Friday, December 30, 2011

How To Make Gold In WoW - Top Posts Of 2011 @ CGF



How To Make Gold In WoW - Best Of 2011 Here At Cold's Gold Factory

The 2011 year of the gold blogger has been an exciting one.  We have seen a massive increase in the number of bloggers talking about how to make gold in WoW.  A quick peek at the Power Word Gold : Gold Blog Directory will show the large number of gold blogs out there, with many of them joining the blogging community in 2011.  Here's to another great year of teaching players how to make gold in WoW.  Hopefully our community will continue to grow and prosper long into the new year.

2011 Was an awesome year because Wes, of Capped By Cata, and I started up The Auction House Junkies gold making podcast, which has recently expanded to include Mike, @MSherretz, as our regular 3rd anchor host.  The show has been chugging along since early 2011 and we are starting to be more consistent with releasing new episodes in a timely manner.  We can't keep you Junkies waiting too long for your next fix!

Now let's take a look back at some of the best and most popular posts here at Cold's Gold Factory.

Most Popular Posts From 2011
  1. Firelands Daily Quests: Shadow Wardens or Druids Of The Talon? - This was the most successful post of the year from a traffic standpoint.  It was released at the perfect time, a few weeks into the Molten Front patch.  As players were starting to get close to completely the first wave of Molten Front dailies and acquiring the tokens needed to choose your first faction to unlock, this was a great question to target for traffic.  Everyone wanted to know which side to choose first and this post was a perfect example of one of the fundamental types of blog posts - Answer a popular question within your niche.  While the post wasn't directly gold related, it was indirectly related, as there was a race for unlocking the recipes as fast as possible to monopolize a market until competition could catch up.  This post sent still sends me crazy traffic, currently sitting at over 54K pageviews.
  2. Patch 4.3 Epic Gem Transmutes From Alchemists And Cut By Jewelcrafters - Well the Alchemist patterns were data-mined but are still not in the live game.
  3. Epic Gems:  Pyrite Is Fool's Gold After All - The big bomb dropped on stockpilers expecting Epic Gems from Pyrite Ore.
  4. Patch 4.2 Introduced New Embersilk Farming Spot - Druids of The Talon Killing Madness.
  5. Patch 4.2 Engineering Love - Engineering Patterns for the win!
  6. Elementium Ore Farming Sweet Spot - Was awesome while it lasted, but has since been nerfed.  This spot I discovered was a beauty!
  7. Mysterious Forune Card Barking Tips - More fun with MFC barking!
  8. Patch 4.3 Cata Epic Gem JC Recipes & The Tome Of Burning Jewels - The news came and we started get excited for Epic Gems.  Whomp Whomp Whaa!  Not so great after all.
  9. WoW Patch 4.2 Firelands Recipes Are BOP - Keyword targetting FTW!
  10. Don't Stockpile For WoW Patch 4.2 Just Yet - Think for yourself, don't blindly follow.
  11. New Firelands Vendors Offer Auctioning Opportunities - The recipe race to sell the new goods.
  12. New Rugged Leather Farming In Cataclysm - Cataclysm shook up the world, including farming spots for making gold in WoW.
  13. Call to Arms & The Satchel Of Exotic Mysteries - The Call to Arms addition to the game has been one of my favorites.  This alone has created an easy way to send starter cash (or items to sell for starter cash) to your alts on the opposing faction. See Also: Free Gold Exchange Cross Faction.
  14. Passive Income Project | The Random Invites Guild - The project has been a great success.  The guild of all random invites has just hit guild level 24!  The macro is currently broken though, since Patch 4.3.
  15. Embersilk Farming In Cataclysm's Deepholme - Still one of the best spots to farm Embersilk Cloth in large numbers.
Most Discussed Posts From 2011
  1. The Whistleblowing Post On Markco & The JMTC Coaching Program Scam - A major shitstorm war in the comments as the evil forces of Markco the Deceiver battle it out against the side of Truth and Honor.
  2. Off Topic: IRL Troubles & Blogging Consistency - The responses of support and encouragement have been so helpful and overwhelmingly suprising at the same time.  I really appreciate everyone of my readers and especially those that took the time to leave supportive comments and send thoughtful emails.
  3. Screw Inferno Rubies, I'm Stocking Dream Emeralds - Well, of course I was stocking Inferno Rubies too, but my Dream Emerald stockpile has been a lifesaver as I continue to sell the hell out of Flintlocke's Woodchuckers as the competitions stock has dried up.  Tons of people laughed at me in the comments, but I'm laughing all the way to the mailbox collecting my mail.
  4. Opportunity Costs - An IRL Case Study - Stupid work bake sales.
  5. Opportunity Cost Part 2 - More discussion.
  6. The Twilight Highlands Vendor Nerf - The shift of patterns to the major cities.
  7. Transmutation:  Profitable Or Not? - My original stance is slowly changing as I am getting my feet wet in this new emerging market.  It is very server and faction dependant, but the Moggfather, @DeAzeroth, has been having great success flipping items for Transmogrification.
  8. Patch 4.2 Tanked Volatile Air & Volatile Fire - Prices crashed, but crafting costs did too.
  9. You Know You're A Greedy Goblin When... - This post was a fun one.
  10. Obsidium Ore Prospecting Crash Incoming - The gem price reductions were on the way.
  11. The Auctioneer Hot Spot In Orgrimmar - The cow town area is tops in my book.
  12. Powerleveling Professions - Worth the extra cash or is there a better approach?
My Personal Favorites Posts From 2011
  1. The Ideal Alts Series - I reall yenjoyed putting this whole series together for you.  It's nice to hear the praises of people who have directly copied or modified some of these Ideal Alt ideas.
  2. Best Uses For Your Free WoW Veteran Account - Easy entry into cross faction trading to make even more gold in WoW.
  3. The Tale Of A Lowly Gorilla Hunter - Man, I was so clueless back then!  The Tale of my humble beginnings farming Lowland Gorilla Hair greys to vendor and save for my first mount.
  4. Get Stoned At The Darkmoon Faire - Too bad the old Heavy Stone strategy has been removed from the new Darkmoon Faire.  I loved the thrill and rush of maybe getting a Rare recipe for dirt cheap!
  5. Mysterious Fortune Card Barks Revisited - A second round of barking modifications.
  6. Multiple Profession Coverage In WoW - You aren't a one trick pony, are you?
  7. Ravenwood Fair Facebook Game | WoW Easter Egg - Even more proof that all the pretty princesses play Alliance.
  8. Rift or WoW?  Goodbye Azeroth - The April Fool's Day spoof that spawned many upset emails and led many to unsubscribe (oops!).  It was a joke you sillyheads! 
  9. Profit From Icy Prism, Frozen Orbs, and WotLK Gems - A forgotten strategy that has been making me thousands.
  10. The Top 9 Uses For The Remote Auction House - Good stuff in this post.
Poor Wes!


Reminders

The Cold's Gold Factory Gold Blogging Carnival will be returning next month.  Make sure to check the current topic and get those blog entries written for your Page Rank 4 link backs!

The Cold's Gold Factory Birthday Celebration Giveaway will be ending soon.  Make sure to Like, Tweet, and Plus One this post, as it may be your last chance to get extra entries for the awesome Jinx and Amazon.com Gift Cards and in game mounts and pets.  Thanks for reading my blog and helping me make it past my 2nd Blog Birthday!

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out The Teenager's Gold Guide To Get Started With Learning The Auction House As A Younger Player Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold making Combo.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Off Topic: IRL Troubles and Blog Consistency

Real Life Sucks

The past few months have been insanely stressful and hectic for me in real life.  I appreciate all of the kind words of support and encouragement from those I have clued into my real life fiasco as of late.  I would like to formaly apologize for my inconsistency with posting over the past few months here at Cold's Gold Factory.  My goal for the new year of 2012 is to get back to a much more regular posting schedule for the blog, so I can continue to share gold making tips and tricks with my great readers.  That goal may be pushed off until a month or two into the new year as the stress and issues are still not fixed and more continue to be piled on.  I have been having a very hard time focusing on gold making posts with all of the drama, turmoil, and hardship I've been experiencing in the real world.

I split from the evil Ex (Good Riddance!), but for financial reasons was still living in our old apartment, which was in her name.  All of the utilities bills were in her name as well.  Even though she moved out, she did nothing short of make my life a living hell, while I stayed there through the end of the lease (since I had prepaid).  Multiple times I came home to no power, no cable, or no internet even though I had paid the bills already.

I had terrible luck finding a new place for myself to move to for various reasons (pets, credit, lack of recent lease, etc.)  As of just a couple of weeks ago, I was prepared to move into a cheap run down pay by the week hotel, but that meant I would have to give away my faithful companion, my pure seal-point Siamese, Berg'inyon.  I searched and searched for a room to share or an apartment to stay in so that I could keep my cat, who would have been terribly heartbroken if I would have given him away.  Siamese are more like familiars than they are pets.  So I had to keep looking to find a place for me and my sidekick.  I was even turned down for an apartment in the same damn complex I had been staying in and paying the rent for 3 years.  Denied!  It was looking grim.

I was lucky enough to finally find a 2 bedroom shared apartment with a roommate.  And the landlord was willing to pull some tricks and get me into the apartment approved as a roommate.  See I was taking over 1 room from 1 of the current roommates who was returning home to care for an ill parent and the other roommate was staying.  We would be splitting bills and rent in half, which was affordable for me.  Turns out a day after moving in, the roommate has been evicted for not paying his parking fees and I'm stuck with the entire $800 per month rent all on my shoulders.  So now I am stuck in a new big 2 bedroom, I can't afford.  I have no other option but to find another person to be a roommate to share rent and bills within the next couple of weeks.

No internet connection in my new place yet.  No cable either.  The ex stole my DvD player also.  I am bored out of my mind with nothing to do but be on my phone and the Remote Auction House, but that can only go so far.  I've tried working up posts, but have a hard time focusing.  I'm trying to get a dvd player tonight and will try to get the internet going ASAP so I can resume normal activity and find a new roommate, but it may take a while.  I still owe both the cable company and the electric company nice hefty chunks of money from an old apartment.  Both of these were going on my bankruptcy that is half complete, but I am going to get stuck paying them off just to be able to get power and cable / internet in my new place. 

So I met my 2 main goals of a) not being homeless and b) not losing my cat, but at what cost?  I may have an apartment with no utilities here in a week or two once the old roommate cancels his accounts.  Hopefully, I will be able to get the bills paid off and utilities turned on and make this extreme stress and drama go away.

I've been hitting some very low depths of depression mixed with some heavy anxiety as it seems everything is in turmoil as of late and I thought I had a solution, until the recent events that have be as the sole lease holder in the place I was moving in as a second roommate.  It's too late to back out as I'm on the lease already and have no other options anyways.  I'm really at a loss and have to find a fix for these problems. 

I can continue to blog a bit from work after everyone else has left, but even that has been hard to do lately.  I really want to get all of this drama straightened out so I can get back to living a normal life and being a more consistent blogger and gold community member. 

Thanks for letting me get these issues off my chest.  I really have no friends in the real world to talk to.

Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I try to hold it all together and stay positive.

See ya on Twitter,

Cold




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 or the PvP and Gold making Combo.

Friday, December 23, 2011

The Pessimist's Guide To WoW Crafting Markets


The Pessimistic Guide To WoW Crafting Markets

Some Truths, Some Fallacies, Some Myths - Can You Tell Which Is Whack?

Jewelcrafting - These damn ore prices are insane.  Who can make any gold with Elementium Ore going for 120 gold a stack?  None of this PvP jewelry is selling worth a damn.  There is no place for hundreds and hundreds of Zephyrites to go.  Same old quests over and over for tokens is pretty boring and lame.  Epic gems are too expensive of a market to enter.

Blacksmithing - These damn Shield Spikes and Weapon Chains don't sell anymore.  Gah!  Look at the ore and bar prices!  I wasted all these materials on PvP gear and they aren't selling.  Only epics worth crafting are too expensive to craft now.  Blacksmithing rods suck, cause people only buy 1 ever.

Enchanting - Good Lord, the prices of raw Cataclysm materials!  How can anyone turn a profit off of enchant scrolls with prices this low on scrolls and so high on the materials?  Craft for a loss?  Disenchanting crap is boring and annoying.  People don't tip Enchanters much at all.

Engineering - There is barely anything to craft for a profit!  All you have is pets to sell.  This professions isn't for making money; It's for pets, mounts, and fun.

Alchemy - All I can do is 1 transmute a day, that's it.  Potions and Flasks are worthless markets.  No one buys older alchemist made items anymore.

Inscription - Inferno Inks, LOL!  Darkmoon Faire trinkets are a dead market.   Glyphs are nothing but an undercutting bloodbath.  Players aren't stupid enough to buy Mysterious Fortune Cards.  You can't make any money, until you know all of the glyphs.  The Glyph market died with the permanancy change.

Leatherworking - Leg Armors are the only item worth selling.  Leather prices are always crazy high and in short supply.  No one buys this leather PvP gear.  Most skinners are also leatherworks who just craft their own gear.

Tailoring - Dreamcloth items are limited due to the 1 week cooldown.  PvP gear isn't selling.  Tailoring is just for making your own items to Disenchant.  All the good recipes require reputation grinding!  Bags are the only viable source of gold.

Cooking - People don't buy cooked foods; they just cook their own.  There is nothing to spend my cooking tokens on anymore!

Many of these are common complaints from playing the different profession auction house markets.  We all run into obstacles, competition, and slow sales periods.  Don't give up.  You must push onward and take a deeper look into your professions.  Don't let the hard times or the complicated situations get you down.  Use your head and find a way around the obstacle.  We all do it on a daily basis.  You can too.

The new Auction House Junkies Episode #21 - Watching Grey's Anatomy In Stormwind is out for your listening entertainment.  Crazy fun show.

And don't miss The Mana Cooler #122 - The Gold Rush with myself and R9sid9nt9vil (of Rep Grind Radio) as guests.

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold making Combo.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Voice Amplification Modulator - Caster Twink Gear

Voice Amplification Modulator - Twink Gear


Twinking Neck Jewelry

Have you ever heard of this craftable piece of neck gear?  Well, I hadn't even thought of it as a twink item until I was corrected by a commenter in my last post on the JC created twink item: Malachite Pendant.  I incorrectly stated that the Malachite Pendant was the only available neck gear for twinks in the 14s bracket.  So I looked into it and the commentor was correct.  There are actually two options for neck gear in the 10-14 bracket, the Malachite Pendant and the Voice Amplification Modulator. 

The Malachite Pendant (+2 Agility) is Best-in-Slot for any non-caster class twink, but is only available at level 13 and beyond.

The Voice Amplification Modulator is Best-in-Slot for any caster twink and is also the only neckpiece for a level 10-12 WoW character.

The Voice Amplification Modulator (VAM)

The Voice Amplification Modulator is a great caster twink neck piece.  Although it doesn't possess any stat increases, it does something very helpful for battleground caster classes.  The VAM reduces the duration of any silence or interrupt effects by 10%.  That is definately a better option for caster classes over the +2 Agility neck piece.  It also is the only neck piece worth wearing on a level 1 twink as the VAM has no level requirement, even though it is a level 58 item.

The Voice Amplification Modulator is crafted by the Engineering profession and it comes from a Rare Drop Recipe.  The rare Engineering schematic can only be obtained from the Risen Inquisitors in the Stratholme dungeon and requires 290 skill in Engineering.  The kicker is the no level requirement and the ability to be used by non-Engineers.

Raw Materials Breakdown For Voice Amplification Modulator
  • 2 Arcanite Bars (or 2 Thorium Bars + 2 Arcane Crystals)
  • 2 Ironweb Spider Silk
  • 3 Thorium Bars
  • 1 Gold Bar
  • 1 Runecloth
  • 1 Large Opal
Most, if not all, of these materials can be found for cheap on the auction house.  When combined together into a Voice Amplification Modulator, you can create an item that can sell for an easy 300-500 gold to the right buyer.  A normal leveling character will see no point in spending so much on a piece of gear that would be replaced quickly, but a twink will not only know the true value of the item.  They may have been searching for one of these VAM neck pieces for weeks.  A twink will pay top WoW gold for a Best-in-Slot item like the Voice Amplification Modulator.

After learning of this item from the commentor, I logged into my Engineer, Colddrawn, and found that I already have the VAM recipe in my schematics list.  So I will be testing this market out myself as I love niche markets that are gated by rare recipes (like the Rich Purple Silk Shirt market that I am still the only supplier in).  If you have the recipe as well, odds are there aren't any Voice Amplification Modulators on your auction house either.  The schematic itself is also a good option to flip, if you can find one grossly underpriced on the WoW auction house.

If you find yourself in the same shape as me with an untapped market on your server, be sure to review my tips on creating your own market.

Anyone else had any success selling Voice Amplification Modulators?

Don't Forget to Plus One, Retweet, and Like for more chances to win the great swag from the Cold's Gold Factory Birthday Giveaway.

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide.  Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold making Combo.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Low Level Jewelcrafting - Malachite Pendant

Malachite Pendant Discovery

One of the benefits of doing activities within World of Warcraft outside of just making gold is that you broaden your knowledge base.  This also leads to the ability to discover new ideas or new possibilities for making gold in WoW.  If you've listened to the recent episodes of The Auction House Junkies podcast, then you know I have been having fun twinking alts for the low level brackets.  With this new experiment into level 10-14 twinking, I too have made a few discoveries.  Learning new activities within the game often leads to creative impulses and new ways to make gold.

Since I have been mainly working on twinking within the level 10-14 battleground brackets, I discovered one important thing.

Did you know that for the level 10-14 bracket there is only 1 neck piece available? 

And it is a low level Jewelcrafting item, the Malachite Pendant.  Since it is the only option for a twink neckpiece for level 13-14, these will sell to twinks of all kinds.
Malachite Pendant

The Malachite Pendant is a nice niche item for Jewelcrafters of all levels.  The required crafting materials are super common and cheap on most auction houses.  The Malachite Pendant takes only 1 Copper Wire and 1 Malachite to craft.  This is the only option for any level 13 or 14 twink, regardless of class, so they do sell on the WoW auction house.  I have been crafting and posting a few for 25 gold each, which is way more than the crafting cost.  They do sell, because there simply is no other option for gearing out a twink at that level bracket.  The great thing is that the Malachite Pendant adds +2 Agility.  Which 2 twink classes are most popular at low levels?  Yup, Hunter and Rogue are by far the most popular, which is another reason these are a great seller on any low level twink inhabited WoW server.  Even paladins, warriors, shaman, and other classes will wear this for the melee crit bonus that agility gives.

The Malachite Pendant is also a great option for crafting while you level a new Jewelcrafting character's profession skill.  It should be a nice addition to any common commodity crafting approach as opposed to the gold wasting power leveling approach.

So when you are out and about in other areas of Azeroth doing non-gold making activities, keep your eyes peeled for new ideas and options for making even more gold within the World of Warcraft.
Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out The Teenager's Gold Guide To Get Started With Learning The Auction House As A Younger Player Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold making Combo.

Friday, December 16, 2011

WoW Gold Blogging Carnival Returns - January 2012 Topic

The Gold Blogging Carnival Returns

The Gold Blogging Carnival sort of fell by the wayside the last few months after I was having computer issues and a lot of bloggers quit posting altogether or slowed their posts and participation to a crawl.  Well there is a new fresh crop of young gold bloggers making headway into the gold blogging community now.  What a great time to relaunch the Cold's Gold Factory WoW Gold Blogging Carnivals.

Participation in the gold blogging carnivals here is a great way to get some fresh readers to your blog as well as build some high quality links.  I've always had a great repsonse from bloggers looking to expand their readership.  Cold's Gold Factory is currently Google Page Rank 4, which makes a link from this site one of the top quality links you can get from anyone in our gold blogging community!

If anyone (blogger or reader) has an idea for a carnival topic please send it in to my email address for consideration.

What Is a Blogging Carnival?


A blogging carnival is a compilation of blog posts all created around one specific topic, which is chosen by the host site. Entries into the carnival are submitted to the host. The host then organizes the posts into one big post with links back to the original articles on the participating author's sites.

Rules for Cold's Gold Factory Blogging Carnivals
  • Create the entire post on your own site.  Post it anytime prior to the carnival date.
  • Send me an email with a link to your post. SSmith0911 (at) live (dot) com
  • Submissions must be in by the 10th of each month.
  • All carnivals will go live on Cold's Gold Factory on the 11th of each month.
All World of Warcraft bloggers are invited to participate. You don't have to author a gold blog, but you need to follow the set topic.

Each post written for the carnival should begin with a link with the anchor text "Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival" and link to http://coldsgoldfactory.blogspot.com/p/colds-gold-blogging-carnivals.html .  This helps to rank the Carnival Page higher in search results, which benefits all of the participants.

Learn more about the importance of proper anchor text here. Linking to the above page with the proper anchor text in each carnival entry will help to drive traffic to the gold blogging carnival and in turn drive more traffic to your entries.


The January 11th carnival topic is:

"If you could add 1 item or feature to the Mists of Pandaria expansion, what would it be and why?"

Email me the link to your live post prior to January 11th.  If any readers are interested in participating in the WoW gold blogging carnival, I can host your entry as a guest post over at Goldgrubs.com.  Contact me for more information.  Be sure to read about the benefits of blogging carnivals, if you are undecided about participating in Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival.




Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out The Teenager's Gold Guide To Get Started With Learning The Auction House As A Younger Player Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold making Combo.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Feast Of Winter Veil Gold Making Tips and Warnings

Greatfather Winter

Feast Of Winter Veil Gold Tactics

The World of Warcraft in-game holiday, The Feast of Winter Veil, starts tommorrow morning across the US WoW servers.  In the past, I was a big proponent of making gold during the early Winter Veil demand spikes.  Currently, I do not recommend trying to make gold with all of the strategies I have previously discussed.  If you are looking to get rich from small eggs, run from that market.  Run away!  Why?

The Feast of Winter Veil gold making scene has become very popular amongst players looking to cash in and make a lot of gold with not much effort.  The problem is that those days of making a ton of amazingly profitable sales of small eggs are long gone.  Last year, the Winter Veil start time was changed from 2 am server to 8 am server, which completely killed my normal high profit strategy.

When the start time was 2 am in the wee hours of the morning, I would post a ton of eggs for 5-7g each (7 gold singles, 5g per in the stacks) prior to logging off for the night.  Every year, I would wake up to a massive amount of sales and crazy profit levels as nearly all of my stock would sell out overnight on day 1 of the Winter Veil holiday.  I would sell most of my entire collection of small eggs, which mean I was selling hundreds and hundreds of small eggs.  By the end of the first day, everyone would catch on and the undercutting would begin.  Fast forward to last year (and this year as well) and the 8am start time and you have nothing but a complete undercutting bloodbath the entire holiday.  There is no sweet spot for posting overnight and snagging sales as the ill prepared are still asleep.  If you get stuck in the undercutting bloodbath and posting the eggs isn't worth your time, you are going to need an out for your collection of eggs.  Don't sell off your eggs for stupid cheap, because the price and demand will spike again during Children's Week next year.

Some players have also caught on to the tactic of selling the Deeprock Salt for crazy prices for the Winter Veil quest.  Even the opposing faction holiday outfits sales were down last year for me too.  As always, remember to have a plan for unloading your materials if the market isn't what you were hoping it would be.

Previous Winter Veil Strategies
These are some of the previous articles on the same topic of how to make gold during Winter Veil.  No need to discuss each of these again this year, but there is plenty of good information packed into those posts for anyone brave enough to step into the undercutting blood bath that is the current Winter Veil holiday.

One last concern of mine:  The holidays have been getting re-done lately.  There is always the chance that the quests will change on us and all of our stockpiling will be useless.  Don't overcommit when the odds of something changing are higher than previously.

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out The Teenager's Gold Guide To Get Started With Learning The Auction House As A Younger Player Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold Making Combo.

Monday, December 12, 2011

WoW Cata Gold Cap Reached - Thoughts and Reflections

Thoughts And Reflections On My Journey To The Gold Cap


WoW Gold Capped Reached

Sunday morning I finished collecting another batch of overnight sales and peered at my new liquid gold total, 1.004 Million Gold.  I have finally reached (and passed) the new Cataclysm individual character gold cap of 999g 999s 999c.  How exciting was it?  Not very exciting at all, honestly.  I really was more excited that I finally found a pair of level 14 Hunter bracers for my 14 Hunter Twink, Ahjunkies. And it was a drop I got from a mob, while working on the quest for his ring!  Now if I can just find a pair of Stendel's Wedding Bands and grind out a 2-handed heirloom weapon, my twink will be much closer to completion.
Bandit Bracers of Agility - Twinktastic!
What Took You So Long To Reach The Cap?

Why am I just now reaching the gold cap this far into Cataclysm?  Well, for starters, I am not a full time gold maker.  I have 14 characters and more are sure to follow.  I am a lover of alts, crafting, professions, twinking, and exploring.  I do much more within the game than just make gold.  At the same time, I also spend a lot of gold in support of my many characters.  Often times I am spending nearly as much as I am bringing in.

I also like to focus more on the exploratory, investigative, and experimental sides of gold making.  While this is awesome for coming up with new ideas and topics for both Cold's Gold Factory and Auction House Junkies, it tends to retard my advancement of pure liquid gold making.  If all I wanted to do was reach the WoW gold cap as quickly as possible, I could have tied myself to my computer screen and shuffled my way to the cap in the first months of the expansion.  Where's the fun in that?

Another big contributor to my recent increase in gold made per day has been my new bachelor status.  Being untied from any significant relationship means that I have way more time to play not just WoW, but to babysit my auctions as well.  Being able to play when I want and for as long as I want without repercussions, has been a vast improvement in my gold making approach.

Another huge bonus to gold making has been the Remote Auction House on my iPhone 4s.  Splitting from the phone line with my ex, allowed me to get an awesome phone upgrade as I started my own cell plan.  I went with the iPhone 4s and it has been absolutely amazing for staying connected to the gold making community on Twitter and the Remote Auction House application for iPhone is a thousand times better and faster than the old web version I had used before. 

The ability to buy out lots of stacks quickly has helped keep my stockpiles filled at low costs.  The Remote Auction House has also allowed me to be able to thwart the undercutters and bring in much more sales.  I like to do major posting before bed and sometimes in the mornings before I head to work.  The Remote Auction House allows me to constantly check on my auctions during the work day, which allows me to trickle in undercuts a few at a time.  The Remote Auction House has helped kick start my gold making throughout the entire day, instead of just overnight and while I am logged in to the game.  I highly recommend the Remote Auction House for any smart phone users.

For those of us that had a game plan for Patch 4.3 gold making, the gold has been raining in.  In the 10 days following the release of the WoW 4.3 Patch, I made 281,000 gold.  Patches are great for not only bringing in a ton of sales, but also for renewing our interests in getting back to gold making.  I know I was feeling the lull prior to the patch and I was getting far less incoming gold than I would have liked to have seen for my efforts.  As always, a new WoW patch cured my gold making blues and I road it all the way to the Cata gold cap.

What now?  It will continue to be business as usual in the auction house, until the patch wave dies down.  Then I am going to pull back a bit from making gold with 80% of my playtime to actualy get out of the cities and start seeing this expansion.  I killed my first Cata raid boss of the expansion, just yesterday.  LOL!

Don't Miss Out On The Cold's Gold Factory 2011 Birthday Celebration Giveaway!

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 or the PvP and Gold Making Combo.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Transformations and Shatters For Profit And Savings

Nexus Crystals for Nexus Transformation

Transformations and Shatters

Maelstrom Shatter

Enchanting has some nice utility options for converting less used Enchanting materials into more useful ones.  Right now there is a lot of buzz over the new Maelstrom Shatter that was added to WoW with Patch 4.3.  The Maelstrom Shatter recipe allows 1 Maelstrom Crystal to be shattered into 2 Heavenly Shards by an Enchanter.  Shattering Maelstrom Crystals can be a source of profit, if you are able to get your Maelstrom Crystals for less than the cost of 2 Heavenly Shards.  Or instead of selling the Shards for profit, you can use the Maelstrom Shatter as a source for lowering your crafting cost of Enchanting scrolls.  Or, if you are like me, you do both:  Sell Shards when the prices spike and also utilize the Shatters for cheaper material sources.

Abyssal Shatter

Abyssal Shatter is another Enchanting option for Shattering Abyss Crystals into Greater Cosmic Essences or Infinite Dust.  This can often be a cheap source of both Dusts and Essences depending on how cheap you can snatch up those Abyss Crystals.  When purchasing Creater Cosmic Essences and Infinite Dust, don't forget to check the prices of Abyss Crystals too.  I little extra work can often save you a nice chunk of gold.

Nexus Transformation and Void Shatter

Nexus Transformation allows an Enchanter to Transform 1 Nexus Crystal into 1 Small Prismatic Shard.  Three Small Prismatic Shards can be crafted into 1 Large Prismatic Shard, which is used in many more Enchanting recipes.  So the cost of 3 Nexus Crystals should be equal to the cost of 1 Large Prismatic Shard.  You can often get the Nexus Crystals for dirt cheap, as evidenced in the top image, where I was buying Nexus Crystals for .59 gold each, which converted to a crafting cost of 1.77 gold for a Large Prismatic Shard.  At the same time, the Large Prismatic were 17 gold each on the auction house.  (Note: this isn't shown on TUJ data because I bought them all out in between TUJ hourly scans.)   So I bought the few 17g ones and made many more for much cheaper, since I needed a lot for the Enchants I was crafting at the time.

On the other hand, you can also get Large Prismatic Shards from Void Shatter.  The Enchanting recipe Void Shatter created 2 Large Prismatic Shards from 1 Void Crystal.  So when looking for the best price on Large Prismatic Shards, you should consider the prices of Large Prismatic Shards themselves, Small Prismatic Shards, Nexus Crystals, and Void Crystals.  Understanding the relationships between all 4 will allow you to find cheaper materials and crafting costs, which in turn will lead you to more profitable sales.  You can also play around with the conversions and profit from forming more expensive materials to sell from the cheaper material options.

Making higher profits and finding lower crafting costs go hand in hand with being a more efficient gold maker in World of Warcraft.

Don't miss the Birthday Celebration at Cold's Gold Factory that was announced yesterday.


Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out The Teenager's Gold Guide To Get Started With Learning The Auction House As A Younger Player Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold making Combo.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Cold's Gold Factory Birthday Giveaway

Win Free Stuff From Cold's Gold Factory

Cold's Gold Factory Birthday Giveaway Celebration

Another year has almost come and gone and it's almost time for another birthday celebration for the Cold's Gold Factory World of Warcraft gold making blog.  This year has been a little crazy for the site.  The site has been plugging along pushing out quality WoW gold making posts and continuing to increase in prestige and power, despite much adversity this year.  So it is time to celebrate as Cold's Gold Factory will be turning 2 years old on December 21st, 2011.  What better way to celebrate than with an awesome giveaway for my awesome readers and supporters of Cold's Gold Factory?  Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement. 

Giving Back 

My readers came through in my time of need, when my computer was down and I was financialy unable to get it repaired quickly.  I was more than grateful for the acts of kindness from you awesome fans of the blog and the Auction House Junkies podcast.  So I have decided to go all out and am giving away some super awesome prizes in celebration of the 2nd anniversary of the creation of Cold's Gold Factory.

Check out this awesome prize list:
  • Grand Prize:  $50 Gift Card To J!NX :: Clothing for Gamers & Geeks
  • First Prize:  $20 Gift Card To Amazon.com
  • Second Prize:  1 WoW In-Game Sparkle Pony (Celestial Steed) Code
  • Third Prize:  1 WoW In- Game Pandaren Monk Pet Code
  • Mailing List Exclusive Prize:  1 Celestial Steed Mount Code
  • Twitter Followers Exclusive Prize:  1 Pandaren Monk Pet Code
How To Enter For The Prizes:

Entries will be accept through the entire month of December, with entries closing at 12:01 am Eastern Time on 01/01/12.  Prizes will be awarded the first week of January 2012. 

Celestial Steed Mailing List Exclusive - Simply join the Cold's Gold Factory e-mailing list located in the upper right column of the site.  1 Celestial Steed code will be awarded to a random subscriber.

Twitter Pandaren Monk Pet Code Exclusive - Simply Follow @SSmith0911 on Twitter.  1 Pandaren Monk code will be awarded to a random Twitter follower.

The Main Contest - The Grand, First, Second, and Third Prizes will be awarded randomly.  You can earn multiple entries into this Main Contest.  There is no limit to the number of entries you can earn.  Each entry will increase your odds of winning.  Odds of winning will be based on number of participants and their participation for entries.

Awarded 1 Entry For Each Of The Following Tasks:
  • Join The Cold's Gold Factory Mailing List.
  • Follow @SSmith0911 on Twitter.
  • Like the Cold's Gold Factory Fan Page On Facebook (top right corner of this site).
  • Retweet a Cold's Gold Factory Post (starting with this post through the end of the year).
  • Like a Cold's Gold Factory Post on Facebook (starting with this post through the end of the year).
  • Share and +1 a Cold's Gold Factory Post on Google Plus (starting with this post through the end of the year).
Anyone already on the mailing list, following me on Twitter, or who has already liked the Facebook fan page has already earned a contest entry for each.  So go ahead and get started and spread the word about the 2nd Anniversary here at Cold's Gold Factory and start earning those contest entries.

Thanks again for another amazing year of WoW gold blogging.

-Cold



Just a couple of the awesome products you can get, if you are the lucky Grand Prize JINX winner.

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out The Teenager's Gold Guide To Get Started With Learning The Auction House As A Younger Player Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold making Combo.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Goblin Engineering Gold Runs

WoW Engineering Gold Runs

Engineering has long been my favorite profession in World of Warcraft. The convenience and utility of the Engineering profession is rivaled by no other WoW profession. What I really love is all of the great teleporting options that an engineer has at his disposable, second only to the mage class. Toss engineering onto a mage character and it really gets easy to transport yourself all around Azeroth in no time at all.
There are 2 specific specialization options to choose in Engineering - Goblin or Gnomish Specialization. Gnomish Engineering focuses more on trinkets and utility items, while the Goblin Engineers focus more on explosives and bombs. The Goblin and Gnomish Engineers both have distinct teleportation location options that are specific for each Engineering specialization. Today, I will be covering some gold making options for utilizing the teleportation system of the Goblin Engineers.

Engineering Teleports

The 2 teleportation devices that are unique to the Goblin Engineers are:
  • Dimensional Ripper - Area-52
  • Dimensional Ripper - Everlook

 The 2 teleportation devices that are unique to the Gnomish Engineers are:

  • Ultrasafe Transporter - Toshley's Station
  • Ultrasafe Transporter - Gadgetzan
Both Goblin and Gnomish Engineers have access to the:

  • Wormhole Generator - Various Northrend Location Options

Goblin Engineering Teleportation Gold Run

Well, teleports are cool and all, but how do we make gold with them? Well, let me give you some ideas. Here is a sample Engineering Gold Run utilizing your various teleportation devices as a Goblin Engineer.
  1. Use your Dimensional Ripper - Area 52.
  2. In Area 52 - Check for Khorium Power Core and Adamantite Frame on the vendor.
  3. Fly to Stormspire.
  4. Grab companion pets to flip from Exotic Pet Dealer.
  5. Grab Secret Recipe to flip for major profit from Exotic Weapons Dealer.
  6. Use Dimensional Ripper - Winterspring.
  7. Grab Winterspring Cubs from the vendor inside the inn, Michelle De Rum.
  8. Grab recipes from Qia, the Trade Supplies vendor, to flip.
  9. Grab recipes to flip from Xixxer Fizzbolt, the Engineering Supplies vendor.
  10. Use Wormhole Generator - Port to Scholazar Basin (Unless Underground Location appears as an option).
  11. Fly to Oracles camp and buy Mysterious Egg for a chance at the pets to flip in three days.
  12. Port (with Kirin Tor Ring) or Fly to Dalaran.
  13. Grab Dalaran Pets and recipes from vendors to flip.
This is just one of the many options for porting around as a goblin engineer looking to make gold in WoW. You can also vary your portal choices from the Wormhole Generator, since the Mysterious Egg from the Oracles is on a 3 day cooldown. And you can always try for your chance at the "Underground" option and grab those Engineering recipes to flip.

Engineering is all about utility and mobility. Use this to your advantage in your travels around Azeroth.

Thanks to Twitchiegw of Twitchie Enterprises for helping clear up an issue where I thought these recipes for the teleportation devices had been removed from the game in this last Patch.  If you need to learn the recipes for the devices, talk to the engineers by the devices in the prospective towns.  Thanks Twitchie and Faid for the catch. 

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out The Teenager's Gold Guide To Get Started With Learning The Auction House As A Younger Player Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold making Combo.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Patch 4.3: The Super Secret Recipe To Flip


It's A Secret To Everybody
The Patch 4.3 Added Super Secret Recipe

Anytime there is a new World of Warcraft patch, there are things that go can undiscovered and unnoticed.  If you are one of the first players to discover a way to make gold that no one else knows about, then you pretty much have a liscense to print gold until the discovery goes public.  This has definately been the case with the Patch 4.3 Hour of Twilight patch changes.  There was a recipe added to a pre-existing vendor that has pretty much flown under the radar, until today.  Those of us that knew about the new addition have been keeping it a secret amongst a few of us major gold makers.  I've made an easy 6k profit from flipping this recipe in just a few days.

Why keep it secret?  Well, I didn't find this awesome Enchanting recipe gold mine all by myself.  I was tipped off and promised to keep it a secret until the news broke.  And guess who I learned this great tip from?  @Twizzletank from Rep Grind Radio of all people!  Well done Sir!  Twizz was out in the Stormspire, Netherstorm gathering pets to flip from the Exotic Pet Dealer.  He wandered over to the Exotic Weapons Dealer, also in Stormspire, looking for items to flip to profit from the new Transmogrification.  And there it was it all it's glory.  The Enchanting recipe for Enchant Weapon - Executioner, a blue Enchanting recipe for less than 6 gold, is now available from the Exotic Weapons Dealer in Stormspire.  Enchant Weapon - Executioner was added to this vendor in Patch 4.3.  The Enchanting recipe is unbound when purchased and is sellable on the World of Warcraft auction house.

I sold 6 at 600 gold each, only listing 1 at a time to keep the appearance of it being a rare drop recipe.  After one would sell, I would immediately tossed up a new one.  I had the market completely to myself for a few days and made a nice chunk of easy gold.  I raised the price to 700 gold and sold a few more before a single competitor caught on.  Now I've diversified and am selling on the Alliance auction house as well, already have sold 2 today for 750 gold.  There still aren't a ton of players that are clued into this new change and this easy gold making niche market. 

Twizz told me about this awesome vendor flip and I've made some serious gold turning around 5 gold into 600-750 gold multiple times.  The guys I shared this top secret information with have also been reporting crazy profits, while no one else was aware of this pattern being added to the Stormspire vendor.  Thanks Twizz for the awesome tip!  Too bad someone had to open their fat mouth on the Consortium Forums about this recipe already.  Then this morning MMO-Champion reports the change as well.  You better get in while the gettin' is good, before everyone knows this secret. 

It was a great secret while it lasted.



Twizz & Cold

PS:  If you haven't already, be sure to tune into Rep Grind Radio on iTunes, Stitcher, or from the host site at Eviscerated.net.  R9sid9nt9vil and Twizzletank have an awesome podcast that is in my top listening slot.  Rep Grind Radio is released weekly and it's never soon enough for more fun with Rez and Twizz.  Episode #20 is a don't miss podcast, as it includes Twizz's interview with the crazed homeless man we met on our night out last month!

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out The Teenager's Gold Guide To Get Started With Learning The Auction House As A Younger Player Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold Making Combo.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Making Gold On Patch 4.3 Dungeon Quest Rewards

Patch 4.3 Dungeons, Free Loot, And Upgrades

Patch 4.3 has brought all kinds of new gear upgrades for many players thanks to the new 5-man dungeons, the new raid, the looking for raid system, and the placement of the old Valor gear on the Justice points vendors.  This has many players turning to the auction house for enhancing their newly obtained gear.  This is where we can make a large chunk of gold in World of Warcraft, by providing the items required to enhance these new item upgrades.

Remember at the start of Patch 4.3 and how well the cloak enchants were selling?  That was due to the quest chain from Thrall that reward you a choice of a new cloak, which was higher level than many non-raiders had access to.  This led to a nice increase in demand for all cloak enchants, which in turn, led to more sales and higher selling prices.

Patch 4.3 is even better.  In WoW Patch 4.3 we got three new 5-man dungeons and each of the new dungeons has 2 quests that reward gear upgrades.  These are item level 378 pieces of gear, which will send players to the auction house looking for new enhancements.  So let's take a look into the various new dungeon quest rewards and see how we can profit as auctioneering goblins.

Patch 4.3 New Dungeon Quest Rewards Gear

The WoW Patch 4.3 Hour of Twilight broughts us 2 new dungeons.

  1. End Time
  2. Well of Eternity
  3. Hour of Twilight
Within each dungeon are quest givers and each dungeon starts two new quests or chains.  These quests each award epic gear, so every player that completes all 3 of the new dungeons will get to choose 6 pieces of gear.  Some of these items will be chosen as the best item to disenchant or sell to a vendor, but a lot of these items will be upgrades for many characters.  That's where we take a look at which items are options to be obtained from these new easy to complete dungeon quests and gauge which enhancements to sell.  These are the easiest to be obtained, but there are still many other ways that players are getting new gear.  This is only looking into one source of incoming items.

What Loot Types Come From The New Dungeons?

Here are the item types that are available from the quest rewards.  The line in each list seperates the groups of choices from each of the 2 quests.  So the items above the line are the choices for quest 1, while the items below the line are the options to choose from on quest 2.

End Time
  • Tank Gun
  • Hunter Hands
  • Druid Boots
  • Cloth Head (with Meta-slot)
  • Cloth Hands
  • DPS Plate Hands
  • Wand
Well Of Eternity
  • Agility Ring
  • Healing Cloth Waste
  • Druid Healing Chest
  • DPS Plate Boots
  • Strength DPS Bow
  • Shaman Healing Belt
  • Off Hand
  • Holy Pally Boots
Hour Of Twilight
  • Wand
  • DPS Strength Ring
  • Healer Ring
  • Caster Ring
  • Cloth Healer Hands
  • Mail Waist
Looking at these possible item choices from the new Hour of Twilight dungeons you should be able to see some item enhancements to sell.  
  • Gloves Enchants
  • Caster Meta-Gems (Burning)
  • Belt Buckles
  • Boots Enchants
  • Scopes
  • Chest Enchants
These are all selling well right now, due to these ghetto upgrades handed out for free within the new Patch 4.3 dungeons.  Looking back at this list, I am going to add a few off-hand enchants to my sales list if the prices are right.  Hope these lists help trigger something for you that you may have missed.



Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out The Teenager's Gold Guide To Get Started With Learning The Auction House As A Younger Player Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold making Combo.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Patch 4.3 Jewelcrafting Sales And Suprises

WoW Patch 4.3 Gem Sales Are Epic
Patch 4.3 Epic Gold Making

World of Warcraft Patch 4.3 is in full swing on all world wide servers by now.  The gold is flowing for all of those that prepared and stockpiled for Patch 4.3.  My ways of making gold in Patch 4.3 are working out very well, with some tweaks and additions to my strategy.  We have only seen the beginnings of the gold making possibilities as this weekend will be the first weekend with Patch 4.3 live. 

Many players haven't even been exposed to the new patch yet, since there are many weekend only players.  So expect another huge rush on items this weekend.  The new arena season should be starting up next week, which will raise demand for all common commodities that are PvP related.  I haven't been able to sell as many of the new Vicious PvP gear items as I had hoped for.  This should change soon as the weekends are popular for PvP and the arena season will be starting back up soon.  Players will also be able to start spending their Valor points soon, since they converted to Justice points with the patch.

What's Been Selling In Patch 4.3

Rare gems are flying off of the shelves as the more readily available option for filling gear sockets.  There is plenty of new gear entering the servers thanks to the new dungeons, new raids, and the new raid finder.  Red gems are the biggerst movers and the highest priced, as they always are. 

The biggest suprise is the sheer number of Nightmare Tears that I have been able to unload.  I had been stocking up on both Dragon's Eyes for crafting the prismatic gems and Nightmare's Tears to flip when underpriced.  And boy has that been profitable.  I've been selling out of Nightmare's Tears for 700 gold per prismatic gem.  I have been using the WoW Armory to check the buyers of these Nightmare's Tear gems and, as I assumed, players are socketing them into prismatic gems slots (commonly found on relics).  The more educated understand that you can put any gem into a prismatic slot, but I'll keep taking 700 gold per sale on my prismatics. 

Meta-Gems are another excellent seller right now.  The top seller is by far the Burning Shadowspirit Diamond (the +Int / Crit Effect meta-gem).  I made equal cuts of all 3 of the newest Meta-gem cuts and the Burning sold out long before the other cuts even had a single sale.  Those cuts have picked up on sales now, but the Burning cut is by far the most profitable and is the quickest mover of all the meta-cuts.

Even more epic is the number of raw Chimera's Eyes that I have been moving in massive numbers.  I had stockpiled a ton of these JC reward and Fiery Prism rare created Chimera's Eyes.  I was stockpiling in hopes of a new Cataclysm prismatic gem, since my Nightmare's Tears have still been selling so well the entire Cataclysm expansion.  The prismatic never came, so I was stuck with a large chunk of Chimera's Tears. 

Since most Jewelcrafters are spending all of their saved JC tokens on the brand new epic gem cuts, they are willing to pay for Chimera's Eyes to cut for their own gear upgrades.  Seems like a lot of players dumped their stock earlier in the expansion and are now forced with the choice of buying off the auction house or wasting precious Cata JC tokens on Chimera's Eyes, which means less patterns.  It is working out well, as I'm there to snatch up all the sales of Chimera's Eyes from my stockpile I had originally decided was a bad investment after my speculation on prismatic gems was a giant failure.  Dump your stock now while the value is very high.

Epic Gems And Epic Transmutes (Not!)

Epic Gems are currently a huge dissapointment for many.  The drop rates from the geodes are low like we had been warned.  Epic gems are almost unseen on the auction house.  Ones that do find their way up are very expensive - 2000 to 6000 gold per on my server.  Prices that high are way too risky to invest in an uncut gem and then try and profit from cutting the epic gem to sell on the auction house.  Many players, myself included, are waiting for the prices to come down before attempting to profit from the new epic gems that came with Patch 4.3. 

Epic Gem transmute recipes are still no where to be found.  It seems that at this point, they aren't even implemented into the game.  Whether they will come in a smaller patch at a later time is yet to be determined.  It is is possible that we will not even see the ability to transmute epic gems this Cataclysm expansion.

Got any great sleeper picks in Jewelcrafting?  PvP Jewelty isn't worth the time or effort for the low prices currently on my server.

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 or the PvP and Gold making Combo.

Looking For Starter Tips?  Head Over To Goldgrubs.com.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

WoW Patch 4.3 Bugs That Screwed Gold Makers

First Things First:  One thing I love about patches in WoW is all of the great sales bringing me lots of gold.  The second thing I love about patches in WoW is all of the fresh new traffic that the patches bring to the blog.  So welcome new readers! Hope you find my site helpful, informative, and fun.  I hope to see you returning and participating in the comments of posts.  Welcome to gold making in the World of Warcraft!

WoW Patch 4.3 Bugs Are Restricting Gold Making
(Screw You Blizzard - Part 2)

Remember yesterday's post about my plan of attack for gold making in Patch 4.3 and all of the work I crammed into a couple nightly sessions in preparation for the early launch of WoW Patch 4.3?  Well, some of my hard work bit me in the ass, thanks to a couple of bugs that found their way through the WoW Patch 4.3 pipeline.  Thanks a lot Blizzard!

The Soulbound Bug

This one is the more annoying of the two gold making bugs from Patch 4.3.  While posting auctions from the Remote Auction House mobile application, I was getting some errors that I had never seen before.  I was trying to post items onto the AH from my phone and kept getting the error "You can't sell that item".  Can't sell it?  I've been selling these damn things for months and suddenly it is no longer sellable?  What the hell?  I dismissed it as, "It must be a bug with the mobile auction house and patch day."

Once I got home from work and start posting like a madman, I ran into the same issue.  This time, since I was logged into the game, I could see the real issue.  The items I couldn't post were all now Soulbound to my character!  What the hell?  I know I didn't accidentaly equip this BoE epic or this PvP crafted gear.  So I logged over and check other characters in my army of alts.  What the fuck!  My main Deathknight tank has an epic Engineering crafted  BoE gun, the Extreme Impact Hole-Puncher, bound to him and he can't even use ranged weapons.  Oh hell! 

I went to check all of my other alts and found out that every single piece of BoE gear that was in my characters bags were all now soulbound to those characters.  That meant that every item I had pre-crafted or had ready in my bags for posting after the servers came up was now bound to me, untradeable, and unsellable.  What a great reward for working so hard the 2 nights prior to get ready for the last major patch of the Cataclysm expansion.  Screw you Blizzard. 

The Durability Bugs

There are 2 durability bugs that became apparent after exploring my characters and their newly soulbound items.  One is the mailbox durability bug and the other is the equipped item durability bug.  Of course, my characters have been hit with a combination of both!  The mailbox durability bug is not that big of a deal.  Some items in your mailbox will show as having zero durability, which turns the item red.  If you remove the items from your mailbox, then the items will be fixed and the durability will be restored once in your bags.

The equipped item durability bug is the nastier of the two.  Items that you are wearing can have suffered the same fate.  I had just bought new valor gear with my Valor Points the night prior, since I knew that Valor was converting to Justice Points with the release of Patch 4.3.  When I logged in, the items I had just bought from the vendor the night before were all red and down to zero durability.  I just bought these damn things the night before and hadn't even left the city.  The cost to repair an epic item fully from zero can get quite hefty, especially if multiple items are affected.

The Fix Is Coming

I had a nice long chat on multiple characters with one of the WoW GMs after quickly opening a ticket and reporting these issues.  We logged over to multiple characters as I was the guinea pig, showing the GM the bugs and trying to find work arounds for the major issues.  As of now the bugs have not yet been fixed, but the GM assured me that others were reporting similar issues and that a hotfix or patch would be coming to fix the issues.  So here I am stuck with a bunch of soulbound BoEs that I can't sell until they fix them.  I also am waiting for the hotfix before wasting gold repairing items that shouldn't even be at zero durability anyway!  I suggest opening a ticket, if you are also stricken with these same bugs.  The more tickets, the faster the fix will come, I hope.

Maybe it's karma for pushing Mysterious Fortune Cards onto other players and getting them hooked.  Ha ha!

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out The Teenager's Gold Guide To Get Started With Learning The Auction House As A Younger Player Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold Making Combo.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

My Plan To Make Gold In Patch 4.3

Did You Get Caught With Your Pants On The Ground?

World of Warcraft Patch 4.3 Is Here!
(Screw You Blizzard)

Today is the big day that we have been waiting for as it is Patch 4.3 day in World of Warcraft.  The servers are already up and I am stuck at work still, but I do have my trusty iPhone and the Remote Auction House application working overtime.  Many of us got caught unprepared and are lookin' like fools with our pants on the ground.  I did not expect Patch 4.3 until next week, but Blizzard pulled a fast one on us and dropped the patch into World of Warcraft today, a full week ahead of the anticipated date.  No doubt, the patch is coming early so we can experience the new Darkmoon Faire Island next week, instead of having one more of the old version of the Darkmoon Faire.  Now I am over-stocked on a ton on Dense Grinding Stones for my Arcanite Rod crafting market.  Lol!

Steals and Deals Post Patch 4.3

I was fortunate enough to see some rock bottom prices all weekend long on things like Savage Leather (below 50 gold for once!), Pyrite Ore (39 gold stacks!) Elementium Ore (24 gold stacks!), Pre-cut Rare Red Gems (around 100g each) to add to my Patch 4.3 Stockpile and was lucky enough to snag a nice chunk of pre-cut Inferno Rubies from trade chat the day before.  I have been pretty chatty on Twitter lately (now that I'm single - lol) and have been using the new #goblinism hashtag to discuss steals and deals.  If you are not on twitter, please sign up and come join in on the fun, nonsense, sillyness, and idea sharing that is the WoW twitter community.  Find me @SSmith0911 on twitter and say hey.  Feel free to use my #goblinism hashtag to discuss your own steals, deals, and goblinish wisdom for others to admire and learn from.

Pants On The Ground
I had originally expected the WoW Patch 4.3 next week and had planned to finish getting ready all week long.  I had a lot to do to be fully prepared and was going to slowly and methodically get every crafter and every auctioneer ready for the big day.  I had just bought tons of Ores and tons of leathers as just 2 of the many areas I needed to devote some major attention to.  Then I bought 600+ more stacks of cheap ore when the news came out.  Patch 4.3 was coming today!  I had a day and a half to get ready.  I prospected until my fingers were near bleeding.  I converted Savage Leathers into Heavy Savage Leathers.  I crafted ahead what I knew was going to sell, things like Ebonsteel Belt Buckles, Bags, Rods, Mysterious Fortune Cards, Leg Armors (Tailoring and Leatherworking), amongst many other items.  I did as much as I could to get ready for Patch 4.3.  I didnt have enough time to do everything I wanted, but I felt ready enough to post enough today.  I will continue to craft the items that were unable to be crafted ahead of time (PvP gear), while maintaining my current auctions.
Patch Day Plan Of Attack
I've been furiously monitoring the WoW auction house since the servers came up early today.  The Remote Auction House application for iPhone has already helped me make some serious gold in WoW that I wouldn't have made without it.  Once I am off of work, I have a limited amount of time (can't call in sick tommorrow or I would) to make gold in the auction house.  Since my time is limited, I must have a plan of attack.  Hopefully, I will jog your memory of a task you need to do or give you a new idea.  Good luck tommorrow to all my Brit readers who get the Patch a day after us here in the US.  Here is my Patch 4.3 plan of attack.

  1. Download Patch and Install as needed.  I left the patch screen up when I left for work in hopes that the patch is already downloaded when I return home from work. (Fingers crossed.)
  2. Scribe - Learn the new Glyph of Shadow from Minor Inscription Research and post.
  3. Bark Mysterious Fortune Cards.
  4. Make new PvP Relics and post.
  5. Post Lion's Ink and Moonglow Ink for the informed, Snowfall Ink for the ignorant, all at high prices.
  6. Post normal glyphs with TSM.
  7. Leatherworker - Maintain Leg Armors and craft new PvP gear.
  8. Bark Mysterious Fortune Cards.
  9. Blacksmith - Maintain Ebonsteel Belt Buckles market and Blacksmithing Rods.
  10. Craft Plate and Mail PvP gear and sell on the auction house.
  11. Tailor / Enchanter - Post tons of Enchants for all the gear upgrades.
  12. Bark Mysterious Fortune Cards.
  13. Craft and Post PvP Cloth Gear.
  14. Learn Maelstrom Shatter and check prices of Shards versus Crystals.
  15. Craft More Luxurious Silk Gem Bags (selling these for 3.5k).
  16. Check prices of the newly tradeable Chaos Orbs.
  17. Post all pre-crafted Netherweave Bags.
  18. Engineer - Maintain Scope Market and Pets Markets.
  19. Bark Mysterious Fortune Cards.
  20. Jewelcrafter - Cut and post most profitable gems and meta-gems.
  21. Post all the Nightmare's Tears I have been buying up and flipping for double profits.
  22. Buy Epic Gems cuts from the JC vendor.
  23. Craft and Post new PvP Jewelry.
  24. Check for underpriced BoE Sinister Squashlings and other holiday pets to snatch.
  25. Typical business markets as usual.
  26. Bounce around and check for undercuts, emerging markets, and price spiking trends.
  27. Laugh at people wasting time and gold on Transmogrification.
Damn I have a lot to do!  Good thing, I'm off in 15 minutes and headed out the door for more Patch 4.3 goodness!  Good luck!

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out The Teenager's Gold Guide To Get Started With Learning The Auction House As A Younger Player Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold making Combo.