Picking the correct markets and then actually selling the associated items are two invaluable abilities on the auction house. However, if you don't master the art of picking out the right markets then the latter skill is useless and you'll be left spinning aimlessly in circles.
The world of cataclysm will be a rather diverse one and it will behoove you to read markco-vian economics before jumping into the art of picking your markets. Now, once you've become aclamated with my philosphies on long tail markets vs hits in cataclysm then it's time to narrow down your options into three possibilities:
- Niche Markets
- Frequent Sellers
- Epics
Niche markets are perfectly wonderful on smaller servers when you're lucky enough to possess a rare pattern or just be the first person with one. These markets tend to eventually become crowded once more people hear about them (cough, cough) but can provide a very nice amount of gold while you control them. As more people enter a niche market competition tends to force the price lower and lower but depending on demand you could theoretically continue to make a decent profit, just not as much as you did before when you were lucky enough to be the lone seller. Niche markets are something you invest in moderately and should never have tons of stock waiting to be sold for the simple fact that tomorrow there could be fifty other sellers who heard about your technique. I would suggest getting into these if you can because they can be awesome money makers but don't over do it and don't carry excess stock around.
Frequent sellers are where the real money is made, which is surprising considering the fact that there is usually lots of competition, undercutting and smaller profit margins than the niche markets. Having thousands of small to medium auctions selling every night will make you rich rather quickly and allow you to reinvest the money into getting even more items to sell. The bulk of your money should come from these items and you should keep lots of stock handy for when there are spikes in demand. Knowing when these spikes occur and when to buy cheap are key to mastering frequent sellers in cataclysm.
Epics are a fickle lot. They take a good understanding of why people would buy the epic, how much they would spend and some simple math when it comes to estimating how much you will lose from deposit fees and the auction house cut of your sale. Due to these reasons I would only recommend that you get into epics when you have lots of gold, as in 100k+ and even then you need to be careful because epics will tie up your gold for a long time while they wait to be sold. Players tend to jump into these before really understanding the auction house and get burned by the deposit fees and final transaction fee. Epics should make up more and more of your sales once you have the gold and knowledge to maintain such a flipping enterprise.
What items of these three categories do you sell? Do you diversify or stick to one category?
12 comments: on "Looking for Items to Sell in Cataclysm"
Darth Solo said... November 28, 2010 at 10:15 AM
I'm done messing with epics. That's probably the riskiest market (but also potentially rewarding). For me the risks aren't worth it anymore. It's true that I made a lot of gold flipping Tankard O' Terror the first time they were introduced but that doesn't happen very often.
Noob said... November 28, 2010 at 12:14 PM
Sooooo.....Ive invested into Mithril Ore.....buying a lot thinking it would sell well since it seems to always sell well. Then I see on the AH prices just drop! Prices at 20%-40% and flooded. A little worried I am, I guess you could say, and I understand that the Mithril ore nodes have been upped. I haven't put all of my eggs into one basket, but still.....what to do? And yes this is on/off the topic I know. Love the blog Markco keep up the great work!
Grump said... November 28, 2010 at 12:50 PM
I'm still making the bulk of my gold with crafted epics. Being able to make nearly every epic wrath recipe helps, though. I'm only missing 5 ulduar LWing patterns and the tailoring and LWing ICC patterns. Obviously, the well is about to dry up on this, but I still expect a trickle of sales on these items for a couple months into Cata.
Robert said... November 28, 2010 at 5:21 PM
I have been buying up Argent Tourny pets, at less than 1K. I think these will be a huge seller in Cataclysm.
Anonymous said... November 28, 2010 at 6:53 PM
I also noticed quite some changes on the AH, especially when it comes to herbs and ores. I have a entire bank full of mithril ore and I don't see them getting sold any time soon..
applecord said... November 28, 2010 at 9:42 PM
Hey Marko,
For me option 2 (quick sellers) was my start. By buying low and selling normal, I was able to turn a healty profit on Wrath gems, enchants and flasks. With some great help from some of your tips I was able to pull in 20k in about 2 months. About this time I wanted ICC tank legs for my DK. This led me to discover blacksmithing epics as an auction house option. Over the last 2 months I have made over 60k selling them. I couldnt agree more with you emphasis on know the market before you put down the cash for epics. You must be cautions, but if you do it right, the gold cap is right around the corner. Oh and my dirty little secret is:
I dont even have a blacksmith toon. :)
masterkof said... November 28, 2010 at 9:47 PM
Markco i gonna post a question to you. How to make gold on a market that have lots of gold farmers (oceanic). Usually i find it hard to earn gold in these server as usually most of the stuff is always below cost (of most of the US). For example even the pets market there is alot of pets being flip and they usually cost about 30 - 50% of what people in the gold forum posted when they make money. The glyph market in my server is always packs with 8-10 glyph even on WEEKDAYS.
Kathari said... November 29, 2010 at 12:15 AM
My main money-maker for a long time has been my JC/Alchemist, however I'm taking a break with her until the Cata patterns come out and people start blitzing the new high-level content/raids.
So right now I'm delving into some niche markets. I got tired of trying to sell glyphs with my scribe, the competition on my server is farily stiff with lots of constant undercutters. Being a casual player, I don't really have the energy to keep the pace up with them. But I did notice that hardly anyone was selling inks on my server! I can only guess that this is due to a lot of people being saddled with IotS and unexpectedly getting the option to trade it in taken away with 4.0.3a. So for a few days I've been posting mid-level inks in lots of 3 and selling it rather briskly.
Also, I've been posting and selling a LOT of cosmetic gear. Not too many Tailors on my server bother with that market.
Tarel said... November 29, 2010 at 10:12 AM
I generally stick to constant sellers with high margins. I prefer markets with the 100gold margin and find many of them each expac. People just don't stay in it for the long haul is what I find.
Epics are good at certain times but I pick my spots for them.
Generally I don't go into high comp areas but I have made a fortune in glyphs since patch4 this may change. 300k profit since the patch just seems too easy.
As to cat a, my general strat is to work on my toons to get all profs to max. I have many 80s and all profs. I find selling some items and getting my chars to 85 will be my best strat for long term gold.
The other thing is I don't stockpile many items. I say that with a caveat. My normal stock is high with two guild banks and my buying is on the massive dumps of items that will not greatly change in the long run.
Shamon said... November 29, 2010 at 12:17 PM
For those of you who invested in old world ore I suggest either selling quick before the price drops even more or hold on long enough that it levels out again but that may never happen.
At the moment you have tons of alts all levelling the new races combos combined with a huge increase in nodes which causes the prices to plummet because supply is way higher than demand.
Its also really easy to go out and farm for 30-40 minutes and come back with hundreds of ore.
I went Thorium hunting to Winterspring and you cannot move without having Rich veins pop up on the map!
So increased vein count and alt rolling which is only going to skyrocket once worgen/goblins hit is really going to see the price drop. At least I think so :) Happy selling
Anonymous said... November 29, 2010 at 5:11 PM
I personally Love the epic/rare weapon and armor market. I've done it a long time and have gotten pretty good and knowing what sells and at what price.
One thing I started to do was to add enchants to the items. Fiery (to rares), Crusader (to epics), +STA, +AGI, etc. Really helps to sell your stuff when folks just 1 copper ya.
Over the past 5 days I have made over 50k with gear that was crazy cheap before the shattering. Can't wait for Cata to get here to unload all this crap.
Love the blog.
Nigel said... November 29, 2010 at 10:43 PM
Netherweave bags. I sell them at 12g50s, every day. I now list 8 at a time, any day and they sell. The cloth is 2-4gp a stack every day. Perhaps my name beginning with an A makes the difference as I see bags posted at 9-50gp. It's just amazing. Craft it and post it...it sells and the 9gp guys are always still there.
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