Post when the competition will be offline
Prices below your opposition's threshold allows sales even when you are undercut.
I was on the Horde AH the other night when a regular competitor and blogger (Breevok, with his horde toon Fringe), asked why I was destroying the glyph market. He also pegged (correctly) that I had an undercut of 20g.
He stated he was selling something along the lines of 3k/day in glyphs, at an average sale price of 100g/glyph (meaning about 30 glyphs a day). A couple of days ago, the undermine journal 'saw' that he sold about 20 glyphs for about 2k, (so 100g/glyph average profit) and had a threshold of 22.5g (possibly different for different glyphs). Again the undermine journal said this was one of his better days. However, the Undermine Journal only scans every hour, and will not see glyphs posted then sold between a scan, so is likely to understate his sales. This toon also generally posts early in the morning, and is unlikely to be undercut untill mid afternoon / early evening.
I do not sell either the number of glyphs, nor at the same price, despite having a more aggressive undercut. The Horde AH, on one of my better sales days, had (again according to the undermine journal) 1k of sales, 16 glyphs, for an average of 60g/glyph. Again the undermine journal is underestimating my sales. I post during the evening, and get undercut moderately quickly (generally within 2 hours - or even less).
As a set of crude rules:
- Gross Earning = Number of Sales * Sale Price
- Profit = Number of Sales * Margin.
- Lower Sale Price -> Greater number of buyers, fewer competing sales
- Last to post with cheapest price gets the sales.
The first thing I note is that Fringe sells 30% more glyphs than I do. I also note that despite only a 20g undercut, I make 40g less per glyph than he does. There is no difference in the glyphs that we know, or have available for posting.
- Fringe traditionally posts when other glyph sellers are /AFK having many hours without competition; I traditionally post when competitors are still around, having only a short time before being undercut. Tip 1: Post when the competition will be offline : For Horde Caelestrasz this means before work/school. There are sufficient buyers on during the day to make selling worth your while. It is a pity that I am usually unable to post first thing in the morning. However, to prove this point, I have spent a couple of mornings posting. (Curiously this is not as important Alliance side).
- 30% of my Horde sales in number (and 15% in value) are due to selling at my threshold. I note that Fringe has an even lower threshold than I do. There are days that only my threshold priced glyphs sell. Tip 2: Prices below your opposition's threshold allows sales even when you are undercut.
- Deep undercutting (eg 20g) allows you to determine thresholds far faster than a shallow undercut. Some glyphs have different thresholds than others; whether due to players with mutliple pricing strategies or simply different players with different glyphs.
PS.
Did you hear the one about the goblin having too much gold? No? Neither did I.
Grats to Breevok on reaching his gold target. Now get out of my playground. (Well I can try)
Posts
Doesnt your strat results indicate you shouldnt bother with the deep undercut?
ReplyDeleteI know on my server sales are slow. There are not a lot of sales so deep undercuts tend to keep prices low. I aim to keep the glyph prices higher and I wont bother with the glyph sales that give me a low return. I prefer the 1c undercut and much like you indicate....I can get the all night sales till early morning that will give me the 20-40 glyph sales during this time.
To me....glyphs are a one time purchase. If someone wants the glyph then they will buy it....dropping the price from say 60g to 40g just means a permanent loss of a 20g profit you could of had.