AH Campers

Hey my lovely readers,

I had quite a bit of comments on my post yesterday, Undercutting and How To Deal, and one stuck out to me. One of the anonymous commentators explained how he is having someone basically completely stalk the AH. Basically an AH camper.

For everyone not familiar with an AH camper, this is someone who is basically camping the AH and constantly canceling and re-posting auctions all day everyday.

This is super hard to deal with, and with someone constantly canceling and re-posting, it's extremely annoying.

Alto did a post a while back about a possible bot glyph poster. You can read in that post that he thought he was dealing with a bot posting glyphs, since every block in the Undermine Journal was blocked out, basically meaning he was posting every hour of everyday.

It seams to me that you may be dealing with the same thing. Although it's kinda weird that a bot would choose gems and scrolls to be in, it is possible. Are you sure that this is an actual player? Have you seen him anywhere else besides the AH? If not, you could be dealing with a bot. I would recommend putting a ticket to a GM, add a link to his Undermine Journal page, that shows that he is posting nearly every hour, everyday, and see what happens. Explain that you think he may be botting, and explain why you have come to this conclusion.

At most, he may get suspended or banned and be out of your way. It could also scare him to know someone is watching his everyday comings and going, and he may chill out.

You also mentioned how every time you post something, he buys it out sometimes. That is honestly a good thing, as you are still getting sells.

As I am writing this, Anonymous posted a follow-up comment, and explained his actions while posting, and what the other player was doing at the same time. You can read his comments here.

After reading your comments, I'm pretty much convinced you are dealing with a bot. Even though you are getting really good sells, I completely understand your frustration. As I said above, I would try reporting him, and see what happens. Even add in the ticket the same comment you gave me, if you can, and explain his "bot-ish" behavior.

Also, is he the only one buying your gems and scrolls, in order to buy you out? Do you get other buyers besides him? If you don't get any or very few from other players, make sure you know that by banning this possible bot, your profits may go down. I will note however, that if I was in your particular situation, I would report him to a GM, and get rid of him asap!

Hopefully this helps you out, if you have anymore questions, please send me an email, or leave another comment!

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Undercutting and How To Deal

I got an email from a reader asking about dealing with undercutting. Here is the reader email:

Hello,
I was wondering what do you do with people that undercut drastically (such as from 40g to 1g or something like that) and puts a ton of it up?  Right now I am just leaving it alone and won't go below a certain price that I have set.  Is this the right move?
Thanks,
Juslar

First, thank you Juslar for the email! Second, Don't panic!! Now, without knowing specific markets that this undercutting is occurring, it's hard to give some specific tactics that may help.

For example, when dealing with glyphs, it is a common tactic to use deep undercutting in order to "scare" off competitors.

That is one market that can be extremely volatile. From my experience in the AH, that has been the most difficult market to get into and stay in, with deep undercutting.

But all other markets there are usually things you can do to get a handle on the situation. You can send a message to the people undercutting, and find out their background. Find out why they are deciding to undercut by so much. You can explain that undercutting will bring the price down, and could drastically lower profits, on everything else dealing with that one item.

Another thing you could do, is play their game for a while and watch what happens. Let the person know that you can play their game as well. Try deeply undercutting their markets, and see how they react. Do they quit posting for a while? Do they completely disappear? Watch their posting schedule via the Undermine Journal, or by adding them to friends list.

In my opinion, I would play their game for a bit, just to see how they react. It may work in your advantage and they may leave you with the market. If the undercutting continues or gets worse, then you may want to continue leaving the market alone for a while, and try again at a later time. Playing their game, may mean you lose out on some gold, so make sure you are aware of this. If they can play the game better, you may need to cut your losses and move on, but you will never know what will happen till you try.

Make sure you have back-ups plans in place in case you get pushed out of the market. continue leveling toons, and getting the most professions you can, and using every profession to your advantage. Make sure you are always using your professions to the maximum potential, so when you get pushed out of a market, you have other markets to jump into.

Hopefully this will help you out Juslar. If you have any other questions or need more assistance, send me an email!

Have any of you every dealt with deep undercutting? If so, how have you dealt with it? Let me know in an email or drop a comment below!