Seven Major Factors in Determining the Size of Your Potential Customers and Competition on the World of Warcraft Auction House

It's 5 O'Clock, do you know what time it is?

Success on he World of Warcraft Auction House, like many other things, has a lot to do with timing.

Just as the tides change relevant to the distance of the moon, the ebb and flow of potential buyers and competitors must be understood.

The seven major factors in determining the size of your potential customers and competition on the World of Warcraft Auction house are:

1. The School Year

From College to grade school, summer time and school holidays will always bring more people to the Auction House. Be prepared for more action – both competition and customers – when School is out.

2. The School and Business Day

Most servers see a population spike starting around 6pm. People getting home from work or school, logging into WoW, and checking out the AH Prices.

3. The Weekend

Everybody’s WoW’ing on the weekend. There are entire WoW Guilds made up of purely Weekend Warriors (in fact, I’m pretty sure that’s at least one of their Guild Names).

4. Holidays

Many people love to log on during holidays. Blizzard usually makes a big deal about it for at least a week, but the specific day of the holiday usually brings out the masses just a little more.

5. Major Patch Days

ZOMG! They nerfed this, buffed that, and now Hunters are even more OP! QQ QQ QQ! In all seriousness, keep an eye out for the suspected day of a major patch release, (and take the time to data mine the patch notes for deals!), as the number of online players dramatically increases right after a patch. (There’s also a bid technique used right before Blizzard takes the servers down for patches… the AH uses “real time”, not “game time” for the life of the auction… if you’re the high bidder  on an item that is expiring right at patch time, you’ve got at least 15 minutes (sometimes much more) with zero competition on that item!)

6. Game Expansions

For about a month leading up to, and then about a month after a game expansion, the Auction House is an unstable place. What once was worth a lot of gold has suddenly become worthless. What once was worthless is now suddenly worth a lot of gold. People tend to level new characters or choose new professions right around Game Expansions. A highly speculative time on the WoW AH, and definitely full of more people.

7. The Big Guilds Raid Schedule

Find out who the big World of Warcraft Guilds are on your server. Visit their websites, and check out their Raid Schedule. Most of them will be public information. Big Raids means more people logging in and needing to be “Raid Ready”.

So, to recap, the seven major factors in determining the size of your potential customers and competition on the World of Warcraft Auction house are:

1. The School Year
2. The Business Day
3. The Weekend
4. Holidays
5. Major Patch Days
6. Game Expansions
7. The Big Guilds Raid Schedule

Knowing when your customers and competition are going to be online is an important strategy to be successful on the World of Warcraft Auction House.

Got some additional time based tips? Let us know!

~Rewt

http://www.hearthcast.com