Halofield's Glyphs - Updated (4)

It's always interesting to read walls being used on more and more servers. Critical loves studying these sort of posts as real life case studies. Also, there's usually a tiny bit of Critical in the poster and sometimes also in his opponent, why wouldnt Critical want to revel in the chaos and mayhem he has helped create. Maybe one day these case studies will have to stop because they pop up too often. For now just sit back and enjoy the show.

Halofield of Wunderland (is that a real place?) has started walls. Lets look at facts according to OP:
- he has walled glyphs down to a price point where he is making about 10g per glyph
- his main opponent super camps and undercuts by 1cp even below the above wall price point

Again to speed things up Critical is going to say up front ... you're doing it wrong. Not nice but saves time. Why wrong? Because you are using walls to try to drive out competition. They are not meant to drive out competition. The advantage with walls is they allow you to get sales against a hard core camper whilst investing a lot less time compared to the camper. If you dont want him to undercut you all the time you basically want the other guy to give up his share of the pie and give up glyphs. Ceilings and floors are the correct method of attack to achieve this.

This is what Critical advises based on the limited info. Firstly take down the walls, clear your AH and mind. Now use ceilings and floors to find out your opponent's true floor (scroll down to the bottom where it says true floor in bold).

Now you have 2 options:
- Try to get him to hit his boiling point by doing ceilings and floors with the floor being 1g above his true threshold. If he hasnt given up by 3 weeks he's in it for the long haul.
- Post up triple 48hr walls and let him camp underneath your walls. If he's not thorough you will get sales.
Your choice depends whether you want to drive him out and increase market share (option 1), or maintain some sort of market share depending on how generous the other guy is (option 2).

With walls, if you dont get sales then find/figure out why. He either understands your strat and knows you wont be back for 48hrs so he himself walls 1cp below your lowest wall. Or he really professionally camps and every 5 minutes relists sold glyphs and undercuts undercutted glyphs. Hmmmm now that is a discussion for another day methinks.

I think Lemmonade's comment is the most interesting part of the thread. He mentions walls are generally frowned upon but he himself doesnt even know why. Critical advises think for yourself. Walls may be the greatest thing ever. Or they may be the dumbest. Experiment for yourself then you'll know for sure, dont just trust "experts" when they say what a dumb idea, that'll never work and dont elaborate why.

Critical is an expert glypher, do you believe every word I say? This guy doesnt. /sigh I love reading that post every time I need a reality check. It's like a slap in the face, YOU ARE NOT AS HOT AS YOU THINK.

Ouch = (.
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Latest update by the OP:

Does Critical dare claim success for the fun-ness described? Oh yes he dares! Calm ya knickers, it might be Critical's walls that saved the day. It might not be. Who cares. The OP is having fun, his way! I'm surprised we dont have the PC brigade coming in and complaining boohoo you just put 3 poor sellers out of business that need to make gold to feed their families. Where's the love? Where's the care peoples? Why no complaints?

PS: at least you know its not Kath's idea, he hates walls because they are not "good". Hmmm maybe I should change Critical's name to Bitchy Goblin. Nah BG walls dont sound as nice. CRITICAL WALLS ARE GOOD! BUY MOAR TODAY! Now thats a catchy sales pitch.

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Update 2:

Ok class, lets get back to our case study. OP's glyphs are being bought out by the competitor. Some "pros" will advise if the bought out price is profitable, why not keep selling to the competitor. Pro Critical says your floor is too low. Keep adjusting it upwards 1g at a time until he stops buying. You want your floor to be just slightly above his buyout price or also slightly above his true threshold, which ever is lower. This is the sweet spot for your floor that is the most painful to the other guy.

Isn't this a fun case study? Admit it, you likey.

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Update 3:

Critical is a bit free today and he loves talking to himself. Halo asks:

Hmmm how do you fight a hardcore 5 minute camper? You 4 minute camp of course. Critical is too lazy to 4 minute camp hence he would go with triple walls. The perfect starting counter to hardcore campers.

PS: now I understand why bloggers dont post on forums. Because on our own blogs we are the purple even if we dont know what we are talking about! Dare argue with us? Comment deleted! /evil laugh resonates the room. Yes Critical is bored today.

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Update 4:

If your competitor is buying out your glyphs he's stocking up. If he's stocking up hes not quitting the glyph business. Your goal should be to get him to quit the glyph business.

You must balance between making sure your floor is:
- just low enough to make it painful for the competition to post under
- just high enough that he doesnt buy you out to "reset" that glyph up to for example 300g

If he bought you out you have played into his "game" which was to post low and hope you post lower than him then quickly snatch yours cheap (Yay found the link, I knew I had read this somewhere recently: Vile's AH Baiting).

So yea, Critical says: "lift your price, dont feed the competition".