One of the strongest of techniques in making gold on the auction is "flipping the market."
Here is how it works.
When you're going through a list of items, especially with inscription or jewelcrafting, undercutting will bring items lower and lower. Sometimes the items become so low that it becomes beneficial to purchase all the items that are listed and relist them at a higher price. This resets the market to a more profitable level, as well as gives you a higher profit margin on someone else's materials.
The dreaded math:
Let's say you see six [Forceful Dream Emerald] at 10g a piece
Purchase all the [Forceful Dream Emerald] from the auction house.
Relist them at 125g a piece
It seems like a very simple technique. You sell one, you have made 60+ gold from the first item sold. The rest that you sell ends up being pure profit as well. Undercutting from other crafters and speculators will cut into your expected profits. When all of the items are sold you have made a steady profit with little work.
Now, there are some difficulties with this auction house technique. And it becomes very easy to get lost in purchasing and re-listing that you find yourself ending up with large amounts of unsellable crafted items. As the auction house returns to the previous low level quickly. Some suggests that will help keep you on the right side of the market flip.
- Know the market you're turning over: Certain markets will always sell low because there is a large amounts of competition. [Solid Sky Sapphire] is a very popular cut to list on the market. And with the large amount of blank sky sapphires available, many purchasers will pick up a few gem blanks and have someone cut the gem for them instead of purchasing them from the auction house.
- Resist the temptation to set too high of a market price: It can be very tempting to buy out a stock of cut gems at 5g and instantly list them at 250g. Sometimes this will work because even selling one at that price will profit you, the rest being extra over the top. But many of the markets will not hold onto that price and under cutters will come in and stomp all over your well laid plans. Leaving the market again at a low price and you will extra items that will not sell.
- Limit how many items you buy: Whenever I use this technique I limit myself to six or less. With inscription glyphs I would raise this limit to 10. The difference between glyphs and gems is that gems have a shelf life til the end expansion. More powerful gems will become available with the next expansion making these less valuable. With the inscription items carrying over to the next expansion you have a longer time for sales.
- You will probably lose money occasionally: Until you develop the understanding of the market, the odds are that you will lose money on some transactions. The no risk/no reward ideal is in full effect with this technique. Go slow and build your market muscles, it will benefit you in the long run
I hope this will add another tool to your auction house toolbox.
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. You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server, chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.
Past articles by Mommar:
Go invest young man
Engineers do it with Power .. and Portals
Happy New Tear
Tip the light fantastic
Tis the season to be goblins
My rod shall comfort thee.. and make gold
3 comments: on "Dont flip out"
Anonymous said... January 19, 2012 at 12:48 AM
Taking it all in. Nice to see some basic gold tips written in so fine. Or as you call it: Building a toolbox from which to get the proper knowledge into the AH-game. I've decided to play casually, but smart and patiently. Still gonna use the recipe+some vendor items->sell at AH for easier gold. There was once one on trade chat wondering where all the copper rods had gone. Starting selling them again and: Voila. Suddenly the AH was filled with Copper Rods again. I made quite a few Gold back then before the inevitable saturation.
Kammler said... February 6, 2012 at 2:52 PM
I have successfully used this strategy for months. I'm active in Enchants, Gems, Armor (all varieties), bags--just about any crafted item.
While setting parameters is necessary, these should be based on a player's risk tolerance, rather than an arbitrary "6" or "15" units. I have bought as many as 25 gems to force a reset on that particular cut, and I made a profit on each individual sale.
Knowing the item's market and sales cycle is the key.
For example, I know that orange and purple gems sell at a certain rate on raid nights. The cuts on which I focus sell well at 85g to 100g ea. When market competition results in prices around 35g (or less) I buy anywhere from 5 to 15 of the lower prices to force the reset. With a clean board, I list three singles at 115g to 125g. Every 10-15 minutes for the next two hours I cancel and re-post to keep my gems 'hot'.
Some sell at that price. Other players undercut me and grab a few sales. When the dust settles for the night, prices stabilize near the usual 85g to 100g.
If I sell all 5-15 of each gem I made a profit of 50g to 75g each. If not, I can hold them for later. As long as I can sell them above 35g I still make a profit.
Note two important concepts here.
First, having sufficient storage space is critical. Buying cheap items to sell later works great until you run out of slots in your favorite guild bank.
Knowing your floor price is also vital in this process. Holding 20 gems bought for 10-15g each for days, weeks or months is useless if you end up selling them for 13g each instead of 35g each.
Just more food for thought: what about the opportunity cost you can save? Think about how much time it takes you to prospect ore, transmute green gems to blue quality, cut them, etc.
If a 5,000g investment in ore yields XXX raw Orange and Purple gems, maybe your time is better utilized by farming the AH. True, you will get Reds and other colors when you prospect, but if you divide the profit earned by the time invested is the "prospecting" ratio better than the "farming the AH ratio"?
Rawrzor said... April 13, 2012 at 1:33 PM
Is there a point to reset a market but not list all your items right away. LIke say you buy 6 of gem A. Maybe post only two at the high rate to make them seem more rare or ?
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