Dealing With Super Competitive Glyph Markets

Today's gold-making question comes from a reader who's just started on the road to glyph profit but ran into some pretty scary competition. The glyph market can be one of the most fiercely competitive markets in the whole game. Read on past the jump to to read their question and my answer.

Reader Question

Hi Flux, how's it going? I have been listening to your podcast for a little while now.  I am the same guy who almost gave away your podcast to the guild.  Haha.  So as you know, I play on [name withheld].  I have been following tips that both you and TheGoldQueen have been giving and they are really helping out.  I still only have a couple thousand gold but my glyph stock is now up and I'm finally able to use money to start working on my other professions.  My problem, however, is that there is one person who is my biggest competitor.  There are a few others that I know of who I must also compete with throughout the day, but this one person can be a hassle. I feel as though I have to sit there and watch the auction house every second of the day because we undercut each other literally as soon as we are undercut.  It just goes back and forth all day.  So my question is, is there anything that I can do about this?  I feel as though it is really hurting my income, and I'm sure it is hurting his also.  Thank you for reading, Flux, and keep up all the great work. :)

My Answer

If you are talking about the glyph market you'll find that it can be (and has been on [name withheld]) very very competitive with people watching markets day and night. I actually left the glyph market completely a few months ago because I didn't want to devote as much time as I needed to make a profit. 

Being on the same server I have a few suggestions. One is to pick a few times a day to do canceling/reposting of glyphs and don't worry about them in-between those times. You can also look they characters up on TheUndermineJournal.com and check their posting heat map to see if there is a time of day when they don't post. 

The other option is to sell glyphs on the Horde side. I've been selling the Glyph of Unleashed Lightning on the Horde side and there has only been one other person posting it. This takes some coordination as you need a toon on the Horde side and a friend (like me) with toons on both sides to move glyphs over and the money you make will be on that side but it may be worth it if the Horde side is less competitive. 

The last thing is to diversify your revenue streams so that you make money outside glyphs and let the other player have the market. Its a tough call because if they are so adamant about keeping their market they may go to insane lengths to make sure no one else can sell in it. For me I wasn't willing to play that type of game anymore so left.

Hope those thoughts help. 

Cheers,
-flux

Obsess Much?

Playing against a specialist auctioneer can seem like an exercise in futility. Specialists often only cover one single market (in this case glyphs) and do so with almost obsessive focus. Having talked more to this reader I know which specific competitor they were referring to and they have been single-mindedly working the glyph market on our server for almost the entire year.

Players like this don't want to give an inch to any other competitors and are very adapt at pushing others out of the market with insane posting schedules and severe anti-competitive marketing tactics. In this case you are not stepping into their area of expertise. Often they have the experience and drive to fight to the death.

The real question is how far are you willing to go to compete. In the case above I wasn't willing to fight it out any longer and moved on to greener pastures. However talking to this reader more in game we might have to team up to at least cause a little pain to this glyph-monger. I know that I have months and months of animosity held up in reserve and a bank full of herbs I wouldn't mind throwing at the problem.

Perhaps a glyph war is in order. Then again perhaps not. A glyph war may leave the ground so parched that I would actually be hurting the reader by lowering what little profits they are currently making. Decisions. Decisions.

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