for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide
Off hands are typically items that players use to level and therefore not capital items. i.e. players know that they will be buying a new off hand every 5 or so levels, and know that the old off hand will be worthless given it is bind on equip.
Furthermore, at the lower levels players may not bother at all with off hands.
Hence, demand may be variable whilst every scribe can enter the market indicating that there is a risk of oversupply and therefore low profits, or even losses.
Therefore, on the face of it, the pricing should be naturally low.
However, in my experience not many scribes craft the off hands and instead prefer to focus on the glyph market. Hence, the level of competition is very low and more than compensates for the lower demand.
The mechanics and strategies of the glyph end market and the off hand end market are very different. Off hands compete with dual handed weapons for slots, at heroics and raid levels mob drops are better, the deposit costs on the Auction House are higher, the raw materials are varied and you cant stake them in your bags so they take up plenty of space. The differences are vast and certainly enough to put most scribes off focusing on this end market. The glyph strategy of undercutting would merely see any profits eroded by Auction House deposit fees.
In addition, the volume of sales and hence level of profits is low enough to put further scribes of this end market.
Therefore, the trick is to find a pricing level which maximises profits but deters new entrants from coming in. In essence, i aim to operate under the radar of the other Scribes who are focusing on the glyph market.
There are two parts to operating under the radar: pricing; and volume.
Mainly through trial and error i have found a pricing level for most off hands which i will be posting in the coming weeks. I resist the temptation to increase this pricing because i have found that this is a sure way to attract new entrants who will bring the pricing right back down through undercutting.
For volume, i only post one of each off hand at a time. For sure, that means when i sell an off hand i do not have another one posted so i may miss out on a sale. But, as long as any potential competitors only see one item posted they will deem this market to be too low a profit stream for them to bother with. Of course, i will doubtless be posting items which are very slow sellers as well as those that have a better selling rate. But, as is the case in the glyph market, that is my way. I want to own the market – its just with off hands i am trying to do this without anyone noticing!.
Over the coming weeks i will be posting about each off hand and the strategy i use to sell it.
nope, doesn't work
ReplyDeleteYour theory is based on a flawed assumption that scribes "enter the market" for no other reason to make money. Offhands are the side effect of a busy glyph-goblin doing what they do best. Therefore entering the market is as simple as "I already have most of the mats, why not."
ReplyDeleteFew people farm mats to make them, you just get 90% of the mats as a secondary resource in the process of grinding common ink for glyphs. Throw in a frozen orb here, some parchment there, a little bit of x element, blam: offhands. I know a lot of us just sell the uncommon ink, but it's already disregarded as an essentially free resource and therefore worthless.
In fact, the only use for those inks are offhands and Darkmoon cards (for the most part) so even selling them guarantees that someone, somewhere is going to enter the market. Basically, to say that you are going to control the market by keeping prices low (on essentially free to craft items) is pure ignorance as to how your profession even works.
People are going to make glyphs, they are going to have unc. Ink left over, they are going to make books or cards with them (or sell them to someone who will) and those books and cards are going to undercut yours. Period. Don't act like you are running anything but your head.
Actually I agree with this post.
ReplyDeleteAnd look... I actually included my name instead of an Anonymous title to hide behind.
I hate to break it to you, but everytime a wet behind the ears goblin clicks "restock now" and tsm calculates a profit to be made from making offhands, all your contrived market strategy falls apart.
ReplyDeleteAnd actually Jafo, you probably should have, because now you look ignorant too.