My guild’s name was the Fair Merchant Consortium. I had grand visions of a group of auctioneers on the server all working together in a common bank, where people would know our name, trust our transactions that were fair, and provide a wide range of services. Working at a company and with a wife and child, I really never took the time to make it happen, but did manage to take on an apprentice, as I said before. We had two members, me and him. Never advertised for more, and to tell the truth, never wanted more. I was just too caught up in making money to care about organizing a guild of that nature… and the money I was making was enough to be very content.

From time to time, someone would be curious and /w (that’s whisper) me about my auctions, about how I did what I did. This was a result of my name becoming sort of known on the server… not in an entirely bad way like some names, but in an ever present way. You see, not only would I work the auction house, but I would advertise my wares in the trade channel. That was then when I was just getting started, and for quite awhile. I still do that occasionally. But when you’re dealing with some of the highest priced items on the server, sometimes it is better to not advertise. Make them think they have a deal that no one else has found.

It got to a point where I knew every single rare blue item in the game by memory and how much it should cost, on every server I played on. So when people whispered me, I’d tell them here’s the secret, knowing that a) they would likely not spend the time to learn what I did and therefore posed little threat, and b) they would trust me more. So here’s the secret I told them, which you probably have guessed. Here’s the ultimate way I do business:

Buy low (that’s the key and what I want to teach) and here’s the trick: sell below avg. I have told people that I am the “Wal-mart of the auction house”. I don’t go absurdly low… I still want to make good margin, but I go “noticeably” lower than the rest. My inventory (I remember having 14 to 20 rares items up at the same time) goes fairly fast, and it is ever-changing due to the deals that I find and others present to me.

So here’s tip #3:
You’ve made a sale, or an attempt. Now narrow your search. I want you to search in any category that interests you (weapons, jewelry, paper doll outfits, etc.) and look for a deal within your price range. A deal is when two or more people are selling virtually the same item or something of relative value in the same category, there is distinctly one lowest price… one that’s significantly enough lower than the rest for you to think that if you bought it, you could put it back on auction and *still* sell it for less than the others and make a profit.

Here’s an example: weapons. Weapons are popular in any MMO with the main source of experience and progression being combat. If it’s a social MMO, what types of things are popular? Search out a little niche… say levels 5-10, of all weapons. See something that sticks out as being lower? First, try and identify if it truly should be cheaper. Maybe it has a stat that no one likes (spirit for example in WoW rather than agility or intellect). If you can’t see anything wrong with why it’s lower, buy it. Fetch it and then put it back up on auction for lower than all the others. Sometimes just a little bit is good… especially if there are multiples. It makes people think that there is an established price and that yours is a little bit of a bargain.

Extra tip: sometimes you will see people who have an item up for a ridiculous price. And you will find that on the rare occasion, someone actually buys it. Now, they may know something I don’t, but I don’t have the time, nor energy to wait around for the deal of the century, and when it fails, re-hope that it will happen again, over and over. Hats off to them if their plan works, but mine is to make money quick, find the best deals and profit on them as quickly as possible at the greatest margin (that’s the difference between what I buy it for and what I can sell it for).

Another extra tip: speaking of margin, don’t ever… ever!… buy something for a lot of money (a lot is self-defined… whatever you think is a lot is a lot) hoping to make a small, tiny profit. I learned this the hard way, several times. It didn’t ruin me… but it did make me smarter. The market is finicky, it can easily not accept the “average” something should be and you just as easily might lose a little as gain a little. Not only that, you’re stuck with a bigger percentage of your money locked up in something you now *need* to sell. Example: I had taken a character from zero to 40 gold in not too long, and saw an item for 35g I knew was worth 45g on average. How? I’ve seen it up from different people several times. Well, I buy that, leaving me with just 10g, pay the AH a little just to put it up, and now I can’t buy other, smaller, and perhaps better deals. Where I could buy 4 items that each make 5-10g, now I’m selling one that can maybe make me 10g… that’s not smart and it could backfire. My time was wasted.

Tags: auction house, searching