7:38 PM
Admin
Hey folks!
Transmog. I am divided on how I feel about this. I have made quite a bit of coin (not nearly the 700K that the Mogfather talked about- btw, Keel is the twitter guru on transmogrification, so follow him!), amassing around 95K across two servers (with only about 20 minutes per server for my AH flipping).
Throughout the post, I will be hitting on some of my favorite flips, and stay tuned to the blog as I will be posting on my updated Auctionator Shopping Lists as well as my TSM settings specific for Mogs. What's that? Oh, should be by next week. =)
What I want to cover with you are some thoughts I have on Transmog. But first, please....please.....go download MogIt. Once you are using this addon, it will help you more than you will ever know... Anyways, here we go:
1) I don't use Remote AH.
If I did, or setup notifications on TuJ, I am sure I would get more in both sales and items. My top selling transmog items are ones that I banked pre- 4.3 and within the first week. Since most of these have sold, it's almost a guarantee that folks are asking 500-1200g for items like Bloodscale Breastplate or Conquerer's Legplates that I bought a month ago for 5g.
However, you can be lucky if you aren't using the notifications or RMAH, checking upon each AH visit and even solo farming a few instances to get them (post incoming on that as well...).
2) Transmog is a bullseye for goldmaking now, but what about the future?
In my opinion, RP servers are where it will stay more constant. Not all players go for looks. Also, I feel that the end game epics as of late are better looking than anything I could possibly transmog them into. For the future, just like anything, folks forget about it. That can be both good and bad. They forget, you keep the market up, and get sales. The flipside of the coin is that players forget they can transmog items....
3) Are you too late to make gold with transmog?
Yes and No.
Yes because most of the folks that wanted to change their looks have done so already (although once a transmog, always a transmog...). Yes because a good portion of servers have a "gold guru" or a top goldmaker (or multiples of them) that reads blogs, guides and websites, and they already have a market set up.
*Transmog isn't like glyphs, gems, etc per se. It is more of a "look at me" visual goldsink versus a "make be better/stronger/leet" profession. This in turn hurts sales after the initial "fun" of transmog.
No because there are still sales to be made, as long as you can figure the pricepoint on the items. Some say list for 2K plus on uncommon, list 60-64 level items for 1500g, etc, etc, etc. Sure you can try to emulate others servers, but you will get disappointed quickly, as well as have 200+ auctions of stuff you wonder why it isn't selling....and have a ton of gold just "hanging out". No, you aren't too late because those RP'ers or even the "old" school'ers want the look of that Bloodfang set they had back in Vanilla (I really, really wish that I kept all my old gear...or that Blizz would add a BoE set).
4) ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I just looked at my server, and some of the items you listed are already 1K!
Well, you already have competition in the market. The question is, are you going to dedicate time and invest gold into this market? Or let it pass by? I am starting to see multiple "moggers" on the scene on my main server, and I am not pushing as much since two of them are also glyph bots (suspected), they are always logged in....I used to be able to get my fav's; Blood Knight, Glimmering, Engraved, Captain's, etc, however no longer. I get the feeling that they just copied my auctions into their Shopping Lists and are snatching away. But that's my Conspiracy Theories kicking in...
5) Ok, I listened to you, picked up some of the items you mentioned, and grabbed a few of my own....NO SALES?!
A few scenarios can be happening here....
a.) Transmogging has yet to "hit" your server, and this is where barking is in need. Show off some of your items in trade (/2) with a few links. The issue here is that you might have some issues with other gold making folks seeing it, and jumping in. Worst case you get some sales....
b.) You are pricing your items too high. The toughest thing about mogging sales is finding the correct price for buyers on your server. Sure, you can hit up 2K for a Vanguard's Headdress, but just because you posted it at that price doesn't mean it will sell. I have set up my TSM to post multiple items in intervals, 355g, 735g, 1125g, and 2275g. If an item isn't selling at 1125, I will drop it into the next group for a week, and on and on. Most of my items I drop to the 355 sell. These are just examples, your experience may vary...
6) You are selling the wrong stuff....or better yet, selling something with too many options...
Multiple items have "recolors" or basically the same visual art, with different coloring. Some items, although they look really cool, have 30 different "options" , so that means you will literally have to buy out all of the competive names (of agility, of the bear, of the eagle, etc) to assist in your sales. Next thing you know you have 1K auctions with 2 sales versus 2 auctions with 1K in sales....
Be careful with this. Worst case, you can always use wowhead. If you see an image like this, hesitate...
7) You are just full of shit Alto. I don't believe anything you are saying...and by the way, this post was too long, I didn't read it all the way through, so I am going to leave a comment under Anonymous saying how this whole post is garbage..... Or I will repeat something that you wrote about above. Or, I will just be a scandalous jackass and cut and paste this post and claim it as my own.
Really? Had a bad day or what?
Being completely serious, please comment away. I am sure some of you are big into mogging on your server, do you have tricks? Have any crazy flips you have done? Are you doing good? Or horrible? Do you think mogging has a future? Or is it on it's last legs?
6 comments:
You are just full of shit Alto.
I don't believe anything you are saying...and by the way, this post was too long, I didn't read it all the way through, so I am going to leave a comment under Anonymous saying how this whole post is garbage.
I will repeat something that you wrote about above.
I will just be a scandalous jackass and cut and paste this post and claim it as my own.
And how about I cut and paste that last paragraph and claim it as my own comment?
Now go ahead and find who posted this because I can hide behind my Anonymous tag mwahahahaha!
I feel so much better now. =)
Alto.
...well, fuck.
But in all seriousness, as long as they pump out more art, people will switch back and forth between sets, through all of the game.
You just need a handful of creative people with tumblrs and blogs that will pick up pieces left and right and create sets with items that spam the entire game and you've got something solid that's there to stay.
And on top of that, there's still some restrictions that Blizzard can lift at some point in the future, leading to more options and sets.
I don't think the high of transmog will stay there forever, but when everyone will get up to speed it will always continue to be considered a solid viable gold-making market.
/2cents
Its true I was sad for a few days that my prime pieces weren't netting 5k each on my server like I see in twitpics but then I remembered my server usually runs on the mid to low end of sales data for 'fun' instead of 'functional' type items. I'm happy getting only 500g for a piece I bought for 8g :)
I suspect mogging is going to be here to stay. Since it's vanity, people will buy into a set they love... and wear it for a long time... and then get bored, and go dig out a new set.
And as Khalior said, get a few creative people doing blogs with creative use of BoE items, and if you can get your hands on those items quickly, you'll get sales that way as well.
I also think the harder-to-craft more unique skins (say Dark Iron set) will net a fairly nice profit ongoing as people create new toons and don't want to go to the work. But that's my theory.
Nice post, though it sadly doesn't reflect my experiences singe 4.3 came around. The transmog market on Earthen Ring-EU is as dead as can be. I've talked to quite a few of the other frequent-AH traders I know around those parts and they're in full agreement. Some items do sell in the 500g range, mostly TBC-weapons, but otherwise you'll be hard pressed to make more than a few 100g+ (yes, a hundred) sales a week. It doesn't help that there is little in the way of armour being posted to the AH at all. This has all been quite a surprise to me, as I expected this to pick up quite well on an RP realm.
On well - I'll continue to get by with glyphs and enchants.
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