How can I find someone who will never reject me?

Ginger is a smart, very sweet, and devoted girl with heart-melting eyes. 

She is an Australian Cattle Dog mix, spayed, about 4 years of age, reportedly housetrained. 

We rescued this sweetheart from another shelter.  Ginger cannot understand why she became homeless (due to her previous family's financial collapse).

Flipping is Bad Mmmkay

Flipping in wow is the act of buying something "cheap" and relisting/selling that exact same item at a higher price earning "profit". This is different from Converting which is where you buy something, convert it into something else which has a higher value and then sell it at a higher price.

The trigger for today's post is Abeni's Reseller strategy. Nicely presented, detailed instructions and some smart thinking regarding only snatching Researched glyphs. In a nut shell its a bait and flip (something similar to Vile's AH Baiting strat).

Now Critical is not so blind as to think only his strats are right and all other methods are wrong, but there is one thing that he sees alot of players waste time on. Yup you guessed it, flipping (did the speech marks in the first sentence give it away or was it the title??).

I can understand why though. There is a certain euphoric (happy) feeling when you sell that an epic for 10k that you bought for 2k, or that 15g glyph for 200g. This feeling is very hard to forget or ignore that's why a lot of gold blogs focus on, "guess what, i flipped this and you can too!" and "this is going to be the next big thing in the patch, stock up now!". Most readers are lazy and dumb, and instead of spending time working on their buy/make/sell they keep looking for that next secret to give them that next "high" (not Critical Readers though because your IQ increases by 10 points when you subscribe).

Well to be honest, I can't blame Writers for catering to their Readers. If you want a juicy eye fillet and I serve you chicken of course you're not going to be happy. But unfortunately this late in the game everything that can be flipped has already been blogged about. Maybe that's one reason blog content is down (who knows? Critical has only been on the blog scene for 2 months).

Interestingly, Critical sees similar behavior in addictions. Gambling is a very prime example. When you're at the Roulette table and you "invest" $5 and get $200 back in 2 minutes "work", who doesn't love that sort of GPH?

Critical advises: think about your core business. If flipping is your core business Critical says keep on flippin. If its not, its a distraction and your time is better spent working on activities that help you to achieve your goal. You have set your goal(s) right? No?? You miss a turn and go back three spaces. Actually more like 56, all the back to the beginning!

PS: want to be a Master Glypher? After starting at the beginning, keep clicking that Newer Post button at the bottom left corner. It will save your life. If not, at the very least you'll help get Critical's view count up and prime this blog to be sold too for $50k just like JTMC!

PPS: Cool snappy title Abeni and very nice writing. Can Critical recommend you too, to also blog? =)

Week 8 Blog Stats

Wow 8 weeks already?? Except for 4 days when Critical called it quits, it has been non-stop daily posts for Critical Readers! Feed the Critical Troll! The more you read the more he posts! Where else can you get fun fun gold posts to go with your morning coffee!

Right, on with business. See below for the usual stats for Week 8 ending 29 October 2011. Keep in mind these stat reports are always for a period of 7 days only, no cheating cumulative figures on Criticals. Massive improvement from Week 7!!

1. Meet Critical's new best friend, Jafo @The Auction House Grind!

2. Critical unsurprisingly has some critics lol:

PS: for those too lazy to start at the beginning and spend 30 seconds skim reading then clicking the "Newer Post" button, until you finish all Critical posts and confirm for yourself that glyph walls do work ... TLDR: glyph walls do work. But only if you call them Critical walls. 

3. Dammit Mox I caught your bug. No page view stats:

4. Yay 50 Readers and 10k total page views!

Lastly: if you've been a loyal Critical Fan for a while now you know what you gotta do .... That's right, its that time of the week for unknown Readers to pop their Critical cherry and post a Hi! Go on, Critical doesn't bite. Throw a dog a bone ... just say hi and a smiley, thats all!

Your loving home will be my fun jungle!

Betty delights in investigating everything!

Her curiousity seems to know no bounds, so she will keep you on your toes in terms of keeping your home kitten-proof for her safety.

Betty is a beautiful Siamese mix kitten, spayed girl, about 3 months of age, debuting for adoption today at Nevada SPCA.

How-To TUJ Stalk Competitor Alts (Updated)

Dammit, Mox has cottoned on to my secret that tutorials brings in readers. Gonna have to start churning out more How-Tos quicker =(.

This is an oldie but a goodie. Firstly big ups to Erorus for building such a pro site and service thats FREE. Cant ask for more. Go http://theunderminejournal.com/ !!

Ok so Critical has a competitor called Discretetime. He has an alt called Silverpack. How does Critical know?

1. Add all your competition to your friend lists and you'll start to see this sort of funny business:

2. Compare the Heat Maps:

I know you're going to ask "Ok so now we know, what next?". Good question grasshopper. We are going to facebook TUJ stalk all his alts using only 1 click. See below for a simple 2 step instruction pic.

Step 1 - use a comma then add your competitor's alt's names (you can do this with more than 2 alts if he has an army).

Step 2 - bookmark it.

Step 3 - repeat for all your serious competitors, should be no more than 2 or 3. If you have more, you got some serious home improvement to do.

Critical the Crazy Cyberstalker? I am afraid so, but you gotta do what you gotta do to become Glyph Market Leader.

/sigh now the hard question is, how do we get rid of Discrete the camper. Sapu maybe you can somehow make TSM not work if your name is Discretetime or Silverpack, that would work wouldnt it?

----------------------
Update for special characters in names:

Step 1 - search Glyph of Random Glyph.

Step 2 - scroll down to the bottom and click on your competitor's name with the special characters.

Step 3 - copy it out of the address bar.

Step 4 - laugh at your victim.

How-To DOS Wall

Ok enough poking wild animals with long sticks. Time for another How-To lesson. And no internet nerds we are not going to DOS attack by spamming your competitor's mailbox with mass trash.

On Critical's, DOS stands for Denial Of Sale, not denial of service. Keep reading for a short and simple example.

Remember Unleashed Lightning, the only new glyph released in 4.2? Critical's 2 competitors must have been chomping at the bit waiting for this patch and the fortune of gold this glyph was going to make them.

So Critical logs in on day 1 after patch 4.2 and sees this:

Naturally Critical grabs 300 BF inks, makes 100 of this new glyph (you do have more than 100 shamans on your server right?) and maintains the following walls for a few weeks until this glyph becomes just like any other ordinary glyph. Because he eats, drink, breathes glyphs he knows one glyph costed (at that time) 15g hence 18g+ is a nice profitable starter price.

Not "nice" but Critical just pushed the other guys 1 step closer to their boiling point.

Straight to the point with no bum fluff? Who doesn't love Critical posts. Admit it, you do dontcha Faithful Reader!

Kathroman's Glyphs??

If you're looking for ground pounding news, controversial case studies and massively speculative speculations, you'll find it here, at Criticals! Now! Not next year at Moxxys =). Bookmark this daily updated, highly opinionated blog today!

Ok so here we have Belmorn fed up with the lame attitude: walls are bad + purple = iwin/ulose. Well he didnt actually say that but who likes reading women's magazines with no juicy bits. Critical hates those sort of mags.

I am however going to have to give props to Kath for finally unbiting his tongue and actually writing a decent post:

He covers the basics very nicely:
- walls are an advance technique, dont go about walling your dog, cat, grandma, grandpa, postman etc willy nilly
- research your competition and research some more
- be sneaky and patient, sneak into the other guy's mansion and convince him to give it up without him knowing you are hiding behind his couch
- and lastly Critical is the best (ok ok Critical made that last one up himself)


That wasnt so hard was it Kat. Hmmmmm, actually, has you been reading Critical's blog?

Somehow I feel like I'm stealing from Kat and Bel I mean really, how much effort does it take to take a few screenshots and drop in a few links here and there and then hit Publish. Not much really. But, is it stealing if I'm linking and crediting them with their works??

Oh wells, it makes for good reading anyway. Give em a +1 rep if you think they rocked your day. If only you could rep Critical ... oh wait you can! Subscribe!!! Be a Critical Reader today!

PS: See Halo's live case study in progress, we're at Update 4.

I am beginning to experience joy for life!

Look who is starting to see pleasure in life! 

We are so proud of how far Juan has come, thanks to loving attention from staff and volunteers. 

You may remember this boy being rescued some months ago with a broken heart and numerous, mysterious cuts all over his body. 

Physically and emotionally, Juan is healing beautifully.  He is an attractive Chihuahua, neutered boy, 18 months of age, pining for a hero to adopt him from Nevada SPCA.

Portraits courtesy of Pet'ographique.

Can I continue my great progress in your loving home?

Kanga is a playful young girl with enormous beauty and loving potential.

We have been watching her build self-esteem and become more outgoing and engaging with people.  This progress needs to continue in a new, forever home.

Kanga is a Tortoiseshell, spayed, 3 years of age, fine with respectful cats, but terrified of dogs.  She is independent, while also being sweet and enjoying calm attention from people.

This beautiful portrait of Kanga is courtesy of Pet'ographique to help her get adopted.

Please love me and keep me forever.

This fun-loving boy with very striking coloring was playfully named Banana Nut, but as time has gone by we have found him to be a very well-mannered, intelligent, and noble bunny. 

Banana Nut is a handsome Harlequin rabbit, neutered, about 5-6 years of age, ready for adoption in Nevada SPCA's Lovebugs Room. 

This good-looking portrait is courtesy of Pet'ographique to help him get adopted into a loving home.

Fallback Glypher

This is a very interesting strategy. Admittedly Critical never used it but one of my last competitors did and I admire Shamanta for his thinking. Basically you create a single 1-glyph wall of all glyphs at a high fallback price maybe 250g, something like this:

This strategy "works" because you only need to sell 4 glyphs to earn an easy 1k. And out of 344 total glyphs its quite easy for popular glyphs to sell out of stock including a few of your ones for 250g.

It is also effective because it is quite hard to counter. To counter someone else who is using this strategy you need to load up multiple walls and completely make sure that they dont get a single sale. Even just 2 sales for 500g is fantastic profit margin if the glyphs cost 15g to make.

It took Critical 2 weeks of blocking and completely denying him any sales, to convince my Fallback Glypher to "take a break" from glyphs. If glyph competition is hot on your server, give this strat a try:
- single 1-glyph wall
- 48hrs
- all glyphs
- at maybe 300g or 250g

The great thing is you dont benefit from posting more often that once in 48hrs (because the sales will be super slow). I mean really, you gotta be a sadist to enjoy cancelling and reposting every few minutes.

Obviously the drawback is you're not gonna be making 10k daily sales but its a smart strategy if a serious goblin starts walling at low prices. It would be excellent for Faid at Stage 4 of said exit strategy. Stage 4 being when glyph stocks have reduced to 2.

Love technical glyph strats? Don't hesitate, bookmark Critical's blog today!

Deepika Padukone sexy in torn denim shorts at party

Deepika Padukone looking sexy in torn denim shorts and black sleeveless t-shirt at a party. (HQ Photos)







Deepika Padukone was attending Atul Kasbekar's party with her boyfriend Siddharth Mallya.

Halofield's Glyphs - Updated (4)

It's always interesting to read walls being used on more and more servers. Critical loves studying these sort of posts as real life case studies. Also, there's usually a tiny bit of Critical in the poster and sometimes also in his opponent, why wouldnt Critical want to revel in the chaos and mayhem he has helped create. Maybe one day these case studies will have to stop because they pop up too often. For now just sit back and enjoy the show.

Halofield of Wunderland (is that a real place?) has started walls. Lets look at facts according to OP:
- he has walled glyphs down to a price point where he is making about 10g per glyph
- his main opponent super camps and undercuts by 1cp even below the above wall price point

Again to speed things up Critical is going to say up front ... you're doing it wrong. Not nice but saves time. Why wrong? Because you are using walls to try to drive out competition. They are not meant to drive out competition. The advantage with walls is they allow you to get sales against a hard core camper whilst investing a lot less time compared to the camper. If you dont want him to undercut you all the time you basically want the other guy to give up his share of the pie and give up glyphs. Ceilings and floors are the correct method of attack to achieve this.

This is what Critical advises based on the limited info. Firstly take down the walls, clear your AH and mind. Now use ceilings and floors to find out your opponent's true floor (scroll down to the bottom where it says true floor in bold).

Now you have 2 options:
- Try to get him to hit his boiling point by doing ceilings and floors with the floor being 1g above his true threshold. If he hasnt given up by 3 weeks he's in it for the long haul.
- Post up triple 48hr walls and let him camp underneath your walls. If he's not thorough you will get sales.
Your choice depends whether you want to drive him out and increase market share (option 1), or maintain some sort of market share depending on how generous the other guy is (option 2).

With walls, if you dont get sales then find/figure out why. He either understands your strat and knows you wont be back for 48hrs so he himself walls 1cp below your lowest wall. Or he really professionally camps and every 5 minutes relists sold glyphs and undercuts undercutted glyphs. Hmmmm now that is a discussion for another day methinks.

I think Lemmonade's comment is the most interesting part of the thread. He mentions walls are generally frowned upon but he himself doesnt even know why. Critical advises think for yourself. Walls may be the greatest thing ever. Or they may be the dumbest. Experiment for yourself then you'll know for sure, dont just trust "experts" when they say what a dumb idea, that'll never work and dont elaborate why.

Critical is an expert glypher, do you believe every word I say? This guy doesnt. /sigh I love reading that post every time I need a reality check. It's like a slap in the face, YOU ARE NOT AS HOT AS YOU THINK.

Ouch = (.
 ---------------------------------
Latest update by the OP:

Does Critical dare claim success for the fun-ness described? Oh yes he dares! Calm ya knickers, it might be Critical's walls that saved the day. It might not be. Who cares. The OP is having fun, his way! I'm surprised we dont have the PC brigade coming in and complaining boohoo you just put 3 poor sellers out of business that need to make gold to feed their families. Where's the love? Where's the care peoples? Why no complaints?

PS: at least you know its not Kath's idea, he hates walls because they are not "good". Hmmm maybe I should change Critical's name to Bitchy Goblin. Nah BG walls dont sound as nice. CRITICAL WALLS ARE GOOD! BUY MOAR TODAY! Now thats a catchy sales pitch.

------------------------------------
Update 2:

Ok class, lets get back to our case study. OP's glyphs are being bought out by the competitor. Some "pros" will advise if the bought out price is profitable, why not keep selling to the competitor. Pro Critical says your floor is too low. Keep adjusting it upwards 1g at a time until he stops buying. You want your floor to be just slightly above his buyout price or also slightly above his true threshold, which ever is lower. This is the sweet spot for your floor that is the most painful to the other guy.

Isn't this a fun case study? Admit it, you likey.

--------------------------------------------
Update 3:

Critical is a bit free today and he loves talking to himself. Halo asks:

Hmmm how do you fight a hardcore 5 minute camper? You 4 minute camp of course. Critical is too lazy to 4 minute camp hence he would go with triple walls. The perfect starting counter to hardcore campers.

PS: now I understand why bloggers dont post on forums. Because on our own blogs we are the purple even if we dont know what we are talking about! Dare argue with us? Comment deleted! /evil laugh resonates the room. Yes Critical is bored today.

--------------------------------------------
Update 4:

If your competitor is buying out your glyphs he's stocking up. If he's stocking up hes not quitting the glyph business. Your goal should be to get him to quit the glyph business.

You must balance between making sure your floor is:
- just low enough to make it painful for the competition to post under
- just high enough that he doesnt buy you out to "reset" that glyph up to for example 300g

If he bought you out you have played into his "game" which was to post low and hope you post lower than him then quickly snatch yours cheap (Yay found the link, I knew I had read this somewhere recently: Vile's AH Baiting).

So yea, Critical says: "lift your price, dont feed the competition".

Sasquatch - big loverboy who loves to cuddle.

Sasquatch promises you a lifetime of cuddling and devotion in exchange for a loving, forever home.

He is a large, hearty Russian Blue mix with mesmerizing eyes, a neutered boy, 3 years young, debuting for adoption today.

Please ask for Sasquatch by name when you visit Nevada SPCA.

Help me blossom and reach my full loving potential.

Lulu is a tiny, soulful little lady who wants to believe in people. 

In a gentle, loving home, she will blossom.  But life so far has been a struggle, without proper socialization, and she has no self-esteem. 

Lulu is a Chihuahua, spayed, 4 years of age.  She enjoys other sweet dogs.

How-To ... Blog??

Critical is an expert on everything. Including blogging. Haha not really but for the purpose of paying it forward (thanks Foof), Critical is going to share his secret blogging technique only because you are a loyal Critical Fan (shhhh secret squirrel!).

Each Critical post is made up of 5 segments (in order from top to bottom).
1) Title
2) Introduction
3) Picture
4) Main Body
5) Conclusion

Step 1 - Settle on a topic.

Step 2 - Start with the Introduction, talk about what the post is about, or why you are writing this post or even just say hi.

Step 3 - Write up the Main Body which is the meat of the post.

Step 4 - Finish with the Conclusion maybe thanking or appreciating readers, wishing them well, asking them to come back or maybe a pondering.

Step 5 - Create or source a Picture relevant to either the topic or at the very least the Introduction.

Step 6 - Pick a Title. If possible try to capture the essence of the post in 5 or less words but don't worry too much about creating the perfect Title. Have a bit of fun with this one.

Step 7 - Insert jump break between Introduction and Main Body. Aim for your Intro to convince Readers to click through and read the rest of the post.

Step 8 - Click Preview, proof read out loud and fix grammar/spelling mistakes. 99% is good enough for most people, but think of this step is the last critical 1% that could convert your average oil painting into the next Mona Lisa. Take pride in your work, that's all Critical asks.

Step 9 - Publish or schedule a publish date/time.

Step 10 - Relax and watch your Feedburner counter go up (slooooowly).

Wham bam thank you maam, you now know how to blog! PS: Watcha think of the pic? Awesome for a Paint jobby??

Week 7 Blog Stats

Stats for Week 7 ending 22 October 2011. Numbers have dropped compared to week 6 =(.

On a separate note I figured out how to load a feedburner counter:

43 sexy readers. If you havnt yet please click the counter and Subscribe! Hmmm still a long way to go to get to Greedy's 4,151 readers. Damn you big brother!

-------------------------
Update: just had a look again today on Mox's advice, one of the figures has changed strangely (no idea why):

Grabbed another screenie as well while I was in Analytics which shows returning vs new. Donno if this is a good thing or bad:

Pageviews for posterity:

M & M, a baby Great Dane debuting for adoption.

M & M is a baby Great Dane, sweet as candy, very lovable, debuting for adoption today at Nevada SPCA . He is about 6 months of age, neutered, and growing to very large size.

His previous owner purchased him from a pet store but quickly became overwhelmed with his energy level and surrendered him to Nevada SPCA two days later.

M & M needs an experienced, knowledgeable home and kind guidance to learn to adjust to a home environment.

Cornelius and Tremble, playful Boxer mix puppies debuting for adoption.

Cornelius

Tremble

Cornelius and Tremble are exuberant, inquisitive baby boys debuting for adoption today at Nevada SPCA. 

Their mother is a rescued Boxer (since spayed and adopted) and their father is unknown.  The boys are neutered, about 5 months of age, and they can be adopted separately (though please consider adopting them together for lifelong companionship).

Please carefully puppy-proof your home and yard for their safety and protection.

Rabbel's Glyphs

Critical does google searches every half hour to make sure he knows when he's being talked about. Today (well actually yesterday) Rabbel does walls a la Critical.

I am sure Rabbel will get some great advice from Stede/Kath and other purps. Today's post discusses why (or why not) walls would be appropriate in Rabbel's situation.

Lets start with the known facts (according to OP):
- he's manually doing 3x30g, 3x60g, 3x90g and has issues getting walls to form (i believe this is the easy fix)
- his competition will post as low as 3g per glyph
- there are 7 killing him in the glyph market

The two most often given advice by "pros" when competition crashes the glyph market down to the ground is:
- step out, focus on better GPH markets and come back when its happy cakes and butterflies or;
- list all glyphs at a lowish price ie fine I cant sell for good price then you cant sell for good price (the pooping in the playpen so we both cant play with the toys technique).

The second one is usually done with malicious intent and is intended to teach competition a "lesson". Critical always advocates setting a goal. If something doesnt help you achieve that goal its a distraction and you are confusing personal desires with business goals. If you distill Advice 2 for what it is, its basically a low price single wall (maybe somewhere between 14 to 18g) so that competition can still sell, but below this ceiling.

Critical's 3 Solid Wall strat is an emotionless version, with a bit more bite. Maybe think of it as something like long line fishing:

So with 3 walls what you doing is setting 3 lines, ignore the competition and come back in 48hrs and see what fishies you caught. Now the trick is using the right bait. Use the wrong bait and you wont catch any fish. With glyphs, prices are your bait. Use "wrong" prices and you wont get any sales.

Anywho, as I've explained before, the two main strats which Critical has shared are like surgical scalpels. Very effective at doing what they are designed to do but you cant wave em around like a magic wand.

@Rabbel, Critical advises stop with the walls for a second and work on understanding who and what your competition is first. If there are 7 glyphers that can post lower than you, you have a lot more homework to do. Dont just stop with that post, read the next one that goes into more depth. Why stop there? Read all of Critical's posts, they only take 30 seconds to skim through. Only then can you become Battle Pet oops Glyph Master of the World!

Shahid Afridi with wife and daughters

Pakistan cricket team's ex-captain Shahid Afridi seen with his wife daughters and other family members.











Shahid Afridi is making a comeback to cricket once again. He had earlier retired from cricket due to differences with the Pak Cricket Board.