THE AUCTION HOUSE

Holds, access and bidding

every auction house / any level / keeping your access / alone

A gnome in Ironforge offered me three hundred gold for my old shovel. I've had that shovel since I was a boy and it isn't worth three silver. He said he liked the handle. I said no, partly because I'm fond of the shovel and partly because I'd heard about the holds that week. I thought he was probably moving gold for somebody.

Why it pays

Since the middle of October Blizzard can put an account on an economy hold while it looks into suspected gold buying or selling. The hold shuts the auction house, the mail, trade and the guild bank all at once. You can still log in and play. You can't sell, collect, buy, or send anything to your other characters. For anybody who makes his money at the auction house, that's the whole shop closed.

The travellers say Blizzard admits it will catch innocent people while it tunes the system. A false alarm lifts on its own and leaves no mark on the account. What starts a hold, how long one lasts and how to appeal it, Blizzard hasn't said. Two travellers describe the shape it looks for, a big pile of gold going one way between people who have no reason to trade. So I sell to strangers on the auction house at ordinary prices and take no gifts.

The black market in Powderfuse Port, in the Riverglades, works differently from the auction house. There you bid. Others bid over you, and whoever holds the highest bid when the auction closes gets the item. The Forever client has the window for it, with the current bid, your own bid and the time left.

How

1. Turn down large gifts of gold, from strangers above all. When a friend pays you for a craft, keep it near what the craft is worth.
2. Sell your goods on the auction house at the going price.
3. Keep the gold you need for the next few days on the character who spends it. Under a hold your bank character can't post you a copper.
4. If a hold hits you, play on. Level, farm and fill your bags, and sell when it lifts.
5. On the black market, decide what the item is worth to you before you bid, and come back shortly before the close. Only the bid standing at the close counts.

What can go wrong

A false alarm still closes your shop until somebody looks at it, and nobody has said how long that takes. I haven't bid on the black market myself, so I can't tell you what happens to the gold of a bid that loses. Ask somebody who has before you bid more than you can do without.

BASTIAN'S VERDICT I kept the shovel and I sell at the going rate. Nobody has held my account so far.