Addon Spotlight: AuctionLite
by Eliah Hecht 
Mar 31st 2009 at 8:00PM
Slightly continuing in the vein of "alternatives to," today's Addon Spotlight looks at an addon that some prefer to the mighty Auctioneer. Auctioneer is one of the all-time great WoW addons; it's been around forever and offers pretty much every auction-related feature you could possibly think of. Unfortunately, massive feature set and good book-keeping facilities come at a cost: system resources. There's no denying that Auctioneer is well up there on the list of mods that use rather a lot of memory and CPU.
Enter AuctionLite. The "lite" applies both to its feature set and its resource footprint. It doesn't cover everything Auctioneer does, but the core use cases, at least for me, are covered:
- Track average prices
- Suggest prices for listings based on what's on the market right now (undercut)
- Rapid listing and buyout
- Calculate disenchant prices
- Show auctions that look like good deals
I've been using AuctionLite over Auctioneer for the past week or so, and I've been pretty happy with it. The one Auctioneer feature that I really miss is the ability to calculate prospecting and milling prices, too (although the milling price calculation in Auctioneer was never very good, since it checked prices on resultant pigments instead of on ink).
I also like the interface of AuctionLite better. There were a few features I couldn't figure out how to use without looking at the help on the Curse description page, like buying out multiple auctions at once, and it took me a little longer to list auctions as compared to Auctioneer. However, scanning was much faster (even faster than Auctioneer's newish turbo scan thingy), completing in 10 seconds or so for me, and overall it's a trade-off that I'm more than willing to make for AuctionLite's smaller footprint and more usable auction panel.
There are also two very useful features that AuctionLite has but Auctioneer doesn't (at least as far as I know; Auctioneer is large and sprawling and I'm sure I don't know every feature of it).
- Buying by quantity. If you know you want (say) 12 Dream Shards, AuctionLite will offer to find a collection of auctions to get you 12 shards at the best price. If that entails buying more than you wanted, it'll estimate how much you'll be able to resell the excess for, and your net cost (pictured above).
- Alternate between single price and stack price in tooltips by pressing Shift. I find a need for this much more often than you might think.
So if you fall on the more casual end of the Auctioneer user base, don't need the most advanced features, or want something a little easier to use that won't put a drag on your system, or if you like the sound of AuctionLite's nifty new features, you might want to give it a try. And to MerialKilrogg, whom Curse lists as the developer of AuctionLite: prospecting and milling prices, please? Heck, I've been wanting to get into addon development; maybe I'll just do it myself. After the semester, that is.
[thanks, Merial]
Addons are what we do on Addon Spotlight. Need a bar mod? Want to quickly compare pieces of gear? Covered. And if you have any ideas for mods we should take a look at, drop us a line.
Filed under: Add-Ons, Features, AddOn Spotlight, Making money
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Zeplar Mar 31st 2009 8:06PM
Hmm, this looks interesting... I originally only used Auctioneer to post masses of enchanting mats, and when that feature was removed I quit it. Much too complicated for me to learn, and I don't like making my money by sitting around in the auction house.
This one seems much simpler, though.
popeguilty Mar 31st 2009 8:11PM
I prefer Auctionator, which just looks to see what the prices are RIGHT NOW and goes by that. Takes a bit more personal judgement, but if you're confident that you understand the market, it's pretty handy.
Dave Williams Mar 31st 2009 8:42PM
ABSOLUTELY agree. I'm a big fan of Auctionator, which is lightweight and does everything I want it to, now that it'll split stacks for you.
Merial Mar 31st 2009 10:16PM
Actually, that's what AuctionLite does as well. It'll scan for the item and suggest a price based on what's in the AH right now (using historical prices if there's nothing currently in the AH). Punch in the number/size of stacks you want to post, and it'll do the splitting and posting automatically.
Wulfkin Mar 31st 2009 11:29PM
/agree on Auctionator. It is amazingy easy to use, and i definately seem to have been making more profits lately! :D
Ultranator Mar 31st 2009 8:15PM
Can you still post auctions in bulk like with auctioneer? That's pretty much the only thing I use auctioneer for anymore. I like how once you get that started, it just keeps pulling things out of your bag till you're completely empty. It makes auctioning on my banker very easy.
Merial Apr 1st 2009 5:08AM
You can alt-right-click any item in your bags to load it into the AL sell tab, and you can tell AL to sell multiple stacks of a certain size, but you have to do that separately for each kind of item that you want to sell. I'll see if I can make this easier in future versions!
Zeplar Mar 31st 2009 8:17PM
I would like an enchanting-specific auction addon, really. Enchanting might be the most auction-central profession;
You can buy/de/sell greens for quick profit.
The prices on scrolls are extremely volatile, if you wait until just the right moment you can make 100's of gold of profit.
There is an unlimited market, similar to Jewelcrafting, but the JC prices are much more stable than enchanting prices.
nbcaffeine Mar 31st 2009 9:27PM
Auctioneer has custom "Searchers" now that accomplish exactly this. If you want to DE for profit, but are only skill 275, it will show what you can DE and you can set an expected profit threshold. It's pretty slick, actually.
Grimmtooth Mar 31st 2009 8:45PM
I've been using this for a few weeks and the only thing that I don't like is that I can't just tell it to sell "all" stacks of an item. But that is a minor quibble. It is otherwise a stellar performer.
Merial Mar 31st 2009 10:30PM
On the to-do list. Thanks for the suggestion!
Merial Mar 31st 2009 10:28PM
Thanks for the writeup! I'll add prospecting and milling prices to the to-do list. :-)
If you have any other feedback or suggestions, drop by the AuctionLite page at curse.com and leave a comment!
Cleaved Apr 1st 2009 2:02AM
I wish it displayed "percentages" in the main window when you search by category. That is the main feature I like about Auctioneer. You gather data over time and each day you can see what % of the average price an item is up for. If its 20% of what it typically goes for (100%) then its a great deal and you don't have to worry about comparing individual prices or sorting by actual price... which shows stacks as higher values, therefore lower on the list. I can sort by Percentage with Auctioneer and see all the items (stacks or singles) that are the lowest % of the usual price.
Shawn Apr 1st 2009 9:38AM
Displayed percentages is the main feature for me also. I use auctioneer to sort by % of avg price. I would love a lighter weight addon that did that :)
MusedMoose Apr 1st 2009 12:05AM
I've been looking for a good auction mod so I can sell stuff more efficiently and make more money, and hearing about Auctioneer's drain on system resources had kept me away from it. I'll definitely have to check this one out this weekend. Thanks!
Nikk Apr 1st 2009 1:14PM
"Drain" is a bit of a misnomer, if your system is over the basic specifications needed to run WoW, then Auctioneer, AuctionLite, or Auctionator will run just fine for you.
The Auctioneer Suite offers more features, than any of the three alone, but does, indeed, take up more memory. That said, we have numerous users and developers who run systems that just barely meet the minimum specifications and are able to run the full Auctioneer Suite, along with other AddOns, without problems.
No matter which you choose- all of the authors are more than willing to help you on your way, so simply drop a comment on their sites.
Happy Sales,
Nikk
jdkenada Apr 1st 2009 12:32AM
Been using this since about January or so when I got tired of trying to make a go of the new Auctioneer.
Can't say enough good things about it.
tulu Frostmourne Apr 1st 2009 12:35AM
I'd like a trade addon that lists items you can make for a profit based on current/average prices on the AH.
i.e. profit = Suggested Item price - cost of mats (average or current).
At the moment using Auctioneer, I have to hover over each item write down its expected sale price and then hover of each of the items materials and then do the sums. Repeat for every Item I can make.
birdtongue Aug 25th 2009 12:26AM
if i understand you correctly, Lilsparky's Workshop might be what you're looking for; from the Curse page,
"LilSparky's Workshop adds auction-derived pricing information for trade skills right into the trade skill recipe frame. Each skill is evaluated for material costs and potential value of the item created. These two numbers are listed next to each skill in an easy-to-read format."
it's supposed to be compatible with ATSW, but it's uber-tiny when i use it -- anyone have an alternative to either of these? i love the ability to customize my recipe lists (for example, minus higher-level items, i sorted Tailored clothing by color; enchanting was divided into stats,) but i'm having issues with it atm, and the standard tradeskill ui is maddening.
moozoo Apr 1st 2009 8:30PM
"LilSparky's Workshop" Yes, its close to what I was thinking.
If it opened in its own window, showed the profit and let you sort on the profit column it would be exactly what I was looking for. It would also be good if it listed the number of times the item has been seen on the AH, as an average sell price based on on an item that has only been on a few times is pretty useless.
In reality so few items sell for a profit. so scrolling down the trade window making a mental note of items that make a profit works.
It was great to see what I already knew. Alchemy has very few items that make a profit and I already knew the ones that did. Blacksmithing seems the most profitable of the tradeskills my chars have.