World Of Warcraft, WoW Hand Armor

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Neutral AH? Cross Faction Trading? What Alto Does When The AH Doesn't Want to Play

Today there was a post by Kreaton over at The Not So Secret Society that got me to realizing another thing that I have not covered on my blog posts. Cross Faction. With all the herb and ore farming going on, alot of people have played this market. On some servers, this ride is almost over. Now to grab a few tickets, and get in line for the next ride:



Ok, ok. It isn't this scary, but it might be....Can you handle it? Can you?

 Purchasing/Selling from both Alliance and Horde. Now alot of people are familiar with this style of play, but since Cata there is alot of focus on playing your own AH, and little checking "the dark side" to see your competition over there (I know, because for the first week, I did nothing but Horde AH, and at the first sign of MAJOR competition, my instinct took over, and I logged into my Ally).

Before I go into this too much further, log into your account, and check your higher selling items on the cross faction (no, not the neutral AH, the "other" side). Is there a significant difference? Like Jasper going for 35g and on "your" side it's only 9g? Is the Cinderbloom reaching 40g per stack when you just bought 50 stacks today for 95g? You see what I mean here? If they are all the same (or near it) just bypass the rest of this post. Although it's very unlikely that there isn't some niche you can get into.

"But Alto, I don't even have a toon on the other side"

Start a new toon. Get your new level one to a "main" town. Thinking back, I believe Alliance closest is Gnome, and Horde's is an Orc. Get to the AH and check the prices (if you use Auctionator, just click on your buy tab and it will remember what you have searched for on your "main"). See what you can get yourself into....*time lapses*.....

"Ok, I found Cinderbloom is waaay cheaper there. Next"

Talk to a friend:  Your best bet is to have another account of your own to do this. However not alot of people do, so here is what to do: Do you have a guild buddy that you trust? A "real life" friend that you know has a wow account (maybe doesn't play on same server)? Give them a holler and ask about assisting you moving gold over to a toon for you (unless you can "trade" money with them if they have one over there already). Just make sure that you cut them in on the first round of gold you will be making (you should already have an idea of your first profits, so base your "tip" on that. 100g? Sounds good to me).

*Now if these options are not available, you can always take your toon and send a tell to the seller of the goods you are looking at. If they are not online, send them a mail. What I have done in the past if I need a quick move is /2. When someone is "barking" their wears, send a tell to them (with the 100g tip I mentioned above) to send it through the neutral AH. I can normally convince someone quite quick to assist me. Money talks. And you might get lucky enough to have a cross faction farmer out of it as well!

Now is where you might run into a few issues. If you end up using the Neutral AH for moving gold (which use at your own risk, I would only move no more than 10K, as that will be enough to get the ball rolling quite quickly). Have your pal toss up an item (junk) for 10K on the neutral, you buy it from your main, the goblin AH takes it's cut (still 10%? I think it's close to that- *Edit- Thanks to Tyrandir- it's 15%) and your buddy has your cash in their mailbox. Log to your toon on the dark side and start your cross faction.

Now make sure that your initial "tip" makes it worthwhile for your "friend" to help you move the gold/items over. It gets a little more complicated when you are getting ready to move your 100 stacks of cinderbloom.....

"Ok, Got my 8400g on my new toon, tipped 100g for my helper, I hit the AH and bought some netherweave bags for holding, bought bank tabs, and now I go to the AH and there are only 50 stacks left. DAMMIT!"

Yeah, that does happen. Figured I would add this in....

"Bought my stacks, now I gotta get them back over"

EZ money. Holler at your buddy (i use vent for this, or over the phone) get in sync (not the band...) and list 5 at a time, buyout. 5 at a time, buyout. If there is a "scalper", they won't get away with much.

"Thanks Alto, but I have another issue. I did this a few times, and am outta money over there."

I hope you would have already figured this one out. Either shuffle more money over there like you did before, but that is where the "cross faction" comes in. You buy/sell both sides, Horde wants Cinderbloom, Alliance wants Pyrite Ore. You get the picture.....

Now there is alot more that I can cover on this post, but I hope you feel where I am going with this. Feel free to leave a comment on something that worked for you, or if you have other questions about this style of play. Till next time.....

8 comments:

Tyrandir said... Reply To This Comment

Nice post, I've been doing the same thing on my server for a little while now, mostly moving herbs from ally to Horde and sending glyphs to ally to fund my cheap herbs and expand my buyer base. =D

I believe the Neutral AH takes a 15% cut btw.

Kammler said... Reply To This Comment

Thanks for the post. Two things:

First, I think using /2 or an in-game mail is really, really risky. I'm glad you have had luck with it but I would never try it. Why? You have no recourse if you get ripped off. My suggestion is to either find a guild mate you can trust or better yet, a friend IRL.

Second, your tip to move a little product slowly is a good suggestion. The problem comes if you have a rare item to move instead of a stack. For example, the Black Tabby cats I stockpiled have to be moved one at a time. Charging 20k on the Neutral AH is an option but losing 15% is costly. Have to time it very well to reduce risk of getting sniped. I think Auctioneer has a "real time search" feature that helps with this.

Otherwise, very nice.

Oh, and I prefer Humans for Alliance starting zones--close to SW and usually can run there without dieing (staying on the road).

Azuriel said... Reply To This Comment

The one problem I've always had for making a 2nd account to ply the cross-faction trading waters is, well... at some level aren't you buying gold? Yeah, it's your gold. But how much are you making a month from this? 100k? $0.15 per 1k is a lot better than the spammers/hackers' $1.9 or whatever, but I simply can't justify it to myself to make a 2nd account just for that.

One of my guildmates is married, so he dabbles a bit in arbitrage since he can log onto both accounts at the same time. I had a 2nd account for RAF purposes, so that may count as a "leveling service," although technically since I canceled within the first month that money went towards a "free" month of play + rocket mount. Aside from that though... blegh.

I will say it gets tempting sneaking a peek and seeing how the 8 of Waves - or whatever last card you need to complete a deck - is up for 500g whereas your AH lists it at 6000g or not at all.

Admin said... Reply To This Comment

@ Kammler,
Correct. Extremely risky. I will not risk my gold on that. Maybe I didn't explain that part clearly. I meant that when you see someone selling something in trade (that you want to buy) tell them to put "x" item on the Neutral AH and you will buy it. That way there is no risk for loss.

And thanks! Yeah, I have a gnome that I use, but that was from around 2 years ago, never playing ally before. So thanks for that update!

@ Azuriel,
I stopped running with two accounts as well (the RAF), but you are right in what you are saying. Like I mentioned, you have other options beyond the second account thing, and it seems that your guildie is the perfect match for this. Good luck to you!

@ Both Ya'll-
Thanks for your comments, I appreciate hearing other folks info!

Kammler said... Reply To This Comment

@Altolycus,
KK, that makes a big difference, thanks for the clarification. I had not been able to find anyone I really trusted, but my daughter began playing WoW at Xmas, so guess who is getting a lesson in the Neutral AH this weekend?

Added benefit: she plays on her laptop so she can literally refresh as I post--while I oversee it. Should work well. I'll let you know.

Admin said... Reply To This Comment

Nice.....but you know this is coming....

"And for my allowance this week, I want a raise. I feel that my 5K isn't lasting with the new economy and all. I need 10K or you need to find someone else"

Kammler said... Reply To This Comment

Lol, I'll have to be careful. At least it isn't "buy me an epic mount".

Admin said... Reply To This Comment

Hopefully she doesn't read this.....hahaha.

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