With Cataclysm finally arriving, there are more than a few players scrambling to make enough gold to get the best out of the new content. I don’t know about you, but I’ve found myself a little strapped for gold after the bustle of the new expansion.
The first golden rule to using Auctioneer is to SCAN, SCAN, SCAN–
If you have to ask why, you’ve clearly never been on the wrong end of a very slow moving and very expensive stock. Nothing is worse than thinking you have a great deal only to be sacked with some other merchant’s unsellable deadweight.
If you want to flip quickly and without worrying too much about watching every piece of gold coming in and out, I’d recommend using this strategy when you have about 1000g already in the bank.
Once you build up a library of prices (scan the Auction House regularly for about a week), you can start using the “resale” option.
There’s three major rules to using a “resale” search to buy items:
-Start with Cheap Items
-If you don’t know you can make a profit, don’t buy it!
-Be wary of market pulls and pushes (Market Manipulators)
It’s best not to squander away all of our savings at once before knowing exactly how well and often what we are buying sells. Until you are more experienced, I recommend trading things like recipes and inexpensive mats that are always in demand. Never bet all of your money on a single resale!
When in Doubt, Pass!
If you aren’t positively certain of an item’s average price or selling rate is, either do some research or just pass on the offer. Even if it seems like a good deal now, it won’t seem like a good deal when it’s glaring at you from your guild storage.
If you start out with low funds, it’s especially important to have items you can flip quickly. More experienced merchants have the funds to “sit” on items for a long time in order to sell them for higher prices, but this isn’t wise for starting merchants.
No One Likes Being Manipulated
There’s a lot of ways that a play can be deceived by a market price. Auctioneer factors in a lot of different variables, so a few auctions with obscene prices (I’m thinking 99999g for some meat) will drive the price average high enough for Auctioneer to tell you to buy an item that isn’t as cheap as you may think.
Many players price these auctions regularly to mess around with Auctioneer’s scan data to disrupt other merchant’s businesses. Always be careful and research deals that seem unrealistically profitable!
Where and When Do I Find Hot Resale Deals?
Always sort the Auction House by the time remaining in an auction. Many of these items will be without bids, but the ones that have bids can often be sniped at the last moment. Keep in mind that other players like to do the same thing, so you’ll have to expect to lose a few auctions in order to get a nice deal in the end.
I’ve started playing the Auction House with as little as 10g before by flipping extremely low value mats. Remember that if you have a small budget, any profit margin is better than what you had before. The more gold you have to spend, the more gold you can earn per day.
The time that I tend to have the most luck on finding low priced items is around 11pm-2am Friday – Sunday. These are the times that players are heading off to bed and are putting all their battle spoils up, so be sure to check out the Auction House before you decide to do the same!
