Back To Basics

For the past couple of months I've been plagued by decreasing sales. You see, typically, I have had between 10k to 18k in sales a day. Lately my sales have dropped to 2k to 5k per day. Much of this is due to increased competition across all markets. Many more goblins joining in AH PvP. Some of it is due to decreased buyers. This is typical for the phase of game play we are currently in. Experience has taught us that buyers become more frugal just before a patch release. The good news is that they will start spending their hard earned gold after the patch comes out.

There really isn’t much we can do about competition. Many will get bored and leave the market in time. A few will stay for the long haul. Essentially we must learn to deal with the competition. Trying to stay ahead of our competition is key. We must continue to look for the next “new thing”. We can try to dominate a market but that only works in the short term. We can try to drive others out of a market by crashing it but that rarely succeeds. Though both options can drive people out briefly, it almost never stops a true AH goblin, they have seen it all before. The only real way to deal with competition is to get ahead of the pack, and stay ahead of it. This is easier said than done.

At this point in the game, pre-patch, we seem to be in a holding pattern. Nothing much new coming along that we can change to, Therefore we must consider that if we cant go forward then we must go backward. We re-evaluate old markets to find new sources of income. Older abandoned markets are prime for reevaluation. My advice is to check the recipe list on your crafters. Addons such as Auctioneer and TUJ will show what older items now sell for a profit. Now is the time to re-enter old markets.