20 Days Of Gold Making - Day 4 & 5 - To Bank Alt Or Not?

This entry is part of a series of gold making posts answering the questions in the 20 Days of Gold Making Challenge started by Nev over at Auction House Addict.  If you also blog, then be sure to check out the gold blogging challenge for post topic ideas.

20 Days Of Gold Making (Days 4 & 5)

Do You Use A Banker Alt / Guild?  When Did You Start Using It & Why?

This is one major area where I differ from a lot of other World of Warcraft gold makers.  I don't use bank alts.  Sure, I have guilds that are just overflow & stockpile storage banks, but I definately do not have a dedicated banker. 

All of my characters are crafters, so they each are responsible for purchasing their own materials, crafting their products and listing them on the auction house themselves.  Why?

Why Each Alt Sells Their Own Items:

1. Inventory Management - It's much easier to see when you are low on stock when on the characters that creates and stores the items themselves instead of digging through add-on info that is only as accurate as the last time you logged every alt of yours and pulled every single item out of each mailbox.  How often is that?  Never.
2. WYSIWYG Purchasing - Everyone buys their own materials.  No need to worry about who has what, who needs what, and who to mail more stuff to.  They just buy their own supplies, use their own, and store their own.
3. Less Mailbox Jams - Each mailbox is much more manageable when broken down into 1-2 professions per character.  Glyphs are bad enough to relist alone, I wouldn't want hundreds of other items mixed into the expired auctions with them.
4. Easier Relisting On Remote AH - Much smaller expired lists per auctioneer means I have more relisting options from my multiple mailboxes, instead of everything locked behind the next 50 expired auction mails.
5. Time Saver - Less time mailing materials and finished products around, smaller mailbox back ups, and a quicker inventory assessment all speed up the time required to keep crafting and selling streamlined.

These are my own personal preferences, but many others go with a dedicated bank alt or two.  I don't see the benefit of cramming everything onto a couple of alts to do all of the ugly work.  In my opinion it's actually slower to send everything to one alt who gets stuck collecting, sorting, taking inventory, posting, and relisting all on his own. 

Day 5 Question Is:  Do You Keep The Same Banker Alt Or Do You Change Them Up & Why?

Since, I don't even use a banker alt, I'll be skipping this question.


Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

5.2 To Kill Level 10 Twink Market

Say Goodbye To Level 10 Twinking

There's a major change coming soon to random battle grounds in World of Warcraft.  It's a huge change for twinking and will completely destroy the level 10 twink auction niche market.  Allthough level 10s will be hit the absolute hardest, there are ramifications in almost every other bracket as well.  I've already talked about this on The Eviscerated Gaming Podcast Episode #35, but I'll go into more detail here from a gold making standpoint.  So what's the big change?

Coming in Patch 5.2:

"Players in low level battlegrounds will have their effective level raised to the maximum level allowed in that battleground bracket. Players’ base stats and spells are scaled accordingly and are treated as the same level when determining hits, misses, and critical effect chance.”

So what it means is that every character in a battleground, regardless of actual level, will be treated as the max possible level for the battleground.  All base stats and spells will be adjusted up accordingly.  Gear shouldn't be changed, except maybe heirlooms scaling up to the new level, and I doubt you will be able to equip new higher level gear if you enter at a lower level.  This does have ramifications in all brackets, as far as spells and level scaling goes, but the biggest hit is to the level 10 twinks.

What is a level 10 Twink?

A level 10 Twink is a one man death dealing slaughterhouse, especially a hunter.  Level 10 is a very popular bracket for twinking because a level 10 twink can decimate an entire battleground if built and played properly.  The exploit still exist for getting your twink into regular (non-XP off ) battlegrounds with your own XP off and that's where it gets amazingly fun to slaughter undergeared players.  There are level 10 twinks out there with the highest possble honor kill achievements.  Yup, at level 10!

A level 10 Twink is so awesome because of some of the changes that Blizzard implememnted for low level players.  From level 1 through 10, all players get what I like to call, "Noob Buffs".  These are benefits that were designed to make leveling a new character faster, easier, and more enjoyable.  Problem is at level 10 you still have all the benefits and you can already enter into a battleground with level 10-14 players. 

These "Noob Buffs" are from how the game scales combat ratings and how abilities are translated into those combat ratings.  The lower level your character is, the more of a benefit you get from enchants, stats, buffs, etc.  So all level 1-10 characters get a boost to damage, as well as secondary attributes.  Level 1-10 characters also receive a huge boost to their rate of mana and health regeneration.  A level 10 twink can autoheal within seconds when out of combat, without the need for bandages at all.  If he's a troll twink it's even faster thanks to the Regeneration racial.

Lower brackets tend to favor the Agility based classes since they tend to have a ton of great enchants to add to many slots, even at lower level.  For this reason the lower brackets have historically be slanted towards Rogues and Hunters.  I love my level 10 hunter twink.  He destroys most anything in his path!

Once the new Patch 5.2 changes hit, he'll be dead and forced to level to 14 or will get deleted because 14 on 14 is, well, meh! 

Incoming Auction Market Changes

With level 10s becoming obsolete there are a few notable items to unload now before the changes come.  Most notable is the lvl 10 overpowered green Darkmoon chest pieces from the Tarot Decks.  These may still sell to levelers, but the value of them will plummet, especially on the +Agi and +Agi/+Sta leather chests as Heirlooms and crafted/dungeon/quest items become better choices at level 14.

On the other hand, Malachite Pendants could see a spike in sales and price as all the level 10 Agility class twinks level up to 14.  The +2 Agility necklace is the only option and has been a consistent seller for me at 25 gold each.  For the same reason, now is a good time to start hunting Slimey Murloc Scales to craft into belts as well.

So if you have a level 10 twink, then get to killing and enjoy your final days as a one man murder show.  You days are now numbered.



Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

Gifts For Gamers - Incense & Oil Burners

GIFTS FOR GAMERS - A weekly column at Cold's Gold Factory that focuses on bringing you some of the coolest gifts for gamers of all types. Remember to check back here for ideas for Gamer Birthday Gifts, Stocking Stuffers for Gamers, and Gamer Christmas Ideas.

Gifts For Gamers

Here's a collection of some nifty incense and essential oil burners.  This list focuses on some of the cool burners that us gamer types would like, mainly dragons, fairies, fantasy genre type stuff.  I love my incense burners!  There are over 4000 Incense Burners on Amazon alone.  These are the coolest ones I could find.

• Skeletal Human Bone Hand Incense Burner
• Resting Skeleton Incense Burner
• Skeleton Fishing Incense Burner
• Dragon Incense Burner
• Dragon Skull Incense Burner
• Dragon With Castle Incense Burner
• Triple Head Mythical Dragon Incense Burner
• 5 Headed Smoke Breathing Dragon Incense Burner
• Treant Incense Burner
• Pirate Incense Burner
• Fairy Incense Burner
• Fairy & Unicorn Magical Incense Burner
• Silverweb Fairy Incense Burner
• Celtic Greenman - Stick,Cone & Candle Incense Burner
• Day of the Dead Black Skull Incense Burner
• Grim Reaper Incense Burner
• Smoke Breathing Gargoyle Cone Burner
• Chinese Dragon Cone Burner

Incense Sticks
My 3 favorite brands are Gonesh, Satya, & Morning Star, anything from either brand is very nice quality and well scented.

• Morning Star Sampler 12 Pack - Sandlewood, Pine, Musk, Patchouli, Jasmine, Rose, Cedarwood, Amber, Vanilla, Green Tea, Lavender, & Cinnamon.
• Morning Star 6 Pack of New Scents - 50 sticks each of: Lotus, Mimosa, Yuzu Citrus, Gardenia, Iris, & Fig.
• 12 Scent Sampler Pack by Satya - Sunrise, Romance, Fortune, Rain Forest, Super Hit, Celestial, Nag Champa, Jasmine Blossom, Sandalwood, Midnight, Blessings, & Patchouli Forest.
• Gonesh #6 Scents of Ancient Times - This is my favorite scent out of all incense ever, and believe me I've tried a ton of scents, brands, & varieties!
• Gonesh Buzz Complete Incense Sampler - Raspberry, Cheery, Coconut, Orange, Vanilla, & Strawberry.

Electric Oil Burners

• Fire Fairy Electric Oil Burner
• Earth Fairy Electric Oil Burner
• Wind Fairy Electric Oil Burner
• Blue Fairy On Moon w Cat Electric Oil Burner

Essential Oil Sampler Packs

• Top 6 100% Pure Therapuetic Grade Oil Sample Pack - Includes Eucalyptus, Lemongrass, Tea Tree, Orange, Lavender, & Peppermint Oils
• 100% Aromatherapy Synergy Blends Oil 6 Pack - Includes Aphrodisiac, Stress Relief, Stay Awake, Hope, Purification, & Relaxation Oils.
• Beginner's Best of the Best Essential Oils Gift Set - Includes Bergamot, Clary Sage, Cinnamon Leaf, Eucalyptus, Grapefruit, Lavender, Lemon, Lime, Patchoulli, Peppermint, Rosemary, Spearmint, Sweet Orange, & Tea Tree.

Be sure to check out the other Gifts For Gamers posts for more Gamer Gift Ideas.

20 Days of Gold Making - Day 3 - My Early Strategies

This entry is part of a series of gold making posts answering the questions in the 20 Days of Gold Making Challenge started by Nev over at Auction House Addict.  If you also blog, then be sure to check out her gold blogging challenge for post topic ideas.

20 Days of Gold Making (Day 3)

What Were Your First Techniques, Tricks, Or Tips You Used When Starting Out?

Let's look all the way back to the middle to end of Vanilla WoW, when I started to make gold in World of Warcraft.  Once the light bulb came on and I was actively starting to make gold properly, as opposed to farming vendor trash and hoping for rare world drops, I quickly identified some areas that I knew could be profitable.  It turns out that early in my gold making career, I had targeted and was profiting from some select niche markets.  Early on in my gold making career I stayed away from flipping, heavy crafting, and shuffling and was big into specific niche markets that I had chosen to focus on.  I've always said, "Start with what you already know" when looking for your first auction markets to enter and my first markets followed suit.

When I first started in the auction house, I had 1 main character, my Rogue Skinning Leatherworker. I liked to quest and was questing all over Azeroth. How did this help me? One of my very first niche markets I entered (back in Vanilla WoW) was the "Quest Required Items" market. My love of questing had compiled me a nice long list of items that I found were needed for specific quests or subquests (remember Dire Maul-North Tribute Runs?). Because of all of the questing I had done, my personal experiences led me to sell items that I too at one point had to craft myself or purchase to complete those quests. A small sample of some of those items I sold within the "Quest Required Items" market were:

• Deadly Blunderbuss (Ashenvale Quest)
• Mithril Casing (Amy-E Ape Escort)
• Thorium Widgets (Frost Trap In DM-N)
• Darkmoon Faire Turn In Items (Old Darkmoon Faire)
• Weapons and Armor Specialty Quests (Blacksmithing Spec Quests)
• Advanced Target Dummy (Centaur Quest Chain)
• Strong Troll's Blood Elixir (Hillsbrad Quest Chain) 

These "Required Quest Item" markets where one of the very first niche markets that I used for making gold in WoW.  Often times, I was the only seller of these specialty items and had no competition.  It was from this understanding of niche markets that I expanded into other niche markets that I had a specialist's understanding of that included:

• Holiday Items
• Twink Gear & Enchants
• Blacksmithing Rods
• Arcanite Bars 

More 20 Days Of Gold Making

• Return to Day 1 - Beginnings
• Day 2 - Goals

Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

20 Days of Gold Making - Day 2 - Goal Setting

This entry is part of a series of gold making posts answering the questions in the 20 Days of Gold Making Challenge started by Nev over at Auction House Addict.  If you also blog, then be sure to check out the gold blogging challenge for post topic ideas.

20 Days Of Gold Making (Day 2)

If You Set Yourself A Goal, What Was It & When Did You Set It?

I've written about setting goals for yourself to keep you focused and on the path towards success.  It is especially important for new gold makers or new characters to set goals in World of Warcraft.  As I stated in that early article, one of your very first goals should be to get your first ground mount and then to get your first flying mount.  Those were the first few goals I had set for myself back in Vanilla WoW and since I've set quite a few more, but the main goals of mine for making gold in WoW have been:

1. Get Ground Mount
2. Get Epic Ground Mount
3. Get Flying Mount & Training
4. Get Epic Flying Mount & Training
5. Get Gold Capped

As you can see, once I had taught myself profitable strategies for making gold, the practical goals came first and then the sky was the limit.  Along the way to gold capped, some players like to set incremental goals, like first 100k, then 200k, 300k, etc. but hell once you get over your first 100k, extra gold is just extra gold.  It's only been recently that we've even had a need to spend over 100k on a single purchase (with a few rare exceptions). 

I set my first goal of raising my mount money, when I got tired of falling behind everyone else who already had the mounts I couldn't afford.  I got sick of being broke and slow, so I got fed up and decided to change the way I played.  i then started focusing more on using my professions to make gold and everything changed from there on out.  And here I am today over 3 years into running my own WoW gold blog here at Cold's Gold Factory.


Read More 20 Days of Gold Making

• Start at Day One - Beginnings.
• Continue to Day 3 - My Early Gold Making Strategies

Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

TSM Tutorial Video: How to Create TSM Auction Groups From Crafting Module

TSM Video Tutorials:

How to Create TSM Auction Groups 

Using The Crafting Module

TSM Tutorial Video On How To Make Auction Groups For Crafters

I was reading questions from redditors over on Reddit the other day and I noticed a discussion where some readers where asking:

"How to add something into a TSM group that I don't currently have in my bag?"

That's a great question and a hard one to explain in just words, so I agreed to create a walk through for the process of creating TSM auction groups.  This TSM tutorial was designed to show that you can use your recipe crafting list as the source for creating your TSM auction groups.  Some auction house markets it is easier or makes more sense to create your auction groups in TSM by using the items in your bag.  For the crafting professions, it is easier to create those TSM auction groups by using the TSM Crafting Module that is already integrated into Trade Skill Master.


So I created my very first video and uploaded it to YouTube.  You can use the player above or follow this link:  TSM Tutorial - Create TSM Auction Groups For Crafters.

This TSM Tutorial Video Shows:

• How To Create Categories
• How To Create Auction Groups In TSM
• How To Create Auction Groups From The Recipe Module
• How To Create Auction Groups Without Needing The Items In Your Bag
• Duration, Threshold, Fallback, Max Price, and More Group Settings
• How To Rename Your TSM Auction Groups

Shout out to Nev over at Auction House Addict, who originally taught these TSM tips to me when I too thought you had to create or own everything you wanted to add to an auction group.  Thanks Nev! 

Pass It On

Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

Gifts For Gamers - Gamer Jewelry Ideas

GIFTS FOR GAMERS - A weekly column at Cold's Gold Factory that focuses on bringing you some of the coolest gifts for gamers of all types. Remember to check back here for ideas for Gamer Birthday Gifts, Stocking Stuffers for Gamers, and Gamer Christmas Ideas.


Kawaii Heart Bubble Ring

Gifts For Gamers

With Valentine's Day approaching soon, jewelry of all types will be flying off the shelves.  I've dug through and pulled out a handfull of cool gaming inspired, nerd/geek, and fantasy style jewelry pieces that look cool and could go with a collection of V-day gifts for your gaming loved one.  I've included some ideas for gals as well as guys.  Just hover over the links to see the product images.

 

Gamer Jewelry Gift Ideas

1. Gamer Girl Heart Frame w Video Game Controller w 18" Necklace
2. Hot Pink Gamer Girl Resin 18" Fashion Necklace
3. Kawaii Heart Bubble Necklace
4. Kawaii Heart Bubble Ring
5. Iced Out Silver XBox 360 Game Controller Pendant w 36" Franco Necklace Chain
6. Necklace Heart Charm Periodic Table Of Elements Genius
7. Necklace Heart Charm - The Entropy Infitity Enigma Atom
8. Heart Charm Earrings - The Entropy Infinity Enigmas Atom
9. Impiretus Stainless Steel Dragon Bracelet
10. Gold & Silver Dragons Heart Pendant
11. Men's Adjustable Leather Dragon Bracelet
12. Autobot / Decepticon Transformers Cuff Links Pair
13. Silver Lego King Cuff Links
14. Stainless Steel Gun Bullet Cuff Links (Silver & Gold)

If you are looking for something a little more classy, pricey, elegant, or sentimental, then be sure to check out Amazon's:

• Top Valentine's Day Jewelry Gift Ideas

Be sure to check out the other Gifts For Gamers posts for more Gamer Gift Ideas

February Gold Blogging Carnival Topic

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - December 2012 Topic

A big thanks to all of the participants who submitted entries for last month's blogging carnival. Everyone is welcome to write a post for the blogging carnivals at Cold's Gold Factory. Again, thank you to all the bloggers who submitted posts for the Dec/Jan Blogging Carnival on Best & Worst Personal AH Markets. If you missed the last carnival, be sure to check it out! 

What If I Don't Have A Blog And I Want To Participate?

If you don't have your own site, you can still participate in the gold blogging carnivals. Sometimes a topic may tickle your fancy or you may have a unique spin on a blogging carnival topic that you would like to have read by others. Well, you are in luck. There are blogging sites that will post and host your content as a guest post. Just follow the normal blogging carnival rules that the others follow and get your post hosted and live prior to the carnival. Then, just submit the link to me for inclusion in the upcoming gold blogging carnival.  

Be sure to check out How To Get More From Blogging Carnival Participation.

The friendly sites willing to host your content are:

1. Goldgrub's Goblin Academy - Contact: Me (Cold)
2. Squidoo - Join up and make a lens on the topic and earn money too.

  

February 2013 Gold Blogging Carnival Topic

This month I'm going to give a little bit of a plug and some love to Nev over at Auction House Addict.  Nev has recently created a brand new 20 Days of Gold Making Challenge / Meme over on her blog.  So for this month's carnival topic we are going to take her Day 1 question and use it for this month's Gold Blogging Carnival.  She has a full 20 questions for 20 gold blogger post ideas.  We'll use Day 1 as the carnival topic for February to get you started and hopefully you will continue on with the full 20 Days of Gold Blogging.

If you've already started then you are in luck because your carnival entry is already written!  Go ahead and send it over.
When Did You Start Gold Making And What Triggered It?

(Be sure to link to Nev's 20 Days of Gold Making post in your entries.)

20 Days of Gold Making - Day 1 - Beginnings

This entry is part of a series of gold making posts answering the questions in the 20 Days of Gold Making Challenge started by Nev over at Auction House Addict.  Be sure to check out the gold blogging challenge for post topic ideas.

20 Days Of Gold Making (Day 1)
"When Did You Start Making Gold & What Triggered It?"

First off - Thanks to Nev for creating the 20 Days of Gold Making Meme and providing some fresh ideas and topics for us gold bloggers to write about.  It does get a bit tough to pull topics out of thin air, especially when you've been writing for over 3 years and are pushing close to 800 total live posts, like I am.  I hate writing about stuff I've already written about, even if it is buried in the posts from years ago, so this challenge is a nice spark of fresh ideas for blogging.  I won't be doing all 20 posts in 20 days, as I will be working them in between my other normal gold making posts, Gifts for Gamers articles (on Saturdays), Eviscerated Gaming Podcast show notes (Tuesdays), and monthly gold blogging carnivals.

When Did You Start Making Gold In WoW & What Triggered It?

For most of the time during Vanilla WoW, I was clueless about the gold making opportunities.  I had horrible strategies for making gold and was resorting to farming vendor trash off of mobs to sell to raise what seemed like an outrageous amount of gold required to get my very first mount.  After quickly growing bored of my role as a lowly gorilla hunter, I set my sites on larger profits and headed over to farm rare world drops of all things, not fully grasping the concept of what a world drop truly was.  I remember looking up an item online on wowhead and then taking note of the 1 or 2 listed mobs that had been recorded as dropping the world drop item and then headed out to grind those hoping for the same world drop.  Damn, was I a moron back then! 

After getting nothing to drop worth selling and banking all of the non-vendor trash raw materials (because I may need to use them some day), I headed over to farm some of the Enchanting recipes that I had seen people looking for in trade chat, like the Crusader Enchant.  I killed Scarlet Spellbinders (or whatever they were) for days and weeks on end until one day I finally got the Enchant Weapon - Crusader recipe to drop and had a brilliant notion.  Instead of a one shot sale to some Enchanter, why don't I level an Enchanter and start enchanting player weapons for tips (with their materials) or for a profitable fee if I have to buy the materials myself?  This was before the addition of enchanting scrolls to the game.  So from there, my first alt ever was born, my Enchanter.  She would disenchant the junk I would find and level her Enchanting skill up so that I could start making gold off of these Enchants that everyone was always asking for in trade chat. 

I then started to look into crafting other items with my main character, who was a Skinner / Leatherworking Rogue.  Of course with all of the gorillas I had been killing and skinning, I had a nice collection of hides, leather, and found some pearls as well, so I started crafting Barbaric Bracers for selling on the auction house for a nice profit.  I then dug in deeper with my Vanilla Leatherworker and expanded into Deviate Scale Belts, then into Spidersilk Boots as my Enchanter was an Enchanter / Tailor.  Of course the Netherweave Bag market sort of fell into place afterwards and I was on my way to starting my empire of crafters.  Seeing the ability to actually turn a profit via crafting got me longing for one of every crafter and so my journey to build a factory of gold making crafters started the long trek to complete my army of alts.

So what triggered my venture into gold making?

I found my motivation from being sick and tired of being broke, not having enough gold to pay for raid repairs, not getting my first ground mount until level 46 (a full 6 levels later than the minimum in Vanilla WoW) and never having any extra gold for anything.  I was sick of being broke and had started to hear bits and pieces of economic discussion over the guild's TeamSpeak channel.  So I knew other people were making gold and pulling it off, so something had to give.  I would listen quietly at the ideas and discussions these guild members where having about controlling markets, or buying out all of an item to relist it for much higher, or stockpiling certain items for the upcoming expansion's launch, and I would just sit back and take it all in.  Then I started to make my own gold and became a competitor of a few of these guys, without them knowing I got the ideas from them in the first place!

It only takes a bit of understanding to start to become eager and thirst for more knowledge.  From there, I found my first gold making blog ever, Greedy Goblin, and dug in to start learning and snicker at all the idiots featured in his weekly "Morons and Slackers" posts.  I do miss those posts as they were always great for a snicker.

Continue On Reading More 20 Days of Gold Making

• 20 Days Of Gold Making - Day 2 - Goals

Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

Stolen Insignias - A BoA Reputation Source in 5.2

Stolen Insignias Being Added In WoW Patch 5.2

Everyone is sick of running dailies and there have been many vocal complaints and outcries regarding the current requirement of grinding daily quests.  In addition to the workorders coming to the Sunsong Ranch farm changes in 5.2, Stolen Insignias are also being added as another source for quicker reputation increases. 

The 4 Stolen Insignias being added in Patch 5.2 are:

1. Stolen Celestial Insignia - Grants 1000 reputation with the August Celestials.
2. Stolen Golden Lotus Insignia - Grants 1000 reputation with the Golden Lotus.
3. Stolen Klaxxi Insignia - Grants 1000 reputation with the Klaxxi.
4. Stolen Shado Pan Insignia - Grants 1000 reputation with the Shado-Pan.

On the PTR, these Stolen Insignias are dropping from the new rare spawns.  These Stolen Insignias are Bind-to-Account, which means you can't sell them on the auction house, but you can send them to an alt that can use them.  It's always nice to have extra ways to level up your reputation so that you can get the rewards you desire, without having to grind the reputation dailies as much.  Be sure to save up any Stolen Insignias that you get to use after you've unlocked that faction's Grand Commendation.  Then you will get 2000 reputation from these single use Stolen Insignias, instead of the base 1000 reputation.



Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

Gifts For Gamers: Bring On The Murlocs!

GIFTS FOR GAMERS - A weekly column at Cold's Gold Factory that focuses on bringing you some of the coolest gifts for gamers of all types. Remember to check back here for ideas for Gamer Birthday Gifts, Stocking Stuffers for Gamers, and Gamer Christmas Ideas.

Murloc Headwear

Gifts For Gamers

Murlocs - Love 'em or Hate 'em, they are everywhere in World of Warcraft.  There are those warcraft gamers out there that are huge fans of everything murloc related.  Regardless of what you think about the in game murlocs, there are some damn cute and super cool murloc items out there.  Let's dig into some gifts for murloc fans.  Grrgrrrgrrrrlll!

Murlocs For Valentine's Day Gifts?

Whether you are a hardcore murloc lover or just a fan of Warcraft lore, these plush murlocs are cute and collectible.  These would also make great stocking stuffers for Warcraft fans and awesome Valentine's Day gifts for the warcraft gal in your life.  Most suckers buy a lame teddy bear or another pathetic stuffed animal for their girl for Valentine's Day.  Don't be lame like everyone else.

Be Different - Be Cool  

Get Your Honey a Murloc Plush For 

Valentine's Day!  

She'll Llllluuurrvvvrrrvvrrvrrvrvrvrrv You For It!

"Don't get me a stupid teddy bear that's just gonna end up in the closet.  Get me one of those kick ass Murloc Plushes.  I'll keep him right by me on my desk, baby, and I'll love him forever!"

Plush Murlocs

• World of Warcraft 9" Talking Murloc Plush 
• 6.5" Blue Murloc Plush
• Blue Murloc "Murky" Plush - Blizzcon 2008
• White Murloc "Lurky" Plush - Blizzcon 2009
• Pink Murloc "Gurky" Plush - Blizzcon 2010
• Set of 3 Baby Murloc Plush - Pink, Green, & Blue

Murloc Clothing & Headwear

• Murloc Mask Headpiece
• Murloc Zip Up Hooded Sweatshirt
• "Beware: Murlocs Crossing" Hooded Sweatshirt
• Cute Green Murloc Face Tee Shirt
• "Damn Murlocs" Tee Shirt
• "I Hate Murlocs" Tee
• "Murlocos Tacos" Tee Shirt

Murloc Drinking Swag

• Blue Murloc "Hello Murky" Coffee Mug
• Orange Murloc "Hello Murky" Coffee Mug
• Official Rawgrlrlrlrrlglrl Murloc Stein

Murloc Toys

• Murloc Action Figure 2 pack - Fish-eye & Gibbergill
• World of Warcraft Minis - "Blindlight" Murloc

Murloc Bumper Sticker

• "I Break For Murlocs" Bumper Sticker

In Game Murloc Blizzcon Exclusive Codes

• Murloc Suit Code - Blizzcon 2007
• Grunty Pet Code - Blizzcon 2009
• Murkablo Pet Code - Blizzcon 2011

A Talking Murloc!

Be sure to check out the other Gifts For Gamers posts for more Gamer Gift Ideas.

January Gold Blogging Carnival - Best & Worst Markets

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - 2013


Welcome to another 2013 edition of Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival. These carnivals will continue to take place the 11th day of every month and will be hosted here at Cold's Gold Factory. All World of Warcraft bloggers are welcome to participate and feedback both here and on the original authors' sites is strongly encouraged. So show some support and please leave some feedback in the comments section. These bloggers put a lot of time and hard work into these blogging carnival posts so please tell them what you think.

If you would like to be included in the next month's carnival, please review the guidelines for Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals and submit your live post link via email (ssmith0911 at live dot com) before the 10th of the month. Read up on the benefits of participating in blogging carnivals at my other blog designed to help new bloggers, Blogging Vitals.  (Lots of tips for those of you starting out or interested in blogging.)  Articles for the CGF carnival are listed in the order they are received. Thank you to all the bloggers participating in this month's carnival!

If you are not a blogger, you can still participate in the monthly carnivals as you can have a post hosted at Goldgrubs.com. Now I present to you this month's participants on the topic of:

What Are Your Best & Worst Markets So Far In Mists of Pandaria?

Best & Worst Auction House Markets - January Gold Blogging Carnival

Best & Worst Auction Markets So Far In MoP by Cold of Cold's Gold Factory

My Best & Worst Markets in MoP by Nev of Auction House Addict

Best And Worse Auction Markets In MoP by Eeo of The Reluctant Tank
My Personal Best & Worst Markets From MoP 2012 by Xtreme of The Xtreme Gold Blog

Best & Worst Gold Markets So Far In Mists of Pandaria by Alice of So Cal WoW Gal
Thanks again to all of this month's participants.  Be sure to check back later for next month's carnival topic and remember to look for next month's gold blogging carnival on the 11th.  If you have a topic idea, don't be afraid to send it in.  We may use your idea, which will get you proper credit as well.

Until next month,

Keep on Keepin' On!



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Check out some of my Squidoo lenses:  Alliance Vs Horde - Come Vote! | Diablo 3 Gifts For Gamers | Getting Started Podcasting 101 | Play Money by Julian Dibble | Auction House Junkies | Fluxx - My Fav Card Game

Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

Upgrading Heirlooms Plus Heirloom Shields in 5.2

Patch 5.2 Bringing Heirloom Shields And Heirloom Upgrades

Are you ready to make some easy gold off of the new heirloom upgrading system and the new heirloom shields?

Heirloom Upgrade Options

There have been a ton of new Heirloom weapon and armor pieces found within the PTR and the majority of these Heirlooms are part of the new Heirloom Upgrading System coming soon to WoW.  The full list of new Heirlooms coming in Patch 5.2 can be found here.  Currently the older Heirlooms are only useable up to level 80 and the upgrade system will allow them to be used up to level 85.

Here's how the Heirloom Upgrading System works:

• You must have the original 1-80 heirloom.
• You visit the vendor selling the new 1-85 heirlooms.
• You pay with the old heirloom plus an additional justice points cost for the upgrade.
• You receive the new upgraded 1-85 heirloom.

So you can now use the new and improved heirloom for leveling up to level 85, but there is something not quite so obvious at first glance.

PRO-TIP:  You will be trading in your older version heirloom when you purchase the new heirloom upgrade, which means anyone who upgrades to the new heirloom is going to have to re-enchant their heirlooms. 

Cha-Ching!  This is great for anyone who is in the market of selling twink / best-in-slot heirloom enchants.  If you are going to be a buyer of a new heirloom enchant, go ahead and grab the ones you will need before the increased demand leads to increased prices.  If you are a seller of heirloom enchants, start drying up your server's market for any hard to find materials for the best-in-slot heirloom enchants.  Start limiting your competition's ability to stockpile ahead of the upgrade changes by getting the jump on them now.

2 New Shields Are Coming Also

EDIT: Patch 5.2 - The Heirloom Shields were a late scratch and didn't make it into the game in Patch 5.2!

The first ever heirloom shields to be added to the game, will be the upcoming Flamescarred Draconian Deflector (tank) and the Weathered Observer's Shield (caster).  These will be the first Heirloom Shields added to the game and I would expect the sales of the best-in-slot shield enchant to improve even better than it already is.  The Enchant Shield - Vitality is still best-in-slot for both the tanking and caster shields, as it provides +10 Stamina & +10 Spirit.

I've sold hundreds of Enchant Shield - Vitality enchants and I have never crafted a single one myself.  This enchant is one of the best examples I can ever give of an item that gets mass produced during profession leveling, then dumped for stupid cheap on the auction house at well below the crafting cost and actual value of the item.  I constantly find these on the AH for less than 1 gold (despite the hefty crafting cost), buy them all out - no matter how many, then flip for 75-125 gold.  (75 gold each if I have a lot, then 125 gold each as stock dwindles) 

Be sure to check out an older post from a couple years ago on the very topic as I go into more detail there, but I 'm not wanting to repeat myself too much on this post.

Check it out here:  When Auctioneer Lies...I Profit

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 Fluxx - My Fav Card Game


Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

Getting Around With The Shado-Pan

 Getting Around With The Shado-Pan

 

The Shado-Pan Daily Quests are only unlocked once you have already reached Revered with the Golden Lotus, which also requires grinding out daily quests.  By the time you finally get to start running the daily quests for the Shado-Pan, you will probably be sick of doing dailies and will just want to get them done and over with.  Careful though!  If you are a completionist or an achievement whore, then you definately want to pay attention to which of the companions that you take with you while completing the daily quests.  More on that later in this post.

 

The Getting Around With The Shado-Pan Achievement requires you to complete 15 daily quests with each of the Shado-Pan Heroes.  (You just need to have them when you turn in the quests.)  Since you can only choose one per day, you need to keep an eye on which ones you have or haven't yet used, instead of always taking your favorite Shado-Pan hero along on your dailies.  Here is a list of the 9 Shado-Pan heroes, their roles, and when they are unlocked.

• Blackguard Battlemaster - Chao the Voice - Arms Warrior - Friendly
• Blackguard Brewmaster - Lao-Chin the Iron Belly - Brewmaster Monk - Revered
• Blackguard Stalwart - Protector Yi - Protection Warrior - Honored
• Omnia Mage - Fei Li - Fire Mage - Friendly
• Omnia Mage (Frost) - Snow Blossom - Frost Mage - Honored
• Omnia Priest - Yalia Sagewhisper - Discipline Priest - Revered
• Wu Kao Assassin - Taoshi - Subtlety Rogue - Friendly
• Wu Kao Hawkmaster - Hawkmaster Nurong - Hunter - Honored
• Wu Kao Rogue - Tenwu of the Red Smoke - Rogue - Revered

Getting Around With The Shado-Pan Progress Macro

 

There is also no default way to track your progress with the Getting Around With The Shado-Pan Acheivement.  Don't worry!  Here is an awesome macro that you can copy / paste and create an in-game macro to check your progress with the Shado-Pan Achievement. 
 

/run local a=7298 print(format("\124cffFFFF00TODO for %s\124r",GetAchievementLink(a)))for i=1,GetAchievementNumCriteria(a)do local d,_,c,x,y=GetAchievementCriteriaInfo(a,i)if not c then print(format("%s %d/%d",d,x,y))end end

Once you create this macro, simply pressing the macro button will list all of the Shado-Pan heroes that you are still progressing for the achievement.  Once you complete 15 Shadow-Pan quest turn ins with a specific hero, that Shado-Pan hero will no longer display when you press this macro.  So create the macro and save yourself the trouble of figuring out which heroes you still need for the achievement.

 

Getting Around With The Shado-Pan Progress Macro

 Shado-Pan Hero Farming Partners

 

 Once you turn in the final Shado-Pan daily quest, your Shado-Pan hero will disappear.  You can keep your Shado-Pan hero with you as long as you stay within the Townlong Steppes zone.  So you can grab yourself a hero to follow you around the zone for speeding up multiple tasks. 

 

Having a hero following you can help you to not only complete the Shado-Pan daily quest faster, but you can also use them while farming mobs within the Townlong Steppes, which will increase your killing speed.  You can even take a hero along with you while farming Ore and Herb nodes.  You land and head for the node, while the hero grabs aggro and defends you from attackers.  If you can break combat (disengage, vanish, feign death, etc.) then you can mount up, fly away, and the hero will rejoin you.  So think outside the box and you can get your heroes helping you with more than the expected Shado-Pan daily quests.  Hell, if the random August Celestials quests for the day are the ones in Townlong Steppes, you can even grab a Shado-Pan hero to help you on those August Celestial quests too.

 

 Does anyone have any other outside the box uses for their Shado-Pan heroes?

 

 

Check out some of my Squidoo lenses:  Alliance Vs Horde - Come Vote! | Diablo 3 Gifts For Gamers | Getting Started Podcasting 101 | Play Money by Julian Dibble | Auction House Junkies | Fluxx - My Fav Card Game | Flipping WoW CEs

 

Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

Top Fantasy Genre Book Series Picks

GIFTS FOR GAMERS - A weekly column at Cold's Gold Factory that focuses on bringing you some of the coolest gifts for gamers of all types. Remember to check back here for ideas for Gamer Birthday Gifts, Stocking Stuffers for Gamers, and Gamer Christmas Ideas.

  

Gifts For Gamers

If your New Year's resolution was "to read more books", then today's Gifts For Gamers post should be of particular assistance to you.  Today I'm going over my Top Fantasy Genre Book Series from all time.  Many of my favorite Fantasy Genre books are older trilogies or series that you may never have been exposed to, but each and every one on this list has been hand picked by me.  These are all books that I have previously or currently owned and can attest to how great each and every one of these titles are!

I prefer to read from the Dungeons & Dragons style of Fantasy books and the White Wolf / Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft settings for Fantasy Horror.  I've read a ton of books from these genres and I hope you find some of these excellent series to add to your collection as well.  Some of these are hard-to-find or out of print, but many have digital or audio versions now available.  Others have the boxed set or collector's editions unavailable, but the individual books can still be purchased for normal prices, so I've linked both the sets and the individual books.

Cold's Top Fantasy Genre Series Picks

• The Dark Elf Trilogy - The Dark Elf Trilogy is my #1 favorite book series ever!  Written by R.A. Salvatore, The Dark Elf Trilogy is the first trilogy (chronologically) in the now massive series, The Legend of Drizzt.  These books take place within the DnD Forgotten Realms fantasy world and detail the childhood and beyond of one of the most beloved characters in all of the Dungeons & Dragons universe, Drizzt Do'Urden.  Drizzt is a male Drow (Dark Elf) and the Dark Elf Trilogy details the culture, society, and lifestyles of the Drow, Menzoberranzan, and The Underdark like no book before or after.  If you love Drow, you simply cannot go without reading the Dark Elf Trilogy.  My Siamese cat, Berg'inyon, is even named after my favorite character in this series. 
• Book One: Homeland
• Book Two: Exile
• Book Three: Sojourn
• The Icewind Dale Trilogy - The Icewind Dale Trilogy is the next trilogy that comes after The Dark Elf Trilogy and continues on with the adventures of Drizzt Do'Urden as he leaves The Underdark and ventures into the world of The Forgotten Realms.  Yup, this drow takes his place above ground!  Here is where he first meets lifelong friends the barbarian, Wulfgar, and dwarven axemaster, Bruenor Battlehammer.  Another of the most badass characters ever, Artemis Entrari, also debuts in this trilogy.
• Book One: The Crystal Shard
• Book Two: Streams Of Silver
• Book Three: The Halfling's Gem
• Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy - The Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy, by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, is another massive classic premeire trilogy in the Dragonlance Saga, now with a massive collection of titles.  These books are set in the DnD Dragonlance setting that features dragons, dragon riding knights, draconion humanoids, multiple Towers of Sorcery, and introudces us to some of the most popular characters in all of the Dungeon & Dragons lore.
• Volume One: Dragons of Autmn Twilight
• Volume Two: Dragons of Winter Night
• Volume Three: Dragons of Spring Dawning
• Masquerade of The Red Death Trilogy - The Masquerade of the Red Death Trilogy is one of the best vampire based series I've ever read.  These books are written by Robert Weinberg and take place within the White Wolf - World of Darkness fantasy horror setting, most commonly recognized as the world of Vampire The Masquerade.  An old ancient evil is re-awakened and seeks to reek havoc on the world and the vampire clans must choose sides in a brewing apocolypse.  This is truly one of the best trilogies I've ever been lucky enough to own.  I highly recommend you check these books out, if you want to enjoy some of the best vampire lore in the genre.  Screw Twilight, these are real vampires!
• Volume One: Blood War
• Volume Two: Unholy Allies
• Volume Three: The Unbeholden
• The Moonshae Trilogy - The Moonshae Trilogy, by Douglas Niles, is another of the fantasy books series that takes place within the Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms universe.  This is a series with a lot of bloody battles as a war is forming on the Moonshae Isles.  Demon forces break through the planes and start to amass, but are met with resistance from some of the most awesome giant slaying dwarves, an all female Cavalier brigade, and countless other characters.  This trilogy is an excellent series to recommend to a female reader with little experience within the DnD style Fantasy genre.  I've gotten a fair share of females into reading "proper" fantasy books by starting them on this series.  I think it works because of the many female characters, the all female cavalier brigade (that kicks ass), and the Earthmother, the great druid that calls upon the wild animals to help defeat the demon armies.
• Book One: Darkwalker on Moonshae
• Book Two: Black Wizards
• Book Three: Darkwell
• Darksun: The Prism Pentad - The Prism Pentad, written by Troy Denning, takes place within the Dark Sun DnD setting.  What makes these books so amazing is the world in which they take place, The Dark Sun World.  Dark Sun is another Dungeons & Dragons setting, but this one is completely different than any other fantasy DnD setting.  Image a world where:
• Metal resources are nearly gone, this forces stone and bone to be the most common weapon sources.  Metal is too precious and too expensive for weapons and armor.
• Water is a rare resource!  The planet is 90% desert wasteland.
• Magic is outlawed.  Wild Mages can release destructive magic energy, but it's effects can be random.  Casting spells destroys natural foilage.  Only the Templars are approved to cast spells. 
• Slave Gladiator combat is the most common entertainment of the world.
• Lizard men, Thri-kreen (mantis style humanoids), and half-giants are commonplace among other more common races.
• Book One: The Verdant Passage
• Book Two: The Crimson Legion
• Book Three: Amber Enchantress
• Book Four: Obsidian Oracle
• Book Five: The Cerulean Storm
• DnD Ravenloft Books - Last, but not least, I'd like to feature a group of stand alone books that are part of my most favorite Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings ever, Ravenloft.  These books aren't a chronological series, but each and every one makes up just a small part of the Ravenloft World setting.  Ravenloft is simply awesome!  It's the horror-fantasy side of Dungeons & Dragons, where no DnD world's inhabitants are safe - any character from any world can be sucked into the swirling mists and find themselves trapped within one of the Ravenloft domains.  Each domain is guarded over by one of the most evil of wicked characters that have been captured by the mists and brought to Ravenloft.  The domain then evolves around it's individual domain.  I could go on and on about the awesomeness of this setting, but you have to read and see for yourself.  It's by far my favorite of the DnD worlds and the line of books written within the Ravenloft setting are some of my favorites ever written.  Here's a handfull of my favorites.
• Knight of the Black Rose - Lord Soth from Dragonlance is trapped in Ravenloft.
• Vampire of the Mists - The first Ravenloft book ever and written by Christie Golden.  Introduces us to Barovia and it's Count Strahd as he grows enthralled by a young gal who resembles his deceased love.
• I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire - The story of the fall of Strahd and how he ended up as lord of the domain Barovia, in Ravenloft.  Written in diary format.
• Tapestry of Dark Souls - The Gathering Cloth must be destroyed before the evil overtakes the main character.
• Carnival of Fear - Deaths at a sideshow carnival lead to investigations and more deaths.
• Dance of the Dead - Author Christie Golden takes us on a journey through one of the swamp infested domains in Ravenloft.  Think Cajun swamp riverboat culture meets Jack the Ripper.

So there you have my Top Fantasy Genre Book Series Picks, hand selected from my own personal library of Fantasy and Fantasy-Horror.  These are all awesome books and I hope you've found something to peek your interest.  Give a series a try and let me know what you think.

Have anything to add about any of these classic series?

Be sure to check out the other Gifts For Gamers posts for more Gamer Gift Ideas.