Hey pet buyers ... what's your pet level buying preference?

[Tekulve2012]

I figure this is the right forum for this question since collectors do buy pets off the Auction house and it's a sort of Public service question for pet buyers.

I recently finished leveling all my pets and still do dailies sometimes for the chance at battle stones. I have duplicates that I can sell on different realms and I wondered what is the best level pet to put up on the auction house.

I am aware that there are achieves for leveling a certain # of pets to level 10 and another for a certain # to level 25. Therefore I've seen pets listed at level 9 and level 24.

I am aware that people sometimes list a level 25 pet for quite a bit more on the auction house. I also know that a pet can be leveled from 1-25 in as little as 12 to 30 minutes (depending on pet xp buffs, etc.)

Finally, I am also aware that the answer may vary greatly depending on if you list a pet on a low vs Med vs high pop. realm
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Regardless of the factors I've outlined... simple question is : what level pet do you most like to buy off the auction house on YOUR realm whatever type it might be.

PS ~ If you do not care at all what level the pet is then dont bother posting please ... I'm just interested in feedback from those that do care about the level of the pet they are buying . Thanks very much for your feedback !

[Wilderness]

My main server is US-Greymane, so low pop but recently merged with another server.

I like to buy pets I'm missing when I can find them at a decent price (which generally means 1k or lower, I've made a couple exceptions but not many) as I am at least not yet enough of a collector to be that interested in very rare pets that sell for a ton. Still, I've bought a number of pets over the last month or so - all were level 1, except for 1 25. The 1 lvl 25 that I bought was the Netherspace Abyssal because I was having terrible luck solo'ing the Chess Event and someone had the 25 for maybe 1k more than the lvl 1's so I just bought it.

Generally I just buy lvl 1's because its really easy and not very time consuming at all to level a pet to 25. I still have a ton of pets to level (I only got my 75 lvl 25s achievement a few days ago), but to me spending a bunch more gold isn't worth it for higher levels.

[Kel]

I rarely get too concerned about level when buying off the AH. If it's a pet I need, then I just grab the one that is the cheapest.

[Denverrunner]

Leveling pets is easy, so I don't think the price premium of a level 25 is worth it for me. I would rather buy a level 1 and spend a short bit leveling it myself.

[Kendrah]

Leveling pets is easy, so I don't think the price premium of a level 25 is worth it for me. I would rather buy a level 1 and spend a short bit leveling it myself.

This. There was a market when MoP came out and the battle system was still new. Right now, though, I really haven't had any luck in selling level 25 pets on both high population servers and low population servers. The ones that do sell don't balance out what I might've paid for them a few months back. I think I got much less than 2k for a level 25 Jademist Dancer S/S.

[Poofah]

PS ~ If you do not care at all what level the pet is then dont bother posting please ... I'm just interested in feedback from those that do care about the level of the pet they are buying .

But be aware that the users on this board may not be your target audience. For example, I place no premium whatsoever on level, but that's because it's trivial for me to level it to 25 in 10 minutes. Not every AH buyer is quite as hardcore about pet battles though.

[Peanutty]

I buy whichever is cheapest, regardless of level (surprisingly it's not always a level 1). I am not willing to spend 1k or more on a level 25, but I know many people will (and will bid on it faster), so that's my usual markup for selling a pet I've leveled.

Back when I was a wee nooblet at pet battles, I did buy a few partially leveled pets that I thought were reasonably priced.

[Maizing]

My personal preference for pet level as a buyer is whatever is the being offered for the lowest price. I might pay more for a preferred breed, but not for levels.

As a seller, I try to level them up to 9 before listing, though I sometimes miscalculate and go over that. I level pets I am selling to this point for the following reasons:
1) There are people out there who think that leveled pets are worth more, so my pets are more likely to sell.
2) The achievement for leveling a pet to 10. Selling pets at level 9 means that the buyer has less work to do to get the pet to the level needed to work on that achievement.
3) It hardly takes any time at all to get the pets to that level, and at that level, the pets have more survivability than at level 1 for leveling with the Pandaren pet battle dailies.
4) More people are likely to be able to learn the pets I sell than if I were to level them higher, thus increasing my potential customer pool since you cannot learn a pet that is of a higher level than your highest level known pet.

I will add that I price pets I am selling competitively with the lowest priced pets already listed on the auction house. I also always stone any pets that start out as green... and those pets I do list for more than any non-rare versions that are already up for sale.

[Opallena]

I usually buy mine at lvl 1, but thats normally because they're just cheaper. I still prefer leveling the pets myself, so I don't normally buy pets much higher than lvl 5.

[Kynthea]

I generally get stuck with lvl 1 pets, but ideally I would buy pets that are one level below what is needed for an achievement. So, say I need to level up x number of pets to 10: I would hope to find some level 9 pets. I think the other marks are lvl 15 and lvl 25 so I would want lvl 14 and lvl 24 pets.

When I sell pets, I try to get them to lvl 5 but so far it hasn't made them sell any better. The lvl 9 pet I put up did sell, but not for very much.

[Mehetabel]

When I buy a pet off the AH I'm really not at all bothered what level it is, makes absolutely no difference to me. I seldom buy so when I do it's something pretty rare and I'm just happy to have it, whatever the level!

[Tekulve2012]

Thanks for the feedback folks, funny thing is these days I seem to give away more pets than I sell but I might as well level some tradeable pets when doing dailies .. I guess I'll save my pet xp biscuits and level pets to 9 if I sell them on any realm.

Thanks again

[Adumbledore]

I generally purchase level 1 pets from the auction house as they're generally cheaper than level 25s on my realm and I'm cheap, so I'll save as much money as I can.

[Rioriel]

Oh, absolutely no preference at all.

I'll look for things I don't have and buy the cheapest one.

[Digem]

This forum and level of pet battlers truly aren't your target selling audience.
Like myself for example, I will buy the cheapest one in the Breed I want.
It doesn't even need to be rare quality I have plenty of stones for that.

But, as my selling experience and talking with casual or even less than casual pet battlers, they will pay more for rare quality and max level.
I cannot believe how many casual or less than casual pet battlers tell me how hard and or boring leveling a pet is.
Where I can max level a pet in like 3 to 4 trainer battles and prefer to level them myself to get a feel for that pet and it's moves.

So in all reality depends who is buying your product.
A true pet battler is looking for breed versus everything else.
While a more casual will look for level and if pet is rare or not.
True money is in the availablity of the pet but alas the dupers seem to ruin that quickly

[Tekulve2012]

Thanks Digem ..
Your points make an accurate and excellent summary of the thread .. appreciate it everyone

[Simmias]

at the start of mists I made a killing selling lvl 24 pets. People wanted the 75 pet achievement badly. I can only assume there will be a new x to 25 (x being the amount of pets) in WoD, so come WoD....