AH for fun and profit

[Vinos]

The AH: A place we all love to stare at (especially when waiting for a team) and many people make good pp buying and selling. How can I make tons of plat you ask? Simple, follow these easy steps and you’ll be on your way to fame and fortune. Well fortune at least.

1. Always post a buyout. There are many threads about people wishing there was a buyout for everything. Why have a buyout you ask? Well in my experience a buyout is the sure way to maximize your profit. You can set a buyout for a little more than you think the item will go for if left in open auction. I for one would rather pay a little bit more in order to get the item right then over waiting for 3 days. And sellers should also be aware that most people won’t even bid on items until the last hour or two and then you just gotta hope for a bidding war. Post buyouts you’ll be happy.

2. Post for 3 days. 3 days assuming a good buyout will ensure that the most people will have an opportunity to snag your item up.

3. If you insist on not having a buyout then you need to have your auctions end at peak playing times. There has been many a nice item I would have happily got into a bidding war on at the last hour but sadly the auction wasn’t gonna end until 3AM and a lot of folks just aren’t gonna stay up that late for a simple auction. I know this isn’t always possible given time zones and all but something to consider.

4. Look for items with unusually low buyouts and resell them. Keep in mind the 30% AH fee when doing this. A prime example. Tomes for some reason are skyrocketing in price. Tomes going for 250K plat are common. If you see a tome for a buyout of 100K pp then snag it up and repost with a buyout of 240K plat and watch it get snagged within a day.

5. When reselling an item, make sure you post it for a little less than current market rate. That way you’ll ensure that your item will get bought while still making profit.

6. Check the vendors. Many players don’t want to be bothered by the AH so they just sell their stuff to the vendors. Check them and if you see a good item by all means buy it and post it on the AH.

7. Take advantage of the “new thing” For example: sacred armor and shields stink. But when they first came out people were excited for a few days and it was possible to sell some of that stuff for a decent profit. Named items fall under this category.

8. Don’t pull an auction. This just ****es people off. If you have a really nice item set the minimum bid at the amount you are willing to take. Why waste money re-posting something?

9. Be realistic. No one is gonna pay 100K plat for a +2 dex +5 balance boots. That’s vendor trash and it should be sold as such. Besides cluttering the AH with your junk means it will take longer for them to see your good stuff.

10. DOUBLE CHECK YOUR BID/BUYOUT PRICE!! Don't be they guy who sold +5 mith FP for 5k gold and don't be the guy who paid 1mil plat for a vicious heavy pick of tendon slice.

11. Be mindful of the cash cap. Don't lose a million plat becuase you didn't remember your character can only hold 4mil plat. If you have several big auctions ending remember to move some cash around BEFORE you check your mail.

Any other tips anyone has will certainly be appreciated. Enjoy the AH. I know I do.

[shiffd]

The auction house is shot for now. You can play it but its not fun or easy and you by all means must be a power gamer with a lot of time on your hands (casuals can't play the market, even if they know economic theory) to make ends meat out of it.

I don't disagree with what you've put up above BUT without sorting or crafting the auction house is a frustrating distraction nothing more. WIth better sorting and/or a complete overhaul the system will be better. crafting would also level the pricing and make the market more playable without an extensive trend study.

Anyway we as players should be pushing stronger for a rehash of the auction house functionality so that it benefits players as apposed to the customers or farmers. At this point most people have given up on the auction house, for both purchasing and selling of all but the most select items. There is stil la lot of **** on the auction house but i think its put there by few and bid on by even fewer.

All that is really selling and being looked at now is really really high end items, like tomes. So you got people who buy there plat from farmers illegally, the farmers themself and real players competing in taht market. People who follow the rules and play for fun are outmatched most of the time. Casual gamers don't even bother. If you go in and reset a tome from a 100k buyout to a 250 or 1 mil you will make some money, but who are you benefitting? I guarantee you aren't contributing to the cause of fighting platfarmers.

The whole Auction House idea really suits the basics of and MMORPG in the way that Crafting does. Neither exists in traditional D&D, DDO shoudl either side with D&D and have niether or it should side with MMORPG and have both. Auction house without crafting is dismally unsuitiing to any player save those that use RL money to 'enhance' their play experience. WIthout a system (crafting) to level the field the AH only benefits those with lots of cash. Why DDO relies on a system that allows for platfarming and their customers to flourish is beyond me but thats the way of DDOs world. Rest assured they are sitting on crafting untill the fall because they want to make sure that it wont get rid of the platfarmers, whom they love and covet so dearly.

Larknor quest has a beautiful auction system well tempered by their crafting system, which perfectly compliments their collectibles game. DDO devs if you are listening take a look at that crazy little game and take a few plays out of their book. It basically gives every player 3 opportunities to equip themselves, raw buying power, cunning market play and selective hunting. There is no market play in DDO and with timers and mostly random drop points for non-bound items no selective hunting. We are left with one way and one way only of equiping ourselves- raw buying power. And so we get spam everyday by those crazy fools trying to feed of your system from teh outside.

[Sani_Medicor]

The auction house is shot for now. You can play it but its not fun or easy and you by all means must be a power gamer with a lot of time on your hands (casuals can't play the market, even if they know economic theory) to make ends meat out of it.

I swapped servers a few weeks back and have made a fortune and fully equipped my characters bargain shopping in the auction house. Here's some of the items I've purchased this week in the auction house...

+5 Str Ring - 125kgp
+4 Mithral Chainshirt - 23kgp
Cloak of Resistance +4 - 50kgp
+5 Light Mithral Shield - 150kgp
Greater Devotion V Helm - 25kgp
+5 Heavy Mithral Shield - 100kgp
Various +5 Stat Items - 25-100kgp

[shiffd]

I swapped servers a few weeks back and have made a fortune and fully equipped my characters bargain shopping in the auction house. Here's some of the items I've purchased this week in the auction house...

+5 Str Ring - 125kgp
+4 Mithral Chainshirt - 23kgp
Cloak of Resistance +4 - 50kgp
+5 Light Mithral Shield - 150kgp
Greater Devotion V Helm - 25kgp
+5 Heavy Mithral Shield - 100kgp
Various +5 Stat Items - 25-100kgp

I bought +5 mith chain shirt off the brokers on Sunday and sold at the auction for 10 times what it cost me in less that 5minutes. I buy from brokers and sell at the auction house. I only buy stuff at the auction house that i can sell at the brokers for more than it cost there. Anyway every weekend i just grab stuff off the brokers that poeple ahve sold there because they are too lazy to mess with the auction house. So some of that stuff you are buying at auction house for prices listed above were probably bought off a broker by a 50+ haggle bard so you are feeding their pockets as well. and stuff.

Why do you want people to post buyouts... for your own purposes, not theirs. Your post is aimed at people playing into your hands on the auction house that is easy to see. You want them to play your game so that its got more players , which benefits you as you obviously enjoy playing with the auction house. and stuff.

[Vinos]

I bought +5 mith chain shirt off the brokers on Sunday and sold at the auction for 10 times what it cost me in less that 5minutes. I buy from brokers and sell at the auction house. I only buy stuff at the auction house that i can sell at the brokers for more than it cost there. Anyway every weekend i just grab stuff off the brokers that poeple ahve sold there because they are too lazy to mess with the auction house. So some of that stuff you are buying at auction house for prices listed above were probably bought off a broker by a 50+ haggle bard so you are feeding their pockets as well. and stuff.

Why do you want people to post buyouts... for your own purposes, not theirs. Your post is aimed at people playing into your hands on the auction house that is easy to see. You want them to play your game so that its got more players , which benefits you as you obviously enjoy playing with the auction house. and stuff.


I would disagree slightly on this point. Yes buyouts benifet the seller but they also benifet the buyer They don't have to wait 3 days in order to get an item. Most folks would rather just buy it out and be done with it. On a side note the AH is certainly getting interesting due to the flooding of the power 5 weaps.

[Riddikulus]

1. Always post a buyout. There are many threads about people wishing there was a buyout for everything. Why have a buyout you ask? Well in my experience a buyout is the sure way to maximize your profit. You can set a buyout for a little more than you think the item will go for if left in open auction. I for one would rather pay a little bit more in order to get the item right then over waiting for 3 days. And sellers should also be aware that most people won’t even bid on items until the last hour or two and then you just gotta hope for a bidding war. Post buyouts you’ll be happy.
I put up a para dorf axe on the AH for 5M with a 20M buyout. It was gone in 30 minutes, and I now have a lot of walking around plat.


2. Post for 3 days. 3 days assuming a good buyout will ensure that the most people will have an opportunity to snag your item up.
The absolute biggest reason to post for 3 days is due to the way the AH presents the items... by default it shows them by posting date, NOT by auction end date.

So if you have an item which falls into one of the catagories that has multiple pages (jewelry, clothing, some weapons) a shorter auction length may never see the first page and thus much fewer people may see it. A 3 day auction guarantees your item will see the first page at the end of the auction.

For item catagories which only have one or two pages, a shorter duration may actually be better... people don't like to bid on auctions with 3 days remaining... it ties up one of their 20 bid slots for too long.



Any other tips anyone has will certainly be appreciated. Enjoy the AH. I know I do.
I found that the best starting price for most auctions is to set the auction for 3 days, and copy whatever the GP posting fee is into the PP starting bid. For most people this sets the opening bid to a slightly profitable point for the seller after AH fees, by this I mean you will make a little bit of money on the item over selling it at a vendor.

[Vinos]

For item catagories which only have one or two pages, a shorter duration may actually be better... people don't like to bid on auctions with 3 days remaining... it ties up one of their 20 bid slots for too long.



\.


Which is why you should post a buyout:) Not everyone plays everyday so even if you post for 3 days you might not get as much as you could if you posted a buyout becuase the guy who really wanted your item isn't logged in when you have 1 hour left on the item. Also double check your buyout amounts and bids. No one wants to sell that +5 mith FP for 5k plat and no one wants to buy a bluff +11 ring for 1 million plat.

[sirgog]

Excellent guide. I started playing a couple of months ago, and by selling stuff on the AH, my level 13 main character now has in excess of 700k PP and all the non-uber gear I want, and I can easily afford to give the arcane casters 1-2 wands of repair serious each time I form a party.

It's just a matter of working out - before you sell it - what is vendor trash (e.g. +2 Vicious Kukri of Tendon Slice), and dumping that on vendors/brokers; what will fetch a modest price in the auction house (+5 large steel shield, should sell for 2000-3000pp); what will sell for significant amounts of money (e.g. +3 flaming greatsword of pure good should get 50-70k pp); and what will sell for insane amounts in the AH (tomes, dragonshards, +6 stat items, +3 or better mithril fullplate, +4 or better mithril breastplate, all of these should fetch around 500-2000kpp). Buy bargains at the AH and brokers, and resell them at auction.

[Vinos]

Added a couple tips to reflect some changes(money cap anyone?)

[wamjratl1]

I bought +5 mith chain shirt off the brokers on Sunday and sold at the auction for 10 times what it cost me in less that 5minutes. I buy from brokers and sell at the auction house. I only buy stuff at the auction house that i can sell at the brokers for more than it cost there. Anyway every weekend i just grab stuff off the brokers that poeple ahve sold there because they are too lazy to mess with the auction house. So some of that stuff you are buying at auction house for prices listed above were probably bought off a broker by a 50+ haggle bard so you are feeding their pockets as well. and stuff.

Why do you want people to post buyouts... for your own purposes, not theirs. Your post is aimed at people playing into your hands on the auction house that is easy to see. You want them to play your game so that its got more players , which benefits you as you obviously enjoy playing with the auction house. and stuff.

No true, really. As a buyer, i do like it when folks post buyouts, just cuz i don't wanna have to keep checking for stuff. I think for that reason, I tend to make huge profits when I post a buyout - often well in excess of what similar / identical items are currently going for. I had a tome in the AH that was about to expire and not one bid on it. In the last half of the last day of bidding, someone went for the buyout whcih was 2mil gp higher than what tomes were really going for at the time. BUYOUTS WILL MOVE YOUR STUFF AND MAKE YOU PROFIT!!

[lauziv]

yes i agree. i buy tomes off AH for no more than 100k plat, cheapest was 30k plat. then turn around put em up fer buy out between 250k-350k plat and most time they go. in last month with just tomes i have made over 3mil plat:)

[geoffhanna]

Ummmm, tomes on the AH for no more than 100k plat?

Right.... :rolleyes:

[Aranticus]

Ummmm, tomes on the AH for no more than 100k plat?

Right.... :rolleyes:

thats the old price.... or hes lucky he caught it when it was just posted. i see dragon scales being posted for 2M gp, 3 min later sold and another comes up with 4M gp....

this is the recent tactic

[Velorn]

No true, really. As a buyer, i do like it when folks post buyouts, just cuz i don't wanna have to keep checking for stuff. I think for that reason, I tend to make huge profits when I post a buyout - often well in excess of what similar / identical items are currently going for. I had a tome in the AH that was about to expire and not one bid on it. In the last half of the last day of bidding, someone went for the buyout whcih was 2mil gp higher than what tomes were really going for at the time. BUYOUTS WILL MOVE YOUR STUFF AND MAKE YOU PROFIT!!

I always post a buyout...usually twice base price...and always post for 3 days for max exposure. My stuff moves...always. And I do not bid on items. If I want it...I want it now. So everything I've bought has had a buyout. If not I move on...even if it's something I can use.

[Deragoth]

I agree. Without a buyout, I don't care what it is. I don't bid.

Even if its a really high buyout, I'll at least consider it.

[TossMe_the_Flying_D]

I almost always use buyout instead of bidding. The only items I usually bid on are items that I don't really care if I win or not - usually just "nice to have" stuff for my lowbies.

The only exception is just an hour before scheduled downtime. I bid on lots of auctions that will expire in less than 8 hours - and usually win most of them. Between people installing the new update when the server comes back up and the fact that the server comes back up randomly and at inconvienient times, there's usually nobody on to outbid you. (It used to be a LOT better before they fixed the auction clock - the clock used to keep counting even while the server was down, which meant auctions expired while nobody could bid on them. That was an actual exploit. Currently it's just using common sense. :) )

[shiffd]

Only works if you know the value of the item. ALSO consider that good items sell above the maximum buy out amount. SO if you want to sell stuff at or below maximum buyout amount then use a buyout. On the other hand if you want to sell something for max value, you gotta get people to bid war at max value. Buyout moves mediocre items in short spans of time. Uber items can be bid warred. And unfortunately really cruel and greedy people will put it up 3 days, cancel it and then put it back up then next minute starting bid at the last highest. I don't know how often/how many times they do this. And likely at the end they are putting up a buyout, probably 50% or more higher then the best bid they got on it before it was a buyout.

Also poeple who don't bid, Y? You are saying that stuff sells for mroe with a buyout.... THen doesn't that mean if you bid, and 'NOBODY' else was bidding then you'd get the item for a highly reduced price right???.... No actually people don't bid because they figure they'll be outbid at some point... because good items wil be bid on, buyout or no, and fetch a high price. People don't want to bidwar, so they only do buyouts but thats not ALL people... If it were then I would be the only guy bidwarring and i'd be able to bid items out real real cheap off AH. IN MY expeireince the best AH steals are stuff people put on a buyout that is too low.

So again this threads purpose is to serve the guy who started it. Encourage people who don7t ahve all day to study market trends to put stuff on buyout, if enough people do this-sure enough- you shoppers are gonna be able to buyout stuff, and like the thread suggested, resell it on AH for a better margin... Any item worth buying out is worth bidding on. I bid untill the bid is above what I think the item is worth. Whether the item has a buyout or not. Actually if I see a good item with what I believe to be an overpriced buyout I don't bid at all because I figure some plat buyer will be buying the item out anyway.

[Vinos]

Only works if you know the value of the item. ALSO consider that good items sell above the maximum buy out amount. SO if you want to sell stuff at or below maximum buyout amount then use a buyout. On the other hand if you want to sell something for max value, you gotta get people to bid war at max value. Buyout moves mediocre items in short spans of time. Uber items can be bid warred. And unfortunately really cruel and greedy people will put it up 3 days, cancel it and then put it back up then next minute starting bid at the last highest. I don't know how often/how many times they do this. And likely at the end they are putting up a buyout, probably 50% or more higher then the best bid they got on it before it was a buyout.

Also poeple who don't bid, Y? You are saying that stuff sells for mroe with a buyout.... THen doesn't that mean if you bid, and 'NOBODY' else was bidding then you'd get the item for a highly reduced price right???.... No actually people don't bid because they figure they'll be outbid at some point... because good items wil be bid on, buyout or no, and fetch a high price. People don't want to bidwar, so they only do buyouts but thats not ALL people... If it were then I would be the only guy bidwarring and i'd be able to bid items out real real cheap off AH. IN MY expeireince the best AH steals are stuff people put on a buyout that is too low.

So again this threads purpose is to serve the guy who started it. Encourage people who don7t ahve all day to study market trends to put stuff on buyout, if enough people do this-sure enough- you shoppers are gonna be able to buyout stuff, and like the thread suggested, resell it on AH for a better margin... Any item worth buying out is worth bidding on. I bid untill the bid is above what I think the item is worth. Whether the item has a buyout or not. Actually if I see a good item with what I believe to be an overpriced buyout I don't bid at all because I figure some plat buyer will be buying the item out anyway.

Interesting point but you're wrong. While I appreciate you calling me greedy this thread is to inform OTHER people how to make some plat. The max bid is also about the same amount as the max buyout so you don't know what you are talking about there. Also you're wrong by saying that an great item will go for more if you allow it to be bid on. Since the max buyout and max bid are about the same for the really good stuff like +2 tomes posting a max buyout is simply the way to go. I can tell you from personal experience that you WILL get items cheaper by doing a straight up bid for the reasons I said earlier. I can bid on an item with no buyout and I will get it cheaper becuase many people aren't interested in a bid war. Also try to remember that when you are posting an item with a buyout make sure you post it for more thhen you think it's worth. What's the worst that can happen? No one bids on it? It's happened to me more than once and I adjust my buyout price accordingly. Better to set it to high then too low.

[Vinos]

Money making tip: Sell those PoP X's and the like before MoD 5 hits. That name dagger is gonna destroy the market value for those items.

[Strumpoo]

Money making tip: Sell those PoP X's and the like before MoD 5 hits. That name dagger is gonna destroy the market value for those items.

Nah, I don't think it will kill them too bad. A little yes, but not all the way. Way too many of us caster types like to use damage and crit enhancing weapons in our hands at the same time. ;)

[Vinos]

Nah, I don't think it will kill them too bad. A little yes, but not all the way. Way too many of us caster types like to use damage and crit enhancing weapons in our hands at the same time. ;)

I take it you haven't seen the dagger. It has greater arcance lore along with improved extend and empower. Once you get one you'll never un-equip it.

[Strumpoo]

Yeah, I have seen it. Don't get me wrong it is sweet, but I like my Superior lore items, a little nicer for crits,than greater lore items. That would be the only thing holding me back from using it all the time.

Guess it would be good to hold before buffing though! :)

[blakbyrd]

yes i agree. i buy tomes off AH for no more than 100k plat, cheapest was 30k plat. then turn around put em up fer buy out between 250k-350k plat and most time they go. in last month with just tomes i have made over 3mil plat:)

To me, this is part of the problem occuring in the game. However, I do not fault anyone for doing this. It's not wrong, but it does help give the plat sellers a reason and purpose to exist, which in turn generates a greater influx of spam and other player annoyances.

With many of the ridiculous prices being posted on many things (which continues to increase), this even further raises the desire for the plat sellers.

People posting outrageos prices for things seems to just be a way for someone to get the plat farmers gold without actually breaking the rules to buy it because they instead make it so that someone else has to go buy it and give it to them.

The plat farmers have wrecked the economy of the game (as they do in every game), but its the very actions of the players that cause this to happen.

Still, you can make a profit off buying low and selling high, nothing wrong with that at all, but in doing so, it only raises the desire for players to seek quick means of gaining cash faster and plat sellers then become very appealing, or they find it necessary to begin the same tactics, which in turn means overvaluing everything (as we see), rasing the prices for everyone and out of reach of many, instead of things being where they should be.

It takes a collective effort to stop such things, but it will never happen. Plat farmers are here to stay, and greed alone is what gives them every reason to be here and is why their influx into the game has grown steadily, just as we have seen over the last year how things continue to go up and up in cost for the same items, just as the influx of plat seller spam grows more and more. Such greed of players grows their business. The more plat they flood into the market grows it even more as the players become more greedy...its a never ending viscious cycle, which only the players can stop, but as we all know..the players as a collective will not stop it.

[Vinos]

True enough but since the way things are aren't going to be changing best thing to do is get what you can get so you're not left out in the cold. Not much different from any real economy. Costs rise on some items(oil) and drops on others when the market becomes flooded with it(houseing market)It's not going to get better it's going to get worse. Plat farmers or not that's just the way it is. More time playing = more plat and items generated which will cause inflation. Who knows what the value of items wil be going forward. I remember when holy bursting items were uber. Now you see them at the vendors.

[blakbyrd]

True enough but since the way things are aren't going to be changing best thing to do is get what you can get so you're not left out in the cold. Not much different from any real economy. Costs rise on some items(oil) and drops on others when the market becomes flooded with it(houseing market)It's not going to get better it's going to get worse. Plat farmers or not that's just the way it is. More time playing = more plat and items generated which will cause inflation. Who knows what the value of items wil be going forward. I remember when holy bursting items were uber. Now you see them at the vendors.

Very true and the very nature is basically capitalism at work. Again, nothing wrong with it, and I'm not picking on anyone who does it, its an available option and a means of personal gain. The problem is that the plat farmers are spinning it out of control. Combined with the continued actions of players to induce it to spin out of control it is getting worse faster and faster.

[shiffd]

To me, this is part of the problem occuring in the game. However, I do not fault anyone for doing this. It's not wrong, but it does help give the plat sellers a reason and purpose to exist, which in turn generates a greater influx of spam and other player annoyances.

With many of the ridiculous prices being posted on many things (which continues to increase), this even further raises the desire for the plat sellers.

People posting outrageos prices for things seems to just be a way for someone to get the plat farmers gold without actually breaking the rules to buy it because they instead make it so that someone else has to go buy it and give it to them.

The plat farmers have wrecked the economy of the game (as they do in every game), but its the very actions of the players that cause this to happen.

Still, you can make a profit off buying low and selling high, nothing wrong with that at all, but in doing so, it only raises the desire for players to seek quick means of gaining cash faster and plat sellers then become very appealing, or they find it necessary to begin the same tactics, which in turn means overvaluing everything (as we see), rasing the prices for everyone and out of reach of many, instead of things being where they should be.

It takes a collective effort to stop such things, but it will never happen. Plat farmers are here to stay, and greed alone is what gives them every reason to be here and is why their influx into the game has grown steadily, just as we have seen over the last year how things continue to go up and up in cost for the same items, just as the influx of plat seller spam grows more and more. Such greed of players grows their business. The more plat they flood into the market grows it even more as the players become more greedy...its a never ending viscious cycle, which only the players can stop, but as we all know..the players as a collective will not stop it.

The viable price of a given item is determined by the market as a whole, what consumers are willing to pay. Occasionally items sell for too much or too little, but those are outliers. What things go for on average is key. Since each transaction on the auction house subtracts 30% from buy price the more traffic the less money. In the end less money drives prices down. Less money though drives the demand for money up, in the case of DDO where it is purchasable with real money. The plat sellers are working with an infinite plat pool though, so its irrelevant to them whether 5000plat or 5 million plat sells for 29.95, all they care about is selling something for 29.95.

The question is can people afford to buy stuff with plat earned legitimately. IF plat sellers are playing the market, with the intention of inflating it beyond questable(coin you could earn legitimately in quests) plat figures, there is nothing we can do to stop them, joining them doesnt really help or hurt in the long run, if they are determined to alter the market they can and will. They ahve an infinite resource of both platinum and items. THey can sweep the auction house dry if they want and make it impossible to buy anything for less than maximum bid. DDO is not motivated to stop this from happening, so we are stuck with it.

I often buy things off brokers and sell at auction. In this case I am taking somethning that would have been deleted and putting it in a players hands, ultimately decreasing the rarity and price of said items, ultimately deflating the economy. As I said though it only takes a little effort on the sellers part to reinflate said economy in terms of whats currently being bought or sold, wut they cant do is take those items away from us.

Most guilds keep a lot of items in guild and share freely. Ive come to the conclusion that Keeping good items and trading freely without auctioning or selling is the only way to combat plat selling from the players end. There may be some other ways of going about this but I havent figured any out.

[alcmaeon]

Just a fast agreement on always using a buyout esp. for mid range stuff-- often I pop on the AH to see if a one of my lowbies can snag a +3,+4 or +5 stat item at a level where that item is the best possible, only to see an auction that ends in three days. In three days I will not need that item. So if I can't buy it right than I move onward.