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Thursday, July 23, 2009

Bait and Switch

Here's an Auction House technique that gives some good results for me occasionally. A caveat first: this is just one of the techniques I use to sell stuff on the AH; it is situational and item/market dependent.

Let's say you have 2 or more of an item. No one else is selling it and it is generally a "hot item". Low supply, high(ish) demand. Something like The Butcher.

Let's also assume that usually this item sells for 200 gold. By this I mean that when posted at 200 gold buyout, it will sell within 1-2 days in 90% of cases. What you will do is post one of them at 350 gold buyout. Then, log in with another character and post the other at 500. People who don't know the real selling value for this item will assume that the one posted at 350 is a steal compared to the other, and will grab it. You've just made an extra 150 gold profit!

Again, be aware that this will only work occasionally. The values I've given here are just examples so you should tailor your prices based on your own server's economy. Also, as with every money-making technique, this should be just one of the many methods in your arsenal. Remember: diversify both in the type of items you are selling as well as the methods you are using.

P.S. I know this isn't a classic "bait and switch" method but that's how I like to call it.

8 comments:

Shaunbacca said...

Did this exact think last night but for something considerably cheaper. I had a whole bunch of Citrines left from levelling mining a long while ago (back before TBC) and they were worth squat back then because nothing useful used them.

These days I can usually sell them for about 10g a pop on my server. But last night there was only one stack of three selling for a 4g buyout. Bought those listed them individually for about 27 / 28G on one character and then logged on to another charater and put up 5 more at ~20G each.

Haven't had a chance to check the results yet but I'm feeling positive.

Joe said...

Ran black morass last night to get my alchemy finally sorted.

Jsut off the drops you can get some nice DE infinte dust.

So the items were worth roughly 20 odd gold. I ran it 1,5 times, so got duplicates of some items.

Listed one as 500g, and the other as 200g. Items real worth is about 35 max DE.

Sold both. Feel silly for not listing both so high. Gonna do a quick run tonight and flog it for a bit more.


Some real daft bananas on my server, none of the items sold could touch the lvl 68 stuff in Northend.

Anonymous said...

Oh so sneaky! I like your thinking :-D

Darth Solo said...

@Shaunbacca where've you been you big ball of fur? :D Yeah, citrine is pretty expensive these days. A lot of old gems fetch ridiculous prices considering that they were selling for a few silver back in Classic.

I'm glad other people are using this method successfully. Another use for it would be to raise the market price for a commodity, if only artificially and in the very short run.

Shaunbacca said...

Well the Citrine thing went well, but what was even more surprising was that the ones that I had listed at the ridiculously high price sold as well because there was still no supply on the AH.

It'd almost be worth levelling JC on an alt just to be able to prospect mid level ore for this stuff.

Darth Solo said...

Yeah occasionally there's a shortage like that and there's potential for a lot of gold. Now it depends how much in demand the item is and how short the supply is. Also, for how long.

I'm thinking hard about starting JC on an alt as well but I'm not sure I can see the benefits. I might just end up doing it though.

Bloodshrike said...

Hey Darth,
Heh, I call it the "Carrot and Stick" technique. It works wonders for smuggled goods, when I post a Elixir of Giant growth recipe for 90-99 gold on one toon, and 435-562 on another toon on Alliance side. Or Recipe: Savory Deviate Delight for 699-750 on one, and 1300-600 on another.
Not only is the item/recipe rare, people see that they COULD be paying a higher price, so they buy it out quickly.

Darth Solo said...

I think you're right. This sounds more like a "carrot and stick" than a "bait and switch" but meh, it's too late to change the title now :)