Barter

Every major city has a trade chat channel that players use to advertise their goods. Why would anyone want to use the trade channel when the auction house works so perfectly? Well my friends it is all about advertising and bartering those goods. Many players will make the city their main home and what better place to meet up before a raid and make sure you have the right equipment before you head off? In other words, because a player is in the city does not mean they are going to run break neck speeds to the auction house. They are there for other reasons and if you let the trade channel know what you have for sale you are getting the word out to 3 separate cities of people that are hanging out, banking, chatting or looking for a group. As the Auction House and the trade chat are all linked, this means that you are telling the players all over that you have something important to sell.

Here are a few ways to help you along, make sure that when you sell an item in the trade channel that you actually link it. Just typing out what you have to sell is pointless, instead inspect the item and Shift Left Click it so that it will appear in the channel for you. This will create a link to the item so that the other players will be able to see what is for sale.

It is ok to link more than one item in your announcement. Saying something like "Selling [Item 1], [Item 2] and [Item 3], please send tell" is perfect. It is ok to repeat this every couple of minutes. There is no reason to announce it 2, 3 times or more. Everyone saw it and if someone wants it they will send you a private tell. In fact if you constantly announce it, you are spamming the chat channel as they call it and it really really annoys other players. They will also tell you and very vocally, using very colorful metaphors, exactly what they think of you. Think about it, do you really want to annoy your future customers?

Just because you have an item they want, if you annoy them too badly they may look for someone else to buy from just on principle that you are an annoying troglodyte.

Using the trade chat channel will also give you other opportunities. For instance, what if the customer cannot afford your entire price? Perhaps they want to give you some gold and some items for it? As you cannot barter through the auction house, perhaps the items they offer you are more valuable? Knowing you can sell them at a higher price and making more profit?