LOTRO: Auction House Guide
January 23, 2008
“… Probably the most effective way to make money in the auction house is via the sale of materials. This is for two reasons. One is that the materials are reliably obtained, the other is that the math of earning money is reliably measured with materials. Here is a great example. Let us say you wish to sell medium skins. Simply gather medium skins, then sell them, using the prices of other medium skin auctions in the auction house as a guide, with a fair profit above the value that you could earn otherwise in the time it took you to gather these skins as the minimum price. Set it for a two day auction and include a buyout …”
Deja Vu! Bingo! Almost the same economic rules apply in World of Warcraft. As in LOTRO, the Market value of raw materials and components pretty much always outweights the value of the end product because after playing for a couple month many people grow tired of farming, thus opening a business opportunity for more “dedicated” players. 
