Cornering The Wow Market

Just like in real life, if you have a lot of gold already in WoW, you can use it to make more gold. This means that if you use the auction house system Blizzard has placed in the game to facilitate easy item trading to your advantage, you can make more gold.

What is this mystical method of turning a lot of gold into a lot more gold? You corner an in-demand item on the auction house. See what I mean now by saying you already need a bunch of gold to do this? In real life, governments and agencies often set up rules and regulations that prevent people from creating a monopoly. Lucky for you, Blizzard has no such rule.

The Basics Behind Cornering a Market

The method behind this idea is relatively simple. You go to the auction house, then filter the results for some item you know is high in demand (like Netherweave Bags). All you have to do here is buy every single one of those items that is listed in the auction house. If the item is in demand, this will cost you quite a bit of gold.

Pretty simple so far, right? Well, here comes the part where you can potentially make back a lot more than you spent. Re-list the items in the auction house, this time for more than you bought them. It can be a lot more, if the item is in very high demand, or just a little more. If all goes well, people, desperate to get your stuff, buy the re-listed items. You go to your mailbox and cackle while calculating your profit.

Risk vs. Reward

This method is also quite risky. If you buy up all the items and then, for whatever, the demand goes away, you’re stuck without gold and with a bunch of things nobody wants. But with greater risk comes greater reward. If you do manage to properly corner some particular item in the WoW auction house, provided there is demand, you can make more gold.

For Those Who Aren’t Already Rich

This method stands to give you the most rewards, but is not the only way of playing the auction house. You can also look for items that have been placed up below their actual value and purchase them. You then re-list it and hopefully make a tidy profit. This is called “flipping.” It doesn’t require nearly as much gold as cornering an entire market. It also won’t reward you with as much gold, unless you get really lucky.  

Of course, this just gives you an idea of what you can do if you’re familiar with World of Warcraft’s economy. With some more guidance, you can turn a few lucky strikes into a regular stream of gold.