Undercutting Glyphs Experiment
For 1 whole month I did an experiment on undercutting glyphs. The first 2 weeks I did some deep undercutting, making glyphs really cheap and sell like cigarettes. The last 2 weeks were dedicated to undercutting by 10-60 silver. What follows are the results.
Deep Undercutting Phase
During the first half of the experiment, my glyphs were only sold for 4-10 gold a piece, undercutting the competition by 5-10 gold. Costumers were buying all their necessary glyphs, obviously taking advantage of the huge SALE. Some are even buying more than one of each glyph, probably stocking glyphs just in case they need it in future respecs. It felt like Walmart went on SALE and everyone went into a panic-buying mode for future worldwide catastrophic events (like zombie attacks).
With regards to competition, originally I see around 10 maximum glyph goblins on my server, but when I did the deep undercutting method, there were around 3 that continued to post glyphs. Being the AH campers that they were, I still got undercut, making some of their glyphs as cheap as 2 gold each.
Profit was not so bad either. I could get around 1000 gold on glyphs in 24 hours. However, there were times I couldn’t keep up with the demand due to lack of time and lack of herbs to mill.
The Silver Undercut Phase
The last 2 weeks I just undercut by 10-60 silver per glyph. My competitors quickly raised the prices of most glyphs to 15-40 gold. Realizing that glyph prices has gone up, my other glyph competitors went back in the market (there were about 10 glyph goblins again). AH camp wars (around 4 of them) happened during peak hours, wasting their supposed-to-be enjoyable World of Warcraft night to an evening of hanging out with auctioneer dudes.
Profit was better. There wasn’t much problem with running out of inks either because all my glyphs don’t get bought out right away (because of undercutters). I multiplied my profit from deep undercutting by 2 to 2.5. I guess selling 1 glyph worth 30 gold is indeed so much better than selling 10 glyphs worth 3 gold each.
The only problem this requires more frequent re-listing of glyphs. If your glyphs got undercut by your 8 other competitors, good luck trying to make a sale. I was re-listing at least twice a day to make sure I get a sale.
Conclusion
If you don’t have much time available to spend in the auction house, I suggest going with the deep undercutting style. Deep undercutters can re-list glyphs every 48 hours and still get awesome profits. On the other hand, if you have time to waste having dates with the auctioneer guy, you can multiply your profits by undercutting by a few silver and checking your glyphs at least twice a day. It’s up to you to decide which strategy works for you and you can even apply the strategy for your other professions.
Id say the deep undercutting method is most used to get rid of competition, other than a constant profit input.
Anyway, Im more in category #2, the silver age. I dont really undercut much considering I dont have THAT pile of mats to help my auctions going. But again, Im not a ‘goblin’ nor going to become one.
@kite – good point!