Monopolization

On a day full of boredom, I decided to see if the same business strategies used the world today would be as efficient in World of Warcraft. So I tried to monopolize an entire market that was high in demand on my server, Haomarush.

Monopolization is an strategy what was formerly used by a dominant or wealthier competitor to wipe out the entire market. They would completely buy out the entire market, thus allowing them to reset the prices and, consequently, forcing buyers to accept there prices, which could be 200% higher, or in some cases I have come across, 850% higher. This technique was made illegal in the US to entitle the smaller competitors to have a fair chance, and so the power was evenly distributed. Although banned, this law is often infringed.

The only consequence I predicted was hatred.

To begin, I decided to see if I could completely monopolize the demand for Wool Cloth. I bought out the entire stock of Wool Cloth from the Auction House, in World Of Warcraft, for, on average, 45 silver per stack.

I then auctioned my entire stock of Wool Cloth which was 12 (From the AH) + another 9 (From instance runs), totalling 21. The market was completely bare, so I was free to set my own prices, and I increased the price by nearly 230%, to 100 silver (1 Gold). I hoped that my high prices would not suffocate the demand, but the current demand looked promising.

The next day, I checked my auctions, to find that all my Auctioned items had sold. That was 21 Gold! A whole 11 Gold and 55 Silver profit. As predicted, I did recieve a message saying, 'You're a rich $%^. Stop it.'

I have decided I will carry on this experimentation of real business strategies in World of Warcraft. Keep tuning in! Same website! Same web page!

The concept of Monopolization is indeed a powerful one.