Gifts For Gamers: T-Shirts Worn By Sheldon Cooper

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

The Big Bang Theory has been one of my favorite TV series for quite some time now.  At the center of the Big Bang Theory is everyone's favorite physicist, Sheldon Cooper, who's style is like none other.  This week on Gifts For Gamers, I'm featuring a selection of some of the shirts worn by Sheldon Cooper.  You can find these Sheldon Cooper T-Shirts in the various episodes of all seasons of The Big Bang Theory.  Any true Big Bang Theory fan, will recognize many (if not all) of these Sheldon Cooper Tees.  If you are looking for games and other items inspired by TBBT, then also check out these posts: 17 Great Gift Ideas For Big Bang Theory Fan & Cute TeeTurtle Tees featuring Sheldon, Penny, and Howard From The Big Bang Theory.

Do you remember seeing Sheldon in these shirts?


Ames Bros Flash Ray Gun Vintage Blue T-shirt

Ames Bros Man-Bot Vintage Graphic Green Tee

DC Comics Aquaman Orange Tee

Ames Bros Destroyer Vintage Blue T-shirt

Big Bang Theory The Wesley Crushers Bowling Team T-Shirt

The Flash III Lightning By Michael Turner Burnt Orange Tee

Mens Officially Licensed DC Comics Flash Logo T-Shirt

The Green Lantern Logo Striped Sleeves T-shirt

The Greatest American Hero TV Show Series Logo Red Tee Shirt



Justice League Unlimited Hawkman Symbol Gold Tee

The Green Arrow Shield Bullseye Green Adult Tee

Rubik's Cube Melting Black T-shirt

Green Lantern Red Lantern Corps Symbol Red Tee

Robot Evolution T-shirt

Green Lantern Violet Lantern Corps Symbol Purple Tee

Test Pattern Light Blue T-shirt

Superman Distressed Logo With Striped Sleeves Black Tee

Checkered Test Pattern Purple T-shirt

I hope you enjoyed the Sheldon Cooper T-Shirt Collection that I put together for you.  If you know a Big Bang Theory fan, I'm sure they would be very excited to get any of these T-Shirts for Christmas, a birthday gift, or just to earn some cool points! 

Remember, Season 5 of the Big Bang Theory is out now on DVD and you can also get a Boxed Set with Seasons 1-5, if you haven't started collecting the seasons yet.  I own all 5 seasons of The Big Bang Theory on DVD myself and the replay value is amazing.  I've watched mine at least 4-5 times each episode already!

Gamer Stocking Stuffer Gag Gift 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.

Gifts For Gamers

Stocking Stuffer Gag Gift Ideas For Gamers

Christmas is less than 2 months away so it's time to start looking into what gifts you want as well as what gifts you are going to be purchasing for the gamers in your life.  I've created a list of some great gag gifts, which would make great stocking stuffers for gamers or some awesome white elephant gift exchange gifts.  I hope you enjoy the irony and humor in these great gag gifts.  Maybe you'll find a gag gift for a co-worker or a friend among the list as these aren't just for stocking stuffers for Christmas gifts.  Enjoy!



Canned Unicorn Meat

Here is a selection of 13 great stocking stuffers for gamers.  Hover or Click the links for more details.

1. Canned Unicorn Meat - An excellent source of Sparkles!
2. Zombie Jerky - Teriyaki flavored, of course!
3. "Maybe You Touched Your Genitals" Hand Sanitizer - Can you think of a better reason?
4. Grow A Girlfriend Kit - I know a lot of gamers who could use this girlfriend kit!
5. Happy Man Bottle Stopper - Don't spill your soda or wine on your keyboard.  Protect em with this bottle cork.
6. Zombie Apocalypse Survival Kit - Tiny survival kit with all the required goodies.
7. Zombie Survival Guide - Everyone needs at least 1 survival guide, right?
8. Resident Evil T-Virus Antidote Energy Drink - You don't want to catch that nasty T-Virus do you?
9. Dis-Member Me 12" Plush Zombie - Best plush doll ever.
10. Marvel Super Heroes Thumb Wrestlers - Perfect for the comic book nerd in your life.
11. 4 Gig Sperm Flash Drive - Sperm, It's not just for Wes anymore.
12. Prescription Beer Kan Koozies - What do you mean I'm drinking too much?  These are prescribed beers, honey.
13. Zombie Family Car Window Stickers - Tired of all of those lame family stickers on everyones cars?  Get the zombie version for extra geek cred.

Battle Pets Killed Companion Pet Markets





The Biggest Losers In MoP: Companion Pets

With the Launch of Mists of Pandaria also came the beginning of the Battle Pet era.  Originally the Battle Pet addition to WoW sounded like a great way to make even more gold off of the companion pets that had been so lucrative during previous WoW expansions.  That was after the initial Battle Pet announcement, but as we started to learn more and more about the details of the Battle Pet System, my opinion started to drastically change. 

As soon as we learned that duplicate Battle Pets from multiple alts would be refunded back to us (then changed to be added to our Pet Journal), I started unloading my pets in droves, especially the holiday pets.  Remember my post Pet Battles & Pet Flipping: Get Our While You Still Can?  I hope you took my advice and didn't listen to the others telling you to stock up on companion pets to flip at a later date. 

Originally, I thought the same, but as the details rolled out, I warned you to dump your pets here on the blog, on both of the podcasts I am on.  It turns out, I was correct.  While some pets saw a slight increase in the average price over the weeks leading up to the expansion, as soon as MoP launched companion pets across the board have been on a decline ever since.  Some of the companion pets have taken a huge plunge in value, especially the Holiday pets since everyone got a ton of them refunded back into their pet journals from all of their alts.  For example the Sinister Squashling has lost 90% of its value since the Battle Pet system launched.

The Companion Pet Market Crash

There are many factors that have contributed to the collapse in value of the WoW companion pet markets.  The overall pricing discrepencies between battle pets and companion pets is only one of the contributing factors.  Here are a few more reasons that prices have come crashing down on companion pets.

1. Refunded duplicate pets - The flood of pets from alts lead to plenty of flooding and price drops. 
2. You don't need to purchase pets to complete achievements - The pet achievements can be completed by capturing wild pets without wasting gold.
3. Pet Battles are not as fun as expected. - It's another archeology type grind to get a pet to level 25. 
4. Anyone can sell pets on any server. - There can be more competition from other servers listing on your server too.
5. Wild pets can be better quality than the purchased non-rare pets. - Why buy a white pet, when you can get a green or blue one in the wild?
6. Pre-Leveled Pets - Why buy a level 1 companion pet when you can buy a higher level Battle Pet?

There are plenty more possibilities as to why the value has crashed on the companion pets, but I wouldn't expect the value to return to where they were pre-MoP.  So this is more proof and more warnings to cut your losses because the companion pet market is no longer a good market to invest in.

Companion Pet Price Data Tables

Here are a few tables of data detailing the price drops for WoW companion Pets.  This is just a few of the major companion pet markets because I didn't want to bore you with a post with tons of tables in it, but the results are almost identical across all of the pet markets.  The holiday pets are far worse than any market though as some have lost 90% of their value already.  Squashlings were 8 gold the other day on my server!  I'm so glad I unloaded mine for 600-800 gold each a few months ago when I warned everyone to do the same!


Chart Data

Jun 1 - The average price across all servers on June 1st, 2012.
MoP - The average price across all servers on September 25th, the MoP launch date.
Now - The average price as of today or yesterday.
Change Since Jun 1 - The % change in price from June 1st.
Change Since MoP - The % change in price since MoP launched.
I chose June 1st as a baseline reference because it was one of the historical dates still archived on TUJ and it was near the beginning of summer.  Many of these pets saw an increase in price from the months leading up to MoP.  This most likely can be attributed to people stocking up on pets to flip as well as collector's filling out their pet rosters prior to the Battle Pet launch.  Normally this would have been a wise move, but as the data shows, stocking up early actually cost extra gold because almost every single pet is cheaper now.

Argent Tournament Pets

Average Price Across All US Servers

Pet	Jun 1	MoP	Now	Change Since Jun 1	Change Since MoP
Ammen Vale Lashling	4217	4787	3572	-15.3%	-25.4%
Dun Morogh Cub	4375	4398	3532	-19.3%	-19.7%
Durator Scorpion	5118	5115	3698	-27.8%	-27.8%
Elwynn Lamb	4185	4168	3128	-25.3%	-25.0%
Enchanted Broom	5239	4970	4305	-17.9%	-13.4%
Mechanopeep	4191	4448	3352	-20.1%	-24.7%
Mulgore Hatchling	4702	5020	3542	-24.7%	-29.5%
Sen'jin Fetish	4829	5616	3722	-23.0%	-33.8%
Teldrassil Sproutling	4124	4485	3993	-3.2%	-11.0%
Tirisfal Batling	4418	4915	3676	-16.8%	-25.2%

Average Price Across All EU WoW Servers

Pet	Jun 1	MoP	Now	Change Since Jun 1	Change Since MoP
Ammen Vale Lashling	5144	4942	3584	-30.3%	-27.5%
Dun Morogh Cub	5542	4637	3861	-30.4%	-16.7%
Durator Scorpian	6525	5379	4346	-33.4%	-19.3%
Elwynn Lamb	4893	4757	4033	-17.6%	-15.2%
Enchanted Broom	5639	5814	4697	-16.7%	-19.2%
Mechanopeep	5309	4496	3895	-26.6%	-13.4%
Mulgore Hatchling	5419	5049	4824	-11.0%	-4.5%
Sen'jin Fetish	5556	5559	4615	-17.0%	-17.0%
Teldrassil Sproutling	5012	4529	3665	-26.9%	-19.1%
Tirisfal Batling	5792	5503	4471	-22.8%	-18.8%

Dragon Whelpling Companion Pets

Average Price Across All US Servers

Pet	Jun 1	MoP	Now	Change Since Jun 1	Change Since MoP
Azure Whelpling	17823	24618	15193	-14.8%	-38.3%
Dark Whelpling	7206	7000	5427	-24.7%	-22.5%
Tiny Crimson Whelpling	23254	23046	14569	-37.3%	-36.8%
Tiny Emerald Dragonling	12752	13268	10848	-15.0%	-18.2%

Average Price Across All EU Servers

Pet	Jun 1	MoP	Now	Change Since Jun 1	Change Since MoP
Azure Whelpling	21258	24130	15228	-28.4%	-36.9%
Dark Whelpling	8425	6653	5003	-40.6%	-24.8%
Tiny Crimson Whelpling	24093	21231	13557	-43.7%	-36.1%
Tiny Emerald Dragonling	15046	13270	10474	-30.4%	-21.1%

3 Popular Pets

Average Price Across All US Servers

Pet	Jun 1	MoP	Now	Change Since Jun 1	Change Since MoP
Captured Firefly	10136	13023	9854	-2.8%	-24.3%
Disgusting Oozeling	10050	10742	8911	-11.3%	-17.0%
Guardian Cub	8717	8906	7523	-13.7%	-15.5%

Average Price Across All EU Servers

Pet	Jun 1	MoP	Now	Change Since Jun 1	Change Since MoP
Captured Firefly	17266	15591	10628	-38.4%	-31.8%
Disgusting Oozeling	13722	12694	11125	-19.0%	-12.4%
Guardian Cub	14269	14915	13994	-2.0%	-6.2%

Originally I thought the Dragon Whelpling Pets would have performed better since they are some of the best Battle Pets for pet battling, but they are seeing the same price drops as all of the other pets.

How screwed are you with these drops in prices?
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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 | Fluxx - My Fav Card Game

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

Kite Pets - Not Just WoW TCG Loot Anymore

WoW Kite Pets
Not Just From WoW TCG Loot Codes Anymore


Dragon Kite

The Dragon Kite and the Tuskarr Kite are just a sample of  the WoW companion pets obtained from loot codes from the WoW Trading Card Game.  Until the launch of Mists of Pandaria, these were the only 2 available Kite type companion pets in the World of Warcraft.  The Dragon Kite from the WoW loot code has always been quite popular and quite expensive as well.  The value and price of the Dragon Kite is sure to continue to climb as the WoW Patch 5.1 PTR Notes are listing that the Dragon Kite is going to become useable as a WoW Battle Pet after the new patch drops.  The Dragon Kite should become a rare battle pet, like all of the other WoW TCG companion pets that turn to rare battle pets.  So if you are lucky enough to find a Dragon Kite on your Black Market Auction House (BMAH), keep that in mind, as the value and re-sellability should vastly increase post Patch 5.1.



Tuskarr Kite

Enter The New Scribe Crafted Kites In MoP

In addition to the Tuskarr Kite and the Dragon Kite, we now have a new pair of Kite companion pets to add to our collection of companion pets.  Note, I didn't say battle pets, because neither of the new Kites are useable in Pet Battles.  The inability to be used in pet battles definately hurts their perceived value as they are only desired for their aesthetic value as non-combat battle pets.  Since the Dragon Kite is being added to the Battle Pet ranks, we can only hope the new MoP Inscription crafted Kites get similar treatment, which would greatly increase their value in the eyes of players.  Regardless, the new Kites do still sell.


Chi-ji Kite

Yu'lon Kite

Chi-ji Kite & Yu'lon Kite

The two new Scribe crafted Kite companion pets are the Chi-ji Kite and the Yu'lon Kite.  Both of these require just a single common parchament and 4 Ink of Dreams to craft.  They are made by Mists of Pandaria trained Scribes and require an Inscription level of 600 (max).  The recipe is learned from the Inscription trainer, so no special farming, grinding, or reputation is needed to start crafting these new MoP Kite pets. 

Keep an eye out for new patch notes, in case the Yu'lon and Chi-ji Kites are to become Battle Pets as well.  If they are so lucky, then you may be able to snatch up a few for cheap to flip for a higher price once they become battle pets as well.

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

Gifts For Gamers - Gamer Movies - Cold's Top 15 DVD List

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

Movies For Gamers

Cold's Must See Old School Gamer DVD List

I've been a gamer for almost my entire life, with my early childhood roots deep within the fantasy, anime, and science fiction genres.  This week on Gifts for Gamers, I've compiled a list of the Top 15 movies and animated motion pictures from my childhood.  These are all excellent movies for any gaming fan and many of them can be enjoyed by children as well as gaming adults.  Many of these are hard to find rarities or are movies that you may never even have been exposed to, especially if you aren't as old as I am.  Trust me, this is an amazing collection of gamer type fantasy, science fiction, and animation movies that you are bound to enjoy just as much as I always have and still do.  So be sure to check these titles out, whether you purchase or just rent, these are great films.

Cold's Top 15 Old School Gamer Friendly DVDs
(In No Particular Order)

Record Of Lodoss War

1. Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Animated Series - The Official Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon was a must see every Saturday!
2. Record of Lotus War: The Complete Series, Vols 1- 13. - The Best DnD based fantasy anime cartoon series ever.  Super Rare and Hard to Find, but Worth It!

3. The Dark Crystal - Created by Jim Henson (of Muppets fame) combining puppetry, animatronics, and amazing storytelling to create the coolest movie I ever saw as a child. 
4. Ghost In The Shell - An amazing blend of drawn animation and computer-generated imagery made this science fiction mystery a huge hit.
5. Vampire Hunter D - Another super rare animatEd classic features a main character whom is half-human, half-vampire and hunts his own kind, while battling his own internal evils.  For mature audiences due to the undercurrent of sexuality and sadism.
6. Ninja Scroll - Simply the best Ninja based Japanese Anime ever that combines supernatural fantasy with a samurai action adventure.
7. The Beastmaster - Similar to Conan (some would call this a rip-off), but the Beastmaster is ranger instead of a Barbarian.  The Beastmaster enlist the help of animals to avenge the destruction of his village and death of his father.  This is also the movie that Diablo 3's Ferrets are based off of.
8. Legend - Early fantasy at it's best.  Still a great movie after all these years and who would though that about a Tom Cruise film!
9. Labyrinth - Jim Henson & George Lucas join forces and have David Bowie as the main villian living in an M.C. Escher inspired castle. WoW!
10. Time Bandits - A band of time traveling midgets in true Monty Python-esque style storytelling by Terry Gilliam.  One of the best early 80s movies that you've never seen before!
11. Krull - A Sci-Fi / Fantasy Hybrid with crazy visuals, costumes, and sets.  Another must watch every time it was on TV type of film.

12. Watership Down - The animated tale of the book by the same name.  Follow the band of rabbits as they illegally leave their warren after a prophecy of doom, in search for a place safe from humans and predators.  Warning: This is NOT a cutesy rabbit cartoon made for children. It is violent, brutal, and gorey.  Characters die, get eaten alive, are torn to pieces by dogs, etc.  Do not show this to children unless you want to give them nightmares about the Black Rabbit of Inle!  This one is a tear-jerker too, so you have been warned.
13. Conan: The Complete Quest - Includes both Conan The Barbarian and Conan The Destroyer.
14. Flash Gordon: Saviour of the Universe - Based on a 1930s comic strip with Music by Queen, this film features Flash and Dale Arden racing through space to battle Ming the Merciless, to save the Earth from total destruction.
15. The Adventures Of Sinbad - Seasons One and Two detailing the adventures of the hero from 1001 Arabian Nights.

I hope you found a few movies or animations on this list that have peeked your interest.  Are there any other great 80s-90s gamer friendly movies that I've missed?

A few Honorable Mentions are: The Princess Bride, Tron, Voltron, Transformers the Movie, Clash of the Titans (Original), Willow, & The Hobbit (Original Animated).

Farming Ghost Iron Ore - Greenstone Quarry

Farming Ghost Iron Ore In MoP

 

Where Is The Best Place To Farm Ghost Iron Ore?




 

In my opinion, the absolute best place to farm for Ghost Iron Ore is within the Greenstone Quarry.  The Greenstone Quarry is located within the Mists of Pandaria zone, The Jade Forest.  It is a small cave to the Southeast of Tian Monastery and North of Dawn's Blossom.  If you check the Jade Forest zone map and you drew a line from Tian Monastery straight to Dawn's Blossom, the line would pass through the entrance to the Greenstone Quarry.  It is also easily identified on the zone map because there is a cave entrance icon showing the location. 

The Greenstone Quarry in the Jade Forest is also the very first place I would take any mining character looking to level their Mining skill.  There are plenty of reasons to take your Miner straight to the Greenstone Quarry.

Dual Rich Ghost Iron Ore Veins In Greenstone Quarry


1. Mining Trainer - Just outside the entrance to the Greenstone Quarry is a Mining Trainer.  You can train up the ability to smelt the Ghost Iron Ore that you will be farming, as well as learn the new smelting abilities of the higher level ores.  Unfortunately there is not a Forge located near the entrance, so it is a good idea to bring along a stack of Thermal Anvils, the new summonable anvil that is crafted by Engineers.  The Anvils will help to decrease your down time as you won't have to travel back to town just to smelt ores to make room in your bags, which means more time for farming ghost iron ores and leveling your Mining skill.

2. Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick - The Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick is one of the nice items that are part of the new Lost and Found system added into WoW during Mists of Pandaria.  The Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick is a rare spawning item that appears within the Greenstone Quarry and once obtained, it will give a chance for your Miner to find MoP raw gems within the ore veins of Mists of Pandaria.  So while running around the Greenstone Quarry farming, you should always be looking for the pick to have spawned.  More specifically look for the Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick within the little square room in the SW corner of the Gueenstone Quarry on the lower level.
3. Tons of Ghost Iron & Rich Ghost Iron Ore Veins - There are an absolute ton of spawn spots for Ghost Iron Ore farming inside the Greenstone Quarry and even more if you have the Mist-Piercing Goggles that I talked about in the post on Spirit of Harmony Crafting Equivalents.  These Goggles increase the number of raw material nodes that you can see in Pandaria zones.  There are so many Ghost Iron Ore veins within the Quarry itself, that I never see less than 2 on the mini-map (whiling farming with other miners as well), but normally see 6-8 Ghost Iron or Rich Ghost Iron Ore nodes up at once.  You can even go back out the entrance to the Greenstone Quarry and the surrounding hillside has a large number of nodes that can be seen directly upon exiting the Quarry.  Let me repeat; there are a ton of Ore veins for farming in here.




Greenstone Quarry Corpses Are Mineable


4. Mineable Corpses For Even More Ghost Iron Ore Farming - If having a ton of quick respawning Ghost Iron Ore veins wasn't enough, there are also creatures within the Greenstone Quarry that leave behind corpses that can be mined for even more Ores!  The Deepstone Gorger corpses can be mined for a chance at more Ghost Iron Ore.  I've even, on the vary rare occasion, been able to find Trillium Ores on these Greenstone Gorger corpses as well.  These mobs die easily and since there are a few quests that are completed within the cave, there are often times when there are corpses just waiting for you to mine thing, which increases your own Ghost Iron Ore farming speed.  On a rare occasion these guys will award you some vendor trash that sells for over 7 gold each, which is a nice bonus, since we are mining the corpses for their ores anyway.

So the combination of having a ton of fast spawning Ghost Iron Ore nodes to farm, Minable corpses that are often left for you to mine, a nearby mining trainer, and a chance at the super Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick make this place hard to beat for Ghost Iron Ore farming. 

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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

November Gold Blogging Carnival Topic

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - November 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 October Blogging Carnival on MoP Launch Strategies & Results. 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 2 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.

  

November 2012 Gold Blogging Carnival Topic

The World of Warcraft developers have been starting to hint at a possibility that may soon become a reality.  The notion of combining auction houses across servers (probably within your current Battlegroup) has become a very hot topic, with players weighing in on both sides of the debate.  I've already written about the possibility of Cross Realm Auction Houses in WoW, but now it's your turn. 

Cross Realm Auction Houses?  What's Your Opinion?
Is the CRAH a good or bad idea? What would you predict would happen to the auction economy?  Does the notion excite or horrify you?  Would a CRAH we good or bad for WoW?

 

I'm dying to hear everyone else opinion on the issue.  Remember, if you aren't a blogger, you can still participate, just send me a post on the same topic and I'll post it for you.

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Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

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 | Zygor Guides

Spirit of Harmony Equivalent Crafting Values

Spirit of Harmony & Gauging Value

The Spirit of Harmony and Motes of Harmony are new additions with the Mists of Pandaria expansion.  The Spirit of Harmony creation process requires 10 Motes of Harmony to be turned into a single Spirit of Harmony.  These motes are available as potential drops from any of the mobs within the Mists of Pandaria content.  Early experiences have been pointing towards a better Mote of Harmony drop rate among the higher level mobs, but they still do drop off of the lower level mobs, as long as you are killing creatures from the MoP expansion. 

The completed Spirits of Harmony are used in a myriad of recipes across many of the WoW crafting professions.  Since they are acquired while killing mobs in Pandaria, their perceived value is often misaligned from their true value.  The requirement of farming them yourself on the character who needs them (since they are BoP) has lead to many players buying into the old fallacy of "I farmed it, so it's free".  Which in turn often leads to improper pricing of crafted items that require Spirits of Harmony as part of the recipe materials requirement. 

Let's look at an example. 

Kobolds Have Poor Math Skills

Mist-Piercing Goggles - These are the kickass Goggles that Alto has already mentioned in a post earlier in the week.  The are a must for any Miner or Herbalist because they add around 10% more herb and ore nodes to your mini-map, when in Pandaria zones.  These are nodes that other players without the Goggles can't even see!  So they are truly a must for any Herbalist or Miner and they only need to be in your bags because you don't even have to equip them for the benefit.

These great Mist-Piercing Goggles are crafted with the Engineering profession and only require 8 Ghost Iron Bolts and 2 Spirit of Harmony.  Yet, I constantly see players selling them for far below what they should be selling them for.  The Kobold movement is alive and well on many servers and this Goggles market is no exception.  And we all know Kobolds are horrible at basic math skills.

Using just a few market prices as examples, I've seen many auction house market snapshots that look like this:

Mist-Piercing Googles listed for 800 gold.
Golden Lotus selling for 250 gold.

Without even knowing the prices of Ghost Iron Ore or Ghost Iron Bars, I am 100% positive that the person selling the Goggles for 800 gold is a dumbass.  How so?  Because the wise goblin understands the Spirit of Harmony Equivalent Crafting Values, where a lowly Kobold obviously does not.  Kobolds are bad at math, remember?

1. 1 Spirit of Harmony can be traded to a vendor for 3 Golden Lotus, which can each be sold.
2. Mist Piercing Goggles require 2 Spirits of Harmony in the recipe.
3. Therefore, if you are using 2 Spirits of Harmony in a crafted item, that item needs to be selling for more than the price of what 6 Golden Lotus would sell for or YOU ARE COSTING YOURSELF PROFITS.

So in the above example, if the Kobold would have just cashed in the two Spirits of Harmony for 6 Golden Lotus, they would have (6 x 250) 1500 gold worth of Golden Lotuses to sell, instead of adding Ghost Iron Bars to sell a crafted item for only 800 gold!  Think smart like a Goblin, not silly like a Kobold who farms for free.


Proper Mist -Piercing Goggles Pricing

Spirit of Harmony Equivalent Crafting Values

The Golden Lotus is just one of the options for purchasing crafting items with a Spirit of Harmony.  Here is a master list of Equivalent Values of Spirit of Harmony for those who are better at math than the Kobolds.

One Spirit of Harmony Will Buy:

• 5 Black Trillium Ore
• 1 Ethereal Shard
• 20 Exotic Leather
• 20 Ghost Iron Ore
• 3 Golden Lotus
• 20 Kyparite
• 5 Mysterious Essence
• 20 Prismatic Scale
• 1 Serpent's Eye
• 20 Spirit Dust
• 1 Starlight Ink
• 5 White Trillium Ore
• 20 Windwool Cloth

While these aren't always the best ways to purchase materials for crafting, one must still be aware of the Spirit of Harmony possible vendor trade equivalents because they should be setting a floor price for the value of your SoHs in a crafted recipe.  If you can't craft with a value equivalent or better to what you can trade the SoH for, then maybe you should just trade it to the vendor and sell the raw materials for a better profit than wasting the SoHs in crafting recipes. 

And please, please, please don't think like this Kobold, I found on Wowhead with his fail strat for underselling Ghost Iron Dragonlings & Tinker's Gear.

Kobold Fallacies

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