Project Lore

I almost never have anything on the AH because I either stock stuff up for my alts or deposit in the guild bank for others to use. When I do put something in the AH, I factor in four things:

1.) Whether supply is outstripping demand. (If so, I don't offer it.)
2.) What are others' prices for the item in question.
3.) How much I think it's worth.
4.) Can it be considered reasonable.

I've always priced on the low side because I haven't forgotten how I used to prize even having 1g. Not everyone has the benefit of a money-maker or siblings to take advantage of (no, I don't mean that in the bad way).

I blame Auctioneer.

Everyone that uses the Auction House must have it (ok, broad generalisation, but a lot do).

And that "Undercut - 10%" button must be ticked for many people.

Eventually something selling at 10,000g could go down to 1g with 10% being taken off constantly. o_O though it'd be really slow and I'm exaggerating my statement, you can get what I mean. Everyone is undercutting the undercutters and it's just slowly building up.

Same thing happens to all proffesions man. When Lich King hit I was making 120g+ on each frostweave bag, now I am lucky to pull in 70g on my server. My profession has lost it's 1 moneymaker in my opinion.

People keep undercutting and when the economy hits an all time low everyone starts complaining.......I'm pretty sure I've heard something about this irl, but I just can't put my finger on it. hmmmmmmmmm

Mining and JC are the only professions that will always have business, and enchanting. People replace gear and they NEED to have it gemmed and enchanted or else it's like they are missing half their gear.

I wish theese whiny posts on this otherwise very good blog would stop. This is one of the cases where less would have been more. Quick pulling topics out of your "ears" and asking people to debate them just so you have something on the site every day. It ruined a lot of blogs already.

What you describe here is simply the economy. The item obviously isn'et worth your 500g, it can be made and sold cheaper.
If not, buy the cheaper up and wait it out for a while. Get auctioneer, check wowecon, use situations like this to your advantage. Noone has a license to mint money in this game. Earning money through professions and trading is as much a challenging aspect of the game as combat is.

less QQ, more ABC

Always

Be

Closing

It's called a free market. And if you were smart you would buy the dirt cheap stuff undercutting you and relist it.

This is really a rather unique post for PL. When I first read it I was like "well, duh, that is just how it works" and I will admit my first reaction was the the OP was just QQing about their individual situation.
The AH really is a nice way to see supply/demand, and sometimes monopolization, at work.

If the goal of the blog is to generate discussion, then you certainly win there. =)

Here is my take on this. To oversimplify, I would divide the WoW economy into three categories/type of users:

1) There are people who sell items on the AH but rarely buy things. If they needs mats for something, they farm them themselves. These are players who would be "hurt" the most in the original bloggers world. However, I also think this in reality is a very small percentage of the population.

2) There are people who buy items from the AH but rarely sell things. Basically these folks are always broke. =) These players would actually benefit the most, but again I think this is a very small percentage of the population.

3) Finally there are people who do a decent mix of both. They have toons and alts that support each other. They occasionally sell items they don't need to make some gold. Typically this gold is used to then buy materials or items that they need. I think this is the vast majority of players and I think the scenario described by the original blogger is really a wash for this type of character.
Does the stuff they sell go for less gold? In general, yes.
Does the stuff they buy get cheaper? In general, yes.

TLDR version:
When new things come out, people with overpay for them. As time goes by, items in the AH get less expensive and this is a wash/breakeven event for 95% of players.

Inscribers should not complain... i am enchanter..
-i roll on mats in dungeons....
-i do enchants on a full set of gear with no tips
and the only thing that is for me is a few average ring enchants...

So you know your Noble's deck will sell for 500 Gold, and someone puts one on the aH for 200 Gold. Simple soloution, buy the one for 200 Gold and re-sell it at a higher price. It's only one, it's not like they put 20+ Noble's Decks on for 200 Gold.

I'm also somewhat confused why you felt th eneed to undercut the guy who initially undercut you by 5 Gold. Is the demand so low, that only one Noble's Deck will sell during the next 2 days? If so, sell something else, get out of the Noble's Deck market. I get undercut by one or two items, I really don't care, it will take a little longer to sell and get my Gold, that's all. Providing I've priced correctly. If someone floods the market with more than can possibly sell before the Auctions run out of time, that's a different matter. But do I de-list? No. I make 2 more and undercut the market hogger, replacing the one that sells with a new one..... Well actually only if I'm an evil mood.

Personally I gave up selling finished items ages a go, I stick with mats as they have a greater demand. If someone undercuts, I can buy them out and relist later.

As annoying as it is, there are no rules against undercutting, vastly undercutting or plain stupidity. Stupidity is selling something either, for an amount that after the AH cut gives you less than if you'd vendored it. Or, just plain selling it for less than the what you would get by just vendoring it anyway. And yes, I have seen both happen, in the case of the latter, I thank those responsible, it may not have been a big profit, but it felt good vendoring all of it.

Wow. To anyone who follows the advice in this post, thank you. Thank you very much.

You're just one of the ways that help me make tons of gold.

another aspect of the undsercutting and some may disagree but with the goldsellers undercutting people makes it hard for anyone to make money therefore they get to sell their gold more often.

I undercut.I usually sell something for its average market price.I don't gouge, if you have a guilde who can make it for you,more power to you.I'm the one who leveled my profession,not you.You want what I can make?Pay me a fair price.That's all I ask.

And nothing irritates me more than the people who deliberately undersell you repeatedly at a loss just to try to drive you away from the AH.

If someone lists something that is a good seller for a ridiculously low amount (and I mean guys who sell an entire stack of something for copper instead of gold) I just buy it all myself and re-list it at my normal price which is always the lowest and fairest I can make it.

Great post! This one seems to have sparked a great response since most of us have fell victim to the inevitable undercut. I found a way to keep my mind right and feelings safe from the harm that the undercutters inflict. I simply go to the AH go straight to the create auction tab, drop my stuff in and create auctions with out a buy out and with out specifying a starting bid. Now this isn't exactly the best way to make boo-koo bucks, but I have been very successful with this methhod. I sell almost everything I put in the AH and it gives the people bidding on my auctions (my theory) a little excitment in watching the item they're bidding on to the end, and possibly even getting something for a steal. Periodically, I will go back and check the AH for the items Ive sold and often times the items I'm selling end up going for slightly more than other auctions for the same item. Auctions are a competition, and if people bidding are competitive enough, they'll pay anything to win that auction. I think buyouts are the downfall to the whole auction process. Do I think the buy out option should be removed? The answer is no, but I do think limiting it to certain "types" of items should be looked at by Blizzard.

i trade stuff i need for stuff i have, do daylies , fish my own buff food grind if i want a item..becouse AH is too exspencive becouse of folks like the auther. 25k for a nobelsdeck u should be ashamed 50g for a gliph shiesh.. you will get no simpathy from me n i hope every one undercuts your prices. seriously if makking gold is the main reason too play wow...get another hobby. wow can be done for manny reasons, the challenge of killing bosses alone/ in groups, ya have a feer of little people n so you play BG's to kill gnomes, u like DnD but ya dont have frends so you rp online what ever your motive is bud i shure hope it isnt too be the richest player. gold makes your wow life easyer bud it doesnt say how good of a player ya are...rather be grouping with a poor tank who can hold aggro than a rich one who cant

=)

Wait. What?

Etiquette?
...
Seriously?

That's capitalism...

Just sell your things during the middle of the week, after a patch day. Don't sell some materials during the weekends (or friday night for that matter,) because the undercutting will be enormous (especially with the gold farming company players making leather auctions and such.)

I don't think I have seen so many comments on a PL Post before. I hav to 100% disagree with the meat of this post.

the wow AH is a free market, if someone grossly under prices you you have the choice to buy their auction out and put it up again, even if you purchased at 200G and put i back up for 300G that would quickly netted you 100G for doing nothing more then "playing the market"

I hate when people complain that the market is soft.. it's a market for a reason, if supply is too high then wait a while for it to come back down.

When I see idiots dropping items for a quick buck. I buy it at the low price and then repost it at the normal market price. It's to the point where I will go back to having both gathering professions. The market is getting cut throat and i'm getting cut up

Greetings,
I was a bit disappointed by this rant. It did not offer any suggestions or advise on how to navigate the AH. The game is the game we all now it and what I have observed is that if pricing of certain items get to high people will start farming that resource and the price will fall, inversely if the pricing gets to cheap (I love buying stacks of Heavy Frostweave Bandages for 3G on AH and selling to vendor for 5G) people will respec to a different profession and the pricing will adjust.
Here are my tips, 1. Specialize in one market, you will start to recognize price trends and opportunities. 2. If you want to undercut the you can get your product to display at the top of the heap by having the same BIN price but a cheaper bid price. 3. Sell in stacks 4. When buying, be patient, bid. My biggest tip, 5. Roll an AH character, run them to Exodar (the mail box is right outside the AH), have your main mail everything that is to be auctioned to this character.

Happy Capitalism, remember the market is the market, don’t complain use it to your advantage.

With what? 9million(?) people playing this game and people screwing with the economy on each and every server, I wonder why there is a financial crisis in the world...

Its a simple case of people being able to act like apes due to the fact that they cant get caught. Good old EQ where if you acted like a tool you would get the heat for it.

In reading this post I have to start off in saying that I feel for you. I can understand how frustrating it must be to have such a great potential and source of income and then to see it slashed, make it feel like the WoW economy is beginning to mimic our very own real life economy.

As far as my own professions, I am a max enchanter and miner. I can't say that I make a TON of gold everyday, but in being maxed out for a while now, I have noticed that the price of mats for enchanting have stayed fairly close to their original prices. Tips for doing enchants (which I have never asked for) are still very nice (5-30g depending on the chant and situation), and the price for stacks of ore has actually gone up a little bit.

Here's hoping things smooth out for you!

There's no etiquette, there never has been, this is a buyers market. The same thing happened when jewelcrafting came out. The prices for inscription were criminal and artificial and down right unreasonable. Anyone that paid those prices is insane.

TL;DR Version
Suply and demand basic economics
Buy low sell high

[WARNING Full of information that might hurt your head if you never passed High School Economics. Proceed with caution!!!]

Supply and demand, its basic economics.
If the demand for an item is high but the supply is low you are able to sell at much higher prices. However when Supply meats demand and then goes beyond it (peeps flooding the market with saved items for example). There is more competition and thus a lower price is set.
This is easily seen with Titansteel bars. Since it is on a 20 hour cd to make em. Most of the time they are in higher demand than supply can keep up with. How ever if some one has been saving up for and then dumps allot in to the system it throws the AH off whack. . This in turn lets those with allot of gold buy the lower priced items (giving the seller his foolproof sale) The buyer then sells said Bar for a higher price making less money than if he had farmed it him self but saving time and effort.

Heres the rule if you wanna make gold. Buy low Sell high. Watch the AH over the course of a week (not constantly just once or twice during your game play.)Remember the highest and lowest amounts you see of the item your looking to sell. Buy when they are on the lower side sell when they increase in value. DO NOT Dump all your items you have when its high. Since some ones gonna undercut you (more than likely ) you don't want to put up 10 stacks of something and only end up selling 4 of em.Sell them little by little and you save your self cash. If none sell thems the breaks.. Always remember that the in game economy is a circle.Step 1: Some one mines the material and sells it. Step 2: Some one buys it and sells it for higher. (step 2 may be repeated several times thus that one stack of ore has "made" Hundreds of gold over the course of several people.) Ex:you mine and sell Saronite stack for 30g (for the sake of argument)
Some one buys it and sells it for 40. Then the next person sells it for 50/60 etc. This stack doubled in value from its base price. The original seller (Supplier) made the most profit 30 for some time and effort. The others made 1/3 that for no work.) Step 3: Some one buys the stack with the intention of using it for crafting and thus the ore leaves the system[Demander](note this can happen in step 2 as well). If suppliers stop supplying enough the price inflates. If demander's don't need the ore at the moment the price deflates.
The market will always be in flux. Ride the wave correctly and you come out on top.
If you read this whole thing
...
No ... no
there isnt any one that could make it thru that snore fest.
/nods

Whoa lots of comments. In my limited experience and knowledge of loot, which I expect is about average, a whole lot of people just won't know or can't remember what stuff sells for.

I made much of my gold selling dragonhawks and other Horde in Horde, not neutral, AHs right after wotlk hit. I sold quite a few for 70 g a pop, while only paying 50 silver. People were either too impatient to go get them themselves, or ignorant of where they came from in the first place. Either was fine with me. Obviously, I couldn't go spam the AH with as many as my bags could hold, and soon other people caught on and started selling too.

In the end, an item is only worth what people are willing to pay for it.

The only time AH prices have ever bothered me is when people put buyout prices lower than what they'd get from vendoring the item. That's either ignorance or stupidity. But, it's still my choice to either put it up for the regular going price, hold it until those auctions clears, or vendor the stuff myself and forget about it.

Unnecessary stress is unnecessary.