Dumb Mistakes in the AH that you can profit from.
Apart from rare or limited availability items, would you ever buy anything from an auction house at a higher price than you could buy at a vendor? Probably not, if you’re astute enough to be reading this blog. However, there are is a huge market out there for items that players will buy either from laziness, poor judgement or plain stupidity. (edit/update: I’m thinking specifically about local npcs vendoring unlimited items in capital cities right next to the auction houses)
Buying limited supply items, such as the white kitten from Lil’ Timmy in Stormwind, to use a well known example, is called flipping when these items are resold at a profit in the Auction House. Reselling common supply items for a profit in the Auction House doesn’t have a standard name. So I’m going to call it Christmas Comes Early, heh.
From the Blacksmith Vendor: Coal, Weak flux, Mining Pick, Blacksmith Hammer
From the Inscription Supplier: Vanishing Powder, Dust of Disappearance, Parchments
From the Enchanting Vendor: Enchanting Vellums, Copper Rod
From the Cooking Supplies: Mild Spices, Simple Flour
From Innkeepers: Milk, especially around seasonal events that require milk in the cooking achievements (children’s week, winter’s veil)
From Alchemist Vendors: Crystal Vial
From Leatherworking Suppliers: Skinning Knife
From Engineering Supply Vendors: Engineer’s Ink
From Vendors near Stormwind: Cats from the Crazy Cat Lazy in Elwynn.
From Vendors in Orgrimmar: Snakes from the patrolling Snake Vendor
I still regularly sell inscription dusts and jewelcrafter’s settings for considerable profit. Whilst the amount earned per sale is low, the percentage of profits is always enough to make me smile every time an auction sells, and over a week this free gold can really add up. So next time you are at a professions vendor, compare the prices of their wares with the selling prices on the AH.
About the Author
The Gold Queen is written by Alyzande. With many level 100s, 9 years expertise in making gold, 10 garrisons, 16k achievements, 1505 days played, and over 18m gold earned. The Gold Queen blog teaches you how to make gold playing World of Warcraft using ethical trading, auction house flipping, crafting, reselling snatch lists, and farming gold making.
After the changes to Dust of Disappearance (one BFI makes 3), flipping the vendor bought ones is no longer the way to go. With super cheap herbs, you can craft DoD for cheaper than you can buy them at the vendor.
Other than that, I agree completely. I’m fairly certain I made close to, if not over, 2k at Cata’s launch simply by selling Enchanting Vellum on the AH. It was amazing how much people were willing to pay for them!
I made a fortune on those Dust of Disappearance yelling on trade that I was selling them at below vendor price, until a few others caught on and drove the prices into the floor. bah 🙂
Ok, the title gave me a chuckle 😉 Winterspring Cubs really died down for me for a week or so and then just yesterday they shot right back up on my server to 200g a pop. (I had actually dispersed my remaining cubs to my alts as personal pets). Another thing to pick up when you are hitting up the profession training vendors is the herbs old world herbs are really worth quite a bit sometimes. Also the engineering trainers have bolts randomly which are quite a nice chunk of change.
If you decide on hitting up Area-52 in Netherstorm pick up the vendor pets as well. (I park an alt here just for this reason)
I was really refering to the local npc vendors, not the guys with limited supply or out-of-the-way places, but that said, winterspring cubs are nice sellers on my own AH too.
“Apart from rare or limited availability items, would you ever buy anything from an auction house at a higher price than you could buy at a vendor? Probably not, if you’re astute enough to be reading this blog.”
I beg to differ. There are any number of situations where it’s simply not worth the time to go somewhere else and buy an item, regardless of it being more expensive on the AH. Pets are a good example (some recipes used in leveling are another). If I’m looking to get some pets for an achievement, and don’t have the ones sold in Netherstorm, I could go out there, or I could buy them from the AH. Flying out is going to take quite a bit of time – 10 minutes? (it certainly feels that long). I consider that about 200g worth of my time, at the very least, and there’s not much chance the pets are 200g more expensive on the AH than on the vendor.
Cold’s example of the Winterspring cubs is another example of this – if you’re not planning on reselling them yourself, it doesn’t make sense to take a trip to Everlook. You could be doing something more profitable with that time.
With that in mind… I agree that people should look into the list, and I resell several of them. But I prefer not to assume my customers are ‘suckers’.
Hi Uriul, thanks for your comments. First thing I noticed was that I really need to edit the post to be even more clear about which vendors I meant. I was thinking about the nearby vendors in the capital cities, right next to the auction houses themselves. That’s the professions vendors or the nearby pets.
It leaves me scratching my head when I put my extra ‘glass of milk’ or “jewelcrafting settings” on the AH and sell for a profit, but if it sells, who am I to argue! I have to try and think are these guys too lazy to walk a few steps to the vendor, or do they just not know that you can buy these items there?
I have also had some luck with selling simple wood as well from the enchanting trainer
Shadowbolts
That’s just amazing. Simple wood? really?
Winterspring Cubs are another great one to add here, as are Khorium Power Cores and Adamantite Frames if you are lucky enough to find them on the Engineering Vendor in either Area-52 or Stormspire.