I've been watching 2 names in our glyph market recently who seem intent on dropping prices to below 20g or even 10g across a range of glyphs. The first guy (let's call him Epie) used to be a fairly regular, top end of the market guy until about 3 weeks ago when he started posting glyphs in 'walls' of 5 or 10 singles at 10g each - across the board with no exceptions. Now I'm not talking about those glyphs with normal sale prices below 25g like Maul or Soulstone, nope - I mean Rejuvenation (usually 185g) or Explosive Shot (usually 228g)! At first I thought he was just dumping his low end stock but as the weeks have progressed, he's casting his net wider across the market.
Then we have the second guy - I call him Mo - he is mainly hitting the low end stuff but again, posting in 5 or 10 singles at a time across about 40 different glyphs. Mo has pretty much owned the Mysterious Fortune Card market - he posts about 100 single cards at a time for 10g & he keeps them topped up. He doesn't bark in trade (that I've seen) but they sell. At first I bought a few to flip because mine had been selling quite happily at the 25g mark without even barking but he just lists more & more, making it very hard work to bark & sell through his listings. I must admit - I gave up on MCF - I still have some & I list late at night if he's let his auctions lapse but sure as eggs is eggs, his wall of 100 cheapies will be back the next morning!
So I'm in a quandary - I've taken a dislike to Mo just because he's bugged me so there's no way I want to buy him out to try to reset the market. He is working the lower price glyphs so I'm not hurting myself by letting him play there.
Epie on the other hand, is spreading his cheap glyphs to the higher price ones. I've had a look & I can't see any other auctions under his name so I'm guessing this is his glyph alt or his only alt (it is an 85). I could buy all his cheap glyphs & hope he doesn't have a bottomless pit or I could ignore him for a while & see where it goes.
I've not really tried to 'beat' competitors like this before - I tend to go with the flow & post when I like the prices & don't post when prices are low but as I'm expanding my glyph business as my main source of income, I don't want to let a couple of dodgy geezers ruin my party!
So I'm looking for suggestions/opinions/advice please - will be much appreciated & any results will be reported here at a later date!
Hi Nev,
ReplyDeleteFor the MFC, I flip them in Fortune cookies, which often sell 7-10g more than MFC but you need to have your cooking skills capped. When I do this, I buy low with a toon and sell the Cookies with another toon, in another guild ;-)
And for the glyphs, which is almost the same thing with cut gems, where I have a Joe Guy selling cut gems at 7-9g instead of 150g+, I just concentrate on other markets while he's having fun in this low tier of profit... but I keep an eye on him ;-). Search TuJ with his name and it will tell you in which market he isn't.
GL.
I don't want to burst your bubble but sounds to me like you are going to haave expand your sources of revenue. I could see you being able to deal with people dropping the prices down by 30g or even 50g,...but hundreds?!? I have no clue! Which is why I would move to a differen market for the time being. Diversification...it's the only weapon that works EVERYTIME.
ReplyDelete@Milabrega - hello, thanks for your comment :) Luckily I have my cooking capped so that's no prob & although I did some Cookies a while ago, I must admit, I'd sort of forgotten about them - time to relook at those!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I'm on EU servers so no TUJ for me :( I can work around him for now - luckily he's not hitting every glyph but yes, I do need to diversify.
@Wwoods & hello to you too, thanks for your comment. I do have some income from other markets, including JC but glyphs has always been my main source. As I said above, I gotta get on the diversity bandwagon a bit more I guess :)
Long time reader, first time poster :) You might take a look at the herbs needed for the various inks. If you can dry up the herb market you might be able to push him out or at least slow down his frequency of posting.
ReplyDeleteNev!
ReplyDeleteWhat to do, what to do. Your other commenters hit on a few good points, and now it's my turn.
DONT LEAVE THE GLYPH MARKET. Sorry 'bout the caps, but you don't want someone else to take your [previous] profits.
Almost every time I have "bullied" someone in the Glyph market, they come back. But I always stay. I don't destroy the market, I am there for good. Some days I have 5 glyphs sell, some days I have 50.
Some advice I can give is mos def don't leave. If I was in your spot, at 10-15g per glyph, I would buy em and make my own stockpile (like you kinda touched on. Don't worry if he has a ton, thats more "bully" power for you if you need it later). I figure my average cost is around 15g per, so anything less is profitable for me (you might see it different, but those are my "buyouts").
They are trying bullying tactics to push you out. Don't run, Don't hide. Stand your ground. Once they see that you aren't leaving, you might even receive a tell wanting to "team up".
I am having similar fun with one we shall call dumb ass. He started massively undercutting with walls of 5-10 as he attempted to muscle the major vendors out of the market. We just let him play with his limited catalog, but lately he's taken to putting on a cape and trolling trade chat with some of the funniest, be it lies but funniest ill-thought out spams. Now he's taken to outright crashing the market every chance he isn't mysteriously flying his main around twilight Highlands. Its sad, he's settling for less then 1g in profit per herb on an herb that sells for 9-12g each on my server.
ReplyDeleteEventually, like my tanker, yours will get bored of the matter or more like the day I so look forward to get caught botting his herbs.
Just persevere, keep relisting, and catch them the moments their glyphs drop to make those small spells of profit matter best.
You're in a tough spot. Like alto said he's trying to bulky every one out. I'd look into controlling the herb supply a bit. All the ink for those walls of glyphs have to come from somewhere.
ReplyDeleteUnless he's a botter, knows/uses botters or farms himself you may be ableto squeeze his profits by raising his material costs.
If he's nit thinking rationally he may just buy what ever herbs he can find. I'd put some "weather balloon" herbs up on an alt and see if he's the buyer on any sales.
If so then work to drive up herb prices or limit the herb supply. While this may be hard for cata herbs LK and TBC would be easier to control I he uses those.
tldr: attack his mat supply lines.
Well you know my POV... I wait for them to blow themselves out. They always do. Glyphing is such a time intensive pastime that long term sales at 10g is going to get boring very very quickly. I was let them purge themselves and just wait for them to accept that they've been stupid and be ready to reenter the fray when glyph prices rise again. :)
ReplyDeleteMan, I read blog after blog after blog about the ways people make gold with Inscription, and I have to wonder where all these rich-for-profit servers are. I play on Tichondrius, and the prices there are around 20g for ALL glyphs, and have been since day 1.
ReplyDeleteSame with Jewelcrafting - green gems are often single digits, and blue ones are rarely over 7 or 8 gold. The ore shuffle is just simply a waste of time on my server, along with Glyphing for profit. I'm reduced to **Smelting** and selling PvP armor sets for most of my profit.
Suffice to say, I'm jealous of you guys who are able to employ these strategies.
@Robert - do you have all the glyphs learnt? I'm finding now that it's really only the Ethereal & Ink of the Sea glyphs that are selling. The second thing that has made the hugest difference for me is TSM - I only make the most profitable glyphs & I only make 1 or 2 of each so I restock maybe 20-30 glyphs a day rather than having a huge crafting session once a week.
ReplyDeleteMy AH alt project started with inscription upto skill lvl 150 - she made money but there were definitely a lot of glyphs sub 10g too - just gotta pick your targets carefully.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI'm getting to this post a bit late but I have some input. Your tanker has either "forgotten his pain" (the cost of learning 54+ books & the time of learning 70+ cooldown days), is leaving the market and flipping the other sellers the bird, or attempting to drive out one or more competitors.
I have a post up on evaluating and dominating the glyph market to explain what I mean by forgetting his pain, and another in draft about my successful competitive cooperation.
The easy answer is... talk to him. Be friendly, compliment him on his former ways (1 copper or 1 silver undercuts) and ask him what's up.
Speculate for him using the ideas above. Tell him if it's leaving the market you want his stock and guild bank with a smiley. If it's driving out an annoying competitor you're all in, etc.
Always amazed that we attempt mind-reading rather than ask. Really nothing to lose in this case.
Can't wait for the update.
Good luck!