Trade Skill Master: Auctioning

TradeSkillMaster has included this module specifically for the purpose of posting auctions quickly. The beauty of this module is that you can sell hundreds or thousands of items and only use a fraction of the time that you would posting manually. This module supersedes even some of the best auctioning addons.  

To open TradeSkillMaster just type /tsm in your chat window.

The first time you open TSM you will be prompted to select Beginner or Advanced user. I recommend that you select Advanced. This will make all the options available to you.

The auctioning module can be identified by the gold seal looking icon on the left.

The first thing you will want to do is to click on options under the general tab and go to the bottom and make the posting macro. This is a priceless option to use. It makes posting go so much faster. It will create a macro that will allow you to simply hold down the Ctrl key and move the scroll wheel on your mouse to post. 

White List Tab

This feature lets you add a players name to a list that will never undercut them. You will only post at their current price. That way, if you have a friend who also auctions things, you don't have to worry about undercutting them. You do not need to add any characters from the account you are posting from but if you have a second account you will need to add each character you wish to never undercut.

Black List Tab

The black list feature does the opposite of the white list. It undercuts the characters that you add to the list even if it is below the lowest amount that you set for items. This can be a tool used for aggressively pushing competition out of the market or to push their prices down to the point where you will buy their items. I recommend using this feature sparingly if at all. 

Creating Groups

This section is where you will create rules for how you want your things to be auctioned. You will be able to make different groups with a different posting setup for each group. To start we will click on the Categories/Groups section. The difference between categories and groups is that groups will be subsets of categories. You can make groups and never categorize them if you prefer. The advantage of categories is that it helps you to better organize large batches of varied things. To start we will create our groups.

The first step in creating a group is naming it. We will click on Create Category/Group. 

Here we will enter in the name we want to use for the group and click Okay.

This will bring up the option to add items to our new group. 

You will notice on the left side are the items in your bag that are not in a group yet. You will select the items that you wish to add to this group. You have the option to select them one at a time or select multiple. You will click on an item once to select it and you can click on the same item again to deselect it.

When you click on an item or items it will show them as highlighted like above. After you have selected the items you want to add to the group you will click the Add button in between the two lists.

If you have accidentally added something or simply wish to remove an item then you can highlight it on the right side and click the remove button.

Next we will create the parameters for posting. We will start by clicking on Group Overrides.

Here you will find a lot of options to help you create just what you need for each group. I recommend you take a look at each setting and read what it does. Each one has a great description to help you customize each posting group. 

General Settings

Please Note: To access the drop down menus you have to right click to unlock the window then left click to access the choices.

• Ignore amount settings (Optional) -  This allows you to ignore more than or less than a specific amount. This is useful for when you want to cater what you post to a specific use. For example, if [Awesome Thing] is used for a recipe and it always take 4 of them to craft the item then I might sell [Awesome Thing] in stacks of 4. This feature goes a step further and lets you ignore any posts that are under a stack of 4 or above a stack of 4 when the addon looks at what price to post at. There might be a stack of 2 [Awesome Thing]s for super cheap but it is unlikely anyone will want to purchase it because 4 is always needed. This feature is reserved for very specific situation and can be left alone most of the time. It might be used rarely, but it is such a great feature to have when you need it.

• Ignore low duration auctions (Optional) -  This gives you the option to ignore posts that only have a specific time left before they expire. It gives you the option to ignore anything that only has 30 minutes, 2 hours or 12 hours left. 

Some additional features in the general section include the ability to do the following: 

• Disable auto canceling  (Optional) - This will cause nothing in this group to be canceled if you are undercut
• Disable posting and canceling  (Optional)   This group is completely disabled when the addon tries to post or cancel anything on the auction house
• Common search terms  (Optional)   You can add terms to reduce the amount of things the addon has to search through when determining how to post things. For example, if this group contains nothing but glyphs then you could add "Glyph of" into this box and it would only search through the items that had the words "Glyph of" in them instead of the entire auction house. If you add nothing to the search box then it will run a default scan.
• Ignore random enchants (Optional) - This is a good way to post things like gear that you are posting for the purpose of transmogrification. There is often gear that is labeled [Super Helm of the Bear] or [Super Helm of the wolf]. Both of these items will have the same appearance but each will have different stats attached the the base stats. In order to differentiate them Blizzard has added "of the" followed by a designation. The usefulness of this comes into play when you are posting [Super Helm of the Bear] and your competitor is posting [Super Helm of the wolf]. It ensures that you will undercut them. Using the feature will cause you to consider all things that are [Super Helm of the ____] items.

Posting Settings

The post settings include the following:

• Post time (recommended of you wish to have a post that is longer than 12 hours) - This allows you to set the duration of your auction.
• Post cap  (recommended if you wish to post more or less than 4 of an item) - This lets you set the maximum number of an item you wish to post.
• Per auction  (recommended if you wish to post stacks that contain greater than 1 item)- This is where you set how many items you want in each stack. If you want to sell items in stacks of 5 then you would set it to 5.
• Use per auction as cap  (Optional) - This feature will post any extra items you have left over from your stacks. If you have it set to post in stacks of 5 and you have 22 of the items then this will post 4 stacks of 5 and then post one stack of 2. Sometimes a second posting must be done to post the extras.

General Price Settings

If you scroll down you will find the undercut bid options. You have two choices:

• Undercut by (Optional) - This lets you select the amount you wish to undercut your competitors by. The most common amount is 1 copper so this is set as the default.
• Bid percent (Optional) - Alternatively you can choose to undercut by a percent instead of a set amount. 

Minimum and Maximum Price Settings

Of all of the settings these are the most important. These will determine how high and low you will post your items for.

Minimum Price Settings (recommended)

• Price Threshold - This is the lowest price you are willing to sell the item for. If the price that other post at is lower than this then you will not undercut them.
• Set Threshold as a - This gives you the option to set your lowest amount as a fixed gold amount or as a percentage.

Maximum Price Settings (recommended)

• Fallback price - This is the highest price you will post the item for is none are for sale to undercut. 
• Set fallback as a - This gives you the option to set your highest amount as a fixed gold amount or as a percentage.

Advanced Price Settings (Reset Method)

Reset Method (Optional) - When the lowest price is too low for you to undercut you have a few options to choose from here. 

• Custom Value - It will post at a customized amount other than your lowest or fallback.
• Post at Fallback - It will post at the price you have set as your fallback.
• Don't post items - It will not post the items at all.
• Post at threshold - It will post the items you have set as the lowest you are willing to sell them for.

Reset Scan Settings

Reset Scan Settings (Optional) - Here you will have the option to add the items in this list to the reset scan. By enabling this option the addon will look for the items you have placed in this group and for the purpose of resetting the price on that specific item. Resetting the market is when you buy out all of the available items so that you can re post them at a higher price therefore resetting the market average of the item.

To activate this portion just right click on the "include in reset scan" and then left click to check the box. This will open up more options.

• Max reset cost - The maximum amount TOTAL (not per-item) you want to spend to reset this item.
• Set max reset cost as a - You can set your TOTAL amount as a fixed amount or as a percent. 
• Min reset profit - Here you set the minimum profit per-item that you want to make.
• Set min reset price as a - You can set your minimum profit per-item as a fixed amount or as a percent.
• Max quantity to buy - This is where you select the minimum number of items you are willing to buy in order to reset.
• Price Resolution - This determines what size range should be considered a single price point for the reset scan. If you set it to 1 gold then 20g and 21g will be considered the same price level.
• Max price per item - This is where you select the maximum number of items you are willing to buy in order to reset.

Posting

Once you have completed the set up for each group then it is time to post your items. You open TSM by clicking on the auctioneer. You might have to click the tab at the very bottom of the auction window but it is set to open directly to TSM by default. Next look for the "Post Auctions" button and click.

This will start the process of the addon scanning your bags and preparing the items to be posted. Once all items have been scanned for posting you have two options.

You can click the "Post" button at the bottom once for each item

or

You can use the macro we made at the start.To use the macro all you need do is to hold down the Ctrl button while you move your scroll wheel on your mouse. 

Using the macro will speed the process up quite a bit and you will see the automatic posting progress bar count down until all items are posted. For me that is 11/11 items. You do not have to remain at the auction house when the task bar fills. Once you have reached the max to post (11/11 here) then you can walk away but you will experience a bit of lag until all the items are posted.

This completes the full breakdown of the TSM Auctioning module. It is full of so many awesome features. It is not necessary to use all of them but it is quite nice to have access to them. 

If you prefer to see this module broken down via video then I highly recommend Faid's TradeSkillMaster Guide (TSM) - Auctioning and Group Creation video.

Happy Auctioning!

Trade Princess