Usually I do not do much patch preparation, as I find that just sticking to markets that work is more than enough for me, but some things should be done to ensure you maximize your profits throughout the turbulent patch time.
Major changes
With 8.3 not coming until early 2020 we have time to brace for impact.
Let’s look at the major changes that will have an impact on the markets.
- New catch up gear mechanics
- New crafted gear
- New raid BoEs
- New cosmetics
- New content
Avoiding losses is more important than potential price gains
In my opinion it is generally much more important to get out of markets that may crash than to try to predict which markets will explode. Predicting price increases correctly is hard, as stuff like who is stocking, how much will players actually buy and all the other factors are hard to predict.
Predicting that something will have low value is much easier, as new content can make old stuff obsolete. Higher item level gear for a similar crafting cost for instance will obviously make the previous tier almost worthless.
Markets that will tank
There are two main markets that you want to exit gracefully in time for 8.3. Notorious combatant crafting gear will most likely go the way of the dodo. I haven’t seen any BoE gear yet, but we have datamined new BoP gear and I assume they will stick to the same amount of recipes as the pattern has been thus far in BfA.
The other market you want to exit is Battle of Dazar’alor BoEs. I would stop buying BoEs sometime before December and then start cutting prices around mid-December. For the crafted gear I would craft fewer items. The cost is much less, so you can even take the loss and keep crafting all the way if you want to.
Potential price increases
The main one here will be the materials needed for the new BoP crafted gear. The epic gems in 8.2 were selling extremely well for this reason, but since there won’t be any new materials this time I expect it will be less pronounced. Overall I don’t think there will be any major price increases, but there will be a new raid so demand for consumables should pick up. Having a stock pile ready to go can be worth it, but not to catch any major price increases, more just to sell them steadily.
Farming new items
Farming new stuff in every patch is usually a great gold making strategy. As the items are new everyone wants them. The fel spreader toy from Legion launch made some people millionaires in a day and there very well could be similar opportunities in 8.3 so keep an eye open for any cosmetic item that you can farm and sell.
What do you think? Let me know!
My opinion but switch to the mount and pet market quick.
Consumables may sound like a good idea on paper but with LILO, so many players are going to be undercutting and burying consumables into oblivion.
No mats are safe. No consumables are safe. No crafted items are safe.
The whole damn AH is going to crash and it’s going to crash hard.
Make as much gold as possible. Switch to mount and pet market. Take advantage. and make a ton of gold out of bad design choices. Heck, if it’s bad enough some token grinders are likely to be happy with a ton of gold which can help buy cheap tokens when that crashes also.