Why buy from vendors?
by Mike Schramm 
Nov 2nd 2006 at 2:05PM
Undying just dropped an interesting question in our comment box: "Why," he says, "buy stuff that a vendor sells?" Of course there's exceptions, he adds-- reagent and tradeskill vendors sell some things you can't get anywhere else. And some rep vendors sell stuff that's better than you can find anywhere in the world, leading to what amounts to "item overpopulation" (I've seen all the thousands of you out there wearing the Immovable Object-- Lemmings! That's what you are!). But what Undying asks is why anyone would buy those white items vendors sell at all, when it's easy to grab something dropped from an instance, or even buy it off the AH for cheaper.Which is a good question. There's a lot of good reasons to buy some things from vendors. I always keep an eye on what they're selling in terms of recipes and magic items-- Auctioneer will sometimes tell me that I can resell a vendor item for more on the AH, and that's easy money. And I have-- only once-- bought one of those white items from a vendor. My warrior was in Stranglethorn Vale, and I was leveling up so fast I'd forgotten to get a new weapon, so it turned out the vendor's axe was better than the one I had equipped, so I used it until I could make my way into an instance and get an upgrade. And I know some level 60s that will buy some cheap boots from a vendor, just to put Mithril Spurs on for riding.
But Undying's right, especially at the higher levels, the stuff the vendors sell seems, well, filler. Is there a reason to buy from vendors at all? Or are they just the garbage receptacles of Azeroth, destined to take your trash and never sell any of their own? And what exactly do they do with all those Bear Gall Bladders, anyway?
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Economy, NPCs
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sylythn Nov 2nd 2006 2:46PM
About the only thing I've bought from vendors have been the occasional(sp?) wand. It can be tough to find wands sometimes and since all I care about right now is higher DPS, it just makes more sense to buy the white then spend a lot of money on the greens/blues.
Bodacious Nov 2nd 2006 3:11PM
The vendor system is something that has bothered me about the game since the beginning but in addition to the points raised in the article there are two other problems that I would like to see addressed: Why would a heavy armor vendor pay the same as a food vendor for a stack of meet? What’s he going to do with them? I think to maximize the price you sell an item for; you should take it to the appropriate vendor. The other point is that a vendor in a large city such as Ogimar should pay less than on in a far away outpost. Supply and demand would dictate this as the small outpost does not see as many players selling gall bladders.
Coanunn Nov 2nd 2006 3:35PM
@2) Are you insane? You want to have to at level 60 ride out to an outpost to sell loot rather than just hit the vendor next to the AH and be done? Oh and I suppose you also want me to ride around all day to each individual vendor to sell things too, eh? Look, this game already makes people who don't want to recreate the real world spend more time traveling than most of us like, so sorry for you lack of realism but NO, I don't want to have to worry about supply and demand with the vendors.
What about the level 5's who can no longer sell their crap for 2 copper because a level 60 just happened to wipe the vendor out of working capital by selling all their items? Oh and don't even consider what it does to the value of all those grey items that no one ever uses if they get sold and never bought.
You use white items when leveling an alt, there is no reason to spend any real money on an item that will likely last you 20 minutes till you get to the next level because 1) you know the quests, 2) you learned to play the game a while ago, 3) the items are over priced on the AH to catch twinkers and make money off them.
White items do get bought and used. Yes it would be nice if there was some gear that was worth buying for end game some place that took a ludicrous investment to earn the right to buy but frankly untill they fix crafting there are bigger worries than vendors in this game.
Undying Nov 2nd 2006 3:38PM
I think it would be nice if vendors could sell armor and weapon that are green at least, but randomly with limited stock. Then, looking for something good but cheap could be more than just searching the AH for 1 minute. Would be nice to sell stuff to that vendor at Aeri Peak and notice that he sells a nice sword.
I never pay attention to what they sell except to the limited supplies. If I buy from a vendor, it's not because I've look at his stuff, but because I know he sell something I need.
bliSSter Nov 2nd 2006 5:10PM
I would really hope that Blizz would address this in the expansion, but I'm guessing that their "To-do" list is already bursting at the seams. Vendors should really sell green items, but not just limited quantities - I could see people cruising through town buying out all inventory from vendors and simply re-listing them at the auction house at a premium.
The fact of the matter is that no one worth their salt is still wearing white gear past their 20th or so level, and that is being generous. I'm guessing that Blizzard put those items in the world as filler and under the assumption that they would still be usable by some of the populace when first designing the game. Following the immense popularity of the game and having so many other things on their priority list to fix, this one just naturally dropped to the bottom. I think that Blizzard never really suspected people would be cruising around the world in full epic gear so quickly, simply due to SO many people playing. As it stands, with the AH possessing such a wealth of upgrades, there's just no reason to purchase those white items.
Those items confer little to no benefit at all and the only reason I've ever picked any up was to have a matching set of armor on my bank alt...and that was only until I matched a full set of "Burnished" mail. :P
Therizo Nov 2nd 2006 4:18PM
@4 That's exactly what happens. there's the wandering salesman that goes from westfall to duskwoot that sells level 18 green leather bracers. Many weapon and armor vendors will occasionally get a green item in stock, usually a bit too low level for the zone, but it's something. You may not see them if you only play at peak times or in highly trafficked areas, but they're there at least sometimes. Endgame stuff? certainly not, at least beyond BG rep items.
However, it sounds like some of the new secondary town reputations in BC will have level-appropriate vendor items at various rep levels that are fairly nice for 10-20. So keep an eye out on your new Blood Elf for rep reward vendors that might surprise you.
NewDark Nov 2nd 2006 4:56PM
Ok, the whole point of vendors selling white items is so that prices of regular green/blue items dont get horribly inflated. For Example...
W/o white weapons/armor, you can raise prices of Auction Items to unthinkable prices, but if you have a white sword with 20.0 dps that sells for... lets say 55s... Prices of swords that have 20.0 dps of greens cant get past 55s and be competitive.
And honestly, they make for easy weapons to pick up that you can get at any time and in any quantity.
Hope that makes some sense
Boonie Nov 2nd 2006 4:53PM
You say "lemmings"; I say "people who can't or won't get a regular raid spot and need this weapon to stay competitive with those who do".
Though given the choice of it or a comparable ZG/AQ weapon, I'd take the ZG/AQ weapon just to be slightly more unique.
paul Nov 2nd 2006 6:09PM
why to the vendors in 60 lvl sones still sell six slot bags?
Dominick Nov 2nd 2006 6:28PM
To the writer, I ran into the same problem in STV. I was about to hit 37 and was making plans to farm SM for Herod's Ravager axe. So I stopped at the axe vendor and grabbed a 2H called a Bullova. I haven't even noticed the lack of stat bonuses or magic properties. My warrior is spec'd Arms for Sweeping Strikes and eventually Mortal Strike, with points in Axe Mastery. He still cleaves the snot out of most everything his level, easily taking down groups of 3 to 4 enemies in one go. Don't sneer at the vendor items. They're good for leveling weapon skill and if you play your toon properly, you won't notice the lack of whistles and bells. (I do wish that the axe vendor's limited supply shadow proc axe had been available though. Ravager still hasn't dropped off of Mr.BladesOfLight!)
-Cogswell
Psyclerk Nov 2nd 2006 6:38PM
#2, Asheron's Call had a system similar to what you are describing. Vendors in starter towns paid 50% of an item's value, while the higher level (and usually harder to get to) towns had vendors that bought at 110% value. In addition, certain vendors only bought certain items. It was a nightmare compared to WoW. The town you sold loot in made a difference in whether you barely broke even or made a profit. In turn, this made the crappy towns virtual ghost towns, while the high-paying towns were crowded lag-fests.
The only good thing about that system was that merchants kept real inventory beyond their usual stock for about 10-15 minutes before resetting. So if someone sold a pair of gloves with an alchemy buff on them to the vendor, you would see that in the vendor's inventory and could purchase them if you wanted them. Of course, there was no auction house in that game.
As for WoW's vendor items, some of them are trash, but others are decent. I've seen vendors selling decent weapons. The orc that sells weapons and armor in Tarren Mill has some good weapons. The problem there is that he wants a gold or two for them, which is overpriced for their level. You can also find vendors selling scrolls and especially potions at rates that put the AH to shame (at least on my server).
Ronintsu Nov 2nd 2006 8:37PM
I'll buy the cheap crap from time to time, go out to Blasted lands, find a servant and get skill ups if I've got nothing else to do or am anticipating something better dropping in the near future.
Will Nov 2nd 2006 9:34PM
@Coanunn, Psyclerk - That's what EQ did, back when I played it (which was .. way way back, so it may have changed since then). The prices you got for your items varied from vendor to vendor (even within a town) based on what they had in their inventory -- because yes, they also kept and offered for sale the things they bought from players. It was actually quite fun -- knowing the right vendors to sell to (the vendor, one building down, just enough out of the way that few people visited it). And even, buying back things that people sold to the "common" vendors, and reselling to the out of the way vendors, for a profit. Great fun. :)
That said, when first playing DAOC (and WoW) I *was* a little disappointed that .. *every* single vendor offered the exact same price for an item -- I mean, how boring. :p But I can't say I *really* mind. It *was* getting to be a bit of a pain after awhile, having to keep visiting the same set of vendors, over and over, every day, just to get a bead on their current prices and inventory .. ugh, what a time sync. But I guess that's EQ for ya. ;)
In terms of the original question, I think NewDark is right. The only purpose for the vendor whites is to provide an upper bound or some kind of equalizing pressure on AH prices to keep them in check.
mxwp Nov 2nd 2006 9:44PM
Ding ding, NewDark at No.7 gave the real reason why there are still white items.
Grendalsh Nov 3rd 2006 2:01AM
I think the crafting and economy are going to be WoW's achille's heel. The game is centered around adventuring, with craft/econ in supporting roles to that. However, I've played games where those were actually on par with adventuring, and it gave the game a more rounded feel. Specifically, Puzzle Pirates. The entire economy was player-centric; if players didn't craft the items, they weren't for sale. And since if you needed an item, a player had to make it, there was a reason for bothering to craft items - Someone would actually buy it!
Imagine if the Merchants had no personal inventory, but were a frontend for players' crafted items. Trying to sell your Pearl-Handled dagger in the AH is a pain, but dropping 5 of them on a merchant for a fair price, who then makes them available 24/7 to lowbies looking for a decent weapon at a decent price without having to wade thru the AH..
It would provide a more active price capping than 'well there's comparable whites for sale somewhere for less'. And honestly, most vendor whites i've seen sell for WAY more than comparable greens in the AH, to the extent the only time I buy from merchies is as a solo lowbie.
Of course, what I'd really like to see is player-run shops.. especially an Enchanter's Arcade; go in, read posted enchants and prices, bug the enchanter, poof done. No more EnchantSpam.
Zugs Nov 3rd 2006 11:12AM
I often buy white vendor outfits for fun guild events. For example, we attended one from one of our allied guilds where we dressed up as farmers and raided Darkshire- every single one of us was in Blue Overalls, Linen gear or white vendor outfits that looked "farmer"-like. It was really fun!
I'll also often buy white armor sets on new characters to get them through the awkward grey period in lowbie zones. Some of those full sets are visually very attractive and no one else seems to wear them. Plus, they often have equal or better armor than the white-named quest rewards at the lower levels. And nine times out of ten, the pants aren't scary 1990's bike shorts. ^_~
mareva Nov 5th 2006 9:56AM
Low Level Fist weapons FTW!!!