Selling Pirate Hats - And Rare Items

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

"Hey Marcko,


Before I started selling on the AH (Bloodhoof Horde) I spent several days farming up not one, but two Hyacinth Macaws from the pirates in STV to make some cash (I sold them for 6k each - could have made more, but I was impatient). While farming, I picked up a First Mate's Hat which I promptly tried to sell for some ridiculous amount of gold, thinking someone would pay big money to look "cool".

I spent about a month adjusting the price point, but nobody would bite. Then one day, I saw another First Mate's Hat in the AH for 33k. I immediately listed my hat for 1k and it sold ovenight. Maybe someone suddenly wanted a hat really bad, but I was operating under the assumption that someone with an auction AddOn would scan the hat, find it listed as a "deal", and snap it up without thinking. This was a reminder for me that you should play every aspect of the business: the market, the people, the addons, everything.

Thanks for the great site and keep up the good work!

Anesthia

Bloodhoof"
 
The reason it happened is addons. That hat rarely appears on the ah, so when someone saw it for the first time, one for 33k and one for 1k, auctioneer (if it saw these for the first time) told the newbie auctioneer that the 1k was an amazing deal. This is actually a very valid strategy for many items, even common ones where you post on one toon for excessive prices and another for slightly above average prices.