Keelhaul's Tips On Selling Transmogrification Items

Today's post comes from a comment by Keelhaul on the Power Word: Gold post "Transmogrification, Profit And You". Being very new to the whole "hey I want my characters to actually match" world of Warcrat looks I was grateful Keelhaul took the time to give us all some great tips for those of use looking into making a bit of gold from selling transmog items after Patch 4.3.


Here are some tips from a fellow gold maker that is well versed in this area:

Tip 1:  RP'ers seek to maintain a certain persona.  So don't think about the RP'er, and don't think about the weapons and gear.  Think first about the "persona" they might be trying to generate.  There are a number of options that have been exercised for years, such as the Jedi knight, the pirate, the ninja, heroes from various films (William H. Macy's "The Shoveler" comes to mind).  And there are very specific items that fit these desired personas.  Find examples and more tips after the jump.


- The Jedi:  Teebu's Blazing Longsword, Blade of Wizardry both come to mind.  Epic, very rare BoE's, that have just jumped on some servers from 10k to 250k.

Blade of Wizardry/Teebu's Blazing Longsword

- The Pirate:  Tainted Pierce, First Mate's Hat, blue and green BoEs commonly found on the AH for less than 100g.

Tainted Pierce

First Mate's Hat

- The Ninja:  Hanzo Sword, Archaic Defender, etc.  Blues that used to go for 50g now being sold for thousands for those targeting the true Ninja persona.

Hanzo Sword

Archaic Defender

- Medeival Knight: Dazzling Longsword, Destiny, etc.  Epic BoEs that capture the true spirit of a knight, and don't require any raiding to obtain.

Dazzling Longsword

Destiny

Tip 2:  Know your skins, and know how unique they are.  When you consider these weapons and armor items as skins, it reminds you that Blizzard often uses the same skin on multiple items.  So if you're targeting a weapon that you'd like to resell, make sure there aren't 5-10 other items out there that carry the same skin and are easier to obtain.  Great examples of these are the multitude of hammers and axes out there that use the same model on epics, blues as well as greens.  Even the Sulfuron Hammer, now going for 200k on some servers, misses the point because end-game raiders can go get the updated version from Rag, himself.  So you may have a unique color to the skin you've acquired, but color isn't enough of a differentiator when it comes to RP items to target.  You've got to target the truly unique.  A great example of something truly unique is something like the Singing Crystal Axe.  There isn't a single axe like it in-game.  It's relatively easy to snatch for less than 500g these days, and being one of the few truly unique items in the game, for RP'ers it stands to fetch a very fine price.

Sulfuron Hammer

Singing Crystal Axe

Tip 3:  Sell in pairs.  If you've got Witchfury or a Hanzo Sword, don't sell just one.  Wait until you can sell them in pairs, because RP buyers are going to be more likely to buy when there is two, rather than just one, leaving them to search tirelessly for its mate.  Remember, it's about personas, and something like "the ninja" isn't going to have 2 swords that don't match.  The same goes for two handed items for warriors with Titan's Grip.  Dual Singing Crystal Axes is going to be pretty flashy for the image-conscious, and watch as buyers will be quick to snap up a pair of them, rather than just a single item.

Witchfury

Tip 4:  Go for differentiation.  An easy way to navigate to "what's cool", is to consider what's rare in terms of the "skin" of items.  A good example would be transparencies.  Very rarely do we see items that are see-through or comical.  They are a select few.  Two great examples here are The Shoveler (an actual shovel, as mentioned above), and the Ethereum Phase Blade.  The Phase Blade, in particular, captures the spirit of a translucent item in the same way the Spectral Tiger makes a simple tiger mount stand out.  The Phase Blade fits right into a gold maker's repertoire, because it's an item that can be purchased from a Stormspire Vendor (Dealer Jadyan) in Netherstorm in limited quantities.

Ethereum Phase Blade

The Shoveler

Tip 5:  Advertise, get those puppies up on the AH.  RP'ers have a pretty good idea of what these items are, know their history and locations and how to obtain them.  But the rest of the WoW population does not, case in point with a number of the gold blogs I've been reading that aren't exactly sure where to point their compass for 4.3's opportunities.  So take that into account when purchasing your items for resale.  You're going to have to do some barking and make sure your items can be seen on the AH so people can click on them to view them on their characters.  Most players in online games seek some form of escape from their own lives, and giving them further opportunity to build their online persona through these means is going to stick - otherwise Blizzard wouldn't have done it.  But you have to SHOW the market what they could look like, and you may have to GIVE them the stories and personas they can attain.  Again, RP'ers know, the rest of the population doesn't, but a substantial portion of them will convert given the knowledge and opportunity.

Those are my tips off the top of my head.  Hope this helps clarify that there absolutely IS opportunity with 4.3, but you have to do your homework if you're not accustomed to RP'ing.

-Keelhaul

I want to thank Keelhaul for giving me permission to use his comment for this post. We have a lot to learn from players like Keelhaul who have a working knowledge of what items look great in the game and as time goes on I hope to capture some of that knowledge here on Warcraft Looks.