Guide to the Auction House (Part
1)

By Darkgolem



In Lord of the Rings Online
(LOTRO) one of the greatest ways to earn money is the auction
house.  It is actually fairly easy to earn several gold pieces
without too much effort if you know how to use the auction house well,
and what items are valuable in the auction house.



While a large amount of people use the auction house, an even greater
number do not use the auction house well, or even at all.  I
personally was constantly surprised by what items I discovered were
valued and not, in the auction house.



 It takes a deep understanding of how the game economy of LOTRO
works, and how the auction house works, to make money quickly in the
auction house.  Simply auctioning everything you have will earn
you money, but you need to understand what is valuable and what rate
you should auction things at to make money.

Determining the Value of An Item

The thing to think about when you are auctioning items is the style="font-weight: bold;">difficulty and cost of making the
item you are auctioning, the usefulness
of the item, the style="font-weight: bold;">number of these items that are
already available, and the cost
already listed in the auction house for the same item, and the style="font-weight: bold;">time it takes to make the item.



The Cost of Acquisition: 
Some items are just hard to get.  Yarrow root is a good
example.  Yarrow root does not have a lot of use, it commonly is
used to make href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=356">gold
dye.  However, you cannot grow yarrow root, you can only find
it either as a farmer (using the crop radar) or as treasure. 
Ironically, yarrow root is more expensive than gold dye, even though it
costs more to make gold dye than yarrow root.



Usefulness of An Item: This
probably the easiest thing to judge.  One of the most useful items
in the game is food.  Food heals damage, power or both at once,
something everyone wants, regardless of class or race.  Heavy
armor is used only by a fraction of the classes in LOTRO. So href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=433">food
will be more valuable.  On the other hand, food is single use,
meaning that if one uses food, a constant supply is necessary, while
armor will last (if it is good) for several levels.  It is a
complex thing to figure out how useful an item is, but when deciding
how to price an object, it is a good idea to think about this.



href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album18&id=Auction_House_2&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Auction House"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album18/Auction_House_2.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 173px;" align="left">Supply
of Product Being Sold:  Craft items are almost always more
available than other items.  Therefore, craft items are sold for
less than a similar item that is not available except when found as
treasure.  Interestingly, people know more about craft items, so
often people will search for these items rather than browse or search
for unique items, making it slightly less likely that someone will
purchase a unique item even if it is better than a comparable item of
the same level.  This particular fact will make it harder to price
unique items.



The Cost of Items:  This
refers to the cost of an item as listed in the auction house. 
Often people do not know the value of an item in the auction
house.  Rather than take the time to determine the cost of an
item, they will instead auction the item at an estimated cost. 
This can lead to items being auctioned at a lower price than their
value.  In some cases, it can even be a good investment to
purchase an item and re-auctioning it at a higher cost.  The
effect that the price other goods of the same type has on your auction
is the amount that your item will auction for.  Since other
players will purchase items at a lower price than your own items first,
your item will sell for less or not at all, even if priced
reasonably.  If you have a good idea that the items being sold
that you intend to sell are priced too low, you can purchase these
items and then sell them again along with your own item.  If your
product has a high demand for it (such as crafting materials), you can
chose to sell your item at the correct price, and expect the other
items to sell first.



The Time of Acquisition: 
This is a cost which often forgotten by players, or at least not
considered closely.  Every character has a set cost they can earn
in an hour based upon how fast they can earn treasure by defeating
opponents.  The minimum cost of an item you auction should never
be lower than that cost.  As an example, if you go out and farm href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=129">medium
skins, and it takes you an hour to get a stack of 50 skins, than
you should not sell those skins for less than the value you could have
earned beating opponents for treasure.  It might be worth your
time to measure this once in a while, just to give you an idea of how
much your time is worth.

Rules of Thumb

There are rules of thumb for selling in the auction house.  These
can assist you when your in a rush in figuring the price you should set
for selling and item:

• Mats more than Products: 
  Materials will sell for more than other items because they can be used
  for gaining crafting ability along with their innate value
• Your Level Times Two In Silver: 
  As a very, very basic rule, sell nothing for less than the level you
  are when you acquire an item (in a same level area) times two. 
  This can lead to overpricing or underpricing, but if you have no other
  choice, this gives you something.
• Three and Four: 
  Sell nothing for less than three times the sale price of an item at a
  merchant, if it not sold in stores as a bid price, and set your sellout
  price at four times the sale price of an item at a merchant.
• Second Place is Your Goal: 
  Whenever you sell items that are already being sold in the auction
  house, if you don’t know the value of the item, sell it at slightly
  less than the value of the most valuable sale of the same item. 
  Remember that often someone has made a wild guess at somethings value,
  and set the price too high! href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album18&id=Auction_House_Usage&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Selling for great prices"
  src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album18/Auction_House_Usage.jpg"
  style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 173px;" align="right">
• Small is Good:  If
  you have many units of an item to sell, and don’t wish to lose money by
  selling at the wrong price, sell small amounts of the item at a lower
  price.  If it sells fast, then sell some more of the small amount
  at a higher price.  Continue until the sales slow down, then sell
  the whole block at the same price.
• Always Have a Buyout: 
  Buyouts are critical to the sale of anything but the most legendary
  items.  No matter what, set some sort of buyout for items, because
  the majority of people who buy things in the auction house want them
  right away.  Extremely rare and valuable items might be sold
  without a buyout, instead just a reasonable but high starting bid,
  because those who bid for these items will really want this item and
  drive the price very high. 
  
• Always Use Two Day Auctions:
  The difference in value for a 4 hour and 2 day auction is minimal
  compared to the value you get for items, so always set your auctions
  for 2 days.  Remember to set a buyout.

Remember to Think It Through

There are basics to become a premier auction house merchant.  If
you really want to make yourself a czar of the auction floor, write
down your purchases and remember to check your notes each time you sell
stuff.  It will become second nature to do so, and you will
eventually find that you have silver and gold flowing into your purse,
much more than if you do your auctioning haphazardly.  The auction
house is complex and does not fit perfectly into the way the real world
works.  To get good at it, you have to learn how it works.



Guide to the Auction House (Part 2) can be href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=599">read
here!



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