Understanding why people buy helps profit!

Learning your market is a great way to make profits grow, something most people know, and something that becomes second nature to gold makers.

However understanding the buyers within this market, and what makes a "Customer" buy a specific item can help identify new markets, as well as allowing you to see a market that is selling low, and open for consistent "Flipping"



So this week I didn't have a great amount of time to play (even for my standards) and other than posting auctions, I decided I was gonna take the opportunity to level one of my alts, in this case a level 70 warrior. So off i trudge into northrend and quested away. Now when I hit level 77 I thought I would go to the Auction house and buy some cataclysm greens as the stats on these items is amazing.

Now upon hitting the AH I was disappointed to find that there was none to be bought. So I decided to leave my character at 77 for a day or two and watch the AH till some items where available, I sent the character 2,000 Gold, willing to spend every penny to fill my slots not currently sporting Heirlooms. Now considering I had A helm, shoulder, cape, chest, weapon and ranged this left me with 10 slots to fill. Now this meant I was willing to pay 200g per slot, to make life easier, now when I finally picked up the items I needed i ended up only spending around 450g.

This got me to thinking about the reason I wanted these items, and why I was willing to spend so much, and if I was, where others...

So for the next couple of days I checked all Weapons and Armors from level 77-80 with a high iLevel meaning they where "Cata greens" and not Northrend items. Over the couple of days i was monitoring I continued to see cata greens at prices between 25-100g, and i bought each and every one of them.

By the end of my hoarding spree I had:

7 Melee weapons (cost -268g ,avg - 38g)

4 Caster weapons (cost - 193g, avg - 48g)

6 Ranged/Wands (cost - 378g, avg - 63g)

17 Cloth Items (cost - 787g, avg - 46g)

12 Leather Items (cost 1012g, avg - 84g)

27 Mail Items (cost 2241g, avg - 83g)

9 Plate Items (cost 486g, avg - 54g)

11 Rings/Necks (cost 682, avg - 62g)

3 Shields/Relics (cost 126g, avg - 42g)

96 Items Totaling 6173g, avg - 64g per item

I Put all these items on the AH with a minimum price of 150g, and a maximum of 250g depending on the stats of the item.

When deciding these prices I asked myself one simple question, that i want you all to consider when selling anything!

"Why would someone buy this specific item over a similar one?"

For the items I had I considered each item for a specific solo leveling need, as players running dungeons would usually find much greater items.

Melee Weapons 

Rouges - Agility, Crit, haste

Warriors/Dks/Pallys - Strength, Crit

Caster Weapons

Mages/Locks/Ele Shammies/Boomkin/Priests - Int, Haste, Spell power

Ranged Weapons

Hunters/Rogues - Agility, Crit

Warriors - Strength, Crit

Mages/Priests/Locks - Int, Crit, Haste

Cloth Items

Mages/Locks/Priests - Int, Crit, Haste

Leather Items

Rogues/Feral Druids - Agility, Crit

Boomkin - Int, Haste

Mail Items

Hunters/Enhance Shammy - Agility, Crit

Elemental Shammies - Int, Hit

Plate Items

Warriors/Pallys/Dks - Strength

Shields/Relics

Elemental Shammy - Int

Pallys/Dks - Strength

Rings Necks (Follow class ideas like the above items)

Now over the next 48 hours (the time I posted all the auctions for) every single auction I posted sold, netting me a tasty 16556g a profit of 10383g or roughly 108g per item.

Now the lesson I'm hoping you gained from this is that because I assessed the items I wanted to sell, I could tell that an item on the AH for relativity cheap could be flipped for a great profit! Now this wasn't because an addon told me so, or a past sale let me know. It was because I looked at why I or someone else would buy it.

Now if you combine this idea with with your general knowledge of the game, and your past experience with professions, Leveling, Raiding or anything else within the game then you can identify items you may not have previously thought of, like I did with the cataclysm green market.

Some example Markets that link to the one I used as an example could be:

Level 57-60 Greens with The Burning Crusade stats

Level 67-70 Greens with Wrath of The Lich King stats

Level 77-80 Greens with Cataclysm Stats

Level  15 Tanking/Healing items (Entry level to Dungeon ques)

Level 40ish Plate tanking Gear as Pallys/Warriors unlock plate at this level
Level 40ish Mail for Hunters/Shammies as they unlock mail at this level
Level 50ish Healing items, as Armor specialisation kicks in and players will be dropping any miss place armor types (Druids - Leather, Shammies - Mail, Priests - Cloth, Pallys - Plate)
(Ideas in Italics from Herdingelekks - from http://herdingelekks.dreamwidth.org/)

Now take this idea forward with you and use it in a couple of ways

A)Think of items Friends/Guildies or even you yourself have purchased and think about why you did it, and see if this sparks ideas for new markets.

B)When selling a new item you are unfamiliar with don't just blindly post it at addon recommendations, consider its use, and how much you think people would be willing to pay for it based upon the reason to buy.

Remember reasons could be Class specific, Role specific(tank/healer/dps), Playstyle (PVE/PVP/RP) or many many other reasons.

Give me some of the reason you can think of in the comments below along with any markets this inspires you to try out.

Todays Quick Tip - always check all vendors you meet while playing for rare/limited quantity items, such as the young orc boy running around the dark moon faire.

Post of the day - Todays post comes from the Awesome Gold Guru that is Markco, Markco has returned to Just My Two Copper for some very welcome posts and I cant get past xxxxxxk is a great read and highly recommended

Keep it Simple Girls and Guys and remember have fun

Gimp