Monopolizing on the AH

No, not THAT Monopoly. Microsoft-esque monopoly.

A monopoly is what it's called when one entity has control over an entire market. In the real world, it's illegal. In World of Warcraft, it's just MEAN. But it's also effective, so who cares!

This is the EMBODIMENT of the buy low/sell high mentality. Except in this case, you buy EVERYTHING (everything in your niche, at least), and sell even higher! This does require some startup gold, but if you've got it and you're bored, have at it.

The basic idea here to control the market. If you do, you can keep supply low, by only allowing the item to appear in small quantities, which will keep demand (and prices!) high.

Beginning the Monopoly - Choosing a Market
First, and most importantly, you need to find a niche or particular item you want to deal with. It has to be in high demand! In my opinion, crafting materials are perfect for doing this. I once cornered the market on Medium Leather. You can choose whatever item(s) you like, but heed this warning! It cannot, CANNOT be an item that is in too much supply! I'll explain why in the next section.

Make People Hate You
Now, get onto the Auction House and find all of the postings of your item of choice. Buy them all. Now, if you know your market (or even if you don't), you can now decide on a new price for this particular item. Was going for 4g per? Set that to 8g per. If anyone undercuts your price, buy it and repost it for a higher one.

Hopefully, you see why you can't choose a highly supplied item. If you do, as soon as you log off and stop buying new ones out, people will underbid you. And until you log back in to buy those out, people will be buying those lower price ones. Also, competition will keep the prices on these items lower than we'd like. For this reason, monopolies tend to work better with higher priced, rarer items, like higher-level crafting materials. And remember: as long as you have the market, you can control supply.

Another GREAT method is to pick a particular blue/purple item, preferably one everyone will need at some point, like Ced's Carver, a level 70 blue dagger. 60% of all level 70 Rogues seem to have Ced's Carver. And since it's a world drop and can't be farmed, that means almost all of them have to buy it. That also means the demand will always be high, and quantity fairly low, which means you can consistently own the market. Make a habit of inspecting people and seeing what they're using. If you see the same item all the time, and also see it at the Auction House all the time, it means lots of people want it and will buy it.

Happy monopolizing!

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