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Auction House

How the auction house system works server-side (src/game/AuctionHouse/AuctionHouseMgr.cpp, handlers in src/game/Handlers/AuctionHouseHandler.cpp).

Tables

Table Purpose
auction (characters DB) One row per live auction: item, seller/buyer, prices, deposit, expiry.
item_instance The physical item while it is escrowed by the AH.
logs_trade Money flow entries with types AuctionBid / AuctionBuyout when trade logging is on.

By default there are three houses - Alliance, Horde and Neutral (Booty Bay/Gadgetzan/Everlook/Winterspring) - distinguished by auction.house_id; house metadata comes from AuctionHouse.dbc. Config can change this grouping: AllowTwoSide.Interaction.Auction merges everything into a single house, and with Progression.UnlinkedAuctionHouses (enabled by default) every DBC entry gets its own house on pre-1.9 timelines.

Economics

Both rates come from AuctionHouse.dbc per house and are configurable multipliers:

  • Deposit (charged at listing, lost if the sale fails): SellPrice x stack x (listing_time / 2h) x depositPercent x Rate.Auction.Deposit, never below Auction.Deposit.Min.
  • Cut (taken from the seller when the sale succeeds): cutPercent x final_bid x Rate.Auction.Cut.

Related settings in mangosd.conf: Rate.Auction.Time, Rate.Auction.Deposit, Rate.Auction.Cut, Auction.Deposit.Min.

Lifecycle

  1. List - item moves into AH escrow; an auction row is created and the deposit charged.
  2. Bid / Buyout - bids above the current one refund the previous bidder; a buyout ends the auction immediately.
  3. End
  4. Sold: the seller receives a mail with bid + deposit - cut; the buyer gets the item by mail (message_type = 2, auction).
  5. Expired without bid: the item is returned to the seller by mail.
  6. Expired/sold auctions are removed from the table; everything travels as regular mail, so delivery follows the normal mail rules.

Administration

  • .auction command family lists live auctions per house (alliance / horde / goblin) - see GM Commands.
  • To stock markets automatically, use the Auction House Bot: auctionhousebot rows become normal auctions owned by a hidden seller.