Inkobah's Guide to Auctioning

One thing that ive done is that ill search the AH and look for items a bit under priced. When i see a item ill put in trade chat, ex *Wts Feet of Lynx, 150gold pst!*. When i get whisperedi will then buy the item. Now yes this is basically scamming and cheap but it does work. :)
 
So I have a question with 201, lets say I decide any twink wanting a Deviate scale belt should pay 350g for it, being as the pattern can't be obtained. So i buy one for 50g and repost it at 350g and keep reposting it for months untill the auctioneer price goes up? wouldn't they have scanned the deviate belt 100 times and seen it 50g-150g or w/e, so I would have to have it up on the AH for 350g for atleast 100 days? Or I could put it up for 9999g for a shorter time to make the auctioneer thinks its worth 350g? Is this how it works or am I missing something?
 
nice guide...



-happybunny
 
shayen7 said:
So I have a question with 201, lets say I decide any twink wanting a Deviate scale belt should pay 350g for it, being as the pattern can't be obtained. So i buy one for 50g and repost it at 350g and keep reposting it for months untill the auctioneer price goes up? wouldn't they have scanned the deviate belt 100 times and seen it 50g-150g or w/e, so I would have to have it up on the AH for 350g for atleast 100 days? Or I could put it up for 9999g for a shorter time to make the auctioneer thinks its worth 350g? Is this how it works or am I missing something?



My understanding of how Auctioneer works is that it scans the AH and records the price of an item which gets averaged with all the previously recorded prices of that item. I did a brief search on how it works on the Auctioneer site but couldn't find anything...but I'm pretty sure it's that simple. So let's break down the math:



Let's say an item has been scanned 100x at the price of 100g. Then it gets scanned 100 more x at a price of 300g. The average price that Auctioneer shows will be 200g.



Now let's say it's the same exact item (that has been seen 100x at 100g) but you decide to put it up at 1000g and it gets scanned at that price 20x. The average price that Auctioneer shows will be 250g.



So to answer your question, you can adjust the price of an item either way. Some people will choose to boost it quickly above what they want to sell it for and then post it at the target price once the average is above the target price. But I usually just start pricing it at the target price right away, which takes longer to adjust the pricing but it saves me time.



-Ink
 
That's exactly how easy it is to break Auctioneer.
 
you only "broke" auctioneer if you were misidentifying the tool to be more than it is. auctioneer does not tell you the price people are willing to buy an item in the future: it tells you the price people were willing to sell it in the past, and at that, over a granularity dependent on how often you scanned the ah.



jerry-rigging the price of items with high sell prices you don't expect to get bought is wasted effort in the majority of circumstances. for it to be effective, you'd want it to be something that's difficult to obtain, or the supply is consistently bought-out: indicating supply is underestimating demand.



as an aside, i'm considering making a heavy bet on primals this patch. the possible removal of the cooldown on clothcreation + tradeable orbs + new patterns and all make me think that their prices will skyrocket for a short duration as everyone wants to glut on the new items immediately. if i can snag primals low now and craft the new patterns for far less than anyone buying at craft time, i think i'll do well.
 
Also, you guys might want to stack up pyrium ore if you can. With new pattern and possible prospect of epic gems in a near future (Probably post-4.2 to) it's a good bet to stack on these
 
something tells me that real life AH(like ebay/amazon/craiglist) can be manipulated too.



it must be a lot harder though because people care a lot more about real life gold.



thanks for the guide if you can finish writing it!
 
Yes, but IRL economy is ruled by several laws that stops people from taking control and/or manipulating it.
 
glancealot said:
something tells me that real life AH(like ebay/amazon/craiglist) can be manipulated too.



it must be a lot harder though because people care a lot more about real life gold.



thanks for the guide if you can finish writing it!



Did you not read it? I finished it over a year ago.



-Ink
 
Easy to read, informative and true.
I liked what you said about monopolies. I haven't always been able to get others to agree to a set price though. I've had people here and there, but there's always someone undercutting. In this case I usually just buy the undercuts and sell for my price. Even if it's just a small profit, it's still a profit.

Now, there's one thing I seriously disagree with. The items in the bank theory (where they are worth more in a year) does not apply to every item. Sure, it may apply to ores or something like that. It probably applies to twink items. However, as new items come into play, and level caps change, etc you'll notice that there are many 'amazing items' becoming 'average ones'.

Overall, great guide and I am sure a lot of people can learn from this. Although I have not had the luxury of ever having 400k, I can say that your methods are definitely capable of earning more than that, and easily less. That said, stop sharing all these ideas! There's enough competition! :p
 

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