Arrows and bullets are the life blood of the hunter - without them they are just an inferior melle class. So with about 13% of my server being hunters I've decided to see just what money there is to be made out there from ammo.
It all started because my hunter ran out of arrows - well was running short.
For a while I had a supplier of ammo, but he's left the guild under a cloud so I needed to source them from elsewhere. I try to be self sufficient, so instead of taking a few stacks from the guild bank I wandered off to the AH. But before continuing my tale I want to step back and give some background.
Iceblade Arrows are currently the best arrows in the game. They are made by engineers, with the plans bought from the Ashen Verdict Quartermaster once you get to honored with the Ashen Verdict. The price of the plans in one Primordial Saronite (approx 2000g). To make 1000 arrows requires two crystallized shadow. The average prices of eternal shadow/crystallized shadow on my server means that 1000 arrows costs approximately 2g to make.
OK background over - so there I am looking in the AH at stacks of 1000 for 7g40s.
Wow - you are kidding me. That's more than three times the price of the mats.
Anyways I had a run to do, bought a couple of stacks and then get a whisper from the seller asking if I needed more - and that he would do me a discount for bulk at 7g a stack.
Oh my - red rag to a bull - I politely declined and made a decision there and then to see just how quickly I could damage their market and get some of this gold for myself.
OK more background:
My hunter is an engineer and is honoured with the Ashen Verdict - the only reason I didnt bother getting the schematic earlier is I had a supplier and had no need to be able to make them.
I have kept a vague eye on the market - I invested in eternal shadow prior to 3.3 and had made a reasonale profit from selling them. However I only got my rep up enough over the last couple of weeks to be able to buy the plans - so had never actively sold them.
There have been waves of price slashing - they have got down to 2g a stack and stayed there whilst the power struggle ensued. I would buy personal supplies at this level, but never really consider being part of the market myself
However reviewing the market there are now just 5 sellers - all selling then for 7-8g a stack. One seller is using the 100 arrow stack trick to sell at 250% of the market price - I am personally not a great fan of this - I just find it rather pathetic.
The Plan
So the plan is simple. Buy all eternal shadows for 10g or under. That means 2g a stack for the arrows. Even with the 5% AH cut - the cost to myself for selling at 2g a stack is minimal (10s a stack).
Using the GG method of controlling the market I will drive the market down and hold it there until everyone else buggers off. I'll be using QA3 for my postings - with the threshold at 2g with a fallback of 10g a stack. Undercuts will be 20s a stack (2c a unit)
I will be posting 20 stacks at a time. I will also be posting 20 stacks of 100 at the same price just to annoy that one particular seller.
I have already invested 800g in eternals - which equates to 400,000 arrows. I will let the market drift down over the week and then hold it there.
The Reasons
OK there are several.
Firstly I didnt like the 7g discount price. Its insulting - thats 3.5x profit and I don't like being ripped off.
Secondly I don't like the other seller who sells in stacks of 100. He's a /2 trade tosspot and I will enjoy taking his market.
Thirdly - because I can. This market is a single market - its not like the glyphs where trying to control the market is like stopping a hole in a dam with your finger, just to see another leak spring out just over there. This is easy - its one item. I can dominate it overnight - and there is nothing anyone can do to stop me.
*insert maniacal laughter here*
Finally - and probably the only good erason - it will teach me about focusing on a single market. Experience and knowledge will be gained which can be utilised in other endevours in the future.
I am close to cap now - and as I suspected the closer I get the more I look for things to spend gold on, just to make sure that my final goal is always just out of reach. As I have said before I worry that finally getting there will just leave me looking for something else to do. If losing 5k keeps me amused for a few weeks then so be it - I made that this weekend on my GKP run.
It all started because my hunter ran out of arrows - well was running short.
For a while I had a supplier of ammo, but he's left the guild under a cloud so I needed to source them from elsewhere. I try to be self sufficient, so instead of taking a few stacks from the guild bank I wandered off to the AH. But before continuing my tale I want to step back and give some background.
Iceblade Arrows are currently the best arrows in the game. They are made by engineers, with the plans bought from the Ashen Verdict Quartermaster once you get to honored with the Ashen Verdict. The price of the plans in one Primordial Saronite (approx 2000g). To make 1000 arrows requires two crystallized shadow. The average prices of eternal shadow/crystallized shadow on my server means that 1000 arrows costs approximately 2g to make.
OK background over - so there I am looking in the AH at stacks of 1000 for 7g40s.
Wow - you are kidding me. That's more than three times the price of the mats.
Anyways I had a run to do, bought a couple of stacks and then get a whisper from the seller asking if I needed more - and that he would do me a discount for bulk at 7g a stack.
Oh my - red rag to a bull - I politely declined and made a decision there and then to see just how quickly I could damage their market and get some of this gold for myself.
OK more background:
My hunter is an engineer and is honoured with the Ashen Verdict - the only reason I didnt bother getting the schematic earlier is I had a supplier and had no need to be able to make them.
I have kept a vague eye on the market - I invested in eternal shadow prior to 3.3 and had made a reasonale profit from selling them. However I only got my rep up enough over the last couple of weeks to be able to buy the plans - so had never actively sold them.
There have been waves of price slashing - they have got down to 2g a stack and stayed there whilst the power struggle ensued. I would buy personal supplies at this level, but never really consider being part of the market myself
However reviewing the market there are now just 5 sellers - all selling then for 7-8g a stack. One seller is using the 100 arrow stack trick to sell at 250% of the market price - I am personally not a great fan of this - I just find it rather pathetic.
The Plan
So the plan is simple. Buy all eternal shadows for 10g or under. That means 2g a stack for the arrows. Even with the 5% AH cut - the cost to myself for selling at 2g a stack is minimal (10s a stack).
Using the GG method of controlling the market I will drive the market down and hold it there until everyone else buggers off. I'll be using QA3 for my postings - with the threshold at 2g with a fallback of 10g a stack. Undercuts will be 20s a stack (2c a unit)
I will be posting 20 stacks at a time. I will also be posting 20 stacks of 100 at the same price just to annoy that one particular seller.
I have already invested 800g in eternals - which equates to 400,000 arrows. I will let the market drift down over the week and then hold it there.
The Reasons
OK there are several.
Firstly I didnt like the 7g discount price. Its insulting - thats 3.5x profit and I don't like being ripped off.
Secondly I don't like the other seller who sells in stacks of 100. He's a /2 trade tosspot and I will enjoy taking his market.
Thirdly - because I can. This market is a single market - its not like the glyphs where trying to control the market is like stopping a hole in a dam with your finger, just to see another leak spring out just over there. This is easy - its one item. I can dominate it overnight - and there is nothing anyone can do to stop me.
*insert maniacal laughter here*
Finally - and probably the only good erason - it will teach me about focusing on a single market. Experience and knowledge will be gained which can be utilised in other endevours in the future.
____________________
I am close to cap now - and as I suspected the closer I get the more I look for things to spend gold on, just to make sure that my final goal is always just out of reach. As I have said before I worry that finally getting there will just leave me looking for something else to do. If losing 5k keeps me amused for a few weeks then so be it - I made that this weekend on my GKP run.
5 comments:
I was looking at arrows last week and ended up buying purple arrows because they were about 1/4 of the price of the blue ones. What seems to have happened is someone is selling stacks of 100 blue arrows, another seller has come along and just price-matched him (selling stacks of 1000). As there were only the 2 selling blue arrows (at 2s EACH), purple arrows were quite a bargain in comparison.
The thing that you make a brief reference to, but don't figure into your calculations is the cost of the schematic. At 7g per stack with a schematic cost of 2000g (1 Primordial Saronite), it would take 400 stacks to recoup your costs for the schematic. I think your negative view on the pricing that the original sellers had was somewhat overdone. I don't work in this market nor do I have to buy the ammo, but the pricing doesn't seem too ridiculous to me given the cost to just get the schematic.
That said, good luck with your project of dominating this single market. My comments were focused purely on your evaluation of the original pricing of 7g per stack. Obviously, I'm a fan of your blog or I wouldn't be reading and commenting.
7G is not bad at all. Unfortunately the bullets are always more expensive than the arrows. Perhaps the demand is less. My hunter only uses bullets.
Since I was only doing heroics, I made do with Mammoth Cutters (blue bullets) because I didn't feel paying 10G for a stack of purple bullets was worth it. When I saw price of purple bullets drop at 7G I bought all the stacks at this price. I felt it was decent because before purple bullets were introduced, Mammoth Cutters used to sell for about 10G a stack.
My friend and I are new to making money from the AH.
You mentioned..."Using the GG method of controlling the market I will drive the market down and hold it there until everyone else buggers off".
Can you please elaborate what the GG method is or provide a link that explains it in more detail?
Thanks.
This rant is rather odd. This is like saying a BS cant charge more for the exact cost of mats incurred. WTH? You have to spend A LOT of money to level up engineering, especially to 450, this is why crafting fees exist..Also, we dont make a whole lot of profit selling it for maybe 10s more than what the mats cost. Its called a crafting cost and if you're gonna QQ about it then buy the mats off AH and have an engineer make them...though he will likely charge you a crafting tip. Thats the nature of the game and has been since vanilla....Why the hell else would it be the norm for JC's to charge 10g for an epic cut. I agree with Daegon 100% here.
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