sugarvalves [1963573] —
Original article
I'd like to begin this Tornography by thanking Hopslam for the massive amount of information he has provided me with. This is a man whose knowledge of bazaar trading is so in-depth that the word count for his responses topped 8,000 words. If there's anything Hopslam doesn't know about selling in Torn, it isn't worth knowing.
In case you aren't aware, Hopslam is one of Torn City's most successful bazaar owners - and there is a case for him being the outright best. His bazaar has not achieved the most sales, though, since that honour goes to dunmugmeh with over 19million transactions at the time of writing. And nor has Hopslam's bazaar earned the highest amount of profit since his $1.23trillion puts him third behind Bezee and q-_-p.
(n.b. this ignores 1st place Champion, whose $2.5trillion record was achieved unscrupulously)
(n.b.b. please do not complain that Champion is in this article. It seems he gets everywhere these days, except the forums)
But what Hopslam's bazaar has done is welcome the highest number of individual customers through its doors, with a total of 100,000 unique clients registered as of January 2017. And he's done this without cheating, without bullying, and without sacrificing his morals. Because that's just not who he is.
"To each their own, I say. Torn is a place where a player can let their actual personality and values shine through, or where they can take on a role they never would with their friends, family, acquaintances, or strangers in their personal lives, or where they can adjust their play style periodically however they see fit. There is a role for the hero, the good person, the villain, and many other styles."
Hopslam's 100,000th customer was Aesir, a furniture store delivery driver who purchased a lottery voucher on the 3rd of January 2017. Hopslam rewarded the man with a bottle of champagne, and now that this milestone has been achieved and celebrated, you wonder what else there is for Hopslam to aim for.
"To me, the 100,000 customer milestone was huge and being the first to reach that point was a major goal of mine. More importantly though, reaching that goal gave me a point of relief, a place in my Torn life where I can pause, take a break from heavy trading, adjust my trade tactics and strategies, and relax and play much more casually. I will still trade and use my bazaar, but I will no longer have that looming goal up ahead."
And who can blame him? Reaching 100,000 customers was the end of a long journey for Hopslam, who has traded in Torn for eight of his nine years living here. As one of the old guard, Hopslam remembers the day when bazaars were first introduced, and in his time he's seen many rivals come and go.
"I recognize nearly every name on the HOF listing of the top 50 for bazaar customers, sales, and income. I have bought and sold and traded items, competed with and traded around and had pricing wars with so many players over the years."
"I do not claim the best bazaar, nor the most successful, nor do I claim being the most efficient in bazaar sales, but I am undoubtedly a well-known name in the trading world."
This much is true, but it wasn't always so. When Hopslam arrived in Torn he, by his own admission, had a slow start in the city. He spent much of his early time chasing awards, but by doing so Hopslam eventually began to learn how Torn City works.
"I made it to Level 15 and began to travel to pick up items to resell. Traveling, similar to today, was really the big kicker to increasing money at first. I ran trips to bring back like 8-10 Xanax, Vicodin, or Ecstasy at a time. I sold them on the market and then repeated. Those were basically the only items I traded then."
After a year and a half of drug running, Hopslam and his friend Malfurion (later his spouse) managed to purchase a Private Island. This was back in the day when such property was hard to acquire, but during this time Hopslam had made a far more significant acquisition of his very own - a bazaar.
"I remember being in awe of the wealth and of the quantities and high valued items that some of the older established players had to trade around with. I couldn't trade with the big boys then, but I did probably the best thing possible at that time. I paid attention to the markets. I watched to see what items sold, how many items sold, how frequently and easily they sold, and at what price point they sold well."
Hopslam attributes a portion of his success to a few early city finds and competition events, but there can be no doubt that his deeply scrutinous and organised nature played the biggest role. So how does this work on a day-to-day basis? What level of effort must one put in to become a legendary trader like Hopslam?
For a start, when he's in heavy trading mode, Hopslam is known to spend several hours viewing the markets throughout the day. He uses this time efficiently, with his experience enabling him to build up a broad knowledge base of item price points and where bargains are to be found.
But this is not a skill you can acquire overnight.
"The more I click around watching items, the better info I have about the price listings of the next cheapest bazaars, about how many of a particular item are available in bazaars until it gets to the "price point" of that item where it just doesn't sell well."
"A lot of time my time is spent constantly checking the item markets for the items that I do currently have for sale in my bazaar. I need to make sure my bazaar is listed as the cheapest for that item."
"By actively watching the item markets for those items I am selling, I either buy more stock or undercut those who undercut me. With most items in this game, it's the cheapest that sells. So to bring in the bazaar customers like I had, it was very important to be the cheapest."
The ability to make quick decisions on the fly is something Hopslam learnt through repeating these processes countless times. So ingrained in his mind are the various techniques involved that he could probably trade in his sleep if he wanted. But Hopslam found it preferable to keep track of his business on an Excel spreadsheet rather than a dreamcatcher, and this habit explains why he was formerly known as "The Accountant".
That, and the fact he is an actual accountant.
"I am no salesman in life outside of Torn. I am, however, in accounting, and have worked in accounting for 9 years. Keeping track of things comes naturally to me. It was natural for me to create a Torn Excel spreadsheet to keep track of things over the years. I can say, without a doubt, I have wasted an enormous amount of time here in Torn. However, I can also say with conviction that building spreadsheets for my Torn life has helped in creating spreadsheets in my real life work environment. I have 100% used skills gained through experimenting with my Torn excel sheet in my work life."
So if there are any wannabe tycoons reading this, your first tip is to track your bazaar's progress on a spreadsheet and take it from there. But what other advice does Hopslam have for those who wish to follow in his well-heeled footsteps? The simplest answer he gives is to take your time in purchasing items and endeavour to sell them as cheaply as you can while still making a profit.
And the second simplest? Xanax.
"Players cannot get enough Xanax, it seems. To give an example, I started tracking my events as I was nearing the 100,000 mark. In those 2 months, I had a total of 6,972 events. Now, for Xanax only, I had 2,682 events related to a Xanax sale. 1,540 unique buyers bought at least 1 Xanax from my bazaar. I sold a total of 22,610 Xanax through my bazaar for a total income of $19,083,153,407, in 2 months! That is 41% of my total income and 13% of my total sales over that 2 month time period."
But before you rush out to stock up on Xanax and make your fortune, Hopslam points out that this is merely a base point for his bazaar; he had hundreds of other events related to different drugs, medications, donator packs etc during this time. And, with Drugs 2.0 potentially changing the way Xanax is used forever, Hopslam feels it would be unwise to focus on one particular item.
"Generally, successful bazaars are run by one who has an overall trade strategy or philosophy that is not reliant upon one item and that is adaptable to game changes and updates. As far as the Drugs 2.0 update, I could not quickly locate the teasers we've been given and cannot recall the specifics. I vaguely recall the purpose of the update being largely geared toward increasing the value in using the other drugs beyond Xanax. If that's the case, then it would make sense to speculate that the prices of the other drugs will go up with an increase in their use."
"My guess is that the drug prices we see for many of them on the item market today are going to be the lowest we'll see ever again once the update goes live. It's hard to imagine Xanax usage dropping much, but I also never expected the change to Vicodin years ago and we all know now how much that change affected its usage and pricing. At least with Drugs 2.0 on the horizon, we citizens are aware of an update coming soon."
Hopslam was also keen to stress that what works for one bazaar may not work for another. For example, new citizens have more needs than the established people of Torn, so they must run their bazaars differently to satiate their financial requirements. But this shouldn't put anyone off, because Hopslam believes anyone can be as successful as he is, so long as they adhere to the following advice:
Personal goals - do you want a certain number of customers, a particular level of profit, or are you looking to sell rare and collectable items?
Time - how much can you devote to trading? Full-time or casual? How much time will you use for dealing with undercutters, pricing wars or mug protection?
Planning - prepare adaptable strategies to handle a change in your personal or Torn life, and to accommodate forthcoming changes and updates that may affect the economy.
Cash - know how much liquid cash you can obtain at short notice, and how much you can afford to spend on new trading items.
Analyse - watch the trade scene and work out which items are being bought and sold regularly, and for what price they're going. Make sure this knowledge is updated frequently.
Track - make a note of what items cost when being purchased from the city or overseas.
Patience - there are fewer trades these days, so buying up stock from bazaars is key. But this takes time, as do many aspects of trading.
Diversify - switch up the items you buy every so often to avoid pushing the price up. Take a break from one item, and return to buy it when the price has lowered.
Customers - consider when and why citizens will purchase certain items.
Profits - big profits come with high-priced, single or low volume items sold at a high margin. Big profits also come with low-priced items sold at high volumes with small margins.
Open up - find yourself several different trade channels and build up a clientele of regular traders whom you can rely upon without needing to advertise. Use this to build up your word-of-mouth customers who come to you because of reputation.
Research - find out the names of people who often make large purchases, and look out for desperate sellers who need a quick sale.
Purpose - consider if the items you have are intended for a quick flip, if you can be patient and sell them later when the market is right, or if you're using an item to hold cash in a somewhat liquid form.
Promotion - advertise in the classified ads section, trade chat and the trading post forum. Keep the latter up-to-date and get yourself regularly bumped to the first page, and near the top if you're online or active. Keep an eye on what your rivals are doing here too.
Pricing - use the average cost method.
In addition to the advice offered above, Hopslam would also like to point out that he is open to helping anyone, so those who would like to receive more tailored advice are encouraged to message him. But in our correspondence, he made a particular effort to explain the aforementioned Average Cost Method, which he deems essential when selling large volumes of items over a long period of time.
During this time the price of an item may fluctuate, and Hopslam believes that the fluidity offered by the ACM is one of the reasons why he has managed to maintain an especially astonishing trading record.
"As long as you can sell off your stock without taking a loss that is okay in my book. I have successfully never taken a loss on a deal, with the exception of the bazaar pricing mishaps I have experienced, and with the exception of 2 large stocks of items I still currently hold due to not being able to sell without taking a loss at the current market prices."
The pricing mishaps Hopslam mentions are, in my opinion, the most illuminating part of his story. For yes, this man certainly possesses a lot of financial nous; he is an expert trader, an organised accountant and a man with an eye for a bargain. But I firmly believe that a great deal of his success can be attributed to the way he handles the dark days, as you'll see from the following story.
"March 17, 2015. I somehow placed 294 FHCs in my bazaar and priced them at $2,119,000. I meant to overprice them around 29m so they would not sell, the current market at that time was around 13m for FHCs. 2 players bought all 294 FHCs for a little over 622m, whereas they should have sold for over 3.7b. It took a little waiting time, some cordial pleading, and a little negotiating, but I worked with these 2 very honorable players to correct the mistake. Kastor and WickedPrincess were the two that helped out with my FHC mishap."
"Ultimately, the FHCs were returned in exchange exactly for the purchase amount and I ended up gifting them a total of 32 FHCs between the two of them to compensate them. I sent them each a Medal of Honor as well and had those two names on my profile for a very long time. The heartache in that ordeal was real. Could have lost over 3b in a matter of seconds with a simple bazaar pricing mistake. Ouch!"
Hopslam accepted his own mistake and handled the situation with grace and dignity, for which he was suitably rewarded. Praise must also go to Kastor and Wickedprincess for the integrity displayed on their part too, but it would be foolish to imagine everyone in Torn to be so honourable. So how does Hopslam react when an erroneous trade can't be recovered?
In April 2015 Hopslam bought a parachute for $430million and accidentally sold it for $339million. The buyer had already flipped it by the time Hopslam enquired, and a plea to recoup his losses from the lucky recipient fell on deaf ears. He refuses to name this person and says he does not hold a grudge, but nor will Hopslam trade with them again or give them favours.
A man with Hopslam's wealth is certainly no pushover, but he knows better than to try to ruin someone's life over an error of his own making.
"I did steal their dog tag early on in the dog tag competition though."
This healthy attitude towards those who cross him has helped Hopslam maintain his reputation as Torn's most trusted and reliable seller. He recently lost $385million on an accidental Dumbell transaction, but he refuses to retaliate. He estimates he has lost between $1.5 and $3billion in muggings, with $415million taken coming in one three and a half month period, but still, he refuses to respond with violence.
Such calmness and dignity in the face of torment is admirable of course, but it is in no small part helped by the fact that Hopslam is loaded. So what does a man worth over $66billion TCD (173 in the Torn Rich List as of 12/04) do with all that money?
"I would estimate to earning between $50b and $60b in actual profit through trading. I bought a Hazmat Suit 400m years ago, held it for a year or two (actually do not recall how long), sold it last year for 2.789b. I bought a Dual Samurai Swords way back when the education course to get them was still in play for a low price at that time of 170m, and later sold it for 1.2b. I held energy cans from one Halloween Town/Christmas Town season almost until the following summer/fall before finally selling the entire stock, and the total profit on the entire stash of 15,252 energy cans was just over 2b."
Hopslam thinks about turnover so much that even his most indulgent purchases end up being flipped for profit. He sees money-making margins in every area of his Torn life, and because he's so comfortable, he doesn't have to lash out when things go wrong. Hopslam seems to view his Torn life as fun, not a chore. Hence why he's not at all protective over his portfolio of business secrets.
"It's fun to have a good trade reputation and have other players come to me with no previous trade relations to complete a deal because of my trade rep. It's fun to have a lot of repeat traders, who come back to trade over and over, because they know they can count on quick, easy, and safe trades. It's fun to get props and praise from other players about the success of my bazaar. It's fun to get questions about trading and to be able to give answers that actually help new or veteran players starting out in the trade world or help them overcome a difficulty in trade."
Hopslam could have easily have turned into a cold-hearted salesman who considers his customers nothing more than a source of income. But that's not his style, and while at times he can be hyper-focused on his bazaar, it seems that this never comes at the expense of personal relationships.
"Relationships with people are more important than play time in a bazaar world. Trading and bazaar is definitely where I have spent the bulk of my Torn time. However, the Faction and the forums are probably the two other game areas I largely spend time in and are more important to my Torn life."
"I have no doubt that being part of a group here is a big factor in my continuing to log in. Actually, being a part of Destructive Anomaly has actually produced some unexpected perks for being in the trading world that I never would have expected or thought of. I have actually had people tell me, they didn't mug me because I was in DA, or that they would be happy to trade with me and give me a good deal because I was in DA. So, thanks DA!"
So if he's not spending vast amounts of money on fancy items, and nor is he embarking on a killing spree, what does Hopslam get up to now he's achieved his record? The bazaar has quietened a little in the months since, and these days he's turned his attention to his Oil Rig and the Stock Market to test his mettle further. But those who would take this as a sign of Hopslam's retirement would be mistaken.
"Even though my bazaar has seen much less activity these 3 months, I still had over 1,000 bazaar related sales events, sold over 25,000 items with sales totalling over $40b, and completed well over 100 trades since. You will still see me in the top weekly bazaars listing at times. The trading world has not escaped me. I'll try and hit both of these at the same time. Bazaar sales and bazaar income figures were never a main part of my goal. Of the 3 bazaar categories, bazaar customers is the least easy to manipulate, which is why I pursued that goal."
Manipulate...that's an interesting word choice. What does Hopslam mean by that?
"I'm not taking anything away from those topping the list of sales. Dunmugmeh has, no doubt, the largest bazaar sales in terms of items that have flowed through his bazaar. He has a very successful bazaar. Same for UWFGenBlood. The amount of items sold through their bazaars is top notch and their HoF listing is well deserved, as well as the others that top in sales listing."
"When I say it's easy to manipulate, it's that players can use their friends to buy from their bazaar and "artificially" inflate their bazaar numbers."
At the risk of upsetting those of a sensitive disposition, I shall reveal that one of the people he's referring to is Champion, who artificially reached $2.5trillion in sales through manipulative tactics. Voices, Bezee and q-_-p are the others mentioned by Hopslam, who claims it would take him no more than twenty minutes to repeat the process used by his rivals.
But he won't, because he has integrity. Hopslam admits to a slight annoyance with this situation, but he simply doesn't care enough to risk dealing with the potential consequences.
"It could easily slip into a crazy situation by many players going back and forth and doing this. Then we would end up with a HoF filled with crazily inflated false sales numbers that don't mean anything, as they aren't true sales figures because the items are returned and/or no actual sale or transfer of funds took place."
Hopslam would much rather take his place at the top of the table legitimately, and one wonders if this attitude is yet another reason why he's lasted so long in the trading industry. He is not concerned with the appearance of victory - he would rather earn it for real. And what's more, is that Hopslam is even so gracious as to recognise the accolades given to his less principled opponents.
"It's all in good fun. Many things in life and in game should not be taken too seriously. Being one that has put a decent amount of time and effort into earning my place, I can certainly recognize and appreciate and celebrate the accomplishments of others, whether for fun or for admirable achievements."
I suspect that Hopslam is right when he judges the accomplishments of others as "fun", but I can't imagine the warm glow of success lasts too long when you've cheated your way to victory. Conversely, Hopslam has built something which he can genuinely be proud of long after he leaves, regardless of whether or not he's at the top of every leaderboard.
This is the kind of glow that's difficult to shake off, and I imagine it won't be too long before Champion, q-_-p and the rest forget about their fraudulently acquired records, and Hopslam passes them with ease.
I hope that those who are interested in trading have found this interview insightful. And I'm sure that the advice Hopslam has given in this piece will prove invaluable to anyone who owns or is thinking of owning a bazaar. But there's one last quote which I'd like to share from Hopslam which I think applies to everyone, regardless of whether you're a shopkeeper, slutter or scam artist.
"My stance on handling adversity is that I am not going to let any person in this game negatively affect my gameplay. If I make a mistake in an interaction with another player, or get wronged, or cheated, or attacked, or bountied, or blacklisted, or annoyed by, or whatever, I don't feel the need to complain about it. If it's even slightly bothersome, I think about the situation to find a way to adjust or play around the circumstances or turn the situation to an advantage."
In case you aren't aware, Hopslam is one of Torn City's most successful bazaar owners - and there is a case for him being the outright best. His bazaar has not achieved the most sales, though, since that honour goes to dunmugmeh with over 19million transactions at the time of writing. And nor has Hopslam's bazaar earned the highest amount of profit since his $1.23trillion puts him third behind Bezee and q-_-p.
(n.b. this ignores 1st place Champion, whose $2.5trillion record was achieved unscrupulously)
(n.b.b. please do not complain that Champion is in this article. It seems he gets everywhere these days, except the forums)
But what Hopslam's bazaar has done is welcome the highest number of individual customers through its doors, with a total of 100,000 unique clients registered as of January 2017. And he's done this without cheating, without bullying, and without sacrificing his morals. Because that's just not who he is.
"To each their own, I say. Torn is a place where a player can let their actual personality and values shine through, or where they can take on a role they never would with their friends, family, acquaintances, or strangers in their personal lives, or where they can adjust their play style periodically however they see fit. There is a role for the hero, the good person, the villain, and many other styles."
Hopslam's 100,000th customer was Aesir, a furniture store delivery driver who purchased a lottery voucher on the 3rd of January 2017. Hopslam rewarded the man with a bottle of champagne, and now that this milestone has been achieved and celebrated, you wonder what else there is for Hopslam to aim for.
"To me, the 100,000 customer milestone was huge and being the first to reach that point was a major goal of mine. More importantly though, reaching that goal gave me a point of relief, a place in my Torn life where I can pause, take a break from heavy trading, adjust my trade tactics and strategies, and relax and play much more casually. I will still trade and use my bazaar, but I will no longer have that looming goal up ahead."
And who can blame him? Reaching 100,000 customers was the end of a long journey for Hopslam, who has traded in Torn for eight of his nine years living here. As one of the old guard, Hopslam remembers the day when bazaars were first introduced, and in his time he's seen many rivals come and go.
"I recognize nearly every name on the HOF listing of the top 50 for bazaar customers, sales, and income. I have bought and sold and traded items, competed with and traded around and had pricing wars with so many players over the years."
"I do not claim the best bazaar, nor the most successful, nor do I claim being the most efficient in bazaar sales, but I am undoubtedly a well-known name in the trading world."
This much is true, but it wasn't always so. When Hopslam arrived in Torn he, by his own admission, had a slow start in the city. He spent much of his early time chasing awards, but by doing so Hopslam eventually began to learn how Torn City works.
"I made it to Level 15 and began to travel to pick up items to resell. Traveling, similar to today, was really the big kicker to increasing money at first. I ran trips to bring back like 8-10 Xanax, Vicodin, or Ecstasy at a time. I sold them on the market and then repeated. Those were basically the only items I traded then."
After a year and a half of drug running, Hopslam and his friend Malfurion (later his spouse) managed to purchase a Private Island. This was back in the day when such property was hard to acquire, but during this time Hopslam had made a far more significant acquisition of his very own - a bazaar.
"I remember being in awe of the wealth and of the quantities and high valued items that some of the older established players had to trade around with. I couldn't trade with the big boys then, but I did probably the best thing possible at that time. I paid attention to the markets. I watched to see what items sold, how many items sold, how frequently and easily they sold, and at what price point they sold well."
Hopslam attributes a portion of his success to a few early city finds and competition events, but there can be no doubt that his deeply scrutinous and organised nature played the biggest role. So how does this work on a day-to-day basis? What level of effort must one put in to become a legendary trader like Hopslam?
For a start, when he's in heavy trading mode, Hopslam is known to spend several hours viewing the markets throughout the day. He uses this time efficiently, with his experience enabling him to build up a broad knowledge base of item price points and where bargains are to be found.
But this is not a skill you can acquire overnight.
"The more I click around watching items, the better info I have about the price listings of the next cheapest bazaars, about how many of a particular item are available in bazaars until it gets to the "price point" of that item where it just doesn't sell well."
"A lot of time my time is spent constantly checking the item markets for the items that I do currently have for sale in my bazaar. I need to make sure my bazaar is listed as the cheapest for that item."
"By actively watching the item markets for those items I am selling, I either buy more stock or undercut those who undercut me. With most items in this game, it's the cheapest that sells. So to bring in the bazaar customers like I had, it was very important to be the cheapest."
The ability to make quick decisions on the fly is something Hopslam learnt through repeating these processes countless times. So ingrained in his mind are the various techniques involved that he could probably trade in his sleep if he wanted. But Hopslam found it preferable to keep track of his business on an Excel spreadsheet rather than a dreamcatcher, and this habit explains why he was formerly known as "The Accountant".
That, and the fact he is an actual accountant.
"I am no salesman in life outside of Torn. I am, however, in accounting, and have worked in accounting for 9 years. Keeping track of things comes naturally to me. It was natural for me to create a Torn Excel spreadsheet to keep track of things over the years. I can say, without a doubt, I have wasted an enormous amount of time here in Torn. However, I can also say with conviction that building spreadsheets for my Torn life has helped in creating spreadsheets in my real life work environment. I have 100% used skills gained through experimenting with my Torn excel sheet in my work life."
So if there are any wannabe tycoons reading this, your first tip is to track your bazaar's progress on a spreadsheet and take it from there. But what other advice does Hopslam have for those who wish to follow in his well-heeled footsteps? The simplest answer he gives is to take your time in purchasing items and endeavour to sell them as cheaply as you can while still making a profit.
And the second simplest? Xanax.
"Players cannot get enough Xanax, it seems. To give an example, I started tracking my events as I was nearing the 100,000 mark. In those 2 months, I had a total of 6,972 events. Now, for Xanax only, I had 2,682 events related to a Xanax sale. 1,540 unique buyers bought at least 1 Xanax from my bazaar. I sold a total of 22,610 Xanax through my bazaar for a total income of $19,083,153,407, in 2 months! That is 41% of my total income and 13% of my total sales over that 2 month time period."
But before you rush out to stock up on Xanax and make your fortune, Hopslam points out that this is merely a base point for his bazaar; he had hundreds of other events related to different drugs, medications, donator packs etc during this time. And, with Drugs 2.0 potentially changing the way Xanax is used forever, Hopslam feels it would be unwise to focus on one particular item.
"Generally, successful bazaars are run by one who has an overall trade strategy or philosophy that is not reliant upon one item and that is adaptable to game changes and updates. As far as the Drugs 2.0 update, I could not quickly locate the teasers we've been given and cannot recall the specifics. I vaguely recall the purpose of the update being largely geared toward increasing the value in using the other drugs beyond Xanax. If that's the case, then it would make sense to speculate that the prices of the other drugs will go up with an increase in their use."
"My guess is that the drug prices we see for many of them on the item market today are going to be the lowest we'll see ever again once the update goes live. It's hard to imagine Xanax usage dropping much, but I also never expected the change to Vicodin years ago and we all know now how much that change affected its usage and pricing. At least with Drugs 2.0 on the horizon, we citizens are aware of an update coming soon."
Hopslam was also keen to stress that what works for one bazaar may not work for another. For example, new citizens have more needs than the established people of Torn, so they must run their bazaars differently to satiate their financial requirements. But this shouldn't put anyone off, because Hopslam believes anyone can be as successful as he is, so long as they adhere to the following advice:
Personal goals - do you want a certain number of customers, a particular level of profit, or are you looking to sell rare and collectable items?
Time - how much can you devote to trading? Full-time or casual? How much time will you use for dealing with undercutters, pricing wars or mug protection?
Planning - prepare adaptable strategies to handle a change in your personal or Torn life, and to accommodate forthcoming changes and updates that may affect the economy.
Cash - know how much liquid cash you can obtain at short notice, and how much you can afford to spend on new trading items.
Analyse - watch the trade scene and work out which items are being bought and sold regularly, and for what price they're going. Make sure this knowledge is updated frequently.
Track - make a note of what items cost when being purchased from the city or overseas.
Patience - there are fewer trades these days, so buying up stock from bazaars is key. But this takes time, as do many aspects of trading.
Diversify - switch up the items you buy every so often to avoid pushing the price up. Take a break from one item, and return to buy it when the price has lowered.
Customers - consider when and why citizens will purchase certain items.
Profits - big profits come with high-priced, single or low volume items sold at a high margin. Big profits also come with low-priced items sold at high volumes with small margins.
Open up - find yourself several different trade channels and build up a clientele of regular traders whom you can rely upon without needing to advertise. Use this to build up your word-of-mouth customers who come to you because of reputation.
Research - find out the names of people who often make large purchases, and look out for desperate sellers who need a quick sale.
Purpose - consider if the items you have are intended for a quick flip, if you can be patient and sell them later when the market is right, or if you're using an item to hold cash in a somewhat liquid form.
Promotion - advertise in the classified ads section, trade chat and the trading post forum. Keep the latter up-to-date and get yourself regularly bumped to the first page, and near the top if you're online or active. Keep an eye on what your rivals are doing here too.
Pricing - use the average cost method.
In addition to the advice offered above, Hopslam would also like to point out that he is open to helping anyone, so those who would like to receive more tailored advice are encouraged to message him. But in our correspondence, he made a particular effort to explain the aforementioned Average Cost Method, which he deems essential when selling large volumes of items over a long period of time.
During this time the price of an item may fluctuate, and Hopslam believes that the fluidity offered by the ACM is one of the reasons why he has managed to maintain an especially astonishing trading record.
"As long as you can sell off your stock without taking a loss that is okay in my book. I have successfully never taken a loss on a deal, with the exception of the bazaar pricing mishaps I have experienced, and with the exception of 2 large stocks of items I still currently hold due to not being able to sell without taking a loss at the current market prices."
The pricing mishaps Hopslam mentions are, in my opinion, the most illuminating part of his story. For yes, this man certainly possesses a lot of financial nous; he is an expert trader, an organised accountant and a man with an eye for a bargain. But I firmly believe that a great deal of his success can be attributed to the way he handles the dark days, as you'll see from the following story.
"March 17, 2015. I somehow placed 294 FHCs in my bazaar and priced them at $2,119,000. I meant to overprice them around 29m so they would not sell, the current market at that time was around 13m for FHCs. 2 players bought all 294 FHCs for a little over 622m, whereas they should have sold for over 3.7b. It took a little waiting time, some cordial pleading, and a little negotiating, but I worked with these 2 very honorable players to correct the mistake. Kastor and WickedPrincess were the two that helped out with my FHC mishap."
"Ultimately, the FHCs were returned in exchange exactly for the purchase amount and I ended up gifting them a total of 32 FHCs between the two of them to compensate them. I sent them each a Medal of Honor as well and had those two names on my profile for a very long time. The heartache in that ordeal was real. Could have lost over 3b in a matter of seconds with a simple bazaar pricing mistake. Ouch!"
Hopslam accepted his own mistake and handled the situation with grace and dignity, for which he was suitably rewarded. Praise must also go to Kastor and Wickedprincess for the integrity displayed on their part too, but it would be foolish to imagine everyone in Torn to be so honourable. So how does Hopslam react when an erroneous trade can't be recovered?
In April 2015 Hopslam bought a parachute for $430million and accidentally sold it for $339million. The buyer had already flipped it by the time Hopslam enquired, and a plea to recoup his losses from the lucky recipient fell on deaf ears. He refuses to name this person and says he does not hold a grudge, but nor will Hopslam trade with them again or give them favours.
A man with Hopslam's wealth is certainly no pushover, but he knows better than to try to ruin someone's life over an error of his own making.
"I did steal their dog tag early on in the dog tag competition though."
This healthy attitude towards those who cross him has helped Hopslam maintain his reputation as Torn's most trusted and reliable seller. He recently lost $385million on an accidental Dumbell transaction, but he refuses to retaliate. He estimates he has lost between $1.5 and $3billion in muggings, with $415million taken coming in one three and a half month period, but still, he refuses to respond with violence.
Such calmness and dignity in the face of torment is admirable of course, but it is in no small part helped by the fact that Hopslam is loaded. So what does a man worth over $66billion TCD (173 in the Torn Rich List as of 12/04) do with all that money?
"I would estimate to earning between $50b and $60b in actual profit through trading. I bought a Hazmat Suit 400m years ago, held it for a year or two (actually do not recall how long), sold it last year for 2.789b. I bought a Dual Samurai Swords way back when the education course to get them was still in play for a low price at that time of 170m, and later sold it for 1.2b. I held energy cans from one Halloween Town/Christmas Town season almost until the following summer/fall before finally selling the entire stock, and the total profit on the entire stash of 15,252 energy cans was just over 2b."
Hopslam thinks about turnover so much that even his most indulgent purchases end up being flipped for profit. He sees money-making margins in every area of his Torn life, and because he's so comfortable, he doesn't have to lash out when things go wrong. Hopslam seems to view his Torn life as fun, not a chore. Hence why he's not at all protective over his portfolio of business secrets.
"It's fun to have a good trade reputation and have other players come to me with no previous trade relations to complete a deal because of my trade rep. It's fun to have a lot of repeat traders, who come back to trade over and over, because they know they can count on quick, easy, and safe trades. It's fun to get props and praise from other players about the success of my bazaar. It's fun to get questions about trading and to be able to give answers that actually help new or veteran players starting out in the trade world or help them overcome a difficulty in trade."
Hopslam could have easily have turned into a cold-hearted salesman who considers his customers nothing more than a source of income. But that's not his style, and while at times he can be hyper-focused on his bazaar, it seems that this never comes at the expense of personal relationships.
"Relationships with people are more important than play time in a bazaar world. Trading and bazaar is definitely where I have spent the bulk of my Torn time. However, the Faction and the forums are probably the two other game areas I largely spend time in and are more important to my Torn life."
"I have no doubt that being part of a group here is a big factor in my continuing to log in. Actually, being a part of Destructive Anomaly has actually produced some unexpected perks for being in the trading world that I never would have expected or thought of. I have actually had people tell me, they didn't mug me because I was in DA, or that they would be happy to trade with me and give me a good deal because I was in DA. So, thanks DA!"
So if he's not spending vast amounts of money on fancy items, and nor is he embarking on a killing spree, what does Hopslam get up to now he's achieved his record? The bazaar has quietened a little in the months since, and these days he's turned his attention to his Oil Rig and the Stock Market to test his mettle further. But those who would take this as a sign of Hopslam's retirement would be mistaken.
"Even though my bazaar has seen much less activity these 3 months, I still had over 1,000 bazaar related sales events, sold over 25,000 items with sales totalling over $40b, and completed well over 100 trades since. You will still see me in the top weekly bazaars listing at times. The trading world has not escaped me. I'll try and hit both of these at the same time. Bazaar sales and bazaar income figures were never a main part of my goal. Of the 3 bazaar categories, bazaar customers is the least easy to manipulate, which is why I pursued that goal."
Manipulate...that's an interesting word choice. What does Hopslam mean by that?
"I'm not taking anything away from those topping the list of sales. Dunmugmeh has, no doubt, the largest bazaar sales in terms of items that have flowed through his bazaar. He has a very successful bazaar. Same for UWFGenBlood. The amount of items sold through their bazaars is top notch and their HoF listing is well deserved, as well as the others that top in sales listing."
"When I say it's easy to manipulate, it's that players can use their friends to buy from their bazaar and "artificially" inflate their bazaar numbers."
At the risk of upsetting those of a sensitive disposition, I shall reveal that one of the people he's referring to is Champion, who artificially reached $2.5trillion in sales through manipulative tactics. Voices, Bezee and q-_-p are the others mentioned by Hopslam, who claims it would take him no more than twenty minutes to repeat the process used by his rivals.
But he won't, because he has integrity. Hopslam admits to a slight annoyance with this situation, but he simply doesn't care enough to risk dealing with the potential consequences.
"It could easily slip into a crazy situation by many players going back and forth and doing this. Then we would end up with a HoF filled with crazily inflated false sales numbers that don't mean anything, as they aren't true sales figures because the items are returned and/or no actual sale or transfer of funds took place."
Hopslam would much rather take his place at the top of the table legitimately, and one wonders if this attitude is yet another reason why he's lasted so long in the trading industry. He is not concerned with the appearance of victory - he would rather earn it for real. And what's more, is that Hopslam is even so gracious as to recognise the accolades given to his less principled opponents.
"It's all in good fun. Many things in life and in game should not be taken too seriously. Being one that has put a decent amount of time and effort into earning my place, I can certainly recognize and appreciate and celebrate the accomplishments of others, whether for fun or for admirable achievements."
I suspect that Hopslam is right when he judges the accomplishments of others as "fun", but I can't imagine the warm glow of success lasts too long when you've cheated your way to victory. Conversely, Hopslam has built something which he can genuinely be proud of long after he leaves, regardless of whether or not he's at the top of every leaderboard.
This is the kind of glow that's difficult to shake off, and I imagine it won't be too long before Champion, q-_-p and the rest forget about their fraudulently acquired records, and Hopslam passes them with ease.
I hope that those who are interested in trading have found this interview insightful. And I'm sure that the advice Hopslam has given in this piece will prove invaluable to anyone who owns or is thinking of owning a bazaar. But there's one last quote which I'd like to share from Hopslam which I think applies to everyone, regardless of whether you're a shopkeeper, slutter or scam artist.
"My stance on handling adversity is that I am not going to let any person in this game negatively affect my gameplay. If I make a mistake in an interaction with another player, or get wronged, or cheated, or attacked, or bountied, or blacklisted, or annoyed by, or whatever, I don't feel the need to complain about it. If it's even slightly bothersome, I think about the situation to find a way to adjust or play around the circumstances or turn the situation to an advantage."
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