Case 1: Traveler's Backpack
A callout for 3 packs for 30g went out over the trade channel. We clicked on the item and our Auctioneer scans showed recent buyouts at 13g-15g. We jumped on the offer and within a couple of minutes were the proud owners of 3 Traveler's Backpacks. The seller was likely a farmer from some asian country as he tried to speak to us in Mandarin. Guess he was looking to cash in for his quota. Anyway, we relisted the packs at the auction house for 24h at 12g starting bid and 15g buyout. One sold for the 15g, and the other two for 13g each for a total profit of 11g. Pretty sweet for a 5 minute job. We've had repeated success with flipping these packs; we can only assume they're usable by all classes and increased inventory space cuts down on annoying town runs.
Case 2: Doombringer:
Again, as we were posting items and scanning the auction house, an offer to sell the Doombringer went out on the trade channel. The seller was asking 35g and we countered with 29g. Sold. The Auctioneer data showed buyouts as high as 50g and the average floating around 40g. Seemed like a good flip opportunity, but it definately did not turn out that way. After 2 24h auctions we had still not sold the thing. With such a high price, the auction deposits were killing our profits knocking off about 4g each time - a lesson we unfortunately learned the hard way after the deposit price dawned on us when about to list it for the third time! We then resorted to hawking it over the trade channel, but after several sessions it became clear that this was not a hot item on our server. People were simply not willing to pay the price we needed to make a profit off this thing. Perhaps a sword is less usable by the general population, reducing the market? In any case, the shiny relic is still collecting dust in our pack. Perhaps we can sell it sometime later, but its nowhere near as flippable as the packs.
Anyone have some good advice on items to flip?
4 comments:
Depends on the server.
Someone *always* tries to corner the market on Traveler's Backpacks. They sell for between 35g and 45g on my server.
Servers with lots of level 60 characters have thriving economies for the bind-on-equip pieces of the class-specific armor sets.
When the Darkmoon Faire arrives, materials used to obtain Darkmoon Faire tickets go up in price and trade more often.
When the War Effort starts (if you're on a new server, and it hasn't already), materials used for War Effort rep go up in price and trade more often.
Stacks of raw materials that can be used to level up a skill (cloth, leather, etc.) are always frequently traded. They go for more on older servers, when gold-rich 60s want to quickly skill-up their alts.
Materials for high-end enchantments can often be bought and resold for higher value.
Stacks of high-end potions can also often be bought and resold for higher value.
There's more, of course, but the above's a good start.
My strategy:
1. Stick with recipes, plans and schematics for max turn-around profit.
2. Avoid all armor/weapons unless it's priced to the point where even if it doesn't sell you're not losing out (ie: 30silver).
The only time I risk buying weapons/armor is if they're in the 15-19 or 20-29 range because people tend to buy them for their twinks and can afford a higher cost...but even then, I'm very cautious.
Hope that helps and keep on posting. I enjoy reading about your experiences.
Funny you should mention cornering the market. Now that we have 100+ gold to play with we've been trying to corner a couple items. We'll post on the success of our early attempts in a future post. Thanks for all the tips, maybe we will try and corner the Traveler's Backpack market on our server!
I don't want to be negative in any way but make sure the market you're trying to corner is on an item that is truly "rare". I've seen people try to corner a market (attempting to buy all that came up on the AH) and only end up feeding someone else hundreds of gold because there was no way they could buy it all.
Point being: It's sometimes more lucrative to take advantage of those trying to corner the market than cornering the market yourself!
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