Okay, this may be our riskiest proposal yet. If it pays off, you look like a genius. On the other hand, if it goes south, your forehead will likely have a fine rendition of the outline of your keyboard for days to come.
Being a rather cautious investor (I was more aggressive before I still didn’t have epic mounts on all my characters), I rarely engage in attempting to control markets nowadays. But it can be fun, once in a while, and immensely profitable. The perfect condition to execute it in, however, are rather rare.
It might look something like this:
Basically, there needs to be an obvious lack of a certain item that is usually in regular need. The auction house might only have a stack of 5, 10 or 20 left in it, which no one has bought because they only need 1 or 2 at the present time. Or the AH might have only have one or two of that item posted but no stacks. What you need to do is buy up all of the supply, and relist individually (if you bought a stack) at a very high markup (30-50% above usual market price). Then you have to sit there and keep refreshing the AH search; when someone posts that item below your buyout price, you need to buy it asap (you can relist or hold onto it, depending on how your current listings are doing).
Your goal here is to be the sole provider of that particular item and in doing so, charge an abnormally high price for it which in theory should be paid as you are the only supplier. As you can see, this has a serious probability of failure, most likely caused by needing to buy so many items listed below your price. It is also very time consuming because you need to watch the AH like a hawk. But if there are buyers desperate or rich enough swarming the market, you could come out seriously on top. We recommend you do this at prime time for a better chance of success.
Risk’ometer: 5
I’ve tried this before…and I failed miserably. The next day a friend did it with some enchanting mats and made about 2000g. Needless to say, I was pretty mad
I did this successfully with copper ore/bars right after BC launched and everyone was leveling jewelcrafting. I think I made around 400g in a day.
Controlling markets is a tough thing to do. There’s an art to it.
There are several things you need to look at prior to diving into these shark infested waters.
1. Commodity turnover -
This is a key item in market control.
It does no good to control a market where the demand is maybe 1 or 2 items a day. It also doesn’t pay to control a market where everyone and their brother is putting stuff up.
The main markets I watch are the mote/primal market and high end ore/bar market.
The Motes/Primal market is an easy one to watch and manipulate. Scan the AH for Primals first & see what they’re selling for.
Ex. Primal Air - 1 listed for 20g, a couple more up in the 25g range, etc.
Then check motes. Buy up any mote of air under 2g40s, go back & buy that one 20g air. Hit the mailbox, pick em up, combine the motes to a primal & go relist at 24g.
You don’t want to overinflate your price to the point where someone would rather farm it or wait for someone else to list to get it cheaper.
This is really excellent advice, but there are a lot of times you can apply this without necessarily breaking the bank. Most times… you should just rely on circumstance.
There have been many times when I’ve seen an extreme shortage of a certain item, and that’s the time to strike. This is another reason I make it a policy to ONLY sell into a strong market. Prices in WoW fluctuate all the time, so just be patient and wait for the time best for you.
Now on the other hand… don’t keep TOO much inventory. I still have 15 mooncloth I’ll be lucky to EVER get rid of, for any price. There’s just no market for it anymore.
If you use auctioneer (and you should if you are playing the AH mini-game), you should only be selling when the competing bids are yellow (or, preferably, red).
You only want to dump inventory when there’s no reasonable expectation that it will sell for higher. For example, this weekend I was selling some lesser essences in the green region, because the price differential wasn’t all that much between the high and low end.
But, IMO, don’t let the price of greater essence scare you off gouging on lesser: most buyers don’t realize (or care?) that greater = 3 lesser.
Anyway, when I see an item not being sold at all in the AH, that’s when it’s time for insane price gouging. Like selling light leather for 4g a stack, or something. I’ve also made a killing on copper ore this way. You just have to check somethings and be creative.
But obviously, you have to temper yourself with reality. Nobody is going to pay 30g for Peacebloom.
It’s an interesting game to play in the market. I think it’s best done with something you are familiar with. I am very lazy with my tailoring, because I only make things that will get me good margins. Soul pouch being one of them. However, some idiots sometimes make a bunch while they level, and dumpt it on the market. Which is great, I buy them out and resell two at a time.
I have seen others, especially in the past on Medivh server corner the Wool market. It was scary the prices wool was selling for. In that moment, you can make a good living just farming wool.
Wool is an example of something that is in high demand for anyone leveling a tradeskill (particularly First Aid and Tailoring) that is now uncommon relative to the population on your server (since most people are level 70). Wool drops at a level range that is quickly leveled through, so it’s not something that ever gets farmed. RFK and RFD are good sources for Wool. Runecloth and Netherweave often go for similar or even lesser prices simply due to the fact that they drop in Outlands. You see the same thing with Thick and Rugged leather. On my server, Rugged goes regularly for 9-10g per stack and Knothide leather goes for 5g. The dragonkin (UBRS, Sunken Temple) are a good source of Rugged if you are a skinner.
A good investment for Skinners is Cobra Scales. Right now I am controlling the market for all Cobra Scales. On my server they typically sell for 11 to 14 gold. I buy them up and re-sell them for 20g a piece. The demand is steady because Cobra Scales are used in some high end crafting patterns and because the crafters are high levels they will pay the 20g price and pass the cost along when they sell their item. Wind Scales can also be profitable but Cobra Scales make skinning worth keeping.
I did this after I hit 70, just stayed in EPL farming Thorium for about 3 weeks straight so I could get my epic flyer. The best part was I did most of this while at work, because it didn’t require a lot of attention, and I could just log at any time. During this time I only saw 2 or 3 other people put up more than a stack of thorium bars and they didn’t price gouge me so I let them be. Certainly worked in my case, but yes can be very risky.
Oh yes, Wool cloth made me rich, I cornered the market on 2 servers for quite some time.
Although I am bored of it now I still do a quick wool cloth scan and buy up anything < 9 silver/cloth then resell at 50s/5 stack. I also still have a toon with bank and bags full of wool - hehe!
Since 2.4 the demand has even risen to 75s/5 stack for some reason
Tips for would-be market monopolists-
There are a few variables in this complex tactic- how much higher than fair market you are going to set your price is the most important one. If you go too high, your risk increases in multiple ways: firstly, people will be more likely to notice and get pissed off. Secondly, if there’s a concerted effort to break you, it will be easier and will do more damage.
The common way to break someone trying to monopolize something is to get your hands on a bunch of the stuff they are trying to fix prices for, and undercut them by about 10%-25% or so while flooding the market. This will either force them to lower their prices (and possibly cancel auctions at the old higher rate), or will force them to buy you out and relist at the fixed price. Either way, the people trying to break the price fix can cost the fixer as much gold as they have stock. If you’re up against a t6 guild while trying to fix the market on raid consumables they need, it’s safe to assume they have deeper pockets and more production capability than you.
Ensure you have enough depth in your horde of gold to stay the course, and try to avoid being obvious and seen as greedy. For example, get a bunch of your guild mates to help by posting items with their bank alts. Set the price maybe 25-40% higher, but not so much that it becomes unaffordable for the regular buyers. It has to be annoying to make you money, but it can’t be so annoying that a player is willing to take time out of their schedule to do something about it. Bear in mind- the process of breaking a monopolist actually makes you money. If you ever see someone fixing prices and you can get your hands on the item they are doing, you can make money from them just by listing a little lower. More often than not, they will buy you out.
As a price fixer, a low “monopoly premium” will make it harder for your opponents to cost you money. If they undercut enough to force you to buy their stock, you won’t be spending much more than you normally do in the AH, so you won’t have as much of a loss if you’re forced to stop or you still have stock left when the buyers are done.
I make a load of money when people try to control the market. I am one to undercut just enough to make a profit selling to other auctioneers. I would offer this advice to anyone rather than sell to individuals at a very high rate, sell to the people who enjoy playing/controlling the market. This will make a good profit, while protecting you from total economic ruin.