To glyph or not to glyph?

I got an interesting mail on the weekend from Wek

Now I know Wek reads this blog as does Foo so I am having this discussion with myself fully aware that they are both reading this.

Wek supplies Foo with Ink of the Sea. Wek also supplies me with Snowfall Ink. Until the weekend I knew I was paying Wek 7g each snowfall and that is all I knew.

Then the mail arrived - telling me that Foo was no longer requiring as many IotS from Wek because his stockpiles are nearing where he has set his limits. I have no idea where this is or how many he has in store.

Foo has been fighting the glyph market for a while and his account of how it is proceeding can be found on his blog - but he does seem to be doing ok. Over the past few months I have just been playing in the glyph market around the edges - posting once every couple of days covering the gaps in the market. Income has been OK - nothing outstanding just one or two thousand gold a week.

Wek was online when I got the mail so I whispered him. He told me a few facts:

1. Foo pays 1g90s to 2g40s per IotS
2. Wek doesnt mill himself he just supplies Icethorn to a third party and buys the inks from them for 40s per IotS and 1g per Snowfall.

Where Wek gets the Icethorn from I don't know - but Icethorn sells for around 14g a stack on Cael. Assuming that Wek isn't a fool then he wouldnt be paying market price so I'm working this all out at a cost of 12g a stack (even if he's farming then time costs gold so 12g /stack is till reasonable)

On average a stack of icethorn will produce two snowfalls and 6 IotS.

12g to buy, 4g40s to mill. Total cost 16g40s

He sells the two Snowfalls to me for 14g. And the 6 snowfalls for say 2g each to Foo. Total Income 26g

Therefore Wek is doing very well. making 9g60s profit a stack - 70% profit.

Foo makes glyphs - each one costing 2g40s (IotS plus parchment). He sells for 5g (about where the market is. After AH fees 4g75s. Profit per glyph is 2g35s - almost doubling his money.

Therefore Foo is also doing very well.

However Wek is guaranteed his money, Foo is reliant on sales. A bird in the hand and all that. Thus Wek is more successful than Foo, because Foo is playing in a competitive market and sales are not assured.

I sell snowfalls and make Runescrolls of Fortitude. Snowfalls sell for 12-15g each. Runescrolls cost 36g to make a stack and sell for 44g+

Profit for Snowfalls is 60-100% (if they sell which isn't guaranteed) and profit for runescrolls are around 25%.

Again Wek is more successful than me because he isnt reliant on anyone else by me meeting his COD demands.

Where it gets interesting is that Foo suggested I would be interested in buying the excess IotS - which is odd because IotS are really only useful for a limited number of this - and the biggest of these are glyphs.

Why the heck would Foo want me back into the Glyph market? Foo is likely aware by now that I dropped my threshold this morning from 5g to 4g80. It increased the number of glyphs I posted from 60 to 500. I have been aware for a while that Foo knew what my threshold was (I've posted it on this blog several times) so has carefully ensured that I got little traction in the glyph market. I was comfortable with this - its a minimal market for me anyway. I do not miss the grind of milling and making glyphs, but I am happy to do it once a week whilst waiting for my daily dungeon to pop. I posted today just to see.

I still snatch Northrend herbs at various prices - which allows me to pay very small amounts for my IotS requirements. I personally would not be willing to pay anywhere the 2g per ink that Foo does.

I have not yet ultimately decided what I want to do with Glyphs - but for now I can comfortably maintain my stocks each week without the stress of constantly emptying mailboxes, milling and making glyphs.

Wek - my final offer is 1g a IotS - if you are interested then COD them over - if not no hard feelings. You know I can take whatever you have, what I do with them is yet to be determined.