Trade Profit and the Art of Haggling

Getting better prices – the art of haggling

  • Needed skill: accounting
    • lets you haggle for better prices and increases your haggling chance the higher your accounting skill rank;
    • also lets you see price trends (index for that port in % ) in 3 nearby ports
  • Strongly recommended: sociability – reduces your chance to fail in haggling

Profit Margin Change through Haggling Success

The formula for price change per haggle success is as follows:

when selling:  (rank accounting + 3) x 2/3 %

when buying:  (rank accounting +5) x 2/3 %

Total price changed due to haggle success (i.e. subsequent successes) is capped at 20%.

With Fortune Maker title this cap is raised to 30%. (also affects nearby apprentices!)

Example:
Your accounting skill is rank 5 +1 from your aide  = rank 6 total.  When you sell you can raise the current price by 6% ( 6+3 x 2/3=6) per haggle success. Using a senators costume (+3) and a hanseatic seal (+5) you raise the price by 11.33% (14+3 x 2/3 = 11.33) per haggle success.

As you can see from the above example you cant haggle more than twice if your total accounting rank (incl items, aide) is higher than 12 unless you are under the effect of Fortune Maker title.

When i sell EA goods or SEA spices I normally hit the +30% cap for Fortune Maker after 2 haggle successes:

base rank accounting r 10 + 3 Senator’s costume +2 Saint Staff + 2 burial bracelet + 5 hanseatic seal = 22 > cut to cap 20 (for all skill ranks) – so 20+3 x 2/3 = 15 1/3 % per haggle success

Thus if using items gets you to max rank accounting anyway it makes more sense using the consul coat +1 accounting +4 sociability to reduce the chance to fail in haggling than to boost accounting over the top.
(Sylvie can also craft that consul coat btw.)

(Thanks to LordPascal for providing the formula from an East Asian UWO wiki)

Fortune Maker Title requirements:

  1. trade lvl 80
  2. 40 k culture points in each of the 4 East Asian countries
  3. 360 k trade fame
  4. 800 k in bank.

Note: The effect of the title is also working for nearby apprentices!

Recommended booster items for accounting + sociability:

body attires (both can be made by Sylvie):

  • Senators Costume: +3 accounting +1 spice trading +1 metal trading  – req. total fame: 800 (town man’s recipe Venice)
  • Consul Coat (pink version): 1 accounting  +4 sociability req. total fame: 50k (mode design 8 – npc drop)

head attire:  court hat: +3 sociability  (mode design 8 – Sylvie can make them)

weapon:  Saint Staff: +2 accounting +2 sociability req. total fame: 600
(geography map from Athens scholar – rank 8 geography and unlock needed  location: northern british isles – adventure veterans should be able to help to get you one)

accessories:
burial bracelet +2 accounting (Bordeaux dungeon) – often sold around 500k or 1m by players or in company shops
tenmoku tea bowl  +2 accounting +2 merchandise knowledge (Azuchi castle)
Buy or ask dungeon experts

consumable:
hanseatic seal  +5 accounting for about 20 seconds
5k each at Amsterdam item shop – Adept of 16th century 5p. title needed

Price Index

Once you have the accounting skill you can see prices and % index  in 3 nearby towns. Red arrows going up for rising prices, blue arrows going down for falling prices and green arrows for stagnating prices. Bear in mind that the % values shown are for this town only. Thus it may be cheaper in terms of ducats spent to buy cotton at 110 % in Alexandria than at 90% in Copenhagen. This price differences in ducats are especially important in sale of EA goods which always have regions where they are better priced. In some cases there is a huge difference like with Saori which fetches high price in Iberia (including Montpellier). So expect a higher ducat price in Montpellier with index 90% than in Marseilles at say index 110%.

Factors influencing your haggling chances

(These are also described elsewhere i.e. UWO wiki, ivyro) The higher rank your accounting skill is the better your chance to haggle successfully. A higher rank in sociability reduces the chances of failing. You get more chances to haggle in towns that are controlled by your nation. This means you are able to haggle more often and also that you may haggle again if you fail. Your own investments in this town have a similar effect.

The art of haggling with success

The following is based on my own personal observation and experience – I have not seen this documented anywhere else. It is much easier to haggle down the price for a trade good you want to buy if the price is falling than if it were rising. Also it is easier to haggle down if it is over 100% meaning that it is more expensive now in this town than on average. So far fairly obvious.

Suppose you want to buy prunes in Marseilles. But they are at 115% and rising. Even with a decent rank in accounting and sociability that should be very difficult. Now here comes the trick: brandy happens to be at 120% and falling. So we pretend to buy brandy and haggle on that because it is much easier to bring down. When we are successful we remove the brandy from the buying box and put prunes there instead and also other goods we may want to buy.

The same principle applies when selling goods. If you want to get a higher price let us say for Japanese rifles in Montpelier but they are already at 110% and trend is falling how do you get that price up? If you have another trade good that happens to be at 80% rising use that to get a better price for your rifles. Say you also got Japanese paintings at 90% and rising then that is what you put in the sales box and press haggle. After success you may try again for a second rise. If you are successful and happy with the price reached (watch as prices for other goods you hold go up as well) remove the Japanese Paintings from the sales box and put your Japanese rifles in there and also other goods you may want to sell.

Observing this trick may already help you to haggle more successfully even at fairly modest skill ranks in accounting. You will still fail – but less often. To raise your skill rank in accounting you need to haggle successfully. That gains you proficiency. So make it a habit to haggle whenever you buy or sell. Even if you don’t care if you pay a few ducats more for wool – haggle for a better price. Your rising proficiency and your experience with haggling will help you to make more out of sales of the expensive stuff like spices or East Asian goods once you have those in hands. By the way, I have made it a rule for myself not to sell East Asian goods before 2 successful haggles. If I fail I simply go to the next port and come back for another try. And of course I recommend you use all your accounting and sociability boosters that you have (I tend to keep them in the bank vault to preserve their durability).

Also watch out for crashed markets. When a market crashes it cant crash again on another trade good type for 3 h. So when you see a market keeper saying “market is flooded with xxx” you know it is crashed atm. Then you and your fleetmates can sell without fear of 1 crashing the market for the others.