I mad this quick little chart to illustrate my point.
Someone could be making a killing working the AH. The gold per hour is great at first but as the day goes on and you have picked all the easy profits, you have to work harder to make more gold. The real profits were made when you first started.
Another person could just farm constantly. The gold per hour is no place close to that person working the AH when they start. But as time goes on there is a point where the farmer is making more gold in the same time as the person camping the AH.
You can make the best out of this by starting with the items that make the most gold per hour and knowing when to switch to something else. You may feel like you are doing nothing and making gold while you camp the AH but if you went out and did something your profits would greatly increase.
Great ;) Maybe an evaluation of parameters... ? But if I'm ok with that I can't stop thinking that I loose money when I buy at the ah to craft and then sell the crafts... ?
ReplyDeleteIf you loose gold, don't craft that item.
ReplyDeleteI had someone do that once. I told them to make something that was profitable at the time. He kept at it even as the price went down. A week later he told me that making the item was a stupid idea because it was costing him gold.
I agreed with him.
This is a long story, but I suspect it will entertain you. If not, hopefully it at least interests you. I'm a relatively recent transfer to my server. Prior to my recent transfer I was running an operation in very many ways similar to yours. Somewhat smaller in scale and a bit less refined because I wasn't playing the game as seriously and I had a good stockpile of gold already. Not long ago, for a variety of reasons, I elected to start ramping up my operation again. As part of this plan I ventured out into the internet wilds, looking for any good AH blogs I wasn't already reading. Last night I stumbled across yours. I poke around the site a bit, reading some old stuff, reading some new stuff, getting a feel for it. I read the Thunderdome post, appreciated your attitude and the scale of your setup. I think about that one guy on my server that I imagine must be similar, and how I'm not looking forward to dealing with him. I read some other random posts, checking out how you evolved from your beginings. I think to myself "I dig this guy's style." I like you.
ReplyDeleteI follow the trail of breadcrumb references to KTQ until I find the mod. It seems really useful, and deals with an area of my operation I"ve been disatisfied with. I decide to try it out, and mentally thank you for releasing it rather than keeping it private. I spend about 40 minutes getting it working, dealing with a few addon conflicts and error messages. Eventually I get it going, and it's even better than I thought. This is really going to simplify my day and speed up my workflow. I'll be able to spend more time watching the market, or reading about making more gold, or going outside, or pretty much anything. Thanks again, seriously. I love you.
KTQ, one of the best WoW finds I've made in a couple months. Weird name though. I get the TQ, Trade Queue. Kev? Oh ok, I see, it's your name, Kevin Marquette. Makes sense now. Kev. Kev Marquette. Kev Mar. Kevmar...
Kevman. Fuck. No.
I start digging through the blog, looking for the clue I need. It comes in the form of the screenshot you posted of your overpriced parchment sales. A buyers name. "That's a dumb name, can't be a ton of those." I head off to the armory. One result. As my stomach sinks,my eyes scroll to the right, settling on the server column. I already know what I'm going to find, but it's still painful to see. A familiar name, apostrophe and all. My server. Your server. I dislike you.
Suddenly you are not my like-minded, helpful, anonymous internet personage. You are the enemy. You are the dark inscription overlord sitting atop his pile of inks and herbs and glyphs and gold, staring down at me and telling me to quit now. I reread the Thunderdome post. I hate you.
I sit around for a bit, pondering my next step. I cancel some glyphs and list some new ones, wondering which of the names showing up on my undercut list belong to you. I get a little angry at the luck. I get a little sad at the prospect of trying to compete with your resource headstart. I reread the Thunderdome post. I loathe you.
I go to bed. When I wake up, I'm still trying to figure out a plan. I haven't come up with much yet. I consider that perhaps I can use your blog against you, staying up on your moves. I wonder if you've considered using your blog against your local competition somehow. I reread the Thunderdome post. I can't think of a word that conveys my feelings better than loathe.
I twiddle my thumbs for a bit. I post some glyphs. I think about what to do next. I feel compelled to tell you about this whole thing. I read some more of your site, see a few things I'd do different, learn a couple things, get reminded of better ways to do things than I am now. I reread the Thunderdome post. I laugh. I like you.
See you at the AH sir.
^^ lol there quite a bit of kev's competition that reads his blog if i remember right. I'll welcome you to the club even though I'm not on your server :p
ReplyDeleteBe glad your not dealing with someone whos runnin the glyph, gem and enchanting markets ;)
@Justin
ReplyDeleteThe timing of your post is very interesting. I had something happen last night that I will share over the next few days. After reading what you wrote, I almost want to blame you for it (it has nothing to do with the AH though). But instead I am going to step back a day as if I read this the day before and was responding then.
Welcome to our server. Several people on our server read exactly what I write here. I know this. I like to play mind games on people too. Did I just say that to play with your mind or do I realy play mind games?
Our server is a big server. The demand for glyphs is very high. There were times I thought about running everyone off but every time I started down that path I end up backing off. More often than not, my competition does all the work to drive people off. I just enjoy the free ride.
I do work things to discourage the new people. The ones that never truly get the taste for it are my targets. So I am saying you should not look at me as a threat, but someone you have to share the market with for a long time.
My thunderdome post was for the people on my server reading my blog. The idea behind it is to show everyone I hold huge resource stockpile. Not in the “don't mess with me or I crush you” type of way. But more so in the "You should rethink the idea you can drive me out of the market with what little you have".
I get the feeling we have talked before. Your story sounds familiar to someone else in our market. He was a transfer and got into glyphs just as I ran everyone else off. I was in the market 2-3 weeks and this guy transfers in. The market was big enough for the two of us and he was solid in his methods that I could not drive him off the 2-3 times I tried after he joined the market.
And thanks for sharing. It was an interesting read.
ReplyDeleteIf you read todays post you will see why the timing of your post was so interesting. I read your post within hours of discovering the hack.
ReplyDeleteI know it was not you. Key details you mentioned and how somethings were left on my account. There are things that were not done the account that any true competitor would have done. It was a smash and grab. Not much thought behind it.
But while things get sorted out, I am not posting on the ah.
@ KevMar
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for you, I hope you'll get everything back! You probably will, although it will take some time (assuming Blizzard has to do some research).
Anyways, I had a question.
I now have 2 Glyph Characters.
Glyphed and Glyphedtwo.
Now I'm struggling with myself.. how can I see fast which glyphs to send to what alt? Now I'm manually checking every Glyph (with Altoholic), and it's terribly slow!
Any ideas/suggestions? Thanks in advance!
I have 3 sugestions.
ReplyDelete1) Set up bulk mail2 to send them. It will take some time to set up but its simple after you do.
2) Send different colors to different alts. I use the guild bank in this sample. When I started, I would give all the dark glyphs to the other alt. Each color is a different class but thinking in color and clicking was fairly fast for me.
3) Break up your crafting. First pass make +8g glygphs and the ones that sell out. Get them to one character. Then make the rest and send to a different one. This is what I do now. That puts my better sellers on one character.