I'm still making my way through the game for the first time, but its hard to not over analyze the game's systems and to manage your items and money effectively.

So have have you guys been doing?

I began salvaging most magic items, especially ones not for my class. I put a bunch of these items up for auction as well, this was a mistake as I am still waiting for them to expire as lvl 8-10 items just aren't worth the time and auction slot for 500-1000 gold.

I am now selling all magic and sort of crappy rare items as crafting materials are dirt cheap on the auction house. You can buy 100 of either for about 1700-2000 gold. You can sell your magic items to vendors for 100-200 gold. So just sell everything you dont want and buy crafting materials in the auction house. Hopefully the economy balances out so that its actually worth it to salvage in game.

What I would like tips on is selling items in the auction house. Do you guys just put a pretty low buyout to get fast sales, or do you go and search for a similar item and price it around there. I have way too many rare items that I think are auction worthy, but with only 10 slots it might take a while to get rid of them. I am getting magic/rare drops like crazy now that I've focused my equipment to have magic find (around 100% magic find right now). I feel its probably worth the time to get the most money in auctions since in game gold is actually very valuable with crafters requiring it for upgrades.

Any other tips to better manage your Diablo 3 moneys and items?

@MrOldboy:

With items on Normal it doesn't really matter much. The time you would spend sorting stats for each individual item is rarely worth the payoff.

Once you get into Nightmare and especially Hell territory of items sorting by stats is extremely important and beneficial. Same level items con be going for under 1k almost their vendor prices if they have shit stats. But with good stats you could be selling them for tens of thousands. So then you start searching for important stats like for example: does it have sockets? or vit and dex together? whats it's base dps? See what's in the approximate range then price a bit below the competition, done.

Don't craft shit (at least normal-hell). It's too expensive and you can find cheaper AND better stuff on the AH. Especially gems, gems are currently dirt cheap up to Square quality because they drop like candy in Hell and a lot of people are in Hell, there isn't any point currently to waste money upgrading gems, it's far cheaper to just buy the quality you need (and since they aren't restricted by level square quality is the one you need atm)

Been selling most magic items, have never really played a game like Diablo before so was picking up everything and checking it out in the inventory every time. Took me a while to realise what I waste of time that was, only pick up blue items or better. I felt stupid :) 
 
The auction house as seemed pretty useless for me so far, that said I am selling some yellow rare items to see if they sell. Learning as I go. 

I'd say mostly anything that's not lvl 60 or near you're never gonna get a big sale as people spend their gold on upgrading crafters and stash while levelling. I've been putting up 45+ at prices around 10k and it's been very hit and miss. The most important part though (if you ask me) is to not compare to the prices you see on AH. To say it mildly, I'm pretty sure you're not the only one sitting on 10/10 auctions and wishing they priced differently. Go way way below (much bigger chance of making a quick sale which is more important) and you're still gonna make a much bigger profit than vendoring. Dependant on how much you play churning through your slots is way more important than making that one big sale.

We split the load.

I handle gem crafting and sell all magics/rares that won't go on the AH.

Our Demon Hunter handles item crafting and also sells all magics/rares that won't go on the AH.

The Barb breaks down all magics/rares that won't go on the AH.

All of us AH stuff as much as we can.

With the false economy people are trying to generate on the AH it's reaaaaaal easy to sell stuff for "cheap".

@Ares42: 45+ at 10k is hit and miss exactly because of the stats, some rare 45+ items aren't worth the vendor price their stats are so trash so no one in their right mind will by them for 10k. Then there are amazing items at 45+ with phenomenal stats that can make 55+ items embarrassed to even exist, when people see those for say 10k they can be bought within 5 seconds of becoming available on the AH because it's such an incredible deal.

For a very basic comparison a 55 lvl Rare weapon can range from a 150 dps with no dex/vit/str or sockets on it and sell for maybe a 2k on the AH, then there is the top tier range of for example same lvl 55 Rare 1h weapons with 350+ dps dex/vit and a socket = 100,000+ gold here we come, easily.

People have started to figure out the AH after a week, it's very dependent on stats now not just gear level/quality.

@Tennmuerti: ofc it's dependant on stats, but I've sold pieces with very similar stats and had some go in a few secs while others didn't sell at all (not even for my low starting bid). The point still remains though that anything before I'd say 55+ just won't sell well as people won't have the money. Sure a good rare lvl 48 weapon might be way better than your average 58 weapon, but it's still shit compared to a good 58 weapon (which you'd much rather buy when you're at cap). The only point in the game pre-cap I can imagine anyone would be willing to dish out a load of gold would be at 50-52 for the bump into hell.

Other tips for those like me who try out more than one character class. Thanks to the shared bank (seen also in Sacred 2 & Torchlight), create a character act as a bank so you can store things on them. While playing in act 3 last night my friends & I started to just sell a lot of the crappy blues we kept getting as the crafting npcs are maxed for normal so with nothing else to craft at that level & stockpiles of crafting materials it started to help out as money will always be needed for buying repairs or gear/crafting for new characters. Apart from the two low level rares bought on the AH, I've had no luck selling things on it so I'm just writing it off & had good luck with crafting a few rares or finding merchants in game that have things for where I'm at. Another good tip is to save the good magic/rare weapons & jewelery in the chest for the followers in single player, as these followers do not carry over from characters on the same difficulty, they are also good banks if you are playing with friends.

@Ares42 said:

@Tennmuerti: ofc it's dependant on stats, but I've sold pieces with very similar stats and had some go in a few secs while others didn't sell at all (not even for my low starting bid). The point still remains though that anything before I'd say 55+ just won't sell well as people won't have the money. Sure a good rare lvl 48 weapon might be way better than your average 58 weapon, but it's still shit compared to a good 58 weapon (which you'd much rather buy when you're at cap). The only point in the game pre-cap I can imagine anyone would be willing to dish out a load of gold would be at 50-52 for the bump into hell.

And there are plenty of people like that, there is quite a lot of good 40+ gear that sells well bove 10k. Legendaries especially oh boy. Not selling on the AH past normal you are still wasting a huge amount of potential money.

Heck even selling a rare item for 5k is still 10x more then you would have otherwise gotten from vendorin it.

Obvisouly not eveything should be sold on the AH, if similar items are going under 1k it easier to vendor.

Whats the best way to dispose of unwanted Blue items if you dont do crafting like me? i find crafting too risky. 
Do I sell blues on AH? Limit of 10 items is really annoying and thats just with selling rares

@warxsnake said:

Whats the best way to dispose of unwanted Blue items if you dont do crafting like me? i find crafting too risky. Do I sell blues on AH? Limit of 10 items is really annoying and thats just with selling rares

Sell blues to a vendor. Period. Even if you are into crafting (which no one should be) it's more profiatable to vendor blues and buy mats on the AH.

The only exception to place blues on the AH is if you know they have amazingly high valued stats for their level. (for example a lvl 48 ring with say 90dex 90vit or something along those lines)

@warxsnake said:

Whats the best way to dispose of unwanted Blue items if you dont do crafting like me? i find crafting too risky. Do I sell blues on AH? Limit of 10 items is really annoying and thats just with selling rares

Sell blues to a vendor. Period. Even if you are into crafting (which no one should be) it's more profiatable to vendor blues and buy mats on the AH.

The only exception to place blues on the AH is if you know they have amazingly high valued stats for their level. (for example a lvl 48 ring with say 90dex 90vit or something along those lines)