Disclaimer: this is an opinion piece….

With patch 3.1, World of Warcraft took another breath. Features, items, a new dungeon, changes - what’s now commonplace in the MMO patch paradigm - these game upgrades are but a small tick mark in the huge timeline that is the World of Warcraft phenomenon.

WoW changed MMO’s forever when it was released. It took (and yes I’m using the past tense for a reason) the hardcore-esque-gamer-fused-with-casual-social-networking formula in Everquest (which is by my account *the* most addictive game of all time), blended it with the ridiculously high-quality Blizzard interface, cartoony/fun graphics, and casual polish to mask more hardcore elements, and simplified it across the board to give it more mass appeal. Less classes, less about stats and upkeep, quests for most monsters, lead-ins to new areas, smaller groups, less balancing required (though they always overachieve on this), faster travel, etc.

So where are we with WoW’s overall timeline continuum? I believe we have passed the halfway mark. Maybe only just passed, but passed. Regardless of press releases that might point to the contrary, there is a marked difference in gamer perception. And I’m guessing player attrition rates will likely happen from this point on at a somewhat faster rate then the slower-to-fall bell curve they probably would rather see. Things are noticeably different in and surrounding WoW now with with what I’ve observed as a regular gaming news hound.

Players seem to have more apathy toward the game than they used to. It’s not as divided, not as strongly felt, and not gaining momentum any more. You’ll always have the hardcore vocal minority, but from random forum and news snippet comments over the past several months, I’ve noticed apathy set in. Perhaps it was there before if you were measuring (and I’m sure they are/were). But it’s recognizable to the naked eye, now, sort of like a dim star at twilight.

From my perspective as an auctioneer, the market has shifted to the commodities or intangibles such as pets as the main source of potential mass income. There is way less interest on the horde side of a once popular, older server. It only takes one page now to list nearly all the epic and rare weapons. That’s a huge shift from before. Contrast this with the alliance side of a more popular newer server and you still have a little more action there, but slowing as well.

Can you still make good coin by dealing in epics and rare armor/weapons and/or recipes? Yes. Certainly - and the advice on this website should still help anyone remotely interested in starting up an AH business to supplement their main characters. But this business at the top - with high level epics - is slowing down - at least until they introduce a patch or expansion with another significant increase in items.

From patch 3.1 being released, I’ve made about 25,000 gold in profit from my main AH alliance character, the same podcast character - still level 14, about 75,000 gold on hand now, and no acquaintances or friends on the server. No, it’s not the million gold that some others have claimed to have, but I spend literally 3 minutes or less in WoW a day quickly scanning the epic market. On my horde side AH character, it’s been rougher. I’ve only made about 20,000 gold but it’s been more work and my net profit per item is lower - and they should have sold for way more. Just not much demand there at the high end.

So - playing the auction house for profit? You still have a long time left in World of Warcraft, and there will be other games that introduce their own versions. At the time of this writing Knights of the Old Republic is gaining in hype and momentum (still a ways off from release) and if it’s any good, you could see WoW’s next successor, until perhaps World of Starcraft or Diablo, or even WoW 2.

Happy auctioneering!

Tags: auction house, lich king, world of warcraft

This will be a dual part article. First the bad news. As some of you have noticed in the rare weapons/armor and epic market, business has slowed way down. For each of my AH alts, the epics that I would actually invest in are few and far between. Many a login later and I’m still in roughly the same spot, albeit one of my characters had a rash of good fortune. Just a rash though.

The reason is three-fold. 1: the more unusual non-crafted epic armor and weapons aren’t typically being farmed enough. 2: The non-crafted stuff that is farmed is now way too prevalent with too much competition undercutting. And 3: there aren’t enough unique BoE epic items in Lich King leading to seeing the same stuff, even if it is world-dropped, all too commonly. The standard deviation is also way off the map. That’s basically how accurate any average price is you might see on Allakhazam. The higher the standard deviation, the more fluctuated the prices are.

For example, Je’Tze’s Bell (offhand I think that’s what it’s called), considered by some to be one of the best current trinkets in the game and tradeable, has a median at a whopping 9k on Allakhazam, with the average slightly higher. However, on one server I’ve seen that thing at 6000-7000g on the horde side for a couple weeks without selling (I think it just did for 6k), and on the Alliance server for my podcast character, I’m seeing it way above average - but again not selling. To me, that basically means I wouldn’t take a chance on it unless it was about 5k, then I’d make likely at least 1k of profit.

Epic item prices are falling across the board. That is a warning to those considering buying and reselling them at this moment in time. Now post 3.1 there might be some new BoE items in the new dungeon and that will help tremendously especially in the first bit after the patch. If you see one of them for what you think is a decent price, by all means snatch it up - as when things are beginning is the absolute best time to make the biggest profits - since many are less astute than yourself and willingly pay the “rarity” premium.

There is some good news post Patch 3.1 - which launches soon. Though I’m not certain whether they are BoE or not, many new epic recipes are being introduced - meaning keep a sharp lookout for new Leatherworking, Blacksmithing, and Tailoring recipes. Sorry Alchemy and Enchanting, you got snubbed. The second bit of good news is that with new items and a new dungeon, some of the older items will likely stabilize in price a bit, since less of them out there mean more demand. Finally, keep an eye out for any new BoE armor and weapons, whether rare or epic.

For you trade item AH’ers there are likely deals to be had as well, and please do comment to let others know what to look out for. Good luck!

Tags: auction house tips, patch 3.1

Just earlier today I was responding to a reader who was having trouble hitting a new money plateau. This evening, I finally reached one of my own - the 50k gold barrier after a few tough weeks within the realm of 40k.

Continuing the spirit of the tutorial podcast series, this was on my level 14 druid who knows no one on the server and is my only character there, which makes a pretty strong statement for transferring over to my current main server and somehow getting 50k over to the horde side (- with the AH cut, that would be nearly an 8k loss just on fees. Ouch!!). That or other unlikely options: giving it away, deleting it, or simply continue playing him. I suppose there are some good roleplay options available.

Anyway, it reminds me of an important point. No matter how much gold you have liquid, chances are you have a comfort level. For me, it was a pretty linear progression from sort of random rare deals, to low priced recipes, to rare armor and weapons, then to more expensive recipes mixed in with rare armor and weapons. The problem was that once I reached the 1 or 2k barrier, my comfort level was the rare armor and weapons categories, and not so much the epics.

Here’s the point. From the beginning, I practiced and taught that to make money faster you needed to reinvest a % of newfound wealth into new, higher priced markets. Well for me, even at the 1-2k gold plateau there still existed a market out of my comfort level I hadn’t yet tapped into much. The highest priced epic armor and weapons. If I hadn’t plunged into this new market, I imagine I’d still now be at around 6-10k.

I’d recommend to anyone who questions whether there’s a market where they are do a quick scan of “all” of the AH items and then sort by price. Check out the market just beyond yours and see if you can learn a little about it. Check allakhazam for a few of the items to see if they appear as good deals. Heck, I saw a grey “useless” bind on use item that was simply there for flavor averaging 300 gold. Overall, WoW has a pretty tight economy. There really isn’t a huge range of item prices out there. In EQ way back when (we’re talking 1999-2000), I was making 20k platinum multi-item deals at the trade channel bazaar, simply because the game supported tradeable items that were much, much better than things any normal mortal had time or patience to acquire. This game isn’t like that. For better or worse.

Tags: auction house tips, wow auction house

If you’ve spent any time selling in the auction house, you’ve undoubtedly encountered spans of time where your items just don’t seem to sell, even if priced below typical “market value.” The reasons can be numerous, so let’s look at your options in order of what you should try to make your sale.

• Price too high: First, double check that the price really is at or below market value. Find it at wow.allakhazam.com for a good measure of whether it’s at or below the median price. Even if your server is a little different, this is a good baseline to follow for the current market. And if your item is above or even at, try going anywhere from 5-10% lower and relist.
• Competition undercutting: For some reason, even though you picked it up when there were no others and knew you had a winner, there suddenly appears one or more of the same item listed below your price. Well now you have no chance until they sell first. So, your options here are to either a) buy them out if their price is significantly lower and you think you can resell theirs as well as yours, b) undercut them by 2-5% and get rid of yours - only good if you will still make a profit and believe the market is slowing for your item, or c) delist your item or let it run out and wait for there to be less competition. If you delist, then theirs might seem more unique and therefore attractive, and that competition could be out of the game sooner. If you let your auction run out, the same might be said that others see a lower priced bargain and grab it quick. Both have worked for me in the past.

  What you don’t want is an undercutting war, or if it becomes one, have enough money to then snatch theirs up and then relist one at a time for your original markup.

• Horde Side = Less Demand: This is currently happening to my main auctioneer on the horde side, for my main priest. I have very desirable items listed and they simply are not selling anywhere near their market value and haven’t sold for many cycles. I actually still have three (3) Spaulders of Egotism and none are selling even 500-1000 below the median listed on allakhazam. Reasons could be numerous, but mostly it boils down to demand. For example, server population is less and high competition for items isn’t occurring as it does in the alliance. People find one of the only guilds that are doing raids, and then simply use them for the typically slightly better items rather than bother themselves with the auction house. So what do I do? I simply keep reposting until one sells. I had to buy three because I was being undercut so heavily that I figured I could at the very least make a little profit on each of them when I sell one at a time.

  Occasionally I have been undercut to a minor degree and now am returning the favor, for lower than I really want to sell but while still making a profit, and that’s ok. Since I have three, I simply want to sell them off now and move on, but only at a profit. Not much else I can do except really accept that I will not make as much profit on them as I had hoped and just keep the money moving.

• No apparent reason: So let’s say you’re on alliance and your item is below market, there is no competition and it’s still not selling. What to do? My advice is to hang in there. One example. I had, like one of my readers, bought some Benefactor’s Gauntlets for 1500g thinking I’d resell for about 2400 (then the current median) and make a quick 800g or so with the AH cut. Well no sooner than I bought them that the next time I checked, there was another listed a couple hundred below mine. Pretty soon there was another, and even my undercut seemed to be getting too close to what I paid for them. Days passed literally with mine occasionally being the lowest priced and well below current median, but none were selling. Then suddenly I saw a pair for 900g-1200g, extremely low. That’s when I just took them back into inventory and decided to wait it out. Here’s what I’d do in this case. Every time I logged on to check on other things I’d simply post a “Selling (benefactor’s gauntlets). Negotiable” in the trade channel in case someone wanted to deal in person, even though there were some in the AH. None took the bait this time but they have before. Finally, there came a time when my listing would be the only one, so I listed them for about 1499g and guess what, they sold. I lost about 150g in total on the item, but compared to what I have made on just about every other item, I was happy to get rid of them.

To close, I’d say simply to weather the storm and do what you can to limit loss. It always ends on a clear day… whether that’s one listing or several away.

Tags: auction house tips, wow

This article is going to teach those of you with 1000g or more how to buy an epic weapon or piece of armor in World of Warcraft with minimal risk. This method can be applied to any expansion, but will work best with the latest, whatever that is at the time you read this.

Since Wrath of the Lich King came out, I’ve gone from dealing in level 70-80 blue armor and weapons to level 80 epics. It wasn’t long after when they started appearing with more frequency and now they’re pretty common to see. The only catch, as with most of the new rare and better items in WotLK, is that most of them are player crafted.

It’s actually a good thing because it makes spotting those that aren’t even easier since you’ll usually see duplicates of the ones that are, and typically with the same prefix like “Titansteel something ring” or “Titansteel shanker”. Stay away from crafted epics. It’s crowded and there’s a rush to get skills up since the expansion was released in order to start farming for the creation of the best items.

Though it’s possible to find a non-crafted epic for 1k or less (e.g., Putrescent Bands), most of them sell anywhere from 1.5k on up.

Step 1: Identify the Epic
Begin by clicking the armor category (more of them usually to choose from) and click search. This is much easier than it used to be. Now by default it’s categorized by rarity and level which brings all the level 80 epic armor up to the top, in handy alpha order.

Scroll down and look at all of them, including the obvious crafted items. Pay particular attention to those that are alone without any competition. Any single item that you haven’t yet heard of, hover over briefly and check it out.

There could be up to a few pages of lvl 80’s to scroll through, but shouldn’t be more than that, not with just armor. Make a mental note as you’re browsing of all potential ones that are by themselves and with a price that’s somewhat less than the others.

Example: Gloves of Token Respect, non-crafted Bind on Equip (BoE) gloves. Currently Allakhazam has it for 2500 median price. You see it for 1.5k min, 2k max. Should you buy it? If you’re on Alliance, no, but keep it in mind as a potential. If on Horde, probably not but keep it in mind in case you don’t find anything else. Keep scanning.

You come across Armguard of the Tower Watcher for min 2k, buyout of 2.5k. Allakhazam has it for 4k median. It’s the only one there. Should you buy it? Yes, definitely, unless you’ve seen that at the auction house frequently, and sometimes with others.

Now if the buyout was 3k instead of 2.5k, bringing it close to the median, would I buy it? That’s a good question. My first step would be to read the comments on WowHead about the item. If in general they are positive, or really positive, then I’d probably take a chance, but only if you haven’t seen the item too frequently, or with multiple duplicates. There are items such as the Putrescent Bands that just seem to always be there. This cannot be one of them.

How will you know your first time whether you should buy it? Check wow.allakhazam.com for the median on the item. I’ve discussed this in other articles, several of them, especially the one about the median vs. average price. Always go with the median.

The take home here should be to first scan epic armor, then epic weapons using the same method. Identify potentials, make mental notes, and then check their prices against the median at allakhazam. There shouldn’t be too many. Some occasionally will be too obvious, such as if you’ve never heard of the item after awhile and suddenly see it there. After your done scanning, pick the best deal or deals out of all of them, depending on what you can afford. Many times there will not be a deal, remember that, and you’ll just need to come back a little later and check again. It always changes.

I was in the unfortunate circumstance to find two of the same great items for 2.5k less than their median because the people were competing, and as soon as I went to buy them out, someone else beat me to it. I refreshed a minute later and sure enough, that person was reselling it to make a profit.

Step 2: Sell It!
When you’ve picked out an epic or two, what should you resell it for? My suggestion is to stay below the median if you want to sell it fast. I usually adhere to this rule unless I know the item is indeed rare, haven’t seen it before and know there will be a high demand. How much below it depends on a few factors.

(A) Have you seen the item before, or with duplicates? This might mean that it’s easier to come by and you should probably provide a reasonable offer, but give yourself a nice profit. For example, if the median was 3200g, I might go under 3k, probably at 2899. I might have bought that same item for 2k, and still make about 700g net profit.

(B) Does the item have amazing comments at WowHead or any other site? Comments like “this is the best item until you get to…” are good. If so, you might place it more near the median.

(C) Competition. If you’re dealing with competition, either from the start or suddenly as sometimes happens, don’t worry. If they undercut you to such a degree that it went under your initial buying price, then you have options. Either buy them out because you know that you originally had a good deal, then post just one at a time back up. Or wait for theirs to sell and then relist yours after for the same amount you would have prior to the competition.

If the competition has a buyout price of 2100, don’t just go to 2099, hoping that someone will take yours. Instead, go to 1999 to make it noticeably more enticing. Likewise if they have a min from 2000-2400g, and you can afford to go 1999g, then do it, even if it earns you less money. I’ve said from the beginning, it’s good to have your money working for you earning a little, rather than to keep waiting and potentially earn more. Take your winnings and move on.

Good luck, and if there are any questions, let me know in the comments. Now give it a shot - it’s not as risky as it might seem if you follow the guidelines!

Tags: auction house tips, lich king

I’ve seen it time and time again. I make huge profits and I stake them out whenever they appear on the auction house because I know I’ll get a deal. The higher value the item, the better.

Non-buyout bids are the heritage of real life auctioneering such as eBay or live auction houses. Start very low price to get increased competition and interest, then let humanity, jealousy, and greed take over. Instant profit, right?

Well, mainly because of this history of success and synonymous identification with auctioneering, non-buyouts are of course necessary to include in any virtual auction house scheme. Moreover, they’re fun for the auctioneer who dreams of competition and those virtuous human traits listed above which is nearly reason enough to include.

In a virtual world, more specifically World of Warcraft’s virtual auction house, however, they just don’t work. At least now they don’t. In the beginning, when there was more demand and less farming as well as general knowledge about the game and questable equivalent items, it was better for the non-buyout. They were more commonly seen (almost annoyingly so), money was more difficult to come by for the average person, and rare items were just that… rare. All this meant more demand for a particular item. Not so any more and there are a number of reasons this is the case.

First and foremost, the game is easy even without great items. You don’t really *need* upgrades because the itemization is working better than it once did. Remember when you just never seemed to get a quest that gave you anything that you could use, or specific slot rewards were non-existent? Now it seems you almost always get a variety of items you can use for any sequence of quests. They of course aren’t as good as the ones you buy unless they’re an end-of-quest chain or dungeon drop, but they’ll do. The point is, this takes a small toll on demand, which is half of what it’s all about.

Secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, people a) are usually not logged on when others outbid them or are not near an auction house, b) people have to make it back to a mailbox, then to the auction house to rebid, and c) the fact that you can’t see who is bidding against you like you can in eBay is also a negative. While I understand anonymity, having the bidders name could promote friendly competition and make it more real.

So what’s the solution? Can this type of bid still survive in current virtual markets? Is it necessary for it to survive?

In my opinion, the answer is yes to both. To preserve the integrity of open bidding and to allow this type to thrive, all I believe it needs is a proxy bidding system, in which you can set a max bid you’re willing to pay and it automatically bids for you if it you get outbid. Optionally, allow for those to see who is bidding against them. People like me who buy low and sell high would probably faster gain a negative reputation for doing this type of thing as our names would be known to more and become infamous. Heck, it wasn’t long ago when advertising more than one rare at a time would initiate people calling you a farmer.

Pros of the proxy bid system:

• bid whenever you want without the need to check back
• encourages a higher initial max bid - just how badly do you want this thing
• things likely to go for closer or slightly higher than average

Cons of the proxy bid system:

• people less likely to get into a direct bidding war, thus hugely inflated end prices will be even less likely to be seen (however they rarely are these days anyway, as explained above)

What do you think of the proxy bid system?

Tags: auction house tips

On Celwyn, a level 14 druid and 50 total hours on the character played, he now has 22k in the bank, up from 2k since I bought Lich King about a month and a half ago. With my other character at 7k and 2 epics listed for another 6 or so, I’m sitting at 29k disposable over both. She had 1k to begin with when Lich King came out but that character is horde side. This is without using an add-on like Auctioneer, nor buying out a specific commodity and thus increasing the market value, but by simply finding good deals and reselling them for profit.

I’ve pretty much left every other market except epics. They’re easy and quick to check, and the profit averages about 1.5k each time I sell one, often 2k+. This is usually while still staying under what Allakhazam considers the median value.

If you are the one who sold it to me, I apologize for bluntly stating it here, but since that’s the purpose of the site, today I successfully made use of a tactic I’ll call “the mail deal”. On auction was an item that could get buffed in a future patch, the Tears of Bitter Anguish, something that medians for 6500g on Allakhazam. A very solid ring for dps classes, but as of yet not for casters. He had it up at 7.5k-10k a few days ago, then decided to do a real start-from-the-bottom auction at only 500g. When that didn’t pan out - that usually doesn’t in this game - he canceled and relisted for about 6k. It was then that I mailed him this:

“Hello *name*, I’ll give you 3300g [ed: was going to make it 3k but that seemed a bit low] for the Tears of Bitter Anguish if you CoD it to me. I’ll pay as soon as it comes. Thanks, *my name*.”

I figured I could resell for about 6-7k if he wants to sell it quickly, and then make at least 2k profit. I saw it off the market yesterday and this morning in my inbox was a mail from him, a CoD for the item for 3850g. I almost didn’t take it but I’m going to make at least 2k profit, it’s worth it. His response was that 10% over my offer still should be a good deal for me. Another business man! So I took it with thanks, then proceeded back to the auction house to list my new item, for 6499. It hasn’t sold yet afaik, but the great thing is that I know it’s worth at least 1k more than I paid, and all it took was a simple mail. I’ve used this trick fairly often, and I suggest if there’s something you want, to use it occasionally too!

Now the question is… I have a level 71 priest on the horde side of my main server. Should I transfer to where all this gold is and make use of it? Maybe buy a nice mount? I can’t really afford the time to raid, so ironically, I have a feeling that this lvl 14 druid, my only character on the server, is going to be very rich without a respectable charity to donate to. If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, please note the word respectable. =)

Tags: auction house tips, lich king

Thanks for coming in 2008, listening to the podcasts, and for all of the great comments and support. Not sure what topic yet, but it is in the plans to start a new series of podcasts for the current market. It was exciting to start from scratch, so perhaps I’ll start anew with different parameters.

Best of luck to everyone for the new year, and many happy returns!

As I do every day at some point, while searching on Digg I came across an interesting article by the Zappos CEO (popular online shoe dealer) that actually relates to making money in the auction house, as well as real life. His many points are spot on so please enjoy the article!

A couple weeks ago I saw the Nobles Deck on sale for 4000g. I didn’t buy it and did not look further into it. I don’t know why, but a week later I decided to try the new decks again and saw that the average value is in the 20k range. Imagine, a cool 18000g profit. Well, that didn’t happen.

What did happen was that I was up to 16k with my main AHer with still some non-epics I’m trying to pawn off that don’t seem to be selling (such as a couple Chaos deck cards and tailoring recipes). Then my last epic for sale had a competitor so I bought it out at 2200g, reposted it for 3200g along with my other for 4000g, and am playing the waiting game. Nothing has popped up in a while as far as epics go, so I’m going to have to branch into something else if I want to keep the money flowing. Maybe give the 100-500g profit of recipes and rare armor another go.

But really, I have only a now level 14 NE Druid on the server with no other characters with soon to be about 20k in gold. I’m really looking into something else to do, and I believe that this Lich King AH series updates are coming to a close. Next posts will likely return to tutorials about certain aspects of the auction house. Is there anything in particular you want to see? Want to see me try my hand at commodities? That’s scary to be frank, but I’m open. Perhaps I’ll look for and corner certain market and report my success or lack thereof. I certainly have enough gold to raise prices in some areas of the server, but I’m afraid that I’d have to micromanage my AHer, and that’s something that I just don’t have time to do.