WoW Auction House Secrets

One of the common problems among both new and older World of Warcraft players is a difficulty in making money. I'm not talking about millions in gold, although that is possible. This guide covers some tips that will help you ensure that your character has enough money to upgrade his gear, buy all his skills and keep a little set aside.

Auctioneer

If you only download one add-on, it should be Auctioneer. The benefit of this add-on is that it remembers prices on your server and suggests appropriate prices for your items. Without Auctioneer, I used to sell green drops for about one gold. Now, I sell them for more, depending on the market price. This can be as much as ten times what I used to make at auction.

The great thing about Auctioneer's suggested market prices are that they work. I sell more merchandise with Auctioneer than on my own because I know exactly what to charge.

Auctioneer also enables you to easily control stack size of your items. My glyphs I sell in single stacks, although they stack automatically in my bag. Some items are best sold in smaller stacks.

Professions

When you are just starting out, it is most profitable to pick up two gathering skills, like herbalism and mining. You will make much more money if you sell the gathered materials than if you craft items because crafting takes a long time and a lot of money before it becomes profitable.

If you want to switch to a crafting profession later, have a gathering skill that complements it. For inscription, you should have herbalism.

Check out add-ons for your crafting professions. Auctioneer includes a tool called Glypher that suggests which glyphs are most profitable to craft, so you don't waste time with those that won't make a profit.

Companion Pets

Companion pets, also known as non-combat pets, are popular in WoW and are useful for obtaining some achievements. There are two techniques for making money with companion pets: trading within your faction and cross-faction trading.

If you have not been to Booty Bay, you will be trading with your own faction, so I advise you to get to Booty Bay as quickly as possible to make use of the neutral auction house there.

When trading within your own faction, you are gathering pets for people who could get them on their own, but do not want to travel. A good example would be Dragonhawks on the Horde side. These are somewhat out of the way to races other than the blood elves, so you can make some profit off of these.

Simple vendor bought pets will not make huge profits on your side but are easy to get. They cost about 50 silver and can sell for about 3 gold depending on your server. Auctioneer can suggest a good price.

Some pets are rare drops, like the Leaping Hatchling found in Takk's Nest in the Barrens. These will require some camping to get because they don't spawn often, but can get you 400 gold for one pet. These are great to trade on your own faction because they are rare enough that many people would rather buy it than look for it.

If you are going to Booty Bay, pack lots of the vendor pets for your side. These sell well in the neutral auction house because there is no other way for the other faction to get these pets. A snake that you pay 50 silver for can get 10 to 15 gold easily in Booty Bay's neutral auction house. There are other neutral auction houses, but Booty Bay is usually the most easily accessible for lower level characters.

Warcraft Pets has information on all of the companion pets in the game to help you figure out which ones to profit from.

Dungeon Finder

The Random Dungeon Finder is a great way to make money while you get experience. There are usually a lot of green and blue drops in the dungeons.

Pay attention to whether the item binds on equip or on pick up.

Greed any item that binds on equip and use Auctioneer to get a good price for it.

Holiday Quests

Throughout the year there are in-game holiday events with time sensitive quests. On the first day of each holiday, I run through all of the quests. This gives me an idea of the sellable items.

Any item that is needed for a holiday quest and is not soulbound can be mined and placed in the auction house for a profit.

During Winter Veil, the prices of small eggs skyrocketed as people needed them to make cookies for Greatfather Winter. Using Thottbot, I saw that small eggs have a drop rate of about 150% from draonhawks right outside of Silvermoon. These creatures spawn often and are only around level six, so even low level characters can farm them. I used Auctioneer to split these into stacks of five because that is how many the quest required and sold each stack of five for about 5 gold.

Every holiday has its own saleable items, so figure out early what sells and then farm those items.

For More Information

Auctioneer (http://auctioneeraddon.com/)

WoWWiki's Booty Bay Page (http://www.wowwiki.com/Booty_Bay)

Warcraft Pets (http://www.warcraftpets.com/)

Thottbot (http://thottbot.com/)