WoW Auction House Guide

For most people, a post-questing trip to the auction house is just a matter of figuring out what the market price is, deciding whether or not they want to undercut and by how much, and listing their items.

I am not most people.

Applying an analytical mind and the few pieces of marketing psychology that can be picked up from having a father who religiously watched business television when I was growing up allows me to get a decent amount of extra mileage out of my auction listings.  A gold here and there can add up quite quickly, so in the interest of expanding your in-game wallets, I’m going to share a few tricks.

The 1-Copper Undercut: If you’re selling something in a relatively stable market, and you notice that your competition is charging whole values (i.e. their auction is listed for 50G even) consider undercutting them by a single copper (your auction would be listed for 49G99S99C).  The marketing psychology here is that people genuinely believe that they are now paying 49G rather than 50G, and thus your item is more likely to sell.  After all, when was the last time you bought something for $20 when you could get it for $19.99 instead?

Lucky Number 7: This was one of those business television tips I was talking about.  Market studies have shown that people feel less threatened by the number 7, and are thus more likely to buy if it is featured prominently in the pricing.  Let’s say you get a BOE rare weapon drop, like a Thornstone Sledgehammer.  Instead of selling it for 45 gold (standard going rate on my server) I would put it up at 47G if it was the only one up there.  There you go, an extra 2g.  Do this across a few auctions, and you’ll notice the extra gold.

Always Be First: By default, the WoW Auction House sorts listings with the same buyout by current bid price.  I got sick of undercutting my competitors and hoping the next guy down didn’t undercut me and cause a domino effect that crashed the market, so I started gaming the system a little bit.  By lowering your minimum bid price by a silver or two, you can match your competition’s buyout price and still sell your item before them.

Those tricks should pad your gold purse a bit, but make sure to head back to the WoW Auction House homepage and bookmark it for further reading, there’s gonna be a lot more good stuff coming down the pipes over the weeks to come.