Fix The Funk - New Version Of Auctioneer Advanced And Classic

If you had problems with your Auctioneer Classic search functionality from the r2783 release of Auctioneer, there's good news from Team Norganna - there's a new version that fixes that problem.

You can read the release notes here and download here.

If you do decide to update your add-on, please read the release notes and back up your Auctioneer database files (just in case). These are the LUA files located under the WTF\Account\\SavedVariables directory off of your World of Warcraft directory.

Update On Funked Search In Auctioneer Classic

There's a slew of activity over on the Auctioneer forums on the search problem in Auctioneer Classic. You can read through the nearly 50 comments (and growing) here.

Here's the short of it as I understand it:

1. If you use Auctioner Classic and haven't grabbed the most recent release of the Auctioneer suite (build 2778 and release a few days ago on 1/19) then don't! This bug was introduced with that release.
   
2. There is no fix yet, however there are some work arounds (keep reading)
   
3. The Auctioneer team is kicking into high drive on this and a solution is in the works
   
4. Have patience around this problem. The Auctioneer team is made up of volunteers and many have to work. They feel the pressure already.
   

If you are one of the unlucky ones that's having this problem, read through the thread. In some cases it looks like turning off BottomScanner will bring back the search results (a temporary fix for now).

Good luck. Hang in there. And give the Auctioneer developers your support. If you have something insightful, go post it on that forum I linked to above. If you don't, just show your support...like doing a cheer:

Here we go Auctioneer Team, here we go!
Here we go Auctioneer Team, here we go!

/shake pom poms
/jump off top of human pyramid

Is Your Auctioneer Classic Search Funky?

I've gotten a few comments that their searches in Auctioneer Classic (AC) aren't returning data. According to the forums (which are down), that you can get to from the Auctioneer home page (also down), I saw at least one post regarding this problem before the server gods dealt a crushing blow to their forums.

My version of AC is working fine (5.0.PRE.2616), but it's also the one from December. Just didn't have the time to upgrade yet.

So if anyone out there has this problem, please post a comment. If anyone knows what the problem is or, better yet, has a fix/workaround, post a comment or e-mail me and I'll help get the info out.

Circle the wagons

Beginner Auction House Tycoons - Use Auctioneer Classic

Ever since Tobold's frustrating experience with Auctioneer I've been thinking about which version of Auctioneer is right for those just starting out with bargain hunting in the WoW Auction House (AH).

The answer: Auctioneer Classic.

Personally I use both. Both? Yeah, both. Auctioneer Advanced is good for the more advanced strategies of flipping in the AH, but Auctioneer Classic has a few features that come in real handy for me. I'll write more about how I used the Advanced suite in later posts.

For now, focus on the Classic version. It's more intuitive and easier to understand just coming out of the gate. And many of my tips and examples already deal with the Classic version. Like my post on how to use Auctioneer Classic to search auctions for deals and my whole Rags to Riches series uses Auctioneer Classic for all my flipping.

And there are a smattering of posts if you click on the Auctioneer label here in the blog.

If you have any questions or frustrations with Auctioneer I'd love to here them. If I have an answer for you (I never seem to be at a loss for words...I know, you're surprised) I'll follow-up with an e-mail, comment or new post.

Hey, success stories are good too! Breaks up cranky energy that really mess with my yin and yang. Ohmmmmm.

A Bad Experience With Auctioneer

Tobold was inspired by me to download Auctioneer and give it a whirl. Me! My head is so big I won't be able to fit through the Auction House (AH) door.

/gasp
/deflate ego

Better.

First off, thanks for the link Tobold. I've got you in my personal feed. Not sure why you're not on the roll but will take care of that right after this post.

Second, his experience with Auctioneer was less than joyful. He brings up many good points about how the Auctioneer add-on experience can be about as much fun as getting ganked by an army of twink rogues in Warsong Gulch. And I'm sure he's not the only one. So I figured I'd share my perspective here.

Auctioneer's Prices Are Wrong

Correct-ish. I wrote about how the add-on can be misleading a couple weeks back. Auctioneer will give you good information as long as you feed it often. Over time the prices will even out and you can start trusting it. You do this by scanning the AH regularly.

How soon can you count on Auctioneer's data to give you good info? Glad you asked. Just wrote about this yesterday.

Tobold is right that it doesn't take into account world events, time of the week or anything else that can impact a market. This is why you should always stick to markets you kinda-sorta know when first starting off. Build your confidence in the tool and yourself before taking risks.

Auctioneer's Stats Aren't Perfect

Correct-ish. In Auctioneer Advanced the most prominent stats are the averages it displays. Averages are a good metric, but not great. They do roll in the uber-high-what-are-you-smoking prices as well as the really low ones. This can skew the info.

However, it does display the median price as well. For those that used to leave math class with a big red circle on your forhead and wiping drool from your cheek, the median is the middle price for all the auctions Auctioneer has seen. This means half of all auctions where below this number and half of all auctions where above this number. It's better than an average because those auctions for Refreshing Spring Water at 900 gold don't mess with it at all.

I find that the median price is a better guide for the market value and it's my main point of reference for my flips.

Auctioneer Advanced Is Too Confusing

You bet it is. Especially with the suite of tools. There are a lot of bells and whistles that make this add-on very powerful. The Auctioneer team continues to do a phenominal job at delivering a top-notch tool. My Crimson Felt Hat goes off to them.

/shake pom-poms

The downside is that it's very confusing, overwhelming and frustrating for new users. Even for seasoned users. Sounds like Tobold had BottomScanner on which can be as much fun as bamboo under the fingernails if it's not set correctly.

If you are just getting started, use Auctioneer Classic instead. I've got a slew of tips and examples of using it. It's a good starting point.

Profits Would Dry Up If Everyone Used Auctioneer

While I think this is a natural concern to have, I respectfully disagree. I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up before. Here's why I'll never be worried about how many people use auctioneer and being able to make lots of gold at it.

1. Everyone has a different style of play. Not everyone will buy a La-Z-Boy recliner, roast smores in the fires of the Ironforge AH and snatch up all the bargains all day. Very few people enjoy flipping so much that it will be the vast majority of their play experience.
   
2. Each flipper has a different risk aversion. This means that while some will be wheeling-and-dealing in Epics some will be extremely conservative. There's room for everyone.
   
3. Each flipper will have a different market strategy. Some like to undercut everyone. Some like to target market price. Some like to wait till items dry up and sell for a premium. Others don't like waiting and will try and corner the market.
   
4. Not everyone will use Auctioneer. People will get confused, get burned, not care and so on.
   
5. There are always deals. There is always the next deal. The AH is open 24x7 and there are deals every minute. It will not dry up.
   

Whew!

Long post.

So, are there any other bad experiences out there? Other things that drive you crazy about Auctioneer? I'm curious to know.

Ask Og - How Many Scans Does Auctioneer Need For Me To Trust It's Recommendations?

Got this question from a comment on one of my posts for just getting started with flipping. As I was writing the response it dawned on me that others might be interested in the answer as well (I'm thinking pretty highly of myself right now - don't worry, this won't last long). So how many scans of the Auction House (AH) do you need to do to start trusting Auctioneer's recommendations?

Well, it depends on the item.

First let me clarify that it's not just the number of scans, but the number of scans over different days. So don't go in and just scan 7 times over 30 minutes and feel you're good to go. If you do you are just re-scanning the same auctions and what you want is historical data. Historical data will even out the data which is what you want.

In addition, if you are just starting out, stick with markets you know or kinda-sorta know. That reduces the risk. I'll post something about how to take risks the smart way by learning from my experience ("experience" = "all the times Og's screwed up royally because he thought he knew it all").

For me to feel pretty confident on Auctioneer's recommendations across all auctions I aim for a week's worth of scanning with a scan each day. If you don't play everyday (your willpower impresses me) a minimum of 4 scans on different days.

Now you can start trusting the results for some things off the very first scan. These are items that are high volume and high demand items where the current competition is probably more important than historical ones. These items are...

#2 Silk Cloth (0.08g)
#4 Linen Cloth (0.02g)
#5 Runecloth (0.17g)
#7 Mageweave Cloth (0.18g)
#8 Wool Cloth (0.06g)
#9 Light Leather (0.04g)
** #10 Strange Dust (0.08g)
#12 Knothide Leather (0.50g)
#15 Medium Leather (0.04g)
** #18 Vision Dust (0.38g)
#19 Rugged Leather (0.19g)
#20 Bronze Bar (0.11g)
#23 Copper Ore (0.07g)
** #24 Dream Dust (0.32g)
#25 Adamantite Ore (0.87g)
#26 Earthroot (0.06g)
#28 Thick Leather (0.09g)
#29 Thorium Bar (0.90g)
#30 Copper Bar (0.05g)

The number with the pound (#) sign is the ranking by number of items in all the stacks from a recent snapshot of the Exodar AH. Those items with two asterisks in front of it are enchanting mats, highly volatile and I only recommend it if they are very cheap and in stacks of 20 or less (large quantities don't move quickly). Following the rank is the name of the item followed by a number in parenthesis. That number is the average buyout price per item (not auction) in gold - just remove the decimal point and you have the number of silver. So .05 gold is 5 silver.

I've also bolded those items that you can focus on with very little coin. Now these aren't the only items you can start flipping on with an empty purse, but these are the ones that everyone knows, has the supply/demand and you can just do what Auctioneer suggests.

A side note on averages - I'm not crazy about them because they don't account for the you've-got-to-be-freakin-kidding-me prices we all see in the auction house. Fresh bread for 750 gold...that better be some goooooood bread. However, averages do work pretty well on the high volume items so that's why I decided to use it.

Go flip and prosper.

What Everyone Should Know About Auctioneer

The fact is, Auctioneer can be wrong.

Sometimes.

OK, maybe "wrong" is a little harsh. Misled is probably a better word. It doesn't happen that often. Sometimes it's obvious but most times it's not. When it's not sooo obvious is when it can cost you serious gold because you realize too late that your profit margin is turning into a big loss.

You're probably thinking "so what the h-e-double-[Telaari Polearms] are you talking about, Og? Be specific. Focus. Gimme examples."

I'll give two examples - one using Auctioneer Classic (AC) and one using Auctioneer Advanced (AA). Here's what I pulled up recently when searching for bargains using AC...



[Freshly Baked Bread] is going for how much?!?!? And to think I was wasting all my time in the AH looking for bargains! Um, yeah. So what's up with this?

Well the way the auctioneer suite values an item is by looking back at the historical prices it has, which comes from your dutiful and diligent Auction House (AH) scans (/nag). At some point somebody posted bread at some obscene, crazy price which caused the market value of the item to get skewed big time. Fair market price is a couple of copper, not hundreds of gold.

Why would someone post fresh bread at ridiculous levels?

1. They're buying gold. After it's bought they post an item up for auction for an amount equal to however much gold they bought. The gold farmers buy it and complete the transaction.
   
2. Someone was bored and pricing bread at 80 gold a loaf was the most fun they had all day.
   
3. Deliberately trying to artificially inflate the market price long enough so they can drop the price and rake in the profits. Even though the item isn't worth 1/1,000 the price it looks outrageously cheap to suck in the naive, unthinking and sleep deprived.
   
4. Someone saw the crazy price as a result of one of the top 3 and tried to see if they could make some easy coin buy doing the same thing.
   

The second example comes from using AA and BottomScanner. This one looks legit and a good candidate for a flip that can earn over 10 gold (assuming mark down).



Then we look a little closer. Two pieces of information I use from Auctioneer quite often are the:

• Last X, median BO (ea) - Historically, the median of up to the last 36 (I believe that's the limit) auction prices for this item. Small historical snapshot to Even out what shows up on the next line.
  
• Scanned X, median BO (ea) - The number of auctions for this item on last scan and the median price of those items. If you did a scan of the AH before bargain hunting this represents what's going on in the AH right now.
  

When looking at these numbers this flip would cost me gold. The last 26 items had a median buyout of 19.75 gold. From the most recent scan (which didn't include this set of wristguards) there was one item posted for 252 gold but my guess is it didn't sell for that.

When in doubt, lean on those two pieces of information to guide you. When common sense /shrugs, look at those before you buy.

Get Yer Butt Outta Bed!

Wadi inspired this post from two of hers that talk about the advantages of WoW in the early morning (here and here). It's like the saying goes, "The early Mage gets the 5 Primal Fire for 50g!"

The only difference is that she's talking about not getting ganked and I'm talking about the Auction House (AH). Though, before I knew what I was doing, I've been ganked (spanked, yanked...you name it!) in the AH before.

The nice thing about hitting the auction house in the morning is that you can usually find good bargains from the night before. At the end of the night people are leveling up their skills and trying to throw everything in the AH fast because it's 4AM and they have to get up for school, work, kids, etc. in 2 hours (not like I know this from personal experience or anything). When people rush, they often settle. Plus everyone just wants their stuff to sell.

Going on first thing in the morning (6am - 8am) I can make an additional 10g-40g just from that. You don't have to post the items if you don't have the time. Just buy them. You can't sell them if you don't have them. It takes about 10 minutes.

I recommend getting a scan of the AH in there as well - feed Auctioneer, or Auctioneer Advanced, and it will be very good to you. I know you Hunters out there get that analogy.

What's The Frequency, Og?

You just done scanning the Auction House (AH) and you're looking at a sweet deal on something you have absolutely no clue what it is...two Dark Runes:





Practically practically a 600% markup! Heck, you might be able to push it a little and get an extra .5-1g. Woot! Or you could not make much on it at all. You could even loose a few coin. You're really not sure. What to do?


You can make some huge profits by buying and reselling items you have absolutely no clue about in the AH. You can also take a bath - loosing coin and time by repeated posts/mark downs to try and get the stuff to sell. OK, it's not normally quite that bad getting stuck with a "deal" that really isn't. The worst thing that will probably happen is you'll just about break even or lose a small percentage. It's more time, frustration and the annoying sound of my ego deflating (like a constant whine) than I want to deal with.



One of the first things I look at when I see a "killer" deal on something I know very little (or nothing) about is to look at how often it showed up in the AH. Auctioneer shows this when you hover over the item to bring up the tool (item?) tips....



It's kinda hard to see here, but you'll see on the third line down in the larger of the two transparent windows a line that says Seen 36 times at auction total. This means that while you've been scanning the AH religiously (you have been keeping up on your scanning, right?) this is the number of times Auctioneer saw this item.

Good information to know.


Why is this number important? It tells you a little about the demand of the item. Seeing high numbers can be good, or bad, depending on what the item is. For example, high numbers for armor and weapons are not a good thing (in this case "high" would mean more that 10 times over a four week period). But high numbers are good to see for Trade Goods because it means you'll sell it faster (high in this case is over 100). This doesn't mean that low numbers are bad in Trade Goods - it could be very high-level enchants or rare items - but I usually take it as a signal for a low-demand market.


This Dark Rune auction showed up in Trade Goods and it might be a great deal, but the frequency of how often it shows up isn't building my confidence. I will probably buy it (if it's still available after this post) to test the market. If I get burned on the profit it won't hurt me because I'm sitting on a nice pile of coin. I also have about 160 other auctions going on so this represents a very small risk for me.


I generally focus on four different categories in the auction house: Armor, Consumables, Trade Goods and Weapons. Off the cuff, these are my thresholds for what gives me the most incentive to buy a bargain in the AH (over a three week period):

• Armor - less than 10 times seen
• Consumable - more than 100 times seen
• Trade Goods - more than 100 times seen
• Weapon - less than 10 times seen

There are also several other pieces of data to look at before making a buy (medians, suggest BO, current prices, etc), but those will have to wait till another post.


Battle grounds are calling...

Rags to Riches in WOW: Day 5...And 6....And 7

When I post the days of this experience these represent calendar days (not time played). That's why I'm posting 5 through 7 in one shot. I haven't had much time to be online those last couple days so my time was mostly in logging in, checking mail, scanning for bargains, posting them and then logging off.

So here goes the quick hits for those days...

Day 5

After opening my mail I'm sitting pretty at a little over 40 gold. Here's what I picked up. Same format as before: first number before the slash is what I paid for it and the number after is the expected worth.

Super Mana Potion x2 3g/7g
Scroll of Agility III x1 41s/90s
Scroll of Agility III x1 5s/90s
Gold Ore x2 40s/82s
Silver Bar x10 2.6g/5.575g
Thick Leather x20 84s/3g
Thick Leather x20 84s/3g
Heavy Leather x20 76s/3g
Spider's Silk x1 30s/9g
Linen Cloth x14 7s/32s
Wool Cloth x15 11s/88s
Tangy Clam Meat x4 7s/22s

Day 6

This is blur. I didn't have much time so I logged in, grabbed my mail, trolled the AH and put them back up for auction. I did a poor job of tracking everything I'm buying and selling, but I think you're getting the gist of it all by now. Also did some shopping for when I hit level 13 and here's some of what I bought (funny how I captured what I spent on these)...

Blackened Defias Boots 4g
Blackened Defias Leggings 3.9g
Blackened Defias Gloves 75s
Hunting Pants 10s
Lupine Handwraps of the Monkey 10s
Netherweave Bag 6.9g
Netherweave Bag 6.9g

I'd like to build up the Defias gear to get the set (5 pieces). I'm all about matching armor and looking good. I have friends go straight for the stats regardless, but I think you can look good AND have the stats. Especially when you've got a pile of gold to work with :) The bags are a necessity. I'm itching to get out and quest as soon as I get a little more time and the 6/8 slot bags are a joke. Yeah, these are more money, but time is money. The less time I have to worry about clearing out my bag or heading back to home base the more experience and/or gold I'm earning.

Day 7

Here's what's showing up in my mailbox (81 messages!) as what's been sold:

Scroll of Protection II
Elixir of Wisdom (several)
Healing Potion (several)
Silver Bar (several)
Scroll of Protection III
Dream Dust
Tangy Clam Meat (many)
Solid Sharpening Stone (many)
Copper Ore
Heavy Armor Kit (several)
Ironweb Spider Silk (several)
Spider's Silk (several)
Medium Leather
Small Glimmering Shard
Greater Astral Essense (several)
Greater Mana Potion (several)
Arcane Dust (several)
Core of Earth
Mithril Spurs

...after opening them all I'm at 69 gold. Not bad for an 11th level hunter. Since I have my pet (woop!) after I do some quick bargain hunting I need to find me a weapon master and build up my quest queue.

Off to Day 8

Auctioneer Fixes for 2.3 Patch Available

The Auctioneer add on team have released versions of Auctioneer Classic and Auctioneer advanced that fixes the bugs introduced by the folks at WOW with their latest 2.3 patch. Some of the bugs I mentioned a couple days ago are now fixed and it's overall a MUCH better product.

The announcement of the fixes can be found in the Auctioneer forums, and the updated versions can be found off their download page.

This latest release really had quite a few surprises so many kudos to the Auctioneer team for getting a fix out quickly. I'm a happy flipper.

Nice work!

The Good, The Bad and The Workaround - Auctioneer And The New Patch From Blizzard

Auctioneer is now much faster. Auctioneer is now also broke.

The good news is that scanning is speedier. It used to take me about 4 minutes to scan the Trade Goods category. Now it's about 30 seconds! At first I thought Auctioneer was broken - had to be. Like maybe it wasn't scanning all the new categories or something. But I kept an eye on the page scan rate and the number of auctions scanned and it's definitely faster. WooHoo...less time in the Auction House (AH)!

The bad news is that this recent patch broke Auctioneer functionality for posting an auction. It seems that the new time options when posting auctions that I mentioned in yesterday's post are the culprit. Auctioneer is showing the old time selections (2, 8 and 24 hours) which doesn't seem compatible with the new (12, 24 and 48 hours). Had a minor panic attack when I went to create the auction and the item just sat there. What do I do? I actually went back to the WOW interface for the AH to post my items. I forgot how painful that is - getting cold sweats just thinking about it.

But there is some good news in terms of a workaround until this is fixed by the exceptional folks on the Auctioneer team. After experimenting a little I found that if I selected the 8 hour option for my auction it would get posted using the Auctioneer interface. And it seems that selection actually posts the item for 24 hours instead of 8 (which is my time preference for all my auctions). So it kinda works. One thing I don't know is if the amount of the deposit is accurate.

Unfortunately Auctioneer's ability to auto create auctions for you (SHIFT + ALT + Left Click on an item) does not work. If you're a stack splitter like myself, this means more time to post your auctions. But at least you don't have to use WOW default interface!

There's no word on Auctioneer's web site that they are aware of the problem or if a fix is in the works. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the answer is "yes" and "yes."

I'll Flip You For It! - Make A Ton Of Gold At The WOW Auction House

There are bargains in the Auction House (AH) all the time. If you can find these bargains, and have a little coin, you can buy out the auction and flip it - post it back in the AH for a profit. I've made anywhere from 20s to over 100g on individual items by flipping them. And anybody can do this - it's not rocket science. But there is a hitch - you have to find the bargains first.

The good news is that if you have the Auctioneer addon for World of Warcraft you have just the tool you need. When this addon is installed and loaded you will be able to search auctions for items that are priced 30%, 40%, 90% or any % under their market price. You do this through the Search Auctions tab that shows up in the AH interface (see screenshot).


Before I go any further, let me say that if you are not regularly scanning the AH with Auctioneer this tab can't help you. That's because searching auctions for bargains relies on the Auctioneer database which is only populated by YOU...by scanning the AH.

Assuming you are keeping Auctioneer fed with market data, here's what the different settings on this screen mean...

Search: There are five items in this drop-down to choose from - Bid, Buyout, Competition, Item and Seller. I only use the Bid and Buyout options. This is partially out of ignorance and mostly out of not-feeling-the-need-to-use-the-other-options. The Bid option searches the bid prices in the AH and the Buyout searches the, you guessed it, buyout prices.

Minimum Profit: Here's where you tell Auctioneer which items you want to see from the search based on their profit potential. The profit is based on what the item's buyout or bid price is (depending on what you set for the Search option) compared to the market price. You can set it based on copper (um, why?), silver and/or gold. I tend to set this for 20s because the way Auctioneer determines market price is good, but far from perfect...that's fodder for another post.

Min Pct Less: Restricts which items are shown based on potential profit. For example, setting this at 30 means auctioneer will only show those items that it believes can turn a 30% profit, or more, if you flip it.

Min Bid %: I don't use this. Min Pct Less works pretty well for me for both Bids and Buyouts.

Category Restriction: Tells Auctioneer which categories to scan for bargains.

Minimum Quality: Defaults to "Poor." I don't touch it because I don't want to filter out any items and I want to see everything.

Search for Item: I don't use this either since I'm not looking for specific items but bargains in general.


OK, so once you've got all your criteria setup you hit the "Search" button. In the example screenshot here I scanned the Consumable market. When the results come back from the search you'll get five columns:

Qty - The quantity of the item.

Name - Duh.

Buyout (or Bid) - The buyout (or bid) price.

Profit - Amount Auctioneer thinks you could make if you flipped this item.

Pct - Percent profit based on the differenece between the buyout (or bid) price and the estimated market price.

When these results come back, I immediately click on the Pct column to reverse the order and show those items that have the biggest profit margins. On the surface, the results shown here don't look spectacular but I see where I can probably make 4g and only spend about 2g. Plus this is just one category.

A couple of things to keep in mind when using the Search Auctions functionality in Auctioneer:

1. The results shown here is based off your last scan of the AH categories you have selected. Make sure you scan right before you search.
2. If you are just starting out, stick to buying items that you at least have an idea of what the market is for them.
3. The % of profit and amount of profit shown are not entirely accurate.
4. Before buying an item, browse the items that are currently listed (your competition if you buy). This will give you an idea of whether the projected profit is lower or higher than what Auctioneer shows.
5. It should be obvious from the first three points, but don't just blindly start buying out all the items in the search results.

It might take a few times before you get a good feel for what to buy and what to pass on, but it will come. And so will the profits! Happy hunting!

Are You Throwing Gold Away?

If you don't take the time to scan the auction house (AH) with Auctioneer on a regular basis you are likely throwing gold off the gryphon. Without a good sampling of what's selling in the AH, it's a good bet you'll end up making at least some of these mistakes:

• Leave behind or destroy valuable loot because it's "worthless
• Sell loot to a vendor that could have fetched 5 times more coin in the AH
• Leave gold on the table by selling an item far below its market price
• Bleed gold and time by repeatedly pricing items in the AH far above the market value

If you don't have the Auctioneer addon for World of Warcraft, get it! If you have it, use it. I know it can be a pain to perform full scans of the AH because it takes time to do. On my realm the scan can run for about 10 minutes. Ugh. However there are ways you can minimize its intrusiveness on play time. Try running it...

• A little before you plan to start playing for the day.
• Whenever you want to take a break.
• As the last thing you kick off after you're done for the day.
• In the mornings when you're getting ready for work or school.

Not sure what scanning the AH house means? When the Auctioneer addon is loaded, in addition to the AH interface you are used to you'll notice two new elements on the first tab: checkboxes next to all the catogories and a "Scan" button on the bottom next to where your gold (or silver or...gasp...copper?) is shown.

The checkboxes tell Auctioneer which categories to scan. It does take a while to do (and there are two really big ones - Armor and Trade Goods), but I recommend checking them all and do a full scan at least once a week. When you start flipping you'll be scanning specific categories more often and full scans will be less important.

After you click the "Scan" button, Auctioneer will tell you the progress it makes and will let you know when it's done. Aside from the time taken away from questing and raiding, it's pretty painless. Now when you hover over an item in WOW, whether it's in your bag, at a vendor or in the AH, Auctioneer will popup a window that shows you what it's seen in the AH in terms of pricing like in the screenshot to the left.

Looks like I'm not going to unload this for 5g :)

With this information easily at your finger tips you are less likely to make mistakes in pricing based on bad (or no) information. Now to really get the most coin for the items you put in the AH this isn't the only thing you'll have to do, but it's a start.