Written by: Nick.
Imagine you are a kid and you are walking down the cereal aisle. You notice that there are
two different things of your favorite cereal, Cookie Crisp. The first is $4.50 for 12 oz of cereal.
The second one is $5.50 for 14 oz of cereal and comes with a FREE Super Secret Decoder
Ring inside. If you are that kid, you want that free toy and would be willing to pay that little
bit more for the little bit of extra cereal to get the free toy (well your parents would). In
economics, we call it the negative cost of zero, but in WoW, it's your best friend.
Using FREE.
You may have noticed that I don't like to compete by undercutting my competition. I think it
leads to an arms race of who can go broke first. I do like to find ways to increase my price
and still make the sell and have people willing to pay me happily to do so. Lately, I've been
selling Greater Planar Essences, but the price has dropped on my server to a low of 9g a pop.
That's brutal on my margins. A Blue Linen Shirt costs me less than 25s on bad days. Combine
the two and you get the following pitch to post in General/Trade chat.
Selling [Greater Planar Essence] for 12g. If you buy 1, I'll expand your wardrobe so
you look flashy around Stormwind by including a [Blue Linen Shirt] FREE. That's right
FREE. Buy 5 or more and get a [Red Swashbuckler's Shirt] FREE instead.
Nine times out of 10, I get a whisper with an offer or someone asking if I can throw in a
different shirt color instead. Either way, contact is made and I can start negotiating with the
person to ensure I make a sale. The other thing you'll notice is I put FREE after the item
because people remember the first part of what they read and the last part of what they
read, but rarely inbetween. I want them to become excited by the FREE and willing to pay
me more for my items. In this case I got rid of a shirt. Not everyone needs a new shirt and
most people wouldn't even consider buying a new one. It's the negative aspect here (you
don't need it, it takes up bag space), but by marking it worth the word free, you change the
context of the conversation and the attitude towards what you are selling.
So poke around through your banks and bags and find some junk you don't want that people
might want if it was free. It just might make you a little more money today.
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7 comments: on "Wow Free Trash!"
Anonymous said... August 14, 2011 at 9:27 AM
Very nice post and idea. +1
Anonymous said... August 14, 2011 at 10:13 AM
I like this concept. It makes sense because I can relate. I did want to spend an extra $1.20 for a crappy toy that costs $.10 to make. Same idea behind kids meals. The toy makes it worth it. Ask any child.
Darth Solo said... August 14, 2011 at 11:44 AM
Hah that's a great idea! I've never tried something like it but it would totally work. On the other hand you do have to waste more time advertising that stuff and negotiating with people. That's why I never really engaged in person-to-person trade on a frequent basis.
Mark said... August 14, 2011 at 7:11 PM
first non trashy post on here in a while, gj :)
Rodos said... August 14, 2011 at 7:29 PM
I have to agree Darth. The time taken to bark, negotiate and trade is rarely worth it for me. Especially for an item worth a handful of gold.
The concept is sound though. I wonder if anyone has put together a "preferred outfit" for motorcycle riding that I could give away free with chopper purchases. Driving a sale that nets me a couple of large is not a waste of time.
Nick said... August 14, 2011 at 9:13 PM
Thanks guys for the comments.
@Rodos
It's a bit expensive (like 20g or so depending on your server) since it's mageweave, but the Black Mageweave set works well. Just combine that with some specks from Engineering and bam! biker. I'm sure if you combined the whole thing as one specialized BIKER sale though you could easily cover the cost of the Black Mageweave Leggings and Vest you'd need for the biker look. Maybe Boots too.
WoWMidas said... August 15, 2011 at 9:47 PM
Cute but a total waste of time. In the time it takes you to bark, negotiate, blablabla to make 50g profit, I've listed 20 rare JC pieces, at least 3 of which will sell, for over 500g profit.
Unless of course you don't have a high level toon, in which case your moneymaking options are more limited.
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