Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Remote AH + Neutral AH: A Potential Goldmine

A few weeks ago, I was under the impression that 4.0.6 was to be released on a day that I would be indisposed for most of the evening. Not wanting to miss out on Metamas, I bought the Remote AH service in a bit of a panic. My fears were for naught, as 4.0.6 still has not been released, but I'm going to hang on to the service until it does. So in the meantime, I've been trying to find the best use for it that I can.

With TUJ out of commission, the old "set a TUJ snatch list, receive email, buy out with RAH" trick is no longer viable. So I just amused myself with checking on ore prices between classes, occasionally reposting auctions that had expired, or restocking my gem auctions during the daily. Nice, but nothing really revolutionary, and certainly not worth the extra $3 a month.



But not too long ago, I found a neat little trick that has already earned me some extra gold I likely would not have had otherwise, and has potential to make me even more. I speak of the ability to flip between your faction's AH and the Neutral AH with the touch of a button. The Neutral AH has always been a bit of an untapped resource for me. I've heard that it can be a fantastic place to find deals, and a great way to move faction specific goods if you don't have another account, but it's such a pain to park an alt at a neutral AH. But no more! Now, all I have to do is load up whatever bank alt I want on the RAH, go to the Auction House function, switch it to the Neutral AH, and spend a few seconds checking what's been posted. I managed to find about 30 Cat Carriers of different varieties for under 5g each, and I've been slowly selling them off at 50g each. I've also used this opportunity to post an Enchanted Lantern; there's far too much competition in the Horde AH and prices are down to near mat cost (pre-Maelstorm Crystal nerf), but I've only one competitor on the Neutral AH, and unless she's reading this, the RAH gives me an edge! Likewise, I just listed some of the Argent Tournament pets that I had stockpiled from the end of Wrath. Though I have no competition on the Horde AH, I'm hoping I'll have better luck in the Neutral AH.

It's also much, much easier to find items to flip using the RAH. I have no idea how this would work in game, but with the RAH, I check the Neutral AH for something that looks like a deal, hit "back," switch to the Horde AH, check to see if it is a deal. If yes, then I switch back and buy it out to post later, if not, I move on to the next thing. That takes me maybe a minute per item. Unless there's some secret that I'm missing, to do that most efficiently in-game I'd need to have a toon posted at a Neutral AH, log on, check price, log out, log into a toon near a Horde AH, cross-check prices, log out, log back in to the first toon, buy out, mail the items, log back in to the second toon, get the mail, post. That sounds like way too much trouble.

To sum up, if you have the Remote Auction House service, and you're not utilizing the incredible ease with which you can access the Neutral AH, start doing so! If you don't have the RAH, is it worth getting it for this? In all honesty, once 4.0.6 is launched I'll probably end my subscription. As potentially lucrative as Neutral AH flipping is, I'm not sure I value it at $3 a month. Of course, if you're someone who regularly flips on the Neutral AH, this could be just the thing for you!

So what do you all think? Is the RAH worth it?

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