Making Gold Off Cataclysm: Guest Post by Inkobah

Cataclysm Is Nearing

Today I have a special guest post from Inkobah of Twinkinfo.com.  You may recall his name from a posting I reproduced here titled:  Cataclysm: The Rebirth of Twinking (Part 1).  Inkobah is one of my favorite writers and I am excited to finally have a guest post by him.  If you are interested in twinks, make sure to learn about twinking, how to make a twink, and what twinks buy and use over at Twinkinfo.com. 

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Making Gold Off Cataclysm

The World (of Warcraft) is changing drastically. Soon the two original continents will look much different than we’ve gotten used to over the last 6 years, skills and spells are changing, stats and items are changing, new content will be added, and others will be taken away.

Within this post I’ll be tackling a topic very dear to our hearts: Making gold off Cataclysm. There’s many ways to do it, but here are my suggestions:

The best way to make money in Cataclysm is anticipating the changes that will cause item prices to go up (and avoiding items that will go down as a result of Cataclysm). Below are a few categories to take a look at to maximize your earnings when Cataclysm hits on December 7. But before we go there I want to encourage everyone to avoid the inflation bat!

Avoid the Inflation Bat!
What is the inflation bat? Well every time Blizzard has raised the level cap there has been major inflation in the game. Those that played back in “Vanilla” WoW will remember that you were amazingly rich if you had anything north of 1000g (now you can buy that much from the Chinamen for like $2.50). In BC the amount of gold available to players went up due to the increasing gold dropped by mobs and given by quests. It got worse when Blizzard implemented Daily Quests to the game, making it easy to get 100g+ by just doing a handful of quests. Then, it progressed with Lich King and will again wreak havoc on the economy once Cataclysm comes out.

Perhaps the best thing you can do to prepare for Cataclysm, is to avoid the inflation bat the best you can. How do you do that? Well, you have to find the right items to “invest” your gold in until after things settle down. By buying items that will increase in value in Cataclysm, you’ll be avoiding the inflation that will take your liquid assets and shrink them just because they’re liquid. Think about it this way, if you have 50k gold right now and just sit on 50k gold for three months you’ll have 50k gold (while everyone else will be surpassing you because of inflation). But if you have 50k gold right now and invest a good portion in goods that will increase in value come Cata, you could have exponentially more than 50k gold in three months.

It’s cool to have the gold cap on multiple characters for looks but practically it makes little sense because inflation will make that gold increasingly less valuable. I recommend that you keep some liquid assets (gold) because you’ll need it to buy goods you’ll need or pick up some sweet deals you run across, but most of your gold would be better served invested in goods that you can sell for a profit later. Also when you go to sell these items later mark them up! For instance, let’s say a stack of Copper Ore goes for 10g right now. In Cataclysm, that Ore needs to be priced at 15g + to compensate for inflation and the increased amount of gold in the server economy.

The key to avoiding the inflation bat successfully is finding the right goods that you know will increase in price. Investing in items like Primordial Saronite will be a bad investment as the value in Cata (and in the coming weeks) will tank tremendously. Below are a few areas where I would recommend you invest your gold in for the next couple months or so. It’s certainly not all the goods that should increase in value but here are a few.

Categories to Target

* Mats
Two new races (and new class/race combos) added to the game means all kinds of new characters running around on our realms. This means that materials for professions like Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Enchanting, Tailoring, Jewelcrafting, etc. will skyrocket in demand. The risk to this investment is small, but the payoff will be smaller than some other investments.

* Greens turning into Blues
There are a handful of items that are currently Green that will be changing to Blue. I know Cold touched on a few of these items already. (Refresh your memory about Twink BoE gear changing from green to blue).  As dumb as it may sound, these items will increase in price if only because of the item quality (many are getting buffed as well). Don’t believe me? Remember when the very rare Hyacinth Macaw changed in item quality from White to Purple? The price skyrocketed while nothing changed on the item itself. This is a very safe investment, with a descent return on investment.

* Enchants/Glyphs/Gems/Patches
With all the new characters running around, created item enhancements will also increase in demand with Cataclysm. Also, this expansion is also being called a Rebirth to Twinking by many (including myself) so you should see many twinks running around post-Cataclysm looking for these goods. The risk to this investment is also pretty small, but I believe the payoff could be a bit higher than other investments (especially for items in high demand by twinks).

* Leveling items
Everyone assumes that leveling Blues/Purples are worthless these days and in Cataclysm due to BoA’s. This is not true! I make most of my money these days just buying and selling these items. The reason why it’s wrong is that a lot of people like to have good gear at their level and don’t understand it’s almost always a waste of money. They fall into the ill-fated logic that having good gear upgrades all the time will mean that I’ll level exponentially faster. Those of you that have been around a while know that gear helps but it’s usually not worth the gold (but don’t tell our potential customers that!). In addition, there’s a lot of people that don’t have BoA’s still so all slots are still profitable. With this method, try targeting items that are clearly intended for melee classes that also have Spirit on them (as the Spirit will be changed in Cataclysm to a more useful stat making them more useful and more valuable). Also there’s always people that see Blues/Purples and just buy it because of the item quality thinking it’s an amazing item. The risk to this investment is a bit higher, but the payoff for the right items will be high.

* Twink items
There is certainly some overlap between leveling items and twink items but the big difference is the price twinks will pay for items that are Best in Slot. I’ve seen twinks pay 10k+ more for 1 stat so they make sure they’ve got the best they can get. The scary thing is that there’s a lot of changes happening to twink gear right now and all the stats on Wowhead Beta, the Beta, Armory, and MMO-Champion appear to be inconclusive on what’s really happening. Many items that are currently are BiS are not going to be BiS in Cataclysm which is good if you are able to target the new BiS items and avoid the ones that will no longer be BiS. The risk to this category is high, but the reward can be very high with the influx of twinks that I think we’ll see post-Cata.

Monopolies
Another way to increase your ROI (return on investment) is to create monopolies with other players. I know there are different stands on this issue and I’ve even heard stories about people getting banned for doing this. There is nothing in the Blizzard ToS that would make this illegal (though very clearly illegal in real life) and I’ve never heard from Blizzard when I’ve done it. The way you do this is get a few buddies together to invest in similar items and make an agreement with all of those buddies to set your prices at the same when Cataclysm hits.

This works best and is generally foolproof with items that will be in very high demand. I’m disappointed that there are no new professions with this expansion because that’s the easiest way to create a monopoly by targeting the raw goods needed to level a new profession. I made a killing off monopolies the last two expansions by targeting ore and gems when BC came out and herbs with the last one. I was crossing my fingers that archaeology may require some raw goods but that will not be the case unfortunately.

Still there are areas where monopolies will always be possible. Find people you trust that are motivated to make gold (and have some capital to work with) and you’ll be good to go. Don’t freak out about the undercutters because if you pick the right area of the economy, the demand will far outweigh the supply that undercutters are able to sell.
Wrap-up
I hope these suggestions will help you to make a killing off of Cataclysm. I know I’ll be raking it in within the next few months and can’t wait for the big day. If you have success stories or your own suggested categories to target in preparation for Cataclysm please leave a comment. It’s an honor to blog for you guys. Thanks Cold for the invitation!

Cheers!

-Ink

Be sure to check out other great posts by Ink:
Inkobah's Guide to Auctioning
Cataclysm: The Rebirth of Twinking Part 1
Cataclysm: The Rebirth of Twinking Part 2