Although most transactions in WoW are restricted to members of the same faction, there are three neutral Auction Houses spread throughout the game world that allow Horde and Alliance characters to interact. These Auction Houses are located in Booty Bay, Everlook, and Gadgetzan.

In theory, these are places for members of both factions to sell and buy goods. For the most part, they’re unused – except for some select quest items (like the Green Hills pages) and for transferring items between Horde and Alliance characters of the same account.

When I started a Horde character, I naturally wanted to set him up with some gold, so I headed to Booty Bay to transfer some stuff. Here’s a tip: caveat vendor. You might just lose out on a lot of stuff.

Preferred Method of Transferring

When transferring money or items from one faction to the other, there are a few ways that people prefer to go about it.

First is the cheap item transfer. Let’s say you have a nice blue or purple BoP that you want your new character to own, or you have some loot that your new character can sell for cash. List it for one copper, then have someone else buy it immediately.

You run the risk of someone else scooping the item up in the meantime, but you cut down on Auction House fees. This is clearly the cheapest way, but there is a large element of risk involved.

Next is the straight up money transfer. If I want my Horde character to get a couple hundred gold, I’ll have him list an item (like a stack of food) for an outrageous price. Someone on the Alliance buys it out with my money, and the money appears in my Hordie’s mailbox an hour later.

The problem is that the neutral Auction House takes a hefty cut – 15%. It’s clearly the safest way to transfer money, but you’re paying an upfront fee for that piece of mind.

Finally, you can split the middle and transfer an item at a fair price. This is good for shuffling important items (BoP Blues/Purples) to a new character, where the item itself is more important than the money. List it for its market value (or close to it), and you’re almost guaranteed to be able to pick it up on the other side.

The problem with this is that you need money on your new faction to buy the item, and your old faction character is going to lose out on 15% of that sale price due to the Auction House fees. Safe, but expensive.

Why Not Just Use the Cheap Item Method?

Instinctively, a lot of people want to use the cheap item method. If you coordinate it right, who is going to find your item and buy it out within the five seconds it takes your friend to buy it?

Answer: Plenty of people.

If the person isn’t using a mod, the chances are pretty slim that he’ll be able to steal your item. However, it’s still possible. A friend of mine was sitting at the AH waiting to do his own transfer, and he did a search for blue items. He came up with some blue gems listed at a copper and bought them all out. He happened to be at the right place at the right time.

However, there is a very powerful combination of mods that will make this much easier – Auctioneer and Bottom Scanner.

Auctioneer is a general purpose Auction House mod. It allows you to scan the Auction House for pricing information, and then use that information to make informed decisions about buying and selling items for profit.

Bottom Scanner takes that information and gives it a whole new twist. It constantly scans new Auction House listings and creates a pop-up window if an item fits your description of a “good buy.”

For example, you could set the mod to flag any item that you could buy for less than its vendor price. If an item appears, a pop-up window shows up asking you if you want to buy the item or not. If you do, you instantly buy it out… and you can go pick it up and resell it.

The scanning is almost instantaneous. If you’re using the Bottom Scanner mod, you’ll receive a notification about a second after an auction appears. If you’re vigilantly sitting at your computer, there’s virtually no chance that someone else can search for the item, click on it, and buy it out before you do.

The problem for us becomes clear. If you’re transferring items over the neutral Auction House for one copper, it is very easy for someone with Bottom Scanner to scoop it up.

I lost several bags and green items to some using this mod. After that, I switched to methods two and three above. I either transfer over straight money (and cough up the 15% fee), or list an important item for its market value.

The peace of mind and security of my transfer is well worth that 15%. Transferring items is kind of “cheating,” after all, so you can’t be too picky. I lost 15% on the deal, but I was still able to move about 1000g over to my new Hordie to make sure that he wanted for nothing.

Moral of the story? Be careful when transferring items. You could easily lose out on some expensive loot.