This, a thousand times. I have no beef at all with people like you, and I'm worried I didn't make that clear enough in my wall o' text down there.

It's just been my experience after a few years of playing this game that people who focus on any one aspect of the game to that kind of unhealthy degree tend to be obsessive psychos about it. Doesn't matter whether it's raiding, or arena, or what have you. Well-rounded people tend not to care as much and thus behave like reasonable human beings.

So let me get it straight. You don't like the guys who sit there and camp the AH to undercut people. I don't like them either, they hurt the whole market (I had quite a few competitors do that).

However, some professions really do require a vast amount of addons, such as inscription. It's unfortunate that now most of those addons don't work (nearly as well) and essentially broke our profession, resulting in skyrocketing prices. Why? Because time is money. Let me explain.

Here's the thing that people really knowledgable about auctioning know. This is the big secret. Gold in game is not worth anything outside of game (unless you trade for cash). I mean it has no value as we measure things. It makes life a little more convenient while playing.

Here is where I am going, and what most people don't get. Gold has no value, but time does. Money is time. This is a virtual world and therefore meaningless in most situations (for example it has no effect on the real world, you don't jump when your toon jumps, you dont eat when your toon eats). The only real-world law that WoW actually obeys is that of time. It has no dimension, no other form of measurement that can be tracked to the real world. TIME is the only thing that is relevent.

Now that you understand money is time, you start to see some things. Most markets exist because people want convenience. Its more convenient for me to buy a 50g recipe than it is to fly to tanaris, buy the damn recipe, and use it. Because, guess what, I am burning time. And when I am burning time, I could be making gold. That 15 minutes it takes to get from dal to tanaris and learn the recipe, well i could be doing dailies. So 50g is a break even point for me for that recipe. Now you know how much is an approrpiate charge - how long does it take to get that item normally?.

Tome of turtle - its a total pain in the ass to farm, it has a huge value. It's probably worth 10,000 gold.

Professions. This is something that is screwed up. You know it takes say 5000g to level JC to 450. But you also know that it takes weeks of work. Money = time. So your investment is more like 10,000 to 15,000 gold. Add to that the 4 dailies to get a epic recipe, that's easily an hour of your time (which equals money, again). So then someone comes along and asks for a cut but gives you 10 gold. Folks, I don't walk across the street to make 10 gold, that's too much work. I'll get that recipe, make a thousand cuts, and make a few thousand gold off that cut. That's the only way it would make sense to get that cut. (by which I mean recoup the investment - if you don't care about that issue, then fine).

ICC patterns. These have a nice 1000g mark up or more. It not only takes the time to get to 450 profession, it no only takes the time to get to ICC and get the honor, but then you have to spend a PS to get that recipe. The only way this makes sense is if I can sell enough for about 5000g profit. If not, then I am eating my costs. This is why there is a huge markup to 'click one button'.

Any sort of niche market that saves people TIME is worthwhile to look at. A friend has a niche in which he helps people level a specific profession by giving them all the materials they need at say 5000g. You just sit at the trainer and click buttons. That saves tens of hours of TIME, and his profit is several thousand gold. But i'd may rather pay that than spend say 10 hours looking for stuff, since for those 10 hours i can make money other ways.

I'm never going to say what is fun for you or not, but when you talk about auctions, just remember time being the crucial thing, and you'll go far.

II think the distinction you're trying to make is between actual players and for-real-money farmers and bots. I spend no more than 30 minutes a day on the AH, and I have more gold than everyone I know who plays combined. I have every conceivable gold sink currently in game and I'm going into Data with enough to buy all it has to offer too. This isn't because of a bunch of hacks and automation mods or because it's all I do all day, it's just an understanding of my server's economy. Unfortunately I find most people either assume the former or assume I buy gold. It's no different than raiding or pvp, just takes practice.

Like Basil, I spend 30-60 mins a day, dealing with my auctions. Yes, I spent some time and effort researching and configuring addons to speed this process up. But, those 16+ hour/day people a) didn't affect markets that much and b) now have to click a button to undercut and so can't do it AFK (thanks to Basil and his outing of QA Poster).

The fact of the matter is, the information to make WAY more gold than you can spend is freely available. You don't need to buy gold guides (sorry Markco), you don't have to spend all your time doing it, you just need to expend a few hours of time and effort starting with Google to learn the gold-making non-secrets. The thing keeping most players out of markets is something Gevlon, another well-known Goblin, discusses in depth. They are M&S.

@ Rob
Couldn't have articulated it better myself. Time is the only thing of real value in the game. When I see people farming something that could be bought off of the AH it kills me to know that their time could be better spent doing dailies for the gold. Efficiency all that matters when dealing with in-game currency and so many people simply don't understand this concept.

@BB Crisp: For you, efficiency is what matters. What matters to others differs. I'd perhaps remind you that WoW is, still, a game. For some, the pain of parting with gold to buy something outweighs the opportunity cost of farming the materials. For others, it may be the sense of accomplishment: "I soloed it". It's a wide world, and plenty of different mindsets out there. The primary rule is, "it's a game. If you're not having fun, something is wrong."