Playing the Auction House – WOW Deposits and Cuts Fees
August 16th, 2010 | 
Author: Working the Auction House
Auction House - Auctioneer
The first thing you need to learn when you want to start playing the WOW Auction House is that every auction you create have Deposits and Fees on your side – going from your pockets to the Auction House.
This can make some items not worthy to deal with. That means that if you want to learn how to play the WOW Auction House you need to know the value and prices of the items you want to sell.
Many times I see other WOW players posting on the Auction House items with prices that are leas then the price you can get for them just by selling to the vendors.
Others make the mistake of putting high price Deposits fees items on the WOW Auction House in quantities that have no way of been sold, so at the bottom line, overall, they will lose gold in the long run.
Know the System - Playing the WOW Auction House
First thing first, you need to know the system to play the system!
When it comes to WOW Auction House you have two fees you need to know about:
- Deposits fee
- Cut fee
The WOW Auction House Deposits Fee
You pay Deposits fee for almost any item you put in the Auction House. The Deposits fee is based on the Merchant Sell Value (MSV) for the item, and the duration selected for the auction, as follows:
In factioned houses (Alliance and Horde owned houses):
Deposit (12hr auction) = 0.15 * MSV
In the neutral houses (Goblin owned houses):
Deposit (12hr auction) = 0.75 * MSV
For the longer auctions, the base deposit value is scaled by the new length in time. Note that the base deposit is rounded first, and then multiplied as follows:
Deposit (24hr auction) = 2 * Deposit (12hr auction)
Deposit (48hr auction) = 4 * Deposit (12hr auction)
Note that if an item has no sell value to a merchant (MSV=0), then there will be no deposit charged to list the item on the auction house. This is right for many low level items as well as for enchanting mats for all levels. This is why auction enchanting mats is one of the ways you can use to play the WOW Auction House.
The deposit is paid immediately when you list the item.
If you sell the item you will get your deposit fee back but you will pay the Cut fee. If you don’t sell the item at the time you pay for it, you will get your item back and will lose your Deposits fee.
The WOW Auction House Cut Fee
When you successfully sell an item on the auction house, the house will take a percentage of the winning bid as its cut. This percentage is:
In factioned houses:
Cut = 0.05 * Winning Bid
In the neutral house:
Cut = 0.15 * Winning Bid
Auction House in Stormwind
More Tips For Playing the Auction House
Bids and Suggested Bid
Don’t use the Suggested Bid, you want to sale for the highest price you can get. The Suggested Bid is:
Suggested Bid = 1.5 * MSV (minimum of 1 copper)
Where if the MSV=0 the Suggested Bid will be 1 silver.
This is at most cases a very low starting point – go higher!
Don’t give a low bid as someone will take it – and you will sell the item. The bid should be the minimum price you will want to sell the item for.
Using the Buyout Option
Many players do not use the Buyout option - This is a mistake for two reasons:
-
Many players want to get the item at the time they go to the Auction House, as they need it for something. They will only buy a Buyout, as with making a bid they will only get the item in hours if not days.
-
When you have only a bid and no buyout the price will go so far, but if the buyout is good the same player that will bud it may buy it out!
One more way to go is giving the item the same price bid as a buyout – this will make sure the item will only sell at the price you want it to be!
Canceling Auctions
When you cancel an auction that has no bids placed on it, you simply lose your deposit, and the item is returned to you by mail. When you cancel an auction that has a bid in place, you will lose your deposit. You will also be charged a fee equal to the house cut of the current bid.
Some time it may be advantageous to buy out your own auction rather than canceling the auction and paying the penalties. You can do it by using another account. Most WOW players don’t have two accounts but you can use a friend or someone from your guild.
Knowing the Auction House Prices
Every player needs to know the basics of buying and selling. Becoming familiar with your server’s prices for the things you need is the first step toward savvy deals.
For you to really play the WOW AH you will need to learn many item prices and the fluctuating of those prices!
The more you browse the AH, the more you’ll notice all sorts of factors affecting the market: weekly fluctuations in activity (high demand and availability on weekends), changing demands, time of day for most buyouts and adding new items…
Using Addons for Playing the Auction House
There are many addons you can use for playing the WOW Auction House. you can find some of them here – WOW Addons You Can Use.
Get Auction House gold making guide!
If you learn something new in this WOW articles on Playing the Auction House you need to get an AH gold guide, as there is a lot more to know if you want to play the Auction House and make a lot of gold. This was only the basic of making gold by playing the WOW AH.
The best AH gold guide is – Auction House Mastery.
You can get a free 5 part video guide at that site for using the WOW AH for making gold!
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The new way to power level your World of Warcraft characters is by instance leveling, which pretty much means all the old leveling guides are obsolete. Thankfully, there are now some good instance leveling guides available, like Dugi’s Dungeon Leveling Guide. Let’s take a closer look at the major differences between traditional WoW leveling guides and the new instance leveling guide.
Instance Leveling
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Posted in Gold Making, Newbie | 
Tags: Auction House, Enchanting Mats, make gold on wow, Playing the Auction House
