WoW Auctioneer

Well, the easiest way to introduce what is commonly being called the only true MUST-HAVE addon is to ask the WoW Auctioneer makers themselves:

"Auctioneer is an addon that allows you to view information about an item that may be useful in helping you determine what it's worth. Straight out of the box, Auctioneer knows much about many items in the game, and will tell you many things about the item when you move your mouse over the item in the game.

Auctioneer can help you alleviate this lack of market knowledge over time by watching the market evolve. When you go to the auction house for the first time after installing auctioneer, you will see a new button marked "Scan" at the bottom of the Auction window's browse pane. Clicking on this button will put the Auction window into an automatic scanning process which will look at the current market snapshot and record statistical data about the prices and quantities of items at the auction house." - Auctioneer Wiki*

Like you, I spent many of my days happily frolicking through the fields of Azeroth, slaying innocent rabbits and pigs and things, without a care in the world. Then, around level 14-16 I began to realize that mobs were proving much harder to slay! As it turns out, your equipment has quite a bit to do with how effective you are in combat in World of Warcraft both in PVE and PVP.

So, I scanned market for 3 days (once in the morning and once in the evening) with WoW Auctioneer and by the third day, I was ready to begin doing business. I had a measly 30 silver when I started and in just 2 days of fooling around on the market (literally less than 30 minutes a day) I had grown my small fortune up to 8 gold! To a level 14 (at the time) you better believe I felt filthy rich.

I then proceeded to buy some killer armour and one of the best swords for my level range, and went forth back out to the fields and breezed my way through many levels.

Sometimes, the hype surrounding the popular WoW Auctioneer addon for... well, WoW.... can lead you to think that it may be losing it's potency. So is it still worth using?

Well, let's find out.

WoW.Curse.com is probably one of the largest distributors of the mod and has served an amazing "3,722,938" downloads to the community for Auctioneer. That's more than a third of World of Warcraft entire populace! Oh No!

Cool it.

There have been at least 9 releases. Guess what? That means each user has downloaded it several times! Let's just say "6" conservatively:

3,722,938 / 6 = ~620,490

I'm guessing that this number is a fairly accurate representation of how many users are using Auctioneer in it's raw, vanilla, form. But, to be conservative again, let's boost it to 800k and compare it to the WoW current subscriber base (est 9m):

9,000,000 - 800,000 = 8,200,000 (non-auctioneer)

800,000 (auctioneer) / 222 (realms) = ~3,604

8,200,000 (non-auctioneer) / 222 (realms) = ~36,937

Well, would you look at that?

Auctioneer users are outnumbered by non-auctioneer users at a ratio greater than 10 to 1! And that is presuming that those Auctioneer users even know what they are doing (and sadly, most don't)!

The opportunity is STILL there and it's still HUGE! Take advantage of this situation while we still have it and start using Auctioneer immediately if you aren't already.

Don't forget though that WoW Auctioneer is not a magic pill. It takes hard work and diligence to make it in the Auction House. You need to be on every day to scan the market, you'll need to grind for some cash to get started, and you want to use as many techniques as possible to keep you advantage (refer to David Beachler's stuff if you need help, it's the "Warcraft Riches" link on this page).

Most of all though: HAVE FUN! This is a game and meant to be an outlet for you when you are not dealing with "normal" life. If you turn it into a job, you will begin to hate it (believe me, I know).

Do you have ideas for other guides I can write on this topic? If so, please consider leaving a comment on this page with your suggestion. I would greatly appreciate it!