As soon as you get to the website you can choose to either log in/sign up (which I recommend as you need to have an account to get the market notifications) or to go straight to the data for a particular faction and server.
As soon as you choose a server and faction you will be taken to another screen that will show you the most recent posts from a variety of gold making blogs (this is a great way to stay up to date on what is happening). In addition there will also be a search bar where you can search for any item/seller on your faction and server along with a menu bar at the top where you can choose to view, "Hot Items", "Top Sellers", Enhancements", "Consumables", and "Site" information.
In the menu bar "Hot Items" will show you items that are currently selling well on your server. "Top Sellers" will show you who the top sellers on your realm currently are. I'm not sure how either of these are figured out but I don't use either category too much. I do look at "Top Sellers" every once in a while to see if there are any new names that I don't recognize but to be honest I have seen some strange people on the list (who didn't appear to be selling too much) so take the information with a grain of salt.
I use both "Enhancements" and "Consumables" much more regularly. Mouse over either one to get a view of the different markets you can look at. Simply click on one of the markets and you will be taken to a list of items from that market. This will enable you to easily see what items are profitable, which items are going up or down in value, how many items are available currently on your auction house, etc. Simply mouse over the header of any column to see how the information is compiled. Below you can see a sample of the Darkmoon market on my server.
Click or search for any individual item and a ton of information will become available to you. At the top of your screen you will see the item itself along with a summary of the market information on the item.
Just below the summary you will find a section labelled "Price Availability and History" along with two graphs. The first graph shows you the price of the item over time while the second graph shows you the number of the item on the auction house over time. In each graph you can mouse over the top part of the graph to see the exact price or number on the auction house at any time. In addition you can use the bottom scroll bar to adjust the period of time you are looking at.
Below this you will see the "Post Activity Heat Map" and the " Sold Volume Heat Map". These will show you when the particular item has been posted and sold. The darker the color in each box the more posted and/or sold. You can mouse over any particular box to get a tooltip showing the time and the exact number of items sold/posted.
Below this you will find "Market Notifications", "Other Markets", and "Component Parts".
"Market Notifications" will simply show you if you have any notifications set for the item in question.
"Other Markets" shows a graph with the market price for the item on other factions and servers. The red dot is your server horde side while the blue dot is your server alliance side. Mouse over any dot to get a tool tip that shows you the item along with the server, faction, market price and number available.
"Components Price" shows you the price of the materials needed to make the item (assuming it is craftable) along with the total crafting cost vs. the sale price of the finished item.
Below this information you will find "Recent Sellers", "Recent Sales" and "Current Auctions".
"Recent Sellers" lists people who have POSTED (not sold) the item in the last few days.
"Recent Sales" makes a guess on who sold the item and for how much. This information is basically a guess so it should be taken with a grain of salt.
"Current Auctions" will show you all the current auctions of the item on your auction house along with the seller.
If you search or look up a person instead of an item you will see much of the same information but, in addition, you will also see a breakdown of what types of item they sell.
As you can see The Undermine Journal is a great tool to get information on both markets and competitors. Make sure to visit the site often and don't forget to check out my notification list in the next chapter!
Additional Resources:
Official Undermine Journal YouTube Videos
The Undermine Journal - Intro
The Undermine Journal - Items (Part 1)
Additional Official Undermine Journal Videos:
- The Undermine Journal - Items (Part 2)
- The Undermine Journal - Sellers
- The Undermine Journal - Deals and Sellers
- The Undermine Journal - User Login, Control Page, Addon, Market API
- The Undermine Journal - Market and Seller Notifications
The Power Word: Gold Guide Free is Copyright © 2011 Jim Younkin. Guide contributors include Bangkok Bill and fluxdada.
