All Games6 min read

MMO Price Alerts Guide

The best trades in MMO economies are timed — consumables cheap on Sunday, items below average after a supply flush, new patch items spiking in the first 48 hours. Price alerts let you set a threshold on any item and receive a notification the moment the price crosses it, so you can act at the right moment without watching prices manually. This guide explains how alerts work and how to choose good thresholds using the price history charts.

Why Price Alerts Are Essential

Experienced MMO traders know their target prices in advance: the price at which an item becomes cheap enough to buy, or expensive enough to sell profitably. Without alerts, acting on these targets requires manually checking prices throughout the day. With alerts, you set the threshold once and receive a notification when the market reaches it — then log in and act.

Two fundamental use cases:

Buy-below alert

You want to buy an item when the price drops to a level that makes it a good deal. You set the threshold and receive an alert when the price falls to or below it. Common use: waiting for a WoW consumable to hit the Sunday/Monday low before buying for the weekly cycle.

Sell-above alert

You already own an item and want to know when the market recovers to a price where you can sell profitably. You set the threshold and receive an alert when the price rises to or above it. Common use: knowing when to list stock you bought at a dip without watching the market all week.

How AuricDB Alerts Work

When a price crosses your alert threshold, AuricDB sends a notification to your configured channels (email by default). You can enable additional channels — Discord DM, webhook, Pushover, ntfy, or browser push — from the Settings page. The notification includes: the item name, game, which threshold was triggered, the current price at time of trigger, and a direct link to the item detail page so you can act immediately.

Alerts are evaluated each time new price data arrives:

GW2: Alerts checked every 5 minutes (matching the price refresh rate)
FFXIV: Alerts checked every 30 minutes per world
WoW Classic: Alerts checked every 60 minutes per realm
PoE: Alerts checked every 30 minutes

Once an alert fires, it deactivates automatically. To be notified again for the same condition, you would need to recreate the alert. This prevents repeated notification storms if a price bounces around a threshold repeatedly.

Setting Up a Buy-Below Alert (Step by Step)

1
Make sure you are signed in. Alerts require an account. Click Sign In in the navigation bar if you have not already.
2
Search for the item you want to track. Use the search bar on the homepage or game dashboard. For a GW2 example: search “Glob of Ectoplasm”.
3
Open the item detail page. Click the item in the search results. You will see the current buy and sell prices, the price history chart, and further down the page, an Alerts section.
4
Choose your threshold using the chart. Look at the 7-day (or longer) price history to identify a reasonable buy-low target. For Ectoplasm, if the chart shows it ranging between 2800 and 3500 copper over the past week, a threshold of 2900 copper catches the bottom of its range without being unrealistically low.
5
Enter the threshold and set direction to “below”. In the Alerts section, enter 2900 in the price field (in copper) and select “Price drops below” from the dropdown. Click Save.
6
Wait for the notification. You will receive a notification via your configured channels (email by default) the next time AuricDB detects the price at or below 2900 copper. Click the link in the notification to go directly to the item page and place your buy order. To enable additional channels, visit the Settings page.

Setting Up a Sell-Above Alert

The workflow is identical, but the direction is “rises above” instead of “drops below.” A practical WoW example:

WoW Classic example: sell-above alert

You bought 20 Flasks of the Titans on Sunday at 40 silver each (the weekly low following the raid dump). The 30-day average on AuricDB is 70 silver. You want to sell Thursday post-reset when demand peaks.

Set a “rises above 65 silver” alert. On Thursday when the price recovers to the post-reset level, you receive an email. Log in, post your flasks, and profit 25 silver per flask (after the 5% AH cut on the 65s sale price).

The threshold of 65 rather than the full 70 average ensures you are alerted before the peak (prices can overshoot, or you may want to sell before everyone else starts selling at Thursday evening). Setting the alert at the exact average means you might miss the window if the item peaks at 68 and falls back before hitting 70.

Choosing Good Thresholds

A well-chosen threshold is one the price can actually reach. Use the chart to verify:

Set buy-below thresholds on items with predictable price cycles (WoW consumables around reset, GW2 crafting materials during off-peak hours) where the price reliably dips to a known level.
Avoid thresholds far below the market price that the item has never reached — the alert will never fire.
Use the 30-day chart to confirm that your target price has been reached at least once in the recent window, establishing it as realistic.

Practical Alert Strategies by Game

GW2

Set buy-below alerts on T5/T6 crafting materials (Gossamer, Powerful Venom Sacs, T6 ore) around the 10th percentile of their recent price range.
Set sell-above alerts when you hold items bought at a dip to notify you when the price returns to the 30-day average.
Around Living World release announcements, set buy-below alerts on materials used in the new content before supply spikes.

WoW Classic

Set buy-below alerts on consumables (flasks, food buffs) at the Sunday/Monday price floor. The floor is roughly 20–40% below the weekly high.
Set sell-above alerts when you hold post-reset consumable inventory to catch the Thursday demand peak without watching the AH all week.
Set buy-below alerts on enchanting materials when they look oversupplied mid-patch and you expect a recovery.

FFXIV

Set sell-above alerts on items you stocked before a patch day to catch the initial post-patch price spike.
Set buy-below alerts on crafting materials when the cross-world price gap you identified narrows — the alert tells you when your home world has dropped to near the cheap-world price.
Set sell-above alerts for glamour items during housing lottery periods when demand spikes.

Path of Exile

Set sell-above alerts on items the Investment Analyzer marks as Strong Buy to notify you when momentum has carried the price to your target exit.
Set buy-below alerts on items with Strong Buy signals to catch if the price dips further before recovering.
Use alerts with the cross-league chart overlay: set buy-below at the price where prior leagues showed a bottom before recovery.

Managing Your Alert List

All active alerts are visible on the Alerts page. From there you can:

Review all active alerts across all games in one place
See the last-fired timestamp for alerts that have previously triggered
Delete alerts you no longer need to keep your list tidy

The notification contains the item name, game, the threshold that triggered, and a direct link to the item detail page. Acting on an alert quickly matters: prices can move back above (or below) your threshold within hours, especially on GW2's 5-minute refresh cycle. The link in the notification takes you directly to the item so you can act without navigating.

Go to your Alerts page →