The WoW Forever Auction House deposit requires at least 1 silver per listing, including cheap items whose percentage-based deposit would be lower. You recover the deposit when your item sells; cancelling the auction or letting it expire forfeits it. A tiny premium over vendor value is therefore a poor reason to risk a listing.
How much do you put up before a sale?
The original WoW Auction House fee structure bases the deposit on vendor value and auction length.
| Listing duration | Original deposit calculation |
| 2 hours | 5% of vendor value |
| 8 hours | 20% of vendor value |
| 24 hours | 60% of vendor value |
For an item worth 4 silver and 61 copper at a vendor, the expected 8-hour deposit is 92 copper, while Forever displays 1 silver. That example shows a floor replacing the smaller result, rather than an extra silver added to it.
The sale commission is a separate expense: profession margins below deduct the Auction House's 5% cut as well as reagent costs. Treat the upfront deposit and the amount you keep after a sale as separate parts of your decision.
Is this a bug or an anti-spam rule?
The WoW Forever Auction House deposit bug reported during beta involved a mismatch between the displayed deposit and the amount actually deducted; on live servers those amounts match. Retail-client behavior is a possible explanation for the minimum, since that client already used a 1 silver floor in 2018 or earlier.
A corrected display does not, by itself, establish why the minimum exists.
When should you vendor instead of listing?
You need dependable starting money
Ruined Leather Scraps appeared at 7 copper each both at the Auction House and at a vendor in a beta goldmaking demonstration. Vendoring wins that comparison: the auction offers no extra value to justify the risk.
Larger stacks are one way to make low-value listings less exposed to the minimum deposit, while vendoring gives you a guaranteed payment. Prefer the guaranteed return when the auction premium is too small to justify a failed attempt.
Quest rewards provide raw gold without requiring a buyer, and grey loot can be sold directly to merchants. The WoW Forever Gold Farming Guide covers alternatives when speculative sales are a poor fit for your starting funds.
You craft items with narrow margins
A beta test showed that breaking down low-level tailoring greens into enchanting materials lost money overall; a later bag-vendoring trial also required three threads per bag, which left much less profit than planned when linen cloth sold for 25 copper. Those were that creator's beta results, rather than a current crafting guarantee.
For regional examples, the November 6 scan found no Tailoring goods selling above their reagent cost on US or EU realms, so no Linen Bag margin is left to list as an example. A recipe can sell regularly and still leave too little room for failed listings.
Pocket CFO displays Auction House, disenchanting and vendor values together, while Scrap automatically sells items you have marked as junk. Keep wanted crafting materials out of Scrap's junk selection, since it will sell those too.
You compete on price or sell enhanced gear
Undercutting by a copper helps identical items sell sooner, in the experience of some players discussing trading in September. Matching the lowest price is preferable to others in those September discussions, who see undercutting and another listing as a way to lose the deposit.
Neither preference makes a narrow-margin item a safe listing. Avoid turning a marginal sale into repeated attempts to recover money already spent.
Which professions show the strongest sales margins?
The November 5, 2026 US and EU scan comes from a reading series that began November 6, 2026, with 1 day recorded; prices vary by realm and move quickly on new realms. US Leatherworking leads aggregate daily margin at 33g 50s, while EU Herbalism leads at 13g 47s; those totals are shared across sellers on an average realm, rather than earnings for one character. Each regional entry below names that profession's leading item by daily profit, followed by its margin per craft or gathered unit and units sold per day; enchant services and disenchanting returns are outside these figures.
| Profession | US: best item; margin; sold a day | EU: best item; margin; sold a day |
| Leatherworking | Handstitched Leather Vest; 1s 2c; 974 | Medium Leather; 2s 40c; 76 |
| Blacksmithing | Copper Rod; 73c; 931 | Coarse Sharpening Stone; 10s 84c; 16 |
| Herbalism | Peacebloom; 10c; 3,762 | Peacebloom; 14c; 2,676 |
| Skinning | Light Leather; 18c; 4,145 | Light Leather; 22c; 2,905 |
| Tailoring | None above reagent cost; —; — | None above reagent cost; —; — |
| Mining | Tin Ore; 12s 59c; 61 | Copper Ore; 17c; 5,453 |
| Alchemy | Minor Mana Potion; 84c; 492 | Swiftness Potion; 3s 46c; 20 |
| Enchanting | Novice's Practice Wand; 24c; 1,116 | No item above reagent cost; —; — |
| Cooking | Kaldorei Spider Kabob; 40c; 508 | Basic Campfire; 76c; 132 |
| Engineering | Copper Modulator; 1s 56c; 36 | Rough Dynamite; 1s 2c; 94 |
Loss-making examples include US Lesser Mana Potion at 1s against 7s 32c in reagents, and EU Heavy Leather at 3s 50c against 17s 50c in reagents.
What players report
Six players on the official WoW: Forever forums reported a flat 1 silver deposit regardless of the value of the items they tried listing.
Five forum participants considered the minimum excessive for early characters and feared that vendoring materials instead would reduce supply and raise prices; they favored a 1 copper deposit.
Initially the deposit on Beta was 1 copper, or I’m pretty sure as I was listing herbs, ore, cloth etc.
— one player
Three players on the official forums wanted deposits tied to vendor value or a sliding scale.
Two forum participants reported having to vendor materials before they could afford to list anything.
Two others on the official forums described the minimum as an old measure against single-item auction spam and argued that it should be changed.
