"Hi Marcko
I've spent the last 3 months trying to clear my stock of titansteel bars and it's been so so hard! But I tried doing something different accidentally.
Usually I'd spam all my bars there at one time and I would get tons and tons of undercutters (sometimes even at 70g from 120g).
So i thought, why waste so much coin on deposit? So I posted only 4 every time and waited for them to get sold.
And i tried doing that for other items too.
And for some crazy reason, ALL OF THEM GOT SOLD.
Please explain. :S
Regards,
Khairy Farhan"
Welcome to the next level of auctioneering Khairy! You don't realize it yet but you've really matured in your selling methods simply by not posting every single item you possess at once. The same theory works on bags, epics and everything in between. What you were doing is called flooding and it truly effects markets. More items the lower the price (which also means undercutting below your own price), less items higher the price and faster demand will take care of items posted below your price.
Simple economics my friend, welcome to a whole new world ;)
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6 comments: on "All my items sold... why?"
Archangel said... June 30, 2010 at 10:06 AM
I can't explain what was happening on your server, but it looks very similar with the same behavior on mine. What actually happen is that every few days, sometimes on specific days and time of day, the AH simply goes empty (or very close to be empty) for one or few goods, that usually are in high demand. Two factors contribute to that : 1. the AH players ignore the market and not post for a while (who wants to post the titansteel bars at 70g, pff..) and 2. there is a huuuge demand of goods at one particular time in one particular day. People act crazy. There are days (I swear) everybody comes home, log in to wow and they all want to craft/buy something. Low supply / High demand meet for say few hours or so. This is Paradise I tell you.
This is happening on my server and so far it seems I'm the only one noticing it, because my competition certainly does not act towards it. One example of such period to watch for is Monday. I can only guess that people don't repost goods on Sunday evening/night, because they are all fed up with the price wars during the weekend. Such the minimum buyouts for Sunday night are so very low. What happen the next day is that auctions posted Sat (all day)/Sun (morning/noon) expire. And what managed to be posted Sunday evening is a small quantity. The early people that come home on Monday will buy what is left on the AH, thus even buying your 4 bars of titansteel for 120g.
When I come home on such days, I see my Nightmare Tear's were sold for 130g a piece, while as I look at the AH they are now listed for 85g a piece. Same with other goods in high demand.
I use this information and when I anticipate such days (a trained eye can see that by watching trade for example - I can go in detail if needed) I don't hesitate to post 20 titansteel bars for 120g, when the lowest buyout is say 75g.
Once there was no infinite dust on the AH, exactly because of the behavior I just described. It took me by surprise too, luckily I always have some reserve. I managed to sell 50 infinite dust for 11g a piece till the competition woke up and flooded the market. For 2 hours no one posted more dust, but you could see 5-6 people near the mailbox in Ironforge, frenetically disenchanting stuff. It was in the high time of the saronite shuffle and I have screen shots to prove that.
Anyway as I said, this is what is happening on my server, and maybe it will give you another idea about what might happen on yours :)
Neil.Reynolds said... June 30, 2010 at 10:49 AM
You have to consider your competitors. If they believe about 20 bars are bought every day, and you undercut them with 30+ bars, then they have no other choices but resigning themselves to selling nothing or undercutting you back _NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU UNDERCUT THEM_.
If you only post 4, they can wait for yours to sell first; they might prefer to wait till yours sells, because they'd rather not sell for less. You don't give them that option if you flood.
And if you undercut by alot, new sellers might post for above your price, but below the next guy; they couldn't if you had sold 30.
You didn't say in the post if you used to sell bars in stacks of 1. People making things with titansteel usually need precise amounts, and don't want to buy stacks. They might snatch up stacks when the price is cheap, but if they're paying top dollar, it's because they need it now, and they need just a few. If you have to dump 20 titansteel, and don't want to annoy people with 20 stacks of size 1, try 5 stacks of 1 and 3 stacks of 5 each (or some such arrangement that allows people to buy what they want from you, rather than pay a little more to buy what they want from your competitor).
Buying too much, and reselling the extra, even at the same price, involves at least a 5% loss of money due to auction fees (plus time, and risk of not selling) so people will gladly pay 3-4% to get just what they need.
I apologize to Markco for reiterating his advice; I thought it was important to explicitly suggest considering your opponent's reactions.
It's not only price, but stacksize and quantity that affects how the next seller/buyer reacts to your sale. Ideally you want to sell as much as possible without lowering the market, not only because a lower market nets you less money, but because those selling for less, undercutting you, will get your sales.
And you can shift 1.5-2 times as much on a Tuesday (on US servers, after they come back up)
Wiggin said... June 30, 2010 at 4:09 PM
I think there is more to this issue than the writer simply having flood the market...there is also a perception from the buyer.
There has been a long running debate on whether the buyer only cares about price, or if there are other "intangibles" that might influence a purchase.
A buyer might ignore the guy selling items for 5g 99s 99c and just buy the guy selling for 6g. (We all hate being undercut, so screw that other guy!)
A buyer might ignore the guy with the name "YourGoldIsMine" and go for the seller with a random/lore name.
Both of these are examples of the buyer being influenced by the seller, without the seller being aware of their impact.
Something similar may have happened, and I believe happens from me from time to time.
By posting dozens or more of a single item, potential buyers may think you are trying to price control the market, and will forgo a purchase expecting competition to lower the price. This, of course, assumes they don't NEED the item right away.
I have found any item has a threshold for the number of posts. Most mats I tend to post no more than 10 if there is little to no competition. Whether it be stacks of ore, lower level gems etc. 8-10 seems to be my butter zone.
Anonymous said... June 30, 2010 at 4:11 PM
I've adapted a similar method of selling with my flasks, especially on Tuesday nights. (And buckles on another server.)
I've even managed to help ONE person on my server understand why she was posting so many things and not getting a sale (despite undercutting me). I didn't mind that she was undercutting me - what we were selling as an 'imported' luxury item and we were turning a HUGE profit. So I told her that if she posted 15-20 of these items, people were less likely to buy them at the high price because "Oh, there's plenty".
It was a risk, but one I'm glad I took. She thanked me for the advice, and started posting just 2 items. I may not be a full-blooded goblin of course - I did not undercut her. I posted 2 of my own at my regular high price. Hers would sell, and then mine would. We both came out 'winners' in this situation.
Now, if only more people would understand that flooding the market is not the best way to handle it.
Louise said... June 30, 2010 at 10:01 PM
Oh this blog is going to help me a lot.
darkocean said... March 15, 2012 at 5:44 AM
I love flooders, i'll grab a page worth, wait a while untill all the under priced stuff sell. (who know a day or so to a few weeks) and put my stuff back up for higher. Boom boom gollllddd *dances*
Did this with gems for gear slots. Was thinking at the time OMG how am I going to sell all of these?! Am glad i waited ^-^
I must say netherweave bags are a real gold maker man I love them. They always sell! I can put up 2-3 at a time 1g less or sometimes higher then the other sellers.. depends. (I only markup if there is 1-3 of an item for sale.) netheerweave bags are min bread and butter lately.
And of course I sell everything else I can grab my hands on, I farm ore sell that or bars, I grab recipes, blacksmithing recepies, skitmatics, exctra, pets, food, potions, cloth, gear, everything! ^^ 7k in 5 days down not bad considering I was frustrated before with a about 20g to 50g a day blea! I don't go buy "gold per hour" that's silly. I go by gold made per day.. If I log in teh next day and i've made 500 or more gold i;m happy.
Even had a day were I had 1k in a day. (Not much to you maybe but to me it's a vast improvement.)
I'm a new goblin but am quickly learning. :D Going to spend my gold on an epick mount (hey think about this faster mount = getting to ore nodes and places faster. Time is gold right? Faster = more gold yes? So a faster mount can be considered a good investment for a goblin.) and the rest will be to level up my professions to make more gold!
After professions are leveled up am going to make a 2nd guild and turn my 2nd alt into a huge bank toon. Woot!
Thank you so much for this website. I'm having a blast making gold. ^^
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