Monday, January 24, 2011

It's Okay to have Bad Days Pt. 2

Part 1 is here.

So, let's say today you were all rested up from your "day off," and rearing to make fat stacks of gold.  You do everything right, craft lots of things, buy things to flip on the Auction House, and your auctions just come back to the mailbox.  Why is this?

Well, there are fast days, and there are slow days.  Think of it as the regular economy; some days businesses earn money, some days they lose money.  It's as simple as that.  There are just some days where not a lot of players are playing, have the gold they need/want to buy an item, or just aren't getting gear to enchant/gem.  What can you do to change this?  Not a thing.

It's the unfortunate truth, but the best thing you can do is plan your schedule around the schedule of players.  Look at where your server is located (No, not in Azeroth, in the real world).  Mine is in California. which means that the majority of players on my server are from that area.  This means a 3 hour time difference, where I'm 3 hours ahead of them.  So when it's midnight on my end, it's 9 PM on their end.  How can you use this to your advantage?

Well, auction timing is big.  If you put up a 12 hour auction (which everyone should be using - any longer and you're sure to get undercut, so why waste the extra deposit fee for the extra 36 hours if you're just going to cancel and relist?), but you list it at 6 AM your time, it will expire at 6 PM your time, or it will be up from 3AM to 3PM on their end.  This is bad.  Why?  Well, most people have school, which they need to attend.  There is a higher concentration of players online after school/business hours, IE between 4PM and 11PM on any given day.  Even on weekends, people don't wake up early to play a game - post your auctions around Noon.

What else can you do?  Well, ask yourself, "Am I selling things people want to buy?"  If you're selling crafted 12 slot mageweave bags, chances are you won't get many sold.  If you're selling Imbued Netherweave bags (18 slots) for 80g, but the Frostweave 20 slot bags are going for 75g, chances are you won't sell anything either.  If you bought all PvP gem cuts (Resilience and Stamina, Spell Penetration, etc.), you won't sell as many as if you bought PvE cuts (assuming you're not on a PvP heavy server).  Knowing your market is key, but everyone always needs:

1.) Low to mid level crafting material
2.) Netherweave bags (Yes, Netherweave bags)
3.) The current ore
4.) PvE gems (higher turnover rate of gear, multiple sets, etc)
5.) Enchanting materials and scrolls

There you go, 5 items I guarantee will sell every time you list them.

5 comments:

  1. thanks for the useful info

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  2. There's no bad days! Only best days and better days

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  3. Great point made with the timing issue of auctions. Although I can only speak for my realm, stacks of fel iron is currently going for between 80-120g and it's a huge money maker.

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