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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWhy Blizzard needs to put AH data on the Armory
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 20th 2008 at 4:00PM
There is a certain party, a regular emailer to us among our readers, who believes that we here at WoW Insider take a little too long at the start of our posts to get to the actual point of each story, so in this one, I'll just get right down to it: Blizzard needs to put Auction House information on the Armory.I've been on the grind to the 5000g for my epic flying mount lately, and I've been playing the Auction House like a demon: calculating, buying, selling, and crafting my way to as much gold as I can throw together. And while Auctioneer has definitely helped, the best way I've found to track prices and make sure I get the most for my time in the AH is just to see the prices themselves -- no average price calculated by Auctioneer is worth enough as seeing the real thing. And that's where Blizzard comes in -- while there are a few sites that attempt to track prices with various methods, they have actual, constant access to the prices on every server. And they have a great place to put them: on the Armory.
The item pages on the Armory right now are practically empty -- besides some vendor and reagent information, there's almost nothing there (especially compared to, say, Wowhead). Giving player access to AH information would pull them into the game even when they couldn't play, not to mention let some of Blizzard's most talented web programmers -- their fans -- at data that they could do tons of great stuff with. Want a text alert when your favorite mats drop in price, or when there's room on the AH to finally sell off those Elixirs of Agility you've got? By passing out AH info to the Armory, Blizzard could give fans access to the data needed to make their own great tools, not only leaving Blizzard free to work on actual development, but giving us Auction House haunters all the access we need to track prices and have that much more fun playing the AH.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Add-Ons, Making money
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Tutunkommon Aug 20th 2008 4:39PM
The AH selling is fine the way it is. Honestly, the amount of data transfer you are proposing to keep AH information up to date, in real time, across all servers, is more than that system can most likely handle anyway. When the armory started, we were lucky to get data that updated weekly, and even now, there are times that the info is wrong for 2 or 3 days.
The AH *DOES* need a WTB section. That way, the green that I am about to vendor can at least be checked against the demand on AH. If someone wants it, cool. If not, vendor trash.
Code9 Aug 20th 2008 4:48PM
No. Please no.
Celton Aug 20th 2008 4:52PM
Why not just let us log in to our character through a web browser (like on the forums) and purchase things off the AH too, while they're at it? They could even give us access to our bags and bank from offline and we can sell stuff on the AH too, all day long!
/lol
Saraduahn Aug 20th 2008 4:56PM
Good lord - if this idea was implemented, it would utterly and completely destroy your AH money grind towards your epic flying mount.
The whole reason WHY you can make money is because the AH is an inefficient market. Pricing disparities occur, and it gives the astute buyer the opportunity to arbitrage the difference by buying at the "low" price and trying to re-sell at the higher price.
If you had a WoW-wide system for showing the average price at any one time, then everyone will just list the auction item at that price. There will be virtually no pricing disparities - which means your beloved AH gold grind becomes a useless waste of time.
You'd turn the entire system into one huge equipment vendor, where you sell and buy at the "standard" price with nothing dynamic whatsoever.
You make money for your time spent on AH - BECAUSE it is inefficient. The fact that you're willing to take the time to research prices - and someone else isn't - is why you have the chance to know what to buy and how to re-sell it. You're compensated for the time and effort it takes for you to do the research. Eliminate the time and effort, and prices become completely standardized, and you will (correctly) find no financial reward in buying to re-sell in the AH, because there will be no time and effort worth rewarding anymore.
Smurk Aug 20th 2008 5:01PM
You hit 70 last March and you aren't close to having 5000G? And I think you said you have two 70s... I can't understand how you wouldn't have that money, unless you never do dailies or just spend tons of money.
vlad Aug 20th 2008 5:12PM
i use to love idiots that think that they are "playing" the ah with auctioneer. i use to crush you guys all the time.
buy out all of a certain item. usually weapons.
spend a week listing alot of them for 5-6x what they sold for normally. making sure to buy up any that pop up.
now list them for about 2-3x what they sold for normally. all the little auctioneer "playaz" go crazy and buy buy em all up now that there is such a bargain showing in auctioneer.
the playaz get stuck with crap they cant sell for a profit and i made 2x the amount than normal selling price. taking advantage of people that are trying to work the system. its great!!! made good money doing it.
wednesdayware Aug 20th 2008 5:26PM
i think it funny that you think the buyer is dumb for being stuck with overpriced junk, but the other AH junkies will still buy it from him, as you've reset the price point.
rosencratz Aug 20th 2008 5:19PM
I'm afraid this idea is awful.
The reason AH is at all profitable as said before is because not everyone knows an items true worth and thus bargains can be bought and sold. It's also nice that not all servers are the same.
There's nothing i hate more than seeing someone trying to sell somethnig in trade chat and twenty people telling them it's not worth that much or worth way more "noob" according to thottbot or whatever.
If you wanna buy it, buy it, otherwise stop trashing other peoples trade and in the same spirit i don't want Blizz trashing trade too by posting "default" prices for items.
Supply and demand is server specific anyway imo.
Milktub Aug 20th 2008 5:29PM
Lazy person's suggestion you've just made.
The NYSE doesn't pass out guides to stock prices. You need to rely on newspapers or stock brokers for that info.
Likewise, Blizzard shouldn't be there to hold your hand on buying and selling stuff.
Also ... if everyone has the same information, your ability to make money by playing the AH would be eliminated. You would lose your advantage. Right now you can make money by relisting that ore that someone underpriced by 4g per stack because you know what the average market value is. If everyone knows what the average market value is, then they wouldn't undervalue their ore.
dan Aug 20th 2008 6:33PM
"The NYSE doesn't pass out guides to stock prices. You need to rely on newspapers or stock brokers for that info."
...that's exactly what the NYSE does.
PFunk Aug 21st 2008 10:33AM
This would ruin the game economy. It is so incredibly easy to make money on the AH. Once you learn the dynamics, you can make money.
RL Example: I joined a realm(Icecrown) that a coworker was on. He was level 70 and was nowhere near his Epic Flying mount. He sent me 250g seed money and within 2 months, I sent him 4,000g. I spent 20 minutes per day, 5 days a week playing the AH.
The AH is perfect for the folks that take the time to learn what is a good buy and what will never sell, even at a deal. The AH is an in-game profession. Take the time to level your profession.
Matt J Aug 20th 2008 5:35PM
This would be a just a downright horrible idea. If you put this type of info on the web I'd give it about a week and every gold farmer would be using some sort of web script to try to game more gold off the AH.
I have no problem with people trying to make money off the AH, but having AH data available real time outside of the game would make benefit unscrupulous types vastly more than it would an honest player.
Please realize that if you currently use the AH for profit, if such a system were to be implemented you would now have to compete with thousands of new gold farmers whos RL job would be to monitor the AH of ALL realms simultaneously and immediately acquire anything priced below some mean (read average) price.
Please Blizzard no, a thousand times no.
Verit Aug 20th 2008 5:53PM
Having ground 4 epic mounts (and 3 netherdrakes) I can tell you the quickest way to earn that money is to just do dailies - seriously.
You'll tear you're hair out trying to corner an economy run by 12 year olds.
Plus you have more than one level 70 you can make some serious dough doing dailies.
Michael Aug 20th 2008 9:56PM
I'll add to this. Stop spending Gold. Add an income mod such as GoldFu to track your daily in/out. You'll be surprised at how fast 50G disappears. Once you've realized that you are wastefully spending you can start to be more frugal in your decisions.
Lethe Aug 20th 2008 6:00PM
Playing the auction house is easy enough as it is. It's far less profitable now than it was pre-BC, though. This proposed feature is really not needed at all. Back in the days before daily quests and level-cap quest-to-gold implementation, I used to play the AH for profits. It's the way I made the gold needed for epic mount training without doing any traditional farming as well as using no add-ons like auctioneer. This is no longer the case, however. There are much better and more reliable ways to make your gold. I've paid for epic flyer training on two characters, with a third on the way now. Never had any problems making money and never had to grind or farm endlessly for weeks. Add-ons are a crutch people use instead of taking the small amount of time and attention needed to learn about what's going on.
Playing the AH is simple. The only thing it takes is a little effort and intelligence on your part. Best way to start is scanning the auction house on a fairly regular basis. This will give you an idea of the market on your server, what sells well and what doesn't, what is often in demand and what commodities are over-saturated.
My particular specialization was in equipment. Every day I'd do the same thing, didn't take more than ten minutes tops. Set the scan threshold to blues and check shields, then plate, then mail and so on through weapons. With the advent of BC, this area is far less profitable with the addition of heroics, rep and badge gear, all of which are easily accessible.
Making money on the auction house is quite simple. When looking at items you have to think about their value. Who would want the item? Are there a lot of people playing certain classes/specs that would be after the item and what level bracket does it fit into. The classes desiring mail changes around 40 so you need to adjust. How hard is the item to get? An easy to obtain crafting blue is worth far less than world drops. Are there a lot of the particular item or equivalent items for sale currently or recently, and how high is demand for them?
While the market for gear is not at all what it once was, raw materials for crafting are as healthy as ever. Especially when people are looking to power through levels quickly. These people will pay more than normal for mats right away. Sometimes people make mistakes when listing items and when you've been checking the market you already know what people will pay for items. I've bought blue plate shoulders for 85s before and turned around and sold them for 100g. This was absolutely luck on my part, but it helps that I would check the AH on a regular basis.
If you want to reap the rewards, put in the effort. It doesn't take much to understand the server market, there are very few factors influencing the price of goods. Within a week or two people can get a good idea of how things sell and where they can make a profit. Knowledge is half the battle and the other half is charging people who are too ignorant or unconcerned to pay lower prices.
Wow that went on forever. TL:DR version - Learning how your server's market works isn't hard, it just takes a little effort on your part. Logging in to check the AH takes 5-10 minutes and if you aren't able to log in and still want to check the AH, what good will it do to go to a website? You still can't log in and take advantage of anything and market changes happen rapidly. There's also the technical aspect of how frequently new listings and sales happen to make listing them on a website pretty unfeasible.
If you really need money that bad, do dailies, quest-for-gold or use gathering skills to sell raw materials. Not a lot of time invested and great returns for low-to-no risk.
SpearXXI Aug 20th 2008 7:00PM
Even better, I can just picture some businessman using his cellphone to search the auction house and be able to buy whatever, while he is not on WoW. He wouldn't be able to sell, because he would have to be logged in...
Michael Aug 20th 2008 9:49PM
I would love a Blizzard AH Page; great idea.
Wowecon wants to charge me for their services. As soon as I saw Payment Options having clicked Sign Up I backed out faster than a blind dog's tail in a meat market.
No thanks. I already pay too much for PC/Gaming.
Thorn Aug 20th 2008 11:44PM
Very bad suggestion here. The armory would get completely overloaded and unusable if they supplied data that was anywhere near realtime.
And why would you want text alerts for an AH price? Can you imagine... someone stealth-logs mid-PUG so they can get on their bank mule (maybe on another server) and buy [Last Year's Weapon] that just went up on the AH.
No thanks.
SarahTheGnome Aug 21st 2008 5:52AM
I disagree with this article. I think the game should be played, within the game. The armory, as stated before, sucks. Most of the time, it is heavily flawed (EU person here).
And while the writer of this article might play the AH only to reach his 5k gold target, there are many that try to dominate certain areas of AH products. Which is annoying for the people that casually use the AH, as it gives them less room to make money. This group, would be provided a service by implementing this. But the people who use the AH once in a while, or solely to make money of their chosen profession, would suffer. Since they don't feel like checking AH hardcore all the time, but will be forced to since the rest will.
Putting everything on the armory is a trend I do not like. When inviting someone into a party, people not only check their gear, but their talents (and everyone knows best), and soon there will be achievements to rub in people's faces. You can not post on a forum without getting confronted with your lacking arena ratings and you can not have an opinion about PvE without having exalted with the endgame factions.
Here's an idea! Why don't we actually log in to play a game, and not try to frantically control everything while we are out of it? Implementing this would only create more addiction and people committing time they do not have, to this game.
lewisd35 Aug 24th 2008 3:16AM
5000g for epic flight is dead easy with the dailies in less than a month. Why bother messing about with the AH?