Be Careful With Your Bids

You probably read the above title and thought, "Who isn't careful with the auctions they bid on, is that what everyone's favorite gold guru is talking about?" Actually, my young apprentice, I was talking about when you create auctions, be careful and make sure that your bid price is higher than the amount of profit you'd like to make off the item. Auctioneer has a terrible habbit of placing items with extremely low bids and this can leave yourself open to serious financial losses (and for someone else huge financial gain). I've noticed this happens frequently the first time I post recipes, trade goods, and sometimes for weapons/armor. The reason I believe auctioneer does this is that it sees items which only have a bid value with no buy out and then factors them into the bid calculation for the item.

This has been a public service announcement from JMTC. Happy Auctioneering!

8 comments: on "Be Careful With Your Bids"

  1. I think there is a place you can adjust your bid price in the Auctioneer settings. You can set it to a percent of the buyout (ie 85%) and you can also set it so vendor price is the minimum. You can also tell it to undercut buy a specific amount (ie 1 gold) and even round the number off to the nearest .9998 if that your thing.

  2. This is so true. I've snatched up uncut cardinal rubies for around 80g, and some other random stuff.

    Thanks for ur awesome blog Marcko =)

  3. Markco, you sometimes just need to keep quiet, I've been making a boatload of gold this way, bid on low bids with skyhigh buyouts and watch cheap goods come to my mailbox, since hardly anyone bothers to use BID these days.
    Old world enchanting mats are brilliant moneymakers this way.

  4. There has to be a certain amount of paying attention to all of the auctions. Posting them even for what seems like a small profit but if you forget to add your posting costs (gems can get this way if you're buying already cut and reposting to keep undercutters away).

    I see a lot of people posting items that are obviously cheaper than what it cost to make them. Some of it is powerleveling (glyphs, your mid level greens from outland and northrend, herbs etc). To me this is where you grab them and either store them or resell them. But always paying attention to where my bids are at.

    Mentally unless there is a specific reason for a drastic change (frozen orbs is a good example of this), I don't see where there should be a huge change of anything more or less than 10-20%
    of what I've posted the item up before. So if that gem I Bold Cardinal I posted up for 225 and sold yesterday suddently posts up at 185, there probably is a good reason and someone didn't pay attention or I missed something in the latest patch notes. All that can be decided in a few seconds to rebuy, repost and enjoy the profits.

    I"ve also been the "nice guy" at times and if I saw it continually from someone that they were posting things well underneath I'd say something to them. picked up two farmers for me this way, and also one that just decide to be a dip and say "well I'm too lazy to really care". His loss as I buy his items and restock for profit.

  5. Markco,

    I'm listening to episode 6 of the Call to Acution podcast this moment. I'm loving your new microphone!

    Great podcast!
    Your chemistry is on par with The Instance.

    Cheers!
    CK

  6. Bids can also help determine whether your item gets sold. players may sort by bid price rather than buyout price, which can help.

    I typically put my bid 5-10% lower than my BO. I always felt an equal bid and BO can be off-putting to a buyer, as if the seller is saying to the buyer "no way you can get a deal from me, full price or bust."

    a bid can also help you outsell someone who has the same BO price but a higher bid.

  7. I love to hate you! I discover the blog a few weeks ago (via the Euripides actually -- hunter podcast). I am a very casual gamer. Usually just 3-4 hrs per week. Due to a job/family and far too many hobbies :). I was considering dropping wow for GW due to game economy. For a gamer like me, with 3 toons stuck at L60-70 game money is a hard issue. I can play (own choice I know) a max of 1.5 hrs on a row, usually is 1 hr. Farming is out of the question and gear is beginning to cost too much.

    And then came Marko and Euripides and the addon guy! Now I loggin for 15 min everyday on the bank alt. Only 15 min. To play the auction game. Run a scan (5 min), Focus on buying ore/material I can process and are lower than 50% price (send to crafters). Buy dust, Abyss crystals and Heart of fire when lower than 50% too, re-post for full price. Then do arbitrage and snatch all low bids I can find with less than 6 hrs left (I usually win all these and are my main source of income) and re-post for full price. Collect crafts from my alts, bids and post all for full price (auctioner).15 mins per day. 2 weeks, up on 2000 gold. More money I have ever had and only with bids and low level crafting (350-375 on all my crafters/gatheres).

    And then you go and try to cause my main source of income dissapear! Thanks you so much. For everything, the good and this. I'm certain my income won't be much affected, as readers here most likely never let a bid go too low. Keep up the excellent work! you saved my wow gaming exp and kept 1 casual player in the game.

    Richard.

  8. @Wiggin
    Anyone who has the money will probably buy the item out anyway. Most of the times I see bids being uses to get on top in the search results with an higher buyout.
    The only persons that care about bids are poor or goblins. The poor will lose their last money anyway, the goblins will make profit anyway.
    I think you're not changing anything.

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