Should I always have a buyout price?

Whether in the trade channel or auction house, you should always have a number in mind, and it should be negotiable. In the auction house, you should generally include a buyout unless you are just testing the waters. On nearly all of my items, I use the same minimum and buyout price so that it appears as if I know what I’m doing, even if I don’t (which is infrequent). If I have a recipe selling for 23g 45s on World of Warcraft’s auction house, and that is the minimum and buyout, it is, though experience, more likely to sell because a) it’s the lowest one there, b) desirable (I don’t waste my time in things that aren’t), c) it catches one’s eye with the 45s on the end as opposed to the neat numbers of many of the auctions, d) the 45s on the end is under 50 so technically is getting me more bang for my buck despite psychologically being the same as 23, and importantly, e) is a solid, confident price that, in my case, seems in-line with what you should expect to pay on such an item since I don’t gouge.

A pat on my back and side note. A few days ago, I made the biggest profit I’ve yet made on an item. Now for some few this may seem laughable, especially to those 70’s who raid often or who are part of big guilds with infinite resources, but to me, who isn’t even 70 yet, and does absolutely no farming or questing for money, it’s huge. Really huge. It was 780 gold of pure profit, after the auction house take. 830 before auction house take.

Here’s what I did to make it, exactly. When I first enter the auction house, I usually start by searching for epics only. On the first page, I saw a pattern that I recognized that was cheaper than avg. In fact, approximately 500-600 less than average. It was Boots of the Long Road, and was put up for 550g. I immediately pressed the buyout button, ok, and was on my way to the mailbox. Now here’s the dilemma. My favorite character in World of Warcraft is the priest. I love playing them, holy with the appropriate amount of disc ;), and in fact have multiple, fairly high level priests, highest being 66 at the moment. I knew that, even though I don’t specialize in tailoring at the moment, that these boots are some of the best fairly easy to acquire boots in the game for a lvl 70 priest. I was sorely tempted to keep them and take up tailoring later, and keep my lvl 375 alchemy, which would have been strange, but these boots plus other tailoring healing gear may have been worth it.

So here’s what I did. My general rule of thumb, since I do like to play the actual game as well as the auction house (though my time on either is very limited), is this. Anything that I can get a great deal for that I can actually use, I generally keep. Because it’s costing me very little to increase my character. I would never pay even “average” price for a recipe… always look for the deals since I find them often, and anything extra I’ll sell to the auction house. Yes, I’m a cheapskate, or more precisely thorough researcher when it comes to big ticket items for myself… however, I do spend a lot (too much I know but heck why else am I saving up all this money) on incremental green/blue upgrades.

Since I found the Boots of the Long Road at such a “cheap” price, and halfway wanted to keep them, I actually put them up for slightly more than average at the auction house, letting the market decide whether I keep or sell them. I put them up for 1399g, about 200g above average. Within one auction very long period, they sold. I felt the immediate elation and simultaneous regret at losing an item that I know is fairly rare to find, and very desirable. So good luck to whomever bought them!

Back on topic. Usually always have a buyout if you know the price range of your item and want the most money. If you’re unsure, start lower without a buyout, but I’ll tell you this from experience. If you put a great item up for a basement, no buyout price, you are very likely to end up with a basement offer. People with virtual money are cheap if they’re getting it legally, and the “silent” auction really doesn’t lend itself much to wars at very high prices. You are more likely to get hosed on a low starting no-buyout price than make money. Your experience may differ, and I’d like to hear from those where it does, and what kinds of items work or don’t work if that’s the case.

Secondly keep the min and max buyout price the same usually. I’ve been through almost every variation and keep coming back to that and having success. Once on a server (Kul Tiras) that was becoming popular and suddenly hit with an influx of gold buyers, prices skyrocketed, and I experimented. In that case, it was often better to put things at the ostensibly ridiculous price of say, min 60g, max 70g price, just a 10g difference. But in that frenzied market, no one will want to go with the lower and just want the item even at the higher price. It is that extra bit of perceived competition that made that strategy different. Have fun auctioneering and until next time…

Tags: auction house, buyout