Release week market strategy

[jwfcp]

I figure everyone will start out with the basic "play one char, dont buy anything, sell everything you dont need and push content as far as you can". Remember the blacksmith is divided into tiers and the normal mode recipes are very reasonable, I expect for most people to dabble in the low end stuff on their own even if they have no intentions of going all the way with it. So I dont think the market will come into its own until nightmare or so, as people get that difficulty level transitional chill and take their pile of money to market to shore up their weak spot (or whatever other specialized bottleneck the game throws at us: eg the fire/light resistance needed to handle diablo in d2, trying to get past duriel solo etc)

Just be sure to put a buyout on your sale, so they can have it right when they want it and make that impulse buy, instead of leaving them the hope that theyll find it on their own, or worse the bid winding down draws them to realize that their current need wont matter in a day or two.

[viledevil]

Remember that the main reason people get on the beta AH is because they finished the game in 1-2 hours and are now bored. If they could keep going, I'm sure they would and only bother to look at the AH when their gameplay actually started slowing down. As long as you are progressing fast, you won't bother looking to buy (or sell) stuff, especially if you're a casual.

That's why I think there will be very little money to be made on the AH and RMAH during the first week, at least by taking advantage of casual players. They'll take a while before they even think about trying to figure out the AH interface. Even the most casuals should have an easy time to at least get through normal, and being casual, of course it'll take them time to do that.

Making 5000 gold in 5-10 minutes is really not all that great, especially when you think what kind of gold you might be making by playing 5-10 minutes in nighmare/hell/inferno.

To sum it up, my early games strategy would be to level up as fast as possible, ignoring the AH. Especially since I'm not going to put down any real money in order to try and make money, so until I get high enough to when I can actually find stuff (or enough gold) to warrant any significant amount of $ I really have nothing to look for on the RMAH.

IMO, those who think they can play the AH on the first days are either delusional, or will simply make a few pennies while I level to 60 and start getting drops that are worth more than a few pennies.

this, and you can't progress very far/fast if you're selling everything.

[AKUder]

I think I'm just as much at risk to make stupid sales early on as I am to capitalize. For me, I'll be waiting for stabilizing, while I may miss out on some early opportunities, I'll also avoid the stupid blunders. Lower risk lower reward. I'm not looking to make a killing on the AH, just make some bucks to cover my investment and maybe over time some to cover xpac(s).

[Blackstream]

My plan is to craft what I need to keep progressing, keep a reserve in case I end up needing it, and sell everything else. When I was playing the d3 open beta, I ended up pretty easily hitting about 30ish dps which let me easily trash the area I was in by the end. But I could hit 50-60 by crafting gear with my primary attribute and such as well. I'll probably actually very early on craft to get an initial set of gear so I'm not running around with white armor, and then only make efforts to upgrade when it's clear my stuff is out of date.

But I'll be honest, I'll also be checking the markets obsessively, and if I see that for example essenses are selling for 50 cents a pop and I've got 80 saved up...

Let's just say I'll be ordering a pizza later.

[Enlil]

My plan is to craft what I need to keep progressing, keep a reserve in case I end up needing it, and sell everything else. When I was playing the d3 open beta, I ended up pretty easily hitting about 30ish dps which let me easily trash the area I was in by the end. But I could hit 50-60 by crafting gear with my primary attribute and such as well. I'll probably actually very early on craft to get an initial set of gear so I'm not running around with white armor, and then only make efforts to upgrade when it's clear my stuff is out of date.



But I'll be honest, I'll also be checking the markets obsessively, and if I see that for example essenses are selling for 50 cents a pop and I've got 80 saved up...

Let's just say I'll be ordering a pizza later.

You'll need a **** load of mats and gold to craft your "initial gear set, just think how much real money you invested in re rolling crafting over and over to get what you want, what you could of sold all those mats and gold. Perhaps getting the stats on the item you want, the GAH would be a better and cheaper choice.

I'm sure there will be some noob whos crafted exactly what you want and listed it for way under its real value, take advantage of the casual player who doesn't know what they are doing.

[capnlarge]

I think I'll take the first week to just chill and play the game. Have some fun upgrading my stash, upgrading my blacksmith etc. Let the market figure itself out and by the time it does I will have quite a bit of in-game wealth. Plus, I will have had fun with the game just doing whatever. After the honeymoon period, I will worry about min/maxing.

[DoxieVon]

IMO:
Demand for gold will never be higher than it will in the first two weeks, also supply for gold will never be lower than in the first two weeks. Sell gold early and often. What you do with the $ from it is up to you.

Rush to end game content... the number of people that will spend $9k+ on in game items is limited(wow accounts have been sold for this much on non-sanctioned sites). I willing to bet the first windforce/azurwarth will sell for 5k+. Make no mistake, these people exists, there may only be 10 in the world, but they exists. Try to get one of the first 10 for a big payday... if not... well the number of people that are willing to spend 100$ on an in game item is probably in the hundreds. I'm sure WF/AW will continue to sell for $100+ for at least the first month.

[jwfcp]

I dunno, no one will have anything worth buying for a while. its easy enough to be content with what you get as a casual playing solo throughout normal, probably nightmare too. in the beta you can roll around the weeping hollow and pick up half a dozen junk blues, break em down and roll a new piece of gear, same will be true live, and so normal will be full of do-it-yourself-ers.

of course if theres any gul dagger like items they may be hot, though even a "gul dagger" itself would suck with these mechanics, but maybe something like a crafted set bonus, like 3 pieces of tals? people would go nuts for that, especially since finding one part of the set opens up the whole set to you for crafting. thats a big if though, short of that I dont see the sink from crafting to be that much of a driving force, till later on (guessing 2 weeks till people are in hell?)

[doggyfish]

I completely agree with Pheal (#5), no matter what ppl are saying atm, its all hypothetical.
Without game release, we can not see the market trend, who knows what majority of ppl will do.
Would you pay for some item knowing which will be nearly useless as you progress into the game,
or would you pay for some amount of gold without knowing if in next Act gold drop will be doubled or tripled.
There are uncertainties in buyers and sellers, and anyone wants to make srs money will need to know what they are doing before they do it.

For me personally, I will sit back and observe the market, see how it goes. Certainly will jump in if I can clearly see me making money based on facts not hypothesis.

[ADJMan]

I'm just wondering why you would wait. If you post what you have for more than what you would pay for it, then the worst that could happen is it doesn't sell and you just repost for a lower amount. Since there are no penalties associated with posting an item, then I will be trying everything I can to maximize profits before the market settles. Imagine waiting for the market to settle and you find out that 1000000 gold you had stashed could have made you $1000 and once the market settled it only makes you $10. I'm not a big fan of regrets. Since supply in the early game will be the shortest it will be for the life of the game, the prices on everything will be outrageous. The only way the cost of items will go as the market settles is down.