AH Abuse, selling high volume materials at a very high profit. Scam(ish) Troll{ish)

[tek.crx]

Well, after getting bored in between this and that, and with no pressure for gold, i decided to troll the AH. Well, i listed 750 Ghost iron ore at various prices. This can be rough to navigate for real auctions, especially as i covered the first six pages on both the high and low end of the AH with single ores priced at either 55g or 155g (a variety, not all the same). Anyway my intent was to simply troll the AH and some of those using AH addons that are not setup to ignore this amount of improperly priced materials.. well what happened was quite surprising.



What exactly is happening?

Well over and over, after the first time, i have been putting single ores in the AH at regular 20 stack prices, just undercut by a reasonable amount.

I generally sell most ores when i post in batches of 20 or so for a 24 hour period. The math on my server is 1 stack = 55g (ish) but doing this little scam, i am netting 1100g a stack.

The really surprising bit is that it works, and has been working over and over.

Generally i get about 7-8 purchases from the same buyer before they either meet their theoretical needs (7-8 stacks) or they realize what happened. I have to imagine they are pretty pissed, but that is where grandfathered names with difficult symbols in it helps, as well just a disposable, unaffiliated alt.

I have yet to actually get any rage from this.


To get it a little ore advanced, since im sure most people are miners or have access to one.

i seem to get mixed results with undercutting my own dummy auctions with real stacks of 20, in hopes people get into a buyout cycle. It may also just be RNG where the page breaks are.



Cliff notes:


List single items at just under market value for a whole stack
hope for greedy/tired people
and profit.



Yes this could be considered common sense, but really i think that is why it works. It is just so simple people never think to do it.


Have fun

[AiRWaVeSPL]

Very interesting strategy to run the ore market.
Gonna try it out tonight, before bed

[HAd00KING]

Great guide, hopefully this can make me an even better auctioneer than i already am.

[tek.crx]

I really dont think this is an incredible find, it's been done before surely.. It's just one of those things no one thinks to do haha.

Here is another batch of sold including the postal mail from the mail in the pic above.

[HceTiG0L]

What do we have to do?
Explain step by step i dont really understand it

[Explisivia]

You sir don't know the meaning of trolling.

Old technique people have been using for yeaaaaars. So really nothing new.

.. I guess thanks for trying to contribute atleast

[tittypop]

i was just going to say what kind of ****ing idiot, is going to just buy 1 ore for 50 gold. literally next to nobody, you must have a whole bunch of retards on your server lmao.

[tittypop]

What do we have to do?
Explain step by step i dont really understand it

you check the price for a 20 stack of ghost iron. say it is 50g buyout. you then put up 100~ (a bunch) of single ores for 1 copper cheaper and hope people dont realize it is a 1 stack, and they buy it thinking its a 20 stack.

[edOHYEAH]

Literally Gold Making 101, but good effort i guess for people that didn't know

[tek.crx]

Thanks. Like i said, it really shouldn't work but can be fun, it really is a kick when you see your whole chat bar fill up with auctions sold when someone thinks they are getting a deal.

haha, have fun

[omfgwtflolmfaoz]

If you're trying to exploit someone thinking they're getting a great deal why not undercut by a couple gold, so they look at the price more than pay attention to the stack?

[tittypop]

what you do is put up all your 1 stacks undercut from the the cheapest 20 stacks, then put up a few of your own 20 stacks at the same price as the 1 stacks or 1 copper cheaper so they come up on top and people buy the 3 or w.e 20 stacks and say 7 of your 1 stacks thinking they are all 20's

[oclog1]

trying this out right now ;D

[shelshocken]

Works, Especially if you are on a high pop server :P. Just search on the AH for some random crafting material, like ghost iron ore, or snow lily, and when you find someone who posted like 20-30 stacks of those, just post the samse 15-20 stacks at exactly the same price, but stacks of 1. I sold a lot doing this today with herbs and ores

[Owning]

+rep for good laugh