The Whiptail Effect?

Whiptail Tsunami Incoming!

As reported by Nerf Faids tonight the Whiptail respawn rate in Uldum seems borked. Luckily for herbalists it is borked in a very good way. Even with 10 or so herbalists all working over the Whiptail along the rivers in Uldum the respawns are near instant.

I totally expect this to get hotfixed soon. If there is one thing I've learned playing WoW it is this: If it's too good to be true work the hell out of it because a hotfix is always incoming (see skinning bats, killing sheep, etc).

My main interest in this (besides the visions of extra cheap Darkmoon Cards dancing in my Scribe's head) is what effect this flood of herbs will have (if any) to the economy.



Ths image included with this post shows the current posting history for Whiptail on my server as shown by The Undermine Journal (I'm so glad you guys are back!). As you can clearly see they AH is having a flood of Whiptail going into it at the moment. As you can see by the price history above it the price is holding steady for the moment. I'll be anxious to see how this graph looks tomorrow.

What do you think this infusion of easy Whiptail will do to the markets? Cheap mats all around? Price drops? Price increases? Or will all the herbalists and crafters attempt to maintain current post patch pricing? Only time will tell. *Grabs popcorn and refreshes UMJ*

TL:DR ZOMGWHIPTAILBBQ! But at what cost?

PS. I also invented a new game to go along with Whiptailapalooza. I call it "Super Croc Dodger 5000". Anyone gathering right now can guess the rules. Who knew gathering could be a PVP sport. :D

UPDATE 1: It seems the amount of Whiptail continues to remain very high but the price, although dipping a bit, is pretty much remaining steady.

Whiptail Day 2, Evening

I got a bit more into UMJ's tools and started looking at the numbers a but more.

For about the week leading up to the patch the average stacks of whiptail on the AH dipped to about 7 or so and peaked at about 68. In the same period the price dipped to about 140g and peaked at about 240g.

Since the patch proper the low for 20 stacks is about 86 and the high is 158 or so. In that time the price has fallen from 195g to 147g per stack.

That give an average of 37.5 stacks and 190g per stack pre-patch and 122 stacks and 171g per stack. Doing the maths that is a 325% increase in supply of Whiptail with just a 10% decrease in value. Interesting stuff. I wonder what is buoying up the price?

UPDATE 2:

Whiptail Day 3, Morning

2001/02/10 12:00 PM - It seems there was a dip in amount which it would seem is due to auctions expiring as the amount spiked back us as people reposted. The second lard drop however may mean someone is buying them up.

Also the price dipped but has begun to raise again.

There has been talk on some gold blogs about a hotfix but as of this afternoon I am getting just as many nodes as I was yesterday.