VENDORS AND FLIPS

The First 36 Hours

any auction house / launch week, any level / Wool and Medium Leather / alone

I sleep through most of launch day. On the second morning I walk into the auction house in Ironforge. The people who levelled all night have emptied their bags to pay for their spells, and pages of Wool Cloth and Medium Leather are listed at the price a vendor pays. I have forty silver that was meant for the tavern. It buys six stacks of Wool, and I carry them to the bank before I can change my mind.

Why it pays

For the first day and a half almost nobody can use them. Nothing in our data takes Wool Cloth below Tailoring 75 or First Aid 80, and the first patterns for Medium Leather want Leatherworking 75. The first players to reach the level 15 to 25 creatures skipped their professions to get there, and they want coin. So they post it at the vendor price, 33c for Wool and 50c for Medium Leather.

A few days later the tailors and leatherworkers reach those skills and buy. On the beta the month's lowest price for both sat at or under the vendor price on all four markets we read, and the last week's median several times above it. Today Wool sells for price unknown and Medium Leather for price unknown.

Buying at the vendor price can't lose money. The buyer pays no cut, and a vendor takes the goods back at the same fixed price.

Linen Cloth and Light Leather go the other way. Everybody loots them from the first hour, and on the beta both fell over the month on almost every market. Sell yours early.

What you need

Money and bank space. A stack of Wool at the vendor price costs 6s 60c, a stack of Medium Leather 10s.

When

Buy from the first evening until about hour 36. The traveller who told it says prices double or triple between hours 48 and 72 and keep rising for a week or two.

How

1. Search for Wool Cloth and Medium Leather whenever you pass an auction house.
2. Buy every listing at or under the vendor price, and nothing above it.
3. Sell your own Linen and Light Leather in the first days.
4. Bank the stacks and go back to levelling.
5. From day three, post a stack or two at a time. Most of it sells in the second week.
6. Whatever is left in week three goes to a vendor for what you paid.

What can go wrong

Plenty of people have seen the video behind this page, and on a busy server the cheap listings may be gone within the hour. Medium Leather can't climb far, because a leatherworker at skill 100 makes one from four Light Leather. Every listing costs a deposit. I posted all six stacks on the third day, sold two, and paid the deposit on the other four twice.

BASTIAN'S VERDICT The safest trade in this book, because a vendor stands behind every copper of it. It's slow, and it needs you awake on the second morning.