What should the future of the Black Market Auction House be?

There’s a lot happening in the next couple months of World of Warcraft, with The War Within alpha in full swing, and patch 10.2.7 bringing the first ever WoW Remix for Mists of Pandaria. The latter event will provide players that didn’t play during Mists or complete the removed Legendary Cloak quest chain the opportunity to finally fight Ordos, the world boss on the Timeless Isle. Those players will no longer have to rely on the Black Market Auction House to acquire items from Ordos’ loot table, and while WoW ReMists isn’t expected to stay around forever I am wondering if that means the development team will remove those items from the BMAH rotation — especially the neck pieces that are absolutely useless to have available there in the first place. It got me thinking, though: has the Black Market Auction House run its course and should it be retired?

Before I get into why it’s possible to close the BMAH, I do want to reassure everyone that a spot for them has been found in Dornogal, the capital city of the Earthen, so it does not appear there is a plan to remove it. Still, I have to wonder if it’s necessary any more. Ordos’ loot isn’t the only thing that the BMAH won’t be the exclusive provider for; the ability to unlock old Naxxramas transmog and craft Tier 3 gear means players can obtain Tier 3 without camping the BMAH. Similarly, the Dawn of the Infinite megadungeon introduced Quantum tokens like the Quantum Bow, drops that could unlock old and unavailable transmog. The most desirable of these was the Reins of the Quantum Courser, which could unlock rare mounts — some of which are also seen on the BMAH (and which of course could be expanded to include more mounts only available there).

While the future of Quantum tokens is unknown, it’s clear from the upcoming Ordos unlock and the release of Old versions of rebuilt instances that the development team wants to provide current players access to unavailable items. If they continue to do so, the BMAH may become functionally redundant to actually playing the game.

What do you think? Do you prefer camping the BMAH, or would you like to see everything on there obtainable in-game? Do you think its usefulness as a money-sink is no longer relevant, or will there always be a need to drop a ton of gold on rare/obscure items? And while we’re discussing it, what’s the worst thing you’ve gotten from the Unclaimed Black Market Auction Container?