20 Days of Gold Making - Day 9 - Favorite Niche Market

This entry is part of a series of gold making posts answering the questions in the 20 Days of Gold Making Challenge started by Nev over at Auction House Addict.  If you also blog, then be sure to check out the gold blogging challenge for post topic ideas.

Day 9 - What Is Your Favorite Niche Market & Why?

Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery

I've always been a big fan of niche markets.  Niche markets are great markets because once you find a good niche, you may be the only seller in that market.  Some good examples of niche markets that I've held complete control over include:

• Arcanite Bars - I was the only one selling these for 2-3 years before others caught on (after my post on them).
• Rich Purple Silk Shirts - I was the only seller for at least 5 years on Horde side on my server.
• Twink Gear - Back in Vanilla WoW, twink item flipping was a goldmine, because non-twink players didn't understand the true value of what they were selling for way too cheap.

My Favorite Niche? 
Mysterious Fortune Cards, Of Course!

Above and beyond all other niche markets, my favorite is definately the Mysterious Fortune Cards market.  Even now in the Mists of Pandaria expansion, the Mysterious Fortune Cards are still a great seller.  Why?  Gambling will never be obsolete! 

Creating the system for barking MFCs was a lot of fun and I caused quite a stir on my server, as well as many others, as buyers of my Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery system brought these great gold making cards to the forefront of the trade chat channel on many servers.  I knew the MFCs had great potential to bring in great profits, but the system of barking them for more sales was and still is an amazing strategy.  I still remember the night I made 35k in a few hours from just Mysterious Fortune Cards. 

To this day, I can plop on a new server and fire up my barking macros and watch the sales role in as I sell out on stock within minutes.  Just proof that other servers are still untapped from using my MFC Barking strategies to make gold.  It really was a lot of fun for me to start into barking with my tested and proven MFC macros and just watch the yellow "A buyer has been found for your auction of Mysterious Fortune Card" messages start to fill my screen.  Nothing beats immediate gratification of your work.


Top Gifts For Gamers Articles:  Top Gaming Keyboards & Keypads | Zombie Lover's Gift Guide | T-Shirts of Sheldon Cooper | Top 10 Board Games | Gifts For Star Wars Fans

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

MFC Barking In Mists Of Pandaria

Mysterious Fortune Cards & Barking MFCs in MoP

Mysterious Fortune Cards continue to be a strong seller on my server in World of Warcraft.  With my recent increased work hours (covering co-workers vacations), I have been very limited in overall game time as well as time that I am able to spend working markets in the WoW auction houses.  While I have been making hefty profits flipping my stockpiles of blue leveling and twink gear, I am seeing some amazing profits within my main market, the Mysterious Fortune Cards market.  Earlier this year, I wrote about how Mysterious Fortune Cards will never die.  Not only was I right, but sales have started to become way more profitable than even I expected. 

The MFCs that I created prior to Mists of Pandaria where being undercut into oblivion during the end of expansion lull.  Nowadays, those same Mysterious Fortune Cards that cost me less than 4 gold to make are now selling for 25 gold each and sometime faster than I can relist them.  Last night I made about 2,000 gold in 15 minutes of barking.  It's so easy, even a kobold could do it!  Well, dumbass Kobold would probably crash the market to 5 gold each again.

Why are my MFCs performing so well? 

There are a few key factors in the rise in price and the influx of more sales.

• Competition has become nearly non-existant - As new expansions are released many auctioneers abandon old markets looking for the greener grass of the most up to date markets.  A wise goblin understands that old markets can be just as, if not more, lucrative than during previous expansions.

• The ink trader fiasco - The Inscription Ink traders were finally updated today to accepting Ink of the Seas as the exchange currency for new Inks.  The extra 7 or so weeks of Blackfallow Ink trading has helped to dry up the supplies of Blackfallow Ink, which is the primary material for MFC crafting.

• New players  - Every expansion launch brings new players into WoW and helps bring old players back to the game.  These fresh faces may be hearing about MFCs for the first time and will be more willing to try a shot at winning the big fortunes. 

• Fresh MFC Barks - I've been working on some brand new barks for Mists of Pandaria.  Barking the same thing over and over can get very stale very fast.  It's always best to keep your MFC barks up to date and always evolving.  Fresh is best!

New Mysterious Fortune Card Barks

I'm currently working on a massive collection of my newest MFC barks and am pumping out new ones every day.  Here is a sample of a few of my new favorites.

"Can't Decide Which Faction To Join With Your Panda?  Flip Some [Mysterious Fortune Card]s.  If You Win, Join The Horde.  If You Don't, Go Alliance With The Rest Of The Losers!"

"What's Black, White, & Purple?  A Pandaren Monk Rolling In Epic [Mysterious Fortune Card] Winnings!" 

"Hey I Just Met You, And This Is Cray-Cray, So Buy Some [Mysterious Fortune Cards], And Flip 'Em Maybe!"

This is just a sample selection of some of the great barks, I've been working on.  Stay tuned for more great Mysterious Fortune Card barking ideas to come!

Make sure to check out the Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery guide to get you started understanding how this easy-as-hell WoW gold making strategy works.  With a little guidance from the guide, you'll be making easy gold too. 

**********

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

MFCs Will Never Die

Hagor Flips For Mysterious Fortune Cards

Mysterious Fortune Cards Will Never Die

Mysterious Fortune Cards (MFCs) will never become obsolete.  One of the negative aspects of having a new expansion released for World of Warcraft is the fact that at least 90% of the profession craftable items will become obsolete.  These older pattern crafted items are undesireable by the majority of characters.  Sure, there are some nice leveling pieces that characters may desire as gear upgrades while leveling, but the demand quickly fades a few months into the new WoW expansion's release.

Mysterious Fortune Cards are different because they are one of the items that will continue to sell long in the Mists of Pandaria expansion and beyond.  Why?  Because there will always be a demand for players looking to gamble at a chance to win a quick 5k gold.  Even if a new MFC type card is released in Mists of Pandaria, the Mysterious Fortune Cards will still be another valid gambling option.  And as discussed in the post on Population Cycles & MFC Barking, the launch of a new expansion is a great time to sell MFCs to all of the new and returning players.  Increased player populations on servers means more players will be hearing your barks, which in turn will lead to more sales.  One of the benefits of buying my MFC Guide and learning to properly sell your Mysterious Fortune Cards is the fact that the market will never die.  The MFC sales will continue to roll in each and every expansion.

Bringing MFCs Into Mists of Pandaria

When stockpiling for Mists of Pandaria, I recommend stocking up early on your Inscription Inks.  If you are having trouble finding storage space for all of your herbs and inks, then you can also convert some of those Blackfallow Inks to MFCs, since they stack 200 cards per stack.  This can be a great space saver, if you craft a bunch ahead of time.  They will fly off the WoW auction house once the swarm of new & returning players arrives into Azeroth.  If you buy a bunch of herbs to make your MFCs now, you will make an even better profit later on into the MoP expansion once inflation and the lack of farmers in older zones starts to drive the prices up on the raw materials.  So you can use the WoW expansion inflation to your advantage and sell your MFCs for more when the herb supplies dry up.

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

Population Cycles and Barking MFCs

MFCs Will Never Be Obsolete

Mysterious Fortune Cards Again! Really?

Oh Yes!  Oh Hell Yes!

The best benefit of the Mysterious Fortune Card market is that it will never become an obsolete market.  As a counter-point, the Fortune Cookie market will become obsolete.  The Mysterious Fortune Card gambling phenomenon will never be outdated when a new WoW expansion comes out.  Just like with any market, the MFC market will go through peaks and valleys mostly determined by 2 things.  1) How well you are barking.  2)  WoW in game population cycles.

Population Cycles?

Mysterious Fortune Cards are fun!  MFCs are exciting!  MFCs will give you a rush and draw you to buy more.  At least those are some of the principles that we know bring players back over and over for more shots at getting that Epic 5k Mysterious Fortune Card.  The truth is that eventually most players reach a point at which they do not buy any more fortune cards because they give up at winning.  They may still buy a few here and there, but eventually most players wise up after blowing too much gold chasing the 5k Fortune Card.

So in order to keep sales coming in on a steady basis, we need to be barking and informing new targets about the chances at winning from gambling in the auction house.  Some of the best and most efficient times for barking and making sales are during spikes in the population. Some examples when the population spikes are:

1. Peak Hours
2. Tuesdays
3. Weekends
4. Patches
5. Holidays

Cream Of The Christmas Crop

Christmas is one of the best IRL holidays for bringing new players into the World of Warcraft.  Many players just got the game for Christmas and are now a week or so into leveling their first character.  These newer players are prime targets for wasting their hard days earnings on a chance at a quick 5000 gold.  So dust off those Scribes, and get back to barking your Mysterious Fortune Cards.  The sales have seen a huge spike lately on many server as all of the new players are experimenting with the in game gambling phenomenon.  To these new players the rush of playing the MFC game is still fresh, new, and exciting.

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

Thanks Twizz For The Pic! | Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery In Action

Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery In Action

Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Guide In Action


Thanks Twizz!  TwizzleTank of The Rep Grind Radio Podcast did a segment on Episode #9 about his easy gold making experiences using the Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery gold making guide.  Be sure to catch Episode #9 of Rep Grind Radio at Eviscerated.net or over at iTunes.


Check out the image sent in by Twizz at the top of this post.  Click on the picture to enlarge it.  You can see the nice chunks of gold rolling in from using the tips provided in the Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery gold guide.  Notice the wall of yellow "A Buyer Has Been Found For Your Auction Of Mysterious Fortune Card" text scrolling by as the sales just roll in?  My methods are proven and work effectively.

Mysterious Fortune Cards Guru In Action

You can see similar results in this older picture of me selling Mysterious Fortune Cards myself on my scribe, Primerib.  The great thing about Mysterious Fortune Cards is that they will never become obsolete.  Players will always want to try and win a nice chunk of 5000 gold.


Thanks again Twizz and Res of Rep Grind Radio!  Keep your shows coming.  We love 'em!

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

Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery | New WoW Gold Guide

WoW Gold Making with Mysterious Fortune Cards

Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery

So I have finished my gold guide and I present to you the Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery World of Warcraft gold making guide.    This new guide puts into words all of the strategies and tactics I have been using to make an absolute fortune selling the Mysterious Fortune Cards on the auction house. 

You've heard and read me discuss Mysterious Fortune Cards on Auction House Junkies, Cold's Gold Factory, a JMTC's Friday Night Meeting, and also the soon to release Hall of Fame Submission to WowEcon.

So Check It Out

You May Just FuQQ Around and Get Rich Too,

Cold

LF Mysterious Fortune Card Testimonials | Reader Giveaway

Mysterious Fortune Card Master

As some of you know, I have often been referred to as the "Grandfather of Mysterious Fortune Cards" or the "Fortune Card Guru".  My posts on Mysterious Fortune Cards, Mysterious Fortune Card Barking, Barking Add-Ons, and Dealing With Your Mysterious Fortune Card Competition have been some of the most popular and wide spread posts I have ever released.  So it is only natural that I work up a complete guide to selling fortune cards. 

I am proud to announce that I have aleady begun the initial stages of developing this e-book on Mastering Mysterious Fortune Cards.  This will be a very inexpensive supplemental guide that will go over every aspect of the Mysterious Fortune Card market and in much greater detail than all of my previous Mysterious Fortune Card posts combined, even better my MFC breakdown on episode #1 of Auction House Junkies.  It truly will be an amazing guide that will teach players how to get rich off of a single profession, Inscription, via the wheeling and dealing in this amazingly profitable market.

Call For MFC Testimonials

So what I am asking of my readers is this.  I would like to add some testimonials from my wonderful readers.  Testimonials from other players that have used my tactics for selling Mysterious Fortune Cards.  I have helped a lot of your through my posts here at Cold's Gold Factory, the Auction House Junkies Podcast, and have tailored some assistance to specific players via email and twitter - @SSmith0911.

So I have helped you out, now I am asking you to return the favor and help me out as well.  Please leave some comments on this post as testimonials of how my Mysterious Fortune Cards strategies, guides, hints, and tips have helped you out.  Any testimonials left may be used in the guide and / or the sales page for the coming guide.  I hope to have the Mysterious Fortune Card gold making guide finished by the end of the month.

Reader Giveaway

One person who leaves an excellent testimonial will have their testimonial included in the guide and that reader will be awarded a free copy of the Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery guide once it is completed.  And even if you are already making nice profits in gold, the new MFC guide will still be useful for you as I am adding new strategies that I haven't even discussed on the site.  So stay tuned and please leave some helpful comments that I can use. 

Thanks in advance!

Cold

Mysterious Fortune Card Barks Revisited

Mysterious Fortune Cards

One of the most common topics that I am frequently asked about is the Mysterious Fortune Cards.
Questions come in regarding dealing with competition, barking assistance, and when to reset the market. The most common request is for new barking ideas or new barks. So here you go. By popular request, I am releasing my current list of barks that I use for selling this excellent Inscription money maker. Remember to check out the Announce It add-on as it will make your life a ton easier when barking your fortune cards.

If you aren't up to speed on these items, please review the Mysterious Fortune Cards Compilation.  This was a previous post here at Cold's Gold Factory that leads to many posts around the blogosphere, as well as my own series on the Mysterious Fortune Cards.

My Current and Successful Barking Macros

• Try Some [Mysterious Fortune Card] In Game Gambling. More Fun Than A Sleepover At Neverland Ranch!

• [Mysterious Fortune Card]s Are More Fun Than Sex...............with BOTH HANDS!

• [Mysterious Fortune Card]{Step Right Up and Test Your Luck!} [Fortune Card]

• Are You Underage and Wish you could Gamble, but can't get into a Casino?  Well now is your chance!  Blizzard has created [Mysterious Fortune Card] for You!

• Is Lady Luck on Your Side?  Will You Get Lucky Tonight?  Flip a [Mysterious Fortune Card] on the AH.  No One Will Know...

• Are You Sitting Half Naked In A Beanbag Chair Eating Cheetos?  Well Buy Some [Mysterious Fortune Card]s off the AH Now.  You Won't Get A Life, but You Could Win 5000 gold!

• Buy Your [Mysterious Fortune Card]s from the Originator, Not the Imitators.  Try For The 1k or 5k Jackpots. 

• Win the [Fortune Card] from one of Mine, and I'll Buy It for 5.5k!  That's a 10% PRIME BONUS from my [Mysterious Fortune Card]s.  On the AH Now

• I'm missing the 1k card!  All I have is the 5k [Fortune Card] .  Find the 1k card from MY [Mysterious Fortune Card]s and I'll buy it for 1.2k!

• INSTANT WINNER!!! SO MUCH FUN!!! FEEL THE RUSH!!![Mysterious Fortune Card]  FLIPPIN INCREDIBLE FUN!!!

• New Messages, New Players, New Winners!  Grab Some [Mysterious Fortune Card]s off the Auction House.  Tons of Fun...5k Jackpot possible from just 1 ticket.

• [Mysterious Fortune Card]s on the AH.  Flip Em For a Chance at a [Fortune Card] Jackpot!  What Would You Buy?

• Don'tcha Let Da Raid Leada Be Catchin' You Missin' Raid from Gamblin'.  Grab Summa Me [Mysterious Fortune Card]s Fo Da Road.

• Who's Gonna Win the 5k Jackpot?  [Mysterious Fortune Card]s Fully Stocked on AH.  Are You Feelin' Lucky, Punk?  Your [Fortune Card] Awaits

• Are you HIGH? Are you ROLLIN'?  Buy Some [Mysterious Fortune Card]s from the AH and You Could Be A HIGH ROLLER!!!

• Give In To The RUSH.  Let [Mysterious Fortune Card]s be your BAD ROMANCE.

• Multipack [Mysterious Fortune Card]s Available in the AH Now.  10 and 20 packs for you HIGH ROLLERS.

There you have it.  Those are the exact macros that I use in game to bark my Fortune Cards.  Hope these help to spark not just your sales, but your creativity as well. 

If you just can't get enough barks to read, then head over to The Tipped Copper and Xeroaxe's Barking Post.  I got inspiration for a couple of my favorites from his site.


Feel Free To Add Your Favorites That Work For You To The Comment Section 
Check out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Guide.

Epic 5k Fortune Card: Why The Physical Copy Is Better Than The Script Macro

Epic Mysterious Fortune Cards

I have been heavily into selling mysterious fortune cards via barking in the trade chat channel.  These mysterious fortune cards continue to be a hot seller.  On Tuesday night, I was lucky enough to log in to barely any competition on the auction house.  A whopping 13 Mysterious Fortune Cards were all that were posted.  Of course I bought all of those 16g cards out and relisted them along with my own for 36g each with price breaks for 10 and 20 packs.  After my usual round of barking macros, they started to sell like crazy.  How crazy?  35k in 5 hours crazy.

Give Them A Reason To Buy Yours

One of my tried and true strategies is to give the buyers a reason to buy your Mysterious Fortune Cards over your competitor's fortune cards.  One strategy is to list in multiple size packs with a slight discount.  10 packs and 20 packs work best in my experience.  Another strategy that has been ingenious in driving buyers to my Mysterious Fortune Cards relies on one of my barking macros.

"Mysterious Fortune Cards in stock on the Auction House now!  Your chance at winning the 5k Jackpot.  If you win the (Insert Epic 5k Fortune Card Here) from one of MY CARDS, I will buy it back for 5.5 k gold - That's a 10% PRIME BONUS!" --Primerib

This barking macro has 2 purposes. 

• Even though I have no way to tell that the winner came from a card of mine, people tend to skip right over the under cutters and buy my cards because of the extra incentive. 
• This 5.5k epic fortune card is a great item to actual own yourself as a barking scribe.  Barking that you will it back gives you first dips at any card out there.

Let's look at why you should get one. 

Epic 5k Fortune Card - Why You Want A Physical Copy

Many players are skeptical about just how rare these cards actually are.  They think the odds are very low that anyone will win.  Having one of these cards to show to players improves their perception about the chances of themselves getting a winner.  This leads to more sales.  Linking in trade chat from a macro works to drive more sales, but physically showing someone that there has been a winner drives a lot more sales than linking alone.

The crazy thing is that I actually own 2 now.  Bought them both back on the same night.  I cannot prove it, but I have a hunch that there was a hotfix this last Tuesday that improved the odds.  I had 2 winners from purchasers boths on Tuesday night.  One reported buying 10 cards and the other had bought 60 cards.  I purchased both of these as promised. 

Another benefit is that I can thwart trade trolls by showing these cards to players in the trade window.  They usually run right from me and into the auction house and convert to more sales.

I also use them on alts of mine procaliming that I just won and thank my scribe in trade chat for selling me a winning fortune card.  Trolls shout out in disbelief, I show a few more players and they confirm it in trade as well.  More sales roll in.

Funny thing is a can actualy charge an "observation fee" of 5-10g just to have a peek at the rare card.  Made some gold already by just letting people see it or betting that I do in fact have one in my possession.

And lastly, having one makes linking a lot easier.  Using the macros and scripts has worked some nights and other nights the scripts seem to be broken.  Some times they owrk and other times they appear to work, but are actually unlinkable or only link the non-hyper linked versions of the card text only, which is worthless.  Having a physical copy in your possession completely eliminates that issue. 

I am a big proponant of using the AnnounceIt Add-on to make all your barking much easier.  The biggest drawback is that you cannot code the script into the macro for the 5k epic fortune card.  You must have a physical copy as it relies on a drag and drop interface to register the hyperlinks.  Now that I have one, I can use a 1 click macro and never have to link the scripted card version into a new bark.  It makes barking a one click masterpiece without any problems at all. 

So I highly recommend picking up at least one of these Epic 5k Mysterious Fortune Card Jackpot Winners to both help increase your sales and make your barking career much easier.

Get caught up on a ton of resources for Mysterious Fortune Cards.  This is also the post featured in the Auction House Junkies podcast, Episode #1.

Check out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Guide

AnnounceIt Add-On For Barking Assistance

Barking Assistance

So I have found an add-on that I am now using to help with my business of barking to sell mysterious fortune cards.  The WoW add-on is called AnnounceIt and is available from Curse Gaming.  Follow this link to the AnnounceIt page at Curse.  This add-on is designed for creating up to 5 lines of text in any chat channel.  It is commonly used for posting vent info, but it can also be used to help automate your barking business.

AnnounceIt Add-On

The tool is accessed by an icon on your mini-map ring.  All you have to do is set up each line of text, select the channel it will appear in, and then name the individual bark.  When you want to send a bark out, you just select which one to use, and click on it on the pull down tab.  Having multiple barks prewritten and ready to send to trade chat helps with sales and also allows for a much wider variety of barks.  You can drag and drop items or spells into each line of text to have the active hyperlinks show as well.  The only downside is that you must have a physical copy of the 5k Fortune Card in order to drag ad drop it into the chat line.  You can still set up a macro with the code for the 5k card to fill in between barks as you see fit.  This is an excellent add-on to include in your collection.

Anyone using any other add ons to bark with?

Mysterious Fortune Card Tales: A Reader Submission

Cold,


I wanted to share my Mysterious Fortune Card success with you...not that you aren't fully aware of the tricks :)

At first, I didn't believe that these cards would sell. First, I checked the AH for current card prices, which ranged from 28 - 55g each. After I learned the recipe, I checked the AH for Blackfallow because my server has ridiculous herb prices at the moment, and found a guy selling them for 15g per in stacks of 20. This is a huge cost benefit because I could never mill and obtain for that price. I snapped these up regardless, since the next cheapest ink was 25g and up. While in the AH, I saw a few folks barking the cards, using the bark tactics listed on the various blogs, so I figured it was my turn.

So, I whipped up 12 cards, figured out that macro bark with the clickable Fortune Card links, and fired off a bark without listing anything. I wanted to clear 10 stacks of 1, set at 28g before I listed mine, because the next tier of listed singles was set at 35g. At first, this didn't work...no cards moved from the bottom. So, I spammed again...but listed 2 of my cards for 27g 50s and undercut. The cards sold instantly, and I just made a decent profit for nothing but a few button clicks. Immediately, I got a hate whisper from the seller who had the stacks at 35g, who said "I am trying to get the stacks back to 35g so don't be stupid and let the 28g cards clear out...you aren't going to make any profit and neither will I." I'm not sure where this guy learned economics, but it is pretty clear that if I just sold 2 cards to his 0, and he won't dip down to undercut me, then yes, I will be the one to profit. So, I crafted the rest of the cards I had, which left me 58 total.

I didn't respond to the other seller, and barked again, then quickly listed 5 cards. Gone. Waited 2 minutes, barked, listed 5. Gone. In comes another hate whisper, and the other seller pulls his cards. Not the smartest guy, so I bark until I get the 28g stacks gone that I was undercutting, and Mr.35g was undercutting a 37g seller, so in less than 10 minutes, my cards have gone from 27g 50s to 36g 50s. After this, I went back and checked Blackfallow, and there were a bunch listed at 20-22g each. Since it is apparent that the card market moves extremely fast, I bought all of these inks, crafted cards and went back to barking. I sold dozens of these things with zero competition for about 2 hours, and eventually, a new aggressive undercutter came along so I paused and watched how he operated. I would bark, he would not. After I barked, he'd undercut me. I'd undercut him, bark, count to 5, and undercut 2g and post a few. My tactic here was an attempt to bring his cards down to a point where I could buy his stock, and I got very lucky as a third scribe entered the fight and I just sat back and watched them bring the prices down to 20g a card, and I bought them all.

Overall, I have only made profits with this. On Sunday, I had the market the entire day, literally. I sold my cards for 35g for 8 hours straight. In a week of selling, helped by a lucky long day, I have made about 20k profit so far. I have never seen over 100k in my account, and I will turn that tonight as I sit at 99,900g with a full mailbox of card sales.

My favorite thing to do is change my barks until I piss someone off who is either a fellow scribe who got smoked out of the market, or a player who doesn't agree with gambling, etc. These folks are my sales fuel, because almost 100% of the time, they label the cards as a "scam". What will soon happen, is that the trade channel will buzz with this discussion about the cards, and any press is good press. I argued back and forth with a guy for an hour and moved 400 cards, and I think that if he had not kept it up, I would have sold half that.

Thanks for your blog, I read it every day looking for tips like this, and appreciate the effort :)

Have a good day,

DC from Doomhammer

*********************

Thanks DC for the great submission!  Remember to try posting in multiple stacks and bark that those stacks are available to help deal with the undercutters.

I welcome any reader submissions, guest posts, or question.  Just send them to the email listed on my contact page.

Attention Bloggers:  You have 4 days left to submit your entries for the January 11th Premier Release of  Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival.

Mysterious Fortune Card Undercutters and How To Deal With Them

Mysterious Fortune Card Undercutters

The popularity of the Mysterious Fortune Card has led to many other players invading the market on servers everywhere.  By now you are not the sole provider or one of a few Mysterious Fortune Card dealers on your server.  The auction house may even be flooded with these cards by people who really have no clue how to market them.  This is your guide for dealing with the competition.

The 5 Ways I Deal With Undercutters

1. Limit Resources
2. Bark The Price Up
3. Stealthy Undercuts
4. Post In Multi-Pack Stacks
5. Take A Break

All of these tactics can be used together for increased ways to deal with your Mysterious Fortune Card competition on the Auction House.  Let's go over each of these tactics in more detail.

Limiting Resources

There are a lot of scribes out there that use the auction house in World of Warcraft as their only supplier of herbs.  If you can constantly buy all of the nicely priced Cataclysm herbs, the blackfallow inks, and ashen pigments, you can cripple or limit their access to these materials.  If they can't get new herbs for a profitable price, then they can't compete. 

In addition to buying your materials off of the auction house to limit your competition's ability to do the same, you should also be looking for farmers to supply your crafting needs.  Often times you can set a price that is below auction house value, if you are constantly buying their farmed herbs in large quantities.

Barking The Prices Up

Another strategy is to bark the prices up.  This is easy if you have a macro set up to bark in trade.  By now you know that Fortune Cards don't sell much unless you are barking.  Sure you can get some residual sales or return buyers picking up more off the auction house, but if you are wanting to move large volumes of cards, you simply must be barking in trade chat.

If the current auction house price for Mysterious Fortune Cards isn't as high as you would like it to be, just bark the price up.  When you bark, players rush to the auction house to make a purchase.  You can send those first initial waves to buy up your competition's cards that are below the price threshold that you would like to sell at.  Just bark the price up to the price you would like to see them selling for. 

I like to go ahead and post a few at the low price and in-between price jumps, just to keep track that cards are moving off the auction house and to notify when the next price level has been attained.  This also helps with name recognition on the auction house.  Many players have bought my cards for just a few copper more than the undercutter's because they respect that I am working for my sales or because they thought my barks were creative.

Stealthy Undercutting

Stealthy undercutting is undercutting the cards on the auction house without being seen by your competition.  This involves posting only a handful of Mysterious Fortune Cards in hopes that yours will be bought out from under the other seller.  This works best when you have another scribe barking in trade chat already.  Instead of barking along, make some cards and post them for 1 copper less than his, but just a few at a time.  That way you sell some and he gets a sale or two.  You post a few more and steal some sales away from him.  Keep doing this until your are out of cards or he catches on. 

Posting In Multi-Pack Stacks

Another great way of ignoring other sellers all together is to post and advertise your own unique stack sizes.  Again barking is key as a lot of players won't even bother to check the auction house listings after the first page.  I have found the best stack sizes to be 3, 4, 5, 10, and 20.  I like to post 10 and 20 stacks and add that "10 and 20 pack stacks of Mysterious Fortune Cards are available on the Auction House for you HIGH ROLLERS!"

If you are offering a discount for purchasing multi-packs you can ignore the undercutting wars that sometimes happen with singles.  If singles sell for 35g, try selling and barking some 3 packs for 100g.  Ideally, if the current rate is 35g, I would post some singles at 34.99.99, 3 packs for 100g, 10 packs for 300, and 20 packs for 600.  They will all sell in the various sized stacks as long as you are barking.

Taking A Break

Sometimes there comes a point when its just not worth the effort to try and battle it out in trade chat or on the auction house for your Mysterious Fortune Card sales.  Some days idiots will wall the auction house with fortune cards set at 10g each and in hundreds.  You can risk buying them up and relisting at a higher price, but it is a risk, as they can come back and wall you again.

Some days, just leave this market alone, go back to another market that you work in and come back another day to another new set of card prices.  Most of these players walling the auction house with sub-prime prices are clueless to the real value of these great sellers.  Let them sell for stupid prices and then swoop back in once the market is back to where you would like it to be.

Hope this guide gave you some ideas on how to deal with competition within the Mysterious Fortune Card market, the new inscription goldmine.

Mysterious Fortune Cards Mega-Compilation

Mysterious Fortune Cards

Mysterious Fortune Cards have become one of my most profitable markets within World of Warcraft and the Azerothian Auction Houses.  Barking for sales has become a very fun way to play the game for me as well.  My posts on these Mysterious Fortune Cards spurred a lot of discussion on blogs and gold forums.  The posts on Mysterious Fortune Cards Preview, Fortune Card Bait N Switch, and Fortune Card Barking Tactics have all 3 moved into my top 10 most popular blog posts of all time!  So starting the discussion before Cataclysm spurred a lot of discussion, interest, and sales of these highly profitable Inscription made Mysterious Fortune Cards.

In case you have been living under a rock these past few weeks, here is a recap of the entire gold blogosphere and the discussions on Mysterious Fortune Cards.  This should serve to help any of you getting into this hot topic late.

Cold's Gold Factory - 5 Part Series on Mysterious Fortune Cards

1. Cataclysm Item Preview: Fortune Cards and Fortune Cookies
2. Mysterious Fortune Cards Barking Tips - Great Tactics For Trade Chat Advertisements
3. Fortune Card Bait and Switch Tactics - Get 'Em Hooked and Raise the Price
4. Dealing With Undercutters
5. The 5k Epic Fortune Card and Why You Should Own One

Wukam did a Mysterious Fortune Cards Gambling Guest Post in response to my original article.
Gnome of Zurich did a Fortune Cards post in response to Wukam's guest post.
Sterling of the Consortium did a great post comparing the Fortune Cards to pull tabs.
Xeroaze of The Tipper Copper has great ideas on Fortune Card Barking Tips.

Also check out Cold's Blog Azeroth Secret Santa Guest Post at Nicegrl.com on Mysterious Fortune Cards - What's The Hype?  This is an excellent overview I did as my guest post on a non-gold making blog.

Here's some more articles from around the Gold Blogosphere on the topic of Mysterious Fortune Cards

Zoxy of Trading With Zoxy:  How Zoxy Made 20k Gold In One Day
Faid of Nerf Faids:  Hops on Mysterious Fortune Card Bandwagon
Breevok at CSAAHF:  Fortune Cards - A Simple Perspective
Euripides at WoW Insider:  Take The Mysterious Fortune Card House Advantage
Mageshadow at JMTC:  Making a Fortune From Mysterious Fortune Cards
Alto at Alto's Goldish Advice:  The New WoW Crack
Cindia of The Golden Muse:  Random Rewards From Mysterious Fortune Cards

This list is not mean to be fullyinclusive of every post on Mysterious Fortune Cards.  These are the most popular posts on the topic.  Apologies to anyone I missed.  Feel free to post a link in the comments section, if you also did a post on Mysterious Fortune Cards.

So has anyone found a 5000 gold jackpot winner yet?
As of the Hotfix on Tuesday the 18th, I've seen 4 5k Winners in 3 days.  They haven't mention any improvement in the odds, but I believe the odds have been increased.  Hell, I own 2 of the 5k cards myself.

JMTC Blogging Carnival: How Are You Making Gold In Cataclysm?

JMTC Blogging Carnival: How Are You Making Gold In Cataclysm?

The current topic for the January 2nd Just My Two Copper Gold Blogging Carnival asks us "How Are You Making Gold In Cataclysm?"

Mysterious Fortune Cards

Anyone who is a regular reader here at Cold's Gold Factory probably already knows what my favorite Cataclysm market is in World of Warcraft.  It's no secret that I having been heavily into the Mysterious Fortune Card market.  Right now these Mysterious Fortune Cards are selling like crazy for me.  This isn't a post it and forget about it kind of market.  Sales of Mysterious Fortune Cards are highly dependant on using good Fortune Card Barking Strategies.

I sell my Mysterious Fortune Cards for base prices of 35 gold each, 3 for 100, 10 for 310, or 20 for 600 gold.  These prices do go up if there aren't many undercutters and I can bark the prices up by barking to sell out the low priced cards.  I also snatch up low prices cards to relist, because they will sell if you bark.  If you don't bark, they will sit there with an occasional repeat buyer sale. 

Trade chat sales are great too!  I have commonly sold stacks of 20, 40, and 60 to single players making batch purchases.

Greens Gone Blue

Remember that post I did back in September on Nine Level 10-19 Greens That Turn Blue In Cataclsym?  I hope you stocked up too because these things have been selling well and for an insane return on investment.  Any Bind-On-Equip items that change color (and move up the color scale) will instantly gain value on the auction houses of Azeroth.  All of these items had stat upgrades on top of their color change.  Some players will level their alts in uber gear to help speed the leveling process.  Other times twinks are buying these excellent items as are players leveling through the battlegrounds.

Goblin Mail Leggings - I paid 3-8 gold for when they were green and had half the stats of the new version.  Selling now for 225g per pair.  Only 1 left in stock.

Woodworking Gloves - Paid under 3 gold and selling for 75g each sold 7 of 8 so far.  Baby Boomkins!

Metalworking Gloves - Paid under 3g (as little as 20 silver for the green) now selling for 75-120g

Stonemason Cloak - Bought 30+ for less than 1 gold each.  Sold for 35g each week one, then raised to 80g.  Maybe 5 remaining.  Gotta love turning 80 silver into 80 gold!

Foreman's Leggings - Only found one for 8 gold.  Sold for 325 gold day one of Cataclysm.

Blackened Defias Gloves - Bought for under 5g each and selling tons at 65-80g each.

Blackened Defias Belt - Bought tons for under 10 gold and sold over 20+ for 75-125g each.

Blackened Defias Leggings - Only found 3 to snatch.  Sold all 3 for 275g each in the first week.

Blackened Defias Boots - Paid 5g or less, sold out at 80-120g each.

As you can tell, this tip was highly profitable for anyone that took my advice.  I stocked up over a full bank tab of these green goodies only to log in after Cataclysm to see the full guild tab now holding all blues.

Any other blogger out there give you a Cataclysm speculation tip with a comparable return on investment?

*********************

If you a fan of blogging carnivals, be sure to check back on January 11th, when Cold's Gold Factory Blogging Carnivals first edition releases.  Follow up every 11th day of each month for the new monthly gold blogging carnivals.

Bloggers be sure to check out the orginal Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival Announcement for the topic and rules.  Anyone interested can also review the blogging carnival benefits on my other site designed to help out other new bloggers.

Mysterious Fortune Card Bait and Switch

First One Is On The House

Mysterious Fortune Card Bait


Yesterday I went over my Tips for Barking for Fortune Card Sales. Originally I had been posting my Mysterious Fortune Cards for 25 gold each, but that was on the weekend when I could get stacks of Cataclysm herbs for 30-40g per full stack of herbs.  25g is an excellent introductory price to start letting players get a taste of the gambling process involved with flipping these Mysterious Fortune Cards.  My first two days of barking and selling these on the auction house netted me thousands of gold, even at 25g per card.  Other gold bloggers I communicate with on twitter (@ssmith0911) have been reporting selling these for 60g, 75g, even 100g each.  I feel that 25g is a much better price to get players buying them at first.  Let them get hooked and then raise the prices on them.

The Pricing Switch


After my initial couple of days of barking and selling the cards at 25g per Mysterious Fortune Card, I had quickly dried the auction house of all herbs available at reasonable prices.  I definately recommend stockpiling any good priced herbs and buying all you can.  If you get your barking tactics down, you will sell out of the cards every time.  The profit margins are great and the time commitment is easily done afk once the milling component is complete.

Now I am currently selling them for 60 gold each.  Even with an increased cost in herbs off the auction house I am continuing to make a nice profit per sale.  Once you get your server hooked on gambling with these cards, you can milk the players of even more gold.  Even after raising the prices, they continue to sell well.  I have had single players buy as many as 80 cards, but it's not all at once.  They buy 7-8 off the auction house, then whisper me for more.  I then sell them 10 and they come back and get 20 more.  Then they come back and get 40 more all in the same 15 minute window.  So the mysterious fortune cards are like crack for some players.  They just can't get enough.  I have sold hundreds of the mysterious fortune cards, but have yet to see a winner over 20g.

If you get undercutters, its not easy to just bark and move through their stack as well.  If you are doing a good job barking then you will be moving tons of volume of cards.  Any competitor that isn't online while you are barking, isn't going to be able to compete with you.  If you get undercutters, just start posting in multiple stack sizes and advertise those new quanitity stacks.  Players will skip the undercutters and go straight to yours to save time with buying larger stacks.

The Bait And Switch Strategy

You can try this multiple ways, but the basic concept is the same.  Bait them with a good deal or a good offer, then switch the price up for more profits once they have a taste and are hooked.  I have had multiple players whisper me when I run out of cards on the auction house, because they want more and they want them now!  You also can post a bunch at higher prices with an alt of yours, then log back onto your barker and sell them at your normal prices.  Then instead of posting all your stock at once, post maybe 10-20 at a time and bark away!  Some players will get to the auction house as they are selling out and will be tempted to go ahead and try some of the higher priced fortune cards.

You can also post some of the already flipped cards at the exact same bring as your unflipped cards and see, if you get anyone to take the bait.  Do this on an alt though, not on your barking scribe.  Selling these cards really makes me feel like an evil goblin.  The strategy of selling gambling cards in World of Warcraft may not be for everyone.  I admit that I do feel a little dirty from swindling so much gold away from other players by getting them hooked on in game gambling.  If it wasn't the plan, then why were they created by Blizzard anyway?  It's been a ton of fun barking and selling these in trade chat.  Best thing is we finally have something to do while crafting and relisting our glyphs.

Continue on to Part 4 of the series:  Dealing With Mysterious Fortune Card Undercutters

Image Credit: http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:Q4KrZAIJYY-KYM:http://www.goinsurancerates.com/system/wp/blogs/goinsurancerates/bait-and-switch-10-01-21.jpg&t=1


Got any other strategies to share about barking or selling Mysterious Fortune Cards?

Mysterious Fortune Card Barking Tips

Selling Faster Than Poppers At A Circuit Party!

Mysterious Fortune Cards

As predicted in my original post on Fortune Cards and Fortune Cookies, the Mysterious Fortune Cards have been selling like hotcakes.  These are legit in game gambling introduced into the game by Blizzarrd.  If you are selling these in World of Warcraft, be prepared to field a lot of questions regarding these items.  Also be prepared to deflect any claims of "this is a scam" in trade chat while you are barking.  The key to selling these is proper explanations when needed and using enticing barking pitches. 

I sold hundreds of these last Saturday night.  I chose a Saturday night to give it a shot while I was relisting tons of glyphs anyways.  Saturday late night is a great time to bark for these as a reader comment on the original post recommended late nights when people are already drunk and stoned and more willing to unload their gold.  My strategy was so good that I couldn't keep my stock filled and I would get messages telling me that I'm sold out and please post more! 

I would buy any Cataclysm herbs below 50g a stack, Blackfallow Ink below 250g a stack (for 20), mill my herbs, make all the cards I can, then post them in various size stacks.  Then it was time to start the creative barking and watch them fly off of the auction house.  I really could not craft them fast enough.

Fortune Card Barking

Here a few of the barks I use:

"Are you feeling lucky, punk?  Mysterious Fortune Card just 25g for a chance at 500, 1000, 5000 gold!  Available on the Auction House now!"

"Mysterious Fortune Card - In game LEGAL Gambling created by BLIZZ.  Will you be tonight's first 5k winner?  Only 25g to See If You Are The Big Winner!"

"The AH is fully stocked on Mysterious Fortune Cards.  Your chance at 5000 gold awaits you for just 25g on the AH.  Available in stacks of 5, 10, and 20 for your HIGH ROLLERS."

"The Perfect Christmas Gift for Friends and Guildees.  Mysterious Fortune Card can be mailed to anyone.  Gift the gift we all want this Winter Veil - a chance at 5000 gold!"

"How many 1000 and 5000 gold winners are on the Auction House RIGHT NOW?  Just 25g gets you a chance at the BIG WINNINGS.  Grab a Mysterious Fortune Card before they are all sold out."

And finally before logging off for the night...

"Last Batch of Mysterious Fortune Cards posted.  FINAL BATCH POSTED...LAST CHANCE to win 5000 gold tonight.  When they are GONE they are GONE!  Goodnight and Good Luck!"

So have fun with it and be creative and you will sell out hand over fist like I did.  25g seemed to be an excellent price to both peek curiosity and to drive high numbers of sales in hopes of someone actually winning and linking a nice jackpot in trade chat.  Now that I have players hooked, I may be posting for higher prices on an alt, but continue to bark and sell on my scribe.

Continue on to Part 3 of this series:  Mysterious Fortune Card Bait N Switch Pricing
or
Jump to the Mysterious Fortune Card Barking Part 2 for New Bark Ideas

Who else has been using some creative pitches for barking for these fortune cards?   Leave your Best Barks in the comments.

Check out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Guide

Reader Submission On Fortune Cards by Wukam

Hi Cold, First off, huge fan of your blog. It has definitely helped me out a lot.

Second, I wanted to post a comment on your blog post about Fortune Cookies and Fortune Cards, but ended up getting carried away with the statistical analysis and vastly exceeded the character limit. Instead, I humbly submit it directly to you for you to use at your discretion:

WARNING! Excessively long comment ahead!

TL;DR – Even though the cards, when you use them, will vendor fordifferent prices, they all have the exact same statistical worth of X,where X is the potential value times the chance of getting that value.If mats are below X, you can buy absolutely risk free. If mats areabove X, then you’re taking a risk.

This has me quite worried, and I wouldn't be surprised if Blizz endsup removing the cards.

First, you're mixing gambling with the already addictive WoW. Second, it's going to be crazy easy for players with a littleknowledge of statistics to exploit those that don't. This is WoW lottotickets.

Let me try to illustrate using real life lotto tickets as an example.  Let’s say you buy a lotto ticket for $1 that has a 1/500 chance of youwinning $500. In the long run, you will never do better than breakeven: for every $500 you spend, you win $500. Of course, you couldalways get lucky. What’s more important to look at is the SELLER ofthe lotto tickets. If they’re selling $1 scratch offs with a 1/500chance that they’ll have to PAY $500, they’ll never make money! For every $500 they get (500 tickets sold), they have to pay $500! So thesmarter thing to do is change the odds. Make it a $1 ticket that has a1/500 chance of winning $400. So for every $500 in sales, they pay out$400, netting $100. But now look at it from the buyer’s side! You’regiving away money! In the long run, you’re paying $500 to win $400! Of course, you could always get lucky, which is what you’re hoping for and which is the exact faulty logic the sellers are banking on!

The same statistical analysis will apply to pricing these cards,though it’ll be more convoluted because of the varying possible winnings. Though scribes aren’t directly “paying” the buyers, theyessentially are through the cost of mats, and this is where things aregoing to get interesting. Scribes are going to need to keep a VERYclose eye on the price of mats to make sure they aren’t buying themfor more than they could ever hope to get from the cards. Just to keep things simple, I’m going to assume there’s a 1/1000 chance of the cardvendoring for 5k, and that the other options don’t exist (the analysis will essentially be the same, there’s just going to be a lot more math involved). Let’s say those mats cost 5k. You now have two options:sell on the AH, or use the cards. Statistically, you’re just going to break even if you use them. And anyone who buys them for more than thecost of mats is stupid, because they’re taking a risk that will(statistically) never pay off. But that’s what you want, and whatyou’re hoping for and what will probably happen; “6g for a chance at5k!?” your uninformed customer thinks, “How can I not!”

Where things are going to get interesting are when mats are above orbelow the statistical chance; e.g. 4k for 1000 when there’s a 1/1000chance at 5k, or 6k for 1000 when there’s a 1/1000 chance at 5k. Inexample number one, you’re better off crafting and using them foryourself, because statistically you’re guaranteed 1k! (or at least, inthe long run you will profit) You are literally printing gold. But inthe second example, you are taking a huge risk unless you can turnaround and sell them for more. You’re spending 6k for something that’sonly literally worth 5k. Let me try to simplify to clarify. Withobjects like these where chance is the only factor, they are worthwhat you stand to gain multiplied by the chance at getting that. Sosomething with a 1/1000 chance of winning you 5k gold is only worth 5g(5000g/1000). If you are paying less than this amount (e.g. 4g peritem), you are going to come out on top in the long run. If you arepaying more (e.g. 6g per item), you are throwing away money. Unless,of course, you can make some other sucker pay even more! (e.g. 7g per)

As soon as statistics are reached, this market is going to becomepainfully simple for anyone with an understanding of how the marketworks to make money. As soon as mats are below what the cards areACTUALLY worth (potential winnings multiplied by chance of winningthem), you buy them all and either use them on yourself for no risk(that is important to realize: though you may have “blown” that moneyand flipped nothing, in the long run you are statistically guaranteedto make it back and then some!) or attempt to sell for moreinstantaneous profit. (But make sure you’re selling for above what they’re worth!) If mats are more than what they’re actually worth, youcan take the risk and attempt to sell them but you should never everever ever ever use them on yourself!

I know that this sounds exactly like what we do every day anyway –mats are below what we can sell for, we buy and craft, if they’reabove, we ignore (or sell the mats ourselves) – but why it’s sointeresting to me is that there is always going to be a baseline forwhat the cards are worth, unlike Glyphs, for example, which are onlyworth what people will pay, and that can fluctuate. They are alwaysgoing to be worth X, if mats are below X, you buy, simple as that. Why this might be confusing is because what they’ll actually vendor for,“Y,” will fluctuate depending on the card. But, in the long run, allthose Ys will average out to X. And I think that’s the TL;DR of thispost.

- Wukam (aka Vince)

Altar of Storms

**************

Thanks for the submission Vince. 
 
Anyone else care to weigh in?

Mysterious Fortune Cards & Fortune Cookies

Goblinish Wisdom

The Interaction of Scribes and Cooks

Fortune Cookie and Fortune Cards are an interesting pair of craftable items that perplex me.  Fortune Cookies are a nice consumable that will be created by the cooking profession.  These Fortune Cookies require 1 Simple Flour and 1 Mysterious Fortune Card for each cookie.  The Simple Flour can be bought at any cooking vendor, but the Fortune Card must be crafted by a scribe through the inscription profession.  The Mysterious Fortune Card only requires 1 Resilient Parchment and only 1 Blackfallow Ink, which comes from the pigments of Cataclysm herbs.  I myself like to craft these type of items for profit because the interaction of requiring multiple professions tends to lower the number of competitors.  A good current example is Fused Wiring, which requires a jewelcrafter and an engineer to craft, and aren't typically a heavy competition item on the auction house. 

To Gamble, To Cook, Or Both?

Gambling
Now for the perplexing part.  The Mysterious Fortune Card is a new form of World of Warcraft in-game gambling.  Just crafting the card itself, you can sell it outright to gamblers or gamble yourself.  Using the Mysterious Fortune Cards give you 1 of 58 possible vendorable Fortune Cards that sell for anywhere from 10 silver to 5000 gold.  Yeah, you didn't misread that.  1 Mysterious Fortune Card can turn into 1 Fortune Card, which will vendor for the nice sum of 5k gold!  Fortune cards can vendor for 5k, 1k, 200g, 50g, 20g, 5g, 1g, 50s, or 10s.  So in a sense it is gambling for gold. 

Cooking
The option other than gambling is to use the Mysterious Fortune Card to create a Fortune Cookie.  These cookies give a nice 1 hr buff of +90 Stamina and +90 to a player's prime stat.  The crazy thing is once you eat the cookie you receive a Fortune Card just like if you had used it gambling.  The card from the Fortune cookie is the vendorable version, not the reagant version. 

Fortune Card Market Fluctuations

As auctioneers we need to be on alert and watching the markets for both Mysterious Fortune Cards and Fortune Cookies.  If you are looking to gamble and try your luck at getting a profit from these cards, then instead of buying or using the Mysterious Fortune Cards it may be cheaper at times to just buy the Fortune Cookies and eat those.  If the auction house market was in equilibrium, then the Mysterious Fortune Cards would be near the same price of the Fortune Cookies.  I am sure we will have some chances to play within both of these markets as players will be unaware of this relationship.  Scribes and cooks both should see nice demand and profits from both of these items. 

Options For Mysterious Fortune Cards

There could exist other options for using these Fortune Cards.  The 5k ones will be rare, but instead of vendoring for 5k you may be able to hold these and sell for a little more than 5k.  Why?  Players that are transferring servers are only allowed to transfer with a maximum amount of gold.  Therefore, some transferring players may be looking for high value items to take along in a non-liquidated form to further maximize the starter gold on their new server.

Gold Sellers could also be on the lookout for using these cards as a much more discreet way of paying players for their gold they have purchased unscrupulously.  Blizzard may keep a close eye on lareg exchanges of liquid gold, but will they be watching for these high value items?  Just food for thought...

Check out part 2 of this 3 part series:  Mysterious Fortune Card Barking Tips

Anyone else got a creative idea for these Fortune Cards or Cookies?