Sunday, August 18, 2013

Competition: When the good times stop rolling

This is aimed at new goldmakers more than anyone, but something "interesting" just happened in the glyph market, and by interesting I mean that, if I just had inscription as a profession, I would want to strangle someone.


On my realm, there are about four major posters, so not much competition. Prices bounce around between 30g and 350g for any given glyph. We reset the price high if none of that glyph are available and then slowly undercut by a couple copper with one or two glyphs until the price bottoms out. It's a nice ebb and flow.

Well, a new poster came on the scene and was doing the same process, but undercutting every hour and this really got under the skin of one of my competitors. He wasn't selling any more than two glyphs a day, so, he made a "firm wall." This strategy involves posting a large number of an item at a low price, a strategy useful when you want to prevent someone from buying you out and resetting your goods (Notice that this wasn't what was happening?)

This is frustrating for the rest of us though because this wall was set at 49g and encompassed all craftable glyphs. In short, he crashed the glyph market.

Total Daily Value of my Posted Glyphs
Jeronimooooo!!!!

Which brings me to my advice for new goldmakers and one of my cornerstones that I'm constantly harping on: diversify. When the new poster entered the market, I made less money in the glyph market as well, but it didn't phase me, because I'm involved in other markets. There will always be a market that is down: Blacksmithing will have underpriced ore and will be selling too cheaply, glyphs will have awkward competition, transmute will just...not be profitable because screw transmute, that's why. Diversification prevents the emotional involvement and thus the emotional over-reaction to competition that occurred here.

There has never been a time when every market is down at the same time though. Use a few different professions. Use TSM so you know what is profitable. Run raids so you aren't always relying on professions. Level some pets. Farm ore, so you're always profitable. Sell some green MoP items.

And that's it. If you want more updates, or more information, follow me on Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook, and until next time, remember that the secret to goldmaking in the end is just to

Search. Craft. Post.
Every Day.

10 comments:

  1. This is funny because a similar thing happened on my server where a new poster tried to get into the mix. This was during the end of cata when mats were so plentiful any glyph could be made for sub 10g on my server. I made a wall at 15g and basically ran the person out because my supply was unlimited and I was still profiting.
    Some advice for a new competitor would be learn the market before you wanna go "balls" deep and think your the man. See who else is playing it and contact them. It's much smarter to make everyone happy and keep the profits high for everyone then get into a battle. In fact often when someone comes to me we can work out a way to control the market even better and both benefit. JUST BE SMART ABOUT IT!!!!

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  2. I love crashing markets. I flood and flood until they are crashed. Gems are always good to flood, as are enchants. To see enchants lose up to 80% of their value over the space of 10 days made me chuckle a lot, and there is always some moron who will either undercut to keep it low, or, another who thinks buying them all (when all I do then is flood again) is a good idea.

    Crashing markets is more fun than you think.

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    1. this guy was selling glorious enchant stats for almost 600 gold he thoguth he was slick cuz he was the only one selling the glorious stats.. i make 4 and post and he undercutted him.. so to piss him off i made 9 and posted at 100 gold.. he stopped undercutting... lesson learned

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    2. Yah, I approve of taking advantage of being the only one in a market (600g for glorious stats is stupid expensive though) so good job bringing it down some.

      For everyone else, be careful doing this. If I'm in a pissing contest with you, I would have just bought them. They stack to 20, costs about what I craft them for, and it saves me from having to craft them in the future. Meh, if you're getting upset and make a wall too low, I'll buy it.

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  3. i'd be careful though with crashing certain markets such as gems, becuase some gem sellers have VERY deep pockets and endless supplies of gems, and will run you out before you do.

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    1. This is a good point. Know who is buying your goods and how deep their pockets are if you can. In fact, I like the fact of writing a post about correctly crashing markets, when to do it, and a guide for different posting strategies like walling. Thanks for the inspiration!

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    2. I'd love to see an article on correctly crashing markets, I've got a few people I'd love to throw out of a market or to, and have been figuring out how deep their pockets are (I think I'm winning). I also remember reading awhile ago (from somewhere, can't remember where) that a big way to get someone out of the market is to choke out their supply, do you feel that holds true?

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  4. OMG - you must be on my server because you wrote this article about me (selling glyphs at 49g). I know it irked you based on the conversation we had, but that guy that was posting every half hour disappeared and the glyph market is already back to normal. Also, unrelated to this article but another you posted, I just set up my TSM 2.0 groups yesterday and had already decided to use TUJGEMedian for most of my operations. Great blog. Will see you on the realm.

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    1. No way! That's fantastic! While it's a little intimidating to have the competition reading all my "super secret strategies" :P it's wonderful to have you on board. Thanks for reading, and don't worry, it's really no hard feelings. If anything, like I said in the post, I just think it was a weird choice to undercut, but it made for a fun post that has a lot of people engaged, so thank you. :)

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  5. I was in competition for a long just selling glyphs. I was always the number 1 seller selling glyphs. And no one was really posting at the time like 2 years ago. Until this psycho took over. she undercutted by 1 copper every second that i reposted that second she posted. i was like WTF. Then this guy who got into glyphs realizing that me and her would post glyphs at 99.99.99c he cut prices to 29 gold all the time, every chance he had. which i thought was wrong. But i realized he did it for a reason, so She or I couldnt make that gold. I kind of stopped at that time selling glyphs and was posting Gems. Since i got her banned cuz i caught her cheating.. i wont say. That guy who posted glyphs at 29 gold realized hmm Psycho Byatch isnt on.. so he posted at 99 gold.. and then i started selling glyphs again. and making my gold again. he only undercuts when his glyphs go back to his mail and he'll post again. (yes im obsessed with following my competition).. LOL

    Anywho This chick.. who reminded me of Psycho.. started posting glyphs at 99.99.99 or undercutting cuz hey glyphs were back high again. and eveyrtime I posted that second and i mean hey maybe have a second she undercutted me. I told that guy who posted glyphs back or set prices back up that hey .. i think shes back and what does he do.. posts at 26 gold a pop.. made my day.. why have someoen try to make 100 gold a glyph when we can make them not make there gold by selling cheap.. :-D and that my friends is how the cookie crumbles

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