BMAH "successful"? Not from where I sit.

[islander]

According to an interview with a Blizzard developer posted elsewhere on this site:

"The BMAH has been successful at giving players that are focused on earning gold items to purchase, such as mounts, pets, transmog sets, and other things. It was also useful in phasing in access to the Brawler's Guild."

This statement came as a surprise to me, as previously I had regarded the BMAH as a big disappointment. When the Black Market Auction House first started last year, it included items you could actually use for PVE or PVP, such as current content heroic gear. But now, day after day goes by with ilvl 88 belts and brawler's guild invitations being the only items available. I get it that someone out there who plays with fashions on WoW wanted an ilvl 88 belt. But it is disappointing to see items like that listed day in and day out, instead of current gear. According to the Undermine Journal, which tracks bids on the BMAH, by server and by faction, those ilvl 88 items are very frequently getting only 0 or 1 bid per day, which is a way of saying that no one wants them. Yet, when an ilvl 535 item goes up, a dozen or more bids are recorded and the items sells for large amounts of gold, thus achieving what I thought was the intended goal of the BMAH as a gold sink to remove currency from the hands of hoarders and AH bots.

Please, Blizzard, bring back currently usable items to the BMAH for this next tier. Everyone who wants a belt from 2006 or a horsie from 2008 already has one by now. If they didn't, there would be many more bids for those items than there are. It's time to serve the hundreds of thousands of subscribers who play the game to progress on PVE and PVP content, not to hold little fashion shows.

[Gimlix]

BMAH is a succes yes.
It's a great way for people to spent their money on.

It's pretty fun to see a item/mount/pet on the BMAH that isn't available anymore, that can get you pumped up.
And it isn't a game changer. There are from time to time items on the BMAH that are from the current content but not enough to make noobs get full HC ToT gear because they are rich.

So yes, it's a succes.

[slime]

Yea I kinda agree (that it is a failure), our BMAH might have 1 useful item a week. But, they can't just give away tons of current tier gear daily so I understand why BMAH has to be an utter fail 6/7 days of the week.

[Immitis]

bmah isnt for current gear. if thats what you are using it for you arent the primary target.

the gear on there is supposed to be a small bonus or head start for the richest of the rich

[Deleted]

The gold cap ruins the bidding race. Because with gold cap on one character, you can buy anything and the one who bids the gold cap, will win.

[yetgdhfgh]

Its a huge random gold sink designed to take gold from the AH barons and hoarders to deflate the economy

Now weither it actually deflated the economy is debatable but it was not designed so it would post BIS gear day in day out!

[Nuckels]

Bmah and challenge modes, best 2 additions to wow.

[huth]

The BMAH was a success for it's intended goal. That doesn't mean that it does what you want it to, but rather that it does what they wanted from it.

[Aliessil]

It could do with more variety and less brawlers guild invites. Other than that, seems okay.

One thing they're missing though - there's some green / blue items that are hard to get, that are popular for transmog; maybe they should think about adding some of those rarer greens/blues, too.

[mistahwilshire]

BMAH was a large success for what it was intended for. It was NOT intended to be a farming source of current gear, so if you expected that then that's on you.

[Deja Thoris]

. Yet, when an ilvl 535 item goes up, a dozen or more bids are recorded and the items sells for large amounts of gold, thus achieving what I thought was the intended goal of the BMAH as a gold sink to remove currency from the hands of hoarders and AH bots.

So.... From where Blizz sits its working as intended isn't it? It's removing money from the economy.

It should be obvious they can't just throw up level 535 items with the same frequency of level 88 ones since that would tank the price.


It's not time to "serve the hundreds of thousands" with the BMAH. The clue is in the name "black market". It's not Tesco's.

[Rhiziana]

BMAH was a large success for what it was intended for. It was NOT intended to be a farming source of current gear, so if you expected that then that's on you.

This. So much this.

[Rixis]

It could do with less Brawlers guild invites, but otherwise I see nothing wrong with it, it shouldn't be offering heroic gear, or, if it does, very infrequently. It's a gold sink method of obtaining removed/hard to acquire items, mostly for vanity.

[klaps_05]

its only purpose in game was to be a gold sink - so yes, it was successful from that point of view. just because you dont need the i88 belts doesnt mean they wont go for 50-100k

[Thiron]

This statement came as a surprise to me, as previously I had regarded the BMAH as a big disappointment.

I still see it as pretty big success. Everyone is entitled to have their opinion, of course. Blizzard too.

When the Black Market Auction House first started last year, it included items you could actually use for PVE or PVP, such as current content heroic gear.

It still has those items. Current content heroic gear and current conquest gear both appear on BMAH regularly. And previous tier items are gone.

But now, day after day goes by with ilvl 88 belts and brawler's guild invitations being the only items available. I get it that someone out there who plays with fashions on WoW wanted an ilvl 88 belt. But it is disappointing to see items like that listed day in and day out, instead of current gear.

Items on BMAH are random. Very random. A few days ago my realm saw 3 PvE and 1 PvP item on BMAH at the same time.

According to the Undermine Journal, which tracks bids on the BMAH, by server and by faction, those ilvl 88 items are very frequently getting only 0 or 1 bid per day, which is a way of saying that no one wants them. Yet, when an ilvl 535 item goes up, a dozen or more bids are recorded and the items sells for large amounts of gold, thus achieving what I thought was the intended goal of the BMAH as a gold sink to remove currency from the hands of hoarders and AH bots.

You are contradicting yourself. You just said there aren't any current tier items, yet here you are, looking at them. And, no, it's not about bots and hoarders.

Please, Blizzard, bring back currently usable items to the BMAH for this next tier. Everyone who wants a belt from 2006 or a horsie from 2008 already has one by now. If they didn't, there would be many more bids for those items than there are. It's time to serve the hundreds of thousands of subscribers who play the game to progress on PVE and PVP content, not to hold little fashion shows.

BMAH is not meant to supply progress players with stable gear source. And it shouldn't be, otherwise it will affect progression raiding too much. It is meant to supply players with gold sink, and give a sort of "endgame rewards" to those who like earning gold. It accomplishes those goals pretty well.

[islander]

It's pretty fun to see a item/mount/pet on the BMAH that isn't available anymore, that can get you pumped up.

If people were getting pumped up, they'd be bidding on those items (admittedly I am talking about the ilvl 88 junk more than unusual mounts or pets). A careful read of the Undermine Journal data reveals that almost no one is bidding on low-level items, or the patterns for 496 gear that also clog up the BMAH. Each individual server may have very different stories to tell, but on the three servers where I have toons that can use the BMAH, this pattern is consistent.

[Azgraal]

The gold cap ruins the bidding race. Because with gold cap on one character, you can buy anything and the one who bids the gold cap, will win.

If you manage to get the gold cap, you should have the perk to chose one thing and make sure it is yours, imo.

[Thiron]

To add - I have personally met people transferring realms because that level 60 item they wanted was on BMAH on that realm.
So you can't say that those items are totally unwanted.

[vindicatorx]

My low pop server it is rarely used

[Deleted]

The gold cap ruins the bidding race. Because with gold cap on one character, you can buy anything and the one who bids the gold cap, will win.

And the gold cap is still a shit load amount of gold that goes out of the server economy forever. It might be easy for some people to acquire it, but that's only because of the already huge gold inflation and the fact that when you play the auction house you make use of other peoples laziness. I recall Ghostrcrawler mentioning at the beginning of MoP that it was very, very rare for players to have even more than 50k gold. Something that might surprise some, but that's only because they forget about all the people spending every single gold they have on the auction house, the very gold you harvest in.

The items on BMAH almost always sell on my server, there are some vanity items that sometimes go through unbid, but for the most part the prices are above the starting prices by the end of completion. I would call it a success, and hope they make a new version of it in the next expansion.