Growing up I was a huge baseball fan. One of the biggest moments of a game was when it was two outs, bottom of the ninth and the good guys (or course your team) was behind 2-1.
Up came the star slugger who you knew was able to hit the home run. The Batter would go up to the plate, stare at the pitcher. And then strike out swinging (okay, I fess up, have been a Cubs fan for years now).
But the Warcraft Auction house is a game of multiple hits and misses. Every item we post up on the board for sale is either going to be a hit or a miss. It could be a single, a double, or even a homerun. Or a complete strike out. Only to go back to relist again. Taking another swing for the fences. If we escape with a sales batting average of .500 then we are doing pretty well.
But a good philosphy for a Auction house junkie is to look at what the market will support. How many times have we seen someone asking 10k for a Soul Blade. Knowing that the economy wouldn't support anything above 7k for that same item.
Or looking at home many people offer to sell a Darkmoon Card: Volcano for 9k gold when the deck itself is selling for 7000g. A wise auctioneer is going to know that it's not the big ticket items that's going to amass their fortunes. It's going to be the consistant sales of PVP armors and enchanting scrolls that will add up faster to fortune and ethereal gold to burn.
Case in point. (real life example of my own sales)
I consistently sell Mechano-hogs on my server for 18.5k. Usually selling one or two a week. Every so often someone will list one at 23k to sell. This may raise my prices to around 19.0 to dig a little bit of money from the pockets of the buyers. But 23k gold is usually going to leave that item on the AH shelf
for a long time. Profit to me ends up being around 2,500 to 3,000g per item sold. Profit to item not sold multiple times on the AH. Zero.
The same is attached to lower valued items. Landslide enchant is best in slot enchant for multiple classes. Depending on server and raid health these sell consistently for 1,2 to 2.0 k per server. Every so often the well runs dry with nothing listed and immediately someone posts up a landslide enchant for 4,000g. Is there a possibility of it selling at that price? Of course, but there is also a possibility that the pitcher will hit a Grand slam. Unless your the opposing picture for the cubs then it seems to happen every year.
Small Ball
Billy Beane (watch the movie Money Ball) introduced the concept of it's not just the strength of your players, but where they fit into a larger function as a whole. Knowing the roles of the players and just what their strengths and weaknesses fit into the team concept. Same ideals apply to making gold in World of Warcraft. Will five or six sales at a smaller amount equal more profits than one outrageously priced item that rarely sells. This ends up especially true on materials used for crafting that can be replenished.
One of the strengths of this idea is the use of historical data. Not just what is found in auctioneer or
word of mouth. But experience form your previous sales. Data published by wowhead.com or more specific data from Undermine Journal can add multiple sales and multiple amounts of profit to your personal characters coffers. Leaving those looking for the big large sales in the dust as your items continually fly off the shelves.
As markets start to get tighter and tighter in sales. The importance of turning over items for quicker profits become that much more necessary. Knowledge becomes your weapon and experience becomes your savior.
Am I still rooting for the Cubs? Well I'm still a fan. And I will still root at times for the homerun, but pray that maybe the double will happen sometime in my life.
Happy selling on the AH.
Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at "@Dragonbearjoe" or leave a comment here. Would love to know how your experience with this tip works out.
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