Appreciating the Warcraft Auction House After Playing Diablo 3

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

I've been playing a lot of Diablo 3 and not much WoW. It's a pretty fun game and works well with my crazy busy schedule the last few weeks because I can hop in, play for 20 minutes and have some fun. As you would expect I've been dabbling in the Auction House on Diablo 3 and it's made me miss the Warcraft AH's conveniences and power.

Addons

By far, the biggest hole (and we're talking a gaping chasm here) in the Diablo 3 auction house is the lack of addon support. The base auction house without addons is much better than Warcraft's base AH, but addons in WoW push it over the top, especially ones that help with posting. It's hard to adjust to life without Trade Skill Master, Auctionator and other little conveniences. If you aren't using these addons in Warcraft, you're missing out on some huge time- and effort-savers. Do yourself a favor and check them out.

Number of Listings

It's not unusual for me to post hundreds of auctions at a time in Warcraft. Addons make it possible to do quickly, but the AH system allows me to do it. Diablo 3 limits your active auctions to 10 items. And once they're posted, you have 5 minutes to cancel them before you have to wait for them to expire manually. Because of the unlimited listings in Warcraft, you're able (and smart) to diversify your postings across lots of different categories. Diablo 3 has forced me to specialize a bit more or "price items to move" to avoid completely clogging my inventory. Are you taking advantage of the unlimited listings Warcraft provides? Are you diversifying your auction house business or still working in a single industry? What's keeping you from diversifying?

Auction Duration

In Warcraft, you've got options to post for 12, 24 or 48 hours. This gives you some flexibility in how long you'll keep an item available. Diablo 3 posts everything for 48 hours. Combined with the inability to cancel, if you make some bad choices on what to list or pricing, you're out of luck for 2 days. In Warcraft, you can post items with high-competition for 12-hour periods to cut down on your deposit fee losses. Items that don't have much competition or demand can be posted for a longer period of time so they're available when someone gets around to look for them. How do you use the different auction durations?

So have you been playing Diablo 3? What do you miss from the WoW Auction House in Diablo?