Alex has made himself famous for offering rare items for Tibian gold and real dollars at his homepage Tibiashop.com and by "acquiring" a famous sword soon-to-be two years ago. We decided to meet in his castle, which I must admit looked strangely similar to the Thais depot.
Alex: Hello Nahir, take a seat and welcome to my lively penthouse office.
Nahir: Ah, I thank ye. A lot of floors I must say and many visitors.
Alex: Too bad they are not all my customers.
Nahir: -smiles- Well I must ask ye. How has business been recently? You have been quite busy I've seen a lot of activity from ye, a new webpage at Tibiashop.com and so forth.
Alex: Not bad at all, and a new webpage was really necessary. The old "cheap, but pink" look doesn’t attract that many customers. Also I wanted to try out other ways of generating profit, like people placing their own ads (mostly on servers where Iam not active).
Nahir: Well the new one certainly looks better. I also wondered how many purchases are made on your webpage per week? No statistic has been shown after all.
Alex: I can only speak for my own trades and I have 1-5 trades per week. I also add 1-10 ads for other people per week. Since those other sellers manage their trades by themselves I can not say how successful they are. Some only sell their items cause they want to move on from tibia, others update their sales regularly.
Nahir: Is the greatest income from your own trade or from those ads?
Alex: Not the greatest, but the easiest. I collect the fees for other people's ads and resell that platina. During my active playing time I could make money faster than that. Also I am a bit handicapped by the new rule that forbids me from advertising in the game, so all the "new" server players have barely heard of my service.
Nahir: Well I guess a steady income from ads is an excellent way to keep your business running. After all Tibia is expanding everyday so I guess that only means more and more customers for ye.
Alex: Hehe, I do not have THAT many customers. After all I am not cheap, but I offer an established and safe service. I started off serving only Antican customers and those still give me the biggest profits. Some buy regularly, others just fulfil themselves a long wished dream, like a SoV or the like.
So the new rule makes it harder for me to expand and get the word out to new servers. I depend on mouth to mouth propaganda. I thought about some joint ventures with other homepages like the Tibianews or the Cobalt Tower, but nothing was satisfying enough. Besides the Tibiashop being listed in the WoT forums.
Nahir: Yes, I was to ask ye about those rules. Well how many trades has there been for ye so far on the "new" servers?
Alex: I think between 5 and 10 in the last 4 months. But I also do not offer enough there yet. Cause I do not have any income there besides the ad fees, no ad fees without people knowing about the shop. A vicious circle.
Nahir: I can understand that although you are very famous here on Antica.
Alex: More “infamous”.
Nahir: -chuckles- You are referring to the old Cyclopsmania sword I guess?
Alex: weren't you referring to it as well? And yes, that is one of the stains on my white west.
Nahir: Well I have been asked questions about it as a tutor and I must say that the story about it has become a part of the Tibian history lessons.
Alex: Indeed, you can even read about it in a “short version” in the library on the kings’ isle. I like how I am described as “most vaunted merchant of the lands”. I had a great time showing that book to Lightbringer and proving once and for all who the bigger trader is.
Nahir: What went through your mind those last seconds of that "trade"? Was it a decision made in a split second or did you plan on it?
Alex: It was a decision made within hours, not seconds. First I collected the sword and the payment for it from the different parties, and then I locked my depot and went for a walk to make a decision. In the end I decided that this would be the best payment I could possibly get for my clean reputation. And with the newly invented safe trade at that time, traders no longer needing their reputation, I decided to just do it and ride out whatever tsunami I created. I took the cycsword from the people I had auctioned it for., and I took a payment from Recca who had won my auction.
Nahir: Well this might be an awkward question but how much was it that you got away with?
Alex: The payment was deemed worth 6.5 million at that time, including 2 SoV a couple DSM, MM, Eplate, and about 1.5 mil cash. I suppose it would be worth more now. But with payment being 6.5 and therefore the Cycsword being worth 6.5 I thieved items worth 13 million gp. Which is quite a lot for some days of auctioning and going for a walk?
Nahir: Well... that certainly makes it the biggest loot of all time. But I heard that you don't see it as the "greatest" theft after all since ye didn't get away without being punished.
Alex: I punished myself I think. Let me tell the whole story.
Nahir: Sure, Iam eager to hear it.
Alex: A day or two after the theft my conscience grew louder and louder, because the people I sold the sword for were rather good friends of mine. So I decided to give them the actual payment and I kept the sword. Another two days later there was suddenly a really A LOT of platina on the Antican market. People bought rares like it would rain money from the skies.
Nahir: Well did it actually rain money from the sky?
Alex: I came to the conclusion that there was some serious duping going on. Since no one had invited me to join I decided to make my report to CIP. It turned out I was one of two people interpreting the signs right and that there was some duping going on. The mentioned friends were part of it and CIP deleted all involved chars and reset the server to a “pre dupe” state. Another of those moments where I was a nerve wreck..."will they set it back too far?". When I logged on after the reset I got a message from Guido on my screen even before I could reach my depot: “You have been lucky once again”. It was reset after the theft. Another sweaty T-shirt over tibia and another lesson for me don't make friends who don't invite you to show them how to dupe safely.
Nahir: Well one would not sell his conscience for nothing; after all ye did get hunted forever for this theft. Am I right?
Alex: How should I know? The only time I see daylight is after another update when I jog from Quentin to the depot. I am hunted, of course. But I had lost interest in Antica already; it was time to move on.
Nahir: But do you still own that sword today?
Alex: First I planned to complete the sword collection of my alter ego Meiner with it and since only a warlord sword was missing that looked quite impressive. But after all an item in a depot is a wasted item. So I started renting the sword to good friends. That’s some stable income and the sword is put to good use.
Nahir: Well one must have faith to lend it away I guess, but that blade came to use after all.
Alex: Hehe... the trick is to lend it to other rich people who can afford to pay the rent easily and don’t even get tempted, since they have long term contracts.
Nahir: So your legendary sword collection was never complete?
Alex: No, the only Warlord sword on Antica (that I know about) was purchased a loooooooong time ago directly from the Gods. The buyer paid an (at that time) insane amount of diamonds which could not even be outbid by Lightbringer, Opa Wetterwachs' and others diamonds. Later the sword was deleted with a set of 'illegal' items in a dupers depot, too bad.
Nahir: -smiles- Well I guess we could carry on all night but let's move on shall we?
Alex: Of course.
Nahir: Have you even purchased an item for "real" money yerself? Seeing all those items on your page makes one wonder.
Alex: Yes of course. My own items are sold for a long time now, now I depend on buying and selling, or selling on commission and the cheaper i can buy the items, the cheaper I can resell them, that’s why my item prices are not really fixed. If someone would sell me a SoV for 100 bucks I could resell it for 200.
Nahir: Have you ever spent money earned by trading in Tibia on real-life things?
Alex: Sure, I do that everyday. I do not divide my funds and put all Tibia earnings in the bank. Even though that would be quite an impressive pile.
Nahir: Well I guess that concludes the interview. Oh, I almost forgot. Is there any advice you would like to give all the Tibian traders out there?
Alex: “Buy low, sell high and never get caught”, alternatively “your level is unimportant”.
Nahir: -smiles- It has been a pleasure talking to you Alex. I wish ye the best of luck with Tibiashop.com and what ever task ye may undertake.
Alex: The pleasure was all mine. If there are open questions or you get fan mail, you know where to forward them.
Nahir: Indeed I do. Fare thee well Alex and may Uman guide thee.
Alex: Good bye and come again.
