This happens on Thrall, not sure if it’s on others.
There’s an AH bot that posts single trade goods at a significantly lower price than the actual minimum. This traps sellers who sell without setting a price, which defaults to the lowest price in the listings, the bot’s bait price. Items sold like this will be picked up by the bot in seconds.
When selling, watch out for this, and select the price below the single item. If you accidentally post it at the bot’s price, it will be gone in seconds.
However, you can take advantage of this if you only need a few of the item and have a few minutes. Just buy the singles from the bot, and they’ll be replaced on the next scan. Refresh every 30 seconds or so, and click buy when the bargain pops up again.
In the example pic, you can pick up Laestrite Ores for 1.1g instead of 7.96, and remove the bot’s bait at the same time.
Blizz could fix this by not defaulting the sell price to the lowest one in the listings. Make users pick a price by clicking one to match, or by typing a new one in.
yep, i did this a few months ago for an hour or two (refreshing every few minutes while i did other stuff at the computer) until the guy gave up. it was nice. i got enough mats to make a few flasks that cost me basically nothing!
No one is trapped unless you’re incapable or too lazy to read your screen. Pay attention to your screen and this problem won’t happen. It’s literally in two places for you to see before you list it.
For a more serious answer, i’ve found checking the price of the item i’m about to post is rather advantageous. Sometimes i can snipe a bunch of an item from someone trying to undercut!
