Re: Newbie auction questions


"Xymmie" <xymmie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"lcpltom" <lcpltom@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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On Apr 19, 12:30 pm, "Xymmie" <xym...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Is it better to only auction things on weekends? Or certain types of
things?

Stacks of ore bars always sell, but stacks of leather, wool, silk,
linen,
sometimes expire without a bid, and it seems that it happens more often
if I
set up an auction on a week day. (I play evenings, only.) I set my
starting bid as low to mid-range--enough so I don't feel stupid if
that's
all I get, but not as high as the higher ones listed.

Re: Random gems--Is it better to wait until one has a significant stack
of,
say, shadowgems or malachite before auctioning, or are singletons better
in
these cases?

Xymmie

Stuff needed for crafting professions, such as metal ore and bars,
herbs, skins, cloth, fish, or whatever else you can find, typically
sell better when you have a full stack of them. Though you can sell
them individually if you want, they will still sell, just not as well.

My strategy for the AH is fairly simple. First, never grossly
undercut your competitions buyout price. All you are doing is driving
the market down making less money for yourself and others. The best
way I have found to competitively auction items (without using an
addon) is when you have the auction house search screen open, you can
shift click items from your inventory and search them, much like you
can ***-click items from your inventory into a chat. This allows you
to quickly search to see what that item is currently selling for.

Next what you do is look to see what the starting bid and buyout of a
similar item currently is. Say you are selling a stack of 20 wool
cloth. You shift-click wool cloth into the search, and then look for
the lowest buyout price, and find out what the starting bid on that
is. Say for example, you find 20 wool cloth currently has a starting
bid of 50 silver and a buyout of 1 gold.

Now, here is how you stay competitive without undercuting the
competition. Most people don't take the time to bid, they want their
item now and they want a garentee they are getting the item, so most
people buyout. Some people still do place bids, so you want to price
competitively for that as well. The best way to compete is to set the
buyout the same, at 1 gold, but have a lower starting bid, say 49
silver.

What this does is when someone goes to buy wool cloth, they will do a
search and list of wool cloth will come up. They will normally start
at the top, which has the lowest buyout price, and buy what they need
from the top. The lower starting bid ensure your item is listed above
the previous persons.

So simply, if the current starting bid is 50 silver and buyout is 1
gold, and you list the exact same thing at 49s and 1 gold, your item
appears first on the list, which increases the chances of your item
selling without having to lower your own profit.

Too many people instead of checking the current prices will just list
stuff, or they will reduce the buyout instead of the starting bid.
This is what brings down the market, cause the next idiot who comes
along will undercut the first idiot. So say the current price on wool
cloth is 1 gold buyout. Idiot #1 pots with a 90 silver buyout. Idiot
#2 posts for 75 silver buyout. See how this can drive down the price?

The stuff I've been listing (mostly ore and skins) usually have only a
couple of people selling at a very high buyout price. I wish there were a
way to check to see if they got that price.


I also make a practice of looking for idiots like this on the AH. If
I see someone has put wool cloth up for 75 silver and everyone else
has it up for 1 gold, I buyout the 75s and relist it at the going
price. The example might not seem like a huge profit, but every once
in a while you find a gold mine (I bought 18x Black Dragonscales for
22 gold when the current price for 1 scale was 6 gold).

Another good idea is when you have an idea of the normal selling price
of an item and see the price has dropped considerably, wait for the
price to come back up. Usually this drop in price is from a gold
farmer working his way up and just so happens to be grinding mobs who
drop that item. The price usually comes back up within a week or 2.

As far as actually selling things, there really is no good time to put
things up. On weekends, so many people are playing that it tends to
drive the prices in the auction house down a bit because so many
people are putting stuff in there. But on weekdays there are less
people playing and looking in the auction house for stuff. I always
put my stuff up for the 24 hour duration so that I can cover both
morning and evening crowds.

But by far, the fastest way to make money on the AH is to take up
mining and skinning. Mining makes you a lot of money, especially now
since jewelcrafting has been added. Skinning lets you make money off
of any skinable animal that you kill and since there is no tracking
for skinning, it won't interfere with your mining tracking.

These are my two professions. :)

Thanks for your input.

Xymmie




Tom is dead on here... especially make sure you are putting your items up
for 24 hours. The default setting is 8 hours.. and since most people go to
the AH as the last thing they do for the night, it is usually later in the
evening.. so.. if you put your item up at 10pm, and you don't change it to
24 hours, it will come off the AH at 6am.. hardly enough time for people to
find it, let alone buy it. 24 hours also covers the east/west coast crowd.

Follow his advice, and you will sell almost everything.


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