Buy Low, Sell Normal
vs
Buy Low, Sell High
Everyone has heard the common economics standard of
Buy Low, Sell High. However, there are some auctioneers in WoW and Diablo 3 that will tell you that the time tested fundamental economic principle of
Buying Lowing & Selling High is a farce that doesn't work. Well, it's been the standard of basic profiteering for centuries. So I'm calling bullshit on your
Buy Low, Sell Normal mantra, when you claim it is better than
Buy Low, Sell High.
All basic money making can be simplified to
Buy For X, and
Sell For More Than X. That sale will turn you a profit. All you need to do is sell the item for more than you paid for it. That's what
Buy Low, Sell High means. Selling for higher than the lower price you bought it for, regardless of the market price for that item.
So What Is Buy Low, Sell Normal?
Buy Low, Sell Normal is supposed to be "the best way to operate as an auctioneer" as the followers of this belief tell you to "Sell at normal value, no higher than what the item usually goes for." These
Buy Low, Sell Normal types, think you will make more profits by selling more items at a lower cost. The basic backbone of any discussion about this comparison references that is how Walmart operates, by
Buying Low & Selling Normal.
Sure, Walmart has lots of sales and cheap prices too, but as gold and money makers in Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft, we aren't Walmart. We don't have a huge staff working under us. We are just 1 person trying to turn a profit on an in-game auction house. Walmart makes their money by coming into and forcing out all of the smaller companies that can't compete with their prices. Some of their items they actually sell below their cost, so others have no chance to compete. This serves to limit their competition and force others out of the market, but how profitable of a strategy is selling at a loss or for minimal profits in an online virtual environment?
So you bought or crafted an item at a low price, how much do you want to sell it for?
Well, I am a member of Generation X and I tend to go by the typical Gen-X mantra of "Getting the most money, for the least amount of work." See that's the problem with the
Buy Low, Sell Normal philosophy. By selling at minimal profits, you may get more sales, but are those minimal profits worth your time and effort? I'd rather sell less items for more profit per item, which results in less time recrafting, recollecting, and reposting.
Sell Normal Or Sell High In The Glyph Market?
The WoW Glyph Market has a polarizing effect on most of the sellers within that market. Either they are willing to dance or they aren't. But because of the foolish teachings of some bloggers who've preach about
Buying Low and Selling Normal, the Glyph market can be an absolute nightmare for some sellers as we've been discussing on some episodes of
The Eviscerated Gaming Podcast.
A good example is between
the 2 main strategies of Glyph sellers.
- Option 1 - Craft & Sell as many Glyphs as possible (market blanketing), all for a bare minimum profit, to keep competition away. Often using heavy undercutting (another foolish strategy in my opinion) and walling of low priced items in hopes of driving out competition. This is often referred to as the Walmart Glyph Model. - Sell Normal
- Option 2 - Craft & Sell only Glyphs when they reach a nice threshold worth your time and effort. Nev of Auction House Addict was the first to discuss this philosophy on the PW:Gold Podcast. Don't even bother with a glyph unless it is selling for 100 gold or more. - Sell High
With
Nev's Glyph Strategy, you still make plenty of gold and have far much less work to do to restock and relist. And you are free of the headache of massive dog fight wars of undercutting, glyph walling, and other time inefficient strategies. Often times, you will still makes sales because not everyone has all glyph recipes and there are times when all of the low priced ones will be gone. If I can sell glyphs for 250 gold, why the hell would I waste time fighting to sell them for 12 gold each to make a few gold per sale?
Why Buy Low, Sell Normal?
So why would someone even want to create a Buy Low, Sell Normal idea? It was a blogger who coined the notion and even refers to it as his "catch phrase". The entire notion is based on foolish logic and trying to disprove a time weathered basic principal of economic theory. The whole Buy Low, Sell Normal idea was nothing more than an online marketing ploy created by an internet salesmen trying to stir up his own "catch phrase" to discuss and quote on various blogs and podcasts all to drive traffic to his sites. Then people want to hear how Buy Low, Sell Normal is so much better than Buy Low, Sell High and they head to his sites, where he tries to sell them his latest Secret Gold Guides. In all reality Buy Low, Sell Normal is nothing more than a hype generating gimmick of an internet con-man. It's nothing more than a tagline and sales gimmick.
So be smart and get the most from each and every sale. Why leave money on the table?
I think @dollada06 said it best on twitter:
"Buy Low / Sell Normal is an idiotic ideology which basically says sell your items before they yield maximum profits."
