Having a System

One of the most important tips I can give any AH player is that it is so important to have a system. Just with an IRL business, you follow other successful business models because they're proven to work. Translating that into wow, you need to find the specific method that works for you and your server. The importance of having a system for your markets is that it keeps you organized and consistent. You always want to have the same amount of items for sale and in stock so you always know what's selling, if you should expand on a market, or if one isn't profitable enough for you. My system is based on mass afk crafting, stockpiling, twice a day listing, and stack sizes.

Of these small tips, you're probably already doing one or two of them right now. But until you're aware of it, you can't take full advantage of it and the information that is provided. Also you'll spend a lot less time trying to figure out what you have, how many you want to craft and such. Less time spent waiting is more time spent playing.

Twice a day listing.
I list my auctions once in the morning which will grab the early players, the afternoon heroic grinders, and some of the pre raid crowd. I then list again at night, usually around 11pm server time, to catch 80% of the post raid crowd. On my server most raids start around 6-7 and end around 10-11. And all those shiny purples need gems and enchants done. Listing my stuff at these times gets me the most time at low prices when the most people are likely to be buying them. This way there is no need to be camping the AH (since almost all of that time is wasted regardless) since I already know that a lot is going to sell anyway.

Stockpiling.
I always keep a very large inventory of things that I sell so that when there's a price spike or a shortage of materials, I still have plenty to go around. It also makes it so that I don't have to scan the AH for materials several times a day. There's only 4 things I scan the AH for every time I'm there and that's because you almost never see them for good prices. These are things like old world essences, arcane dust, righteous orbs, etc.


Mass afk crafting.
The biggest boon to the AH player is that you don't have to be there for it. With such a huge stockpile of raw materials, you can spend a large amount of time sitting there watching your crafting bar slowly fill up. Crafting a stack of belt buckles takes 500 seconds, or just over 8 minutes. I craft several stacks at a time so that takes me almost 30 minutes, but it makes every bit I need for the week usually. While the mass crafting goes on, you get to do some house cleaning, school work, read, professional work, look at lolcats, etc. I do mass crafting so that I'm free to do my normal stuff I do when I'm at home. All I need is a spare 15 seconds to select a different item and hit Create All. Remember, it's important to not be a no life, Chinese gold selling, AH camping, nobody like myself!

Stack sizes.
Stack sizes refers to the amount of a particular item you have in inventory for your banker to sell, even if it doesn't stack like cut gems. This lets you know how many of that thing sold yesterday, how many you need to craft, if you need to craft more than your normal amount, if you should stop crafting, and so on. If I set a stack size of 5 of [item] and every day I need to craft a full set of 5 [item]'s that will tell me that I should increase my normal stack size because I'm constantly selling out of them (which means losing the opportunity of selling even more). In short, this is the method that I use to keep my inventory organized.


With all that said, all you need to do personally is work it into your personal schedule which is the only hard part to it. I can't offer any help other than I do my mass posting while I do my "I just woke up and look like a zombie" routine of getting coffee, breakfast, showered, ready to leave. When I get home i do the same in reverse, I start my auction bit up and slowly become a zombie as I get closer to needing to sleep. Fit these basic things into your daily schedule as best you can, and I know you can work in a space of 2 spare minutes here and there, and you'll see results the following day.




Thanks for stopping by!