The Art of the Bark

So, you've found a rare item? You have used The Undermine Journal to find the true value of the item, checking with your realm's page and the global page.

Now, how do you sell it for the best profit? The way that I do it is posting it on the Auction House and barking at the same time. If you can sell it in Trade Chat, you avoid the 5% cut from the Auction House. And those 5% cuts add up quickly.

I've covered this topic slightly with my posts on Mysterious Fortune Cards and Panthers, but I felt it required it's own full blown blog post. Barking is an art and if done right you can sell things for a better profit than on the Auction House. Having trouble moving a certain investment or rare item? Barking can help.

So, what is barking? Basically it is a macro that you set up to sell a certain item. Every ten-fifteen minutes you click it, and hopefully someone picks it up.

To include in the macro:

• A link to the item
• A rough price
• Advertisement!

This is Tauna's own personal formula for a great macro to sell an item.

ITEM LINK

Now, I'm not going to take credit for this post, but I found an excellent post over on Owned Core located here

Following the instructions, you can put a link to any item into a macro. The reason to include this is that it allows people to see the item if it is a transmog item, and also see what exactly the item is. Another reason is that people love seeing purple. Epic has 'status' no matter how common they are nowadays. When people see purple, they get interested.

ROUGH PRICE

Including a rough price gives people a rough estimate of what you would like it to sell for. It prevents people from sending you silly estimates, and also conveys that you mean business.

Always leave room to move though, as people love to haggle. If you are solid about a price, post it above that price and bring it down.

Take for example the Battered Hilt that I am trying to sell at the moment. I want around 8,000g for it, but if I post it in Trade Chat at 10k then I have room to go down and haggle it lower. If they choose to pay 10k, then you gain extra profit from what you originally wanted anyway.

ADVERTISEMENT

This is where my background in advertisement comes in handy. I pride myself with my sales pitches to people, and it really helps. I've had people in trade chat saying 'the hate my advertisements, but at the same time can't stop reading them.'

As an example, my battered hilt advertisment goes something like:

/2   [Battered Hilt] is now for sale! Amazing transmog item for anyone, with an epic quest chain to go with it. Want to see some amazing lore?  Get this piece at a limited time discount of only 9k

Some tips are:

• Say what the item is used for. Transmog, raiding, PvP, fun items. This pulls the buyer in. If they see that it's a transmog item, then they look at the cosmetics of an item. Raiding items mean they look at the stats, etc.
• Some kind of hook is always good. With the Battered Hilt quest, it is renowned for it's lore and the looks of the weapons. Never underestimate a good hook.
• Discounts and sales make it seem like it's cheap, even if it's just 100g less than the AH price.
• 255 letters isn't much, especially with an item link. Try and make the best use of it!

SUMMARY


Hopefully this has helped people out. I know that advertising properly, you can sell ice to Eskimos. Remember to give yourself room to move on the price, so you can go down if you need to.


Good luck with your advertising!