Netherweave Bags: Cataclysm Launch

So as I've been looking at all of my characters banks I started to realize all the stuff I have been stockpiling for the Cataclysm. I kind of forgot about some of it after I took my recent break from WoW. I had a guild bank full of Netherweave cloth so I spent the day cranking out hundreds of netherweave bags to sell at launch.

I did catch Cold's post on Faction Satchles were he talked about 16 slot bags being available via a quartermaster but the only problem is that new characters will still need to gain rep to purchase these bags. So I would agree with Cold that there is a slim chance that this will have any effect on initial sales of netherweave bags with all the new worgen and goblin characters running about.

There hasn't been much of a demand spike since the sundering with the new race/class combos so I am going to hang on to my stockpile and wait for the Cata launch to throw all these up on the auction house at a much better price than 8 to 9 gold.

All Alone and In Need of Gold!

It's so cold...and lonely on this new realm. No existing characters to steal gold from. No friends to buy me some shiny new bags or gear. All I have is my experience, courage, and confidence to push ahead and know that I will find a way to make some serious gold on Kel'thuzad.

Now you're probably wondering why the heck is Nakedjay creating a character over at Kel'thuzad? My buddies are all going to create their worgens on that realm and have already created a guild. Funny thing is they just created level one characters and all started begging for gold to create the guild charter. I had no part in that since I like to abstain from begging and it occurred before my return to WoW.

So currently I've got a new mage named Nakedjay running around Kel'thuzad. He hit level 13 last night with not the best focus of actual leveling. My goal is to use him to start making some serious gold on this realm so I will have all the gold I will ever need for my new worgen. My end goal is to get this mage to level 20 so I can buy a mount and use him for gathering.

I picked up skinning and mining on this new character and it has worked out nicely. I've been able to sell three greens I've picked up, leather, and linen. I've racked up 28g rather quickly without even selling my copper ore. The low level greens I've been lucky so far, they have all sold for 2 to 10 gold each.

Here is a run down of the going prices at Kel'thuzad (US):

• Copper Ore - 10g a stack
• Linen cloth - 2g a stack
• Light Leather 4g to 5g a stack
• Rough Stone - 19s a stack

So here is my plan,

1. Keep leveling and selling everything I pickup
2. Get my mage to level 20
3. Buy mount
4. Farm copper in Elwynn
5. Skin everything I see
6. Flip Vendor Pets

It should be interesting to see where I'm at come December 7th. It would be nice to have a few hundred gold stacked up ready to use for my worgen. I don't want to get my hands dirty with auction house flipping in general since the markets are so volatile this close to Cataclysm.

What's your favorite low level gold making method?

Have You Ever Given Away a 100k?

I know...crazy right? Giving away all that hard earned gold just for the hell of it. That's what I did a couple months ago. I was so burnt out on WoW that I was at the point of just quiting for good. At the time that I had this crazy idea I was sitting at 140k gold.

With a crazy look in my eyes and a budlight in the my hand, I messaged my real life friends who were still playing the game. I told them I was going to give away 100k gold that I had earned from working the auction house since I was quiting the game. I split up the gold between the four of them so they each received 25k gold. I'm fairly certain that none of them had ever had that much gold before in the the years they have been playing this game.

I logged off immediately and went to battle.net to cancel my account. I never asked them again about the gold till I returned the other day to WoW. As I had figured they had blown it, which is fine but typical. It was their gold to blow but I was hoping that maybe they had learned some of the things I've been doing to make gold in the past and keep up so they would have a steady income stream. I think each of them now has a couple grand left so they are definitely not broke but that is sure a lot of gold to blow through.

As I thought about this I began thinking of some real life similarities. Ever known or heard of someone in your town or city that won the lottery? Then within a couple years they were broke cause they blew it all? It seems to be a common story throughout the years with lottery winners. They buy big houses, multiple expensive cars, and other toys then they can't afford the taxes or just don't have any money left.

It's the difference of a poor to rich mentality. Some have it and others don't. Someone who has worked hard to get rich isn't going to just blow all their money and even if they are a big spender they know how to keep income coming in.

I was glad that I left myself 40k, which will be plenty to buy new stock and pay for leveling my professions. I can use that early on to make some massive profits. I already purchased 310% riding so I can really farm quick with my paladin. 310 flying + Crusader Aura = Profit!

Back in the Saddle Again!

After a two month hiatus I have returned to WoW! I took advantage of the free game time promo for cancelled accounts. If you currently have a cancelled account go and log into your battle.net account and see if the free 7 days of game time promotion is offered to you.

As you can tell I have spent a great deal of time redesigning the website. I hope that this will make things a bit easier to use and easier on the eyes as well. If there is anything you would like to see added to the website or other content you would like to see please let me know!

Now after checking out WoW after the sundering I can say that I am impressed. It really feels like a totally new game and I really like the changes that have been made. Blizz may have actually gotten things right this time around.

I started leveling a new alliance character on Kel'Thuzad, that's where my friends are going to make worgens come Cata, and I am going to use that character to start making gold over there this next week before Dec. 7th gets here. I was blown away by the new quests in elywnn after the sundering! I loved the changes and had a blast leveling. In about an hour of running around the other night I was already level 8 and it didn't even feel like I had been leveling.

My character is sitting at 30s but I haven't found anything good to even throw up on the auction house besides cloth. Once I get a bit more money then I am going to start reselling vendor pets to build up some gold. The idea is that once I start leveling my worgen I can mail everything to this other character and really work the auction house.

It should be really exciting to see how the competition is on this new realm!

Questions for Comments

What do you plan on doing on Day one? Leveling a new worgen/goblin? A different race? Level up your current 80? Or just focus hard on gold making?

Cataclysm Mastery Gold Making Site

Hello all, I know the biggest key to making a ton of gold at Cataclysm's launch is being able to get ahead of the competition. Knowing where to farm and what items are going to make you a killing. The Cataclysm launch may be the biggest gold making event we have ever seen in World of Warcraft.

We all want some of the big ticket items in Cataclysm that will cost a fortune, the trinket that will turn you into a dragon, 310% flying, and all the new BoE epics! Earning yourself a very large amount of gold very quickly the first week or two of Cataclysm can ensure you that you will be able to buy whatever you want for a very long time.

I've been able to review a new site that launched today, Cataclysm Mastery, and I can say that there is some really great information on making gold come Cataclysm. Cataclysm Mastery biggest benefit is it provides the new Cataclysm zone maps with all of the gathering nods for each gathering profession. Cataclysm Mastery provides a great guide for beginners and more advanced tips for the player already making gold. The apprentice guide is great for the player starting out and wants to learn the ropes to gold making.

Cataclysm Mastery details how to prep for the launch of Cataclysm by showing you the best tips that will get your ready to make some serious gold. Where to fly to, logoff at, all while you wait for the launch to you can farm some serious items and level too! Need help with addons? There are guides on all the addons you will need to help you make serious gold. Also, there is a great guide on auction house techniques and methods for making gold.

If you are looking to cash in on the Cataclysm launch and then take a look at Cataclysm Mastery.

A Great Gold Guide

Since I'm taking a vacation from WoW, at least till Cataclysm comes out, I wanted to leave up my recommendation for a gold guide everyone can use.

Before I ever read a gold blog the first gold guide I read was WoW Schools. That guide helped me jump into auction house addons, which I was a bit nervous about, and I was able to use it as a base to develop my own strategies. From there I started making quite a bit of gold and never had to worry about gold again. Since the day I bought it I have been able to buy everything in WoW that I could possibly want.

If you are looking to get a complete guide on setting up addons, what to sell, and other various strategies for gold making then pickup the WoW Schools Gold Guide. Go from rags to riches! Get a chopper and all the BoE gear off the auction house!

WoW Schools Gold Guide

The End? For Now

As you can tell I haven't posted in over a week due to a rough couple of weeks at work and a lot of other things going on in my life. It's hard to run a blog like this with daily content while having a full time job that requires a lot of over time plus find time for my girlfriend and family. I haven't played WoW in weeks either, some due to being burned out and just having zero time.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this blog, I was averaging 500 to 800 unique visits a day which shows I've been generating some great content. I would like to thank all of my readers and I hope that I was able to help players out there make gold or develop a system to keep tons of gold coming in like I've been able to do. I've made over a 100k, proved I can make tons of gold, and I'm not sure I have it in me to keep on playing. Maybe come Cataclysm but we'll see.

This may be the end for now but we'll see how things pan out. I'll leave the blog up so readers can reference the content when needed.

Thanks all.

Update on the Blog

Just wanted to make a quick post to everyone about the status of the blog this week. I've been working 12 to 15 hour days trying to complete a nightmare of a project at my work. For those of you that work in I.T. you will understand that something always seems to go wrong.

So with that said I haven't been able to write any scheduled posts the last several days because there has been no time in my life to do so. I actually used up all my backup posts this week that I normally keep in case I'm out of town or if I'm busy. The project ends tomorrow so I can begin working on new content again.

Thanks for checking in.

RP Gold with Formal Dangui

Get the gift that soo many role players want this Winter Veil, the Formal Dangui! That is if you are lucky enough to catch this being spawned on the vendor. This is a big ticket item that can sell for thousands on an role playing realm and still sell for a good amount on non RP realms.

The Formal Dangui is a common chest piece that is sold by the vendor, Geenia Sunshadow in Moonglade. This item is extremely rare and has been guesstimated to have 1 to 2 month respawn timer. Now that makes it extremely rare and highly valuable.

So what does it hurt to have an alt camped there in Moonglade? I have my low level druid camped right next to the vendor so I can log in and quickly check. If you want a character to easily get to Moonglade you can level a druid to 10 then purchase the teleport to Moonglade spell.

Now I have not sold one of these personally but these items do sell, especially on RP realms. When I do obtain one I will sell it for thousands of gold. I think there should be no problem selling one of these for 1k to 2k gold on a regular realm. On RP realms the Formal Dangui can sell for several thousand gold. Don't believe me? Do a search on google about this item, there is posts on realm forums of players looking to buy this chest piece for thousands of gold.

So for the chance of logging in a couple times per day on your alt to find this item you could open up the chance for a huge chunk of gold. I would suggest selling this in trade chat detailing how rare it is plus you can avoid the big auction house fees as well.

Thanks for checking in!

Image from wowhead.com

Big Profits Reselling Throat Piercers

This is a great method to make gold off the twink community and a even better method if you can sell these on the alliance side. Throat Piercers are a horde only vendor item that is the best throwing twink item for 19 and 29 rogues. You might even have some warriors buy this item if they can't obtain a throwing item with strength.

Rare and Valuable

Throat Piercers are a rare limited supply item that has a random spawn timer, but usually only a few hours, on the vendor Eralen in Tranquillien Ghostlands. Since they are rare you can resell these for 50 to 100 gold depending on your realm's demand. These will sell for much more on the neutral auction house since these are horde only. I have an alt camped at this location so I can always pick these up each day.

Picking up for Alliance

There is a way to get this over to alliance but it does require two accounts. You can create a death knight on horde side then run them over to this vendor, buy the item, take it to the neutral auction house, buy it with your second account on alliance or have a friend buy it for you.

Thanks for checking in!

Sticking to a System

Just like making money in real life you have to work hard and find a system that works. I'm not talking about a dead end job but actually being your own boss or finding an income that can be very flexible to work around.

Finding a System

The same ideas can be applied to making gold in WoW. Every realm is different and every realm varies in populations. But regardless of those facts you can make gold on any realm. Let's say for example that you make a steady income just flipping items on the auction house compared to professions on your realm. Then that is a system that works for you! You may find reselling vendor items on the auction house is very lucrative so you make an easy profit in doing so taking you to financial freedom in WoW. You never have to worry about raid repairs or paying for item enhancements ever again.

There is many different techniques for making gold and several of these methods work really well but that doesn't mean that they will work for you on your realm. You will need to test these methods out and find the one that works best for you. I make the majority of my gold from inscription and jewelcrafting but I only dabble in enchanting markets because there is just insane competition on my realm. Why waste my time getting frustrated with enchanting when I can make ridiculous gold in the other two markets? If I get some revenue from enchanting then great! Just more to add to my pile but I don't put all my effort into that market.

Questions for Comments

What markets work best for you? What issues have you encountered on your realm? Any methods you've read just flat out fail on your realm?

Admiral's Hat - Tailoring Gold

The Admiral's Hat is an old school money maker for tailoring because the mats are easy to get. Typically this hat can sell for 40 to 50 gold each and mats are cheap unless there is no elegant long feathers on your auction house. Most players have no idea what their real value are so they will put them up for nothing but in the case that there is no supply you can farm Gryphons in the Hinterlands. If you happen to be leveling and pick these feathers up, resell them for 6 to 8 gold each.

Now the only sticker is getting the pattern since it's a limited supply item, it's found on a pirate named Cowardly Crosby in Stranglethorn Vale just south of booty bay on the coast. The item has a 2 hour spawn timer so you may have to camp this vendor to get a hold of the pattern. Even if you're not a tailor you can pick this plan up and resell it for 40 to 100 gold easy.

Players are always wanting to look like pirates and this is a big piece of the wardrobe and any auction house player will not want to do without(If they are over lvl 43). So always expect a demand on this item for some easy gold. Try advertising these babies in trade chat for some quick sales!

Thanks for checking in!

World PVP, ah, those were the days

Today is one of the rare times that I deviate away from gold making and talk about another subject in WoW. I was digging through my archive of screenshots on my PC and I found one from about a year ago that brought back some great memories of world PVP.

The screenshot above is an image of myself and my guildies where we had just killed everyone with a pvp tag in Ironforge. Years ago our realm was alliance heavy but things have changed, there is hardly anyone on alliance anymore. So we did the right thing by showing up at 9pm to represent!

For someone like myself who has loved world pvp I have been slightly unhappy the direction WoW has taken away from World PVP over the years even though there was some half hearted attempts to bring that back in WOTLK. I hope there is some new world pvp areas in Cataclysm but probably it will be as lackluster as wrath.

Wintersgrasp is a cool zone but it still has that battleground feel, I guess nothing beats an epic fight at a town or the feeling that you pissed off the whole area and they have to call for help. Then seeing 20 level cap players fly into a zone all at about the same time to defend our attack. That was the days. I love nothing more than this scenario where you are only fighting for pride, fun, and maybe because you enjoy frustrating other players. No rewards either, just good ol' pvp.

Questions for Comments

What was your most memorable pvp moments? Do you miss classic world pvp?

Make Easy Starter Gold With This One Tip

I always see low level characters in capital cities begging for gold or sending tells asking for a few gold, so I figure this would be a great topic to address. This won't make you rich but this will for sure help you buy your talents, low level gear, and any other goodies you want.

What we are looking to do is flip a vendor item in your capital city. We want to get to the nearest fishing supply vendor, Shanky in Orgrimmar or Catherine Leland in Stormwind. We are wanting to buy the item Strong Fishing Pole. This item costs 9s but we can easily resell it for 10g or more, I've had it sell for 20g!

Why This Sells?

What makes this item so valuable is because it is a limited supply item, but you should have no problem picking one up off the vendor, and because it has +5 to fishing skill. Players will lookup on the auction house for anything to boost their fishing and 10 to 20 gold is drop in the bucket for most players that are level capped. It may not resell quickly but normally it will sell throughout the day, so a few hours. You can rinse and repeat this process to keep a stream of gold coming in while you level so you can keep upgrading your gear. By the way! There is NO competition on the auction house for this item.

Thanks for checking in!

Alchemy Recipe Resell Guide

I'm always looking for easy ways to make gold and flipping plans or recipes is as easy as it gets. Here are a few recipes that you can buy from vendors for a decent profit.

Great Rage Potion - buy for 25s, resell for 10g+
Vendor: Hagrus, Ulthir

Frost Oil - buy for 20s, sell for 25g+
Vendor: Bro'kin

Major Mana Potion - Buy for 1.50g, sell for 25g
Transmute Water to Air, buy for 3g, sell for 25g
Vendor: Magnus Frostwake

Shadow Oil - Buy for 15s, sell for 15g
Vendor: Bliztik, Montarr

Transmute Mithril to Truesilver
Transmute Iron to Gold
Transmute Arcanite
Philosopher's Stone
Nature Protection Potion
Vendor: Alchemist Pestlezugg
Sell: Most of these items sell for no less than 20s. Mithril-truesilver is a limited supply item so you can resell for 50g. The remaining plans will sell for 25g.

These are all great ways to make gold, especially if you are limited on capital to invest in professions on your realm or great low level gold for a new character.

Reset Markets After A Crash

If you've been working jewelcrafting you probably know all to well about market crashes, especially this close to Cataclysm. I've talked to several players that have quit jewelcrafting all together till the expansion hits. On my realm I've seen some fairly large swings in jewelcrafting markets where my most profitable cuts are just about worthless. Luckily for me I was able to sell off most of my gem stockpile so I didn't take any losses. Now I work with small piles of gems to meet the low demands without taking a huge risk.

Reset Markets to Raise Profit Margins

Now there is always a risk that this could backfire on you so I'm giving everyone fair warning, but normally this will not be the case so I still consider it a low risk option if it is on the table. Because the competition has been bailing I've noticed that supply for certain cuts run fairly low, enough to reset a market. For example, Bold Cardinal Rubies may have crashed down to 83g each but there may only be 5 or 6 left on the auction house at or near that price. You buy them all up and repost a couple at 179g. By invoking this method you have essentially manipulated a market, created scarcity, and widened your profit margins.

By resetting the market it will take a while for prices to drop back down to where they were so it gives you plenty of time to make some great profits. Players are still willing to buy cut gems for 179g as I sell them all the time after a reset. This may cause a feeding frenzy with your competition but as I said earlier there should be less competition to deal with as many have left the market.

Questions for Comments

Do you currently reset markets? Have you been using this method with the recent market crashes?

Thoughts About Currency Changes

I've been doing some thinking about the upcoming currency changes in Cataclysm where honor and badges will be exchanged into gold or justice points. I'm going to be thrilled to finally see those old badges of justice turned into something I can finally use.

Blizzard's Math

The following items are immediately converted to gold:

Emblem of Heroism = 5.5 gold each

Emblem of Valor = 5.5 gold each

Emblem of Conquest = 5.5 gold each

Badge of Justice = 1.833 gold each

Your New Honor Points total will be the sum of the following amounts:

Old Honor * 0.024

Old Arena Points * 0.85

Battleground Mark of Honor * 2.976

Wintergrasp Mark of Honor * 19.08

Stone Keeper Shard * 1.6

Venture Coin * 3

Spirit Shard * 1

Your Justice Points total will be equal to (Emblems of Triumph + Emblems of Frost ) * 2.75

Again, the softcap for both Honor and Justice conversions is 4000 points. This means that if a character converts to above 4,000 points, it will not be possible for them to earn more until they fall below the 4,000 cap.

A hardcap will be implemented in a following patch before Cataclysm's release. At that time, any excess points above 4,000 will be converted as follows:

Honor points above 4,000 are converted to gold at a rate of 35 silver per point of Honor.

Justice points above 4,000 are converted to gold at a rate of 2 gold per point of Justice.

Source

Emblems for Gold

So I began thinking if it would be worth it to start grinding out heroics and farming as many Triumph emblems as possible then exchange them for Emblems of Conquest that will be converted for 5.5g each. I could easily farm several hundred of these in that time but for the time being trading in 15 emblems of triumph for one crusader orb is an immediate 100g profit. But the problem is how long will that price last this close to Cataclysm? I am thinking that the stocking up on emblems will net a higher profit, but this is just speculation.

Honor for Gold

As far as honor I think that this may be more difficult to pull worthwhile gold from. If you were honor capped you would only convert to 1800 of the new honor based on, old honor * 0.024. To reach the cap of 4000 you would need a bunch of other pvp marks or tokens to even take advantage of the gold conversion above the cap of 4000. Is it possible? Yes, but I don't think that it is worth it.

Not Written in Stone Just Yet

Although this may all be for naught since blizzard has stated that these numbers could possibly change by the time Cataclysm hits the shelves if they think the conversion amounts are too much.

Questions for Comments

What do you think about these numbers? Are you going to stock up on emblems?

Cataclysm Archaeology - Profiting Artifacts

Looking to the near future blizzard recently pushed out the new Archaeology profession on beta servers. This is a casual profession where you research and find artifacts to piece together stories or other lore. By doing so you can get some rewards such as, pets, mounts, armor, and weapons.

Where's the Value?

Now blizzard has stated that the majority of artifacts will be of common value so they can be sold sold. Now the real question is, how much can these go for? Blizzard has stated that value will increase on artifacts depending on how many fragments are needed to finish said artifact. So we can presume that some artifacts can be sold for a nice profit once complete.

Let's look at Cataclysm launch, there will be a surge of players wanting the epic gear that can be obtained with Archaeology initially. But even afterwards there will be a steady stream of players wanting to obtain the mounts and pets that are available. This should make Archaeology another great revenue stream for us gold making whores.

If you are someone with patience you should have no problem selling every artifact you make when Cataclysm arrives then once demand falls and prices drop, you can start making the artifacts for yourself. That initial rush is where the gold is going to be at.

Thanks for checking in!

Weekly Update 9-14, Final Update for a While

Well it's that time of the week when I, Nakedjay, gives you a detailed recap of my gold making adventures for the last week.

100k Mark!

Well I reached over 100k this week which is a major achievement for myself to attain. It shows that a very casual player like myself can make some serious gold. I still have a while to go till I get to gold cap but it will happen soon enough. Hopefully I can pull it off before expansion hits.

Cataclysm Release Date

MMO-Champion has released a tentative release date for Cataclysm for November 2, barring any issues that could push it back.

Final Weekly Update

This will be the final weekly update as I think I have proven that I can make gold and that it has become a bit redundant especially this close to the end of an expansion. I think it's great that I can show some of the big sales I am pulling off and how I am doing it but I think I am missing out on a day to provide great content to you the readers. I am planning on making updates in the future but they will be more out of necessity as I may make a serious haul one week or I may want to discuss some big market fluctuations or speculation. We'll see how it goes but there won't be an update every Tuesday like there has been in the past.

The Numbers

It's been tough making gold even with additional playing time this week. Profit margins are pretty tight on jewelcrafting and glyph competition has risen and demand has begun to fall. Netherweave bags have been great as usual; I've still been slacking with enchanting and vendor pets.

Here's the Total Sales,

Jewelcrafting - 16,092g

Inscription - 4,328g

Tailoring - 900g

Alchemy - 700g

Total Liquid - 103,658g

Total Investment - 20,000g

Total Assets - 124,658g

My liquid gold increased by 13.5k since last week's post. Still a good week but would have liked for it to be around 20k. I just want Cataclysm to get here. I am really getting bored with the existing content, just burnt out trying to wrestle my way through the trenches for the time being. I am so hoping the quest lines and content leading up to expansion can keep me entertained.

Questions for Comments

Are you burnt out? Have you quit or taken a break from WoW? What kind of updates would you like to see in the future on my gold making?

Get In On Cataclysm Gold Making

If you've read this blog or other gold making blogs you have obviously came looking for advice and information on gold making. Probably for different reasons too, some looking to just make gold for epic flying or some shiny epic and some are looking to make a gold pile so they might never have to worry about gold again. I wanted to tell some of my reasons why I am so excited for cataclysm.

I got in the gold making business fairly late in the terms of age for wotlk. I have only been at this for a few months and was not trying to make a pile of gold when expansion launched. In those first few months of expansion I'm sure there was plenty of players making a few hundred thousand gold in that time. That's what I want this time. I'm going to be one of those players this time around. I may have built up a good quantity of gold now but I want to get to the point where I never have to worry about it. Which will probably be some number above gold cap. I've thought about going for a million but I'm also thinking at some point, why? Maybe for some personal goal but there is too many other things I like to do in the game, not to say gold making isn't enjoyable for me.

So needless to say I hope that some of you think about really cranking out a gold making business just for these reasons. You may only have to get into some serious gold making for 2 to 4 months and end up making an insane amount of gold. I'd like to the get to the point where I can buy everything I want and never have to worry about earning gold. Excluding spending thousands for hardmode carries in raids, if that's the case then I'll keep on working on making gold if I want all that.

Questions for Comments
What is your target amount? Are you just interested in short term gold making or long term? Are you going to get in on the huge demands in Cataclysm?

Making Gold Off Guild Legendaries

There is a great opportunity to make gold right now off a future guild achievement! The guild achievement, We Are Legendary: Obtain all the legendary weapons, will have several guilds trying to obtain old legendaries. Plus guilds are starting now to try and obtain them because they will be counted into the achievement prior to Cataclysm.

Here is a Blizzard response on this subject, " We are making a exception for this guild achievement. Any legendary items you have already earned will count."

We can begin creating snatch lists or even farming for some of the items required for these legendaries. These are items needed for Hand of Ragnaros and Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker.

Fiery Core

Lava Core

Dark Iron Ore

Elementium Ore

Arcane Crystal

Essence of Fire

Thorium Ore

Blood of the Mountain

The cores may only sell for 20 to 50 gold now but I expect prices to surge above 100g after expansion. Elementium ore already sells for 350 to 500g each and may possibly jump to 900 to 1000 gold. There are several items though that you could make some nice gold off of. I've been using a snatch method to buy up cheap elementium ore in the past just because players have no idea what the real value is and they are scarce on the auction house.

Thanks for checking in!

Why Liquidate Now?

A few of the other gold blogs have been posting about getting rid of your stockpiles now since cataclysm is on the horizon. Some have even suggested restricting what you sell so you don't get stuck with items that don't sell or you end up taking a loss.

Don't Liquidate Now

I don't agree with most of these ideas. Why? You still have 2 1/2 months till Cataclysm comes out, I'm going to assume Thanksgiving week will be the release like they've done in the past. That is plenty of time to make a lot of sales and there will still be plenty of demand. I would even speculate that you could maintain a stock pile up till the final month then start to unload then. But here's the thing, what are you unloading? There should be several items in your stockpile that you should be maintaining for the launch of Cataclysm anyway, ore, cloth, inks, herbs, etc.. Sure, you will have to unload your epic gem stockpile if you're a jewelcrafter but you should have no problem unloading the remaining gems in the finale month before cataclysm launch.

Profits Still To Be Made

If you happened to have read the post on this subject over at Capped By Cata, he talks about how jewelcrafting with epic gems isn't worth it. His point is everyone already has all the epic gems and will no longer be needing to buy them so in turn, demand falls. I think this is a narrow minded assumption to think that there will no longer be players receiving new upgrades via raids. As of today trade chat on my realm is spammed all day with pug raids looking for members. There will still be plenty of players receiving upgrades all the way till cataclysm launches. I've had fellow players on my realm this week tell me they wanted to gear up on their dps sets so they could level faster.

Think about this, some players only have one good set of gear, whether it be healing, tanking, or dps gear. Depending on leveling style they may want fast queues and need a healing or tank set. Others may want the best dps set to grind through all the quests. What ever it may be they will be upgrading their sets and buying the best gems to put in them. Markets may have crashed but it's foolish to think that there will be no profits to be made. So let's look at some basic economics, demand falls for cut epic gems so as a result demand for uncut gems falls as well. Both prices fall accordingly but a profit margin remains between the two. This profit margin is what is key all the way till cataclysm. Whether it is 10 gold or 30 gold you will still make a good profit depending on the quantity that you sell. I can still sell 15 to 20 gems a night while I sleep at a margin of 20 to 50g each. So twenty gems at 20g is still a 400g profit just for an overnight posting, that doesn't even include working the auction house during the day.

So if you really want to be like a furniture store going out of business and sell everything then go for it. In my opinion I think that you end up limiting your gold making significantly if you do this right now. Plus there is several items that you should be stocking up for when Cataclysm launches.

Questions for Comments

Are you liquidating everything now? What time frame do you have in your mind before you unload unnecessary items?

Wow Auctioneer database parser II

Wanna break down your auction house scans? Would you like a spreadsheet to search in for current prices? Wanna research items maybe you should be selling? Well there is a website for you!

Wow Auctioneer database parser II is a website that will take your auction house data and convert it to a CSV file that you can open up in excel. You will need to get the latest version of auctioneer and Auc-db installed to run a scan and have a database file to export. This export allows you to view the latest auction house data from your most recent scan.

I like using this to quickly lookup prices for various items, especially if I'm farming or I'm away from the auction house. You can also use it to quickly compare faction prices on the same realm. Run a scan on horde, export, then jump over to alliance and do the same. Compare the prices and see what items you can faction trade to sell on the other side for higher profit. (This will require two accounts)

Let me know what you think!

Shadowfang Keep BoE Snatch List

You may not know about these two items but there are two very rare BoE drops out of Shadowfang keep. The drop rate on these two items have been nerfed substantially so it probably would be a waste of time trying to farm for these items. Unless you are really into tweaking out then go for it.

Those Silly Twinks

The two items are Shadowfang and Assassin's Blade. They can sell from anywhere from 2k all the way to 10k gold. Even some players will pay real money just to get one of these. These are a couple of the best twink weapons available at level 19 so they are in high demand in the twink community.

The Snatch

What we are banking on someone picks ones of these up and has no idea what the real cost is. Hopefully the post it from 50 to 200g. What we can do is use the snatch tool to create a price threshold of 1000g to try and catch any of these items. Even if you bought one for 1k you should have no problem making an insane profit. For more information on using the snatch tool check out my tutorial, Using the Snatch Auction Tool.

Export BeanCounter Data To Excel

After doing some more research I've found someone who has created an excel workbook that uses macros to export your BeanCounter data. This is a little bit more advanced method than I'm used to sharing with my readers but if you're interested in breaking down your BeanCounter data and drilling down in the data then this is for you. I wanted to see if there was something else available since WoW Sales Report is no longer being updated and it does not work with newer auctioneer data.

The Download & Install

You can download the file from curse gaming, BeanCounter Export. You will need Office 2007 and macros must be installed. If you need to enable macros go to File -> Excel Options -> Trust Center -> Trust Center Settings. I have not tested this file in OpenOffice but I'm sure it will work in the newest version.

It doesn't matter where you put the file, your desktop or my docs will be fine. Double click on the file and edit the settings on the first page of the workbook then press ALT + F8 to run the macro. A popup box will ask if you want to run Readfile, click run. A box will pop up and ask you for the path, enter this path name but edit it for your account name c:\program files\World of warcraft\Wtf\Account\"Account Name"\saved variables\beancounter.lua . It will say done, click ok.

Changing Options

You should now be able to look at your auction house transactions based upon the settings you selected. The currency data is a bit messy but we can fix this by selecting columns E through K then right click on any column then click Format Cells. Go to Custom then copy past this, 0"."0000;-0"."00;0"."00. This will change the format to gold so it's easier to read.

By using the top menu buttons you can sort the data any which way you want. This export is great because it allows you to see sales patterns, what items are your hottest sellers, and what classes you might be tailoring too.

Weekly Update 9-7

Well it's that time of the week when I, Nakedjay, gives you a detailed recap of my gold making adventures for the last week.

Real Life

Well things are getting better and I am starting to have more time on my hands finally. I am thinking of working on some more videos for my youtube channel. Been feeling like crap lately so I'm thinking about getting back into my workout routine. Hopefully I can find the motivation.

WoW Life

Only played 2 nights this week and I didn't have much to show for it. I did invest a bunch into herbs for inscription. Gem markets still dead, as you can see below I made a lot of sales but the profit margins are really sucking.

Here's the Total Sales,

Jewelcrafting - 15,780g

Inscription - 2,400g

Tailoring - 196g

Alchemy - 1,100g

Total Liquid - 95,183g

Total Invested - 24,000g

Total Assets - 119,183

The next two weeks I am going to have a lot of time to play WoW so I should be able to pull in some serious numbers and actually focus on enchanting again. I really am wanting to make the push to gold cap as I want to make sure I reach it before Cataclysm.

Thanks for checking in!

Curious Finds with Inscription

It's amazing what you find out while looking at your sales. By looking at my sales history from inscription I can tell what characters are being leveled the most on my realm. It's odd but you can see which class glyphs you sell the most and the ones that you sell the least.

On my realm there must be a ton of players leveling warlocks because glyphs for that class are my biggest seller. I find sales for death knights and warriors to be high as well. I think that the death knight sales are fairly obvious since they are so easy to level up. On the other side of the spectrum I see mage, shaman, and hunter glyphs sold the least.

I began thinking about how I could use this data or if I could further analyse it. How could this data help me? Could I apply this data to focus on other professions? I think that this explained to me why I sold more Iron-Bound Tomes than Faces of Doom off hands. Could there be things that might be more in demand for a blacksmith than usual at this time?

Questions for Comments

I wanted to put this in your minds and see what you all thought. What do you infer from this data? Would you think about crafting more of a certain item based of this information?

Image from remnantsofchaos.com

Runecloth is still Profitable

Runecloth is still very profitable due to reputation turn ins and for leveling tailoring. Not only are players stockpiling runecloth now for cataclysm but there is plenty of players using it up right now. Currently on my realm a stack of runecloth sells for 10 to 15 gold.

There is two spots that I farm for runecloth, Undead Stratholme and Expedition Armory in Hellfire Peninsula, either spot will net you 300+ cloth per hour. I prefer farming Stratholme because I'm an enchanter and it will boost your gold per hour much higher. Check out my previous post on farming Stratholme as an Enchanter. Plus you can make a nice profit off trash and selling items that are worthless to D/E.

I've been splitting what I have been farming in half, as half goes into the my stockpile for cataclysm and the rest goes to the auction house for sale. This way I keep gold coming in and I can still build my stockpile, as we still have plenty of time till expansion lands.

Questions for Comments?

Where do you farm Runecloth? Have you begun stockpiling for Cataclysm?

Selling Leveling Greens

This can be a tricky market to get a hang on since there is so many items to look for but it can be a great money maker, especially come Cataclysm. I know what you're thinking, what about all these Bind on a Account items? Here's the thing, BoA items don't cover all slots and then you have the factor of players being lazy or not having any interest in grinding out emblems and faction seals.

What to Sell?

You can add uncommon greens as another item to look for in your gold making process. For some greens you can make a higher profit than just straight selling to a vendor. The key is looking for the right items which can take a bit of experience to know what to sell. Here are some of the types of greens that you should be looking for.

of The Monkey

of The Bear

of Power (Mail & Leather)

of The Eagle (Cloth, leather)

Anything with Spellpower

Stam, Strength, Crit on plate or mail

Any Blue (Just about any blue is going to sell for more than the d/e shard, unless it's a weapon you can sell to vendor, some do sell to vendor for a good amount)

Now you're thinking, what about tank gear? Defense gear is good to sell NOW. Do not stock up on this gear for cataclysm as defense will no longer be a stat since it will be built into tanking specs.

How to Price?

This can be tricky as you can look at market prices of similar gear to get a feel for what that item may sell for. You may not have much auctioneer data on some of these items since they have such random stats. You can forget about minimum bids with this type of gear as people who are leveling want their gear now, not later. You need to find a price where you at least make double of what you would sold to a vendor. So a green weapon sells for 9g you need to sell it for around 20g.

Leveling blues will normally sell for 50 to 100 gold. Unless you get something truely great it might sell for a couple hundred. The great thing about blues is there is much more auctioneer data available to you will have a better idea of the market price on your realm.

Questions for Comments

Do you sell leveling greens? Any things you look for when selling leveling items? Do you avoid this market of the auction house?

Paying for Guild Sig?

Sign Me Up! Getting gold those first few levels can be difficult even if you are selling everything you pickup. Always keep a keen eye for posts in general or trade chat for players paying for guild signatures. Most of the time guild signature payouts will be 5 to 10g but that is a huge amount of gold at such low levels. Especially if you're starting out for the first time or creating a new character on a brand new realm.

For example, on my one alt I have signed 8 guild charters! I earned anywhere from 5 gold to 50g per signature! I was expecting 20g one time from a player and he gave me 50g instead. He said, "Consider it a gift." So just think of it as another way to make gold while leveling. I leave my alts guild-less while leveling or have them in my personal guild that I can easily leave.

Reinvesting that Gold

This is critical if you want to build up some gold on a new character, especially if that character is stranded on a new realm. If I get some starter gold off guild signatures I will run to the auction house and start looking for items to flip. I'll get a couple auction house scans in during a day to get the feel for the realm's markets then start looking for items on the resale list. I will start looking for anything that I can buy for just a few silver to a gold each that I can flip for big profits.

You only need one successful day of flips and you are pretty much good on that realm. Once you have built up 50 to 100 gold then you can really start flipping bigger items. Rinse and repeat, the gold pile will just keep growing.

Questions for Comments

What methods do you use for earning gold at low levels? Do you keep an eye out for guild signatures? What's the most you have been paid to sign a guild charter?

How to Use Auctionator

There is a lot of emphasis on using Auctioneer, which is a great addon but it can be intimidating to most players that are new to the auction house game. Auctionator is a lightweight and easy to use addon for the auction house. It allows you to quickly post auctions, buy items, and cancel auctions that you have been undercut on.

I would recommend going to google and do a search for Auctionator, the first result should be for curse gaming, go there and download the latest version. You will need to place it in your World of Warcaft/Interface/Addons folder. You will need to restart wow if you do this install if you still have the game running. Select which characters you will want to use this addon at your character selection screen. Now get to an auction house and open an auction house window with an auctioneer. You should see three new tabs in orange lettering at the bottom of the auction house window, Buy, Sell, & More.

Buying

1. Click on the Buy Tab.

2. Click on the Full Scan Button (Upper Right Hand of AH Window).

3. New Dialog Box Should Open -> Click on Start Scanning -> When it's finished, click Done.

4. One the Buy Tab, search for an item you would like to buy.

5. In the Search Item click on the item you are looking for. It will breakdown prices listed for that item by stack and quantity.

6. Once an item is highlighted, click on the Buy Button (Lower Right Hand of AH Window).

7. Enter in the number of stacks you want to buy -> Click Buy.

If there is 40 stacks of infinite dust and you enter in 40 stacks to buy, Auctionator will instantly buy all 40 stacks for you! You will no longer have to hunt through the list and select each stack 40 times to buy them all. This also allows you to easily see quantities better, for example, when arrows are posted in singles or stacks of 100.

Selling

1. Click on the Sell Tab.

2. Drag an Item to left side of the AH window and insert it into the blank box. Auctionator will list your competition's current prices for that item. Auctionator will automatically enter the price you should post the item for, lower than your competition.

3. If you are satisfied with the price and quantity, click Create Auctions.

Undercuts

1. Click on the More Tab.

2. Click on the button, Check for Undercuts, this will search through your auctions and detect whether or not you have been undercut.

3. If undercuts are found it will ask you to cancel your auctions that have been undercut, click Yes. Auctionator will cancel all auctions immediately.

Settings

Inside of WoW go into your interface settings -> Addons -> Auctionator

There are a few settings we want to look at.

1. Select Show Tooltips (If you want price history on your items)

2. Undercutting -> Enter in the price threshold you want to undercut with

3. Selling -> Setup stack sizes for various item types

I love this addon because it is so easy to use and it really streamlines your auction house processes. Buying and selling are not much easier than this!

Questions for Comments

Do you use Auctionator? Do you prefer using Auctioneer instead? Which addons do you use to for your gold making business?

Weekly Update 9-1

Well it's that time of the week when I, Nakedjay, gives you a detailed recap of my gold making adventures for the last week. The weekly update was delayed a day to get the blogging carnival post in. It will return to it's normal slot next Tuesday.

Real Life

Sat on my ass and drank heavily with my girlfriend this weekend. Was at her pool pretty much the whole weekend which was very relaxing. I've been on the phone the last couple of days trying to talk to an executive at HP because they failed on a 130K project at my work. It's amazing that the biggest computer company in the world is so disorganized and filled with hateful people that don't want to help you. Guess that's what happens when a company gets big.

WoW Life

Gem markets crashed...again...except this one is much worse and probably will not recover till expansion. Profit margins are dropping to 10 to 20 gold. Some cuts are not even profitable, it's pathetic. The competition is buying up supply just praying to make a 5g profit. Heck I'll stick to my netherweave bags if it comes down to that.

I blew through a good portion of my stockpile so I am going to try and rebuild this week. I think I went through a matter of 20k within 3 evenings. There seems to be heavier competition in the glyph markets this last week but I'm still saved by my late night postings which are still making me a killing.

I have been pulling a wider profit margin of late with netherweave bags as prices on cloth have dropped and demand has went through the roof.

I'm not sure but I think I hate enchanting. It's probably because of two auction house campers on my realm so I just don't invest as much time on it. It seems like these two guys are online 24/7 and they undercut me within 3 to 5 minutes. To test it out I sat there and camped the auction house for one hour while they were online. In that time I was undercut 7 times by these two players but I was able to sell two enchanting scrolls I think by luck in between the undercuts. It's frustrating but if they piss me off enough I'm going to invest heavily in enchanting markets and force them out with heavy undercutting. I can always use the jewelcrafting shuffle to get dirt cheap enchanting mats to beat them. We'll see where this leads.

Here's the Total Sales,

Jewelcrafting - 20,500g

Inscription - 5,400g

Enchanting - 750g

Tailoring - 1,400g

Alchemy - 700g

Total Liquid - 91,885

Total Invested - 23,500

Total Assets - 115,385

An impressive weak for me, I pulled this off only playing 3 evenings! Some time soon I will have a week, probably during the winter, where I will pull off some enormous numbers because I will be playing every evening. Well I am definitely smelling blood now being about 8k away from 100k, that will be an impressive goal for me to have finally reached. I should have no problem hitting that by next week.

Thanks for checking in!

How do you turn 1,000 gold into 2,000 gold?

Markco over at JMTC has asked the gold blogging community this question for his 2nd Blogging Carnival, "How do you turn 1,000 gold into 2,000 gold?"

I think that this question can be broke down into two separate paths depending on what a user has available to them. Let's take a look at both strategies, which are both very viable.

The New Player that is Limited by Professions

If you fall into this category you are looking at any options available to make gold because you just simply can't take the gold you have and invest it into materials to craft items to sell. So let's look at the options available to you.

1. Buying and Reselling Vendor Pets

This is a simple method of making easy gold. You can make a trip visiting vendors in your faction capital, Dalaran, or the Stormspire in Netherstorm. These pets can easily sell for double or more what you paid for them. For example, Dalaran pets sell for around 50g and can be resold on the auction house for 100 to 150g each.

2. Flipping Items on the Auction House

Another great method to make gold is buying low and selling high. By using the Auctioneer addon we can easily scan the Auction House for any items that are selling for way undervalue. Then we can buyout these items or put a minimum bid and hope to win the item. Then repost any items you find at actual market value and rake in the profits!

Items I generally look for are any type of materials, ore, leather, herbs, or cloth that is selling for way under market value. Also another low risk area is flipping Frozen orbs, Crusader Orbs, or Eternal Fire/Life.

The Established Player with Professions

Established can be used loosely with this strategy. This can range from a veteran to someone who has a maxed out profession but has no idea how to use it to make gold. Let's go through some examples I currently use to make gold.

1. Inscription

I think this profession I see the greatest return on out of all my professions. At one time I would consider that profession to be jewelcrafting but since those markets have pretty much crashed I use Inscription as my cash cow.

I would immediately take that 1000g and buy up as much herbs as I could get my hands on that fit under my price threshold of 15g per stack. Normally you can find stacks for 9 to 12 gold. I would also buy 4 frozen orbs to make epic tomes with. Make as many glyphs as you can that are above 10g each and make some Runescrolls of Fortitude as well.

So let's follow along, Buy Herbs -> Buy Orbs -> Mill Herbs -> Make Inks -> Make Tomes -> Make Glyphs -> Make Runescrolls or Fortitude or Sell Snowfall Inks

Depending on market conditions you might be able to sell Stacks of Snowfall ink for 200 to 300 gold. This is immediate return on your investment has you should have about 3 stacks worth after milling. You can also use them to make Runescrolls of Fortitude but you must check to see what the going rate is on your realm. Typically they run 5-6g each. Tomes sell for around 250g each and I would recommend making 4 of these to sell. As for glyphs stick to ones that sell for above 10g as we are looking for high demand glyphs to sell to get a quick return.

In a matter of just a couple evenings selling these items you should easily be above 2000g. If you sell 50 glyphs out of the 250 to 300 glyphs that you are likely to make at 40g each, which is entirely possible as I do it frequently, then you have just turned 1,000g into 2,000g off glyphs alone. This is what works for me and it is an absolute cash cow but I warn that you should test inscription on your realm and see if it is viable as it is a highly competitive market.

2. Jewelcrafting

This is still very viable even after the market crashes as long as you can get the materials for cheap. If so you can still pull out a profit margin of 30 to 80g per gem. Because of the heavy investment required it may take you two or three evenings to double your profits.

So let's say you buy 12 gems at 80g each, that's 960g. By cutting epic cuts of gems, which you can see the list of cuts I have over at my What I Sell list, you can expect an average profit of 30g if markets have crashed on your realm. When you sell those first 12 gems you will have a profit of 360 gold. Turn around and buy another 12 or more gems and rinse and repeat. Not only will you turn that 1000g into 2000g but you will easily make that profit skyrocket the more and more you can reinvest into uncut gems.

Questions for Comments

What would you do to turn 1,000g into 2,000g? Anything you would do different?

Thanks for checking in!

Cataclysm Stockpile List

Here is a list of materials that I am stocking up for Cataclysm.

1. Inks

I've begun stocking up various lower level inks and ink of the sea for the upcoming expansion. Once Cataclysm hits you will no longer be able to trade Ink of the Seas for lower level inks, the new Cata Ink will be the new trade ink, so stockpile now on all of these lesser inks so you can stay ahead of your competition.

2. Runecloth

I am currently stockpiling Runecloth to feed all the hungry worgen/goblin players that will want to max out their reputation. I predict that there will be a serious demand increase upon expansion launch.

3. Netherweave Bags

I've got an entire bank full of netherweave bolts plus a guild bank tab filled too. Netherweave bags are ALWAYS in demand and the demand is going to go through the roof with all the new goblins and worgens running around.

4. Pets

It's a safe investment since pets are always in demand at a steady market price plus there is a possibility that some pets or pet vendors may be removed from the game. For example, the Azure Whelpling's status is still up in the air. With the massive changes to Ashara there is a good chance this pet could be removed from the game.

So stock up on old world pets and possibly take a chance farming some rare ones that might be removed.

5. Enchanting Scrolls for BoA enchants

I am stocking up on various scrolls for BoA enchants. There will be a big rise in demand for these enchants with all the alts being created.

6. Eternal Belt Buckles

I haven't heard of anyone yet talking about stocking up on these. Right now there hasn't been any new info on an updated version but I can't really think of what the updated version could do but add 2 sockets instead of 1? Either way there should still be a rise in demand for these buckles.

7. Cobalt/Saronite Ore

There will be some pretty good demand from players leveling blacksmithing, alchemy, or engineering that will need ore. Plus you can always prospect the ore and get uncommon gems to cut. There will be plenty of players willing to blow their gold on gems for every new piece of gear they get leveling to 85.

I've thought about considering stockpiling on various lower level ores, leathers, and herbs for leveling purposes. I can only assume that all of these new characters will be wanting to level new professions and buying up the materials to level these professions quickly. I think I will have to do some inventory management to figure out where to put anymore stuff at!

Questions for Comments

What are you stockpiling for Cataclysm? Anything in my list that you don't agree with?

Trade Chat LFW?

I had read some various opinions on using trade channel for additional work or revenue. Using it to find some extra business by responding to various players looking for said service is a great way to get some extra gold to come in. But the method of dispute is posting in trade channel with a link to your profession asking for business.

In a post last January over at Cold's Gold Factory, Shouting In Trade Channel, Cold discusses why it may not be wise to shout in trade with your auction house postings or posting profession links looking for additional work. He brings up a great issue that you are alerting your competition that you are online and that they will be more likely to wait for you to logoff and undercut your postings. I think that serious gold makers will already have you on their friend's list so they know when you logoff plus I think it's a double edged sword. The same thing occurs when you are posting in trade channel looking for buy cheap materials. You are limited by how much cheap materials you can buy from the auction house so you have no choice but to look to trade channel, especially if your sources of farmers run dry.

I think that you must have your competition on your friends list but also you will need to do postings in chat for both additional work and materials. I know two players on my realm that I have befriended, yes they are competition but we have an understanding, that post daily in chat for work. I think it is a huge revenue source that anyone could be missing out on. For example, most gems that I cut for players I receive back a 10 to 20 gold tip. Heck in most gem markets you are only making a 20 to 30g profit. In my opinion I think that you may want to stop all of your trade chat postings and hour to 3o minutes before you logoff for the evening so you have time to check all of your postings for undercuts.

Thanks for checking in!

Pack Rats

It amazes me how much people collect for the sake of just having stupid shit. No, No, it's great to show off your guild bank full of enchanting mats...that you will never use. I see all the time other players showing off their stockpiles but yet they don't have anywhere near the liquid gold they should for maintaining a stockpile of such size.

I guess there is some glory behind just having 9000 inks in your bank. I've seen on other websites players showing off screenshots of their massive stockpiles. Who gives a shit? Seriously. Talk about the mechanics behind gold making not your damn e-peen. Especially for those that claim to be serious at making gold.

The issue is that you end up buying more than what you would ever need to meet a certain demand and normally for some markets you would never even have the opportunity to buy that much in the first place due to scarcity in the market place, especially at the price threshold you are trying to meet. The other issue is that, depending on the amount of time that you have to unload these mats, is if too much time occurs after your initial purchase then markets could crash or slowly decrease in value which in turn devalues your entire assets. If this happens are you even making a profit? You might even be lucky to just break even.

Depending on the market you can have some really high demand periods where it just doesn't seem like you have enough materials ever to meet that demand. Which is great! You buy up as much as you possibly can to create a good stockpile to meet it. But guess what? It isn't going to last forever. There will be a downturn in the market. Think of this. You end up buying a massive stockpile of epic uncut gems, let's say you invest 40 to 60 grand in gems at 80 to 90 gold per gem. Everything is going great but you begin getting through half of that investment and then markets fall and now there is a chance you could be taking a loss on those same investments. This is just a strategy that I would like to put in the mind of everyone. There is too much advice out there that just pounds your brain saying buy as much as possible. I'm all about having large stockpiles but there should be a limit to this business decision.

After a while you should have a pretty good feel for your realm's economics but even having a grasp on that you can see some bizarre swings in markets.

Questions for Comments

How large of a stockpile do you maintain? Do you have a limit? Have you ever had a bad buying experience with market crash?

The Inscription Monster

Oh what a horrible monster it is! A bloating profession that acts as the blob as it infests your bank space, time, and your brain! It forces you into a catch 22 where you are damned by the amount of time you spend milling, making inks, crafting glyphs, and posting/cancelling on the auction house but you are also damned by the amount of gold you are making.

What Monster?

I think out of all the professions this was the one professions Blizzard screwed up. When I say screw up I'm not talking about the functionality of the glyphs, I'm talking about the entire process of the profession from a crafting/management perception. All other professions you can manage fairly easy on your own without the need of addons. Sure they may take a little bit more time but no where near the time you would spend manually running an inscription business. I think there could have been some more automation built into the profession to help players not only manage everything but to speed up some of the processes. It seems that I can spend an hour pulling mail out of my mail box, posting new auctions, milling herbs, crafting inks, and crafting new glyphs. I'm spending this much time even with addons to help streamline the process.

I think the other side of the coin is addons that streamline the process have forced everyone to use them. The players that don't use them are forced into it, even if they don't like using addons, just so they can catch up to their competition.

Monster + Frustration = Profit

Even though inscription can be a major pain in the ass it can bring in some serious bling. You can easily make 4k to 10k a week with inscription, all depending on how often you post. That is a sizable chunk of change to add to your gold pile every week. I for one am not going to be missing out on this. I really hope that with the new glyph system comes some upgrades to how the milling/crafting process is handled. I'm sure there won't be but I can always hope.

Questions for Comments

Do you run a inscription business? Did you just say screw it? Inscription isn't worth my time or have you found a better way to streamline it and reduce the amount of time you are investing into it daily?

Thanks for checking in!

Late Night Posting - Big Sales

The Competition

If you're like myself, a casual player, then there are going to be times that you just can't be online watching your auctions ensuring the auction house campers aren't undercutting you every 5 minutes. If you are able to post late or at least right before you go to bed you will have much better luck at getting more sales. There will still be demand for your items over night but you will face much less competition.

Who's Sleeping?

Every night I make one final posting on all of my characters, normally between 11:30 & midnight. Every morning I wake up, load up the armory on my iphone and check my sales. I will have tons of sales every morning! Much more sales than what I would have just posting during the afternoon to evening hours going against all the competition.

Success!

For example, two nights ago I woke up and sold 33 epic gems. That was over 4k sitting in my mailbox on just one character. I have found that the most competitive market is inscription and this method works the best with my scribe. I usually get undercut on all my glyphs within 15 minutes so it's a narrow window of time to even get any sales but posting late at night I will have huge sales. All of my items will sit on the auction house all night while facing much less competition.

What time have you found to be the best for posting?