A Harem in the Fantasy World Dungeon Volume 4 Chapter 4 Part 19
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Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist
The thing that the brokers will always want in on the sale to make as much money out of it as possible.
「I see.」
「If it is okay for me to ask, what would sir be interested in buying?」
「Kobold Skill Crystals, among other things, but as to what exactly, I guess it depends on what would actually be available and how much is it going to cost.」
「Kobold Skill Crystals, is it? Just give me a moment and I will check their current prices.」
Laurel the Sex Maniac broker took out what looked like a notepad from his pocket and started looking through its pages, which looked like they were made from a brownish, delicate material, which meant that they were most probably made out of papyrus instead of ordinary paper.
For the next minute or so, the only sound that could be heard in the room was the sound of the broker flipping through the notebook’s pages.
「So? How is it?」
I asked while trying not to sound as impatient as I truly was. I mean seriously, how long does it take to check one simple thing written in a notebook?!
「One Kobold Skill Crystal has been sold yesterday for five thousand two hundred Nars, and before that, the other has been sold for five thousand four hundred Nars. On the twenty eighth day of the spring, one was sold for five thousand two hundred Nars as well. . . . . . . . . and two days before that, there was also one that got sold for five thousand two hundred Nars.」
I have no way of knowing if this price, five thousand two hundred Nars, is a fair price for a single Skill Crystal, but if that is the established market price for them, then there is nothing I can do about it besides accepting it. Or rather, if his words and notes in that notebook of his are anything to go by, then it would seem that people have been buying Skill Crystals at that exact price for quite some time now, and it would actually make a lot of sense, since it is a common knowledge that the fusion of the Skill Crystals usually fails, and it had to be one of the factors in elevating the price of the successfully fused Skill Crystals.
「Is that so? So that is how much they cost. . . . . . . . . . .」
「Now, if you were to request me as your personal broker, I would charge a fee of five hundred Nars. And although the usual custom is that broker ask for their payment to be made in advance, I would be okay with the payment being delayed, seeing as I am going into the Labyrinths myself.」
「I see. So that is how it is.」
Those who enter the Labyrinths are always at risk of losing their lives, so if the broker were to die while in the Labyrinth I would not be able to get my broker’s fee back, so that is why he would be fine with me paying him later.
「When placing an order, all of the bidders are requested to decide on a maximum bidding price in advance, and the end result is going to be revealed here in the Merchant’s Guild at a later date. You should also know that since you would be competing with other bidders, not many items will be able to be sold for less then the specified price.」
Laurel the Sex Maniac finished his explanations with a slight smirk on his face. Sherry did warn me that the brokers are cooperating with one another before we entered the Guild building, but now that he has told me that to my face, I see how brilliantly simple of a system that actually is.
What they do is basically something like that: they tell their buddies what the highest bid is going to be, and then they are going to compete with each other until that highest bid is reached. That knowledge can certainly be helpful when selling items through a broker, but on the other hand, if I decided to go through with the idea of selling items on my own, that would only be a chance for them to drive a harder bargain. And the best thing about it is that no one can really do anything to stop them from doing so, because it seems highly unlikely that the Merchant’s Guild would be doing anything to cut these proceedings down when they are gaining so much money from it. Also, if all of the sellers are brokers working for the same Merchant’s Guild, they can just split the profits from the sold items equally between all of them. But even if they do not do that, they are still going to be helping each other when the time for an auction comes, just as long as there is a promise of money to be made from the transactions planned during that auction. It also works the other way around. When the customer who is not a broker or a middleman is the one trying to sell their items, they are probably going to do everything in their power to drop the price of such items and then buy them at a price that is way below the maximum price set by the seller.
I think that now I more or less understand how exactly does their system work. And I also realize that as long as that system is effective, beating the brokers at an auction is going to be practically impossible.
「All right, I understand what you are saying, but it looks like now is a really bad time for it.」
「Then how about selling? What do you want to sell here today, sir?」
「Five Copper Swords of Obstruction that I obtained from the Labyrinth today.」
「Five? In that case I regret to inform you that this number is pretty unfortunate.」
The brokers face became a little distorted. What, what is wrong with the amount that I just specified? Some kinda bad number? Or is it perhaps that now is not a good time to be selling weapons in batches of five in general?
「Unfortunate? In what sense is it unfortunate?」
「The Copper Swords of Obstruction are usually sold in sets of six almost exclusively to the Parties wanting to challenge the Floor Bosses on the lower floors of the Labyrinths, and when they are sold in such a way, they tend to be sold for a much higher price. I mean, I could buy them off sir’s hands if you would really insist on it, but in the off chance that sir would be willing to postpone the selling of the swords until you could obtain a sixth one to complete the entire set, then I would have no qualms about paying the highest possible price for them.」
Then the broker made a face as if he was pondering something pretty intensely. Maybe he is performing various calculations in his head right now? And on a side note, I wonder if brokers and middleman of the Merchant’s Guild have access to the 「Calculate」 Skill?
「Is the set of full six of them really selling at a way higher price than for five or less of them? How big of a difference are we talking here, exactly?」
「The full set of Six Copper Swords of Obstruction usually goes for one hundred thousand Nars. As for the set of five, my guess it that they could probably be sold for about fifteen thousand Nars each, thirty thousand at best if the winning bid at the auction ends up being especially high. Also, if you decide to sell these five swords individually and not all at once, then the resulting price of each consecutive sword that you sell would very likely be lower than the last one’s.」
「Is that so? So that is how it is, huh?」
If I remember correctly, the broker’s share for winning at the auction is half the price, right? Even though I perfectly understand why does it have to be like that, it is still a pretty big amount. Damn, it is exactly like what Sherry said. That is too little chance for making a reasonable profit and too much formalities and trouble to be dealing with.
「So, what would you like to do, sir? Are you going to hire me as your personal broker?」
Yeah, this guy is absolutely no good for me.
「No, I do not think I am going to do that. Instead, I am going to look for another one first. Sorry for taking so much of your time.」
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