THE AUCTION HOUSE

How long to list

any auctioneer / any level / two hours or 24 / alone

A traveller I listen to posts everything for two hours because it's the cheapest. So I put my cloth up for two hours before I went to bed. In the morning all of it was back in the mailbox and I'd paid the deposit for nothing. The next evening I tried 24 hours, and the house asked me for the same silver.

Why it pays

The sell window on Forever offers three durations. The travellers name two hours as the shortest and 24 as the longest. Nobody has seen 48 hours here, and one who likes them on other servers doubts they'll come.

The deposit grows with the hours. One traveller says 24 hours costs twelve times what two hours costs, and he never posts for longer than two. Another put a cheap bow up for 24 hours, paid a silver, and saw about the same for two hours. Both can be right, because of the one silver floor from the page on the deposit. When twelve times the short deposit is still under a silver, both durations cost the floor, and the long listing gives you 22 more hours for nothing. So anything with a small vendor price goes up for 24 hours. Anything a vendor pays well for goes up for two, and again later.

Enchanting materials are the plainest case. Strange Dust and Soul Dust have no vendor price at all in the item data, so nothing lifts their deposit above the floor. One traveller posts his dust and essences for 24 hours every day at the price he wants and lets them sell when they sell.

The black market keeps the same clock, according to one traveller. Its rare items go up for 24 hours. He places it in Booty Bay and, a sentence later, in the goblin town of the Riverglades, which is Powderfuse Port.

How

1. Put the item in the sell window and switch between the durations. The deposit changes in front of you before you post.
2. If 24 hours still costs a silver, take 24 hours.
3. If it costs a lot more, take two hours and post again in the evening, when most buyers are about.
4. Post enchanting materials for 24 hours, every day.
5. When you can't be there on a busy evening, such as a raid night, post the evening before for 24 hours.

What can go wrong

A long listing ties the item up. If somebody posts below you an hour later, he sells first for the rest of the day. Every repost of an expensive item costs its full deposit again, and that is how a flip that looked good on paper loses money. None of the travellers names the middle duration, and I haven't had the cloth to try it.

BASTIAN'S VERDICT Cheap things for 24 hours, dear things for two. I post before bed now and sleep through most of the selling.