So Many Firelands Dailies, So Little Quest Time

Firelands Daily Quest Grinding

The wait for the Firelands Patch and the inclusion of the new daily quests in Patch 4.2 stirred up much anticipation.  I had been grinding those last few levels on my main crafters.  I had leveled a 5th character to maximum level and had my main and 4 alt characters ready to race for the new craftable patterns.  I started out with my main character, Colddrawn the Engineer, who was racing for the new Engineering patterns added in Patch 4.2.  By the time I started advancing my second racer, my Blacksmith, I had already figured out how to maximize the Firelands Invasion daily quests.  I had huge plans on advancing both my Tailors and my Leatherworker as well, but I ran into a rut.  I just don't have the time to run all of these dailies with all of my alts.  Why is Blizzard making it so much harder for those of use with armies of crafting alts?

Currently my main is the only one completing the quests every day.  I am so busy with work and my blogging projects, that I often get to log in to do my dailies on my main and then I'm logging off.  Luckily I haven't missed but the very first day of the Patch 4.2 quests, so I'm not far behind at all with my Engineer.  I am looking forward to the end of summer when I will not be stuck working 50+ hours a week covering vacations and late night shifts.  And by the end of summer the school kids will be returning to class and the markets will be much calmer.  Hell, I'm not even posting hardly anything on the auction house these past couple of weeks, where my work hours ended up over 60+ for a single week.

What I am doing is stockpiling Dream Emeralds.

Anyone want to figure out why I am stockpiling those crappy rare green Cata gems?

July - Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival | Ideal Alts

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival

Welcome to the July edition of Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals. 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.  Please let them know what you think of their blogging carnival entries.

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 link via email (ssmith0911 at live dot com) before the 10th of the month. Read up on the benefits of blogging carnival participation 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!  Participate in the Blogging Carnivals and get a quality linkback to your site.

 
This Month's Topic:

Build Your Own Ideal Alt - Inspired By The Original Ideal Alts Series.

This month is all about some of the other bloggers' interpretations of the Ideal Alt creation strategy.  There are some wonderful posts this month, so be sure to visit them all.  We even have a mini-podcast submission this month.  Thanks George!

My first guide, Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery, has been helping a handful of players (70+ sold so far) who have already got their fortune card business up and running and are raking in the WoW gold. Also remember to check out the other great guides in the WoW Gold Guide Shop.

Be sure to check out AuctionHouseJunkies.com for the podcast on making gold, which is hosted by myself and Wes of Capped By Cata. Goldgrub's Goblin Academy has also opened doors for helping newer gold makers.

Goldgrub's is growing nicely and we have added a couple of excellent writers to the staff.  Be sure to check the site out and welcome Xtreme and R9sid9nt9vil of Eviscerated.net.  Xtreme has written some excellent articles and R9sid9nt9vil has just signed up to assist readers with his thoughts on our Sunday posting slot.

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

Build Your Own Ideal Alt

Alts, Ideally by Drayden of Third Torch

"For me, alts are all about professions. But there's so many to choose from? Which professions would I want, and on what character?"

Build Auction House Spies With Eternally Free "Starter Edition Accounts" by Fluxdada (Flux) of Power Word: Gold
"While these free "Starter Editions" are eternally-free there are many restrictions on the account to prevent abuse. You can't use mail or chat in general chat. Can't be invited to a guild or trade with other players. You can reach a maximum level of 20 and you can't purchase or sell items on the auction house."

Old Main Is Already Ideal by R9sid9nt9vil of Eviscerated.net and Goldgrub's Goblin Academy
"I had to think about it for a few days to come up with the perfect alt all around. The more I thought about it the more I realized I already have the ideal alt. My old main is a Blood elf Paladin Tank; he is maxed Jewelcrafting and Enchanting."

Ideal Alts If Starting Fresh by Epidermuss of Wrags To Riches
"So on my realm I play on I currently have 9 of my 10 slots for the realm used with a lot a time played between all characters. So I took this topic and looked at it as if I was going to start over on a new realm how I would go about building up a stable of characters and the jobs I would assign to each character."

The Mana Cooler Episode 102 - An Ideal Alt by George of The Mana Cooler Podcast
"In this ideal episode of The Mana Cooler, I talk about what an ideal alt would be for me. I separate into 3 categories - Dream World, Wishful Thinking and Reality. Thanks for listening!"

Making A Buck While Leveling Alt No. 2349 by Windsoar of Jaded Alt
"This alt isn’t for those who are looking to create the perfect complement of max level toons to build their gold-making empire. These are basic tips & tricks that anyone looking to level just for the fun of it can use to squeeze a bit of extra cash out of a disposable character."

The Building A Better Bank Series by Wes of Capped By Cata, Goldgrub's Goblin Academy, Auction House Junkies and Warcraft Econ.
"The three topics I'm going to cover in the next few days are:

• Part 1: To Level or Not to Level?
• Part 2: Choosing the Best Class
• Part 3: Professions? "

An Ideal Alt, Hmmm... Decisions, Decisions by Nev of Auction House Addict
"Now Cold did a fairly comprehensive series of posts on this subject & my first choice was in there so it's taken me a while but I think I've found one he didn't cover! The rep grinding rogue."

Who Else Has An Idea Of Another Ideal Alt?  There Are So Many Options.  What Is Your Ideal Alt?

Arena Season Compensation - Be Prepared!

Breaking News - Arena Season Compensation

As you may already know, some PvP players got completly screwed last Tuesday.  Azuriel did a great post covering the issue on how Blizzard punked some PvP players.  Blizzard has just released a blue post showing an attempt to correct the issues where some players got ripped buying gear that got replaced on the vendors a week later with better gear for the same price.  Check out the blue post below.  Alto has a post detailing the PvP gear costs and making gold with Arena Season 10.

"We wanted to let everyone know that we’re working to address the miscommunication that occurred regarding the introduction of new item level 371 PvP gear, and share our current plans.


For background, many players spent their Honor Points on item level 365 gear once Season 9 ended only to find that more powerful item level 371 gear was available when season 10 started. We should have communicated ahead of time that this was going to be the case, and we apologize for the mistake.

We’ve been working over the past few days to evaluate and determine the best course of action to offer players some kind of compensation for those who were caught off guard by the new gear. The plan we’ve found to be achievable within an acceptable amount of time is to provide players who were affected with 4000 Honor Points. This extra Honor would function similarly to the currency down-conversion in that it would stack over the cap, but you would not be able to earn more until you spent under the 4000 cap.

The process of determining who was affected is certainly the most difficult task of this issue, and the entire process of figuring out who should receive the Honor or not and then delivering it isn’t anything less than a giant undertaking. We’re still evaluating many of the processes that will be required to make this happen. Although we’re fairly confident we can pull it off, there is still a chance it may not be possible. Due to other service related work the soonest we would be able to distribute this Honor is the 7/19 Tuesday maintenance. More complicated solutions we discussed could take months to implement, but we felt getting something to those affected as quickly as possible was more important.

Although some of this is still uncertain we felt it best to let people know as far in advance as possible to allow for adequate planning. We’ll be able to provide more information and specifics on how this process will be carried out, and the requirements to receive the 4000 Honor, next week.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience caused by our miscommunication. We greatly appreciate those who took the time to give us constructive feedback on the matter."

-Bashiok

What This Means For Auctioneers?

We can expect to see another wave of gems and enchants moving once these compensatory Honor points are awarded to the affected players.  So if your Inferno Ruby price are dropping lower than you would like, consider holding on to your cut Inferno Rubies them to sell once this next wave of free Honor brings in even more PvP gear purchases.  This wave probably won't be as big as the initial rush on the new PvP gear, but it should bring in a noticable spike in sales of item enhancements. 

So keep your eyes peeled as to when these Honor points are going to be awarded and be prepared to ride that wave of sales and get you close to your gold making goal or your Warcraft Econ Hall of Fame interview.

Maximizing Your Firelands Daily Quests

Firelands Dailies In The Molten Front

Have you been preparing to profit from the unlockable vendors added with the Firelands Patch 4.2?  We had prepared our profession crafters and got them ready to race for Patch 4.2 and the new recipes for Blacksmithing, Engineering, Leatherworking, and Tailoring.  Then the Firelands Patch 4.2 dropped and the race to reach those recipes faster than our competition had began.  That race currently continues as players are collecting their Marks of the World Tree and preparing for their first choice of unlocking Druids of The Talon or Shadow Wardens.

Maximizing Your Choices

The new Firelands daily quests require daily attention and we are forced to spend some of our playtime on collecting the Marks of the World Tree.  If we are racing with multiple profession crafting alts, then the time commitment can get hefty, even with the best and fastest route to completion.  Since we will be repeating the same general groups of quests over and over, it is a wise idea to look at what options are the most profitable. 

You may have noticed that you have collected a few Volatiles while completing your daily quests for the Firelands.  The direct choices that you make in picking your targetted quest mobs will affect how many Volatiles you can recieve each day while doing your daily quests.  So why not choose the best options each and every time, since we have to do this same quests over and over?  I decided to dig a little deeper and loot at drop rates for the various mobs that can be chosen to complete a couple of the Firelands quests.

Hostile Elements
The quest Hostile Elements in the Molten Front is one of the Firelands daily quests that does not rotate.  This quest is available every day, but the choices you make can limit your potential earnings while fulfilling the quest requirements.  Hostile Elements requires you to kill 8 Charred Combatants, which can be either Charred Vanquishers or Charred Soldiers. 

Charred Vanquishers or Charred Soldiers?
Charred Vanquishers have a chance to drop 1-3 Volatile Fire when killed.  Wowhead.com shows the drop rate as a 27% chance per kill to award 1-3 Volatile Fire, while the loot table for Charred Soldier shows only grey items.  Captain Obvious says, "Don't waste time and effort killing Charred Soldiers, only kill Charred Vanquishers, so you can collect Volatile Fires.

Hostile Elements Quest Kill Options

Take Away
Ok, so this may be a simple tip, but did you research the options yourself?  Or have you been wandering around willy-nilly killing whatever you can to be done and get your Firelands daily quests over with?  The real point to take away from this is that you should develop an inquisitive mindset.  You should research your options to best maximize your earnings potentials.  That is what making gold and being efficient is all about - maximing your options and getting the most profit for the least amount of work.  Hey that's also the Generation X motive (I'm an Xer too)!

Mine My Corpse For Free Loots

Molten Behemoths and Free Volatile Earth

Another easy source of sellable crafting materials comes from the Molten Behemoths.  These mobs are in the surrounding areas and on specific dailies when their quest is one of the random daily quests even more are swarming the base in the Molten Front.  They only have grey items on their loot tables, but the real bonus comes from mining these giant corpses.  Wowhead.com shows their loot table from mining the corpse to have a 19% chance to gather 2-3 Volatile Earths and a 9% chance to collect 1-5 Elementium Ores.  Just like the Land of Free Volatile Earths, you can scavenge the area where these are killed and collect free Volatile Earths and Elementium Ores with your miner.  This is especially easy on the days that the Molten Behemoths are multiplied due to their daily quest triggered as one of the Firelands dailies.

Firelands Daily Quests: Shadow Wardens or Druids of the Talon?

The Firelands Daily Quests

Within the Molten Front, we are given a choice of which group to award out first 150 Marks of the World Tree, the Shadow Wardens or the Druids of the Talon.  This decision is one of the most commonly asked questions since World of Warcraft Patch 4.2 released.  We all want to get to the recipe vendors as fast as possible so that we can start selling the new craftable gear, weapons, and scopes.  And getting to that stage before our competition is a goal of many of us WoW gold makers and auctioneers.

"Which group should I pick to unlock first, The Shadow Wardens or The Druids of the Talon?"

Pick The Shadow Wardens first.

Which group you pick does not relate at all to unlocking the vendors that sell the recipes.  The reason you want to unlock the Shadow Wardens first is because they unlock 1 more daily quests than the Druids of the Talon.  The Shadow Wardens open up 3 new daily quests, while the Druids of the Talon will open up only 2 new daily quests.  This means that picking the Shadow Wardens first will allow you access to 2 extra Marks of the World Tree every day, until you unlock both.  You must unlock both the Druids of the Talon and the Shadow Wardens prior to unlocking any recipe vendors anyways.

Here is a link to an awesome guide just released about everything you need to know about the Firelands daily quests, recipes, vendors, achievements, etc.  This is an awesome article that should answer all your questions.  http://www.icy-veins.com/firelands-daily-quests

EDIT:  Blizzard has hotfixed this issue and it no longer matters which group you get first.  You can now unlock the same number of quests with either group.  The Shadow Wardens are the faster of the two choices once you get them both unlocked and are just chasing Marks.

Similar posts: 

• Druids of the Talon Quest Farming
• Maximizing Your Firelands Invasion Daily Quests
• Got My Flameward Hippogryph Mount. Now What?
• New Firelands Vendors Offer Auctioneer Opportunities
• Profiting On Cheap Volatile Fire And Earth
• Profiting From Mankrik & The Protectors Of Hyjal Daily Quest

NEW HERE? Be sure to check out the rest of Cold's Gold Factory, Goldgrub's Goblin Academy, and The Auction House Junkies Podcast.

Looking For World of Warcraft Guides To Review

Call For World of Warcraft Guides

I am looking for authors of Gold Making WoW Guides and World of Warcraft Leveling Guides.  Please contact me, if you would like to have your guide reviewed either here at Cold's Gold Factory or over at the hot new WoW starter site, Goldgrub's Goblin Academy.

Submit your guide or mini-guide to me at SSmith0911 (at) live (dot) com for review.

Why would you want me to review your guide?

• 3000+ page views a day
• 420+ opt-in newsletter reader mailings per day
• Google Page Rank 3
• Some of the best readers around the gold blogosphere
• Goldgrub's targets new players and a fresh audience

What are you waiting for?  Send those guides in and I will help promote the ones that I feel are worth the price based on the given information.

Anyone have any favorite guides that they definately would recommend to others?

Nightmare Tears & Prismatic Sockets in WoW Patch 4.2

"It's not new, but the Nightmare Tear (prismatic gem) is selling like hotcakes to all the higher levels that are getting new gear with prismatic sockets and don't know that you can put any gem into them... Easy 450-550g a pop for these on my Horde server (<250g each on the Alliance side). Been selling 2-5 a day. Yes, each one requires a dragon's eye, but I've been able to buy them fairly cheap (<150g each most of the time) so far and actually those prices are falling after a brief spike over 200g."  - Matthew

Nightmare Tear

Good ol' Nightmare Tear.  You remember the Nightmare Tear prismatic cut from Wrath of the Lich King?  I've had a few reports submitted of people selling these like crazy since the release of World of Warcraft Patch 4.2.  There are no armor pieces dropping from the new content that include prismatic gem slots.  The wave of gear from new content always leads to more gem sales and players are looking for a gem to slot into the sockets of their new armor pieces.  Blacksmiths can create prismatic (or uncolored) sockets for 2 of their pieces of gear and the Blacksmith crafted Ebonsteel Belt Buckles also create a prismatic socket when added to a belt item.

Prismatic Gem Sockets
Prismatic Gems can be placed in a red, blue, or yellow gem socket.  Foolish players believe that prismatic gems are the only option for filling prismatic sockets.  A wise player understands that a prismatic gem socket can hold any color gem.  Newsflash: You don't have to put a prismatic gem into a prismatic socket.  I believe players are getting pismatic gems and meta-gems confused.  A meta-gem has to be placed into a meta-gem slot, but a prismatic gem can be placed into any slot.  Only one prismatic gem can be used per WoW character, since they are unique.

Selling To The Foolish
The World of Warcraft player base as a whole tends to be uninformed and ignorant, as evidenced again by the rush of sales for old outdated prismatic gems for the new gear.  Be sure to take advantage of this unexpected rush before these foolish players are enlightened by their guild mates that know better. 

I have been consistently buying cheap priced Dragon's Eyes in order to sell Nightmare Tears.  I have previously been selling these to leveling characters and higher level twinks.  Since the Patch, this market has been welcoming more and more buyers.  Although these buyers are foolish players that probably don't know any better, I'll continue to take their gold.  If no one is supplying the Nightmare Tears on your server, then test out the market and see if there are foolish players waiting to line your pockets as well.  Other than buying the Dragon's Eyes from the auction house, another great source is from your Jewelcrafting profession since there is no cooldown on Icy Prism anymore.

Is your server also full of fools?

Patch 4.2 Gold Making Checklist

Patch 4.2 Gold Tips

Patch 4.2 has been on the live World of Warcraft servers for a week now.  There are many great opportunities for turning a profit from the changes and additions from WoW Patch 4.2.  Today I present to you a checklist of some of the new additions and things to focus on or to learn to make sure you are aware and able to profit from the new opportunities presented with the release of Patch 4.2.

Patch 4.2 Checklist

• Scribes - Do 1 Northrend Inscription Research to learn the new Glyph of Unleashed Lightning.  As a gold maker, you can sell Snowfall Inks for high prices as all Scribes will need at least one to learn the new Glyph of Unleashed Lightning.  I sell my Snowfall Inks for 35 gold each.
• Scribes - Visit your Inscription profession trainer and learn the 3 new PvP Relic recipes:  Bloodthirsty Charm of Triumph, Bloodthirsty Eyeball of Dominance, & Bloodthristy Jawbone of Conquest.  These are all 3 great new Relics to sell with the ending of the PvP arena season and the new arena season starting soon.  You can also sell the Eyeballs, Jawbones, and Silver Charm Bracelets for crazy inflated prices as the Inscription vendor bought items where the only items spared during the nerf to Twilight Highlands vendors.
• Jewelcrafters - Visit Your Jewelcrafting profession trainer and learn the 6 new pieces of PvP jewelry (rings & neckpieces).  I myself haven't tried selling these just yet, but I do know that they are options for using up some of those excess rare gems that you have left from all the shuffling.
• Companion Pets - New companion pets achievement awards have been added for the new pet achievements that were added in Patch 4.1.  Pet sales have been up since Patch 4.1 and the addition of the new rewards will surely keep the sales of pets moving.  Be sure to grab your free and easy Faction Balloon companion pet also.
• Blacksmiths - Obsidium Skeleton Keys are now only useable by Blacksmiths.  Be sure to send any of the unsold skeleton keys on your auctioneers back to your Blacksmith as the Obsidium Skeleton Keys now require Blacksmithing skill to use.  Was a great gold maker while it lasted.
• Cloak Enchants - Thrall's quest chain in Mount Hyjal rewards an epic ilvl 365 cloak.  Many players are upgrading to the ilvl 365 epic cloak and cloak enchants are selling like mad right now and will continue as players deck their lvl 85 alts in this easy to obtain epic cloak.
• Gems and Enchants - New content and new craftables bring new upgrade purchases.  Top 2 sellers on most servers right now are enchants and gems for all of the new gear.  Inferno Rubies continue to be the bread and butter of most sales, but don't forget other markets, especially PvP oriented gems like +Spell Pen and +Resilience.  Inferno Ruby stocks are hopefully drying up on your server, which can allow for extra profits when you choose to sell your Inferno Ruby cuts.
• New PvP Gear - The old craftable PvP gear recipes have been upgraded.  No need to go learn the new recipes.  If you already knew them, then check your recipe books.  The recipes have been upgraded and increased in item level.  Time to get back to selling that PvP gear!
• New Daily Quest Hubs - Start grinding those dailies to save up your Marks of the World Tree.  All of the new vendors are hidded behind phasing, which requires you to unlock the areas one at a time.  In order to get the new craftable recipes from the Avengers of Hyjal faction, you must get started on the quest chain and get to unlocking more quest hubs.  Lots of dailies and marks to collect - Handle it!

Is there anything else that I've missed here on this checklist?  Feel free to add it in the comments, if you can recall an area I've overlooked.

How To Get Your Horde or Alliance Balloon Pet

WoW Horde Balloon Pets

New Companion Pet Faction Balloons

With the release of Patch 4.2 and the new companion pets for the new pet collecting acheivements, a new companion pet has been added to the World of Warcraft.  Pet collectors and players all over Azeroth are looking to find out how to find these new balloon faction specific companion pets.  You may have seen a character walking around with one of the balloons that look like a mylar baloon of your faction's logo.  Well, my friend, it is a new companion vanity pet and here is how you get yours.

How To Get Your Balloon Companion Pet

1. Speak with Jaga in the Valley of Honor, Ogrimmar or Vin in Cathedral Square, Stormwind.
2. Start the quest "Blown Away"
3. Collect the 5 Windswept Balloons from around the city and return to the quest giver.
4. Collect either your Horde Balloon or Alliance Balloon.

Undocumented Change From Patch 4.2

Sporeling Snacks Recipes have been removed from the game.  Any old recipes have been turned to ruined recipes, so make sure to clear out these and any other items that may have decayed in your bank.  You can still use your Glowcaps as currencies for Clam Bar Recipes.

Auction House Junkies Call For Patch 4.2 Questions

Happy 4th of July

Auction House Junkies

Today we are going to be recording another episode of The Auction House Junkies gold making podcast.  Patch 4.2 has dropped and Wes and I would like to hear what questions you readers and listeners have since WoW Patch 4.2 is now live.  Do you have any questions or new tips that you would like to ask about or share with the show?  Any specific items or professions that you would like to hear a little bit more about?  Want to know something silly and off the wall about your hosts?  Ask away!  How are you liking World of Warcraft Patch 4.2 so far? 

Please use the comments section to ask your questions or to leave comments for discussion on the podcast.


Auction House Junkies is brought to you free of charge by Wes of Capped By Cata and I, Cold of Cold's Gold Factory.  Thanks for listening to our show and thanks for the continued support.

**********

Sale Ends Today

Today is the final day for the Holiday Blowout Sale on the Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery guide. 
Use code: firecracker
For $5 off the purchase.  Just $6 for the guide total and the Sale Ends today.

Buy Your WoW Gold Guide Now

Recap of Popular June Gold Making Posts

Welcome Back!

Welcome to all of my new and returning readers! Each month I do a recap of the month before and highlight 10 gold posts or gold guides that appeared during the previous month. I highlight the top 5 most popular and the 5 with the most comments / best discussion.  Patch 4.2 is currently live on the World of Warcraft servers.  Overall site traffic is climbing higher than ever as there are many players looking for gold tips and more Patch 4.2 gold guides and strategies.

WoW Gold Post And Guides Recap

Top 5 Most Popular Posts From June

• The Alt Army Preparation For WoW Patch 4.2 - Getting the alts ready to start the new Patch 4.2 Hyjal Dailies.
• Best Use For A Free WoW Vet Account - Using your free second account for cross faction commerce (arbitrage).
• Frost Lord Ahune Cloak Drops Increase Enchant Sales - Can also be applied to the new Patch 4.2 Thrall quest chain which rewards a cloak also.
• Patch 4.2 Inferno Ruby Cuts - Sell Now Or Hold Out? - Are you on the bandwagon or are you waiting for the Inferno Ruby cuts to rise in price.
• Top 9 Uses For The Remote Auction House - What are you using the Remote Auction House for?

Top 5 Most Discussed Posts From June

• My Take On Power Leveling Professions - Why I don't power level wastefully.
• Help a Young Reader Out Research Project - Robbie needs your help witha survey for a school research project related to World of Warcraft.
• That Dreaded Time Of Year Again - School kids are out for the summer.  Competition and auction house camping is on the rise.
• Midsummer Fire Festival | Leveling Alts With Bonfires - +XP buffs, Dps buffs, Easy bonfires, and more.
• Guild Bank Skimming & Cash Flow Update - The random invite guild update and controversial topic.  Check out the forum thread over at the Consortium and comment if you think this is a shady practice or it is perfectly legit.  Unethical Gold Making Forum Thread

Ideal Alts Series For Gold Makers

June also saw the release of a full series on Ideal Alts.  This entire series was both well received and discussed. 

Ideal Alts Series

• Ideal Alts Series Intro /Wes’s Building A Better Bank Alt
• The Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Heroic Farming Alt
• The Collector – An Ideal Vendor Flipping and Pet Selling Alt
• The Herder – An Ideal AoE Farmer Alt
• The Low Level Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Alt For Farming Low Level Instances
• The Solo Raider and World Boss Killer - An Ideal Alt For Farming Old Raids

 The Gold Blogging Carnival here at Cold's Gold Factory is coming soon.  The topic is "Create Your Own Ideal Alt."  If you don't have a blog and would like to participate in the blogging carnival, you can send me a guest post on the same topic and I will host your article at Goldgrub's Goblin Academy.  Bloggers, get your carnival entries in to reserve your top spot on the list of entries (First come, First listed).

MFC Mastery Holiday Sale Ending Soon

The Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery WoW gold making guide holiday blowout sale will end soon (Midnight after 4th of July).  Now is a great time to save $5 off of the $11 MFC gold guide.

At Checkout, Enter Code: firecracker

To save $5 off the purchase price.  Get your guide for a total of $6 during this holiday blowout sale.

That is a 46% savings off of the regular price!  After this holiday weekend, the price returns to $11.  Get your copy now because the price will never be this low again.

It is also a great time to sign up to become an affiliate for the MFC Mastery guide.  Earn some cash by referring this awesome guide to your friends, guild members, or readers.  I pay 40% of the sale total (which is a 50/50 split after fees are deducted) when you refer a buyer.

WoW Patch 4.2 Firelands Recipes Are BoE

WoW Patch 4.2 - Rage of The Firelands

WoW Patch 4.2 Firelands Recipes

Now that World of Warcraft Patch 4.2 is live, we know the origins of all of the new recipes introduced in this new WoW content expansion.  The new weapon plans and scope schematics are available from Damek Bloombeard and the new profession bag patterns are available from Ayla Shadowstorm.  Both of these vendors are located within the Molten Front.  The vendors are locked behind quest phasing and you must complete the new daily quests to start unlocking the vendors and gain access to those recipes.  These are the recipes that we were preparing our main and alts for Patch 4.2 to start racing to be the first to unlock the vendors and get access to the patterns.

The patterns and plans for the armor pieces are all available from the mobs within the new Patch 4.2 Firelands raid instance.  Currently trash mobs and bosses can drop the new epic patterns for the new epic craftable gear.  Hopefully this is as Blizzard intended and it won't be hotfixed to only allow the recipes to drop from bosses.  All of the new Firelands raid patterns are listed below.

Should You Buy These BoE Patterns?

I myself wouldn't buy these patterns off of the auction house unless I was a major raider and could accumulate enough Living Embers to be able to start producing the gear as soon as the recipe was purchased.  I would wait for the prices to come down as right now paying 20-50k gold for a pattern is going to take a while to earn enough profit to pay off the recipe cost.  While you are working on collecting the Living Embers, the prices will continue to fall.

Since these patterns and plans can be acquired from trash mobs within the Firelands, doing trash runs could be very profitable if you are lucky enough to win a roll for one of the epic gear patterns.  I would sell while the content is fresh and new and the prices are sky high.  You can probably sell for a high amount now and repurchase the same pattern later for far cheaper.

Patch 4.2 BoE Firelands Recipes

Firelands Tailoring Recipe Drops
Pattern: Boots of the Black Flame
Pattern: Grips of Altered Reality
Pattern: Don Tayo's Inferno Mittens
Pattern: Endless Dream Walkers

Firelands Leatherworking Recipe Drops
Pattern: Ethereal Footfalls
Pattern: Footwraps of Quenched Fire
Pattern: Gloves of Unforgiving Flame
Pattern: Heavenly Gloves of the Moon
Pattern: Treads of the Craft
Pattern: Clutches of Evil
Pattern: Dragonfire Gloves
Pattern: Earthen Scale Sabatons

Firelands Blacksmithing Recipe Drops
Plans: Emberforged Elementium Boots
Plans: Eternal Elementium Handguards
Plans: Fists of Fury
Plans: Holy Flame Gauntlets
Plans: Mirrored Boots
Plans: Warboots of Mighty Lords

The MFC Mastery Holiday Sale Continues
 
USE CODE: firecracker
For a whopping $5 off the regular price of $11 for your own copy of the Mysterious Fortune Card Guide!  Learn all the secrets I've used to make hundreds of thousands of gold off of this one item!

BUY YOUR COPY NOW for only $6 for a very limited time.  This discounted price ends on July 5th, 2011.The price will never be this low again! Hurry and get your copy today!

Winners Announced And Special Reader Bonus

And The Winners Are...

Today is the day for announcing the 2 lucky winners of the Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery gold making guide.  The Mysterious Fortune Cards are back selling like mad lately with all of the new summer players, kids out of school, and players returning for the new content from World of Warcraft Patch 4.2.

If you didn't win, be sure to read the entire post for your consolation prize.

The Winner of The Newsletter Giveaway

Subscriber #232 is theWinner.  Sub #232 is Charlie.


The Winner of The Comment Giveaway

Comment #1 is the Winner:  Psynister of Psynister's Notebook

Congrats to both Psynister and Charlie for winning! Check your email for your winning MFC Mastery Guide.  Consolation Prize at the bottom of this post.

Wes's Winged Guardian Giveaway

There is also another 15 days left in Wes's contest over at Capped By Cata, where he is giving away one of the new Winged Guardian flying mounts from the Blizzard Store.  Check out the official Giveaway details for your chance to win this brand new mount.

Consolation Prize - Holiday Blowout Savings

I would personally like to thank every single one of you that participated in the newsletter and the comments section giveaways.  I did get some good ideas from the comments and have already done one post inspired by those questions and requests.  As a consolation prize for those of you that did not win the Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery WoW gold making guide, I have decided to offer an amazing discount off of the purchase of your own Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Guide. 

This special consolation prize code is active now and will last through 4th of July, midnight.  After midnight in the AM of July 5th will be too late to use this discount saving code.

USE CODE:  firecracker

For a whopping $5 off the price of your very own copy of the Mysterious Fortune Card Guide!

BUY YOUR COPY NOW for only $6 total

The price will never be this low again!  Hurry and get your copy today!

Found Cheap Enchanted Leather? Try Shifting Cloaks

Epic Shifting Cloak

Shifting Cloak

Pattern Removed
Back before The Shattering prior to Cataclysm, there was a goblin named Knot Thimblejack that was held captive in the Dire Maul North instance.  Once you freed Knot, you could open Knot Thimblejack's Cache and loot the crafting supplies contained inside.  On rare occasion you could find rare and epic Vanilla WoW crafting patterns, like the epic craftable pattern for Shifting Cloak.  Knot's Cache has been removed from the game and the epic patterns that only dropped from the Cache are all now unobtainable

Materials Changed
After The Shattering, the world was in such a new state that many of the old materials required for crafting the epic Shifting Cloak were also effected.  Guardian Stones, which used to be required in the Shifting Cloak recipe, dropped from a mob that was removed from the World of Warcraft.  Shifting Cloak used to also require multiple Skin of Shadow, which was a Bind on Pick-Up crafting material.  Scholomance saw a drastic level requirement change in Cataclysm and Skin of Shadows has now been completely removed from all crafting recipes, thus making it a completely obsolete item for crafting.

So the required materials for crafting a Shifting Cloak have been changed to only require 1 Rune Thread and 10 Enchanted Leather, which leaves us plenty of room for profit.  The removal of the bound crafting material also makes this a much easier item to produce in larger quantities as farming for Skin of Shadow is no longer required.

Enchanted Leather

Enchanted Leather is made from 1 Rugged Leather and 1 Lesser Eternal Essence.  You may think to yourself, "Why would anyone waste Eternal Essences on Enchanted Leather?"  Players leveling their Enchanting profession often craft 10 or more of these as they are easy skill points while grinding up Enchanting.  These enchanters have no real use for these Enchanted Leathers and the Enchanted Leather can often be found dumped on the auction house for much less than the cost to craft them.

Looking at The Undermine Journal shows that Enchanted Leather is sold for ridiculously low prices on most World of Warcraft servers.  The ability to snatch up cheap Enchanted Leather from the auction house makes the Shifting Cloak an option for your Leatherworker, if you are lucky enough to have this now unobtainable pattern.

While Shifting Cloak is quickly replaced when questing in Outlands, it will still sell because players love their purple epics.  There may not even be any of the Outlands cloaks on the auction house and the Shifting Cloak is a great option for leveling or twinking rogues, hunters, and druids.  Depending on how cheap you are able to obtain your Enchanted Leather, you may be able to offer a much more competitive price when compared to the highly priced Outlands cloaks.

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

Today is the FINAL DAY to enter into the 2 giveaways here at Cold's Gold Factory.  Follow this link for more information on how to enter for your chances at a free Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide.  Winners will be announced tommorrow, so be sure to check back to see if you are one of the 2 lucky winners.

Patch 4.2 Inferno Ruby Cuts - Sell Now or Holdout?

Patch 4.2 Is Here

Patch 4.2 is here already, which brings an end to stockpiling for Patch 4.2.  Now is the time to unload some of your stockpiled items and turn those items into profits!  One of the most popular items to stockpile for Patch 4.2 has been Inferno Rubies.  Many bloggers discussed transmuting Inferno Rubies from Heartblossom and Carnelian, saving them from Elementium shuffling, or just buying them when the raw price is low.  Inferno Rubies are always a great investment because of the wave of demand that comes any time a new patch contains upgrades.  Combine that with the end of the arena season and the upgrade of PvP gear patterns and you have a lot of players looking for gems for new gear.

Stockpiling

On a side note, I would like to discuss the whole stockpiling philosophy.  One of the common mistakes I often see when stockpiling is from players blindly following advice on what to stockpile.  It happened with Saronite Ore at the End of Wrath and happened with the beginning of Cataclysm.  One of the most important things to have figured out early into your stockpiling endeavor is to know when and how you are going to utilize those stockpiled items.  You don't want to be stockpiling without a good action plan and or an exit strategy.  Knowing when to unload your stockpiled items is equally important as choosing the right items to stock up on.

Inferno Ruby Cuts - Sell Now Or Hold Out?

Stocking up on Inferno Rubies was a great idea, since the red gems are the best sellers on probably every server in World of Warcraft.  The problem comes when everyone else is stockpiling the same Inferno Rubies. Since most people understand that red gems sell the best and are some of the quickest movers, many other people have also stockpiled Inferno Rubies.  While there is a major demand spike, there also are a lot of suppliers of those same red gems thanks to stockpiling efforts.  This leads to an initial period of heavy competition with lower prices than are expected due to the excess supply of Inferno Rubies.  

Patch 4.1 Observations

In Patch 4.1, I observed the same typical price fluctuations for high demand items that were stockpiled and then unloaded after the patch.  On my server, Patch 4.1's first day saw the Inferno Ruby cuts selling for around 60-75 gold each.  The price dipped as low as 45-50 gold for most red cuts, then started to make a gradual climb.  By the 1st weekend, the cut Inferno Rubies had risen to around 150g each and continued to rise to around 200-225 gold the second week.  The price leveled out to around 120-140 gold per Inferno Ruby cut by the end of the week.

Selling on day 1 of the Patch, may not be the best time to sell due to the extra competition.  The demand is high after a patch, but the supplies are super high as well.  The market can easily become saturated as the people who read blogs and only understand basic concepts start to sell all cut red gems after the patch because that is what the blogs said to do.  Stockpile Inferno Rubies and then sell cut Inferno Rubies after the patch is all the beginning auctioneer could comprehend.  These guys battling it out on the auction house dropped the prices of the cut gems lower than they were selling for prior to the patch!

Wrapping It Up

So in closing, if the prices aren't nice enough yet to meet your expectation, then don't sell yet.  A more experienced auctioneer will wait out the initial supply dump and hold onto their gems to sell for premium prices once the massive supply of Inferno Rubies starts to dwindle.  Some bloggers would argue and say that, "as long as your making a profit, keep selling every day."  In my opinion, that is very poor advice.  Why sell for 50 gold today what you can sell in 3 days for 200 gold each?  By choosing to compete in the lower priced times, you are doing nothing but contributing to the prices staying lower for longer.  Just like when you are posting on the AH, if your markets items are priced higher, you may be more likely to list the auction for 48 hours.  When the price is okay, but not ideal, you may only list for 24 or 12 hour auction duration.  When the price is barely over profitable I hope you are either waiting for the price to rebound or are resetting the market.  You aren't wasting all of your time working for coppers are you?  

On the flipside, if you see the red gems at a nice low price, thanks to gems now stacking, I would buy up some for later use since there isn't the major bag or bank space issues anymore.

World of Warcraft Patch 4.2 Gold Blogging Recap

World of Warcraft Patch 4.2 could be upon us as early as today, well at least in the USA.  Here's a handy little recap of some of the best gold making strategies and articles to help keep you busy during the Tuesday maintenance.  So get your ideas refreshed and get your action plan ready, just in case the WoW servers come back up and Patch 4.2 is on us today!

Selection of Reading Material Regarding WoW Patch 4.2

• Craftable PvP Gear Upgrades in Patch 4.2 Alto's Goldish Advice
• Patch 4.2 and The Book of Glyph Mastery Change Alto's Goldish Advice
• Preparing My Army of Alts for Patch 4.2 Cold's Gold Factory
• Are Stackable Gems A Positive or Negative? Cold's Gold Factory
• Patch 4.2 New Engineering Craftables Cold's Gold Factory
• The Anti-Stockpile Strategy Nerf Faids
• Tuesday Nights Are Mega Sales Nights Goldgrubs Goblin Academy
• Making Cheap Inferno Rubies For Patch 4.2 Power World: Gold
• The New Obsidium Floor Pricein Patch 4.2 Power World: Gold
• Landslide and Hurricane for Patch 4.2 Capped By Cata
• Revisiting Volatile Fire for Patch 4.2 Capped by Cata
• Catering To A DPS Centric World of Warcraft Capped by Cata
• My Patch 4.2 Stockpile Anaalius Hunt For Gold
• 4 Ways To Make Gold in Patch 4.2 Anaalius Hunt For Gold
• Truegold Preperation for 4.2 Kuja's Gold Mine
• Fate of Crafted Epics in Patch 4.2 Player Vs Auction House

If you have a great article regarding Patch 4.2 that I have missed, then leave a comment with a link to your article.  If you are a bored blogger on this Tuesday, don't forget to get your July entry for the Blogging Carnival finished and submitted.

Auction House Junkies Episode #11

Auction House Junkies

The Auction House Junkies | WoW Gold Making Podcast Episode #11 is now live.  Get it from one of the following sites.

• Official Homepage of Auction House Junkies
• iTunes for Auction House Junkies Episodes
• The PodBean AHJ Host Feed

In AHJ Episode #11, Wes and I discuss some crazy and fun topics.  Of course we talk about Patch 4.2 and more.



Auction House Junkies Episode #11

• Free WoW Accounts and what to do with them.
• Patch 4.2 Plan of Attack
• School Kids Syndrome and The Release of The Swarm of School Age Competition
• The CappedByCata Newsletter and Flion Giveaway
• The Best Buy Laptop Scheme
• Stuff From Twitter @SSmith0911 & @cappedbycata  Follow Us With These Handy Links.
• Patch 4.2 Stockpiling, Wise or a Waste?
• Racing For Patch 4.2 and New Profession Patterns.
• E-Mail and Twitter Questions
• More Good Stuff!

Hope You Enjoy The Show!  We enjoyed recording it for you all.

Best Uses For Your Free Warcraft Account

Free WoW Accounts For Veterans

Blizzard Awards Free Warcraft Accounts

This week Blizzard has been sending out emails awarding veteran players with a free World of Warcraft account code.  These were sent via email to your Blizzard Battlenet linked mail address.  In order to qualify, you had to check the box [ ] "I would like to receive special promtions and offers" in your Battlenet account.

There have been many inquiries to Blizzard and around the World of Warcraft community trying to decipher whether these emails were legit WoW account codes from Blizzard or were just another batch of nice looking phishing scams.  I myself actually deleted my code thinking to myself, "Damn!  These phishing emails are getting much nice looking."  It turns out that these are legit emails and legit Free World of Warcraft Account Codes as Alto has already posted.  Blizzard has also stated that they are happy that many players were skeptical and warning others that these emails might be phishing scams, but they are legitimate.  So no worries about getting your account hacked.

So the free Warcraft accounts from Blizzard are legit, but now what?

Is It A Trial Account?

Blizzard has given these free accounts out to us veterans, but what all is included in this free WoW account? This is a full version account, not a trial account. That's a big plus.

World of Warcraft Classic Trial Account Restrictions

•  A level cap of 20.
• A maximum of 10 gold.
• Trade skills are capped at 100 ranks.
• Inability to trade via the auction house, mailbox, or player-to-player.
• In-Game public chat channels will be unavailable. (Players will still be able to communicate using say, party, or whispers).
• Characters will be unable to create or join existing guilds.
• Accounts will no longer be able to whisper other players unless they have been added to those players' friends lists or have received a whisper from them first.
• Characters will not be able to invite players into a party.
• Characters will not be able to join parties with other players above level 20.
• Voice Chat is disabled on trial accounts.
• Realms with login queues will give priority to customers with retail accounts.
• Will not be eligible for any Character Transfer service.
• RealID features are disabled on trial accounts.

So there is a huge difference between a trial account and a full version WoW account.  These free account codes are for full classic World of Warcraft accounts, which increases the value of this account for an established player.

Best Uses For Your Free WoW Account

Blizzard has given these free accounts out to us veterans, but what all is included in this free WoW account? This is a full version account, not a trial account. That's a big plus.

What Blizzard Wants
Blizzard may appear to be being generous in giving away free full access accounts to veterans, disguising it as a reward for veteran players.  Yeah right!  A full classic account with 30 days included game time only runs about $10 almost anywhere and often can be purchased for $5.  Blizzard really isn't giving us as much as you may first think.  This free account gives you a free 30 days of game time, but then what?  You guessed it.  You have to pay for a monthly subscription or purchase 60-day WoW game time cards to keep it going.  Blizzard wants us to give this account code to a friend to entice them to get hooked like the rest of us, so they can increase their subscriber numbers (which have dropped this last quarter).  This is a pretty good marketing strategy in my opinion.

What Goblins Should Do
Another option for the free World of Warcraft full version game account is to utilize it for yourself.  Ever thought of getting into cross faction trading on your server?  Well now is the time to give it a shot!

This free 30 days of a second account is all the safety you need to get your own cross faction trading business going.  On your main account you can create a character that belongs to the other faction and then make a character on the new account of that same opposing faction.  With the 2 characters on 2 seperate accounts you can multi-box and transfer items to the othr faction via the neutral auction house.  With 2 accounts you can post and immediately buy with a very minimal risk of someone sniping your auctions.  Need gold to get you started on the other side?  Mail your main account cross faction trader some Satchels of Exotic Mysteries with the gold and items left inside.

With a second account for 30 days, you can safely take advantage of the other factions markets, which can lead to some big price savings if materials are less costly on the enemy auction house.  You also can take advantage of the price variations on faction craftables and get started moving Lamps and Lanterns across factions.  You can make an absolute killing moving and selling companion pets and faction specific recipes to the other faction.

I am going to petition Blizzard to get my free WoW account code email resent so I can take advantage of this opportunity.  I never do any cross faction trading because I don't want to purchase a second account.  This offer gives me 30 days to stock up and get my Horde guild banks stocked full of Alliance goodies to move throught the year and beyond.

As a Horde only player, with a second 30 day alliance account, I would use this offer to fully stock a Horde guild bank with tons of alliance only recipes and pets - Argent Tournament Pets, Lamps / Lanterns, Kittens, Moths, etc.  Another great use is to do the quick Alliance quest for the Roasted Moongraze Tenderloin recipe over and over on multiple Alliance lowbies just for the pattern to transfer back to the Horde side, where it goes for hundreds of gold. 

This free WoW account offer is a great opportunity to get involved in whol new ways to make gold on your server via the other factions auction house.

Anyone got another creative use for this WoW account?

PS:  You could also use this account to knock out some of those old unfinished PvP achievements if you get creative and can turbo-level a character on the new account.

WoW Patch 4.2 Stackable Gems - Good or Bad?

Cut Gems Will Stack

In World of Warcraft Patch 4.2, we finally will be able to stack cut gems in stack sizes of 20.  Jewelcrafters everywhere will be dancing in the streets!  The player base has been wanting this change implemented for as long as the Jewelcrafting profession has existed.  So this will obviously be great for saving bag space, but what else does it mean?  Will stackable cut gems lead to more sales?  Less sales?  No difference?

From The Crafters View, Stackable Gems Will...

• Decrease required bag space for crafting multiple gems for posting.
• Greatly lighten the space requirement for storage of multiple cut gems.
• Decrease the amount of crafting sessions.
• Allow crafting larger quantities ahead of time.
• Speed up the overall auction house process for gem sellers.
• Allow cut gems to be sold in stacks.  I do NOT recommend listing stacks of cut gems.
• Allow bigger batches of cutting and tipping in bulk.  Great when tipping for cuts that you don't personally have on your Jewelcrafting alt.
• Speed up reposting of gems from your stacks, instead of doing the mailbox - auction house run.
• Increase competition and undercutting as players have more pre-made cut gems to AH PvP with.
• Be accompanied by lower listing fees for posting your cut gems on the auction house.
• May end up trashing the market and turning it into an undercutting auction house camping market (like the glyph market) due to bigger bags, stackable cut gems, lower listing fees, etc.
• Make buying out low priced cut gems for later flipping more viable of a profit strategy.
• Make it harder to reset the market for specific gems.

From The Buyers View, Stackable Cut Gems Will...

• Allow the pre-raid purchase of multiple gems, without sacrificing bag space.
• Prevent hearths back to town for gear upgrades, when you can bring them along before the raid starts.
• Clear up some guild bank storage space.
• Allow cherry picking of gems at low prices to store for later use.

Will Stackable Cut Gems Affect Prices?

This question is a tough one to answer.  Will the stackable gems effect prices?  As Wes likes to say, "It's depends."  Yeah.  It depends.  Every server can have a different market response to this Jewelcrafting change.  Some servers may see a price drop.  Others can see a spike.  Others could have no change.

To really gauge the effect that this change has on your server, you can't judge until after the first couple of weeks of WoW Patch 4.2 have passed.  As soon as Patch 4.2 releases onto the live World of Warcraft servers, demand will spike for all gems as raiders are getting new gear upgrades and looking for new gems.  There is always an explosion of sales immediately following a patch that includes new content and new gear.  So you must wait until that Patch wave of gem sales is over to truly see if there is an effect on the cut gem markets on the auction house.

As you may have derived from the listing above, I am inclined to believe that the overall price of cut gems level out lower than before the introduction of stackable cut gems.  Think about it.  With stackable gems, there will be more players crafting full stacks of cut gems for their auction house business to save time .  If you normally post 3 of a gem and repost those when you get undercut, you no longer will be needing to cancel and repost.  You have pre-cut gems already in your new JC bags that you can immediately undercut with.  

As sales start to slow, there will be more crafters with excess gems to post against all of the other crafters with stacks of gems.  If more players cut gems in large stacks, then you can't help but see a price drop as the supply increases.  Some players will be crafting full stacks of poor selling gems, which will further drive the prices down.  It is possible that players will buy extra gems to have on them prior to raids, but I doubt this extra demand will trumph the price dropping hammer of cut gems being able to stack in lots of 20.  Hopefully we won't see a major undercutting war market wide like we currently have in all areas of the glyph market.

What do you guys and gals think will happen when gems are able to stack?

Don't forget to get your newsletter and comment entries in for your chance to win one of two MFC Mastery Gold Making guides that I am giving away at the end of the month.

Frost Lord Ahune Cloak Drops Increase Enchant Sales

Midsummer Fire Festival

The Midsummer Fire Festival is now in full swing on all World of Warcraft gaming servers.  While this WoW holiday is a great time for leveling alts with Midsummer Bonfires, it is also a great time to make some easy gold from those Midsummer bonfires, Fire Festival Dailies (torch tossing and torch throwing), and killing the yearly holiday boss, Frost Lord Ahune.

Cloak Drops From Frost Lord Ahune

With the ease of running the 5 man Holiday Dailies to kill the Frost Lord Ahune, many characters will be getting easy to obtain upgrades for their back gear slot.  These cloaks are not the absolute best available and many main characters already have epic cloaks from reputation purchases with the various Cataclysm factions in World of Warcraft.  The majority of players that will be needing and equipping these new epic cloaks will be alt characters. 

Since most of the players equipping these new cloaks will be alts, I wouldn't focus on posting the top end enchants for cloaks.  These alts will be more likely to purchase the next best enchant over the best in slot cloak enchant.  With Patch 4.2 coming soon and new raid content on the horizon, not many players are shelling out the big bucks for enchants or gems.  So this could be a great way to dump off some of the extra enchanting materials you may have stockpiled from all of the obisium ore shuffling.

So take a peek at the auction house and see if you can make some headway into the clock enchants market during the short Midsummer holiday season.

Anyone else seeing sales of upgrade items slacking off as players wait out the new Patch 4.2?