WOW Auctions House Guide

The economy plays an important part in WoW, players are able to collect items and then place them up for auction so that other players can bid on the items. Auction Houses are available for this purpose and give players the facility to sell items away from the trade chat channels.

Linked Auction Houses

As of patch 1.90 (released 3 Jan 2006) Players are able to buy and sell goods with greater effectiveness using the Linked Auction House system. Auction Houses in Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Thunder Bluff will now share the same pool of Horde player-created auctions, and Alliance players will find the same to be true when visiting Ironforge, Stormwind City, and Darnassus Auction Houses. This system has been expanded to support the neutral Auction Houses as well. Tanaris, Everlook, and Booty Bay are alllinked for players of both factions to access. In addition, the “Looking for Group” and “Trade” channels have been unified among the corresponding cities, meaning, for example, that you can trade your goods or look for groups in Ironforge while in Stormwind.

Finding an Item

There are nine auction houses located in the world:

• Orgrimmar, Undercity and Thunderbluff for the Horde. Items placed on any of these will be viewable on the other two.
• Ironforge, Stormwind and Darnassus for the Alliance. Items placed on any of these will be viewable on the other two.
• Neutral auction houses usable by both factions in the neutral Goblin town of Gadgetzan (in Tanaris), Everlook and Bootybay.

In each auction house, the Auctioneer(s) appears as an NPC character standing on raised platforms so that they are easily seen and when talked to, the auction interface opens on your screen. The auction interface is made up of 3 components. The first section, Browse, shows all available items for bidding sorted by category and subcategories.

When each category or subcategory is selected, after you click the “Search” button, it displays a list of items on the right of the screen.

Players can search for items in each category by name, by max and min item level or by quality [All, Poor, Common, Uncommon, Rare and Epic]. To make it easy to find items suitable for your character you can also have the list only show items that your character can use [Usable Items]. When you find the item you are looking for and think it’s within your budget or a good deal, you can highlight the item, enter the amount you wish to bid, and then click ‘bid’ [bottom right]. The default value shown is already the minimum allowable bid above the current bid (about +5%).

Each item has a level [you need to be equal or higher to use it], a rough indicator indicating how long until the auction closes (Short, edium, Long, Very Long), the name of the seller, the current bid and the buyout price if one is set. If the icon for the item is red, then you are unable to use that item at this time but you can still bid on it and win and use it when you reach the right level.

If you hit the ‘Buyout’ button you automatically match the buyout price set by the seller and win the auction immediately. The buyout price set by the seller is the “bid this and the item is yours right now” price. Do not worry about clicking on the ‘Buyout’ button accidentally because a popup box will appear on the screen listing the buyout price and asking for confirmation.

When players bid on an item, the amount is automatically deducted from their backpack and held by the auctioneer. The remaining time of the auction is extended by approximately one minute.

Tracking your Bids

The second tab along the bottom is Bids which enables you to track items you have bid on allowing you to chart the auction rogress for the duration of the auction. Once an auction expires the item is automatically removed from the list. Should you be outbid in an auction, you will receive notification of the outbid via the in-game mailbox (along with your money attached). If you are online, you will also see a message flash across your screen and chat log at the moment you get out-bidded. If you are in the auction house while you get outbid, the money is returned directly into your pocket and no in-game mail is sent so you can re-bid immediately.

If you are outbid and wish to bid on the item again, you must travel back to the auction house to do so. There is no proxy bidding.

Selling

The third and final tab, called, Auctions shows all the auctions you have created [items you are selling] to help you track bidding progress. It is here you also add your items to the auction system.

To create an auction simply open your inventory/bag and drag the items into the item slot in the left of the Auctions interface. Here you can set the price you are looking for by clicking in the small boxes indicated as gold, silver or bronze and entering your amount. Below this is also a box for a ‘buyout price’. This is a price you can set and if a bidder meets this price it will automatically be sold to that bidder. Making this price too high will also mean bidders will not be tempted to bid the higher buyout price.

Players are encouraged to set buyout prices since many people often want items immediately when they bid on them, especially trade goods and raw materials, and are often willing to pay a higher price to buy it immediately instead of waiting for the auction to expire.

You can have your auction run for 2 hours, 8 hours or 24 hours only, no longer.

Selling Charges

Selling an item does come at a price, there is a fee that has to be paid into the system to place your auction. The fee deposit is calculated as a percentage of the item’s value if sold to a vendor. The fee is also more expensive the longer you set the duration
of your sale so it’s important you get the balance just right when putting an item up for auction as you want to keep the fee as low as possible. If the item is sold within the allotted time, the seller will have their fee deposit returned via the in-game mail system along with the money from the bidder minus a transaction fee, which is a small percentage of the ultimate sale price. However if the item fails to sell, the seller loses the deposit fee while the item is returned back to the seller via the in-game mail system for retrieval. The item will remain in the mailbox for a maximum of 30 days.

If you are in game when the auction expires, a message will flash across the middle of your screen saying your auction has been successful or unsuccessful.

Item & Winnings Retrieval

If you win an auction, the item is automatically sent to your in-game mailbox for retrieval. If you are the seller and fail to sell the item, your item is sent back to your in-game mailbox for retrieval. You can then try and sell the items again at the auction house or just keep them. Mailboxes are located outside Inns and Banks and you can read all about them in the Mail section. If you do sell the item you an email will be sent to you from the auction house with the winning bid money attached. This will be minus the auction house fee.

Selling Tips & Notes

• Set reasonable buyout prices on common items
• Announce your auction in the trading chat channel when you put up rarer items in the auction house
• You lose your deposit if your item does not sell
• Use the neutral auction house in Gadgetzan for cross-faction trading
• The transaction fee is higher in Gadgetzan than the other two faction-only auction houses

Buying Tips & Notes

• Narrow your searches by using the filters
• General Tips & Notes
• Traditional methods for trading are still available via the trade chat channel
• Players cannot bid on any items that they put up for auction from the same player account
• Bid increments are 5% of the current bid
• When a bid is made a minute is added to the auction duration.

Click here to learn making a ton of gold with World of Warcraft Auction House