The Auction House is perhaps my favorite non-combat related feature in the game. The convenience of throwing an item you want to sell into the AH and then walking away to let an automated system sell your items is a huge time saver. However, if you want to buy a specific item it can be a lot more challenging.
If you’re looking for a particular item, you may be able to find it at the AH, you might not. For example, I searched every single day for two weeks looking to buy a Knothide Quiver and eventually gave up out of frustration. I visited the auction house multiple times a day and advertised in trade chat every time I entered a city, and never saw the faintest sight of it. It was this dilema that made me first realize the difference between buyers and sellers in the WoW economy.
If you are a seller, the Auction House makes it incredibly easy to go about your business. Drag, drop, click- the sale of your item is now automated for the next 48 hours. If you are a buyer who is looking for something unique, you can easily get caught in an endless loop of checking the auction house, advertising in trade chat, whispering other players, etc. Why is it that selling is so effortless and buying can be nearly impossible in certain cases? Shouldn’t buying be just as easy as selling?
It appears to me that the Auction House is only half complete. There needs to be a “Wanted Ads” system, which could either be handled by the very same auctioneer NPC or perhaps a billboard mounted on the wall of the AH. This would allow buyers to browse through a catalog of items, choose one they wish to purchase, and place a deposit. Sellers would then be able to look through a listing of ads, and supply any item that they find that offers enough gold for their services.
I suggested this idea some time ago on Blizzard’s suggestion forums, and immediately received 2 pages worth of positive responses. There were only 3 complaints, and I feel they weren’t actual problems with the system so much as a misunderstanding of how it would work.
If this system was implemented, it would be abused the same way the trade chat is and no one would be able to use it for its intended purpose.
To answer this complaint is simple: there will be no text field for a player to insert personal comments. Instead, the listings will appear in the same fashion as the AH sales; Item, Quantity, Duration, Price.
It would be easy for a person to place an ad for an item, and then back out of the deal once the seller has gone through the trouble of finding/crafting the item.
This is another problem the system would prevent from happening. When a player says they want to buy an item for 10g and posts an ad, they physically deposit that 10g into the wanted ad system where it is held until your ad expires. If your ad is fulfilled the seller gets the money, if the ad expires it is mailed back to you minus your deposit. It really works exactly like the AH but with gold instead of items.
People could use this system to exploit even more by buying low and selling high and depriving most players of a fair market.
My answer to this is 2 fold, and also leads to another benifit of this system. For starters, buying low and selling high is not against the rules or wrong. As quoted directly from blizzard,
Some players do nothing but sit at the auction house and buy and sell items. It can be a lot of fun because buying and selling items is a fun alternative to fighting.
It is the responsibility of the player posting an auction to determine the price he/she will accept for the goods they sell. Moral issues aside, implementing a Wanted Ad system would actually reduce the amount of items being sold for low prices and immediately posted for higher prices. It also gives players who aren’t as familiar with the value of items an edge at getting a fair price for their goods. Here’s how.
Consider 2 players, The Buyer and The Seller. The seller has a Living Ruby he wants to sell, so he posts it in the AH for an asking price of 40g. Later that day the buyer, who is interested in acquiring a living ruby, decides to post a wanted ad and request that some one provide her with one in exchange for 50g. The wanted ad system will automatically detect that she is placing an ad that fulfills an ongoing auction and will then purchase it for her. She offered 10g more than the seller was asking for, but I’m of the opinion that the system should give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she could have easily checked the auction house and found this sale on her own, thus only charging her the 40g that was asked for and not the 50g she offered. However, if she had posted her ad first, and then the seller came along later and posted his auction the system would then favor the seller, assuming he also could have checked the wanted ads beforehand, thus giving him the 50g. It is the responsibility of the first person initiating the sale to determine a price that satisfies them him or herself.
This system would greatly improve both player’s abilities to acquire the items they need, and also to have an efficient and fun way to earn gold.
Part 2 of this topic will cover other features that could be implemented once a Wanted Ad system is in the game.
