Fluctuation is something that happens every week and is caused by supply and demand; there is a weekly trend in prices and it usually goes unnoticed by the vast majority of players.
However, there are people that exploit this and make insane amounts of gold, and you are going to be one of those people.
The way it works
On the weekend, everyone is off work and a lot more people farm their little socks off. As a result (more people playing), Supply goes up and demand goes up. But the supply goes up more than the demand and this pushes prices down as people desperately undercut to sell their products first.
This is a good thing, because on a Saturday evening you can buy almost anything for about 70% of the normal price. The time supply goes down is around Wednesday & Thursday because the people who farmed over the weekend and whose items did not sell have come back by now & they decide to sell it cheap to make some quick $. Wednesday & Thursday night is the time to sell because they will sell for the most, on average, at this time of the week.
How are you going to use this? You have probably heard of “buy low, sell high” since it is spread like a disease by people trying to sell gold guides that don’t work. Well, you find a nice market, I will use Greater Cosmic Essence as my example (because for me it’s one of the best items out there when it comes to reselling). Here I will outline how to use fluctuation to your advantage.
On Saturday, go to the auction house. There will be a LOT of Greater Cosmic Essence on the auction house. On my server, they sell on saturday for 9-11g each, with some people listing higher. On Wednesday & Thursday I can easily sell these for 15-16g.
You should check these prices on your realm before attempting this. Make sure you make at least 3g per essence when reselling on the Wednesday & Thursday. My strategy is to buy as many essences as I can from 9-11g early Saturday evening (prices on your server may very, the max price you should buy for should be at least 3g under what you can sell it for on the Wednesday/Thursday) then go back about 2 hours later on the Saturday, and buy a load more from 9-11g since people are flooding the auction house with new listings, and so that I never have to go over the 11g mark to buy as many auctions as I want.
By waiting for new auctions to pop up for the low prices again (undercutting happens like hell in those 2 short hours) I can buy a huge amount without going above my limit. I don’t buy anymore after that because even though there are many more auctions left to buy later on, buying everything is a good way to start inflation. It’s about control. On the Wednesday as soon as I get back from work (5:30ish) I’ll list a good amount of auctions. After around 40 minutes most of them have gone so I put more up, and then again afterwards. Then on Thursday I do the same again.
I sell more on the Thursday, and I do it in chunks so I don’t risk flooding the market, but still sell high amounts of auctions. If you have any left over on the Friday, feel free to try selling them or buy less on saturday and sell the leftovers and new purchases again the next Wednesday/Thursday. If I’m looking at (minus fees and buying price) 4g profit per essence, and sell anywhere from about 300ish on the 2 days in the chunks I talked about that is 1200g in total for maybe 10-15 minutes of work. And that isn’t constant working, either.
















