Auction House

What's good about using the Auction House?

• The Auction House is a great place to sell items you make or loot and to buy items you need. You can also make a decent income from auctions.

Who should use the Auction House?

• If you took a Gathering profession for items you cannot use (Skinning without Leatherworking, Mining without Blacksmithing) then you will probably want to sell your gathered items at the Auction House.
• If you took a crafting profession, you will probably want to sell your crafted items at the Auction House.
• If you are a crafter, you will encounter special reagents you need. Your first place to look for them should be the Auction House.

Where is the Auction House?

• Usually you can travel to the AH when you are between Levels 7-10.
• The Alliance AH are in the City of Ironforge, Stormwind, and Darnassus.
• The Horde AH are in Orgrimmar, Thunderbluff, and UnderCity.
• The neutral AH are in Gadgetzan, Booty Bay and Winterspring.
• Gadgetzan is the ONLY way to transfer items between the Alliance and the Horde. However, you cannot sell items to yourself to get an item from your Horde character to your Alliance one, because you cannot bid on items created by any character on your account. Gadgetzan is served by Wind Riders and there is a mailbox outside the Inn and a Bank.
• When you arrive in the AH city, ask any guard where to find the AH building. They will give you directions and put a yellow dot or flag on your mini-map. The guards in Gadgetzan are less helpful. Look for the only building that goes underground.

How do I travel to the AH?

To get to the Alliance Auction House in Ironforge:

• If you are Human you can take the tram or Gryphon from Stromwind.
• If you are a Dwarf/Gnome, you're probably already there.
• If you are a Night Elf, then your work is cut out for you at early levels. You need to get to Darkshore, take the ferry to Menethil Harbour (be sure to talk to the Gryphon Master), run as fast as your little legs can carry you along the road through the Wetlands to Loch Modan and then head to Ironforge. Once you are there, find the Gryphon Master to make your return trip safer.

To get to the Horde Auction House in Orgrimmar:

• If you are Orc or Troll, you are probably nearby.
• If you are Undead, travel to Undercity. Take the Zeppelin from the tower just outside the Gates of Lordaeron in Tirisfal Glades. You land just outside the gates to Orgrimmar.
• If you are Tauren, get a flight path from the Wind Rider in Thunderbluff, then hoof it to Crossroads, get a flight path from the Wind Rider there. Run east to Durotar and north to Orgrimmar. You can get a flight path there.

To get to the neutral Auction House in Gadgetzan, all we have is a map:

As Alliance:

North Path (longer but somewhat safer)

1. Start in Ironforge.
2. Outside to Dun Morogh.
3. East to Loch Modan.
4. North through the tunnel to Wetlands
5. West in the Wetlands to the Menethil Harbor Alliance town.
6. Take Boat to Auberdine in Darkshore, Kalimdor.
7. South from Darkshore to Ashenvale.
8. Go all the way east (LONG walk) in Ashenvale then head south along the main path.
9. This is where it gets tricky. The border with the Barrens is gated and patrolled by Horde guards. However there is a break in the wall to the east side. Sneak through it and avoid the guards. Now you're in the Barrens and join the Horde, who are all there already. Head south to the Crossroads.

The advantage to this route is that you get the flight paths necessary to more easily return to Gadgetzan from home.

South path (shorter but dangerous)

1. Start in Stormwind.
2. Outside to Ellwyn forest.
3. East to Redridge then south to Duskwood, follow the path.
4. West then South to Stranglethorne Vale.
5. All the way in the south of Stranglethorne is Booty Bay. Follow the path. Another LONG walk. You'll probably die if you're low level to lvl 40+ mobs on the way.
6. Take the boat from Booty Bay to the neutral goblin town of Ratchet in the Barrens. Head west to the Crossroads.

• A shorter way from Menthil Harbor is to take the boat to Theramore. Follow the road north, then west into the Barrens, continue south to the elevator. Dustwallow Marsh has some upper 30s level mobs, hard to run through, but no worse then the Ashenvale route and much shorter.
• The north boat from Menethil Harbor is to Auberdine, the south one goes to Theramore.

Once you're in the Barrens.

1. Take the path all the way south. A REALLY long walk. If you're Alliance, avoid the Crossroads, a Horde town. If you're on a PVP server, watch your butt, the Barrens is Horde home uncontested territory and you're in season.
2. At the border to Thousand Needles is a giant elevator with a level 30 Tauran (Horde) guard. You need safe fall, stealth, levitate, feather fall spell, root, or to kill the guard if you're Alliance. As a last resort, you can jump off the cliff and die at the bottom then use the Spirit Healer. If you're Horde, walk past him and take the elevator down.
3. Once in Thousand Needles, take the path generally south and east. If you're Alliance, avoid Freewind Post, a Horde town, by walking around it. If you're under level 20 or so you'll probably die doing this.
4. Walk all the way south through the Shimmering Flats. Stick to the path and you'll be OK.
5. South of Thousand Needles is Tanaris. Gadgetzan is just past the border. There are both Horde and Alliance Wind Riders there.

Travel sounds dangerous! Do I have another option?

• Yes, if you are an Night Elf or other race that starts some distance from an AH, you can create a second character that begins life near an AH city. You can mail items to that character for sale in the AH.
• Remember that text mail and mail with money attached arrive quickly, but mail with items attached takes 45 minutes or so to arrive.

How do I find something to buy?

• Walk up to an auctioneer and right-click them to open a dialog.
• If you know what you want, type the name in the Search box and click Search.
• If you want to buy a new weapon, click the Weapons category and then select the Useable checkmark. Click Search. All weapons you can use will display.
• You can limit your search using the level range fields. Next to the Search box are two boxes separated with a hyphen. Enter a lower range in the left box and an upper range in the right box and then click Search. For example, you are Level 20 and you want a new weapon. You do not want to see all the beginner weapons. In the level range fields, type 15-20, select Useable, and click Search. Weapons you can use within the 15-20 range will display.
• Caution: If you type something in the search fields and then forget to delete it, your next search will probably fail. For example, you search for Oily Blackmouth. Then you want a shield, so you open the Armor, Shields category and click Search. The AH will search for all shields with Oily Blackmouth in their name and find none.

How do I bid on something?

• Select the item you want to buy. You must click on the item name, not the icon. See that the item is now highlighted.
• For all items, you can bid and hope you win. The Bid price listed is the price you must pay to enter the auction. With the item selected, click Bid.
• The amount you bid is automatically deducted from your purse. You can go to the Bids tab and see the item listed there with you as High Bidder.
• If no one bids against you and the item owner does not withdraw the item from the auction, you will win the item. If you are online when the auction ends, you will get a yellow text system message saying you won an auction for a certain item. You will also see that you have received mail. The Mail icon displays in the upper right corner of the mini-map.
• Go to any mailbox to claim the item. There is a mailbox near the Bank, which is located near the AH. You will receive the item as an attachment to mail from the AH. Open the mail and click on the item to put it in your inventory. The mail then self-deletes.

What if someone else bids on the item I want?

• If you have bid on an item, someone else may bid on it, too. If so, you will see a system message that you have been outbid on a certain item. You will also see that you have new mail.
• If you want to continue bidding, you must return to the AH. Open the AH dialog and go to the Bids tab. You may see that someone else has bid against you. If so, select the item and enter another bid. You are now High Bidder and they have to return to the AH to bid against you. Fun, huh?
• The money you bid is returned to you by mail as soon as someone else bids against you.
• If the item had a Buyout amount set, the other bidder may have chosen Buy Out and now you have lost.
• If you lose the auction, you get your money back in the mail.

How do I buy something immediately?

• If the item has a Buy Out amount listed, you can have the item immediately for that amount.
• Select the item you want to buy. You must click on the item name, not the icon. See that the item is now highlighted. Click Buy Out.
• The amount you spent is automatically deducted from your purse.
• Go to any mailbox to claim the item. There is a mailbox near the Bank, which is located near the AH. You will receive the item as an attachment to mail from the AH. Open the mail and click on the item to put it in your inventory. The mail then self-deletes.

What sort of things can I sell?

• You can sell any item provided it is in your inventory and is not Soulbound, Conjured or decayed. If it is decayed, you must repair it before you can sell it. Take it to any armor or weapon vendor to get it repaired.
• Soulbound items can not be traded to friends or sold at auction. You can however sell them to a vendor.
• If you have a stack of items, you can remove one or more from the stack to sell. Shift+Left Click on the stack. Adjust the number slider to the number you want to remove from the stack and click OK. You must drop the one or more items in your pack before you can offer them to the AH. When you use the number slider, you can simply type in the number of items you want to remove instead of clicking the slider many times.

How do I sell something?

• In the AH dialog, go to the Auctions tab.
• In your pack, click and drag an item to the box in the upper left corner of the Auctions tab.
• The AH assigns a suggested selling price to the item. You can accept this price or change it. To change it, select the numbers in the gold, silver and copper fields and replace them with the price you want.
• Optionally, you can assign a Buy Out price for the auction. This is recommended but not required. To assign a Buy Out price, type the price in the Buy Out gold, silver and copper fields.
• Click Create Auction. Your auction displays on your Auctions tab and it appears in the AH for others to bid on.

Should I set a Buy Out?

• Items that are auctioned with a Buy Out sell much better than items with no Buy Out. Buyers generally don't want to bid, leave, come back and rebid, maybe win the auction tomorrow, maybe not. They want to walk out with an item for the Buy Out price. Think of the Bid price as the lowest you will accept and the Buy Out price as what you would like to get for your item.

What if my item does not sell?

• If the auction ends and no one bid on your item, you get your item back in the mail but you don't get your deposit fee.
• You can offer it for sale again or sell it to the vendor.

My auction sold! How do I get paid?

• When you sell an item, you get a yellow text system message saying which item sold. You also get mail.
• Go to any mailbox to get paid. There is a mailbox near the Bank, which is located near the AH. You will receive mail from the AH with your money attached. Open the mail and click on the money. It goes into your purse. The mail then self-deletes.
• All auctions are initially charged a deposit fee. The deposit fee is refunded upon the successful sale of the item. All successful sales are charged an auction consignment fee which is extracted directly from the final sale price. All fees are higher in Gadgetzan.
• The IF and Ogrimmar AHs take a 5% cut of your sale price, and the Gadgetzan AH takes a 15% cut. If it doesn't sell, you lose your listing fee. If it does sell, your listing fee is refunded to you.

Example: You put something up for sale for 8 hours at IF, buyout 100g, with a 1g listing fee. If it doesn't sell you get the item back, and lose the 1g. If it does sell, you get the 100g, minus 5% (95g), then you get your listing fee returned to you (+1g), making it 96g.

If you'd sold the same thing at Gadgetzan, you'd end up with 86g.

Can I cancel an auction before it ends?

• You can cancel an auction at any time, even after it has received a bid. On the Auctions tab, select the item and click Cancel. The player who has the bid will receive the message 'Auction canceled by item's owner' instead of the normal 'you have been outbid on xxx'.

What is the Trade Channel?

• In addition to the General channel, most big cities have a Trade channel. To talk on the Trade channel, type /2.
• In the Trade channel, you can show others items you want to sell or are about to auction. Open the Trade channel chat and then Shift+Left Click on the item you want to advertise. People will see the name of the item and if they click on the name, they can see all the item's properties.
• What you say on Trade in Iron Forge is heard in Stormwind and Darnassus, for the Alliance. Similarly for the Horde. While this makes it easier to sell goods and services, you still must connect with your customer if you are in different cities.

I am Horde but I want a cute pet that is Alliance only. How do I get one?

• Many personal pets (non-battle pets) are available in Azeroth. Many of them are only available from faction vendors.
• Gadgetzan AH is our only hope for selling cute widdle kitties and roaches across factional barriers.