Leaving Bait On The Table

What a beautiful mess!

Today's 'Lazy Sunday' post is about leaving a bait on the AH to help drive costs down. I've touched on this before (see "Poisoning the Well (For Profit)") but, in these bot-infested times, where profits are shrinking for many of us, a little refresher never hurts.

Hook
The screenshot above was taken about 20 minutes ago. As you can see not everyone on my server reads our blogs. In the shot you can see Hessonite posted for below the 9 gold vendor price floor.

If you've been reading our blog for a while you know cut green-quality Cataclysm gems (Alicite, Hessonite, Zephyrite, Nightstone, Carnelian and Jasper) vendor for 9 gold.

What I am able to do with a scan like the one posted above is "massage" the market. Buy out all the gems below vendor and re-list them higher. That isn't really anything special. It should be something we do fairly often if the situation is right.

Today I wanted to talk about leaving some 'bait' on the table.

Tidied up a bit.

Line
This is what the market looked like after my "massaging". As you can see I've plucked out all the gems below vendor value. Well I say "all" but as you can see I've left a few below cost.

This is to 'bait' those who blindly list their gems using addons to undercut the cheapest price. You can do this yourself by posting a few at low prices on purpose or leave a few that are already there.

Hello Mr. Autopost!

Sinker
Does this work? This is a screenshot from just a few minutes later. It looks like someone has already taken the bait. If I hadn't left a few cheap gems there this new one would have been posted around 11 gold as that would have been the cheapest.

While this may not always work it is a useful way to help keep mat costs down in the right situations.

As many readers have stated in comments and messages, bots are infesting many servers. Be vigilant at keeping an eye on any green-quality gems. If you see them dipping below the vendor price floor. Pick them up and cut and vendor them yourself or re-list them at more reasonable prices.

Remember, the price floor for auctioning green-quality gems is 9 gold 47 silver not 9 gold. The math for 9 gold + 5% AH is 9/0.95 = 9.4737 gold.

Talking Points

• What types of items work well for 'baiting'?
• What are a few of your 'baiting' success stories?
• That favorite AH tips and tricks do you use regularly?