Gold Capped Ask an Auctioneer: My first mailbag
by Basil Berntsen 
Jul 21st 2010 at 10:00PM
I've gotten quite the mail bag of questions emailed to me. I'm going to select a few and answer them approximately whenever I feel like it. Remember when writing your question that if you want to remain anonymous, all you need to do is ask!
The first question comes to us from Mahgo, from Dath'Remar (US):
I am emailing your for some advice regarding making gold on the auction house. I have most professions at max level.
I currently use Auctioneer to undercut when I am selling what I make. Do you have any advice or could you please point me for some help regarding niche markets, or how to tackle the whole market?
You're well set for more markets than any one person probably has time for. To start off with, make a point of scheduling your easy money. A few of the professions you've listed have cooldowns that have profitability baked in. Alchemy has epic gem transmutes, tailoring has bag cooldowns and jewelcrafting has the daily token quest that can net you a Dragon's Eye. Arrange your time so that you can do these very profitable activities as often as they're available. It's not scalable, but it's a sure thing.
Secondly, it's good to hear that you're using an addon to help with this. Auctioneering would be a massive pain in the neck if we couldn't automate stuff like buying and selling. You should consider adding Lilsparky's Workshop to your list so you can focus your crafting time on the most profitable markets. I posted a guide in my blacksmithing piece about how to use it. I assume you're looking for niche markets because they're generally more profitable, so skip the "niche" requirement and just go for profitable.
That said, if you're looking for niche markets because you want to avoid the heavy competition, you might want to look into blue quality gems and BoA enchant scrolls.
Cash for an epic flyer
Varkul from Azuremyst writes:
You're where a lot of us started off. I'm glad to hear you say that you're aware of how much (or little) you spend, as this is by far the biggest hurdle for most players. I'm not going to advise that you scrimp, though. You should be able to increase your income enough that you can afford not only your epic flyer, but also the little luxuries that people tend to want.I'm trying to get my epic flyer on my first 80 and it's painfully slow. I can only seem to stay at 1.5k g, and I don't buy anything. Can I have some advice on how to make the extra 2.5k (I have the rep bonus) as fast as I can so I will be ready for Cataclysm?
Start off by reading my casual auctioneering post. Pay particularly close attention to the "materials conversion" section. Basically, buying eternal elementals and selling them in crystallized form (you can right click on, for example, an Eternal Fire to make 10 Crystallized Fires) is slow but steady profits on most realm. There are a couple of different markets that work this way and require no up-front investment in a trade skill. The demand and profits are generated by the fact that some people really only want one or two of them and are willing to pay more so they don't have leftovers.
Also, while you didn't mention your trade skills, if one of your skills happens to be a gathering profession, consider farming out the money you need. Obviously without an epic flyer, doing it in Northrend or Outland would be tedious; however, assuming you have the fast land mount, consider farming in the high-level areas of the old world. Some older farmables will sell for more than their modern counterparts, simply because people need them to level professions.
Item listing totals
Vorin from Kilrogg writes:
I don't think Auctioneer supports that out of the box. As for your second question, however, I'd strongly suggest you take a look at my guide to using the snatch feature.Is there a way to get Auctioneer to tell you how many times you've listed a specific item? Either via a search or a tooltip note? Also, I would love a quick rundown on the Snatch List. I've heard it praised, but have yet to figure it out, nor have I found a simple explanation on its use.
Well, that's it, folks! This is as much wisdom as I can stuff in under my word limit. Stay tuned for more of the same, and keep sending me questions!
[Image credit: Stephoto]
Maximize your profits with more advice from Gold Capped, plus the author's Call to Auction podcast. Do you have questions about selling, reselling and building your financial empire on the auction house? Basil is now taking questions for a special series, "Ask an auctioneer"; email basil@wow.com. Filed under: Gold Capped
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Cale Jul 21st 2010 11:01PM
Your articles are succinct, direct and helpful. Thanks!
Also, a question that I hope someone in the community can answer: How often do you have to update Auctioneer so that it's estimations accurately reflect current AH prices? What happens if I have a choppy history of updating the prices? Is there any way (short of reinstalling Auctioneer) to wipe the history or get it to update to current prices?
Thanks fellow wow.com peeps!
SunGod228 Jul 21st 2010 11:30PM
I don't know offhand about how to clear the data, but I know it can be done.
In regards to how often you should scan. For the first 2 weeks of a fresh data set, at least 3 times a day, morning, afternoon, and evening. This will give you a solid base set of data to work with.
After that you really should try to scan at least once a day. Sometimes the prices of items can double in as little as a week depending on events and patches. Or you may be missing that the gems your selling sell for twice as much on wed and thurs, meaning you can buy them on sat and sun and post them tues to make a killing.
Uruloken Jul 22nd 2010 3:37PM
Re: Clearing Auctioneer Data
/auc clear [itemlink] - this command will clear data for a specific item; very useful if an item suddenly increases or decrease in price. Obviously you need to perform new scans to obtain fresh data.
/auc clear all - this command should clear all data for your faction/realm. Alternatively there is a way you can delete Auc-Stat files from your .WTF directory, but you should probably consult the Auctioneer forums on how to do that:
http://forums.norganna.org/
SunGod228 Jul 21st 2010 11:14PM
I really do not understand why these articles encourage undercutting.
My advice to Mahgo: Start one item at a time and understand the market price for that item (How much someone is willing to pay for an item).
Here is the thing about always undercutting:
If I post 5 stacks of 10 borrean leather and I sell them by undercutting another player who only has 1 stack posted. Lets say I undercut him by 5g for an 'easy sell'. The fact is that guy you just undercut sold his too.
What does that mean for you as the seller. There was a need for 6 stacks of leather and the buyers were willing to pay 'at least' 5g more per stack. I just lost 25g or more because the market price may have even been higher than the fellow i chose to undercut in the first place.
You multiply those potential lost profits by hundreds of AH transactions in a week your losses are really going to add up.
BacMan Jul 21st 2010 11:36PM
Undercutting works when there is a large quantity for sale. There isn't enough demand to sell all of listed items and one must undercut to sell. For some items, such as cloth, the deposit is quite hight and having the item returned results in a net loss. For limited supply items, I agree, don't undercut.
Babelicious Jul 22nd 2010 1:28AM
Undercutting is one of the cornerstones of the gold making process. Like it or not, people are going to buy the cheapest item for sale every time, and if that item's yours, you make the profit. I'm not going to encourage aggressive undercutting, especially in slow-moving markets such as 264 crafted items, but undercutting is most definitely one of the easiest ways to increase your sales figures.
Trido Jul 22nd 2010 2:38AM
I don't always buy the cheapest. Clal me dumb, but if I see someone who has undercut by like 1 silver or 1 copper on cheaper stuff or 1g on more expensive stuff, I will pay more just to spite them.
Basil Berntsen Jul 22nd 2010 7:57AM
Undercutting is the way that supply reduces price. Demand increases price by having people buy all the undercuts. I advocate it because it's the correct way of making more money.
SunGod228 Jul 22nd 2010 9:38AM
But Basil, if I am posting and selling an item that I post for more than the current undercuts. Who is making more money? You have to understand the market of an item to really be able to make money off of it. Otherwise I could be loosing potential earnings or I could buy items thinking to resale and end up taking a loss.
Really relying on software and undercutting to make quick profits before a loss is no different than the automated trading crash that occurred in wall street. It's really the same thing.
Jesharai Jul 22nd 2010 7:00PM
@Trido Undercutting by significant amounts on commodity goods only serves to permanently ruin their value. The amount of customers for commodities is stable, the amount of goods they will buy is stable, and the only way to change that equation is to sell at a massive discount which combined with a lack of overheads (in the minds of most vendors) will result in a race to the bottom.
In real life, anyone who does this will go out of business. In WoW, no-one who engages in this senseless market destruction goes out of business because they place no value on their game time and consequently have no overheads and any sale they make they consider to be profit. In real life, this behaviour is simply not possible - by not buying from the people who undercut by tiny amounts, you are supporting the selfish people who do not understand the basics of economics and want their money right this very second and consider any sale at all to be a success.
I, on the other hand, place a high value on my time and have better things to do than be flying around Sholazar for 2 hours picking flowers to sell - if I don't sell it at a reasonable price, it is a waste of time I could be spending on other things, like seeing a movie, or spending time with friends... or actually playing WoW instead of grinding.
logicalfundy Jul 23rd 2010 12:40PM
Price matching and undercutting are done all the time in real market economics. A *lot* of companies thrive on advertising having the lowest prices. And they don't do that without undercutting most of their competition.
So it's not a hideous, horrible thing: It's just the way economics works.
I generally undercut because I'm not interested in playing an economics simulation - I'm only interested in selling off the stuff I can't use. Undercutting means I sell stuff faster.
If you care to be a reseller and buy and resell my items - go ahead, I could care less. Resellers are also common in real life. I get a profit either way.
"In real life, anyone who does this will go out of business. In WoW, no-one who engages in this senseless market destruction goes out of business because they place no value on their game time and consequently have no overheads and any sale they make they consider to be profit."
It's also this way because:
-There's no concept of debt in WoW. None at all. Either you have enough gold to buy something, or you don't. There's no risk at all of owing anybody a debt.
-Gold is granted to players by means other than market economics. Mobs drop gold, quests give gold, dungeons reward gold, etc. You're not just competing against other people in the AH - you're actually competing with the game world, which is supplying players with an endless stream of cash. If it weren't for large money sinks in the game, the currency would inflate like crazy.
Economics in WoW has very little risk. You can't go into debt, and you can't really go bankrupt because there are so many sources of money.
Going penniless in real life is a major concern - but going penniless in WoW is just a minor annoyance. In real life, it may take months to find a job, but in WoW, you can just kill a few mobs or mine some ore or whatever, and you'll have money in minutes.
slunk Jul 22nd 2010 12:21AM
The last question:
Is there a way to get Auctioneer to tell you how many times you've listed a specific item?
Beancounter has this information. Search for specific item, and the top number will be how many times it has seen the item listed by you or purchased by you. There is a excel macro that will pull it from whatever file Auctioneer is storing the information in and will drop it into excel so you can get at the information more readily.
I've seen links to it before, but I never messed with it myself.
Snag Jul 22nd 2010 3:05AM
to show how many times you have sold an item in the tooltip for Auctioneer go to Autioneer's config menu then select "Tooltip" on the right. Scroll down and select the check box for "Enable Sales Stats" and "Show sales stats in tooltip". You can then select what ever sub-things you want displayed.
I use this for helping me know which of my glyphs have and haven't been selling and which are the most popular. If i've been posting glyphs over and over for a week and still haven't sold any I know that it may be a unpopular glyph and stop bothering to try and sell it (at least for now).
Hope that that helps. Also as stated above Beancounter will show unsuccessful auctions but having it successful auction stats right in the tooltip works best for me.
Kaylad Jul 22nd 2010 7:29AM
That's good to know for some things - doesn't help me much though. I like to know how many times I have listed _that_specific_item_ not how many times I have listed that one plus all of the otehr identical listings (how many times did I list _that_ specific belt, not how many times have I listed multiple copies of that belt, for example). I like to go "right, that hasn't sold after X listings, shard it." You can have Auctioneer tell you that you bought an item (and give you the reason, assuming you set a reason when you bought it) for X amount Y days ago - I'd just like it to add "item has been relisted Z times". Hmmm... does any of that make sense? I'm currently running on only 2 hours of sleep out of 24.
Ashanaria Jul 24th 2010 12:29AM
@Kaylad: In my experience, most equipment (i.e., armor/weapons) should be vendored after [one sales attempt if a 48-hour duration]/[two sales at 24-hours], since the deposit price is a percentage of what a vendor will pay for them. If you're going to vendor an item after an auction attempt, it doesn't make sense to post it more times than once or twice, as you'll be losing money. That said, if you're absolutely sure you can sell a [Nobles Brand of the Bandit] for 60 gold eventually (as an example, and as unlikely as it may be), it doesn't necessarily follow that you should vendor it after just an attempt or two.
Sharding items may or may not follow the same rule of thumb, depending on how much the 'chant mats go for on your server.
Steph Jul 22nd 2010 12:22AM
I really like these Gold Capped guides.
I have used a few of the tips provided in the guild to make my way thru Wrath nicely.
On the saving for an Epic Flyer, you should be able to do this quiet easily.
As longs as you do your dailies you should be able to get it in no time.
I have 4 80s, and my partner has the same.
We have epic flying on all of them.
We simply spent an entire day farming ore and herbs.
With the Ore we sent half to my JC to prospect it.
I found that even the low raw gems sold quiet nicely.
Between the two of us farming it took us around 10 days to save enough gold for the epic flying on each toon.
Right now we are both sitting on approx 2.5k gold on either account and we are about to start farming for mats for our choppers.
Its easy to save the gold. You just have to have the motivation to do it and set your goal and go for it.
SumDuud Jul 22nd 2010 8:24AM
While I understand the ease of farming and dailies, it is not the optimal way to make gold. I generally get an hour of playtime a day after I put my kids to bed. I can do a circuit of dailies in icecrown and make 200g, go farm for an hour and make 150-250g (depending on how many farmers are out there), or spend 20 minutes in the ah make 300-500g and do other stuff.
Point is farming and dailies are fine if you enjoy it, but if it is only a means to an end (in this case epic flying) don't waste your time. Look for heavy undercuts or listings from someone that had no idea what an item goes for and relist it. Break up stacks or stack up individuals, they all have their place in the market just figure out where it is.
Also I don't hesitate to undercut, especially when driving someone out of the market. In the meantime I might also pick up some cheap goods at way below market price. Yea it sucks that tuned and bold cardinals have gone from 180+ to 125 on my server, but it is also a heavy competition market, lambent eye of zul (or whatever it is called) not so much and stays at 270-300 per.
Look around and you can find some easy gold with no dailies or farming.
(I apologize for any typos, iPhone says what iPhone wants)
prairiedawg991 Jul 22nd 2010 12:48AM
These guides are awesome! A lot of the questions that are asked are the ones i'm asking myself!
Khirsah Jul 22nd 2010 2:24AM
I do not want this to sound like I am questioning Basil's advice. The reason I read this column is because he knows more about making money than I do. However, to Varkul trying to save for an epic mount, I would like to share how I was able to get mine: Use the old saying that it takes money to make money. Start a toon with the opposite faction. Find products that are expensive for one faction, but cheap for the other. For example: the mongoose enchant on my server was selling for around 300g on the alliance ah, but 600-750 on the horde. I would buy them from the alliance AH, put it on the neutral AH for 1 copper, where a guildie would be ready and waiting to buy it and give it back to my Horde toon, and then I'd turn around and sell it on the Horde AH for an easy 300g profit. I never buy anything without checking out both Auction Houses.
Lars Petersson Jul 22nd 2010 5:52AM
Incidentally, Basil covered that a while ago:
http://www.wow.com/2010/04/07/gold-capped-cross-faction-arbitrage/
Unfortunately the markets are too even on my server for me to bother with this...