Poll: How often do you use the Auction House?

[Questars]

This is an informal poll to see how frequently forum members use the Auction House.

 

[HappyBudgy]

Unfortunately, Sting has relatively few listings in the AH.

 

[Old Badger-brock]

I've never had much use for the Auction House, and since the creation of the LOTRO Store I imagine the Auction House is even less useful.

 

[Weirdjedi]

I check the Auction House almost every day. I am heavily invested in decorating houses and like to go through the usual dozen or so pages in the decoration list for ones that might not be so common to obtain. I know my kinship appreciates if I find some non-bound things from an instance, festival, or barterer that might appeal to them. When Dragon and the Storm was constantly being ran, the dragon painting was being sold around 50g (which is actually a pretty good deal to me). Doormats, flower beds, and trees can brighten up newcomers when they aren't available all the time.

I'll also check the cosmetic pets to see if there are any that are being sold for a decent price. Especially in the past couple months when they introduced more pets onto the delving barterer without knowing when more gear would be available, those pets were being offered for some good prices for the amount of delving writs required. Sometimes, I buy a pet that requires between 100 to 250 tokens just to spend all the gold accumulated over the years. Extra stuff can be used as rewards for kinship parties and events.

Otherwise, I very rarely look for other things. Occasionally, I'll check for reputation tokens, peruse expiring items, or even check for any of the Monster Play portrait frames (if they can be listed). Since I'm a premium player, only 5 items can be placed on the Auction House for each of my characters. I sometimes throw spare crafting items but usually hold onto most items until someone specifically requests them in the Trade channel. I was able to help someone with an instance theme box one time and give someone some of the floor surface and wallpaper non-bound items from the recent expansions.

 

[Questars]

Unfortunately, Sting has relatively few listings in the AH.

I noticed Sting is less active than Gladden was, but I attribute that to the relatively low Sting population. The most trade occurs on weekends. The average market prices run higher on Sting than Gladden, probably due to fewer sellers and lower supply to meet demand.

I do daily buying and selling in the AH, primarily selling raw crafting materials that I harvest and buying higher tier materials to advance crafting. I also sometimes sell reputation barter items and stacks of 50 task items (which sell surprisingly well). To buy, I also look for recipes where there are gaps and specific things I'm interested in, but are rarely listed. Sometimes I'll go bargain hunting for things I'm interested in that get listed for pennies on the dollar and I'll either buy or bid for those.

 

[Lumendal]

As a player on Glamdring, I check the AH everyday. I find it a fun downtime activity of mine to go through all the pages of items I find interesting and to flip festival items I've earned through farming events.

I like to search for kites, cosmetic pets, cosmetic clothing , housing decor and rare items such as portrait frames that I've ran across.

I've found some really cool stuff in there so far and I always get excited over the prospect of finding stuff I've never seen before!

 

[Grokl]

Almost never, I might use it more if we could have items for sale for longer than 72 hours, I doubt that too many items for sale is a problem on any server?

 

[TomClark]

I will post "better than normal" items on the Auction House when I'm crafting with any of my characters, but I always do it using the suggested price and a buyout price just a few silver/gold more. I get more than enough coin just through normal play, so why gouge other players?

Because of the price gouging and the stupid prices set by a lot of players, I think I've only bought items on the Auction House -- and I've been playing since BETA and early start -- twice.

The Auction House is a great place to lose all faith in humanity. When I see a stack of level one or two ore, branches, or hides sold for 50-to-100 gold, I have to shake my head. Do those sellers actually think there are low level players out there with that much gold?

Dumb.

 

[Dragonkind]

Almost never.
When occasionally something is posted that is useful, it's always for silly money.
I always use to put items on very cheap to help others that might need them but someone would just buy it all up, quadruple the price and repost it. Everything gets vendored now.

 

[Bone]

I check about twice a week to look for and to sell pets.

 

[Grokl]

The Auction House is a great place to lose all faith in humanity. When I see a stack of level one or two ore, branches, or hides sold for 50-to-100 gold, I have to shake my head. Do those sellers actually think there are low level players out there with that much gold?

Dumb.

Probably hoping for players with alts, they want to do crafting with, will pay to avoid gathering the materials themself.

 

[HappyBudgy]

I noticed Sting is less active than Gladden was, but I attribute that to the relatively low Sting population.

Landroval had more activity as well.

When debating to transfer from Peregrin to Sting, it was a trade-off between premium housing availability and an active AH.
Premium housing won, but I still miss the AH.

The most trade occurs on weekends. The average market prices run higher on Sting than Gladden, probably due to fewer sellers and lower supply to meet demand.

Some prices on Sting are very good.

One poster on the Sting AH insists on selling housing items available from vendors in Umbar and Harrad at store values. This poster continuously undercuts those who ask more, and only does this when someone posts such an item for a higher price. When I see these items posted for 20 silver, I know by now that the same items were listed prior to that for more money, down the list. It's like clockwork. Selling items at store value actually loses this player money (the auction cut). It comes across as griefing.

I do daily buying and selling in the AH, primarily selling raw crafting materials that I harvest and buying higher tier materials to advance crafting. I also sometimes sell reputation barter items and stacks of 50 task items (which sell surprisingly well).

Since you wrote that about rep barter items in another thread, I've been thinking of selling some of my stacks (both crafting and rep).

To buy, I also look for recipes where there are gaps and specific things I'm interested in, but are rarely listed. Sometimes I'll go bargain hunting for things I'm interested in that get listed for pennies on the dollar and I'll either buy or bid for those.

I've a list of nerdy search terms that I will go through every time I visit the AH, indeed just for that rare chance.

Also wish we could block certain items that I will never buy but that require scrolling through every single time.

 

[Devolved]

On the days I log in, I check mail, hit my Hobbit gift, then browse the AH. Reasonably priced crafting mats are usually my target, but anything priced low enough I'll nab and mail to alts. After play, anything useful I don't need goes up on the AH.

Before food became something you had to raid for ingredients (hyperbole) I had Cooks that cycled thru their stacks of guild food to post for sale.

 

[Questars]

One poster on the Sting AH insists on selling housing items available from vendors in Umbar and Harrad at store values.

Yeah, there are a few bad apples trying to sell items (like Tin Ingots) that are readily available from suppliers and vendors. I think the Action House should block vendored items from being resold on the market, making suckers out of newbie buyers.

 

[Hyos]

The options are very limited, you are making assumptions that people play all day every day.

I use the AH every time I play. I sometimes go two weeks without playing. Your options are for the minor part of the community that logs in every day, multiple times a day, or is unemployed/retired/has life circumstances and plays the game all the time.

In short: the options are not representative of the actual community, but rather your bubble.

 

[Questars]

The options are very limited, you are making assumptions that people play all day every day.

I use the AH every time I play. I sometimes go two weeks without playing. Your options are for the minor part of the community that logs in every day, multiple times a day, or is unemployed/retired/has life circumstances and plays the game all the time.

In short: the options are not representative of the actual community, but rather your bubble.

Note that the poll question reads "on days that you play". Even if you only log in and play once a week, how often do you use the AH on those days?

 

[HappyBudgy]

Yeah, there are a few bad apples trying to sell items (like Tin Ingots) that are readily available from suppliers and vendors. I think the Action House should block vendored items from being resold on the market, making suckers out of newbie buyers.

Imo, there's a difference between selling an item such as a tin ingot far above the vendor price and a housing item that can only be obtained in a newly added/high level area.

 

[StrangeOddity]

It's the most frustrating garbage I've ever encountered. Queries fail. Can't browse categories. I gave up and just don't bother with it. It's easier to spend an hour grinding for mats than try to figure out that idiotic mess.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Once a day anytime I log in. I mostly look for decent looking weapons, two-handed swords, shields and staves now. Sometimes I browse armor for circlets and headbands but every time I find one it never sits low enough on my character's brow. Usually there's very little worth finding. Would love to get my hands on that old legendary staff skin that looks like a white tree, but I've only ever seen them sold for like 1400 gold, so Nope.avi.

 

[EreborKush]

I really think things like fishing, and crafting professions, need to be made more relevant. There should be heavy auction house engagement in an MMO. LOTRO could benefit from looking into powerful consumables from each crafting profession, powerful foods from fishing, and rare housing, wardrobe, and other collectible items that can be sold.