Auction House 101, Part 1

*This article was originally intended to be for the new column "Poor No More" on JMTC, however, due to RL issues Markco is currently having he has delayed his writing program.

Welcome to Class

So, you are interested in the Auction House?  That is great! We all have started where you are right now at some point.  Now is as good a time as any to enjoy this great aspect of the game.   Before you dive into the deep water let’s take a look at some of the basics of the Auction House.

Where Do I Begin?

To begin on the way to being gold capped one must first take a look at what they have available to them.   What professions do you have?  Are they maxed?  If not, what has been your most difficulty in leveling them?  Many questions must first be asked in order to fully understand what you have, and what you have to do to get more. 

Let’s Get Started

You know what is available to you and you’re ready to get into the auction house.  First order of business is to install a few addons that will help make it much easier. 

1. Auctioneer- Auctioneer is the king of all Auction House addons.  Auctioneer changes the Auction House UI from the standard Blizzard version.  It also contains many different additional functions that will help you increase your income.  It is essential that you install this if you are interested in making gold through the Auction House.  Let it be noted that there are different Auction House addons available.  I choose to stick with Auctioneer, because it is what I am most comfortable with, and believe to be the best.

2. Postal- Postal is an addon that will enhance the way you are able to use the mailbox.  Some of the features include an “open all” button and a summary of all the gold obtained from your mail.  This addon is extremely convenient and time saving.

3. Bagnon (or any other “one bag” addon)- I use Bagnon on my character and it helps a ton with being able to locate my items without having to open all bags and search.  It is configurable to be able to search for desired items, highlight quest items, and can also color code items based on their quality, along with many other features.

There are guides out there concerning many of the addons you will use in the Auction House.  I suggest going online and finding a good guide for step by step instructions on how to properly configure it the way you would like.

Almost There

Now that you have your addons up and running it is time to begin.  When you click on the NPC for the Auction House your new UI will appear in place of the standard Blizzard version.  Before you search for any items begin by doing a “get all” search that is located at the top left of your UI.  It is the icon that appears as if it is two Play buttons side by side.  This will do a search of the entire Auction House.  Once your scan is complete you can do a search.  For example, let’s say you search for Saronite Ore.  You will notice that from left to right you will see: number of items, actual item, item level, time left, owner, price, and pct.  All of these are self explanatory except for the pct. 

The percentage is what auctioneer thinks, based on average market price, the item is worth.  After your one scan of the market Auctioneer will determine the percentage of each item based on its price.  A red number means that the item is overpriced according to Auctioneer’s data.  Yellow means that it is close to the average market price for that item.  When the number is green it means that the item is slightly underpriced.  If you see a blue number that means that the item is considerably underpriced, and you should consider purchasing that item. At this point, however, none of your data will be accurate.  It takes around two weeks worth of scans to get a true read on the percentage of the item.  The more scans you have the more accurate the percentage will be.

Home Work

Today, we covered what addons to use and how to scan and search using Auctioneer.  For home work, I would like you to just get a feel of all the different functions that Auctioneer provides.  Continue performing scans and searches on items that you would like to purchase.  Watch how the prices rise and fall throughout the week.  Take note of the times that the prices are high on certain items, and times they are low.

Class Dismissed

Come back next time when we will be talking about buying, bidding, selling, and understanding the best time to do all of those.  See you then.

OMG!!! I can't make gold!!

    I hear that all the time from random guildies, people in trade, etc.  However, with a little patience and a general idea of how to go about it, one can make thousands of gold with not very much effort.  I wanted to point out a couple of things today that will help get you rolling with making gold in the auction house.

1.  Auctioneer or Auctionator- First and foremost, get one of these addons.  Stop reading this post right now and go install one of these if do not have one of them.  These two addons are essential in making gold in Warcraft.  They both give great tools to help you be smart with your gold.

2. "Buy low, Sell high" does not work!-  When you are trying your hardest to just get your 5k for your epic flying you think the best solution is to buy/craft for cheap then try to quadruple your gold on one sell.  This is not the way you want to go about handling your situation.  When you set your prices at that high of a cost you will be constantly undercut all day.  The one time it does sell you feel like you did well, however, your gold per hour will be very low.  It will appear that you made a ton of gold, when in reality you could have doubled that amount with proper pricing.

3.  Take advantage of "Special" markets-   Take advantage of what I like to call your "special" markets. These are the markets that are not always going to be there.  For example, take a look at your calendar.  Are there any holidays this month?  If so, what can you do to make gold from that holiday? If there are no holidays, what nights are raid nights?  Take advantage on all your last minute raiders needing consumables, or needing new gems, belt buckles, etc.  Use the "special" markets to your advantage.  Timing is everything.  If you can time it right you can make much more gold than you do already.

4. Do not waste time- We just established how timing is very important.  So why would we waste precious time?  Plan out your time spent.  The goal is to be as efficient as possible.  You will find that once you sit down and focus on exactly what you do you'll realize there is room for improvement.

Are there any "special" markets you enjoy taking advantage of?  Perhaps, you have a time saving strategy you use.  If so, post in comments.

Vendor Pet Results

Hey guys,

    Today I wanted give a report on how my vendor pet experiment went.  My experiment included me buying up several different vendor pets and posting them twice a day for a total of one week on the auction house to see my profits.  In the end I made a total of over 600g profit off of vendor pets!  I was very pleased with my returns.  During this time I was continuing my daily auction house routine so I added approximately 85g a day.  I also would like it to be noted that I did NOT use the neutral auction house for this experiment.  Even though it would have added to my income substantially I wanted to see the results of buying and selling items that everyone had access too.  This isn't very much, but if you would continue to post you will see a nice build up of gold over time.  With some extra time and patience one could take this strategy and turn it into extra income on a weekly basis.

Life Happens

So, this was my first week of college and man was I busy!  I've been trying to get together everything I need for classes and for baseball.  Just wanted to apologize for no posts the past week, but plan on seeing some more.

Fishing for Gold

    Today, I wanted to talk about something that 90% of the people in WoW hate doing.  Fishing is one of the most, if not the most boring profession of all the professions in the game.  However, after the LONG trip to 450, it can have some rewards.  To be able to take full advantage of the fish a maxed cooked is essential as well.  

Lets take a look at what the most popular Northrend fish are, and what they are used for.  
Glacial Salmon


Glacial Salmon is one of the most profitable fish on my server most of the time.  For a stack of 20 the A.M.P.(Average Market Price) is just under 40g.  However, on raid nights the price for a stack will go above the normal price, due to the high demand.  The main recipes that they are used in are Firecracker Salmon and Fish Feast.  Glacial Salmon can be found in Wintergrasp, Grizzly Hills, Howling Fjord and Dragonblight.

Musselback Sculpin


Musselback Sculpin is another one of the fish that is required in a Fish Feast.  For a stack of 20 the A.M.P. is at 37g.  Once again this price will increase on raid nights.  The main recipes used are Poached Northern Sculpin and Fish Feast.  Musselback Sculpin can be found in Wintergrasp, Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Zul'Drak and Grizzly Hills.

Nettlefish

Nettlefish is the last remaining fish to make a Fish Feast.  It is the least profitable uncooked on my server.  For a stack of 20 the A.M.P. is 31g.  The main recipes use are Spicy Blue Nettlefish and Fish Feast.  Nettlefish can be found in Wintergrasp, Sholazar Basin, Dragonblight, and Ulduar.  


    The main reason for this post is just to point out that there are reasons behind the mindless clicking that we call fishing in WoW.  If you can buy up some of these fish for cheap, or actually enjoy farming*, you can make some nice profit.  With the fish market it is all about timing.  Hit it when the demand is high, and you will be able to make some nice gold.


* I do not advise farming fish for hours, because your gold per hour will not be great on most servers. This is just a tip for some extra gold in your pockets, not a strategy that should be used for your main source of income.   

Busy Weekend

Hey guys,

Just wanted to say sorry about falling behind on posts, but I have had a busy weekend.  I just now got moved into my new apartment up at college, and finally have got to relax for a moment.  Expect more gold posts rolling in this week.

Getting the most out of your Jewelcrafting

 Ever since Jewelcrafting has come into the game it has been one of the most profitable professions.  This is no surprise, because of the constant demand of gems on all levels of characters.  Today I wanted to give five tips on how to take this profession and maybe help you get more out of it than you already do.

First tip:  This should be obvious, but do your daily as often as possible.  If you can help it, don't ever let a day go by without getting this done.  It is to important to forget it.  This is especially true early in the expansion/patch with new gems.  At the point we are at in WOTLK, it does not make it as important, but why waste days when you could be gaining tokens on more cuts.  More cuts means more profit.  The other two ways to gain tokens are through Titanium Powder and Damaged Necklace.  The powder comes from prospecting Titanium Ore and the Necklace is a random world drop.  Both of these can be found on the AH.

Second tip: Don't ever sell your Jewelcrafting through trade chat.  Trade chat is an excellent tool (between all the anal spam) to buy your mats, not to sell them.  By selling gem cuts through trade you could be giving people the necessary materials to compete with your own auctions on the Auction House.  Also, on average most people will tip around 10g.  Sure, it seems like a good idea at the time, however, if they then turn around and undercut you on the AH it will take away the amount of profit you could be making.

Third tip:  Take advantage of all the cuts you own.  This includes uncommon, rare, and epic gems.  On most servers, they will all sell.  Epic cuts on my server are on the downfall right now, because most people have killed LK on their mains and have most of the loot they are ever going to get.  So what do these people do?  They roll alts and start all over.  This is why my uncommon and rare gems have been selling like crazy.  Nobody is going to buy epic gems to level a character with, however, they will buy the lesser versions to just fill a gem slot.  Some of the most popular uncommon and rare gems I sell are: Runed Bloodstone, Bold Bloodstone, Runed Scarlet Ruby, Solid Chalcedony, and Solid Sky Sapphire.  There are many more you can sell through these lower level markets.  I just try to focus on these, because I feel they give me the best return on my server.

Fourth tip:  Cut popular Meta-gems.  Meta-gems can net a nice profit.  Especially, now that they removed the CD from creating the raw gems.  Check on a site like wowpopular.com and find your top selling Meta-gems.  Purchase a couple of these, and it will help add to your gold income.

Fifth tip:  Prospect your ore for gems if prices allow it.  More times than not it is cheaper to prospect ore for the gems over buying the raw gems themselves.  Take advantage of your prospect tool and prospect ore for your own gem sells.  Also, prospecting is an important part of the Saronite Shuffle.  The Saronite Shuffle is a technique used to make gold from all the gems you can prospect from Saronite Ore.  If you have an enchanter it can be taken a step even farther than the chart shows.

Update:
Cold from http://coldsgoldfactory.blogspot.com/ made a great point in the comments on an additional way to add epic gems to your stock.  His blog post: http://coldsgoldfactory.blogspot.com/search/label/Wintergrasp%20Shuffle/  explains in detail.  If you haven't checked him out go give him a read.  Thanks Cold.