More Spreadsheet Stuff - Easy Data From TUJ

One of the comments that kept cropping  up on my Ironpaw Token Shuffle posts was easy access to The Undermine Journal data. If your desk is a mass of post-it notes or scraps of scruffy paper, then maybe this post will help sort that out - at least as far as Auction House stuff goes! I didn't know about TUJ data being available myself until Molsan pointed me to his recent post on how to download the data using IQY but as I use Open Office not Excel, I couldn't get it to work (that may just be me messing up though)! Instead I used the .csv file facility so I thought I'd show you how to get it for yourself.

It's a huge file though - almost 13000 lines for my server but as we're not going to wade through it manually that's not really a problem. This data file only needs to be downloaded each time you want to update your spreadsheets with a limit of 10 times per 24 hour period. The great thing about it though is that you can use the same file for all your WoW related spreadsheets. I have most of my spreadsheets in one file, each one on a different tab or sheet & I just copy/paste the fresh data file over the old one in the relevant tab. This will then update all my sheets at the same time.

OK, so enough chit chat, how do you get to this file? Go to The Undermine Journal for your region & login. If you don't have a TUJ account yet, just follow the instructions on the site (I linked it to my Twitter account for easy access). Once you have your account set up, you should log in & it will take you to your account page - look for the 'Market Data XML & CSV' & choose your realm from the drop down box. It will give you two URL options & a IQY link. Just copy/paste the .csv link into a browser window & it should download the file automatically for you.

Next you will need to open the file in a spreadsheet program of your choice. If you are given options, this file is comma separated so choose that option & it should open nicely laid out, with columns already set up similar to the screenshot below.

Sample .csv File from TUJ

Once I have my data file opened like this, all I do is copy/paste the whole thing into my master spreadsheet file & the formulas I have there will pull all the data to the various sheets. I use the VLOOKUP function so you could have a look how to use that or if you're patient, I'll be doing some more spreadsheet posts over the next week or two which will use the VLOOKUP function so you can just wait & use my spreadsheets! lol

I hope this helps - I know there are one or two readers who will love this & probably race ahead & sort out some glorious spreadsheets for themselves but for those of you who haven't used spreadsheets before, bear with me & we'll get you some nice sheets to use.


Image © pjohnkeane under Creative Commons licence

Getting Started - Don't Give Up!

0169 Nev 2006 - Keep Your Head On

Hello there!
Khalior here from Khalior's Tentacular Junkpile to help out with Nev's "Getting Started" series. Today, we do a quick and simple once-over of the issue of the most grieving thing that every gold-maker will encounter : items that do not sell.

So you have everything set up.
You've got your items, you know the prices, you know the right times when to post.
You get down to business.
And then you play the Waiting Game(TM).
When you come back to your mailbox to reap your rewards, you collect the gold and... the items that did not sell.
Frustration may hit you at some point, especially when you've listed items for days and days and they keep coming back to you.
Breathe in, breathe out, you can work this out.

What you need to do is focus on each item and find out why no one is buying it. Here are reasons why your item may not find its' buyer.

a) The market is flooded
Take a look at The Undermine Journal for your item on your realm.
Maybe there's tons of auctions there - so it's normal that it may take time before someone buys your auction. In certain markets, it can get really crowded. That's when you have to be clever and find the right time to post your auction. Also, check again on your auctions once in a while, because the situation may be that...

b) Someone has undercut you
The most likely reason why your item has not been bought. If the market is crowded, it's very likely to happen. You can try to cancel your auction and undercut that person back. But that game can go on and on and you have to know when's the right time to stop.

The ill effects of undercutting are that you are losing your auction deposit, you might possibly be lowering the price of the item and there's also the possibility that other players join in your undercutting wars, making the whole process very complicated. "Spying" on the potential undercutters by looking at their Posting Times on The Undermine Journal is a way to counter undercutting. Logging onto your auction toon and babysitting the Auction House is another option. (Although don't forget to play the game, at some point!)

c) You've overpriced the item
This is partly subjective to the people's buying power on your server. If no one is willing to buy your item for the price that you are asking for, you may be stuck there for a long while. Prices of servers differ between each other, and people are used to see certain prices on the AH. If they are used to see double digits for an item, why would they go for your triple digit item ?

Knowing the market of your items is a bit of a science, mixing people's buying power with item rarity and demand. Checking for average pricing on TUJ, browsing the comments section of your item on Wowhead, knowing how the item is obtained, are all helpful hints of how your item should be priced.
You can always experiment and go against all odds - sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised!

d) There is no current demand for the item
Sadly, it happens. Sometimes if you continue reposting again and again, one day you will find a buyer. But that can take some time. Sometimes it's best to stockpile the item in your bank and try the market again on a rainy day.

You can also set yourself some Undermine Journal notifications for your item and wait until the market picks up again to consider posting your items. It's also common knowledge that a greater variety of buyers is online during the weekends, so consider posting your item on Friday evening and see if you get lucky.

As you can see, there's tricks to help you out of the situation. It's the tinkering and the research for every auction that makes casual auctioneers lose patience and a lot of gold because they don't take the time to find a solution to their problem.

It is problem-solving at its' best : focus, find the issue, find all different possibilities of addressing the issue, choose the optimal one, apply it.

The people who are offering coaching and counseling for gold-makers live by a similar system. With time and practice, this can be applied to a problematic auction in a matter of 2-3 minutes and you can move on to the next issue.

The motto is : don't give up!

Khalior

I'd like to thank Khalior for writing the first ever guest post here at Auction House Addict & I think it's a great post to give encouragement to budding auctioneers. One thing I will add for my lovely & local EU readers is - do not despair - there is a new site recently launched that will, over time, come to be as important & useful to us as the Undermine Journal is to the US players.

This is where EU readers can help Acy get his site moving, go to Wowtrader, log in & upload the data from your auction house scans. The more data uploaded, the more useful it will be. For more information, Alto interviewed Acy recently & I hope we can all pitch in & help Acy get this new site off the ground.