Prices have been on the decline for quite some time in all areas of world of warcraft... everything from arctic furs to icethorn has seen a steady but gradual decline in pricing. The reason for this is demand. Patch changes, players taking off from the game, and a host of other reasons all contribute to a gradual decline in demand. Sure there are examples like frozen orbs where demand spikes from a patch but for the vast majority of items there has been a slow decrease.
How can you take advantage of these declines? Well you can start by making money right now. Even though prices have gone down many price ratios have not. I can still make 20+ gold on a cut rare gem and 1-2 gold on cut common gems. Same goes for armor vellums, glyphs, etc while the cost of creating these materials has not changed very much.
Do you have any items which have declined in price yet still yield high amounts of gold?
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13 comments: on "Why Do Prices Fall before an Expansion?"
Mageshadow said... May 27, 2010 at 8:17 AM
Decline in price?
In the past 2 week prices have risen on everything, heck I am EXTREMELY lucky to pickup a stack of Lichbloom for 20-25g. Saronite ore is now 17-19g/stack. A month ago I was able to buy Titanium ore for 120-150g/stack easy, now it's sitting back up at 200-220g.
jimmyolsenblues said... May 27, 2010 at 8:20 AM
Epic Gems of course have crashed but if you have enough cuts there is money to be made.
Every ICC run yields gear that needs gems and enchants.
Titansteel spike helms have dropped but people keep leveling death knights.
I do have a question that I also will post on the JMTC forms.
Why should Blacksmith recipes be only binded to my raiding character? My blacksmither is not my raiding character. Its not fair.
I only raid with my orc warrior dps. And I am losing gold on not getting those recipes to my crafter.
Not fair I say.
Markco said... May 27, 2010 at 8:30 AM
Of the items you listed Carlos I agree only on saronite ore. The reason for that on my server was the removal of several big name farmers and it could be similiar on your server. I've seen adder's tongues go from 20 gold to 5 gold a stack in the same week, values which never would have been seened the first 6 months of the expansion. Keep in mind that patches often change the demand of items as well.
sherretz said... May 27, 2010 at 8:36 AM
Titansteel pricing has remained steady through the declines. The main difference is since 3.3.3, Eternal Fires are 50% their normal value and Saronite Ore is at vendor prices. This means I can make Titansteel bars for ~45-55g but they sell easily 85-95g.
Glyph demand has declined slightly only because people aren't constantly respeccing anymore. However, there are more alts showing up, so glyphs in general remain high.
I'm noticing similar trends to Carlos, but it's too early to tell whether it's just short term supply shortages.
Fred G. said... May 27, 2010 at 9:15 AM
On my server most prices have seen a steady decline, but ever since the mobile AH has gone live (or Beta) Adder's Tongue has shot up in price and been very scarce in supply. Frustrating considering it's key to my Potion of Speed market.
Anonymous said... May 27, 2010 at 9:16 AM
My main sellers that have dropped in end sale value but still have large profit margins are:-
Scrolls - For more expesive enchants the profit has tended to drop a bit, but for lower priced enchants the end sale price has tended to stay the same but the mats prices has bombed.
Glyphs - Glyph prices were already rock bottom anyway buy flower prices have tened to drop significantly lately, with the occasionaly few day increase before they rapidly bombing again. Glyph prices have stayed pretty steady but mats prices again have bombed, so larger profit margins from these.
DM cards - Again these have stayed pretty consistent in sale price but flower prices have bombed.
Rare gems - Possibly driven by much of the competition moving onto epic gems, prices haven't really droped that much for cut gems but raw gems are often sold below vendor prices so i am making extra profit from buying raw gems, cuting and vendoring them.
For selling raw gems through the saronite shuffle, this has stayed roughly the same with ore prices dropping in like with cut gem prices although my overall profit margin from saronite has tended to rise.
Anonymous said... May 27, 2010 at 9:42 AM
Currently i have been making gold at a higher rate than in the past. Its actually been very difficult to farm fast enough to keep my items in stock.
My biggest sellers are:
Titanium Bars @ 3 for 50g
Arctic Fur @ 50g ea
Solid Majestic Zircons @ 140g ea
Azure Spellthread @ 40g ea
I guess for me the beauty is that I play on a low pop server and there are maybe 4 people who are steady AH players including me.
If I see a decline I will just shift to saving mode and wait for the rerolls once Cata releases
Anonymous said... May 27, 2010 at 10:13 AM
On my server primordial saronites have been plummeting in price which of course is making ICC crafts profit skyrocket since prices arent changing on those. ive been buying saronites for 600g/each quite consistently
JayTekStorm said... May 27, 2010 at 12:05 PM
Some markets on my realm have declined while others are staying strong.
Epic gem markets have been very rocky of late but I am still making good profits. I have been posting in trade and finding great deals on raw epic gems.
Primordial Saronites have dropped from 1300g to 700g over the last 4 weeks. I went from flipping these everyday to avoiding them till they look to stabilize.
Netherweave bags prices have dropped to around 12g but I still make a nice profit since the cloth is so cheap to buy.
Eternal fire & life are booming on my realm. I invested 8k gold weeks ago when these markets crashed and now I am selling off that stock. I am making a killing, I bought these eternals for 10 to 14g and I am now selling them for 23 to 26 gold each.
I think we will see a nice bump in prices come Ruby Sanctum that should last a good month or more.
Blinging WoW Economy & Gold Blog
thrinetu said... May 27, 2010 at 12:44 PM
on my server the price of multiple high lvl herbs has risen dramatically, with most going for 40-60g per stack. of course this may only be temporarily; but it has lasted for nearly a week
Dave said... May 27, 2010 at 1:41 PM
On my server, I have been working the Titansteel bar market, buying low and selling high. Lately, the price of titansteel bars have fallen from 100g per bar to around 80g per bar. This is a huge drop. There always seems to be at least 50 bars on hand in the AH.
I am assuming that the demand for titansteel bars are falling as Cataclysm approaches. Not as many people are needing them these days on our server.
It just seems odd that our server's prices seem to be out of whack from other servers. I'm sitting on a lot of inventory of bars that unfortunately I paid more for than the current market price.
What's best way to get rid of all these without taking a huge loss?
Chris and Cathy said... May 27, 2010 at 2:36 PM
Although prices have dropped on gems, there are still certain cuts that will bring in a reasonable price. With honor and emblems I can get alot of gems and to me its like free gold because I'm doing BGs which I really enjoy and honor is so easily gotten. I don't need any more gear from honor.
There was an orange gem cut (durable ametrine) I've gotten 150g-179g for. Which at this point in the game I think is a very good price.
daldriada said... May 28, 2010 at 1:11 AM
decline?
lichbloom 43g! /stack
adders 25-30g /stack
icethorn 25g /stack
talandras/clovers/etc 15-20g stack
titanium 300g/stack
saronite ore 17-20g
borean 20-30g
arctic 75-80g
lotus 21g each
ragnaros us.
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