As I promised in an earlier post from today, this post will focus on some facts and figures relating to the tranfer of goods between factions.
Wall of Text Alert!
Neutral AH 101
When Blizzard removed the restriction of only havingone faction or the other on a PvP server - the opportunities for working both sides of the fence were made available to all WoW players and I would encourage everyone to think about taking this opportunity to increase your gold.
The first place to start when thinking about having toons in both factions is the in-game restrictions placed by Blizzard. Simply put - there is no way to directly interact been a horde toon and an alliance toon - even if they are on the same account. There is only one medium to transfer items or gold between two toons and that's the neutral auction house.
Locations - There are only three Neutral AHs in the game at this time - in Gadgetzan, Booty Bay and Everlook. There is not one in Ratchet - so stop looking!
Anything listed on these AHs can be seen and purchased by ALL players from both factions on your server.
The neutral AH is different from the horde or alliance AH in two key areas - listing fees and success fees:
Now these are vitally important to remember.
Listing Fees - these can be painful if you are wishing to list items for 48 hours - especially items such as gems which have a huge vendor price. Listing items where the listing fee is higher than the ask price is madness if the item doesnt sell. However, remember that your listing fee is returned to you if your auction is successful - so if you are confident it will sell (because, for example, you will be buying the item yourself with your other faction toon) listing fees aren't too much of a concern.
Success Fees - now this is the biggest concern of using the Neutral AH. Losing 15% of all sales is never a good thing. This is one of the main reasons I don't use the neutral AH for selling (although I still occasionally pick up some pets that have been listed based on arbitrage values from auctioneer)
How to by-pass this excessive success fee 'tax' is to not sell anything on the Neutral AH - or when you do sell for very low prices - 15% of 1g is 15s, 15% for 1000g is 150g - you do the maths!
Neutral AH 101
When Blizzard removed the restriction of only havingone faction or the other on a PvP server - the opportunities for working both sides of the fence were made available to all WoW players and I would encourage everyone to think about taking this opportunity to increase your gold.
The first place to start when thinking about having toons in both factions is the in-game restrictions placed by Blizzard. Simply put - there is no way to directly interact been a horde toon and an alliance toon - even if they are on the same account. There is only one medium to transfer items or gold between two toons and that's the neutral auction house.
Locations - There are only three Neutral AHs in the game at this time - in Gadgetzan, Booty Bay and Everlook. There is not one in Ratchet - so stop looking!
Anything listed on these AHs can be seen and purchased by ALL players from both factions on your server.
The neutral AH is different from the horde or alliance AH in two key areas - listing fees and success fees:
Now these are vitally important to remember.
Listing Fees - these can be painful if you are wishing to list items for 48 hours - especially items such as gems which have a huge vendor price. Listing items where the listing fee is higher than the ask price is madness if the item doesnt sell. However, remember that your listing fee is returned to you if your auction is successful - so if you are confident it will sell (because, for example, you will be buying the item yourself with your other faction toon) listing fees aren't too much of a concern.
Success Fees - now this is the biggest concern of using the Neutral AH. Losing 15% of all sales is never a good thing. This is one of the main reasons I don't use the neutral AH for selling (although I still occasionally pick up some pets that have been listed based on arbitrage values from auctioneer)
How to by-pass this excessive success fee 'tax' is to not sell anything on the Neutral AH - or when you do sell for very low prices - 15% of 1g is 15s, 15% for 1000g is 150g - you do the maths!
_________________________________
OK so thats the basics out the way - lets focus on the important stuff:
Accessing the Neutral AH - Say you are an Alliance player - and you wish to have a Horde toon to ensure that you can make use of both AHs.
Your horde toon needs to be able to do two things - firstly get to a Horde city and access the AH. However they also need to be able to get to a neutral AH - otherwise there is no way to transfer goods/good between the factions.
Getting to a neutral AH is relatively easy for a horde toon - get to Orgrimmar, take the Zepplin to STV and swim to booty bay. Alliance aren't quite so lucky - but you can get someone to escort you. Some people like to just have toons who sit in the neutral AH - or who set their hearthstone there to make it quicker to get there.
Personally my Horde toon is a rogue and took the long trip to Gadgetzan, melding when require. I did this at level 5. His hearthstone is in Dalaran and I just fly from Orgrimmar to Gadgetzan when I need to visit the Neutral AH.
Setting up your toon on the opposing faction - personally I dont think any toon needs much to be making money. I originally sent my hordie gold by getting him to list a loaf of bread for 100g. My Alliance toon made the purchase and so Hordie recieved 85g (after success fees). Thats the only gold that toon has ever been sent.
(I have another stand-alone toon on another server who signed a guild charter for 5g on her first day. She now has over 10k.)
Money can be made just as easily on eitherside of the faction divide - just buy low and sell normal But the rules that exist on one side also exist on the other - so my horde toon is a level 225 enchanter (the only reason I pushed him to level 20) - therefore I also disenchant for profit.
New Opportunities - However the 'new' way to make money with cross faction toons is to find items that are cheap on one side and sell them on the other. The majority of Goblins will know when a market is crashing - so when you see that rather than panic selling to clear items before prices hit rock bottom - take a quick look on the other side and check what prices are doing. Rather than panic selling you might want to be buying up large (as I am currently with Greater Eternal Essences).
Also when you discover a shortage of key materials - its always worth a visit to the opposite factions AH. I was recently short of void crystals for my Mongoose enchant scrolls - prices had jumped to over 25g alliance side. A quick visit to the horde side and I had picked up 30 void crystals for under 200g. After transfering across the neutral AH, I made three scrolls and sold the rest of the crystals which mostly covered the cost of all 30 crystals.
Fundementals of the Neutral AH Transfer
OK this really is the most crucial part of playing this part of the WoW economy - the actually logistics of the transfer.
Two Accounts
I'm extremely lucky - I have two accounts. I can therefore have my horde toon logged on simultaneously with any of my alliance toons.
No matter which way you wish to transfer items - the sequence of events has to be:
Unless you are dual boxing - there will be a split second as you flip between one window to the other - quickly search and make the purchase - and because of this slight delay between the posting and the purchasing there is a risk that "random Player X" could purchase your listed items.
To minimise this risk there is one very simple method - post the items you wish to transfer for a huge amount of gold. No-one will buy a stack of 10 Greater Eternal Essences for 500g. However - to utilise this method will cost your 15% (75g) of the price in a success fee - so personally I never do this.
I have decided that I will live with the small risk that I might lose an item - but minimise the risks as much as I can.
Firstly - I will have an item ready to be searched for on the purchasing toon, before the seller has listed an item. For example, 'Greater Eternal Essence' will be typed in the search field of the AH window - and will just require me to click 'search'. I then flick to the seller, post the items (for 1g a stack or something equally low), flick to the purchaser, click search and purchase the stacks as quickly as I can.
Secondly - I use the 'Easy Buyout' function of Auctioneer. That means I just shift-click an item to buy it rather than needing to select then click purchase. It speeds up purchases a great deal.
I guess you could minimise the risk further by only posting one item at a time but I've never lost an item yet.
Single Accounts
If you arent so fortunate - and have your opposing faction toons on the same account - you will need a friend to list the items on the auction house.
The risks are higher this way - increased time delays are never good when making transfers. Try being coordinated by vent or some MSN type programme
EDIT - Thanks to anonymous for this correction
A few last thoughts - you'll notice in the above part, I only talk about transfering items across the neutral AH. I never trasnfer gold this way - I just hate that 15% fee.
When I do decide to transfer gold - I just make a purchase of something I know will sell on the other side (ideally for a profit) and make the neutral AH transfer as outlined above. I also purchase things like primordial saronite for personal use if the price is right etc.
I would always be cautious when making transfers - make sure your cat isnt about to jump on your keyboard etc. Also be aware of your environment. Take a quick look around - if there is a lvl 4 toon stood next to you - it's likely they are either doing something similar or checking for low priced transfers such as the one you are about to make.
Which brings me to my last point - if you have a bit of spare time - have Auctioneer sit and run its 'Real Time Scan' feature on the neutral AH - you'll be amazed by what might pop up.
Accessing the Neutral AH - Say you are an Alliance player - and you wish to have a Horde toon to ensure that you can make use of both AHs.
Your horde toon needs to be able to do two things - firstly get to a Horde city and access the AH. However they also need to be able to get to a neutral AH - otherwise there is no way to transfer goods/good between the factions.
Getting to a neutral AH is relatively easy for a horde toon - get to Orgrimmar, take the Zepplin to STV and swim to booty bay. Alliance aren't quite so lucky - but you can get someone to escort you. Some people like to just have toons who sit in the neutral AH - or who set their hearthstone there to make it quicker to get there.
Personally my Horde toon is a rogue and took the long trip to Gadgetzan, melding when require. I did this at level 5. His hearthstone is in Dalaran and I just fly from Orgrimmar to Gadgetzan when I need to visit the Neutral AH.
Setting up your toon on the opposing faction - personally I dont think any toon needs much to be making money. I originally sent my hordie gold by getting him to list a loaf of bread for 100g. My Alliance toon made the purchase and so Hordie recieved 85g (after success fees). Thats the only gold that toon has ever been sent.
(I have another stand-alone toon on another server who signed a guild charter for 5g on her first day. She now has over 10k.)
Money can be made just as easily on eitherside of the faction divide - just buy low and sell normal But the rules that exist on one side also exist on the other - so my horde toon is a level 225 enchanter (the only reason I pushed him to level 20) - therefore I also disenchant for profit.
New Opportunities - However the 'new' way to make money with cross faction toons is to find items that are cheap on one side and sell them on the other. The majority of Goblins will know when a market is crashing - so when you see that rather than panic selling to clear items before prices hit rock bottom - take a quick look on the other side and check what prices are doing. Rather than panic selling you might want to be buying up large (as I am currently with Greater Eternal Essences).
Also when you discover a shortage of key materials - its always worth a visit to the opposite factions AH. I was recently short of void crystals for my Mongoose enchant scrolls - prices had jumped to over 25g alliance side. A quick visit to the horde side and I had picked up 30 void crystals for under 200g. After transfering across the neutral AH, I made three scrolls and sold the rest of the crystals which mostly covered the cost of all 30 crystals.
Fundementals of the Neutral AH Transfer
OK this really is the most crucial part of playing this part of the WoW economy - the actually logistics of the transfer.
Two Accounts
I'm extremely lucky - I have two accounts. I can therefore have my horde toon logged on simultaneously with any of my alliance toons.
No matter which way you wish to transfer items - the sequence of events has to be:
Toon One - Lists item
Toon Two - Buys item
Unless you are dual boxing - there will be a split second as you flip between one window to the other - quickly search and make the purchase - and because of this slight delay between the posting and the purchasing there is a risk that "random Player X" could purchase your listed items.
To minimise this risk there is one very simple method - post the items you wish to transfer for a huge amount of gold. No-one will buy a stack of 10 Greater Eternal Essences for 500g. However - to utilise this method will cost your 15% (75g) of the price in a success fee - so personally I never do this.
I have decided that I will live with the small risk that I might lose an item - but minimise the risks as much as I can.
Firstly - I will have an item ready to be searched for on the purchasing toon, before the seller has listed an item. For example, 'Greater Eternal Essence' will be typed in the search field of the AH window - and will just require me to click 'search'. I then flick to the seller, post the items (for 1g a stack or something equally low), flick to the purchaser, click search and purchase the stacks as quickly as I can.
Secondly - I use the 'Easy Buyout' function of Auctioneer. That means I just shift-click an item to buy it rather than needing to select then click purchase. It speeds up purchases a great deal.
I guess you could minimise the risk further by only posting one item at a time but I've never lost an item yet.
Single Accounts
If you arent so fortunate - and have your opposing faction toons on the same account - you will need a friend to list the items on the auction house.
The risks are higher this way - increased time delays are never good when making transfers. Try being coordinated by vent or some MSN type programme
EDIT - Thanks to anonymous for this correction
A few last thoughts - you'll notice in the above part, I only talk about transfering items across the neutral AH. I never trasnfer gold this way - I just hate that 15% fee.
When I do decide to transfer gold - I just make a purchase of something I know will sell on the other side (ideally for a profit) and make the neutral AH transfer as outlined above. I also purchase things like primordial saronite for personal use if the price is right etc.
I would always be cautious when making transfers - make sure your cat isnt about to jump on your keyboard etc. Also be aware of your environment. Take a quick look around - if there is a lvl 4 toon stood next to you - it's likely they are either doing something similar or checking for low priced transfers such as the one you are about to make.
Which brings me to my last point - if you have a bit of spare time - have Auctioneer sit and run its 'Real Time Scan' feature on the neutral AH - you'll be amazed by what might pop up.
4 comments:
Don't think you can buy/sell stuff from yourself if you only have one account...
My thanks - post has been updated
Fantastic post - useful, informative and generally interesting :D Keep up the good work.
Vel.
Just a reminder, there is a function on auctioneer that will allow you to search by player rather than item. Might cut down on time going thru many pages to find the things you've posted that are mixed in whith everyone elses.
Insert your other toons name and hit search. Not at my comp. so im not sure which tab it is but im sure you can find it.
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