Resetting the Ebonsteel Belt Buckle Market

Congrats! This is a great example of how to reset a market--many people forget to post from multiple alts. I think this is a very important detail.

I have tried and occassionally succeeded in resetting different markets. It seems to work best by using multiple alts to re-post. I know when I see someone else trying to reset a market I will attempt to upset their plans if I can identify who it is, and if that person is a prime competitor.

I would rather inflict pain on them than to benefit from the market reset. I'm just mean like that. Besides, I can always reset it myself later anyway.

Hi gang,
Resetting a market is very difficult. I have only managed it once. I was able to control prices of 'Primal Mights' on both sides of my server for 2-3 weeks. 'Primal Mights' are much easier to control than most items, because the volumn is low and the raw materials are easier to control. In the two examples here, I would consider Simshoud's as failied and Davidson's as a marginal success. On my server Ebonsteel Belt Buckles are the closest thing to stealing that I can think of. I don't have a BS so I have to hire one. I pay them 10 Gold per buckel which I consider is a fair compensation. The Undermine Journel shows these numbers. Horde; cost 89G, avg. sale price: 205G. Alliance; cost 79G, avg. sale price: 216G. I sell 2-3 per day on both sides of my server.

On my server the buckle mats cost [Pyrium Bar] 12g, [Elementium Bar] 5g, [Volatile Earth] 10g so around 108g total. The buckle sells for anything from 180 to 280 depending upon that day's supply. Several sellers repeatedly dump at 180g. 65-70% profit is a good return even when the market is at the low end so I tend to just drop in at whatever price they are at that particular time. The amount of raw mats available make it difficult to control this area so I don't even try to reset unless there are only a few buckles left up for sale, in which case I buy them and sell at the higher end prices. As soon as the price jumps over 300 you just see people in trade looking for BS's and then the market floods within minutes from people jumping in at the higher price, hence why I am happy to let them sell at 280 even if no other sellers are present at the time.

I forwarded this link to my friend who enjoys tormenting the buckle market on our server. I'm sure he'll really appreciate this read. Thank you!

It looks like you definitely came out ahead even if the market doesn't stay inflated. You did after all make a profit

That said, I think it's important to point out that its not always a good idea to reset a market. Especially if you have to buy a lot of stock from your competition. If your competition is posting at prices they consider to be good profit all you are doing is motivating them to come back later with more stock. The materials for Ebonsteel Belt Buckles are pretty easy to come by, especially if there are botters on your server. My preference is usually to not let people in the belt buckle market get money out of their mailbox

I do reset the market... but only if I can get away with only buying a few of my competitors out. And honestly, if they are someone who has really been under my skin lately I won't buy them out even if their one auction is the only one I'd have to buy. I'd much rather them lose money from wasted posting fees.

Remember also on fast moving items like the buckle, or red gems, if there are not many auctions up you can sometimes achieve a reset just by posting a couple of your own items at an overcut price. So if there are 3 or 4 auctions that you dont want to buy (due to encouraging the seller to post more) around 200g, post two at 350g, then the next set of posters are likely to be undercutting at that price as the others have disappeared anyway. Later in the day (or evening) you can then undercut normally but still achieve the better prices. It does depend heavily on available volumes and buying rates, so just prior to raid time is more likely to work I suspect.

This way also protects your losses if the reset doesnt work....instead of having a bunch of items to get rid of you have lost a few deposit fees. This method is also not fast money, as you have to allow time for the lower priced items to be bought.

It's not compulsory to be the lowest priced items to achieve sales, it usuallhy helps, but consider the general factors of supply and demand.

JMTC just put up a post linking to this thread, suggesting that Aeg made 85k in a day from this type of reset. Good for traffic possibly, but I'm not sure about those kind of numbers. Any clarification in here for us.?

Originally Posted by Life

JMTC just put up a post linking to this thread, suggesting that Aeg made 85k in a day from this type of reset. Good for traffic possibly, but I'm not sure about those kind of numbers. Any clarification in here for us.?

Because someone wanted to reset the price and controll the market, so Aeg just listed under his threshold, causing him to buy everything Aeg had (or most depending on Aeg's stock, and the amount of gold the buyer had) and 85k is just allot of stock

Originally Posted by Life

JMTC just put up a post linking to this thread, suggesting that Aeg made 85k in a day from this type of reset. Good for traffic possibly, but I'm not sure about those kind of numbers. Any clarification in here for us.?

I dont see why that had to be linked to this thread tbh, its not like Aeg made 85K on me... And the way it was linked definatly makes it look like that..

On another not i saw quite some replies implying "controlling the market", i had no intention to control the market, the only intention i had was to try and raise the items price to raise the profit on it.
If i would try to drive out my competitors for a long time and keep buying them out then you could say i was trying to control the market, this was just a price reset.

I think Mageshadow linked your post for a example of a type of market manipulation, and Aeg ran into someone trying to do what you did, but with unrealistic prices, and it became buyout game for the guy to get his prices where he wanted them.

I agree it could of been linked a little better: for an example of manipulating a market the right way. or something in that line.

I never Implied, or meant to imply that you were trying to control a market

I did this successfully today myself, since I don't have a blacksmith I bought out the entire market (a whole 9 buckles!) for 150g and sent a few to an alt to list. The floor for a buckle is now up to 300g and i've already made more than my money back.

Just to clarify, It seems Mage did make a mistake with his post and connected two seperate incidents that both involved attempted resets of the belt buckle market. I did indeed do ~85k in sales to one guy who was determined to buy me out and reset the market. Needless to say it was a fun day.

Originally Posted by Davison

Production cost off the AH is 88g/piece.
While it may seem to be greedy to not be happy with the 195g a piece do know i'm on a low populated faction where belt buckles dont move that fast,
on top days i might sell 4/day, 2/ day on average.

Kinda hate to be "that guy," but if it costs you 88g to make, and they were selling for ~190g, that's 102g profit, which is a decent amount more than what you ended up averaging. So you could have made more had you simply bought mats, made them, and sold them at their "regular" price.

Granted, resetting the market did have the potential to bring in much more, but with the already good profit margins on the buckles, there was a good chance you could have lost a lot more too. The guy "crashing" the market could have started selling at 190g, effectively shutting you out while still making really good profits for himself.

Glad to hear it worked out though. And I definitely like the idea of the alt-posting smokescreen. I might have to try that out sometime.

Originally Posted by Vince

Kinda hate to be "that guy," but if it costs you 88g to make, and they were selling for ~190g, that's 102g profit, which is a decent amount more than what you ended up averaging. So you could have made more had you simply bought mats, made them, and sold them at their "regular" price.

Granted, resetting the market did have the potential to bring in much more, but with the already good profit margins on the buckles, there was a good chance you could have lost a lot more too. The guy "crashing" the market could have started selling at 190g, effectively shutting you out while still making really good profits for himself.

Glad to hear it worked out though. And I definitely like the idea of the alt-posting smokescreen. I might have to try that out sometime.

You're absolutely right about the decent profit margin even at 190g, but this is a very slow market on my faction (small to medium populated) so i'm lucky if i even sell 4 a day, 2-3 on average and checking for undercuts regularly, unless i'm babysitting my auctions on that char, then i can sell a bit more.

So i think i had allot more to gain by resetting the market then to go allong at 190g.
There's offcourse some risk involved, but aint that with allot of things we do? :-p

PS: They're now steadily selling for 290-300 gold.

This is interesting, if only because if I were to do something similar, I'd attack the mats side at the same time. You and Sinshroud both focused purely on the finished goods, which surprises me a little. Granted, the mats are regularly available for both items, but at least for gems, it shouldn't be difficult to exert a bit of control on the raw Inferno market.

Back when I tried something similar, it involved Titanium Bars and Saronite Bars in Wrath; and I was already attacking the ore market to keep prices up. Very interesting, though, both the items that you guys chose and your resulting success.

If I were to do something similar, I would probably choose something slightly more niche such as [Eternal Belt Buckle]. It is worth noting that both of you didn't attempt to drive prices through the roof, but simply move them to a price point that they would be expected to sell on your servers.

[Ebonsteel Belt Buckle] is to an extent easier to control the supply then inferno rubies as inferno rubies require your to control elementium/obsidium ore/ and pyrite ore to a lesser extent to keep people from prospecting. The buckles if you can control pyrite you can control buckles.