I know there are some here that buy stuff from the Alliance side and then transfer it to the Horde side. I assume you do this, not because you saw that Purple BoE in Ironforge and thought that would be perfect on your Troll Hunter, but because of price differentials and a profit motive.
Gavin, has a post on exchange rates in Japan, I've spent the last hour talking to myself about purchase power parity. Go there to talk about Japanesy things.
My question to you all is, do you see big price differences between Horde and Alliance? How do you track prices? What price difference does there have to be for you to bother moving stuff between sides? Is there only transportation costs, as I suggest in my comments at Gavin's blog, or is there something else to consider before moving items between factions?
2 comments:
A few things that I consider:
The price differential has to be strong enough, in my mind, to overcome market flux. I'm not sure what the proper economic term is for this -- I mean to say that attempting to import goods at the peak of a market spike usually doesn't work out for me.
I track prices in my head. Were I serious about this, I would use a spreadsheet and maybe some mods to track prices. I do it in my head for the challenge, even though I know it's less efficient. Doing it all in my head makes it a game; tracking statistics makes it a job.
The only real costs that I can think of are the time spent and (very slight) risk of having goods intercepted in a neutral auction house. Since I don't usually like bothering people to squat in an auction house for me, this limits my transfer rate.
Most goods seem to be cheaper on the Alliance side; I think this is the natural result of their much larger player base. A few things do, on occasion, spike well above Horde rates - I think a larger player base can sometimes equate to a much higher demand.
Some items are consistently much more expensive for the Alliance for some reason: Assassination Blades, for example, usually go for at least 30g above Horde prices. Some items, like most trade goods, are consistently much cheaper - probably the result of a larger population supplying them.
For me to consider going to the trouble of transferring goods, there usually have to be windfall profits involved: something picked up well below value on the local side that can be exported with a big markup.
i don't see price differences much.
i can't track any price other than a handful of stuff i'm actively selling or buying.
if i was really after selling my horde goods i'd try to sell it in an alliance auction house. the alliance auction house seems much more active than horde's ah. maybe i'm selling my stuff too cheap but it sure seems to move a lot more than it did on horde side.
transportation cost is next to nothing. 1c bid and 1c bo and you get all your deposite back. i suppose there's cost in losing a transfer.. but i haven't had that happened to me yet.
as long as someone is willing to help with the transfer i'd say do it. it's nearly free and painless.
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