Lich King Auction House – Taking Risks
Dec 20th, 2008 by tyson
So I’ve reached a point in Lich King at which I’m dealing almost solely in epics. That hurts overall sales because now anything less than 200-500g net profit almost seems to be inconsequential. However, with that strategy comes great risk.
Here’s what happened in the last several days. With two characters, one for supporting my main, I reached 20,000g in the bank while starting with about 3,000g when I first bought Lich King. However, then it happened.
First I saw several deals in epic items. That depleted most of my cash reserves. Even if they were 1000g net profit, I bought the item… but only if they were relatively scarce epics I don’t often see. However, then a problem arose for both characters. A couple people undercutted some of my listings, so I ended up buying them out too.
Would you believe with 20k in the bank I bought epics until I was down to merely 1.5k in the bank, with the rest tied up in listings? They didn’t sell for a day or two, and I was sitting there with this risk. Then one of them finally sold, so I was at about 4.5k on one character, then another and another and I was back up to 11k with one character and 1k with the other. The other character now has 4 epics for sale, while my main auctioneer has around 3. It was risky, but I expect it to pay off, or at least break even with the items I’ve bought. With the competitors I bought out I expect to break even or glean a little profit. If I see too many competitors (which sometimes happens) I will just wait until the market is clean again, then repost. For example, I bought two cheap “chain gang” leg pieces that usually sell for 300 easily. Suddenly there were 5 of them up (none of them mine) for 100+. I waited a couple days and there weren’t any, then posted one after another for 300g. Each sold within one cycle.
So what now? In dealing in epics, is this the last great vista in the WoW auction house worth exploring? I mean, there aren’t legendary items for sale yet. I could try commodities or even using the Auctioneer addon and perhaps lend some advice, but there are many better suited to that. Would any of you be interested in a volunteer guest article if you know of another viable method? If so, just contact me privately. Any ideas about a new podcast series?
If you are interested I think that a podcast series on the economy post-Wrath in about a month or so once the markets have stabilized would be valuable.
Or, as you mentioned, perhaps you could take a look at other market? Perhaps you could do you a series on exploring crafted items, commodities, enchanting/disenchanting, cornering niche markets, etc. Try something you haven’t done before and take the readers/listeners along for the ride as you learn something new.
Great suggestions Sean, thanks. Anyone else?
Love the blog Tyson. I’ve been watching recently and looking for any epic deals on the AH. I found a pair of Bone-Framed Bracers (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39235) last night for around 1400g, and reposted for 2250 BO. Here’s hoping that there’s mail when I get home tonight, but wow is it nerve racking.
Thoughts keep flying through my mind:
“A lot of people are raiding Naxx these days, what if there’s a sudden influx of these bracers?”
“They have MP5 on them. Is that good for paladins anymore. Damn, maybe I should have held off because they don’t have any crit.”
“According to MaxDPS.com there are better bracers out there.”
Overall, I think I’m overanalyzing it. It reminds me of a stock trader who watches too closely and sells at the wrong time. I keep on telling myself that I made a good purchase, and even if it won’t sell for 2250 I could probably get at least a couple hundred gold profit out of it. How do you keep from being a nervous wreck when you have almost 20K worth of epics in non-liquid format?
Thanks Delos,
Yeah I’ll tell you the truth. I have had a pair of the bone bracers up for about 1600g on the horde side for days now and they haven’t sold. I’m thinking maybe 1200g is the sweet spot. I think I got them for less than that, but I might also suggest while you’re in a city and they are listed that you advertise in the trade channel occasionally and see if you can get what you paid at least.
I was down to about 500g on my main AHer and about 900g on my other. I was a little nervous but not too bad as I did buy them well under avg. at the time. I knew that I could at least resell them for what I paid… but as time went on, the nerves did become a little more.
Hate to hear that heh; figured 1400 was pretty good deal since wowhead has them listed at 2400. Didn’t check Allakhazam until now but they have them listed at 2000 as well. Worst case scenario I’ll pass em off to my friend who has a holy pally and give him a nice xmas present and a reason to level
I’ll try to advertise them tonight as well in trade if they aren’t sold. I get the feeling that a lot of people might be buying xmas gifts “for themselves” this time of year.
i think its excellent, edge of your seat stuff when selling stuff on AH and trying to make a profit. You will have epics on there and your praying they sell lol because you got profit in it and if it goes wrong its game over lol. They guy who said he was a work waiting and hoping for a mail on wow, LMAO that is me everyday.
You guys have a right stack of cash to play with though. I only have 1000G to play with so getting epics is sometimes hard and very risky if it dont sell because thats my pot gone. No pot, no items!!!!
How do you guys get that pile of G’s, just selling epics or do you go with high quality blues aswell.
I didn’t start with epics. Just blue armor and weapons. For you I’d recommend blue lvl 70-80 armor and weapons that aren’t crafted. If you go back a few articles in the “Lich King Auction House” series, there could be some decent tips!