Hello everyone this is XanderEragon. You may have heard me at the JMTC Friday Night Meeting. I have been blogging for almost 3 months now and I’m also a host on the Addicted 2 Azeroth podcast.
This post has a very broad title, so let’s get a little more specific here.
Why do they buy vendor items off the auction house for 100% more than what it is worth from the vendor? Let’s start off with laziness. It may sound like I’m being mean by calling players lazy, but let’s be honest here, how many times have you bought items off the auction house that you know could have been bought from a vendor and you didn’t want to run all the way there because you were in a hurry? I know I have, it just makes it easier. There are a few other reasons as well. Maybe they didn’t do the extra research you did to figure out where to get x item. Or it could be they are just starting out in the game and they have no clue as to what a general goods vendor is or where to find them. Whatever the reason maybe some say that it’s not right to sell vendor items and that you are taking advantage of them. I say hogwash! All it requires to find out how to do any of this is an internet connection and Google. You can find anything on Google now. It’s that simple, so why not take your piece of the pie, because if you don’t someone else will. If you are interested in selling vendor recipes there is a great addon called RecipeProfit which works with GatherMate 2. This addon adds the recipe vendors to your minimap and world map to locate them easier. Back on topic here, so you basically want to take advantage of these players that are simply being lazy.
This leads me into another point of not flooding the auction. Its supply and demand everyone talks about. If you don’t know what that is check out JMTC’s post about it. Basically you want to make it look like there is low supply thus having the demand go up so you can charge higher prices than if the auction house was flooded. This goes into my next point about posting in stack sizes.
Why do players buy certain stack sizes off the auction house? To be honest most players don’t want to have to click 20 times to get 1 stack. Most of the gold makers out there want to save as much time as possible while trying to rake in the most amount of gold. The best saying in the game and my motto as well “Time is money.” This is a very true statement, like I said above if you can save the player 5 minutes of clicking and they can use those 5 minutes to bring in an extra 200-300g then you are going to make an extra 200-300g just because you saved them 5 minutes in the auction house.
Let’s see an example of stack sizes.
I see in the AH that there are 200 stacks of 1 Inferno Ink, but I need 10 to make a Darkmoon Card, but there is also a stack of 15 Inferno Ink. I would rather buy the stack of 15 and then save the other 5 to make another card. Basically I want to click 1 time then click 10 times to get the amount I need. Now selling in stack sizes is very important to get the faster sales. Now let’s look at how to decide to sell in stack sizes.
So when you are selling mats/trade goods you need to ask yourself a question.
Who needs x item and how many do they need to make what? That is kind of confusing so let me break it down like this. A lot of players are dealing in Darkmoon Faire Cards. Let’s say that you are selling Inferno Inks on the auction house. Now the best way to sell these is to target the players making the cards. If you sell in stacks of 10 to target the players that make the cards, you will make more profit and sales by doing so. Like I stated above most players are lazy and don’t want to click 10 times to get 1 stack. So why not make it easier for them and post in stacks of 10? Again you will be able to get more sales this way.
If you can answer this question and tailor your posting to these players, you will make more sales faster than the person selling 200 stacks of 1 at a time, all because you saved that player an extra minute in the auction house.
This is just a few things to ponder when you are doing you daily routine. This is all basic gold making techniques that will separate you from the rest. Just remember to ask yourself the 5 whys, Who, What, Where, Why, When, and How.
- Who would buy it?
- What do they need it for?
- Where can I farm/craft it?
- Why would they buy it?
- When will they need it?
- How many do they need?
Again this is basic gold making here. This will help you keep your gold making techniques fresh and new when joining a new market. So when the next “Get rich idea” comes and tanks, you can still make gold.
7 comments: on "Why They Do What They Do"
Anonymous said... May 16, 2011 at 9:06 AM
In the example of selling inferno inks when a lot of inks are posted in 1's:
I tend to go the other way than posting the full stack (i.e. 10).
I post in stacksizes of 6, thus forcing the buyer to buy 20% more at a higher price than the singles.
Dont know if it works all over - but at my server it does atm.
You could keep it simpler by posting 11 or 12 in a stack - maybe that could turn out just as fine.
XanderEragon said... May 16, 2011 at 10:31 AM
Yea that is very true I guess I should have use a different example lol. But you get the general Idea
Silverthorn said... May 16, 2011 at 10:44 AM
Why is an excellent question to ask! If you find some niche item that players are buying like hot cakes, step back and ask why?
Why do Mystic Amberjewels sell? Because players don't understand the theorycrafters (or never read them) that say it's not worth it to gem for +Resilience. That's just one example.
Why do some of the less common Cata gem cuts still sell? Because people don't know that almost always, they're going to want their primary stat red gem cut in each socket, unless the socket has an exceptional socket bonus.
Which begs another question. Why do players match the socket colors when socketing, when the bonus sucks? I think a large number of players do not know that you can put a red gem in a yellow or blue socket!
I'm using TUJ with the Remote AH and that's huge, simply for snatching, but it also gives you a link to your buyers on the sold auctions section. Use that link and see how your customers are using your items.
Sam-L said... May 16, 2011 at 11:42 AM
What I usually do is look at all the recipes that use the item and choose a size based on that.
Whitewolf said... May 16, 2011 at 12:47 PM
A good topic that makes the reader think.
Targeting your buyers with stack sizes that they actually need, will not only result in your goods being sold first but will often allow you to charge a bit more per item than those who sell only singles.
Certain goods lend themselves to this better than others.
For example, players need 91 chocolate cookies for their achievement. Few casual players have addons to allow for 1-click buying and few would want to go through 91 individual transactions to get what they need. Strategically, it's smarter to just post yours in stacks of 20. They'll buy the first 80 from you and the remaining 11 from other posters, so if ah stock is low, up the price by 20%.
On the other hand, whenever I see that someone has taken the time to post 200 individual herbs, its almost always an attempt to bury better-priced full stacks further down the listings. Mass buyers will skip the singles and page over to the better deals, especially when it comes to markets where supply is quickly renewed.
When posting anything in stacks of more than 1, bear in mind that many players don't use addons to display the cost/item and will rely only on their own wits to see if they're getting a decent price.
Every stackable good has one or more stack-size sweet spots. For example:
Blackfallow Ink: 1,3, 5, 10, 20
Volatile Life: 1, 3, 15, 20, 50, 100, 200
Heavy Savage Leather: 10, 20
Any millable Herb: 5, 10, 20
Any prospectable ore: 5, 10, 20
Again, that's just a short list of some common goods. Note that every number there has some meaning for your potential buyers.
Have fun discovering your own sweet spots.
Anonymous said... May 16, 2011 at 6:47 PM
I like to list volatiles - namely air - in stacks of 30. They seem to sell pretty quickly for dreamcloth makers.
I've been back and forth with a friend who has a whole anti-AH stance about posting vendor items. The way I see it, I'm doing people a favor. Who the flip *wants* to fly out to Zangramarsh to buy a formula? Heck, I make money doing it and *I* don't even like it lol.
Oooooh nooooo, time for another vendor run. Thank goodness for my mage lol.
Anonymous said... May 17, 2011 at 10:55 AM
This is a nice post - thanks. I can think of one clarification/improvement.
"Why" and "what" have similar answers as they are phrased in the post, so I suggest the following change. Instead of "Why do they want it?", I suggest "Why would someone buy it from me?"
I like this rephrasing because it calls attention to considerations like stack-size, pricing and so forth. Plenty of people may be selling "it". Why they would want to buy it from me is an important consideration in a competitive market. Thanks again for a nice post.
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