Showing posts with label New Players. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Players. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Bargain Blues Flipping - Early MoP Results

Flipping Blue Gear In The Early Weeks Of Mists of Pandaria

For the monthly Blogging Carnival at Cold's Gold Factory, I chose a topic on our launch strategies for Mists of Pandaria and asked the writers to look at their pre-MoP attack plan and discuss how it turned out.  This is my entry into that same carnival.  Be sure to check out the other entries on October 11th, 2012.

Catness the Alliance Auctioneer

I have a fairly new character, a Worgen Warrior name Catness, on the Alliance side of my World of Warcraft realm.  She is my only Alliance character on the main account and her main job was originally to buy out cheap items and then transfer them over to the Horde side.  As Mists of Pandaria approached, I decided to start her on a career of flipping items within the Alliance auction house.  She was a bargain blues shopper, designated to just sit in the auction house and look for deals and steals that would be good items to flip.

At the end of an expansion there is always a flood of goods onto the auction house.  Gear is often posted for very cheap prices as players roll new alts during the end of expansion lull and start finding blue gear as they level or run dungeons.  Many times the seller has no clue of the real value of the item and therefore posts the items for very cheap.  That's where Catness came in.  I would use her pre-launch to build a nice stockpile of items that were dirt cheap and had potential for flipping for much higher, once Mists of Pandaria was actually released and live on the servers of WoW.

She found a ton of good deals.  Many items were posted for only a small fraction of what I knew they would sell for.  I specifically stocked up on as much leather based rare agility gear as I could find, in order to profit on the new Monk characters that would be shopping on the WoW auction house.

Catness bought and sold 90% of her items via the WoW Remote Auction House, which is now free.  Although I tried my best to get all of her gold and items actually collected in game, as opposed to with the Remote AH, so that they would all register within my TSM accounting or my MySales data, but I goofed somewhat.  You see anytime you buy an item on the Remote AH and flip it, you won't get any accounting data because your add-on never sees the transaction.  The same is true for collecting gold via the Remote AH function.  Anything collected there is excluded from your accounting module as well.  So the image below is missing a lot of the items, but it does give you a general idea of the kind of things I was targeting to flip.  I also did the same thing Horde side, but I'm only writing about Catness and her flipping for this article.



Sample of Items Bought to Flip

Flipping Bargain Blues Into Major Profits

When you look at the image below, you can see some examples of the highly profitable item flips I've been working on since the launch of Mists of Pandaria.  As I've previously written about, the Blackwater Cutlass has been a huge seller since it is a great early level monk sword.  That data shows 12 bought and 22 sold, but is missing the 10 I bought for 2 gold.  Turning a 6 gold item into 76 gold is pretty easy profits on a minuscule investment.  While I have been crafting the Darkmoon Tarot Cards and Decks on my Horde Scribe, Catness was reduced to just buying the blue items themselves to flip.  Boy, did fools not know what they were doing when they were selling these for 8-30 gold prior to Mists of Pandaria.  Of course Catness gobbled those up and has been selling them from 150-225 gold each since the expansions start.

You see, flipping is all about know what something is really worth or knowing when it will see a spike in demand and therefore an accompanying spike in the sales price.  My background in leveling multiple alts, being a twink specialist Enchanter, and having twinked multple classes at multiple Battleground brackets has me very knowledgable about low level gear, choke points, and BiS twink items.  And anyone with half a brain should have known to hold on to leveling leather gear with Agility on it, but of course not everyone gets it.  4g Helms of Fire?  Thanks!  Sold em for 209 gold each.  5 Gold for Gloves of the Fang?  Easy money on Day 1 of MoP for 427 gold!  I was cherry picking a ton of blue crafted rings that players were selling for way too low as well.  Those have been bringing in some serious bank because I only stocked up on pure agility or agility hybrid jewelry.




Bargain Blues Flipping Results

Once you know what to look for and what can be flipped for extra gold, you are able to repeat this same strategy yourself.  The only problem with a mass flipping strategy like this is that it can take a lot of bag and bank space since the items do not stack.  It's similar to flipping Transmogrification gear in that you need a ton of space and get a lot of returned expired auctions.  Just as with Transmogrification item selling, you must be patient.  These items have to be slowly unloaded over time.  Of course a lot of things sold quickly as the expansion launched, but they items will continue to sell because many players are playing their mains and will try out the new Monk class later.

I also was able to snatch up about 12 Books of Glyph Mastery for around 200 gold each that I was able to flip for huge profits at 800-1200 gold per book!  From the data that is shown below I made about 5k profit in the last 30 days with Catness.  I only started selling off the items once Mists of Pandaria launched and she's well into the profit levels already and she has only went through about 25% of what she bought to flip!  Items are continuing to sell daily, slowly but surely.

For me, this is a great market to use the Remote Auction House for buying and flipping.  Since I'm stuck taking the buses & train to and from work, I have a lot of down time on my commute to play around on the Remote Auction House and Catness was were successful at earning me gold on my commutes.


Q:  Why did I name her Catness?
A:  She's Alliance.  So I thought of the stupidest, lamest name I could think of and low and behold Catness the Worgen Warrior was born.

PS:  This is by no means all I've been doing since launch, but I wanted to feature something easily seperated from the rest of my gold-making strategies.



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

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

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


How To Make Gold In World of Warcraft
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

Friday, August 17, 2012

Tarot Deck Strategy For MoP Monks, Rerolls, & Alts

Goblin Tarot Deck Crafting Strat
My Tarot Deck Strategy

Monks, Pandas & Other New Characters

You don't have to be a mind reader to know when to sell certain items to make gold in WoW.  It's no secret that with the next World of Warcraft expansion we will be seeing a major influx of new pandarian characters, new monks, re-rolls, fresh alts, and brand new players altogether.  This creates a myriad of options for profiting off of these new players and characters.  Even the brand new players will be targets for making gold. 

You may think that brand new players aren't worth targeting, because they won't have much gold to spend anyway.  Wrong!  Many players these days join a specific server because they know some on that server in real life.  Those brand new players are often the recipient of a nice chunk of gold to get them started.  So you will have brand new players with a nice chunk of gold burning a whole in their pocket.  That's where we goblins come in, to help provide the items that they are going to be wanting on the auction house.

I will be going into more detail in an upcoming post about what items to be looking for to snatch and flip for new players, but today I will be focusing on a strategy I have been working on.  I highly recommend getting started on this same strategy ASAP, if you are interested, because as soon as the new pre-MoP Patch 5.04 drops, it will be much harder to find the required herbs at cheap prices. 

Patch 5.04 brings the Inscription Ink Vendor change, which will increase the demand and prices for the older inks, so get stocked up now!

Every time we have an influx of new players and new characters, I turn to profitting off of the various Tarot Decks as once of my methods of making gold in WoW.  This startegy works well when there are new players entering the game.  The top 3 times to sell these items for leveling characters are:
  1. New Expansion Releases
  2. Christmas Break (Christmas Noobs)
  3. Schools Out For Summer

Tarot Decks And What They Make

Tarot decks are created by Scribes (don't let any fool convince you they are called Inscriptionists or Scribblers) with the Inscription Profession.  There are 4 different Tarot Decks and they are each created from combining the required Tarot Cards.  Why target these Tarot cards and decks for new players?  Because you get some killer gear that you can sell for a nice profit when you turn in the completed Tarot Decks.  Every expansion I always run short on these items, even though I try to stock up and make as many as I can.  The demand is just too great to meet the spike brought on by the new player influx. 

The Cards for the Tarot Decks are created using the rare inks that are obtained while milling.  This is one of the reasons I don't just convert Blackfallow Ink or the current top level ink at the Inscription ink trader.  If you aren't milling the low level herbs, then you won't be getting any of the rare pigments.  You can find the rare inks and pigments listed on the auction house sometimes, probably from Scribes that don't understand their value. 

There are 4 types of Tarot Cards and Decks
  1. Mysterious Tarot (of Rogues) - Crafted with Hunter's Ink (Verdant Pigment)
  2. Strange Tarot (of Swords) - Crafted with Dawnstar Ink (Burnt Pigment)
  3. Arcane Tarot (of Mages) - Crafted with Royal Ink (Indigo Pigment)
  4. Shadowy Tarot (of Demons) - Crafted with Fiery Ink (Ruby Pigment)
Mysterious Tarot / Deck of Rogues - These are an absolute goldmine!  Once you turn in the deck (at anytime - the Darkmoon Faire is not required for any of these 4 Tarot Decks), you have the choice of 3 items.  You pick which reward you would like, the Robe (cloth), Vest (leather), or Chain Shirt (mail).  These are wearable at level 15 and rival gear much higher level.  These chest peices are favorites of low level twinks and leveling characters alike.  These Darkmoon chest pieces can also be snatched up off of the auction house and sold for a nice chunk of gold.  I tend to sell them for 75 gold each.  The stats given to the pieces are random, so you will have some duds with a goofy stat combo, but those can still sell for an easy 25 gold.  The best stat combos can sell for over 100 gold each.

Strange Tarot / Deck of Swords - My favorite of all the decks because of the speed at which the awarded gear flies off of the auction house.  These Swords Decks award level 20 blue shoulders.  Low level shoulders are great items to sell because many low level players won't fill their shoulder gear slot by questing alone.  You have 3 choices of awards again: Azure Shoulderguards (Mail), Cloaked Shoulderpads (Leather), and Darkcloth Shoulders (Cloth).  Again the stats are random, but the combinations are pretty good and the great stat combinations can sell for hefty prices to twinks and levelers.

Arcane Tarot / Deck of Mages - These decks award the choice of 1 of two neck pieces that are equipable at level 30.  The Darkmoon Necklace has +5 Sta / +8 Int / +5 Crit, while the Darkmoon Pendant has +6 Agi / +11 Sta.  With the onslaught of incoming Monks, I will be stocking up on the Pendants to sell to the Monks, Rogues, Druids, & Hunters.

Shadowy Tarot / Deck of Demons - These are excellent items to use to make gold as well.  Equipable at level 40, you can choose from 3 different weapon rewards to sell on the auction house.  There is a +Agility Dagger, a +Intellect Staff, and a +Attack Power 2 handed Axe.  I have had the most success selling the Dagger and the Staff, with little success with the Attack Power Axe.


What Herbs To Look Out For For Tarot Decks

Here is a quick reference list of which herbs will have a chance to create the required rare inks when milled by a Scribe, as well as which Pigments to search for.

Hunter's Ink for Rogues Decks
  • Bruiseweed
  • Stranglekelp
  • Briarthorn
  • Mageroyal
  • Swiftthistle
  • (Verdant Pigment)
Dawnstar Ink for Swords Decks
  • Kingsblood
  • Liferoot
  • Grave Moss
  • Wild Steelbloom
  • (Burnt Pigment)
Royal Ink For Mages Decks
  • Khadgar's Whisker
  • Dragon's Teeth
  • Goldthorn
  • Fadeleaf
  • (Indigo Pigment)
Fiery Ink For Demons Decks
  • Ghost Mushroom
  • Gromsblood
  • Blindweed
  • Arthas' Tears
  • Firebloom
  • Sungrass
  • Purple Lotus
  • (Ruby Pigment)
So don't forget to stock up on these raw low level Vanilla WoW Herbs prior to the big Mists of Pandaria pre-patch 5.04.  These will become much harder to find and much more expensive as unprepared Scribes will be forced to turn to milling the lower level herbs for the proper inks, once the vendor won't accept Blackfallow trading anymore.


Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory?
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

Friday, August 3, 2012

Top 6 Items To Craft For The MoP Monk Influx


Monks & Pandas Incoming In MoP

MoP Monk Influx Suggested Craftables

With the Mists of Pandaria expansion looming and the obvious flood of Monks on the way, it's time to stock up on specific items that we can use to craft items sought after by these new Monk characters.  I have always been heavily invested into the markets that supply new players with gear and enchants at the forefront of every new WoW expansion.  Each and every expansion I have made hefty profits selling low level gear and enchants to the floods of new and returning players and characters.

With my years of experience selling items to new and leveling characters, I can say with absolute certainty that these are the 6 best items to stock up on to sell to new characters, specifically to the new Monks.  I've have always stocked up on the required crafting materials for months ahead of time, and I NEVER have enough items to meet the massive demand.  I've already been stocking up on these required crafting materials and again I will not have enough to supply the masses of new players coming in Mists of Pandaria.  The demand for these items is just massive and unless you've been stocking up on the materials for months, you should be able to sell every one that you craft too.  The limitation partly stems from the inability to obtain large quantities of some of these materials due to their decreased drop rates.

I can never craft enough of these leveling items because they are top quality items for levelings and players who like to gear out their leveling characters.  I sold out in Cataclysm again and that was with no new character class being added.  With the addition of Monks, the demand on these low level items is going to explode.  Due to the difficulty in obtaining the recipe or materials for these items, you don't have to worry about leveling characters flooding your market as they level their professions.

Top 6 Items To Craft For Monks
  1. Barbaric Bracers - A favorite among twinks and leveling characters.  Large fangs are super rare now and this pushes the price and profits up even higher than in previous expansions when I would easily sell out for 125 gold each.
  2. Deviate Scale Belts - Recipe no longer obtainable, so very easy market to control completely.  Perfect Deviate Scales are the limiting factor in how many you will be able to craft and sell.
  3. Toughened Leather Gloves - Spider's Silk requirement makes these rarely seen for sale on the Auction House.  Stock up or farm the Spider's Silk now and make these in MoP.
  4. Malachite Pendant - These are the only ones we may see flood the market from JC profession levelers.  Fear not, this is one of the best low level items to buy up and flip for huge profits, because it's the only + Agility neck piece for a while.
  5. +15 Agility To Weapon Enchant - The best enchant for Monk fist weapons and now sought by Hunters, Rogues, Druids, & Monks.  Stock up on those Essence of Air and Large Brilliant Shards.
  6. Fiery Weapon Enchant - #1 selling enchant for leveling characters overall in my experiences.  Sure Crusader sells to some classes and Mighty Intellect to others, but Enchant Weapon: Fiery flies off the auction house when a new expansion drops.  Rich players buy +15 Agi; poor players buy Fiery.
Stocking Up Materials For These Great Monk Items

Here is the master list of materials you will need to craft these 6 items.  Start stocking up now, especially on the rare and hard to find items like: Perfect Deviate Scale, Large Fangs, & Spider Silk, & Heavy Hides.

Barbaric Bracers
  • Heavy Leather (8)
  • Cured Heavy Hide (2)
  • Small Lustrious Pearls (4)
  • Raptor Hide (1)
  • Large Fangs (4) - Where to Farm Large Fangs
Deviate Scale Belt
  • Perfect Deviate Scales (6)
  • Deviate Scales (4)
Toughened Leather Gloves
  • Medium Leather (4)
  • Cured Medium Hide (2)
  • Elixer of Defense (2) [Wild Steelbloom & Stranglekelp]
  • Spider's Silk (2) - Where to Farm Spider's Silk
Enchant Weapon: Agility (+15 Agi)
  • Large Brilliant Shards (4)
  • Essence of Air (4)
Enchant Weapon: Fiery
  • Small Radiant Shards (4)
  • Essence of Fire (4)
If you can't seem to get enough of these materials from the auction house you may turn to farming your own.  If you can't acquire enough on your own, once Mists of Pandaria actually launches, you may be able to find these materials listed for cheap on the Auction House as new players post them for well under their true value.


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 and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

Monday, June 11, 2012

WoW New Player Tips - What To Watch Out For To Make Gold

How To Make Gold In WoW
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 answering the question:

What Are Some Things You Recommend Players Look Out For While Leveling A New Character In WoW?


New WoW Character Leveling Tips by KhasDylar at Goldgrub's Goblin Academy (Guest Post)

Chests & Lockboxes by Farli of The Overcut

Archaeology Leveling Secondary Profit Sources by Cold of Cold's Gold Factory

What To Look For When Leveling A New Alt by Nev of Auction House Addict

Cash Flow Positive Leveling by Frinka of Warcraft Street

Alerting Your Alt - Episode #144 by GeorgeWoW of The Mana Cooler Podcast

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!


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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.







Wednesday, April 11, 2012

What To Stockpile For Mists Of Pandaria | April Gold Blogging Carnival

How To Make Gold In WoW
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 answering the question:


What Is Your Stockpiling Plan For Profiting & Hedging Against Inflation in MoP?



Stockpiling For MoP by Jafo of The Auction House Grind


Getting Ready For Mists of Pandaria: The MoP Stockpile by Farli of The Overcut


What To Stockpile For Mists Of Pandaria by Cold of Cold's Gold Factory

Getting Ready For Mists of Pandaria: An Overlook by Alaeriel of Alaeriel's WoW Stuff


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!



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.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

What To Stockpile For Mists Of Pandaria | Cata to MoP Stockpiling

Time To Stockpile For Mop & Pandas!
Stockpiling For Mists of Pandaria


Stockpiling For Mists Of Pandaria


Is it too early to Stockpile for MoP?  The Cataclysm expansion has come to a lull and Diablo 3 is on the horizon, but it is definitely not too early to start thinking about stockpiling for Mists of Pandaria.  Have you thought about what you will be stocking up on?  When the new WoW expansion launches, we will see another profitable mass influx of players joining the game.  These players will be a mix of brand new players and returning players.  Many players will be wanting to try the new monk class or the new Panda race.  New players and new characters bring an increased demand for many items like those required for profession leveling or items that enhance or speed the leveling process.  There will be many markets that will return to being viable simply because of the population growths that always occur following a new expansion's release.  Remember a major patch or a previous WoW expansion launch when you ran out of something that was a goldmine at the time?  Did you wish you had stockpiled more of them?  Or maybe you hadn't even stockpiled at all and the auction house prices had gone through the roof on you.  Don't let your competition choke you out of the auction house because you forgot to stockpile!  It is time to think ahead to tank advantage of this major market cycle in WoW.

Raw Materials


With any new character population explosion there will be an increased need for all raw materials required for leveling a character's professions.  Ores, Herbs, and Leather will all see an increase in demand at the beginning of MoP as players level there professions.  As the expansion continues farther past the launch and there are less characters in the leveling zones, the lower level raw materials prices will start to climb as there are less players and bots farming those areas for raw materials.  Most players and bots will move on to the new MoP raw materials.

Anything that you will be needing to level a profession or to continue a niche market it is a good choice for your MoP stockpile.  If you are looking for good money makers to sell quickly, then you should focus on raw materials that are choke points to leveling a profession.  You can even make WoW inflation work in your favor, by stocking up on raw materials at today's prices and then selling the crafted good at the later inflated market rate.

Leather is currently hard to come by on my server and I only predict that it will get worse, unless we see a nice influx of monks, pandas, and new characters coming in as skinners.  Even then, the demand for leather and leather crafted goods will skyrocket with all of the monks in MoP.  Remember the rush on Plate when Death Knights were added?

Inks


What is the best item for any scribe to stock up on?  Inks are the main focus of a Scribe's stockpile.  Why Inks?  Versatility!  We know that the glyph system is getting another major overhaul, so crafting a bunch of glyphs ahead of time could be a flawed plan.  Every time there is a glyph overhaul, we get glyphs that don't survive any changes.  These glyphs turn into vendor trash.  Any of these you have pre-crafted that you can't get rid of will be wasted potential profits.  Saving Inks in your stockpile for MoP will keep you versatile.  The Inscription exchange vendors like Jessica Sellers should be utilized prior to the new expansion. The vendors will be changed to require the newest MoP Inks so any stockpiling of the various Inks should be done ahead of the expansion.  If you forget, you will be stuck with a bunch of Blackfallow Inks.  So remember to visit the Ink exchanging npcs prior to MoP.  These vendors can be changed in pre-expansion patches as well, so start thinking ahead.

Catering To New Characters


There are many markets that will see a spike in demand because of all the new characters entering the game.  Selling to new characters in Cataclysm, made me a massive chunk of gold.  Planning and thinking ahead to what these new characters will be wanting to buy is an important step in the process of making gold off low level and new characters that should be started soon.  If you plan on making certain gear that new players will want, you might want to be stockpiling the harder to find materials in your MoP stockpile.  Leather gear will be at a premium because of the increased demand that monks will bring to the economy.  I would highly recommend starting your leather stockpiling now.  Barbaric Bracers, Deviate Scale Belts, Toughened Leather Gloves, and other low level Leatherworking niches should be vibrant again.  Many of these take some harder to find materials that should be stockpiled now, if you are planning on hitting those markets.  Good low level green items that have the proper stat combinations will also be good items to flip to the leveling monks and other leather wearing classes.

Bags are always a huge seller when expansions bring a character population explosion.  Remember to sell the profession specific bags as well.  The bags required by the various professions have always been great investments,especially the mining bags.

The population explosion is also another great time to start or resume MFC Barking.  Barking is always more effective the more players are hearing your barks, so expansion launches are great times to bark.  You don't have to limit barking to just Mysterious Fortune Cards.  Adventurer's Journals are another great item to sell to  leveling characters.


Check out my Top 6 Items To Craft For All The Monks Coming In MoP

Hedging Against MoP Inflation


Inflation is coming in MoP.  The item most succeptable to inflation is liquid gold.  That's why building a stockpile for MoP is so important.  By choosing items to buy as inflation hedges we buy specific items now that we will hopefully be able to sell for much more into the next expansion.  Historically, good choices have been hard to obtain items like rare and hard-to-get companion pets, mounts, and expensive vanity items.  With MoP bringing us the battle pet system, I still think pets are a no brainer here.  Stocking up on the rare pets should bring a nice payout in Mists of Pandaria.  I would also keep an eye out for nicely priced rare mounts like Poseidus.  Less players will be in his zone and his price should inflate and be a nice hedge against inflation.

Now that we have more news on the Battle Pet System, don't miss my new posts on:

Have You started Your MoP Stockpile Yet?



Be Sure To 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.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

That Dreaded Time Of Year Again

Schools Out For The Summer

School's Out - Cons

Yes it's that dreaded time of year again when high schools and colleges have recessed for the summer session.  Most schools are either already out or will be wrapping up their school year soon.  The high schools and grade schools here in St. Louis have just let out.  Why do I say "that dreaded time of year" again? 

Well, if you don't already know that there is an increase in players over the summer months.  Some people will claim that more players take time off during the summer months and this results in less players.  This may be true for guilds, when getting a raid group together can be tougher over the summer months, due to summer vacations and more family outings, and holidays. 

Overall though, nearly every World of Warcraft server will see an influx of both new and returing players.  There will be many more players online during the weekdays as there is no school in session.  I call it "that dreaded time of year" because by the end of the summer, I will be ready for these kids to get back to school.  Why?  The increase in players with more available playtime means increased competition.  And from my experience, there will be a lot more auction house camping during the week days.  So competition will be more fierce the next few months in many markets. 

Maybe you used to own a market completely, but now someone has invaded your market and undercuts you every time you post a new item.  Might be a school kid with no time limitations.  You could be in for a nasty dog fight.  By the end of the summer session you too will be ready for these kids to get back to school and get out of our auction house markets!

Schools Out - Pros

Not everything related to an increase of players is bad.  There are a few benefits to an influx of new players.  Earlier I wrote about waiting until schools are out to start stockpiling for Patch 4.2.  With the increased competition, prices tend to drop.  This is especially true with farmed materials.  No one can compete with a botting farmer like a school kid with unlimited playtime.  So start looking for those farmed items that will drop in prices.

It's also a good time to start breaking out any old leveling gear that hasn't already sold.  New players or players rolling alts due to the lack of raiding will be looking for easy gear upgrades on the auction house.  Another good seller will be those profession chokepoint items that are needed to level a profession (like mercurial adamantite).  New players bring new professions that need leveled, so be ready to supply them the items they need.  A good example for a blacksmith to profit off of new players with new professions is with the production of the enchanting rods for aspiring Enchanters.  Don't stop with just supplying the rods.  Try to supply other items needed for enchanting rods.

Also the glyph market may see a resurgence in sales over the summer months.  Continue to be on the lookout for those odd craftings items that uneducated new players will be tossing on the auction house at prices below their true value, like Spider's Silk, Perfect Deviate Scales, and Arcane Crystals.

So try not to let the increased competition get the best of you.  You may have a tougher time in your regular markets, so start looking for new markets to branch out into to further diversify your profit making options.