Emailed question from a level 80 Tauren Druid selling Shatter Rounds on the auction house:
Hi Markco,My response:
I play a level 80 Tauren Druid on the US Hakkar realm,
which is a low population server.
From reading your blog, I get the
impression that it is considered easier to make gold via tradeskills on low pop
servers. My goldmaking/auction house skills are still pretty young, but I was
excited when the schematics for Iceblade Arrows and Shatter Rounds came out in
3.3, as I am an engineer/miner. I did my research, and learned that just about
every horde engineer on my server was gnomish. Therefore, I switched my
specialization into goblin engineering, and bought the schematic for Shatter
Rounds as soon as I became honored.
Imagine my dismay when despite being
one of only two or three players on the server that could craft them, and
offering them at lowest price, I couldn't sell more than a stack a day at best.
Even worse, when I advertise giving them away FOR FREE in trade chat during
prime server time (7-10 PM) in order to gague interest, I only ever get one or
two whispers!
This is pretty discouraging, considering that the
primordial saronite I used to buy the schematic is worth plenty of money, not to
mention the cost to respec to goblin engineering. What did I do wrong? Is there
any way to recoup my losses? How could I prevent something like this from
happening to me in the future? Is this because I play on a low-pop server with
not enough demand for hunter ammo? I thought that this was going to basically be
a sure thing that would make me thousands! =(
For starters, you definately should post your story on the Wow Gold Forums (JMTC). Second, you can still make lots of gold off these arrows/bullets as long as you sell them correctly. Only post a handful of stacks and try to get your mats as cheaply as possible. Aim to only make 1-3 gold off each sale. See if that helps and this can still make you a lot of gold, but I wouldn't expect more than 50-100 each day at most on a low pop server with few raiding communities.
Markco
And the final email back:
Wow, thanks a lot! I didn't actually expect you'd respond.
Sure
thing, I'll post it on the forums. And your prediction appears to be accurate. I
made about 90g from them yesterday, which isn't as much as I imagined having a
near monopoly on them would provide, but isn't half bad either.
Thanks
again!
5 comments: on "Selling Shatter Rounds on the Auction House"
Rob Dejournett said... February 1, 2010 at 11:01 AM
I think generally you shouldn't expect instant success or thousands of gold from one item. Generally I have a hard time seeing people recoup their investments in prim. saronite for crafting.
I would hazard a guess that most people aren't willing to shell out 10k+ gold for an ICC item on the AH (which is the mats cost), since it's hard enough moving the TOC patterns (i sell one a week maybe). You may get lucky and get your investment back by buying prim. saronite and selling the items on the AH.
Or you could buy the PS and offer to craft, but even at a generous 100g tip you'd still have to make 20+ items to break even. A dubious proposition at best.
I see people who advertise "have all ICC patterns" in trade and really wonder how they will make a living giving the prim. saronite costs.
And don't forget the PS prices are continuely dropping, so if you buy 4 at 2.5k gold this week, but don't sell anything, and next week they are 2k gold, well you will have a hard time recouping that 2k gold investment.
Just remember most goblins have several 'shticks' and don't rely on any one market.
Maso said... February 1, 2010 at 11:31 AM
The reason the Shatter Rounds don't sell as much is because all of the highend weapons for hunters are (Tier 9 and Tier 10) are bows or crossbows.
Limit how much of these you craft.. I also made the mistake of crafting too much of this expecting a strong demand. Luckily, they were cheap to craft.
Tyberiuss said... February 1, 2010 at 12:31 PM
One issue for the seller is demand. Almost all the good ranged hunter weapons at ICC level are arrow shooters.
Anonymous said... February 1, 2010 at 1:43 PM
I also feel that there is not much demand for gun ammo right now as most BiS range weapons are bows/xbows. You might have to wait to see if Blizz adds new guns soon to really start to make money.
Markco said... February 1, 2010 at 5:44 PM
I made this article hoping someone would mention the possibility of guns being added. Good job :)
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