by: RedCedar

Introduction

I have been using auctioneer for about 18 months now. I view auctioneer as a 3^rd primary profession that everyone has access to regardless of character type, race, faction, or even character level. If used correctly, I feel auctioneer can become the easiest source of money in the game.

I am writing this as a mini-guide. I emphasize the word mini. First, there is no way to discuss all ways to use auctioneer without making a war and peace sized novel. Second, I don’t know everything about auctioneer and freely admit it.  Further discussion in threads will invariably uncover other great ways to use auctioneer to your benefit.

What

Auctioneer

Auctioneer is an add-on program for World of Warcraft that allows you to retrieve, sort, track, and potentially profit from Auction House sales data. Auctioneer can be downloaded from the developer’s site at Ten Ton Hammer's U.I. Database.

Auctioneer is available as a stand alone add-on or as a suite of add-ons as Auctioneer Complete. Complete includes some tools, such as Enchantrix, which could further help you profit in the Auction House.

As an add-on, auctioneer is placed in the add-on folder of WoW (the location of this differs for PC and Macs). Auctioneer is legal, does not violate the terms of service of WoW, and does not install any tracking or other malicious items on your computer.

Auctioneer is a powerful statistically program but is very customizable. While you can set many of the variables (such as the % to undercut the current lowest prices item), that is outside the scope of this mini guide. I will suggest using the default settings for now.

Screenshots, other builds (including bets) and more are located at http://www.auctioneeraddon.com/ which is the official site. TTH has no affilation with this site.

Other options

There are a couple of other options available however I have stuck with auctioneer given its easy interface and constant updates. What more can you ask for?

Who

There is no character type, race, faction, or even level requirement to benefit from auctioneer. There is no trainer to find, books to buy, or single location limiting your ability to use auctioneer.  The only limitations that I have seen to auctioneer are time and money. You need to put in the time and have some money to get started (I will cover this later).  For these reasons, I consider auctioneer as the 3^rd primary profession that everyone can use to their benefit.

Where

Auction House definition

Auction Houses are location in main cities and are where players go to sell or buy items from other players. You can search by item name, level, etc. Winning auctions result in the buyer paying for the item and receiving it by mail and the seller receiving that money also by mail.  Think of it as WoW’s version of EBay.

Auction House Locations

There are Auction Houses locations in each factions 3 major cities as well as in a couple of neutral cities. Items listed in faction auction houses are seen by players using any of that factions auction houses. Items listed in neutral auction houses are seen by players using any of that factions auction houses and can be used by BOTH alliance and horde.  Below are all the auction house locations in WoW.

Alliance Auction Houses are found in Stormwind, Ironforge, and Darnassus

Horde Auction Houses are found in Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Thunder Bluff

Neutral Auction Houses are found in Tanaris, Everlook, and Booty Bay

Why

Mount

The first big monetary hurdle for most players is their mount at level 40 (just ignore paladins and warlocks bragging about their free mounts). You will need 90-100G to get your first mount. The need for gold for purchasing mounts does not end there. It escalates quickly for future mounts peaking at a very large 6,000G for epic flying mounts.

Make more on what you are already selling

How do you decide the listing price for your auction house sales? Past experience, look at similar items currently for sale on AH, ask WoW friends, or the old guess and pray you are right methods comes to mind?  One of auctioneer’s most basic benefits is that you can see the average values of items based on your scanned data just by putting your cursor over the item. This should eliminate pricing mistakes completely making this the lowest effort way that auctioneer helps you make money.

Find new ways to make money

As you use auctioneer, you will start identifying items which could be most profitable to you character. Are you a master at gathering, a crafter of high end items, or someone looking to become a reseller of items? Auctioneer gives you great information for putting together your plan.

Use your current money to make money

What happens to all the money your character has that he/she is not spending? It just sits there. No interest accrues. 10G today is still the same 10G thirty days later. Why not put that money to use?

Buy items you need at cheap prices

One of the best side benefits of auctioneer is you will find fantastic bargains on items that you use (like materials) and on items that you want but can’t afford at full prices. There are items listed way below market value everyday. I am sure you can find a way to take those items off the seller’s hands for your benefit.

Help others

One great thing about having more money than I can spend is being able to help out WoW friends and guild members. A friend needs 10G to get their mount, a guild member just found a great prices on an uber super duper whatever but is 20G short, our guild needs 10 tabards to give away to new members? No problem.

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