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Banned: The Most Redonkulus Ways To Easily Make Crazy Gold On The World of Warcraft Auction House

December 21, 2011 Leave a Comment

hearthcast logo 300x300 Banned: The Most Redonkulus Ways To Easily Make Crazy Gold On The World of Warcraft Auction HouseWe hear the goblins say it all the time… “time is money, friend!”… but do we ever stop to think of what that really means?

It’s not just a cliché from an NPC telling us to hurry up with whatever business we’re conducting with them, but rather it is a secret formula that leads to unheard of profits within the game.

Let’s look at some basic auction house secrets explained by some simple clichés.

Keep Your Nose To The Grindstone!

Over on Hearthcast, Carnage gives a weekly tip with a grind that results in pretty good returns. That grind usually involes going somewhere, killing someone, and looting something… over and over again, then taking that something you got frome someone somewhere and selling it on the auction house for crazy gold.

Location, Location, Location!

Patterns, recipes, limited quantity items, and tradeskill ingredients are bought from vendors for mere silver and sold on the auction house for easy profits every day.

One Mans Trash is Another Mans Treasure!

BOE items you can’t use for any of your toons, items you bought with extra Justice Points, raw materials from gathering skills, things from random chests or lockboxes… even some trivial grey items that you fished up… all of them hold a value to someone else on the Auction House

Another Day Another Dollar!

When I was conducting the “Phatwallet Experiment”, (where i took a level 1 toon, ported to a major city, was given 100 gold, and could only make gold by way of reselling vendor items or relisting auction house items) I practically lived at the AH. I spent hours each day scanning the auctions, looking for deals. I made a ton of gold, the key being the consistency in which I was performing my actions.

Measure Up To The Business At Hand

Here’s a secret for you: whenever I leave the game to look up information, and I have to actually “work” for that information, I make a mental note of it. Case in point, Winter Veil and ginger bread cookies. I had a slightly difficult time locating the vendor in Orgrimar who sells the recipe. The information online wasn’t all in one place. It took effort to find out who sold it, their general area, and their name. Once I found them (10 steps away from the quest giver),I bought 21 recipes. One for me, 20 to list on the Auction House…. at 10 to 15 gold each. I sold out within minutes, and went back to buy more.

Laughing All The Way To The Bank

When I make a big sale on the Auction House that fits into the clichés above, it makes me giddy! I smile, and sometimes laugh, at how easy it is sometimes to make gold on the AH in WOW.

So remember, when you’re wandering about Azeroth, pay attention to the very things around you – they could be untapped piles of gold!

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Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player

December 7, 2011 9 Comments

I was an avid Auctioneer user, up to patch 4.3, which left me with a broken addon making the Auction House rather useless to me. By Auctioneer not being up to speed with their add on, they gave me no choice but to seek another solution.

Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player

4.3 left me with a broken Auctioneer, but gave me the opportunity to expand my horizons by allowing me the opportunity to install Auctionator.

Within just a few moments after installing Auctionator, I was incredibly impressed – and slightly confused.

I visited the Auction House, and, logically, scanned the AH. Instead of the 20+ minutes Auctioneer took, I was done with the scan within seconds. What had I done wrong? Nothing. It’s simply a better system. (Time is money, friend!)

Auctionator Basic Setup

auctionator basic options Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
Enable alt-key shortcut allows me to alt-click an item in my bag and have it automatically post to the AH.
The other options are pretty straight forward, but you can easily see they’re designed to save the user time.

Auctionator Tool Tips

auctionator tooltips Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
Again, pretty straight forward tool tips. These will give you very good pricing information on the items you loot. I like to get the individual price first, and then the stack price when I hold down the shift key.

Auctionator Undercutting

auctionator undercutting Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
FINALLY, a semi-decent way to logically undercut someone! These are the defaults it comes with. You’ll most likely want to tweak those settings out a bit for your server. I am so happy to have options in an undercut market place!

Sellling With Auctionator

In Auctionators Basic Options, my default tab is set to SELL, and my bags automatically open up. That means as soon as I interact with the Auction House NPC, I’m ready to go. Then I just Alt-Click on the item in my bag, and it’s posted up for me.
auctionator create multiple auctions Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
I will point out that you need to tell Auctionator how many stacks of how many you’re going to sell. 2 stacks of 20, 4 of 10… your choice. It does tell you the max, but it can be hard to see, as it’s kind of greyed out under the option box. As soon as you make your choice, it will create the auctions you set.
auctionator creating 1 of 2 Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player

Buying With Auctionator

Sometimes, you gotta buy.. ok, a lot of the time… and, Auctionator makes it super easy. Shopping lists? Remembering what I searched for? REALLY? AWESOME
auctionator shopping list Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
Small Eggs are a wonderful investment (and even better if you farm them!). People will toss a stack of 20 up for 20 gold, but when a seasonal even that requires Small Eggs comes up, they’ll easily sell for 40-50 gold… And, of course, Auctionator makes it easy to buy multiples!
auctionator multiple buys Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player

Auctionator Checks For Undercutters

While there are some other addons that do this for you, I like that this one is inside Auctionator. You scan, it tells you if you’re being undercut, and then lets you start cancelling your auctions.
auctionator undercut check Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
Click the start cancelling button, and it does the work for you…
auctionator cancelled Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
Then simply relist the items to undercut the person undercutting you – let the wars begin!
Coincidently, when I was screen shotting this stuff for this article…
auctionator a buyer has been found Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
I managed to make a quick couple hundred gold! icon wink Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player

I also mentioned on Twitter that Auctionator pulled in an accidental 2K for me. It’s true. While I was toying around with the features to decide if I wanted to stay with Auctionator or wait around for the other guys to figure things out, I found over 2K gold worth of stuff I had lying around, over priced, or poorly listed. With just the help of the tool tips and the scans, I was able to turn 2K in less than 30 minutes, all by accident.

Why Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player

    Speed Of Auction House Scanning
    More Fluid Options For Selling
    Better Undercutting Scanning
    Tool Tips With Options!
    Shopping Lists!
    Designed To Sell And Make You Gold!

It’s my honest opinion that Auctionator was extremely well thought out, and that with just a few moments of tinkering, the average player could be easily on their way to making gold in the Auction House.

I installed Auctionator using the Curse Addon Manager. It was painless, and I highly recommend it as the tool for the World of Warcraft Auction House
~Rewt

wow warcraft alliance horde leveling guide
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Timing on The World Of Warcraft Auction House

July 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

Timing on The World Of Warcraft Auction House

Ah, the joys of weekend warriors, and what they mean to the World of Warcraft Gold Maker. They show up Friday evening, buy a bunch of materials, toss up a bunch of Greens, cloth, and other nick-nacks, and are gone by late Sunday night.

The three things that make a difference for physical stores is “location, location, location”. The same could be said for the World of Warcraft Auction House, just make it “timing, timing, timing”.

We all know the Weekend Warriors will be invading the servers, and if we neglect to take advantage of that, we’re losing out on a shedload of gold. Timing on The World Of Warcraft Auction House

What do you do right after you log in?

When I talk to other WoW Players (BTW, BRK told me he’s Raiding up to 3 nights a week now!), I make a point to ask them about their routines. For the most part, people tell me they log in, press I, queue up for a Random, and then go about their business. Be it Questing, doing Daily’s, some Farming. After a couple Dungeons, they head to the Auction House to unload their loot.

The WoW Gold Maker has a different Schedule: Log in, maybe press I, head to the World of Warcraft Auction House to check on things, run a Scan, see how prices are, see if they can pick up anything on the cheap, etc. Then they work on their professions, and maybe go do some farming. It’s all about Timing on The World Of Warcraft Auction House.

It’s not all about us, you know!

As Gold Makers, we need to know how the other half lives so we can meet their demands – the old “See a need, fill a need” scenario. Find out Raid Schedules from the bigger guilds on your server, find out what positions they’re advertising for. At one time on my server, there was a big demand for Enchanters. That translates into higher prices for Enchants on the Auction House. I bought a bunch of the high end Enchants, and relisted them at a higher price – easily turning them for a profit. Now, my server is quite Enchanter happy, and prices have become quite stable. Consequently, I’m not in the Enchant Reselling business anymore. Timing on The World Of Warcraft Auction House.

Right now, Patterns seem to be in high demand, and as was pointed out in last weeks entry, there are some wonderful addons to help locate patterns to resell on the Auction House. Since the demand is there, right now, I’m in the Pattern Reselling Business. Once the timing on that niche has gone away, I’ll move on to the next big thing.

Knowing how your server ebbs and flows is important, and of course, will vary slightly from server to server. It doesn’t take much to figure out either. I like to use Bitflarelabs.com’s Realm Status Tracker (http://rst.bitflarelabs.com) to check Queue Times on my server, which gives me a pretty good idea of at least what’s going on. Combine that knowledge with Trade and General Chat, and I pretty much feel like I have my hand on the pulse of my server.

So what’s all this nonsense about timing mean, anyhow?

I’ve recently found Highland Spring Water is selling quite well. I buy it in Stormwind, for just over 1 Gold, and sell a stack of 20 for 40-50 gold easily on Friday afternoons. My guess is that Raiders are using the Remote Auction House to prep for raids later that night. Like I said, it’s all about Timing on The World Of Warcraft Auction House.

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Flipping on the World of Warcraft Auction House

July 19, 2011 2 Comments

Flipping on the World of Warcraft Auction House

limited 300x300 Flipping on the World of Warcraft Auction House

People Don't Like Limits

When listening to some of the Podcasts the contributors to GoldGrubs have, you’ll often hear them discussing “flipping” things on the World of Warcraft Auction House. Flipping simply means to buy something at one price, and sell it for a higher price without modifying that item. In this article, I’m going to give a quick over-view on two ways to “flip” items.

World of Warcraft Auction House Flip #1 – The Limited Quantity Item

Some vendors sell items in limited quantities. Those items will have the number the vendor has available next to the item, in a yellow/gold number. While it’s not a “sure thing”, usually the limited quantity items can be bought for their low price, and be sold on the Auction House for a very nice profit.

My Bank Alt, Phatwallet, has several “runs” he goes on for Limited Quantity Items to flip. One of my favorites goes like this:

(Starting out in Ironforge, sorry Hordes!)

1. Go visit the Tailor by the great forge. Second floor, bald gnome in a tuxedo.
Buy the patterns for Tuxedo Shirt (45 silver), Tuxedo Jacket (50 silver), and Tuxedo Pants (45 Silver). Each easily sells for 15-20 gold on my server.

2. Leave the tailor by jumping off the outside ledge on the right (there isn’t even a guard rail on this side!) and head straight for the staircase to the leatherworkers next door. Here I pick up the pattern for a Heavy Leather Ball, for 20 silver. It sells for about 15 gold on my server.

3. Hearth to Dalaran, Port to Stormwind, and pick up some Kingsblood (1 silver 20 copper) on my way to the AH. On a bad day, it sells for about 2 gold, but can spike to 10 gold.

There are some other things I pick up along this “run”, but they aren’t limited items (such as toys in Dalaran, etc, but that’s for a different Article).

Overall, I keep my total investment on these “runs” to under 10 gold, and easily have a return on my investment of about 80 to 100 gold.

World of Warcraft Auction House Flip #2 – The Relist

This strategy requires time to be spent at the Auctioneer, scanning through available Auctions, and it relys on an up-to-date pricelist.

Addons such as Auctioneer are quite useful in finding items that have been listed under market value, and making it quite easy to buy them out for relisting. Daily scanning is highly suggested.

Often times, people will list things on the World of Warcraft Auction House without really knowing what they’re doing. The thought process is “I didn’t pay any gold for this item, so anything I make off of it is pure profit.”. They toss the item up on the Auction House for 5 gold, when the fair market value for that item may be several times that.

Depending on the item, you may want to immediately relist it, or buy it, and hold on to it for a while (which may disqualify it from a “flip” and throw it into an “investment” – again, another article for another time).

The process is straight forward: Buy the underpriced item at 5 gold, run to the mailbox, grab it, run back to the Auction House and relist it for it’s current market value of, for example, 25 gold. When it sells, you make gold.

The only way to really know if the item is underpriced is to have a working knowledge of your servers economy. Using addons like Auctioneer will help you learn that bit of info, but it’s important to know a good deal when you see it as well.

As a user of the Remote Auction House, I need to know the market value of items to know if something is underpriced and ready to flip. Yes, the Remote Auction House will list similar items and their listing price, but that isn’t always enough information to make a decision with. Knowledge is power (and gold) in this case.

What are some of your favorite “flips”? Share them here!

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WoW Scams 101: Auction House Scam #3 – “NPC” COD Scam

July 12, 2011 2 Comments

mailfraud 300x198 WoW Scams 101: Auction House Scam #3 NPC COD ScamWoW Scams 101: Auction House Scam #3 – “NPC” COD Scam

In “WoW Scams 101″, I’m going to take a pretty good look at how some ongoing “scams” work in WoW. Most of them can be easily spotted and avoided by following the simple mantra of “if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is”, however, these grifts still warrant some light shedding.

Auction House Scam #3 – “NPC” COD Scam

“The best things in life are free, but you can save them for the birds and bees…” ~The Beatles

Blizzard Doesn’t Randomly Give Anything Away – Much Less Charge You For It.

The “NPC” COD Scam has been around a while, and while Blizzard has cracked down on it, it still persists today.

Here’s the basics:

“The Mark” finds themselves hanging out in General Chat or Trade Chat asking questions or making comments that would generally label them as a new or inexperienced player. All the Grifter has to do is watch and wait. Once they’ve identified their Mark, they go to work.

The Grifter will write a very well crafted (well, sometimes anyhow) letter that sounds like it’s from an NPC in the game. They’ll use a crafty character name that could pass off as something Blizzard would actually have in the game. The message can be welcoming them to the game, congratulating them on an achievment, or even claiming to resolve an issue the player might have been having with a quest. Anything that will not raise too much concern. The letter will also contain a wrapped gift, and a COD amount… usually not too high, because, remember, the marks are usually new players to the game.

The mark reads the letter, sees the package, and pays the COD rate. Then they open the wrapped gift and usually get a piece of trash not worth anything near the amount of gold they just paid.

Blizzard Doesn’t Randomly Give Anything Away – Much Less Charge You For It.

Usually this scam goes by unreported, because the mark doesn’t even know they got scammed. They think that what they got was somehow part of the game. They’ll keep the item in their bags or bank and wait until they’re supposed to use it.

I’ve spoken with a couple of people who have fallen victim to this scam, but only realized they’d been scammed quite some time later – I’m talking months or years later. By then, it doesn’t really matter. 10 gold at level cap isn’t a big deal. 10 gold when you’re starting out is, but now that so much time has passed, people don’t worry about it.

How To Avoid The Trade Chat Shuffle Scam

I’ve gotten items in the mail from NPC’s before. I’ve gotten quest rewards, pets, mounts, beer of the month, and a whole lof of other things – it’s a common occourance. COD is also commonplace in the World of Warcraft. It’s the unrequested COD that has a very inticing letter that should raise flags for you. Did you ask for it? Was it part of something you were doign in the game, or is it related to something you were complaining or talking about in chat?

Why The Trade Chat Shuffle Scam Won’t Go Away

Since this scam goes largely unreported, and since Blizzard can’t go around banning names that resemble their own NPC names, and since there are still new people joining the game each day… this scam will be around a while.

What To Do If You See The Trade Chat Shuffle Scam

If you ever get a suspicious email (in or out of the game, for that matter), let a GM know. If you get the NPC COD scam, before you pay any gold, let a GM it out. You may wait a bit, but the evidince will be there for the GM to look at, live. It’s much easier for them to just cancel the email than it is to get your gold back to you.

Auction House Scam #3 – “NPC” COD Scam

“The best things in life are free, but you can save them for the birds and bees…” ~The Beatles

Don’t forget to check out Hearthcast over at http://www.hearthcast.com . Hearthcast – it’s about World of Warcraft.

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WoW Scams 101: Auction House Scam #2 – The Trade Chat Shuffle

July 5, 2011 6 Comments

scam 300x225 WoW Scams 101: Auction House Scam #2 The Trade Chat Shuffle

WoW Scams 101: Auction House Scam #2 – The Trade Chat Shuffle

In “WoW Scams 101″, I’m going to take a pretty good look at how some ongoing “scams” work in WoW. Most of them can be easily spotted and avoided by following the simple mantra of “if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is”, however, these grifts still warrant some light shedding.

Auction House Scam #2 – The Trade Chat Shuffle

Another preface before I get into this: This does not happen all the time. There are legitimate deals made in Trade Chat quite often.

The Trade Chat Shuffle is all about timing, convenience, savings, and service.

This Auction House Scam can happen various ways, but the jist of it is the same:

Player A has an item that Player B is looking for. One of them advertises in Trade Chat that they want to buy or sell said item, and the other messages them indicating they want to buy or sell that item. Bottom line, this is a player to player transaction that is happening off the auction house.

Price negotiation starts. The buyer, of course, wants a price significantly lower than the AH. The seller wants something close to the going rate. The buyer throws out terms like, “guaranteed sale”, “no auction house fees”, “no competition”, “no waiting” as they try to bring the selling price back down. The buyer may even play the sympathy card: “I have no gold”, “I’m a lowbie”, “I’m just starting out” .The seller agrees. A deal is made. The item is sold to the buyer.

The buyer then turns around, runs over to the AH, and puts that item up for market value, thus making a profit on the deal.

Remember, The Trade Chat Shuffle is all about timing, convenience, savings, and service.

Timing

Knowing what items are selling well on the Auction House is important. Monitor the Auction House for trending items, and watch for Trade Trolls as they try to pull this scam off.

Convenience

The buyer was partially right. With Trade Chat, you don’t have Auction House fees. However, the rest of what they said was garbage. There is competition with other people in Trade Chat, it’s not a guaranteed sale (you could both disagree on price), there is time loss (waiting) as you’re getting to the persons location (or they yours) and negiotiating. However, the buyer will push the convenience factor quite heavily.

Savings

The “No Auction House Fees” term is tossed around like yesterdays fruit salad. It’s total hogwash, too. What the Auction House doesn’t charge you, the buyer will try to by inflating the price. Often times, sellers come out worse that if they sold the item on the Auction House.

Service

Really, there was no service provided. Only a 3 card monty game of service. “I saved you from having to put the item on the Auction House” is not a service – it’s a scam.

How To Avoid The Trade Chat Shuffle Scam

Avoiding the Trade Chat Shuffle Scam is, again, fairly simple: Know your market, and excercise patience. If you have a high supply item, hang on to it. Wait for the supply to drop, then list it. If you’ve got a high demand item, knowing the real worth and value of the item is curcial.

Why The Trade Chat Shuffle Scam Won’t Go Away

There are too many impatient and greedy people in WoW who don’t take the time to install simple addons that will let them know the value of the items they’re trying to sell.

What To Do If You See The Trade Chat Shuffle Scam

Usually, when I see it, I call the person out in Trade Chat. Not the best practice, I know – but it’s one that gets temporary results. People love to jump on the hate-wagon, and usually the Scammer will log off for a couple of hours.

The Trade Chat Shuffle is all about timing, convenience, savings, and service. All of which, the Auction House readily supplies, by default, in the World of Warcraft.

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

June 19, 2011 5 Comments
clock 300x300 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

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WoW Scams 101: Scam #1 – Lower Than AH Doesn’t Always Mean Best Price For WoW Gear Or Items

June 14, 2011 4 Comments

scam 300x225 WoW Scams 101: Scam #1 Lower Than AH Doesnt Always Mean Best Price For WoW Gear Or ItemsIn “WoW Scams 101″, I’m going to take a pretty good look at how some ongoing “scams” work in WoW. Most of them can be easily spotted and avoided by following the simple mantra of “if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is”, however, these grifts still warrant some light shedding.

Scam #1 – Lower Than AH Doesn’t Always Mean Best Price For WoW Gear Or Items

The vast majority of WoW Players have seen it before; someone jumps into Trade Chat (or General chat, but we’ll leave that for someone else to talk about) and says, “Hey, I’ve got <insert item name here> for <insert gold amount here>. That’s <insert another gold amount here> gold less than current price on the Auction House!”.

So, you being the careful, informed buyer that you are, check the Auction House. Sure enough, <instert item name here> is listed for <insert item gold price here>, which is indeed <insert gold difference here> gold more expensive than what the person in Trade Chat is selling it for. It must be a good deal!

Stop. Right. There.

Here’s the grift: A person jumps on Alt #1, checks the AH for <insert item name here>. If it’s not listed, they list it at a grossly inflated rate. One so high it’ll never sell. They then quickly swap toon, jumping on Alt #2, and start posting in Trade Chat about wanting to sell <insert item name here> for less that what the one in the Auction House is currently selling for. If they sell it, they just jump back on Alt #1, and cancel the Auction, and let it cool off for a bit… then wash, rinse, repeat.

How to spot and avoid this scam.

The savvy scammers won’t make the item they’re selling linkable. Because if you have addons that keep historical scan data, this scam is pretty trivial to avoid. Just click on the linked item, and a pop up will give you enough information to make an informed decision. Without addons, unless you know the price of <insert item name here> this task becomes a little more difficult, but not impossible. Watch Trade Chat a bit, or ask questions about the price of the item in Trade Chat. A lot of times, people call out the scammer for trying to pull this scam off. Remember, Lower Than AH Doesn’t Always Mean Best Price For WoW Gear Or Items.

Why this scam won’t go away.

The World of Warcraft is constantly getting new players, so to quote <insert who you really think said this here>, “There’s a sucker born every minute” (<a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_sucker_born_every_minute” target=”_new”/>see what I mean</a>). This scam is not just pulled on new players though. Often times, it’s seasoned players who suddenly think they’ve come up with a brilliant idea to make gold in WoW. Sadly, they think this grift has never been tried before.

What to do if you see this scam.

Avoid it. Keep on doing whatever it was you were doing. Don’t add any fuel to any fires, don’t trash anybody… just move on. Blizzard’s not going to do anything about it, so don’t bother submitting a ticket for it. Unfortunately, when enough people are involved in anything, someone will try to scam someone else…

Lower Than AH Doesn’t Always Mean Best Price For WoW Gear Or Items

~Rewt

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Understanding the World of Warcraft Auction House in 10 Easy Steps

June 9, 2011 9 Comments

topten 300x300 Understanding the World of Warcraft Auction House in 10 Easy StepsFor those of you who tune into Hearthcast each week, you’ll know my son has recently started playing WoW. While I have the opportunity to go hand him some gold, I have not done so yet (Although Freckleface might have…). Instead, I decided to teach him a little about the Auction House.

Understanding the Auction House in 10 Easy Steps

1. Most people don’t know what they’re doing – and it effects value in a bad way.

A vast majority of people think that the only way to sell things is to be the cheapest on the AH. While this may hold some truth, what usually ends up happening is people undercut others by too much, and the value of an item spirals out of control. Additionally, a person may wish to drive the price of something up and ends up getting hung out to dry because a person came in behind them and undercut them by way too much.

2. Some people don’t know what they’re doing – and it effects value in a positive way.

Often times, people will loot something, and just toss it up willy-nilly on the Auction House with no research. They think, “hey, if I can get 100 gold for this, I’m happy” – when in reality, that item may sell for five times that. Additionally, if a person price matches a common item, then over time, a group of two or more people could easily raise the price of that item.

3. Gold Farmers use the AH to move gold – look for way overpriced items, and avoid them.

You will see grey or green items that might usually sell for 5 gold or less moving for 10K gold or more. Usually this is because they’ve illegally bought gold, and are having it delivered via the Auction House. Tip: don’t try to list something yourself for that high amount. It seldom sells.

4. People use the AH to move items between characters and friends – look for way under priced items, and buy them.

People use the auction house as a transportation tool. When they do, they’ll put an item up on the Neutral Auction House for very cheap, in the hopes that nobody else will be around to snag it. What they don’t realize is the Neutral Auction House is accessible from different locations… learn them, and happy hunting!

5. Without addons, the AH is a very dangerous place to be – get at least Auctioneer

Addons make a world of difference on the Auction House. They can tell you what the value of an item is, any trends that might be going on, or even if you should buy something and make a profit off it selling it back to a vendor! Without that type of information, you’re at a severe loss.

6. People make mistakes all the time – scanning the AH with Auctioneer will reveal good deals you should buy.

I recently bought a 500 gold gem for 50 gold. Someone simply messed up their pricing. Their loss. My gain. However, without Auctioneer, I would never have seen it. Scan, and scan often.

7. Hardcore Raiders are more concerned with time than gold – items you purchase from a vendor will sell for a profit on the AH.

Water, food, any type of consumable. You can get them from vendors, and put them up on the AH. You’d be surprised what sells!

8. Hardcore Raiders typically use the Remote Auction House to prep for a raid later that night. That’s why #7 works.

People get ready for raids while they’re at work (or they blog, like Cold does). You can take advantage of this by putting Raid-Consumables on the AH. Health and Manna items tend to do very well.

9. Everyone suffers in an undercutting war. Stay out of it.

When a bunch of people who don’t know what they’re doing undercut each other for too much, the price of the item ends up bottoming out. Most people don’t know enough to scan the AH before they post to see what kind of competition they currently have. When you see too many of an item (15-20+), and each one is a gold or more less than the one above it, then don’t list yours. Keep it. Wait for the storm to pass. Alternatively, if the price on the lowest one is significantly lower that what your normal price is… buy it, and flip it. icon wink Understanding the World of Warcraft Auction House in 10 Easy Steps

10. You won’t always sell what you list, but you can’t sell what you don’t list.

You gotta be in it to win it. You can make a bunch of gold on the AH, but you need to be able to stomach the losses from time to time. My rule of thumb is if it doesn’t sell in 3 listings, vendor it and move on.
Until next week,

Rewt

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A Copper Saved Is A Copper Earned

May 30, 2011 2 Comments

copper coins 300x200 A Copper Saved Is A Copper EarnedAs a new player in the World of Warcraft, it’s very easy to get swept up in the gear people around you are wearing. It’s cool. It’s uber. It’s glowing. It’s epic. You want it, nay, you need it. And, hey, there’s an Auction House right there… so you stroll on up to the Auctioneer, search for weapons and gear… you see some stuff you like… and…

Do not buy gear on the auction house while you are still leveling!

Yeah, gear is cool. The gear you get out of dungeons or questing is “good enough” for what you’re doing right now. If you purchase gear or weapons from the WoW Auction House, chances are very high you’ll replace in very soon with an item you get off a Dungeon Boss or something you get as a quest reward. Save your gold for stuff you’ll need. Once you hit level cap, you’ll need that gold to tweak your gear and items with gems, reforging, and enchants. So that 50 gold you would have spent on that cool sword gets consumed by the gem for your epic boss drop sword with a gem slot on it. Then you’ll get to be the person hanging out in the capital city with the newbies drooling over your gear, and you’ll be able to say to yourself, “I got this gear from my hard work and dedication (and lucky need roll), and didn’t waste my precious gold in the Auction House for it” … or something to that effect.

For the exact same reasons, unless you have access to a guildie enchanter who will do your enchants for free, don’t waste time/gold getting gear enchanted while you’re still leveling.

Remember, a copper saved is a copper earned.

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