Gifts For Gamers: Borderlands 2 & Resident Evil 6

GIFTS FOR GAMERS - A weekly column at Cold's Gold Factory that focuses on bringing you some of the coolest new games and gifts for gamers of all types. 

Two Awesome Video Game Releases

Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2 has just released and the buzz I've been seeing has all been very positive.  Brand new players and returning Borderlands fans have both been raving about how great the Borderlands 2 sequel turned out.  Borderlands 2 is a hybrid 1st person shooter / RPG that offers new characters, new classes, and online play which allows you to play with your friends.  The new Badass Gun System allows millions of weapon combinations and the new Gunzerker class can dual wield any 2 weapons in the game!

Borderlands 2 is available on many platforms, including XBox 360, PS3, PC, & via PC Download.  There are also multiple Collectible Edition versions that you can purchase to further increase your Borderlands Swag.  If you decide on the PC Download version, then you can also upgrade to a Borderlands 2 Season Pass, which gives you access to 4 more downloadable content packs, some which haven't been released yet.  You should have plenty of options for killing others and blowing stuff up!

My good buddy Wes, from Capped By Cata and the Auction House Junkies Podcast, had this to say about his recent Borderlands 2 purchase.

Borderlands 2:

If there was ever a game that could drag you out of your MMO Prison, or well, for us your palace lined in gold, it’s Borderlands 2. For the first time in years Borderlands 2 literally stole time from me like so many games use to do. Mixing First Person Shooter glory with loot and level goodness, it has something no matter what your taste is. With 4 different classes and skill trees for each, the game offers plenty of customization and replay ability. The best part for me though is really the story. Hilarious dialog and plenty of nerd memes hidden throughout. It truly is Epic. So grab your copy and get going. But be warned, you’ll need plenty of Mountain Dew and you better set your Auctions to 48 hours. It might be awhile before you get back to them.

Check Out Borderlands 2 At Amazon Now
(Check out the Standard Edition and the Various Limited Editions as well as the Season Pass.)


Resident Evil 6

The Resident Evil series has been around since I was a kid and the games keep getting bigger and better.  Pre-orders are available for the next sequel, Resident Evil 6, which will release very soon on Tuesday, October 2nd.  Be sure to get your pre-order in ASAP so you don't miss out on the extra pre-order rewards from Amazon.com. 

If you pre-order Resident Evil 6 with Amazon, you will get a $10 Amazon credit for your next purchase as well as a unique bonus code for downloading the Amazon exclusive Mercenaries stage, The High Seas Fortress.  So you can get the $10 code and use it on Borderlands 2 after your copy of Resident Evil 6 ships!  Resident Evil 6 will be available on PS3 and XBox 360.  The PS3 version comes in the Standard Edition or the Anthology Edition and the XBox 360 is available in Standard and Archives Editions.

Check Out Resident Evil 6 At Amazon
Don't forget to pre-order before the bonus offer expires.

MoP Era Expansion Twinking | 80 Is The New 70



MoP Era WoW Battle Chest

 Expansion Twinking In Mists of Pandaria

The playfield has recently changed completely in a specific twinking specialization bracket: Expansion Twinks.  Catering to PvP Twinks of all brackets can be very lucrative, especially if you have a large Twink community on your WoW server.  So with the recent major change to the Expansion Twink bracket, some auction house tactics need to be adjusted.

What Is Expansion Twinking?

Expansion Twinking is a specific style of Twinking that requires the lack of the more recent expansions.  With the current PvP Battleground System, a Twink character must turn off their experience level in order to prevent leveling out of their chosen PvP Battleground level bracket.  If a player has a WoW account that does not have all of the WoW expansion upgrades, then their character is capped at a certain level based on which expansion upgrades have been applied to their account.  That's where Expansion Twinking comes in.  An Expansion Twink is simply a Twink character that is on an account that does not have all of the WoW expansions.  This results in a Twink character that cannot gain XP (due to the level cap for not having an expansion), which means the character also does not have to turn off XP in the battlegrounds.  The Expansion Twinks are able to reek havoc on the battlefields due to being able to join regular battlegrounds instead of the XP off battlegrounds that other Twinks are forced to join. 

Until just recently, the World of Warcraft Battle Chest only included WoW plus Burning Crusade, which left level 70 as the most common Expansion Twink Bracket.  Since the last WoW patch, some players in that bracket were unexpectedly leveling out of their level 70 and forced to abandon the level 70 twinking career.  What went wrong?  Blizzard changed up the standard WoW Battle Chest.  The current MoP Era WoW Battle Chest now includes WoW, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King.  While a level 70 character can remain twinking at level 70, that character must now pay to turn off their XP to do so, thus they are no longer an Expansion Twink.  The new Expansion Twink Bracket will be at Level 80, since players without any WoW expansions will be able to play through Wrath of the Lich King, since it is now part of the standard WoW Battle Chest.

Profiting From The New Expansion Twink Bracket

The biggest change I would make regarding profiting from this change to Expansion Twinking is in regards to selling level 77-80 Cata Greens.  This change instantly increases the value of any of the 77-80 Cataclysm gear pieces.  Due to the increased amount of stats on these pieces, they are no longer just for leveling characters.  Expansion Twinks will also be seeking out the best pieces to wear as they continue leveling within the battlegrounds.  Once the Expansion Twinks hit level 80, they can continue their gear acquisation, but most of the level 80 green gear from Cata drops are going to be better than the top end Wrath gear, including most epics. 

So if you are already in the market of flipping level 77-80 Cata greens, then it's time to raise the prices on the best gear, especially any lvl 80 BoE Cata gear with +Stamina and +Primary Stat.  Don't sell yourself short, bump the prices up and make more gold per sale.  Now level 80 blue gear with great stats combos, especially gear with gem slots, will be able to sold for a premium price as Expansion Twinks can use that Blue Cata gear and add Cata gems as well.  There will also continue to be a niche market for the level 80 useable Enchants, Gems, and Belt Buckles, etc.

Twinking.Net

If you are into Twinking or are looking to get started, be sure to check out the newer site Twinking.net, which is a twinking dedicated site ran by Inkobah, an old guest poster and friend of the site here at Cold's Gold Factory.

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Check out some of my Squidoo lenses:  Alliance Vs Horde - Come Vote! | Diablo 3 Gifts For Gamers | Getting Started Podcasting 101 | Play Money by Julian Dibble | Auction House Junkies | Fluxx - My Fav Card Game

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

Companion Pets vs Battle Pets - Pricing Discrepancies & Warnings

Battle Pet Types

Companion Pets vs Battle Pets

During the early days of the new Mists of Pandaria expansion, there is much disparity when looking at the prices of Companion Pets and their equivalent Battle Pets.  In case you are unaware, there is a new category within the WoW auction house for the Caged Battle Pets, but the old Companion Pets category remains as well.  So you post and buy the unlearned Companion Pets in the same Companion Pet category and any of the Battle Pets that are tradeable / sellable are bought and sold within the new Battle Pets category.  The prices of an unlearned Companion Pet and the equivalent level 1 Battle Pet should be close to the same price, but they aren't.  In some cases there is a huge price discrepency between the Companion Pet and the same unleveled Battle Pet.  This disparity creates various opportunities for extra profits on the WoW auction house.

Why are the prices of Companion Pets and their Battle Pets so out of whack?

There are many potential reasons that these prices are out of balance.  Let's dig deeper into some of the factors contributing to the confusion.

1. There is no historical add-on data for Caged Pets. - WoW gold making and auctioneering add-ons like TradeSkill Master, Auctionator, and Auctioneer often get players into relying on scans and historical data for posting at or near "market price".  Since the Caged Battle Pets are an entirely new category and new items just available since MoP, there is no historical data and therefore no normal "market price".  Thus, players that rely on add-on data for setting prices are posting blindly on items that have no competition.
2. The Battle Pets Category search is broken on the Remote Auction House. - Currently, when searching for Caged Battle Pets or the entire Battle Pets category on the WoW Remote Auction House, you get a "Your search returned no results" message.  The Remote AH application is unable to be used for posting or buying any of the Caged Battle Pets.
3. The Battle Pets are not showing up at The Undermine Journal either. - Another popular site used for price checking and comparing of items to help determine value is also not showing any of the auctions for the caged pets within the Battle Pet category. 
4. Caged Pets Galore - In the last patch we saw all of our non-unique duplicate pets added to our Battle Pet roster.  Once MoP launched, many of those Battle Pets are now cageable and can be sold on the auction house.  Many player accounts have duplicates that can now be sold as Caged Battle Pets, which can easily lead to flooding on the more common caged companions, like I warned about in a previous post:  Battle Pet Flipping - Get Out While You Still Can!  Caged Sinister Squashlings had dropped to 75 gold each overnight after the refunded pets started to hit the auction house, yet players are still trying to sell them for hundreds of gold in the old Companion Pet auction category.
5. Cross Server Sales - Since the Battle Pets are now truly account wide, players are free to cage up a pet from thier Account based Battle Pet log and post it on any WoW server.  Instead of deleting a pet, why not throw it up on another server to get some starter cash or to start moving gold around amongst your various servers?  Players may have their old server's prices engrained into their memory, when really that server's prices are not entirely relevant to a new server.

How To Take Advantage Of The Companion Pets vs Battle Pets Pricing Fiasco

There are currently opportunities to both save gold and to make more profit, until the pet markets stabilize.

1. If You Are A Shopper - Be sure to check both the companion pet and the battle pet auction house categories.  A Companion Pet and a Caged Battle Pet are the exact same thing.  Once learned either can be used to battle and either can be used as a vanity pet to follow around your character.  The only difference is that a Caged Battle Pet can be higher than level 1, which is where all companion pets will start out once learned.  So buy the cheaper of the two.  There is no reason to buy an 800 gold Sinister Squashling companion pet, when you can buy a caged one for 75 gold.
2. If You Are A Seller - Check both the companion pet and the battle pet auction house categories.  You may find it more profitable to go ahead and learn a companion pet, then cage it up and sell it in the Battle Pets category if the prices are higher for the caged versions.
3. Hunt For Poorly Priced Hard To Obtain Battle Pets - Some ignorant players are posting some of the rare and hard to obtain pets in their caged forms for vastly underpriced amounts.  Probably due to ignorance, forgetting how hard they originally were to obtain, the lack of need for duplicate pets, lack of historical data for caged pets, and more of the "hey look, free stuff to sell" mentality.  Regardless, there are deals and steals out there to be obtained.  Try to snatch them up before the Remote AH and TUJ get fixed and these dirt cheap pets get found and bought out much quicker.

Right now the entire Battle Pet and Companion Pet markets are all over the place with pricing.  Until the markets stabilize and players start to understand the new systems for caging and selling Battle Pets, there will be extra chances to save big or make extra gold.  Be sure to check both markets and adjust your buying and / or selling plans accordingly.

More Warnings About Selling Pets

Once the general WoW population understands how the Battle Pet System truly works, there should be less and less of a demand for many of the companion pets that we've been able to make easy gold off of flipping on the auction house.  Why?  You can go out into the world and cage up many of the pets yourself without needing to purchase them.  Why pay 800 gold for a White Kitten ever again?  Just go out and throw a damn box on a white kitten and get it for free.  Need a snake?  You'll have more snakes in your Battle Pet log than you'll know what to do with and you'll be kicking yourself wondering why you wasted gold buying one of every color when the damn things are now free and everywhere!  Plus you can get better versions (uncommon and rare versions) of the same pet out in the wild, where many of the vendor bought pets are just common quality.  Many times when you find a better version, you are going to be releasing the pets you paid gold for because they are actually inferior Battle Pets!

If you are going to continue to be a pet seller in MoP, I recommend sticking to:

• Rare Pets
• Hard To Obtain Pets
• Higher Level Pets

Pretty soon buyers should also wise up and see that buying cross faction moved pets for an inflated price, like the faction specific Argent Tournament Pets, is a waste of gold.  You can just as easily buy a pet with a character on the opposing faction, learn it, and see it in your account wide pet journal.  The same is true for sellers.  You don't need to risk getting your auction sniped trying to transfer it to the other faction.  you can just learn it and then sell the caged version, without a risk of getting sniped at all trying to move it through the neutral auction house.

Related Articles On Battle Pets:

1. Guide To WoW TCG Pet Loot Codes (All Rare Battle Pets) - Many are cheaper than the Blizzard Store bought pets!
2. Rare Battle Pets - A Breakdown Of Their Sources
3. Get Out Of Flipping Holiday Pets
4. MoP Pet Battles, 1st Impressions, & How To Make Gold - A Post by Nev at Auction House Addict.

Be Sure To Join My Email Newsletter To Never Miss A Post

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Check out some of my Squidoo lenses:  Alliance Vs Horde - Come Vote! | Diablo 3 Gifts For Gamers | Blue Snowball Mics | Flipping WoW CEs | Auction House Junkies | Funny Bacon Gifts

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

Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm - Don't Fish Without It



Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm

 Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm

The Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm is another of the Rare Spawn Lost And Found Items that we talked about last week.  The Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick is the other main Lost and Found Rare Item that I recommend that you target along with the Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm as the two must have items from the new rare loot system.

The Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm (previously known as the Ancient Pandaren Fishing Lure in the MoP Beta) is a BoP item that gives you a 1 hour buff that gives you a chance to catch extra fish from Fishing Pools in the Zones of Pandaria.  Early reports suggest that the total fish caught from using the Fishing Charm in MoP Pools rewards an extra 20% of fish. The Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm is not consumed when used, but you will need to acquire one of each of your Fishermen as it is BoP.




Ghostly Pandaren
Fisherman


Where To Find The Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm?

The Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm can be obtained in the MoP zone Valley of the Four Winds.  It is awarded from talking to the Ghostly Pandaren Fisherman at the Northern edge of Cattail Lake.  The Ghostly Pandaren Fisherman is a rare spawn NPC and he only awards 1 Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm per appearance, so you must be the first to talk to the Ghostly Fisherman and then select the dialogue to receive the Charm. 

Obviously anyone planning on Fishing in Pandaria will want to grab this Charm and fish in the pools of the Pandaren zones to get an extra 20% fish.  Again, just like the Ancient Pandaren Mining pick is a must for Miners, the Charm is a must for Anglers.


Check out some of my Squidoo lenses:  Alliance Vs Horde - Come Vote! | Diablo 3 Gifts For Gamers | Getting Started Podcasting 101 | Play Money by Julian Dibble | Auction House Junkies | Fluxx - My Fav Card Game

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

Gifts For Gamers - Brady Games MoP Strategy Guides With Chopsticks!

GIFTS FOR GAMERS - A weekly column at Cold's Gold Factory that focuses on bringing you some of the coolest gift ideas for gamers of all types.  Whether you are a table top gamer, video gamer, or an online gamer, you are sure to find some cool gift ideas within this weekly column.  So check back each week for more cool nerdy gamer stuff!

GIFTS FOR GAMERS

Mists Of Pandaria Limited Edition & Signature Series Guides

The World of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria expansion is only a few days away, launching on September 25th, 2012.  Not only will the MoP expansion launch on the 25th, but the Official Mists of Pandaria Strategy Guides will also become available.  The Official World of Warcraft Guides are always published by Brady Games and the Mists of Pandaria Signature Series Guides is no exception. 

Brady Games has long been associated with very colorful, high quality strategy guides released for the official Blizzard products.  The cool thing is that Brady Games has been offering 2 options with recent game launches.  They provide the Signature Series Guides, but also offer a Limited Edition Collector's Edition version of the same guides that include a higher quality book as well as special goodies.

This release for Mists of Pandaria, in the Limited Edition Mists of Pandaria Strategy Guide, Brady Games is including a set of Limited Edition MoP Chopsticks! These chopsticks are sure to get much more actual use than past bonus items. I love the green and black design on the CE Chopsticks. The Limited Edition Version also includes a premium hard cover as well as a bonus excerpt from the upcoming novel, World of Warcraft: Jaina Proudmore: Tides of War.

Both the Mists of Pandaria Limited Edition and Signature Series Guides include:

• New Player Guides
• Maps of Every Mists of Pandaria Zone
• Monk Guide For The New Class
• Updated Recipe And Profession Lists, Including the New Cooking Specializations
• In Depth Battle Pet Guide

These guides will ship out the same day that Mists of Pandaria launches.

Check Out the Collector's Edition: 

Mists of Pandaria Limited Edition Guide

Check Out the Regular Version:

Mists of Pandaria Signature Series Guide

Blogging Carnival Topic For October

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - October 2012 Topic

A big thanks to all of the participants who submitted entries for last month's blogging carnival. Everyone is welcome to write a post for the blogging carnivals at Cold's Gold Factory. Again, thank you to all the bloggers who submitted posts for the September Blogging Carnival on the Remote Auction House. If you missed the last carnival, be sure to check it out!  There are tons of great tips for using the now free Remote AH.

What If I Don't Have A Blog And I Want To Participate?

If you don't have your own site, you can still participate in the gold blogging carnivals. Sometimes a topic may tickle your fancy or you may have a unique spin on a blogging carnival topic that you would like to have read by others. Well, you are in luck. There are 2 blogging sites that will post and host your content as a guest post. Just follow the normal blogging carnival rules that the others follow and get your post hosted and live prior to the carnival. Then, just submit the link to me for inclusion in the upcoming gold blogging carnival.  

Be sure to check out How To Get More From Blogging Carnival Participation.

The friendly sites willing to host your content are:

1. Goldgrub's Goblin Academy - Contact: Me (Cold)
2. Squidoo - Join up and make a lens on the topic and earn money too.

  

October 2012 Gold Blogging Carnival Topic

The new Mists of Pandaria WoW expansion is now less than a week away.  We've all been preparing for the new expansion, each in our own way.  Every good gold making goblin already has a plan of attack for the first few weeks of the new expansion's launch.  Major patches are excellent times to make gold in WoW, but are still shadowed by the potential gold windfalls of a new WoW expansion.  As goblins, we know and understand this and have been stocking up for months in preparation. 

The MoP expansion launches on September 25th.  For the Gold Blogging Carnival that will run on October 11th, let's take a look at our launch strategies and how well they panned out.  Maybe you planned on attacking a specific market at launch or maybe your goal was to hit server first on a profession.  Maybe you planned on mining, skinning, or herbing for the first week to sell raw materials for hefty prices.  Maybe you planned on making a hefty chunk of gold until the Kobolds came in and ruined everything on your server.  Regardless of what your goal or strategy was, let's take a deeper look into that first week or two strategy and dissect how well or bad it went.
Pick A Market Or A Strategy That You Planned To Focus On For The MoP Launch.  What Were Your Results?

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

Check out some of my Squidoo lenses:  Alliance Vs Horde - Come Vote! | Diablo 3 Gifts For Gamers | Getting Started Podcasting 101 | Play Money by Julian Dibble | Auction House Junkies | Fluxx - My Fav Card Game

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

Blog Schedule, Columns, And New Stuff!

Fall 2012 Blog Posting Schedule At Cold's Gold Factory

Now that the new WoW expansion, Mists of Pandaria, is right around the corner I've decided to create and stick to a much more structured posting schedule here at Cold's Gold Factory.  I admit, I was slacking for a while there during the end of the expansion slump, but I've been pumping out high quality articles more often now.  I want to continue with a more rigid posting schedule and get better at supporting both of the podcasts that I am lucky to be a part of, as well as try some new things here on the blog.  The Gold Blogging Carnivals will continue to take place on the 11th of each month as already established.
Here's a look at the new blog posting schedule for Cold's Gold Factory:

Mondays / Wednesdays / Fridays - WoW Gold Making Articles will be posted a minimum of 3 times per week, with extra posts possible on Sundays (if I have something that can't wait) and possibly on non-AHJ Thursdays.

Tuesdays - The Eviscerated Gaming Podcast records weekly and will have the show notes, links, and discussion hosted here on Tuesdays.  This will help drive new listeners to the podcast, as well as provide links to topics we discuss on the show.  The EGP has been evolving quite nicely and with Mists just around the corner, we will be digging even deeper into WoW content on the show.  Episode #18 "Blue Oyster Bar" is currently up and available on iTunes and Stitcher.

Thursdays - The Auction House Junkies Podcast should hopefully be recording more regularly with the launch of Mists of Pandaria.  Thursdays will be dedicated to hosting the show notes and discussion links for the current episodes of our WoW Gold Making Podcast.  If there is not a new show for the week, then Thursdays will be available for an extra WoW gold making post, Gold Blogging Carnival Topic Announcements, or will be an overflow day for anything displaced by the monthly Blogging Carnival Post (should the 11th fall on a day where something else is normally scheduled).

Saturdays - Saturdays will be for a new column that I will be testing out called "Gifts for Gamers".  Saturdays tend to be the slowest traffic day here on the blog, so I'm going to experiment with a new column designed to increase monetization options for my blog.  Amazon affiliates sales have quickly moved into a nice monetization source after the 3 posts I did on WoW Trading Card Game Loot Codes.

The goblin in me sees the full potential of dedicating a weekly column to "Gifts for Gamers", especially with the holiday season approaching.  I won't be reviewing garbage items just as a way to get sales.  I will only be reviewing, recommending, and discussing items that I either own myself, want to purchase myself, or I think are just too damn cool not to share with my readers.  I spend a lot of time hunting for cool gaming related stuff online, so this weekly column will be a nice avenue to share that information with you guys as well as allow me to build a little more traffic and page rank to my Squidoo posts on similar topics. 

In addition, this column will help me turn those content stealing, automatic article copying bots and scammers from rip-off artists into fools that will be working for me instead of against me.

Any purchases through my Amazon or Jinx links are always highly appreciated.  I prefer to recommend stuff that I enjoy or find pretty cool myself.  If you have found a kick ass gaming item, game, or gaming peripheral or accessory you can send it in as a recommendation and I will mention you in the post.

If you aren't interested in finding out about cool gaming stuff, then just come back after the weekend is over for more WoW gold making goodness.

Sundays - Sundays will be an off day, overflow day, or Carnival day (if on the 11th).

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Check out some of my Squidoo lenses:  Alliance Vs Horde - Come Vote! | Diablo 3 Gifts For Gamers | Getting Started Podcasting 101 | Play Money by Julian Dibble | Auction House Junkies | Fluxx - My Fav Card Game

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

Goldgrub's Goblin Academy & Xtreme Present - The Xtreme Gold Blog



WoW Gold Making Goblin

 Goldgrub's Goblin Academy & Xtreme Presents:
The Xtreme Gold Blog

It is with great pleasure and excitement that I present to you The Xtreme Gold Blog, a brand new upstart gold blog created by Xtreme.  You may recognize the name of the author, Xtreme, as she has been a writer for my sister site, Goldgrub's Goblin Academy, for quite a while now.  It's not often that I get to mentor an author and then see that same author branch out and expand into their own site. 

I've enjoyed working with Xtreme at Goldgrub's Goblin Academy and am excited to see her start her very own World of Warcraft gold making blog.  So be sure to head over and check out her very first post:  Introductions and Low Level Materials Farming.  The Xtreme Gold Blog is also now in my Gold Making Blogroll here at Cold's Gold Factory, so you can keep track of when new posts go live as well. 

Xtreme:  Thanks for all of your hard work at Goldgrub's Goblin Academy.  I wish you and your new gold blog well and look forward to you participating in the Gold Blogging Carnivals here as well.

Congrats and Good Luck!


Check Out Xtreme's Articles At Goldgrubs.com :
 Remember - Goldgrub's Goblin Academy is written for new WoW players and new WoW gold makers.

1. Shields: Chips Off The Old Block
2. WoW Pilgrim's Bounty - Gobble Up That XP
3. Murlocs, Coyotes, & Cooking. Oh My!
4. Brewfest: Fill Your Mug With Some XP & Brew
5. Leveling Your Alt Toon
6. Fishing: Here Fishy Fishy
7. Farming For Cloth Can Increase Your Pocket Change
8. Go Team Go - Get Your City Faction Tabards
9. Archaeology: Digging For XP & Other Goodies
10. Calls To Arms: Support Your Faction & Get Awesome Benefits
11. You're So Vain, You Probably Think This Blog Is About You!
12. You're So Vain, Part 2
13. Farming The Blood Elf Bandit Mask
14. Midsummer Fire Festival Flaming XP

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Check out some of my Squidoo lenses:  Alliance Vs Horde - Come Vote! | Diablo 3 Gifts For Gamers | Getting Started Podcasting 101 | Play Money by Julian Dibble | Auction House Junkies | Fluxx - My Fav Card Game

 

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

Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick Is A Must | No More Free Gems From Mining Ore Nodes!

Ancient Pandarian Mining Pick in MoP

WTF?!?  - Miners Can't Get MoP Gems From Mining?

One of the odd changes (I just discovered) in Mists of Pandaria is a nerf to the Mining profession.  The new MoP Ore Veins will no longer always have a chance to allow Miners a shot at getting free Jewelcrafting Gems from whacking on the various Ore Nodes.  The only reason I can think of for nerfing the chance of getting gems from ore veins is to combat the mining botters.  The botters already make plenty of money off of botting and selling the ores so removing the free gems from the ore nodes really isn't going to be much of a problem for them.  So really this type of nerf will hit the non-botting Ore farmers much harder.  Granted the odds of getting gems from ore nodes have always been pretty low, but the extra gem procs were nice increases to the profitability of farming ore yourself.  All is not completely lost though!

The Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick


The Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick is one of the new Rare Spawn items being introduced with the new Mists of Pandaria Lost and Found loot system.  The new Lost and Found system is similar to the Rare Spawn Vanity Items that are awarded from killing the MoP rare spawns, except that with the Lost and Found system there is no killing involved.  Many of the rare items are just scattered around specific spawn locations throught the Mists of Pandaria zones and can be found within chests or laying on the ground.  There are BoA items, weapons, and gear, as well as vendor trash that can award nice chunks of gold.  Hunting these rare spawn items and chests will earn you Achievements as well as a new title once you find 20 of these rare spawn items.  Only a pair of the items are must haves (The Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick and the Ancient Pandaren Fishing Lure / Charm) and nothing is anywhere near as cool as any of the WoW TCG Vanity Loot items.

The Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick is one rare spawn item that is a must have for any Miner who is looking to increase his profitability from mining.  This new Mining Pick is account bound, can be used as a weapon, and doesn't even need to be equipped to ultilize the main benefit of the item.  It allows you to once again obtain gems from mining in Pandaria zones.  The item's text reads:

"Allows you to find gems while mining in Pandaria.  Does not need to be equipped."

While it is account-bound and can be mailed to your other characters, I would highly recommend acquiring an Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick for each of your miners.  There's no reason to leave behind the chance of getting free MoP gems from Mining MoP ore nodes.  The downside is that it is a high level weapon (item lvl 404 / lvl 85 req) and therefore has a hefty repair cost (~8.5 gold), so anyone using the Instant Rez at the Spirit Healer will be paying extra to repair this axe as well.

Where To Get The Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick?

The Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick can be found on the bottom floor (Lower Quarry) of the Greenstone Quarry cave within the MoP zone, The Jade Forest.  It will be laying in plain view and will be sparkling.  All you have to do is pick it up once you find it.  I'm unsure of how long the spawn timer will take to reset after it is successfully found and looted by someone.  This will definately be one of the first things I hunt for before starting on my Mists of Pandaria Mining runs.  Get your own Mine Pick now!

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Check out some of my Squidoo lenses:  Alliance Vs Horde - Come Vote! | Diablo 3 Gifts For Gamers | Getting Started Podcasting 101 | Play Money by Julian Dibble | Auction House Junkies | Fluxx - My Fav Card Game

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

Kobolds And White Knights - Reader Submission

The Trouble With Kobolds And White Knights


Attack of the Undercutting Kobolds

Here is a great email that I wanted to share with you.  My server isn't the only one infested with the Kobolds I talked about in my recent post:  Are you a true Goblin or just a lowly Kobold?  This reader has problems with a special breed of Kobold, the "White Knight".  She also submitted the above screenshot of her TSM posting page for Glyphs.  Yuck!

Hey Cold,

After reading your rant on kobolds last week, I thought you'd get a
kick out of this screenshot I took this morning.

The kobolds on our server are rampant... and they seem to be breeding.
We have people who think their time spent farming means the herbs are
free. We have "white knights" who think no one should have to pay
more than 20g for a glyph, and post accordingly. These "white
knights" also proclaim loudly and frequently in trade that they've
just posted "a bunch of glyphs for cheap - because I'm not a horrible
person". It's mind-boggling.

This is just the first page of the auctions that were below my
threshold, which, admittedly, is pretty low at 30g.

I've been trying to push them out. With the advent of CRZ, the supply
of herbs has been drying up, so I've been hovering over it buying up
herbs and trying to make sure that you can't create any glyph for less
than 6g per ink. It doesn't matter; they craft and post them at these
prices anyway. I've been buying up these low-priced glyphs and
resetting the prices - at least 5 different glyphs per day, but
sometimes 10. The price reset only lasts until the next kobold or
white knight gets online. They'll see a glyph posted at 200g and post
theirs for 30g. /facedesk

I've tried communicating with them, trying to explain how farmed herbs
aren't free; how you don't have to undercut someone by 30g just to
have your glyph sell next... all to no avail. I've been told I'm a
horrible person, I'm an idiot, I'm greedy; I was even told that I'm
the reason that jobs are being outsourced out of this country. Yes,
seriously.

So, anyway - thought this screenshot would give you a good laugh.

Sincerely,
(Name withheld by request) on Bronzebeard US

"I Farmed It Myself, So It Is Free!"

The flawed logic of "I farmed it, so it's free" is perhaps the most adopted and most foolish of all auction house gold making strategies in WoW.  Any activity, including farming, requires a time investment.  That time could be spent elsewhere making gold or performing other activities that reward more gold per hour.  So farming is not truely free as it takes up time that you could be using to make gold directly.  Anyone can make gold on the auction houses, but new gold makers often don't understand where to start making gold on the WoW auction house.

Another common problem with the "I farmed it, so it is free" philosophy is that these believers often post crafted items for below the price of the materials on the auction house.  This leads to the opportunity to snatch up these poorly priced goods, as this reader also mentioned, but when the volume of items posted gets too vast, you may have a hard time buying them up before the next kobold comes along and does the same thing.  Granted, you can continue to stock up on cheap items to flip, but storage space can start to become an issue.  If the undercutting and posting for dirt cheap problem continues for too long without a price rebound, then you could be stuck with a large volume of inventory to hang onto while you pray for a market price rebound.  If they do decide to bring in Cross Realm Auction Houses, then it's only going to get even worse than it is now. 

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Top 5 MoP Rare Elite Vanity Items For Gold Makers



Top 5 Rare Spawn Drops In MoP

 The Top Five Vanity Items From MoP Rare Elite Drops

Rare Elite Spawns in the Mists of Pandaria expansion will be dropping specific vanity items when killed, as opposed to just random gear or random stat created blue gear.  There is a great variety in the items that are dropped by the specific rare spawns in Mists of Pandaria.  Some of them truly are just vanity items that give color changes, special appearances, or are just plain fun vanity items.  There are MoP elite rare spawns that drop companion pets and other items that give temporary pets also.  Then there are some of the items that are a head above the other items and are more useful than your typical vanity item.  Let's take a look at my Top 5 Most Useful MoP Rare Spawn Vanity Items For Goblins.

Top 5 Most Useful MoP Rare Spawn Vanity Items For WoW Gold Making

In my opinion, these are the top 5 most useful rare spawn vanity item drops from the new Mists of Pandaria rare spawns.  These are mainly beneficial to farming characters and can increase your output of materials and gold alike. 

• Forager's Gloves - Forager's Gloves are a blessing for almost any farmer, whether you are a Skinner, Miner, Or Herbalist!  The Forager's Gloves are BoP cloth gloves that while equipped "allow for faster gathering of resources in Pandaria".  Yup.  They are exactly what they sound like.  They decrease your materials collection time!  Note: The Forager's Gloves effect does not stack with racial abilities that already increase collecting time, like the Tauren Cultivation skill or the increased Skinning speed of Worgens.  Now other races can be just as fast as those speedy Tauren Herbalists and Worgen Skinners, when they wear these new Forager's Gloves.  Check out the collecting speed decreases from these great gloves!  Drops from Korda Torros in Kun-Lai Summit.

Skinning Time: 2 seconds -> 0.5 seconds with Forager's Gloves

Mining Time:  3.2 seconds -> 1.7 seconds with Forager's Gloves

Herbing Time: 2 seconds -> 0.5 seconds with Forager's Gloves

• Hozen Peace Pipe - The Hozen Peace Pipe is going to be a huge gold maker for anyone lucky enough to find one early and who is also willing to sell their Hozen Peace Pipe.  The Hozen Peace Pipe is a non-BoP consumable that increase your reputation with most of the new MoP faction reputations by 1000 per Hozen Peace Pipe used!  This includes factions like The Tillers, Lorewalkers, Could Serpents, etc, but does not currently (per MoP Beta testing data) include The Brewmasters or The Black Prince.  In the right hands, these things will give a huge advantage in WoW gold making.  Any Blacksmith, Tailor, Or Leatherworker able to farm or purchase Hozen Peace Pipes will have a huge advantage at getting to the reputation gated Mists of Pandaria crafting recipes quicker than anyone else.  The reputation provided via the Hozen Peace Pipe works all the way to Exhalted status.  Drops off Scritch in Kun-Lei Summit.

• Battle Horn - The Battle Horn is a great addition to any farmers arsenal, especially any farmer with limited range-based attacks.  The Battle Horn is a BoP horn that when blown attracts all enemies within 40 yards.  This will be helpful for pulling even larger packs of mobs at once for your new AoE Looting strategy.  There is a 2 minute cooldown on the Battle Horn, but if used on a farming character with Skinning, I bet you hardly notice the cooldown as an issue.  Drops off Blackhoof in Valley of the Four Winds.

• Golden Fleece - The Golden Fleece is another nice item for any mob killing farmer.  It is a BoP unique trinket, so it will require sacrificing a gear slot to use.  For this reason it will work best later on when you are farming mobs that don't require your full firepower, thus allowing you to swap out a trinket for increase gold finding.  The Golden Fleece text reads, "May cause extra gold to drop whenever you kill a target that yields experience or honor."  When you kill a player or mob (that awards honor or xp) there is a chance that the dying mob (or player) will explode into a pile of gold coins, just like the Treasure Goblins in Diablo 3.  The procs even sound like the D3 Treasure Goblins!  Here's the catch though.  Anyone can loot these piles of gold coins, so make sure to grab 'em quick!  Each pile can contain around 10 to 30 gold each, and each kill gives a chance at the Golden Fleece triggering for extra gold.  Drops off of Omnis Grinlok in Dread Wastes.

• Helpful Wikky's Whistle - The Helpful Wikky's Whistle is a pretty interesting BoP vanity item that calls forth a Helpful Wikky (a small Hozen) that you talk to once summoned and then talk to again after you kill 50 mobs without dying.  Once you acquire the 50 kills and talk to the Helpful Wikky, he will award you a Bag of Helpful Things, which can contain Motes of Harmony, Elixers, Potions, and other helpful goods.  Unfortunately he can only be summoned once per 2 hours and dying wastes your use of this vanity item, but it takes just a single bag space to give the chance at extra goods every 2 hours.  Drops off Major Nanners in Vale of Eternal Blossom.

In my opinion, these are the top 5 most useful vanity items that will drop off of the new Mist of Pandaria rare spawns. 

Are there any other rare spawn dropped vanity items that you are excited to hunt down as well?

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Cross Realm Auction Houses For WoW?



Cross Realm Auction Houses Coming To A WoW Server Near You?

Cross Realm Auction Houses For WoW?

While reading through the recent WoW Developers Ask Me Anything (WoW AMA) on Reddit, I stumbled upon the mention of the possible merging of WoW auction houses across realms in the future.  Tom Chilton, Game Director for World of Warcraft, posted (source):

"...I can imagine a future where we might decide to make auction houses cross-server.  It's not something to jump into lightly, but there may be ways to design a cross-realm auction house that ensures a viable economy without getting 'too big'."

Back in February, when I read Fox's notion of making the World of Warcraft auction house global for all servers, I thought he was off his nutter.  I still disagree with every bit of his reasoning regarding merging the WoW auction houses.  While we may never see a completely global auction house, the possibility of merged auction houses across multiple servers is now a legitimate possibility from the words of the game's director. 

I've never been a chicken-little who thinks the sky is falling, but I just gotta say this:

THE SKY IS FALLING!  THE SKY IS FALLING!  THE SKY IS FALLING!

DON'T DO IT BLIZZARD!

Cross Realm Auction Houses Are Bad For Sellers

Why make auction houses merge across multiple realms?  To "help out" those players stuck on low and medium pop servers who have less items to shop from on their auction house.  Ugh!  If you are on a lower pop server, then you can create your own market and control that markets prices much easier than on a higher pop server with more competition.  Obviously, that statement is from the mind of a WoW gold making goblin.  Overall though, the buyers would be the ones to benefit most from a cross realm auction house.  And that leaves the gold making goblins the ones who will be hit the hardest by merging auction houses.

Merging multiple servers (possibly just limiting the merger to within your current Battlegroup) will prove to be nothing more than a nightmare for nearly anyone involved in making gold in WoW.  Sure you can candy coat the idea of having more buyers for your goods and a bigger pool of resources to purchase from, but with more servers merged into a single auction house, you exponentially explode your amount of competition!  And with more competition comes even more lowly Kobolds.

It's not as simple as comparing the benefits of a large population server to those of a low pop server.  Of course things sell faster on a larger population server, but you also have more competition in your markets.  Now when you merge multiple pre-established servers with pre-established WoW gold makers in multiple markets into a single cross realm auction house, things are bound to get ugly.  Crazy dumb Kobolds are invading many markets already on individual servers, so when we merge more servers together, they will take over even more and more markets and drive the prices even lower. 

Many of you have abandoned the Glyph market already because of the mindless undercutting bloodbaths that are oh so common in the Glyph market.  Now merge 10 servers into one and you've got that same type of behavior in every market.  Even your precious niche markets that you may be the only seller in are going to be invaded by multiple goblins from multiple servers that also have that same niche market or rare pattern.  Every rare or obsolete pattern that you use to make gold off of due to minimal competition on your server is no longer going to belong to you alone or a handful of competitors.  Do we really want every market to turn into the Glyph market?  I sure don't. 

Merger servers into a cross realm auction house will only cause us to have to work harder for even less profits, if we can still profit at all.  You think undercutting is bad now?  Try battling it with 10 times as many players in all of your markets.  Please Blizzard, make these thoughts go away.  Say it isn't so!
What Do You Think Of The Cross Realm Auction House Idea For WoW?

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Remote Auction House Tips | Sept Gold Blogging Carnival

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - 2012

Welcome to another 2012 edition of Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival. These carnivals will continue to take place the 11th day of every month and will be hosted here at Cold's Gold Factory. All World of Warcraft bloggers are welcome to participate and feedback both here and on the original authors' sites is strongly encouraged. So show some support and please leave some feedback in the comments section. These bloggers put a lot of time and hard work into these blogging carnival posts so please tell them what you think.

If you would like to be included in the next month's carnival, please review the guidelines for Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals and submit your live post link via email (ssmith0911 at live dot com) before the 10th of the month. Read up on the benefits of participating in blogging carnivals at my other blog designed to help new bloggers, Blogging Vitals.  (Lots of tips for those of you starting out or interested in blogging.)  Articles for the CGF carnival are listed in the order they are received. Thank you to all the bloggers participating in this months carnival!

If you are not a blogger, you can still participate in the monthly carnivals as you can have a post hosted at Goldgrubs.com. Now I present to you this month's participants on the topic of:

The World of Warcraft Remote Auction House

The World of Warcraft Remote Auction House Application is now free for use by all WoW players.  It is a great addition to any strategy for making gold in WoW.  You no longer need to spend an extra $2.99 per month for access, so you better be making use of the free remote auction house.  I guarantee that your competition already is.

Remote Auction House Tips For New Users by Cold of Cold's Gold Factory

Remote Auction House Tips And Tricks by Marcus Ty of Journal of Marcus Ty

Don't Get Caught Doing This At Work by CandleFly of CandleFly's Gold Adventures

Why I'm Not Using The Remote Auction House by Xsinthis of The Golden Crusade

4 Tips To Improve Remote AH Efficiency by Cold of Cold's Gold Factory

Top 9 Uses For The WoW Remote Auction House by Cold of Cold's Gold Factory

The Remote AH: The Gold Goblins Sniper Scope by Kyranno of A Whole New WoW

Thanks again to all of this month's participants.  Be sure to check back later for next month's carnival topic and remember to look for next month's gold blogging carnival on the 11th.  If you have a topic idea, don't be afraid to send it in.  We may use your idea, which will get you proper credit as well.  

Until next month,

Keep on Keepin' On!



If you enjoy the monthly carnivals, spread the word and help support the carnival as at grows:



 

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Large Brilliant Shards & Small Radiant Shards

Keep Your Eyes Peeled For Cheap Enchanting Shards

Keep Your Eyes Peeled For Cheap Shards

Any Enchanter who has ran a successful low end Enchanting business, understands the importance of stocking up on cheap raw Enchanting materials prior to any new expansion releases.  Especially when a new expansion drops, there is an increased demand for Twink enchants, BoA Best-in-Slot Enchants, and quality leveling enchants.  The launch of a new expansion is a great time to sell low end enchants for all of the new characters, new players, and new BoA gear bought by older players for their new characters.

Right now is the prime time to get stocking up on two of the required Enchanting materials because you won't want to run out of the best Enchants to sell during the first month of the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion.  Whenever a new expansion brings in the waves of new players, new characters, and fresh BoA gear, I always wish I had more Small Radiant Shards and Large Brilliant Shards.  Stocking up ahead of time allows me to keep from battling on the auction house for the materials to keep my Enchanting gold making business up and running.

Right now you may be able to find a lot of Large Brilliant Shards for cheaper than normal.  Why?  Well, with Patch 5.0.4 the conquest points were all convereted to honor points, so there are a lot of players with a surplus over the 4000 honor point cap.  Any Enchanter should know they can turn those honor points into Large Radiant Shards rather cheaply and a lot of non-gold making Enchanters will do just that.  Many will turn to the auction house to sell their Enchanting materials raw, instead of saving them to use on demand spiked Enchants in a few weeks.
With the addition of Monks in Mists of Pandaria, you can expect hefty sales of the +15 Agility to Weapon and +25 Agility to 2 Handed Weapon Enchants and both take Large Brilliant Shards. 

So be sure to keep your eyes peeled for cheap Shards and stock up for use in a few weeks, when you make gold off of all the new WoW characters.
Check out some of my Squidoo lenses:  Alliance Vs Horde - Come Vote! | Diablo 3 Gifts For Gamers | Getting Started Podcasting 101 | Play Money by Julian Dibble | Auction House Junkies | Fluxx - My Fav Card Game

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