The Fate of Tome of Polymorph Turtle, Mounts & Vanity Pets

Blue Post

A blue post has addressed some of the issues we have been wondering about regarding the fate of some pets, mounts, and the widely speculated about Tome of Polymorph: Turtle.  Follow me below for implications these changes will bring as well as some non-addressed issues that still remain.

As stated in the Under Dev page, patch 4.0.3 brings about The Shattering, a cataclysmic event that will forever change the face of Azeroth. As we prepare to raise the level cap and introduce two new races with the Cataclysm expansion, it's important to keep in mind that the game world is going through tremendous changes that will affect the availability of certain rare mounts and items.

Swift Zulian Tiger Zul'Gurub is changing from a raid to a leveling zone in 4.0.3, and this mount will no longer be obtainable. 
Swift Razzashi Raptor This mount will also no longer be obtainable after the change to Zul'Gurub. 
Razzashi HatchlingWith the change to Zul'Gurub this non-combat pet will no longer be obtainable.

Tome of Polymorph: Turtle This tome will continue to be available through other means. 
Crusader's White/Black Warhorse and Swift Alliance Steed/Swift Horde Wolf  As the attempt-based tribute system is being removed from Heroic Trial of the Crusader, the Argent Crusade Tribute Chest will no longer spawn, and these mounts will no longer be obtainable.
Reins of the Blue Drake  This mount will once again be available from defeating 10-player Malygos without needing to use the Dungeon Finder. The Reins of the Azure Drake will only be available on 25-player Malygos. 
Mimiron's Head  This mount will change to be a very low drop chance when defeating 25-player Yogg'Saron with no Keepers assisting you.

Invincible This mount will change to be a very low drop chance when defeating Heroic 25-player Lich King.

Although we have no current plans to introduce new ways to obtain the Zul'Gurub mounts, pets, and the tribute mounts, they may return should we find a place where they fit in the future.

Implications
Finally we have an answer on the fate of the Polymorph Turtle Tome.  It will continue to be available via other means.  What "other means" are still meant to be seen.  It could be a rare zone drop, a rare drop off of a rare spawn, or even a trainable spell.  I would expect it to drop in value overall as it now is not going to live up to all the hype.  I would sell mine now before others catch word of this.  Speculation is just a guess, or even an educated guess, but a blue post is much more dependable.  So if you are after one of the mounts or pets that are being removed, then get farming!  The Razzashi Hatchling is no longer going to be available.  Search for these on the auction house and grab up any you can find.  They will only go up in value as they will no longer drop from any mobs and become an obsolete pet.  Collectors will pay a high price for these down the road.
Unanswered Questions
Some questions still remain unanswered.  What about the various dragon whelpling vanity pets or the rare spawn dropped Black Tabby pet available to Horde only?  These are all worth buying as they will hold their value, but could be worth much more if they end up being removed like the Razzashi Hatchling.  I also wonder the same about patterns that drop off of rare spawns in the old vanilla lands.  Will these rare spawns make it through the Cataclysmic event or will they be replaced?  

Rare Spawns
Volchan of the Burning Steppes zone is a rare spawn, that has a good chance to drop the blacksmithing Plans: Volcanic Hammer.  He is the only source for this pattern.  Are the rare spawns in Cataclysm the same or are they going to be new creatures altogether?  If Volchan is removed and there are no other ways to get this pattern, then it will be worth a lot more than it currently is today.  Today it fetches a measly 5g, but if it becomes obsolete, then it will be worth a ton more to a recipe collector.  Wowhead's Cataclysm version shows no source for the pattern at all and Volchan doesn't even exist according to the same source.  This could only appear this way because they may not have any rare spawns on the Beta yet or it could be a goldmine.  Would be worth digging into rare drop BOE patterns that drop off of rare spawns.

You weren't banking too hard on Tome of Polymorph: Turtle were you?  Can you think of any other rare spawns that are the sole source for a certain pattern?

The Alchemy Epic Gem Cooldown Removal

Did you get caught up in the hype?
Some sites were promoting the possibilty of an epic gem transmutation cooldown removal.  Other people interpretted what was only a possibility as an actual truth.  Let us not forget that you can't believe everything you hear.  Anything is subject to change or could be just speculation. 

What can we learn from the alchemy cooldown removal fiasco? 
Becoming fluent with working the auction house takes more than just following specific advise.  A true auction house player understands various elements of the auction house.  Figuring out what will sell better at what times is a big part of the puzzle.  Forecasting and speculating also can read huge rewards.  In order to be wise about investments you only want to invest in changes that have a very slim chance of not happening.  Stick to blue posts by Blizzard officials that you can count on.  If a site promotes something that is speculation, remember that it is just that - Speculation. 

Divide and Conquer
Some people got caught with a massive stockpile of eternals for use when the cooldown was removed from alchemists.  When it wasn't removed, they were stuck holding onto mass quantaties of rare gems and eternals.  Some auctioneers may not recover from these investments.  Expecting to see some eternals flooding the market soon.  I can't preach enough about diversity.  By playing multiple markets, you can cushion a big hit in one market because your other markets continue to provide income.  The gem and glyph markets should continue to provide increased sales through this weekend as some players are still fumbling to get the patch installed and log in.  The weekend population should be the biggest it has been in a while, so be prepared in all markets.

Patch 4.0.1 Major Gem Changes

Winds of Change
Patch 4.0.1 has brought about some crazy changes within the game world.  The ground is shaking from tremors, the cities are filled with people and this patch has turned everything upside down.  One of the major changes for players, crafters, and sellers has been within the selling and socketing of cut gems.

Look Into GemsThere have been many different things that have changed about gems.  Have you scribes even taken yourself away from your mailboxes long enough to see what is up with the gem market?  Have you looked at your gear yet?  Some big things to take note of:

1. Some stats were removed.  This means gems of those types have been replaced with another stat gem.  Attack Power became Agility.  Spellpower became Intelligence.  Defense became Dodge or Parry.  Armor Pen became Crit.  Mp5 became Spirit.
2. Some gems have changed color.  Hit is now blue.  Mastery & Dodge are now yellow.  Intelligence is now Red.
3. Some gems have changed color and stats and may no longer match their sockets.
4. Sigils, Librams, and Idols now have stats and an unsocketed gem slot.
5. The removal of the Transmute Cooldown for epic gems is bugged (it still exists) and the eternal markets are flooded.

Strike Now!
All of these changes mean that many players all week long, will be logging in to their various characters and having to regem many of their sockets.  Not just Strength gems, but all kinds of gems are being bought.  Meta's are flying off the auction house too!  With the combining of Frost Emblems and Triumph Emblems into Justice points, many people are gemming and enchanting brand new gear they couldn't afford before the patch.  This is a perfect oppurtunity to unload what you can for a good price before the market starts to collapse once the alchemy cooldown bug is fixed. 

9 New Glyphs and How To Learn Them

Gold Patch
Patch 4.0.1 is here!  Hopefully you are swimming in gold with all the new sales of glyphs due to the price lowering of dual spec and the change to make glyphs learnable through the new glyph-book interface.  Maybe you are playing multiple markets and raking in on gems, belt buckles, or even eternals.  Whatever you are doing, don't forget to learn the 9 new glyphs created by this patch.  Others may not even be aware of these newly added glyphs, so make sure you take advantage of the possibility that these may sell for even higher mark-ups the first few days due to less competition.  I was the only one posting these so I was pricing them in the hundrends and they were selling.

How to Learn
There are seven total new glyphs added to this patch.  Here they are and how to learn them:

1. Faerie Fire - Trainer
2. Feral Charge - Trainer
3. Lacerate - Trainer
4. Tiger's Fury - Trainer
5. Deathwish - Trainer
6. Intercept - Trainer
7. Blind - Trainer
8. Colossus Smash - Book of Glyph Mastery
9. Living Bomb - Inscription Research

Recounting shows: 7 New Glyphs taught by the Inscription Trainer, 1 Learned from a Book of Glyph Mastery, and 1 Learned from Northrend Inscription Research.  So get them learned and get back to work on the auction house and these crazy sales.

Why Mooncloth Bags and Traveler's Backpacks Are Better Than Netherweave Bags

The Industry Standard
Anyone who makes a money with the tailoring profession probably has delved into the Netherweave Bag market.  These trustworthy sellers do sell in high volumes, are not expensive to craft, provide a decent return on investment, and will never run you into overstock issues.  They are the preferred choice of most players who are increasing the bag space of alts or stocking up extra bank tabs.  When you compare your options, these are not the smartest purchase for leveling alts. 


Better Choices For Alts
Both  Traveler's Backpack and Mooncloth Bag are better options for alternate characters (alts).  The biggest disadvantage of using Netherweave Bags is that they Bind-On-Equip.  So once the new alt adds them to his bank or equips them into his / her bag slots, they become bound to that single character.  If this alt later purchases better bags for even more space, these are often vendored for a fraction of the original cost, since they cannot be used on any other characters.  Neither the Traveler's Backpack or the Mooncloth Bags are bound upon use.  They have the same 16 slot space allowance, but allow the cost efficient player to utilize them on multiple characters.  If they get replaced by larger bags, the option still exists of sending them to another alt for use witout having to purchase more bags for the new alt.  The other option that exists is a quick trip to the auction house for resale.  Think of these bags more like you are renting them, instead of buying them outright, just to be vendored after they are outgrown.


How Are They Obtained?
Mooncloth Bags are crafted by tailorings that have learned the Pattern: Mooncloth Bag.  Both Traveler's Backpacks and the pattern for the Mooncloth Bags are rare vanilla world drops.  Be sure to grab this pattern, if you find it posted for a good price on the auction house.  Add Felcloth to your snatch list.  Nowadays you can find it pretty cheap as most people just dump it to the auction house due to its limited usage in useful items these days.  Some buyers are aware of the benefits of using these 2 bags instead of the standard Netherweave Bags.  I often sells Mooncloth Bags and Traveler's Backpacks for 16-25g each, which is much higher than the usual sale price of the Netherweave Bags.  Watch for Traveler's Backpacks that are underpriced and snatch them up to flip for a profit.

6 Materials To Stockpile Now To Get Rich At Christmas Time

Last week I gave you plenty of notice on stocking up on Small Eggs for profiting off of their sale in the use of cookies and quests during the Winter Veil holiday.

Winter Veil Clothing
Winter Veil is also the time for leatherworkers and tailors to get rich, as well as those supplying the materials they will be using to make endless gold. The Green Winter Clothes, Red Winter Clothes, and Winter Boots are needed to Complete the Winter Garb set for the Achievement. Crafting the boots can easily earn you minimum 25g each and the clothes sell anywhere from 15g to 50g with the opposing factions color reaching 150-200g each. You must visit the opposing capital city and purchase the pattern, which can result in many deaths and corpse runs, but the money you will make will be worth it.

What To Start Stockpiling
The main items that should be snatched cheaply and saved until the holiday starts are:

Wool Cloth
Bolt of Wool
Runecloth
Bolt of Runecloth
Copper Bar
Rugged Leather

You will not be able to find these on the auction house during the first week of Winter Veil.

Last year I took all my wool cloth and made bolts, then posted them for 7g per bolt. I could not keep them in stock. It takes only 3 wool cloth to make a bolt of wool cloth, so you can see how much money that alone made me. That was just using the wool I had left in my bank. This year I will be much better stocked and ready to sell them. The other tailors don't mind paying 7g for a bolt, when they are selling their Winter Clothing for over 100g! Just figure out what the boots and clothes are selling for, make some to post, then sell your mats for a huge profit too. The mailbox will continue to fill up with auction house earnings.

Flash Bombs

Flash Bombs

Flash Bombs are crafted by engineers, but they can be used by anyone. These are an excellent item to market to all levels of PvP players, especially twinks. Why are they so good? They are usable by all players, not just engineers. They share a cooldown with other bombs, which won't be an issue with non-engineers. Anyone can toss these in a battleground and using one of these can easily save the day in Warsong Gulch. They do have a chance at failure when used on targets over level 60. The big thing with these is you aren't restricted to npc beasts. You can use these to "fear bomb" hunter pets, druids in cat or bear form, shamans in ghost wolf, and also enhancement shaman spirit wolves. Thus making these very effective for twinks to fear flag carriers in WSG. Unlike most fears, damage does not interrupt their effect so you get 10 seconds of free beatdown!

How To Get The Pattern?
The schematic is a quest reward from the follow-up quest Flash Bomb Recipe offered after completing the quest Pearl Diving by Rigglefuzz in the badlands. This follow-up quest that rewards the schematic is only available to engineers. Do yourself a favor and farm the 9 required Blue Pearls for the quest before you go get it. You can save time and turn it in immediately instead of flying back to Stranglethorn Veil to hunt the Blue Pearls found in the Giant Clams around the sunken city occupied by murlocs outside of Grom'Gol Base Camp.

Learn It Or Sell The Pattern?
The Gnomish Coin did a post earlier this week about getting this pattern to sell for 300-500g. I am saying learn it yourself and sell these flash bombs to PvP players. Definately market these to the twinks on your server. Only an engineer can do the quest for the pattern, but crafting these only requires 185 Engineering skill. The Blue Pearls are easy to farm with a druid in aquatic form, especialy with the glyph to increase swim speed. Other classes can bring a waterbreathing item or potion or the trinket from winning the Booty Bay fishing derby. Keep the blue pearls in your snatch list and buy up any that players dump on the auction house for cheap.

How To Get A Mechanical Chicken For Sale Or For Your Collection

The Pet
Mechanical Chicken is a reward for completing the quest An OOX Of Your Own.  This little bugger is not BOP and since it is a quest reward it is rarely sold on the Auction House and fetches a lot of gold.


How to Start?
In order to get this quest, you must have completed all the OOX escort quests in Tanaris, Hinterlands, and Feralas.

Find OOX-17/TN! - http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=351
Find OOX-09/HL! - http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=485
Find OOX-22/FE! - http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=2766


Quest Starters?
Quests are started by these random zone drops.

OOX-17/TN Distress Beacon

OOX-09/HL Distress Beacon

OOX-22/FE Distress Beacon

Quest Details

Tanaris: Ambush is 3 scorpions.
Feralas: Ambush is 3 yeti.
Hinterlands: Ambush is 3 wildkin.

Warning:  These quests reward Goblin Rep and Cost Bloodsail Rep.

Anyone know if these drops are still in Cataclysm?  Might be worth stocking up on a few of these incase they are no longer attainable in Cataclysm.  They sell for 1-2.5k now, just think of the price they could fetch if no longer available.

Botters: To Report Or Not To Report?

(Long post but well worth the read - please stay with me here)

Botting
Using a 3rd party program or an add-on to perform tasks within the game that automate actions is a bannable offense.  Sometimes developers skate the grey areas of what is automation, as is the case with the heavily controversial QA3 auto-scan auto-undercut plug-in.  This plug-in is soon to be broken in an upcoming patch.  In my opinion, disabling this can't come soon enough.  Anyone who has ran across a competitor using this "cheat" is likely to be rejoicing as well with the news of its downfall. 

The Villian
On my server I have been battling in certain markets with a well known (and hated) user of this QA3 plug-in.  I have reported him for botting, even though I know that this program was still in the grey area in terms of legal or illegal.  Nothing happened and he continued to drive more and more people out of his markets.  This guy was camping the auction house with his level 2 semi-botter.  Let's call him Bankbot.  Bankbot was almost always on, and almost always marked as AFK, but very rarily did he drop connection and relog on.  Using the plug-in, Bankbot would post one of each of his glyphs and gems, then when u placed an item cheaper than his, it was a matter of minutes before his plug-in would undercut you.  Imagine this happening pretty much all day long in multiple markets.  As these markets were near impossible to profit in, I focused on other markets I was able to maintain sales in.

The Sidekick
Switching focus a bit:  A few days ago I was logging onto my mage to run the daily Coren Direbrew dungeon for easy Frost Emblems.  Since he is dps and the queue can be a bit longer, I usually would just kill beasts and use the mage's skill at Skinning to pass the time doing a bit of farming while the dungeon group forms.  During my hunting in Scholazar Basin, I ran across an intersting specimen.  Let's call this guy, SkinnerBoy.  Suprise suprise he's a poorly geared cookie cutter Beastmaster Specced Hunter.  Oh look!  He sends in his pet after beasts, stands back and autoshots only, then closes in to skin after the kill.  Next he and his pet head to the next creature, rinse, and repeat.  Hrm.  I notice his delay between creature death and skinning start, so I tag along.  With the delay I am allowed to kill and skin my own mobs, as well as instant cast on his targets as soon as his pet starts to charge.  Hrm.  So he is basically killing mobs flagged by me, and I am stealing all his skins as well as killing and skining my own.  Skinnerboy is obviously a botter.  He never complains, never says a word, never breaks from his obvious bot cycles.  Bong! My Coren group is ready and time for some jokingly easy Frost Badges.  Before I head to The Grim Guzzler, I report this cheater with an explanation of why I know he is botting.  I get the standard: "We will watch him to make sure and if true he'll be gone soon enough."  Yup - I'm fighting the good fight.

The Conspiracy
Today I happened to realize that I haven't seen Bankbot camped at his normal spot all day long.  A quick search on The Undermine Journal shows that Bankbot hasn't posted  a single auction since early Tuesday morning.  Wonder where he has been?  I further delve into the excellent information provided at The Undermine Journal about this hated competitor and do a review of all the markets he is in.  Yup, there are the glyph and gems markets he has ran me out of, but I look further.  It appears that he has an even bigger foothold in the Armor and Item Enhancement markets.  Digging deeper it shows that Bankbot is a major supplier of scrolls, but he sells 3x as many Leg Armor Enhancements.  Looking into his armor sales, they are 90% crafted Leather Armor items.  Wait a minute!  Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

The Hero
If my hypothesis is correct, Bankbot and SkinnerBoy are on the same account!  I reported the obvious botter SkinnerBoy and in turn may have possibly got the most hated villianous semi-botting Bankboy banned as well.  Could it be true?  Could he have been so dumb?  Only time will tell if Bankbot appears camped at his usual spot in the Orgrimmar auction house.  If I really did get Bankbot booted, then I am surely the hero of the day for my Realm.

What is your take on botters?  Do you report them?  Do you exploit them?  Do you appreciate their ability to provide low cost bot derived raw materials?

Sealed Scroll Case from Zul'Aman

^-----------------------------------Here Is a Forest Frog

Forest Frogs
Within the raid instance Zul'Aman, lies another option for making some gold.  The Forest Frogs that surround the central lake are actually npcs under the influence of a voodoo spell.  If you free them from the hex, they will return to their humanoid form and have various gifts they will leave for you.

How To Free Them
In order to release the frogs from their curse, you need to gather Amani Hex Sticks from the trash mobs inside the instance.  These Amani Hex Sticks will revert the frogs back to humanoid form.  You must use the Amani Hex Sticks before you die or leave the instance.  If you die, leave, or logout all of your Amani Hex Sticks will dissapear.  So use them as you get them to be safe.

Mojo
These Forest Frogs also have the ability to give you a rare vanity pet, Mojo.  If you get lucky, after you free a frog, he may place Mojo in your backpack.  Mojo is a very unique vanity pet that once you summon him out you can /kiss him and he will turn you into a frog and then start to whisper to you.  Unfortunately Mojo is BOP, but there are more money making options from these frogs.

Humanoid Gifts
Most of the converted frogs will drop chests for you to open.  They can contain gold (around 15g) or charms to use as buffs within the instance.  Sometimes you can get Mojo from them.  There are also 2 vendors that can spawn from these frogs.  Kyren sells reagants and Gunther sells food.  Both of these vendors have the chance to spawn a limited quantity Sealed Scroll Case.  These cases can contain a pretty high selling BOE recipe.  Check out the full content options.  Some big money makers, if you get the right scroll to drop.

So whether you are just in for the raid achievement, are farming for Mojo, or are just messing around in the instance solo, be sure to use up all of your Amani Hex Sticks in hopes to have a chance at this scroll lottery.

Goodbye Auto Posters!

Finally!
Got a Douche bag AH camper that reposts undercuts right after you posted you goods?  Well the battle will be shifting soon as 4.0 will be breaking all auto posting add-ons.  Each post will now require a human click for each auction item posted.  You can still post 20 of the same item individually because the regular Auction House UI allows that.  You will no longer be able to batch post multiple items with a single click, which in turn removes the use of the hated QA3 Plug-in that auto posts and auto undercuts non-stop until you either afk out or run out of materials.  My gem and scroll sellers have been gimped with a semi-bot AH camper using this unfair posting strategy.  Glad they will be having to post just like the rest of us.  Maybe the lack of an auto posting option will drive some people away from the auction house, thus lowering the number of competitors.  Way to go Blizz!

Time To Pre-Order: Official Cata Release Date

Pre-Order Now!

Official Release Date for Cataclysm is December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day!  Why wait in line?  Why risk your store being sold out?  Pre-order your copy of the Regular or Collector's Edition today.  Follow the above product link to also see the Collector's Edition benefits, which will include a limited Lil Deathwing vanity pet.  Collector's Edition is $79.99.

Get it the day it comes out! Pre-order and select Release-Date Delivery at checkout. Release-Date Delivery "Release-Date Delivery is available for selected pre-order items we know we can deliver on the date the item releases for ZIP codes within the continental United States. Some carriers make deliveries to residential addresses as late as 7pm, so please allow sufficient time for the delivery." - from the Amazon site. So skip the lines, skip the hassles, and have your copy pre-paid and waiting at the door for you when you get home from work on December 7th! Also check out an old post about saving subscription costs with Game-Time Cards

The Brady Games Cataclysm Edition is scheduled for a November 5th release date.

Is The Jewelcrafting Daily Even Worth Doing Anymore?

Trying to Save A Dying Market?

Market Flop
The cut gem market has been plummeting and soon the alchemy cooldown will be removed from epic gem transmutes.  This will lower the value of uncut gems even further, which will in turn drop the value and profits from selling cut gems.  Once cataclysm arrives, all of our gems will become nearly obsolete as players getting new gear will be looking for the best cuts.  The wrath cuts will be replaced with the new Cataclysm cuts.  Is the jewelcrafting daily even worth doing anymore since these cuts will be obsolete soon, the market is crashing, and competition this late in the expansion is rather fierce?

Market Flux
Yes, the daily is still an excellent and easy way to obtain Jewelcrafting Tokens, but spend them wisely.  Many people have turned to just switching them to Dragon's Eyes and selling them on the auction house.  The value of these has dropped as well.  Cross check the Dragon's Eyes new low price with the value of Nightmare Tears and see if you can profit off of the tears on Tuesdays.

What I have been doing is spending my tokens on rare and epic patterns for the jewelry.  Most of the jewelry is selling for good profits still and also has become a way for me to get rid of some of the rare gems I have accumulated.  At this point I don't recommend buying epic gem patterns because they are only going to drop in value.  With the increase of people trying out PvP, Arenas, and playing lots of alternate characters, the value of the leveling, PvP gear, and Fresh 80s items has not dropped with the gem market.

What To Buy?
If you are singing the crashed JC market blues, then check the values of the jewelry on your server.  Go ahead and run those jewelcrafting dailies and buy up some jewelry patterns.  These leveling items will hold their value much longer than the gems.  The jewelry tends to sell better on the weekends, when more people are on and more alts are being played.  Try it out.  DPS and Tanking jewelry is a good place to start.  Then add in PvP jewelry and caster jewelry.  These are definately better profits than the current cut gem market is yielding at this time.  And the jewelry patterns don't use epic gems at all, so you are free to continue in that market if you like.  This is an example of diversifying, even though it is still within the same profession.  Also selling crafted jewelry gives you another option instead of placing all you eggs in one basic.  Speaking of eggs, don't miss out on yesterday's post.

Eggciting Times Ahead

Planning Is Everything
The Feast of Winter Veil will be starting this year on December 15th.  Since proper planning can net you thousands of gold during the first few days of the holiday, I highly recommend starting to amass your stockpile of Small Eggs. 

Huh?  I'm lost.
The strategy of wheelin' and dealin' in the small egg market is once I have exploited for once of the best return-on-investments currently within the game.  This is a get-rich-quick strategy that works extremely well, if you plan it out properly and post your eggs priced correctly and early in the holiday.  You want to have all you eggs ready to go and posted the night before the holiday starts, so that once you awake in the morning on day #1 of the Winter Veil, you already have made thousands upon thousands of gold with eggs.  You can then ignore the crazy battle for market position that ensues once everyone else catches on.

Tell Me More!
If you haven't already read it, please catch up on the topic via an old post on Holidays and review the section regarding Winter Veil.  Right now is the time to horde as many small eggs as you can get.  If done right, you will not be able to keep enough in stock for the first few days of Winter Veil.  If you some reason you are late or poorly prepared and end up with excess eggs, you can always save them in the bank or guildbank to profit from during Children's Week.

Tips on Stockpiling
Here are some great ways to get started on gathering small eggs.

1. Add the Small Egg to your snatch list.  You can find good chunks of them on the auction house, probably from new blood elves and night elves questing and grinding in the 2 major hotspots.
2. Farm them yourself.  Darkfall at the Moonkin Caves & Dragonhawks just outside Silvermoon City are the 2 hotspots for mobs that drop the Small Eggs.  I prefer the moonkin/ owlkin as they drop coin as well.  Use a twink or a character waiting for the BG or RDF queue to pop so you are farming inbetween runs.
3. DO NOT SHOUT IN TRADE CHAT.  Big mistake to alert others to what you are doing.  They will steal the idea and become a major competitior.
4. Hire lowbies.  Instead of shouting that you are buying eggs, try this.  Make a macro that says "LF Low Level Players wanting to make easy gold.  Pst for details."  This is where you get someone with not much gold to work for you, hunting the mobs that drop the eggs and have them COD them to you for an agreed price.  I pay them up to 50s per egg and all they do is collect them and send them to me in full stacks.  That 10g a stack is a great money maker for them and is high enough that they will excited to make that kind of money.  Some people will send you a batch once, so they have enough for their first mount and riding skill.  Others will continue to send them in for the good source of income.  Just be sure to pay them ASAP on the CODs.

You Have Been Warned
So a lot of people missed out on the Delicious Cake Sales due to improper planning.  The ones that learned from my warning and stockpiled the eggs and mageroyal ahead of time, made huge profits, just like I did.  Don't be left out this holiday.  I have done this 4 years straight for huge profits.  It's the best part about Christmas in WoW.

The Season of Giving
But Christmas is supposed to be about giving, right?  Yes it is, but lets spin it a bit.  Any of your lowbie farmers that you get to work for you.  Try this out.  Tell them that if they send you a full mail posting (12 stacks) that in addition to their 10g per stack payment, they will get a "Bonus".  Anyone that sends the full 12 stacks of eggs, send them a "Bonus" gift.  Make it a vanity pet.  Many of these lowbies may not have a pet, and we all know that once you get one, you jsut have to start collecting more.  So the one free low cost pet, even better if it is a cheap one from their opposing faction, may spur them to start pet collecting, which will help to return the gold they earned from you back to one of your alts that is selling vendor pets on the auction house.  Win-Win-Win!  Triple Win!

How Real Life Auctions Relate To In-Game Auctions

VERSUS

A lot of the same tactics that I implement to profit on the Auction House in Word of Warcraft are very similar to the strategies that I used when making a real life profit off of flipping on eBay.  

My Old Business

About 10 or more years ago, I was a major seller on the online auction site, eBay.  While I did have a good job at the time, I also enjoyed buying and flipping items on eBay for supplemental income.  Being an electronic vinyl spinnin' DJ, I was always on the hunt for great records to add to my collection, but I also had the expertise and knowledge to flip other records for a profit.  I would browse tons of auctions looking for underpriced items that were packaged in "lots", as many sellers titled them, for the sole purpose of breaking them apart to sell as singles.  This was how I first started turning a profit with my 12" vinyl sales model.  I eventually found an excellent supplier, far superior to the scan, buy, split and resell tactics I had been using.  

This new connection was a radio DJ in California that would receive tons and tons of records free as promotional material.  Since he would get these records free, he would sell them to me in mass quantities for dirt cheap.  I'm talking 200+ records for $100.  I purchased direct from him multiple times and made a killing off of these mega-purchases.  Records that cost me on average 50 cents were selling for anywhere from $4-$15 each, and occasionally rare finds were hitting upwards of $100 for a single record.  Hell, I paid that for the whole lot!  I understood what records where able to be pulled and sold for a huge mark-up, but also were priced effectively to move, while giving the buyer a deal.  These were almost all current, big name tracks by known record producers and labels.  Anything that didn't sell was grouped into a 10 or 20 record lot of my own and eventually sold on eBay also.  My supplier had no idea what the records were worth because they were in a genre he was very unfamiliar with.  He eventually scouted out my relisted auctions and cut me out, as he realized he would profit much more from selling them himself.  I'm sure you can start to see some of the similarities here.

Similarities With The Azerothian Auction Houses

Finding a Niche Market

My niche market was selling electronic 12" vinyls.  I had the experience, knowledge and understanding of what music would sell.  It is very important to become an expert and find your niche within the auction house within the game.  Understanding you markets ins and outs as well as understanding who you are selling to and why they are purchasing is just as important in-game as it is in real life.

Finding a Supplier or Farmer

The California DJ was basically my in game farmer equivalent.  He would collect the goods and sell them to me at discounted rates due to large quantity purchases.  We developed a working relationship and continue to both profit off of our businesses.  Finding suppliers or farmer within the game will help you to get goods constantly supplied at a lower rate than purchasing directly.

Buy Large, Sell Small

Just as I was able to buy large amounts and profit from selling single slabs of vinyl, within the game it is often cost effective to buy large quantities from a farmer or to buy full stacks of an item from the auction house.  Then split this large stack of items into singles to sell for an overall profit.  Selling items in various quantities also can help to increase your overall sales numbers.

Find A Hidden Gem

You should always be on the look out for hidden gems.  Those items that are grossly underpriced, that can sell for a huge mark-up and profit.  I recently purchased a [Captured Firefly] for 2k from someone in trade chat.  A couple weeks later I flipped it for 5k, an easy 3k profit on a 2k investment.  Always look through the auction house recipes section for horribly low listed items.  I've bought [Pattern: Rich Purple Silk Shirt] for 40g before.  There are always steals to be had, just make sure you are looking for them.

In my record flipping ventures, I can recall two insane flips that I managed to flip.  In one of the 200+ lots, I found a Clear Purple Vinyl Record that was actually purple and see through.  Super cool!  This particular record was a super rare dance remix of Prince's "Purple Rain".  I have never ever seen a real house music track with house beats for this song.  It sold for $35.  Remember it cost me 50 cents!

Another I recall was a promotional record for the release of The Avalanches original album.  Apparently there was a track on the promo that never ever was released anywhere else.  This version of the track had a female's vocals instead of the released male version.  I actually ended up selling it to a family member of the female singer all the way in Germany.  Others were hard after this super rare promo and the final eBay sale was over $130!  Again, I paid $100 for the lot of 200 records.  Turning $100 into $700-800 was always exciting and when you sell online, getting mail means every day is payday.

Expand Your Business

Originally I would only sell to the US and Canada, but with experience I diversified into shipping internationally.  Always look for new avenues to sell in, as well as new markets to end to diversify.  I eventually started flipping CDs too.  Have you forgot about the other faction in WoW?  They need goods too.  Don't forget to check into the neutral auction houses for deals and potential sales.

Market Changes

Having different markets to dabble in, will help once one market comes crashing down.  My record sales all but crashed to a halt once the US Government released the RAVE-ACT.  This crushed the ability to safely play live music publicly and was targeted at ravers, DJs, rave and club promoters:  All my main buyers.  This pretty much killed my sales.  The gem market in WoW is crashing, glyphs have crashed and become cut-throat.  Are you diversified and not investing in only one cash cow that could shut you down if Blizzard changes a rule on you?

Conclusions

Much of what I apply on today's WoW auctions I learned from the real life auctions of eBay.  So make sure that you are always looking for deals, looking for better suppliers, searching for those hidden gems, diversify for safety, and supply what your customers are after.  

Anyone else have any real life scenarios that remind them of in game auction house mechanics?

Completing Depleted Items For Profit

Blade's Edge Mountains

What Are They?
Depleted Items are non-equipable items that drop from any of the mobs on either of the plateaus in the Blade's Edge Mountains zone.  These are the 2 areas that house Ogri'la and Bash'irs Landing and both require a flying mount to reach.  All of the mobs and elites in both of these areas can drop Apexis Shards.  All of these items can be upgraded to their equipable forms once they are converted from their depleted state via the inclusion of the appropriate number of apexis shards.  While the shards are Bind-on-PickUp, the depleted items and their appropriate upgrades are all Bind-On-Equip.  Many of us have an excess storage of the shards in the bank from questing, raising rep, or working on Loremaster.  This strategy provides you with an option to utilizing those extra Apexis Shards to turn a profit.  If you check the auction house, you will often find these depleted items selling for a good low price as some people don't understand what they are selling.  Simply buying the depleted items, then adding the shards to upgrade it to sell can turn you a nice profit, if you purchase them at a nice low price.  Here is the complete list of the depleted items and what they upgrade to:

Depleted Two-Handed Axe  -> Apexis Cleaver 

Depleted Sword  -> Crystal Forged Sword 

Depleted Staff  -> Flaming Quartz Staff 

Depleted Ring  -> Dream Crystal Band 

Depleted Mace  -> Apexis Crystal Mace 

Depleted Dagger  -> Crystal-Infused Shiv 

Depleted Cloak  -> Crystal Weave Cape 

Depleted Badge  -> Badge of Tenacity 

Depleted Mail Gauntlets  -> Crystalhide Handwraps

Depleted Cloth Bracers -> Crystalweave Bracers 


All of these items take 50 Apexis Shards to upgrade.  Some of these get significant upgrades due to the addition of gem sockets to their completed counterpart.


Do you have unused Apexis Shards in your bank that could earn you some gold?

Deathwing Brood Cloak

Sexy, Ain't It?

Limited Accessability
In the upper reaches of The Blade's Edge Mountains are a couple of plateaus only reachable with a flying mount.  One plateau houses the Ogre faction at Ogri'la, while the other is an etheral hub at Bash'ir Landing to the Northeast.  Both of these areas are teeming with mobs that drop the Bind-on-PickUp item: Apexis Shard.  Daily quests from the Ogri'la also reward stacks of 15 of the shards along with Ogri'la and / or Skyguard reputation.  If you have worked on the Loremaster Achievement or reputation with either Ogri'la or Sha'tari Skyguard, then chances are you may have excess Apexis Shards stored in the bank.  This is an option for turning those Apexis Shards into profits.


Hunting Dragons
Whether you are farming the shards, gathering them from quests, or have a stashed surplus grab all you can get and head towards the Blade's Edge Mountain Plateau's.  What we are doing is hunting the 4 Dragons:
Insidion, Furywing, Obsidia, and Rivendark.  These level 72 elites are easily soloed by level 80 classes that can heal themselves or by any of the pet classes.  Each of these dragons are summoned by placing 35 Apexis Shards into their respective nests, which will hatch their babies egg, thus forcing them to land to defend their nest.  Here are the locations of the eggs. 


Rivendark: 27.00, 64.80
Obsidia: 33.80, 54.60
Insidion: 62.90, 7.00
Furywing: 66.90, 14.60


Making the Cloak
The Deathwing Brood Cloak is crafted by combining 1 of each of the dragon scales that drop from each of the elite dragons.  This is now Bind-on-Equip, thus allowing us to sell it.  The creation process requires once of each:


Insidion's Ebony Scale
Jet Scale of Furywing
Obsidia Scale
Onyx Scale of Rivendark



Once all 4 scales have been collected a simple right click on one will create the cloak.  No profession is required to create these cloaks.  This cloak has a random 3 stat enchantment when created, but they are the most useful combinations of stats.  Options for this cloak are...of the Bandit, Beast, Champion, Elder, Hierophant, Invoker, Knight, Physician, Prophet, Soldier, or Sorcerer.  The average value of this cloak is around 120g, but if you get lucky and get one of the better suffixes you can sell it for much more.


Other Benefits
All of these dragons will also drop a BOE green item or two along with a chance to drop rare BOE crafting patterns and depleted items, which also can be sold for profits.  (More on depleted items tomorrow).  In 1 cycle of the 4 dragons last night, I got 2 depleted items, including 1 epic depleted piece.  I also got 2 BoE Burning Crusade jewelcrafting recipes.  I am currently working on faction reputation, so I am killing these dragons while in the area working on raising my Ogri'la reputation.  Win-win!

Guest Post: Mageshadow of The Gnomish Coin

A Guest Post by Mageshadow of The Gnomish Coin




Aerith Primrose - Lets Sell Flowers!

What? Selling Flowers?

Yup, today we're going to be selling several different pair of flowers and bouquets from a vendor in Dalaran. Aerith Primrose can be found right before the entrance to the Violet Hold, there is a wagon to the left. The prices for the flowers range from 2 silver up to 50g. I recommend starting out with the 2 silver flowers if you're a low level, and slowly moving up the ladder as you obtain more gold.

Why Do They Sell?

These items sell because people like to dress up their bank toons. I can flip these things for an easy 20-25g, and they sell rather quick. Many people don't notice this NPC, because quite frankly she's hidden, I didn't even notice her until a couple weeks back. The competition is little to none on these items, and since they can be obtained for as cheap as 2 silver, the risk is very little.

Some Days Are Luckier Than Others

So I have been farming ZG now for a few weeks, collecting Tomes of Polymorph Turtle to sell once ZG is changed from a raid in hopes of making big profits later on.  Each raid lockout I do a minimum of:

1. Fish up Ghaz for a chance at the tome.
2. Kill as many raptors as I find for a chance at the Raptor Pet.
3. Kill the Tiger boss for a shot at the mount.
4. Kill the Raptor boss for a shot at the mount.
5. Farm bosses and trash for Rep.
6. Send all coins and bijous to my alchemist to get the Living Action Potion recipe before it may be unavailable.
7. Farm rep to get to exhalted for my main, Cold, just for the achievement.

Well after this weekend, I am happing to say that Cold has now Earned the achievement Hero of the Zandalar Tribe, as has my Alchemist, Morgueann.  After never ever even seeing either of the mounts drop for years since the days of Vanilla WoW and the hundreds of times, I have ran ZG.  When I won my Headless Horseman's Mount, after losing a roll the first time I saw it drop.  I only saw it drop twice the entire holiday event, and it dropped during the same run that I had already rolled and lost.  I won it on the second roll in the same holiday boss group run.  Well, Saturday night while I was bored and doing my routine farming run in Zul'Gurub, luck struck not once, but twice on the same run yet again.  I'm proud to announce:

Sep 25, 2010 Earned the feat of strength [Swift Zulian Tiger].

Sep 25, 2010 Earned the feat of strength [Swift Razzashi Raptor].

Yup, same run.  Both mounts dropped. So goodbye ZG, you can be removed now.  I'm done with you.  Lol, thanks for the memories.

Twilight Bosses Loot

Twilight Bosses Loot

251 Shield - Melee Off Hand - Barrier of the Earth Princess

251 Plate - Heal Waist - Girdle of Oblation

251 Plate - - Melee Chest - Tectonic Plate

251 Plate - Melee Chest  - Salamander Skin

251 Plate - Melee Wrist  - Twilight Offering Bands

251 Mail - Physical DPS Legs - Sacrificial Mail

251 Leather - Heal Feet - Flamewaker's Treads

251 Leather - Physical DPS Chest - Pulmonary Casing

251 Cloth - Heal Chest - Earth Bride's Gown

251 Cloth - Physical DPS Back - Cloak of Mocking Winds

251 Cloth - Spell DPS Back - Zaetar's Deathshroud

251 Cloth - Spell DPS Feet - Sandfury Sandals

251 Finger - Melee Finger - Old Gods' Blessing

251 Finger - Physical DPS - Sulfuron's Favor

251 Finger - Spell DPS - Ring of the Three-Headed Beast

251 Neck - Heal - Pendant of Burning Spirits

251 Neck - Melee - Flamelash Amulet

251 Neck - Physical DPS - Amulet of the Centauri

251 Neck -Spell DPS - Amulet of Evil Winds



The Bosses
Above is the list of loot dropped by the 4 Twilight Bosses that will be available during phase 3 of the Cataclysm pre-events. These bosses will be available once the major cities are defended from the elemental invaders. You access the bosses via the dungeon queue or through the portal that appears in the major cities after the elementals are defeated.

The Drops
There are some excellent items here, but all are item level 251, which means Frost badge and ICC gear will not be replaced. These will be excellent items for alts though. Many people originally get initial gear for their alts during holiday events and this should be no different. There are going to be many excellent upgrades for all of our level 80 alts that are undergeared and more easily obtainable gear for those that are behind in the gear progression.

The Impact
Once the elemental invasion is on the live servers, I would expect to see a rise in the sale of gems, as many players will be getting item level 251 upgrades. Also the sale of BoE item level 245 gear should grind to a halt since these bosses will be dropping gear that will replace most of those popular crafted epics. Crafted plate gear that will be less desirable include Saronite Swordbreakers, Titanium Razorplate, and Breastplate of the White Knight. The other crafting professions have similar replacements as well. If you have any of the soon to be obsolete patterns, then dump them now. The are losing value already due to the expansion ending. These drops will only help to make them much less desirable. If you are a recipe collector, hold out until after this event goes live to save some gold on your purchases. Titanium Shield Spikes and Saronite Belt Buckles may see a slight increase in movement, if the belt and shield start dropping for your buyers.