Auction House is a joke !!!

[GreenRing]

The Auction House in DDO has got to be one of the worst AH's I have ever seen in a MMORPG. If you can even call it an auction house. Tons of plp (trying to) standing around one NPC to get access. I'll stop right there because everything about this AH is a joke. If anybody says otherwise they need to check out one of their other games Lord of the Rings. Now this Auction House is got to be one of the best I have used in a game.

[Paleus]

Based upon your very limited comment I'm actually going to try offering a helpful suggestion.

You said: "Tons of plp (trying to) standing around one NPC to get access." Now, I'm going to take this to mean that you had trouble accessing the NPC. This can be a particular problem if you are only trying to interact with an object, in this case the Auctioneer NPC, using a mouse. Instead, you might be better served using the backspace key to cycle through selectable objects, which will most likely very quickly bring up the NPC. At that point, you should then use the "E" key to interact with the object, in this case the auctioneer. This will make navigating areas with concentrations of selectable objects (most likely people standing around in the marketplace) a lot easier. Learning this skill can also help you when searching for trap boxes that your character "found" but you the player cannot actually see.

Anyway, if you have more detailed comments or concerns regarding the auction house or other game mechanics I'm sure others in the forums will be able and willing to help.

[Lorien_the_First_One]

So the only thing you can point out is you are stand next to the same NPC? That's bad why? And that's the best you can point out? lol

[Musouka]

So the only thing you can point out is you are stand next to the same NPC? That's bad why? And that's the best you can point out? lol

I think it was the worst to the OP.

There isn't just one NPC. If you're really having trouble, go into the twelve tower. No one uses the NPCs there.

[FlyingTurtle]

Pro tip: stand behind the auctioneer. Especially if you are a halfling. Get really, really close. So nobody can get between you and the goods, if you know what I mean.

[haku-ba]

Perhaps he just means that it is not much like a 'house'? It may be the aesthetics that bothers him?!

If so, I think it would be nice to have a big 'auction house', say in the market, like you get when you enter the bank. A separate area with more than just a guy standing there. However, doing this in multiple places would be time/labor intensive and I think there are MANY other things that I would prefer the devs to be working on.

If you meant something else, oh well, carry on ;)

PS. Personally, I am very grateful for the most recent changes with the AH. The search alone makes it an absolute dream to use compared to the older version! Couldn't really care less how it 'looks' and it is a simple thing to access if you slow down for a couple of seconds.

[Memnir]

Then don't use it.


:rolleyes:

[zorander6]

The Q key will quickly and easily target NPC's.....

[LazarusPossum]

If it's crowds that are a problem, you can simply change instances in public areas like The Marketplace. I always find peace and solitude in instance 4 or 5 on busy days.

However, if any place does have a problem with crowds, I feel House Deneith AH does. I'm still at a loss to understand why some people feel that it's necessary to stand so darn close to (or even occupy the same space of) the auctioneer there.

[donfilibuster]

Oh, the crowd was clearly one thing to start with, no need to have two pages pointing out about the Q key isn't it?
Still an exaggeration of course, surely the ah still have other things worth discussing.

For example that the search and sort function was only added recently and still can use some work.
As it is now you can only search by the text in the title, which is more or less usable by scrolling through the results.
However, it'd be really great if you could search by ability titles (at the least).
Not that scrolling through all the health items takes too long, but trimming down to the +6 you want would be nice.

[Letrii]

There is an auction house of sorts in Harbor. The building behind auctioneer could be the building they work out of.

[elujin]

Oh, the crowd was clearly one thing to start with, no need to have two pages pointing out about the Q key isn't it?
Still an exaggeration of course, surely the ah still have other things worth discussing.

For example that the search and sort function was only added recently and still can use some work.
As it is now you can only search by the text in the title, which is more or less usable by scrolling through the results.
However, it'd be really great if you could search by ability titles (at the least).
Not that scrolling through all the health items takes too long, but trimming down to the +6 you want would be nice.

or if you would be able to add value's like i want a +6 wis item

[Bloodstealer]

The Auction House in DDO has got to be one of the worst AH's I have ever seen in a MMORPG. If you can even call it an auction house. Tons of plp (trying to) standing around one NPC to get access. I'll stop right there because everything about this AH is a joke. If anybody says otherwise they need to check out one of their other games Lord of the Rings. Now this Auction House is got to be one of the best I have used in a game.

Errrmm well if things are a little too crowded for you and dont know about target selecting using backspace... then just go to another Auctioneer NPC, there are many to choose from.... there is life outside the harbor you know :D

[Cendaer]

The Auction House in DDO has got to be one of the worst AH's I have ever seen in a MMORPG. If you can even call it an auction house. Tons of plp (trying to) standing around one NPC to get access. I'll stop right there because everything about this AH is a joke. If anybody says otherwise they need to check out one of their other games Lord of the Rings. Now this Auction House is got to be one of the best I have used in a game.

^THIS^ is what you chose as your FIRST post to these forums?

Really? REALLY?!?!



Kobold still hate you...

[unknownturok]

^THIS^ is what you chose as your FIRST post to these forums?

Really? REALLY?!?!



Kobold still hate you...
that is what i was thinking

[Gremmlynn]

Errrmm well if things are a little too crowded for you and dont know about target selecting using backspace... then just go to another Auctioneer NPC, there are many to choose from.... there is life outside the harbor you know :DOr even a less crowded instance.

[MalkavianX]

Then don't use it.


:rolleyes:

That's what I was thinking too. It's not difficult in the least to use it. People here have made some excellent suggestions. I'll offer one more. I suggest you follow their advice.

[Sir_Noob]

Pro tip: stand behind the auctioneer. Especially if you are a halfling. Get really, really close. So nobody can get between you and the goods, if you know what I mean.

Lol, how cheeky!

[spyyder976]

Oh, the crowd was clearly one thing to start with, no need to have two pages pointing out about the Q key isn't it?
Still an exaggeration of course, surely the ah still have other things worth discussing.

For example that the search and sort function was only added recently and still can use some work.
As it is now you can only search by the text in the title, which is more or less usable by scrolling through the results.
However, it'd be really great if you could search by ability titles (at the least).
Not that scrolling through all the health items takes too long, but trimming down to the +6 you want would be nice.

You can trim it down by making a level range, and name sort, and there you go. To the OP, grow up, change auctioneers and/or instances, problem solved. LOTRO AH looks pretty much the EXACT SAME as this one, so stop talking nonsense!

[simsiim]

so what's the AH like in LOTRO ?
I have no idea, so needed to ask so I can get an idea what it is that was disliked about the AH here in DDO

[dunklezhan]

so what's the AH like in LOTRO ?
I have no idea, so needed to ask so I can get an idea what it is that was disliked about the AH here in DDO

Frankly it's awesome. But if you want to go that route... then Turbine will also start selling you bids and postings in batches of 5 (i.e. you start with one on your free account, and pay a couple of hundred TPs in order to be able to post 5 things at once etc all the way up to I think 30).

The OP is generally correct, the AH in DDO is pretty bad.

But OP - you should have seen it a few months ago. At least you can now search using text.Before it was, imho, pretty much unusable. If you think its bad now well... you don't know you're born. When I were a lad, we had to walk uphill in t'snow both ways wi'our dad's whippin' us all t'way.

[Warinx]

wts funk, 2.1 mill!

[JasonJi72]

I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone of one VERY important fact regarding the AH.

IF YOU WANT THE ROGUE TO BE ABLE TO GET THE ELITE TRAPS WHILE YOU ARE PLAYING YOUR LOWBIE OR TR, THEN DON'T OVERPRICE THIEVES TOOLS!

OP... see... that is the proper way to complain about the auction house. LOL. :)

And yes... kobolds never forget the battle of water works! Many are right next to you disguised as halflings...

[Zack77]

Or it could be that the OP is Free to Play. Or feels the total economy is out of whack.

If its the former, and it hasn't changed since I took a break, the Free To Play-players have limited access to the AH (Though I believe this only pertained to placing things on the AH.)

If its the latter, we all have to deal with it, and not only in this game. In every game, the economy sucks when it comes to things like the Auction House. And the reason being that, for every item that goes on the AH, no matter the price, there is a sucker that will be willing to purchase it.

[Lleren]

The Auction House in DDO has got to be one of the worst AH's I have ever seen in a MMORPG. If you can even call it an auction house. Tons of plp (trying to) standing around one NPC to get access. I'll stop right there because everything about this AH is a joke. If anybody says otherwise they need to check out one of their other games Lord of the Rings. Now this Auction House is got to be one of the best I have used in a game.

I have not used the Auction House in LoTRO so am unaware of how that one works.

They have recently improved DDO's Auction House dramatically, by adding a search function.

[Bloodstealer]

I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone of one VERY important fact regarding the AH.

IF YOU WANT THE ROGUE TO BE ABLE TO GET THE ELITE TRAPS WHILE YOU ARE PLAYING YOUR LOWBIE OR TR, THEN DON'T OVERPRICE THIEVES TOOLS!

OP... see... that is the proper way to complain about the auction house. LOL. :)


You mean you actually buy thieves tools from the AH... OMG, REALLY.. REALLLYYY!!. -- KK gtg put 50 or so +5's on their ASAP...cheap of course :p

[Roberto]

so what's the AH like in LOTRO ?
I have no idea, so needed to ask so I can get an idea what it is that was disliked about the AH here in DDO

Well, in a couple towns, it's 3 or 4 npc's standing in a building that the players crowd around to get access.

In Moria, it's 2 npcs standing in a room that the players crowd around to get access.

[Linenoise2]

I think it was the worst to the OP.

There isn't just one NPC. If you're really having trouble, go into the twelve tower. No one uses the NPCs there.


Or just change the instance.
Major weaksauce in this complaint! :)

[LordMond63]

I played LotRO for a bit over a year and, yes, the AH there is far better than what we have here. It used to be "far FAR" better but we did at least finally get a search function (albeit limited).

What really grates is that Turbine does BOTH games.

Probably my favorite AH system was in Dark Age of Camelot. DAoC had player housing and one of the things you could add to your house was a porch and an Auctioneer to stand on the porch. You could store the items you wanted to sell (or just extra stuff!) with the Auctioneer along with the price you wanted. An NPC near the entrance to each housing zone compiled the prices of all the items for sale not only in that particular zone but in all other housing zones and you could search by any number of criteria. You could then either buy directly from that NPC (who then charged a fee on top of the price of the item) or travel to the individual house to buy directly from the player's Auctioneer. Great, great system.

I agree that improvements can and should be made (like a broadened search function), but I don't hold much hope that Turbine will act on the requests. It took them how long to add merely the search?

[Gossamerblade]

The LotRO auction houses are quite pleasant: a building with 3-5 auctioneers and a couple of mailboxes. The interface is nice, you have text or level search functions. But items are listed in order of posting, rather than alpha-numerically, and it can be vexing to see the same item on different pages.

(I giggled when I saw that one of the Bree auctioneers has the surname of Tangleroot)

[simsiim]

:)

And yes... kobolds never forget the battle of water works! Many are right next to you disguised as halflings...

I always thought that's what Halflings were


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

okay, thanks for sharing with me what the AH is like in LOTRO, I personally don't have issues here ( DDO AH ) was just wanting to get a idea what the difference was.

[Kahuna68]

The Auction House in DDO has got to be one of the worst AH's I have ever seen in a MMORPG. If you can even call it an auction house. Tons of plp (trying to) standing around one NPC to get access. I'll stop right there because everything about this AH is a joke. If anybody says otherwise they need to check out one of their other games Lord of the Rings. Now this Auction House is got to be one of the best I have used in a game.

TROLL! In the dungeon... /faint

Folks here get goaded so easily! :D

[Tom318]

And the reason being that, for every item that goes on the AH, no matter the price, there is a sucker that will be willing to purchase it.

If this happens the economy is not 'out of whack'. It is only 'out of whack' if there's nobody to purchase it, and yet stuff gets listed for astronomical sums.

[ColdNapalm]

This is some kind of early april fools thing...right?!?

[naimen]

well, there are some games (looking at you FF14) don't even have a AH........

[LordMond63]

I don't think that Everquest had an AH for a few years after launch. The zones with banks in them had a constant flood of "WTS" messages that could give you that "wall of text" sensation- that was the only way, short of posting on a message board that you had a given item and what you wanted for it- to sell stuff. Much later on (the second time I played), I think that you could buy either a number of slots on a merchant or perhaps the whole merchant and have him sell your stuff for you...but I think that you had to be logged in the game for your items to appear as being for sale. If that memory is correct, I thought that was an odd requirement than and still do now.

[PopeJual]

And the reason being that, for every item that goes on the AH, no matter the price, there is a sucker that will be willing to purchase it.

I used to be constantly broke because I was constantly buying stuff on the AH.

Now I have most of the stuff that I want and I'm constantly selling stuff on the AH and only occasionally buying some twink items for potential future characters.

A whole bunch of the stuff that I post sells because I've gotten a feel for what does and doesn't sell, but there's a whole lot of stuff that doesn't sell even for fairly reasonable prices. If there were really that many suckers, then I'd be wearing a lot more greensteel items. :)

[jmonty]

you should have seen it before the search function.. but even i still didn't complain then

[joneb1999]

Every auctioneer in public zones (except ships) should be situated next to a mail box and maybe there should be two sets of auctioneers / mailboxes in large areas like the market place and especially the harbor. This way people will have more choices possibly closer to their current location spreading the crowds around. Its really bad organisation if you are keeping the auctioneer and mailbox separate and spread quite a bit apart in certain areas just to get people to run about them, if thats the reason.

Now we have guild ships the town zones are less used anyway except for running to quests. If you want parts of public zones outside ships to be used more often invent a a new reason to go there.

[PopeJual]

Now we have guild ships the town zones are less used anyway except for running to quests. If you want parts of public zones outside ships to be used more often invent a a new reason to go there.

But if I spend my time on the airship, I'll miss out on the thrilling and educational Harbor general chat!

[Doganpc]

Valid Auction House Complaints:
-30% taxed! I could've made more vendoring it!
-Shields covers like 6 different types there could be more subcategories.
-OMG this new *blank* is fugly! Where can I change its appearance?
-That price is insane, nobody that level has that much plat!

There are reasons for most of the above mostly cause we need somewhere to remove platinum pieces from the economy, but I do think there could be a few more subcategories (shields the only one that sticks out). As for exorbitant prices... if it doesn't sell it'll get relisted or pawned for less so don't buy it if you don't like the prices. However if you have the coin to pay the prices... well see reason #1 ;)

Dogan
Sometimes it is fun to play with Trolls, like making them dance and pose

[locus]

Really? REALLY?!?!

Another one!?


so what's the AH like in LOTRO ?
I have no idea, so needed to ask so I can get an idea what it is that was disliked about the AH here in DDO
Well, on top of things already mention, Lotro's AH has:

- a fairly balanced economy, but the rare items there are available less frequently than in DDO (fewer people farming, raiding etc. more casual player base). I mean there are enough gold sinks that you can generally adventure and save up and afford most things you want on the AH, so less inflation by a factor of thousands
- not a 30% cut, which means people use the AH a lot (to buy), and shuffle the economy around (counteracted by no anonymous auctions)
- drag an item into the search area and it searches for that item. I keep trying to do this in DDO when I switch around
- auto sort by various things, not per page, but all in a category (pull down + sort by price, date etc)
- if your bid list is full, you're not prevented from buying out or interacting with the AH until the bids clear! inane in DDO's AH
- best items to use until cap are generally crafted by other players

DDO's was worse, but it recently has gotten closer to Lotro's (better categories, search) recently. DDO's is better in that:
- people's names aren't shown. this isn't an issue in Lotro, but in other games I've had friends make AH mules just so they could avoid rants from people.
- there are higher list limits in DDO.
- (this one is debatable) the snipe system works differently in DDO. in Lotro you can pretty much time it so you can catch the exact moment something ends. This may be good or bad depending on how you use the AH ;)

[Aaxeyu]

The biggest problem with the AH is undoubtly the 30% AH tax. It's absolutely ridicoulous.
The 2m plat cap on items is also a problem.

Removing the "auction" part would also make it better.

[DevHead]

The Auction House in DDO has got to be one of the worst AH's I have ever seen in a MMORPG. If you can even call it an auction house. Tons of plp (trying to) standing around one NPC to get access. I'll stop right there because everything about this AH is a joke. If anybody says otherwise they need to check out one of their other games Lord of the Rings. Now this Auction House is got to be one of the best I have used in a game.

Would you like a hug? I don't care if I get neg rep'd, but you sound stupidly whiny. The AH functions well. The only specific complaint you provide is about access, and everything else is vague. Why would I take you seriously?

[zebidos]

Pro tip: stand behind the auctioneer. Especially if you are a halfling. Get really, really close. So nobody can get between you and the goods, if you know what I mean.

I agree with this post.

[Chilldude]

Last summer I would have definitely agreed with the OP that the auction house was just terrible. However, when I came back a few days ago I was pleasantly surprised to see text search had been added to the AH!!! OH JOY! What a pain it was as a new player to try to find the value of all this junk that piles up in your inventory by searching through page after page after page for each item. I used to throw deadly feverblanches on the ground all the time because I had no idea they had any value. I'm sure a few eberron dragon shard fragments shared the same fate.

But that's not what I really wanted to comment about, what I really wanted to say is a rebuttal to all those who have said that the sales tax is too high on auctions...

The high sales tax dramatically discourages reselling. This is my absolute favorite thing about the auction house in DDO.

If I'm doing a quest and run into a ton of acid, like "Proof is in the Poison", and I want a cloak of acid resistance then I can go to the AH and find one that I can afford to buy. Inventory space is very limited so if someone gets a cloak of acid resistance that they don't need or want, they put it on the AH for a price that it will sell at. With the high sales tax, it makes it not worth the risk to a reseller to buy it and try to profit off it because they would have to mark it up at least 30% to make a profit. Because of the limited storage space, they can't stock pile so they wouldn't be able to buy up any items at a lower price to make theirs sell.

In contrast, another MMO I used to play had a much much lower sales tax plus the ability to store vast amounts of items. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people on every server made a fortune in gold just by reselling items. Therefore everything on the AH is considerably more expensive than it would otherwise be, and many things are simply out of the price range of most people who aren't resellers.

It's my absolute favorite thing about DDO. If there is something I really want I know I will be able to get it. That is why I stopped playing the other game, everything I really wanted was virtually out of reach.

[Gremmlynn]

But that's not what I really wanted to comment about, what I really wanted to say is a rebuttal to all those who have said that the sales tax is too high on auctions...

The high sales tax dramatically discourages reselling. This is my absolute favorite thing about the auction house in DDO.

If I'm doing a quest and run into a ton of acid, like "Proof is in the Poison", and I want a cloak of acid resistance then I can go to the AH and find one that I can afford to buy. Inventory space is very limited so if someone gets a cloak of acid resistance that they don't need or want, they put it on the AH for a price that it will sell at. With the high sales tax, it makes it not worth the risk to a reseller to buy it and try to profit off it because they would have to mark it up at least 30% to make a profit. Because of the limited storage space, they can't stock pile so they wouldn't be able to buy up any items at a lower price to make theirs sell.

In contrast, another MMO I used to play had a much much lower sales tax plus the ability to store vast amounts of items. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people on every server made a fortune in gold just by reselling items. Therefore everything on the AH is considerably more expensive than it would otherwise be, and many things are simply out of the price range of most people who aren't resellers.

It's my absolute favorite thing about DDO. If there is something I really want I know I will be able to get it. That is why I stopped playing the other game, everything I really wanted was virtually out of reach.Not to mention it put's a price on "renting" an item. Buying the acid cloak to run PiitP, then just reselling it for the same price to free up inventory space.

[Aaxeyu]

But that's not what I really wanted to comment about, what I really wanted to say is a rebuttal to all those who have said that the sales tax is too high on auctions...

The high sales tax dramatically discourages reselling. This is my absolute favorite thing about the auction house in DDO.

If I'm doing a quest and run into a ton of acid, like "Proof is in the Poison", and I want a cloak of acid resistance then I can go to the AH and find one that I can afford to buy. Inventory space is very limited so if someone gets a cloak of acid resistance that they don't need or want, they put it on the AH for a price that it will sell at. With the high sales tax, it makes it not worth the risk to a reseller to buy it and try to profit off it because they would have to mark it up at least 30% to make a profit. Because of the limited storage space, they can't stock pile so they wouldn't be able to buy up any items at a lower price to make theirs sell.

In contrast, another MMO I used to play had a much much lower sales tax plus the ability to store vast amounts of items. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people on every server made a fortune in gold just by reselling items. Therefore everything on the AH is considerably more expensive than it would otherwise be, and many things are simply out of the price range of most people who aren't resellers.

It's my absolute favorite thing about DDO. If there is something I really want I know I will be able to get it. That is why I stopped playing the other game, everything I really wanted was virtually out of reach.

Why is buying and reselling to make a profit a bad thing?
You need to understand that the AH tax is not only payed by the seller, sellers compensate for it by increasing the price, so if you think that the AH tax lowers prices you are wrong.
The AH tax also discourage people to sell things on the AH, which also makes the prices higher (lower supply means higher prices).

[spyyder976]

I don't think that Everquest had an AH for a few years after launch. The zones with banks in them had a constant flood of "WTS" messages that could give you that "wall of text" sensation- that was the only way, short of posting on a message board that you had a given item and what you wanted for it- to sell stuff. Much later on (the second time I played), I think that you could buy either a number of slots on a merchant or perhaps the whole merchant and have him sell your stuff for you...but I think that you had to be logged in the game for your items to appear as being for sale. If that memory is correct, I thought that was an odd requirement than and still do now.

EQ still doesn't have an AH. You have to leave a character logged on as a vendor loaded with trader satchels full of what you hope to sell at a set price. There is no bidding.

[Wolja]

...
You need to understand that the AH tax is not only payed by the seller, sellers compensate for it by increasing the price, so if you think that the AH tax lowers prices you are wrong.
The AH tax also discourage people to sell things on the AH, which also makes the prices higher (lower supply means higher prices).
I'm amazed at the number of people who can't get the correlation between being ripped off twice, fee to post and then 30% on a sell, and the high prices that are charged in the AH.

Yes it's better than 6 months ago but in general it is still one of the worst AH's I've seen.

[PopeJual]

I'm amazed at the number of people who can't get the correlation between being ripped off twice, fee to post and then 30% on a sell, and the high prices that are charged in the AH.

Yes it's better than 6 months ago but in general it is still one of the worst AH's I've seen.

The 30% fee actually keeps prices much lower than they would otherwise be. I don't pay 300,000 plat for a +2 Tome because someone else thinks that 200,000 plat is a fair price to receive for the +2 Tome. I pay 300,000 plat for a +2 Tome because I have bucketloads of in-game cash and nothing significant to spend it on.

I used to keep a stack of +5 Thieves Tools on all of my characters from level 1 to level 20 in case the party's Rogue ran out. I still do that, but now I also keep a stack of 100 Heal scrolls as soon as my character hits level 11 just in case I'm in a party with a healer who runs out of blue bar. Because I really don't have anything else to spend my plat on.

If the AH didn't suck up plat and remove it from the economy, I can't even imagine what kind of absurd prices you'd see on the AH. DDO looks like the Weimar Republic already. If we didn't have something to take money out of the economy, then we'd have to come up with a new word to describe the DDO economy because "hyperinflation" just wouldn't be enough.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation

When you have to use scientific notation to describe the money you need to buy lunch, something has gone terribly wrong.

[fuzzy1guy]

With all the masses of plat i've made off the ah....

The 30% fee is too low if anything.

Especially after the cove bubble. lol

[Pfold]

It could also be that the op was trying to browse during that "back up" time bewteen 5-6am est.

Outside of that I cna't really see any other issue

[Chilldude]

Why is buying and reselling to make a profit a bad thing?
You need to understand that the AH tax is not only payed by the seller, sellers compensate for it by increasing the price, so if you think that the AH tax lowers prices you are wrong.
The AH tax also discourage people to sell things on the AH, which also makes the prices higher (lower supply means higher prices).

See, I totally disagree. My highest character is level 12. I've heard from several people, and the AH searches I've done seem to back it up, that the lower level items are the most expensive. Yet, as a new player Ive been able to buy all sorts of super high quality items for all my characters. Mithral armor and shields, double magic effect weapons, striding, resistance, deathblock, you name it. My main character has so many weapons it's hard to choose which one to cave in skulls with sometimes. The best part is I have all this simply by playing the game.

I didn't have to farm gold for days or weeks to save up for a new item, and I'm glad because I hate farming gold. I get rewards and I list them on the AH for a price they will sell. Because I've had such an easy time obtaining things, I don't worry about getting the very top price it could possibly sell for.

In short, I don't ever worry about gold, I just play the game and I've usually got enough to buy whatever strikes my fancy. This is in stark contrast to most other MMO's I've played where most of the things I wanted were still out of reach even after farming gold for weeks.

***EDIT***

I meant to address your question, "Why is buying and reselling to make a profit a bad thing?" and I didn't answer it directly.

Reselling is stealing gold from other players who play the game to make an instant profit by not playing the game. It's a bad thing because it's wrong.

Consider no sales tax:

Sellerdude plays the game and obtains ItemX that he has no use for.
Sellderdude posts ItemX on the AH for 100 gold.

Resellerscumbag sees ItemX, has no use for it what so ever, but buys it anyway.
Resellerscumbag posts ItemX to the AH for 125 gold.

Buyerdude wants ItemX so he goes to the AH and sees it for 125 gold.
Buyerdude spends 125 gold he earned playing the game to obtain ItemX.

Both Sellerdude and Buyerdude contributed to the community by playing the game. Resellerscumbag took away from the community for his own personal gain, to satisfy his lazy greed. His quick profit motivates him to do it again and again. Other lazy greedy people see his success and do the same. Except they are buying the item for 125 and listing it for 150, and another resells it for 200, and another still for 250. Now Buyerdude is paying Sellerdude 100 gold for his time and effort in obtaining ItemX and 150 gold to Scumbagresellers for doing nothing. That's a lot more than a 30% sales tax.

If one lazy greedy scumbag reseller sponges off the community one time for 25 gold, it's not a huge deal. But when hundreds and thousands of lazy greedy scumbag resellers constantly sponge off the community they end up stealing millions in gold from the community. They profit off the efforts of everyone in the community so that they don't have to put forth any effort themselves. Eventually, the only way to afford ItemX is to become a scum bag reseller, at which point you're no longer playing the game so why even bother?

There is a posting fee to encourage players to post items at a low enough price that it will sell. There is a 30% auction house commission to discourage players from sponging off the system by reselling. These two systems work together to keep prices affordable so that in essence you are exchanging the valuable items you obtain through questing but have no use for, with the valuable items other people obtained through questing and have no use for. It works, try it.

[Missing_Minds]

so what's the AH like in LOTRO ?
I have no idea, so needed to ask so I can get an idea what it is that was disliked about the AH here in DDO

As of this point, pretty similar to DDO, only AH NPCs are stored in their own house, there are about 10 of them that all do the same thing per house.

I'm guessing the OP is one of those Clicky Feely type of players that must be able to click on everything? The same method to select just the NPC here in DDO can be applied to LOTRO as well. So personally, I'm even more confused by the OP's rant.

[Missing_Minds]

I'm amazed at the number of people who can't get the correlation between being ripped off twice, fee to post and then 30% on a sell, and the high prices that are charged in the AH.

Yes it's better than 6 months ago but in general it is still one of the worst AH's I've seen.

If you are getting charged twice, then file a bug report.

There is a posting fee, however, if the item sells, you are refunded that fee and then charged a flat 30% of your sale price.

As stated, if you are getting charged twice, file a bug report.

[BurnerD]

I have no problem with people making a profit, but there are a lot of goofy auctions listed everyday...

I think a good change to the system would be to limit starting prices to 2 or 3X of the base of the item. Buyout could still be set as high as you want.

Market then dictates sell price.
If you have an in demand item people will still pay a high buyout if they really want it.

You would still have the option of selling items outside of the AH function of course....

[fuzzy1guy]

Starting price is already 1x the base price.

You're arguing they should increase that? To save us money?


Hardly anybody uses base price/bid price anyway... Buyout or nothin. Cuz we want it NOW.