WoW Auction House: How to Buy An Epic
Jan 17th, 2009 by tyson
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!
Really helpful article, thank you very much.
Great tips. I wonder though if you still completely abstain from using tools like the Auctioneer suite. Auctioneer lets me concentrate and organize a lot more information about the markets I focus on than memory or even homemade spreadsheets would allow. At a glance at an epic weapon’s tooltip I can see its item level (is that a heroic or regular Naxx BOE?), the number of other copies of that item currently on auction, the number of times that item has been listed and for what price, the median price history for the item over the last 3, 5, 7, and 14 days, etc. It is a useful tool and when applied responsibly can facilitate more profits with less time investment.
Thanks!
Yes, I do not use Auctioneer, still – not with the epics, though I think I will give it a try so as not to be closeminded. It literally takes an average of 30 seconds actually to go through the epics now, unless there’s something that pops up I’m not familiar with (rarely now that the expansion has been out for a bit). Then it’s just a quick alt-tab out to allakhazam to check on median, or wowhead to check comments if necessary, and then back. I’ve lost items this way, even though I’ve only been out 30s or so… but really, this market doesn’t take much to memorize.
You have a point though. Auctioneer can help with some things. It would be nice to see what actual item level it is, but Wowhead has that too. However, in this very high price but small market, I especially cannot rely on the database that it provides such as past market history, even if it were 7 days or 1 month out. There are too few of these epics put up and at a pretty big standard deviation. I find the allakhazam median which tracks the same item over multiple servers and many more lists to be more accurate for this niche at least. I am fast to point out one important thing. For as much money as I pay for epics, I won’t do it if I only will potentially net 200 to 300g. It’s too risky. I need to be confident I can net at least 500g+ to even consider it on one sale. That way if I’m wrong or there’s suddenly competition I can sell it back for basically what I bought it for or even a bit higher and still not take a loss.
For items that have many more lists such as trade commodities, I’m sure Auctioneer is definitely the way to go.
Have you had luck reselling anything besides epics in WOTLK? I don’t have the budget to invest in those yet.
Yep check out my initial posts about Lich King Auction House. Blue armor and weapons.
Thanks Tyson for this roadplan! Most definately I’m going to try it out: it’s either an elaborate getting rich scheme or bust. Then again, it’s very easy to climb up after a few mistakes, and you really learn as you go.
One thing about Auctioneer in this market is the way it counts the ‘seen’ instances of the gear: you can easily see if this item has been scanned before, making it easier to spot the rare or new surging ones. Otherwise I wouldn’t trust the scan data on Epics, just for the reasons you mentioned in your earlier response: small, high price and easily learned market.
Copra
How long do you usually have stuff up before it sells if there’s no competition? I got some BOE Gloves of Token Respect from naxx and put them up for 2284g and shortly after got undercutted by someone selling them for 889g and after that another person selling them for 500g. I’ve been checking and none of them have sold yet and all of them are about to expire. Maybe people just don’t buy epics much on my server.
Well, sometimes it can be a few days. If you saw these gloves which maintain a median of 2.5k on Allakhazam for 500 and 889, what I would do is buy up them both, then sell one at a time, for about 1999g. All three until they all sold. Heck, even 1799 to sell them quicker.