Sometimes, in my excitement to show you how to make gold and money on the auction house, I forget about the little (but important) things that players want to know. Things like... Where is the Diablo 3 Auction House? ...And How do I Use it? So this guide is not a gold guide or anything like this. If you are interested in strategies on how to make loads of gold, I recommend you check out some of our other guides, or even better... Check out Diablo 3 Hero. While the guide cost money, they have a 60 day refund!
Gold Auction House
Once you select a character, on the left side of the screen you will see the four buttons from the above screenshot. Resume Game, Change Quest, Public Games, and Auction House. That last button, "Auction House," takes you right to the Gold Auction House.
From the gold auction house, you can then select the Real Money Auction House by clicking the "Currency" button at the top right of the screen.
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Real Money Auction House
Ok, so you know how to find both auction houses, but what can you do with this information? First off, let's get you a shiny new weapon!
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Item Search Options
Using either the gold or real money auction house, click on the Equipment button under the Search tab. This tab should already be open. Select your character from the drop down, then choose the type of weapon you want. Put in the level and at least one prefered affix. Try something simple like one of these: +attack speed, +strength, +dexterity, or +intellect. You don't have to put any values in for the selected affix, but I want to use your selections thus far to narrow down your options.
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List Buyouts in Ascending Order
Now, click on search. Then, click on the word "Buyout" until you can sort in ascending order (it is the third column's heading). You should see a bunch of auctions with "N/A" for the buyout. To get rid of them, change your search criteria so that the maximum bid is 9999999999. This will remove all the "N/A"'s.
If you get all the way to page 46 and there are still auctions being listed, then you need to narrow your search. Add another affix or quantify the affix you already specified.
Once you do see some auctions appearing, you can grab a very cheap item that will hopefully be a lot better than whatever you're currently equipping.
Try this for other pieces of gear as well, remembering to add affixes and quantify those affixes to assure that you are looking at the narrowest, most beneficial list of items for your character.
What Gear Do YOU Want Leveling?
Here are some tips to get good enough gear without completely wasting your time:
By following this strategy, you should be able to save quite a bit of money as well as maximize the capability of each new weapon you find. It's easy enough to just worry about two stats for gear and dps for weapons, right? You'll often find these items pretty cheap, since they will come in magic (blue) form as they only have 2 stats each. I use this strategy to pick these upgrades up for REALLY cheap.
Why does this strategy work so well, even on Hell difficulty as you level? Well, you get more health so you can survive bigger hits and every single item you own contributes to your dps. The only thing you're missing is mitigation, which you really won't need until you're in Hell probably. Remember to get defensive abilities that make your class invulnerable, if you have the option. These are a great way to bipass any "gear check" attacks that bosses have which you cannot avoid.
Item Types and Value
While playing you may have noticed that some blue items appeared to be better than yellow or even orange types of the same level! There's a reason for that, so allow me to explain. In the end, you'll realize that when it comes to gearing your character, the quality of the item (blue, yellow, or orange) is the last thing you worry about.
Blue, yellow, and orange loot are those colors to signify the number of magic properties they will possess. Blue can have 1-3, yellow 4-6, and orange 6-7.
Now, let's pretend you were looking for a ring with +magic find and +strength. The level of the item determines its range of properties, not necessarily the color of the item. So you could find a blue magic ring with +20 magic find and +40 strength, then you could also find a yellow rare ring with +10 magic find, +3 strength, and +30 intellect. Which ring is better for you? The blue one of course!
See how the item's color really has no bearing on whether it's the right item for you? Keep this in mind when you search for items, and never filter out the blues!
Pricing Tricks
The Diablo 3 auction house is tricky and most players just want their items right now. Take advantage of this fact by getting into your buyers' heads for a moment.
First Page is King
A lot of buyers don't look past the first page of auctions. For this reason, you can sell things like vendor rings and amulets for just under the max price despite lots of undercutters. Try to put your item on the front page but at the very bottom (so greater than lowest one on the list for that page) when searching for your item (search by stats without a number value).
Posting Time Matters
Just because there are auctions up does not mean that they are priced correctly. Pay attention to how much time is left on the auction, as all auctions start at 48 hour duration. If an auction has 1 day left then it hasn't sold for a full 24 hours at the listed price. Consider this and pay closer attention to your real competition: the auctions with more than 1 day 22 hours of posting time left.
People Like Damage
An item without a main stat on it is a wasted item. Very few people will buy something that does not contain strength, intellect, or dexterity. The reason for this being that players want to increase their damage with every upgrade, and it's actually the first thing they check when equiping a new piece of gear. Main stats scale with the dps of a good weapon, as well as Attack speed. Anything with main stat + attack speed is a gold mine. You can take advantage of items with a main stat plus open gem slots to insert additional main stat points. This will also cause your item to rise to the top of hte list when they search for a primary stat since it will contain more than what the item can normally hold for that attribute.
Dubious Quality?
Some players search for rare (yellow) or legendary items (orange), which eliminates the magic (blue) quality ones. When you go to price a rare item and you see that lots of blues are better for specific stats (especially the three primary stats), try searching just for rares to see your competition. This way you may have a chance to sell because of players who are only looking at rares. You can then price against rares instead of all the magic items.
Price to Sell Fast
Don't try to make "the most" from an item. Instead, just try to make a decent profit. I consider decent doubling your money, but even 150% is still good after fees. Understand the fees of the auction house (15% for gold auction house) you're in and how much profit you will make. You're competing against millions of greedy auctioneers, so you're best defense is to not be greedy.
Real Competition
Remember to search for specific stats that your item has (at least the primary stat as a minimum) before posting! You only compete against similar items.
Use Gems!
You can use gems to boost an item with already high primary stat or vitality to even more. Example: I find a level 55 chest piece with 100 vitality, 65 dexterity, and 3 gem slots. I could take those three gem slots and put 3 +34 vitality OR dexterity gems into them and easily beat the majority of competing auctions.
Gold Auction House
Once you select a character, on the left side of the screen you will see the four buttons from the above screenshot. Resume Game, Change Quest, Public Games, and Auction House. That last button, "Auction House," takes you right to the Gold Auction House.
From the gold auction house, you can then select the Real Money Auction House by clicking the "Currency" button at the top right of the screen.
.png)
Real Money Auction House
Ok, so you know how to find both auction houses, but what can you do with this information? First off, let's get you a shiny new weapon!
.png)
Item Search Options
Using either the gold or real money auction house, click on the Equipment button under the Search tab. This tab should already be open. Select your character from the drop down, then choose the type of weapon you want. Put in the level and at least one prefered affix. Try something simple like one of these: +attack speed, +strength, +dexterity, or +intellect. You don't have to put any values in for the selected affix, but I want to use your selections thus far to narrow down your options.
.png){kind=small}
List Buyouts in Ascending Order
Now, click on search. Then, click on the word "Buyout" until you can sort in ascending order (it is the third column's heading). You should see a bunch of auctions with "N/A" for the buyout. To get rid of them, change your search criteria so that the maximum bid is 9999999999. This will remove all the "N/A"'s.
If you get all the way to page 46 and there are still auctions being listed, then you need to narrow your search. Add another affix or quantify the affix you already specified.
Once you do see some auctions appearing, you can grab a very cheap item that will hopefully be a lot better than whatever you're currently equipping.
Try this for other pieces of gear as well, remembering to add affixes and quantify those affixes to assure that you are looking at the narrowest, most beneficial list of items for your character.
What Gear Do YOU Want Leveling?
Here are some tips to get good enough gear without completely wasting your time:
- Only buy gear if your leveling is significantly slow or you can't handle any rare elite packs.
- Buy the second best gear that has your primary stat and vitality.
- Buy the second best weapons that have high dps.
By following this strategy, you should be able to save quite a bit of money as well as maximize the capability of each new weapon you find. It's easy enough to just worry about two stats for gear and dps for weapons, right? You'll often find these items pretty cheap, since they will come in magic (blue) form as they only have 2 stats each. I use this strategy to pick these upgrades up for REALLY cheap.
Why does this strategy work so well, even on Hell difficulty as you level? Well, you get more health so you can survive bigger hits and every single item you own contributes to your dps. The only thing you're missing is mitigation, which you really won't need until you're in Hell probably. Remember to get defensive abilities that make your class invulnerable, if you have the option. These are a great way to bipass any "gear check" attacks that bosses have which you cannot avoid.
Item Types and Value
While playing you may have noticed that some blue items appeared to be better than yellow or even orange types of the same level! There's a reason for that, so allow me to explain. In the end, you'll realize that when it comes to gearing your character, the quality of the item (blue, yellow, or orange) is the last thing you worry about.
Blue, yellow, and orange loot are those colors to signify the number of magic properties they will possess. Blue can have 1-3, yellow 4-6, and orange 6-7.
Now, let's pretend you were looking for a ring with +magic find and +strength. The level of the item determines its range of properties, not necessarily the color of the item. So you could find a blue magic ring with +20 magic find and +40 strength, then you could also find a yellow rare ring with +10 magic find, +3 strength, and +30 intellect. Which ring is better for you? The blue one of course!
See how the item's color really has no bearing on whether it's the right item for you? Keep this in mind when you search for items, and never filter out the blues!
Pricing Tricks
The Diablo 3 auction house is tricky and most players just want their items right now. Take advantage of this fact by getting into your buyers' heads for a moment.
First Page is King
A lot of buyers don't look past the first page of auctions. For this reason, you can sell things like vendor rings and amulets for just under the max price despite lots of undercutters. Try to put your item on the front page but at the very bottom (so greater than lowest one on the list for that page) when searching for your item (search by stats without a number value).
Posting Time Matters
Just because there are auctions up does not mean that they are priced correctly. Pay attention to how much time is left on the auction, as all auctions start at 48 hour duration. If an auction has 1 day left then it hasn't sold for a full 24 hours at the listed price. Consider this and pay closer attention to your real competition: the auctions with more than 1 day 22 hours of posting time left.
People Like Damage
An item without a main stat on it is a wasted item. Very few people will buy something that does not contain strength, intellect, or dexterity. The reason for this being that players want to increase their damage with every upgrade, and it's actually the first thing they check when equiping a new piece of gear. Main stats scale with the dps of a good weapon, as well as Attack speed. Anything with main stat + attack speed is a gold mine. You can take advantage of items with a main stat plus open gem slots to insert additional main stat points. This will also cause your item to rise to the top of hte list when they search for a primary stat since it will contain more than what the item can normally hold for that attribute.
Dubious Quality?
Some players search for rare (yellow) or legendary items (orange), which eliminates the magic (blue) quality ones. When you go to price a rare item and you see that lots of blues are better for specific stats (especially the three primary stats), try searching just for rares to see your competition. This way you may have a chance to sell because of players who are only looking at rares. You can then price against rares instead of all the magic items.
Price to Sell Fast
Don't try to make "the most" from an item. Instead, just try to make a decent profit. I consider decent doubling your money, but even 150% is still good after fees. Understand the fees of the auction house (15% for gold auction house) you're in and how much profit you will make. You're competing against millions of greedy auctioneers, so you're best defense is to not be greedy.
Real Competition
Remember to search for specific stats that your item has (at least the primary stat as a minimum) before posting! You only compete against similar items.
Use Gems!
You can use gems to boost an item with already high primary stat or vitality to even more. Example: I find a level 55 chest piece with 100 vitality, 65 dexterity, and 3 gem slots. I could take those three gem slots and put 3 +34 vitality OR dexterity gems into them and easily beat the majority of competing auctions.
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