I get this question constantly, and the answer is always going to be the same: At market value. Too many players, even after having read this blog, the forums, bought the gold guide, etc post their items at the lowest possible value currently on the auction house. Trying to undercut in order to 'sell items faster' is not a wise business decision! If posting at market value means you won't make a sale than either your market value is incorrect or you shouldn't post at all! Letting a handful of undercutters decide the price of your item is foolish, instead you should figure out what the demand for an item is and then set your price accordingly. If there are a dozen frostweave bags at 35 gold but you know the market value is 42 gold, as well as the average number of bags sold per day are around thirty, then you would be making a wise business decision posting about eight bags for 42 gold. If you dump fifty bags on the auction house for 34 gold each then you are throwing away gold!
If you have a problem with posting items at market value instead of the lowest current value, perhaps you need to slow down your auction house mentality. This is not a game where impulsive moves make the most gold, in fact you would love to take advantage of all the people who do make impulsive moves!
Some markets you do want to post at the lowest value because demand is so low for the item in question. This would include items like saronite swordbreakers, which I sell for 3.6k gold and the mats cost me anywhere from 1,000 to 1,600 gold depending on if I get the orbs for free from badges. If someone else posts a swordbreaker then I will relist mine for 12 hours just a bit cheaper than their item. I normally only see a sale on this item once every 1-2 days, so there's no way I want to wait for my competition's saronite swordbreaker to sell first!
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14 comments: on "What price should I post my items at?"
Anonymous said... January 18, 2010 at 8:55 AM
So if a stack of netherweave goes for 5 Gold and a Netherweave Bag goes for 18, I shouldn't post a gazillion of them at 11G (which all sell in the 12 hours I posted them for)?
If you are leveling your first character (ever), then I guess you'd realy appreciate the person that doesn't want to milk you dry for every copper you got. So making twice the investment, is more then enough I'd say.
I also read Greedy Goblin, but I'd like to know your opinion on his "walmart" approach (minimum profit per good but huge amounts of goods)
Anonymous said... January 18, 2010 at 9:23 AM
Orbs for free from badges? That hardly seems free.
David Mancilla said... January 18, 2010 at 10:05 AM
-- which I sell for 3.6k gold and the mats cost me anywhere from 1,000 to 1,600 gold depending on if I get the orbs for free from badges
The orbs are not "free" if you farm/trade emblems for them.
Markco said... January 18, 2010 at 12:45 PM
Orbs are free because I have no use for the badges on my warrior. I don't farm them, just use any that I happen to have on me to get the orbs.
Markco said... January 18, 2010 at 12:56 PM
@First anonymous - I sell bags for 8 gold threshold, 20 gold fallback. I buy netherweave for 7 gold or less. I also never post more than 20 bags because I know there isn't the demand on my server to buy more than 40-60 bags a day.
Some days I may appear to be 'walmart' but most of the time I'm selling for way more profit than I would be selling with your mentality all the time.
Cold said... January 18, 2010 at 2:02 PM
I recently posted a similar idea on my site. href='http://coldsgoldfactory.blogspot.com/2010/01/overnight-market.html' The Overnight Market
As far as the "free" orbs. That's just plain wrong. You have to consider the Cost to Create vs the Cost of the Materials required. Isn't the whole value of the item the sum of its parts? On the other hand, if you are outpricing the materials, someone else can just gather them off of the AH and tip a crafter to make it for them and undercut you.
You say the Orbs are free, but its not about what you paid for them, it's about what you could have sold them for that determines there value.
So using that same illogic, since I farmed my own eternals, orbs, and ores, did my own smelting, and crafted it myself, then I could be selling Swordbreakers for 200g and still be making 100% profit?
I could have sold the Orbs alone for 200-225g each. Your reasoning is just plain wrong and caught me very off guard coming from someone of your supposed caliber.
Anonymous said... January 18, 2010 at 3:41 PM
I think the difference between a goblin and someone like marco is patience. Marco will wait on a item for a month or more to make gold, to sell it at a better price.
Where as a goblin will just put it up at a low price just to sell it, make thier gold, and move on. They usually farm thier own mats, so what they sell is all "profits" in a way (depending on time).
I'm usually a mix of the two, just depends on an item. Though the dirt cheap prices of glyphs sometimes annoy me. lol. so I just do what I can, when I can, and ruin other markes for them that they try to go into. :)
Indy said... January 18, 2010 at 4:54 PM
I still wouldn't call them 'free' as they can also be used to buy epic gems. Now, I'm sure you're completly gemmed out... and perhaps you know you won't be getting any more gear to put new ones in. But the gems still sell fairly well as far as I can tell...
If the orbs sell for more than 1.5x the price of gems, then that's a good way to go. I still wouldn't consider them 'free' though.
Indy said... January 18, 2010 at 4:56 PM
(Oops... forgot one point... 1.5x the price of the secondary color gems, or 0.75x the price of the primary color gems; since gems go for 10 or 20 badges depending on the color.)
Markco said... January 18, 2010 at 5:41 PM
Cold you are 100% correct. The orbs are technically not "free." I am basically making 150-200 gold per orb. Since orbs are currently selling on my server for 150 gold I would much rather buy them with badges and craft then resell. Whether I sell a 200 gold orb or a 200 gold gem make no difference to me.
Keep in mind that these epics are rapidly becoming too cheap to make good money off of, so I bought the orbs in order to sell quickly and cheaply. I could of bought gems but I felt that I had more than enough of those and wanted to diversify a little bit.
Unknown said... January 18, 2010 at 5:52 PM
At what point do you start buying out those undercutters, and posting their goods at a profit? 50% and under?
I like selling the JC daily (dark jade,chalcedony,shadow crystal)gems and there is a pretty high supply with the huge amount of JC'ers on the server. While rares there is always seems to be 10 under cutters and 3-4 bulk sellers.
Additionally glyphs tend to get driven down to 2-4g each fairly regularly (lots of competition). If there isn't any competition I can manage sales of 15-45g depending.
So is it worth stocking up on the competitions low costs, and saving my mats for lulls in supply. Or is it better off slow selling my own stock 3-5 a post? Any suggestions/tips be great.
Anonymous said... January 19, 2010 at 4:21 AM
Ok...
Point 1: Orbs are NOT free. You can sell them on the auctionhouse. If that's more profit, you're losing profit now. If it's less profit you should buy them from the ah. You can get them cheap, and you're not doing it!
Point two: Farmed mats are not free either. You can farm your mats for time yet, but if you craft something with it, you should see if the orginal mats sell for higher then the item you just created. So not free, as you can sell them for money on the AH.
Even if you know you won't need the emblems it would be stupid to waste them when you can buy them for cheaper from the AH.
wiggin said... January 19, 2010 at 1:31 PM
someone else should crucify Marcko about orbs being not free :)
This post should also mention the use of Auctioneer, but knowing how much an item sells for also comes with experience. My go to, thorium ore, has sold between 15g and 100g a stack within the last 4 months alone.
It comes down to trusting your auctioneer percentage based price, so long as there hasn't been a change, or an upcoming one to effect a given market.
Anonymous said... January 27, 2010 at 2:21 AM
Eddie, you got the 'goblin' thing completely wrong. Goblins dont farm!
And I have to say I like the 'goblin way' better. Its good as long as you can sell for profit without crashing a market, it doesnt have to be normal/market price.
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