Spend the Extra 1 Copper

We all hate these friggin undercutters that cut us out for 1 copper less on the AH. As Buyers: Let's try to make a point to scroll up and buy an item from vendors for 1 or 2 copper more, just to throw their whole scheme off. Buy from people that you regularly deal with, or that have tipped for crafting or chants, before buying from the automated undercutting goblins. Just throw off their scheme a little bit.

I have seen this done on my bag seller, who also does a lot of chanting for tips. People have bought from me even at 12g per bag, when undercutters are posting below 9. Why? good customer service, and a few peeps still believe in loyalty.

Try it out and see what kinda customers you can get to repeat buy from you based on your name, instead of saving a few coppers.

Tank for Hire

So I've started an experiment as inspired by a post of Gevs. Switched by DPS DK Main into Dual Spec with Dual Weild Frost Tank as my other optino as I've recently completed my tanking set. Farmed Heroics for emblems and enchanting mats 8 in a row back to back with less then 10 secs downtown between each. So, as Gev suggested, I going to try and sell quick queuing to dps. I'll report my findings later.,

Oracles Pets

In Scholazar Basin, you need to get to Revered status with the Oracles to buy their Mysterious Egg. This egg takes a full week to hatch, but can reult in one of the following:

Tickbird Hatchling (sells for around 10-20g)
White Tickbird Hatchling (sells for around 20-30g)
Cobra Hatchling (sells for around 30-75g)
Proto-Drake Whelp (sells for 200g+)
Aged Yolk (failure) (use or vendor it)

and a rare chance at a Green Proto Drake Mount (BOP)

As soon as you hit level 76, head to scholazar and get questing through the chains to get you the ability to hatch one of these every week. Maybe you will get a lucky mount, but all in all the return on selling these is very profitable as each chance only costs you 3g.

Websense

Websense is back up at work, so I apologize for the delay in new posts. Willbe posting more from home, so may be a few less posts per week.

Don't Craft Yourself Into A Hole

when in a crafting market such as making netherweave bags, don't craft up all of you items to the final end product. Make sure to leave some at various steps along the way, so that if the market changes on you, you have other options and are not stuck. You don't want to be forced to sell low or have a long period of waiting out your competition.

Case in point: On my server people have started to catch on to the Bag Market so bags have been cut down to 8g per. Ok so I can still sell them at 8g for a profit since I buy stacks at 6g or less, but as the market for bags has dropped the price the cloth market has skyrocketed. I am selling those unbolted stacks for 15g each, well beyong what a bag even sells for, and I am also selling bolts of netherweave in stacks of 4 for 12g each. So i am playing all 3 markets at the moment, turning 6g into 8, 12, and 15g all three. If I had burnt all my mats and stored just a bunch of bags, I would be stuck selling for lower than I know I can get for these bags, As i always sell out at 10-12g and rape at up to 25g per sometimes, when the time is ripe.

PRIME DAYS FOR SALES

If you haven't noticed the server's populations have been directly affected by the NFL Playoff game times as many people are /afk or logged out until the last games ends. I made a lot of money these last 2 weekends by posting auctions and searching for deals on the AH during game times. Why? Lots less competition. So as a tip I recommend putting a tv next to the computer if you are into the games, just like I have set up. :)

So keep an eye open during the games, or at least check the AH at halftimes and between games. And remember that Super Bowl night will be a prime time to have very few competitors. Most people on will probably be women so post your cute extra vanity pets and rich purple silk shirts during the Super Bowl. :)

Rich Purple Silk Shirt

This pattern is a rare World of Warcraft Vanilla World Drop. If you see it on the AH, snatch it up and have your tailor start making some gold. I think I bought my pattern for 50g a couple years back.  . Since the pattern is rare, the shirts are rare also. Many people want this sexy purple shirt for their character to seem "cooler" or just because we all know purple and black are the 2 most popular and sought colors in MMOs. This is especially true for people trying to match their shirt with Wrath of the Lich King Northrend Armor sets. I sell these in trade chat and the AH for 12g easy. Often they sell at 25g in The Overnight Market (*See earlier post). Becasue of the sellability of these shirts, you can sell this pattern for 500g, if your not a tailor. So don't be a Xmas Noob and list it for 50g. :)

The Overnight Market

I read a gold makin post somewhere about how undercutting is almost always best and how the poster always posted his epic gems while online, then cancelled his auctions before logging off for the night. He stated this saved him money in listing fees and saved him logging in to a bunch of unsold auctions that were undercut anyways.

I must say that this is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I am online for 4-12 hours at a time and I must say that over 90% of my sales come from times when I am not logged in. More Specifically, the wee hours of the night as the Australians and overnighters tend to buy the vast majority of my items, probably since there are a limited number of crafters on at those times. I also can testify that while enchanting for tips overnight in the late hours, my business has next to no competition.

So don't forgot about the overnight market on your server. Often times you can list your items at regular values instead of undercutting, and if placed right in the list of items for sale, they will still sell, since the cheaper ones will be bought out and your items will then be the cheapest when that Aussie player logs on and goes to purchase.

So think outside the box. If something sells, ask yourself why did it sell and how you could have made more profit off that item.

Occulus Loot Buffs

And there is, indeed, an Oculus problem. Blizzard community manager Zarhym admitted as much before maintenance this week, saying:

To encourage players not to shy away from the many invigorating adventures to be had in The Oculus, we have applied a change to enhance the rewards players are provided when selected for this dungeon via the Random Heroic option in the Dungeon Finder. Once Ley-Guardian Eregos is defeated, one loot bag per character will be provided in his chest in addition to the current rewards. Each loot bag will offer players rare gems, two additional Emblems of Triumph, and a chance of being rewarded the Reins of the Blue Drake. These fine treasures could be yours should you honor your fellow party members by besting the challenges contained within The Oculus! Keep in mind, however, that these extra loot bags will only be awarded to each party member if Oculus is selected by the Dungeon Finder when players choose the Random Heroic option. In light of this change, the Reins of the Azure Drake will now have a chance of dropping in both 10- and 25-player versions of The Eye of Eternity.

I love Occulus, hope the RNG gets me in more groups for it now!

Shouting in Trade Channel

Double posts today. Yay!

Shouting in the Trade Channel

I believe you should not post your profession links into trade channel as LFW . Why not? All this does is alert your competition that you are online. Your competition that is online may already have you on their friends list and are awaiting your logging out to run right to the AH and start the undercutting.

Yesterday I saw someone in trade shout out "/2 Epic Gems now on the auction house at lowest prices." That screams, cancel, repost, and undercut to me, if I'm a major AH gem player. Idiots. You don't want to alert your competition that you just undercut them!

Instead of general broadcasting, just look for people you are looking for specific items in trade channel and send them a private message with your link and your fees. This way you can continue to fly under the radar. Think about it.

Tipping vs. Fees

Have You Tipped Your Crafter Today?

Tipping vs Standard Crafting / Cutting Fees.

I am getting sick and tired of people trying to have items crafted for free or next to no gold. I have started to use and strictly adhere to a crafting fee system instead of doing work for tips. Why? Undercutters. Too many people are getting in on the Jew Cutting game, now that most people realise they can make easy money by turning Wintergrasp tokens, Stone Keepers Shards, and Honor Points into epic gems. Even more money is made when the gem is cut. The value of the cut gem raises from 40 to 100 extra gold, and they wanna tip me 2-5g, then turn around and undercut the same gems I have posted on the AH. (Check out my Wintergrasp Shuffle post for more info on this process.)

So I have been sticking to a standard 40g epic gem cutting fee. Some complain, some don't, and some raise holy hell about it. Idiotic responses I've been getting include:
"I was going to tip that much, but I'm not doing it if you have a fee."
"Um, No way I'm paying you when its free for you to just press 1 button!"
"Why are you charging so much, when it doesn't cost you anything to do it?"

Friggin Idiots!

Levelling a profession to max is free? I must be doing something wrong. Idiots!

My standard fees are:
40g Epic Cuts (25g negotiable only if, you are socketting the gem immediately)
50g Epic Gem Transmute (I keep procs)
30g Smelt Titansteel
60g Tailor Weaves
100g iLvl 245 TOC pattern crafts

Anyone else set up a similar system?
I have talked with others of the same professions and others are starting to get on board. We as crafters need to stick together and stop crafting for next to nothing.

Greedy Goblin Lameness

Anyone else getting sick of Gevlon and his stupid non-WoW related posts over at Greedy Goblin?!? It's getting old and boring Gev, come on and psot something useful.

Selling Cooldowns

If you are a high level crafter, then you better be using your profession's 20-hour or 4-day cooldown as much as possible. Those of us that are big auction house players and crafters, use this tool ASAP when it is off cooldown. Here is am aiction house trick I will share with you to help line your pockets with super easy gold.

The basis for this money making works best for players that have just a few or only one crafting profession. Every day I transmute an epic gem on my alchemist, hoping to get a multi-craft proc. That gem is then either banked or mailed to my jewelcrafter, who turns it into whatever epic cut I can sell for highest, or is in highest demand for easy profit making. What if you are just an alchemist and don't have a jewelcrafter to cut it. Well, you can always tip a jeweler and sell the new cut gem on the auction house. If you are new to this, are still levelling your jewelcrafter, or have very limited materials, you could just bank it. Eventually you will run out of materials, or you will hit a point where someone is raping you on the cost of materials on the auction house. You definately want to be using every single cooldown as soon as you can to maximize profits in World of Warcraft.

We all know that once you run out of materials you can advertise that you are selling your cooldown for a fee. Here is something I learned that can be very advatageous and most people are not doing it. Sell all of the items you have pre-crafted that have a cooldown, by trading for the materials plus the fee you would charge. Most buyers need more than one of the item and will be glad to pay you a fee for each of your finished products and you often can get a bigger fee per cut since you are helping save them the time of hunting down multiple people to buy their cooldowns from. Example:

I charge a 30g fee to smelt Titansteel Bars. When someone is in trade chat looking to buy a smelting CD, I ask them how many they need. If they need 8, they trade me 8 sets of mats plus 30g per set and I give them 8 finished titansteel bars. This greatly decreases their search times and often they will continue to come back for more. Now you have 8 days worth of mats to continue smelting for titansteel bars.

Now figure in a transmutation master. Not only are you continuing to churn your product out, but they never even see any multi-procs, thus eliminating the arguement over who gets the extras when the alchemy transmutation master procs.

Obviously you would make more gold by using your own items that you craft to flip into higher profit items, but this trick works very well for limited crafters, or those who are still learning markets, or for anyone who has a surplus of items in the bank they are just sitting on. Put those titansteel bars, epic gems, and 4 day CD crafted tailor weaves to good use.

Random Tanks

Yesterday I got my Tree from level 69 to 71.5 by running the lower end of Lich King random dungeons. The first group I joined, we ran through 3 tanks that joined and dropped (or were kicked) before finally getting a group member to invite a guildee to tank for us. Over an hour later, we were finally finished with UK regular.

We all know the wait time is shorter for tanks and healers, but some people have been abusing that short wait time by joining the queue as a tank role. A few pulls in it is easy to tell that this so called tank is either brand new to tanking, way undergeared, a complete moron, or all three! Why are people who have no tank gear even allowed into the queue as a tank? You got 8k life, no tank gear, you can't hold aggro, pull when I have no mana after swapping specs as I entered the dungeon (and haven't swapped gear sets), and you think unholy presence is the best for tanking. Are you friggin kidding me? Then you wanna bitch at the healer when you wipe the group? Arrgh! I was so frustrated with idiots yesterday. You try to help these people out or ask pertinent questions, like what is your defense, and you get completely chewed out. I really wish there was some sort of gear check for tanks. Come on, run the instance as dps a few times so you learn the pulls and get at least some gear for tanking before sucking 4 other people into your "experiment".

And why do these idiots with no tank gear run out of Line of Sight as I'm drinking, pull a full set of mobs along with a patrolling group, get completely crushed, then ask me why I suck as a healer and don't I have Healbot? Then I get a 10 minute arse-chewing when I explain I don't use any mods. Healbot is not required for anything, especially for UK reg or Nexus Reg, lol. Just because you are lazy and don't know how to f2 click to target your tank, don't chew me for your moronic actions that got you killed. Funny thing was after he got crushed, a dps role picked up the mobs and adds as I healed the whole party through this clusterf#ck you created. Nice pick-up! /Vote kick Tank. Then everyone in the group agrees that they have 80 healers that don't use addons in raid healing.

Please add ignore and friends lists for cross servers, Blizzard. I have found some really nice and good players on other servers and I would love to start blacklisting some of these total arses that keep getting into my random groups. Anyone else having the same findings?

Vanilla Craftables That Continue To Sell

Don't forget about your old Vanilla WoW patterns. There are still some prime craftables that continue to sell very well. Most of the materials required area easily farmable or easily purchased for minimal cost off newer players or the auction house. With the rise in playable alts, twinks, and Xmas Noobs these items are very viable sources of income. Just keep an eye on the materials needed like: crusader's orb, large fang, spider's silk, etc.

Mechanical Squirrel Box - The free Holiday pets have kick started the pet collecting industry for many new players. Currently selling at 12-15g each. If you are levelling engineering make these until they go grey.

Barbaric Bracers - Awesome wrists for leveling and 29 bracket twinks. The materials required are a joke and I continue to sell out for 115-120g each, unenchanted!

Scroll: Enchant Weapon: Fiery - My most popular heirloom enchant. Selling for 60-65g each 4-5 a night sell out. Mats are costing no more than 25g too.

Scroll: Enchant Weapon: Crusader - Second most popular seller. Sells for 120-150g each.

Spidersilk Boots - Great lvl 19 caster boots. Snatch those Spidersilks up. New players will post em for way too low because they don't know the real value of them. Selling these for around 60g.

Strong Troll's Blood Elixir - Required for popular quest chain. I sell these for 12g each.

If you have the Formula for +30 spellpower to weapon you should be making a killing as hardly no one these days has that pattern and the demand is huge for it on heirloom caster weapons, which is a big reason I still take my enchanter on Molten Core runs.

Prismatic Black Diamonds

Found a new super quick and easy moneymaker for those fledgling jewelcrafters out there. Prismatic Black Diamonds can be created by a jewelcrafter with a minimum of 300 skill. If you are grinding Jewelcrafting this is also a super easy cheap route to get from 300 to 320, as this recipe goes grey at 320. The only reagant required is a Black Diamond, which are next to worthless these days. The random low level gem that is created from this is worth 25 silver if vendored. Check your AH, I found a ton of these for 6s, 9s, 12s, etc. Buy any under 25 silver and cut em and sell the cuts for an easy profit. I also tried posting a few of the +9 sta gems that were created just to see if I could eek 1 gold for em, from poor levelling characters & Christmas Noobs. This is by no means a big money maker, unless u can get stacks of them cheap. Hell, try to advertise in trade that you are buying Black Diamonds and see if you get any sellers. These are pretty much worthless to most people and aren't used in any recipes worth anything. Perfect way for a person new to the auction house to get started making some baseline investment money. Best part is you are selling for profit to a vendor, so no wait or auction house fees. Good Luck Fledglings!

Booming Bag Market

I have found some new cloth farmers selling for below what my current farmers COD to me. So I quickly bought them all out and sent them messages to try and set up daily or periodic cloth CODs for these mats at an even better price than I currently pay my farmers. Can never have too many farmers mailing you mats at your snatch price or lower.

And let me tell you, with all the extra winter break time, people are playing alts more often. When combined with all the Christmas Noobs, the result is a WELL THRIVING BAG MARKET! Are you selling 20-30 bags per day overnight while you sleep? Well why not? With all the extra people having more play time recently, the supply of cloth has risen, thus dropping the price, and combined with the increase demand for extra bags, the sale price has risen. This is one of the most profitable and easily liquidated markets right now, that requires little investment for huge gains.

I pay 6g or less for a stack of netherweave, combine with runethread, then sell bags for an easy minimum 9g99s, up to as high as 25g per bag, when not many bags are posted. To my shock the next day all of the 25g bags had sold out and the AH was empty of bags, so I relisted more for 25g on one tailor, then when I was undercut, my other tailor tossed up more bags at the cheapest rate, which was still 17g. And hell yeah the 17g ones sold out, and the high demand had even led to sales of more of the 25g bags as well, since everyone below me was sold out as well. So don't be a fraid to jack up the price on some bags, if you don't have much competition undercutting you.


So go get your bag on!

Great Buys

This weekend I was fortunate enough to pick up some great buys within World of Warcraft's auction house. The price of Autmn's Glow plummetted over the weekend, as the weekend was flooded with players on winter break and 3 or 4 day weekends. The price of singles was down to 9g each and I was fortunate to buy a full stack for 100g. That's 5 gold a piece! I've continued to sell out of these for 35g, raised the price to 45g, and I continue to sell out of them during the week. So as we all know buy on the weekends, sell during the week. So once the price spikes back up, I will unload most of these for 35-45g easy and use some for Thick Autumn's Glows and make a hefty profit there as well. So check your server to see what winter break deals you can snatch up and resell later.

Also pay attention to your trade channels while you are posting your auctions. (Another reason I don't like auto-posting programs). I was fortunate enough to see someone advertising [Nobles Deck] for 3k! Earlier I had posted an entry about how the Greatness cards were not selling as quickly, but just a few days later one of mine sold on the AH for 5.5k. That was for the card, and this guy was selling a deck for 3k! He must have needed some quick money for something. The Darkmoon Faire just arrived into town too! So I bought it and mailed it right to my main, who is going for the insane title, converted it to a card for the reputation gain, then posted it on the AH. I know I can make a nice profit from a 3k investment easily selling it for 5k or more, plus I got the added bonus of the reputation. Yay! Win-Win!

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

What are my major plans for WoW in 2010.


For Starters, All of my alts will hit level 80 before Cataclysm is released.
The current roster looks like this:

Death Knight (Main) 80
Palladin 80
Mage 80
Warlock 80
Priest 75
Rogue 75
Warrior 72
Druid 69
Hunter 68
Shaman 66

So thats 54 high end levels to get across 6 characters. Hopefully, I can get them all to 80 before the expansion comes out. Shaman will b the toughest to get to 80 as I despise playing the shaman, yuck - Too much micro-managing for me. They are all at or near maxed crafting in their chosen professions, but as a few of them are just gatherers, upon 80 I will change around some of their professions.

I plan to power level a 3rd tailor for moonshroud specialty, the only on I am missing at the moment. And maybe a 2nd alchemist to do potion or elixer spec.

I also plan on hitting the gold cap on multiple characters and also trying to gold cap my guild bank.

Good luck in the New Year!