Poster: Ordinn at 2/28/2005 11:35:54 AM PST
Subject: Auction House Tips Guide Page |
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Hi all,
The web team is looking for feedback on the auction house tips page. Please use this thread to post constructive feedback on the web page to the web team. Remember that they do not handle game issues or game feedback so those types of posts should be posted to the suggestions forum.
If we missed a class, horde vs. alliance, please let us know. Remember that this is a rough draft and will go through revisions before it goes on the site. If you want to write your own new tips with entirely new paragraphs, feel free. The web team may or may not use them.
Here's the types of things they look for
- What are we missing? Is there some tip you feel we left out?
- Any major mistakes?
- Game logic issues? Did we say something that isn't possible in the game?
Thanks for your feedback, the web team will read through every post. The pages are made better with your help.
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Auction House Tips
Here are some tips from a player that has made thousands of gold via selling crafted items to other players. We hope you find these tips useful.
Create an Advertisement
Sometimes players might not know about the items you have for sale in the auction house. You can create a message to inform people about the items' availability. Create a Macro with your sales pitch. It should be phrased in such a way that it doesn't offend people. Try to make sure everything is spelled correctly. List the "hot ticket" items that you want people to notice. After you have created your macro, drag the new button over to your action bar. You can now press the button while in the "trade" channel to advertise your items. You cannot put item links in your macro. If you wish to have better results, create a manual message with a listing of the items you have for sale with item links. This, of course, isn't as easy as just pressing a macro button so not as many players use this method.
You'll find your sales will be much better with an advertisement (just like in real life). It's very important to only play this message in the trade channel and to not "spam" the message by playing it too often. Read more here.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/policy/harassmentp2.shtml#S
Determine Item Demand
Find out what items players will by. You can do that by just listing a bunch of items. If an item does not sell, relist the item at a cheaper price or you can try the same price again. If you are unable to sell the item after multiple auction house listings you will need to either drop the price some more, or you should probably quit trying to sell it. Some items are best sold to the vendors. Some trade skill items are just used to raise your skill and other players will not wish to purchase them. You'll have to determine this through experience.
Suggested Price vs. Real Price
When you place an item in the auction tab for sale the auction house lists a suggested selling price. This may or may not be close at all to what the item is really worth. Some items may have a very high price that players would never pay. Other items may have a really low price that you would really be ripping yourself off by taking that price. You need to determine what the "real" price of the item should be.
Check Other Sales
Before selling an item, check what other players are selling the same item for. That way you'll have a more realistic idea as to what price you should set the item at. You should either set the item at a similar price or cheaper. If you set the item at a more expensive price it will not sell unless someone else buys out the cheaper ones. If you price it lower, people will buy your items first. However, if you set the price too low, you might drive the cost of that item down and make less profit.
What Determines Price?
There are many factors so it's difficult to nail down:
• Demand -- How bad do players want or need it?
• Rarity of the item -Items that are more rare will typically sell for more
• Item Drop % - If the item has a really low drop rate it will be rare and will usually be more expensive.
• Level of the item -- Higher level items sell for more money
• Cost of sale to the vendor - If the vendor will pay a lot for the item players will set the item price above the vendor cost.
• Auction House availability -- If there a lot of the items in the auction house, it may drive the price down.
• Trade Items -- If the item requires rare or expensive components the item will typically be sold for more money.
Buyout Price
Always have a buyout price. Many players want the items now and don't want to wait. Many players are willing to pay the higher buyout price just to get the item now. Try not to set a ridiculously high buyout price. This will cause buyers to say "what is that guy thinking?" and they might not even buy your item based on that buyout price. Buyers are easily offended. It is better to not have a buyout price than to set one too high. The exception might be extremely powerful items such as purple items.
Create a Sales List
If you're selling trade skill items that you create you can create a list of items that you will be selling. You can include what components are required to create those items as well. You should also include your current price list. This list will help you be more organized and spend less time selling your items. You'll need to continually update your list as you add new items for sale or remove items that do not sell. You'll also need to modify the prices as the market for those items change. You may find Microsoft Excel spreadsheets are very useful for this purpose. You can also print them out easily.
When you sell an item, place a check on a list so you'll know you need to restock that item in your store.
PDA
You might find a PDA (personal digital assistant) mini-computer extremely helpful for running an auction house business. You can take notes, read lists, and so on. You can also alt-tab out of the game to your lists.
Use the Number Pad
You can use the number pad on your keyboard to more quickly enter the prices of items as you list in them in the auction house. Make sure your "num lock" key is on. You can also press "tab" to scroll between the price boxes.
Component Storage
Purchase the biggest bags you can for your bank slots. Buy as many extra bank slots as you are able to. Organize your bank with all of the trade skill components in their proper place. If you're a tailor one bag can be for Mageweave, one for Runecloth, and another for thread, dye, and other special ingredients. If you keep everything organized you can more quickly gather the components, create the items, and sell them in the auction house.
Put It Together
Some players will pay you a tip for putting an item together if they have already created the trade skill components. You can sometimes use this to increase your skill level for free. You can let people know about the availability of this service. If it's a more powerful and rare item you can charge more money for assembling it.
Reselling Items
Some players make a profit by taking items that are listed too low and resell them at their "proper" price. Their profit is the difference between the price they paid for the item and what they sold the item at. This method is for experienced traders only as you need to really know the prices before attempting this. Sometimes players place an item in the auction house and set a really low price because they don't realize what an item is worth to other players.
Sound
You can hit control-s to disable the sound effects if someone is making really annoying sounds in the auction house. Don't forget to re-enable them after you leave.
Auction House Campers
Some players do nothing but sit at the auction house and buy and sell items. It can be a lot of fun.
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