Auctions take a deposit of at least 1 silver

Every auction in World of Warcraft: Forever takes a deposit of at least 1 silver. In the original game the deposit followed the vendor price of the item, often a few copper. If the item does not sell, that silver is gone.

How the deposit works

You pay the deposit when you post the auction. You get it back when the item sells. You lose it when you cancel the auction or when it expires.

In the original game the deposit is a share of the vendor price, and it grows with the duration:

Duration	Deposit
2 hours	5% of the vendor price
8 hours	20% of the vendor price
24 hours	60% of the vendor price

One extra rule in Forever

Forever adds a floor: the deposit is never lower than 1 silver. A Fine Leather Tunic sells to a vendor for 4 silver 61 copper. Over 24 hours the deposit is 2 silver 76 copper, exactly 60%. Over 8 hours it should be 92 copper, but the game asks for 1 silver.

Every cheap vendor item shows the same 1 silver. In the first levels that is a lot of money for an auction that may not sell. A larger stack spreads the silver over more items. A vendor pays a fixed amount without that risk.

A bug or on purpose

On the beta the minimum was reported as a bug, because the deposit on screen did not match what the game took. On the live servers the two match.

Whether Blizzard wants the minimum, it has not said. Forever runs on the client of the modern game, and that version has had a minimum deposit of 1 silver since at least 2018.