Profitable (and not-so-profitable)
Markets
Gem Market
For the past few weeks the gem market
has been one of the strongest markets. The PvP gems have seen the
greatest increase in value with the introduction of the Crafted
Dreadful Gladiator gear. Red, Blue, and Yellow gems are strong
sellers, however, the overabundance of competition keep these gems
selling below the 50 gold threshold. The mixed-stat purple, orange,
and green gems are the most profitable selling gems. I find that
these gems can sell for over 500 gold each on Tuesday nights if I get
lucky. Unfortunately I am not as lucky as I would like to be. I have
a persistent competitor in the gem market who has a price ceiling of
150 gold per gem. No matter what the current price is for gems he
will list several at 150 gold each. My attempts to buy out his
auctions to reset the market have failed as he seems to have an
endless supply of gems. Unfortunately he/she tends to check for
undercuts approximately ever 30-45 minutes so even trying to undercut
doesn’t work for long. I have driven the price of some of the gems
below 10 gold each in an attempt to find his price floor but he
doesn’t appear to have one. He seems willing to sell his gems at a
loss just to keep his at the cheapest. I attempted to buy out his
stock doing this but I only succeeded at obtaining a large stockpile
of gems with him continuing to restock without hesitation. At this
point I am forced to wait him out of the market. Eventually he will
get tired and leave. I will remain. Until then I will have to accept
low profits and the ability to control the market for the few hours
that he isn’t on.
Enchant Market
Like the gem market I have seen strong
sales in the enchant market. Also like the gem market I have seen the
profits from the enchant market shrink from competition. Currently I
am concentrating on the weapon enchants as well as the bracer
enchants that require Sha Crystals to make. I can usually pull a
profit of 100-200 gold from each enchant. Not very profitable but the
other enchants tend to sell below mat costs due to a great many
unwise sellers in the market.
Crafted Dreadful Gladiator Armor
At first I attempted to control all
aspects of this market. However I underestimated the stupidity of my
fellow crafters and sellers on my server. At this time I have almost
completely abandoned the cloth market. The plate market is “iffy”
with people selling some items below crafting costs. I am finding the
leather crafted gear to be very profitable. I am buying the cloth
gear to disenchant to resupply my enchant mats.
Miscellaneous
Other items currently selling well are
leg enchants, shoulder enchants, belt buckles. The rare blue ilvl 416
gear is still selling well to people beginning to level their 85
alts. Transmog items continue to sell at a steady pace.
While I had hoped to make some gold
selling battle pets I have been disappointed. The prices for level 25
rare pets have dropped from 15k to about 4k in the last two weeks
with most not selling. I have found that mid-level pets do sell but
only if they have been upgraded to rare and priced cheap. The best
sellers are level 10, 15 and 20. These sell for 200g for the level
10, 400g for the level 15 and 600g for the level 20. There might be a
disparity between different servers but mine has been very
disappointing. This is a new market and I'm hoping it will stabilize
in the future and we will be able to make a decent profit from it.
Until then I will continue to monitor it.
While we have always had competition in
our markets I have never seen so many people with seemingly no idea
as to what they are doing. Many markets have people selling items for
a loss. Other markets have had their profits driven down to almost
nothing. All these people seem blissfully unaware of what they are
doing. It tends to be exceedingly frustrating for those of us who
have been around for a long time. It can be very difficult seeing our
markets ruined by those that have no clue. I am not concerned for the
long-term. I have been playing since BC and making gold off the AH
since Wrath. I have seen many people come and go in this game and on
the auction house. I know that I will outlast these people too.
However I am concerned for the short-term. Being an AH goblin I have
learned the “cycles” that the game and the auction house goes
through. This is supposed to be the time when the AH is supposed to
be on the “up-swing” with profits at their highest. However this
is not the case. If things do not improve soon I shudder to think
what the AH will look like in the summer when school is out and the
AH is on the “down-swing” with decreased profits. Oh well, I'm
off to the AH now to see if I can squeeze a couple of more coppers
out of it.
Thanks,
Jafo
