The 25 cents club is gaining members rapidly. These are all those players who have made at least a quarter on the auction house. You can sell just about any decent piece of gear at any level for $1.25 if not more. Players have loaded up their real money balances and began looking for upgrades. But who would buy something for $1.25 that they can get on the gold auction house for much less in gold? I’m assuming that many of these players are “gold broke” meaning they have ran completely out of gold and are too lazy to go earn some. Instead they can easily transfer realm money into their accounts and get upgrades now.

At this time, there is no legal way to buy gold with real money. This is stopping players from buying a lump sum of gold and then taking it over to the gold based auction house to load up on gear. Until the real money gold auction house is enabled, players will continue paying $1.25 for just about any upgrade. You don’t have to sell things for $1.25, if the item is good enough the price starts going up quickly. Some items have sold for $50 and higher. The $1.25 mark is the bare minimum players must sell their extra gear for; Blizzard keeps $1.00 and the seller keeps $0.25.

Don’t I need to Deposit Money Before Selling?

No you do not need to deposit money before selling on the real money auction house. You will want to attach a PayPal account to your Battle.net account if you want to have proceeds go to you instead of Battle.net Balance. The $1.00 fee is not charged unless the item sells, so there’s no risk (except the 36 hour wait).

Why Would People Pay $1.25 on a Small Upgrade?

Simple. They are out of gold, aren’t allowed to buy gold and want that damn upgrade. Second to that, that’s the bare minimum that Blizzard will let us post our gear on the RMAH. Players are starting to move their auctions from the gold auction house over to the rmah, sending gold prices up.

How Much Will Gold Sell for in Real-Money?

Right now the price on the black market seems to be right around $10 for every 1 million gold, that’s $1 for 100,000 gold. Prices are typically higher on a black market, since the transactions are not reliable, the sources of the gold are questionable and everything goes on without Blizzard involved. I have not tested these services and don’t endorse them due to the questionable way (hacking) that they acquire the gold in the first place. I expect 100k gold to start between 50 cents and $1.00 when the gold trade goes live on the RMAH.

When Will Gold Be Available?

Blizzard said that they are working hard to bring the gold and commodities live on the RMAH, but it’s definitely in their best financial interest to stall. The current system’s fees are a lot higher, and players are paying a lot more gold-equivalent, than if the gold trade was live.

Important: Many of the strategies and tips I share here were originally inspired by the people at the Diablo 3 Gold Secrets Forum. If you're serious about making the big bucks in Diablo 3, or just being the best players, you need to signup ASAP.