Auction house formulas:
| Auction Length | Faction Deposit | Faction Cut | Goblin Deposit | Goblin Cut |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12hr | 15% | 5% | 75% | 15% |
| 24hr | 30% | 5% | 150% | 15% |
| 48hr | 60% | 5% | 300% | 15% |
Auction House Fees
When one of your auctions is purchased from your faction's auction house, World of Warcraft will charge you a fee of 5% of the sale price. A goblin auction house will charge a 15% fee.
Deposits
When you post an auction, World of Warcraft requires you to put down a deposit based on the amount of gold you would get for selling the item to a vendor. The amount Blizzard requires for a deposit is also based on the amount of time you post the auction for and whether or not you post the auction with your home faction or at a goblin auction house. If your auction does not sell, you loose this deposit. If the auction does sell, you will see a credit for the deposit in the in game mail receipt you receive with the proceeds.
Canceling an auction
If you cancel an auction, you loose your deposit. If someone has bid on the item, you will loose the greater of either your deposit, or the auction house’s expected cut (based on the bid).
Who Cares?
You should.
Lets say you are selling an Abyss Crystal in the auction house. As this item cannot be sold to a vendor, it has no sale price and therefor no deposit is required. You can afford to post the auction for the full time amount and even at a price higher then other sellers. If you post it up for auction and it doesn't sell, you loose nothing.
On the other hand a Titansteel Guardian has a vendor sale price of 18.94 gold. For this item the deposits would be 2.84 gold for 12 hours, 5.68 gold for 24 hours and 11.36 gold for 48 hours. Chances are pretty good that if you post an auction for a long time, someone will undercut you by posting one cheaper. In this case you might as well post the auction for 12 hours, allowing you to pay a smaller fee in case the item doesnt sell.
Options
Duration:
You can select how long you want your auction to remain active for, either 12, 24 or 48 hours. Remember, a longer duration has a higher deposit and can end up costing you more gold.
Starting Price:
This is the lowest amount your auction could sell for. For items like epics that a high initial deposit, you may want to set a relatively low starting price that would allow you to break even on the sale. Think of selling these items like you would sell items on Ebay. For low cost items people people tend to want right now such as trade goods, flasks, potions, gems and glyphs; a starting price may be irrelevant as players don't want to wait for the auction to end to get the item. Think of selling these like items from a convenience store, folks are in a hurry and will be willing to pay a little more.
Buyout (Optional):
Setting the right buyout price is tricky. For items that many people need like potions, flasks, herbs and minerals, you may not want to be the lowest price. As the night goes on and less expensive auctions are purchased, players have to start buying the higher priced ones. For items where there are very few buyers, such as epics, you would want to be the lowest price assuming you can do so and still make a profit.
Stack Size:
For items that stack such as flasks, potions and trade goods, how many items do you want in a single auction. While the least expensive auctions may come in stacks of 20, not every player needs 20 of an item. For instance, when selling enchanting mats, I generally put up stacks of 4, 5, 6 and 8 as these tend to be the amounts people need for enchants.
