Arbitrage

From LSWiki

The Arbitrage system is essentially a dynamic quest system where a merchant will give you a task to retrieve an item (or multiple items) purchased from another merchant in exchange for experience and gold. In order to ask a merchant for an arbitrage opportunity, simply say "arbitrage opportunities" within their range of hearing in a language they understand.

Noteworthy Information

• Merchants will ask you to retrieve a particular class of item, not a specific item //NB: I'm not sure that is true, they seem to want pretty specific items//. If a merchant stocks a specified object of 'Bowl of Fruit' and the actual fruit in question can be random within the object specification, any bowl of fruit will do, provided it has the same object specification. This can be challenging, since players can't see object specifications. If you're having trouble getting a specific item, make sure you're at the suggested vendor and buy anything that looks like it might be similar to the item.

• You don't have to buy the items requested from the indicated vendors. If you can purchase the desired item from a more convenient vendor, it will work just fine provided it is of the correct object type. Be warned this can get very confusing very quickly if some items are named similarly or even identically but have different object specifications. When in doubt, use the indicated vendor.

• Merchants will pay you a relatively static amount of gold as a reward for fulfilling an arbitrage opportunity. This means that you will generally turn a fairly consistent profit on inexpensive items, but might take a bath on expensive ones. The experience will usually be worthwhile, however.

• Merchants will generally grant greater experience for items from much further away. This is not measured in straight-line distance, but rather how difficult it is for your character to procure the item. In general, this means if you can retrieve an item very quickly from a distant location via teleportation or other shenanigans, you will gain fewer experience than a character who would have had to hoof it. //NB: I believe there are only two returns of experience, close and far, and sometimes you can get far experience from a shop that is right around the corner.//'

• You can only have a maximum of roughly 25 arbitrage opportunities. If you stop receiving opportunities when asking for them, this is probably why. Also, be sure the merchant speaks the language you're asking in.

Help File

   Arbitrage

   Arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of regional differences in prices for particular
goods.  An illustrative example is that ice is cheap in the northlands, but precious in a desert.

   By purchasing items that are available in ready supply at one location and transporting them to
a location where they are scarce, the agent -- called an arbitrageur -- can profit from the price
difference between those two locations.

   In practice, the way arbitrage works is that merchants you meet may need certain goods they do
not already possess -- just ask a merchant for an arbitrage opportunity, and they'll tell you what
they need -- although some merchants may not need a particular item at a given point in time.

   You can receive arbitrage opportunities from nearly any merchant, not just typical shopkeepers.

   Merchants will generally give you a hint as to where the item they're after can be found, based
on their specialist knowledge as traders, but it doesn't matter where you get it as long as it
meets their specifications.

   See also: show arbitrage opportunities