RE: WoW Auction Houses

[Dundee Slaytern]

Woah... is the economy totally broken? Has inflation hit so badly that gold is practically worthless in the Auction House(AH)? I was looking forward to buying some Herbs, but the average cost was ridiculous, and we're only talking about low-level Herbs here.

I also sold some stuff at my own price, which was substantially lower than the average market rate, but still very profitable.

Market forces indeed.

Cheers.

[SpiritWarrior]

Yep, most items gleaned from gathering skills are horribly expensive. The economy on most servers is terribly inflated, because of farmers and gougers.

[Memnoch]

Originally Posted by Dundee Slaytern Woah... is the economy totally broken? Has inflation hit so badly that gold is practically worthless in the Auction House(AH)? I was looking forward to buying some Herbs, but the average cost was ridiculous, and we're only talking about low-level Herbs here. I also sold some stuff at my own price, which was substantially lower than the average market rate, but still very profitable. Market forces indeed. Cheers.

Dundee, I suggest you get a mod called Auctioneer to ensure you don't get ripped off at the AH. You can get it from www.curse.com.

You know, back when I made my foray into WoW some few years back, me and my brother had this grand vision. Our vision was to create a "Merchant Guild" so to speak. Instead of a guild where you go out and do raids, it would be more of a guild that would ensure fair standards on trade goods. We tossed the idea back and forth and tried to work out a system but ultimately... we never got off our lazy butts and we never spread the word about our vision.

Still, I think it could be done with enough like-minded people. Granted I haven't played the game in ages now but I'd imagine one could easily accomplish the task with a relatively minimal number of guild members.

[Kakero]

The coming of Burning Crusade expansion has changed gold earning considerably. Before BC, people have to actually grind a lot to have a reasonable amount of gold. Many people have resort to buy gold from gold farmers as a short cut to having gold.

Now by leveling 60 ~ 70 in BC content alone and doing all the quests there will net you at least 2000 gold. With the introduction of daily quest, even casual players can earn at least 110 gold per day doing those daily quests. As a result, players become richer and richer and the value of gold become lesser and lesser. It's not a surprise to see items sold in AH have a "cutting throat" price nowadays.

Hmm...my hands are getting ichy...

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally Posted by Memnoch Dundee, I suggest you get a mod called Auctioneer to ensure you don't get ripped off at the AH. You can get it from www.curse.com.

I still haven't grasp all the mechanics of the game yet. Heck, I still don't know how to chat in the General Channel. So I won't be installing any 3rd-party mods until I am comfortable with the game first.
~~~~

Mind you, I am not undercutting here. I took the base value of my items (NOT THE SELL PRICE, just to be clear here), applied two multipliers to it and one additive formula for a final price. The difference between the starting price and the buyout price lies in the difference of one of the multiplier values.

What these three values are, I will be keeping it a secret to myself, but needless to say, I AM NOT by any means, selling cheap.

It is just that compared to the INSANITY of the usual Buyout values, my auctions seem dirt-cheap in comparison.

Most guides I read stated that I would only see my first gold piece when I hit Level-18+. True... if I were to solely stick to Questing, this will most probably be true, but I am raking in the money now, and my equipment is still LAUGHABLE. Herbalism and Alchemy has to be one of the most profitable profession-combination EVER, and I wasn't aware of it when I was designing the theme of my first character.

At this point, some of you might be asking me, why not just follow the crowd then? Why not just list higher prices?

NO. Just no. Call me stupid, call me dumb, call me whatever, but I have very strong principles on these kind of things, because I simply abhor overcharging for the sake of overcharging. Even at work, I prefer to point out better combinations to customers, even if it means less sales at the initial transaction, but I am building trust here, for FUTURE sales.

Even if I'm amongst the few, I will continue to stick to my pricing scheme formula. On the plus side, because my prices are so much more reasonable (as opposed to obscene), my items sell rapidly, VERY rapidly. I can actually afford to fly frequent miles now.

As an example, these are my final prices for a x5 stack of Minor Healing Potions. Top is Starting Bid, bottom is Buyout Price.

01s 58c
02s 58c

Cheers.

[SpiritWarrior]

Yes, don't mod until you are ready. I am the same in a way, I won't overcharge for certain things. But then, certain other items I will. Bear in mind that whatever you do, no-one will do you any favors either way, they're a greedy lot them farmer types.

[Lavindathar]

There is no such thing as overcharging in WoW.

People will only pay what they want to pay for it. So if you can get it, sell it.

And, the reason low level herbs are expensive, is it takes TIME for people to farm them...they have to go back to Azeroth, on an epic land mount, and farm. So people just buy them.

[Memnoch]

Originally Posted by Dundee Slaytern Woah... is the economy totally broken? Has inflation hit so badly that gold is practically worthless in the Auction House(AH)? I was looking forward to buying some Herbs, but the average cost was ridiculous, and we're only talking about low-level Herbs here. I also sold some stuff at my own price, which was substantially lower than the average market rate, but still very profitable. Market forces indeed. Cheers.

Which server are you on again? I find that there are some massive differences between servers - my Horde toons on Dalaran end up having to spend way more than my Ally toons on Sen'Jin, and the Dalaran AH selection is pathetic.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally Posted by Lavindathar There is no such thing as overcharging in WoW. People will only pay what they want to pay for it. So if you can get it, sell it. And, the reason low level herbs are expensive, is it takes TIME for people to farm them...they have to go back to Azeroth, on an epic land mount, and farm. So people just buy them.

But still... when you price something that is about 2000% of its cost price... It does invoke a lot of face-palming action on my part.

I guess Gold is too plentiful in the WoW's economy. People don't seem to take its value seriously. The game may need more money sinks to curb the inflation. Maybe recipes that require money to make?

Originally Posted by Memnoch Which server are you on again? I find that there are some massive differences between servers - my Horde toons on Dalaran end up having to spend way more than my Ally toons on Sen'Jin, and the Dalaran AH selection is pathetic.

As my profile states, I'm on Lightninghoof. My intention with this character was to roleplay, and so I chose a RP-PVP realm.

...

Doesn't seem to have much RP though. No matter, I'm still having fun with the quests, and I do take delight in the harvesting.

Cheers.