Make LOTRO Gold with the Auction House

When trying to raise your in-game wealth, the Auction House can be your best friend or worst enemy. How can you save time when using the auction house? How should you price your auctions? Read on!

Free and Premium Tactics

Free and Premium players are hampering when selling on the AH due to a lack of AH posting slots. Premium players get 5 per character, Free players get none. If you think you'd like to persue AH gold making strategies, consider purchasing the 5 posting slot upgrade on the LOTRO Store.

Create an Auction House Mule

An auction house mule is an alternate character (alt) you dedicate to a staying near a mailbox, bank and auction house. For low level alts, the best places are Michel Delving in the Shire or Thorin's Hall. Therefore, if you are creating a new character for this purpose, starting with a dwarf or hobbit will save you time. Once your mule is in Michel Delving or Thorin's Hall, discard anything he doesn't need and bank the rest.

Your auction house mule serves several purposes:

Gives you a character at the AH you can log to for a quick price check, so you can decide whether to list or vendor an item.
Gives you a character to mail rare and non-stackable loot to. Mailing stacks of ore will cut into your profit margin significantly, but recipes and rare gear are taking up valuable bag space.
Store items in the mule's mailbox, bags and bank until it's the right time to sell or you have the right quantity to sell.

Be a Wary Buyer

Occasionally, you will see auctions that you know are underpriced. Perhaps you just sold the same item for a lot more. If you are confident, snap it up and relist it for more. However, be careful when speculating on the AH. The game changes constantly (read the patch notes carefully), and yesterday's hot market can become today's dog. Also be wary of trying to "corner" the market on any given item -- at the very least you'll encourage competition.

Be a Savvy Seller

When you sell has a big impact. Usually, you'll get a higher price for your goods on the weekend (especially Friday and Saturday evenings) when demand is highest. Specialize in a small group of items and track the price fluctuations throughout the week. You'll be better prepared to recognize the bargains and competition in your niche. You'll learn which items sell in smaller stacks and why.

Always set a buyout on your auctions. The person who wants your item wants it now and they have money spend.

Price your Auction Correctly

Pricing your auction correctly is critical. First, you need to determine the duration of your auction. It's a pain to relist auctions every few hours, but the posting fee on a stack of 100 ore is substantial. The general rule of thumb is if the posting fee is high, list it for shorter duration (pay attention to when you list!). When the posting fee is low, you can afford to let the auction run longer.

4 hours = 3% of what an NPC vendor would pay you (vendor price)
8 hours = 6% of vendor price
24 hours = 20% of vendor price
48 hours = 40% of vendor price

Second, establish your cost. This is what you must sell the item for to do as well as you would have by vendoring the item. When you first post an item on the AH, what an NPC vendor would pay you for the item (vendor price) is shown in the the Initial Price field. You'll have to pay a Posting Fee to post the item based on the duration of the auction. Add the posting fee to the vendor price to establish your cost, but don't post yet!

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