Random Invite Guild Hits Level 25

WoW Guild Level 25

DING! - Random Guild Level 25

The All Random Invite Guild Experiment

The random invite guild has just achieved the goal I set out to attain within the World of Warcraft Cataclysm experiment.  I didn't get my guild of all random invites rolling until a month or two into the Cataclysm expansion.  The premise for this experiment was simple.  Could I level a guild to the maximum Guild Level 25 from only random invites and just how viable would it be to have a guild earning a passive income?  The notion of earning a passive income with a guild was a new possibility with the addition of the Cataclysm introduced guild leveling and guild perks systems.  So I started on my quest to build a guild full of random invitees and see just how successful it would become.

Taking time to be direct within the guild information was one of the main objectives that helped me fulfill my goal without misleading any of the guild members.  The guild charter showed that the guild was never intended to be an end game guild.  The basic understanding was that the guild was there as a symbiotic relationship.  The guild provides the great guild perks for it's members while they level and in return, the guild earns a small commission through the passive income guild perks.  I also would receive the benefit of having others level the guild for me without performing any real guild master duties.  The guild was pitched as a home to park your alts or to use just for free guild perks.  It was also pitched as the perfect guild for non-social players and soloers who wanted guild perks, but wanted to avoid the drama associated with most guilds. 

The Controversy

The experiment did not come without it's own share of controversy.  I was questioned for this type of experiment, notably all from other bloggers, commentors, and forum dwellers.  Not a single complaint from a single member in the random invite guild.  Sure some players would gripe about getting a random invite, but once in they were cool.  We are now Guild Level 25 and I still have yet to hear a complaint about my guild system from anyone who was or is in the guild itself.  NOT A SINGLE COMPLAINT IN A YEAR. I have actually been thanked by many players for offering a guild up for solo-ers and non-socials to have a place to get guild perks too without the drama.  Yet, the ignorant outsiders looking in have called me:

• an amoral bastard
• rude
• a blood sucking leech
• a dirty rat
• dodgy
• desperate

Questions arose over keeping the guild perk earned gold, but most attacks came from me offering up the 7th guild tab as an exchange tab for member use.  This allowed me to not only collect the Cash Flow perk earned gold, but to also find needed materials on occasion hiding within that 7th guild tab.  Sometimes I would hunt an item on the auction house only to find it bare.  On occasion I would be lucky enough to find the item deposited into the designated guild exchange tab.  In this area, guild members could deposit unwanted items or take items for their own use.  The downside to this exchange tab was the constant maintenance to clear out the garbage just to make space for new items.  It was the earlier guild members that had requested that a guild bank tab be unlocked for guild exchange use.  I would keep it clear of garbage items by doing occasional maintenance on the tabs contents.

The Results

Let's take a look at the final numbers.

Total Liquid Gold In Guild Bank: 11,765 gold.
Total Guild Gold Spent On Self Repairs: 5,223 gold.
(only I have access for repairs)
Total Gold Earned From Guild: 16,988 gold.

Current Guild Roster: 960 Members
Level 85s: 88
Total Guild Challenges Completed: 17

So I made almost 17k from the passive income guild perks and members forming their own guild dungeon groups for guild challenges. I haven't paid out of pocket for repairs since the random invite guild hit guild level 5.  The random invite guild has been a rather easy undertaking and would have been even easier had I started earlier in the expansion or prior to Cataclysm's launch.  An interesting finding has been the number of max level players that stick with the guild once hitting level 85.  I guess they don't want to lose their guild perks and start grinding guild reputation over again.  I am going to keep the members in the guild and continue to let them earn gold for me, as opposed to kicking them all now that the guild is maxed.  Why not let them earn for me into the Mists of Pandaria expansion.  This is a symbiotic relationship worth keeping.

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.

My Scribe's Favorite WoW Gold Making Spot

Troll Area In New Orgrimmar

February Entry For Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival

The Cold's Gold Factory Blogging Carnival chosen topic for the month of February has been decided.  I've asked everyone to reveal one of their secret or favorite crafting / business / auctioneering / farming hot spots within the World of Warcraft universe.  Today I will explain one of the prime locations for one of my main gold makers in WoW, my scribe.  By now, most WoW Horde WoW players know that the Tauren area in Orgrimmar is a nice spot for conduction auction house business for making gold in WoW.  That area is ideal for any crafters that need use of a forge, anvil, or tailoring materials.  If you are a crafter of another profession, there may be a better suited location for you to conduct your business.  Hopefully, this month's carnival entries will shed some light on some nice efficient areas for operating your gold making alts.  Every ideal alt needs to find their own ideal crafting location.

The Ogrimmar Troll Area - A Horde Scribe's Ideal Location

As a Scribe that makes a lot of gold off of the Inscription profession, I am in need of an efficient area for conducting my auction house gold making business.  The best area I have found for a Horde Scribe is the Troll area in Northwestern Orgrimmar in The Valley Of Spirits.  The perfect location would be a spot that I could access my Inscription vendor, a mailbox, my guild and personal banks, and the auction house without having to move one bit.  Sadly, this perfect area does not exist.  However in the troll area, I can have access to 3 of the 5 without moving, with the other 2 close by.  Let's dig a little deeper.

The Bank & Auction House Hut

The main area of operation in the Troll area in Orgrimmar is the Auction House and Banking Combo Hut.  Located at the top of a troll tribal hut is the Auction House auctioneer.  This troll area auctioneer is housed in the same building as the banks.  This means that you can have access to your bank or guild bank and the auction house at the same time.  This is a plus for any gold makers that tends to use their bank or guild bank for storage.  Being able to store glyphs in my guild bank as a scribe, has been a great time saver in itself.

The Mail Box

Next we need a close mail box location and the Org Troll area has just that.  From within the Troll area bank / auction hut you can look down below (remember you are on the 2nd story of the hut) and see a mail box just a few yards away on the Troll side of the tunnel that leads from The Valley Of Wisdom into The Valley of Spirits.  So it is just a quick jump down, which is super fast and easy with any flying mount.  This is about the typical distance for a mailbox to auctioneer run, but this mailbox very rarely sees any activity.  That is a good thing, because less activity means less lag and less chance of some idiot blocking your access to the mailbox.

The Inscription Vendor

Last but not least, we come to the Inscription vendor.  As a scribe, I purchase a ton of crafting materials off of the Inscription supplies vendors.  Selling Glyphs and Mysterious Fortune Cards means I blow through a TON of parchiment paper.  Having access to a nearby vendor is also a must for any ideal crafting location.  Lucky enough, the Inscription supplies vendor is in the next hut over (to the South).  The Inscription vendor is also located on the top floor of the neighboring hut.  This means a quick mount up and 3 second flight will having you hopping from the vendor hut and the auctioneer / bank hut in no time.

With the Auction House and Banks housed in 1 hut, the Inscription supply vendor in the Troll hut next door, and the bank a short distance on the ground below, you have most everything a Scribe would need all layed out in a nice triangular formation.  This is where Primerib does all of his business, including barking MFCs while I work on glyphs and other Inscription markets.

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

If you have a secret spot you would like to share, don't forget that anyone can participate in the blogging carnivals.  Check out the 2012 February carnival topic post for the information on posting, as well as a couple of great sites that are willing to host your entries.


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.

February Topic for Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival

WoW Gold Blogging Carnival

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - February 2012 Topic

First of all, I would like to thank all of the participants who submitted entries for the first carnival of the year.  The articles were all excellent additions to the gold blogging carnival.  Even more writers have expressed interest in participating in the monthly gold blogging carnivals here at Cold's Gold Factory.  So thank you to all the bloggers who submitted posts for the January Topic: If you could add one thing to MoP, what would it be?  If you missed the January 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, then 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 main sites that will post and host your content as a guest post.  Just following 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. 

The friendly sites willing to host your content are:

1. Goldgrub's Goblin Academy - Contact:  Me (Cold)

February 2012 Gold Blogging Carnival
Many of us have multiple alts and multiple crafting characters.  Some of us even have Ideal Alts that are designed for specific purposes.  Either way, creating the perfect alt is only half of the job.  We also like to find the absolute best locations to park our alts.  These may be crafting locations, areas close to the auction house or a specific vendor, a remote spot for the perfect crafting location, etc.  There are many areas for auctioneering and crafting in Azeroth, but each area can be an ideal spot for the perfect profession combination.  Which brings me to the February Topic:

What Is A Favorite Location Of Yours In WoW?

WoW MoP Battle Pets - Looking Ahead & Determining Value

Battle Pets Are Comin To Mists of Pandaria

Battle Pets Coming In MoP

The upcoming World of Warcraft expansion will be adding the all new WoW Battle Pets system to the game.  We don't know everything about the new WoW Battle Pets system yet, but MMO-Champion has a nice overview post of everything that we do know about the Mists of Pandaria battle pet system.  We should be learning more about the new Battle Pets system within the next few weeks as Blizzard is starting to share more details. 

Undoubtedly, the demand and the value of many of the current companion pets will change.  With companion pets being made account bound, we will no longer see sales to multiple characters.  This should be outweighed by an overall rise in demand for the companion pets to be used as Battle Pets.  The companion pet market as a whole should see a nice rise in demand as the companion pets will no longer be just vanity pets.  The WoW Battle Pets system will create a new use for these pets as trained fighters for head to head battling against other players. 

Determining The Value Of Battle Pets

As WoW gold makers, we are constantly looking ahead for the next big thing and planning out our sales strategy in hopes of making a ton of gold in a short period of time.  As the Battle Pet system will increase demand for all types of companion pets, we must be looking for more information to determine which pets will be the best investments.  Here are a few of the factors that will help shape the value of each individual Batle Pet, as well as a few more things to keep watch for.

1. Battle Pet Rares - Rare pets are always worth more because they are harder to obtain. Coming in MoP are rare battle pets that obtained in the wild and it has been stated that each zone will be home to at least one unique Battle Pet.  These harder to find pets, will obviously be worth more than their vendor bought counterparts.
2. Unique Battle Pet Abilities - Each pet will have a combination of 6 abilities, 3 of which can be used per Pet Battle.  It is rumored that each pet will have a single unique ability, which will be a huge factor in determining which pets will be in higher demand because of their unique ability or sweet combination of abilities.  The hidden goldmine for us will be finding the rarer pets that also have a great ability combination.  These will be the Battle Pets that will be worth the most.  On the same notion, the
3. The Level Of The Battle Pet - The Mists of Pandaria Battle Pet system is also including the ability to level up each of your Battle Pets.  This creates an all new market on top of the regular companion pet / Battle Pet market.  You can sell the pets as level 1 starting Battle Pets, or you can level the pets up through combat experience from battle other Battle Pets.  The leveled pets will be worth more gold than the start pet versions.  A max level 25 Battle Pet will be worth far more than a Level 1 Battle Pet.  You can also sell those pre-leveled pets, which could create a new gold making model for some players.

Battle Pets - Planning Ahead

I will be keeping a close watch on news coming out of Blizzard that is related to detailing information about Mist of Pandaria and the new WoW Battle Pet system.  The combination of the Battle Pet's rarity, level, and ability combination will help to determine the value of each pet.  Currently I, along with my Auction House Junkies co-hosts, have been snagging up cheap rare companion pets and holiday pets.  This is a two-fold approach.  Rare (Hyacynth McCaw, Disgusting Oozeling, Captured Firefly, etc.) and hard to obtain pets (Argent Tournament pets) have always been great items to use to hedge your gold investments as you head into a new patch, which will bring inflation and further devalue each gold piece.  Secondly, these rare and hard to find items will see a demand increase when Battle Pets are added in MoP.  Now we also have been able to start stockpiling up seasonal holiday pets as well, since the BoE change from BoP holiday pets, like the Sinister Squashling.  If some of these rare pets turn out to have awesome pet ability combinations, then we will be making a nice huge profit on top of our initial investments.

So keep your eyes peeled for low priced rare and hard to find pets too, if you want to start thinking ahead also.  Then keep your fingers crossed that the Battle Pet mini-game will be available on iPhone too.

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 Jinx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

Reader Submission: More 10-14 Twink Items To Craft For Profits

Reader Submissions are always accepted here at Cold's Gold Factory.  If you would like to do a guest post as a blogger or are interested in seeing your own tips in an online blog format, then feel free to send in your submissions.

Hey Cold!

 

I've been reading your website for quite a long time. I was quite surprised when I realized that you were twinking at 14 - Happily surprised. I'm an extremely long time twink in the 10-14 battleground bracket (Used to play 10-19). My toon is from Burning Crusade. I like this bracket and promote it a lot, so I was happy to see some new faces in our bracket. If you want to play some Exp-Off game, versus twink some times, you should check out Twinkinfo.com Section 10-14. We schedule some Exp-Off games from times to times. It's lots of fun.

 

Okay, back on topic. Here are some items you can craft to make lots of gold in the 10-14 battleground bracket.

• Gemmed Copper Gauntlets - BiS for Mail wearers.
• Colorful Kilt - BiS for several 14 caster classes.
• Flying Tiger Goggles (Engineering, but was changed from 4stam/4spirit to 4stam/4hit back in 4.2 or 4.3 (No one realized it though, hehe) It's great for those without a BoA head.
• Simple Kilt - BiS for several 10 casters.

 Gemmed Copper Gauntlets are probably the most valuable.

 

 To finish here's a crazily good way to make lots of money on low level toon for this bracket:

 

Stendel's Wedding Band

 

It's fished from Westfall. It's a level 11 ring, but it's BiS from level 11-14 and probably maybe 15 and 16 twinkers also.

 

Easily sold for 1000 gold +. So it's an easy way to get some gold on a low level toon. Fishing chance are low, but most people get it between 200-850 catches,which is around 3-4 hours of fishing at worst. I have seen several players who got it in 2 or less hours.

 

-Bankbeauty

 

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

 

A special thanks to Bankbeauty for the helpful tips on more low level items to craft and sell within the 10-14 WoW twinking niche market.  The new items can be sold in addition to the twink items I have already covered here on the blog.

• Voice Amplification Modulator - I just sold one yesterday from barking in trade for 400 gold.
• Murloc Scale Belt - I wish I could find more Slimey Murloc Scales!
• Malachite Pendant - Selling very well and at 25 gold each, the profit is crazy.
• Fishing For Stendel's Bane - Thanks for the tip Bankbeauty, but I've already covered the BiS ring in a previous post. :)

One thing that is common among players who haven't twinked before is the doubt about how well or how much these types of items can sell for.  Once you have done some twinking yourself, you get a better understanding on the twinking market.  Don't be a naysayer and give a few of these markets a try.

Thanks again, Bankbeauty!

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.

January 2012 Blogging Carnival | What Would You Add To Mists Of Pandaria?

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival Returns

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - 2012

Welcome to the 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 leave them some comments.

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. Articles 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.  And without further ado, I present to you this month's participants answering the question:

"If you could add 1 item or feature to the Mists of Pandaria expansion, what would it be and why?"


Xsinthis of The Golden Crusade
We Need A New Vendor Mount In Mists of Pandaria


Kyranno of A Whole New WoW
Class, Race, & Profession Based Quests

Alberthus of The Fighting Coin
Real ID Unification


Crusard of Diversa Aurophobia
When I Open Pandaria's Box, I Want A... Kiosk


Epidermuss of Wrags to Riches
We Need A New Profession

GrayzBDF of WoW or Gold
Add These Two Changes In Mists of Pandaria

Cold of Cold's Gold Factory
The BoA Fillable Bag

Thanks for all of the entries and new participants.  See you all again next month!

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.

Mists of Pandaria Wishes: A BoA Fillable Bag

Here is my own submission into the Cold's Gold Factory Gold Blogging Carnival for January 2011.  If you are interested in participating in this month's gold blogging carnival, be sure to get your carnival entry post written and posted live to your blog today or tommorrow (and email me the link) as the carnivals run on the 11th of each month.

The topic for the January gold blogging carnival is:

"If you could add 1 item or feature to the Mists of Pandaria WoW expansion, what would it be and why?"

There are many ideas that I came up with as possibilities for additions to the Mists of Pandaria expansion of World of Warcraft.  After much thought, the item I would most like to see added to WoW is a Bind-On-Account Fillable Bag, with true cross-server transferability. 

The Bind-On-Account Fillable Bag

We as World of Warcraft players are definately in need of a BoA Fillable Bag.  Currently the BoA system is broken, as you can only mail BoA items to characters on the same account if they are on the same server.  The current BoA items, like Heirlooms and the Satchel of Exotic Mysteries, are technically only Bind-on-Server, so that must be fixed for my BoA Fillable Bag idea to work properly.

Blizzard has been indirectly promoting the playing of alts by making everything so much easier in the game.  Lately we have seen an increase in the number of players that have multiple characters and many of those characters are leveled and geared close behind their main character.  Blizzard has made it easier to level and much easier for those alts to get gear.  With the new announcements of opening battlegrounds and the raid finder to cross server, those alts will have an even easier time finding things to do in game.  That's all fine and dandy, but what about people who play alts on multiple servers or alts on both sides of WoW's factions?

Getting items to your other alts on the opposing faction is a chore.  Unless you have access to a second account, any cross faction exchange through the neutral auction house does come with the risk of our items being sniped out from under you.  Even with a second account it is possible to have your goods bought out from under you, although the second account option makes the risk much lower.  The cross faction Satchel trick is a help, but is still highly limited.  If we had a BoA bag that we could actually add items or gold into, the process would be safe and simple for getting items over to the other faction. 

If we could load up a bag with items, gold, or gear to send to an alt on another server, then we would have a lot more options for redistributing our wealth across multiple servers and characters.  Wouldn't it be great to roll a new character on your friend's server and then have a BoA bag waiting in your mailbox full of the NW Bags, Heirlooms, and starter cash that you need to get started leveling in style?  I doubt Blizzard wants us to do this, as it could be exploited to establish a gold selling business across multiple servers.  Even if gold wasn't allowed to be sent, I would still be excited to be able to send items in a new BoA bag to my alts. 

If a BoA Fillable Bag was introduced into WoW, I'm thinking it would be the type of item that Blizzard would charge real money to purchase.  I'd pay $10 for a 20 slot bag that I could use to mail items and / or gold cross faction and cross server.  It would be much nicer if we got a BoA Fillable Bag introduced into the MoP expansion that was Craftable! 

Wouldn't a BoA Bag that you can add items into to mail to your alts regardless of their faction or server location be a nice addition to the game?

Be sure to check back here January 11th for the full January edition of the Gold Blogging Carnival.

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

Murloc Scale Belt & Slimey Murloc Scales

I have finaly have collected a total of 8 Slimey Murloc Scales for crafting my own Murloc Scale Belt.  Why would I want a Murloc Scale Belt?  For Transmogrification?  Nope.  For Twinking, Duh!  Working on gearing out my level 14 Hunter led me to researching some of the non-heirloom gear slots.  I've already written about the benefits of crafting a couple of great twink neck pieces for this same battleground bracket, the Malachite Pendant and the Voice Amplification Modulator. 

Looking into the leather gear options for the waist slot of characters in the 10-14 bracket, you will see that there just aren't many options at all.  When it comes to finding a belt with maximal statistics, you have 2 options:  Craft a Murloc Scale Belt, which has +3 Agi & +3 Sta, or cross your fingers and hope to find a level 14 Bandit Cinch with "of the Monkey" suffix on the auction house. 

A Bandit Cinch of the Monkey is actualy second best, since it provides + 2-3 Agi & +2-3 Sta, which means your Bandit Cinch will provide either +2 Agi / +3 Sta or will provide +3 Agi / + 2 Sta.  The craftable Murloc Scale Belt is the top option for Rouges and Hunters alike, as it provides +3 Agility and +3 Stamina.  Sure, it may only be an extra 1 Agility or Stamina, but that's what twinking is all about - completely maximizing ever aspect of your low level character's gear.  Don't forget that 1 extra Agility at level 10-14 is worth far more than 1 Agility at a higher level.

The Murloc Scale Belt is a great item to sell to other twinking characters because it is a very nice belt for the 10-14 bracket, but unlike the Bandit Cinch, the Murloc Scale Belt is also wearable at a full 1 level lower than the cinches.  So you get the better item available at an early level.  Yes, please!

The real problem is finding the materials, mainly the Slimey Murloc Scales.  The leather and thread are easy finds, but the Slimey Murloc Scales can take a while to collect, if you are solely hunting them on the auction house in WoW. 

The Slimey Murloc Scales were one of the items that saw a decrease in the number of creatures that drop them after The Shattering.  From my experiences, they are more readily available on the Alliance side, presumably since the old drop sources were in Alliance territories.  I myself had to cross faction transfer 6 of the 8 Slimey Murloc Scales that I was able to find.  Currently, they are dropping mainly from Murlocs within the Blackfathom Depths instance, with Mutanus (in Wailing Caverns) and Vile Fin Oracles in Silverpine Forest also having a chance to drop them.  The funny thing is that I was paying a few silvers each when I would happen to find them posted on the auction house.  They were worth far more than that to me as I would have easily paid 5 gold per Slimey Murloc Scale, but no one really knows the true value of these crafting materials. 

So if you run across some Slimey Murloc Scales, I recommend crafting some Murloc Scale Belts to sell for 75-150 gold each or you can sell the Slimey Murloc Scales on the auction house.  Just be sure to price them correctly and don't give them away for a few silvers.  You wouldn't sell Spider Silk for silvers, would you?  This is a similar drop type of crafting item and should be priced along the same lines as the Spider Silk.

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.

Population Cycles and Barking MFCs

MFCs Will Never Be Obsolete

Mysterious Fortune Cards Again! Really?

Oh Yes!  Oh Hell Yes!

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

Population Cycles?

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

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

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

Cream Of The Christmas Crop

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

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

Cold's Gold Factory Birthday Giveaway Results

Cold's Gold Factory Birthday Giveaway Winning Results

• Grand Prize: Alto  @Altosgold - Won From A Twitter RT
• First Prize:  Twizz @Twizzletank - Won From A Twitter RT Also
• Second Prize: Fisherman.Pap - From The Cold's Gold Factory Mailing List
• Third Prize:  Stephen Townsley - Won From Liking The Facebook Page
• Mailing List Exclusive Prize:  - SethBlack80 
• Twitter Followers Exclusive Prize: @tenchikod
  

Prize Review:

• Grand Prize:  $50 Gift Card To J!NX :: Clothing for Gamers & Geeks
• First Prize:  $20 Gift Card To Amazon.com
• Second Prize:  1 WoW In-Game Sparkle Pony (Celestial Steed) Code
• Third Prize:  1 WoW In- Game Pandaren Monk Pet Code
• Mailing List Exclusive Prize:  1 Celestial Steed Mount Code
• Twitter Followers Exclusive Prize:  1 Pandaren Monk Pet Code

Winners have been contacted for non-bot verification.  If any prizes go unclaimed, I will use them in a new giveaway.  Thanks for participating.  Better luck next time.


Be Sure To Check Out Episode #22 of Auction House Junkies - "My Ex Wife Is A Taller Version Of Felicia Day".  Another great and fun episode.

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

How To Make Gold In WoW - Top Posts Of 2011 @ CGF

How To Make Gold In WoW - Best Of 2011 Here At Cold's Gold Factory

The 2011 year of the gold blogger has been an exciting one.  We have seen a massive increase in the number of bloggers talking about how to make gold in WoW.  A quick peek at the Power Word Gold : Gold Blog Directory will show the large number of gold blogs out there, with many of them joining the blogging community in 2011.  Here's to another great year of teaching players how to make gold in WoW.  Hopefully our community will continue to grow and prosper long into the new year.

2011 Was an awesome year because Wes, of Capped By Cata, and I started up The Auction House Junkies gold making podcast, which has recently expanded to include Mike, @MSherretz, as our regular 3rd anchor host.  The show has been chugging along since early 2011 and we are starting to be more consistent with releasing new episodes in a timely manner.  We can't keep you Junkies waiting too long for your next fix!

Now let's take a look back at some of the best and most popular posts here at Cold's Gold Factory.

Most Popular Posts From 2011

1. Firelands Daily Quests: Shadow Wardens or Druids Of The Talon? - This was the most successful post of the year from a traffic standpoint.  It was released at the perfect time, a few weeks into the Molten Front patch.  As players were starting to get close to completely the first wave of Molten Front dailies and acquiring the tokens needed to choose your first faction to unlock, this was a great question to target for traffic.  Everyone wanted to know which side to choose first and this post was a perfect example of one of the fundamental types of blog posts - Answer a popular question within your niche.  While the post wasn't directly gold related, it was indirectly related, as there was a race for unlocking the recipes as fast as possible to monopolize a market until competition could catch up.  This post sent still sends me crazy traffic, currently sitting at over 54K pageviews.
2. Patch 4.3 Epic Gem Transmutes From Alchemists And Cut By Jewelcrafters - Well the Alchemist patterns were data-mined but are still not in the live game.
3. Epic Gems:  Pyrite Is Fool's Gold After All - The big bomb dropped on stockpilers expecting Epic Gems from Pyrite Ore.
4. Patch 4.2 Introduced New Embersilk Farming Spot - Druids of The Talon Killing Madness.
5. Patch 4.2 Engineering Love - Engineering Patterns for the win!
6. Elementium Ore Farming Sweet Spot - Was awesome while it lasted, but has since been nerfed.  This spot I discovered was a beauty!
7. Mysterious Forune Card Barking Tips - More fun with MFC barking!
8. Patch 4.3 Cata Epic Gem JC Recipes & The Tome Of Burning Jewels - The news came and we started get excited for Epic Gems.  Whomp Whomp Whaa!  Not so great after all.
9. WoW Patch 4.2 Firelands Recipes Are BOP - Keyword targetting FTW!
10. Don't Stockpile For WoW Patch 4.2 Just Yet - Think for yourself, don't blindly follow.
11. New Firelands Vendors Offer Auctioning Opportunities - The recipe race to sell the new goods.
12. New Rugged Leather Farming In Cataclysm - Cataclysm shook up the world, including farming spots for making gold in WoW.
13. Call to Arms & The Satchel Of Exotic Mysteries - The Call to Arms addition to the game has been one of my favorites.  This alone has created an easy way to send starter cash (or items to sell for starter cash) to your alts on the opposing faction. See Also: Free Gold Exchange Cross Faction.
14. Passive Income Project | The Random Invites Guild - The project has been a great success.  The guild of all random invites has just hit guild level 24!  The macro is currently broken though, since Patch 4.3.
15. Embersilk Farming In Cataclysm's Deepholme - Still one of the best spots to farm Embersilk Cloth in large numbers.

Most Discussed Posts From 2011

1. The Whistleblowing Post On Markco & The JMTC Coaching Program Scam - A major shitstorm war in the comments as the evil forces of Markco the Deceiver battle it out against the side of Truth and Honor.
2. Off Topic: IRL Troubles & Blogging Consistency - The responses of support and encouragement have been so helpful and overwhelmingly suprising at the same time.  I really appreciate everyone of my readers and especially those that took the time to leave supportive comments and send thoughtful emails.
3. Screw Inferno Rubies, I'm Stocking Dream Emeralds - Well, of course I was stocking Inferno Rubies too, but my Dream Emerald stockpile has been a lifesaver as I continue to sell the hell out of Flintlocke's Woodchuckers as the competitions stock has dried up.  Tons of people laughed at me in the comments, but I'm laughing all the way to the mailbox collecting my mail.
4. Opportunity Costs - An IRL Case Study - Stupid work bake sales.
5. Opportunity Cost Part 2 - More discussion.
6. The Twilight Highlands Vendor Nerf - The shift of patterns to the major cities.
7. Transmutation:  Profitable Or Not? - My original stance is slowly changing as I am getting my feet wet in this new emerging market.  It is very server and faction dependant, but the Moggfather, @DeAzeroth, has been having great success flipping items for Transmogrification.
8. Patch 4.2 Tanked Volatile Air & Volatile Fire - Prices crashed, but crafting costs did too.
9. You Know You're A Greedy Goblin When... - This post was a fun one.
10. Obsidium Ore Prospecting Crash Incoming - The gem price reductions were on the way.
11. The Auctioneer Hot Spot In Orgrimmar - The cow town area is tops in my book.
12. Powerleveling Professions - Worth the extra cash or is there a better approach?

My Personal Favorites Posts From 2011

1. The Ideal Alts Series - I reall yenjoyed putting this whole series together for you.  It's nice to hear the praises of people who have directly copied or modified some of these Ideal Alt ideas.
2. Best Uses For Your Free WoW Veteran Account - Easy entry into cross faction trading to make even more gold in WoW.
3. The Tale Of A Lowly Gorilla Hunter - Man, I was so clueless back then!  The Tale of my humble beginnings farming Lowland Gorilla Hair greys to vendor and save for my first mount.
4. Get Stoned At The Darkmoon Faire - Too bad the old Heavy Stone strategy has been removed from the new Darkmoon Faire.  I loved the thrill and rush of maybe getting a Rare recipe for dirt cheap!
5. Mysterious Fortune Card Barks Revisited - A second round of barking modifications.
6. Multiple Profession Coverage In WoW - You aren't a one trick pony, are you?
7. Ravenwood Fair Facebook Game | WoW Easter Egg - Even more proof that all the pretty princesses play Alliance.
8. Rift or WoW?  Goodbye Azeroth - The April Fool's Day spoof that spawned many upset emails and led many to unsubscribe (oops!).  It was a joke you sillyheads! 
9. Profit From Icy Prism, Frozen Orbs, and WotLK Gems - A forgotten strategy that has been making me thousands.
10. The Top 9 Uses For The Remote Auction House - Good stuff in this post.

Poor Wes!

Reminders

The Cold's Gold Factory Gold Blogging Carnival will be returning next month.  Make sure to check the current topic and get those blog entries written for your Page Rank 4 link backs!

The Cold's Gold Factory Birthday Celebration Giveaway will be ending soon.  Make sure to Like, Tweet, and Plus One this post, as it may be your last chance to get extra entries for the awesome Jinx and Amazon.com Gift Cards and in game mounts and pets.  Thanks for reading my blog and helping me make it past my 2nd Blog Birthday!

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

Off Topic: IRL Troubles and Blog Consistency

Real Life Sucks

The past few months have been insanely stressful and hectic for me in real life.  I appreciate all of the kind words of support and encouragement from those I have clued into my real life fiasco as of late.  I would like to formaly apologize for my inconsistency with posting over the past few months here at Cold's Gold Factory.  My goal for the new year of 2012 is to get back to a much more regular posting schedule for the blog, so I can continue to share gold making tips and tricks with my great readers.  That goal may be pushed off until a month or two into the new year as the stress and issues are still not fixed and more continue to be piled on.  I have been having a very hard time focusing on gold making posts with all of the drama, turmoil, and hardship I've been experiencing in the real world.

I split from the evil Ex (Good Riddance!), but for financial reasons was still living in our old apartment, which was in her name.  All of the utilities bills were in her name as well.  Even though she moved out, she did nothing short of make my life a living hell, while I stayed there through the end of the lease (since I had prepaid).  Multiple times I came home to no power, no cable, or no internet even though I had paid the bills already.

I had terrible luck finding a new place for myself to move to for various reasons (pets, credit, lack of recent lease, etc.)  As of just a couple of weeks ago, I was prepared to move into a cheap run down pay by the week hotel, but that meant I would have to give away my faithful companion, my pure seal-point Siamese, Berg'inyon.  I searched and searched for a room to share or an apartment to stay in so that I could keep my cat, who would have been terribly heartbroken if I would have given him away.  Siamese are more like familiars than they are pets.  So I had to keep looking to find a place for me and my sidekick.  I was even turned down for an apartment in the same damn complex I had been staying in and paying the rent for 3 years.  Denied!  It was looking grim.

I was lucky enough to finally find a 2 bedroom shared apartment with a roommate.  And the landlord was willing to pull some tricks and get me into the apartment approved as a roommate.  See I was taking over 1 room from 1 of the current roommates who was returning home to care for an ill parent and the other roommate was staying.  We would be splitting bills and rent in half, which was affordable for me.  Turns out a day after moving in, the roommate has been evicted for not paying his parking fees and I'm stuck with the entire $800 per month rent all on my shoulders.  So now I am stuck in a new big 2 bedroom, I can't afford.  I have no other option but to find another person to be a roommate to share rent and bills within the next couple of weeks.

No internet connection in my new place yet.  No cable either.  The ex stole my DvD player also.  I am bored out of my mind with nothing to do but be on my phone and the Remote Auction House, but that can only go so far.  I've tried working up posts, but have a hard time focusing.  I'm trying to get a dvd player tonight and will try to get the internet going ASAP so I can resume normal activity and find a new roommate, but it may take a while.  I still owe both the cable company and the electric company nice hefty chunks of money from an old apartment.  Both of these were going on my bankruptcy that is half complete, but I am going to get stuck paying them off just to be able to get power and cable / internet in my new place. 

So I met my 2 main goals of a) not being homeless and b) not losing my cat, but at what cost?  I may have an apartment with no utilities here in a week or two once the old roommate cancels his accounts.  Hopefully, I will be able to get the bills paid off and utilities turned on and make this extreme stress and drama go away.

I've been hitting some very low depths of depression mixed with some heavy anxiety as it seems everything is in turmoil as of late and I thought I had a solution, until the recent events that have be as the sole lease holder in the place I was moving in as a second roommate.  It's too late to back out as I'm on the lease already and have no other options anyways.  I'm really at a loss and have to find a fix for these problems. 

I can continue to blog a bit from work after everyone else has left, but even that has been hard to do lately.  I really want to get all of this drama straightened out so I can get back to living a normal life and being a more consistent blogger and gold community member. 

Thanks for letting me get these issues off my chest.  I really have no friends in the real world to talk to.

Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I try to hold it all together and stay positive.

See ya on Twitter,

Cold




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

The Pessimist's Guide To WoW Crafting Markets

The Pessimistic Guide To WoW Crafting Markets

Some Truths, Some Fallacies, Some Myths - Can You Tell Which Is Whack?

Jewelcrafting - These damn ore prices are insane.  Who can make any gold with Elementium Ore going for 120 gold a stack?  None of this PvP jewelry is selling worth a damn.  There is no place for hundreds and hundreds of Zephyrites to go.  Same old quests over and over for tokens is pretty boring and lame.  Epic gems are too expensive of a market to enter.

Blacksmithing - These damn Shield Spikes and Weapon Chains don't sell anymore.  Gah!  Look at the ore and bar prices!  I wasted all these materials on PvP gear and they aren't selling.  Only epics worth crafting are too expensive to craft now.  Blacksmithing rods suck, cause people only buy 1 ever.

Enchanting - Good Lord, the prices of raw Cataclysm materials!  How can anyone turn a profit off of enchant scrolls with prices this low on scrolls and so high on the materials?  Craft for a loss?  Disenchanting crap is boring and annoying.  People don't tip Enchanters much at all.

Engineering - There is barely anything to craft for a profit!  All you have is pets to sell.  This professions isn't for making money; It's for pets, mounts, and fun.

Alchemy - All I can do is 1 transmute a day, that's it.  Potions and Flasks are worthless markets.  No one buys older alchemist made items anymore.

Inscription - Inferno Inks, LOL!  Darkmoon Faire trinkets are a dead market.   Glyphs are nothing but an undercutting bloodbath.  Players aren't stupid enough to buy Mysterious Fortune Cards.  You can't make any money, until you know all of the glyphs.  The Glyph market died with the permanancy change.

Leatherworking - Leg Armors are the only item worth selling.  Leather prices are always crazy high and in short supply.  No one buys this leather PvP gear.  Most skinners are also leatherworks who just craft their own gear.

Tailoring - Dreamcloth items are limited due to the 1 week cooldown.  PvP gear isn't selling.  Tailoring is just for making your own items to Disenchant.  All the good recipes require reputation grinding!  Bags are the only viable source of gold.

Cooking - People don't buy cooked foods; they just cook their own.  There is nothing to spend my cooking tokens on anymore!

Many of these are common complaints from playing the different profession auction house markets.  We all run into obstacles, competition, and slow sales periods.  Don't give up.  You must push onward and take a deeper look into your professions.  Don't let the hard times or the complicated situations get you down.  Use your head and find a way around the obstacle.  We all do it on a daily basis.  You can too.

The new Auction House Junkies Episode #21 - Watching Grey's Anatomy In Stormwind is out for your listening entertainment.  Crazy fun show.

And don't miss The Mana Cooler #122 - The Gold Rush with myself and R9sid9nt9vil (of Rep Grind Radio) as guests.

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

Voice Amplification Modulator - Caster Twink Gear

Voice Amplification Modulator - Twink Gear

Twinking Neck Jewelry

Have you ever heard of this craftable piece of neck gear?  Well, I hadn't even thought of it as a twink item until I was corrected by a commenter in my last post on the JC created twink item: Malachite Pendant.  I incorrectly stated that the Malachite Pendant was the only available neck gear for twinks in the 14s bracket.  So I looked into it and the commentor was correct.  There are actually two options for neck gear in the 10-14 bracket, the Malachite Pendant and the Voice Amplification Modulator. 

The Malachite Pendant (+2 Agility) is Best-in-Slot for any non-caster class twink, but is only available at level 13 and beyond.

The Voice Amplification Modulator is Best-in-Slot for any caster twink and is also the only neckpiece for a level 10-12 WoW character.

The Voice Amplification Modulator (VAM)

The Voice Amplification Modulator is a great caster twink neck piece.  Although it doesn't possess any stat increases, it does something very helpful for battleground caster classes.  The VAM reduces the duration of any silence or interrupt effects by 10%.  That is definately a better option for caster classes over the +2 Agility neck piece.  It also is the only neck piece worth wearing on a level 1 twink as the VAM has no level requirement, even though it is a level 58 item.

The Voice Amplification Modulator is crafted by the Engineering profession and it comes from a Rare Drop Recipe.  The rare Engineering schematic can only be obtained from the Risen Inquisitors in the Stratholme dungeon and requires 290 skill in Engineering.  The kicker is the no level requirement and the ability to be used by non-Engineers.

Raw Materials Breakdown For Voice Amplification Modulator

• 2 Arcanite Bars (or 2 Thorium Bars + 2 Arcane Crystals)
• 2 Ironweb Spider Silk
• 3 Thorium Bars
• 1 Gold Bar
• 1 Runecloth
• 1 Large Opal

Most, if not all, of these materials can be found for cheap on the auction house.  When combined together into a Voice Amplification Modulator, you can create an item that can sell for an easy 300-500 gold to the right buyer.  A normal leveling character will see no point in spending so much on a piece of gear that would be replaced quickly, but a twink will not only know the true value of the item.  They may have been searching for one of these VAM neck pieces for weeks.  A twink will pay top WoW gold for a Best-in-Slot item like the Voice Amplification Modulator.

After learning of this item from the commentor, I logged into my Engineer, Colddrawn, and found that I already have the VAM recipe in my schematics list.  So I will be testing this market out myself as I love niche markets that are gated by rare recipes (like the Rich Purple Silk Shirt market that I am still the only supplier in).  If you have the recipe as well, odds are there aren't any Voice Amplification Modulators on your auction house either.  The schematic itself is also a good option to flip, if you can find one grossly underpriced on the WoW auction house.

If you find yourself in the same shape as me with an untapped market on your server, be sure to review my tips on creating your own market.

Anyone else had any success selling Voice Amplification Modulators?

Don't Forget to Plus One, Retweet, and Like for more chances to win the great swag from the Cold's Gold Factory Birthday Giveaway.

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

Low Level Jewelcrafting - Malachite Pendant

Malachite Pendant Discovery

One of the benefits of doing activities within World of Warcraft outside of just making gold is that you broaden your knowledge base.  This also leads to the ability to discover new ideas or new possibilities for making gold in WoW.  If you've listened to the recent episodes of The Auction House Junkies podcast, then you know I have been having fun twinking alts for the low level brackets.  With this new experiment into level 10-14 twinking, I too have made a few discoveries.  Learning new activities within the game often leads to creative impulses and new ways to make gold.

Since I have been mainly working on twinking within the level 10-14 battleground brackets, I discovered one important thing.

Did you know that for the level 10-14 bracket there is only 1 neck piece available? 

And it is a low level Jewelcrafting item, the Malachite Pendant.  Since it is the only option for a twink neckpiece for level 13-14, these will sell to twinks of all kinds.
Malachite Pendant

The Malachite Pendant is a nice niche item for Jewelcrafters of all levels.  The required crafting materials are super common and cheap on most auction houses.  The Malachite Pendant takes only 1 Copper Wire and 1 Malachite to craft.  This is the only option for any level 13 or 14 twink, regardless of class, so they do sell on the WoW auction house.  I have been crafting and posting a few for 25 gold each, which is way more than the crafting cost.  They do sell, because there simply is no other option for gearing out a twink at that level bracket.  The great thing is that the Malachite Pendant adds +2 Agility.  Which 2 twink classes are most popular at low levels?  Yup, Hunter and Rogue are by far the most popular, which is another reason these are a great seller on any low level twink inhabited WoW server.  Even paladins, warriors, shaman, and other classes will wear this for the melee crit bonus that agility gives.

The Malachite Pendant is also a great option for crafting while you level a new Jewelcrafting character's profession skill.  It should be a nice addition to any common commodity crafting approach as opposed to the gold wasting power leveling approach.

So when you are out and about in other areas of Azeroth doing non-gold making activities, keep your eyes peeled for new ideas and options for making even more gold within the World of Warcraft.
Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out The Teenager's Gold Guide To Get Started With Learning The Auction House As A Younger Player Or Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold making Combo.

WoW Gold Blogging Carnival Returns - January 2012 Topic

The Gold Blogging Carnival Returns

The Gold Blogging Carnival sort of fell by the wayside the last few months after I was having computer issues and a lot of bloggers quit posting altogether or slowed their posts and participation to a crawl.  Well there is a new fresh crop of young gold bloggers making headway into the gold blogging community now.  What a great time to relaunch the Cold's Gold Factory WoW Gold Blogging Carnivals.

Participation in the gold blogging carnivals here is a great way to get some fresh readers to your blog as well as build some high quality links.  I've always had a great repsonse from bloggers looking to expand their readership.  Cold's Gold Factory is currently Google Page Rank 4, which makes a link from this site one of the top quality links you can get from anyone in our gold blogging community!

If anyone (blogger or reader) has an idea for a carnival topic please send it in to my email address for consideration.

What Is a Blogging Carnival?


A blogging carnival is a compilation of blog posts all created around one specific topic, which is chosen by the host site. Entries into the carnival are submitted to the host. The host then organizes the posts into one big post with links back to the original articles on the participating author's sites.

Rules for Cold's Gold Factory Blogging Carnivals

• Create the entire post on your own site.  Post it anytime prior to the carnival date.
• Send me an email with a link to your post. SSmith0911 (at) live (dot) com
• Submissions must be in by the 10th of each month.
• All carnivals will go live on Cold's Gold Factory on the 11th of each month.

All World of Warcraft bloggers are invited to participate. You don't have to author a gold blog, but you need to follow the set topic.

Each post written for the carnival should begin with a link with the anchor text "Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival" and link to http://coldsgoldfactory.blogspot.com/p/colds-gold-blogging-carnivals.html .  This helps to rank the Carnival Page higher in search results, which benefits all of the participants.

Learn more about the importance of proper anchor text here. Linking to the above page with the proper anchor text in each carnival entry will help to drive traffic to the gold blogging carnival and in turn drive more traffic to your entries.

The January 11th carnival topic is:

"If you could add 1 item or feature to the Mists of Pandaria expansion, what would it be and why?"

Email me the link to your live post prior to January 11th.  If any readers are interested in participating in the WoW gold blogging carnival, I can host your entry as a guest post over at Goldgrubs.com.  Contact me for more information.  Be sure to read about the benefits of blogging carnivals, if you are undecided about participating in Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival.

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

Feast Of Winter Veil Gold Making Tips and Warnings

Greatfather Winter

Feast Of Winter Veil Gold Tactics

The World of Warcraft in-game holiday, The Feast of Winter Veil, starts tommorrow morning across the US WoW servers.  In the past, I was a big proponent of making gold during the early Winter Veil demand spikes.  Currently, I do not recommend trying to make gold with all of the strategies I have previously discussed.  If you are looking to get rich from small eggs, run from that market.  Run away!  Why?

The Feast of Winter Veil gold making scene has become very popular amongst players looking to cash in and make a lot of gold with not much effort.  The problem is that those days of making a ton of amazingly profitable sales of small eggs are long gone.  Last year, the Winter Veil start time was changed from 2 am server to 8 am server, which completely killed my normal high profit strategy.

When the start time was 2 am in the wee hours of the morning, I would post a ton of eggs for 5-7g each (7 gold singles, 5g per in the stacks) prior to logging off for the night.  Every year, I would wake up to a massive amount of sales and crazy profit levels as nearly all of my stock would sell out overnight on day 1 of the Winter Veil holiday.  I would sell most of my entire collection of small eggs, which mean I was selling hundreds and hundreds of small eggs.  By the end of the first day, everyone would catch on and the undercutting would begin.  Fast forward to last year (and this year as well) and the 8am start time and you have nothing but a complete undercutting bloodbath the entire holiday.  There is no sweet spot for posting overnight and snagging sales as the ill prepared are still asleep.  If you get stuck in the undercutting bloodbath and posting the eggs isn't worth your time, you are going to need an out for your collection of eggs.  Don't sell off your eggs for stupid cheap, because the price and demand will spike again during Children's Week next year.

Some players have also caught on to the tactic of selling the Deeprock Salt for crazy prices for the Winter Veil quest.  Even the opposing faction holiday outfits sales were down last year for me too.  As always, remember to have a plan for unloading your materials if the market isn't what you were hoping it would be.

Previous Winter Veil Strategies

• Eggciting Times Ahead - Small Egg Explosion
• 6 Materials To Sell At Christmas (Winter Veil) Time
• Winter Veil Clothing Set Selling
• Winter Veil Start Time Changed
• Deeprock Salt: Why You Should Save And Sell

These are some of the previous articles on the same topic of how to make gold during Winter Veil.  No need to discuss each of these again this year, but there is plenty of good information packed into those posts for anyone brave enough to step into the undercutting blood bath that is the current Winter Veil holiday.

One last concern of mine:  The holidays have been getting re-done lately.  There is always the chance that the quests will change on us and all of our stockpiling will be useless.  Don't overcommit when the odds of something changing are higher than previously.

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

WoW Cata Gold Cap Reached - Thoughts and Reflections

Thoughts And Reflections On My Journey To The Gold Cap



WoW Gold Capped Reached



Sunday morning I finished collecting another batch of overnight sales and peered at my new liquid gold total, 1.004 Million Gold.  I have finally reached (and passed) the new Cataclysm individual character gold cap of 999g 999s 999c.  How exciting was it?  Not very exciting at all, honestly.  I really was more excited that I finally found a pair of level 14 Hunter bracers for my 14 Hunter Twink, Ahjunkies. And it was a drop I got from a mob, while working on the quest for his ring!  Now if I can just find a pair of Stendel's Wedding Bands and grind out a 2-handed heirloom weapon, my twink will be much closer to completion.

Bandit Bracers of Agility - Twinktastic!

What Took You So Long To Reach The Cap?

Why am I just now reaching the gold cap this far into Cataclysm?  Well, for starters, I am not a full time gold maker.  I have 14 characters and more are sure to follow.  I am a lover of alts, crafting, professions, twinking, and exploring.  I do much more within the game than just make gold.  At the same time, I also spend a lot of gold in support of my many characters.  Often times I am spending nearly as much as I am bringing in.

I also like to focus more on the exploratory, investigative, and experimental sides of gold making.  While this is awesome for coming up with new ideas and topics for both Cold's Gold Factory and Auction House Junkies, it tends to retard my advancement of pure liquid gold making.  If all I wanted to do was reach the WoW gold cap as quickly as possible, I could have tied myself to my computer screen and shuffled my way to the cap in the first months of the expansion.  Where's the fun in that?

Another big contributor to my recent increase in gold made per day has been my new bachelor status.  Being untied from any significant relationship means that I have way more time to play not just WoW, but to babysit my auctions as well.  Being able to play when I want and for as long as I want without repercussions, has been a vast improvement in my gold making approach.

Another huge bonus to gold making has been the Remote Auction House on my iPhone 4s.  Splitting from the phone line with my ex, allowed me to get an awesome phone upgrade as I started my own cell plan.  I went with the iPhone 4s and it has been absolutely amazing for staying connected to the gold making community on Twitter and the Remote Auction House application for iPhone is a thousand times better and faster than the old web version I had used before. 

The ability to buy out lots of stacks quickly has helped keep my stockpiles filled at low costs.  The Remote Auction House has also allowed me to be able to thwart the undercutters and bring in much more sales.  I like to do major posting before bed and sometimes in the mornings before I head to work.  The Remote Auction House allows me to constantly check on my auctions during the work day, which allows me to trickle in undercuts a few at a time.  The Remote Auction House has helped kick start my gold making throughout the entire day, instead of just overnight and while I am logged in to the game.  I highly recommend the Remote Auction House for any smart phone users.

For those of us that had a game plan for Patch 4.3 gold making, the gold has been raining in.  In the 10 days following the release of the WoW 4.3 Patch, I made 281,000 gold.  Patches are great for not only bringing in a ton of sales, but also for renewing our interests in getting back to gold making.  I know I was feeling the lull prior to the patch and I was getting far less incoming gold than I would have liked to have seen for my efforts.  As always, a new WoW patch cured my gold making blues and I road it all the way to the Cata gold cap.

What now?  It will continue to be business as usual in the auction house, until the patch wave dies down.  Then I am going to pull back a bit from making gold with 80% of my playtime to actualy get out of the cities and start seeing this expansion.  I killed my first Cata raid boss of the expansion, just yesterday.  LOL!

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