The Auction House Camper – 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 The Auction House Camper - what is it and what is its purpose?, today i look at how i combat the Auction House Camper.


To beat the Auction House Camper I use their own momentum against them.


They are the hardest to beat and hence it is a battle of attrition. They have the one key resource that we all want in abundance but just don't have enough of - time. And they have loads of it! The Auction House camper will not give in so easily and therefore you need to wear down their time and gold. You need to convince them that there are easier markets to attack than yours. And this will take a while. I have been known to battle it out with a camper for over two weeks. Though the use of the word "battle" is perhaps too strong - more like i suspend making any profits in inscription and let the camper slowly die out.



Four things to do


Firstly: find out when they are on: use the Undermine Journal. And find out if they operate in other markets or just one. The true Auction House Camper will focus on one market. If they also post items into other markets you have a mch better chance to force them out of yours. But the prime reason to find out when they are on is to determine the time they spend camping. Is it during the day, or night. And so you can start to get a feel as to how much time they truely can devote to this.


Secondly: find out if they camp all the time or just at the busier times. The true camper is on all day and all night. If they are just camping during the busier times then try at first to combat them using the strategy outlined in Croda's Inscription Gold Guide, chapter "6o. How I deal with a serious new entrant". They may not be a true camper, merely an aggressive new entrant.


Thirdly: find out where their minimum price is: the true camper will always go down to cost and often use their gold surplus to go below cost. If they have a minimum price that is sensibly above cost then again try "6o. How I deal with a serious new entrant" as a first effort.


And then fourthly: take the glyphs down to nil profits through my standard quick cycle routine below. Not worth hanging around – you know they are going to be a tough competitor hence as you compete you need to compete hard and demonstrate to the Camper that you are willing to deny them profits from their actons.


At this point the standard routine of cancelling undercut items, posting 2 and emptying the mail box is too slow.We need faster action. Hence, my routine here is:

1.Cancel all glyphs on the AH and empty the mail box for all alts – so starting with no posted glyphs

2.Set the number of glyphs to post to 1

3.Post 1 of each glyph in my normal price range for all alts

4.Assuming the competitor is posting just as fast as you then . . . . .

5.. . . . go back to the first alt and cancel the undercut ones and repost again

6.Don’t empty the mail box, stay in the AH – we are looking for speed of posting here

7.Rotate through the alts again

8.You can do this 8 times (assuming you stock at least 8 of each glyph)

9.After the eighth posting, cancel the undercut ones and then empty out the mail box, and start again!

10.Occasionally rotate the order you go through the alts to put the competitor out of step

Very quickly the glyphs will get down to cost price.Stop there. Let the Camper go lower. At this point they will be using their own momentum against themselves and making all sales at a loss. They will be taking a lot of time to craft new glyphs to sell at a loss. And so on.


They will very quickly be selling glyphs at a loss and be the sole buyer of herbs on the Auction House. And it will become tiring for them and indeed they are likely to become demoralised. It is not selling at a loss that will force the Camper to stop, it is the prospect of never selling a glyph at a profit that will. And you must keep that prospect a real possibility.

All you need do is make sure your glyphs are posted just above cost. As long as the Camper is in operation then make sure your glyphs are up at just above cost. Therefore, you need to set your minimum post price to be just above cost and you need to make sure you post even if there are cheap glyphs posted. You dont want to let the Camper reset the prices upwards and so make profits for a 12 hour stretch. Furthermore, hopefully the other market participents are doing the same as you! - that way even if the camper tries to buy you out your other competitors will take up the running for you until you log back on.

And then settle down for the long battle of attrition.  And it will be long.