Are you an AH Stalk"er" or Stalk"ee"? Should you Be?

Hey Folks!

I have a few posts finally lined up, so keep an eye out the next few days. As I was writing what would be today's post, I started rolling into a topic that hasn't been hit on. Stalking the AH.

In this post, I will cover a bit of pro's and con's when dealing with these types of folks. Then you need to decide if you fall into either category with your sales, and well....if you don't see either, you need to take off the horse binders and look for it on your server, and.....gasp!.....see if you can be one to better your sales!

AUCTION HOUSE STALK"ERS":

The dreaded "I can't win. These guys (or this guy) is always on, he is always posting and reposting, I can't beat him". Or maybe "It seems that everytime I branch into a new market, it's open, no competition, then a day later it's saturated with goods". Whatever the complaint, how do you know you are being stalked? What are you gonna do about it?

First off, you have heard to add your competition to your friends list. Or maybe to "flag" their toon and see what they are crafting. You might even get a new bank toon to stop their trail cold (albeit for only a short time before they catch on- see below on how). While all of these are viable defense mechanisms, they won't save you from them.

What you can do is diversify. Or expand. Or even, as the saying goes, "If you can't beat em, join 'em". Now I am not expecting you to camp the AH 24/7, but what I am saying is get into different markets and let them follow you. Are you crafting "lesser" gear? With cheap mats? Get into a bit more costly goods. Are you being "nickel and dimed" with your posts? I wouldn't recommend this all the time, but you can drop the profits to just above your crafting cost to attempt to "bully" them out of the market. Are you seeing where I am going here?

AUCTION HOUSE STALK"EES":

Not many folks are on this list that read my blog, but you might want to think about it. Basically, you are flipping everything I mentioned above on stalkers. You take some time and beat out and destroy your main competition in any given profession or AH niche.

Start off by finding your nemesis. Get their name, pull up TuJ or use Auctioneer and do a "character search" to see their markets. Mirror the items they are selling. If they make "X", you make two of "X". If they are farming cloth, you farm cloth. If they are on 24/7, you take note of where they are, and dissect what they are doing there (always in SM? cloth farmer. always in Hyjal? Herbs and Ore. always in Org? AH camp. in BB? Neutral snatcher) then make your move.

This option will piss people off to no end. If you have been on the receiving end of this, you know the feeling. If you have been on the other side, you are laughing all the way to the bank. A-he, he.
As I listed above, there are ways to defend this way of AH sniping. The most popular is changing their AH toon. The power to defend this is they need more time to log onto other toons, re-craft, then mail, then open, then post. Alot more time, and you can use that to your advantage to get into more markets. An easy way to see this is to buy one of their crafts, and see who crafted them.

This is nearly a sure-fire way to find out your "crafting competition" and if they are selling under a bank toon. Sneaky, huh?

Even sneakier is the new addition to TuJ, Seller Notifications (read the post over at Undermine for more info). This is a sure fire way to assist you in undercutting issues. That is, until they notice.....

Hopefully this post got you thinking, and will make you broaden your mind when it comes to dealing with AH competition. All you need to do is think a bit more and not let yourself get frustrated. Answer your questions of why you are having "X" issue in selling your goods......Why is your competition doing that? How are they selling it so cheap? How are they on 24/7? Then figure out the answer. There are a ton of tools at our disposal for AH'ing. Are you using them?