Method: Item flipping
Difficulty: Intermediate – Advanced
Approximate earnings: Dependent on player investment, knowledge, and time spent monitoring sales and competition. Has the potential to earn thousands of gold daily without the need for farming.
Time spent: Time consuming; the most successful players will participate in monitoring the auction house daily.
How to: Being able to buy low and sell high on the auction house boils down to a few things: availability/quantity of investment funds, knowledge of class stats/ best in slot BoEs/raw material demand/upcoming changes to the game, history of successful sale prices, and consistency in time spent monitoring the auction house for opportunities to snag a deal.
There is a staggering amount of information to learn if you really want to play the auction house well, so I suggest starting small and testing the waters with one or two sub-markets (such as consumables or enchants) if you are new to the game, or perhaps simply have no previous experience flipping items. When you have a better base of knowledge, it is most profitable to look into multiple markets daily.
Auction house tools and resources
- Resource for class information such as stat priority (this knowledge will help you to make smarter choices when purchasing or crafting items for sale): Icy-veins, and/or Noxxic.
- Resource for information on professions such as Wowhead (to figure out what materials are needed for desirable crafts).
- Information on upcoming changes to the game: mmo-champion, wowhead, and patch notes (this will help you anticipate changes in demand so that you can take advantage of periods of high earning potential).
- Some great addons to help you track auction house prices, post quickly, and scan for items that are listed as undervalue in game: Auctionator, TradeSkillMaster.
- Resources that can help you monitor what is going on in the auction house while you are not in game: Undermine Exchange
Flipping auction house items for profit is a simple concept, but to be successful, you really must put in the time to do the research that is needed to learn the game in detail.
Another layer to playing the auction house is learning how to spot deals in /Trade and negotiate with players for reduced pricing, which you can then take and post on the auction house for a higher selling price. You can also use multiple characters to create your own competition when posting for slower moving items. Posting an item for X value with one, and for less than X on another (but still within your margin of profit) will give the illusion of a better deal in the consumer’s mind.
Creating a network of suppliers is extremely helpful as well. If you notice certain players posting great deals on materials that will sell easily, reach out to them with a /whisper or in-game letter and try to strike a deal where they will send you their items at listing value for cash on delivery (C.O.D.) via in game mail instead of posting to the auction house. This is beneficial for them because they don’t have to pay the auction house fees to post, which increases their profit margin- and you get greater control over the market and additional materials to sell.
Being observant of the price per item information can help you bring in some extra gold as well; buy a large stack of an in demand material and break it down into smaller stacks with a higher per item price. When you learn what materials are being used for what crafts specifically, you can create material stacks of the exact number you know players will be looking for- this is a great way to bring in the highest price per item that your market will support.
And finally, remember that any size profit is gold made. Working with quantity of sales is what will bring in steady income day to day- so don’t hold out for big ticket items exclusively.
Tip: Don’t forget to loot everything. If you find yourself running low on inventory space make an additional character to help you hold on to things of value until they can be sold at auction. Keeping a portable mailbox, such as the engineer’s MOLL-E, will make it even easier to send valuables to your bank alt while you are between quest hubs.