Merching Tips/Guide for Maximizing profit

Figured this might be a helpful idea. I'm already quite far into the merchanting circle (about 1/3 of the way to my New staff), so I'll share some tips.

First, the Window for buying looks like this, minus the numbers I added on for explaining things:



[1]: Items and Prices they cost. This really isn't of much importance, but it does tell you what level rating for that town you need to unlock items.

[2]: Profits and Losses. This is what you really want to focus on. This has the info on how much you will be reselling them for, and the number is the profit gained PER unit. Remember it's per unit, this will help later.

[3]: The Purchase area. This has the max number of the unit you can buy, taking into consideration your weight and stack amount, and ducats you have.

[4]: Choice of Transport. I will say this right now. Get the Handcart ASAP, it helps so much. After the Handcart, choice is yours for Wagon or Elephant. I went for Wagon since it would help with getting to the elephant a lot quicker. Check the wiki for more info on the stacks and max weight for each method.

Now for the actual money making.

The two things you want to look at are the Profits and Max Units you can carry. To find out how much you can get, it's the Profit value, the red number by the arrow (blue numbers are LOSSES, do NOT worry about those) and multiply it by the Quantity. This will give you the total profit ducats. Whether or not something costs more or less to buy doesn't matter if you are profitting none-the-less. This value, which we shall call Revenue for now, is what you want to be highest. The best idea is to look at everything you can get, and do this for each product. Use the highest red number, as that will be helpful. Now that we have covered the basics, here are some tips.

1) Sometimes it's not worth it to go the extra distance for a 1 dpu (ducats per unit) value. However, this does depend on what you are carrying. If you are carrying something like saves, and it's 230 in Tara and 228 in Tailteann, it's not worth the 2 extra dpu for the distance. That'd only be 2 ducats for each safe you have, this being either 4 for wagon or 7 for Elephant, even less if you have a lower transport. This way you can cash in and start working to the next area quicker.

2) Contrary to the above point, sometimes it actually is worth the extra distance. Say you have a load of 700-800 of an item. This would be potions from Tir or the crystals from Tail. If it's like 3-5 dpu more in Belvast than Bangor, go to Belvast. What seems minimal is actually going to net you a couple thousand extra ducats. The important thing to remember is that it is 3-5 dpu TIMES the actual quantity you have, so that'd be 2100-3500 extra ducats you are making. Keep in mind this will be slightly less if you are using a Handcart still.

3) PRICES ARE ALWAYS CHANGING! This is very important. If you are heading somewhere, but another place is very close in value, stop by other trading posts to check up on the value. If you are going from Tail to Emain, but Bangor wasn't too far behind, stop by Dunbarton's trading post and make sure the prices didn't change. Remember you can choose trade and not sell what you have, just close out.

4) Choose your path wisely. If you are going from Bangor to Tail, go through the Tara route. Prices change, as stated above, and Tara might get higher than tail by the time you reach the Tara Trading post. Also, while the path is nice, going through the grass to cut time does work.

5) Bandits. Newbie < Rookie < Trained < Hardened < Veteran < ???. I have only encounted up to Veteran (wasn't a pretty sight). They don't seem worth the effort, but once you get into the Hardened and Veteran range, they drop the Rough Bandit Badges, which give 100 ducats per badge. The Plains aren't worth that much for the time it takes to kill the Rookie/Trained ones, as it's only 10 ducats. However, Hardened ones are tough, and Veterans....I had nightmares when they killed me..Here are some tips with bandits.
-Bandits will try to steal your goods, however, it's not a steal over time. It's 5 stars, and it's done. If you are a meleer, Don't worry too much about them right away. As you wittle the numbers down, they should only hit 2-3 stars by the time you reach them. However, make use of your windmill, and get them in the range while killing the one you have on you.
-Assault slash is great in dungeons, not so great here. It's strong yes, but if angled badly, it will launch you away from the area you were at, giving the stealing bandits extra time.
-Mages and Archers, pelting the stealing ones with a bolt or arrow seems hazardous, but may save you your goods. They will attack you out of AI commands, but it is much better than risking a loss.
-Alchemists, Flame Burst is EVER so helpful. Remember you don't have to fire right away. Try to line it up so that you can hit the stealing ones in your line of fire. Wind Blast is great for a quick launch to get the bandit off your goods for a bit.
-Rangers, useful tip, you can load ranged skills during windmill's animation

6) Some good routes I have found. Bangor to Tara/Tail, Tara to Bangor/Belvast, Emain to Tail and vice versa. Tir to Bangor. Belvast to Tara/Tail. Dunbarton and Cobh are tough to level, since they seem to be in the middle of everything. If you want to level it up, but still make decent ducats, try using the potions from Tir or the Heat Crystals from Tailteann, they have nice prices all around, so you don't lose out -too- much as opposed to if you were going to use another item. (yes I know I contradicted point 2, but it's for trying to -get- to Dunbarton to level it up). Another way to level Dunbarton up better, take goods to Belvast, then warp to Dunbarton and go from there.

7) Good items to trade:
[list][*]Tir: Varies on prices
[*]Dunbarton: Ogre Masks, high numbers help out. Haven't gotten past that.
[*]Cobh: Seaweed and Oysters seem about even. Jellyfish is really nice though.
[*]Belvast: For starting, swords are definately more worth it. Saves aren't worth it as much anymore, so stick with whips and swords. Once you get the Ogre Armor, that will carry most profit.
[*]Bangor: Topaz has been seeming like the better choice lately.
[*]Tailteann: Prices may vary often. The Circular Barrier Spikes and Palala Crystals are all I have had to work with, since the Alchemy ones are always out of stock for me. The Alchemy Crystals ARE very nice profit, and don't require far transportings. However, finding them in stock is tough.
[*]Tara: Get to Lv6 and Get Bunk Beds. These have a HIGH DPU value, and you can get a good amount in your transport. Very recommended on using these. Wine Racks are great, but the bunk beds Revenue is much better.
[*]Emain: Triple Pasta at Lv6 is nice, but Butter Beer gets the job done just as well.

That's really the only tips I can come up with. A lot of this is explained on the Wiki, but this is just something I wrote up to provide some tips and tricks for the guild in a readable form.

Editted the item selection a bit more, since prices have been changing.

All of the top level goods are considered 'limited', and restock every two hours in real life.