I decided to be an absolute jerk and do something so wrong, so EVIL, it couldn't possibly come from a standup auctioneer like me. I took the Arrow/Bullet scam and transformed it into something much much worse...
The ZOMG-WTF-PRICING scam is just down right wrong. Don't worry, I will show you how to get around someone who uses this scam but first let me show you why it is so evil...
I bought 5 stacks of arrows for 7 gold each. I then posted 500 individual arrows for 1 silver and 500 individual arrows for 25 gold. Next I posted my remaining stacks of arrows for 30 gold per 1000.
Anyone who wants to buy arrows at normal values now has to go through 10 pages of auctions before they reach the prices they want, regardless of whether they sort by lowest buyout or shortest buyout price.
What's worse, my auctions up for 30 gold each don't seem so bad considering the time they save having to go through and find the normally priced arrows!
Ok I had my fun posting this ridiculous scam, here's how you get around it...
In the snatch tool simply set the price you'd like to buy arrows for and do a scan. Next sort by buyout and viola, you have your normally priced arrows.
Check the youtube version of this video!
Today's actual post was on frozen orbs.
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22 comments: on "I Done A Bad Thing Selling Arrows..."
BIFENAA said... January 4, 2010 at 8:36 PM
i dont get it.. wouldnt people see the 1 silver arrows and buy those instead of the 30g arrows? it just doesnt make sense to me
Anonymous said... January 4, 2010 at 9:46 PM
Selling stacks of 100 arrows/bullets for the same price as what people are selling stacks of 1000 for is NOT a scam. Continuing to say it won't make it so.
The interface, both with and without Auctioneer, clearly shows there is a difference in the two stacks.
Markco said... January 4, 2010 at 10:00 PM
Relying on someone to mistake your item for a larger stack is a scam. Sorry but saying it isn't won't make it not a scam. If people had a reason to buy 100 arrows instead of 1000 then you'd have a point. But they don't.
Anonymous said... January 5, 2010 at 12:29 AM
What's the difference between that and selling Ice Cold Milk, Holiday Spices, vendor recipes, vendor pets, and other vendor items at ridiculous markups?
It's essentially the same thing: relying on the buyer to not bother paying attention to what they are doing.
Now you'll argue that you're just providing a service for a buyer who can't be arsed to look up which vendor to buy those items from, and charging a premium for the service. But you're still ripping off/scamming the customer by doing so.
You really can't have it both ways. Either they're both scams, or they're both not(I say the latter). They both rely on the same two things: the buyer not knowing any better and the seller setting prices for commonly available items WAY over actual cost and market value.
Anonymous said... January 5, 2010 at 2:56 AM
Erm...so first you 'end the arrow-scam debate'(witch I absolutely didn't care about tbh) and now you start doing your own scam? Well, one could debate if it's a scam, but at least you call it a scam. So you get pissed at other people for scamming, and now you admit you're trying to do the same?
Anyway, this trick might work on stupid people(who deserve it tbh) but it probably won't work on people who play the AH themselves, as they'll just use whatever addon they have to buy stuff at the cheapest price.
Anonymous said... January 5, 2010 at 3:39 AM
How are you posting 500? The auction house will not let me post more than 40 of any given stack size (i.e. 40x1, 40x2, 40x3...)
Anonymous said... January 5, 2010 at 3:57 AM
"Selling stacks of 100 arrows/bullets for the same price as what people are selling stacks of 1000 for is NOT a scam. Continuing to say it won't make it so."
Nobody would buy your overpriced stack of 100 arrows unless by mistake or carelessness, so yes it is a scam.
maingauche said... January 5, 2010 at 5:02 AM
ok this scam really ONLY works if buyer is using auctioneer, and is blind or stupid.
The easiest way to avoid it is to sort your prices by PCT column, the 100 stacks for same price as 100 will show as 1000% or thereabouts, and you can easily see which arrows are overpriced.
I actually made a ton of cash from inverting this method. As an engineer, I can produce these bullets and surmise that these guys selling 100 at half the price of a full stack are eating into my sales, so I list 100 stacks of 100 at the right price, about a 1.5g ( a full stack sells for 10-15g on my server.)
Now if you list you see the lower priced 100 stacks and nobody hopefully is going to buy some scammers at 6-10 times the normal price.
Then you might get the idiot, like I did, who thinks I'll just buy the cheap arrows and relist them at the scam price. Sure go ahead, 100g profit in my hip pocket then I reach into my current stock of 500,000 bullets sitting in my bank and relist another 100 stacks of 100, perhaps 200, see how many you're willing to buy to sell the odd stack to the odd idiot. I sold him 500g worth before he stopped buying them and got the message.
Easiest way to deal with the gobbos trying to scam my hunter customers is to cut their prices down and make it as hard as possible for people not to see the inflated prices. Then if they are still daft enough to buy them, hey theres no cure for the terminally stupid.
Anonymous said... January 5, 2010 at 6:13 AM
I'd just like to say, even though I normally tend to agree with the more 'Goblinish' ideas, I agree with Marcko on this one. Posting stacks of anything with the sole intention that people will buy it because they think its something else, is surely a scam.
Whether its wrong to do so in a game is another matter though, that I'm not so sure about. If the aim of the game is to make gold, and no rules are being broken is it wrong to do?
But, having said that, I do think its a bit low and not something I would feel the need to do.
Anonymous said... January 5, 2010 at 6:39 AM
Auctionator will combine all auctions together and list the items by price from low to high per individual item. Flood all you want like this. It doesn't have an affect on people who use the right tools. Most people don't have the tools, though, so you will make money...
Æsir said... January 5, 2010 at 8:26 AM
Markco, i have been reading you for quite some time, and i am subscribed to you through the google reader feed thing. The thing is, Auction lite might not be so widely known, but it can trim through your overload of the AH, and get the cheapest item on that category even if it is on the 1000th page.
Keep up the good work, although i miss those videos of farming spots, "Hi this is Markco from just my two copper dot com" ;).
Dawn said... January 5, 2010 at 9:01 AM
My husband accidentally posted 12 individual arrows for 8 gold and 99 silver a few days ago (the price stacks were selling for). There's no problem seeing these were individual arrows, no missing zeros or anything. They all sold. Sometimes the consumer is just plain dumb. My husband's mistake turned into primo profit.
Markco said... January 5, 2010 at 9:27 AM
Come on mr anonymous even you should be able to tell I'm doing this for conversation purposes only. When the auctions expire I'll relist normally.
@AESIR - Subscribe to my youtube channel for more farming spots and guides :D
Vlakarados said... January 5, 2010 at 12:21 PM
damn, I've tried something similar about 12 hours ago, when I read and watched your video.
Bought a stack(x1000).
Posted x100 arrows for 50+copper each - that's the normal price on my server if you multiply by 1000, and I've posted about 150 arrows for 2.5g. and in stacks of 50 I've posted 350 more for 5g.
Few minutes ago I came home, launched wow and saw 40-50 arrows bought for 50copper and then I went to AH to check deals, that will arrive soon. I've sold about 30 arrows for 2.5g each to a person with the name that translates to English as "Unfair" or "Dishonest".
Well, I thought that what I did really worked - My 50copper arrows took the attention and when this person saw that price rises up from coppers to golds he bought them.
2.50g arrow each if 1000 was 5g... that was like 50000% profit I guess?
Vlakarados said... January 5, 2010 at 12:33 PM
and by the way, to not get fooled like that the best thing is to sort things by price for each unit. I use AuctionLite like Æsir.
Villainus said... January 5, 2010 at 12:38 PM
I've been posting single Iceblade Arrows since a few days into the 3.3 Patch and will have a big post about it soon on my blog.
Basically they sell. And they sell well. I'm on a recorded experiment of turning 1g(2 Crystallized Shadow) into 7,000g.
So far I've made almost 1800g with the single arrows and have BeanCounter screenshots to prove it, along with a Hall of Fame for all toons that purchased them and even some that bought on multiple occasions.
Wiggin said... January 5, 2010 at 1:10 PM
Sheesh, if I were you Markco I would remove the ability to post anonymously...all these anon idiots are hard to keep track of!
Even better, do something like Tobolds and actually require a gmail account (or some other variation) beyon just a written name (what I currently do now, but don't mind changing) because you know those cleve Anons now will only write their name as Anon later.
Back to the topic. People are missing the point of the post! The post isn't about what is right or wrong anymore, its about market strategies, and even more importantly, finding a way to give consumers what you want, while eliminiating competition...the best of both worlds.
the "scams" are about benefiting the seller at the cost of the consumer, while your strategies still benefit the seller, while still giving the consumer what they want. Win-win.
Unknown said... January 5, 2010 at 3:27 PM
Anonymous (January 5, 2010 2:56 AM):
You say, "What's the difference between that and selling Ice Cold Milk, Holiday Spices, vendor recipes, vendor pets, and other vendor items at ridiculous markups?... It's essentially the same thing: relying on the buyer to not bother paying attention to what they are doing."
I think you could have a legitimate argument with regard to ice cold milk, but selling vendor recipes and vendor pets is not "relying on the buyer to not bother paying attention". It's relying on the buyer to be too lazy to go all the way out to Netherstorm to get a mana wyrmling from Dealer Rashaad or blow their hearth to take the port to Exodar to get a moth, only to be stuck there until a charitable mage wanders by.
It had never even occurred to me that people that sell vendor pets, etc. at mark-up are hoping buyers won't know the fair value. Are people really that stupid?
I guess they probably are. :(
Anonymous said... January 5, 2010 at 6:29 PM
darnit markco there must be a guy on my server who comes to your blog because at about 9 am yesterday morning i lol'ed at the post then log on to check and see if my arrow auctions sold (i just post em on my engineer at 1000 stacks and there is about 2,000 auctions ofr 1 iceblade arrow but this guy is posting em for 50s buyout
Sarian said... January 7, 2010 at 12:33 AM
i am tried of this argument that its not scam its is why because the guy who buys a cold milk from the AH buys so because either he does not know they are available form vendor or they are just lazy. but the people who are buying 100 stack thinking its 1000 knows what they want and are expecting to buy 1000.
There is really a lot of difference between the two and i am not sure why people cant seem to see it. the one who buys the milk from AH with out knowing its original price may laugh at himself after knowing it available for 10c.your are selling him what he wants to buy which is not the case with the arrows. i think its a ripping of people. simply wrong........
Anonymous said... January 7, 2010 at 10:21 AM
That you just do it once doesn't matter. If you think it's a scam, then don't do it if you're pretending you hate scams. That's the point. You made a post about guys who would 'do anything to hit the gold cap' like they were pathetic for using this scam. Now you are doing it yourself. And it doesn't matter how many times you do it.
yeno said... August 14, 2010 at 3:51 PM
Are extreme or unusual Auction House prices allowed?
Extreme or unusual Auction House prices are allowed. The developers feel they have put in place sufficient measures in aiding players to make informed purchases at the Auction House. It is the responsibility of the player to make intelligent purchases at the Auction House to ensure a fair price. Be diligent about which items you decide to purchase and the costs associated with each item. Always confirm the cost of the item before bidding or purchasing. As such, we regret to inform you that we are unable to offer a restoration of the money that you may spend at the Auction House.
The World of Warcraft scamming policy can be found here
Solution ID: 16808
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