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| First One Is On The House |
Yesterday I went over my Tips for Barking for Fortune Card Sales. Originally I had been posting my Mysterious Fortune Cards for 25 gold each, but that was on the weekend when I could get stacks of Cataclysm herbs for 30-40g per full stack of herbs. 25g is an excellent introductory price to start letting players get a taste of the gambling process involved with flipping these Mysterious Fortune Cards. My first two days of barking and selling these on the auction house netted me thousands of gold, even at 25g per card. Other gold bloggers I communicate with on twitter (@ssmith0911) have been reporting selling these for 60g, 75g, even 100g each. I feel that 25g is a much better price to get players buying them at first. Let them get hooked and then raise the prices on them.
The Pricing Switch
After my initial couple of days of barking and selling the cards at 25g per Mysterious Fortune Card, I had quickly dried the auction house of all herbs available at reasonable prices. I definately recommend stockpiling any good priced herbs and buying all you can. If you get your barking tactics down, you will sell out of the cards every time. The profit margins are great and the time commitment is easily done afk once the milling component is complete.
Now I am currently selling them for 60 gold each. Even with an increased cost in herbs off the auction house I am continuing to make a nice profit per sale. Once you get your server hooked on gambling with these cards, you can milk the players of even more gold. Even after raising the prices, they continue to sell well. I have had single players buy as many as 80 cards, but it's not all at once. They buy 7-8 off the auction house, then whisper me for more. I then sell them 10 and they come back and get 20 more. Then they come back and get 40 more all in the same 15 minute window. So the mysterious fortune cards are like crack for some players. They just can't get enough. I have sold hundreds of the mysterious fortune cards, but have yet to see a winner over 20g.
If you get undercutters, its not easy to just bark and move through their stack as well. If you are doing a good job barking then you will be moving tons of volume of cards. Any competitor that isn't online while you are barking, isn't going to be able to compete with you. If you get undercutters, just start posting in multiple stack sizes and advertise those new quanitity stacks. Players will skip the undercutters and go straight to yours to save time with buying larger stacks.
The Bait And Switch Strategy
You can try this multiple ways, but the basic concept is the same. Bait them with a good deal or a good offer, then switch the price up for more profits once they have a taste and are hooked. I have had multiple players whisper me when I run out of cards on the auction house, because they want more and they want them now! You also can post a bunch at higher prices with an alt of yours, then log back onto your barker and sell them at your normal prices. Then instead of posting all your stock at once, post maybe 10-20 at a time and bark away! Some players will get to the auction house as they are selling out and will be tempted to go ahead and try some of the higher priced fortune cards.
You can also post some of the already flipped cards at the exact same bring as your unflipped cards and see, if you get anyone to take the bait. Do this on an alt though, not on your barking scribe. Selling these cards really makes me feel like an evil goblin. The strategy of selling gambling cards in World of Warcraft may not be for everyone. I admit that I do feel a little dirty from swindling so much gold away from other players by getting them hooked on in game gambling. If it wasn't the plan, then why were they created by Blizzard anyway? It's been a ton of fun barking and selling these in trade chat. Best thing is we finally have something to do while crafting and relisting our glyphs.
Continue on to Part 4 of the series: Dealing With Mysterious Fortune Card Undercutters
Image Credit: http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:Q4KrZAIJYY-KYM:http://www.goinsurancerates.com/system/wp/blogs/goinsurancerates/bait-and-switch-10-01-21.jpg&t=1
Got any other strategies to share about barking or selling Mysterious Fortune Cards?
Haha I enjoy your crafty ways. I should start crafting these. It's one of the things I missed capitalizing on.
ReplyDeleteI felt bad doing this so I never repeated the expirament, though I've noticed others doing it. Posting a vendor card worth 10s on the AH for 15g or more hoping an uneducated buyer will pick it up. Worse, mousing over the card in the AH tells you what it is worth to a vendor. In spite of all this I sold my card and can only speculate about the others selling thiers. I know I felt a pang of guilt and don't wish to sully my AH character's brand by being associated with this kind of AH tactic. Thought it important enough to discuss here though.
ReplyDeleteYes watch out! Some people have been listing their flipped fortune cards on the Auction House for crazy prices. Don't fall for the bait. Make sure you are only purchasing MYSTERIOUS FORTUNE CARD. those are the unflipped ones you use to gamble with in WoW.
ReplyDelete