As World of Warcraft Classic begins to transition from Vanilla Classic to The Burning Crusade Classic, players can expect a few tweaks and issues to occur. And during the transition, players have been notified that the Auction House will not be available to anyone.
The Beta for TBC Classic has been live for a while, and prepatch is set to begin on the 18th of this month. After that, players can expect The Burning Crusade Classic to go live June 1st, 2021 at 3PM PDT. As Blizzard prepares for the move, it is giving players the option to continue playing Vanilla Classic with their current Classic characters, move them to TBC Classic servers, or have their character cloned to both for $35. And as the movement between Classic and TBC Classic nears, Blizzard has warned players that they won't be able to bid or buy on the Auction House.
Blizzard is shutting down all Auction Houses in World of Warcraft Classic for about four or five days. Since this transition requires special handling, as some character will move on to World of Warcraft's arguably best expansion, The Burning Crusade, while others remain in Vanilla forever, Blizzard has had to take special precautions to make sure the move goes as smoothly as possible. The Auction Houses will be unavailable between 10:00 a.m. PDT (1:00 p.m. EDT) on Friday, May 14 and whatever time the prepatch becomes available on May 18th.
Blizzard also noted on its news forums for players to "refrain from posting new auctions" right around when the down time will begin, stating that auction fees won't be refunded. Most likely, any items listed during this time will be lost as the separation moves forward and TBC is brought back to life.
The Burning Crusade was originally launched in 2007, and fans were excited to see the beginnings of Beta access for The Burning Crusade back in late March of 2021. Since then, Blizzard has announced a variety of updates and small changes, some of which have disappointed long-time fans of TBC as is was. But this announcement, with Blizzard taking away access to the AH, has a lot of players puzzled as to how to get their raid consumes for their final Classic raids. While some trading does happen person to person in WoW and WoW Classic, it may be a struggle for the last week of Vanilla to get the potions, materials, and more they may want before prepatch drops.
World of Warcraft Classic is available for PC.
Source: Blizzard, Classic WoWHead, GameSpot