I’ve been playing on my server for the better part of 4 years and I’ve had a few friends ask me what the deal with Infinite Dustin the Auction House. To be honest, I hadn’t looked at Infinite Dust in a while, I don’t trade it as I usually bank it for a rainy day where it gets used. Although I’ve got a few more stacks than I like, I don’t mind having extra on hand.
Many people seem to be aggravated in their trips to the Auction House when looking for Infinite Dust where people are posting hundreds if not thousands of infinite dust in stacks of 1 each. Ok, so I get the logic involved where you want your Auctions to show first and you want to make it so the buyers just go ahead and make it too difficult for someone to scroll back and grab the quantity they really need. Well I’m under the opinion that the Law of Unintended Consequences may be coming to get you, and get you back in a really bad way if you’re one of these people who do this.
Now before I got off on a rant here, yes my main is an enchanter. Yes, I’m fully aware of the fact that enchanter’s get that free ride in the Auction House in terms of listing fees. If you ask me the market is just saturated with Enchanters on high pop servers, all trying to one up each other in the Infinite Dust market. I don’t think this is going unnoticed, I think Blizzard is going to see this activity as an exploit to the User Interface and if resources are available, you might see action as QQ on this subject grows louder.
First Blizzard may change the default UI to allow to sort/show of stacks only. We’ve got mods that can do it, it may very well be a quick fix in the future to solve the problem. Second, Blizzard could very well turn around and start assigning values to enchanting mats and insert them into the next patch. If Blizzard does this the Enchanters will go freaky freaky QQ but it should solve the problem. Third, Blizzard could start limiting the amount of posts you make of a single item per day. This has the potential to create even more QQ. Last I would not put it past Blizzard to call it a form of player harassement and limit your ability to create more than 50posts in quantity 1 on the AH at a given time (and yes I mean across all toons on that server), alternatively I think what would be best would be to ban the players for causing a nusiance, yes I’m a Capatalist but I don’t believe that should be at the expense of other players experience.
I say any of the options are fine with me. Personally I don’t care for the AH tactic, you’re in game strategy should not involve pissing people off unless you’re working towards the Bernie Maddoff achievemnt. What do you think?
![[del.icio.us]](http://thewoweconomist.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://thewoweconomist.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://thewoweconomist.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[LinkedIn]](http://thewoweconomist.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[MySpace]](http://thewoweconomist.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myspace.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://thewoweconomist.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
by Marketeer, on November 16 2009 @ 8:37 am
Confessions of a single stack poster…
As someone who has been using auctioneer for as long as I can remember, it never occurred to me that you couldn’t simply sort by stack size or price.
I post single stacks of just about every commodity that I sell. But I also BUY single stacks for most things as a consumer. When I’m on my main, I simply don’t have the time to search for the best deal. I need two cardinal rubies, so I buy two cardinal rubies. I’ll pay extra to buy singles, rather than pay a few gold less each for a stack. The same is true for infinite dust. I need 8, I buy 8.
My auctioneer is completely different. He buys at the lowest price, regardless of the stack size.
So, my “business” agrees with you, and wishes everyone would post 20 stacks. My main, on the other hand, is greatful that some people post singles so that I can buy exactly what I need.
by Simes, on November 16 2009 @ 9:51 am
I agree with you on this one; nothing more painful than to have to go through all of the pages of single infinite dusts.
Personally I just turn my infinite dust into imbued frostweave & then into bags – they always seem to sell pretty well!
by cameron, on November 16 2009 @ 7:51 pm
Listing in 1 stacks sell better in my experience.
I sell around 2,000 – 3,000 units a week.
by Yashima, on November 17 2009 @ 12:50 am
I am using Auctionator to buy. It just scans for the item in question and then lists an easy quick overview of all types of auctions for an item grouped by pricing and stack size sorted by price.
So for one: you see the single stacks of the same price as
100 stacks of 1 for …
78 stacks of 1 for …
3 stacks of 20 for …
This is very helpful
You can also tell the mod that you want to buy several stacks at once so you can buy the cheapest and still only click once. Sure it takes more time to buy single stacks but the mod effectively circumvents the single stackers strategy.
I find the idea of a limit of single-stack auctions interesting. Might also be a solution to the funny things happening on the glyph market right now (at least on my server it’s a war)
by Cynedelina, on November 17 2009 @ 7:00 am
On items I buy frequently I use Market Watcher. To buy an item one only needs to shift click and it’s done. One thing I’ve learned to watch for is the number of pages of results. I’ve found it necessary to look at all pages to find the lowest prices.
Another useful addon for buying items for a particular price regardless of stack size is Yani’s AuctionHelper. Sometimes it will bid instead of buy out so I don’t use it often for that purpose.
I just don’t worry about it. If I’m buying something at the price it’s posted I don’t really care about stack size. I’m buying it because the price is right.
Frankly I get really miffed if I need 1 of something for a special use and the lowest stack I can find is ten times more than I need and the price is higher than I would like. That’s generally when I check out the opposite faction and see if it’s better to let my Booty Bay Trading Company work that day.
by Mike, on November 17 2009 @ 9:38 am
I once made the majority of my income through Infinite Dust, so the single stack complaint is nothing new to me.
While I can understand a number of players annoyed by pages of singles, I can’t blame (most of) the sellers who do it.
Enchanting requires such varied amounts of mats. Its difficult to say what quantity the average buyer will be looking to obtain. When Infinite Dust was still selling for 4-5 gold apiece, selling a stack of 6 as opposed to the 4 that Enchant X requires could cost you a sale.
Selling dusts individually only increases the seller’s potential customer base. Each time you double the stack size, you risk losing a customer.
I don’t think creating limits on player posting is the solution. No one would both selling individually if there wasn’t profit in it.
Sadly, the best solution might be to add a vendor value to dusts, which would in turn create AH fees. I don’t like the idea, but dusts are on the verge of worthlessness come patch 3.3. Anyone who runs dungeons will get their hands on enchanting mats and the current flood of singles you see now will pale in comparison.
by forex robot, on November 19 2009 @ 1:35 pm
great post as usual .. thanks .. you just gave me a few more ideas to play with
by mfwahwah, on November 20 2009 @ 3:52 pm
You can sort by stack size normally. No mods or anything. Just opt to sort by price, which will make the stacks at the top. Scroll through a **** ton less to get to the bottom cheap ones, and you’re golden. Although it IS annoying to see 1 Infinite Dust sold by the same person for 15 pages. It’s ridiculous.
by Blazmatan, on December 3 2009 @ 8:31 am
Alright I am an enchanter not so high yet but working on it but I notice this with the mat’s for tailoring as well and enchanting its the stupidest thing i have seen for along time. This is why i believe blizz should do what you said and make it a show a stacks option in ah. eh since when do they listen though