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.