few tips for AH

[Xenaphon]

1. Put a buyout, especially for the low level items. I know when I need something for my lowbee I cannot wait for the auction to end in 3 days. By then that time the item is no longer useful.

2. Look at the AH prices before you put an item up for auction. If there are large scales at 500k plat thats not selling, don't put up another one at 700K and expect it to sell.

3. Look at alternatives. Some people are specced for Kopesh and they never look at longswords or warhammers for special weapons like vorpals or weapons to go through mob DR. Holy silver Longsword is WAY better than holy Kopesh of pure good when fighting Harry or Sully.

4. Try to understand what people are looking for. Don't put up things 5%striding boots of jump +5.

I'm sure something like this has bee posted before but I think with new wave of player it might help.

[Anderei]

1
4. Try to understand what people are looking for. Don't put up things 5%striding boots of jump +5.


Thats much easily said than done, if you want to help newbies put a list of worthwhile things, instead of a general comment. My experience is, while playing a few classes, I learn what is valuable and what not, only for (more or less) the class I play, only after playing a few builds, you get a general feel what is considered worthwhie.

E.g. if you play a caster you will have no idea what weapon loots actually might go very expensive... same the otherway around (altough casters scepters are cheaper in that regard)

[megathon]

1. Put a buyout, especially for the low level items. I know when I need something for my lowbee I cannot wait for the auction to end in 3 days. By then that time the item is no longer useful.

They don't put a buy out because they want people to actually bid on it and see how far it can go up.

[Khurse]

They don't put a buy out because they want people to actually bid on it and see how far it can go up.

Which is kinda stupid on low level stuff.
Most of the high level players have the plat, but (as mentioned) don't want to wait 3 days for an item to twink a lowbie. Especially since that item will likely only be used for a couple of hours.

If you've put up a +5 Holy Silver Scimitar of GEOB, by all means leave it open ended.
If you're putting up a level 5 +2 Str gloves, put a buyout. It will help it sell.

[Khayvan]

Can I add one?

Understand who you're seeling to. +1 and +2 stat items are of interest to mostly low-level characters. Don't charge thousands of plat for these things. The people who can afford those prices don't need the items, the people who need the items can't afford these prices.


Don't put up things 5%striding boots of jump +5.

I wouldn't even say not to put them up, just don't charge the proverbial arm and a leg for them. Put a reasonable price and somebody is likely to buy them, even it's not the uber twink gear.

I sell good items on the AH to make a little more than what a broker will give me for it. I'm not looking to price gouge anyone. I enjoy finding good deals on the AH and I like to pass that on when I can. Sure I could probably get more than what I ask for on a lot of things, but I like to think both buyer and seller are walking away happy.

[Horrorscope]

Know what you will get from the Vendor, it can vary based on your Haggle, etc. For myself I use this rule of thumb formula to place or not to place on the AH. Whatever the price of the item is, divide that by 10 and then multiply by two, that covers all costs with a little fairer price then sold directly at a Vendor. Fast and easy. (Exceptions are items I know have a value well beyond that, takes time to figure that out)

EX:
Item is priced at 32,000, that would be /10 = 3200 then *2 = 6400. Now can I sell it for more on the market then 6400? If so place it, if not just sell it to the vendor. If I see someone at 5000, sell it to a vendor most of the time.

This formula will work with general players not focused in haggle.

If I like the item but don't know if it's hot, I will aim for a buyout at 1/2 the price of the item, with a lower bid based on the /10*2 formula.

If I see someone selling a certain something well under the formula I will buy it and flip it. I will also flip hot items I know that are well under-priced.

If you know you have hot items, save a little gold by not putting it up for 3 days.

I almost always sell below everyone else, I might lose out top dollar a few times, but I'm moving inventory and my plat is always moving in the right direction and can buy well what I need. This from a cleric not afraid of cleric costs.

[Lorien_the_First_One]

They don't put a buy out because they want people to actually bid on it and see how far it can go up.

Which will actually get them LESS money in most cases. Those with the most money want it NOW, not in 3 days, and thus won't bid on it. Plus, even if they do, they will bid by clicking on the bid button, not by placing a large bid. Additionally, if they are experienced at all on the AH they won't bid on any item with less than 8 hrs on it because there is no point as it just starts the bidding war sooner raising the price, and 2 days later they may not even need it so may never bid.

Picture these three items on the AH:

+4 STR bracers, ML 12 - bid 4000 gold, no buyout, 2 days left
+4 STR bracers, ML 12 - bid 4000 gold, 20,000 gold buyout, 3 days left
+4 STR bracers, rr dwarf, ML 10 - bid 4000 gold, 50,000 gold buyout, 2 days left

So which do you think will get the most money?

I could bid on the first one... 4000gold is a good deal, but I don't have 2 days
hmm... 2Kplat, that's not bad, *buyout*
or if I'm on a dorf/umd character...hmm... nice item, I can put it on 2 levels early, good twink item for later characters cause I like building dorfs, *buyout*

On common low level items buyout will get you more every time.

Now as someone else said, for that holy silver greater evil outsider bane, I'd skip the buyout.

[antivenom]

I'll add a tip of my own.

When selling, put it up on Thursday night fror 72 hours or Friday night for 48. More people seem to use the AH over the weekend than during the week, I always get better volumes of sales made on a Weekend posting than on a Weekday. Making sure your high-priced stuff runs out during a high-server-volume time means more chance of there being a bidding war on your item meaning more profit for you also. Likewise with collectables (a very nice source of cash if you can be bothered to sort through the AH to get relevent prices), people use their weekend spare time to do their rituals, so will buy more collectables then.

[Uhtred_Stark]

1. Put a buyout, especially for the low level items. I know when I need something for my lowbee I cannot wait for the auction to end in 3 days. By then that time the item is no longer useful.

This is a really good tip. I will often need to pick up +2 or +3 items for a new toon and I'm not going to wait 3 days and watch the bid, I want the item now. If there is a buyout and it's reasonably priced I'm buying now.

Another tip - those +4 items can be pretty valuable to sell. For example, I have lots of +3 wolfskin CON belts laying around and +5/+6 CON belts with ML15+ but I have one +4 CON belt for the mid-levels and I couldn't find any on the AH for days. Same with other key attribute boosts.

[Kralgnax]

It's actually a bit more complicated than what's expressed above. Personally, I can't be bothered with a lot of AH hassle - I just sell all the routine stuff for 50% of base bid, base or a bvit more buyout. + Stat item, useful clickies, or better than average weapons for rather more than that (say 150% of bae buyout). If I get a really sellable item, I'll put that up for serious cash. However, other considerations apply, and I'll detail those below:

An interesting structural factor for selling on the AH is that transaction costs are high (the AH takes a 30% cut of sale price), but listing costs are low (1.5% of base for 72 hours) - so, if an item has significant potential to sell for well over base, it's an effective strategy to put even a moderately rare item on at a fairy exorbitant price, even if you have to list it multiple times.

That, I think, is the logic behind the dudes who put up 100 quivers on the AH asking 1k gold a pop (frankly, that one blows my mind - who, that's so clueless they don't know where they can get quivers, is going to be looking on the AH and have 1000 gold, but whatever), or the person/persons seeking to corner the market on +2 mithral chain shirts on Argonessen - there's a huge number of them up at some stupid (and contant) price, 35k bid / 40k buyout or some such- hoping to hit the twink market, presumably. I suspect those listed approaches are actually failing, and probably being done by people who don't really track their Junior Monopolist (TM) game score (Gevlon would not approve.).

However, if you pull a +1 Holy khopesh of pure good (and can't use it), there is a strong case to be made that you should put it up with some kind of super-insane price, because it is at least somewhat likely that someone will buy it in a few listngs, and it will only cost you a small amount to list it, even if it take 10 tries.

My 2 cp worth, YMMV. Again, please note: I don't do this AH gaming stuff (nor do I endorse, advocate or condemn it), I'm just explaining the underlying math.

[Anderei]

Having a haggle bot I actually sell most things to the broker right away without worring about the AH, except if I know that a item is of particular value and will sell for tremondously more than at the broker.