Head to Curse Gaming and find the Auctionator Addon, when I wrote this guide it was at http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/auctionator.aspx. There are two options, automatic install and manual install. I have used both but I would recommend automatic install. If you use automatic install, Curse will have you install a program called Curse Client. It will run in your system tray and allow you to quickly and efficiently update your addons without knowing how they work.
Otherwise, if you choose to use manual install, you will have to download updated versions manually when new patches come out. If you choose this option, download and extract the contents of the zip file from Curse into your World of Warcraft/Interface/Addons directory:
Once the Auctionator folder is inside your World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns folder you can load up World of Warcraft (restart it if it's still running) and it will be installed.
Knowing Prices
The first and most important point I'm including in this section is that knowing prices is THE MOST IMPORTANT aspect to making gold with Auctionator. Auctionator DOES NOT tell you prices (although it gives you SOME informational tooltips), only you can figure these out. It takes awhile to get a feel for each market, and you might make a few mistakes learning it. This is not something I can teach you. I can't tell you that Frozen Orbs will sell between 60-80g consistently or that Dream Shards sell above 20g pretty well so if you see them lower buy them. This is only true for the realms I play on and at the time I wrote this section.
Here is what it looks like, I created a fake test list to protect the innocent:
The first and most important point I'm including in this section is that knowing prices is THE MOST IMPORTANT aspect to making gold with Auctionator. Auctionator DOES NOT tell you prices (although it gives you SOME informational tooltips), only you can figure these out. It takes awhile to get a feel for each market, and you might make a few mistakes learning it. This is not something I can teach you. I can't tell you that Frozen Orbs will sell between 60-80g consistently or that Dream Shards sell above 20g pretty well so if you see them lower buy them. This is only true for the realms I play on and at the time I wrote this section.
I'm also not going to keep these price estimates updated as time goes by, since they will inevitably fluctuate. There is also no right answer when you ask what is a Dream Shard worth. This is dependent on too many variables, what day of the week it is, what time of the day, how many people are playing, if it's Super Bowl Sunday, etc. Once you get a feel for the prices you'll realize that prices are dependent not only on the current market but also on the amount of time you're willing to spend finding a buyer. If you post Dream Shards up for 10g they will sell in minutes. You can sell a single Dream Shard at 30g and it will probably sell but it will take a week or more to find a buyer. The skill here is watching the prices, logging on and posting your inventory at the right time in the right quantities depending on how fast you want to liquidate it.
When Dream Shard demand rises above supply the Auction House will start to get depleted and prices will rise. If you're paying attention you can post remaining inventory at higher prices and they will sell, instead of undercutting the cheapest post.
When Dream Shard demand rises above supply the Auction House will start to get depleted and prices will rise. If you're paying attention you can post remaining inventory at higher prices and they will sell, instead of undercutting the cheapest post.
The Shopping List
The Shopping List is an amazing feature that you've got to be aware of. Every time you do a search with Auctionator it saves the term in the left side, (which is called Recent Searches) and it saves the term even if it's a typo :(. Next time, all you have to do is click on the name of the item on the left and it will automatically search for the item and list the results in the appropriate format! You don't even need a keyboard to make hundreds of gold in a sitting with Auctionator.
The Shopping List is an amazing feature that you've got to be aware of. Every time you do a search with Auctionator it saves the term in the left side, (which is called Recent Searches) and it saves the term even if it's a typo :(. Next time, all you have to do is click on the name of the item on the left and it will automatically search for the item and list the results in the appropriate format! You don't even need a keyboard to make hundreds of gold in a sitting with Auctionator.
'Recent Searches' gets pretty packed, pretty quick. It keeps the most recently and most popularly searched items at the top so the typos and less often search items sink down. It's even more effective to keep Shopping Lists of your favorite items. This way when you login you can load up your Shopping Lists to remember the hot items you have been tracking, you won't forget to look at Dream Shards or Small Dream Shards because they'll be right there. And best of all, you won't need a keyboard :).
Here is what it looks like, I created a fake test list to protect the innocent:
Buy Buy Buy
The buy feature in Auctionator is amazing. It will search, sort and organize all the auctions for a specific item. The best part is that it even shows how many items are in each price range. For instance it will say: 3 stacks of 20 or, for example, 20 stacks of 1; this tells you a lot.
After you click on the Buy tab, all you have to do is either type in the search term or click on one of the items on the left bar. The left bar is automatically populated with recent searches or manually populated with items if you're viewing a shopping list. Play around with the interface to get a feel for how it works.
The coolest thing is that it makes it so easy to buy a ton of auctions. All you have to do is click on the row with the price that you want to pay and click buy in the bottom right. It will then prompt you asking how many of the stacks you want to purchase. This is how I start out most of my auction sessions. I use my recent searches on the left (or shopping lists) to search for my favorite items. When I see the right prices I'll buy them out and post them higher.
Sell Sell Sell
The Sell tab is the most useful part of Auctionator. Instead of selling things individually, calculating and entering the values for each item, you can rapidly sell dozens of an item in a matter of seconds. Once you have the Sell tab selected, you just drag the item from your inventory into the Auction Item box in the top left. You can see here I put up my 149 Relic(s) of Ulduar. Auctionator will automatically load the list of matching items in the right column and let you select which position you want to sell them at.
I had a friend who didn't know he could select the price on the right side, he thought that Auctionator always undercut the lowest price. I showed him how to do this and he was extremely pleased. In the screen shot below I will probably post the Relics above the 2g 11s or maybe above the Relics for 2g 0s. Either way, all I have to do is select the price that I want to undercut and it will calculate the new individual and total prices.
Once you have the price highlighted you can select the duration of your auction. Always keep track of what the deposit is, if this goes too high you might need to lower your price to ensure that the auction will sell before the time expires. Finally, click either Create Auction, which, if possible, will sell everything in 1 stack or select Create Multiple Auctions and it will bring up this dialog:
This dialog lets you post auctions in the stack size that you want. For Dream Shards I would mostly do 5-10 stacks of 1, in this case I will do a 1 stack of 100 Relic(s) of Ulduar since this stack size sells very good.
Big Stack Small Stack
A lot of people post large stacks of high volume items at low prices so that they will sell quickly. It almost seems like they do this so people like me can pickup the stack, split it up and repost it for a profit. Who else is going to buy, for example, 20 Frozen Orbs for 50g each? All 3 tabs in Auctionator are really good ways to hunt down big stacks. You can even do this from the default search screen, but I don't recommend EVER using that (unless Auctionator starts saying there are no auctions and if that happens then logout or switch auction NPCs. Here's what a really good big stack looks like for Dream Shards:
This guy posted 80 Dream Shards at 17g each. I had already bought 1 stack and sold 12 of them for 24.55 and after this screenshot I bought the rest. These have been consistently selling for 22-30g on my realm, so I'm very confident that I will be able to sell them. So for a 1360g investment I can immediately start posting these up at the positions I want, and I don't have to wait for prices to adjust to make my profit. I'll probably sell these over the next several days for a total of, AT LEAST, 1800g for a nice ~440g profit.
It's good to keep stack size in mind when posting or buying. Imagine a scenario where you want to post 5 Dream Shards and the cheapest price listed is 17g. You need to look at that 17g listing and see how big the stack is. If it says 1 stack of 20, or 2 stacks of 20, you don't need to go that low with your price. Most people who buy things like Dream Shards don't buy stacks of Dream shards they buy individuals. They will search for the cheapest individually priced Dream Shard and buy that one. The above image is a good example of this. I'll post 5-10 Dream Shards at 24g 24s right after I buy them for 17g each.
However, THIS IS NOT TRUE FOR ALL ITEMS; particularly I've noticed that Relic(s) of Ulduar sell better in large stacks (of course so does cloth, ore, bars, herbs, etc). This is probably because people want to buy large even numbers for turn ins. I've been buying ALL RELICS for <1g>
Splitting and Combining Cosmic Essences
Watching Cosmic Essences is fun. At the time I write this Greater Cosmic Essences (Greaters) sell from 11-18g consistently. Lessers sell for 3-8g each. Do the math and you'll see these match up pretty well. But the fun part is that they don't always match up, in fact they actually hardly match up in my experience. In the last week alone I've seen Lessers selling for 3g each and Greaters selling for 15g, that's a 6g profit. It's not a ton but it's a really good thing to throw into the mix. This works both ways, you can find Greaters for sale for 12g buy them and split them and 20 minutes later sell them for 5g 50s each (I did this today!). Why would anyone buy a Greater Essence for 15g when there's a stack of Lessers for sale for 3g each? Who knows these things?
Watching Cosmic Essences is fun. At the time I write this Greater Cosmic Essences (Greaters) sell from 11-18g consistently. Lessers sell for 3-8g each. Do the math and you'll see these match up pretty well. But the fun part is that they don't always match up, in fact they actually hardly match up in my experience. In the last week alone I've seen Lessers selling for 3g each and Greaters selling for 15g, that's a 6g profit. It's not a ton but it's a really good thing to throw into the mix. This works both ways, you can find Greaters for sale for 12g buy them and split them and 20 minutes later sell them for 5g 50s each (I did this today!). Why would anyone buy a Greater Essence for 15g when there's a stack of Lessers for sale for 3g each? Who knows these things?
Closing Spreads
I call it a spread when items get listed with a large range of prices as a result of several poorly planned undercuts. Here's a hypothetical example of what I mean. Let's say you search for Dream Shards and see (5x1 means 5 stacks of 1):
10x1@24g
5x1@23g
12x1@22g <--- SPREAD TOP 1x1@21g
1x5@20g
1x1@19g
3x1@18g <--- SPREAD BOTTOM
What we see here is that the 1x5 stack isn't an individual stack so most buyers aren't going to buy this stack. So now we see the spread a little different, 3 items are blocking the price at 18g, 1 is sitting at 19g, the one at 20g isn't going to sell to most buyers and there is only 1 at 21g. What you can do here is buy the 5 individual Dream Shards at 18g, 19g and 20g and repost them either at 21g 90s or competitively somewhere higher on the stack. This might seem obscure or unlikely, maybe it seems obvious to you (that's good) my point is that sometimes items are priced lower than they seem. In this example the 18g Shards are a steal, ESPECIALLY considering the range that Dream Shards usually sell.
You really have to look at stack sizes and the quantity of items that are selling at the prices to determine how much you can afford or risk to move to higher prices. Just last night I saw Abyssal Crystals in a similar setup, however the price differences were in 5g segments so it was a much better deal. I was able to buyout all the individual Abyssal Crystals below 100g and repost them all and sell them all that night. I believe my total investment there was about 400g and I resold them for just a little less than 500g. If I hadn't bought out the low posted Crystals the perceived value of the Crystals would have stayed well below 100 gold and I wouldn't have been able to sell the others that high. Here's a real example, notice where the REAL value of Shards is:
Watching Your Existing Auctions
After you've posted everything and spent 20-30 minutes shopping, buying, selling and making numerous trips from the mailbox and back you've got to remember to check your More tab. This will give you a recap of what you're doing. It will even show you if you're still holding the cheapest position with all the items you have posted (green check mark) or if you have been undercut (red X). Most of the time if you've been undercut it's not the end of the world, prices will adjust and your item will have its time. Notice how many Dream Shards I have up right now, I took this picture in the evening when everyone was posting so prices were dropping quickly, they'll come back up though.
Other times you might need to immediately repost your item and undercut the other guy. Items like Frozen Orbs, Abyssal Shards and lvl 213 epics might experience price inflation and you might know that's about as high as they are going to go. To milk that opportunity you need to undercut by a small amount keeping the price high but keeping the best position so that when a buyer comes around your item sells.
In times like this (when demand is lower than supply but the prices remain inflated), you want to keep the best position on the Auction House while prices adjust downward. Just because there are more sellers than buyers doesn't mean there aren't buyers who aren't going to wait for prices to adjust before making a purchase. There's a button on the bottom you can click to refresh all active auctions or you can select them individually and they will update.
No Deposit Items
You don't have to be an enchanter to make a ton off enchants. Items like Dream Shards, Small Dream Shards, Lesser & Greater Cosmic Essences, Abyssal Crystals and even Frozen Orbs (this isn't an all inclusive list, there are more!) have ABSOLUTELY NO DEPOSIT! That means you can post them at any price you want for up to 48 hours and not pay anything if they don't sell. You can even take them down if you want to reposition them. I don't know why Blizzard did this, maybe to create an economy just around these items, whatever the reason this is the best place to start for beginners to start playing the WoW market.
Start with a few items at a time, like Dream Shards and Greater Cosmic Essences, start watching them and learning how their prices move. If you're a risk taker, which you'll need to be in order to be really successful, buy a stack or a few low priced items and sneak them in at different prices.This way you can see that it's not only the lowest item that sells (well, it is, but during times of heavy buying an expensive Dream Shard will EVENTUALLY sell even though it wasn't posted as the cheapest). Posting your items in the cheapest spot isn't ALWAYS the best strategy, it's mostly for people who are impatient or have a lot of inventory. With no deposit items, you can play around without risking a deposit. It's also useful for high volume items you have a ton of and need to get rid of, just make sure you're making a suitable profit.
Adjusting Your Undercut
In the Auctionator menu (in the top right) there's an Undercutting menu. You've got to adjust your undercut. This won't only help you make money but it will help everyone else who is playing this game. Ever notice how prices step downward. For instance someone posts a Dream Shard at 30g, then someone posts one for 29g 90s, next someone for 28g, next 27g 90s, next 27g 80s, etc. The people who undercut by exactly 10s are probably using an addon, the people who undercut by a whole number of gold are both impatient, crazy and not using an addon. Now if everyone used an addon it would take 10 posters to undercut 1 gold (10 silver per poster). This isn't bad, but if everyone used an addon that undercut by only 1 silver instead of 10 it would take 100 posters to bring the price down by 1 gold. Of course that's pretty idealistic. Some people might say that if you don't lower the prices enough people won't buy, that's hogwash. Most people who need a Dream Shard for an enchant aren't going to shop around for it, they are just going to pay the cheapest price on the Auction House. When they do this, they get a warm fuzzy feeling inside because they think they got a great deal.
Here are the undercuts I use. This will instantly increase all of your profits.
Finding, Buying and Reselling Hot Items
Finding, buying and reselling hot items on the Auction House is one of the best things you can do with any character, regardless of it's level and with only a little bit of gold. The trick is to know which items will sell, how long they will take to sell and how much that buyer will pay. Some items, like specific greens, might appear to be worth only 10-25g but in reality a new level 68 Death Knight might have the bank to drop 150g on a chest piece with the right stats. Twinks will also buy some items for insane amounts, since your realm might only see a few of a specific item get posted every month. Disenchanters also have the ability to scan the Auction House and buy greens within certain level ranges below their disenchant value (see the Enchanting section for more details). Below I'm going to share the items that I watch for, and the approximate values they are worth.
Finding, buying and reselling hot items on the Auction House is one of the best things you can do with any character, regardless of it's level and with only a little bit of gold. The trick is to know which items will sell, how long they will take to sell and how much that buyer will pay. Some items, like specific greens, might appear to be worth only 10-25g but in reality a new level 68 Death Knight might have the bank to drop 150g on a chest piece with the right stats. Twinks will also buy some items for insane amounts, since your realm might only see a few of a specific item get posted every month. Disenchanters also have the ability to scan the Auction House and buy greens within certain level ranges below their disenchant value (see the Enchanting section for more details). Below I'm going to share the items that I watch for, and the approximate values they are worth.
My Favorite Hot Items (enchanting and crafting mats)
Dream Shards, Abyss Crystals and Frozen Orbs are my favorite items to watch. They regularly fluctuate in price and sell in high volume (read the Getting Started section above for more details on how to start tracking your realm's prices).Frozen Orbs sell in high volume and most buyers are impulsive. Players who finish a heroic after winning the roll on the Frozen Orb are impatient to sell and will usually sell way below market price. You can make 100g an hour ONLY buying Frozen Orbs in Trade Channel. You can find both Dream Shards and Abyss Crystals in bulk from enchanters who don't follow the market and know their price. Learn the prices of your realm and start advertising in trade that you buy. When the opportunities come around you can make some serious coin this way. Since Patch 3.2 came out Titanium Ore has sustained high volume and will drop very low when farmers return with their harvest (they are usually desperate to sell fast). You can still find farmers who will sell below the old price and you can turn around and sell at the new higher price.Even without farmers you can watch Titanium Ore like any other item. Titansteel Bars fluctuate just enough to be a good item to watch. You can also buy Eternal Fires, Shadows, Earths and Titanium and pay Miners for their Smelt Titansteel cooldown. In just an hour of advertising in trade you can make well over 100g paying people very little to smelt a half dozen Titansteel Bars. Make sure you buy the Eternals and Titanium when prices are low. Eternals are also easy to watch. Once you get a feel for how they fluctuate you can buy stacks of 20 at very low prices when farmers return with their harvest. I recently picked up over 80 Eternal Airs that were all priced at 2g 20s and resold them all between 8-12g each. Among the 6 Eternals, Eternal Fires are the best to watch since they fluctuate the most and spike above 25g.
Dream Shards, Abyss Crystals and Frozen Orbs are my favorite items to watch. They regularly fluctuate in price and sell in high volume (read the Getting Started section above for more details on how to start tracking your realm's prices).Frozen Orbs sell in high volume and most buyers are impulsive. Players who finish a heroic after winning the roll on the Frozen Orb are impatient to sell and will usually sell way below market price. You can make 100g an hour ONLY buying Frozen Orbs in Trade Channel. You can find both Dream Shards and Abyss Crystals in bulk from enchanters who don't follow the market and know their price. Learn the prices of your realm and start advertising in trade that you buy. When the opportunities come around you can make some serious coin this way. Since Patch 3.2 came out Titanium Ore has sustained high volume and will drop very low when farmers return with their harvest (they are usually desperate to sell fast). You can still find farmers who will sell below the old price and you can turn around and sell at the new higher price.Even without farmers you can watch Titanium Ore like any other item. Titansteel Bars fluctuate just enough to be a good item to watch. You can also buy Eternal Fires, Shadows, Earths and Titanium and pay Miners for their Smelt Titansteel cooldown. In just an hour of advertising in trade you can make well over 100g paying people very little to smelt a half dozen Titansteel Bars. Make sure you buy the Eternals and Titanium when prices are low. Eternals are also easy to watch. Once you get a feel for how they fluctuate you can buy stacks of 20 at very low prices when farmers return with their harvest. I recently picked up over 80 Eternal Airs that were all priced at 2g 20s and resold them all between 8-12g each. Among the 6 Eternals, Eternal Fires are the best to watch since they fluctuate the most and spike above 25g.
Raid Bind on Equips
A lot of PUGs are running Naxx, Malygos, Obsidian Sanctum and even Ulduar these days, and when BoEs drop either the raid leader nabs them or they do a roll. Shortly afterwards you'll see a confused person in trade trying to sell a ilvl 200+ epic item. The secret is, they usually have no idea how much it is worth. To be honest, sometimes I don't, but that doesn't stop me from being the first person to offer them 500g, or 1000 gold after doing a quick wowhead search to confirm it's a valuable item. Whenever you see someone in trade selling a level 80 epic, check the iLvl, and if it's above or equal to 200 look up the item as quickly as possible and if you can, ask someone who plays the class who would equip it how good it is. If it's a BiS (best in slot) item, make a lowball offer and see if you can resell it. Always post these items with a different character than the one you trade with. Throw them up for 2-3x as much as you expect to get for them. Then, sit in trade with your trade character selling the same item offering to undercut the person who is selling it on the Auction House for the ridiculous price. Buyers will feel like they are getting a good deal and you'll be able to work down to a fair price.
A lot of PUGs are running Naxx, Malygos, Obsidian Sanctum and even Ulduar these days, and when BoEs drop either the raid leader nabs them or they do a roll. Shortly afterwards you'll see a confused person in trade trying to sell a ilvl 200+ epic item. The secret is, they usually have no idea how much it is worth. To be honest, sometimes I don't, but that doesn't stop me from being the first person to offer them 500g, or 1000 gold after doing a quick wowhead search to confirm it's a valuable item. Whenever you see someone in trade selling a level 80 epic, check the iLvl, and if it's above or equal to 200 look up the item as quickly as possible and if you can, ask someone who plays the class who would equip it how good it is. If it's a BiS (best in slot) item, make a lowball offer and see if you can resell it. Always post these items with a different character than the one you trade with. Throw them up for 2-3x as much as you expect to get for them. Then, sit in trade with your trade character selling the same item offering to undercut the person who is selling it on the Auction House for the ridiculous price. Buyers will feel like they are getting a good deal and you'll be able to work down to a fair price.
Here's the WoTLK raid BoE lists, you should familiarize yourself with the lists when you have time:
A twink is a character who stops leveling at a certain point, usually level 19 or 29, and collects the best piece of gear for each slot to fight in battlegrounds against other people in their level's bracket (level 10-19 or 20-29). Most people choose Hunters or Rogues to twink. Twink gear, the best stuff for levels 19 and 29, is worth tons given the right customer. Some items, like an Assassin's Blade, can fetch a price of 500g for someone's twink. Since a server might not see this item again for a long time, twinks will dump their wallet for a chance to have the best possible piece of gear for their level. The best way to find these is to search the Auction House for level 19:
- Ulduar Normal: http://www.wowhead.com/?items&filter=qu=4:5:6;cr=105:2;crs=4273:2;crv=0:0#0-2+1
- Ulduar Heroic: http://www.wowhead.com/?items&filter=qu=4:5:6;cr=106:2;crs=4273:2;crv=0:0
- Eye of Eternity (Malygos) Normal: http://www.wowhead.com/?items&filter=qu=4:5:6;cr=105:2;crs=4500:2;crv=0:0
- Eye of Eternity (Malygos) Heroic:http://www.wowhead.com/?items&filter=qu=4:5:6;cr=106:2;crs=4500:2;crv=0:0
- Naxxramas Normal: http://www.wowhead.com/?items&filter=qu=4:5:6;cr=105:2;crs=3456:2;crv=0:0
- Naxxramas Heroic: http://www.wowhead.com/?items&filter=qu=4:5:6;cr=106:2;crs=3456:2;crv=0:0
- Obsidian Sanctum Normal: http://www.wowhead.com/?items&filter=qu=4:5:6;cr=105:2;crs=4493:2;crv=0:0
- Obsidian Sanctum Heroic: http://www.wowhead.com/?items&filter=qu=4:5:6;cr=106:2;crs=4493:2;crv=0:0
A twink is a character who stops leveling at a certain point, usually level 19 or 29, and collects the best piece of gear for each slot to fight in battlegrounds against other people in their level's bracket (level 10-19 or 20-29). Most people choose Hunters or Rogues to twink. Twink gear, the best stuff for levels 19 and 29, is worth tons given the right customer. Some items, like an Assassin's Blade, can fetch a price of 500g for someone's twink. Since a server might not see this item again for a long time, twinks will dump their wallet for a chance to have the best possible piece of gear for their level. The best way to find these is to search the Auction House for level 19:
The next challenge is identifying items that are undervalued before someone else does. You can use Auctioneer to show %s next to the price of each item (as discussed in the intro), this can help you pick out under-priced items to re-list. Otherwise, I've compiled some lists of items that I watch out for. Don't expect to find these items the first time you search the Auction House. I do these searches almost daily.
Here's a list of level 19 twink items. Keep in mind the average value column is an average over all realms, so this can vary on your realm and, in my experience, most items will sell for a lot more.
- Shadowfang 550g
- Assassin's Blade 250g
- Darkweave Breeches 150g
- Magefist Gloves 110g
- Mindthrust Bracers 100g
- Staff of the Blessed Seer 100g
- Twisted Chanter's Staff 90g
- Boahn's Fang 50g
- Ironpatch Blade 50g
- Keller's Girdle 50g
- Night Reaver 50g
- Sentry Cloak 50g
- Burning War Axe 120g
- Vendetta 120g
- Gnarled Ash Staff 90g
- Vibroblade 80g
- Oscillating Power Hammer 50g
- Dense Triangle Mace 50g
- Staff of the Shade 50g
- Supercharger Battle Axe 45g
- Looming Gavel 40g
- Zealot Blade 40g
Level 40, 58 and 68 Greens
There are three more categories of gear that are very popular. The first is level 40 plate and mail. At level 40 Warriors and Paladins gain access to plate armor and Shamans and Hunters gain access to mail armor. This means that most characters will rush to the Auction House (if they didn't already in preparation of) to upgrade their level 30s mail to plate or leather to mail. So our job is to make sure that the prices accurately reflect the supply & demand curve (aka, we screw them by price gouging).
There are three more categories of gear that are very popular. The first is level 40 plate and mail. At level 40 Warriors and Paladins gain access to plate armor and Shamans and Hunters gain access to mail armor. This means that most characters will rush to the Auction House (if they didn't already in preparation of) to upgrade their level 30s mail to plate or leather to mail. So our job is to make sure that the prices accurately reflect the supply & demand curve (aka, we screw them by price gouging).
- Hunters upgrading to mail - of the Monkey
- Shamans upgrading to mail - of the Eagle, Falcon, Monkey
- Warriors upgrading to plate - of the Monkey or Tiger
- Paladins upgrading to plate - of the Eagle, Bear, Monkey or Tiger
The next big cut offs are level 58 & 68. Characters leveling through the 50s & 60s end up with really crappy gear compared to the Outland greens that open up at 58 and Northrend greens that open up at 68. Once they hit that level all bets are off because they gain access to all the greens that drop in Outland/Northrend. The stats on these greens are scaled entirely different and will make it possible for a level 58 to breeze through Hellfire Peninsula or a 68 to breeze through Howling Fjord or Borean Tundra. I purchase these greens, particularly the most popular of them, and resell them a lot higher.
You can tell the difference between an Outland item and an Old World item by it's iLvl (visible with ItemLevel AddOn or Auctioneer). Outland greens start at iLvl 84, You won't find a green from the Old World that high. The same applies for Northrend items, however those greens start at 130. The greens in Outlands go to about 111. You can't just buy out all greens though. I stick to suffix items because they are so easy to interpret and re-list. For example, you wouldn't want to try to resell cloth 'of the Falcon' since it has agility on it (what cloth wearer is going to use agility?). Neither would you want anything that is 'of the Wolf', since Wolf is a combination of Agility and Spirit. The most popular suffix items are 'of the Monkey' plate armor. The reason being, all three plate wearers, Paladins, Death Knights and Warriors can use this stuff.
In conclusion, purchase any level 58 or 68 leather/mail/plate of the Monkey/Tiger if it's price doesn't already reflect this increased demand. Be careful, make sure the stats reflect Outland or Northrend stats, don't accidentally buy a level 53 green of the monkey and try to resell it.
Rare Pets
A niche you may want to look into if you have the time is pets. Pets are very popular with many players and you can make decent profit by selling them on the Auction House. In the Leisure section of the guide buying holiday pets is discussed but in this section I'm going to talk about selling pets on the neutral Auction House. I should also note that often times you can sell your faction's pets on your Auction House because many players are too lazy to visit the vendor to buy it themselves, don't realize that the item is bought from a vendor, certain pets require certain faction or currency to be purchased that many players don't have, and because some are on limited supply vendors that must be farmed.
A niche you may want to look into if you have the time is pets. Pets are very popular with many players and you can make decent profit by selling them on the Auction House. In the Leisure section of the guide buying holiday pets is discussed but in this section I'm going to talk about selling pets on the neutral Auction House. I should also note that often times you can sell your faction's pets on your Auction House because many players are too lazy to visit the vendor to buy it themselves, don't realize that the item is bought from a vendor, certain pets require certain faction or currency to be purchased that many players don't have, and because some are on limited supply vendors that must be farmed.
The pets in the tables below are some pets that you can buy from vendors and then sell on the Auction House if you choose to do so.
- Cat Carrier (White Kitten) - 150g - Lil Timmy in Stormwind City
- Mana Wyrmling - 60g - Dealer Rashaad in Netherstorm
- Brown Rabbit Crate - 30g - Dealer Rashaad in Netherstorm
- Blue Dragonhawk Hatchling - 25g - Dealer Rashaad in Netherstorm
- Red Moth Egg - 25g - Dealer Rashaad in Netherstorm
- Wood Frog Box - 25g - Flik in Terrokar Forest
- Cat Carrier (Siamese) - 15g - Dealer Rashaad in Netherstorm
- Ancona Chicken - 5g - Magus Tirth in Thousand Needles
- Black Kingsnake - 5g - Xan'tish in Orgrimmar
- Blue Moth Egg- 5g - Sixx in The Exodar
- Brown Snake - 5g - Xan'tish in Orgrimmar
- Cat Carrier (Orange Tabby) - 5g - Donni Anthania in Elwynn Forest
- Cockroach - 5g - Dealer Rashaad in Netherstorm or Jeremiah Payson in Undercity
- Crimson Snake - 5g - Dealer Rashaad in Netherstorm or Xan'tish in Orgrimmar
- Golden Dragonhawk Hatchling - 5g - Jilanne in Eversong Woods
- Great Horned Owl - 5g - Shylenai in Darnassus
- Hawk Owl - 5g - Shylenai in Darnassus
- Prairie Dog Whistle - 5g -Halpa in Thunder Bluff
- Rabbit Crate (Snowshoe) - 5g - Yarlyn Amberstill in Dun Morogh
- Red Dragonhawk Hatchling - 5g - Jilanne in Eversong Woods
- Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling - 5g - Jilanne in Eversong Woods
- Tree Frog Box - 5g - Flik in Terrokar Forest
- White Moth Egg - 5g - Sixx in The Exodar
- Yellow Moth Egg - 5g - Sixx in The Exodar
There are a few pets that drop around the world. However, they are so ridiculously difficult to obtain that they are not worth farming, even though they sell for upwards of 1,000 gold. I wanted to include a list of these in case you see them under priced on the Auction House. If you do see them, do some quick research to make sure there drop rate hasn't been recently increased. Otherwise, pick them up and try to make bank off of them. Here's the list (I've excluded their source for simplicity):
Let's say you've been farming Relics of Ulduar in The Storm Peaks to sell on the Auction House, well you are already aware of how much you get for them, so what's to stop you from buying out any of them that are cheap and reselling them. I'm just using these as examples, there's no limit to how many items you can control.
When you focus on things that you already know and do (area of competence), making gold is that much easier for you because you're always one step ahead of the competition.
Artificially Inflating Prices
This strategy involves using two or more characters in order to convince a potential buyer that an item is worth more than it actually is. In many of the crafting professions I've outlined specific pieces of gear that can be crafted and posted, in other cases I've talked about particular rare items which have prices that are very negotiable. These exclude items that are easy to obtain. A great example would be a bind on equip epic from normal Naxxramas, or the BoE epics that drop from heroic instances. The price might be difficult to gauge and if you begin negotiations with another player you'll want to make sure you have something to base your offer on. You can do this by putting the item on the Auction House using an alt with a different name. Put it up for, say, 2200g, and then advertise in trade that you're selling the same item for only 1500g (700g less than the Auction House), but only for a limited time because you need gold NOW! Alternatively, if you're quiet about it, a buyer might ask 'how much?' and you can respond with 'hold on, let me check the Auction House'. Keep this trick in mind when dealing with low supply/questionable valued items.
Pre-Patch Buyouts
On Tuesday's the servers oftentimes go down for maintenance or patch. When these servers go offline people aren't able to access anything, not even login. But you'll be surprised to learn that the Auction House doesn't stop ticking time away on the auctions. This means if you post an auction sometime before the server goes down, there will be a period of time when no one is able to buy it. So how does this work in your favor? Simple! If you know a patch day or maintenance day is coming, the night before or hours before the patch, you go into the Auction House and just bid on everything that's priced low. Not buyout, BID! It's important that you bid because the buyout price is usually significant higher than the bid price. If you find auctions that will expire before the server goes down no one else will be able to bid on that same item and best of all, if the person who posted the Auction didn't get a bid for what they wanted, they won't be able to login and cancel the auction. This means you can basically steal items for bid that are expiring prior to maintenance / patch days. This also means you shouldn't post auctions before these days because the same could happen to you!
- Disgusting Oozeling 3,500g
- Tiny Emerald Whelpling 2,200g
- Tiny Crimson Whelpling 1,500g
- Azure Whelpling 1,000g
- Captured Firefly 1,000g
- Cat Carrier (Black Tabby) 1,000g
- Black Whelpling 1,000g
How to Find your Own Niche to Sell
Finding your own niche is not as hard as it sounds. What you want to do here is start with everything you're knowledgeable with. For example, if you're a Blacksmith, you know exactly what you can make and you know exactly how much it should sell for...or maybe you don't and that's why you need to search for items you craft in the Auction House to see if anyone is selling them and how much they are selling for. You can do this with every profession you have.
Finding your own niche is not as hard as it sounds. What you want to do here is start with everything you're knowledgeable with. For example, if you're a Blacksmith, you know exactly what you can make and you know exactly how much it should sell for...or maybe you don't and that's why you need to search for items you craft in the Auction House to see if anyone is selling them and how much they are selling for. You can do this with every profession you have.
Another way to find a niche is to base it off what you are currently doing in game. If you're doing daily quests and you recognize a quest requires a reagent that is in high demand by other players, see what that reagent is going for on the Auction House. Or maybe you run instances all day and you have Frozen Orbs or something else that drops in the instance and you can control those niches. Anything you regularly obtain or regularly sell gives you a huge advantage over other players when looking for your own niche to make money off of.
Let's say you've been farming Relics of Ulduar in The Storm Peaks to sell on the Auction House, well you are already aware of how much you get for them, so what's to stop you from buying out any of them that are cheap and reselling them. I'm just using these as examples, there's no limit to how many items you can control.
Some people on my server don't craft or even do anything in the game except check the Auction House. You'll find them buying out gear that they know is cheap just to resell it at a higher price. This one guy buys "of the champion" tanking gear from Wrath of the Lich King and resells it for over 100g a piece. Normal players who randomly obtain these items have no idea what their value is and when they list it in the Auction House for 10g he's already in there buying it and relisting it for a much higher price.
When you focus on things that you already know and do (area of competence), making gold is that much easier for you because you're always one step ahead of the competition.
Miscellaneous Strategies
Artificially Inflating Prices
This strategy involves using two or more characters in order to convince a potential buyer that an item is worth more than it actually is. In many of the crafting professions I've outlined specific pieces of gear that can be crafted and posted, in other cases I've talked about particular rare items which have prices that are very negotiable. These exclude items that are easy to obtain. A great example would be a bind on equip epic from normal Naxxramas, or the BoE epics that drop from heroic instances. The price might be difficult to gauge and if you begin negotiations with another player you'll want to make sure you have something to base your offer on. You can do this by putting the item on the Auction House using an alt with a different name. Put it up for, say, 2200g, and then advertise in trade that you're selling the same item for only 1500g (700g less than the Auction House), but only for a limited time because you need gold NOW! Alternatively, if you're quiet about it, a buyer might ask 'how much?' and you can respond with 'hold on, let me check the Auction House'. Keep this trick in mind when dealing with low supply/questionable valued items.
Pre-Patch Buyouts
On Tuesday's the servers oftentimes go down for maintenance or patch. When these servers go offline people aren't able to access anything, not even login. But you'll be surprised to learn that the Auction House doesn't stop ticking time away on the auctions. This means if you post an auction sometime before the server goes down, there will be a period of time when no one is able to buy it. So how does this work in your favor? Simple! If you know a patch day or maintenance day is coming, the night before or hours before the patch, you go into the Auction House and just bid on everything that's priced low. Not buyout, BID! It's important that you bid because the buyout price is usually significant higher than the bid price. If you find auctions that will expire before the server goes down no one else will be able to bid on that same item and best of all, if the person who posted the Auction didn't get a bid for what they wanted, they won't be able to login and cancel the auction. This means you can basically steal items for bid that are expiring prior to maintenance / patch days. This also means you shouldn't post auctions before these days because the same could happen to you!
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