WoW changes the auction house: what it means for gold collectors

In World of Warcraft, the auction house will be drastically revised. The consequences could be far-reaching and change how you make gold forever.

If you need some gold in World of Warcraft, you simply farm resources such as herbs or ores, make a few potions or sell fabrics in the auction house. But many players fear that this could soon bring virtually no profit. Because WoW brings together the auction houses of an entire region – i.e. all European realms. How do you still earn gold in the future?

What is happening to the auction house in WoW? Blizzard has announced that patch 9.2.7 will see a major change affecting the auction houses. In the future, these will be connected to each other across the entire region. This means that all realms in Europe can access a common market – at least for “everyday necessities”, in English “commodities”.

This affects crafting materials, but also consumables such as potions, flasks and buff food. Items of equipment, for example, are not affected. These are still only available on the respective realm.

What are the consequences of this change? The exact effects are not yet fully foreseeable, but many smart people are already thinking about it and there is agreement on at least some points. The most important changes will probably be (via wowhead):

• Farming materials on low-player realms becomes unattractive.
• The profit margin when crafting consumables becomes much smaller.
• Buying up resources and selling them at higher prices becomes difficult if not impossible.

The advantage, however, is that realms can no longer be “ruled” by a handful of players who completely monopolize the auction house. With a multiplied mass of players and thus resources, it is almost impossible to completely control a market.

However, this also has an impact on everyone who wants to sell their materials at reasonably fair prices.

Because on every realm you know these players who drastically undercut even reasonable prices – they just want to get rid of their goods, regardless of whether they even make a theoretical loss. With only a handful of players per realm, you can balance that out. However, if several hundred players flood the auction house with their materials at bargain prices and permanently undercut each other, this will depress the prices.

How is the mood in the community? I guess that depends on who you ask.

From a “pure consumer point of view”, i.e. from the point of view of a player who only buys in the auction house and never wants to sell anything there, the change is probably positive. Because the prices for consumables such as potions and buff food will most likely drop significantly on most realms.

From the point of view of players who have previously earned their gold from resource farming or “flipping”, the merger should be quite an issue. Because farmable materials will probably drop in price on pretty much all realms. The net profit that comes from buying and selling or farming will probably drop drastically and make these methods of gold farming unattractive.

The farmers’ great hope is that demand and supply will balance out again. Because if it turns out that you can no longer make a big profit from farming herbs and ores, there will be fewer collectors on the go, the amount of available material will decrease and prices will ultimately rise again. However, this hope is diminished by the increased number of “underbidders” who simply want to get rid of their material at any price.

However, there are also a number of naysayers who only fear the worst. Some believe that merging the auction house will make the rich players even richer. Because if you have several hundred million gold, you can possibly simply dominate the market of an entire region with individual items.

In the end there is only one thing left: wait. But how players best earn gold is likely to change drastically soon. At least that can be a positive change.

By the way: If you want to earn some gold now, you should use this addon – because that turns Anima into gold.