Auctioneer is one of the greatest addons in WoW. I like QAs fuctionality and the fact it does resolve some of the frustations of Auctioneer, but at the end of the day Auctioneer is a stunning piece of software which has made more gold for more players than anything else...
...bar stupidity.
However, if you combine the two then you surely are onto a winner!
I'm presuming that everyone reading this blog uses some form of AH scanning addon. Auctioneer is my addon of choice but there are a number of others. I'm also going to assume that you are sensible Goblins and scan the AH on a very regular basis (personally its three times a day for me and daily is more than acceptable)
With robust data, the 'Resale' scan function of Auctioneer really can become a huge gold making asset.
The presume is simple - people list stuff for less than the market is willing to pay. This allows any goblin to utilise that simple rule of 'Buy low, sell normal' to make money.
The reasons people list at below market price are numerous and varied - but ultimately its mostly down to some personality trait or another, be it laziness, stupidity, impatience and so on)
1. Quick Sales - people generally list items at low prices to make quick sales. In fact, this is the whole premise of many a goblins glyph price policy. In many circumstances this is a valid concept - its means turnover is high, sales occur more frequenty, whilst those selling at market price make fewer sales.
But we aren't focusing on glyphs here - we are thinking more genereally - and for the majority a quick sale is due to either impatience or bad planning. The 'ooops I'm raiding in a hour and I have 26g' situation is a lot more common than you think.
2. Selling in stacks - its true that when buying or selling in bulk people expect a discount. And its a lot easier to post in stacks - its quicker for a start. However even without the quick post function of QA, auctioneer can still post less than full stacks (or singles if appropriate) very quickly. Thus people sell in bulk because of laziness.
There are certain items that are best sold in full stacks (Runescrolls of Fortitude for example - if you are going to buy these you are likely to be needing them to buff a raid group, in which case you aren't going to buy one or two) bur the rest of the time, things sell better in singles or less than full stacks - because people like to purchase what they need and not have too many spares left over.
3. Forgot the Bid Price - oh how I giggle when I see these. When scanning for resale its important that you scan for bids as well as buyout prices. I personally have mine set to scan bids for all auctions with less than two hours to run - and trust me you get a whole raft of bargains doing this.
I honestly struggle to fathom why people will put an item such as a cardinal ruby on for a buyout price of 180g and have a bid price of 3 gold. But I see such auctions all the time. Often with such auctions the seller puts the buyout price over market price - and must be spewing when they receive a little more than their listing price when the item closes. Thus I have to presume the seller is either stupid or has masochistic tendencies
Occasionally I will do a resale scan on all auctions (not limiting to myself to auctions with less than two hours to run) - and just place bids on anything with an extremely low bid price. The majority of these bids will be beaten before the auction closes - but you will find a few items will appear in your mailbox. Usually you've forgotten totally that you've bid on these so they can be a nice suprise)
4. Just dont have a clue - the classic case of stupidity. Sometimes sellers just dont know what an item is worth especially when they get to the AH and there are no others being sold at the time. These players aren't using addons like auctioneer and pull figures out of thin air when posting. Very common to see BoE items listed like this because there are generally very few on the AH at any one time
When a player guesses at a price that they appear to just pick a random number. Sometimes things are too high, but often way too low. Ultimately the seller doesn't care - because they know no better that the price they listed for is cheap as chips. Ignorance is bliss I guess
5. It's just not fair - this is often the trait of the true social, often associated with players who play on different servers. I have friends like this - they post for prices they think is a fair price. They look in disbelief that people are charging 50g a stack for some random pre-BC herb, so post it for 10g a stack. This makes them feel better, because they believe that those people leveling a profession will pick up their herbs and make that phase of the leveling process cheap.
Alas for them, players like me buy their stuff and relist it.
6. Just can't type - totally down to carelessness. Instead of listing an item for187g they list it for 1g87s
I love these guys - because you often find these with the 'realtime' scan function of auctioneer. The seller posts the item and 10 seconds later you buy it. Reality strikes and you get a whisper from the seller... much hilarity ensures as they beg for the item to be returned.
There will of course be other reasons, but these six cover the main reasons that we make money from the resale function. Knowing your customers is important - and in the case of WoW your customers are the people you buy from as well as the people you sell to.
...bar stupidity.
However, if you combine the two then you surely are onto a winner!
I'm presuming that everyone reading this blog uses some form of AH scanning addon. Auctioneer is my addon of choice but there are a number of others. I'm also going to assume that you are sensible Goblins and scan the AH on a very regular basis (personally its three times a day for me and daily is more than acceptable)
With robust data, the 'Resale' scan function of Auctioneer really can become a huge gold making asset.
The presume is simple - people list stuff for less than the market is willing to pay. This allows any goblin to utilise that simple rule of 'Buy low, sell normal' to make money.
The reasons people list at below market price are numerous and varied - but ultimately its mostly down to some personality trait or another, be it laziness, stupidity, impatience and so on)
1. Quick Sales - people generally list items at low prices to make quick sales. In fact, this is the whole premise of many a goblins glyph price policy. In many circumstances this is a valid concept - its means turnover is high, sales occur more frequenty, whilst those selling at market price make fewer sales.
But we aren't focusing on glyphs here - we are thinking more genereally - and for the majority a quick sale is due to either impatience or bad planning. The 'ooops I'm raiding in a hour and I have 26g' situation is a lot more common than you think.
2. Selling in stacks - its true that when buying or selling in bulk people expect a discount. And its a lot easier to post in stacks - its quicker for a start. However even without the quick post function of QA, auctioneer can still post less than full stacks (or singles if appropriate) very quickly. Thus people sell in bulk because of laziness.
There are certain items that are best sold in full stacks (Runescrolls of Fortitude for example - if you are going to buy these you are likely to be needing them to buff a raid group, in which case you aren't going to buy one or two) bur the rest of the time, things sell better in singles or less than full stacks - because people like to purchase what they need and not have too many spares left over.
3. Forgot the Bid Price - oh how I giggle when I see these. When scanning for resale its important that you scan for bids as well as buyout prices. I personally have mine set to scan bids for all auctions with less than two hours to run - and trust me you get a whole raft of bargains doing this.
I honestly struggle to fathom why people will put an item such as a cardinal ruby on for a buyout price of 180g and have a bid price of 3 gold. But I see such auctions all the time. Often with such auctions the seller puts the buyout price over market price - and must be spewing when they receive a little more than their listing price when the item closes. Thus I have to presume the seller is either stupid or has masochistic tendencies
Occasionally I will do a resale scan on all auctions (not limiting to myself to auctions with less than two hours to run) - and just place bids on anything with an extremely low bid price. The majority of these bids will be beaten before the auction closes - but you will find a few items will appear in your mailbox. Usually you've forgotten totally that you've bid on these so they can be a nice suprise)
4. Just dont have a clue - the classic case of stupidity. Sometimes sellers just dont know what an item is worth especially when they get to the AH and there are no others being sold at the time. These players aren't using addons like auctioneer and pull figures out of thin air when posting. Very common to see BoE items listed like this because there are generally very few on the AH at any one time
When a player guesses at a price that they appear to just pick a random number. Sometimes things are too high, but often way too low. Ultimately the seller doesn't care - because they know no better that the price they listed for is cheap as chips. Ignorance is bliss I guess
5. It's just not fair - this is often the trait of the true social, often associated with players who play on different servers. I have friends like this - they post for prices they think is a fair price. They look in disbelief that people are charging 50g a stack for some random pre-BC herb, so post it for 10g a stack. This makes them feel better, because they believe that those people leveling a profession will pick up their herbs and make that phase of the leveling process cheap.
Alas for them, players like me buy their stuff and relist it.
6. Just can't type - totally down to carelessness. Instead of listing an item for187g they list it for 1g87s
I love these guys - because you often find these with the 'realtime' scan function of auctioneer. The seller posts the item and 10 seconds later you buy it. Reality strikes and you get a whisper from the seller... much hilarity ensures as they beg for the item to be returned.
There will of course be other reasons, but these six cover the main reasons that we make money from the resale function. Knowing your customers is important - and in the case of WoW your customers are the people you buy from as well as the people you sell to.
2 comments:
I had a #5 ("fair") send me a hate note... According to her note, she was selling glyphs cheap to make them available to people with little gold. I was, of course, buying them and re-listing at a huge profit. She asked me to stop... what do you think I said?
"Thanks and keep up the good work! I love the profit."
Great article. I wish I could get into Auctioneer. I use Auctionator. It's much simpler. I think I'm scared of Auctioneer and I'm not sure I have the time to learn all its intricacies.
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