AuctionHouse
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Weekly AH data on Curse
This is interesting -- I had no idea they were doing it, anyway. Apparently Curse Gaming has been running a weekly story where they post the median global sale prices (from WoWEcon) on all sorts of high-selling commodities. It's a nice read, and helps me get a feel for how my server is compared to the global average, as well as giving me a touchstone for how to price things.It's broken down into categories, like flasks, food, recipes, trade goods, etc. There aren't a lot of surprises on the list (well, I spend a fair amount of time at the AH, so that might just be me). Mage books top the spellbook list, as always -- why is that? Perhaps it's because mage books teach new ranks of core spells like Conjure Water, whereas other classes' books just tend to teach group versions of buffs; you can get by longer without those. There's an interesting discrepancy between Fel Armaments, at around 20g, and Arcane Tomes, at about 17g. I guess Aldor is more popular than Scryer. Fel Iron is worth considerably more on my server than usual, though most other prices are about in line.In the recipes section, it looks like Blacksmithing has the most in-demand stuff -- people are paying 1200g for Plans: Dirge, and 1000g for three other plans. None of the other professions have any recipes that high. Anyway, go check out the full list over at Curse -- it's pretty neat, and has coloring depicting whether the price of an item has risen or fallen since the previous week. Thanks, Curse people, this is a nice resource.
Ask WoW Insider: Are BoE drops still worth selling on the AH?
It's time once again for our weekly edition of Ask WoW Insider. Last week we asked you about WoW client performance on a Mac, and this week reader MrRaist wonders about the usefulness of listing BoE drops on the auction house after the expansion: My question to you is: Are BOE drops still worth it? It seems that anything that drops for me, green or blue, never seems to sell anymore on the AH. Most quests give better rewards than BOE drops, and I end up vendoring the drops for instant cash, rather than paying the AH fees. Even a decent BOE blue drop was vendored after 7 or 8 shots at the AH, lowering the price every time. Consumables still sell really well, but not weapons and such. What is WOW Insider's thoughts? What's been your experience with selling your BoE drops since the expansion -- harder? easier? Do you have any tips for selling items -- set at lower buyouts? advertise in trade channel instead of putting on the AH? Let us know your thoughts in the comments, and send us your questions for next week to ask AT wowinsider DOT com.
A look at Blizzard's stats, post-Burning Crusade
Last November, Blizzard finally made public a page full of stats for what's happening to all of us in game-- the most dangerous creatures, most gathered items, most completed quests, and so on. Ever since, I always find it fascinating to stop over there and see what's new, but today I realized that I haven't really seen it since Burning Crusade dropped. So let's take a look at what players are up to since the Dark Portal opened, shall we?Netherweave has jumped right to the top of listings in the Auction House, while Arcade Dust makes a nice showing at 7th. Of the Primal elements, only Earth is on the first page (most likely because it's the most farmed from all those Earth Elementals in Nagrand). It also comes from Mining, so it makes a good showing on the Most Gathered Items as well-- Copper leads that category by double everything else, though, most likely because of all the jewelcrafting going on. In fact, while Soul Shards are still number one, Copper Bars are the second Most Created Items in the realms, too. Interesting that you have to go to page 3 before you see a jewelcrafting item, though-- two sets of battleground tokens (Arathi Basin and WSG) are being made more than any Delicate Copper Wire.Warlock pets remain on the top of the Most Dangerous NPC list, but King Bangalash and those nasty Defias Pillagers have company-- apparently people are back playing their mains, and raid bosses like Shade of Aran, Gruul, Nightbane, and the Maiden are killing players by the thousands. The Most Complete Quests screen has interesting info, too-- almost all of the quests are newbie Blood Elf quests (there is at least one Draenei newbie quest mixed in, but BEs have the clear majority). You'd think people would be completing quests in Outland to level, but three months after BC release, maybe that's not the case anymore. According to the stats, it seems like the large majority of players has gotten their mains to 70, are raiding Kara and Gruul, and leveling up their Blood Elf mains.
Service with a smile in the Bank and AH
Datto asks an awesome question: which banker do you use? Do you have a loyalty to a specific banker, or do you just always hit up the closest one? Whenever I think of banking, I think of Orgrimmar, and walking a few steps in and to the left to see my man Karus (at least I think it's Karus-- is it wrong of me to never get to know the teller all the times I've visited him?).It's not that I won't bank elsewhere-- when in Undercity, I often visit the Montagues, and if I happen to be in TB, I'll go to them (although, truth be told, I can't ever really remember visiting the bank in TB). On Alliance side, I don't have a specific banker that I go to, but I do like the Stormwind Bank-- it seems so much cleaner than Ironforge's bank. IF seems like a dirty pawn shop to me. Plus, Stormwind's bankers are named "Olivia," "Newton," and "John," so there's that.The same could be asked about auctioneers, and again, on Horde I do about 80% of my AH shopping in Orgrimmar, all with the guy on the left (and I have no idea at all what his name is). There is something to be said, as a few players note, for simply going to the auctioneer that's the least busy-- it's nicer not to have to fight the lines to get a click in. And on Alliance side, there is none other: all of my auctioneer business goes through the lovely Redmuse in Ironforge. She's been running my auctions for me ever since the beginning, and I've seen no reason to change. Every once in a while, IF will run laggy, and I'll be a little irked that she's taking so long to get my auction up, but one look in those eyes and that red hair, and everything's OK again.
Sold! Forza 2 auction house trailer
Back in February we learned that Forza 2 will include an auction house feature where you'll be able to auction off your customized vehicle. All the blood, sweat, and hours of gaming you put into your vehicles could potentially pay off when you put your baby up for auction. The video above showcases the new auction house and a small glimpse to how it will work. But be warned, this clip is highly stylized and doesn't look to represent the actual game. From what we can tell, we'll probably be able to take a few snapshots of our vehicle and set the bidding prices before she goes to the auction block, but still are in the dark to exactly how it'll be run. Man are we still bitter about not seeing our 1991 Chevy Cavalier in the game ... what a classic.[Via dpcough]
Get rich quick in Outland
And I do mean quick, because these prices likely won't stay this way for long. MBAzeroth points to a forum guide written up by Fanfan on the Mal'Ganis realm forums (that link, strangely enough, doesn't work-- did Blizzard take it down or move the thread somewhere else?) which he says netted him a shiny 1,000g in just two hours.All of it relies on the Primal motes of Air, Fire, Water, Mana, and Earth-- those mots can be combines to make the Primal elements used in all kinds of professions, from Leatherworking to Tailoring and Enchanting. Since everyone is currently working on making their way to 375, sales of this stuff are huge on the AH, and with droprates the way they are, you can net a pretty penny with just a few hours of grinding in these places. Of course that means the more people that find out about this (and the more people that finish their profession leveling), the less it will be worth. But if you get moving on this in time for the weekend AH rush, you could likely make a good headstart on your epic flying mount.The entire guide after the jump.
WoWEconomy.com tracks the AH online
Curse points to an interesting new site that's taking on an idea a lot of players, I'm sure, have considered, if not hoped for: WoW Economy is a site that tries to finally monitor, and mirror on the web, real-time prices in the AHs on the different servers.Unfortunately, they're going uphill trying to implement something like this-- first and foremost, prices are different all over the servers, and that means that even if they come up with a price for something, there's no guarantee it'll sell for that on your server. They say they scan all the auction houses every day and provide information for trends, but if they only scan all the houses every day, the small collection of info they have is still pretty close to useless. (Not to mention the site is full of ads and a few spelling errors, but we'll give them a pass on that one-- buy any jewelry or mess around with a Flash paper doll lately?).On the other hand, I do have to give it to them: if you search for an item, they'll give you a price, right or not. They've even got a list of Most Traded and Most Valuable items (and it's kind of close to Blizzard's list... kind of). And they'll even track an item's listing over a period of time.But while it's the not most complete or worthwhile resource, it's one of the only resources we have on auction items on the web, so if you haven't yet installed the Auctioneer alpha, you might get a little use out of it. I'd like to see a few fewer ads and a few more pieces of valuable data, but I'll give them a B for effort... so far.
Five Easy Ways to Make More Gold
Your gear starting to smell from overuse? Your weapons rusting up because you can't afford new ones? Your mount looking a little rickety (or nonexistent because you haven't seen 100g yet)? Worry not! We're here to help. Here's five easy (and TOS-compliant) ways to rake in the moolah.1. Get some greedy professions. If I could tell people two things about professions, I would say: always take First Aid asap, and, if you want to make money, get herbalism and skinning. Those two, skinning especially, are your best bet at making tons of cash on the Auction House. Leather is used by almost all the professions (not just leather workers), and as any alchemist will tell you, even though Silverleaf literally grows on trees, there's never enough of it around to make the potions you need. Some people will say enchanting or mining, but for the first, I'd rather auction my green items off seperately, and in the second case, well, maybe that's just my personal taste. Mining seems to sell well on the AH, too. And speaking of the AH,2. Get real familiar with the Auction House. Don't ever sell anything to a vendor unless you really, really need the space in your bags, because even stuff that seems worthless to you can usually find a buyer on the AH. Twinkers are looking for good low level items all the time, and even fish scales are used by Shamans as reagents. If you're serious about making gold, you've probably already done this by now, but make yourself a level one alt, get him or her to a city with an auction house, and park them there, then mail things to them from your other characters. One more note about the Auction House...3. Get Auctioneer. This is a no brainer-- if you haven't heard of this wonderful addon yet, then it's no wonder you don't have your mount. Once you've installed it, run to the nearest AH, let it do a scan, and boom, you've got all the AH prices cached on your computer. Then, when you're out in the world, you've got exactly what every single item in the game should sell for. Plus, when you have things to sell, Auctioneer will tell you the best price to put your items at so they'll sell and you'll make money. Usually, you can sell a little higher than the price Auctioneer puts your items at (especially in the high levels, this can squeeze you a few more gold), but there's nothing easier than just throwing all your extra stuff on the AH, and letting Auctioneer set them up for you. And having Auctioneer around will help you...4. Look for deals everywhere. Don't ninja anything, but there's no shame in casually announcing, as your party makes their way to SM, that you're saving for your mount, and so you'll be rolling on everything that no one needs. When you get quest rewards, most of that stuff is soulbound, so if you're offered a choice of two things you can't use as a reward, always take the most expensive item. And watch vendor prices, too-- every once in a while, Traveling Salesman Antonio Perelli (or any of the other NPC vendors) will be selling a potion that's selling for a few gold more on the AH.5. Play! Finally, the best way to conjure up more gold also happens to be the best way to conjure up experience-- get out there and kill stuff. Any looting at all is better than standing around Orgimmar telling Chuck Norris jokes. Of course, you should choose where you're killing stuff, too. If you're just grinding for XP, pick humanoid mobs-- they drop much more money, and usually better items. And if you can get a group together, an instance run is (literally) a goldmine for hard-to-find items.But above all, the best way to make a lot of gold quickly is just to have fun playing the game. Do what you want, enjoy it, and before you'll know it, you'll have the epic mount you so desperately desire. Just in time to start saving for flying mounts...
On the topic of farmers...
My priest has been, for some time now, looking for a pattern for the Truefaith Vestments - the epic crafted priest robes. While I would occasionally see a Robe of the Archmage or a Robe of the Void pattern, I've not seen any of my own. However, over the past couple of weeks, I've seen more and more Robe of the Archmage patterns - as seen above. The cost has dropped dramatically, as well - what once sold for a hundred gold and up is now, as you see, more often selling for 30 to 40, when they sell at all.This has started to puzzle me, as the pattern drops off of Pyromancers in lower Blackrock Spire, of which there are few, and difficult to get to. I've gone with a number of groups that refuses to attempt the pull with the Pyromancers, simply because it's large and difficult. So where then, do these patterns come from? Several commenters on Thottbot claim that you can solo your way to the right area with the use of stealth or invisibility potions, and one poster goes into some detail about two rogues taking the group down with timely use of sap, vanish, and evasion. But even if the pattern can be acquired with the efforts of one or two players, this doesn't explain the sudden appearance of so many in the marketplace. It's possible that the drop rate has been increased, but it seems unlikely that the drop rate of one of the epic robe patterns would go up while the other two remain the same. In my past experience with the game, a sudden flood of rare items on the market has been an indication of a new farming technique or hack, allowing farmers to now easily acquire something that was usually difficult. (For an example of similar circumstances in the past, see this old Dire Maul hack.) However, at present, there's no evidence one way or the other - so this remains simply an oddity...
