As many of you know, I love the auction house. I play the stock market in real life, so I guess it just makes sense to me. Unlike real stocks and markets, however, you literally can't lose money in the AH -- on one grey item you picked up by accident, maybe, but if you scan even once a day, you can't lose. A few members have PMed me asking for advice, so I thought I'd share it with you on the forums.
What do you need? Auctioneer (google "auctioneer wow" and you'll find it) and about 15-20 minutes a day (most of that you can get up and eat while it scans).
How much will you make? Probably 300g a week if you scan once a day. It's hard for me to keep perfect track since I buy a lot of stuff for my character. You could make a bit more by scanning 2x a day, but beyond that you run into diminishing returns.
Here's how it works.
You scan the AH with auctioneer. It's very simple -- on your usual auction interface, you just hit the scan button. It tells you how long it'll take -- usually about 15 minutes. Then you go to search auctions -- an added tab on the auction screen. I don't touch the values for "minimum profit" or "minimum percent less" as they're conservative to start with. I just seach buyouts, then bids (bids is default). Finally, I click on the "pct" header on the right to put them in order with the highest percent on top. The screenshot shows the list right after I've organized my search.
Now you bid (or buyout) the top auctions. Be careful though -- other people know about auctioneer and try to trick you into buying junk. You'll often see greys or fishing poles sold for 30g. You can't just go down the list buying, but more on that later.
When you start, you need to be aware that it'll take at least a week of scanning before the auctioneer has enough data to really advise you properly. As you get more scans, start to look for items and mats you know will sell -- a great deal on iron bars won't make you a ton, but you're guarenteed to make a profit! I usually look for items that'll give me a profit equal to what I paid for them (or better -- sometimes I don't look past 60%) but a 200g staff going for 120 is obviously still going to make you a good profit.
What do I look for? Actually, the question should be, "what do I avoid." I avoid greys. I always check white items to make sure they're not sold by vendors. I also avoid low items -- there's money in twink stuff, but a level 20 green isn't going to be too hot on the AH. Also, I try to stay away from rings. I buy them when they're really cheap, but I've found they tend to sell very slowly. In short, start with what you KNOW, and as you make money, try more and more and you'll get a good feel for what will work.
How do you sell? That's the easiest. You use the second added tab "post auctions" and when you put an item in the little box, the auctioneer puts a price up for you! It tries to undercut by 5%, but sometimes it says "cannot meet lowest price." If the item is worth more, you might just post it anyway and hope it sells after the lower-priced item. I usually just manually drop my price though as I like inventory to sell fast.
A few tips:
Do a quick glance over the search before buying anything. If there are 12 rods of molten fire, they're all going to be very cheap. I personally want everything to sell within two days (a goal, not reality) so I skip those, but if you wanted to make good money, you might buy all of them and list them one at a time over a week or so.
Watch out for the deposits. I guarentee you'll make more than you pay in deposits, but some items just suck. Particularly high-level greens that sell for 4-5g, but have a 2g deposit! I either vendor these or send them to redeemedbank as a donation.
Don't forget to give to the guild! If you play the AH a lot, you'll always be tempted to sell everything. If something's not selling right away, I try to send it to redeemedbankd -- it never hurts to help out guildies, and you save future deposits!
Watch for weekly and daily cycles. If you scan in the morning, you'll find next to nothing worth buying. Everybody plays on weekends, so you can expect lots of buying -- but toward the end of the weekend, people start selling all the stuff they've farmed, and nobody's interested in buying. Plan to buy more on Saturday and Sunday when prices are low and sell throughout the week when fewer people are farming.
Quit of you don't have fun! It's well worth it to me to spend half an hour a day scanning for the gold. If you'd rather farm, then farm! There's plenty to go around -- there are literally dozens of people doing the same thing on the server, so don't worry about other guildies getting into it. If nothing else, more cash in Redeemed means we'll beat Domo sooner and I can get my Benediction >
What do you need? Auctioneer (google "auctioneer wow" and you'll find it) and about 15-20 minutes a day (most of that you can get up and eat while it scans).
How much will you make? Probably 300g a week if you scan once a day. It's hard for me to keep perfect track since I buy a lot of stuff for my character. You could make a bit more by scanning 2x a day, but beyond that you run into diminishing returns.
Here's how it works.
You scan the AH with auctioneer. It's very simple -- on your usual auction interface, you just hit the scan button. It tells you how long it'll take -- usually about 15 minutes. Then you go to search auctions -- an added tab on the auction screen. I don't touch the values for "minimum profit" or "minimum percent less" as they're conservative to start with. I just seach buyouts, then bids (bids is default). Finally, I click on the "pct" header on the right to put them in order with the highest percent on top. The screenshot shows the list right after I've organized my search.
Now you bid (or buyout) the top auctions. Be careful though -- other people know about auctioneer and try to trick you into buying junk. You'll often see greys or fishing poles sold for 30g. You can't just go down the list buying, but more on that later.
When you start, you need to be aware that it'll take at least a week of scanning before the auctioneer has enough data to really advise you properly. As you get more scans, start to look for items and mats you know will sell -- a great deal on iron bars won't make you a ton, but you're guarenteed to make a profit! I usually look for items that'll give me a profit equal to what I paid for them (or better -- sometimes I don't look past 60%) but a 200g staff going for 120 is obviously still going to make you a good profit.
What do I look for? Actually, the question should be, "what do I avoid." I avoid greys. I always check white items to make sure they're not sold by vendors. I also avoid low items -- there's money in twink stuff, but a level 20 green isn't going to be too hot on the AH. Also, I try to stay away from rings. I buy them when they're really cheap, but I've found they tend to sell very slowly. In short, start with what you KNOW, and as you make money, try more and more and you'll get a good feel for what will work.
How do you sell? That's the easiest. You use the second added tab "post auctions" and when you put an item in the little box, the auctioneer puts a price up for you! It tries to undercut by 5%, but sometimes it says "cannot meet lowest price." If the item is worth more, you might just post it anyway and hope it sells after the lower-priced item. I usually just manually drop my price though as I like inventory to sell fast.
A few tips:
Do a quick glance over the search before buying anything. If there are 12 rods of molten fire, they're all going to be very cheap. I personally want everything to sell within two days (a goal, not reality) so I skip those, but if you wanted to make good money, you might buy all of them and list them one at a time over a week or so.
Watch out for the deposits. I guarentee you'll make more than you pay in deposits, but some items just suck. Particularly high-level greens that sell for 4-5g, but have a 2g deposit! I either vendor these or send them to redeemedbank as a donation.
Don't forget to give to the guild! If you play the AH a lot, you'll always be tempted to sell everything. If something's not selling right away, I try to send it to redeemedbankd -- it never hurts to help out guildies, and you save future deposits!
Watch for weekly and daily cycles. If you scan in the morning, you'll find next to nothing worth buying. Everybody plays on weekends, so you can expect lots of buying -- but toward the end of the weekend, people start selling all the stuff they've farmed, and nobody's interested in buying. Plan to buy more on Saturday and Sunday when prices are low and sell throughout the week when fewer people are farming.
Quit of you don't have fun! It's well worth it to me to spend half an hour a day scanning for the gold. If you'd rather farm, then farm! There's plenty to go around -- there are literally dozens of people doing the same thing on the server, so don't worry about other guildies getting into it. If nothing else, more cash in Redeemed means we'll beat Domo sooner and I can get my Benediction >
