Maximizing your AH Gains using the Auctioneer Mod
As you probably know, trading on the AH can be a very risky business. If you have limited time to play (who doesn't ), then you'll find this guide a big help in your quest to make some steady income. We'll be using the Auctioneer Mod, which is very handy. A quick Google search will give you a current download link.
Mod Installation
1.Download the Auctioneer Mod. Always shoot for the latest version; at the time of this writing the current version is 3.4.2. Try and get the .exe it makes for the easiest installation.
2.Install to the *World of WarcraftInterfaceAddOns directory.
3.At the character select screen click the AddOns tab and make sure that you have the mod enabled. Make sure that in the top right of the AddOns screen the UI memory is at least 48MB. Raise it if you need to.
4.Log into your character, when you get in you will see in your chat box that auctioneer has loaded. If it's not there, type
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so that it will always load for the character you're using.
5.Traipse over to the nearest AH. You should notice several new options near the bottom, make sure all the categories on the left side of the AH window are checked. Click scan. (This can take anywhere up to 30 minutes depending on PC speed and amount of auctions available). You need to try and do this as often as possible. Before you take a break for a little bit to run to the store or something, click scan. Need to have a cigarette? click scan....
Making Money
6.Click Search Auctions tab located at the bottom of the AH window.
a.Bidding:
With the defaults, you should see a 50s profit and a 30 percent less section on the left. You can adjust the 50s higher or lower to make less or more profit, but leave it at that for now. Click Search. You will notice on the right section some items showed up. Click on the price section on the top of the AH window. This will show you the items by the price. Lowest should be at the top, highest should be at the bottom. You can do it by either price or profit. Each one is cool. The price is the left amount, the PROFIT you can make is on the right. An example would be if a flaming cloak is 20s and the profit says 10s. You can sell the item for 30s and make 10s profit. This is usually how we do it first. We go through and buy ALL the cheap items, and usually have around 20-80 auctions going on at any given time. We then go through and see whats going to make some profit. Adjust your profit on the left side from 50s to say 2-5g. or more depending on what you feel like spending. You can then buy stuff for 1-2g that usually sells for 10-20g. You can hover your mouse over the items to see what they usually go for.
Note: You won't get accurate prices for a while, until the program does a few scans and builds up it's AH data. Keep scanning to get more accurate predictions.
7.Buyouts. Instead of having to bid, you can make profit off the buyout feature of auctions, you might not make as much, but theres still money to be made. Follow the same steps as Bidding, but switch the top left option from bidding to buyout. You will see the same buyout price section and the profit section. Remember: the profit area is not what you can sell it for, its what you will make off it.
8.Relist. Relist all the items you purchased, and DO NOT over bid on items. Base bids are good enough. You never really wanna go through and re-bid just in case you're in a bid war with someone who does not know the limit. Or if you're not paying attention to the price of items. Scan the AH before you list a lot of stuff. This is very important.
UNDERCUTTING 5%, COMPETITION ABOVE MARKET, CANNOT BEAT LOWEST PRICE, and more....
When you list an item or hover over an item you'll see where it says one of the above sayings. Undercutting 5% is good, meaning people have the same item up, but you can beat them and still pull a profit. Competition above market is good also, meaning someone put it up but instead of putting a 1g item up for 1g they put it up for more, like 3g or 4g. Cannot beat lowest price sucks..... its obvious what it is. Try NOT to buy those auctions.
The main set of new commands you should try after scanning the auction house are:
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The percentless algorithm highlights all items which may be bought out for a given (60% default) percent less than the highest sellable price for this item. These people don't know what the items they have are worth!!! Buy them up and relist them at a better price. Scrilla for you.
The bidbroker algorithm is similar in operation to the percentless one, but works on the bid price instead of the buyout price and are less than medium time left. These are items that for some freak of nature haven't sold. You can bid on these items and then relist them at a better time of the day or week to profit.
The compete algorithm shows all the items that people are selling for less than your item of the same type. They are undercutting you, so you can buy their stuff and relist it at your price to make money off their folly.
While you are sitting around in the AH, be watching the trade channel.
On our server Unbridled Leggings go for around 90g. We discovered this by clicking on the item link in chat when someone was WTS it. When you click on an item or hover over an item you can see what it is worth in the AH, as well as other important information about it. You can see the Buyout Median, this is what it goes for average, you can see how many times you have seen it on the AH as well as the starting bid and how many times people have used Buyout on the item. Now back to the money making. When you see someone selling something, CLICK IT. see how much it goes for and how much its worth, see how much they want for it compared to what you can sell it for. We've bought a pair of Unbridled Leggings for 20g and made 70g by posting it on the AH for 90g Buyout.
General Rules
1.Check your mail often. Get the items that did not sell and put them back up IMMEDIATELY. You don't want to have to much in your mail box or it gets to be a pain.
2.24 Hour auctions. The deposit may be more but it is less of a burden.
3.Quantity, not Quality. Buy Buy Buy Sell Sell Sell. You can never have enough auctions on at a time. The more you buy, the more you sell, the more you sell the more you make.
4.Grouping. When you are with some people you don't know, and an item drops and everyone just wants it to sell it, offer money for it! Click the item to see how much it goes for, chances are no one in the group has Auctioneer running so they don't know for sure what the actual AH value is. You can then offer them half of what its worth, or closer to the resell value if you're a nice, non-greedy person.