Chasing the Gold Cap Update #6: Panic Mode

Red button because Panic Mode (img src: WoWWiki)

Well now.

I've managed to speak with every single one of my main competitors in the glyph and gem markets. Mainly, I wanted to get a sense of their motivations, since I have a pretty clear goal in mind. My glyph competitor, a friendly warlock, seemed happy to "share" the market -- as he put it -- and even offered to whitelist me until the end of month! Whitelisting, for those unfamiliar, is when you essentially never undercut a certain player. Unfortunately, he didn't end up whitelisting me in the end. Thus, glyph sales have been mostly shite.

Gem markets have been equally terrible, and for better or worse, it IS one of my main competitors who is absolutely defecating all over the market -- and it's because she has a soft heart: she doesn't feel it's fair to players to post gems for, let's say, more than 100g. Nope. She feels bad for the players. How cute.

Market price be damned, she's resolved herself to listing damn near every single gem cut known to both man and goblin for a prices as low as 1/5th the crafting cost! IDKWTF to do other than resort to swearing via acronym. It's gotten so bad other players are reaching out to ME, as a big player in the market, in frustration. See the report below to get a sense of how this has affected my profit these last two weeks (hint: I've been averaging 37,000g per week up to this point).

Gold amount at last update: 805,255g
Auctioning activity between then and now: moderate to high
Current gold amount: 848,556g
+/- Change: 43,331g

That's just over half of what I average in one week. Problem is, it took me two weeks to acquire it.

I'm kind of out of ideas here. Truth is I was just planning on working just a wee bit harder to coast past my goal in time. Now I'm facing a situation where I need to work harder & smarter while taking risks. Fact is, the JC market killer isn't going anywhere without some coaxing. I'm considering buying her out -- along with another player -- and reposting at costs even lower than what she's been posting. She farms a good deal of her mats, and we'd like to ensure it's not worth her time. Yes, it entails a significant investment, a cutthroat attitude AND profit loss in the short-term with the potential to return the market back to a more balanced state...but desperate times call for it.

Wish me luck. I need it.