We Have a Robin Hood
“Hello Gold Queen! I have a question.
“On my server, I’m selling glyphs. A few weeks ago, sellings glyphs was no problem. Then I started getting some serious competetion.
“We made a ‘group’ (a ‘pact’ if you will) to help eachother and try to keep the glyph market in our hands. It went amazingly well. We bought out some low sellers, we bought eachother out (and refunded G) and we made a nice profit. All of us. Until this week….
“There is 1 guy who is posting Glyphs for WAY to0 low prices (sometimes under crafting costs), just to crash the market. His response: you guys sell for way too much, I don’t like people making money of other people’s backs..
“I tried to explain him that he could also make money, if he upped his buyouts and that markets would stabilize soon enough without him. But he made it his lifegoal to get the glyph market down, because he feels it should be. As it turned out, he is a horde player, playing the AH on Alliance side… So he has no affection and care. Besides that, he feels like a Knight in shining armor, like Robin Hood, to help the poor. He already made 100k, he told me, so… he doesn’t need money. And he doesn’t care, other need money…..
“What can we do with this kind of behaviour? Any tips or something?
“Hope to hear from you!
Frustrated Scribe”
We Have a Robbing Hood
Hi Frustrated Scribe,
I’m so sorry to hear about your problems with this fake Robin Hood. I call him fake outright to his face, because Robin Hood never made 100,000g by selling things cheap to poor people.
He doesn’t give a crap about the wallets of the buyers. He doesn’t give a crap about the wallets of his competitors. So you’re going to have to show him who’s boss. In a nice way.
You can:
- Run him out of town
- Talk to him nicely (tried that, didn’t work!)
- Bore him to death
- Leave him to it
Number one is easy, you undercut him, hard, constantly, deep undercut him in return, and use your cartel to wall him out of the market. Glyphs cost 8g to make? Then you sell them *ALL* for 8g 01s. No one will profit here, except the customer. The goal here is to show him that you have muscle, your cartel, and you won’t take any crap, and he can either join in, or get lost.
Number two, you’ve tried, and given up.
How about a combination of numbers 3 and 4? Keep undercutting him, use TSM to automate your work to minimize your own boredom levels, and babysit your glyphs. Make a cartel-wide pact to always undercut him and bore him out the market.
Number four means expanding into other markets, which I hope you do anyway!
Over To You
I want to throw this question open to the intelligent Gold Making Community of which we are a part, and ask their help, support, and opinions for your problem.
image: Robin Hood Statue in Nottingham England, close to my old home
About the Author
The Gold Queen is written by Alyzande. With many level 100s, 9 years expertise in making gold, 10 garrisons, 16k achievements, 1505 days played, and over 18m gold earned. The Gold Queen blog teaches you how to make gold playing World of Warcraft using ethical trading, auction house flipping, crafting, reselling snatch lists, and farming gold making.
