*Edit After reading around this morning, I saw that Markco posted about "dog-piling", and that falls along jumping in and around markets. If you haven't read his post, go chickity-check it out.
Stockpiling. It's something that most of us do at one time or another. But do you really know when to do it? How to do it? Or why you do it? Do you even realize that you do it?
We all know the Darkmoon Faire is happening right now. If you don't, then you probably aren't a Scribe. I am going to use this as an example...most specifically, volatile life. But I will get back to this in a bit.
First I want to hit on market fluctuation. See the pic above? Yeah. Low server is 2'ish and high server is 14ish gold. A little bit of a difference there? Volatile life ferr shur. Let's get back to Stockpiling then come back to this "snowfall" screen.
If you ever "stockpiled" for the Faire, then you either A.) have been watching the herb markets (probably Whiptail due to having the highest investment/return), you have been watching the Card prices, as well as deck prices. B.) You have been buying up cheap cards to make decks (or to flip singles) C.) You have been buying up cheap Inferno Ink and Blackfallow Ink to convert.
They are moving at every one of these prices too. Let's just do some quick math on this. You buy some at the 8g when you get up for work. You post them before you go back to work for 13.5g. 1600g investment. By the time you get home from work, they have sold at the 13.5g pricepoint. 2700g. 1100g profit on one item. Now some might say no way this happens, but I want you to look and see the "volatile" life of Volatile Life during this week. When to buy, when to sell...
Actually, I think that last paragraph covers Why as well. Why do we stockpile? Of course it all boils down to profitability with gold. Do you watch your markets? Do you know when, how and why to buy and resell?
Hopefully this post helps explain things for you. If you were having questions or issues, I hope that this gives you a bit of understanding and insight. Now go play the AH or something, would ya?!
6 comments:
The volatile life on my server isn't very volatile, less than a 1g variance. Across an average 48-72h time frame
Xsin,
Screenshot or it didn't happen. =)
I have yet to find one that doesn't have a few gold variance throughout a 24 hour period, let alone a 48-72. Now I am interested on what server you are seeing this on...
My server is the same as Xsin, Life varies between 2.2g to 3g only. I guess we are both on high pop servers.
Good article though because other volatiles do have a larger variance and I believe listing them at high prices even though the now market price is low will sell later in the 48hr period.
Good example to explain stockpiling but as in anything....Variance in any one item at any one time is really server dependant. Volatile life on my server for ages was the same. Recently prices crept up on all volatiles yet I can still buy lots at 5gold each even thought the average price is 10gold. The item that I always address is volume that sells at the higher prices.
Undermine journal is not entirely accurate. You cannot rely solely on it. The item that brought this to my attention was one of the more expensive enchants that wasnt selling at all over a 2 week period. If you look at my character though that posted this enchant it indicated he sold it 4 times in this period. Obviously there is a bug as it was never sold by my character.
For those that jumped on the "but Vol Life doesn't vary on my server" wagon, keep in mind, this was just an example. If Vol Life isn't a viable market to do this with on your server, keep digging. There are markets there... there ALWAYS is. Keep in mind, if you find it easily, so will others... keep digging until you find one that works for you. Then, while you're working that market, keep looking for your next one. Always keep working on diversifying so if one or a few of your markets dry up (and they will), you have others to keep the gold pouring in.
Brent,
TuJ is a tool. Just like any other in RL. Some times it isn't 100% accurate, but after time, and understanding, you can see a little clearer (like whether an auction was sold or not) by understanding the charts. After you went through seeing the "bug", you should have a bit more insight on how to read it. =)
Great points there Matt!
I think that's where folks get stuck, they stick with one market and ride it till the end before they look for a new one. Diversification is a heavy hitter when it comes to making consistent gold.
Another thing that seems to be forgotten is that once a "niche" is dead, folks forget about it, and don't return. If something worked in the past, don't hesitate to return to check the market and profitability, it will come back, and you should too, with full vengance!
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