How I'm Preparing For Cataclysm

Out of Game Excitement
So I have been spending like crazy on Amazon with all of the crazy Black Friday week and Cyber Monday and Tuesday deals.  I'm approaching spending around $1K this week at Amazon.  Got my new headphones, which I am loving.  Ordered a few books for me and the wifey, but I can't wait for the ProBlogger Book to arrive, as I've finished Blogging All-in-One For Dummies, which was 6 great books in one.  I got a Wii bundle for my wifey to play on, which came with a $50 credit towards a game, since we bought it together with a Wii Fit.  I found a Wii DJ Hero 2 Party Bundle for $99.99 minus the $50 credit, so I got the game, 2 turntables, and a microphone for $50 - no tax, no shipping.   I love Amazon!  And thanks to my Cataclysm Pre-order through Amazon, I'll be getting a $10 credit towards another game soon.

In Game Excitement
"Ok Cold,  enough about all of the cool stuff you are getting from Amazon.  What are you doing in World of Warcraft?"  Not a whole lot.  I'm doing the same thing every one of you should be doing.  Getting ready for Cataclysm.  I procrastinated on the last couple of Patches and got caught without enough glyphs pre-made to fully take advantage of the glyph-mas bonanza.  So these are the main things I am doing in this final week to get preapared for the Cataclysm in World of Warcraft.

1. Buying out cheap items.
2. Crafting as many items as I can to be able to post properly.
3. Crafting tons of glyphs also.
4. Cleaning old junk out of banks.
5. Clearing out excessive mail and organizing my 6 guild banks.
6. Leveling up any crafters that aren't to 80 yet.
7. Raising reputations on crafters that are missing some reputation required recipes.

What else are you doing to get ready for the World of Warcraft Cataclysm release that is a week away?

Cataclysm Profession Strategy : Common Commodity Crafting



"Thanksgiving is over.  It's time to work on our Cataclysm strategy."

Cataclysm Professions Race

The World of Warcraft Gold Blogging Community is all buzzing about what professions to level first. Gathering is going to very popular once Cataclysm releases as many players will be willing to spend hundreds of gold on resources on their quest to the world or server first achievements. Dual gathering is also feasable with the new ability to track herbs and ores together without the macro requirement. Some players are wanting to reach the highest level recipes before others as an attempt to monopolize specific high end profession craftables. Others are just racing for the server first requirement without much thought into whether its is profitable to do so.

Cold's Cataclysm Common Commodity Crafting Strategy

Cold's Gold Factory will not be pushing for any server first attempts. Why not? In my opinion it is a major waste of gold, another gold sink that costs extra gold just to light up an achievement box. I will be following the same strategy I have used on all my characters and my profession leveling strategy in Cataclysm will be no different. Power leveling is a very wasteful approach when in comes to leveling the World of Warcraft crafting professions. The Common Commodity Crafting Strategy focuses on looking for "sweet spots" in your crafting recipes list.

Profession Sweet Spots
These "sweet spots" are items that you know are going to sell on the auction house. These "sweet spots" or "common commodities" can appear anywhere within your recipe lists. Every profession has these "sweet spots" of common commodities that you will probably be mass producing eventually. Why not use Cold's Common Commodity Crafting Strategy to grind those sweet spots for profession skill gains while you can get skill-ups? I grind these "sweet spot" common commodities until the recipe is grey, thus milking every skill point out of them. A lot of poorly planned characters just follow a power leveling guide to get to max skill, then look for ways to make gold from the profession. They may turn around and mass produce these common commodities for profits after blowing through a bare minimum the first time while power levelling through. This power leveling approach is very wasteful, poorly thought out, and a major expense. Cold's Common Commodity Strategy is much more profitable and more of a timed careful efficient approach to leveling professions. Cataclysm will be no different. There will be a fast and expensive way to level your professions and there will be a slower more efficient and more profitable approach: Cold's Cataclysm Common Commodity Crafting.

 

Common Commodities
What exactly are these common commodities? The common commodities or "sweet spots" are any item in your recipe lists that you know will continue to be in demand over the course of the expansion regardless of where they are located in the crafting list. Sometimes these common commodities are available long before the maximum skill level of the profession. Using the Common Commodities Crafting Strategy, I craft these typs of items until they become grey and are no longer offering profession skill-ups. Can you think of some of these common commodities that you probably have already crafted time and time again? Some excellent examples from craftable items are:

1. Any BoE craftable pet
2. Belt buckles, shield spikes, weapon chains
3. Enchanting rods
4. Meta gem transmutes
5. Bags
6. Leg armors
7. Transmuted bars
8. Specialty cloth

Can you think of any other examples of craftables that would be common commodities?

 

Image Credit: http://ewpopwatch.files.wordpress.com

Potion of Treasure Finding and Tiny Treasure Chest

Potion of Treasure Finding
In Cataclysm, Alchemists will be able to craft a rather interesting new potion.  The Potion of Treasure Finding allows the imbimber to sometimes find extra treasure from monsters in the new Cataclysm zones of Mount Hyjal, Vash'jir, Deepholm, Twilight Highlands and Uldum.  This effect lasts a full hour, persists through death (like flasks), and is not limited to the alchemy profession.  Any level 80+ character can use this potion of treasure finding.  The extra treasures come in the way of allowing mobs to drop a Tiny Treasure Chest.

Tiny Treasure Chests
The Tiny Treasure Chests on average were dropping 3-5 Gold, had a 75% chance to contain 8-15 Embersilk Cloth, and a 15% chance to contain a single volatile element.  Extra Embersilk Cloth and volatile elements will be an excellent find for anyone out grinding mobs or killing for quests.

Will Potion Of Treasure Finding Be Profitable?
In the first weeks, all items are going to be ridiculously priced to craft just because of the horribly inflated prices we will see on the auction house.  Once the market settles down and prices on herbs are reasonable, then we can look at more accurate data as far as the return on investment in using these potions of treasure finding while grinding or farming.  I would expect these to be much more valuable to any of the heavy dps classes that can ramp up their kills per hour ratio.  The potion of treasure finding lasts for a full hour so the more mobs you can kill within that hour, the more chances you have of finding a tiny treasure chest, thus increasing the potential of this potion.  If I was grinding specific mobs for a certian drop, I would definately try one of these potions out.


Requirements To Craft:

■Cinderbloom x 8
■Stormvine x 4
■Heartblossom x 8
■Whiptail x 4
■Crystal Vial x 1

Anyone else have thoughts on the Potion of Treasure Finding and its uses?

Image Credit: http://duplexchick.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/116/files/2008/07/hidden-treasure.jpg

What To Snatch With Cataclysm New Player Influx

Cataclysm New Players Incoming
With Cataclysm approaching we already have been seeing the increased population of lower level players.  Many of these players are experimenting with the new race and class combos now possible after The Shattering Patch 4.0.3a.  Watching the auction house may prove very profitable for older Vanilla craftables.  There are a lot of new players and new characters questing through the new content.  Not all of these players know the true value of some of the premium items required for some key vanilla crafting recipes. 

Many of these components drop in the lower level zones, which increases availabilty of these items on the auction house.  Many times these are horribly underpriced.  Example:  I just bought 2 Spider's Silk for 39 silver total.  You can snatch these premium materials up at very low prices as these are often listed incorrectly.  The end products that many of these lead to are also craftables that should be selling very well to new players and new characters alike.  The population is about to explode once Cataclysm launches.  I expect to see even greater steals to snatch off the auction house as the new players post incorrectly priced goods.

Auction House Keen Vision
These are some of the vanilla commodity items to watch for.  Cold's Gold Factory is already seeing an influx of cheaply priced goods on the auction house in World of Warcraft.  Look out for these.

1. Spider's Silk - Tailors can profit from Spider Silk Boots and Spidersilk Drape, while leatherworkers can craft Toughened Leather Gloves.
2. Arcane Crystal - The rush of miners has led to a surplus of arcane crystals.  Using the Transmute: Arcanite is very profitable selling Arcanite Bars and a Transmutation Master gets extra bars created.  These Arcanite Bars can be sold individually or turned into Arcanite Rods for all the soon to leveling enchanters. 
3. Large Fang & Small Lustrious Pearl - Barbaric Bracers are an excellent item to add to your aresenal.  I sell these for 125g each and buyout fangs and pearls under 1g.  The profit margin is excellent and these are a trusted seller.
4. Perfect Deviate Scales & Deviate Scales - Both are required for the very popular Deviate Scale Belt.

So make sure to keep an eye out for these materials.  Even if you aren't into crafting the items you can buy these out while you find them cheap and relist them for their normal market value to the crafters.
Image Credit:  http://rlv.zcache.com/

Cataclysm Gathering : Want An Advantage?

(Promotional Review : Affiliate Links Enclosed)

Ready...Set...Farm!
Maybe you are trying for world first at a gathering skill.  Maybe you just want to farm for the first week to make an absolute killing selling herbs and ores on the auction house to all of the power levelers looking for server first in their profession.  We all know that Cataclysm ores and Cataclysm Herbs will be selling for lucrative prices during the first weeks.  I myself had already planned to do nothing but farm and post for at least the first week.  There never is a better time to make gold from farming than during the first weeks of a new expansion.

Are you ready for the Cataclysm Gold Rush?
Farming isually the lowest gold/per hour method of all the ways to make gold in WoW.  Once every few years, things get a little interesting. When Wrath of the Lich King went live, the Cobalt was selling for 200g/stack. Saronite for 300-400g, Titanium for 1k+, and all the herbs for 100-500g/stack.

This time around, due to the inflation of Gold in WoW, expect to see 500g/stack and up for even the lowest ores and herbs. That’s 5k/hour, even if you only get get 10 stacks. And if you were one of the first people to sell the new items, well... You would really have it made!

What if you had complete Farming Maps for all the Cataclysm Zones on launch day? You would definitely be one of the first and main sellers right?

Make A Game Plan
Anyone serious about trying for any server first or raking in the gold from farming needs to have a game plan.  You will not succeed without prior knowledge and a pre-planned route or strategy.  One of the problems I was going to have was understanding the new high level zones.  I wasn't lucky enough to get into beta, so I have seen next to nothing from within the new zones.  This would put me at a great disadvantage as players with Beta experience would be able to complete quests and create farming routes and strategies much better than I could.  That was until I was contacted by Ryan from Cataclysm Mastery.  He offered me a sneak peak into his new blog / membership site that is specifically focused on all the knowledge and secrets I had been missing out on from Beta.

Cataclysm Mastery System
After reviewing the site, I was compelled to share this opportunity with my readers at Cold's Gold Factory.  I am going to be using his system as it gave me exactly what I was looking for - Pre-mapped routes for farming the new zones.  His site also goes over tons of helpful information.  Just some of the great topics:

1. Detailed Cataclysm Herbalism and Mining Farming Maps with In-Game add-on Data and Advanced Filtering.
2. Quick-Start Cataclysm Game Plan for Super-Fast Leveling and Gold Creation.
3. The Masters Selling Secret to instantly increase your Auction House profits potential.
4. Fully Complete Cataclysm Profession Guides for On-going Gold Making.
5. The Guide to Understanding the AH.

The Detailed Cataclysm Herbalism and Mining Farming Maps is worth it to me.  This just helps me not only catch up to the players with Beta experience, but allows me to already have a way to jump ahead of them in the race.  So if you are like me and missed out on Beta you definately need to check out The Cataclysm Mastery System.


Thanks Ryan for allowing me to review and use your product.  Keep up the good work!

Garrosh Hellscream: Guest Post by Warcraft Journal Magazine

This article was brought to you by The Warcraft Journal Magazine

Garrosh Hellscream

The New Warchief 
Aliases: Warchief, Overlord of the Warsong Offensive, Son of Hellscream
Race: Orc
Position: Warchief
Location: Grommash Hold, Orgrimmar (Cataclysm)
Status: ALIVE
The name of Garrosh Hellscream is becoming more and more known to players these days. Information about Cataclysm has been released left and right, with the name of Garrosh coming up more than once. Additionally, Garrosh has existed within the game since at least the Burning Crusade.
Garrosh has quite a name to live up to with his father, Grom Hellscream, being such an important figure among the Horde already. Grom went through a great turmoil at his end, but ultimately redeemed himself. Garrosh has already begun to make a name for himself, but whether it be for the good or otherwise is still to be seen..


Much of Garrosh Hellscream's history is unknown. In the midst of Ner'zhul opening the Dark Portal many years ago, he and his people were sick with a disease known as the red pox. The Mag'har, brown orcs which escaped the Burning Legion's corruption, were wrought with sickness that left them weak and dying. They were belittled and looked down upon even by Kargath Bladefist, a warrior with theShadow Council at the time. He was at Garadar, the home of the sick Mag'har, seeking warriors. Garrosh urged the orc to allow him to fight alongside him and his father, but Kargath refused.

Later on, Garrosh would become an important figure amongst the Mag'har, but his demeanor was one of depression and fear. The orc carried a large weight on his shoulders and it had been bearing down on him for years. Greatmother Geyah, the matriarch of the Mag'har, had grown ill. That alone gave worry to the young Garrosh. Fearing that he would fail his people should he become leader made it that much worse.

Garrosh Hellscream knew of his father's unforgiveable actions, yet had not been made aware that Grom was the savior of the Horde and that he had redeemed himself. This led the son to believe he was fated to follow in his father's footsteps and doom himself and his race.

It isn't until later that he realizes, with the help of the great warchief, Thrall, what Grom had sacrificed in order to free the orcs from the Burning Legion. His redemption meant his death, which he gladly gave up for his people.
Now filled with honor and pride, Garrosh would be ready to lead his people if it came to that. However, Thrall had other plans for the young Mag'har. The warchief brought the son of Grom to Azeroth to be his personal advisor.
Garrosh proved to be quite the advocate for destroying the Alliance at every turn. Thrall and his other advisors, however, were always against such hasty actions. The son would always have a hatred for the other faction and see them as enemies. Thrall believed he could change the orc's mind by bringing him to a meeting with the Alliance king, Varian Wrynn. While the discussions went as well as could be expected with Garrosh in the room, the events immediately following it made the peace between the two factions extremely tense.

After the meeting was concluded, the Twilight's Hammer attacked Theramore, the site of the discussions. Varian Wrynn spotted the half-orc Garona, who had assassinated his father, Llane Wrynn, years ago. The king took this as an attempt on his life while Garrosh was sure that the Alliance themselves had planned this. Both Varian and the orc suspected each other of betrayal, but the group eventually separated peacefully. The son of Grom was frustrated at the outcome of the meeting especially since he felt their honor was wounded by Wrynn.

Garrosh Hellscream continued to be the advisor to the warchief with the hatred of the Alliance burning deep within himself. His rage exploded when a disagreement occured between himself and Thrall. The warchief felt that they needed to speak with Jaina and other members of the Alliance to discuss what they should do about the Scourge forces. Furious, the hotheaded orc challenged Thrall to a duel. Honor forbade the warchief to ignore his request, so the two fought in the Ring of Valor. Garrosh proved to be the more powerful in battle, but before their duel could be finished, Orgrimmar fell under siege. Endless minions of the Scourge, including frostwyrms and abominations, invaded the Horde city.

The warchief and the son of Grom lead the Horde army, including Saurfang and Sylvanas, to victory against the Scourge attack. Garrosh urges Thrall to allow him to lead their forces into Northrend to deal with the Lich King and his undead army. The head orc agrees and Garrosh Hellscream makes his way to the arctic north.
In Northrend, Garrosh is the leader of the Warsong Offensive, stationed in the Borean Tundra and other areas of Northrend. His hotheadedness remains as does his complete abhorrence of the Alliance which is evident in his actions. His primary advisor, High Overlord Varok Saurfang, warns against the young leader's brutal ways in fear that the mistakes of the past will rise up once again. The great warrior promises to end his reign should he continue to advance against the Alliance. Garrosh, obviously intimidated by the older orc, does not challenge his threat.

Garrosh continues to be at odds with the Alliance and their leaders and only slightly sates his lust for their blood with the Argent Tournament. His later activities include being present within the Icecrown Citadel to combat both the Lich King and the opposing faction.

The Warchief

In Cataclysm, Garrosh Hellscream has been appointed to Warchief by Thrall himself. Why the diplomatic shaman would choose such a bloodthirsty and vengeful warmonger is still unknown and it raises questions from all members of Azeroth. Citizens of the Horde can expect many battles with the Alliance with Garrosh as warchief. Even in his infant days as the leader of the Horde, the son of Grom has several situations which he must deal with. The destruction of the world is but one of these issues.
The rise of Garrosh is openly opposed by several of the Horde allies including both the Forsaken and the trolls. Vol'jin shows his hatred in a heated exchange between the warchief and the troll leader. Sylvanas Windrunner conveys her dislike of the orc not only because he put a strict watch on the woman and her people.


The future of the Horde is in Garrosh's hands. Some believe with his bloodthirsty actions he may follow in the path of his father and doom himself and the Horde. Others rally at his feet and believe he is what they have needed for a long time. Only time will tell which one may be right..

Alex
The Warcraft Journal Magazine
Check out Wacraft Journal's Free Trial

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Great article submitted by Alex.  This was a special post for my dedicated readers on this Thanksgiving holiday.  I truly appreciate each and every one of you and highly value your input, questions, and comments.  Thanks for helping to make this blog a success.  May be all grow together in the upcoming Cataclysm.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cold

Go Learn Glyph of Mage Armor - Portals Gone

Glyph of Mage Armor Returns
Scribes, Inscription masters, can now rejoice.  The missing Glyph of Mage Armor can be crafted again.  Previously this was bugged after Patch 4.0.1.  You can go to the inscription trainer and re-learn the ability to create the glyph.  When you learn it, run straight to the auction house and post a ton of them.  Hopefully not many people have caught on before you.  Many mages will be buying this glyph to complete their set since it can now be crafted, thus forcing the prices to come way down.  If you are on the Alliance side since many players will be re-rolling an alt Night Elf Mage.  The Tauren Paladins and Troll Druids are in now too.  Doesn't hurt to post up some extra glyphs for all the new classes now allowed in The Shattering Patch 4.0.3a. 

Portals For Sale
Mages are making a killing these days with the portals being removed from Dalaran and Shattrath.  The bountiful tables also offer another great spot to bark your services, if you are a mage looking for work.  On the other side, if you are using a portal, make sure you are at least tipping.  Show some respect to your mages. 

Cataclysm: The Shattering: Guest Post by Sykez of JustAnotherGoblin.com

The Shattering 4.0.3a - Live this week
With the Shattering hitting live servers today for US and on Wednesday for the EU you’re going to need a plan. Not an escape plan or a how to not die in molten lava plan, a gold making plan. Strategy and preparation going into new occurrences in World of Warcraft will always put you at an edge over your competitors and today I’m going to talk to you about what I feel will be the best strategies for when the Shattering goes live.

Cue the Return of the Quitters
People have been returning at a steady rate after they ‘quit’ when Wrath of the Lich King entered its slump in entertainment, however with this patch comes most of the major changes that Cataclysm will make. I’m going to present a list of the important ones to you and show you what I feel will be the best way to make gold from them.

Re-rollers, Returners and Alts - I want to cast your mind back to 4.01 within the chaos of people wanting new gems, glyphs and enchants for the characters they may not have played since pre 4.01. Also in my opinion any BoE’s that you have, I recommend that you sell as people will be returning to their alts so they’re ready for Cataclysm as well as re-rollers on things such as Tauren Paladins and Priests, which I’m sure some people will be excited about and level them straight away.  Levelers need BoE’s and Heirloom enchants :)

All your Portals, they belong to the Mages again!
Portals Removed in Dalaran and Shattrath - This doesn’t seem like that big of a deal but it is. There are actually quite a few ways that you can make gold from this, either by sitting on a Mage in Dalaran and using a macro saying “Portals *name your price* - Unless you’d rather go to Borean Tundra”. There’s also the rather noticeable fact that without a portal hub and very little raiding occurring, there will be a lot less people in Northrend. Exploit this by farming something that you feel will sell well in Cataclysm (Saronite /Titanium for example) or even go enjoy the peace and quiet whilst you pick up Argent Tournament pets. Remember that with less people in Northrend the prices of the pets are bound to inflate, add arbitrage to that and these pets are a good time investment.

Profession Panic
With the expansion being so close expect to see two things, people panic selling and people panic buying. People who want the first few skill ups on their professions will be buying out items that will grab them those first few levels before the materials required becomes a lot more expensive. Be sure to capitalize upon this or be ready to when Cataclysm drops, make sure not to sell all your stock as the prices may rise exponentially in Cataclysm to meet the demand.

However, on the other side of the coin, be ready to buy as well as sell. People are bound to panic and be unprepared and sell the stock that they have acquired at potentially low prices. If this happens in a market you feel will be good for Cataclysm, do not list your items. Just take advantage of people’s idiocy and improve your stock.

The Final Countdown
The Monday before Cataclysm maintenance will be a good time to list certain items that will potentially sell the second that servers come up. This way you’re getting the edge over your less clever competitors as whilst your inventory is listed the second the expansion hits, they may be still preparing there’s for the first few hours after it goes live. A few examples of these are -

1. Saronite Bars - Alchemists will be wanting to grab quick cheap levels from Transmuting these. As well as Blacksmiths and Engineers.
2. Saronite Ore - Same goes, except slightly more diverse as people will look to buy this and smelt it before using it, expect this to move at a similar volume to bars.
3. Frostweave cloth - This one is odd, I was thinking about it and it should inflate due to Tailors wanting levels from it, maybe even First Aid of people wanting to get 450 or the first few levels into Cataclysm.
4. Borean Leather - Same as the points above, Leatherworkers will want to get some quick levels from this and it’s heavy counterpart.

These are just a few examples, be creative and think about what might sell in volume on patch day and release day and use it to your advantage.

This post was brought to you by Sykez from JustAnotherGoblin.com and I’d like to thank Cold for allowing me to post here at Cold's Gold Factory.

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Sykez has been on hiatus to Starcraft 2 lately, but has returned this week and is back into blogging about World of Warcraft and gold making strategies.  Head on over to his site and check it out.  Welcome back , Sykez!    - Cold

Image taken from http://phoniamaguk.files.wordpress.com

Selling Yourself And Other Pilgrim's Bounty Money Makers

Pilgrim's Bounty
The World of Warcraft in-game holiday event Pilgrim's Bounty is finally here.  While this isn't the most profitable holiday, with a little creativity you can squeeze some nice chunks of gold out of the right people.  Have you thought of selling yourself off? 

Rogue For Hire
The Pigrim's Bounty achievement Turkey Lurkey can be a real headache for players.  You have to find and shoot 8 rogues of various races with your Turkey Shooter.  These Turkey Shooters are a reward option from the daily quests.  The problem with the achievement is that some of the required races are not commonly created as rogue characters.  If you have a rogue then you can advertise that you will log in for a tip or a set price fee, which could allow someone the chance to complete their achievement.  Just like we sold wand zaps during Hallow's End, we can sell ourselves off this time to be shot and feathered into a turkey.  The 2 rarest forms of rogues are the Dwarf Rogues and Orc Rogues, followed by Undead Rogue.  If you have one of these you can probably find someone in trade chat who is offering to pay you to log in.  Take advantage of the easy gold.  I have charged up to 100g before to log in for someone.  You can also create a rogue for the same purpose as there isn't a level requirement for the character being shot.

Other Ideas For Pilgrim's Bounty
Here are a couple other ideas for making gold during Pilgrim's Bounty as we wait for the Cataclysm to arrive.

1. Tracker Snacks for Turkinators
2. Cooking Skills and Sales
3. Small Eggs, Turkeys, & Holiday Sales

Remember that Amazon's Black Friday Deal Week starts today!

WoW Cataclysm Expansion $10 Bonus

Another Reason To Pre-Order


Amazon is now giving 100 Pre-Order Bonus Points for all World of Warcraft Cataclysm Expansion Pre-Orders.  Just $0.99 Shipping for Release Date Delivery.  The 100 Pre-Order Bonus Points are equivalent to an extra $10 Video Game Credit for later use.  


You can't get a better deal than Release Date Delivery Plus $10 Store Credit.


$39.99 for Game
$0.99 for Release Date Delivery on Dec 7th!


Bonus = $10 Store Credit for Use on Video / Computer Games


Win-Win-Win!  That's Better Than A Double Rainbow!




Note:  If you already pre-ordered you will get the $10 credit as well.

Tracker Snacks for Turkinator Achievement

Run Tom Turkey, Run!

Hunting Turkeys
So you wanna be a Turkinator?  The achievement Turkinator is not fun to try to complete.  You simply can't take the time to loot your turkeys or you won't get turkey triumph.  It is also hard to see the turkeys since they are so small and blend with the ground.  Tracker Snacks are an excellent item to use to track the turkeys on your mini-map and greatly increase your chances of gaining turkey triumph and completing the achievement.  Tracker Snacks are also an excellent item to create and sell on the World of Warcraft auction house.

Tracker Snacks
To be able to cook these tracker snacks, you must have a skill level of 400 in Cooking.  You can purchase this recipe from your cooking supplier in Dalaran or from the cooking supplier at the Argent Tournament grounds in Icecrown.  The cost to purchase the Recipe: Tracker Snacks is 3 Dalaran Cooking Award tokens from completing Dalaran cooking daily quests.  These Snacks require just 1 Shoveltusk Flank and 1 Northern Spices.  The shoveltusk flanks are very easy to farm in Howling Fjord where the shoveltusks roam in packs.  So gather up some shoveltusk flanks and dust off those extra northern spices sitting in your bank and covert them into some excellent cooked goods to sell during Pilgrim's Bounty.  As with any holiday demand spiked item, these will sell best the first few days of the Pilgrim's Bounty event.  Make sure to advertise these in trade chat also as some people may need reminded that these are a great help for becoming a turkinator.

Any other creative ideas for profiting off Pilgrim's Bounty?

Whitesoul Helm Niche Market Paladin Healers

Holy Paladins
Whitesoul Helm is an excellent example of a niche market item.  It is a blacksmith crafted plate helm with caster stats.  This is targeted to only one class and one spec - holy paladins.  Whitesoul Helm is an excellent item for a holy paladin using the dungeon queue system.  This great helm is available for use at level 55, which is around the level a lot of the better dungeons become available in the queues.

Cataclysm Gold Opportunity
This helm is crafted from a very rare Vanilla Warcraft recipe.  This is another one of the rare patterns that has the best chance of dropping off of the world dragons.  Whitesoul Helm is one of the Vanilla WoW craftables that doesn't have a crazy list of required materials.  If you have a cheap source of Thorium and keep an eye out for cheap Azerothian Diamonds, you can make a nice profit selling the Whitesoul Helm to the leveling palladins.  Once The Shattering goes live, we will start to see some players rolling the new race and class combination Tauren Paladin.  Should be an extra oppurtunity to sell some of these helms on the Horde side.

Reader Submission: Small Eggs, Turkeys, & Holiday Sales

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You Won't Believe These Deals!  I Didn't!

Also want to clue everyone in to a huge Early Black Friday / Holiday Sale going over at Amazon.  Check out the insane sales and specials being offered at amazon.  As an example:  The Kaspersky Security Suite I bought for $80, was on sale all day yesterday for $34.95!  I know I will taking advantage of these awesome deals when I'm filling my Christmas purchases.  You can come back to Cold's Gold Factory anytime and follow the page tab up top to get back to the coupon links and special deals.

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Reader Submission:  Small Eggs And Turkeys

"Hello there, 

I want to start off by saying that i love your site.  the blogs are so helpful especially for a noob like me.  This is my first toon ever  and i have made a few mistakes but deft have learned from them.  Using your tips and others ive managed to turned my toon from a few silver to about 4k g . I am always looking for ways to make gold to save for cata annd eventually reach cap in the future.  I know its a far away goal, but i must crawl before walking. 

I know that the pilgrim event is coming up, 
i have been farming smalls eggs and looking for turkey to farm the meat as well.

i read that dduring that time, the cooking leveling will be the easiest due to those 5 recipes that become available that day, so here is my  question..

the eggs and turkey will sell
when should i start sellign them?  stack of how many?

thanks again for all that you do and thanks in advanced for your help

Bishops"

First things first - Small Eggs you are saving for Winter Veil - not Pilgrim's Bounty.  Turkeys aren't available to be looted until the Pilgrim's Bounty event starts.  If I remember correctly, you can't post them on the auction house, but you can sell them in trade chat and in the /1 chat for the area outside of your major city that requires them for the daily quests.  Some lazy people will easily pay 5g per turkey so that they can skip farming them.

As with any holiday you want to post what you can the night before as all holidays go live at 3am server time.  By posting the night before, you beat the players that haven't planned ahead.  This way you have a ton of gold in the mailbox when you log in.  Most of your sales are going to beg on the first 1-3 days of any holiday.  How many is dependant on a number of things mainly your server population, competition, and number of buyers.  As this Winter Veil will take place after Cataclysm's release date, I would horde as many small eggs as you can.  There will be a ton of new players and characters that will need the eggs.  Any that you don't sell can always be saved and sold during Children's Week.  Small Eggs sell best when posted as singles and stacks of 5 since the Gingerbread Cookies quest requires 5 and the achievement requires crafting 1 each of the required items.  So most players need 6 eggs.  So sell em as 1 and 5 stacks.

Thanks for the submission.

World First Race: WoW Marathon

Giving the gift of mobility, one level at a time.

Today's Post Slot Donated To WoW Marathon.  Check out the press release.  Hope to see some of you there during the events.

Wow Marathon

On December 6th, the First Annual Wowmarathon.com Video Game Marathon will attempt to become the world’s first level 85 character. We will be playing for 48 hours straight, hosting various contests, and information about our journey. We will also be helping to raise money for Free Wheelchair Mission.


Visitors are encouraged to come watch a team of dedicated gamers race through the new expansion for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Visitors will also be encouraged to donate money through the site to Free Wheelchair Mission, a nonprofit organization that provides a low-cost wheelchair, free of charge, to people with disabilities living in developing countries.

We have set up various levels of donations to help entertain and encourage donations for our viewers. We will have various contests throughout the marathon, and plenty of free gifts for our viewers, that will be sent out to the winners at the conclusion of the marathon at no charge to them. We will be streaming live, and interacting with the community via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and our online live stream chat.
For more information, go to http://www.wowmarathon.com/

December 6th, 2010 @ 9 AM PST

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In service since 2001, Free Wheelchair Mission has sent over 500,000 specially-designed wheelchairs around the world, providing the gift of mobility free of charge to people with disabilities in 77 developing countries. For just $59.20, a wheelchair can be manufactured, shipped and distributed…changing a life, forever. To learn more, please go to www.freewheelchairmission.org.

Realm First Race Tips

Sterling over at The Consortium has a couple of guides for attempting the race to be first.  Check them out with these links:

Realm First 85 Part One

Realm First 85 Part Two

Everyone should be getting ready for the race to realm first.  Cataclysm is coming soon!

New Race & Class Combos, Shadow Hoods and The Shattering Event

The Shattering Event Coming Soon
The Shattering Event will be upon us quicker than you might think.  The elementals have already started to invade the cities of Azeroth.  The World of Warcraft, as we know it, will be changed forever.  Twinks have already begun to crop up as bored players decide to make a twink.  One of the biggest changes coming to characters is the addition of new race and class combinations.

New Race and Class Combos
These new race and class combos in WoW will be able to be created once The Shattering patch goes live.  This means as soon as The Shattering goes live, some players will be rolling up their new alt, their new main, or their new twink.  Here are the new race / class combos.

Horde

1. Orc Mage
2. Undead Hunter
3. Tauren Priest
4. Tauren Paladin
5. Troll Druid
6. Bloodelf Warrior

Alliance

1. Human Hunter
2. Dwarf Mage
3. Dwarf Shaman
4. Night Elf Mage
5. Gnome Priest

I expect to see Troll Druids and Tauren Paladins as the most popular on the horde side.  Looking at the new combos allowed the Alliance, 4 out of the 5 are caster classes.  Can you think of any great leveling and PvP head slot items that these characters may want?

Shadow Hoods

One of the hardest to get gear slots in the early levels are head pieces, hoods, helms, etc.  Some comments have people stating that these are already starting to sell well.  The demand will rise even higher come The Shattering.  The alliance side will be particularly profitable as they are getting a lot more caster race and class combos.  Shadow Hoods are also excellent choices for twinks as they currently have a boat load of stamina after the recent stat changes.  The pattern for Shadow Hood is a rare drop so keep an eye out for it on the auction house.

Profiting Off Shadow Hoods

The problem with crafting Shadow Hoods is that they take a Shadow Oil per hood.  Each shadow oil requires 4 Fadeleaf and 4 Grave Moss.  To be efficient making these requires the use of a tailor and an alchemist, so this may discourage some players who are not into multi-profession crafting.  This will be another feasible market of vanilla items much like Barbaric Bracers, Toughened Leather Gloves, Spidersilk Boots, Deviate Scale Belts, Robes of Arcana and other Vanilla craftables that continue to sell.  

So be prepared and start snatching up Fadeleaf, Grave Moss, and Shadow Oils to turn into nicely profitable Shadow Hoods for twinks and levelers.  Myabe you have been looking for a use for all the extra Grave Moss you found while farming herbs and chests in Scarlet Monastery during the Headless Horseman instant queues. Silk is usually dirt cheap on the Horde side, so importing silk from the other faction could help bring your material costs down on the Alliance side.  Let me know how it goes or if you have been selling these already on your server.

Profiting on Rated Battlegrounds: Reader Submission

"Hello again Cold.

I'm writing because I would love to hear your thoughts about the following subject: Profiteering on rated BGs in Cataclysm.

With the introduction of rated BGs in cataclysm, I have been considering whether a market will rise for BoE profession items. Assuming BGs will work the same as now, with usable potions, flasks, bombs etc etc I have been speculating if I should invest in some of the follwing items:

Alchemy:

Swiftness Potion: Swiftthiste & Briarthorn

Free Action Potion: Blackmouth Oil (Blackmouth) & Stranglekelp

Invisibility Potion: Ghost Mushroom & Sungrass

Purification Potion: Icecap & Plaguebloom

Living Action Potion: Icecap, Mountain Silversage and Heart of the Wild

Rage Potions

The two big questions I have to ask.

1. Will hardcore Arena/BG players/teams want to stock up on these items?

2. Is there a profit to be made now, so close to Cataclysm with the prices as they are now, or should this stuff be added to a snatch list in Cataclysm with (perhaps) lower herb prices due to levelling?

Are there any other professions aside from Alchemy where we might see a chance for profit when the rated BGs go live? I can't think of anything besides EZ-Thro Dynamite II, however, the healthpools in Cataclysm will effectively make this ~200 dmg non-engineer dynamite useless.

Thank you for a good blog

Kind regards, Dahmek"

Player Versus Player Battles On The Rise

The twink community will return.  Rated battlegrounds will lead to more players and guilds doing

PvP.  The PvP supplies market could be a great gold making niche.  The PvP market varies 

greatly on each server.  If you want to try out this market, I suggest you do it slowly.  Only craft a 

few of the items that you think will sell.  List a few and see if they sell before going all out with 

production.

Alchemy Potions

Regarding you alchemy question on herbs and potions, I would grab any herbs you can get that 

are priced low.  Save them as herbs without crafting anything so that you can move them as 

stacks of herbs if needed.  There could be more profit in moving the herbs themselves and 

crafting potions may not be cost efficient.  Early into Cataclysm, especially on the Horde side, I 

would think that selling herbs to players leveling alchemy and inscription may be more profitable. 

Then once those markets settle down, the PvP market consumables may become a better option.  

You are on the right train of thinking for those potions, it just may be a little later that they are more 

reliable sellers.

Other Items To Sell To Player Killers

I agree that EZ-Throw Dynamite isn't worth selling.  What kind of things can be profitable?  Here 

are a few items that PvP players could buy.  Again, test these markets out before jumping in too 

deep.

1. Blacksmith crafted weapon sharpening and bludgeoning stones.
2. Rumsey's rum from Old Hillsbrad Secret Vendors.
3. Poison removing anti-venoms.
4. BoA useable enchanting scrolls.
5. Flash Bombs can be used by anyone.
6. Old School awesome gear for twinks and people who like to level in style or in maxed gear:  Barbaric Bracers, Spidersilk Boots, Toughened Leather Gloves, Deviate Scale Belt, etc.