How to spot price poisoning (and what to do about it)
RockSlice (Core Developer) for Auctioneer has some handy information on how to spot price poisoning (and what to do about it).
What is Price Poisoning?
Price Poisoning is probably the number 1 complaint I have heard about Auctioneer (OK, behind, the new version is so hard to use… which it isn’t I assure you, but anyway I digress).
The concept is that someone posts an (or a couple of hundred) Arcane Dust (or any other item) for 1,000g. Now when Auctioneer scans your Auction House and averages out the price on all the current auctions, the price it reports back is now wildly inflated. This can lead to a few things.
- You buy an item off the AH thinking that you have a good price.
- You try to resell the same item for the price Auctioneer tells you is the average
- You discover that instead of the average price of an Arcane Dust being 5g, it is only 70s.. and you just bought a pile at 2g thinking you would make a killing…
Here are a couple of reasons that prices get poisoned.
- Sneaky players are trying to raise the perceived value of an item so they can make 200% profit on their stock.
- Gold sellers
Gold sellers you ask?
Yep, you see to try and pass cash off as “clean gold”, the Gold sellers will ask you to place an otherwise worthless item (piece of mouldy bread) up on the AH at 1,000 gold.
The the Gold sellers buy the Piece of Mouldy Bread, and you get your money.
Theoretically this will escape notice because money hasn’t gone through the normal player-to-player mail or trade system (don’t bet your account on it!).
The unfortunately side-effect is that prices get poisoned.
Anyway, have a read of the forum post How to spot price poisoning (and what to do about it) and be careful!
Ohh on a next to final note, I grabbed a screenshot of a perfect real WoW-life example:
But on a final note, what sort of person would intentionally poison prices?
I draw your attention to:
On the topic of the Auction House… does anyone else ever get the urge to take a common item, and keep putting it up on the AH at like 1300g Buyout, or 1274g, or some other ridiculous amount, day after day, every day, just to drive those people with Auctioneer that do frequent scans INSANE?
Just pick an item, like Giant Eggs or Heart of Fire, something that is a white quality Trade Good that newer players might not know what they’re for, and just jack that price over a long time to skew the scans?
Or is that just me?
Anyway, sorry… moving on *whistles*
Enough fun for one day….
Gnomer and Out
Interesting idea – I don’t actually use Auctioneer (still don’t understand it) but interesting how the economy can be so easily skewed. I wonder if Blizzard has lots of scientists, analysing the virtual world and how it all works?
Thanks for posting this, though, you’re making me even more curious about Auctioneer!
Auctioneer just takes a bit of common sense to use. I used to run it all the time but havent done so in a long time. When I need money I just farm on my Pally (mining and herbs with an epic flier). I can make a few hundred gold in less than an hour that way.
Hehehe… I get that urge so often, but so far I have never acted on it.
I joke about it, because I am one of those twisted bastards that likes to play practical jokes… and as I said, I’d do it to something that 99% of the folks would KNOW was a joke.
Doing it to try and screw someone intentionally to make money? Totally not my style.
I use Auctioneer, but I never trust it’s results. I use it’s very powerful comparisons and selling tools, but the historical costs I for the most part take with a grain of sand.
I’ve found it more valuable to observe certain select commodities, such as Flasks of Relentless Assault, and watch auctions that get put up, and which ones sell and which ones linger on unsold, and on what days or what times the ones that get put up vanish at higer prices.
I’m sure no one needs me to tell them that in the past, Flasks of Relentless Assault or Flask of Fortification sell for the highest prices on Tuesday evenings between 5 and 7, and again on Tuesday evenings between 8 and 11.
Prices fluctuate with demand and competition. For greens and blues, I will be at a total loss to know for sure what something shoud go for, but for the Profession stuff I sell, I track the appropriate prices and only post at the correct times.
The worst tactic I have heard that unscrupulous bastards use, is to put up highly overpriced mats on the AH with a bank alt, when they are the only supplier of that mat… and then advertise in Trade that they are crafting some rare recipe for free, mats not included. Thereby driving potential customers excited at getting that Belt of Blasting or whatever to go to the AH and buy the overpriced mats right then.
Thanks for all the AA and AH post. I’ve ALWAYS used Auctioneer to some degree but your post keep inspiring me to actually USE Auctioneer.
The AH is a great meta game for when you want to play WoW but don’t feel like doing Dailies, PvP, PvE, Level, Raiding, or mailbox dancing. I look forward to more
My defense against price poisoning is specializing in one field of the market, for example enchanting stuff, or high-end herbs or such. I know them. I know their usual prices, how their price changes with the weekend/holydays, how will they change with a new patch. I set the buy/sell prices manually, considering these factors.
I use Auctioneer only on random items (stuff I gained and want to sell), seeking for re-vendored items and for items to resell for profit. But I use Auctioneer only to spot resell opportunities, I check the validity of every price manually.
Yeah sticking to what you know is a good way, but I tend to hit & run, so I am more reliant on AA than I would probably prefer to be.