Types of Sellers
Apr 2, 2008 Auction House, How-To, Player Interaction
First of all, I’d like to say I’m very grateful for all the sudden participation this blog has received. I’m reading all your comments attentively and I’m excited about the bright future of all this 
Now, down to business. I’m posting this based on my past observations of seller behavior in Trade Chat and the Auction House. It can be a mistake to categorize anything and everything one comes across but it can also be immensely useful to refining our understanding of how things work. All World of Warcraft toons have a real person behind them (most of the time) that will act in a certain way when it comes to the marketplace.
This is a rather long post, so get comfy.
1. The impatient one:
Note that I am not trying to pass judgment on this type of person. Everyone has their different selling style and this one just aims for the fastest transaction possible.
Desrciption:
This is the guy/girl that sits down at his computer for 2-3 hours and farms 2 stacks of Primal Water. They then hearth back to Ironforge or Orgrimmar and type “/2 WTS [Primal Water]x40 720g” when the current selling price in the AH is 22g per. Now 720g for 40 means hes selling at 18g a pop, 4g under the AH, because they want to sell them all and sell them fast.
Reaction:
Now here’s what you do: “/w impatientone i’m interested.” Invite them to join your party, meet up and then you say “/p hey i’ll take them all off your hands if you give me a bulk discount, lets say 700g and call it a deal.” He will most likely accept because this way, he doesn’t have to bum around in trade chat, selling them off one by one. If you’re really ballsy, you can ask for an even deeper discount, maybe 680 or 675. Don’t get too greedy though because this person just spend 3 hours farming and doesn’t want to feel like hes being cheated.
Well, you can probably guess the next step. You turn them right around to the AH for slightly less than the current price, but don’t put them all up at once or the price will crash and you’ll end up losing gold in deposits as 36 primals get sent back to your mailbox. The key here is to be patient, turning your seller’s weakness into a strength. Yes, the price will fluctuate and it might be a few days before you see the entire fruits of your labor (assuming an average sell price of 22g): [(22gx40)x0.95]-700g= 136g. Hey, patience pays off!
2. The one who will make you feel like you failed middle school arithmetic:
Description:
Watch out here, because you could fall into a tarp. This is the one trying to sell a Dawnstone for 46g when its going for around 47g in the AH (or even worse, for more than the current AH price). Hold on a second. There are two things we must always keep in mind. What’s 47g minus a 5% cut? 44.65g. And what additional cost are we incurring by listing on the AH? Risk. Deposit risk and market fluctuation risk. On the other hand, if you need that item for something else, it would actually be a good idea to buy it.
Reaction:
Ignore this guy (not as in add him to your ignore list, cmon I’m not that ruthless, I swear!). This one isn’t going to make you any money and he’s not worth your time. The offers in trade chat have to be even better deals than the AH ones, because of those two risks I mentioned above.
3. The AH n00b:
Description:
I really love this one, he makes me a good chunk of change every once in a while. You’ll be doing your daily AH browsing and come across this: Mote of Fire x5 4g75s. Yes, really. You will come across it every so often. Or maybe it’ll be Large Prismatic Shard x3 32g50s. It might even be Primal Mooncloth x2 50g. Whether the seller here was intoxicated when he put those up, plain clueless or just very generous is irrelevant. What matters here is how fast you can press BUYOUT.
Reaction:
Smile. Even if you don’t have another 5 Motes of Fire to make the Primal, don’t worry. Even if you have to use those shards to enchant a new piece of gear you just got, that’s okay. You just got value for your gold. And because of that, you come out ahead.
4. The tradeskill donator:
Description:
You’re watching the trade channel, as usual, for the deal of the day, trying to see clearly through all the tradeskill spamming. And suddenly, you see a Tailor, or a Jewelcrafter, etc start to offer their high level services for free. You don’t really understand why they would do this but why not take advantage of it? Well that’s exactly what you do. And without getting angry that they’re ruining your business (if you share a tradeskill with them)- they’ll either leave eventually or realize how much gold they’re forgoing and change their Samaritan ways.
Reaction:
Whisper them with what you want done. This could be a jewel cut (Living Ruby to Runed Living Ruby), a void shatter (Void Crystal to 2x Large Prismatic Shard), maybe a Shadowcloth transmute. Whatever it is, go buy the mats in the AH asap and get the free service before this person decides to start charging. These opportunities are few and far between so don’t lose a single second!
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Well, if a person is offering free high level crafting, then it could also be someone who’s trying to level up the last few points of their skill… it’s not exactly a dance on roses to collect the materials needed, so in that case it’s actually a win-win situation for both
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:45 am
Beware the last kind, if they have no reason to do the crafting for free - it has high chances of being a scam. TINSTAFL
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:52 am
1. I hate falling into tarps
(typo: “Watch out here, because you could fall into a tarp.”)
2. The “you feel like you failed middle school” persona could be using a technic some might call scamming: post something at 46g, roll an alt, go to city, yell ‘buying at 50g’, then logs off when you went and bought it at 46g for a quick gain. Personally I think it’s not a scam, as you’re trying to abuse someone’s ingenuity.
3. As bdew said: beware of the free high level enchants due to scammers… Nudge a guildmate for your enchants.
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:45 am
1 and 3 would have to be my favorites. There is a market discrepancy on my server. Stacks of Eternium Ore sells for about 30g and stacks of Eternium Bars go for well over 70 on a regular basis. I know I’m providing a server smelting the ore into bars but there has to be quite a few miners. I guess they are just lazy or don’t realize the opportunity.
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:59 am
Great Post, and a great blog. I’ve also been very interested in the WoW economy, it’s a small microcosm of the real world. I think we can add many more “types” to this list. Like the powerleveling crafters who through away things in AH to recoup some of their costs.
April 3rd, 2008 at 7:31 am
Interesting blog, guys. Keep it up.
As a newer player, though, I’d welcome your thoughts on some of the lower level AH work. I’m a 48 who doesn’t have a bankroll to support a random purchase of 100g to make 10g. (In fact, I’m just starting to get back to 100g after my mount purchase a while back). How about some tips for the up-and-coming trader?
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:29 am
You missed another type of seller –
5. The Professional – This type watches the AH and trade channel and knows the market really well on a handful of items. They can and do work to control market prices for those items.
I wrote a one-time article on my blog (called “How to roll a Merchant in Warcraft”) about market equilibrium and how Warcraft selling prices can be manipulated. I don’t know if I am a true professional, but I do spend 15-30 minutes a day working the AH for gold when I need it.
This blog is real good read and I enjoy reading the perspective of someone else who understands this meta game. You obviously have a lot of experience at it and while I don’t agree with everything, I appreciate the outlook.
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:20 am
“5. The Professional – This type watches the AH and trade channel and knows the market really well on a handful of items. They can and do work to control market prices for those items.”
I fall into this category. Even created a guild for my AH toons. “Guildless Bank Alts”
I basically work a dozen or so high turnover items.
Motes & Primals
You’d be suprised how often there is a discrepancy between the mote/primal costs.
Remember 10 motes = 1 primal
More often than not, I see:
Primal Fires - 24g/ea
Motes of fire - 1g90s/ea
Even with the AH cut and discounting 25s to sell quick it’s a 3.5g profit.
It takes a bit to allow Auctioneer to establish a base price so you know when the items are all overpriced, but once you do, it’s a goldmine.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:22 am
I’ve run into some problems with the “impatient” sellers. You agree to buy their 40 primals for 700g. You group, hearth and fly, get to Org or wherever, and then they tell you that some other unspecified person has offered them 730g. I suppose they’re hoping that after all that travel, you’ll up your price instead of letting the deal go. Of course, I just say “GL then” and leave the party.
As for being taken by people offering tradeskills, you can be taken in whether they’re doing it for free or charging. You just have to be a little careful. Check the Armory and make sure the person actually has the tradeskill at the level required for the service. And be wary of those who are guildless, or who are in a guild whose name you don’t recognize.
I do remember one “free” enchanter who had a rather unsavory scam. He’d offer free fiery, or crusader, or whatever w/ your mats. Once you’d met and handed over the spell mats, he’d open up a trade window again and say “Where’s my tip?”. You could argue the meaning of “free”, but he’d insist that when he said that, he meant there wasn’t a set price, but he still expected a tip, and did you know how expensive it is to skill up enchanting, and what sort of cheapskate are you, and so on… and in the meantime, he’s holding on to your mats.
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:32 pm
I am probably the noob but I am not that bad
What are some techniques on understanding my server’s economy and what to sell items at?
I am currently level 46 and am simply looking for a way to make ends meet until the end game.
What do you think of the auctioneer add-on and all its “enhancements?”
April 4th, 2008 at 4:14 am
I rolled a bank alt about a month ago, loaded ‘auctioneer advanced’ add-on, sent 20g from my main and am now on 800g. Not amazing but still ok. I have found auctioneer IS NOT always right especially with litte data in its database. For example, people will put an item for inflated price (eg. 20x wool 75g) This throws auctioneer off, making the average price go up so when you /broker 500 (or whatever) it says ‘HSP 75g BO 2g Profit 73g’ which of course is wrong. Apart from that auctioneer is awesome, i love the beancounter and /broker features and it saves alot of time posting/searching items.
April 4th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Auctioneer is Teh Awesome, Mark. Starting out, your best bet is to stick with basic commodities, like leather, wool, metals and stone and herbs. Auctioneer will give you a mean price over the past week (or two weeks). You’ll get a feel for what prices look right for not only buying but also selling. Best of all, AucAdv will remember your most recent sale price and stack amount. It saves tons of time if you’ve got a bunch of stuff to list.
April 4th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Auctioneer is an excellent tool if used properly and full of fail if used incorrectly. I use it more for the search and listing functions than I do for scanning prices. The biggest problem with price scanning is that it can only scan what is LISTED, not what SELLS. If something is inflated, you are more likely to scan it than if it were priced at market. The result is that the price Auctioneer believes is market value is almost always well above the real market. You are better off just monitoring the prices of a handful of items on your own until you understand market value.
April 4th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Thanks for the tips! “If something is inflated, you are more likely to scan it than if it were priced at market.” Was my biggest concern and can be hard to judge prices sometimes.
Its interesting to see how it all works, with some time I should hopefully get it.