The economy of WoW is constantly in flux. There are only two sources of gold from the game: drops and rewards. You can both get dropped gold or items from things, and you can get rewarded gold or items to sell to vendors for gold. These are the only ways to get gold on your own.
Then there is circulated gold, which is all the gold of the players on your server. There are many ways to get gold from other players: given, trades, or from the Auction House. Players can give you gold through trades or through mail, of course they either need a ton so they can spare some or they must really like you. Trades are either trades or tips for services, such as enchanting or any other work that has no set price. And the auction house is a beast all its own.
It’s interesting what items you should vendor, meaning you sell to any selling NPC, and what items you can put in the AH. Late in the game you could possibly make more money from a vendor than trying and failing to sell something at the AH. It really takes a knowledge of what may or may not sell – supply and demand of course.
Auction House ————-
Buying – you select from the tabs to narrow your search using any number of listings, you can set what level range, and then search; or type in the exact name of the item; or shift click the item if you have one.
Bid – you enter the current bid amount, which leaves open the chance for someone to outbid you. The time left is a big factor in whether or not you win the item. Short means you’ll probably get it, medium is iffy, and long or very long means you should hope the item is not in high demand.
Buyout – you select the buyout price and you get the item with no waiting. This is usually a higher price than the bid, but if you don’t need the item that badly you should bid instead.
Bidding On – there is a tab for all your bids, where you can bid again. Keep in mind you cannot cancel a bid.
Winning – when you win an item it will immediately appear in your mailbox.
Gear? – sometimes you may want to replace your gear with better gear, and short of researching quest rewards online, you may want to just replace gear that is three or more levels below what you currently have. You’ll have much less money later in the game if you keep buying new gear for every level.
Blue vs Green – always make sure you aren’t paying too much for a green item when you could pay a little more for a blue. 20gold for a green item is never a good idea, you may as well spend a little more for a blue if you want better gear that badly.
Twink Gear – 19, 29, 39, 49, 59, 69, 79, and 80 are levels to be cautious of because many players want the best gear for battlegrounds. Rarely do you find gear at this level for a low price, but if you do you could make money by selling it yourself, and if you find gear at these levels someone will buy it for a higher price than you think.
Change of Worlds – at level 56-60 you should not buy new gear, same for 66-70. This is because your first quests in Outland and Northrend will gear you up. If you do buy gear at these ranges you need to make sure you’re getting the set from the next world, it’s always better.
Dungeons? – it may be worth it to check the dungeons at your level online, research the quests, and see if those rewards would be better than spending money for gear. It’s the least you could do.
Selling – there is an art to selling items in the AH. 50% of items you can sell are not going to sell. Enchanters always want cheap gear to DE, but the price they would pay is most likely less than the vendor price for most high- level items.
Deposit Fee – this is the most important thing about the AH, that all items you want to sell have a fee. High level gear has a very hefty fee, and you don’t get the fee back if you item does not sell. Early in the game you can get away with putting everything on the AH because the fees are not so bad, just one sold item can cover all your fees. But late in the game, where items are sought after less and less, you may be costing yourself some serious gold by putting everything on the AH block. If your item does sell however, you get the fee back.
Starting Bid – there is a base bid set by default, so your starting bid should not be lower, if it is or if the market is set lower than that, consider vendoring it. It’s always nice to set the starting bid a little higher, maybe round up to the next gold amount.
Buyout – should never be unreasonable because people want to get the item now, they do not want to wait. If you set it near your starting bid they you will most likely sell it. You set it higher above if you know it’s in higher demand and if there is little supply. And you set it 10’s of gold higher if you know some twink will pick it up or you have the only item on the market. However, you don’t have to set a buyout, sometimes it could be better to let people bid for it, or you may get less, there are no rules for what to not give a buyout.
Undercutting? – It’s cool if you price a few silver under the lowest price, but too much and you may be lowering the market price for that item, and at the very least making less money than you could.
Know the Classes – I won’t summarize every class in the game, but you should know who each piece of gear and weapon is used by.
People Got Cash – most low levels on a realm are in fact people with 80’s, so with that in mind you can set the buyouts for some items much higher than the starting bid.
Materials – or mats, are always in demand. Only overpriced mats will not sell. For selling mats you could consider not being the lowest price because of the higher demand, someone will buy the cheaper ones first, and eventually should place yours as the cheapest. Also, most fees for mats are cheap.
Trade Chat ———-
Using /2 chat for selling and buying is a harsh monster. Not only do you limit your selling power to who is on now, they must be in a city, and so must you. Not even using a town mule can get around the time required to sell items by hand.
WTS – this is the abbreviation for selling something, “Want To Sell.” Then you shift click the item, maybe press enter, and your ad is put on trade chat. A simple message may look like: WTS [Your Momma] 1g. Don’t be surprised if no one is interested. Things that sell in the AH may have only be demanded by two or three people, so the odds are not good that those people are on when you are, or if they see the message.
WTB – “Want To Buy” means just that. You can again shift click if you have the item and send a message just like WTS.
WTT – “Want To Trade” is a seldom seen message meaning you don’t want to buy something, you instead want to do an even trade.
5 comments
Briefly buzzed over your article, there are over 8 dailies with the Argent tournament ones and all the faction, you could fill up your limit of 25 if you wanted…
@Linexeus: Have you SEEN how many really long and complete guides Brad has written? He is definately a video game authority. Come back once you've written over a thousand pages of game guides.
@Gruppa: Isn't yo mama like 4 years late?
This article is FULL of incorrect statements. Obviously written by someone who has played only a minimal amount of WoW. Next time maybe get a long term player to write the article.
Isn't this article about 4 years too late?
Comments are closed.