This morning I awoke to find $50 worth of test currency in my Diablo III Beta Auction account. They’ve granted every beta tester the same amount and reset their accounts as I explained in my post Diablo III Beta Patch 7 – RMAH. I invested that $50 dollars according to my system* and went to level a Barbarian and then a Monk. The levelling process was, as usual stunning fun.
The Barbarian and Monk are classes I’ve neglected in my beta testing so far – bringing each to level 9 (the average level I find I reach just before defeating the Skeleton King) was a joy. I’d gained quite a few items and around 2,000 gold from playing through these two classes – again following my own formula* – and at this point I took stock of my bids. Some had failed. This is to be expected. Some had succeeded. Very good! Everything I had at this point was re-listed at a wide range of price points. I did this so that I could begin estimate values for the various commodities, items and of course gold.
This whole process took approximately 5 hours. Once done, all I needed to do was wait. After a busy week I’d earned a few beers and some Skyrim and Diablo III talk (I never stop!) with a friend. When I returned, this is what I saw when I logged in:
Forgive the rushed video but I felt the need to share. $50 -> $150 (with about $30 in auctions outstanding) isn’t what I was expecting for the first day of real currency testing. For ~5 hours play that’s $20 per hour, which isn’t bad at all. However, it’s very early days (or day) and, because this is the beta, there are factors we need to take into account:
- There are fewer players. This means less a) demand, and b) supply.
- There are still outstanding bugs preventing users from buying/selling/playing properly.
- Every tester was given $50. Some may be more free and easy with Blizzard money than they would if it were their money;
- But Players cannot add to their $50. Careless spenders (those who blow their allowance on 2 rare items) cannot continue being careless for long.
- The Diablo III real money auction house beta test is the best & the closest indication of whether money can be made from Diablo III.
- All successful auctions have an $0.80 fee (not final). This is steep for low $ sales but is good (it’s not a percentage) for larger sales.
Everything I am seeing so far indicates that there’s definite promise to the Diablo III RMAH. What do you think? Do you think the beta will show a much higher $/hour rate or a much lower $/hour rate?
Edit/ I woke up to an additional $15 of items sold. Time to reinvest.
Ray
*My system or formula is a little something I’ve built from plentiful WoW experience and I’m trying to adapt it to Diablo III. It’s part instinct, part technique and part education. I am putting it down on paper at the moment and may share it at some point.
