26 Mar 2009

What is the Auction House (AH)?

. 26 Mar 2009

In World of Warcraft, trading of items between players is made easy by an in-game Auction House. You can access this AH by going to an 'auctioneer' NPC in any major/capital city.

To get to one such auctioneer, you can follow the directions WoWWiki gives (btw excellent site, check it out to stop being a noob).

Here's how it looks:


Here you can search for items by category, level required to use etc. Auctions can 'last' for 12h,24h,or48h (typically 48h), after which if nobody bid on the item, it is returned in the sellers mailbox.

Most items have two prices: Bid and Buyout (bo). The bid price is a starting price that can raise as possible buyers offer more and more for the item. The buyout price, if present, is a price for which the seller is willing to stop the auction and just sell immediately.

Some advice for the beginner:

  • if you don't have much money sell low (that will make sure you sell fast)
  • if you don't know the 'regular' price, don't buy (some people put up stuff for incredible amounts)
  • most sales occur during 'evening' (i.e. 6pm-11pm)
  • putting up something for auction costs money, depending on item and duration of auction. Check out how much before you bankrupt yourself.

As long as you sell, the AH is your best friend and money source. If you start buying, you need to feel confident you know enough about going prices or you may end up crying for your money.

The vast majority of money going through the AH comes from max level players, who are richer than anyone else and who, on most servers, make up a majority of the population. Do not assume that if you get an item while at a low level it will sell for very little: if it's useful to a max level player, they can pay loads for it without feeling robbed ('loads' for you, not for them). Why this is like that you will understand gradually, as you yourself level up and start to swim in money (more or less).

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