TIPS: How we've succeeded in trading / base price sales

NOTE: I've change the title of this thread due to the progression of the conversation. It has gone from trading and base price sales with neighbors, to frenzy sales in their set up, to other random tips popping up. Please feel free to add any and all tips you / your neighbors have learned / implemented during gameplay. :D

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I've been seeing quite a few people posting about how they're having quite a few issues when it comes to trading / selling base price to other players in their neighbors. In my neighborhood, we never have that problem. So, I'm going to share our secrets with everyone. Hopefully, this will help resolve the issues that so many are having. :D

1. One of the obvious, although many may not want to, is making your neighborhood "Invite/Request" only. Unfortunately, there are players out there who will bounce from neighborhood to neighborhood and do what we have dubbed "Scoping & Stealing". They watch the other players agree on trading or based selling, and just snag it. We may not want to believe these players exist, but they do. Changing your neighborhood to this setting prevents this.
2. When placing something up for trade, we always place it all the way to the right. I already know many do this. However, do not forget to UNCHECK the advertising option! This will keep your item out of the DD. Sometimes, even I have forgotten to do this. (It's ridiculously easy to make this mistake, drives me bonkers.) I very quickly go back to the chat and tell my neighbor to "RUUUUN" to my shop as quickly as possible. LOL!
3. Now, this next one, is very important! This is made quite a difference in how my neighbors and I have been able to ensure we do not have any issues selling to each other. We ALWAYS make sure to do our trading and selling either before or after we do any frenzy sale. This ensures that no one is in our shop. Players are fast, we all know that, and they will also wait to see if we are backfilling. If you put that they sale or trade item in there, *BAM*... goodbye! (We also wait at least 30 to 60 seconds before posting our item. Even though we time things out to be before or after a frenzy sale, we do this just to make sure.)
4. DO NOT MARK OR STATE ANYWHERE, ANYTHING about not touching your last tray or leaving it alone. "Snaggers" absolutely are going to zero in on that spot and go right for it! That's like straight out advertising it. I will admit it myself, I've even looked at those last trays only because those farms are marked that way. This is really not a good idea.

Using the simple tips above, my neighbors and I have had nothing but success with trading and base price selling to each other. In fact, the only time we ever really lost anything is with the accidental checking off of advertising and when we were an open neighborhood. I hope the above tips help other players out. Also, if anyone else has been implicating other tips and ideas, please share.

Happy Farming. :D

ADDITIONAL COMMENT: Please, please do not take this as me thinking other players are "dumb" or something. That is not my intention what-so-ever. Sometimes, I'm accused of that. I truly just want to share what my neighborhood has implicated to resolve these really annoying problems. That's all.

Great set of rules.

One thing, though, for a relatively new player.

How exactly do you define "frenzy sale"?

Thanks,

Pat

Thats pretty much the same as we do in our hood too.

I have a system with frenzy sales I can share. Not complicated at all. Just don't have the time at the moment. I just wanted to pop on and let you know that I read your question. I'll come back in a little bit and share my tips with you.:D

All good advice.

One thing we did when I was in a hood was to place a basket of wheat there first. Didn't matter if it was 1 or 10. So that when the picker upper bought the wheat we knew they were in our shop and ready to buy.

Also if I am buying something from that basket I am tapping constantly rather than just waiting to see the item before I tap. It's probably only a fraction of a second difference but sometimes that might be all the difference.

Just want to post a reminder to check that you have room in your barn or silo before going to buy the items. It seems so simple but I have lost items for this reason.

A frenzy sale is based on two things: highly valued items (obviously based on your current level) and how you set them up in your shop. Below, I will do my best to explain a frenzy sale and give you examples.

NOTE: Yes, this seems like a lot to read. However, this is not as complicated as it may look. Take a read through, and you will see that this is pretty easy. Any questions, just ask.

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Crops: Choosing the best crop to sell requires balancing sell price, grow time, and demand.

EXAMPLE: I am at level 54 and soybeans is the crop with the best balance of production time, sale price, and its high demand. It's needed more often than anything else (IE: animal feed, soy sauce, etc) and players run out very quickly. (Granted, strawberries make more, yet the grow time is much longer and taking up plots just for sales is not worth it.)

Goods: These can be balanced the same way as crops. However, we all have to jump into the ad ourselves once in a while. Sometimes, all we can find of an item we need is a large grouping. We *could* keep them, or make some coin. Placement is what matters here. (Shown below in example.)

EXAMPLE: At my level, and actually for a while, I've found I can make money by selling carrot juice. Although not the most in demand, its often requested in large amounts for boat orders and will sell quickly in sets of 2. It's quick production, too.

Special Items / Parts: Just as I mentioned about goods above, we all will go into the ad for these. They are almost ALWAYS sold in sets of 10 and NO ONE likes to spend that much when only a couple are needed. Again, placement. Also, special items can be used to entice other players to snag up random impulse or "backfill" (explained below) items.

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Ok, so far we've got that down. Now, the basic shop set up I use is as follows (others my do it differently):


|crop|crop|---> |good|good|---> |item|item|---> |part|part|

• Put items in sets of 2
• Set up the sale BEFORE ADVERTISING ANYTHING! Make sure you uncheck that advertising box. When you do advertise, advertise one of the crops. Make sure you know what you were going to backfill with
• Ignore the whole "know your prices, know what's right below". It doesn't matter. Marketing tip: Any item that you notice not selling it max, put the last digit at a "0" or "5". It subconsciously makes a person think it's on sale
• Backfill! As item sell, sell those trays with new items. Sometimes it's as easy as filling them with wheat at base price. During a sale like this, players are waiting to see what else you were going to put up. They will buy this because they are in "impulse" mode.
• Don't put up all the good stuff right away. IE: Hold some good items and backfill those "part/item" spots to entice players to by the other "not so good" stuff. IT WORKS!

Ok, ok... what exactly is "backfilling"? Exactly what it sounds like. You need a lot of coinage, or you need to empty your barn, or you have a lot of stuff you just need to get rid of and your neighbors don't want it. You have people in your shop and they are just *clickity click click clicking* away. Take advantage! Know what you are going you keep popping into those empty trays. Be fast! Those players are waiting for you to stick in all the good stuff. Be sure to have one or two of those great items. As they see them, they will snag them... and they will snag the others as an impulse.

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Ok, so I have done my best to explain how I do my frenzy sales. I have seen it explained many ways in many places, and it was a big jumbled mess. I hope you can understand everything above and if you have any questions, again, ask away. Also, if anyone has anything else to add, please do.

ADDITIONAL TIPS: I can't believe I almost forgot! When placing crops in trays of two, put fruits together and veggies together. Also, color pairing makes a difference. I never thought it would, but it does. Placing berries together, because of the purple and pink, makes a difference. Strange, but true. It has everything to do with how visual aesthetics affect the brain. LOL!

Also, to help with backfilling, if you do not have a lot of items to sell, put crops up in sets of 5, goods in 2, parts in 1, etc. This will help you to have more frenzy sales and you can actually get more followers. I am currently up to 22.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sparkly888

Just want to post a reminder to check that you have room in your barn or silo before going to buy the items. It seems so simple but I have lost items for this reason.

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This has happened to me at the absolute WORST times! Like when I find the LAST silo expansion parts I need.

Sinstar's advice might seem really basic, but it's surprising how many players aren't aware of this stuff.

One of my friends did not know you could put things up without ads. She was level 79 (higher than me at the time), and did not know you could uncheck the ad box. Her tactic was to put up something boring, like eggs or wool first, then put up the good stuff and hope no one clicked on her ad.

Another person I know also didn't know you could put up thing without ads. Only she thought that you had to wait 5 minutes to put more items up, or pay a diamond. She didn't realize that you could go ahead and fill the bins for free, you just wouldn't have ads on them.

Anyways, I do all the things Sinstar suggests, but I still get randoms buying stuff sometimes. I have a lot of active followers. Sometimes they intercept things I'm trying to give to someone else. I like them, or I'd delete them, so I consider it part of the price of doing business.

And sometimes it's the dreaded Last Helper Tab. I try not to help strangers in the paper, but sometimes I can't resist.

I sometimes have my followers interrupt my set up. It's not that big of a deal but I give out a *grumble* once in a while. Then I remind myself that I'm a lucky player to not only have active followers, but that they are nice enough to keep following me because they appreciate the fact that I put up great things and do have frenzy sales. I mean, the entire reason for having that sale is to make coinage, and I suppose the best people to get those items are those who follow me faithfully. LOL! It's also nice to know they check in on my shop once in a while, knowing they're going to get some good stuff.

Also, there are a lot of players who are either new or have gone on playing not knowing these things. I am sometimes surprised about the advert unchecking, yet not about a lot of the other things. And frenzy sale set up may be a little confusing to some. There are many pages, and even apps, that explain it. However, as I stated in my above post, it's a jumbled mess and doesn't make sense half the time. I figure as long as it is put out simply, it will help a lot of people. (Seriously, who waste the time to come up with those stupid apps?)

Thank you, Sinstar, for an amazingly in-depth reply.

I'm feeling kinda chagrined realizing I put nowhere near this kind of planning into filling my RSS. Just kinda put things in there as I come upon them. Partial to lots of ten, tho.

Pat