Are you being pushed out of a market by a bully? Are you new to the auction house? Is there someone on your server who's literally swimming in gold? Is competition fierce on your server? Why not try talking to that other someone? Try contacting your competition, you literally have nothing to lose; if you're new to the AH game you'll most likely learn a trick or two from them and if you're already a goblin you'll be able to seize up your competition, perhaps even know how much stock they have, or other great information.
I've been there before, there was a big bully on my server who was controlling the glyph market, and when I mean he controlled the glyph market what did I do? I started talking to him, slowly at first you just asking him some questions such as; "Hey, I've just started with the AH do you have any tips? " 70-80% of people will most likely be helpful and the others, they'll probably not respond.
If you're friendly to people they'll most likely be friendly back. I remember when I first asked the competitor I mentioned above how much gold he was making per day, he straight out told me amount and to be quite frank I was shocked. I wouldn't of known how much he was making per day if I didn't try talking to him, after a couple days of just chatting with the guy, he added me to his "whitelist" ( He wouldn't undercut me anymore ). Good stuff isn't it? Comes to show how nice people can be to new and aspiring goblins.
If you're really frustrated with someone that's just bullying or undercutting you like a maniac ( Prncesspwn had this issue with someone.. >.> ) add them to your friends list and try talking with them, get their reasoning, ask them how much stock they have, ask them if they're willing to sell you their stock, ask them anything you want and you'll most likely get an answer back. Remember folks, information is key when you're making gold in World of Warcraft, without it you're a lost fish in a huge ocean.
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7 comments: on "Why You Should Contact Your Competition"
Luzianus said... May 16, 2011 at 9:57 AM
Contacting my opponent has always been a good way to get rid of uninformed undercutter.
I have had a few troubles with a competitor, who constantly undercut my engineer pets. Everytime I posted my personal xy (dunno the name now) for 600g (quite cheap), he undercut me with 200-250g. This still nets him some profit (about 30g he said), but since they don't sell fast, this was getting on my nerves. I talked to him and told him about the current flow of economy for this pet. He was willing to raise his prices to a minimum of 550g and limit his stock to 3. This way, I was also posting 3 for the same price and we both sold them quite frequently.
He got the advantage of a much higher income (he thought it wouldn't sell for this price ^^) and I got the advantage of getting my normal income for this market again. This way, we both got something out of this.
Just talk to each other friendly. Not everyone in this game is a mean little kid ;)
Rèflux @ Crushridge said... May 16, 2011 at 10:12 AM
While I suppose this isn't a bad idea, I can't imagine how most goblins would be willing to give up their market share to a newbie. Advice? Sure. But setting an expectation that someone might add you to their white list in the glyph market? I hate to raise the BS flag, because I really enjoy this site and have learned a lot from it but I consider myself a pretty nice guy and I wouldn't do that in a million years.
At least on my server, the main players in the glyph market (myself included) have been smart enough to leave the most popular glyhs in the 199-300g range. For example, all of my glyphs have a fallback of 269g with a floor of 25g. I have TSM set to queue glyphs only with a profit of 125g+ at current buyout. I could make more I suppose, if I crafted less expensive glyphs as well, but frankly, when I'm sitting at 500,000g, I don't feel like putting in the extra effort to craft more.
Since my money making is predicated by selling maybe a couple dozen glyphs per day, with maybe a third or so falling into that 200-300g range, why would I cut my own throat by whitelisting someone and losing those sales?
Maybe I'm focusing to narrowly on that aspect of your post, but it just seemed kind of silly to me.
Anonymous said... May 16, 2011 at 10:42 AM
Someone started talking to me on MFC's. It kind of made me feel good that I was having enough of a dent in his market for him to take notice. He said we should agree to not undercut each other. I agreed. I wonder if he realized that I was watching his posting habits on TUJ... he switched to posting on another toon and was only putting up a fraction of what he used to. Keep my prices static so he can undercut and profit.
Sure, try and work with someone. But, don't be blind.
Zamboni said... May 16, 2011 at 3:46 PM
The only competitors that send me message all start out by bragging about how they're going to drive me out of business. Then we have short bloody trade war until they drop the profession or transfer back to the Alliance side where it's safe.
It's been literally years since I've have a non-threatening message from the competition. Everyone is hardcore goblin now, I guess.
Saffronia said... May 16, 2011 at 9:12 PM
My most serious competitor has tried to drive me out of business and even offered to pay me to stop selling glyphs.
He reported me to Blizzard once because he thought I was botting glyphs.
When he first got Tradeskill Master and bragged that he'd put me out of business, I reacted by posting every glyph I had for 85 gold. OK that was a bad move--the auction house suffered low glyph prices for a few days.
Eventually, this guy gave me a Hurricane Deck and I gave him cards and books of glyph mastery. He is a serious competitor who I enjoy the heck out of competing with. We both make alot of gold.
On the other hand, some peeps have whispered me and cursed me out for undercutting them. They come and go
and don't wanna babysit their lowball glyph posts and then cry coz they got undercut.
I undercut lowballers now and then just to frustrate them. They are not competitors.
True competition realy do compete with you by undercutting 1 copper to 10 gold and they take their trade seriously.
Aidan said... May 17, 2011 at 7:57 AM
After coming back to Cataclysm in December, I decided to enter the glyph market.
Using TSM and reposting 1-3 times a day, stocking 5 of each profitable glyph, takes a decent amount of time to keep up. I noticed quite quickly that one other player was reposting as regularly (or more) as me. I've spent many an evening passing him continuously between the mailbox and AH.
I read this post yesterday and thought I'd try to contact him, which I did last night. It was actually a very successful endeavour. He was a very nice chap, we had a good chat. We both used TSM and added each other to our respective white lists and I'm hoping we'll make just as much money whilst saving a significant amount of time.
Thanks for the post, it was a real eye opener.
Skyfangs said... June 4, 2011 at 5:59 PM
I thought i would also mention that do not overlook that perhaps you can allow your competition to take the burden by selling your stock to them. See as for me i was selling massive amount of gems and i was hitting inferno ruby cuts(like delicate,bold,and brilliant) and the rare but desired shadowspirit diamond(agile,reverberating,and burning) for about 48-50g each. He finally contacted me asking if i would be willing to sell to him directly for what im already selling for 50g each. It now helps me avoid the 5% cut in the ah,allows me to reinvest any deposites into more ores, and he even pays me a bonus. He makes his big sales and cross faction trades. Ive done this for a couple days now and i made a profit of 20k in a couple days time.
Its insane to think ill do an average of 10k a day profit(20k in 2 days=10k a day average and this is pure profit not investment plus profit), but its a good way to unload stock.
I also intend to ask him and my other buyer who takes enchanting materials how much shadowspirits they want at a time and i make them accordingly. Since i have an xmute master i dont have to always use the full amount of materials to get em.
Basically before i type a wall of text here all im saying is that sometimes its good to just let your competition buy you out instead of always just trying to buy them out.If your goal is to become one of top sellers on TUJ then this isnt the best path, but as long as your buyers dont demand you supply everyday, then this could be a better way. I wish to exercise warning however though is to make sure you have a backup plan.
This obviously may not work in some markets though.
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