[Diablo III] Planning on buying/selling items in Diablo 3? It's legal! ....at a price.

Auction House in action: Free-for-all.

So you heard the real-money auction house coming to Diablo III eh? But it'll cost ya.

What, they didn't tell you the 'catch'? Well, way back in Diablo 2 RMT (real money trading) was done in gray channels; well, shady dealings and such that Blizzard has no control of. This time, with Diablo III, they've set up an auction house for us players. Buy-and-sell in-game items for either gold or money. Real money. Dollars. Benjamins.

But I'm not here to let your hopes skyrocket.

So what's to buy? Or sell? Well, there's loots. Gold (Gold, GOOOLD!!). Equipment. Recipes and such. After all, the main attraction of Diablo III, besides the obvious storyline and demon-and-undead-killing-spree, is looting. Be it on scattered treasure chests or the corpses of your fallen enemies. Not to mention the scattered remains of NPC adventurers and such. With the stuff that you may not use in the long run or just look around and find useable materials, why not make a profit out it. After all, it's a rave in China it's a means to break even for just buying Diablo III (be it digitally or thru retail). And maybe other players need your stuff. So sell them. And that's where the fees come in.

So here's the deal: When you sell commodities such as gems and recipes on the auction house, Blizzard will take a 15% cut of the final sales price. When you sell equipment such as weapons or armor, Blizzard will take $1 per item. Nice no? Or am I hearing wails of anguish coming from the farmers' gatherers' sector?

Blizzard will also take another 15% cut as "transfer fee" if you opt to cash out to third-party payment service PayPal. Not to mention any additional fees that PayPal imposes on its own. If you want to avoid that fee, your only option is to deposit your profits in your Battle.net Balance, which you can then use to buy digital copies of Blizzard games or more items at the auction house. Your Battle.net Balance can't be turned into cash. You can link a credit card to pay for items, but you can't use it to receive money.

So summary: if you're gonna sell and make real money out of it, Blizzard takes a hefty 15% sales fee (for gems and recipes, maybe even loots), then another 15% "transfer fee". For selling equipment and the like, it's $1/equipment sales, then 15% transfer fee. Simple to understand, right?

To quote Blizzard:

Note that the process of sending proceeds to a third-party payment service will be subject to applicable fees charged by Blizzard and the third-party payment service, Also, any proceeds from the sale of items in the real-money auction house that have been sent to the player's Battle.net Balance will not be transferrable to the third-party payment service account.

For addicted enthusiastic Diablo III item/gold farmers players, these fees could add up quickly. I can hear the cries of players hating the system, but it's a means to control the pricing system of items and such. But Blizzard says even with transaction fees, players will prefer the officially sanctioned system.

The item-based nature of Diablo gameplay has always lent itself to an active trade-based ecosystem, and a significant part of this trade has been conducted through unsecure third-party organizations. This has led to numerous customer-service and game-experience issues that we've needed to account for. Our primary goal with the Diablo III auction house system is for it to serve as the foundation for a player-driven economy that's safe, fun, and accessible to everyone.

And yeah, there's a cap on your Battle.net Balance. When you reach $250, you can't place items for auction anymore. Meaning you have to use that money if you want to sell more (do remember that you can't use your Battle.net Balance to cash out real money). The minimum amount for bid is $1.25, and the maximum is $250. Also, Blizzard will not be putting items up for sale themselves; all transactions will be left up to players.

Nicely done, Blizzard. Nicely done.

Now the question is if the choice of cashing out (ie Paypal) or thru Battle.net Balance for your profits is either a one-time deal for all succeeding transactions, or can be done on a 'per-item' basis.

Well, with 14 days to go, hopefully Blizzard will iron out the creases of the FAQ.

Sources: [Diablo 3 Auction House How-to]
               [Diablo 3 Auction House Functionality]