20 Days of Gold Making - Day 3 - My Early Strategies

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 her gold blogging challenge for post topic ideas.

20 Days of Gold Making (Day 3)

What Were Your First Techniques, Tricks, Or Tips You Used When Starting Out?

Let's look all the way back to the middle to end of Vanilla WoW, when I started to make gold in World of Warcraft.  Once the light bulb came on and I was actively starting to make gold properly, as opposed to farming vendor trash and hoping for rare world drops, I quickly identified some areas that I knew could be profitable.  It turns out that early in my gold making career, I had targeted and was profiting from some select niche markets.  Early on in my gold making career I stayed away from flipping, heavy crafting, and shuffling and was big into specific niche markets that I had chosen to focus on.  I've always said, "Start with what you already know" when looking for your first auction markets to enter and my first markets followed suit.

When I first started in the auction house, I had 1 main character, my Rogue Skinning Leatherworker. I liked to quest and was questing all over Azeroth. How did this help me? One of my very first niche markets I entered (back in Vanilla WoW) was the "Quest Required Items" market. My love of questing had compiled me a nice long list of items that I found were needed for specific quests or subquests (remember Dire Maul-North Tribute Runs?). Because of all of the questing I had done, my personal experiences led me to sell items that I too at one point had to craft myself or purchase to complete those quests. A small sample of some of those items I sold within the "Quest Required Items" market were:

• Deadly Blunderbuss (Ashenvale Quest)
• Mithril Casing (Amy-E Ape Escort)
• Thorium Widgets (Frost Trap In DM-N)
• Darkmoon Faire Turn In Items (Old Darkmoon Faire)
• Weapons and Armor Specialty Quests (Blacksmithing Spec Quests)
• Advanced Target Dummy (Centaur Quest Chain)
• Strong Troll's Blood Elixir (Hillsbrad Quest Chain) 

These "Required Quest Item" markets where one of the very first niche markets that I used for making gold in WoW.  Often times, I was the only seller of these specialty items and had no competition.  It was from this understanding of niche markets that I expanded into other niche markets that I had a specialist's understanding of that included:

• Holiday Items
• Twink Gear & Enchants
• Blacksmithing Rods
• Arcanite Bars 

More 20 Days Of Gold Making

• Return to Day 1 - Beginnings
• Day 2 - Goals

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

Best & Worst Auction Markets In MoP So Far

This entry is part of the monthly entries into the Gold Blogging Carnivals here at Cold's Gold Factory.

Best And Worst Auction House Markets

For the current blogging carnival I asked the writers to discuss their best and worst auction house markets thus far into the Mists of Pandaria expansion.  The auction house is a living beast that is continually evolving and changing with the addition or deletion of new or old auctioneers.  This expansion has to be the most hectic for me from a competition standpoint.  When coupled with less play time, I found myself leaning more towards the easier to maintain markets with high profits per item sold.  I also tend to prefer markets that are more easily watched on the Remote Auction House due to my limited playtime this expansion. 

These days I prefer to work in markets that are:

1. Low Competition
2. High Profit Per Sale
3. Easily Maintained (Few Cancel / Repost Cycles)
4. Steady Sales
5. Remote Auction House Friendly

My Best Market

With these criteria, the absolute best market of mine so far in Mists of Pandaria without a doubt is the Tinker's Gear Cogwheel Market!  The addition of the Ghost Iron Dragonling Trinket and the new Tinker's Gear cogwheels has been a heaven send for my style of gold making.  I can turn a lowly 2 Ghost Iron Bars into 350-450 gold over and over and over with only 1-2 other Engineers posting as competition.  The Ghost Iron Dragonling Trinket is a joke to compete in because of all of the leveling idiots that place next to no value on the trinkets because they craft them while leveling. 

Suprisingly, very few other Engineers are even playing in the Cogwheel markets, which is very shocking given the amazingly high profit per sale.  And the sales continue to roll in because the Trinket is just too nice to pass up at the stupid low prices that players on my server sell it for.  So I let the other fools sell their Ghost Iron Trinkets for next to no profit, while I make a killing off of the Cogwheel Gems they also require for the same Trinket.  Turning 16 Ghost Iron Bars into 2-3K gold on a daily basis is super easy auctioneering!

My Worst Market

The Kobold Invasion is alive and kicking and it seems like every dirty little moronic Kobold is on my server and playing the "I'll undercut you to nothing all day long" game within the now hated Glyph market.  When it comes to Glyphs, I still have about 99% of the Glyphs that I had pre-crafted for the MoP Glyph rush that never happened.  Sure I can list 1000 Glyphs and sell 1 or 2 overnight if I get lucky, but the entire Glyph market is absolute garbage at this point.  It's just not worth any effort at all to buy herbs, mill them, convert them to inks, craft Glyphs, and then pulling 99.9% of them back out of the mail every fucking day.  Just collecting and reposting expired auction mail takes almost an hour for glyphs alone.  No thanks. 

I'm hating Glyphs so bad these days that I'm actually thinking of letting the 2000 or so I already have crafted rot in the mailbox until they get deleted.  Good Riddance!  These dumbass Kobolds can work their fingers raw milling and crafting to sell for less than a gold profit per Glyph, if they even get a profit.  Because at sale prices of 2 gold for a crafted Glyph, I know they aren't making any profit at all, yet they keep on selling and driving properly priced Glyphs into the ground. 

Goodbye Glyph Market!  It's been a great run, but you are no longer profitable and no longer fun either.  Enjoy your new Kobold masters.

How about you guys?  What are your best and worst auction house markets this far into MoP?

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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 | Flipping WoW CEs

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

November Gold Blogging Carnival Topic

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - November 2012 Topic

A big thanks to all of the participants who submitted entries for last month's blogging carnival. Everyone is welcome to write a post for the blogging carnivals at Cold's Gold Factory. Again, thank you to all the bloggers who submitted posts for the October Blogging Carnival on MoP Launch Strategies & Results. If you missed the last carnival, be sure to check it out! 
What If I Don't Have A Blog And I Want To Participate?

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

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

The friendly sites willing to host your content are:

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

  

November 2012 Gold Blogging Carnival Topic

The World of Warcraft developers have been starting to hint at a possibility that may soon become a reality.  The notion of combining auction houses across servers (probably within your current Battlegroup) has become a very hot topic, with players weighing in on both sides of the debate.  I've already written about the possibility of Cross Realm Auction Houses in WoW, but now it's your turn. 

Cross Realm Auction Houses?  What's Your Opinion?
Is the CRAH a good or bad idea? What would you predict would happen to the auction economy?  Does the notion excite or horrify you?  Would a CRAH we good or bad for WoW?

 

I'm dying to hear everyone else opinion on the issue.  Remember, if you aren't a blogger, you can still participate, just send me a post on the same topic and I'll post it for you.

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

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

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

Spirit of Harmony Equivalent Crafting Values

Spirit of Harmony & Gauging Value

The Spirit of Harmony and Motes of Harmony are new additions with the Mists of Pandaria expansion.  The Spirit of Harmony creation process requires 10 Motes of Harmony to be turned into a single Spirit of Harmony.  These motes are available as potential drops from any of the mobs within the Mists of Pandaria content.  Early experiences have been pointing towards a better Mote of Harmony drop rate among the higher level mobs, but they still do drop off of the lower level mobs, as long as you are killing creatures from the MoP expansion. 

The completed Spirits of Harmony are used in a myriad of recipes across many of the WoW crafting professions.  Since they are acquired while killing mobs in Pandaria, their perceived value is often misaligned from their true value.  The requirement of farming them yourself on the character who needs them (since they are BoP) has lead to many players buying into the old fallacy of "I farmed it, so it's free".  Which in turn often leads to improper pricing of crafted items that require Spirits of Harmony as part of the recipe materials requirement. 

Let's look at an example. 

Kobolds Have Poor Math Skills

Mist-Piercing Goggles - These are the kickass Goggles that Alto has already mentioned in a post earlier in the week.  The are a must for any Miner or Herbalist because they add around 10% more herb and ore nodes to your mini-map, when in Pandaria zones.  These are nodes that other players without the Goggles can't even see!  So they are truly a must for any Herbalist or Miner and they only need to be in your bags because you don't even have to equip them for the benefit.

These great Mist-Piercing Goggles are crafted with the Engineering profession and only require 8 Ghost Iron Bolts and 2 Spirit of Harmony.  Yet, I constantly see players selling them for far below what they should be selling them for.  The Kobold movement is alive and well on many servers and this Goggles market is no exception.  And we all know Kobolds are horrible at basic math skills.

Using just a few market prices as examples, I've seen many auction house market snapshots that look like this:

Mist-Piercing Googles listed for 800 gold.
Golden Lotus selling for 250 gold.

Without even knowing the prices of Ghost Iron Ore or Ghost Iron Bars, I am 100% positive that the person selling the Goggles for 800 gold is a dumbass.  How so?  Because the wise goblin understands the Spirit of Harmony Equivalent Crafting Values, where a lowly Kobold obviously does not.  Kobolds are bad at math, remember?

1. 1 Spirit of Harmony can be traded to a vendor for 3 Golden Lotus, which can each be sold.
2. Mist Piercing Goggles require 2 Spirits of Harmony in the recipe.
3. Therefore, if you are using 2 Spirits of Harmony in a crafted item, that item needs to be selling for more than the price of what 6 Golden Lotus would sell for or YOU ARE COSTING YOURSELF PROFITS.

So in the above example, if the Kobold would have just cashed in the two Spirits of Harmony for 6 Golden Lotus, they would have (6 x 250) 1500 gold worth of Golden Lotuses to sell, instead of adding Ghost Iron Bars to sell a crafted item for only 800 gold!  Think smart like a Goblin, not silly like a Kobold who farms for free.


Proper Mist -Piercing Goggles Pricing

Spirit of Harmony Equivalent Crafting Values

The Golden Lotus is just one of the options for purchasing crafting items with a Spirit of Harmony.  Here is a master list of Equivalent Values of Spirit of Harmony for those who are better at math than the Kobolds.

One Spirit of Harmony Will Buy:

• 5 Black Trillium Ore
• 1 Ethereal Shard
• 20 Exotic Leather
• 20 Ghost Iron Ore
• 3 Golden Lotus
• 20 Kyparite
• 5 Mysterious Essence
• 20 Prismatic Scale
• 1 Serpent's Eye
• 20 Spirit Dust
• 1 Starlight Ink
• 5 White Trillium Ore
• 20 Windwool Cloth

While these aren't always the best ways to purchase materials for crafting, one must still be aware of the Spirit of Harmony possible vendor trade equivalents because they should be setting a floor price for the value of your SoHs in a crafted recipe.  If you can't craft with a value equivalent or better to what you can trade the SoH for, then maybe you should just trade it to the vendor and sell the raw materials for a better profit than wasting the SoHs in crafting recipes. 

And please, please, please don't think like this Kobold, I found on Wowhead with his fail strat for underselling Ghost Iron Dragonlings & Tinker's Gear.

Kobold Fallacies

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Dust of Disappearance Still Selling Strong! LOL

Dust of Disappearance Still Making Me WoW Gold

It's no secret to most of us WoW gold making goblins that Dust of Disappearance is easily purchased from the vendors of Azeroth, but please don't tell my customers! 

Scribes are able to use their Inscription profession to craft 3 Dust of Disappearance for the lowly cost of 1 Blackfallow Ink.  While we can still craft the Dusts, it isn't recommended as a profitable strategy.  It used to be a very profitable option for Scribes looking for a better use of Blackfallow Inks.  Hell, on my home server it was often more profitable to craft and sell Dust of Disappearance over crafting Glyphs of any kind thanks to the invasion of kobolds into the Glyph market.  Now it isn't recommended at all to craft the Dusts for selling. 

Why?  Because as of the MoP expansion Pre-patch (WoW Patch 5.0.4), the vendor price got nerfed and more vendors are selling them.  A single Dust of Disappearance now only costs 45 silver (before applying faction discounts) from the in game vendors and there are 196 vendors that currently sell the Dusts! 

Prior to the Patch 5.0.4 that nerfed the vendor price of the Dusts into the ground, crafting Dusts and selling them for under the vendor costs was quite profitable.  I was a major proponent of also barking the Dusts of Disappearance in the trade channel to increase awareness that players could find them cheaper on the auction house.  Players weren't stuck paying the vendor prices, which at the time were 7+ gold each, depending on the players' reputation with the vendor.  Barking helped to increase awareness and urged players to save gold by purchasing from the WoW auction house.  This Dust of Disappearance Barking Strategy made me thousands of gold and allowed me to rival the good days of glyph sales, with only crafting and selling Dusts and MFCs and leaving the Glyphs to the Kobolds and White Knights.

My main Dust bark was:

"[Dust of Disappearance] is cheaper in the AH than on the vendor. Swap Those Glyphs & Save Some Gold Too!"

Then the vendor change came in Patch 5.0.4 and the sales of Dusts on the auction house died along with the cheaper vendor prices, right?  NOPE!  Although, I have quit using my Dust barking strategy, because that would be lieing, the sales continue to roll in.  Not only do I still make a nice profit off of selling Dusts of Disappearance, I no longer have to craft them myself.  I just buy stacks off of the vendor for the dirt cheap prices and sell them on the auction house for the same prices that I used to charge pre-patch, making even more profit per sale with each transaction.

How can I do this?  It's pretty simple.  By barking that they were available for cheaper than the vendor cost for so long prior to the expansion and the pre-patch changes, I've trained my server to first look on the auction house for their Dusts of Disappearance.  I bet many of the players on my server are unaware that the price has even dropped at the vendor, at least my buyers must be full unaware.  Why else would they be paying be 7+ gold per single Dust, when 7 gold would have bought them more than 14 for the same price as what I charge for a single one? 

Remember, those markets that you expect to be dead, can be quite profitable when others expect them to be dead too and vacate your market.  Sure, this can't go on forever because most players should eventually learn that I have been overcharging them on the auction house, but I'll keep making easy gold off of them until they wise up.

Anyone else still making gold off of Dust of Disappearance too?

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Blackwater Cutlass - Easy Monk Profits

Making WoW Gold Off Monks - Blackwater Cutlass


Flipping Blackwater Cutlass Post Mists of Pandaria

 Blackwater Cutlass

Blackwater Cutlass is a super nice piece of low level gear that can leads to easy profits on the WoW auction house.  One of the areas of profiting in any major expansion is to target items to craft and sell to the new players and new characters.  With Mists of Pandaria, it was a no-brainer to target poorly underpriced goods that were selling for very little gold prior to the expansion that would be expected to see an increase in demand and profit potential in the new expansion.  I set my sights on a bunch of leveling gear and weapons that I expected to see a nice profit potential (or Bargain Blues Shopping) with the wave of new Monk characters that we all knew would arrive along with Mists of Pandaria.  In addition to crafting items that Monks will buy, I was also grabbing monk friendly items to flip for a profit as well.



Blackwater Cutlass

Today I present to you one of the fastest selling and nicely profitable items that I had been buying out to flip for all of the new Monks.  The Blackwater Cutlass is by far the best of all of the gear and items that I had stockpiled to flip.  I've been flipping the Blackwater Cutlass for 5 days now and I've already sold 16 of them.  The chart above shows the Alliance side of my server, where I was buying the Cutlass for 2-16 gold each and flipping for 69 gold a piece.  I had less supply on the Horde side, but was able to increase my prices because of the supply shortage to 125 gold each.  Overall, my Resale MySales data shows that the 16 sold had an average Sale Price of around 75 gold, with an average purchase price of around 6 gold.  I've recently sold out on both factions, so I grabbed a few more that I saw posted with hopes of flipping them for an even higher price, but others have now caught on and are dropping the prices down on me.  The demand has been high enough that I'm not worried about undercutters, as they can sell theirs and mine should sell too. 

Blackwater Cutlass on All US Servers

Take a look at the price and supply of Blackwater Cutlass on your server.  There may still be plenty of chances for flipping them for a nice profit per sale like I have been doing.  The Undermine Journal shows that the prices are still pretty low on far too many of the WoW auction houses.  Hurry and start flipping them before everyone else catches on too!

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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

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Tarot Deck Strategy For MoP Monks, Rerolls, & Alts

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.

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Finally A Way To Turn Gold Into Dollars?



Turning Your Gold Into Dollars With TCG Mounts

 Turning Your Gold Into Dollars

The Mists of Pandaria expansion is bringing a lot of changes to what we have grown accustomed to in World of Warcraft.  With these changes we are seeing a complete overhaul to both the pet and mount systems.  These changes are opening the pathways to some new and different avenues of profiting both in and out of the game. 

Euripides already wrote about the possibilities of transferring wealth between servers with battle pets.  It's a novel idea, but I have no interest in having gold on multiple servers or playing the markets on multiple servers.  Hell, it's hard enough to maintain both the Horde and Alliance auction houses on my own server, much less having to look for deals on other servers.  So, I won't be participating in trying to move around caged battle pets.  I will however, be very interested in utilizing the changes to the mount system to make real life profits.

Making Money With WoW TCG Mounts

I was chatting on Twitter with a fellow goldmaker, Farli from The Overcut, earlier today after I saw him tweet that he had just snatched up a rare WoW Trading Card Game mount that he is planning on flipping for extra gold once Mists of Pandaria comes out.  Then I had a revelation.  Why sell it for gold, when you can sell it for cash? It's going to be entirely possible with the new changes coming to how the mounts work.

In Mists of Pandaria, all of your mounts will be Account Wide instead of just on the character that learned the mount.  This announcement alone has already led to increased demand and continually increasing prices for all of the WoW TCG Mount Loot Codes.  Similarly, the WoW TCG Pet Loot Codes are also selling quickly and are also seeing the prices increase as they are going account bound in MoP as well.  And when we say Account Bound, it's truely account bound.  Any character, regardless of server, will have access to the same pets and mounts collection that will be accessed through the new Pet & Mount UI tabs.

So obviously this makes purchasing a WoW TCG mount more valuable, since every character of yours will be able to flaunt that mount, even any new characters that you create on any server!

Using WoW TCG mounts to purchase gold in a roundabout way has always been legit.  Blizzard made changes to allow the WoW TCG mounts to create a BoE mount that you can trade on the auction house to prevent getting ripped off.  You can spend money on a loot code, then get the item to sell in game.  The end result is that you paid money for Warcraft gold legally. 

Now we will finally be able to turn the tables and turn our hard earned gold into real life money, using this same system in reverse.  The biggest drawback to the mount code change of creating BoE mounts has been that you pretty much needed to find a buyer on your current server.  If you chose to sell the TCG mount to another player, that player either needed to already be on your server, or one of you would face extra charges of transferring a character to deliver the mount. 

Well, that will no longer be a limiting factor once the new mount UI is implemented.  Which means you can sell those rare mounts to anyone within your region (Us/Oceanic/EU only) or shop for a rare mount on any server you have gold on.  How so?

Getting Paid For Your Gold Making

1. Find a WoW TCG Mount on your server, Spectral Tiger as an example.
2. Buy the Spectral Tiger off AH with gold.
3. Find a buyer for the Spectral Tiger (eBay, Craigslist, Forums, Blogs, etc)
4. Buyer makes an Alt on your server.
5. Show Spectral Tiger to buyer and receive payment from buyer.
6. Trade Spectral Tiger to buyer.
7. Buyer learns Spectral Tiger on new alt.
8. Now all of the buyer's characters can mount the Spectral Tiger, regardless of server.

Note: If you do decide to sell your mounts for real money and use Paypal to complete the sale, be sure to document and screenshot the entire transaction for your safety as Paypal leaves the burden of proof on the seller should an issue arise.  I would have the buyer create the alt on your server first and require that the character's name be included in the payment he sends to help validate screenshots you take of the transaction.

I'm unsure of whether this would technically be allowed or disallowed by the Terms of Service, but it really isn't much different than selling the physical WOW TCG loot cards, except that the code has already been redeemed for the in-game item.  This is safer than blindly buying loot codes from other players that may or may not have already been used. 


Why flip for gold when you can flip for cash!?!


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.

September Gold Blogging Carnival Topic

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - September 2012 Topic

A big thanks to all of the participants who submitted entries for last month's blogging carnival. Everyone is welcome to write a post for the blogging carnivals at Cold's Gold Factory. Again, thank you to all the bloggers who submitted posts for the August Carnival on Market Strategy Comparisons. If you missed the last carnival, be sure to check it out! 

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

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

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

The friendly sites willing to host your content are:

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

  

September 2012 Gold Blogging Carnival Topic

As WoW gold makers, many of us are also subscribers to Blizzard's additional subscription service, the Remote Auction House.  I love the ability to post and buy from my phone, especially since I've been stuck taking the city bus / transit system lately.  So let's take a month and discuss the remote auction house and how we use it.

The Remote Auction House - Tips, Tricks, Strategies, Love or Hate It?  Any post on the Remote AH will do.

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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.

Market Strategy Comparisons | Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - 2012

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

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

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

Compare & Contrast Markets And How Your Strategies Differ In Each.

Compare & Contrast Art of The Gold by Focushot of Hunter Mastery

Auction House Gold Making Strategies by Marcus Ty of Journal of Marcus Ty

Different Markets, Different Tactics by Nev of Auction House Addict

1000k In 65 Days Making Gold Before Mists Of Pandaria by Farli of The Overcut

Glyphs And Transmog by Gold Shield of Gold Shields

Auction Durations 12 vs 24 vs 48 Hours by Cold of Cold's Gold Factory

Market Comparison by Wes of Capped by Cata

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

Until next month,

Keep on Keepin' On!



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

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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.

Auction Durations - 12 vs 24 vs 48 Hours



How Long Do You Post For?


Which Durations I Use - 12 vs 24 vs 48 Hours

This month the topic for the August Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival asks us to compare various markets and how our strategies are different within each market.  I will be focusing on the various auction durations and what strategies I use to decided which auction duration to assign to the individual market items.

When deciding which auction duration to apply to your auction house goods, there are various factors that should come into play.  These factors can include, but are not limited to:

• Auction house fee to list the individual item.
• Amount of items already listed on the auction house.
• How heavy is this market's competition?
• How soon do you expect the item to sell?
• What time of day are you posting the item?
• What day of the week are you posting?
• How many do you have total to sell?

Posting 12 Hour Auctions

The shortest auction duration available is the 12 hour time slot.  The obvious drawback of using the 12 hour auction duration is that your item will only be up for a limited time.  This means you must continually relist this item to keep it on the auction house, which creates more work for you.  Sometimes that extra work is required though.

12 Hour auctions are only good for items that are in heavily camped, undercut heavy, competitive markets. The Gem market is the only market that I will use the 12 hour auction times.  Well, the current expansion gems that is.  I am often the only seller in older expansion gem markets, which allows me to post for longer durations without much drawback in those older gem markets.  In the Gem market the biggest reasons to only list for 12 hours are 1) the cost to post Gems and 2) the heavy competition.  Gems have a pricey listing fee and are often undercut within hours (if not minutes), so listing for longer than 12 hours almost guarantees you are just tossing extra gold away to the auction house listing fees.  The 12 hour duration, while more annoying to relist, will save you plenty of gold in the long run. 

Some players will post Glyphs on the 12 hour cycle as well, but I see no point. The cost to list Glyphs is almost nothing and most of us don't have a limited supply of Glyphs, which allows us to just repost more from our bags as we undercut.  Plus if you are listing for longer durations and the competition only lists for 12 hours, there will be times that their auctions expire and leave yours as the cheapest.  If they miss a posting cycle, or their auctions end at an odd time, there will be a window of oppurtunity to make sales.

I don't sell raw stacks of ore on the auction house.  If I was an ore seller, I would post for 12 hours for the same reasons, cost to list and heavy competition.

Posting 48 Hour Auctions

The longest auction duration available in World of Warcraft is the 48 hour auction.  The 48 hour auction is ideal for some specific auction house markets.  Any rare pattern market or overlooked niche market where you are the only seller is a great candidate for using the longest auction cycle possible.  Less work is required, since there is little risk of being undercut.  Some examples of rare or hard to obtain pattern markets that I am predominantly the sole seller list for 48 hours are: Deviate Scale Belts, Barbaric Bracers, Whitesoul Helms, Rich Purple Silk Shirts, Voice Amplification Modulators, Chimera's Eyes, rare twink enchants (like +15 Agility to Gloves or +4 Stats to Chest), and max sized profession bags that are gated behind daily grinds.  Basically anything with zero or little competition gets posted for the maximum auction duration as I am creating my own market pricing and have little worry of being undercut.

Another group of items that I post for 48 hours are items that can have massive demand spikes that lead to a bunch of sales.  These types of markets can see sales for both you and your competition at decent prices, as opposed to getting into massive undercutting wars that do nothing but lower everyone's profit.  These are also markets that see a lot of continued sales and are inexpensive to post.  Good examples are Netherweave Bags and Mysterious Fortune Cards.  Odds are there is no reason to cancel and repost, because you probably have a ton more to sell anyway.  By leaving those older undercut auctions alone and just relisting new items underneath the lowest price, you will often see sales of all of your low priced ones and the higher priced ones can also sell.  Transmogrification gear and 77-80 Cataclysm greens are 2 more good markets for the 48 hour listings, as long as you aren't battling on specific gear pieces with competition. 

Posting 24 Hour Auctions

The largest majority of items that I post, get listed with a 24 hour duration.  The 24 hour auction duration is the happy medium between the 12 and 48 hour auction posting options.  I definately post most of my items for 24 hours when I am actively playing the auction house on a daily basis.  If I know I have very limited time or must skip a day of posting, I will increase my 24 hour auctions to the 48 hour listing, just for longevity.  If a market starts to become highly competitive and I am seeing a lot of returned auctions, I may drop my listings down to 12 hour durations, but only on the more expensive listing fee items.  But overall, if you are a daily auctioneer, 24 hours is the best option for the majority of markets in WoW.

Anyone have any other markets that they definately only post at 12 hour or 48 hour auction durations?


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.

4 Tips To Improve Your Remote Auction House Efficiency

4 Tips For Using The Remote Auction House

The Remote Auction House has been a great addition to the tools of the WoW gold making goblin.  The Remote Auction House application for smart phones has been very effective for me in helping snatch up cheap goods, is a great tool in the war against undercutters, and helps with auction house espionage issues.  There are a lot of uses and benefits to using the RAH in addition to the in game auction interface.  I've already written about The Top 9 Uses For The Remote Auction House, so today let's look at a few ways to improve your remote auction house WoW gold making routine.

#1 - Shop Like A Boss

One of the hassles with shopping for large quantities of materials on the auction house is the repetitive nature of having to click on each item individually to make a purchase.  With the in game WoW auction house we have add-ons like Auctionator and TSM that help us buyout items more quickly and accurately.  Well, those same Auctionator style buying improvements are also used within the Remote Auction House application.  It took me a while to figure this out for myself and it was only after @MSherretz pointed it out on earlier episode of The Auction House Junkies Podcast that I was able to fully take advantage of this awesome RAH addition (which was added in a RAH app update, I believe).
The key to getting to use the Auctionator style buying lists in the Remote Auction House application is to use the "Show: Buyouts Only" option.  This is a simple filter that is found at the top of the screen after you search for items.  Once the results are tallied, you can select the "Buyouts Only" option and it will stack all of the same price items into the same buyout row.  Check out the image below to see the results. 



WoW Remote AH - Sorting By Buyouts Only



As shown in the above image, instead of displaying every stack of Whiptail individually, all of the same priced items get stacked together with a "total stacks at this price" quantity.  In the example above, you can see that there actually are 25 full stacks of Whiptail all listed at the same price.  In the following image, you can see that you now have an option to purchase all of those stacks with just 1 action.  Note: You will still be charged 1 transaction (from your daily limit of 200) for each stack that you buy.  This a great way to make bulk purchases in a speedy fashion.  Use it!



WoW Remote AH - Bulk Shopping


#2 - Quicker Search Tip
Searching is another thing that takes time and effort when using the Remote Auction House.  One of the fastest ways to improve your search speed is to keep 1 of the items that you constantly search for in your bags or in your personal bank.  This allows you to bypass the manual entry of item names into the search field because you can just tap the item and then hit the "Price check" tab from the item display.  So if you are on a crafter that buy his own crafting materials, always leave 1 set of materials uncrafted to improve your searching efficiency with the RAH.

#3 - Reverse Your Banking Thought Process

One important way to better utilize the Remote AH for speed and convenience is to get out of the typical mindset of how banks and guild banks are used.  If you are like me and have multiple crafters within the same guild that share a guild bank for easy materials distribution, then you have to reverse that thinking.  Even if you have alt characters that have their own guild bank for storage, you still have to think differently when using the Remote auction House regularly.  Why? 

Items in the guild bank can't be listed on the auction house or accessed at all through the Remote AH, even if you are the only member of the guild and the only one who could ever see into the guild.  It's just not allowed with the Remote AH interface.  So all of your items for searching, selling, and price checking need to be in your bags, your individual character's bank, or in your mail box and not stored away in a guild bank.

Many of us tend to throw our crafted items and materials into the guild bank and tend to keep our personal stuff in the personal banks.  If you are a consistent Remote Auction House user though, this is limiting your available storage space for interacting with the Remote Auction House.  Reversing your banking thought process will prove beneficial in the long run as you have space to work with on the RAH.

#4 Keep Your Mailbox Clear

Nothing hampers a Remote Auction House business like an overfilled mailbox.  The Remote AH will only display and allow you to interact with the last 50 items in your mail.  So keep the mailbox tidy and clear when you are in game because you can't retrieve items from the mail box, unless you are posting them back on the WoW auction house.  You don't want to have to waste reposting non-selling items just to be able to get to and see the valuable item you want to make sure to relist.  So keep those mailboxes tidy for speed and ease.

Want to hear even more about the World of Warcraft Remote Auction House?

Be sure to check out the Auction House Junkies Episode #25 - French Dip where we discuss the Remote Auction House as our primary discussion topic.  I apologize for Wes in advance.

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

August Topic For Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - August 2012 Topic

A big thanks to all of the participants who submitted entries for last month's blogging carnival. Everyone is welcome to write a post for the blogging carnivals at Cold's Gold Factory. Again, thank you to all the bloggers who submitted posts for the July Carnival on Tips For the WoW Expansion Lull. If you missed the last carnival, be sure to check it out! 

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

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

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

The friendly sites willing to host your content are:

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

  

August 2012 Gold Blogging Carnival Topic

As WoW gold makers, we must be flexible and adapt our posting, pricing, and relisting strategies based on the individual markets.  Every server is different, yet within the same server, each market can be completely different as well.  For the August Gold Blogging Carnival Topic, let's illustrate some of the ways we post differently based on the different profession markets. 
Compare & Contrast 2 Different AH Markets and How Your Gold Making Strategy Varies In Each Market

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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.

Why Buy Low, Sell Normal Is A Joke

Buy Low, Sell Normal

vs

Buy Low, Sell High

Everyone has heard the common economics standard of Buy Low, Sell High.  However, there are some auctioneers in WoW and Diablo 3 that will tell you that the time tested fundamental economic principle of Buying Lowing & Selling High is a farce that doesn't work.  Well, it's been the standard of basic profiteering for centuries.  So I'm calling bullshit on your Buy Low, Sell Normal mantra, when you claim it is better than Buy Low, Sell High.

All basic money making can be simplified to Buy For X, and Sell For More Than X.  That sale will turn you a profit.  All you need to do is sell the item for more than you paid for it.  That's what Buy Low, Sell High means.  Selling for higher than the lower price you bought it for, regardless of the market price for that item. 

So What Is Buy Low, Sell Normal?

Buy Low, Sell Normal is supposed to be "the best way to operate as an auctioneer" as the followers of this belief tell you to "Sell at normal value, no higher than what the item usually goes for."  These Buy Low, Sell Normal types, think you will make more profits by selling more items at a lower cost.  The basic backbone of any discussion about this comparison references that is how Walmart operates, by Buying Low & Selling Normal.

Sure, Walmart has lots of sales and cheap prices too, but as gold and money makers in Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft, we aren't Walmart.  We don't have a huge staff working under us.  We are just 1 person trying to turn a profit on an in-game auction house.  Walmart makes their money by coming into and forcing out all of the smaller companies that can't compete with their prices.  Some of their items they actually sell below their cost, so others have no chance to compete.  This serves to limit their competition and force others out of the market, but how profitable of a strategy is selling at a loss or for minimal profits in an online virtual environment?

So you bought or crafted an item at a low price, how much do you want to sell it for?

Well, I am a member of Generation X and I tend to go by the typical Gen-X mantra of "Getting the most money, for the least amount of work."  See that's the problem with the Buy Low, Sell Normal philosophy.  By selling at minimal profits, you may get more sales, but are those minimal profits worth your time and effort?  I'd rather sell less items for more profit per item, which results in less time recrafting, recollecting, and reposting.

Sell Normal Or Sell High In The Glyph Market?

The WoW Glyph Market has a polarizing effect on most of the sellers within that market.  Either they are willing to dance or they aren't.  But because of the foolish teachings of some bloggers who've preach about Buying Low and Selling Normal, the Glyph market can be an absolute nightmare for some sellers as we've been discussing on some episodes of The Eviscerated Gaming Podcast.

A good example is between the 2 main strategies of Glyph sellers.

• Option 1 - Craft & Sell as many Glyphs as possible (market blanketing), all for a bare minimum profit, to keep competition away.  Often using heavy undercutting (another foolish strategy in my opinion) and walling of low priced items in hopes of driving out competition.  This is often referred to as the Walmart Glyph Model. - Sell Normal

• Option 2 - Craft & Sell only Glyphs when they reach a nice threshold worth your time and effort.  Nev of Auction House Addict was the first to discuss this philosophy on the PW:Gold Podcast.  Don't even bother with a glyph unless it is selling for 100 gold or more.  - Sell High

With Nev's Glyph Strategy, you still make plenty of gold and have far much less work to do to restock and relist.  And you are free of the headache of massive dog fight wars of undercutting, glyph walling, and other time inefficient strategies.  Often times, you will still makes sales because not everyone has all glyph recipes and there are times when all of the low priced ones will be gone.  If I can sell glyphs for 250 gold, why the hell would I waste time fighting to sell them for 12 gold each to make a few gold per sale? 

Why Buy Low, Sell Normal?

So why would someone even want to create a Buy Low, Sell Normal idea?  It was a blogger who coined the notion and even refers to it as his "catch phrase".  The entire notion is based on foolish logic and trying to disprove a time weathered basic principal of economic theory.  The whole Buy Low, Sell Normal idea was nothing more than an online marketing ploy created by an internet salesmen trying to stir up his own "catch phrase" to discuss and quote on various blogs and podcasts all to drive traffic to his sites.  Then people want to hear how Buy Low, Sell Normal is so much better than Buy Low, Sell High and they head to his sites, where he tries to sell them his latest Secret Gold Guides.  In all reality Buy Low, Sell Normal is nothing more than a hype generating gimmick of an internet con-man.  It's nothing more than a tagline and sales gimmick.

So be smart and get the most from each and every sale.  Why leave money on the table?

I think @dollada06 said it best on twitter:

"Buy Low / Sell Normal is an idiotic ideology which basically says sell your items before they yield maximum profits."

Read more about how Buy Low, Sell Normal is a bad idea in Diablo 3 at:

Free Diablo 3 Guide

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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.