Player Vendors
So you want to be a wealthy merchant, or perhaps you are a packrat needing to clean house. This is a basic guide to vendors. Whether you are new to UO, new to UOGamers, or just new to vendors, the information you need should be here.
Vendors
The first thing you need is a location. Player's vendors must be placed in a house.
The house must be public and you must be friended, co-owned, or the owner.
It's a good idea to have the owners permission if you don't own the place. While any public house will do, those with steady traffic from another source (nearby road or dungeon, or another vendor house already established for example) will increase your chance for an early success.
Next you will need a contract of employment deed.
These are purchased from a banker or minter. Standard cost is 1025gp, however with faction taxes this can be as low as 718gp or as high as 4100gp, so shop around.
Placing your vendor
Stand on the tile where you wish the vendor to be and dbl click the contract of employment deed. You do not get a target so be sure to be standing on the correct tile.
Now you have a vendor.
Vendor Customizing and Stocking
A single click (shift+click) on the vendor gives the option of opening the paperdoll. This actually opens the vendor backpack where you will stock your vendor's inventory to sell.
You can also double click the vendor and the following gump appears.
# of days your vendor is paid for:
This is number of UO days. There are twelve uo days in a normal day. Unless you are a hardcore roleplayer, I would ignore this line.
Earth days:
The previous line divided 12. This is how many real days your vendor is paid for. Use this line to determine if they have enough to stick around. If this falls to 0 your vendor will take a hike. Always check this amount after stocking your wares. The value of the items you sell affects the vendor's pay.
Gold held for you:
The amount a vendor has collected from sales.
Gold held in my account:
The amount in the vendors account from which they draw their pay. If they run out of gold in their account, they will take gold from your sales to continue to pay themselves.
My charge per day:
This is in uo days. Multiply by 12 for your real daily cost on the vendor.
A little information for you:
Vendors charge in the following manner:
There is always a basic flat fee of 20gp. This covers your first 500gp in stock on your vendor.
After that, for every 500gp in stock on your vendor, you owe 1 gp.
So, if you have 75000gp in stock on your vendor it is calculated as:
20 + {(75000-500)/500}= 169gp per uo day.
169x12= 2028gold per real day.
For the main part, I try and keep 10-15 days worth of pay on the vendor. This covers me for server glitches, computer problems, and life commitments.
To the right on the gump you can:
see goods (open the backpack)
customize (your vendor), or
cancel (the gump.)
Customizing
While your vendor comes with clothes, customizing can help your shop sales. Clothing colors can be all the same for vendor shop coordination and continuity. For vendor malls with multiple suppliers, each player can choose a color scheme to help identify their vendors for buyers.
Or select outfits to suggest items the vendor sells. (such as a pirate outfit and fishing pole in hand for fishing goods, a robe and mage hat with a spellbook for items like regeants or spellbooks, etc ).
Choose customize from the first gump and the following appears:
The gumps appears open on the upper torso page.
To remove an item already on your vendor:
Choose the item's group from the left (lower torso for pants or skirts, for example), click the remove box on the bottom and pick okay on the bottom left.
To add an item:
Select the group on the left, select the item from that group, click okay.
To color an item:
Choose the group for the item to be colored, choose color. A standard dye screen appears to choose from. You cannot pick a clothing item and color it at the same time. You must first select the item and then color it. You cannot color the held items nor hair.
Stocking
Of course, you want to stock your vendor.
It will start off with enough gold for four days in his account. That is, if he remains empty. You may need to give him more gold at the start if you have a lot of stock/high priced items on your vendor. Check the 'earth days' on the gump as you stock. If you need to give your vendor more gold, do so by dropping gold(not a check) on the vendor.
Tip: You can also increase your vendors gold by placing an item on the vendor and buying it with an alternate character. Like dropping gold on the vendor, this supplies him with gold to draw his pay, however this gold is retrievable if you need to drop the vendor.
To stock:
Open the vendors backpack and place an item inside. You will be prompted to enter the price and a description. Type in the price and hit enter. If you want to add a desciption type in the price, hit the space bar and then the description, hit enter. The description is optional and shows along with the items regular name.
Caution: The default price for vendors is 999,999gp. If you forget to price an item, this will be the price the vendor will use. This may cause the vendor to run out of funds and fall in a short time. Always check your items after stocking.
Bags and other containers can be used to organize stock within the vendors backpack.
Place the empty container in the vendor's backpack and hit the escape key. This sets it as'not for sale'. Optionally, you may enter a description(no price) and hit enter. The container will not be for sale but will be named. The same applies to books and BoD books.
If you place a container in a vendor with items inside it, the bag must be priced and all the items inside will be sold with the bag.
Vendor commands:
(vendorname) collect
The vendor will ask you how much you want to collect. Leave enough to keep them paid if they are to be used further. Enter the amount you want to take and hit enter. A check for that amount is deposited in your bank.
vendor collect
the closest vendor you own from a tile away will deposit everything they have in your account.
(vendor name) dismiss
The vendor disappears. Be sure everything you want to keep has been taken off the vendor.
To turn your vendor to face another direction:
Stand where you want them to look (the tile in front of them for them to face forward, for example) and do one of two things: drop a small amount of gold on them, or open the customize menu and right-click out of it.
Some other tips.
It can be handy to have a good location in a high traffic area such as around moongates or outside city limits, however even without this your vendor can be busy.
Your vendor shop should be pleasing to look at and be in. A plot will work as well however players will be less likely to linger and browse.
Always keep your vendor stocked. If it's found empty often, you will soon lose business.
Provide something else others use/want: libraries, idoc times, specialty vendors are some ideas.
Open gates in town for others to use. Advertise where it goes, but do not spam. Spamming only annoys.
Sell runes on your vendor for those wandering by. If you sell runebooks always include one return rune to your place inside.
Mark runes, rename them and sell them at the mage shops in town, especially Britain. The npc mages will then sell your runes for you to other players.
Players do not like opening bags and bags and bags to find your wares. Keep a happy medium between organization and visual appeal.
Advertise on the forums with visual and written directions. Once the post is made, add a link to it in your signature for contant advertising.
Try and have at least one repeat seller as opposed to all one time sale items. Repeat traffic is where you make the most gold. Potions kegs, bulk regeants, bulk materials such as boards, leather, cloth, scrolls and bottles, empty kegs, BoD's and bolas are all good example of repeat sellers.
That's It. Now you know everything you need to know. Happy Selling!