for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
As 2012 draws to a close, perhaps a view forward as to what i plan to do in the first two months of 2012.
1. A closer look at the non-glyph parts of Inscription: there is a lot to write about here. The gold to be made from non-glyphs is a welcome addition and can be quite lucriative. Furthermore, it tends to operate independently of the glyph market.
2. Develope further on the Advanced Trading Strategies: yes, there are more.
3. Add further discussion on Market Observations: indeed, more of these to come.
4. Of course, maintain a steady stream of glyph making ideas coming
5. Continue to update the guide: as you would expect.
Other ideas that, lets face it, may not happen:
See if I can master creating video content.
Be a guest on a podcast (talking about Inscription).
Saturday, 31 December 2011
Friday, 30 December 2011
The Scribe's Glossary
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
For the aspiring gold makers out there, you have all read the "gold makers language". on the Scribe's Glossary page, and below, i describe what they mean. The page describes terms found in this blog which are commonly used on the Auction House and instantly recognised by gold makers.
Addon(s) are third party programs that can be downloaded to aid in all activities of World of Warcraft. Gold makers are no exception. See my blog post on How i Operate in the Inscription Market. I download my addons from curse.com
Alt, short for Alternative Character, are other characters a player has in operation. For gold makers they are used to carry out gold making activities such as posting items or indeed are maxed out in two further professions. It is the norm for gold makers to have several maxed out professions.
Cancel and repost, a term used by gold makers everywhere where typically an addon is used to automatically cancel items on the Auction House that are no longer the lowest price and then the addon is used to automatically repost all the items at the lowest prices.
Fall back price is the price which an item is posted if no such item already exists on the Auction House. So, for example, if i post a glyph to the Auction House and there is no glyph already posted by a competitor then it gets posted at the Fall back price of 400 gold.
Gold Cap is currently set at 1 copper below 1 million gold and is the maximum amount a single character can hold. A player can of course hold gold over several characters and therefore hold over 1 million gold.
GPH is short for Gold Per Hour and is a much critised measurement of gold making over time to compare various gold making activities.
Guild Bank is a guild that a character is the sole member of for the sole purpose of storing items or raw materials for gold making activities. Every gold maker needs one. See my post on Guild Banks and how to set them up.
Main, short for Main Character, is a players main character in World of Warcraft.
Proc, short "for procedure", is a term commonly used to refer to a special event that occurs whilst undertaking another action. For example, whilst milling cataclysm herbs there is a chance to proc some burning embers. accoring to WoWWiki The term derives from "spec proc" which is short for special proceedure.
Undercut is a term used by gold makers to describe the process of posting items at the lowest price on the Auction House by a specific amount. Typicall undercut amounts are 1 copper or 1 silver.
Thursday, 29 December 2011
By what amount to undercut
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
When posting items on the Auction House, does one undercut the current cheapest item by 1 copper, 1 silver, 1 gold, 5 gold, 10 gold or what?
This is a keenly debated question amongst gold makers. All agree that the aim is for your item to be the cheapest on the Auction House at the time a buyer steps in.
The 1 copper argument centres on the argument that the aim is to be the cheapest available item when the buyer comes to the Auction House but to maximise the selling price. And indeed, profits are maximised for all market participants.
The other end of the extreme, the 5 gold argument centres around making a statement to other market participants that using the cycle of continuous undercutting will bring down the prices for all. Works well in low volume, high value markets. I find it works poorly in the high volume markets like Glyphs where indeed the prices will soon be brought down for everyone!
Myself, i undercut by 50 silver. In part, i must admit, this is historic. It was the amount first suggested by Gevlon from The Greedy Goblin blog back in the day when i first started gold making. It reflects the time taken between scanning the Auction House and posting the items and hence using a 1 copper undercut ran the risk that my item would not be the cheapest posted item by the time i came to posting!
However, i am sticking to 50 silver given it has worked so well over time. The recognition that there is still a time gap between scanning and posting exists - though less so with the TradeSkillMaster addon. Furthermore, it is my trademark in the market and all my competitors know this - so why tamper with it now. Perhaps i should reduce it to 1 silver or 10 silver. But that is for another day when i come to taking a close look at optimising this part of my gold making process.
When posting items on the Auction House, does one undercut the current cheapest item by 1 copper, 1 silver, 1 gold, 5 gold, 10 gold or what?
This is a keenly debated question amongst gold makers. All agree that the aim is for your item to be the cheapest on the Auction House at the time a buyer steps in.
The 1 copper argument centres on the argument that the aim is to be the cheapest available item when the buyer comes to the Auction House but to maximise the selling price. And indeed, profits are maximised for all market participants.
The other end of the extreme, the 5 gold argument centres around making a statement to other market participants that using the cycle of continuous undercutting will bring down the prices for all. Works well in low volume, high value markets. I find it works poorly in the high volume markets like Glyphs where indeed the prices will soon be brought down for everyone!
Myself, i undercut by 50 silver. In part, i must admit, this is historic. It was the amount first suggested by Gevlon from The Greedy Goblin blog back in the day when i first started gold making. It reflects the time taken between scanning the Auction House and posting the items and hence using a 1 copper undercut ran the risk that my item would not be the cheapest posted item by the time i came to posting!
However, i am sticking to 50 silver given it has worked so well over time. The recognition that there is still a time gap between scanning and posting exists - though less so with the TradeSkillMaster addon. Furthermore, it is my trademark in the market and all my competitors know this - so why tamper with it now. Perhaps i should reduce it to 1 silver or 10 silver. But that is for another day when i come to taking a close look at optimising this part of my gold making process.
Wednesday, 28 December 2011
Lowering the cost of glyphs – looking at the manufacturing process
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Inscription has a very simple three step manufacturing process: herbs are milled (step 1) into pigments which create inks (step 2) which combine with parchment to make glyphs (step 3).
In my experience the vast supply of cataclysm herbs and the low supply of pre-catacylsm herbs on the Auction House adjusts this construction chain towards a four step process: cataclysm herbs are milled into ashen pigments (step 1) which create blackfallow inks (step 2) which are exchanged for the required inks (step 3) which combine with parchment to make glyphs (step 4).
Therefore there are three steps in this process that can give rise to a cost saving and can thus allow the Scribe to lower the cost of glyphs - Steps 1 to 3.
Before we look at each step lets be aware that the key part, however, is making this process as automated as possible. Saving 1 gold in the 10-12 gold process cost of a glyph is not desirable if the extra time required is too high. Personally, i do not want to spend more than 10 minutes in a week attempting to make those savings.
To put this in context, if i manage to reduce the construction costs of my weekly glyphs by 50 silver and i sell 500 glyphs per week (at 100 gold) then i have made 250 gold additional profits on the normal profits of 44500 gold. Not much, but it all adds up and worth the 10 minutes. In a month that is 1000 gold.
This is my process, and it takes 1 minute a day. On my server the blackfallow inks go for 5 gold each.
Firstly, whilst all herb prices gravitate towards the cataclysm herbs there will be occasions when a lorry load of pre-cataclysm herbs are posted on the Auction House at a low value. Make sure your snatch list has all the herbs listed so you can quickly go through them looking for the cheap ones and buy them up.
Secondly, have all the pigments on your snatch list – i have no idea why, but on occasion i get to buy some pigments at very much less than half the cost of an ink.
Thirdly, have all the inks on your snatch list. There are plenty of times when the pre-catacylsm inks are going for less than 5 gold on my server and so less than the cost of the Blackfallow inks.
In summary, have all the above on your snatch list (all herbs, all pigments and all inks) and each day use your snatch list to scan the market. Takes a minute a day. And stock up on those that are going cheap in preparation for the Saturday morning milling and glyph construction hour.
As an added benefit, for those 10 minutes spent a week my awareness of the wider herb market is greatly enhanced, and that is no bad thing.
Inscription has a very simple three step manufacturing process: herbs are milled (step 1) into pigments which create inks (step 2) which combine with parchment to make glyphs (step 3).
In my experience the vast supply of cataclysm herbs and the low supply of pre-catacylsm herbs on the Auction House adjusts this construction chain towards a four step process: cataclysm herbs are milled into ashen pigments (step 1) which create blackfallow inks (step 2) which are exchanged for the required inks (step 3) which combine with parchment to make glyphs (step 4).
Therefore there are three steps in this process that can give rise to a cost saving and can thus allow the Scribe to lower the cost of glyphs - Steps 1 to 3.
Before we look at each step lets be aware that the key part, however, is making this process as automated as possible. Saving 1 gold in the 10-12 gold process cost of a glyph is not desirable if the extra time required is too high. Personally, i do not want to spend more than 10 minutes in a week attempting to make those savings.
To put this in context, if i manage to reduce the construction costs of my weekly glyphs by 50 silver and i sell 500 glyphs per week (at 100 gold) then i have made 250 gold additional profits on the normal profits of 44500 gold. Not much, but it all adds up and worth the 10 minutes. In a month that is 1000 gold.
This is my process, and it takes 1 minute a day. On my server the blackfallow inks go for 5 gold each.
Firstly, whilst all herb prices gravitate towards the cataclysm herbs there will be occasions when a lorry load of pre-cataclysm herbs are posted on the Auction House at a low value. Make sure your snatch list has all the herbs listed so you can quickly go through them looking for the cheap ones and buy them up.
Secondly, have all the pigments on your snatch list – i have no idea why, but on occasion i get to buy some pigments at very much less than half the cost of an ink.
Thirdly, have all the inks on your snatch list. There are plenty of times when the pre-catacylsm inks are going for less than 5 gold on my server and so less than the cost of the Blackfallow inks.
In summary, have all the above on your snatch list (all herbs, all pigments and all inks) and each day use your snatch list to scan the market. Takes a minute a day. And stock up on those that are going cheap in preparation for the Saturday morning milling and glyph construction hour.
As an added benefit, for those 10 minutes spent a week my awareness of the wider herb market is greatly enhanced, and that is no bad thing.
Tuesday, 27 December 2011
Better safe than sorry
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
There will come times, most notably at new Patches or Expansions when your favourite addon does not work until the developers update it for the new Patch or Expansion. For a gold maker than can be the difference participating in post Patch / Expansion release gold rush or merely sitting on the sidelines watching others pick up those thousands of gold.
There is a very simple way to avoid this, and at this to download at least two addons per key task. You don’t need to activate them all, just keep the second one deactivated. It will be kept updated when you scan your addons at curse as normal.
A simple 15 minutes of playing around with it to familiarise yourself with how it works will be all thats required.
And then on Patch day or new Expansion day when your main addon fails your spare addon can be activated and you are up and running making all that gold as your competitors struggle.
There will come times, most notably at new Patches or Expansions when your favourite addon does not work until the developers update it for the new Patch or Expansion. For a gold maker than can be the difference participating in post Patch / Expansion release gold rush or merely sitting on the sidelines watching others pick up those thousands of gold.
There is a very simple way to avoid this, and at this to download at least two addons per key task. You don’t need to activate them all, just keep the second one deactivated. It will be kept updated when you scan your addons at curse as normal.
A simple 15 minutes of playing around with it to familiarise yourself with how it works will be all thats required.
And then on Patch day or new Expansion day when your main addon fails your spare addon can be activated and you are up and running making all that gold as your competitors struggle.
Monday, 26 December 2011
The Holiday Goblins - nowhere to be seen?
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Here we are, Christmas has been and still i see no sign of that Holiday Goblin. These are the intrepid gold makers that surface during the holidays, enter a market and add extra competition during the holidays. As the holiday draws to an end their pricing moves to a "price to sell at any cost" strategy and generally takes the market prices right down. They are most common at the end of the long summer holidays and i generally step out of the market for a week at this point.
But, this holiday, i dont see any in my Inscription market. Perhaps the holidays are too short, or perhaps i am lucky this time.
Hard to say, but it is good news!
Here we are, Christmas has been and still i see no sign of that Holiday Goblin. These are the intrepid gold makers that surface during the holidays, enter a market and add extra competition during the holidays. As the holiday draws to an end their pricing moves to a "price to sell at any cost" strategy and generally takes the market prices right down. They are most common at the end of the long summer holidays and i generally step out of the market for a week at this point.
But, this holiday, i dont see any in my Inscription market. Perhaps the holidays are too short, or perhaps i am lucky this time.
Hard to say, but it is good news!
Sunday, 25 December 2011
Happy Christmas
Wishing all my readers and their families a very happy Christmas.
If you find yourself in need of ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
If you find yourself in need of ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Saturday, 24 December 2011
Sunk Costs
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Many gold makers in World of Warcraft can on occasion find themselves in a situation where they have spent a large amount of gold on a project that is almost completed and then realise that the sales they will make will not cover the cost of the completed project.
Perhaps the most common example here is an alt that is almost fully levelled a profession. It is 85% complete and you realise that the market you thought was present is operating at a permanently lower level and you will never recover the cost of your power levelling.
So, what to do?
The player must realise that the gold already spent is lost forever and can not be retrieved. Therefore, it is a “sunk cost”.
Hence, the way forward from here is to determine the total investment needed to complete the project and compare that amount to the sales price of the finished item. If the sales price is higher than the gold required to complete the project then the gold should be spent. That way, at least the player recovers some of the gold already spent.
Many gold makers in World of Warcraft can on occasion find themselves in a situation where they have spent a large amount of gold on a project that is almost completed and then realise that the sales they will make will not cover the cost of the completed project.
Perhaps the most common example here is an alt that is almost fully levelled a profession. It is 85% complete and you realise that the market you thought was present is operating at a permanently lower level and you will never recover the cost of your power levelling.
So, what to do?
The player must realise that the gold already spent is lost forever and can not be retrieved. Therefore, it is a “sunk cost”.
Hence, the way forward from here is to determine the total investment needed to complete the project and compare that amount to the sales price of the finished item. If the sales price is higher than the gold required to complete the project then the gold should be spent. That way, at least the player recovers some of the gold already spent.
Friday, 23 December 2011
The Glyph Wall - how to combat it
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Following on from yesterdays post on the Advanced Strategy The Glyph Wall – what is it and what is its purpose?
If the glyph is above my minimum price then i continue as normal until i reach my minimum posting price, which as i write is 40 gold.
However, given the aim of the glyph wall is to force a player out of the market it is likely that the competitor will start posting the wall below your minimum posting price - indeed, if the competitor has done their research the glyph wall is likely to start below your minimum posting price anyway. The normal Glyph Wall competitor is not an Auction House Camper – that is why the Wall is used.Hence, in this case i adopt the “race to the cost strategy”.
I can’t get way from the fact that during this counter strategy profits from the glyph market are going to nil for all market participants including myself.I have known this counter strategy to go on for almost 3 solid weeks before.
The aim here is to bring all glyphs where there is a Wall down to just above cost price and let the glyph wall competitor undercut me and so make losses on each sale. Eventually they will become dispirited at crafting, posting, making a small loss and repeating time and time again.
Therefore, my strategy is:
1. I remove the 40 gold minimum posting price from my addon and lower it first to 30 gold, then 20 gold and then just above cost price.
2. I undercut by the normal 50 silver
3. Continue to post single glyphs in batches of 2
4. Cancel and repost as normal
5. But now i cancel and repost at least before i go to work and right before i go to bed
Following on from yesterdays post on the Advanced Strategy The Glyph Wall – what is it and what is its purpose?
If the glyph is above my minimum price then i continue as normal until i reach my minimum posting price, which as i write is 40 gold.
However, given the aim of the glyph wall is to force a player out of the market it is likely that the competitor will start posting the wall below your minimum posting price - indeed, if the competitor has done their research the glyph wall is likely to start below your minimum posting price anyway. The normal Glyph Wall competitor is not an Auction House Camper – that is why the Wall is used.Hence, in this case i adopt the “race to the cost strategy”.
I can’t get way from the fact that during this counter strategy profits from the glyph market are going to nil for all market participants including myself.I have known this counter strategy to go on for almost 3 solid weeks before.
The aim here is to bring all glyphs where there is a Wall down to just above cost price and let the glyph wall competitor undercut me and so make losses on each sale. Eventually they will become dispirited at crafting, posting, making a small loss and repeating time and time again.
Therefore, my strategy is:
1. I remove the 40 gold minimum posting price from my addon and lower it first to 30 gold, then 20 gold and then just above cost price.
2. I undercut by the normal 50 silver
3. Continue to post single glyphs in batches of 2
4. Cancel and repost as normal
5. But now i cancel and repost at least before i go to work and right before i go to bed
The aim is to bring the glyph prices down as fast as possible without using higher than normal undercutting amounts.I find it important to signal to the glyph wall competitor that i am a rational competitor but that i will fight hard for my market.
And of course i keep this up until the Walls are taken down – which is a signal from the glyph wall competitor that they are either leaving the market or giving up on the strategy to allow prices to be reset upwards.
In my experience, the glyph wall only works a third of the time in forcing another player totally out of the market. What i tend to find happens is that myself and another market participant will bring the glyphs down to cost price, other participants will step out of the market and the glyph wall competitor will start selling at a loss. Eventually they give up and leave. And then those other players return.
And of course i keep this up until the Walls are taken down – which is a signal from the glyph wall competitor that they are either leaving the market or giving up on the strategy to allow prices to be reset upwards.
In my experience, the glyph wall only works a third of the time in forcing another player totally out of the market. What i tend to find happens is that myself and another market participant will bring the glyphs down to cost price, other participants will step out of the market and the glyph wall competitor will start selling at a loss. Eventually they give up and leave. And then those other players return.
Thursday, 22 December 2011
The Glyph Wall – what is it and what is its purpose?
Continuing the series on Advanced Strategies today I am looking at The Glyph Wall Strategy. Tomorrow i will discuss how i combat this strategy.
for other Advanced Strategies see Section 7 of Croda's Inscription Gold Guide and indeed for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
But, moving to: The Glyph Wall strategy – what is it and what is its purpose
The primary purpose of a strategy involving a glyph wall is to ensure that the maximum price of the glyph never exceeds the price that the wall is set at.
Spotting this strategy is quite straight forward. For a number of, or all, glyphs you will see about 6 or upwards glyphs individually posted by the same competitor at the same price, which is normally below the market average for each glyph.
The size of the wall ensures that no matter what the demand at least some of each glyph will still be listed for sale 24 hours later at the wall price.
In effect the fallback price of each glyph is reset downwards and therefore reset the price of each glyph downwards. The effects of this strategy whilst it is in operation is to lower the total profits from the glyph market.
The ultimate aim of this strategy is one of two:
Firstly, it may be to permanently reset the fallback price of each glyph and therefore change the profitability of the glyph market for all participants going forwards. To achieve this aim the competitor merely needs to keep the glyph wall up. The objective is to force some players out of the glyph markets who do not wish to tolerate these lower level of profits going forwards and to keep them permanently out of the market by ensuring the glyph prices do not reset upwards.
Secondly, it may be to temporarily reset the fallback price of each glyph with the aim of forcing some market participants to leave the glyph market and therefore allow the competitor to remove the glyph wall to reset the prices upwards and so enjoy the higher profits that the removed players enjoyed previously.
In any event, the aim is to force a player out of the market and hence the competitor is likely to persist with this strategy unless counter action is taken.
for other Advanced Strategies see Section 7 of Croda's Inscription Gold Guide and indeed for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
But, moving to: The Glyph Wall strategy – what is it and what is its purpose
The primary purpose of a strategy involving a glyph wall is to ensure that the maximum price of the glyph never exceeds the price that the wall is set at.
Spotting this strategy is quite straight forward. For a number of, or all, glyphs you will see about 6 or upwards glyphs individually posted by the same competitor at the same price, which is normally below the market average for each glyph.
The size of the wall ensures that no matter what the demand at least some of each glyph will still be listed for sale 24 hours later at the wall price.
In effect the fallback price of each glyph is reset downwards and therefore reset the price of each glyph downwards. The effects of this strategy whilst it is in operation is to lower the total profits from the glyph market.
The ultimate aim of this strategy is one of two:
Firstly, it may be to permanently reset the fallback price of each glyph and therefore change the profitability of the glyph market for all participants going forwards. To achieve this aim the competitor merely needs to keep the glyph wall up. The objective is to force some players out of the glyph markets who do not wish to tolerate these lower level of profits going forwards and to keep them permanently out of the market by ensuring the glyph prices do not reset upwards.
Secondly, it may be to temporarily reset the fallback price of each glyph with the aim of forcing some market participants to leave the glyph market and therefore allow the competitor to remove the glyph wall to reset the prices upwards and so enjoy the higher profits that the removed players enjoyed previously.
In any event, the aim is to force a player out of the market and hence the competitor is likely to persist with this strategy unless counter action is taken.
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
Cassandra Downs in the Twilight Highlands
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
The Cataclysm offhands that scribes can craft and sell for nice gold need raw materials that can only be found from a vendor in the Twilight Highlands or from the Auction House.
To reveal the vendors in the Twilight Highlands you will need to complere a quest chain at least once.
The Alliance vendor is Cassandra Downs, the Horde vendor is Una Kobuna.
Personally, i would do the quest chain. These offhands sell nicely and making one round trip a month to pick up 10 of each raw material item is not much to ask - they are available in unlimited supply.
Alternatively, you can sell the items on the Auction House - but i would advise against this. Why allow your competitors to buy the raw materials from the Auction House.
The Cataclysm offhands that scribes can craft and sell for nice gold need raw materials that can only be found from a vendor in the Twilight Highlands or from the Auction House.
To reveal the vendors in the Twilight Highlands you will need to complere a quest chain at least once.
The Alliance vendor is Cassandra Downs, the Horde vendor is Una Kobuna.
Personally, i would do the quest chain. These offhands sell nicely and making one round trip a month to pick up 10 of each raw material item is not much to ask - they are available in unlimited supply.
Alternatively, you can sell the items on the Auction House - but i would advise against this. Why allow your competitors to buy the raw materials from the Auction House.
Tuesday, 20 December 2011
Why have a high fallback price
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
I set my fallback price at 400 gold.
I set my fallback price at 400 gold.
I do this for a number of reasons.
1. It resets the glyph price to 400 gold when all are sold out – and so starts the undercutting cycles from a high level.
2. It sends a signal to my competitors that i am willing to sell my glyphs at those prices and hence perhaps they should join me. I give the impression of being a sensible competitor. That is key. A market participant with the reputation as a rogue competitor receives more focus. Furthermore, other market participants that have lower fallback prices become tempted to reset theirs higher as well. Should this occur then the profits from the glyph market rise for all.
3. A customer that comes to the Auction House to buy a glyph that is sitting on my 400 gold fallback price knows that the only way it will come down to its normal price (and lets assume that was 150 gold) is through a few days of undercutting or if another market participant has a lower fallback price. I normally find that such customers just bite the bullet and buy the glyph. Glyphs are considered capital items. i.e. a one off purchase for use in perpetuity and therefore customers are willing to pay more than for say useable items like potions.
Monday, 19 December 2011
Forcing a competitor to leave the market
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
. . . . . . is not easy and indeed gets much harder the longer a market participant is around.
To truly force a competitor out of the market they must unlearn that profession. A competitor that merely no longer posts has not fully left the market. With no cost they can re-enter where they left off. A strategy that aims to force a competitor out of the market must force them to unlearn the profession.
Aggressive competitive action may force another competitor to stop posting but there is no cost to a competitor of leaving 8 of every glyph in their bags as they focus on another profession. The moment the market prices reset upwards they will be back.
However, for new entrants picking up the profession on daily research at a time are much more likely to find themselves discouraged and therefore more likely to unlearn the profession. But that is mainly because they do not know the profits that can come from Inscription. The longer serving market participants are likely to hang around and bide their time.
At the end of the day, the equation a market participant will use is comparing the time and cost to learn a new profession against the time to sit out an aggressive competitive action in their market.
The last time i really saw long term market participants leave the Inscription market was during the summer of 2010 when the glyph market changes were being debated (before autumn 2010 glyphs were destroyed when a character changed one glyph for another as opposed to today where a character only needs vanishing powder or dust of disappearance). Many thought that the glyph market would be destroyed and so unlearned the profession. See my post What changed the prices of glyphs after Patch 4.0.1? on why this turned out not to be the case.
. . . . . . is not easy and indeed gets much harder the longer a market participant is around.
To truly force a competitor out of the market they must unlearn that profession. A competitor that merely no longer posts has not fully left the market. With no cost they can re-enter where they left off. A strategy that aims to force a competitor out of the market must force them to unlearn the profession.
Aggressive competitive action may force another competitor to stop posting but there is no cost to a competitor of leaving 8 of every glyph in their bags as they focus on another profession. The moment the market prices reset upwards they will be back.
However, for new entrants picking up the profession on daily research at a time are much more likely to find themselves discouraged and therefore more likely to unlearn the profession. But that is mainly because they do not know the profits that can come from Inscription. The longer serving market participants are likely to hang around and bide their time.
At the end of the day, the equation a market participant will use is comparing the time and cost to learn a new profession against the time to sit out an aggressive competitive action in their market.
The last time i really saw long term market participants leave the Inscription market was during the summer of 2010 when the glyph market changes were being debated (before autumn 2010 glyphs were destroyed when a character changed one glyph for another as opposed to today where a character only needs vanishing powder or dust of disappearance). Many thought that the glyph market would be destroyed and so unlearned the profession. See my post What changed the prices of glyphs after Patch 4.0.1? on why this turned out not to be the case.
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Croda's Inscription Gold Guide updated
Today I have updated the guide. It can be found on the Croda's Inscription Gold Guide Page to this blog.
I have added new sections on:
Advanced Trading Stratgies - including how i deal with Glyph Walls and Auction House Campers, and other advanced trading strategies that i have seen
Inscription Market Observations - a discussion on my observations on the types of markets i have operated in, what i like and some other views.
More general types for scribes - such as Podcasts i listen to, checking for new recipes, and more
Reference Data - such as Herbs to Glyph Conversion
The Scribe's Glossary
and Guide FAQs
as a teaser, the contents are listed below:
CONTENTS
1. Description
2. Gold Making Potential
3. Analysis of the market
4. What changed the prices of glyphs after Patch 4.0.1?
5. Levelling
6. How i operate in the inscription market
a.My use of addons
b.How i am set up
c.What do i stock?
d.When do i mill and craft?
e.How i price my items – glyphs
f.How i price my items – scrolls
g.How i price my items – runescrolls
h.How i price my items – certificates of ownership
i.How i price my items – darkmoon cards
j. How i price my items - off hands
k. My routine – for glyphs, darkmoon cards, scrolls, runescrolls and certificates of ownership
l.My routine – for off hands
m.My routine – for surplus inks
n.How i compete
o.How i deal with a serious new entrant
p. How i deal with an existing competitor that turns aggressive
q.What i have on my snatch list for inscription
7. Advanced Strategies
a. The starting point
b. The Glyph Wall –what is it and what is its purpose?
c. The Glyph Wall –how to combat it
d. The Auction House Camper - what is it and what is its purpose?
e. The Auction House Camper – how to combat it?
f. The Pricing Trap strategy – what is it and what is its purpose?
g. The Pricing Trap strategy – how to combat it
h. Hello there stranger! - what is it and what is its purpose?
i. Hello there stranger! - how to combat this
8. Market Observations
a. Forcing a competitor to leave the market
b. Stable markets is what every scribe wants.
c. Sales on a sustainable basis
d. Who is the Market Leader?
e. Lowing the cost of glyphs – looking at the manufacturing process
f. Sunk Costs
g. Cash Margins vs Profit Margins
h. Measuring Gold per Hour
9. General Tips for Scribes
a. Books of Glyph Mastery - a form of insurance
b. Alt Posting Location
c. A Guild Bank
d. Getting the Drop on your Competitors
e. What to do before Patches and new content
f. Podcasts i listen to
g. Post Patch work –reset your Auction House data
h. Checking for Recipes on the Auction House
i. Better safe than sorry
j. Skipping items to post
k. Checking to see what recipes you still have to collect
l. Loading out of date addons.
10 Reference Data
a. Herbs to Glyph Conversion
11. Scribe's Glossary
Appendix
A A bit about myself
B Why did i start gold making in World of Warcraft?
C Guide FAQs
I have added new sections on:
Advanced Trading Stratgies - including how i deal with Glyph Walls and Auction House Campers, and other advanced trading strategies that i have seen
Inscription Market Observations - a discussion on my observations on the types of markets i have operated in, what i like and some other views.
More general types for scribes - such as Podcasts i listen to, checking for new recipes, and more
Reference Data - such as Herbs to Glyph Conversion
The Scribe's Glossary
and Guide FAQs
as a teaser, the contents are listed below:
CONTENTS
1. Description
2. Gold Making Potential
3. Analysis of the market
4. What changed the prices of glyphs after Patch 4.0.1?
5. Levelling
6. How i operate in the inscription market
a.My use of addons
b.How i am set up
c.What do i stock?
d.When do i mill and craft?
e.How i price my items – glyphs
f.How i price my items – scrolls
g.How i price my items – runescrolls
h.How i price my items – certificates of ownership
i.How i price my items – darkmoon cards
j. How i price my items - off hands
k. My routine – for glyphs, darkmoon cards, scrolls, runescrolls and certificates of ownership
l.My routine – for off hands
m.My routine – for surplus inks
n.How i compete
o.How i deal with a serious new entrant
p. How i deal with an existing competitor that turns aggressive
q.What i have on my snatch list for inscription
7. Advanced Strategies
a. The starting point
b. The Glyph Wall –what is it and what is its purpose?
c. The Glyph Wall –how to combat it
d. The Auction House Camper - what is it and what is its purpose?
e. The Auction House Camper – how to combat it?
f. The Pricing Trap strategy – what is it and what is its purpose?
g. The Pricing Trap strategy – how to combat it
h. Hello there stranger! - what is it and what is its purpose?
i. Hello there stranger! - how to combat this
8. Market Observations
a. Forcing a competitor to leave the market
b. Stable markets is what every scribe wants.
c. Sales on a sustainable basis
d. Who is the Market Leader?
e. Lowing the cost of glyphs – looking at the manufacturing process
f. Sunk Costs
g. Cash Margins vs Profit Margins
h. Measuring Gold per Hour
9. General Tips for Scribes
a. Books of Glyph Mastery - a form of insurance
b. Alt Posting Location
c. A Guild Bank
d. Getting the Drop on your Competitors
e. What to do before Patches and new content
f. Podcasts i listen to
g. Post Patch work –reset your Auction House data
h. Checking for Recipes on the Auction House
i. Better safe than sorry
j. Skipping items to post
k. Checking to see what recipes you still have to collect
l. Loading out of date addons.
10 Reference Data
a. Herbs to Glyph Conversion
11. Scribe's Glossary
Appendix
A A bit about myself
B Why did i start gold making in World of Warcraft?
C Guide FAQs
Saturday, 17 December 2011
Post Patch action - reset your Auction House data
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Now that the patch is upon us prices in the Auction House are moving quite violently and likely moving to new levels. Hence, it is worth resetting the data of your Auction House addons to make sure the data used is up to date and reflects todays market conditions.
Indeed, i tend to reset my data each quarter anyway to get rid of stale data and certainly whenever patches and new expansions come along.
For Auctioneer the command is: /auc cleardata ALL
For TradeSkillMaster the command is: /tsm adbreset
And of course remember to do a complete scan the Auction House daily. Every gold maker should. Takes 10 to 15 minutes and you can be doing some housework at the same time!
Now that the patch is upon us prices in the Auction House are moving quite violently and likely moving to new levels. Hence, it is worth resetting the data of your Auction House addons to make sure the data used is up to date and reflects todays market conditions.
Indeed, i tend to reset my data each quarter anyway to get rid of stale data and certainly whenever patches and new expansions come along.
For Auctioneer the command is: /auc cleardata ALL
For TradeSkillMaster the command is: /tsm adbreset
And of course remember to do a complete scan the Auction House daily. Every gold maker should. Takes 10 to 15 minutes and you can be doing some housework at the same time!
Friday, 16 December 2011
Loading out of date addons
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
When Blizzard asks you to accept the Terms of Sale after a Patch or New Content it is likely that your addons are defaulted to not load any that are considered out of date.
In this case you need to check that “load out of date addons” box again.
1. on the opening screen that lists your characters at the bottom left there is a button "AddOns" - click it
2. the AddOn List window will open - at the top of this window is a checkbox labels "Load out of date AddOns" - click it
3. Press "Okay" at the bottom of the window to accept and close.
When Blizzard asks you to accept the Terms of Sale after a Patch or New Content it is likely that your addons are defaulted to not load any that are considered out of date.
In this case you need to check that “load out of date addons” box again.
1. on the opening screen that lists your characters at the bottom left there is a button "AddOns" - click it
2. the AddOn List window will open - at the top of this window is a checkbox labels "Load out of date AddOns" - click it
3. Press "Okay" at the bottom of the window to accept and close.
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Croda's Inscription Guide FAQs
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Ahead of updating the Guide at thw weekend I have had several emails that are starting to form some common themes, so i will answer those here:
Is the guide free: yes. It is found on my blog as Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
How often will it be updated: once a month feels about right
What sort level of player is this aimed at: as long as the player has started their daily inscription research then it will be of use. It will be of most use to players that do not consider themselves expert gold makers in World of Warcraft.
Is it a levelling guide: no, it refers the reader to other levelling guides. The aim of this guide is to show the reader how to make gold from Inscription.
Can i quote/copy some paragraphs to discuss: yes, that is ok as long as it is linked through to the guide on my blog.
Can i copy all of it and put it on my own site: no. Feel free to link to it though.
Will it contain information not on the blog: no. Infact, the blog though will have graphics which the guide will not otherwise it would take ages to open the guide page.
are there plans for guides on other professions: no. My core abilities lie in Inscription. I partake in other professions and Enchanting is my next biggest earner - but i would not count myself as an expert in these.
Ahead of updating the Guide at thw weekend I have had several emails that are starting to form some common themes, so i will answer those here:
Is the guide free: yes. It is found on my blog as Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
How often will it be updated: once a month feels about right
What sort level of player is this aimed at: as long as the player has started their daily inscription research then it will be of use. It will be of most use to players that do not consider themselves expert gold makers in World of Warcraft.
Is it a levelling guide: no, it refers the reader to other levelling guides. The aim of this guide is to show the reader how to make gold from Inscription.
Can i quote/copy some paragraphs to discuss: yes, that is ok as long as it is linked through to the guide on my blog.
Can i copy all of it and put it on my own site: no. Feel free to link to it though.
Will it contain information not on the blog: no. Infact, the blog though will have graphics which the guide will not otherwise it would take ages to open the guide page.
are there plans for guides on other professions: no. My core abilities lie in Inscription. I partake in other professions and Enchanting is my next biggest earner - but i would not count myself as an expert in these.
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Podcasts i listen to
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
As well as the blog roll to the right the gold making community in World of Warcraft is active in podcasting. Below are the podcasts i listen to as well as the non-gold making podcasts related to World of Warcraft that i also listen to.
As ever, it is not only the ideas the hosts discuss but the thinking behind the ideas that is of benefit to us all. And they make for good listening.
they are in alphabetical order split between the pure gold making podcasts and the pocasts what are about the World of Warcraft in general. For a complete list of Gold making Blogs and Podscasts see The PowerwordGold Blog Directory.
Pure gold making
Addicited to Azeroth - inactive
Auction House Junkies - Hosted by Cold and Wes from Cold's Gold Factory and Capped by Cata, respectively
Call to Auction – just returned after a 9 month break! Hosted by Fox Van Allen and Euripides.
The Mana Cooler - Hosted by George
Powerword:Gold - Hosted by Fluxdada from Powerword:gold and a guest host.
Mixture of gold making but mostly other World of Warcast
The Instance - Hosted by hosted by Scot Johnson, Dills and Turpster from Frogpants Studios, AIE Podcast and The Incredible Podcast of Amazing Awesomeness respectively
Outlandish Podcast - hosted by Jeremy, Justin, Matt and Mandy
Rep Grind Radio - Hosted by Twizzle and r9sid9nt9vil from WoW According to Twizz and eviscerated.net respectively, a range of topics.
Warcraft Lounge - Hosted by Chris and Ryan, going since November 2010, range of topics and debate.
As well as the blog roll to the right the gold making community in World of Warcraft is active in podcasting. Below are the podcasts i listen to as well as the non-gold making podcasts related to World of Warcraft that i also listen to.
As ever, it is not only the ideas the hosts discuss but the thinking behind the ideas that is of benefit to us all. And they make for good listening.
they are in alphabetical order split between the pure gold making podcasts and the pocasts what are about the World of Warcraft in general. For a complete list of Gold making Blogs and Podscasts see The PowerwordGold Blog Directory.
Pure gold making
Addicited to Azeroth - inactive
Auction House Junkies - Hosted by Cold and Wes from Cold's Gold Factory and Capped by Cata, respectively
Call to Auction – just returned after a 9 month break! Hosted by Fox Van Allen and Euripides.
The Mana Cooler - Hosted by George
Powerword:Gold - Hosted by Fluxdada from Powerword:gold and a guest host.
Mixture of gold making but mostly other World of Warcast
The Instance - Hosted by hosted by Scot Johnson, Dills and Turpster from Frogpants Studios, AIE Podcast and The Incredible Podcast of Amazing Awesomeness respectively
Outlandish Podcast - hosted by Jeremy, Justin, Matt and Mandy
Rep Grind Radio - Hosted by Twizzle and r9sid9nt9vil from WoW According to Twizz and eviscerated.net respectively, a range of topics.
Warcraft Lounge - Hosted by Chris and Ryan, going since November 2010, range of topics and debate.
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Stable markets via high minimum pricing
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Stable markets is what every scribe wants.
I would rather make a steady 5000 gold per day than making 7000 gold one day, 1000 gold the next, 5000 the next etc and fighting the whole time to achieve this. Even if i found that the stable market earned slightly less than the unstable market the time i could devote to other projects whilst operating in a stable market would surely offset this.
The way i achieve this is to make my minimum prices 40 gold per glyph against a crafting cost of 12 – 15 gold.
There are plenty of my competitors who are willing to operate in the 15 to 40 gold range earning profits up to 25 gold per glyph sold (which is still a good return compared to the crafting cost of 15 gold) to generate their daily earnings from the glyph market.
By setting my minimum price at 40 gold there is one less competitor at this end of the market (i.e. i am not there) and hence my competitors have it slightly easier.
Furthermore, i find that because my competitors are happy with their daily earnings from the glyph they are less likely to camp the Auction House to squeeze every copper out from their glyphs.
That makes for a stable market. It also makes for a market where what all participants fear most is an aggressive new entrant and we all will fight hard together to prevent a new entrant destabilising our market.
Feels like a win win situation.
Stable markets is what every scribe wants.
I would rather make a steady 5000 gold per day than making 7000 gold one day, 1000 gold the next, 5000 the next etc and fighting the whole time to achieve this. Even if i found that the stable market earned slightly less than the unstable market the time i could devote to other projects whilst operating in a stable market would surely offset this.
The way i achieve this is to make my minimum prices 40 gold per glyph against a crafting cost of 12 – 15 gold.
There are plenty of my competitors who are willing to operate in the 15 to 40 gold range earning profits up to 25 gold per glyph sold (which is still a good return compared to the crafting cost of 15 gold) to generate their daily earnings from the glyph market.
By setting my minimum price at 40 gold there is one less competitor at this end of the market (i.e. i am not there) and hence my competitors have it slightly easier.
Furthermore, i find that because my competitors are happy with their daily earnings from the glyph they are less likely to camp the Auction House to squeeze every copper out from their glyphs.
That makes for a stable market. It also makes for a market where what all participants fear most is an aggressive new entrant and we all will fight hard together to prevent a new entrant destabilising our market.
Feels like a win win situation.
Monday, 12 December 2011
Measuring Gold per Hour
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Gold Per Hour is an often quoted statistic in the gold blogging community and indeed at some point most blogs have commented on its usefulness or otherwise as a measurement.
I will make myself no exception.
The reason I would like to seek some sort of a gold making measurement with reference to time taken is that the key critical resource for most gold makers is time. Our time playing this game is limited by other World of Warcraft activities and real life.
Starting with an example lets say in an hour I gather 20 stacks of whiptails and 60 volatile life at my favourite farming spot in Uldium. The whiptail is currently selling for 1.5 gold a herb (30 gold a stack) and the volatile life for 7 gold each on the Auction House. I put it all on the Auction House and it is all sold in 9 hours giving me 1020 gold ignoring the Auction House fees. So, what is the Gold per Hour here?
Is it 1020 divided by the hour of gathering or 1020 divided by the 10 hours of gathering plus selling time? Clearly the difference is immense - 1020 vs 102 Gold per Hour.
Furthermore had I immediately returned to gathering having posted on the Auction House and repeated the gathering for an hour and posted again (and let's assume still all sold in 9 hours) after 11 hours since I first started gathering I would have received 2040 gold for 2 hours of gathering. Indicating either 1020 vs 204 Gold per Hour.
In fact if I kept on gathering and posting all day then the Gold per Hour received from the Auction House would rise to 1020. That would indicate that the correct answer is 1020 Gold per Hour but clearly the problem here is that it assumes we can make the sale on the Auction House within 9 hours of posting. And as all gold makers know that is a major uncertainty. Besides 1020 Gold per Hour, every hour, is unlikely.
And that is the key point - it is not the Gold per Hour as measured by the gathering or crafting plus the time to sell that counts, it is how consistent is this measurement as i scale up the supply to the Auction House.
Hence, i tend to look at this in two dimensions:
1) i tend to look at Gold per Week that i earn from various professions or groups of items. Using a week allows me to take into account the busier weekends, the lighter week days and indeed 168 hours of my items being on the Auction House with its variable demand and keen competition.
2) and then i look at the hours i spend each day over the week on this gold making activity - i.e. Hours per Week
clearly, i am trying to maximise Gold per Week and minimise Hours per Week. I work on those two variables.
Gold Per Hour is an often quoted statistic in the gold blogging community and indeed at some point most blogs have commented on its usefulness or otherwise as a measurement.
I will make myself no exception.
The reason I would like to seek some sort of a gold making measurement with reference to time taken is that the key critical resource for most gold makers is time. Our time playing this game is limited by other World of Warcraft activities and real life.
Starting with an example lets say in an hour I gather 20 stacks of whiptails and 60 volatile life at my favourite farming spot in Uldium. The whiptail is currently selling for 1.5 gold a herb (30 gold a stack) and the volatile life for 7 gold each on the Auction House. I put it all on the Auction House and it is all sold in 9 hours giving me 1020 gold ignoring the Auction House fees. So, what is the Gold per Hour here?
Is it 1020 divided by the hour of gathering or 1020 divided by the 10 hours of gathering plus selling time? Clearly the difference is immense - 1020 vs 102 Gold per Hour.
Furthermore had I immediately returned to gathering having posted on the Auction House and repeated the gathering for an hour and posted again (and let's assume still all sold in 9 hours) after 11 hours since I first started gathering I would have received 2040 gold for 2 hours of gathering. Indicating either 1020 vs 204 Gold per Hour.
In fact if I kept on gathering and posting all day then the Gold per Hour received from the Auction House would rise to 1020. That would indicate that the correct answer is 1020 Gold per Hour but clearly the problem here is that it assumes we can make the sale on the Auction House within 9 hours of posting. And as all gold makers know that is a major uncertainty. Besides 1020 Gold per Hour, every hour, is unlikely.
And that is the key point - it is not the Gold per Hour as measured by the gathering or crafting plus the time to sell that counts, it is how consistent is this measurement as i scale up the supply to the Auction House.
Hence, i tend to look at this in two dimensions:
1) i tend to look at Gold per Week that i earn from various professions or groups of items. Using a week allows me to take into account the busier weekends, the lighter week days and indeed 168 hours of my items being on the Auction House with its variable demand and keen competition.
2) and then i look at the hours i spend each day over the week on this gold making activity - i.e. Hours per Week
clearly, i am trying to maximise Gold per Week and minimise Hours per Week. I work on those two variables.
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Herbs to Glyph Conversions
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
knowing what the crafting cost of a glyph from the herbs that they are made from is a key part of pricing your glyphs.
(using 2 ashen pigment per Blackfallow ink and 3 Blackfallow ink per glyph, to 1 decimal place)
1 Whiptail creates 0.6 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 10.0 Whiptail per glyph
1 Twilight Jasmine creates 0.6 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 10.0 Twilight Jasmine per glyph
1 Cinderbloom creates 0.4 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 15.0 Cinderbloom per glyph
1 Stormvine creates 0.4 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 15.0 Stormvine per glyph
1 Azshara's Veil creates 0.4 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 15.0 Azshara's Veil per glyph
knowing what the crafting cost of a glyph from the herbs that they are made from is a key part of pricing your glyphs.
(using 2 ashen pigment per Blackfallow ink and 3 Blackfallow ink per glyph, to 1 decimal place)
1 Whiptail creates 0.6 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 10.0 Whiptail per glyph
1 Twilight Jasmine creates 0.6 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 10.0 Twilight Jasmine per glyph
1 Cinderbloom creates 0.4 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 15.0 Cinderbloom per glyph
1 Stormvine creates 0.4 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 15.0 Stormvine per glyph
1 Azshara's Veil creates 0.4 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 15.0 Azshara's Veil per glyph
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Cash margin vs profit margins
. . . . . . . or how accounting can disguise what really you should
do.
Take this scenario:
You craft a glyph for 15 gold and sell it for 60 gold. Cash margin is 45 gold (60 – 15) and the profit
margin is 75% ([60-15]/60]. Or, looking
at the profit margin another way, the markup was 300% (60/15 -1).
You craft an enchant for 3 gold and sell it for 18
gold. Cash margin is 15 gold (18 – 3)
and the profit margin is 83% ([18-3]/18), or the markup was 500% (18/3 -1).
So, do you focus on crafting and selling the item with a
profit margin of 83% (markup 500%) vs the other item with a profit margin of
75% (markup 300%) – and lets assume you can always sell the above items?
Well, i doubt any gold makers here would fall for that. Of course, you would focus on selling the
glyph because it makes a 45 gold profit every time vs the enchant that makes 15
gold profit.
Worth remembering that when walking the road to serious gold
in World of Warcraft. Crafting an item for 5000 gold to sell it for 8000 gold
(i.e. darkmoon decks) is a better bet than crafting the item for 2 gold and
selling it for 8 gold. Every time.
Assuming you research your markets and know you can make the
sale, and can afford to have the capital tied up for a while, then think big.
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Friday, 9 December 2011
Sales on a sustainable basis
. . . . . . or how rising prices can attract unwanted competition.
I would rather sell one item every 2 days for 200 gold on a sustainable basis with the market to myself than compete with others to sell the very same item every 2 days for 400 gold.
I find this is the case with the off hands such as Iron-bound Tome, Manual of Clouds and Faces of Doom. Despite selling them every 2 days as sure as night follows day, i do not put up their prices. Because doing so would attract unwanted competition.
At present my competition can see one Iron-bound Tome sold every 2 days for 200 gold and they don’t both trying to compete. But if i was to raise my prices they would notice a sale for 300 gold or 400 gold every 2 days and then they would try and enter this market.
I get 1000 gold per week from these. It may not be much but it all adds up.
When you are onto a good thing best not to try and make it a great thing, everyone wants to be onto a great thing.
for this and other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
I would rather sell one item every 2 days for 200 gold on a sustainable basis with the market to myself than compete with others to sell the very same item every 2 days for 400 gold.
I find this is the case with the off hands such as Iron-bound Tome, Manual of Clouds and Faces of Doom. Despite selling them every 2 days as sure as night follows day, i do not put up their prices. Because doing so would attract unwanted competition.
At present my competition can see one Iron-bound Tome sold every 2 days for 200 gold and they don’t both trying to compete. But if i was to raise my prices they would notice a sale for 300 gold or 400 gold every 2 days and then they would try and enter this market.
I get 1000 gold per week from these. It may not be much but it all adds up.
When you are onto a good thing best not to try and make it a great thing, everyone wants to be onto a great thing.
for this and other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Thursday, 8 December 2011
The Pricing Trap strategy – how to combat it
Following on from yesterdays post on the Advanced Strategy The Pricing Trap strategy – what is it and what is its purpose?
There are two ways to combat this strategy, and the second method is fail safe.
The first method is to spot it and avoid it. Therefore this requires you not to blindly use your posting addons but to at least pay attention to what is going on in your markets. Which is no bad thing.
The second method is to always have a minimum posting price. For glyphs i have a 40 gold minimum posting price – see my post The importance of minimum pricing levels. Indeed, TradeSkillMaster will allow you to base your minimum posting price on the crafting cost – and for other markets such as enchants i base my minimum price on the crafting cost + 10% (i.e. 110% of the crafting cost). This will allow you to blindly use your addon to post – though i would still heavily advice keeping an eye on what your markets are doing!
for this and other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
There are two ways to combat this strategy, and the second method is fail safe.
The first method is to spot it and avoid it. Therefore this requires you not to blindly use your posting addons but to at least pay attention to what is going on in your markets. Which is no bad thing.
The second method is to always have a minimum posting price. For glyphs i have a 40 gold minimum posting price – see my post The importance of minimum pricing levels. Indeed, TradeSkillMaster will allow you to base your minimum posting price on the crafting cost – and for other markets such as enchants i base my minimum price on the crafting cost + 10% (i.e. 110% of the crafting cost). This will allow you to blindly use your addon to post – though i would still heavily advice keeping an eye on what your markets are doing!
for this and other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
The Pricing Trap strategy – what is it and what is its purpose?
Continuing the series on Advanced Strategies today I am looking at The Pricing Trap Strategy. Tomorrow i will discuss how i combat this strategy.
The prior posts on Advanced Strategies were Hello there stranger! - what is it and what is its purpose? and Hello there stranger! - how to combat this
But, moving to: The Pricing Trap strategy – what is it and what is its purpose?
This is where a competitor posts 1 of each item at an ultra low price which is just above crafting cost.
The primary purpose of this strategy is to hoodwink other market participants into posting items at a lower price and so below cost price and therefore to allow the competitor adopting this strategy to pick up some items at a cheap price whilst forcing those that fell for this strategy to make a loss.
It is not a strategy that is used to force other market participants out of the market or indeed to improve one’s own market position. It is an opportunistic strategy that is adopted on occasion to take advantage of market participants that are blindly using addons without any built in safety features to their posting prices.
Spotting this strategy is primarily done by pay attention to the posting prices of your items or what the lowest posting price would be. There are two ways to do this with TradeSkillMaster.
The first way is to have the “Browse” tab open whilst TradeSkillMaster is going through your items to post. It will flick through each page quite fast but you can easily get a feel as to how the lowest price compares to the normal price for each item. Indeed, in Auctioneer you will see blue percentage numbers that are very low indicating that the lowest posted price is way below the normal average price.
The second way is to have the “show auctions” button open when you are posting your items with TradeSkillMaster. Assuming you do not have a macro that connects your mouse wheel to the posting button then you will be able to see how the lowest priced item compares to the other prices on the Auction House.
for this and other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
The prior posts on Advanced Strategies were Hello there stranger! - what is it and what is its purpose? and Hello there stranger! - how to combat this
But, moving to: The Pricing Trap strategy – what is it and what is its purpose?
This is where a competitor posts 1 of each item at an ultra low price which is just above crafting cost.
The primary purpose of this strategy is to hoodwink other market participants into posting items at a lower price and so below cost price and therefore to allow the competitor adopting this strategy to pick up some items at a cheap price whilst forcing those that fell for this strategy to make a loss.
It is not a strategy that is used to force other market participants out of the market or indeed to improve one’s own market position. It is an opportunistic strategy that is adopted on occasion to take advantage of market participants that are blindly using addons without any built in safety features to their posting prices.
Spotting this strategy is primarily done by pay attention to the posting prices of your items or what the lowest posting price would be. There are two ways to do this with TradeSkillMaster.
The first way is to have the “Browse” tab open whilst TradeSkillMaster is going through your items to post. It will flick through each page quite fast but you can easily get a feel as to how the lowest price compares to the normal price for each item. Indeed, in Auctioneer you will see blue percentage numbers that are very low indicating that the lowest posted price is way below the normal average price.
The second way is to have the “show auctions” button open when you are posting your items with TradeSkillMaster. Assuming you do not have a macro that connects your mouse wheel to the posting button then you will be able to see how the lowest priced item compares to the other prices on the Auction House.
for this and other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Checking to see what recipes you still have to collect
The addon Ackis Recipe List integrates into the crafting
addon Advanced Trade Skill Window (and others).
When you open the crafting window for any profession there
is a button called “Scan” on the top bar on the window – put there by Ackis
Recipe List. Pressing this button will
reveal all recipes that you still need to collect and also a summary of how
many recipes you already have expressed as a percentage of all available
recipes for that profession.
You can sort the recipes to collect by:
·
Acquisition – which sorts the recipes to collect
into the headlines Mobs, Reputation, Vendors etc which can be expanded further
·
Location – which sorts the recipes to collect by
area of Azeroth
·
Recipes – which just lists the recipes to
collect
Running your cursor over each recipe will show you the
location on the map and any other relevant information (like if the vendor is
Horde or Alliance!), you can click the recipe to get further information on the
collection requirements.
If you do nothing else with this information then at least
go and get the recipes available from vendors where you do not need reputation
or a daily cool down.
as you can see - i have plenty of work to do with my Jewelcrafter!
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
as you can see - i have plenty of work to do with my Jewelcrafter!
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Monday, 5 December 2011
Skipping items to post
Keep an eye on the prices of the items you are posting, even when they are posting above your minimum price (which all items will do so if you have your posting addon set up correctly!)
There are times where the cheapest glyph on the Auction House (or any item) may be a large amount lower than the normal price or indeed other glyphs posted at the time. This may not be a concerted strategy by an aggressive competitor but merely a normal player selling an item at a random low price.
In this situation don’t undercut the glyph (you don’t want to reset the market price at this level) but either don’t post at all or post higher up the undercut the other glyphs at the higher prices.
You can best see what prices the glyphs are posted by pressing "Show Auctions" on TradeSkillMaster before you press the "Post" button
Of course, if the posted glyph is below cost then buy it!
for this and other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
There are times where the cheapest glyph on the Auction House (or any item) may be a large amount lower than the normal price or indeed other glyphs posted at the time. This may not be a concerted strategy by an aggressive competitor but merely a normal player selling an item at a random low price.
In this situation don’t undercut the glyph (you don’t want to reset the market price at this level) but either don’t post at all or post higher up the undercut the other glyphs at the higher prices.
You can best see what prices the glyphs are posted by pressing "Show Auctions" on TradeSkillMaster before you press the "Post" button
Of course, if the posted glyph is below cost then buy it!
for this and other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Sunday, 4 December 2011
Alt posting location
A key concern of an alt posting toon is the speed of
posting. I don’t want my posting alt to
experience lag because of an overcrowded city.
And i don’t want my posting alt to be interrupted by guild invites. And therefore the less crowed a city the
better.
From an Alliance point of view Ironforge is almost deserted,
at least on my server. Stormwind is too
crowded and the lag can be an issue.
Starting a toon at level 1 to become a posting toon means
starting near Stormwind or Ironforge.
Stormwind is the quickest place to start – has direct access to the City
along a road. Hence, a quick run along
the road to Stormwind and then the tram to Ironforge puts all my posting toons
in Ironforge.
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Saturday, 3 December 2011
Who is the glyph market leader?
Is it the person (and lets define person as all their
ingame characters on a server) that posts the most glyphs in a day or is it the
person who sells the most glyphs in a day or is it the person who posts the
highest total value of glyphs in a day or is it the person who sells the
highest total value of glyphs in a day?
And indeed, what advantage does being the market leader bring?
Being the market leader does not give any scale benefits – the cost to craft a glyph is the same whether you sell 1 or 100 a day, there is no volume discount on the Auction House fees.
You don’t have pricing power, indeed you are equal with all market participant as a price taker. No-one is a price maker unless they are leading the market down.
Actually, i would argue that being the market leader is not important at all in the glyph market. What is more important is being the lowest priced glyph when demand comes to the Auction House. And you don’t need to be the market leader to do that, you just need your glyph to be there and at the lowest price.
Hence, perhaps instead of posting five of every glyph two would do. I can guarantee that your sales would not fall by 60% if you reduced your glyphs from five each to two each. But your time to cancel and repost would be greatly reduced, and that is what counts here.
Going one step further, if you are the Scribe posting less volume than other market participants but making higher profits then you are doing something right. Market leader or not.
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
And indeed, what advantage does being the market leader bring?
Being the market leader does not give any scale benefits – the cost to craft a glyph is the same whether you sell 1 or 100 a day, there is no volume discount on the Auction House fees.
You don’t have pricing power, indeed you are equal with all market participant as a price taker. No-one is a price maker unless they are leading the market down.
Actually, i would argue that being the market leader is not important at all in the glyph market. What is more important is being the lowest priced glyph when demand comes to the Auction House. And you don’t need to be the market leader to do that, you just need your glyph to be there and at the lowest price.
Hence, perhaps instead of posting five of every glyph two would do. I can guarantee that your sales would not fall by 60% if you reduced your glyphs from five each to two each. But your time to cancel and repost would be greatly reduced, and that is what counts here.
Going one step further, if you are the Scribe posting less volume than other market participants but making higher profits then you are doing something right. Market leader or not.
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Friday, 2 December 2011
Checking for Recipes on the Auction House
Once a profession is levelled to 525 and you are working on
any relevant dailies, or even before, it is always worthwhile whenever you profession
character is at the Auction House to check for any available recipes that have
been posted. Of course, make sure you
have picked up all recipes from vendors around the world (give yourself a spare
hour, pour yourself a glass of wine and start flying from vendor to vendor).
This is easily done. Open the Auction House window:
·
tick “Usable Items” on the top bar of the window
·
click Recipes and then select the profession you
are searching
·
the press Search
A list of recipes that you don’t own will appear. (if a very long list appears then it is
likely you have not ticked “Usable Items”
I always buy recipes that are priced under 100 gold.
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Hello there stranger! - how to combat this
Following on from the post yesterday Hello there stranger! - what is it and what is its purpose?
the solution to combat this strategy is: Quite simple – don’t fall for it.
If you see a new set of alts start posting having seemingly come from nowhere then add them to your friends list. You will see them pretty quickly given they will be undercutting almost all your glyphs despite you having never seen them before. Did they really do all the daily research and just start posting now? . . . . unlikely.
Secondly, where you see this is accompanied by the absence of a former competitor then assume they are the same and therefore any knowledge you had of the former competitor can be deemed relevant to this “new” competitor.
It will be worth looking up the history of the posting alts that have disappeared on the Undermine Journal to remind yourself of their posting patterns.
And it is worth noting this down for future reference. I find that a player who tries this strategy once often tries again at a later time.
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
the solution to combat this strategy is: Quite simple – don’t fall for it.
If you see a new set of alts start posting having seemingly come from nowhere then add them to your friends list. You will see them pretty quickly given they will be undercutting almost all your glyphs despite you having never seen them before. Did they really do all the daily research and just start posting now? . . . . unlikely.
Secondly, where you see this is accompanied by the absence of a former competitor then assume they are the same and therefore any knowledge you had of the former competitor can be deemed relevant to this “new” competitor.
It will be worth looking up the history of the posting alts that have disappeared on the Undermine Journal to remind yourself of their posting patterns.
And it is worth noting this down for future reference. I find that a player who tries this strategy once often tries again at a later time.
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Hello there stranger! - what is it and what is its purpose?
An Advanced Strategy that i have seen in my inscription market.
This is where out of nowhere a new market participant that you have never seen and their alts start posting the full range of items whilst at the same time a former established market participant seemingly disappears off the face of the earth.
In fact, it is more likely that the former market participant has deleted their old posting alts and created new posting alts with new names with the intent to confuse the market.
One sign of this happening is when your Friends List no longer recognises some of your competitors just at the time when a new competitor emerges.
The primary aim of this strategy is to disguise the owner of the posting alts and therefore attempt to convince other market participants that there is a new entrant into the market whereas in fact it is an established participant – i.e. there has been no increase in participants in the market.
By using this disguise the player hopes that the other market participants will not know their typical posting times and standard strategies in use. Furthermore, the player hopes that their history in the market will be cleared – such as their stamina for competition etc and indeed the player hopes that it will take a while for the market participants to update their friends list and so give them a free run at being able to post without being noticed.
For example, if previously this player posted every day except Saturday and Wednesday then the player hopes that it will take a while before the market establishes that their new posting alts are also following this pattern. Indeed, the player hopes that all data on their prior posting alts gathered by the Undermine Journal will be lost to history.
And therefore the player hopes to temporarily strengthen their position in the market whilst the other market participants get their act together.
In addition, a player that tries this strategy once is quite likely to try again at a later time - this strategy is quite effective for a short term gain.
. . . . . and tomorrow i will post the strategy to combat this strategy.
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
This is where out of nowhere a new market participant that you have never seen and their alts start posting the full range of items whilst at the same time a former established market participant seemingly disappears off the face of the earth.
In fact, it is more likely that the former market participant has deleted their old posting alts and created new posting alts with new names with the intent to confuse the market.
One sign of this happening is when your Friends List no longer recognises some of your competitors just at the time when a new competitor emerges.
The primary aim of this strategy is to disguise the owner of the posting alts and therefore attempt to convince other market participants that there is a new entrant into the market whereas in fact it is an established participant – i.e. there has been no increase in participants in the market.
By using this disguise the player hopes that the other market participants will not know their typical posting times and standard strategies in use. Furthermore, the player hopes that their history in the market will be cleared – such as their stamina for competition etc and indeed the player hopes that it will take a while for the market participants to update their friends list and so give them a free run at being able to post without being noticed.
For example, if previously this player posted every day except Saturday and Wednesday then the player hopes that it will take a while before the market establishes that their new posting alts are also following this pattern. Indeed, the player hopes that all data on their prior posting alts gathered by the Undermine Journal will be lost to history.
And therefore the player hopes to temporarily strengthen their position in the market whilst the other market participants get their act together.
In addition, a player that tries this strategy once is quite likely to try again at a later time - this strategy is quite effective for a short term gain.
. . . . . and tomorrow i will post the strategy to combat this strategy.
for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Advanced strategies
I am starting series on this blog that looks at the advanced strategies i have come across in my time in the Inscription market. The format of the posts will be to look at the strategy itself, what its aim is and how to spot it. And then a follow up post the next day will look at how to combat the strategy - and i will hope to show that by correctly identifying a competitor's strategy then the counter strategy is quite simple to explain, and perhaps quite obvious too!
The aim is to post an advanced strategy, and how to combat it the next day, every 10 days or so.
I will cover the strategies we all have heard of such as the Glyph Wall and the Auction House Camper but I will start with some lesser known strategies that are perhaps less fully covered. And the first post is tomorrow.
However, it is worth taking a top down view to start and laying some basic ground work that is the foundation of the analysis of a competitor's strategy and how to combat it.
The starting point
When a competitor puts a new (often aggressive) strategy into play at all times the starting point is to stand back and consider what the aim of this competitor is.
Assuming the view is that the competitor is trying to strengthen their position in the market then the end aim is almost always for that competitor to increase their profits on an ongoing basis. They key question you must answer is whether the competitor is trying to strengthen their position whilst maintaining the current market environment or whether the competitor is trying to permanently alter the current structure of the market for their benefit - i.e. by reset prices lower permenantly.
The former aim would suggest that the competitor is trying to displace an existing market participant through their aggressive actions but that the aggressive actions will eventually end once the competitor feels their aim is fulfilled or they give up.
The latter aim would suggest that the aggressive actions may become the norm or at least will not entirely cease once the competitor feels that their aim is achieved – though if the competitor gives up then the former market structure will return.
If the competitor is undertaking an action for a short term gain then it is likely that they are trying their luck with an opportunistic strategy that is designed to hoodwink market participants into making losses for the benefit of the competitor that deployed the strategy– normally over a short term.
In any event, it is very hard to devise a counter strategy without the answer to that question. Furthermore, once the competitor's strategy is identified the counter strategy is often a lot more simpler to enact.
(Alternative views may be that the competitor is leaving the market hence dumping stock or merely going through an intellectual experiment. These are often low probabilities and the best strategy is to let them run their course.)
Furthermore, market participants must be aware that when a competitor deploys a strategy then all participants will receive lower profits from the glyph market during this time. There are no free rides here and very rarely is there a silver bullet.
for further ideas on the glyph market read my free guide at Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
The aim is to post an advanced strategy, and how to combat it the next day, every 10 days or so.
I will cover the strategies we all have heard of such as the Glyph Wall and the Auction House Camper but I will start with some lesser known strategies that are perhaps less fully covered. And the first post is tomorrow.
However, it is worth taking a top down view to start and laying some basic ground work that is the foundation of the analysis of a competitor's strategy and how to combat it.
The starting point
When a competitor puts a new (often aggressive) strategy into play at all times the starting point is to stand back and consider what the aim of this competitor is.
Assuming the view is that the competitor is trying to strengthen their position in the market then the end aim is almost always for that competitor to increase their profits on an ongoing basis. They key question you must answer is whether the competitor is trying to strengthen their position whilst maintaining the current market environment or whether the competitor is trying to permanently alter the current structure of the market for their benefit - i.e. by reset prices lower permenantly.
The former aim would suggest that the competitor is trying to displace an existing market participant through their aggressive actions but that the aggressive actions will eventually end once the competitor feels their aim is fulfilled or they give up.
The latter aim would suggest that the aggressive actions may become the norm or at least will not entirely cease once the competitor feels that their aim is achieved – though if the competitor gives up then the former market structure will return.
If the competitor is undertaking an action for a short term gain then it is likely that they are trying their luck with an opportunistic strategy that is designed to hoodwink market participants into making losses for the benefit of the competitor that deployed the strategy– normally over a short term.
In any event, it is very hard to devise a counter strategy without the answer to that question. Furthermore, once the competitor's strategy is identified the counter strategy is often a lot more simpler to enact.
(Alternative views may be that the competitor is leaving the market hence dumping stock or merely going through an intellectual experiment. These are often low probabilities and the best strategy is to let them run their course.)
Furthermore, market participants must be aware that when a competitor deploys a strategy then all participants will receive lower profits from the glyph market during this time. There are no free rides here and very rarely is there a silver bullet.
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