How I compete

I seek to “own the market” a couple of hours a day in the market and make sure my glyphs are the lowest priced on offer (by 50 silver).
Firstly, knowing who your competitors are is key and easy to achieve.  You need to determine when the post and how much competition they represent.  You also need to determine when a new entrant is trying to break into the market.

1.       At the very start, look to see who is posting a page of glyphs and add them to your friends list

2.       As you cancel glyphs use the “show auctions” to see who is constantly under cutting you and add them to your friends list.

3.       Very quickly it will become apparent which of your competitors are the same player (they log off and on after each other)

4.       A few cycles of this and you should have all your competitors on your friends list and be therefore be able to detect when they log on.

5.       After a while names on your friends list will never appear to be posting glyphs (left the market)

6.       And new undercutters will crop up to be added to your friends list

I find there are five types of competitors:

1.       There is the normal competitor who operates like me.  Inscription is their main gold making profession and i will regularly meet them on the AH and compete.  They form part of the market and a not normally a threat as long as no-one attempts to “up their game”.  Everyone has found their place.

2.       There is the occasional competitor who has all the glyphs but only comes around say once a week or so.  Likely that they are moving out of the glyph market given the competition or focussing on another market.  They are not a threat.

3.       There is the competitor who uses the glyph market as a secondary profession, posting once a day or so and picks up the gold on and off and is happy with their lot.  Most likely sticks to the profitable glyphs, will not post the full range.  They are not a threat.

4.       There is the new entrant that is aiming to enter the market but is discovering the competition is too intense.  They don’t post often and are normally gone within a couple of weeks.  They start as a threat but cease to be one.

5.       And finally there is the serious new entrant who is making a real shot at entering the market.  They are a threat and the established players will fight to keep their place.  In my experience, once a stable glyph market is in operation, a new entrant will either displace an existing player or will fail to enter the market.  The number of operators in the glyph market itself tends not to vary.

Taking time off: inscription can be a quite monotonous at times and can suck your time away from other World of Warcraft activities, or indeed real life.  Hence, every so often i take a few days or a week away from the market.  Allows the market to be reset and me to recharge.



for this and other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide