Back in cata the flasks were 40-300 depending on the day. Here they are 1000 plus. This , to me, has all to do with greed and the wow tokens. Everyting is so damn expensive on the AH its ridiculous.
Some items are in the millions. This represent the next two years of free game time for one item. And lets be honest here shall we? Some of these items are hardly rare.
Do you know what inflation means?
Did you by any chance support the garrison and order hall(s) gold making? If so youāre part of the problem why it happend. The answer is very simple, inflation.
The AH sub-game got unbalanced, by the gold mine that was Garrisons in WoDā¦ this means there are some players who have so much gold they can pretty much dictate AH prices, by cornering the marketā¦which in turn makes them even more gold.
The only way to fix this imho, is to make Alts easier to level again (helloooo flying)ā¦ it fixes the problem of supply and demand economics, by increasing supplyā¦ particularly for pots and flasks.
This in turn increases Raiding participationā¦ I supplied my own pots and flasks using either the AH or later an Alt, for āproperā Raidingā¦ so at the moment I restrict myself to LFRā¦ and I used to use flasks in LFR, but not at current prices.
Whatever prices you see on the AH they are raw material costs.
At this point, most of the time you craft something you lose money. You are better off selling the crafting materials.
We need even more supply and alts? Really?
There is no barrier to entry, so everyone crafts everything.
Everyone has a ton of alts, so most people ātradeā internally and not on the AH.
These 2 reasons killed the professionsā¦ and ofc Blizzard.
Incorrect Ajmageā¦ more Alts crafting, means lower pricesā¦ fewer Alts crafting means higher prices, plus rich AH players can corner the market for certain items, simply by buying all the key materials and products that those mats make, every time they are listed, pretty much 24/7ā¦ like for example, pots and flasks, then re-listing those items at a much higher priceā¦ this is why even mat prices are high.
Itās the economic law of supply and demandā¦ if you control most of the AH supply, you control the priceā¦ you can also form a cartel, if there are a couple of other players competing with you, to regulate prices (just ask OPEC).
I know someone who claims to have the gold level capā¦on all his charactersā¦ and this is how he plays the AH (it has the added benefit that he can play the game for free, even at the inflated token prices)ā¦ for some people the AH sub-game is a significant part of the WoW immersion.
You completely misunderstand me.
We fundamentally see the market differently, because you advocate for an increase in supply while I think the existing supply is already way too much.
Yes, more alts = more supply. I donāt want that.
This thread is mainly about flasks and other stuff that are in high demand. And they also come in high supply. Why? Because there is absolutely no barrier to entry. Every single alchemist can craft every flask at rank 3. The market is flooded with cheap stuff. I completely disagree not just with you but with OP as well.
This thing about ācontrollingā the market āOPECā and stuff, ye it can workā¦ in certain limited cases. The easiest way to do this is if what you are trying to control is rare, not everyone is able to compete with you. You know, just like oil.
You might gonna be able to dictate the price of a certain tmog piece that has only a couple on the AH but good luck trying to control the price of battle potions.
You are not making sense, Ajmage. Everyone and their brother selling flasks lowers the priceā¦ because, competitionā¦ punters buy identical products for the cheapest price, not the most expensive.
If everyone and their brother is making flasks for themselvesā¦because many, many alts, then no-one gives a flying ferret what the AH price is for flasks, because they already have flasksā¦ therefore AH flask prices collapse because no-one wants them.
If you donāt believe me, then check out gemsā¦ I use the cheaper gems a lot because I no longer do progression raiding, so I donāt need BIS jazzleā¦ and I certainly donāt need them at current pricesā¦ the cheap hunter haste gem by comparison, is available for peanuts.
I have always used cheap gems, etcā¦ or indeed none at allā¦ until I have really good gear, because I hate spending gold, if its not on a mount, or mats for a mount that I cannot be ferreted to farm, because I am doing other stuff.
I have been playing since BCā¦ and on my Server, it was WoD that made the differenceā¦ it was very, very noticable once far fewer players were leveling Alts, in Legion.
How do I know there are cartels operating?.. because I play the AH to a limited extentā¦ and I tend to list 1x maxed stack of various different valuable mats at a timeā¦ because I donāt spend enough time farming, or on the AH.
When I list, I tend to list that stack of desirable mats at just under the minimum already listed ābuy it nowā stack price, for that matā¦ and I only list a BIN price.
Now, if I log back on later and find I am suddenly the most expensive price, not the cheapest, and the other sellers have re-listed below meā¦ then that is a cartel operatingā¦ they are ensuring I donāt sell.
They then wait for me to list at a significantly lower price to get rid of the stack.
No sell, is no goldz and a lost deposit after all, and I hate that.
At that point, they buy my stack (at the lower āFerret it, just sell already!ā price) then go back to selling those mats, at the higher price, knowing I will not be back for a couple of weeks, with another single stack.
Tbh, If Iām in a hurry, I sometimes just build a Re-seller friendly margin into my original listing price, so they can flip it.
That way I donāt lose the deposit, which thanks to recent Blizz changes is now an issue, since the deposits are in some cases high enough to be annoying.
Itās just numbers. 30, 50, 5000. The issue is that there is demand only for herbs since the rest of the professions are useless. If all was balanced, you would make thousands of gold using your blacksmithing or jewelcrafting or whatever and the flasks wonāt look expensive anymore. And then there is the issue of sharding. Gathering professions were meant to be a simple way to make gold but now if youāre not realm/shard hopping you might be put into a crowded shard with other gatherers and you wonāt be gathering anything at a decent rate. This is frankly a huge issue since the difference between landing on an empty shard or a crowded shard is insane.
What? When you are undercut why do you jump to the conclusion that it is a cartel? The more obvious explanation would be that other players wanna sell their stuff tooā¦ just like you. Way more people are trying to sell than buy. This is my whole point.
You play a pretty low-pop realm. Things might be different there but the supply on a high-pop realm is immense, not because of cartels but because everyone has everything and need very few from the AH. So, more sellers than buyers.
Because if you go from being the lowest price, to being the highest price, with a limited number of other sellers (one or two pages) in a relatively short space of time, then itās not a coincidence that those sellers all suddenly logged in, cancelled their auctions, and relisted at a lower priceā¦ remember, these are desirable mats and Iām only selling one stack.
I havenāt leveled any Alts since WOD, not even my Alchemistā¦so I am simply proffering a logical extrapolation, as to why high prices are where they are, when they were not like that, before WoD and Legion.
Frankly itās anchor weed, thatās the sole reason for flask prices being where they are.
and proc rates were nerfed or at least appear to be. could be wrong but I used to get regular procs and now I get none.
Thatās interesting to know, Orlenā¦ because of Artifact weapons and Suramar (eyetwitch) I didnāt level any alts in Legion, and took quite a long break from my Mainā¦ but on my Server, the Legion flasks were expensive as wellā¦ was there a similar problem with one flask mat, in Legion, like Anchor weed in BfA?
Ajmage, think I misunderstood you earlierā¦are you saying everything is dirt cheap on your Server?..this thread is about the AH being expensive, and mine is expensive, just like Ventocescās.
There was a single mat, but you farmed that in the entire zone of suramar.
So you knew exactly where to go to get it, Anchor weed on the other handā¦well it may or may not spawn on any node that normally holds a ground spawning herb.
The longest Iāve gone on any farm runs without seeing one node spawn was 2 hoursā¦That was depressing so I remember it well.
But I should be clear itās usually 10-20 min before seeing one, that day it took 2 hours was really oddā¦like truly weird.
So if it takes me 20 min running around like a headless chicken before I can even craft 1 single solitary flask, what price is worth paying for my time?
Iām not sure Iād get out of bed for less than 1000g at this point.
In one way I salute you all herb farmers. Because I know I wouldnāt be able to be patient enough to handle such misery.
Itās oddly relaxingā¦Like ironingā¦
but i think itās because Iāve been doing it for 14 years in WoW that itās just meh at this point.
Iāve made a small fortune from herbalism/alchemy over the years 
Sounds a bit like the rare Titanium ore spawns in WotLKā¦and Black Trillium ore in MoP.
Yes, because more alts = more people with that profession. In other words more flasks, enchants, etc. will be made. And more agument runes will be harvested from LFR (really wish they would drop augment runes from game - feels like being forced to LFR every week).