Trade etiquette and Warframe.market

[setcamper]

I've enabled trading on my account and I'm looking to dip my toes into trading (actually tired of vault runs and want to fill in the missing mod gaps). I think Path of Exile is probably the closest thing to warframe trading so I'll frame my questions around my experience over there.

1). What's the protocol for whispering folks for items placed on Warframe Market? Should I only message one seller and wait 10 minutes, or just shotgun messages to anyone at that price and whoever returns my message first gets my platinum? Unlike PoE you can't really leave mid mission to finish a trade, so how long do you give people to respond in inquiries? Is it pretty common for folks to just never respond?

2). How accurate are prices on fairly common items (50p or less I guess)? Can I safely assume there's no market manipulation on items given the trade restrictions in WF?

3). Once a trader and I have communicated, how does trading work? We form a party and meet in a Dojo? Does the start map change in some way that allows me to enter their dojo? 

4). EDIT: NVM, I guess you need to change your status on the site, it doesn't automatically detect you're in-game.
Are items I list on Warframe.market searchable by me? Have I don't something wrong if the item is listed in my profile, but not found in a search (well after 10 minutes listed said item)?

5). I'm guessing prices in trade chat can be safely ignored? I mean, I see prime frames being offered at 2x-3x more than warframe.market.

[ChaosNoodle]

1. I generally message, and wait about 5-ish minutes. If they don't respond by then, I'll message someone else. If the first comes back after I have completed a trade "Sorry man, found another trade". You may get blowback for this, but I don't feel it's warranted. Everyone has their own schedule, and if ours don't mesh, they don't mesh. No point in getting angry over it. If someone is rude about it, block. If they are abusive, report.

2. Price manipulation can (And does) happen anywhere. Compare the buy prices to sell prices on warframe.market, your region, and other regions. (I play PC. We can move between different regions and get different sellers. I assume it is the same for consoles, but not sure). Prices also fluctuate some, depending how hard they are to get. For example: Baro currently has the rare impact mods for sale today and tomorrow. The price will be lowest while he is selling them. It will go up once he is gone, and continue to increase slowly the longer it is until he sells them again.

3. Once the trade is agreed, you can meet in a dojo, or marro's. The person that will host goes to their dojo, and invites the other. Usually the host will wait at the trading station, and send the trade invite as soon as the other person finishes loading. A couple points of etiquette to avoid bugs: don't send a trade invite when they send one, it can cause bugs that might require leaving the dojo and going back to fix. (Rare, but possible). Say thank you and leave the dojo right away, unless you ask the host if it's ok. If they are the only member there, it will kick you out of the dojo when they leave, and they may have stuff to do.

4. I don't know about this - you'd have to contact warframe.market for bugs on their site. Thought it might just be the search parameters are off.

5. Trade chat is sometimes way more expensive, sometimes way cheaper. if you have the time and patience it can be very profitable.

 

[(PSN)Dr_Bruiser]

52 minutes ago, setcamper said:

4). EDIT: NVM, I guess you need to change your status on the site, it doesn't automatically detect you're in-game.
Are items I list on Warframe.market searchable by me? Have I don't something wrong if the item is listed in my profile, but not found in a search (well after 10 minutes listed said item)?

Good answers from AubergineMist above.  I would add a couple things as a casual, but steady trader on WM.  

1.  In my experience, it is pretty common to not get a response from any given message, so don't take anything personally and don't worry about causing offense as long as you are acting reasonably.  I wouldn't worry about contacting a few people at a time for items.  However, if you're contacting people in game when their status is listed as online in game on WM, then I would probably do one at a time.  It is annoying to get an ingame chat message about a trade and when you respond within a minute after just making sure the price is reasonable, they say they already traded with someone else (especially if you pulled out of a mission or went out of your way to go to the dojo).  If you're just messaging people within WM who are "online" or "offline" according to WM, then go ahead and contact a few and hope you get one good connection.  I only play an hour or two a day but can monitor WM when I'm at work, though I often don't see a message received until hours after it is sent.  I'm probably lucky if 1 out of 5 "WTB" messages I receive actually ends up in a sale.

4.  For items listed that aren't showing up in searches, make sure you have the individual item showing as "visible".  In your inventory listing under "My Profile", each item will have 5 boxes on the right-hand side of the listing.  The bottom-middle box toggles between visible and invisible in case you want to keep an add in your list, but not make it searchable (like if you routinely have a particular item up but run out temporarily - you can keep the ad and remember the price while you farm another set).

It's a nice habit to leave a positive feedback whenever you successfully complete a sale.  Something I sometimes forget to do, but it is great when you see your standing gradually tick upward.

[Canach]

I will sometimes negotiate with WFMarket posters.

• Original thread is:   /w (username) Hi! I want to buy: (for example) Nekros Prime Set for 130 platinum. (warframe.market)
• I'll Post : /w (username) Hi! I want to buy: Nekros Prime Set - Your warframe.market price is 130 pt, offering 100 pt

Then they'll either respond or not - usually I will simply pay their asking price, but not if I think they're too high.

Also you can look at WFM pricing, and then go to Trade Chat and post

• WTB Nekro Prime Set Offer 100 pt

You'll quite often get a seller at 20-30% discount off WFM posted prices, but not always - sometimes you'll waste a lot of time for no responses - your Pt, your time, YMMV.

G'Luck! 

[setcamper]

Thanks folks, one other question if anyone happens by. Are things listed in chat as completed items are just all the parts, right? Like you can't sell a built warframe, only the 4 blueprints?

[Canach]

2 minutes ago, setcamper said:

Thanks folks, one other question if anyone happens by. Are things listed in chat as completed items are just all the parts, right? Like you can't sell a built warframe, only the 4 blueprints?

Right

[(PSN)Dr_Bruiser]

1 hour ago, setcamper said:

Thanks folks, one other question if anyone happens by. Are things listed in chat as completed items are just all the parts, right? Like you can't sell a built warframe, only the 4 blueprints?

That's correct.  if you happen to get a built part from a Twitch drop or something, you can't trade it.

Also, one other little tip if you want to generate a little more traffic: update your status on WM depending on what your actual status is.  That is, if you are playing, open up WM on your phone or in another window and make sure it shows you as "online in game".  If you're not playing, but are working at your computer, make sure it shows you as "online".  You'll get more enquires if your status is showing as either of those since people will believe you're more likely to reply promptly.  When I'm at work, I'll leave a Chrome tab open on WM and can let people know when I'll be home from work if they want to trade.  It doesn't always work, since they are often in a different timezone, but at least we can figure it out.  Literally, as I was typing this, I got a message on WM asking if I could sell a warframe set.