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| An Eruption of Gold |
Mining, Herbing, and Skinning will be big sources of gold early into the Cataclysm Expansion as people will pay primium prices. The server first ability to craft items and gear that no one else can craft yet will be a huge advantage. Knowing which items to mass produce to sell for quest completions will be a nice bonus. Once the population starts acquiring epics and raid gear, the enchanters and jewelcrafters will be raking in the gold. There are tons of ways to make gold in any new expansion, but what I will be focusing on is making gold off of new players and new characters.
New Players
New players are different from new characters. A new player is someone who just logged in to play the game for the first time. New characters are alternate characters of an already existing account. New players tend to be clueless for the first few weeks of the game. Some don't even know what the auction house is for months after they first start to level their first character. New players tend to spend their gold foolishly because they just don't have the experience in game to know when to buy and when to wait. Regardless there are things that even new players want to acquire quickly like bigger bags or a "cool glow" on their weapon. New players, or Christmas Noobs as I like to call them, may have a stack of gold given to them from a real life friend who got them into the game. So don't dismiss these new players as poor noobs with no income. We can make gold off of these new players too.
New Characters
New characters can be created for all sorts of reasons. There will be a ton of old players that will return to see the new content and changes from the Cataclysm expansion. Many regular players will be rolling one of the new races, either Worgen or Goblin, or both. Some players will be creating new race / class combos like a human hunter or a troll druid. Some players will switch factions completely. On my server the top Alliance raiding guild is all re-rolling as Horde come Cataclysm and forming a new Horde guild. Some players will just decide that they are tired of their old main and will be leveling a new characters as their new main. Some people will decide that they finally want to give in and roll a deathknight. Twinking will return in Cataclysm, so many players will have an outlet for spending their masses of gold on a nice twink or two. Any way you break it down, you must agree there will be a huge market for supplying new players as well as new characters.
What Do You New Players and Characters Buy
There are many items and markets that can be used to supply the soon to be exploding population of new players and new characters. Here is a list of some of the strategies that I am going to be banking on.
- Netherweave Bags - The standard of any new character, the surge in demand will push these to an all time high of sales and profits.
- Profession Bags - Think of how many of these new characters will have a gathering skill. Mining bags should sell very well, even to old characters that are gathering for the first weeks. Goblin and Worgen racial bonuses will steer those races towards herbalism/alchemy and skinning respectively.
- Twinks - Twinks are a whole market of their own. This market will pick up later in the expansion, but for starters check out green gear that turns blue in Patch 4.03. Stock up now buying the greens, to sell as blues in Cataclysm.
- BoA Gear Enchants - BoA gear gets enchanted by the same enchants that 10-19 bracket twinks use. New BoA gear is being added as old BoA gear won't work past level 81. New BoA gear is being added through the guild vendor system to slots without current BoA gear (helm and cape). Are you prepared with all the common Twink and BoA gear enchants on your enchanter?
- Vanity Pets - When the population surges, the sale of vanity pets explodes as well, especially after any holiday events which reward a vanity pet, and we will be fresh into vanity pet season with all the forthcoming holidays, not to mention the gifts from Great Father Winter.
- Quest Items - Quest items always sell well to new players questing. I plan to keep a list once the data starts rolling in on what items are needed for quest completions. This has always been an easy money maker for me and many times you don't need to be a high level crafter to profit in this market.
- Glyphs - With the changes to the glyph system, all new players will be buying glyphs, as will any new characters that are created. Old players returning to the game will log in to find out that they now need to go buy a ton of glyphs as well. Glyphs sales should be even bigger that with patch 4.0.1, since many more people will be back playing the game and sheer numbers will raise the demand to highly profitable levels again.
Be Prepared
Hopefully, you are thinking about the new player / new character markets that you may have overlooked. Best advice is always to be prepared! Get you netherweave stockpile build and bolted. Snatch those cheap greens that are turning to blues soon. Get those glyphs crafted and ready to go. Finish collecting those rare twink enchanting recipes you are missing. Get you game plan together by planning ahead and then you can relax while the gold just keeps rolling in. Maybe you too can catch some of the golden nuggets spewing forth from the Cataclysm volcanoes.
What are you banking on for making gold in Cataclysm?
Great post, sums up quite a few things to keep track off =) having much of what I need to keep track off in a single post that I can fall back on when my chaotic mind lets me down is quite a bliss.
ReplyDeleteI've been stockpiling every level of Cloth. I believe that there will be a HUGE surge in people leveling Tailoring & First Aid with their new toons especially since First Aid is suppose to be much more useful in Cataclysm. I'll be keeping on eye on that tougher areas (Mageweave & Wool) as being the most profitable gap.
ReplyDelete<3 Your Friendly Neighborhood Fuubaar
I'll be focusing on gathering, now that I can do both mining and herbing on one toon, my new Troll Druid. Because I'm not a hard and fast player, this is simplest way to make serious cash. Currently i'm sitting on about 200 Copper Ore, and I'll be making up a handful of Mammoth/Trapper's bags (had i not just crushed the Borean leather market) to sit on, as well as Netherweaves...
ReplyDeleteForgot to also add Runecloth as a big seller for a lot of people that want to cap their goblin faction quickly so they can buy the new goblin racial mount.
ReplyDeleteSo when you have made all that gold, how much will you personally be able to hold? My scribe just broke the Gold Cap
ReplyDeleteCold - this is a great post. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteM.
"Netherweave Bags" this ones sells very very well, everytime we get an exp.
ReplyDeleteExcellent reading as usual Cold great work.
ReplyDeleteI should have gotten in on the vanity pet market. Oh well...
ReplyDeleteI have also been building up on some fish and certain herbs that are vacant on my server all the time. And they are huge ingredients in power leveling professions. They are never in the Auction house and the volume that you need to level makes it worth stockpiling where I am at.
ReplyDelete