Mists of Pandaria: Black Market Auction House offers rare and removed items

According to reports by MMO-Champion, the Black Market Auction House is now live on beta realms. Attempts to confirm this by chatting with Madam Goya just kicked back a UI error at me, but there seem to be plenty of people stopping by to check her out. Madam Goya makes her home at the Tavern of the Mists in the Veiled Stair, north of the Valley of the Four Winds. She's not alone, as Wrathion is still quietly hanging out in the tavern as well.

So what's available at the Black Market? A little bit of everything, including rare mounts like the Ashes of Al'ar, pictured above. Also included are pets that require a grind to obtain such as the Sen'jin Fetish, previously available only from grinding out Argent Tournament reputation, and high-level crafting recipes, although we don't have a lot of information on what those recipes are exactly.

However, perhaps the most interesting note to glean from this is that the Black Market Auction House appears to be carrying the original tier 3 sets that were removed from the game when Naxxramas was moved to Northrend and changed from a 40-man raid to a 10- and 25-man raid in Wrath of the Lich King. Obviously, this means that those looking to transmogrify into these rare tier sets can now pay to do so -- provided they've got the gold to fling around.

I'm hoping this leads to other items that were removed from game showing up as well. How about rare blacksmithing specialization plans that were taken out of the game? Or the recipe for Dirge's Kickin Chimaerok Chops, which disappeared with Cataclysm? Or mounts we can no longer obtain, like the tiger and raptor from the original iteration of ZG, or the black and plagued proto-drakes that were removed when Ulduar was released? The possibilities are endless here -- as long as you have the gold to spend.

What I am hoping, however, is that transmogrification items like the old tier 3 will also be made available in replica versions like we've seen over at the Darkmoon Faire. I really like the idea of replica armor and weapons. I'd hate to see that method of obtaining old sets removed in favor of a gold sink. And that would leave a few alternatives to obtaining the gear, just in case people would rather farm tickets than farm a lot of gold. Still, it's nice to see a good old-fashioned gold sink for players who have entirely too much gold and entirely too little to spend it all on.

It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!