So how’d you do? If you haven’t yet read my last post, or you’re pretty new to auctioneering, please see: Auctioneering 101: Observe before reading this.

Just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you should know the stuff I’m going to teach. It takes practice, some trial and error, and some mistakes. I have to say though, the amount of mistakes I’ve made (and there have been occasionally) have been fairly minimal, all things considered. It is very rare I will have something and sell it for less than a profit, and if so, it will be for just slightly less than what I bought it for. That’s the kind of auctioneer I want to help you become. And I’m confident you will with these methods.

In WoW, I once took on an apprentice. He was eager to learn and it didn’t take too long before he was doing just the same things I was, and we were working together making lots of money… this was on an established server where I’m sure there were many others trying to do the same thing. In real life at a game company I was working for, I taught a couple work friends who I was in a guild with to do the same thing. They were always amazed at the amount of money I had and so they wanted to learn. In the course of a couple weeks, they were doing the same thing and even I was amazed at some of the sales they were making… and I admit, sometimes a little jealous they found the deal first! But we worked on different things.

And so can you. Even if your server or virtual world is crowded, there are always deals to be had. There is always someone willing to give something up for less than it’s worth. And that’s where you come in. The trick, and this is the valuable part, is to know how or where to find them.

So tip #2:
Sell something on the auction house or trade channel. It doesn’t matter what… something that you’ve acquired. You say you’ve done this before and what is this supposed to teach you? This is where some people might have already graduated from this step and others may not have. So I’m going to tell it anyway. Do a search for that item (this is possible if in WoW), and look at all the others that have come up. If you’re playing a game where there is just a trade channel, advertise for that item and say “x item for sale for a good price or trade”. Advertise a couple times. If someone replies asking what you want, ask first what they “can” give. Not what they will. This is the art of negotiation. Leave things open. Go from there and see how that works out. Do this even if you have to nearly give something away.

Now back to WoW. Search for the item you’re going to sell, and if there are others, put yours up for the lowest price (unless you just know that it’s insanely low) minus roughly 10%. If the lowest is 99 silver, put yours for 89 silver. You know why? Yes, because it will sell, but even better, it will sell quickly. This is the goal. Don’t leave your stuff up forever hoping for a sale. Your time is worth more than that. Get the sale even if it means slightly less profit, and move on. What’s even stranger is that there are always people who put their item up for the same price… then again there are those that will undercut you no matter what. So what do you do in that case? You take yours off, let theirs sell, and then put yours back up to where you make a decent profit. You wait it out and deal with other stuff in your inventory.

So what do you do if your item is not there? Well that could be for two reasons. Either a) it’s not popular or b) it’s something people will usually buy and no one happens to be selling it at the moment. So again, what do you do? You look for similar items. If it’s rare, look for a rare similar item. If it’s a common weapon that requires level 5 to use, look for other weapons from level 3-8 to get a good sense of what others are charging. Then charge less. So that people notice yours and buy it. Just enough less so that others notice, don’t gyp yourself out of more money.

I think that’s enough for tip #2, so see you next time! Tip #2 was all about experiencing the auction house or trade channels. We’ll deal much more with that in the future.

Tags: auction house, trade channel