Spazzer’s Gold Guide - Playing the Auction House for Dummies

[Teh Canadian]

Gold Guide - Playing the Auction House for Dummies




Introduction

This guide was created to share my knowledge with others I have picked up over the years playing World of Warcraft. (Since 2004)

This guide will be about making gold. Massive amounts of World of Warcraft currency in small, efficient and easy to learn steps using the Auction House.

Do you want this amount of World of Warcraft Gold? OR MORE!




I will give you tips and show you the tricks of the Auction House, how to exploit it and make fast and easy gold. With spending almost zero effort and time doing it!

Note: I have given people tips over the last couple of years and they all came back saying it really works. Which is great to hear but most of the tips and information I gave out were nothing compared to what this guide will discuss.

This guide will give you an in depth look and feel at what I do to make gold. I have been using this technique for over 9 years and it has enabled me to reach the gold cap several times.

Please give me feedback to improve this guide.

Lets get started.


Starting Out:

To start playing the Auction House and making gold, you need two *Very Important* AddOns.

Auctionator - This is used to keep detailed records of items and to buy/sell in mass quantities. Don’t get 'Auctionator' confused with the dozen of Auctioneer and Auctionater AddOn’s out there. You need 'Auctionator'; it is by far the best and efficient Auction AddOn.

MailOpener- Any mass Mail Box AddOn will work. However, from my experience I found that 'MailOpener' works the best.

That’s it! You can now start making easy and fast gold!


Getting Started:

How to Use Auctionator

'Auctionator' adds three tabs to the bottom of your Auction House window. (Buy, Sell, More...)



These tabs are what make 'Auctionator' so much superior to the competitors. Simplicity is the key.


Buying Tab



This is where the magic happens in 'Auctionator', this is where you 'Buy' Auctions quickly and in bulk with almost no downtime. Having no downtime gives you a huge advantage.



The most important part of this window is the ‘Recent Searches’ and ‘Shopping List Function’. This allows you to multi-search items which you can add to a list beforehand to increase your downtime when buying/searching items.

As you can see, I have it on my ‘Recent Searches’ and it lists everything I have entered into the ‘Search Box’. This is a great tool because when I am ‘Reloading” an item really quickly I can just click the item name and it will que a search for that item.

Note: ‘Reloading’ - Refers to the act of ‘refreshing” a page to view if any new items have been posted.

The ‘Buy’ tab also has three other very important functions; ‘+’ , Full Scan... and Options.

Is probably the second most important button for 'Auctionator'.

When you click the little ‘+’ button you should get a new window which looks like this.

Note: If ‘+’ is greyed out, do a quick random search and it should appear.



This window is also what makes 'Auctionator' so great. This is where you can select specific ‘Categories’ and ‘Subcategories’ and a 'Level Range'. It lets you search specific categories, and it will list all items into groups depending on the search.

Note: I recommend staying away from the 'Level Range' until you get use to 'Auctionator'. I really only use this for ‘Enchanting Scrolls' and 'Glyphs', otherwise I use the normal Search Box.

can be found on all three 'Auctionator' Tabs, however I will explain it in this section. This is why you have the 'Auctionator' AddOn. It does a mass query of the Auction House, recording all items and current prices. You might be thinking: 'Why do I need this?'. I will tell you! You do full scans three times a day. Morning, afternoon and night. It also can be broken down into. Morning Peak Hours, Peak Hours, Dead Zone. To get very important item history records.

Note: Depending on your computer, internet or both you might have problems doing full scans. (If you do get disconnected why scanning 'Click Here')

You scan to get a detail history report. Which can be on the ‘Buy’ Page next to ‘Current’ and ‘Other’

When you click ‘History’ (after you have searched an item) it will show you a history log of dates and times and prices for that specific item. This is used to tell the fluctuations in an item's possible sale values. This is where the magic happens. If you think the item will be worth more and how much more and when.

is also very important for obvious reasons. I wont go into detail about this because most of it like I said is common sense and can be figured out.

However I will tell you about the ‘Undercutting” Tab of the ‘Options’ section.



The ‘Undercutting’ section is where you set the undercut price which depends on an items value.

Note: I currently have them all set to undercut by 1 copper. You can put any restrictions but I would recommend doing the same. Ignore the ‘Starting Discount’ option because you will ALWAYS, post the same amount for ‘Starting Price’ and ‘Buy Out Price’. Why? Because it is easy to undercut and will not show up first on a person's search. Which is important!


Selling Tab



This is where you mass upload your items to the Auction House.

Note: You can also buy items from this tab.

This section is best described with an Example.

Example:



I used Windwool Cloth for this example (Patch 5.4). All you do is drag and drop the item into the “Drag an item you want to see to this area.” It will then search for all items associated with the name and list them in descending order from 'Cheapest' to 'Most Expensive'.

Any auctions that are yours will have appear with (yours) beside the ‘Item Price’ and ‘Current Auctions’

(Example: These are Mine)

This is one of the areas where you can see if you have been undercut. When you see you have indeed been undercut you can do one of two things: ‘Cancel Auctions’ or ‘Buy’ the undercutters items.

‘Cancel Auctions’ is simple, click your stacks. And click ‘Cancel Auctions’



Do this until all of your Auctions disappear from the ‘Display’ Section.

Note: If you spam 'Cancel' too quickly it will miss some of the items. Always Double Check because errors do happen.

You can also choose to “Buy” the undercuts. Make sure you can afford to do so and believe that you can make a reasonable profit. If not then don't bother.

To Buy the items, select the items and click ‘Buy” When you do this you will get a window which looks like this.



All you do here, is click ‘Buy Another' until ‘Available’ reaches 0 or until you have bought enough. It will indicate how many you have bought.

Note: If you spam 'Buy' too quickly it will bug. Always Double Check. Never Spam, 'Auctionator'. If you do, be prepared with the outcome.


History Tab

This tab is often over looked by people and it is really one of the most important features of Auctionator. It needs no real explanation as it shows past prices of an item you have scanned. This information is gained every time you scan the Auction House and is the reason I want you scanning with Auctionator daily.



I can easily see from the History Tab what has been the average daily price of Windwool Cloth which gives me needed information on reselling opportunities.

More... Tab



This last tab is also very helpful. It can do a mass search of your current posted auctions and indicate if there are any undercuts. I rarely use this tool because I have so many auctions and I let every auction stay for the full duration of 12 hours. Regardless if they sell or not.

Note: I would also recommend leaving your auctions and not worrying to much if you get undercut. Depends on the situation, however.

The auctions you have posted which are currently the cheapest on the Auction House are indicated with a ‘Green Check Mark’. The ones which have been undercut or are currently not the cheapest will be indicated with a ‘Red Cross Mark’.

Note: You might have the cheapest single or stack for an item but someone might undercut with a single or stack and 'Auctionator' will always indicate the cheaper value regardless.

That is the basics of 'Auctionator', however the best way to learn how to use it, Is well to use it. Trial and Error.


How to Use MailOpener

I won’t go into much detail about 'MailOpener' because it is such a simple AddOn.



Just open your Mail Box and click 'Open All' - Enough Said.

Note: It can be formatted to personal preferences. Play around with the settings until you find something you like.

Shopping Lists

Shopping lists are very important because it saves time searching for individual items but it also gives you the ability to search 25 items at once. I use this Auctionator feature to group together specific 'Trade Good' items such as cloths, ores and leathers.

To easy and create shopping lists go to: Interface > AddOns > Auctionator > Shopping Lists.



From here you create Delete, Edit, Rename, Create New, Import and Export Shopping Lists.

When you create a 'New' Shopping List the below window will appear.



You will type the SPECIFIC name of any items you want in this list. Use quotation marks to stop the search engine of Auctionator from pulling up unwanted items.

Example: If you add Orb to a shopping list Auctionator will search for any items listed with the word 'Orb'. To stop this from happening use the quotation marks to stop this from happening. "Orb of Deception" will only bring back search results with that exact wording and not every item with Orb in it.


Making Gold!

Now that you know how to use the AddOns I will explain the basics of making gold.

Everyone using my guide should keep this one thing in mind: I have perfected this over the last 6 years, with trial and error. Playing the Auction House will depend on your dedication. It takes time and practice. You will learn how to manipulate the Auction House with time. It can be risky and you WILL lose gold, however if done correctly you will make more then you lose. Eventually.

Many people ask; “How much gold do you need to start?”, my answer has always been 1 gold.

It starts off with a simple formula.

Buy Stuff Low + Sell Stuff High = Profit + Returned Gold

It all depends on what you buy and what you sell. Everyone who starts 'Playing the Auction House' should focus on 'Enchanting Materials', because it costs almost nothing to put them up on the Auction House and there’s lots of it and they are easily obtained.

Before you start buying items you need to understand what I stated earlier about Morning, Afternoon, Night and Morning Peak Hours, Peak Hours and Dead Zone. This is a very simplistic way of classifying time periods. The Auction House is run by the server's community and items will fluctuate depending on the community's needs.

You can break it down into a math to discover when prices will be higher and lower depending on the server itself.

Note: Everything is based around a 24 hour clock. When people are on it depends on three things; Time, Dates and Days. I recommend you scan the Auction House during each time frame, i.e. a minimum of three times a day.


Time Frames

10:00-20:00 is called Peak Hours/Afternoon. This is when 60% of the items on the Auction House get posted and when items fluctuate drastically.

00:00-9:00 is called Morning/Morning Peak Hours this is when 30% of the previous days Auctions run out of time/get reposted. Morning Peak Hours is when things can get dangerous for items and can have great selling opportunities.

21:00-24:00 is Dead Zone/Night this is when items are being bought for raids and new items posted this is when you want to post most of your items.

These time frames change depending on the day of the week. The worst time to EVER sell an item on the Auction House is Friday, Saturday and Sunday and Monday mornings. This also depends on the date of the month, the first weekend and last weekend always have an increased activity on the server, big patches will have a big impact on the Auction House's economy, also. Keep updated on items that will have increased value because of a patch.

Note: It works like the real economy and it will be unpredictable at times.


Do your research! Find what's going to be the next big thing! Be ahead of your competitors.

How it Works, 'most' of the time.

You buy items during the week/weekend at Peak Hours/Afternoon. You then resell them during any Dead Zone/Night with priority of selling on the weekend Dead Zone/Night. You can also keep an eye on Morning Peak Hours/Morning depending on the demand of an item. Any raid materials are needed 24/7 especially on 'Main Raid Days' which seem to be Sunday-Thursday.

Example: Food - Flasks - Gems and Enchants

Note: After server maintenance it is one of the best times to sell items because almost all items are removed from the Auction House due to server downtime and items running out of time.

It takes awhile to understand the system, but you really never want to sell during Peak Hours. You only want to buy during Peak Hours and sell any other time.

I would recommend playing around with when you post items, and remember it all depends on your play schedule. Don't go out of your way to post during specific times if it just wont work for you.

Example: I personally have a great advantage being 6 hours behind 'Server Time', which gives great opportunities to see stock shortages in an item and demands for others.


Tips

Tip 1

Always sell in stacks. The only material I sell individually is 'Volatiles' because you can buy stacks of 200 usually for cheaper then the single stacks on the Auction House.

People want stacks, they hate buying mass amounts of single items. If they buy something they want it fast. So take advantage of that and buy all the cheap single stacks and repost them in stacks and make profit!

Tip 2

Always use 'Short' aka 12 Hour Duration for Auction House, anything longer and it wont sell or it shouldn't. Having it for the shortest amount of time gives you the ability to control the prices along with not having to cancel your auctions. However, sometimes I will put items for 'Very Long' aka 48 Hours if I am busy or on a farming spree.

You should never cancel any auctions or try not too because you lose money.

Tip 3

Professions play a big part at increasing profit why playing the Auction House, I did not talk about professions throughout the guide because people get easily confused when it comes to crafting and marginal profit.

By all means use your professions as an advantage but don't waste your time farming materials with skinning, mining or herbalism. If you are going to use your professions to the best of your ability pick up two crafting professions. You can never go wrong with Jewelcrafting and Enchanting buying ore and greens and selling the byproduct.

The only warning that comes with playing the Auction House and professions is becareful when selling items which are not in big demand. Lower enchants and equipment are a perfect example of bad sales, sell what people want and need. Don't waste expensive materials or resources on something that wont sell.


Questions

When should I start making gold, any safety percautions?

You always should have a ‘Pocket Margin’. What I mean by that is an amount of Gold on your 'Auction House Character'. Mine is 50,000g, mostly because I have had a lot of experience with how the Auction House works.

So after opening the Mail Box If I hit my cap I send anything over my 50,000g to an alternate character as a savings.

Note: It depends though, because the more risk you take, the more it can profit you or the more you can lose. Taking big risks I find is also very addicting. It's just fake currency, you will eventually get bored of making 500,000g in a day and will take risky chances which will most likely fail.

The main reason you use the ‘Pocket Margin” is because you can safely use all 50,000g buying new items/reselling and you know that you have backup if you need it for anything.



What is the lowest profit I should try make on an item?

I tell everyone 10g minimum when starting out playing the Auction House. This is because of two reasons.

Reason 1:

• If you can’t sell the item you will at-least make a minimum profit if not get your money back when you sell an item.

Reason 2:

• The Auction House takes 5% of your total sale + cost of posting an item

This is why I tell people to start off with Enchanting Materials, because there is almost no deduction on a sale and you don't need to do calculations to see if the item is worth buying and reselling.


When should I Scan the Auction House?

As often as you can.

Maximum: per Hour
Minimum: per Morning Peak Hours, Peak Hours, Dead Zone (3 times a day)

The more you scan, the more reliable information you will have on item prices. It will give you the latest data and what the current going price are for items.

This is important because 70% of the items I post on the Auction House are from Trade, people give incredible good deals in 'Trade Chat', because they want a quick sale or they don’t know the current going prices.

Note: If you are using an Auction House Character, make sure you enable full account sharing so the information is shared throughout your account. Also, if you do some searching around the AddOns websites you will find Scan Data Files, however I recommend creating your own through scans. I also will not share my files.


Should I buy items in trade?

YES!

Always try and bargen with the seller and try to get a better deal. If you can.

Example:

Player is selling 100 Stacks of Elemtium Ore in Trade Chat for 50g a Stack. You whisper Player and offer to buy all 100 Stacks for 40g a Stack. Current Auction House Value 65g a Stack. You just increased your profit.


What do you mean pushing an item lower and lower in price?

*WARNING DANGEROUS*

This is one of the many key tricks I have. If you can't sell an item because people keep undercutting you and pushing the item lower. Crash the price. What I mean by this is keep undercutting yourself and others until the item gets rediculously cheap. People are really stupid when it comes to undercutting. After the price drops, buy all the items which were posted for less and cancel all your current auctions of that item and repost them for a higher price, thus making a quick profit. HOWEVER This is really risky because most people will buy the items for cheap if given the oppertunity (just like you should be doing). I only recommend doing this with really expensive items, however it is all at a risk value. What are you prepared to lose.

Remember all the small things add up.


Conclusion:

I can’t tell you what to buy or how to sell it. It is going take some dedication to learn how to go about and do that yourself. Just follow the simple tips and tricks I have shown you and the profits will start rolling in.

Take chances, make mistakes and get your hands dirty. I think if you take my guide and shape it into something that works for you, then my guide has fulfilled it's purpose.

Enjoy.


Information:

This Guide will be updated regularly. I just got back playing World of Warcraft so new information daily.

Please feel free to leave any comments or questions you have and I will try and answer or implement them to my guide. I created this guide and originally posted in on mmo-champion and now I wanted it to share with the great community here at OwnedCore.

[Lacatosea]

Well thought out, you clearly put some effort into it.
+rep

[Teh Canadian]

Well thought out, you clearly put some effort into it.
+rep

Thank you. Any feedback would be appreciated, so I can take this to the next level.

~Spazzer

[Pukka]

+4 Rep. Great guide, very detailed. your on the right tracks! Keep it up!

[Lokiskye]

Amazing! I'm gonna try this out, thanks! I'll +rep asap when i'm able to!

[Teh Canadian]

Feel free to post any questions or inquires. Here to help.

~Spazzer

[Imokim2]

+Rep Excellent guide, I just started WoW again and I'm sure this will come in handy.

[Teh Canadian]

Thanks for the great feedback. Let me know if there is anything you are unaware about or have inquires.

~Spazzer

[tcslasher20]

Thank you for the guide!

The only questions I have are:

1) Have you tried any other addons other than the ones you've posted?
2) If so then what makes the ones you chose better than the others?
3) On average how much gold do you make a day?

Other than those questions very nice job! It was quite detailed with a good amount of tips for does and don't.

[Teh Canadian]

Thank you for the guide!

The only questions I have are:

1) Have you tried any other addons other than the ones you've posted?
2) If so then what makes the ones you chose better than the others?
3) On average how much gold do you make a day?

Other than those questions very nice job! It was quite detailed with a good amount of tips for does and don't.

Thanks for the response.

Answering Questions;

1) I have tried almost every AddOn there is out there on the market which is free. There are some AddOns which cost you a monthly subscription but I don't support those so I won't mention them. Auctionator is by far the best of all the "Actioneer" AddOns. You can go into more detail and add Titan Bar and download extensions like history of items and AddOn's such as Realm Compare... but in the end the ones listed are the minimum and all you really need. Did you have an AddOn in mind and I would be more than willing to try it out and give feedback.

2) The AddOn's I have chosen are just personal preference from years of trying different AddOn packages and I thought they were user friendly (one click AddOns ftw).

3) It depends. I am just getting back into hardcore gold farming (I don't sell gold, I am the guild whore; might consider this time around though) The best run I had why playing the Auction House for a period of a month was about 200k gold a day. There is endless opportunities. Re-posting Auctions get old though, really wish there was bigger bags and storage per character. That was only with 4 accounts. 2 Accounts constantly scanning and looking for items (1 Alliance, 1 Horde: All on same server) Than a main account switching between the Horde and Alliance buying Auctions and than 1 account for storage. I have never been banned because it is 100% legit however I have read Blizzard banning for abusing game mechanics. This was also done with no boting, this time around I have incorporated bots and have 10 active accounts. I will let you all know how that turns out.

Hope this helped.

~Spazzer

[Lokiskye]

I read this thread 3 days ago, followed everything that you wrote down. I'm now 30k richer

Altho there is one thing that i don't like with the Auctionator, it lacks the % of items on AH ( bad explaination). You know auctioneer could show the items % if you scanned for a while.

other than that, i love you Spazzer! +999999999 rep

[Chloroform]

Very nice kinda helpful alot of work props

[Teh Canadian]

I read this thread 3 days ago, followed everything that you wrote down. I'm now 30k richer

Altho there is one thing that i don't like with the Auctionator, it lacks the % of items on AH ( bad explaination). You know auctioneer could show the items % if you scanned for a while.

other than that, i love you Spazzer! +999999999 rep

Thanks, I understand what you mean by the % of items on Auction House, but I found it uneeded with my experience. Hope you keep making lots of gold.

Keep the feedback coming people Adding a feedback section

~Spazzer

[rek1292]

Pyrite Ore > Prospect = Epic Gems *Available in couple patches, Save Pyrite Ore!*

How long ago was this guide made?
This is really my only problem with the guide. Other than that, it's a thorough how-to guide. Nicely done.

[Teh Canadian]

How long ago was this guide made?
This is really my only problem with the guide. Other than that, it's a thorough how-to guide. Nicely done.

Awhile ago, updating as I go.

~Spazzer