The Power of Profiles

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Written By: Aleithiawow.

How do you deal with competition that spends way more time than you online, camping the Auction House? With my limited play time, I'm not able to compete on playing time, so I have to be smarter.

Trade Skill Master Profiles

I discovered profiles in TSM when I started posting auctions from a second character. My Druid eats Severed Sagefish Head. But my banker likes selling it. When I started posting enchants on the Druid, it kept posting my Sagefish as well. Profiles were my solution. In the "Auctioning Groups/Options" section on the right, there's a tab titled "Profiles." I made a new profile for the Druid, eliminated everything except enchants, and away I went. My Sagefish were safe!

Surgical Posting

I got to thinking, why not use profiles to make more surgical strikes on the Auction House? My main profile has categories with individual groups in them based on material costs. For example, all my Demonseye cuts are in the category "Demonseye," with individual groups for each cut I sell. For the most part, all my settings are at the category level, with groups inheriting those settings. In this profile, I'll generally post 2-3 of each cut at a time for 12 hours.

But how do we adapt this to help fend off competition? More profiles! Here's what I did:

1. In that profiles tab, create a new profile and copy your base profile settings. This will give you two identical profiles.
2. Change up your settings, tailoring them for specific purposes.
3. Rinse and repeat for however many profiles you want.

Some Example Profiles

Here are some of the profiles I use:

• The Camper: 12 hour postings, single listings. If I have the ability to be online and want to compete with that AH camper, I do it in small increments to avoid deposit fees.
• The Deep Diver: Normally undercut by 1 copper/silver? Up your undercuts to 5, 10 or even 20g on items and see if your competition will follow you down.
• The Day Tripper: Sometimes I won't be able to post on my regular schedule (several times/day). Up the posting length to 24 or 48 hours and reduce your listings to only those items that will sell out on an extended listing.
• The Patcher: Get ready for patch days ahead of time by building your profile to hit the ground running. I did it for 4.2 with good success. Up your quantities, focus on high sellers and post away.

Which of the above profiles could you benefit from? What would you add to your profile arsenal? How are you using profiles to improve your effectiveness?

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