Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Enchant Gloves - Major Agility | Wrath Enchant Still Sells



The Wrath Enchant Still Selling

There are still a few enchants from the Wrath of the Lich King era that are still selling on the auction house in World of Warcraft.  One of those old Wrath of the Lich King enchants that is still worth selling as a scroll is the Enchant Gloves - Major Agility enchantment.  The Enchant Gloves - Major Agility scroll adds +20 Agility to a piece of handworn gear.  Who would buy this old Wrath level enchant when there are new enchants from the Cataclysm WoW expansion?

Hunters
Hunters have very few options for glove enchants.  They can get a Cataclysm enchant for either +50 Haste or +50 Mastery rating, but many hunters still go for the old +20 Agility enchant.  A search over at WoWPopular for hunter glove enchants shows that Haste is the most popular hunter enchant for gloves, winning with 6 stars.  Both the +50 Mastery and +20 Agility enchants are almost as popular with 4 star rankings each for hunters.  There are also a few Feral Druids that could pick up this enchant as well.

So if you are looking for a way to move a few Dream Shards and Greater Celestial Essences, consider adding the Enchant Gloves - Major Agility scroll to your enchanting auction house business.  Or if you are leveling your enchanting skill through the Wrath levels of enchanting, be sure to craft a few of these as part of your common commodity crafting approach to leveling your Enchanting profession.

What other Wrath of the Lich King Enchants are still selling?

Monday, May 30, 2011

For Those Who Came Before Us

Memorial Day

When you are sitting around drinking beer and cooking over the grill, remember that today is Memorial Day.  Remember those that fought for our freedom.  Remember those that came and have gone before us.  Today at Cold's Gold Factory, we pay homage to a blast from the World of Warcraft past.  You newer players can get a glimpse at an iconic clip from old school World of Warcraft players.

May they not be forgotten.

More Dots!

Back in Vanilla when the Onyxia raid was a blast, a single Deep Breath could wipe damn near the entire party.  Here is a clip of the More Dots raid leader leading his guild into the Onyxia raid.  The animation was added later, but the original was a recorded vent chat guild run.  Enjoy the show!



Sunday, May 29, 2011

Profiting From Cheap Cataclysm Herbs

Cheap Cataclysm Herbs

The prices on Cataclysm herbs have been falling as the herb and ore markets have been in flux since the change to uncommon Cataclysm gems has altered the targets of farmers and botters.  Many botters have started farming more Cata herbs and flooding the auction house has lead to reduced prices of these herbs. 

How can we take best advantage of this constant supply of lower priced Cataclysm herbs in World of Warcraft?

Options For Herbs

There are many routes that can be taken to turn the herbalism raw materials into profitable revenue avenues.  Let's explore the various options for each of the Cataclysm herbs.  Take a look at the products crafted by the various herbs and see if there is room for profit with these items on your server.  If you find some super cheap herbs, come back to this page and figure out the best way to use the specific herbs you can find for cheap.

Alchemy Options For Herbs
Azshara's Veil

Transmute: Ocean Sapphire - 3 Azshara's Veil + 3 Zephyrite
Elixir of the Cobra - 1 Azshara's Veil + 1 Cinderbloom
Elixir of the Naga - 1 Azshara's Veil + 1 Stormvine
Flask of the Draconic Mind - 8 Azshara's Veil + 8 Twilight Jasmine + 8 Volatile Life
Flask of the Winds - 8 Azshara's Veil + 8 Whiptail + 8 Volatile Life
Potion of Concentration - 2 Azshara's Veil
Potion of Illusion - 1 Azshara's Veil + 3 Volatile Life
Volcanic Potion - 1 Azshara's Veil + 1 Cinderbloom

Cinderbloom

Transmute: Ember Topaz - 3 Cinderbloom + 3 Hessonite
Draught of War - 1 Cinderbloom
Elixir of Impossible Accuracy - 1 Cinderbloom +1 Heartblossom
Elixir of the Cobra - 1 Cinderbloom + 1 Azshara's Veil
Flask of Steelskin - 8 Cinderbloom + 8 Twilight Jasmine + 8 Volatile Life
Ghost Elixir - 2 Cinderbloom
Mythical Mana Potion - 1 Cinderbloom + 2 Whiptail
Potion of Treasure Finding - 8 Cinderbloom + 4 Stormvine + 6 Heartblossom + 4 Whiptail
Prismatic Elixir - 1 Cinderbloom + 1 Whiptail
Volcanic Potion - 1 Cinderbloom + 1 Azshara's Veil

Heartblossom

Transmute: Inferno Ruby - 3 Heartblossom + 3 Carnelian
Elixir of Deep Armor - 2 Heartblossom
Elixir of Impossible Accuracy - 1 Heartblossom + 1 Cinderbloom
Elixir of the Master - 1 Heartblossom + 1 Twilight Jasmine
Flask of Flowing Water - 8 Heartblossom + 8 Stormvine + 8 Volatile Life
Golemblood Potion - 1 Heartblossom + 1 Volatile Life
Potion of Deepholme - 5 Heartblossom
Potion of Treasure Finding - 6 Heartblossom + 8 Cinderbloom + 4 Stormvine + 4 Whiptail

Stormvine

Transmute: Dream Emerald - 3 Stormvine + 3 Jasper
(2) Deathblood Venom - 2 Stormvine
Earthen Potion - 2 Stormvine
Elixir of Mighty Speed - 1 Stormvine + 1 Twilight Jasmine
Elixir of the Naga - 1 Stormvine + 1 Azshara's Veil
Flask of Flowing Water - 8 Stormvine + 8 Heartblossom + 8 Volatile Life
Potion of the Tol'Vir - 1 Stormvine  + 1 Whiptail
Potion of Treasure Finding - 4 Stormvine + 6 Heartblossom + 8 Cinderbloom + 4 Whiptail

Twilight Jasmine

Transmute: Demonseye - 3 Twilight Jasmine + 3 Nightstone
Elixir of Mighty Speed - 1 Twilight Jasmine + 1 Stormvine
Elixir of the Master - 1 Twilight Jasmine + 1 Heartblossom
Flask of Steelskin - 8 Twilight Jasmine + 8 Cinderbloom + 8 Volatile Life
Flask of the Draconic Mind - 8 Twilight Jasmine + 8 Azshara's Veil + 8 Volatile Life
Mythical Healing Potion - 2 Twilight Jasmine + 1 Volatile Life

Whiptail

Transmute: Amberjewel - 3 Whiptail + 3 Alicite
Flask of the Winds - 8 Whiptail + 8 Azshara's Veil + 8 Volatile Life
Flask of Titanic Strength - 8 Whiptail + 8 Cinderbloom + 8 Volatile Life
Mighty Rejuvenation Potion - 2 Whiptail
Mythical Mana Potion - 2 Whiptail + 1 Cinderbloom
Potion of Tol'vir - 1 Whiptail + 1 Stormvine
Potion of Treasure Finding - 4 Whiptail + 4 Stormvine + 6 Heartblossom + 8 Cinderbloom
Prismatic Elixir - 1 Whiptail + 1 Cinderbloom

Some of these recipes only require a single type of herb, but many require multiple types of Cataclysm herbs and / or Volatile Life.  The good thing is that the prices for Volatile Life are down along with the lowering herb prices, since the farmers get the Volatile Lifes from picking the Cataclysm herbs.  Check out my previous post on Alchemy - Making Potions for a guide to what potions I have been selling.



Inscription Options For Herbs

Milling these Cataclysm herbs will create Ashen Pigments and Burning Embers that can be crafted into Blackfallow Ink and Inferno Ink.  Scribes have some options other than just making glyphs for profit.

Scribe Options For Using Inks


Other Professions and Options
  • Convert MFCs to Fortune Cookies if you have maxed Cooking skill.
  • Transmuting gems is even more profitable when you send them to your Jewelcrafter to cut the gems and sell for a higher price.
  • Flip some of the raw herbs when there is a price spike or auction house shortage.
  • Save some herbs to unload within the few days after the next wave of bot banning.
So hopefully, this post will help you with ideas to profit off of all those cheap Cataclysm herbs that we are seeing on the World of Warcraft auction house.


Be sure to check out the Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery | WoW Gold Guide for the best strategies for profiting in the Mysterious Fortune Cards Market.  If no one is barking MFCs on your server, buy my guide and collect all the easy gold waiting for you.  If there are barkers on your server already, then the guide will help you set up tactics to steal sales away from your competitors and keep the buyers coming back to your MFCs.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

MFC Mastery Reviews and Affiliate Program

Reviews By Other Bloggers

The Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery WoW Gold Making Guide has been a great success.  Sales have been moving along well, with no complaints and no refunds!  I have just opened up the affiliate program for others to promote the guide.  Find out the details on the MFC Mastery Guide Affiliate Program tab.

Here are a few reviews of the guide by other bloggers.  Be sure to see what these bloggers had to say about the guide.  If you end up doing a review yourself, be sure to forward me the link and I can add your review to this list as well.

More great gold tips tommorrow.


Spotlight:  Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery by Wes of Capped By Cata
"Cold has made a crazy amount of Gold on these things since their infancy, as they play on peoples emotions and greed, the ability to capitalize is far from over. If you've ever wanted to take a small step at becoming truly wealthy, this one is worth your time and the small investment."




R9sid9nt9vil's review at Eviscerated.net
"I would have to say this is the first guide I bought that had an “Answer” in it that I didn’t have myself and most likely wouldn’t have come up with on my own. It was well worth the money."




Shamanae's Review At Ele-mental Gold
"The 4k profit on the first day is just the beginning because you need to invest time into it so people get the hang of it and get addicted. All in all I think the guide is worth it's money. With little effort I was already looking at a 28k profit per week rate from just a single item which is amazing. If we look at a monthly rate this could be 112k a month at least and that for a minor $11 lesson."







Friday, May 27, 2011

Patch 4.2 Gem Stacking and Epic Gems | Guest Post By Shikari


Today I have a guest post by Shikari of Shikari's AH.  Shikari is just getting his feet wet in WoW gold blogging.  Be sure to check out what he has to say on this new site at http://shikarigold.blogspot.com/.

Patch 4.2 and Stacked Gems
WoW Patch 4.2 is already shaping up to be an interesting patch for players with a lot of new things coming out. This includes a new zone with new factions, dailies, and most importantly a new raid. Patch 4.2 is also introducing a big change for WoW Jewelcrafters, the ability to stack cut gems.

This is going to have a dramatic effect on the gem economy across servers. A lot of my business comes from players who have just obtained a new piece of gear and need the gems quickly, so they buy them from the auction house. This change is going to effect that market in a unique way, but fear not Jewelcrafters this could be a good opportunity for us in several ways.

1.) If your server is anything like mine then obsidian ore and elementium ore have been crashing like there is no tomorrow. On my server the price for these ore’s has plummeted and last week I picked up 40 stacks of elementium for 23 gold a piece. Once the patch drops (even if epic gems are implemented), there will still be a demand for superior quality gems by players gearing up for new content.  If epic gems aren’t implemented, players who are progressing through the new raid content will still be buying the gems we are currently selling.  Some of these players, who don’t like repeated visits to the AH will take to buying multiple gems that they will be able to keep in their bags in stacks.

2.) Many players, feeling burned out took time off the game. One thing I noticed on my server, not too sure about other servers, was that after high end guilds managed to down all Cataclysm raid content (whether on heroic or normal), many of those guilds wound up quitting wow and stating they would be reforming with the release of Firelands. Many of these players will be coming back and these high end guilds will need cut gems.

This is a good opportunity for Jewelcrafters as many of those high end guild gem cutters did not do the gem dailies and obtain tokens during their hiatus.  Many of them may have only the basic cuts. Whether epic gems are implemented or not, many guilds who supply gems to their guild will jump to ensure that their guild bank has some cut gems on stock so they’re players will not waste much time trying to find someone to cut said gems.  If epic gems are implemented, many guilds and players will be wanted said gems for higher content and will be paying top dollar for cut epic gems so that they don’t have to go shopping for a JC with a particular cut.

**********************
 
Bloggers remember you can always contact me with an idea you have for a guest post or an offer for swapping guest posts.
 
Readers can also submit reader submissions which can be featured in a daily post, which will give you credit for your submission and help the other readers out there to make more gold. 
 
So feel free to contact me with tips and post ideas / guest posts.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Don't Stockpile For WoW Patch 4.2 Just Yet


Stockpiling For Patch 4.2

A lot of the other warcraft blogs and resource sites are already telling you what items to stockpile to take advantage of the looming World of Warcraft Patch 4.2.  WoW Patch 4.2 will be adding a lot of new craftable recipes for gear and weapons.  Many of these are going to require vast amounts of high end raw materials.  By stocking up prior to a Patch, you are able to maximize your ability to craft heavy batches of items to meet the major demand spikes that occur just after a Patch is released.

Stockpiling items that you know you will be able to use in your gold making ventures is a good idea.  The key is knowing what to stockpile, how much of it, and when to start stockpiling.  While I agree with the obvious items that are good options for stockpiling, I don't agree with the idea that you should already be starting your stockpiling efforts.  Now is not the time to start stockpiling for Patch 4.2.  I haven't started yet myself, but I will start in a couple of weeks.

Market Cycles of WoW

One of the major things you learn when becoming a veteran gold maker is the changing market cycles of the World of Warcraft economy.  After playing in multiple markets for years, it becomes second nature to predict and expect certain changes within the economy.  That's what we gold bloggers do.  We try to help you understand these cycles beforehand so that you too can be prepared to profit.  Have you been learning?

When are the two times that Small Eggs are the most valuable?


Answer is within this post on WoW Market Cycles, if you need help.

Ok, that one was easy.

Thinking about a different market cycle now.

What major cycle happens every year around this same time every single year (give or a take a week or two) that affects a lot of the markets in World of Warcraft?

This market cycle leads to an influx of players, an increase in items sold daily, an increase in competition on the auction house, increased playtime hours, and even more horrible banter in the trade chat channel.  Think about the question and try and identify the cycle yourself.

The Summer Cycle

Yup, you've got it!  Schools will be letting out for the summer session.  The end of the school year for colleges and high schools is a major market cycle that you can count on every year.  Remember how grateful we were when school started back up in the fall?  Well, it is time to be thinking about those changes that the influx of players with longer available play times will bring to the markets of WoW.

More playtime and more players means more influx of raw materials, more chances of people posting things for stupid prices, and  more chances to get undercut on the auction house and drive the prices even lower.  So for this reason alone, I have not yet begun to stockpile materials for the Patch 4.2 release.  Once the majority of schools are out for the summer, we will start to see prices dropping in many markets.  So wait a couple of weeks and then start stockpiling, as this influx of players will lead to many raw materials markets giving way to cheaper prices.  Stockpiling is all about getting a large volume of materials at the the best prices to provide a larger profit margin once the demand skyrockets.

Why stockpile now, when you can probably get the same materials for cheaper in a couple of weeks?


Anyone disagree with my thinking?

Image credit: Alto's Goldish Advise

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Forged Documents Are Easy Profits Now

Forged Documents

Back in December, I wrote about the Forged Documents For Scribes.  Back then the recipe required 3 Blackfallow Inks, but since Patch 4.1 the recipe requirement has been lightened.  The Forged Documents now only require a single Blackfallow Ink and 1 Resilient Parchament.  This simple change makes the Forged Documents and their daily quest a profitable option as opposed to being just a nice way to level your Inscription Skill 1 point per day.

The following charge can be used to determine how many Blackfallow Inks you can obtain for each stack of Cataclysm herbs.  The Ore and Herb markets have been in flux and you can often find Cataclysm herbs for crazy low prices.

Cataclysm Herbs and Inks Chart


Cataclysm Herb     Skill To Mill Inks Per stack Average
Cinderbloom4255 Blackfallow Ink & 0.5 Inferno Ink
Stormvine4255 Blackfallow Ink & 0.5 Inferno Ink
Azshara’s Veil4505 Blackfallow Ink & 0.5 Inferno Ink
Heartblossom4505 Blackfallow Ink & 0.5 Inferno Ink
Twilight Jasmine4756 Blackfallow Ink & 1 Inferno Ink
Whiptail4756 Blackfallow Ink & 1 Inferno Ink


So removing the Inferno Ink from the equation, you can see that 1 stack of Cinderbloom, Stormvine, Azshara's Veil, or Heartblossom will mill into 5 Blackfallow Inks.  The Whiptail and Twilight Jasmine will produce 6 Blackfallow Inks on average when milled.

Is Making Forged Documents Daily Profitable?

Each time it is completed the Forged Documents quest will award you a sack of gold that will provide you 18-25 gold for the quest completion.  The quest is super easy.  Just craft your Forged Document, start the quest, and hand it to one of many vendors in Orgrimmar (or alliance capital) to get your sack of gold.

So let's look at an example.

30g for a stack of Cinderbloom.

30g / 5 Inks = 6 gold it cost you per Blackfallow Ink.
6g Blackfallow Ink combined with a 50 silver parchament and you have 6.5 gold invested to make a Forged Document that will reward you more than double that investment.

This is a great way to start forming a daily pattern of everday tasks for everyday gold.

Unfortunately we Scribes can only create and complete 1 Forged Document quest per day, but it is a fail safe way to make some easy gold every single day on your high level scribe. Best thing is the profit is guaranteed as long as the herbs prices are at a low enough price.  We can only hope that one day the cooldown will be removed and we can craft these over and over for easy gold.  This would create a valid floor price for Cataclysm herbs much like the floor price of shuffling obsidium ores.  We can only hope.  I doubt the cooldown will be removed ever.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

2 Common WoW Auction House Buyers | Are You Forgetting One?

Buyers on the WoW AH

When broken down to the simplest basics of the auction house, there are 2 main types of buyers on the World of Warcraft auction house.  These 2 main types I will refer to as Purchasers and Shoppers.  Obviously, these are both types of buyers, but they tend to think quite differently from one another.  When profiting on the auction house, it is important to remember that these two types of buyers exist.  Catering to both the Shoppers and the Purchasers will bring you better profits than if you were focusing on just one of the two types of WoW auction house buyers.

Purchasers

A Purchaser is a player that just wants to get a specific item and heads to the auction house to buy it.  The purchaser is only in the auction house to buy the item that they are in immediate need of.  They do not look for a cheaper way to get the item.  They head straight in and search for what they are after and then they buy whichever one is listed for the lowest price in the auction house at the time that they need it.

When selling to the Purchaser type of player, you want to have the lowest priced item on the auction house.  The purchaser will come and search what they are after and buy the one that costs the least.  These buyers may or may not know what they are looking for when they enter the auction house.  They may be looking for a "red gem" or for a specific Bold Inferno Ruby.  What is common with the Purchasers is that they will always be looking for and buying an end product.  This could be a crafted item, a cut gem, an item for an achievement, etc.  They tend to be find it and buy it types of thinkers.  They aren't really the type to hunt for a way to get the item cheaper.

Shoppers

A Shopper is a type of WoW player that still uses the auction house, but they tend to "Shop Around" for the best use of their gold to end up with the same item that a Purchaser would just buy outright.  Shoppers are the ones that could be seen as a little more thrifty or you could consider them more of a smarter shopper that the Purchaser.  They don't buy a finished product unless that is the cheapest option.  A Shopper is more likely to ask to see the crafting recipe for an item, buy the materials themselves, and then have it crafted for a fee or a tip.  The Shopper can often get the same items for a cheaper overall price because they are willing to invest a bit of time and energy searching for the best deal.

Using the same example of a Bold Inferno Ruby, the Shopper is much more likely to compare the prices of the cut gems versus the uncut gem prices.  If a gem can be created for cheaper by buying the raw material and just paying a jewelcrafter a tip, then this is the route the Shopper will take.  Why buy an item for full price, if you can get the parts for cheaper and just tip the crafter?

When selling items for Shopper types, you need to list some materials for common items to be crafted.  A good example can be seen from a previous post of mine on Selling Deepstone Oils in Stacks of 8 since the Vial of Sands recipe requires 8 Deepstone Oil.  A Shopper type, may be another auctioneer.  A Shopper could also be looking for materials on the auction house to craft into finished products to post for a profit on the auction house.  These types of Shoppers are great repeat buyers and you can profit from them if you are able to supply some of the rarer materials they need in their crafting strategy.  You can sell Large Fangs for Shoppers looking to craft Barbaric Bracers.  You can sell Spider's Silk to those looking to make Spidersilk Boots.  You get the point.

Supplying Both Purchasers and Shoppers

Remember to not forget about the Shoppers.  As auctioneers, we tend to cater more towards the Purchasers who are in the auction house to buy our finished products.  Don't forget the Shoppers!  Enchanting is a great example of a profession that can make much more gold from catering to both the Shopper and Purchaser markets.  I myself sell item enhancement scrolls with the enchants already on the vellums, but I also sell the raw materials too.  Why?  To cover both markets!  A Purchaser may come to the auction house to buy an Enchant Scroll - Fiery Weapon so I sell those ready to buy and enchant your weapon.  I also will sell overpriced Small Radiant Shards and Essense of Fire for those Shoppers just looking to gather the materials.

Are you forgetting to cater to the Shoppers as well as the Purchasers?

Monday, May 23, 2011

One Step Ahead of Gold Tips

Did You Catch It?

Flux and Jokinee over on the Power Word : Gold Podcast, recently interviewed Nev "The Chocolate Cookie Queen" of the Auction House Addict Blog.  Check out Episode #9 to hear the interview.  At one point during the podcast, the trio is talking about stack sizes and Nev mentions an older post of mine: Deepstone Oil For Vial Of Sands Mounts

In this post I talked about listing Deepstone Oil with a stack size of 8 because that many are required in the creation of the Vial of Sands.  They also sell well as singles for people that want to just get frozen to pose on their characters.  When Nev brought up the idea of the 8 oil stack size, she also mentioned that she also looks for oddball size stacks already posted on the auction house.  When someone has a weird stack size like 5 posted, she will toss up a stack of 3 to provide the extra Deepstone Oils needed to create an 8 stack.  She reports that the tactic is working well for her.

Evolve Your Mind

This is a great example of how your mind will start to change and evolve into thinking in new and more critical ways.  She took the information relayed on a blog post and thought about it even deeper.  She then figured out something to test out on her own server's auction house and was able to put the great idea into work and turn a profit.  She wasn't just reading the information and taking it as it was written.  She digested that post and reformed it into an extension of the original idea.  She learned and expanded it.  Do you?

You as readers must remember that in order to truly become a great gold maker in World of Warcraft, you can't just read and copy everything that you see on a blog or resource site.  Each server is a completely independant environment.  What works on one server may not work on your server.  Everything depends.  It all depends on...various variables that can all be different on your server.  What is important to understand and take from within any blog post is the thought process.  Start asking yourself why something would work?  Start trying to identify cycles or changes or fluctuations before the occur.  Start thinking ahead towards upcoming changes and become a more proactive reader.  Try something new.  If you want to be really great at making gold you must evolve your mind and start to look deeper within each and every blog post.  Digest it.  Test it.  Try It.  Think It.  Link It.  Profit.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Large Brilliant Shards For Honor

Large Brilliant Shards

Large Brilliant Shards have become a hot commodity on the auction house.  There just aren't a whole lot of them people created via lower level dungeoneering, so the price has gone up.  The return of the Crusader Enchant dropping again in Eastern Plaguelands could also play a roll in increasing demand for these shards.  There are many other enchants that require Large Brilliant Shards as part of the crafting components for an Enchanter.  If you have a strong twink market on your server, then this list will be even more appealing for you to profit from your Enchanting Profession. 

Profitable Recipes That Require LBSs
  • Enchant Chest - Greater Stats (+4 All Stats)
  • Enchant Weapon - Crusader
  • Enchant Weapon - Mighty Intellect (+22 Int)
  • Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spirit (+20 Spi)
  • Enchant Weapon - Healing Power (+29 SP)
  • Enchant Weapon - Spellpower (+30 SP)
  • Enchant Weapon - Strength (+15 Str)
  • Enchant Weapon - Agility (+15 Agi)
  • Enchant 2-Handed Weapon - Agility (+25 Agi)
How To Get Large Brilliant Shards

My current ways of getting Large Brilliant Shards include:
  • Crafting items like Runecloth Headbands to disenchant.
  • Buying low priced blue gear off the auction house to disenchant.
  • Farming lower level dungeons on my enchanter. 
Well, I just did some hunting around in game and have found another great way to get Large Brilliant Shards.  You can now disenchant a lot of the PvP gear available in the capital cities.  The one I have been using is Sergeant's Cloak from the Legacy Armor Quartermaster. The Sergeant's Cloak costs only 55 Honor Points and disenchants to 1 Large Brilliant Shard.  I have been racketting the price of the LBSs up to 75 gold each on my server and they are still selling.  That doesn't even include the sales of scrolls made from even more LBSs.   The PvP cloaks will bind to your character so you must purchase them with your enchanter character.  If you still have some of the Bind on Account honor tokens saved up, then you can send them to your enchanter to use those tokens to convert that honor into gold.

So if you are in a pinch to get more Large Brilliant Shards and have honor to spare, be sure to give the Sergeant's Cloak a try as it is a super easy, efficient way of coverting wasted honor to gold.

Anyone else have a good way to get Large Brilliant Shards?


Saturday, May 21, 2011

My Hall of Fame Entry at WarcraftEcon

Quick Link

Warcraft Econ is a awesome site that puts out great content as well as hosting entries for Gold Capped players and details the tactics of how the lofty goal was reached.

Head over to Warcraft Econ and check out my entry into the 500,000 WoW Gold Making Hall of Fame.

Colddrawn of Eitrigg-US

Auction House Junkies Episode #9 Is Out

Auction House Junkies Episode #9

The ninth edition of our gold making podcast is now live on iTunes, Podbean (podcast host site), and the embedded site player at AuctionHouseJunkies.com.  This is a special episode as it is Wes's last episode as a single man and he will be returning to us a married man.  Yes, Wes of CappedByCata.com is off the market ladies.  Congrats on the big weekend, Wes!  We sure to visit the Auction House Junkies site and leave comments for new show topics or ideas over on the Auction House Junkies Episode 9 post.

Here's a list of just some of the items we discuss on this excellent episode. 
We wanted to push out an episode before Wes is gone on his honeymoon, because as Stewards of the Gold Making Community, we didn't want to keep you junkies waiting too long between episodes.
Enjoy the Show!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Are You Neglecting Your Banks?

Too Much Stock?

Is there ever a point where you have too much stock?  I definately say yes.  I know what it is like to have too many random things stockpiled.  When I first started gathering materials and items that could benefit my other characters, I was much more of a pack rat then an efficient organizer.  Anything of potential value got stored in the bank.  Any material used to craft or cook was stocked into the guild bank. 

I began hoarding all kinds of materials and working on a WoW stockpile. Each time I leveled a new crafting profession, I had the majority of the items already saved up from my multiple alts who constantly kept the vault stocked with odds and ends.  Now that all of my characters are near maxed in all of their professions, I still have that main guildbank stocked full of all kinds of crafting materials, raw goods, and enhancement items for my alts.  They just don't need those items anymore.  So a lot of what is left in the guildbank is outdated junk that I've been needing to sort over and organize.

Spring Cleaning

Sometimes I tell myself I need to clean out these guild banks and get them organized.  I also want to clear a lot of the completely, sell the guildbank, and move my alt back into my main guild for the benefit of guild perks.  This time I finally took the initiative and I am moving some items to the auction house in order to consolidate. 

One big thing I noticed is that I had been neglecting to keep the guild bank in order for quite some time.  I found items that are now greyed items and have no value other than to be vendored.  I had been passing down Argent Dawn reputation items from alt to alt and still had some stocked up in the guildbank.  Well they are all now grey vendor trash.  Definately a lesson in losing value over time.  Only stock away items that are going to be used in your routine currently or that will gain in value.  The majority of items tend to decay in value over time.  Finding the right item to stock away and save that will increase in value is the ideal item for stockpiling.



Thursday, May 19, 2011

WoW Add-On Spotlight | Realm Gold

Realm Gold WoW Add-On


Realm Gold Add-On

You may have heard Wes and I discuss on The Auction House Junkies | WoW Gold Making Podcast how we both tend to run "bare bones" when it comes to Add-Ons.  Today I present to you a post on one of my favorite Add-Ons, Realm Gold.

Realm Gold is a sweet and simple World of Warcraft add-on that I use and love.  Realm Gold is available from Curse.com and it is a very small program.  You can follow this link to read more about or to download Realm Gold from Curse.com.  What it does it very simple, yet so convenient.  Realm Gold has also been updated for Patch 4.1 already, so it is currently working.

Realm Gold adds up the total amount of gold that you have on all characters on your server.  You can also increase the size of the gold tool tip display.  Yup, that's all this add-on does.  This allows for a quick glance at your total available liquid gold without having to add each characters totals to get your realm gold total.  Instead of viewing various amounts on different characters, having all of the totals calculate and displayed as a grand total will change the way you think about spending your gold.  Seeing my grand total has lead to a change in my thinking about my gold total and how much I am willing to spend or invest in a new market.

After you are constantly seeing your gold total as a 6 digit number, you too will probably stop paying attention to the 1,2, and 3 digits.  When I think of my gold total now, it is in 555,xxx amounts.  I don't even see the singles, tens, or hundreds columns anymore.

So I am currently only running the following Add-Ons because I don't need that many to operate efficiently and effectively.

  1. Auctioneer
  2. Postal
  3. AnnounceIt (This is a must for making barking tactics easier.)
  4. Realm Gold
  5. Trade Chat Forwarder - Allows you to view trade chat anywhere as long as another TCF user is in a major city.  This add-on re-broadcast trade channel messages.
  6. Deadly Boss Mods 

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Patch 4.2 Engineering Love

Datamined Info For Engineers

As many of you already know Engineering is my most favorite profession within World of Warcraft.  Colddrawn, my main, is a miner engineer, which allows me to benefit from the Electrostatic Condensor bonus for Volatile Airs from mining nodes.  Overall, being an engineer hasn't seen a great many ways to profit in Cataclysm outside of companion pets (yet again).

Currently we Engineers have very limited uses for Chaos Orbs.  A couple mediocre ranged weapons and our nice Engineering only Killshades are the only recipes for Engineers that require the Chaos Orbs.  Even with the limited uses, I have continued to roll "Need" in heroic dungeons as I was hoping that Chaos Orbs would a) be required for future added Engineering recipes or b) become un-soulbound and be able to be sold or transfered to my other crafters.  Well my looking ahead, or sheer greediness whichever you want to call it, is going to pay off in Patch 4.2.

New Engineer Crafted Weapons and Scopes

In Patch 4.2, Engineers will have another item to craft with the Chaos Orbs that we have been stockpiling.  The following items have been datamined from the PTR data.  We will be getting a new gun recipe and a couple of new scopes.

New Gun
Extreme-Impact Hole Puncher BoE Engineering crafted ilvl 365 Gun - Recipe binds on pick-up.  this gun takes 5 Chaos Orbs to craft.  Where the recipe will come from is still being speculated on as there is no concrete evidence yet of it's origin.

Extreme-Impact Hole Puncher


New Scopes
Flintlocke's Woodchucker Recipe binds on pick-up.
Squirrel Sights - item data-mined, but not implemented yet.

Flintlocke's Woodchucker Scope

WarcraftEcon has an excellent write up covering a lot more of the new craftable weapons and gear coming in Patch 4.2.  Check out the post on Patch 4.2 Firelands Preparation.  Keep your eyes peeled at the Warcraft Econ Hall of Fame as my entry should be going live sometime soon.  It's already included in the list of coming soon Hall of Fame posts for 500k.  So keep your eye out for when it goes live.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

World of Warcraft Blogging 101

World of Warcraft Gold Bloggers

Maybe you are already blogging about World of Warcraft or maybe you have been thinking about giving blogging a try.  I have been blogging at Cold's Gold Factory about World of Warcraft for almost a year and a half now.  I have my share of experiences and would like to pass on some of the things I have learned to those of you that are less experienced or may be thinking about getting started with your first WoW blog.

Since the release of the Cataclysm expansion, the number of World of Warcraft gold blogging sites has exploded.  Many new bloggers have joined the gold blogging community, but not all of them will have the staying power to last.  Why?  Gold blogging with a consistent schedule and top quality content is harder than you may think.

Blogging Is Not Easy

Blogging is hard work.  It can take upwards of 2 or more hours per post when we finalize a post for our readers.  Sometimes topics ideas will come to you quickly, but many times you have to put a lot of thought and effort into deciding what to even write about.  When you are a fresh blogger, the topic ideas may not be so hard to come up with, but once you have written on a lot of topics already, it gets harder and harder to come up with something new to discuss.  This is only compounded the longer you continue to blog within the same topic niche.  Thankfully as WoW bloggers, there will always be patch notes to spark our minds with new topics.  Be forewarned though, it is not easy to come up with top quality readable content every single day.

Why Are You Blogging?

Every blogger has their own reason for starting a World of Warcraft blog.  My reason for blogging may be completely different than your reason for sharing your thoughts with the rest of the world.  Regardless whatever reason you choose to start up a World of Warcraft blog, stick to your reasoning.  Don't change up your reason for blogging because of what pressures or attacks you may receive from commentors, readers, or other bloggers.  Which brings me to my next pointer.

You Need To Have Thick Skin

Can you take criticism?  Do you have thick skin?  Why?  You will be getting feedback on your blog posts.  Some of it will be good and some of it will be bad.  You may even get some hate mail.  Just this weekend I had an odd request from a newer blogger asking to be removed from my blogroll.  This author stated that he was under a massive hate mail attack and was being accused by other bloggers of stealing content, being a copy-cat, and he was ready to quit blogging completely.  After some of us veteran bloggers sent replies he has decided to continue on, which is nice to see.  Remember, the more popular and successful you become, the more haters will come out of the woodwork.  So listen to constructive criticism, especially if it is from a fellow blogging veteran, but don't put too much effort and energy into hate mail and idiots who want to leave stupid comments on your blog.  One quick way to cut out a lot of the "OMG, you suck!" type comments is to not allow commentors to use Anonymous commenting.  I have recently turned off anonymous commenting, because 90% of the time anon comments are from idiots that are scared to post their name with their comment and are just commenting to stir trouble.

Get In Touch With Others

If you want to be successful, get in touch with the other bloggers in your niche.  Try to establish working relationships with multiple other bloggers and at least 1 veteran blogger.  By veteran, I mean a blogger who has been within the niche for a year or longer.  These veteran bloggers can serve as a great mentor for you.  I myself have help a handful of the current WoW gold bloggers that are still publishing today.  Many of us blog because we like sharing our tips and tricks and enjoy helping others make gold in the game.  On the same note, most of us will gladly help you get started and will help you understand some of the basics of gold blogging.  Who is your blogging mentor?  Don't be afraid to ask for help or to bounce ideas off of one another.

Write A Guest Post

Guest posting is an excellent way to establish a relationship with another site owner as well as a great tool for getting exposure to new readers.  Contact some of the better known blogs and offer to write a guest post for them.  Many times we bloggers welcome guest posts to help out newer bloggers, but also it gives us a post for a day, which lightens our busy schedule a bit.  Guest posting is a win-win situation.  Just be sure to adhere to any guidelines or recommendations from the hosting author and don't get offended if you are asked to polish up your entry. 

Join a Blogging Carnival

Just as guest posting is great for exposure and relationship building, so is writing for a blogging carnival.  Submitting regular posts to a monthly blogging carnival is an awesome way to both build readers and relationships.  Here at Cold's Gold Factory I host a monthly gold blogging carnival and I am always looking to feature new authors and their World of Warcraft sites.  So if you haven't particpated yet, what is holding you back.  Join the CGF Gold Blogging Carnival participants and get your articles read by many more users than you may be able to find on your own.

Need More Blogging Help?

Feel free to follow me on twitter @SSmith0911 and ask questions there or shoot me an email at SSmith0911 (at) live (dot) com.  I'm more than appy to help you get started and answer any questins you may have.  And I am always willing to support other authors by publishing guest posts or exchanging guest posts.  All you have to do is ask.

Also Flux over at Power World Gold has a nice WoW Gold Blog Directory, which you can use to get in touch with all of the gold bloggers and podcasters.

Back to more top notch gold tips tommorrow.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Satchel of Exotic Mysteries Results

Satchel of Exotic Mysteries

The new tank and healer bribes from the Call To Arms dungeon feature have included a major variety of items within the various Satchels that I have received.  A couple days ago I wrote about how you can use these Satchels of Exotic Mysteries to transfer gold and items cross faction without using the neutral auction house.

On Auction House Junkies Episode #8 I mentioned how I was keeping record of all of my results from the Satchel of Exotic Mysteries.  I have just opened my 10th Satchel and am reporting those results here.

  1. 46g 04s 90c, 1 Inferno Ruby
  2. 35g 64s 40c, 1 Flask of the Winds
  3. 69g 87s 25c, 1 Dream Emerald, 1 Reins of the White Polar Bear
  4. 46g 59s 19c, 2 Mythical Healing Potions
  5. 35g 85s 78c, 1 Ember Topaz
  6. 62g 91s 51c, 1 Flask of Steelskin
  7. 49g 18s 61c, 1 Ocean Sapphire
  8. 87g 84s 76c, 1 Earthen Potion
  9. 98g 23s 51c, 1 Inferno Ruby
  10. 49g 01s 84c, 2 Runescroll of Fortitude II
So you can see with the first 10 bags I have received on my tank, I did get one epic mount.  Unfortunately I already had that one.  So it went to an alternate WoW character of mine.

The amount of gold received is no where near what the repair costs are on many of the ZA / ZG runs.  You can profit much more reliably by running the Random Cataclysm Heroics instead of the Za / ZG Heroics.  Far less wipes overall and the regular heroic runs are much faste.  Therefore the regular heroics are a better use of time, if you are just farming for the Satchel of Exotic Mysteries

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Dreamcloth Cooldown Removal in Patch 4.2


Dreamcloth Cooldown Removed?

Despite what you may have seen or heard, at this point there is no data to reflect that the Dreamcloth cooldown will actually be removed in Patch 4.2.  The current Patch 4.2 PTR build 14117 data-mined information mentions Dreamcloth cooldowns.  On MMO-Champion it states that each version of Dreamcloth "possibly doesn't have a cooldown anymore, but cooldowns look super sketchy in the game files in the first place so be careful."

I wouldn't worry too hard or start planning too far ahead on this speculation.  Remember PTR build data-mined information isn't always the most accurate.  When the raw data mined Patch notes where originally posted, they showed that the 7 second cooldown on Dreamcloth was being removed.  Some people starting tweeting about the week long cooldown being removed, which was an inaccurate deduction.  The comment section on the post also showed that some more people were misreading the information.  All that was showing to be removed was the 7 second cooldown.  So you wouldn't have to wait 7 seconds between crafting each version of the Dreamcloth back to back.  Not really a game changer.  The Dreamcloth should still be restricted by the once per 7 days cooldown, unless something changes further.

On a similar note:  Patch 4.2 should also bring us jewelcrafter cut gems stacking.  It's about time.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

FREE Gold Exchange Cross Faction | Satchel of Exotic Mysteries Exploit

Satchel of Exotic Mysteries

If we take a look at the Satchel of Exotic Mysteries from the recently added (Patch 4.1) Call to Arms random dungeon feature, there is a new way it can be used.  Just yesterday I was running random dungeons on one of my tanks when this idea came to me.

The Call to Arms & Satchel of Exotic Mysteries post I wrote earlier shows what all can come from these new Satchels:

Satchel of Exotic Mysteries Contents
  • Gold
  • A Chance at a Rare Gem
  • A Chance at a Flask or Elixir
  • A Good Chance at a Companion Pet (Includes cross faction pets and reputation awarded pets)
  • A Very Rare Chance at a Rare Mount (Only mounts from dungeons [not raids] and odds are the same drop rate as from the original boss source)

Bind-On-Account

These Satchels of Exotic Mysteries are Bind-on-Account.  This was designed by Blizzard so that if your main is a DPS character, you can run the random heroic dungeons on an alternate character that is a healer or a tank and still have a chance to collect the mounts and pets.  You can collect the Satchels of Exotic Mysteries on the tank or healer, then mail them (unopened) to your main who can extract the pet or mount.

You MUST turn off your auto-loot option, so that you don't automatically loot the items when you peek inside to see the satchel's contents.  Turning off auto-loot allows you to peek inside the satchel and see what lies inside.  Then you can mail it to your main to extract the pet or mount.  The mounts themselves are Bind-on-Pickup so if you look inside and loot it, you are stuck with any doubles you get that you already have and won't be able to send them to an alternate character.  So make sure you turn off that auto-loot before peeking in your Satchel of Exotic Mysteries.

Exploiting The Satchel Cross Faction

As I mentioned earlier, the intent was to allow you to farm mounts and pets on alts, to send to your main.  There is a nice additional use that I just figured out.  Instead of taking out the items and gold, then sending the pets and mounts still in the bag to your main, try this.

Leave everything in the Satchel of Exotic Mysteries, including the gold.  Each bag can have a hefty sum of gold alone.  I personally have looted anywhere from 45 to 91 gold in the Satchels that I have opened.  You can just send this Bind-on-Account Satchel full of gold and goodies cross-faction to your alts on the other faction.  You can get around the hefty fees and the risk of being sniped when using the neutral auction house to transfer gold and goods.  Keep the gems in and you can get it cut and post for extra profits.  Don't use that flask or elixir?  Leave it in the satchel and send it to your alt cross faction to sell.  Heck, I even got an Obsidian Hatchling (BOE) in one of my satchels, which can sell for decent gold on the AH.  This is a super easy way to get some risk free start-up gold for expanding into the other faction's auction house in World of Warcraft.

So if you are looking for an easy way to cross-faction transfer some batches of gold and some items that you can sell on the auction house, then use this alternate strategy with the Satchels of Exotic Mysteries.  Hopefully they don't nerf the Satchel to only be good for sending to your same faction alts.


Friday, May 13, 2011

Cold's Gold Factory Blogging Carnival June Topic




Cold's Gold Factory Gold Blogging Carnival


Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals: June 11th Topic

These blogging carnivals are excellent resources for our readers to get some excellent nuggets of knowledge all in one place. They are also excellent tools for bloggers to get recognized and start to drive traffic from our sites to yours. I highly recommend participating in these blogging carnivals as your submission's will tend to be some of the most visited content on your site. Be sure to read about the benefits of blogging carnivals, if you are undecided about participating in Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival.

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.
  • 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 making 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

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.

June 11th Topic

What have you learned from the real world that you have applied in the WoW auction house?

Check out my older post on Comparing eBay Auction to Azeroth Auctions to get an idea to get you started.

I highly recommend participating in this blogging carnival as this topic will probably be revisited by new readers and will continue to bring you traffic to your site long after the carnival is over.

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Previous Blogging Carnivals

Be sure to check out previous blogging carnivals here at Cold's Gold Factory.

Chocolate Cookies for WoW Cheevos



New Achievement in Patch 4.1

Since Patch 4.1, one of the new achievements that have been added to World of Warcraft involves eating a ton of Chocolate Cookies.  The first Chocolate Cookie gives you a buff which makes you feel 100% better.  Each additional cookie adds a cumulative extra 10%.  The achievement You'll Feel Right As Rain requires you to eat 91 of the Chocolate Cookies to get enough of the stacked buff to complete the achievement.  Remember in The Matrix when the Oracle told Neo to eat the chocolate cookie and by the time he finished eating it he would "feel right as rain"?  Eating a single Chocolate Cookie is also a requirement for the mega Cataclysm eating achievement Cataclysmically Delicious.


Selling Chocolate Cookies

The recipe for the Chocolate Cookie is obtained from the cooking vendors in major cities that exchange Cataclysm Chef Awards for Cooking recipes.  The Chocolate Cookie recipe requires just 1 Simple Flour and 1 Cocoa Beans per Cookie.  The Cocoa Beans are obtained from the same vendors.  For a single Chef Award you can obtain a bag of Imported Supplies, which will contain a lot of cocoa beans.  The amount received appears to be somewhat random.

You can make a nice business for yourself supplying these cookies, if the auction house doesn't appear to have much competition.  Another great benefit about these cookies is that you have something to spend your extra Chef Awards on when you have all of the new Cataclysm Recipes.  If you don't collect all the recipes on all of your alts, then you can also have your alternate characters buy a bunch of the bags of Imported Supplies and mail the Cocoa Beans to your cook for more profits.

I was originally selling these for around 12g each before others starting getting in on this cookie action!  Make sure to check your auction house and see if your market would be profitable for you to try to sell these cookies as well.  You may also be able to unload the Cocoa Beans on the auction house as well.