In World of Warcraft, the auction house is undergoing drastic changes. The consequences could be profound and forever alter how you earn gold.
Those in World of Warcraft who need gold simply farm resources like herbs or ores, craft a few potions, or sell cloths in the auction house. But many players fear this may soon bring virtually no profit. Because WoW merges the auction houses of an entire region – meaning all European realms. How will you earn gold in the future?
What is happening with the auction house in WoW? Blizzard has announced that with patch 9.2.7, a significant change will impact the auction houses. These will now be interconnected throughout the whole region. This means all realms in the European area will have access to a common market – at least for “daily commodities,” in English “Commodities.”
This affects crafting materials as well as consumables like potions, flasks, and buff foods. Equipment items are not affected by this. They will still only be available on their respective realms.
What are the consequences of this change? The exact effects are not yet fully foreseeable, but many wise individuals are already considering this, and at least in some points, there is consensus. The most significant changes will likely be (via wowhead):
- Farming materials on realms with low player counts will become unattractive.
- The profit margin for crafting consumables will be much smaller.
- Buying up resources and selling them for a higher price will be difficult, if not impossible.
However, the advantage is that realms will no longer be able to be “dominated” by a handful of players who completely monopolize the auction house. With a significantly increased mass of players and, consequently, resources, it is nearly impossible to fully control a market.
However, this also has repercussions for everyone who wants to sell their materials at reasonably fair prices.
Because on every realm, you know those players who drastically undercut even reasonable prices – they just want to get rid of their goods, no matter if it results in a theoretical loss. With only a handful of players per realm, this can be balanced out. But if several hundred players flood the auction house with their materials at throwaway prices and constantly undercut each other, it will drive prices down.
What is the mood in the community? That probably depends on whom you ask.
From a purely consumer standpoint, that is from the perspective of a player who only shops in the auction house and never wants to sell anything, the change is probably positive. Because the prices for consumables like potions and buff food will very likely decrease significantly on most realms.
From the perspective of players who have made their gold so far through farming resources or flipping, the merger is likely to be quite a problem. Because farmable materials will likely decrease in price on almost all realms. The net profit resulting from buying and selling or farming will likely decrease drastically, making these gold farming methods unattractive.
The great hope of farmers is that supply and demand will balance out again. Because if it turns out that you can no longer make a significant profit from farming herbs and ores, then fewer gatherers will be out, reducing the amount of available material and ultimately raising prices again. However, this hope is diminished by the increased number of “undercutters” who want to get rid of their material at any price.
However, there are also a number of pessimists who fear the worst. Some believe that the merging of the auction house will ensure that the rich players become even richer. Because those with several hundreds of millions of gold may easily dominate the market of an entire region for certain items.
In the end, there is only one thing left to do: wait and see. But how players will earn gold best is likely to change drastically soon. That could still be a positive change.
By the way: If you want to earn a bit of gold now, you should use this addon – because it converts Anima into gold.
