Auctioneer and Bottomscanner: understanding and using

[devilish_hunter]

Okay, get comfortable, this is likely to be another of my lethal "text walls"... grab a drink, a bottle of aleve, and settle in.


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Okay, as I promised elsewhere, this is a basic guide to get you started on the path of never setting the wrong price or getting ripped off on buying/selling/trading items by using Auctioneer. Also, I will explain the moneymaking engine of Bottomscanner, how it works, and how to use it. The point of the guide is to have you comfortable enough with this addon suite to use it and gain proficiency yourself after reading. If you have other questions after reading this guide, contact me, or post it so others can help answer/learn from answers.
I will also include links and information on a lesser known AH mod called sienna's Gem Viewer, that compliments the suite beautifully!

First things first, lets get the mods downloaded and installed!
Head over to http://auctioneeraddon.com/dl/
The very top zip pack has all you need for Auctioneer, Enchantrix, and BottomFeeder.
Okay, now head over to http://ui.worldofwar.net/ui.php?id=4098

Great! Now that you have all the files we need, install them. (if you cannot handle this part alone, seriously, you are NOT ready for MMOwned. any questions about this step will be met with my now reputed cynical, evil, somewhat uncalled for comments about n00bcakes and such. If you MUST ask for help about unzipping files to the right place, do not ask me. you have been fairly warned.)

So, what have we installed? the best way to understand is to see it for yourself. Lets head over to the AH! When you arrive, click the Auctioneer, just like you always would. You will see a MULTITUDE of new tabs and buttons! Before we get started on any of those, click the "scan" button, and read on as it scans the AH. This is going to take about 15 minutes, sometimes more, depending on the server you are on, so lets chat and enjoy that drink while it happens.

What Auctioneer is doing now is compiling a listing of every single item for sale at this AH. It will not see the other faction, not the neutral AH's listings, only the one you are on now. It will store the lists from those 3 seperate so you CAN have scans from each on a single server. It will share these listings between all toons on this PC on this server. So what does this list do?
The big list remembers what the opening bid prices are, buyout prices, and how many of each item scanned currently are listed in the AH. Then, while auctioneer is loaded into your UI's memory, it will show this information on your tooltip on any item you mouse over.

Example:
My 39 rogue (who is following along on another PC as I type this, so we are really doing this together!) just finished his scan of the AH. He sees a link for a Sunfury Signet in trade, and clicks it. Now he has NEW tooltip information, showing the Signet was seen at AH! It is listed as being seen 9 times already, starting bid at 86s, buyout was at 1g 17s! So, I now KNOW I could sell these for 1g 17s easily, as they are being bought for that as we speak. it ALSO tells me that I can sell it to a vendor for 2s. This is a nice feature we will cover later.

So, your scan is complete? You have your first price listing! Great! Before we go on, lets talk about scanning....

You see that my Sunfury Signet was seen at 9 auctions on the first scan. So if I scan again right away it will show 18 (prolly, if I scan before any are sold or more added to AH) and the average prices will be unchanged. This would be a HORRIBLE thing to do. What Auctioneer does is check the prices across the AH and calculate best sale prices based on that information. If you flood it with too many scans of the same table it can flaw it's overall "picture" of the price plan. Why? Lets say some moron puts a Sunfury Sig for 10g. In this scenario, it would make the list of 9 into a list of 10, and the average price would jump alot. ALOT. It would almost double Auctioneer's projected sales price. Now, if you scan again in 12 hours, and again the next day, odds are the item will either be taken down, or more auctions will have been listed, and the impact of the single bad listing will be nulled to a greater degree. But you want to ideally scan twice a day, once early in the day, and again much later to get the best and most varied data into your big list. And remember, Auctioneer is a tool, like any other. It will help ALOT used properly, but can cut your throat if it is not. if you do not scan, or you scan sparadically, your price lists will reflect that with inaccuracies. I scan once when I log on, and again before bed. Heck I keep one of my alts standing in the AH for that express purpose!

So now we know how and why we scan? AWESOME! now lets look at some of the other tabs! lets next look at siena's Gem Viewer.

I am sure all of you with 65+ toons in the Outlands have gear with sockets on it. So, you head to the AH to buy some socket gems! Blizz really screwed us in the AH on finding these things though!!! You need a certain color, or you want a certain stat, and Blzz's worthless AH window just does not handle it. The gem Viewer totally handles the problem. Play with it a little, its very straightforward, and you will be able to find EXACTLY the gems you want! The good news about the overabundance of jewelers and Blizz's retarded AH window: it is very hard for people to sell the gems because you cannot search them easily. So the prices are LOW LOW LOW. Sucks if you are a jeweler, but it RULES if you are not!

Okay, now let's look at Bottomscanner.
Click the "Search Auctions" tab.
this is the manual scan system. You can input the numbers you want for proffit listing, and set for rarity, time remaining, etc. my rogue wants to mark something up alot, so he is looking for a minimum proffit of 2g 50s. now click <search>

I have found a FEW things I can net 2g 50s proffit or better on! Right away I see a Soul-Drain Dagger of the Elder with Short time remaining on bid! Current bid is 4g 37s, Auctioneer says that is 51% of normal price, and shows I can relist that item for a 4g 42s proffit!!! however, I also see that Auctioneer has only seen this item for auction 4 times... and with that little data, I choose to not trust it yet. Normally I scan twice a day for about 5 days before I really start to trust this feature, to make sure I have a good database in the big list. However I DO see a stack of 5 Swiftness Potions, with the current bid at only 2s 97c, with a proffit listing 2g 79s! That I WILL bid on now. As I said, common sense with this tool is much better than just the tool alone.

Now click the BtmScan button. You will see a <play> icon in the upper left corner. Click it. Bottomscanner is now running, scanning for the deals that you can make proffit on. It sometimes finds them nearly instantly, sometimes it takes several minutes. I personally prefer the manual search due to this...

Alright, so you bid on a few cheap deals to reap proffit! Go to the mailbox, and pickup your new goods, then run back to the AH! Here is where Auctioneer again shows its strength. When you click the "Auction" tab and drop an item into the box, Auctioneer automatically sets the best bid and buyout prices, sets to 24 hour auction, and shows what the price currently is set for. On my Swiftness Potion it is undercutting the average by 5%! And I am making proffit when it sells!!! Easiest 2g I will make all day!

Auctioneer will ALWAYS set the price of an item you put up for sale, according to the big pricelist you have created with your scans. No more guessing, no accidently selling for far too little and ripping yourself off badly. It will show the value on a mouse over, so you can see what is overpriced in your server's economy. This applies to the grey trash drops as well, so when you have a bag full of vendor rubbish, you know exactly how much each item will sell for. If you need more space in a bag you can mouseover and drop what is worth the very least! It helps you every single step of the way. Easily, one of the best AddOns you can download and install.

Hopefully this crash course in Auctioneer helps.
Like I said, post questions as needed. And enjoy the game!

[Fatm4n]

Great guide, thanks alot devilish_hunter!

[Lemonnns]

Great guide, I would just like to add btmscanner settings for anyone who wants to use that.

reserve (100g)
maxprice (10g)
maxprofit (10g) <trying to keep Auctioneer from bugging and making a real bad deal
minprofit (1.5g)
minvendorprofit (30s)
minseen (5 count)
safetynet 50g

btw, I didnt make these, someone else posted them a while ago, but I forgot there name.

[devilish_hunter]

Nice addition Lemonnns! Thanks!
If you see anything else I missed, PLEASE add it on here, so people can all use it!

[dubetheking]

lets say you see Night Reaver at 20g, short time bid.
to be sure u wont be stucked with it, pop a "WTS Night Reaver" for lets say... 35-40g , if u get someone to buy it, then bid and sell it back , quick and simple!

[Lemonnns]

Well, theres also monopolizing the AH. That means cornering a market on something, raising the price, and buying out anyone who sells for less than you. I've found it takes more time and isn't as profitable as other things, but I find it fun. Here's some threads about monopolizers on the O-boards:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...583227&sid=1#0
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...768323&sid=1#0
I find the reactions hilarios, but thats just me.

Some good markets to monopolize are lowbie greens, especially daggers, 1H swords, cloth, and leather. Others have monopolized tradeskill items, but that hasn't worked that well for me. I tried to monopolize gold bars and ores, lost about 100g. I don't know of any good tradeskill markets to corner, but Im sure someone does.

[devilish_hunter]

LMFAO
Yeah alot of the comments are HILARIOUS.

When BC hit, I had stockpiled the Copper Ore, Iron Ore, and Mith Ore like a madman. There was alot of other ore selling high, but I waited about a week before putting my ore up. Auctioneer was setting 5 stacks of COPPER for 6g a pop. And they were selling.

To me using supply and demand is not even an exploit, it is just the way the real world and the game world really work. People that cannot handle that get what they deserve. And they cry over it too. n00bcakes.

I have seen alot of thread on what to monopolize... but instead of trying to control a market, I look for short term high gains. Best one for the month so far are the BRD level range drops... pickup a bunch of green crap from AH for 20g total, disenchant it all, and end up with 2 Large Radiant Shards to get back more than my 20g and all kinds of other enchanting stuff on top of that. I made 200g in 35 min one night last week doing exactly that, until the AH was out of the level range and I was getting BC disenchants p00p more than anything. THAT is what I forgot in the guide... DOH!

ENCHANTRIX!
This AddOn is in the Auctioneer suite, and it remembers what you obtained from any given item via disenchanting it. It adds this information to your tooltip on mouseover, and will predict ACCURATELY your odds and what is available on any disenchant. It comes with a fairly robust database to begin with, and your data adds to it with every disenchant!

Jewelcraft can be used much the same way. Adamantite Ore can be gotten really cheap because there is so much of it. Prospect it and put the blue gems up for auction. Before 2.1 it was alot better, the green gems you get from Prospecting could be VENDORED for 1g each... now it's like 30s or something crappy like that. But the blues still sell okay, especially if you trade channel them before you AH.

[RichyG]

Auctioneer wont work on my mac
It doesnt show up in the in game addon menu (the one at the character selection screen)

[devilish_hunter]

Not sure what to tell you RichyG...
Personally I kinda hate macs... alot...
I am not going to be my usual predictable self and ridicule you for having a Mac... but I have scoured the developer's site and it looks like they are just ignoring Macs totally.
Apologies, I do not have any alternatives to list for you.

[RichyG]

Shouldnt the fact that I have a mac mean nothing? The scripts are designed for WoW, not the operating system?

[StarletRox]

This guide was pretty worthless, you want to learn us something when apparently you don't know jackshit yourself.

I will just give you the most apparent reason why you don't know anything about auctioneer. Lets quote you.

"Lets say some moron puts a Sunfury Sig for 10g. In this scenario, it would make the list of 9 into a list of 10, and the average price would jump alot. ALOT"

This is false, auctioneer uses IQR-median which means that auctioneer doesn't count the highest and the lowest numbers when calculating the median, so actually the average price would stay pretty much the same.

[devilish_hunter]

To StarletRox

True, on ONE scan it would have basically no impact whatsoever, but I also worked assuming extrapolation it over several scans in the examples. It was a simplified way to explain why and when to scan and why not to overscan. I did not want to overly explain and be too technical when folks are already complaining about my "wall of text" as it is. I aimed to make the basic guide informative without bogging people down that would do better to jump in and experiment. It's a basic guide to get them started. Nothing more, nothing less.

If you want to improve the guide, DO IT. If you want to be a whiney little douche and flame, send me private and I will tell you in graphic detail where to put them. But this thread is not here for the petty nonsense the boards feel far too full of as it is... want to tell me off? Fine, take it private.

If you feel the guide is so worthless, then PLEASE do create a better one, and share it so this one is outdated and replaced. I am sure your time on such a guide would be much better spent than on asinine, poorly worded attacks on someone that will make you look 100% as foolish as you really are acting.

Now about your use of grammar... you should try to spend some time finding out what is wrong with saying "you want to learn us something" and less time trying to argue while sounding like a backwoods hick. Seriously, you really cracked me up with that sad line. Bumpkin in the house? High school in the mean backwoods of Mayberry much?

Shortest stay ever:
okay that last asshat pretty well is a wakeup call.
Not only are most WoW players retards, so are most of the people that frequent WoW boards. I am done. this is my last guide.

Take care peeps. WoW accounts for sale next week, and I am done here too. Back to EQ and a few sane, regular, intelligent people for me.

[StarletRox]

To StarletRox

True, on ONE scan it would have basically no impact whatsoever, but I also worked assuming extrapolation it over several scans in the examples. It was a simplified way to explain why and when to scan and why not to overscan. I did not want to overly explain and be too technical when folks are already complaining about my "wall of text" as it is. I aimed to make the basic guide informative without bogging people down that would do better to jump in and experiment. It's a basic guide to get them started. Nothing more, nothing less.

If you want to improve the guide, DO IT. If you want to be a whiney little douche and flame, send me private and I will tell you in graphic detail where to put them. But this thread is not here for the petty nonsense the boards feel far too full of as it is... want to tell me off? Fine, take it private.

If you feel the guide is so worthless, then PLEASE do create a better one, and share it so this one is outdated and replaced. I am sure your time on such a guide would be much better spent than on asinine, poorly worded attacks on someone that will make you look 100% as foolish as you really are acting.

Now about your use of grammar... you should try to spend some time finding out what is wrong with saying "you want to learn us something" and less time trying to argue while sounding like a backwoods hick. Seriously, you really cracked me up with that sad line. Bumpkin in the house? High school in the mean backwoods of Mayberry much?

Shortest stay ever:
okay that last asshat pretty well is a wakeup call.
Not only are most WoW players retards, so are most of the people that frequent WoW boards. I am done. this is my last guide.

Take care peeps. WoW accounts for sale next week, and I am done here too. Back to EQ and a few sane, regular, intelligent people for me.

As I am pretty much a lurker I can not PM you due to the fact that I need 10 posts before I can PM.

I do get what you're saying, but as you say -- most wow players are retards, which means they are going to take this guide litteraly without thinking anything by themselves which in the end makes this guide worthless in my opinion.

I do not get why you get so angry just because me, a person with 0 reputation and 1 post complaints about errors in your guide though.

I'm off lurking some more :wave:

[tekstorm]

I think this line is why he is so angry

"This guide was pretty worthless, you want to learn us something when apparently you don't know jackshit yourself."

BTW this is a good guide.

[MadVlrus]

lets say you see Night Reaver at 20g, short time bid.
to be sure u wont be stucked with it, pop a "WTS Night Reaver" for lets say... 35-40g , if u get someone to buy it, then bid and sell it back , quick and simple!

Yeah, I remember some random item in AH selling for around 5g orso while it should have been 20g o.0

I said "WTS <Random Item> for 15g and someone bought it in 2 seconds. :P
I got 10g profit when I was lvl 15 :P

Edit:

To StarletRox

True, on ONE scan it would have basically no impact whatsoever, but I also worked assuming extrapolation it over several scans in the examples. It was a simplified way to explain why and when to scan and why not to overscan. I did not want to overly explain and be too technical when folks are already complaining about my "wall of text" as it is. I aimed to make the basic guide informative without bogging people down that would do better to jump in and experiment. It's a basic guide to get them started. Nothing more, nothing less.

If you want to improve the guide, DO IT. If you want to be a whiney little douche and flame, send me private and I will tell you in graphic detail where to put them. But this thread is not here for the petty nonsense the boards feel far too full of as it is... want to tell me off? Fine, take it private.

If you feel the guide is so worthless, then PLEASE do create a better one, and share it so this one is outdated and replaced. I am sure your time on such a guide would be much better spent than on asinine, poorly worded attacks on someone that will make you look 100% as foolish as you really are acting.

Now about your use of grammar... you should try to spend some time finding out what is wrong with saying "you want to learn us something" and less time trying to argue while sounding like a backwoods hick. Seriously, you really cracked me up with that sad line. Bumpkin in the house? High school in the mean backwoods of Mayberry much?

Shortest stay ever:
okay that last asshat pretty well is a wakeup call.
Not only are most WoW players retards, so are most of the people that frequent WoW boards. I am done. this is my last guide.

Take care peeps. WoW accounts for sale next week, and I am done here too. Back to EQ and a few sane, regular, intelligent people for me.

Holyshit, I haven't seen such a long 'defensive reply' in ages now! o.0
Well done, you pwned him. :P