Editing WoW:ItemString (section)

=== Unique Ids ===
UniqueId contains information on the maker of a crafted item, number of charges or uses if applicable, or other information exclusive to one particular manifestation of an item. Items received from quests frequently have a UniqueId value, and occasionally dropped items have one as well. The numbers don't appear to hold any information in and of themselves, and are not consistent in any way across servers like EnchantIds and SecondaryIds.  The value appears to be a link to a database entry on the server or client that contains the unique information such as who made an item, which quest it came from, when the quest was delivered, who sold the item on the Auction House, etc. GMs would then be able to track an item should a petition about one be made. UniqueID can have negative values (see Scaled Random Suffixes below).

'''Addendum:''' In-game testing indicates that the UniqueId can change from the first loot to successive loots on the same item. To observe this behavior, Master Looter method was used, an item meeting the loot threshold found, and then the loot window closed without giving the item to a raid member. On re-opening the corpse, the value had changed. For example, on the first loot of Shimmering Trousers of the Eagle, the UniqueId value was 0x00009182. On successive loot attempts it was 0x40679182. Note that the low order bytes were maintained. In at least a few observations, negative UniqueId values did not change in successive looting attempts.

'''On negative UniqueID's:''' I do not believe that a UniqueID being negative is special in any way. It seems to me that the high 16 bits are simply "random", i.e. 0x0000-0xffff. If this value is >0x8000, it will translate to a negative decimal value (signed 32-bit).  --[[User:Mikk|<span style="border-bottom: 1px dotted; cursor: help;" title="Mikk is a WoWWiki Admin">Mikk</span>]] <small>([[User talk:Mikk|T]])</small> 09:55, 7 August 2009 (UTC)