Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Auction timing

We're quickly learning that what day and when you put items up for sale at the auction house is almost important as what you put up. To really amp up your profits, weekends are the best time. Obviously more people are on during the weekend, and those that do only log in on the weekend don't want to waste their game time gathering up items they need.

That's where we come in. First of all, like we noted before, always put the auction up for 24 hours and make the buyout price 3x-5x the initial bid. This encourages the impatient (who wants to wait 24h to win some wool cloth?!) and the rich ('aww, I can spend 3 gold on a 20 stack of wool cloth' - and yes, we are selling many that high). Not all times on the weekend are optimal, although anytime on the weekend is better than early in the week. The best time we've found so far is to put your items up for sale late afternoon on Friday. That way when Friday night's rush comes in your wares are available, but the auction won't end until late afternoon Saturday. By late night Friday, the auction house is packed with items that the Friday night players want to sell. Wait to post your wares again mid-morning Saturday (again for 24h long) to hit the afternoon and night crowd. Finally, Sunday morning is good as you'll want all day Sunday to ensure your stuff sells as most people don't play too late Sunday night.

We've been able to pull down sick 3g per 20 wool cloth this way, as well as get a premium price from 3g-5g for upper teen level quality weapons and armor. We're up to 60 gold and have hit level 25 with our hunter. Things are going pretty well and we can't wait to start exploring the great money making methods in the higher levels.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woot! Good for you guys. Sounds like you're getting the hang of things. I remember being a low level toon and feeling like I was finally starting to have some money (7gold or so..lol) and then having to train and losing so much of my cash to my stupid trainer! I think I was level 35 or so and had 33gold to my name. That's when I found something for sale way too cheap on the AH, bought it and put it back up for sale and made 100g profit. Trust me, that made my day and I've been looking for deals ever since.

Anonymous said...

Here is another way to profit at the auction houses:

Ok, this is what I have been doing to make consistent gold on the auction house. I made over 30 gold today. It will probably not last long once the word gets out.

In Arathi Highlands there is a location called Stromgarde Keep (if you use cosmosui the coords are : 26,58). Now, this area is half controlled by the alliance and half controlled by reds that attack on sight. But if you are careful you can avoid the reds. The entire arathi highlands zone is level 30-35 mobs but the keep is level 35+ elite mobs so you want to avoid fighting if you can.

Anyway, to make it simple to keep going back here, I go to Refuge Pointe at 45,47 on the map.There is a griffon guy there. This point hooks up directly to the griffon master in IronForge where the AH is. So after getting the griffon point established I can fly from Ironforge to refuge pointe and back again.

Now, like I said there is level 30+ mobs in this zone, but the nice thing is, there is a patrol that moves along the road that heads south from refuge pointe and follows the road all the way to Stromgarde Keep. So the road is usually cleared of reds for you. Just keep an eye out for them . If you are over level 30 though, you can probably handle it on your own.
So, you basically want to take the road south out of refuge pointe and once you hit the road where you can go east or west you want to go west. Follow that road until you get to a road between two lakes. That is Stromgarde Keep. (you should see it on your map now.) You take that road into Stromgarde Keep.

***This is the tricky part. People might be fighting the reds in here, so just watch out for their battles. When you first enter the Keep, you are in a courtyard. Hug the wall that is on your right hand side (the west wall), that is the Alliance side of the keep. Now, the very first right that you can make once you enter the courtyard, you take that... you will know you are in the right spot because you will see a bunch of green guards. Basically now, you want to take the road all the way back and then to the right, and follow the walls. Eventually you will see an opening in the wall with a walkway over the entrance you originally came in. Take that walkway(bridge) over to the other side, It will still be green. Now once you are across, hang a right and another right.
You are looking for the NPC vendor named Deneb Walker.
Hope you brought some money with you. Anyway, he is the vendor that sells the Expert first aid book. Thats fine and dandy and all... I mean it costs a gold piece. But you can sell it on the auction house for at least 1.5 gp and often 2 gp. But I didn't send you all the way here for that stupid book. No, you are here to buy the two other books he sells. The one that only costs you 22 sp and 50 sp. The manual for mageweave bandage and the manual for the heavy silk bandage. Now remember that 22sp and 50 sp you just spent. Well, those books sell on my auction house for ********* 1.9-2.2gp EACH ************* YOU HEARD ME!!!! EACH. I have put up 5 of each book today for 1.9 buyout that I paid 22 sp and 50 sp for. I sold each one of them. (in fact, the heavy silk ones sell better and they are only 22 sp each) I also bought 5 books for the first aid for a gp each, and sold them for 1.9 gp. After all those sold, I went back and bought even more. These things are selling. Now, I don't know what they are selling for on your server, but just take a look on the auction house for the books (under the name field you can enter MANUAL and click on RECIPE and then click SEARCH. See what your auction price is for these items) This is a gold mine.

Because first aid is one of those skills that every single character can have because it is a secondary skill, every one buys these things.

An when you get tired of doing that you can always just buy WOW Gold