Manipulating the Neutral Auction Houses on PVE realms
It seems like most WoW players rarely use the faction-neutral Goblin auction houses, perhaps largely because the high fees associated with selling items and that most items are available in each faction%26#8217;s auction house. Why bother?
Many players on Regular and RP servers know what the purpose of the Goblin auction houses are, however - transferring gold and items to your cross-faction characters. Because you are allowed to have both Horde and Alliance characters on non-PVP realms, it%26#8217;s an easy way to deck out your new toon when if you decide to roll an alt that doesn%26#8217;t share your main%26#8217;s faction.
Chances are you already knew that and are wondering what the point of this post is. Simple - as a cut-throat master auctioneer it is your job to take advantage of that situation and make a financial killing.
In essence what you will do is stay at one of the Goblin auction houses and keep your eyes peeled for these deals. Sound boring? It is - but the thrill of finding, for instance, a Staff of Jordan for 10 copper is, uhh, thrilling.
I like to call this manoeuver %26#8220;Bad Will Hunting%26#8221; because it is very much like hunting - long periods of boredom followed by frenetic button pushing (and by engaging in this auction house warfare is certainly not going to earn you any friends).
The frenetic button pushing comes into play because once you zero in on a deal you must move with great haste. Often the person that posts the auction will only leave it up for a minute at most - just enough time to log into a different account to purchase the item. Often these deals are only up for the few seconds it takes a friend or guildmate to hit the Buyout button. You really need some quick fingers to snag most of these.
Obviously this strategy isn%26#8217;t for everyone, being a preferred side-game for some of the more hardened auction house warriors in Azeroth. This is more of a side game for those inclined to gamble, though you are not gambling money or gold - just your time and patience. And like gambling the score can be enormous, but more likely you will walk away with just a fair bit of extra cash and a lot of satisfaction.
Now while you can play this game with nothing more than the default WoW UI and your willpower, I would HIGHLY suggest using BottomScanner (part of Norganna%26#8217;s legendary Auctioneer addons suite). This addon scans the auction house from the end (bottom) of the list up, meaning you will see the newest auctions first. It is also highly configurable, so that you are immediately notified during the scan of any auctions that fall within your criteria. Keeping Bottom Scanner scanning is the key to streamlining your interception of cross-faction goods.
I mentioned earlier that engaging in this tactic will not earn you friends - far from it. It will likely earn you threats, possibly harrassment and certainly you will be reported to GMs. However, this is not considered scamming and Blizzard representatives will not punish you for it. Think about it - you are not deceiving anyone, nor are you stealing anything. You are merely taking advantage of a good situation - like that bear who knows to hang around the river when the salmon start swimming upstream. And I have been personally told by players who were on the unlucky end of this tactic that Blizzard refused to take action on the issue.
So whip out your Bottom Scanners, Auctioneers, it%26#8217;s time to separate the auction house guerilla warriors from the casual wimps - and separate a lot of gold from the pockets of cross-faction traders.
