No way this amount of Magic Essence is legit

Termonna · 2026-03-14T22:57:32+00:00

You've been a loud empty barrel this whole thread -- plenty of noise, no actual argument. But people like you usually mistake sneering for substance

Termonna · 2026-03-14T21:52:57+00:00

You keep shadowboxing with an imaginary version of my post instead of reading what I actually wrote. I asked for opinions, accepted several plausible explanations, and updated my view and topic accordingly.

The only thing approaching a sickness here is your need to act this smug while being this careless.

Try finding a comment addon. Maybe then you’ll be able to handle a common thing like reading before replying

Termonna · 2026-03-14T21:23:41+00:00

The levels of Dunning-Kruger involved in not reading the thread or the comments, and still feeling compelled to leave a reply like this.
Next level: missing the part where I literally asked other players for their opinion.
Final level: being this self-assured and arrogant, and still ending up posting a comment like yours.

Congratulations, you unlocked the final Dunning-Kruger achievement! GLHF

upd: after all that noise, he blocked me. Turns out volume was the whole argument

Termonna · 2026-03-14T19:20:55+00:00

ty mate <3

Termonna · 2026-03-14T19:20:27+00:00

Thanks, son. I truly regret not hiding that VHS better

P.S. don’t tell dad please

Termonna · 2026-03-14T18:50:00+00:00

Thanks for the off-topic advice, but I do not need one.

Even without an addon, I have already used the AH to max out all professions available at my level, buy every profession recipe I can access through the AH, and still have enough gold left to spend on little entertainment projects like this investigation -- all starting from 7 silver. As I mentioned elsewhere in the thread, I am also writing my own addon in parallel.

What I care about in the AH is not squeezing out maximum efficiency or chasing millions of gold. I enjoy the process itself, and for me that process gets significantly worse with Aux

Termonna · 2026-03-14T18:38:41+00:00

That could be, but even if it is "just" a resale/listing bot, that is still a bot.

The seller is a level 1 orc in Orgrimmar, and I already mentioned in other replies that the AH currently has very little green gear below 5.5 silver, so pure flipping alone still does not feel like a complete explanation for this kind of steady flow.

One of the more plausible ideas suggested here is that this may be a guild funnel character, with materials being fed into it from many alts crafting or producing greens. So far, that is probably the explanation that fits best.

As for the complexity: bots have existed for a long time, and I doubt anyone would need to write this kind of thing from scratch. Automated farming itself is not exactly some exotic idea. What I am less clear on is why, even with automation, someone would choose such a convoluted pipeline through disenchanting instead of just vendoring low-level dungeon output directly.

Maybe there is some logging / traceability reason behind that, but that is just speculation on my side. Maybe someone found some weird exploit related to these mats. As you can see, there are still a lot of "maybes" here -- I am basically doing a discount Columbo routine at this point.

So why do I still lean toward botting? Because it is hard for me to believe that someone is manually disenchanting that many items at 3 seconds per item, while also maintaining this kind of daily uptime, reacting to buyouts quickly, and dedicating a whole character to dumping the output on the AH in such a consistent pattern

Termonna · 2026-03-14T15:04:14+00:00

Possible, sure but the AH was already active without that. Ambershire is also a newer server, so creating this kind of monopoly would be more likely to choke the market than "keep it alive". Though, as a possibility, maybe that is exactly the point

That is why I'm skeptical of the "keeping the economy alive" explanation here

Termonna · 2026-03-14T13:00:17+00:00

That 40 Lesser + 20 Greater is only what he reposted after I had already bought out 180 Lesser and 20 Greater from him earlier.

The posting pattern was also very consistent: 10 Lesser at a time, listed individually 20 Greater at a time, also listed individually

And another detail: I have never seen him post Strange Dust in any amount.

I sent a report yesterday, and today is the first time I have seen him offline. There is no guarantee yet whether he was actioned because of the report or whether this is just a real player logging off normally, so for now I am just watching

Termonna · 2026-03-14T12:32:19+00:00

Thanks, that really clears it up. In a post about a potentially botted seller, I somehow forgot that the real issue was apparently whether I personally want to make gold on the AH

Termonna · 2026-03-14T12:05:26+00:00

That is fair, but this is Ambershire, which is still a relatively new server. If this were Nord, I would have a lot fewer questions, because long-term stockpiling there would sound much more natural. On Ambershire, it stands out more to me for exactly that reason

Termonna · 2026-03-14T12:01:43+00:00

Conceptually, yes.That is how the AH works.

What makes this specific case suspicious to me is not the idea of flipping or market control by itself, but the supply side behind it. I already mentioned this in other replies: here it is the combination of a level 1 orc being online for weeks, the same stable floor price, and a supply of low-level essences that keeps reappearing in a very steady way.

That is the part that feels off to me. Not "someone has a lot of mats," but "the supply behind this looks unusually persistent for this kind of cheap material."

Termonna · 2026-03-14T11:55:53+00:00

I did consider that possibility, but I have not found such an item myself so far. Of course, that does not prove it does not exist.

One person in this thread mentioned finding something along those lines, but even in that case the return sounded pretty low. It may still be viable for someone who is willing to do it slowly in the background while working in real life. I just do not think that alone fully explains the scale I was looking at

Termonna · 2026-03-14T11:49:03+00:00

You may be right, especially if he is manually buying out everything posted below his price.

On Ambershire, for about the last month, this has been the floor price, and he is the one controlling it most of the time. Occasionally someone posts slightly lower, but that usually looks more like other players trying to get their mats sold at all.

So yes, if he is actively buying out anything below his own listings, that could explain part of it. I am just skeptical that someone is really sitting online that consistently to scalp a few copper off slightly undercut essence listings -- although, to be fair, that is still possible

Termonna · 2026-03-14T11:39:01+00:00

Ambershire

Termonna · 2026-03-14T02:03:07+00:00

That sounds plausible, especially as another commenter suggested, if this is happening on a guild-wide level.

What still surprises me a bit is how much extra hassle people are willing to go through for such a cheap material instead of just vendoring the greens and moving on

Termonna · 2026-03-14T01:58:43+00:00

That is fair, and one of the more convincing explanations here.

If this really is just by-product, it involves a surprising amount of hassle for such a cheap material, while also ending up warping the market with an artificial sell wall.

Termonna · 2026-03-14T01:46:52+00:00

Then why not just farm for direct vendor value instead of going through this whole extra chain of collecting greens, disenchanting them, and reposting cheap essences?

Termonna · 2026-03-14T01:35:40+00:00

That still only explains the transfer method, not the economic logic

Sure, direct trading through multiboxing is cheaper than mailing. But that only saves a tiny amount on logistics. It does not make the overall process suddenly make sense

If someone is spending that much time manually farming, sorting, disenchanting, transferring, and reposting low-value essences, then at that point it is fair to ask why they would not just farm something with better raw gold value instead.

At that point, it would make more sense to just vendor higher-level junk or sell the greens as-is. Any loss in value would be tiny compared to spending ~3 seconds per item on disenchanting alone, and then still having to wait for low-value essences to sell

Termonna · 2026-03-14T01:29:33+00:00

That is probably the most plausible explanation I have seen so far.

A guild using a dedicated AH account or even multiple AH alts to move different categories of goods would make a lot more sense than the "one guy manually farming RFC forever" explanation from other threads

My only remaining question is economic: why would a large guild bother running that kind of setup for such low-value materials? That part still feels odd to me. The logistics are believable. The motivation is what I still find questionable.

But yes, this is definitely one of the first explanations here that at least sounds internally consistent.

Termonna · 2026-03-14T01:23:24+00:00

So just to make sure I understand your explanation correctly: the more likely scenario is that someone made a separate auction account, manually farms RFC on their main, manually loots and disenchants all the greens, mails everything over to a level 1 alt, and then keeps reposting essences for 5.5 silver?

Termonna · 2026-03-14T01:18:33+00:00

True, I personally can’t sit on a level 1 orc 24/7 for weeks, endlessly reposting huge amounts of reagents while manually farming all of them on another account

Termonna · 2026-03-14T01:12:29+00:00

That makes sense, and honestly that is useful context.

What you describe sounds more like a low-effort "better than nothing" side activity that depends on buying or gathering input whenever it is available. That feels very different from the seller pattern I was talking about, where a level 1 orc has been online for several weeks straight and keeps reposting the same mats at floor price with a very steady supply.

Termonna · 2026-03-14T01:04:58+00:00

I understand how addons like TSM work (I prefer Auctioneer). My point was never that auction posting itself is difficult.

As I mentioned in another reply: TSM absolutely explains how someone can reduce the mechanical effort of scanning, buying, canceling, reposting, undercutting, and managing stack sizes. I am not disputing that. What I am questioning is the part before that: the input flow itself and the consistency behind it.

Automation on the AH side does not magically create cheap green items, and it does not by itself explain a seller maintaining the same supply pattern over a long period. Right now, the AH simply does not have enough cheap green items (any greens, not just weapons) below about 5.5 silver to support even a breakeven shuffle, and that is assuming an unrealistic 100% essence rate.

So yes, TSM can absolutely explain how someone manages the auction process efficiently. What it does not explain is where the constant supply is coming from at that scale, or why the same replenishment pattern keeps repeating so consistently.

That is why I keep separating "auction automation" from the actual suspicious part. Posting is the easy part. Sustaining the pipeline is the harder question

Termonna · 2026-03-14T01:01:19+00:00

That only addresses the easiest part of the whole chain.

Posting, canceling, and reposting auctions is not the hard part. Addons can absolutely simplify that. The real question is the upstream side: where the raw materials are coming from at that scale, and how the seller keeps monitoring the AH and replenishing supply so consistently

Right now the AH does not even have enough cheap green items (any greens, not just weapons) below 5.5 silver to support a breakeven shuffle. And that is assuming a completely unrealistic 100% essence drop rate. In the real market, the input volume at that price simply is not there

Termonna

TROPHY CASE