World of Warcraft®

Hello all,

I am new to SoE. I have spent most of my WoW fun on 2 other servers. Because this is my only character on this server, I rely on questing, selling loot, and the auction house to make money as I level.

I have often noticed that when I go to place something on the SoE alliance AH, that the items are drastically underpriced. I consistently see 1 of 2 things: 1) someone posted something for a decent AH price and 3 or 4 posts under them is someone posting it for a RIDICULOUS undercut (original item was 20 gold and the same item is undercut to 20 silver in a few posts for example) or 2) people posting individual or stacks of items for LESS then what the individual items would vendor for.

On my main server, this is very uncommon and typically happens by mistake. However, I see this all the time on SoE. I like many things about SoE. The players in dungeons and in chat are typically super nice and helpful (more so than other servers) and there is a greater sense of immersion in the world. I do not like this AH situation though.

Is this common? Are folks on SoE so nice that they don't even want to make a teensy profit off the AH, because as a low-level alt with the no-money blues, I would certainly appreciate that opportunity. :-)

Best,
Lilyblu

I can really only speak from my own experience with the auction house - whiiiich admittedly isn't much. I don't play the auction house at all. I know plenty of people who do here, it's just not my thing.

Personally, I prefer to sell what I have in excess, and what wouldn't be immediately useful to my guildmates on the AH, and when I do - I usually put it up rather cheap. An example would be recently I've been making a TON of netherweave bags because of all the cloth I get from running BC stuff for rep and items. I don't farm stuff to specifically put it on the auction house - I'd imagine on a mid-sized rp server, you don't get as many people who actually farm to make AH gold. They're out there for sure, but most people I think just want to make some quick gold off of what extra they have.

ALSO because I've found that most people here subscribe to a 'That could be useful to someone!' mentality thanks to roleplay gear and items, I think more people will go to the AH rather than a vendor. For example, on some other server you might see an 'of the wolf' plate piece that no one would want and thus vendor fodder, here I think people see more 'a pretty piece of clothing that someone might be able to make an outfit out of' - and instead of vendoring it, will put it up on the auction house. It would carry over into mats as well - when we come across excess materials that aren't used as much anymore, a lot of us who have been around for awhile will still pack it away if we know what it's used for, and eventually sell it on the auction house because someone, somewhere could use it to make vanilla, BC, or wrath items that they want for RP or for nostalgic reasons. I usually see these old mats go up for extremely cheap because they are out-dated and the number of people who will want them are not as great, or extremely expensive because there aren't many of them.

But these are just my observations, unfortunately server economy has so many factors affecting it that it's hard to make a blanket statement to answer your question - but hopefully my insights help! <3

I think our economy has always been wonky like that. I normally try to avoid the economics game like a scantily clad mailbox dancing night elf, but if you want to turn a profit you do have to figure out when is the best time to play. Unfortunately, not all of us have the storage space to wait for prime opportunities XD

Thanks Hiccup,

That is helpful and I had my suspicions that it might be the case. Everyone is just so darn nice on SoE, especially the Alliance. My other main characters are all Horde on PvP servers, so this quite a change for me. At least I know that should I need some mats, I have a good chance of finding a good deal on them at the AH.

Nozz, I try not to play the economics game either, I just want to be able to buy those crazy expensive glyphs! :-)

That being said, I am enjoying having to build a character from scratch again without the assistance of gold from a main character and xp-enhancing heirloom items.

I don't really "play" the auction house. I use my Auctionator (Auctioneer?) add-on, plug in whatever it tells me, then reclaim the bag space to go loot some more.

With most auction houses, there are just times when prices are off. Try it on other days and see if it makes a difference (I think on weekends when more people are online, prices tend to go up).

This being an RP realm, some items that would go for peanuts on other servers here sell for big amounts. Try selling a Bold Yellow Shirt on the Horde auction house or have a tailor make some tuxedos and dress shoes - you'll be swimming in gold.

As for the 20g to 20s undercut - that could have also just been a user error.

04/04/2011 11:12 AMPosted by Lilyblu

Nozz, I try not to play the economics game either, I just want to be able to buy those crazy expensive glyphs! :-)

I'll tell you another neat little thing about this server - a lot of people are willing to help and give when they can. For example, I don't have the best inscriptionist in the world, but I'd be happy to make any glyphs I can provide to you. Or flasks, bags, and maybe some gear. Seriously.

^_^

04/04/2011 11:42 AMPosted by Nozz

I'll tell you another neat little thing about this server - a lot of people are willing to help and give when they can. For example, I don't have the best inscriptionist in the world, but I'd be happy to make any glyphs I can provide to you. Or flasks, bags, and maybe some gear. Seriously.

Now that is the nicest thing :-)

You would never hear of that on Tichondrius, the server for my main character. Fortunately I am in a small but helpful guild that has provided many of the basics to get me started. And I began this character with a few friends who are both inscriptionists. So as they learn glyphs I will be bothering them for some.

I think I am going to enjoy my time on SoE!

I may be guilty of this to a point. I'm a jewelecrafter with OCD and I never carry more than one stacks of a certain color-type gem with me at any time. So if I go over... I cut them and toss em on the AH. I only do this like once a week, but when I do... it's like willfully allowing people to use a cheeze-grater on my brain. People on SoE <LOVE> to undercut, as they make the Auction House a steady part of their gameplay.

In my "attempts" to get rid of gems I don't need, I've cut the standard AH rate of gems in half (on only 2-3 gems at a time). So... AH cut gem rate was 350 gold and there were 15-20 gems of that cut already up, I posted my 2 gems for 177 gold, <hoping> that they'd sell quick and I could at least get above the uncut gem rate back, but... within two hours... every single other gem seller had undercut me by 1 silver, 2 silver, 3 silver (roughly).

Now I don't want to be a hypocrit and say that people shouldn't undercut me when I was undercutting in the first place, but seriously... you just canceled 20 auctions to be ahead of me. But! Before you think that I might have been in the wrong for undercutting them by half initially... I <have> put gems up for 1% under the AH rate and <still> all 10 other gem sellers undercut me again within two hours. That's the cheeze-grater part. You can't win against other sellers. You just have to hope that an actual user will buy it before the AH fixers find out about it. (Why would you put one item up for more than 20 other items of the same value? It wouldn't sell.)

So... pretty much I hate using the AH here for anything. I've seen other servers' item stocks; servers of larger populations who have lots of raiding guilds or even RP-pvp based ones, and they have at any time of day 6+ of all 359 epic armor BoE pieces (non crafted drops). Yes we have raiders here (I raid some) but we don't have enough raiders to provide the community as a whole with excess drops. This... is the reason that AH prices here on SoE are higher than any other server.

So buy the stuff that you think is under priced and resell for more.

WoW Auction 101.

So buy the stuff that you think is under priced and resell for more.

WoW Auction 101.

Thank you for the tip my silhouetted troll friend who does not even reside on SoE. I understand that concept and practice it often on other characters. Unlike the previous comments before you, you did not answer my base question nor did you give me any helpful tips about the AH specific to SoE.

Buying and reselling is unhelpful when there are so many items listed below the vendor price and putting them back on the AH will just lead to someone else posting something else and completely undercutting me by a lot again.

But thank you for your contribution to the thread.

Aeralynn, thanks for sharing. I too usually list my AH items at a few silver or so below the current lowest listed price; that is just good business practice :-) But as I mentioned, I am often seeing listing prices that are significantly below the previous listing and it just befuddled me a bit as to why. But now I understand a little more about the server and how the AH works on the server.

I will just be sure to put up only a few of the same item at a time, I will put it up at a reasonable price (that hopefully gets me a little profit as well), I will watch for times when those items are reasonably priced, and cross my fingers that someone doesn't come a long and undercut me by TOO much with more than 20 items!

The auction house on our server follows patterns just like every other server. Depending on what item you're trying to sell/buy you may disagree with the posted price but they all usually follow a trend.

If you're looking for old world items or low level crafting materials chances are the price will be higher than you'd expect. Few people farm these, so they are able to charge more. If you don't like the price, you are more than welcome to farm the items up yourself. RP gear will always be valued here more than on a normal server.

New cataclysm stuff is the most fun to watch and play with. The value on most of these items is always changing, so if you don't like the price just give it time. Chances are you can sell/buy them for more/less later if you don't agree on the price.

Don't get mad at those people that do play the auction house. Some people enjoy raiding, or pvp. Others like to RP. Working the Ah is just another way to have fun in WoW. Besides.. It's almost required for us goblins.

Time is money, friend. ~_^

04/04/2011 06:55 PMPosted by Nyda

Don't get mad at those people that do play the auction house.

Don't think anyone was getting mad at anyone. But I am fine with people playing the AH, that is a great way to make money if you keep up with it. I would probably dabble if I played a little more often on that server.

That being said, I have noticed that some people aren't playing the auction house they are listing items at prices that are less than the vendor price or well below what I would expect to see on the AH (the price barely covers the AH posting cost). That, to me, is not playing the auction house. I have seen this with various items on various days of the week and weekend and at various times of day. Based on my observations, I wondered if there was something different with the SoE AH as compared to others I had experienced.

04/04/2011 06:55 PMPosted by Nyda

If you don't like the price, you are more than welcome to farm the items up yourself.

Actually, besides glyphs (which I can't farm and make because neither myself nor my friends have the glyphs I need), the price is usually more than fair. My original lamenting was being unable to make any money off the auction house myself. It's tough as a leatherworker early-on, I just hope it gets easier as I level.

Thanks for your thoughts!

If glyphs are what you need and you're alliance (and you are) just hit up Calegar. He's our resident glyph master and does ANY glyph for 20g CoD or direct trade in roughly 24 hours time after you send him your request. He's a gnome in <Unguilded> and has a pretty steady client-base.

@Lilyblu I know exactly what you mean. There have been a few times I’ve tried to put mats on the AH only to see someone selling full stacks for far less than what’s suggested. I don’t know how often that happens because I’m not a frequent AH user, but if I have the bag space I usually hold off selling until the cheap goods are bought - usually there's not a problem getting a reasonable mark up price after that.

As far as the leatherworking goes, I think at times I felt I had better luck selling the disenchanted mats than the actual leather items XD Here’s hoping you fare better!

I always sell stuff on the AH for a fair price... exception being those hot twink items which command top gold. Still amazes me how much people are trying to sell low level gear for... as if every lowbie has a level 85 sugar daddy.

04/05/2011 01:41 PMPosted by Swizzle

I always sell stuff on the AH for a fair price... exception being those hot twink items which command top gold. Still amazes me how much people are trying to sell low level gear for... as if every lowbie has a level 85 sugar daddy.

To be honest tho, especially after the revamped leveling experience that the Shattering brought...

There's really minimal need for a lowbie without a sugar daddy to ever BUY anything on the ah.

Pick up dual gathering professions, sell everything, and get that toon to 85, and you'll have thousands of spare gold by the time you get to 60... not to mention 85.

So the majority of the stuff that's listed on the ah isn't intended to be bought by a lowbie, it's intended for purchase by someone with a bankroll who can afford to fill in that missing slot that they haven't seen a quest or dungeon reward for.

Trying to be 'nice' and selling at a price a lowbie can afford NEVER gets the item into the hands of a lowbie, it'll invariably be bought out and repriced, or de'd by someone else.

If you want to be nice to a lowbie? Give em a few 22 slot bags, and 200g so they don't need to worry about gold for training while leveling up. Give em a Swiss Army Knife, and a few stacks of level 15, 45 and 55 food. Got some spare pots/elixirs from leveling an alchemist? There's a way to bleed em off.

The AH isn't for newbies to BUY from, it's for them to sell all their stuff gained while leveling to the 85's who are powering through their third alchemist, or their blacksmithing, engineering, etc. IF they DO take advantage of those of us who can afford to power a profession off the AH, they'll have more than enough gold to afford their mount training, epic flight, and some gear at 85, as well as then going back to power their professions at 85.

Meh. Everything I sell on the AH is stuff I looted or mats that I've gathered myself, so anything I sell is 100% profit for me. It doesn't matter if it's going for 2k or not. I'll put it up for 300g and either it'll sell or not.

Things that don't sell get sent to a guildie that can use them.

playing the ah is really a necessity sometimes. Alts need epic flying, main needs top line chants. If I see you selling cata items lower than my database has it I may buy it and mark it up . Generally I will post any older mats I do not plan on using on the Ah at slightly lower than the next guy. If they don't sell after a couple of posts they get vendored.

always happy to do any alchemy stuff or engineering stuff free your mats as long as it is not a cooldown i plan on using( or selling)

I find I agree with Aurs description of the the Ah and what it is used for as i spend way more gold on lvling my alts proffs then i do on my main.