There are a lot of people talking about using different types of market manipulation in Diablo 3 and I want to be among the first to warn you and to think about this before you think you can corner a Diablo 3 market. One strategy that is floating around is to buy out all the Pages of Training and then sell them back for more than you paid for them. The idea is that if you can control the market for Pages of Training then you will be able to slow down artisan progression and demand top dollar when selling them back.

Real Scarcity

There will actually be a lot of scarcity in the PoT and Tome of Training (ToT) markets. Not a lot of players are going to want to sell these items since 5 ToTs are required to train every level of an Artisan. I think everyone should consider being a seller and taking the rare opportunity to sell these for big bucks the first few days live but I do not think anyone should dare try to ‘buy them all out’ and ‘post them at a higher price’ like a mad man.

Massively Online

Starcraft II sold over 3 million copies in its first month and World of Warcraft has over 10 million subscribers. How many people do you think are going to be playing Diablo 3? Even if it’s only a million, that’s a lot of pages and tomes! As more and more players load up and level their artisans, more and more players are going to sell their PoT and less and less players are going to need to buy them. The value of PoT and ToT is going to go down, down, down and down. I don’t recommend anyone buys the PoTs unless they intend to be one of the first players to reach Exalted with one of their artisans and then intends to craft equipment for this same auction house.

Trying to control this market should l be done with great caution. This isn’t World of Warcraft where there are only a few thousand active players on your realm. There will be millions of potential buyers and sellers on the auction house and this could lead to such massive volume of PoTs in the first days of the game that any economic manipulation you attempt will be like stirring a lake.

Important: Many of the strategies and tips I share here were originally inspired by the people at the Diablo 3 Gold Secrets Forum. If you're serious about making the big bucks in Diablo 3, or just being the best players, you need to signup ASAP.