01-13-2005, 11:27 PM
:ph34r:
Temporary monopolies are sickeningly easy to create in many of the WoW realms right now. It's easiest on horde-side, and on low- to medium-population servers (ahem).
What should you monopolize? It pays to spend some time watching the trade chats in your area's capital. What materials are people always asking for? (In "my world," for example, it's currently Iridescent Pearls, Iron, and Thick Leather.)
Once you have an idea of what your 2-5 test commodities should be, here's what you do: Buy out all of it that you can, and bid on the rest. You may have to spend a bit in doing this. But it's particularly easy to buy out the entire AH multiple times and keep the population starved of what they need.
Then, relieve the pressure briefly with a single buyout auction. (I call this the "hate reduction" - you want people to see you as a savior, not as the vicious conniving monopolist you are.) Remember that people can see who you are as a seller, but apparently there's no way to see who you are as a buyer. ("Hey, who keeps bidding against me on X?") So it's pretty easy to keep a good reputation while being a manipulative bastard.
So far so good. When the weekend hits and your audience / demand are highest, put everything out on the market with 24-hour runs and a high buyout. Keep buying out the bargain competition while your auctions are up. People will gripe about the buyout price you've set and monopolized, but when they see that they'd otherwise have to wait a "very long" time if they don't cave in and hit the buyout, they'll cave. You'll reap the profit.
Keep in mind that your audience's tastes in materials will change as time progresses and their skills increase. For example, although I can easily mine mithril and I have hundreds in store, I don't yet sell it. Iron actually sells for more than mithril right now on my server, because more people can utilize it and are competing for it. Once I see mithril interest, I'll go for that market instead and set iron free.
Trending the market according to average faction level in this manner yields HUGE results - I'm level 45 and I currently have a mount and 340 gold. And I spend carelessly as well.
So, you can get "rich" pretty easily. (Although a rich level 45 is equivalent to a level 60 pauper; just make what you need and don't generate hate.) I can only imagine what these techniques would yield on a high-population alliance-side market. You'd probably need a cartel *cough* guild with deep pockets to do any serious manipulation. But once you took the initial hit of 200-300 gold or whatever, you'd be reaping 100%+ profit on the most in-demand commodities.
Anything that can be reliably harvested/replicated and is in demand is better than random farming of items - piles of bars/potions/what-have-you are where the real money is at. Just have fun playing the markets, try to be a temporary monopolist so you don't death spiral the entire economy, and let us know how it all goes.
Apologies to anyone caught in the crossfire - I actually used to mail gold to anyone who complained about me by name, until there was love all around, but word got out and the handout-cravers started coming in.
Just remember to keep a good reputation, a merciless eye and a dirty hand. People will wise up as more hit 60, but for now, the robber barons rule! So be one, work for one, or get out of the way. Enjoy the rough and tumble!
Temporary monopolies are sickeningly easy to create in many of the WoW realms right now. It's easiest on horde-side, and on low- to medium-population servers (ahem).
What should you monopolize? It pays to spend some time watching the trade chats in your area's capital. What materials are people always asking for? (In "my world," for example, it's currently Iridescent Pearls, Iron, and Thick Leather.)
Once you have an idea of what your 2-5 test commodities should be, here's what you do: Buy out all of it that you can, and bid on the rest. You may have to spend a bit in doing this. But it's particularly easy to buy out the entire AH multiple times and keep the population starved of what they need.
Then, relieve the pressure briefly with a single buyout auction. (I call this the "hate reduction" - you want people to see you as a savior, not as the vicious conniving monopolist you are.) Remember that people can see who you are as a seller, but apparently there's no way to see who you are as a buyer. ("Hey, who keeps bidding against me on X?") So it's pretty easy to keep a good reputation while being a manipulative bastard.
So far so good. When the weekend hits and your audience / demand are highest, put everything out on the market with 24-hour runs and a high buyout. Keep buying out the bargain competition while your auctions are up. People will gripe about the buyout price you've set and monopolized, but when they see that they'd otherwise have to wait a "very long" time if they don't cave in and hit the buyout, they'll cave. You'll reap the profit.
Keep in mind that your audience's tastes in materials will change as time progresses and their skills increase. For example, although I can easily mine mithril and I have hundreds in store, I don't yet sell it. Iron actually sells for more than mithril right now on my server, because more people can utilize it and are competing for it. Once I see mithril interest, I'll go for that market instead and set iron free.
Trending the market according to average faction level in this manner yields HUGE results - I'm level 45 and I currently have a mount and 340 gold. And I spend carelessly as well.
So, you can get "rich" pretty easily. (Although a rich level 45 is equivalent to a level 60 pauper; just make what you need and don't generate hate.) I can only imagine what these techniques would yield on a high-population alliance-side market. You'd probably need a cartel *cough* guild with deep pockets to do any serious manipulation. But once you took the initial hit of 200-300 gold or whatever, you'd be reaping 100%+ profit on the most in-demand commodities.
Anything that can be reliably harvested/replicated and is in demand is better than random farming of items - piles of bars/potions/what-have-you are where the real money is at. Just have fun playing the markets, try to be a temporary monopolist so you don't death spiral the entire economy, and let us know how it all goes.
Apologies to anyone caught in the crossfire - I actually used to mail gold to anyone who complained about me by name, until there was love all around, but word got out and the handout-cravers started coming in.
Just remember to keep a good reputation, a merciless eye and a dirty hand. People will wise up as more hit 60, but for now, the robber barons rule! So be one, work for one, or get out of the way. Enjoy the rough and tumble!