srs bsns

I will never claim to be "skilled" at playing the AH game, only observant and rational.

The AH is serious business! But just how serious? Just how "difficult" is it? To answer that you need to specify what you mean by difficult. What exactly makes a raid encounter hard? Move here, hit X-Y-Z, GTFO of fire, heal something. At the most basic level that's all that raiding is yet so many people are so terrible at it. The same can be said about the AH. The AH game boils down to nothing more than buy materials, craft stuff, sell it for more than you paid. And again, so many people can't seem to fathom this incredibly basic concept. If you've ever played the game Monopoly or any game like it... you'll get the idea here. You can even say the same thing about pvp, sheep the healer, kill a dps, profit.

I once again ask the question: why is this so difficult for some and easy mode for others? The answer can also be brought down to a very base level, it's just a personality type. Those who have a drive and desire to succeed generally will. Those with patience will be rewarded for it. The AH game takes no more skill than any other aspect of WoW, it's just not like your typical MMO experience or "go kill stuff."

The main things that it takes to do well on the AH is to mimic these traits. You MUST be patient, that's the most important one. If you're the kind of person that needs immediate gratification you're going to suck and fail at any kind of strategic AH playing. Remember, you can't auction off a titanium razor plate and wear it too.

The other thing you have to always have in mind is that you need to be motivated. Any reason will do as long as it's legit and you're not just pretending that's you're reason for reaching for the cap. Some want the challenge, others want to prove it to themselves that they are capable. Some, such as myself, have expensive wants like rare mounts expensive pets or some bad ass looking sun glasses. Regardless of the reason, it has to be meaningful or you'll quickly lose interest and you won't hit the cap.

Going back to the question of difficulty, just what about the AH game is hard? If you mean "takes a lot of time" instead of difficult then you're wrong. It takes 90 minutes a day and dedication to do that every day. Of course you can do more or less and every other day instead. But that only effects "how soon" and not "if ever." What it really takes is observation and the willingness to pay attention and -gasp- think! It may be a foreign concept to many, but being here and reading this blog is a step in the right direction: curiosity. The desire to know more is the best motivators to excel at the AH because it's almost like a puzzle where the pieces are constantly shuffled and changed.

Is an intimate understanding of market share, supply/demand, secondary and sub markets and general economic theory a must? Sure doesn't seem that way as I have none of those at all. What I do have though is basic logic and reasoning. If belt buckles need sarontie to be made and the price of saronite goes up, so shall the price of buckles. I know that eventually for some reason the price of saronite will go up (and therefore buckles) if I buy the saronite cheaply I can sell for a greater profit later on. Problem is, most people only buy what they need when they need it and don't plan ahead.

Planning ahead is part of another thing that takes"skill" for the AH game: organization. This I will agree is a skill. It's nto easy to keep track of 9001 different materials, 4 crafting characters 50 bankers, 90 trade skills and so forth. If you're a generally messy person or just a pack rat, the AH game might not be for you. But on the flip side it is a great way to learn to sort out your thoughts and become more organized and remove a ton of clutter hanging around IRL (bother literally and figuratively).

So being able to keep things sorted is a skill to some extent, but thinking ahead is not. Planning for the future is just sense. If you know that X will happen later and you could do Y to either make it better or not as bad you should probably get on that. Those who don't will lose a massive amounts of opportunities both in the AH game and in life, but that all goes back once again to immediate gratification. It's a bad habit to get into.


So in a nutshell, there is no real "skill" to the AH game at all. I myself have amassed an ass ton of gold but I'll never say that it was hard, only that it took a while. It's very common to mistake skill with abstract thinking. Some people are just able to naturally think outside of the box at all times and in all situations. Others just need those abstract concepts pointed out to them and they can just run with it and make it their own. And lastly others can simply be told to just go do something and they just go do it.


Thanks for stopping by!