Know Thy Enemy

ThiMilitary tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards... Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.

-Sun Tzu

We all know the Auction House is a type of pvp. It is player vs player to make the sale. Eventually, you begin to realize who your real enemies are.

Identifying your enemy is the first step to defeating them. The first step is simple enough. If you have a persistent competitor that is invading your market...you simply add them to your friend's list. When you are on, then you'll know when they are on.

In game, you can find a constant foe and then look at their achievements. By looking at the amount of gold they've earned and how many auctions they've posted, you can better size them up.

This guy has done about 34,000 auctions...to my 457,000.  He's aquired a mere 400,00 gold to my 3.7 million.  He's bought 3,100 auctions to my 32,000.  Basically, he can compete but he's not going to have deep enough pockets to be a real threat--of course unless he does business on other characters.

The next step requires the Undermine Journal. This allows for you to watch their schedule over time. It also lets you investigate their business—what pots do they have their hands in? If you have more time than they do, then you can invade all of their markets. I've figured out the schedules of my foes...when they go to work or in the case of college students their school schedules by watching their activity. This is pretty extreme, I'll admit, but again you have to adapt like water.

Basically, if you can babysit your auctions more than you can be the lowest price and win the undercut war. Jewelcrafting is really high traffic, and thus this is especially true of that market. Enchanting is middle of the road (because it used to not be possible to sell enchants on the open market, many people still seek out enchanters) and glyphs are really low traffic since most people won't engage in that market.

Inevitably there will come a point where you run into a bigger fish. He's got more time to spend undercutting you. There's literally nothing you can do to stop him—he's on 24 hours a day and undercuts like no one's business. Maybe its someone who is unemployed, works from home, or that is stay at home, or even a retiree.

In this case, they'll always undercut you and you don't have the time to stop him—this is the main reason I don't spend too much time jewelcrafting these days

 Businesses in real life used a tactic called predatory pricing. They'd sell at a loss sometimes to force other businesses out of business. You really can't do this in Warcraft. They can simply pull their wares and wait. You might demoralize them but more often than not, they merely hibernate. If you learn their schedule, you can tank the market, then when they aren't around, cancel your auctions and reset it.

For example, if I drop glyphs to 15 gold each and my enemies leave the market completely, and I know he won't log on a few hours on a Saturday, then I can raise glyphs to 375 each that day. When I know he'll come back around, then I'll tank the market back to 15. He can stop this...if he makes a “wall of glyphs” at 20 gold.

How do we counter that? If you have deep pockets, you simply buy all his cheap glyphs and repost. If you are really powerful, you can use the money to buy all the herbs up out of the market, so he can't get good ink. In most cases, you can't keep the market for say glyphs really high forever. You might drive whiptail up to 80 gold a stack, but then people will farm it. If people buy it and make glyphs, glyphs will fall in price. If they don't buy whiptail, then it will fall in price and then glyphs will eventually get made. Furthermore, who is to say, how many glyphs a person has in reserve? I had 16,000 at one point! Even at only 20 gold per, that's 320,000 gold to buy me out.

Ultimately, a marketeer has to accept prices will rise and fall. These cycles are the key thing to under. If I sell most of my glyphs at 375, then when they are only 20, I can let other people sell. Adapting, again like water, is the key to the market.