Thursday, October 1, 2009

Behind The Scenes - Inscription

So I started posting auctions yesterday even though I said I wasn't and the reason is I really .. really.. need to get a job.

Being 25 and living with your parents is only .. acceptable.. for so many months (oh how I miss my own place :P) so I posted yesterday morning and hit the streets in search for a real job. Found a small handful of places that were hiring so hopefully something becomes of one of them.

Back to today's post. I haven't really done anything recently but updates and seeing as how Inscription is how most of you are making money I thought I'd go into detail about my Inscription strategy and break things down.

Where to start.. I guess I'll start with my costs.

I buy any high end herbs for under 17g a stack making my Ink of the sea cost 2.8 each since I do not sell my snowfall ink. I buy any low end herbs for under 10g a stack. If you haven't purchased all your glyph mastery books; do so lol.

Now this is where I am different then most scribes. My QA threshold is 1.5g. Now you may be asking why in the world would I have my threshold so low and lose money on sales? Well the answer is quite simple. I don't have to worry about pesky goblins for one since I know anyone whos undercutting me is definitely losing money (snowfall ink has no market).

Apologies for not remembering who said it on JMTC but the best way how I can sum it up is by comparing it to McDonalds. They don't order 15 double cheeseburgers and 20 big macs (Having worked there as a kid this is true :P). They order 100 lbs of meat, 20 pounds of lettuce, 600 buns, 30 lbs of cheese. They know they lose a little bit of money off of their dollar menu and thats fine. The 6 dollars for the quarter pounder meal makes up for it as it only cost them $2 to make it.

I run my glyph business the same way. I lose some money on the low end but I sell plenty of glyphs for 50-75g which makes up for it and then some. That's not including the glyphs that sell for 10-30g which is majority of the glyphs on my server.

So not only do I prevent the goblins from making money but I effectively prevent them from even thinking they make any money as I carpet bomb the glyphs hourly during peak hours.

Now that we talked about my cost we'll go into my inventory. I currently make 10 of each glyph. If a glyph sells out I make 13 of it. Unlike others I only use 1 alt for posting. I have 11 32 slot bags on a banker. Now granted I don't have all the glyphs and eventually I'll have to split them up into multiple posters (I think) but for now it is working with just one.

I'm slowly pushing trying to push to 15 of each glyph but herbs have been in short demand lately. Even with 10-13 of each I can still carpet bomb hourly for almost 12 hours without running out. I try (keyword try :P) to cancel every night before bed but if I don't it's no big deal as they'll be in the mail in the morning ready to be re-posted. Now obviously I can't carpet bomb hourly on the top selling glyphs for 12 hours but that's ok. I try (again keyword) to make glyphs daily. So if I managed to sell out in one day then I'll make some extra.

On to the fun part of aggravating your competition. The QA carpet bomb aka glyphs of dooom (Sorry Invader Zim refrence). I usually post at about 8-10 am server, noon, and 3-4 pm. My server's peak hours start at about 4 pm and last until about 8 pm. (10 pm on weekends). During peak hours I try to carpet bomb hourly on the hour. I've even told competition when I post (They were only at 300ish inscription and I knew they didn't use QA so I got cocky :P) but what can he do? He actually stopped posting in glyphs when he found out how my operation works and last I heard he was considering picking up a new profession. No.. I didn't tell him I was in the gem and enchanting markets on top of it. I'll let him figure that out himself. :P

Now throughout the day you may be itching to empty your mailbox. I personally let all the mail build up on all my alts and empty it at about 10-11 pm server time. There's no better feeling then emptying 2k worth of glyph sales then turning around and emptying 3-4k in enchanting mats and another 2k in gems. Definitely brings a smile to my face.

Now I'm assuming most of you have Inscription already but hopefully it sparked some ideas and helps you make more money. As always this is just how I do it. Your server could be completely different and using my strategies might not work. If so I'm sorry but that's the risk you take playing the AH. There's a popular saying and its "Don't fuck with it if it's not broke". Later peeps. It feels great to write again. Hope this makes up for the lack of quality posts. :P

3 comments:

  1. Today I was talking to one of my competitors (our glyph market is a little bit broken with posted glyphs - we dont have every glyph in the market and I lvled it 4 weeks ago) and he was complaining that every time he posts his glyphs, a few minutes later he gets undercut by me ^^ So he trashtalked that I am sitting 24/7 at my computer and having fun to take others their fun (maybe he is right? ^^)

    I hope I am going to drive the other ones out of it :> Cause of my lack in recipes I am not going to drive them out with the goblin tactic (there is to much place for them to sell glyphs)

    But yeah it makes fun to drive them crazy ^^

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  2. It's fun when they complain. If you're an evil goblin like me, it fuels your urge to continue doing what you're doing.

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  3. heh somewhere in one of my blogs I have a screenshot of a compilation of things from my competition.

    I play the AH to intentionally aggervate people. I love griefing people and I love doing it by the book ;)

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