Commodities vs realm auctions: why the same item has two prices
Modern retail World of Warcraft runs two separate auction markets, and the difference explains most of the confusion about auction house prices.
The region-wide commodity auction house
Anything stackable — herbs, ore, cloth, potions, enchanting materials, crafting reagents — trades on a single region-wide market. Every realm in the US shares one commodity auction house, and every realm in the EU shares another. There are currently about 10,000 distinct commodities listed in the US and 12,000 in the EU.
This has a consequence people miss: there is no such thing as a cheaper realm for herbs. If Dreamleaf costs 40 gold each, it costs 40 gold each on all 246 US realms, at the same moment. Transferring realms to shop for reagents accomplishes nothing.
Commodities also quote their price per unit. A listing of 200 Dreamleaf at 40 gold means 40 gold each and 8,000 gold for the lot.
The per-realm auction house
Everything that does not stack — gear, weapons, bags, pets, mounts, recipes — trades on your connected realm's own auction house. These prices genuinely do differ between realms, and a low-population realm can have a thin market with wild prices.
Per-realm listings quote a stack buyout: the price shown is for the whole listing, not per item. A stack of 8 Iron Ore listed at 25 silver is 25 silver total, or a little over 3 silver each.
Why this matters when you compare prices
Two listings can look identical and mean completely different things:
| Listing | Quantity | Price shown | Actually costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commodity | 19 | 1,500 gold | 1,500 gold each — 28,500 gold total |
| Realm auction | 19 | 1,500 gold | 1,500 gold total — about 79 gold each |
That is a 19× difference in the price per item, from the same two numbers. It is the single most common way people misread an auction house listing.
Every listing on this site shows both figures — price each and the total for the stack — precisely so you never have to work out which convention applies. You can also sort by either one, or by quantity, using the sort links above any list of results.
Bids without buyouts
A small share of realm auctions are listed with a bid and no buyout at all. There is no "buy it now" price for those, so we label them as a bid rather than a price, and they sort to the bottom of a cheapest-first list. If you see a listing marked as a bid, you are looking at an auction you have to win, not something you can purchase outright.
To look up a commodity's region-wide price and its history, use the commodity page for your region — for example Giant Dinosaur Bone in the US. For gear and other realm-specific listings, search your own realm from the home page.