Lich King Auction House Progress
Nov 19th, 2008 by tyson
Well I still am only checking a couple times a day and simply haven’t had the time to start a Death Knight character yet. That said, I’m up about 200g on Celwyn to 2300+ with about 1000g worth of additional items in the auction house as we speak. Several have expired once or twice and I made about a 250g profit on a single blue weapon from one posting, but in general I believe I’m making good buys.
Here’s what I’m doing in case you want to try it on your server (or mine as the case may be!). As of now I’m not into pets (though I’ve looked) and if you’ve read any of my earlier posts you would know I’m not a big fan of the micromanagement of commodities or other large supplies of items, even though that’s where the “real” money is. I deal more in rarity and those few good deals… enough to make me a great living while at the same time only having to spend maximum 10 minutes a day actually playing the auction house. I might typically spend a little more time than that, but often that’s all it takes… a quick in and out with a couple items or none, and call it a day.
I still have my trusty wow.allakhazam.com site at the ready. Again, with the new expansion, any 70+ items will be most desirable, so I focus on blue weapons and blue armor. For non-WoW heads, that is just one step below the EPIC class of items because those simply aren’t available yet and when you see one it’s outrageous… 15000g, which I don’t have on any current character nor would I pay. I’m confident they’ll start appearing soon and when they do you’ll want to be there.
In the meantime, blue armor tends to be more in supply than weapons, which makes weapon hunting a bit easier but the timing a bit more picky. When shopping, especially for items you don’t know much about yet as in their actual rarity, as usual do not buy those items with even another like item up at the same time. If you see two or more of the same item, especially this early in the expansion you can almost guarantee it’s not too rare and you’ll have frequent competition. If one is 400 and the other 40g of course then nab it, but look for solo items and be careful of the crafted items as that’s a popular thing and there are many of those. Look for unique names. Then briefly tab out to allakhazam and check its median price, and post yours accordingly. You may have better luck on the alliance side now, but I’m having success on both. Good luck!
One important additional criteria you might consider is the item within the context of its level, applicable classes/specs, and other comparable items. For instance 70-73 BOE blues aren’t going to command a high price in time as everyone levels pass them unless they are of exceptional quality. The longer you wait on flipping lower level items, the harder it will be to turn a profit. Also, the number of classes/specs that can make use of the item will affect demand and thus the more applicable class/specs an item can cater to, the higher its market price. Lastly an item’s strength relative to quest rewards, similar level BOP instance drops, and other BOE items should be considered. If a quest reward at your item’s level is of comparable quality or better, you will not be able to command as high a price for it (one might argue that clueless people or those rolling alts and twinking them will still buy but the former usually don’t have the money to purchase such items and the latter know enough to know about such quest rewards).
That’s true about the lower 70′s not in general being as in demand, however I’m not sure the quest vs. AH item comparison is something people using the AH give much thought to. The main purpose of the AH is we can agree to buy things that are convenient so that you don’t have to quest or grind for it, such as an upgrade to a slot that could use one. I think there are lots of people who wouldn’t bother taking the time to do a quest or instance for an item (I count myself in that category) that’s most of the time only marginally better.
Yeah you’re probably right with regards to people leveling their alts though I still think that someone leveling from 70-80 for the first time may be more cautious. Glad to see you back in any case and looking forward to future posts.