Dollar

Unless you read it in the TOS you are mistaken.

 

Caligula

Well the ToS is pretty vague considering they say you can be banned for "Anything that Blizzard considers contrary to the "essence" of the Program." That's taken directly from the ToS.

I only mention this because I can remember one of my guildies a while back getting a perma-ban for something like "buying out all of a certain item and reposting for max profit". Then again, he could have been lying.

In any case, no it's not specifically referenced in the ToS or EULA.

 

Sepulture

I'm not talking about circling the AH like a vulture buying out every arcane dust and relisting them at higher prices indefinitely.

I'm talking about buying out 5 somewhat under-priced Greater Eternal Essences and then re-listing 50 at a 150% markup to market (and making a killing).

I'm confused as to how this is any different than buying out one under-priced blue item and re-listing it at above market. In that world, it would be an offense to sell any item for more than you paid for it. Sorry, but I'm not a big fan of not being able to make profits.

Perhaps a centrally planned AH would be better? Blizzard could dictate what prices we receive and pay for items? From each according to his ability, to each according to his need? Maybe we could just replace the AH with a giant NPC with <USSR VENDOR> over his head?

You'll forgive my attempt at humor, but profiting from other peoples' pricing mistakes isn't a bad thing. It's a necessary part of having a fluid and liquid marketplace.

 

Caligula

I don't really want to get into a back and forth "what if" and "no u" session and shit up a good thread but if we're going to use hyperboles then I'll offer a counter example. Say one of those guys with 100k gold decides to buy up an entire AH worth of stuff and re-list at 50% markup. I can almost guarantee you they'd be banned for purposefully, negatively effecting the entire economy of a server. Now, obviously someone buying up 5 GEE's and reposting at a higher price isn't going to infuriate the masses, and everyone does it once in awhile, or more than once in awhile. What I'm saying is, if you find yourself monopolizing an entire market, as you've described, then most likely you're going to run into the "Blizzard SEC".

Like I said, I've heard of someone being banned for running an AH monopoly, I also said that it wasn't me, and that person could have been lying (although it would be kind of odd for them to make up something like this), so I can't be 100% sure. I'm just saying, be careful to the extent you take your buying and reselling because, from my experience, the potential for bad things to happen to you is there.

 

Pyros

Also monopolies, unless you're playing on a very small server, rarely last long. It's not like all of a sudden a single person is going to control everything on the AH all the time. You might see one person controlling arcane dusts, and maybe also netherblooms, and only for a limited amount of time. Farmers will see the prices are high and start focusing on that and will break the monopoly. It's just a way to make money from the "holes" in supply, but you also take risks, never know when someone is going to empty his mule on the AH undercutting all your nice auctions, and freezing your benefits for 1+week.

Now, I'm not an AH player, I just don't have the patience to sit at the AH buying stuff, running auctioneer and finding out what to sell. I do buy a few tailor special clothes on sunday because the prices drop during weekends, and resell them on wednesday/thursday when they're higher, but I don't want to be spending more time than that. I think if you're spending time analyzing the market and browsing thru the AH, you should earn money, it's just the same as farming mobs.

 

Triper

Slight De-rail here:

I've capped my herbalism now and have been farming the Skettis Trees since 2.3 hit. Has anyone else's server experienced a stark decline in the prices of primal life, dreaming glory, felweed, mana thistle, and ancient lichen?

I don't know if it's because everyone on my server reads these forums and decided it would be a great idea to farm these trees or if I'm having a bad case of luck. But it's really putting a damper on my pre 2.3 (would-be) prices.

 

Shocktar

I've done it myself, and I've been banned. Back before BC, if you bought Runecloth on Khadgar, you bought it from me. The account I'd been buying and selling on got a perma-ban, and the account storing the money got at 72 hour ban. Two weeks of calling Blizzard and such got me nowhere, and I never did get the account back. I wasn't doing anything I personally would have considered 'bad' either, just buying everyone's runecloth that wasn't mine, and selling them at my current price. I'd done it on both Alliance and Horde, and I was fine for about a month.
True, I was one of those guys with a ton of gold, and I was absolutely controlling the market, making a monopoly. It was very profitable, but I won't go there again, I don't want to lose my account... again. I even got this nice email from Blizzard for the 'willful explotation of an ecomony.'

Gear is how hard you hit. Skill is how often you hit.
http://sig.gamerdna.com/quizzes/INFL...tealth5325.png

 

• Tecton

Aye, I've been thinking that the increased tree farming in Skettis is probably due initially to this forum, before it caught on elsewhere. They mostly went untouched until very recently, on AD at least.

 

Thiris

I've been farming them for a while now and while I've noticed a huge decline in Ancient Lichen prices, the only other thing that I've seen at a low price is Mana Thistle. This has always been fairly low price on my server due to slow progression on my faction. (1 guild in BT and they're farming Illidan, the rest are stuck on KT/Vashj)

 

◊ Nocturnus

Shadowsong prices for lichen have gone to the dumps. I had been stealthing Underbog for a while and selling stacks for 25-28g depending on the market, and within a few weeks, I was lucky to dump it off at 18 or so. Dreaming glory and felweed have been low for a while, you're usually better off making potions/elixirs out of them. Pretty much sucks when I finally work up the ambition to power-farm something and that happens.

And it's probably not just your server, I think those trees have about a 7 second life expectancy on Shadowsong. Pretty sure a level 3 could walk across Skettis unscathed these days, it's 100 times worse than the elemental plateau ever was, crowding-wise.

 

Triper

The demand for dreaming glory and felweed hasn't decreased either... they have all been selling like hotcakes, but the price is about 15g cheaper (mostly the dreaming glory) per stack than it was 2 weeks ago. I'm hoping this tend will subside... I need to get my epic mount!

Perhaps I should save up some coin and start my "own market" like so many others have been suggesting in this thread.

 

Lavode

I find pure leverage both boring, and inherently somewhat risky - arbritage relies on the market being inefficient, and while this is usually true for a wow AH, it isnt always. Speculation can and will fail you on a semi regular basis, and will tend to do so more and more often the more people engage in it.
My personal preference is to "add value" to AH transactions I make reasonably large amounts of money off the ah by finding something, anything which matches two criteria:
1:it is easier for me to come by than it is for the vast bulk of the server.
2: It is in demand.
Then I get it, and auction it. This general tactic has never failed me yet, and unless I start to suck at wow I dont see how it ever can fail me.
Examples:
I paid for large amounts of my pre-tbc raiding by soloing BRD bosses for large briliant shards. and the ace of elementals,
My epic flightform was financed by being the only 375 engineer with a copious supply of primal nether when the khorium destroyer came out,
Currently enjoying a windfall from having consortium revered and being an enginner (this one cant last long..)
And finally, being able to do the shartul event is a fair chunk of cash every 5 days.

The people who are selling epic gems off the BT trash are essentially utilising an extreme example of this mechanic - Very few people on any given server are in a position to try it, fewer can pull it off, even fewer think of it, and the number of buyers for epic gems is very high.

 

Thorgrim

Ancient lichen price sag may be caused by the new dungeon dailies - I have noticed a big increase in traffic through the 5 mans, which means more people hitting the lichen nodes inside instances themselves.

 

Xanrag

About epic gems I found that at least before patch 2.3 you could put a soulbound gem in a BOE item without the item becoming soulbound. I sold a healing belt with the [Royal Tanzanite] from heroic Slave Pens without any problems. Jewelcrafters could potentially use that to sell their cheap epic gems to people who had stuff crafted, although I'd try it out on some cheap item first; they might have fixed that in a patch by now.

And of course they are unique-equipped so people could only use one of each.

 

Tosa

I farm the chest in Underbog. I can't do it on heroic yet, but I can do it on normal without problems. The stealth runs are quick, 5g+ per chest, stuff to disenchant, and occasionally a rare gem.

Hold shift for focused movement.

 

Thorgrim

The BOP JC gems (I assume you're talking about the faction ones like Crimson Sun, etc.) bind any item they're placed in, so that won't work.

 

Drunkmunky

Couldn't agree more, friend of mine pre BC borrowed cash from his guild for the bottomless bag recipe. That set him up for life, never had less than 4k gold and that was a freaking lot back then. He bought his epic flying mount as soon as he hit 70 =\ He was one of three people on his server that knew that pattern.

I think it is really difficult to get yourself in this situation though, if something is in high demand it usually doesn't take long for other people to jump all over it. You either have to be lucky and already have the means to make and sell the items as soon as they become valuable or just be quicker than everyone else. I'm not much good at either of these so I use traditional techniques to make my gold.

 

sheva7

Any1 has any suggestion for skinner/DragonLW? cobra scales in my server only sells for 12-13g each, clefthoof sells for 3g/piece, heavy knot is 3g each too. Other than Thick Netherscale Breastplate, i rarely sell anything from my LW skill (If it wasn't becoz it is 375, i'd have dropped it). I tried the 5 boars around the shaman on top of the cobra cave in smv and it works with around 90% drop for knothide. I was wondering if there is any other suggestion or tips esp for skinner/LW hunter like me. tyvm

 

• Mex

I've noticed Ancient Lichen prices are really low on BR, down to 9-12g per stack. This was before the dailies even. Felweed I sell for 7g, and dreaming glory for 15g. Terocone is usually 16-19g, with Netherbloom and Nightmare Vine up at 25-27g. Herbing isn't fantastic cash, but fel lotus is around 24g, and it's easy to do with epic flight form while I wait for BGs.

 

◊ Turik

And they lied. Sorry. You can not, and will not be banned for Auction House sales unless they are fraudulant or for the purpose of gold buying. "Confirm" it on the CSF forums if you so choose.

 

Zurgat

Blizzard has in fact stated that players trying to monopoly the AH is perfectly acceptable.
Anyone can do it if they wish, there is plenty of competition to go around making a monopoly nearly impossible.

-= Random Ravings - RSS Feed =- Rogue and Hunter stuff here. As well as guides to get you trough your spare time.

 

Caligula

Well I'd love to argue with you guys about it all day long... oh wait no I wouldn't. All you need to do is read post #307.

Blizzard policies are hardly ever 100% consistent. Tread carefully when running a monopoly. That is my warning, heed it if you wish. You can thank me later if/when you don't get banned.

 

◊ Shaker

1000g or so worth of enchanting mats up today for the S3 release ... I almost bought out all the arcane dust to relist at a higher price but decided I didn't want to see how deep the supplies of the other people ran.

 

Lavode

*cackles* solid call - I am a banking officer for my raid alliance - and trust me, any guild that appropriates raid greens for DE (a fairly common practice) has oceans of dust, and no compunctions about underselling you if the price rises.
Said ocean of dust funded quite a lot of initial guild expenses for us in the start of BC raiding. The price of illusion dust and GEE was (and remains) stupidly high compared to pre-tbc standards, and we had a bank alt full of both. Not sure how much gold we made auctioning it over the course of months, but I think it was in the area of 10k gold.

 

Macblade

That works better if you happen to have a profession that has craftables that people actually want. I'm a LWer because I wanted the raid gear when I got started. I've always been happy with having that little leg up, so I'm not complaining. But leatherworking really suffers from not having an item that many people want. The only ones that I have ever seen in chat that people asking for are the netherscale BP and the tanking leg patch. In both cases the most you can typically make is the 100g that a primal nether goes for... On the other hand, I did sell a Belt of Deep Shadow for 2k gold, but again that was the cost of the nether vortex, not neccesarily the cost of the pattern.