Understanding Demand

If you want to make gold on the auction house, you need to understand both supply and demand, but I'll limit this post to demand. Demand is important because if it does not exist your item will not sell, even if it is the only item of its kind on the auction house. Someone must have a use for the items you plan on making a profit from. Demand originates from several sources.

One of the most profitable sources of demand is other players leveling their crafting professions. If an item is needed at a certain point while leveling a profession, you can be sure that there is a market for it. If you have the time, browsing www.wow-professions.com will inform you which recipes are worth camping to resell on the auction house (once the character is there, it only takes a few seconds to log in, check to see if the recipe is there, and log out... repeat and go to a new location when you have enough of that recipe), which items people will be willing to pay a lot of gold for because they need that item to continue leveling their profession, etc. You can add certain items to your snatch list (if you use auctioneer suite) to buy when prices are low and relist when the market is back to normal.

Items that enhance a player's character in some way will also have demand. BoE items, enchantments, the librams, shield spikes, weapon chains, armor kits, spellthreads, leg armor, belt buckles, cut gems, and the various temporary enhancements (including flasks, elixers, and potions) all fall into this category. Leveling characters will soon outgrow their current gear, so it seems that demand for these items is highest for twinks and max level characters, who tend to use items longer.

Demand also exists for items which help characters to complete achievements.

Where else does demand originate? Comments, people, comments!