I can't sell much, if almost nothing at all (really, I can sell but it's excruciatingly difficult) at the Gold AH. I was reading some people's comments on the General chat earlier today about how over-priced most items are at the GAH (and surely, RMAH too). Also, some people claiming that you're a "noob" if when you find an item you go check the GAH for comparison purposes and come up with a "value for it" afterwards. The problem is... there is no other way of doing it, and yes I agree doing it that way isn't going to make your item's so called "value" the right value anyway.
I have the feeling that some players around are completely new to the whole Diablo thing, it ain't new to D3. There's no real or "right" value for items, yet people claim most items are over-priced. How can they be under or over-priced if in the end we don't even know what is the item's value to start with?
Ok, so how and why is it that for example... say... the cheapest Stormshields around sell for approximately 10 to 12 million Gold? I don't know. I guess that someone out there decided that when he found what happened to be a low quality SS roll and it was the only one like that around he told himself "Ok so... the closest one stats-wise I see by comparison at the AH is 18 million Gold, but this one I found had quite lower stats than that one so... let's leave it at say... 12 million, yep that should do it". Then the next thing you know a few days later the hundred other Stormshields with similar stats found by the hundred other Mr. Joes were left at the GAH at around 10 to 12 million Gold.
The other extreme is right too. Who decided that a SS with 10% Crit Chance, 30% Block and 190+ Strength on it was "worth" 100 million? And why is it that others around finding similar stats SS around think for themselves (or do they?) saying "Well... if the next best SS I can see at the GAH is 100 million and mine is almost identical then it means I'll leave mine at around 95 million... because I'm totally sure that about 1% of the D3's player base whom are Inferno-able actually do have 100 million Gold to spend on ONE item, yep that's ok, 95 million Gold it is!".
Now, myself, I find decent items and of course most of them are Rares, because Legendary items really aren't Legendary items unless they roll almost perfect and not only that, they need to roll the specific stats you want too (and of course, those need to be good rolls). So, anyway... I recently found a pair of rare pants. There's 2 sockets, 93 base Dexterity (sockets are empty), 126 Vitality, 74 Strength, +61 All Res and 15% Gold Find. The only similar pants I saw when I looked for that (for a few days, since I couldn't sell the pants in question for that long) at the GAH were the Depth Diggers I think the name is, it's a pair of Legendary pants. There were other rare pants with relatively similar stats but not quite "there" by comparison. The problem is that some of the Depth Diggers that were on the list were selling at buyout for approximately 40 million or so were not even all as good as the pants I was trying to sell. With the sole exception of the fact that Depth Diggers of course always have some Magic Find on them, which my pants don't have... but of course we all know that MF alone is so worth it that your item is always worth millions, right?
So, yeah, then I filtered the search to remove Legendary results and only include rare items. In that list of rare pants with "similar stats" (mostly lower than my own pants, some higher but not many) the buyout prices weren't that better, but better nonetheless... but still, quite an exaggeration. When I looked (yesterday) the lowest buyout for a similar pants was at 21 million, with a starting bid at 8 million. So I told myself that if those pants have been at the GAH for so many days without selling... it's for a good reason, right? Because everyone right in their mind with that kind of Gold at their disposal would not leave such great pants taking virtual dust at the GAH if their toon(s) needed them, right? But, wait, why oh why aren't those pants selling?! ZOMG could it be because... because they're too expensive!?
O_O!!! [insert light bulb picture here] "Eureka!" What if I dramatically lowered the buyout of my pants?! Could... omg... omg... could that work!!??
So, sarcasm aside (that's just in case some people's sarcasm meter were off when reading the above) I proceeded to do just that. And lo and behold... oh wait, actually lo and and behold I was wrong! It STILL doesn't sell. So I tried leaving my pants at "just" 4 million Gold buyout BUT... but wait! The starting bid was 75K, "not so bad" then huh? Well guess what? I've tried that for four days now, there's no one even BIDDING on them. You want them for 75K and not 4 million because 4 million is too much? Then go for it and bid at 75K, who knows you might win! Yeah? Well... no, supposedly not.
So am I supposed to just give them for free at a charity or something? Are we really supposed to invent values out of our collective butts and pretend they're the "right" value, only to receive those kind "lol" replies when we post them on the Trade chat? Are we supposed to still use D2JSP? Seriously? I'm sick of this. The only stuff I CAN immediately sell are... hmmm... ok Gems... yeah I can sell that. Also, Tomes of Secrets, yup that works (takes a crap load of them to make it worth it though, like... a week worth of accumulated Tomes after that long of grinding and keeping all the ones you find). What else... oh yeah Plans and hmmm... that's.... about it.
Ok I am exaggerating. Nah, actually I do sell actual items (seriously I do). But I assure you that most of them are relative junk rares and I happened to leave them at the GAH at a buyout of no more than 25K to "get rid of them". Are D3 players that cheap? Are D3 players actually walking onto the Gold that's dropping on the ground when they play? Look... in ONE run of Inferno A3 Keeps at MP0 or MP1 I can easily make 200K+ Gold, mostly by constantly going back and forth between the Keeps and town to sell everything that dropped except gray/white items (those I don't touch). Such runs take me no more than maybe 30 minutes, probably less (I just don't look at how long it takes).
I, myself, am absolutely willing to and DID buy single items at the GAH sold at 10+ million Gold. I AM buying items at such prices when I want them bad. Do I think they are over-priced? Yes! Do I think they would sell faster at 500K instead? Well huh yeah but they'd be gone in a second (or perhaps not) and I wouldn't find such items. Can it take me up to two weeks to accumulate enough Gold to buy ONE item? Yes. Does it annoy me? Yes. But do I do it anyway? Yes! WHY is it that what looks like the majority of Inferno players DON'T and always want everything they want for their toons be sold at 10K or 5K? WTF. I can get 500K+ after completing Act 3 on MP1 which takes maybe 2 or 3 hours (that's just a guess). If I had 500K ONLY at my disposal I would NOT immediately go check out the GAH for an item. I would wait until I got to at least 5 million and THEN I would check the GAH, and I MIGHT buy (buyout) something at 5 million BUT if I don't then I have plenty of Gold room to play them bidding wars around starting at (yes, starting) 500K.
Whatever...
Oh and the same goes with those so called "Price Checks". Hey, guys, there's NO KNOWN VALUE for your items! Stop asking! Get in your mind that the one guy whose reading your "Please PC this item" question in Trade or General chat will reply based on HIS OWN definition of the item's "value" which itself is also based on the types of stats he happens to like for his favorite builds. There is NO KNOWN VALUE. So you know what? Just do like all the "noobs" out there, check the GAH, make comparisons by the search filters and cross your fingers that a kind soul will grind his heart out for that one item of yours for a week to finally be able to afford it, only to realize at that point that the item is gone and was probably merely removed by the owner out of desperation.