M.O.

Amigads! I have been without interwebs for almost 4 whole days! So I've had zero AH playing, zero time on my side project and an absurdly late entry for today. The problem is that where I live the only other option for internet (aside from lulz dial up) is Comcast and well, unless they deliver prostitutes with the bill I'm not interested in ever using them again. With any luck I won't be having anymore problems like this for at least another few weeks.


I constantly mention that my MO of the AH game is to stokpile as much as possible, but I realized that I haven't really detailed that much of it. I'll do my best to sum it up into a few simple rules that I follow and go into some detail about of each of them today.


1. Stokpile as much as you can
There are many reasons that I firmly believe that you should stokpile non stop. The first reason for this is because material shortages will completely stop your business and they come about often and unexpectedly. Some profit is better than no profit. Another reason is to inflate the demand for an item so that more people will go out and farm it to keep you supplied. When you can go through an entire bank tab of XYZ materials you better be sure to be constantly buying more and more.

The most important reason for this is not just to have a supply, but to control it as well. By stokpiling as much as you can as often as you can, you limit the amount of materials that your competitors have access to and what prices that they have to pay. This gives you a natural edge to your business and lets you cut deep when the AH PvP starts up.

Lastly you always buying the low and normal priced goods, the rest of the server has to pay the above normal and high prices. This then turns them to look at the pre crafted items which you are selling for a comparatively low price. Another practical reason to stokpile is that you're not going to be able to be on game and scan the AH for good deals 24/7 even with the mobile auction house if you use it. So by buying as much as you can you won't have to worry about going to trade chat for some good deals.

Simply put, you are going to use all of the materials at some point anyway so why not buy them up while they're at a good price? It is always best to err on the side of caution. And with a mass amount of materials readily at hand you'll always be prepared for a supply drought or price spike. You're even prepared for a few goblins trying to work their way in if they managed to buy up mats when you're not around. In all likeliness you will be able to outlast anybody in an AH undercutting war simply because you have a far greater supply in your bank than anybody else does.

If you want a more elongated version, check out this entry.


2. Deep undercuts are the way to go
This one I actually have detailed before in my original post on it here, but I'll give you a quick once over on this mentality.

First when you undercut by a noticeable amount people will think that they're getting a good deal and are more apt to buy. People just love getting a good deal even if the "deal" is just in their minds.

Second, you'll frustrate and piss of the competition quite a bit. This will cause them to leave the market far sooner or at least make it much more likely that they'll give up. People only leave a market when it is no longer profitable or easy enough for them to work in. This leads to the third reason deep undercutting is the way to go.

By undercutting by a few gold and not copper you'll drive prices down lower much faster and in addition to removing the current competition you'll also scare off any potential goblins or casual sellers from that market.

However this is not something to do with items that have a high rate of sales. Such things as fortune cookies, belt buckles, bags, etc. These sort of things are going to sell well no matter how much you undercut by so don't drop the price by 20g unless you have something personal against the competition.


3. Consistency and patience
I always work the same markets with the same methods even when the profits are low. The last thing you want to do is to leave a vacuum in a certain market because that will cause many people to start eying it and it's only a matter of time before goblins flock over to it. This is why people say "I don't want to lose my market share."

As soon as a big AH player stops working a certain market ripples will spread out to the other areas that are effected by it. This helps keep things stable and predictable which is essential to amassing wealth anywhere. It also allows any competition you give in to to grow and make more gold which makes it more likely for them to invade your other markets.


4. Homework
When I rant on and on about "go do your homework fools!" I'm talking about looking at the AH pages. Look at what and who is selling for how much. Check their materials and check in on what other items use the same materials. This prevents you from making any mistakes and taking a large hit in your profits due to inexperience. This is absolutely essential for entering new markets. If you decide to just start up a JC business and lose thousands because you cut a ton of near worthless gems you deserve to lose money.

And don't just take a one day snapshot either. You need to actively watch and pay attention to what is going on in the markets. Watch for price shifts, supply floods and droughts and see if there's any noticeable patterns that you can take advantage of.


5. Change it up
As important as it is to have a system and a daily routine, it is equally important to change it. Not drastically, but enough that your competition will notice it. When I log onto certain bankers of mine, my friends list will instantly light up with a competitor signing on immediately as I load into the world. For any big time AH player it's important that you change up when you do your posting because of this. Your competitors will know your schedule almost as well as you do and are going to spend a good amount of time sitting and waiting for you. How somebody can stomach doing that I'll never know, but it happens. And it happens a lot.

I generally change up my posting times twice a week and go back and forth through them randomly. Basically I fit them to my personal schedule instead of dropping everything so I can hit the post raid crowd. Base your auctions around your IRL time, not the other way around.


Thanks for stopping by!