Thursday, January 12, 2012

Anonymity vs. Convenience

Follow me on twitter @PhatLewtsGold!

I post my auctions from my level 85 mage, which I use as my current main.  I do weekly heroics as well as Raid Finder and BH on my mage, and I find it convenient to post while I'm waiting for my super long DPS queues.  Recently I've run into some problems with selling gear and items in WoW from this character.

Basically, recently I have become 'known' as a high end gold maker on my server.  Mostly for my selling of Transmog gear as well as level 77 twink gear, and people have been noticing me in trade and otherwise.

Pros
A friend in my guild raids on his main in my servers best raiding guild.  They were doing an alt pug of DS and I got an invite from him.  As soon as I got in the group one of the members asked "Hey why don't you stop selling those 77 greens for so much?"  I responded with "You stop buying 'em for that much, and I'll start selling em for less".  Got a chuckle from a few other raid members and we moved on.  It's nice to be recognized.

Tonight someone posted in trade "Obsidium and Elementium ore now on AH" I looked at the prices and they were at 200g a stack.  I responded in /2 with "lol".  He whispered me and asked me why, I said it was way overpriced and he said "yeah...aren't you the guy that sells all those cata greens, I bought those once, how do they sell?"  And we ended up getting into a discussion about how I make a majority of my gold through JC.  He had 490 JC/525 mining, and was farming, but not prospecting his ore.  We chatted about what cuts he should get and what to do with the extra gems, and I really enjoyed helping him out.  If everyone reacted in this way it'd be great.

Cons
Selling items that are in demand for prices higher than people are used to can get you some grief.  Recently I've been called out multiple times in trade when I was was on, and I'm not one to back down from things like that.  The negative press as well as my lack of PR skills is definitely taking it's toll, and I rarely whisper anyone trying to get into their BH every week without them noticing my name and asking questions, and at an extreme, one person wouldn't invite me to their BH because they didn't like how I ran my business.  Like I said I don't mind helping people out, but when it effects things like that, it's no good.

To Bank Alt or Not to Bank Alt?
In lieu of all this, recently I have considered making a posting toon.  Off the bat it will cut down on my profits because I won't be playing the toon nearly as much, and my expired auctions won't get reposted till maybe 3-4 hours later whereas now they'll be posted as soon as I get out of a dungeon (assuming I'm logged in).  After considering the options my conclusion is this: If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!  I enjoy posting from my main way too much to give it up, and if someone won't let me be in their BH, so be it.

I'm curious, what kind of experiences has everyone else had with this predicament?  Feel free to leave a comment below about your experiences or a link to a related article on your blog!

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

6 comments:

  1. My solution to your issue is two-fold. First I have 10 level 85s I'd say 5 or 6 of which post items on the AH. Security through obscurity. The second is that I never advertise in trade chat. I quietly go about my business posting on the AH.

    I think those two things, posting on many different toons and not advertising are the reason no one really seems to take notice of me.

    (ofc it could also be that I'm just a bad or slow gold-maker to the point no one notices me.)

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  2. I always post from the Toon that have the profession, for the items I am selling.
    I have a bank alt, but never use it, I don't want to "waste" time login in and out. I do understand the advantages of having a bank/poster Toon alt.
    But I reluctant to change my ways.

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  3. Yeah the way I have it set up is that I have all my crafting toons send everything to my main toon via TSM_Mailing. So no matter whether it's profession based items or transmog/twink gear everything I post is posted from my main. I guess it's hard not to get noticed when people buy all their enchants/gems/leg armor etc. from you :-P. I'll try posting from the individual toons to see how it goes, but i tend not to log them as much, which is why I prefer the mage.

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  4. Unless you have your toons in different guilds and bypass the convenience that brings then any slightly harrassed goblin is going to look his protaganists up and put 2 and 2 together, or even easier since every one has their competitors on their friends list they will see your telltale logon/logoff patterns. I learnt who my competitors alts were on day one, learning what it took to break them took longer :P

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    Replies
    1. I like that! My posting alt for transmog that I actually did end up using is in his own guild. He's a level 1 warrior and I spend maybe 15 minutes on him a day. I admit that it wouldn't be impossible for someone to find he was linked to my main, but not intuitive, as I switched to posting on him early in the game when I didn't have any competition.

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  5. I have 3-5 active posting toons, one i use for my AH persona, post most of my stuff with that one. I do find that I have different toons specialize in certain markets they get known as players in those markets and for the most part that works for me.

    Just found your channel today, like what I have checked out so far. Keep it up. :D

    ReplyDelete

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