How to: Find A Supplier

I always hear questions on different blogs or at the Friday night JMTC meetings asking how people find a supplier. When Cata started I was on a mission finding suppliers for herbs and ore. Everything that is farmed, has somebody behind the scenes supplying the Auction House or an actual person with these mats.

First, lets see the benefits of finding a supplier:

1. Cheaper mats than what the AH provides.
2. When the Ah runs low, you know you will hopefully always have someone sending you mats.
3. Better profits, with lower cost in mats.

Now here's a few negatives that comes with getting a supplier.

1. Finding a supplier may take a little time.
2. You have to do a lot of negotiating to make sure both sides are satisfied.
3. You have to always make sure your supplier is happy, and be willing to change prices if the AH prices go crazy.

Next let's see if finding a supplier is right for you:

1. Do you find yourself buying tons of mats from the AH for inflated prices?
2. Do you want a stockpile of mats for future patches?
3. Are you sick of not being able to make a profit on you items, because mats are too expensive in the Auction House?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then a supplier may be what you are looking for!

No the point to this post! How do you find a reliable supplier?

I have 2 main suppliers. One who sells me Savage Leather, and one who sends me herbs.

The herb supplier was the easy one. I watched the AH for a couple days and noticed I was buying a lot of my herbs from a single person for descent prices. I sent an in-game message to the the guy, stating that I was buying his herbs a lot, and was looking to start a partnership to have stacks and stacks of herbs sent to me via COD. He replied and said that sounded like a great idea, because he hated posting stuff in the AH, and paying AH fees. He continues supplying every kind of herb to me usually 3-4 times a week. He messages me in game everyday finding out what herbs I'm running low on, and goes right out to farm them.

Now this may be something that comes around once in a lifetime. So how can you find your own supplier?

1. You can do exactly what I did, and ask the people in your AH who always has multiple stacks up all the time.
2. You can make a macro for Trade Channel, stating that you are buying stacks of whatever mats you want for this price, feel free to always COD to this toon, or message me in-game, always buying!
3. Make the same macro and periodically go to the zone where the mats you want are farmed, stating the same thing you put in the trade macro.

These are the tricks I use to find every supplier I've ever had. Do you have a supplier? What tricks did you use to keep that supplier hanging around?

Let me know your tricks and tips in an email or comment!!

Prncesspwn