Abuse Auction House Botters

[Relican]

Yes, I know this can be common sense but some people probably haven't considered it.

I thank you in advance for your flame posts and would also like to thank whoever shouts repost, if this is a repost feel free to remove it.

Keep in mind this is an 'exploit' TO ANOTHER PLAYER, and you'll probably royally aggravate whoever happens to get caught in your web with this.

Today, I had about 30 of a rare item and knew it would take me AGES to sell them all, and really didn't care enough to maximize my profit on them. I noticed only one other on the Auction House, listed at 2200g, so I posted them all in decreasing value (From 2100g down to 400g each), figuring people would buy one, then someone else the would buy the next eventually. Little did I know there was someone running a bot to "buy low and sell high". In roughly ten minutes I sold all 30 of the item for ~25,000g total. Did I lose some potential profit? Maybe. Did I save myself 30 bag slots that would have been taken for weeks to months? Absolutely.

I'm not saying this 'exploit' works with everything, but I can definitely imagine if you catch yourself with a bunch of something 'rare' that will take you ages to move on the auction house you could give this a whirl and see if any bots are lurking your realms AH. Not guaranteed to work, but when it does it can be mighty profitable. (See screenshot linked at bottom.)

STEPS:
If you can't figure out the method from what I explained above:
1: Stockpile an item that there are very few of on AH (1 or 2 of them up I'd say) that are running at a relatively high price.
2: Post the auctions in decreasing value down to a low price (With the lowest end of your posts still being profitable and worthwhile.)
3: Keep a sum of the item still on hand in case anyone is botting, so you have more bait to throw at them at a higher price.
4: Wait and see if anyone happens to be botting, if they are, try and figure out their pattern (Such as profit more than 1000g, don't spend more than 999g, etc.)
5: If auctions sell, keep posting them while watching their pattern (In my case, the person never spent more than 750g, so I started posting the item at 750g)
6: ???
7: Profit! (Literally)



That's not photoshopped, I just removed names/item used.


Good luck!

[ThaKeeper]

Are you playing on a populated realm? Because i doubt i'll find one on mine.

Good find though, even though i can't benefit from it

[Relican]

Are you playing on a populated realm? Because i doubt i'll find one on mine.

Good find though, even though i can't benefit from it

Actually I haven't had much luck with this on my populated realm. The realm that the screenshot is from is actually a very small realm.

[Relican]

Dennis8888, I can't view your images, try posting them from an external image hosting website. (I'm assuming your posting success pictures? :P)

[blixten]

Doing this is as easy as finding a needle in a haystack.. Anyway it's a great way to make some easy money, if you actually manage to pull it off. +5rep

[Murphyman20thGTI]

Wish I had items of that value to actualy make money!! I mean I have stack of things I can sell for 1100gold but not single item.

Guess I need to farm more!

Good find thumbs up

[Relican]

Doing this is as easy as finding a needle in a haystack.. Anyway it's a great way to make some easy money, if you actually manage to pull it off. +5rep

I definitely agree. Once you know someone is doing this (And you'll know within minutes of posting the auction; as my screenshot shows, the bot I found was scanning over my item about every 5.5 minutes), it's free game

And Murphyman20thGTI, it does take some 'luck' on having something rare, but this works for just about anything. Say Frozen Orbs never sell on your realm anymore...Go buy several of them, and continually post one at 5000g every day on an alt or even your main if you really want some flaming from a bot when they catch on to you. When you decide, post all of them in decreasing price as I explained. After a while their auctioneer will tell them 5000g is the normal price, etc.
Only thing to watch for is people undercutting you by stupid amounts.

[Aydan]

Great idea,thanks!

[Darknights]

it is possible you just got lucky with some crazy fool attempting to monopolise that item on the market and resell it at a higher price. but sounds fairly good

[Relican]

it is possible you just got lucky with some crazy fool attempting to monopolise that item on the market and resell it at a higher price. but sounds fairly good

The person did repost a couple of the item, but I highly doubt they'll ever sell. I'll try and recreate it later with something else to see if I can come up with some sure-fire items this is good for.

[Darknights]

The person did repost a couple of the item, but I highly doubt they'll ever sell. I'll try and recreate it later with something else to see if I can come up with some sure-fire items this is good for.

ive managed to find an item that i have a few of that arent on the auction house so ive stuck 3 of them up for 5000g each, will do that the next few days then give your range of prices thing a shot