaning thousand. Example: 40k = 40 000 mesos.
mil or m, an abbreviation for 'million'. Example: 40M or 40mil = 40 000 000.
The Decimal (#.###). Generally used with millions, and less often used with thousands. You need to understand math for this one. Example: 4.5k = 4 and 1/2 K = 4 500 mesos; 4.55M = 4 550 000 mesos.
Abbreviations
Often people use short forms for items, such as Octo Legs (Octopus legs) or G. Mush Caps (Green Mushroom Caps).
Now you know the most common FM Lingo. But, can you put together an advertisement? Here's an example. This person is Selling some Blue Snail Shells for 20,000 mesos each. (No, I do not recommend selling extremely common Snail Shells, nor selling them for 20 000 mesos each.) This would be: S> B. Snail Shells -- 20k each
Simply stick to the basic outline: Message Beginner + Item Name + Name/Price Divider (optional. This is like the "--" used above. Just separates the price from the item.) + @ (optional.) and you're on your way!
Selling - Random Area
Now you can sell in the FM. However, there are a few differences when trying to sell to other people in other areas. It's the same idea though. First, figure out your price, then, put together your message. Instead of going to the FM, try a popular area, such as the Henesys Hunting Grounds I, in Kerning City next to Lakelis, or anywhere else you can find a large group of people.
Your item would obviously sell best where it's in demand. If there is a popular quest what asks for Squishy Liquids located in Henesys, you can try to stand near the quest NPC and sell there. This is only if the quest is Extremely Popular
Now, use some similar techniques. Try jumping to get peoples attention. You can cover more ground area with Nimble Feet (a Beginner's Basics skill), Speed Pills, Haste (a 2nd Job skill for Assassins and Bandits) or by just not stopping. And make your message understandable. No one wants to buy from someone who says "sell b. s. shl 4.54Kmeso."
But if you don't enjoy walking around and talking all day, you can try the still-advertisement technique.
Still-Advertising
This just refers to advertising the goods you're selling or buying without moving. There are three ways to do this, as shown below.
The free version
You don't have to spend any time or effort for this one, but you do have to be at your computer for as long as you want to advertise. Here, just stand in a popular area and advertise until you sell all of your valuables. Basically, this is just like selling while walking, without the walking.
Game anyone?
Try using a Match Card Game, or game of Omok (2-player games made at the Game Zone in Henesys' Park). You don't have to be at your computer the entire time, but, you will have some unwanted visitors. As well, you can't have a definite price if you want to leave the computer. You need to collect other player's offers, and find the highest price when you come back. Find that user, go to them, and trade. This technique does require some effort; you have to make the game first. But, once that's done, it's really easy. Open up your Item Inventory, and move to the ETC tab. Double click on your game. A window comes up, fill it like so:
Name: Place your selling message here. Keep it short and sweet, but still understandable. If you can, put in that you're not playing your game, just selling items. Password: Leave this unchecked. You want people to be able to get in, and tell you your offer.
Now, press OK and sit back and relax. Your message is permanently displayed, until you want to leave "advertising mode" (just click EXIT to quit the "game").
Attention Cash Shop Buyers!
If you buy items from the Cash Shop using NX Cash, you can buy a "store". Note that this costs REAL LIFE MONEY, and isn't for everyone. With this technique, buy a store, and head off to the FM. Enter in one of the Numbered rooms to the left (preferrably #'s 1-3 on channels 1 or 2). Now, find an open spot that you can use. Double click on your store in your CASH tab in your inventory, and fill out the popup that appears. As I have never owned a store, I can't help you much here. But, I can say that this is only for selling, and there are definite prices, no offering here! The plus side? You can talk to your customers, and can have up to 3 at a time.
Also, If you do not wish to sit around and wait for customers, you can pay more NX Cash to get a 'merchant'. This NPC will watch your store for you, while you do something more interesting. Note that there are two versions of the merchant: a 1 day version, and a 7 day version.
Conclusion
Now you know the main techniques involved in selling items in MapleStory. When you're higher leveled, you can try charging beginners for training (make a party, offer to train them for a price), or with those FM Stores, you can try "selling your advertising spot" if you have one in a high-concentrated channel.
Some Final Tips
Save up money! Try only keeping a certain amount of money in your inventory, and storing the rest with storage NPC. (Non-Player Characters that charge you for the safe-keeping of your items and mesos. These NPCs are found in every town, and share storage between each town, and throughout the server/world. So, if you have one character in Henesys and another on the same world --Scania, Bera, Broa, Windia, etc.-- you can easily transfer items.) This helps to lower that urge to spend more money then needed.
Buy sparingly, sell often. Buy only when you need to, and sell whenever you have something of value. Equipment (at higher levels), quest items and ore (such as steel or mithril or bronze) are often sold and have stable prices you can keep track of.
Become an expert. Buy low, and sell high. Treat the FM as a stock market. "Haggle" ("argue" on a price, lowering and raising it to suit the needs of both the buyer and seller) in order to buy items for less, and sell them for more.
And of course, Have fun!
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