Both the Diablo 3 Gold Auction House and the RMAH would shutdown on March 18,2014. This come as a little surprise as Game Designer Josh Mosqueira has said on the Reaper of Souls interview that AH would be not shut down. It seems that Blizzard has already changed their mind.
As the news come out, those unsatisfied players still complain. Now what they want is offline mode. If you want off line mode, you should actually buy console version PS3 and XBOX360 instead. The Diablo 3 should never come as a offline game on PC version.
This would be a bad idea for those who rely heavily on Auction House. We have get accustomed to the items purchase on the AH. A lot of players can only play game after work or on weekend. They do not have enough time to farm. But as Loot 2.0 is coming, the smart drops would change the situation anyway. Just as you seen in the Console version, you would get what suits your class best. The smart drops has made the game really awesome in the Console version. I guess, Blizzard change the idea to shutdown the AH because of the good feedback from the Console version.
Is this the high time for us to buy as much as items now? Because in the future, you can not buy items as convenient as in now. Or you can spend most time to get all the current five classes to 60 level. Then you would not have to buy items in the auction for low level characters. There would a high fluctuation in the AH before the shutdown.