This is the general information every guide you purchase online will tell you about how to control and manipulate the auction house to your will. Obviously for certain games, certain things will be different, but the knowledge you need for controlling the Auction House will ALWAYS be the same. Now for the obvious part, what you will need to do in order to make money is buy low and sell high.
Certain items across all games will almost always be in demand, there items are..
- Twinking Weapons/Armor (Ones that are good for lower level characters to help them level faster or PvP)
- Items used in Crafting Professions (Mostly Materials that Raiders would want, that could create potions or armor enhancement effects.)
- Potions (Healing Potions and Mana Potions will almost always sell, Also any potions a raiding guild would want will also sell.)
- Fun Items (Like a fish that turns you into a Ninja or Pirate *Cough Cough*, Housing Decorations etc etc)
There are a few ways you can go about buying and reselling to make a profit and not all of those ways are always "Nice". You will be cutting throat and screwing over people to make the best money possible (Kinda like real life). You will need to manipulate people into buying your product over others and most importantly manipulate people into selling you the product for cheap.
I've separated the guide into sections to best teach you how to work your buying and seller to get started on the path to becoming rich.
Advertising
Don't just plop an item up on the auction house and expect it to sell, give it some good advertising push! Say you put up a stack of Healing Potions. Announce in trade "Healing Potions on the Auction House! Cheapest on there currently!".
One thing to keep in mind NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER say your price. Saying your price will make someone less curious and less prone to check the AH. Picture it this way;
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Sally walks in the room and says "Woah don't go in there!" Natural instinct is to be like why?!?! If Sally is like, fine go ahead and find out for yourself. You're going to get up and go check it out, why? You're curious! Now, lets look at it differently;
Sally walks in the room and says "Woah don't go in there!" Once again, you say why?!?! Now if Sally says "Todd just took this massive crap and it stinks!" You're going to be like woah I'm glad you told me now i don't need to get up...
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Leave the person curious, leaving them curious will give you a better chance on them checking the item. If they check the item, they're already half way to buying it! This works better the rarer the item is, say you're trying to sell a really rare, expensive item for 10k. Someone has one on the auction house for 18k. In your advertisement you should say "*Item Name here* on the auction house 8k cheaper then the other one on the auction house!"
This is a cheap way of freaking people like me out that want insane deals. What you didn't say is that the other item was over priced and yours is reasonable. If you're in a game where you can run a Trader, or post items up for sale yourself with your characters (like Asheron's Call, FFXI and Everquest) you can also occasionally say "Trader up, All prices for my items cut in HALF!". Obviously don't say this every time, because people will get used to it and not come check your items out. Keep these things in mind, and all the items you buy to resell, will sell much faster.
Additional Note: People that are just starting out with Buying and Reselling will also "Shit a Horse" so to speak when they see this. They will think it IS 8k cheaper and buy it, wanting to make a profit.
Buying and Reselling
This is the bread and butter to becoming rich. It's crucial that you learn how to buy and resell to become rich. The key to buying and reselling is learning the market value of certain items. I can't tell you exactly what to look out for, since the economy per server is different but I can tell you certain things to look out for.
Example 1: Say you know for a fact that you can sell A stack of Healing potions for 20g a stack and you see someone that says in Trade "Selling Healing Potions in bulk... cheap pst" Send him a tell and try to work out and offer for 15g per stack if you buy 20 or more.
Example 2: Someone in Trade says "WTS Super Omega Sword PST with offer" You know that this sword generally sells for 2500g. Send him a tell and try to negotiate 2000g. One thing to keep in mind usually when spending over 2000g I try make 250g or more profit from an item.
Example 3: Someone in Trade says "WTS Wooden Sword". Now, say this is a twinking item in your game, for a twinking item I always offer 5-10g hoping the person doesn't know what he has.
Example 4: Someone in Trade says "WTS Chocolate Cookies 1500g" You don't like the deal so you pass it up, and go watch a movie. You come back 3 hours later and see "WTS Chocolate Cookies 1500g". Typically I send the person a tell and say "How about 1000g?". At this point he'll be interested in negotiating, since he's been trying to sell the item for 3 hours.
Buying and Reselling isn't exactly a walk in the park, don't expect to step in the auction house doors, buy a few items and sell them 5 minutes later. Also don't expect to sell all of your items, you will make mistakes and sometimes have to sell the item for less then what you purchased it for. The good news is that you will learn quickly from these mistakes and be able to turn around and profit off of them.
Something to always keep in mind as well is, if you where dumb enough to buy an item for 100g that was only worth 50g, is someone else out there will be as dumb as you and buy it for 100g. You just have to find that person.
Buying & Selling Tips
Certain times of the day and certain times of the week are better to use the auction house then others. Use this to your advantage when trying to buy and sell items.
Weekend Mornings: Most people play on the Weekend. They usually log on that morning, play for a bit go out around noon and come back at night to raid, group or pvp. That night players generally visit the Auction House and put items up for sale. You will want to take advantage of this in the morning, buying all the cheap items and reselling them for more before someone else does.
Chat Channels: What the Chat Channels for items, people will generally try to sell the more expensive ones here first. This gives you the opportunity to bargain with people. If you're trying to sell an item that is worth 1000g, tell the person 1250g. There for he will lower the price still above the normal buying range. If you're trying to buy an item, always undercut the person. If he is smart and says no thanks, just leave it. No use in arguing.
The ".99c!" Method: Same rule applies in games as it does in real life. 199.99$ looks like a better deal then 200$. Furthermore 199.95$ looks like an even better deal. Exploit human psychology.
Preemptive Thinking Method: Something good to get in the habit of doing is reading patch notes. Patch notes will tell you of upcoming quests, items or raids coming into the game that may make a certain item more valuable then it previously was. Say they are adding a quest that uses a "Egg", which is common drop from certain mobs. Usually this "Egg" sells for 2g per stack of 20, when patch day comes around this "Egg" will go up in price almost guaranteed. Buy as many of them as you feel comfortable buying and wait for the patch.
Monopolization
This is the most risky, and best way to make money. This puts the term "You gotta have money, to make money" into play. First, the definition of Monopolization; "To obtain exclusive possession of; Keep entirely to oneself". Now for the lesson of how to do this. Take something in constant demand and buy all of it. The items will vary between games, so I'll give you a few examples
Example 1: Say a raiding guild needs 10 healing potions per member, per night. Buy ALL the healing potions on the Auction House and put them 90% of them back up for about 10% more then you bought the most expensive one for. Now anyone who puts any potions up for cheaper, buy them. The guild will eventually NEED to buy potions to raid, when they do you will make your money back plus profit.
Example 2: If you're in a game where people can Gem their armor, enchant it, put augs in it or anything like this then buy all of a certain type of armor enhancement. Do the same thing as I said to do with the potions. Eventually people will need to upgrade their armor and will be forced to buy yours for markup price.
Example 3: Do the same as the top two examples for crafting materials that are in high demand. Suggestions are materials required to make commonly used potions, armor upgrades, really anything that is highly in demand.
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PLEASE READ THIS
Once you start the process of Monopolizing an item, you can't stop. You will allow the economy time to recover. I'm going to use Healing Potions as an example, but this can be done with many different types of items across all games. Healing potions are just one item that is generally common across all games.
Also YOU are responsible for choosing the right item in your game, not me. Please don't get pissed off at me if you buy a whole bunch of healing potions and it doesn't work in your game. As such, I will give you examples of what I have used in different games.
WoW: Infinite Dust
WoW: Arcane Dust (Back when it was like what Infinite Dust is now)
WoW: Illusion Dust (Back when it was like what Infinite Dust is now)
WoW: Flasks
WoW: Dreamfoil (Pre BC)
WoW: Runecloth (Pre BC)
WAR: Healing Potions
WAR: Talisman's (Top of the line ones)
WAR: Herbs/Seeds/Curios/Fragments
EQ: Misty Thicket Picnic's, Qeynos Afternoon Teas (Long ago)
EQ: Sunshard Ore
EQ: Philter of Major Translocation
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Read more,go to
http://www.rmtmark.com/server_list.aspx?game_id=12
Subject: Aion - How To Manipulate The Economy On Your Game! 
Tue Nov 02, 2010 11:58 pm
