Firan Survival Guide: Other Places to Sell
From FiranMUX
Aside from the market, there are a number of other places where you can peddle your goods on Firan.
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Selling to PCs
Other PCs represent another potential market for goods on the game. In general you should have a noble sponsor to sell to other PCs (though PCs are likely to be less dilligent in checking than the market merchants are). You can advertise either goods for sales, or goods needed, on the Classifieds bulletin board, or via the @republic command.
PCs are most often interested in buying customized goods (such as clothing or carpentry goods or jewelry), items that the market is scarce in (like cloths or herbs), items the market does sell (like products with 'iron' in their name), or items of question legality or morality (such as poisons or infertility potions). Brewers might sell lesser quality wine for cooking purposes. Any sort of good can be sold, and some people might hire cooks or brewers to cater parties for a certain fee. Also, PCs might buy expensive items when the market is low in stenis. Sometimes you may have to sell at less than market cost, but if you have 200,000 stenis of perfume and can't get them sold to the market, a PC buyer may be just what you need.
Bartering is generally accepted in sales between PCs. Tipping may or may not be done; do whatever is IC for you character. Sometimes you sell for stenis, and sometimes you trade for other goods. Though selling to PCs works exceptionally well for customized goods, it doesn't always work so well for non-customized goods. The problem lies in the fact that a seller skilled at negotiation can sell an item to the market for more than a buyer skilled at negotiation can buy it. This gulf only increases with the quality of the good sold. A little give and take is needed to make some sales.
It's possible to set up NPC shopkeepers to sell goods for a private shop or business. Once requested, such shopkeepers earn 500 stenis a day in pay, but will both manage the selling of good and guard what they sell. See help shopkeeper for more details.
Personal shops
If you want to sell to PCs personally, but don't want to miss sales from being offline, you can set up a shop to sell your goods. First, you'll need a public location (typically a store) to locate your shopkeeper. Then, you hire the shopkeeper for 500 stenis per day; see the help shopkeepers command for information on this. Next, give the shopkeeper the items you wish to sell and set the prices; the help shopkeeper commands file explains how to do this. Finally, profit!
Shopkeepers are fairly expensive to pay, and though they'll watch over the goods they're assigned to sell, protecting them from theft, they will not watch over other items in the room. Some clans might have communal shops established to cut down on the price of shopkeepers. Currently it is up to the individual to advertise their store.
Selling to clans
As part of the larger macroeconomic aspect of the game, each of the clans have their own sets of needs and wants in order to keep their citizens happy and content. One of the ways these needs and wants can be met is by buying goods from PCs. As clans need huge quantities of goods, they're almost always in a position to buy, and typically at a fair market price. It's more than possible to sell tens of thousands of eggs, meat, flax, lumber, and so forth to the various clans, all without dealing with the market and its taxes. Note that, however, you will still need a sponsor if your character is a non-noble!
Sometimes clans advertise internally that they are interested in buying certain goods. The clan/info <clan name> command can be used to see what a particular clan needs, and where its shortfalls are. This can be considered IC knowledge if your character is likely to know that sort of information (for example, if they're a merchant or someone with a high negotiation or economics skill). Trade representatives are responsible for clan trading and purchases. Typically the proxies of a clan can make purchases, along with designated clan traders who may or may not show up on the @leaders list for a clan. If in doubt, send a message to one of the clan officials to see.
The auction system
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AUCTION HOUSE LOCATIONS
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There are a number of auction houses in Anarinuell, each specializing in certain types of goods. In order to use the auction houses you have to physically visit them, though you can monitor ongoing auctions through the @auctions command. Auctions are managed by the auction house owner, via coded systems (see help auction system for code details).
To sell something, take your item to the appropriate auction house. There are a number of commands used to put your item up for sale, set starting and end dates, set minimum bids and raises, and so forth. You may wish to advertise to the Classifieds board as well. After that, sit back and wait. If no one has bid on the auction you can choose to end it and get your item back, free of charge. Otherwise, the auction ends at the specified time. If no one has bid you have to pay an auction fee to get your item back. Otherwise, both parties get notified and, once the buyer has gone to the auction house to make payment, the seller gets credited the stenis due minus the auction fee. (If the buyer never pays you may have to track them down, or involve the auction house owner or even the guards.)
To buy something, you need to go in person to the auction house and make your bid. There is no system for proxy bidding, and you don't get notified if you're outbid, so pay close attention to the auction. Items for sale are located in the auction block and can be both visually inspected (look block's <item>) and appraised (appraise/contents block's <item>). If you win the auction you'll receive a message to that effect. You then need to go back to the auction block and pay for the item, at which point you can carry it home. Deadbeats may get tracked down by the seller. It's really best to remember to pay because, if you don't, the seller can never reclaim the item and doesn't get paid to compensate for it. Plus it's against the law not to.
Automated shops and inns
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PALACE DISTRICT SHOPS AND INNS
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Some palace district shops or NPC shopkeepers allow you to buy customized goods via automatic code mechanisms. These shops include Jhalon's Merchantile, Thalon's Trinkets, the jewelry shop, and the grocer's shop. Inside these stores you can see lists of items for sale, and inspect them (and possibly appraise them) before purchase. The items are stored in the inventory of the NPC shopkeeper selling them. When you go to purchase an item the price is non-negotiable and not affected by the negotiation skill.
Items in the shops were created by PC merchants, who later sold them to the market. They're usually customized goods, though of various coded quality and various quality in terms of the description. Sometimes people will sell 'mistakes' to the market, so make sure you inspect the description before you buy it. Jhalon's is pretty popular for clothes, armor, and shoes, while Thalon's Trinkets has a hodgepodge of items at a mix of qualities, including some odd things that really should never end up there. (An 8000 steni pheasant corpse is among the odder things that have been on sale there.) The jewelry shop sees less traffic, and the grocer's shop is seldom populated and, if it is, a waste of time and stenis as the food is super expensive.
Inns and taverns sell food at a markup, off a fixed menu. This menu varies from location to location, and there is also a markup on the items (which also varies depending on the establishment). To see what's on the menu, use the menu command; to order something use the order <item> command and the item will be placed in the room when delivered. The inn keeper will greet arriving persons differently depending on their social class and general friendliness to the person. Outcasts will find themselves evicted from most business inside the city walls, though you can work around this via roleplay if it makes IC sense (for example, during a public celebration or if the outcast is accompanied by someone more respectable to vouch for them). During IC festivals the taverns will all be shut down, to promote festival attendance.
