Cataclysm: Aim High

For the player with less time to make gold, it's important to capitalize on your opportunities when they arrive. A player with limited time ultimately means limited opportunities. This is a simple, undeniable fact. You'll have less chances to make sales than players with more time to invest.

However, the smart player can make the most out of their time by aiming high with their sales and capitalizing on their opportunities. Let's take a look at what I mean with a current example and see how it can be applied to cataclysm.

People will pay more than you think

Let's take a look at the following screenshot. From an earlier post, I've detailed how I sell netherstorm pets (particularly the 40s-60s ones) on the AH. I do this using a standard 2g threshold, 1c undercut, 49g fallback. These pets, for all intents and purposes, cost me, and any potential buyers, a mere 50 silver each.



There's a couple things to key in on here:

1) I was able to take advantage of a "collector" (Buyer of all 4 was same person, although obviously omitted from SS). Posted multiple types of the same goods, and was fortunate enough to find someone who wanted them all. By having a targeted and diverse offering - I make 4 sales instead of 1 if I was say, mass posting Crimson Snakes.

2) These items cost, essentially, the same amount. They have the same "value" - yet the buyer was willing to pay 49g - or 9800% percent for one item, while they paid "only" 15g, or 3000% percent for another item.

This brings me to my third, derived point out of this: aim higher than you think. Without seeing these screenshots, you might think to yourself, "Hmm, I can probably sell this pet for 1000% markup and make my money back tenfold! Great! I'll post at a 10g fallback and rake the money in". In this very specific case - you'd be between 5 and 40g on each sale. Aim higher than you think. Your fallback will rarely be hit, especially with more common items. With vendor items - it's simply a matter if other gold makers remembered to post theirs.

If you're lucky enough to be the only one posting an item - capitalize on it. You might only have 10 opportunities a day to make a sale. Make each one count.

Aim Higher

The first point is: set your fallback higher than you would have normally. This is all well and good, but it's a rather circular thought pattern. Obviously at some point you'll need to stop increasing your fallback and settle on a value.

This is fine - but the big thing to remember here is that your fallback isn't a set value. I'd be a hypocrite if the first thing I didn't do tonight was to raise my fallback. I already know that someone is willing to pay 49g for this item. And I've already stated that people will pay more than I think they will for an item. What's the next logical step? Raise my fallback - obviously. As soon as I saw these items hit 49g, the first thing I did was set my fallback to 89g. Arbitrary? Definitely. There's no argument I can make against the fact that someone out there MIGHT spend 90, 91, even 191g on this item. You do have to start somewhere though, and the important thing is that you raise your fallback.

I lose nothing by increasing the fallback and waiting to see if additional profits come in. We've already established that people will pay 49g for the same item I'm selling for 15g...which they can buy at the vendor for 50s. It's logical to think that some people will pay even more.

I'm looking forward to seeing if I bring in any sales north of the 49g mark the rest of this week. If I do - great! I just made more money with the same amount of time. If I don't - no big deal either. It's likely I'll continue to pull in the same amount of income off of this week after week.

Cataclysm: Applying this short term

This is especially important if you're a gatherer, in my opinion. The first week of cataclysm is a huge guessing game. Most people think stacks of ore are going to come in around 200-300g a stack at top end. This is a great place to start. It's perfectly sane to start out night one with a 100g threshold, 250g fallback, and a 1c undercut.

As soon as you see sales at your fallback, you'd better be adjusting and increasing your fallback higher and higher. In the case of cataclysm when demand initially will be sky high, this is the one scenario where selling something might actually cost you gold.

React quickly - adjust your thresholds and fallbacks accordingly, and watch your profits rise while spending not a second more making all that gold.


That's it for this post. What's the last item you sold for more than you thought it was worth? Did you get any repeat sellers? Have you taken it to the next level and tried to sell that same item again for even more? If so - share your stories!