TSM doesn’t play well with random stat items all the time. In this video I’ll go through why this happens, and what we can do about it. This is inspired by a comment on my youtube video, so thanks for the question Rubiksguy.
I’m sure you all wanted med to dive straight into the solution, but for this case you HAVE to understand why this happens, or you will be completely lost the next time you are in a similar situation.
What is a bonus ID?
WoW items are generally referred to by their itemID by addons and blizzards source code. This is the number in the wowhead page, and what we can use in TSM to refer to the value of a specific item. For items with different variants, the variant (item level, stats) is determined by a bonus ID. The bonus ID system is generally a hot mess and not well documented. TSM uses these bonus IDs when determining whether an item is the same as another item for undercutting purposes.
Interestingly it does seem like the same item level 262 haste mastery item can have different bonus IDs or at least different entries in the TSM database. Using missives is one way (as I see missives show up in the crafting cost of some items). Progenitor enhancements might be another source of this.
This is a problem
This is a big problem, particularly if you are utilizing missives to craft the best stat combinations as I advised in my recent video. What will happen when you run a post scan is that TSM won’t find the other haste mastery plate gloves and assume you are the only one, then it will post at your normal price. This might be too low or too high depending on the market. So how can we solve this?
What can you do?
I haven’t found any way of forcing TSM to recognize the other stat variants. You have two major approaches, both with upsides and downsides. You can choose to add the items by ilvl to TSM, rather than each specific stat combination. WIth this you will always undercut the cheapest item at that ilvl, which sort of defeats the entire point of crafting specific stat variants. If margins are high enough this will work fine, but if the market is competitive this might kill your profit.
To do that you would go to your posting character, get to the specific group and start removing all the items. Then you can add them back from your bags after clicking this box. Since every item of the same item level is now treated the same you may want to increase your post quantity, but it may post two of the same stats, so it’s not perfect.
Tinker with your normal price
I prefer to rather tinker with the normal price. If you can set your normal price to the right level anywhere from 3000 to 15000 gold more than the general price for that item, then you have a great chance of getting sales. The AH is very likely to run out of items of the most desireable stat combination, unless everyone is using missives. Players are willing to pay a premium for optimal gear, so you will have to figure out what level your realm can support. Play around with the normal price, and you can even consider having different operations for different professions or slots.
To do this you would simply jump over to your operation and change the price. I would suggest looking at the AH to get an idea of where the current price is relative to your crafting cost, that way you can calculate a starting point. Make sure you go to tooltip settings and set it to show your auctioning prices in the tooltip, so you can see the normal price update in real time, rather than running to the AH to test every change!
You have to experiment yourself
I can’t tell you how much other players are willing to pay for the optimal stats on your realm. You will have to experiment yourself. I suggest starting out higher than you may expect players to be willing to buy at and then gradually decreasing it until you hit the sweet spot. It’s much better to go from the top down as you then get the feedback of increased sales to tell you where the right spot is. It’s also very easy to underestimate how much players are willing to pay.
So that’s it. Hopefully you learned something. If you want to learn the basics of this market then I suggest checking out my posts on Crafter’s mark gear to get the basic setup up and running and try out some missive crafting! It’s very profitable and quite enjoyable.