A day in the life

Yesterday was a strange day. At 7.30am, as I was getting ready for work, it suddenly dawned on me that I hadnt written a report for my 10am meeting. Not a biggie except that I had a meeting at 9am as well.

So I went to work, wrote the report and went to my meetings.

The only consequence of this mind blip was that I did not have an opportunity to turn on the computer and do my usual glyph posting and AH scanning.


The other thing about work yesterday was that I was holding an evening event, which meant I didnt get home until nearly 10pm. Our joint 25 man ICC was forming at 10 so other than throwing my three 80s at Coren I just and checked flasks etc. on Puraa, who was running that night.

The clocks changed in NZ last week, and Australia (as always) is lagging behind and their clocks dont change until this coming weekend. The result is that NZ is currently three hours ahead of server time - thus the 10pm start time for forming the raid. We finished a little after 1am (still no DBW!) so after a 14 hour day at work I just went straight to bed. So no scans done in the evening either.

This morning I caught up. All my glyphs had expired which gave me an opportunity to do a stock take and grab some of the spare glyphs from banks etc., before setting up a production list with QA3. Puraa will be busy tonight for about an hour bringing stock levels back up, but I haven't done a glyph run for a while so no biggie..

Sard and Funds also had a lot of sales to clear from the mailbox, and of course a lot of expired auctions. Scans were done. Items listed. I managed to pick up Nightmare Ender on the horde side for 3k - which I could resell for 7k just by relisting, but will bring across the Neutral AH for sell for 10k on Alliance - which is a great pickup and we adequately compensate for the day of lost bargains to be found on the AH.

I spent 4k this morning - which was mostly spent on the wand and a couple of Primordial Saronite, which I'm currently picking up when cheap. My son is slowly working through the quest for Shadowmourne and is currently is at "The Sacred and the Corrupt" part of the chain. Being shockingly terrible at saving gold/emblems, I have promised him 25 primordial saronite once he catches up with his schoolwork during his current holiday. Me being me, refuses to leave it until he's done his work and then get the saronite, so I've been picking it up when I see it cheap.

The days income was around 5k, so I'm still a grand up on the day overall, with a wand yet to sell. I broke back into the 170ks, and should easily be back near 200k by the end of next week.

So what's the point of this post? 

That's a good question, I am glad I asked. There isn't one really, but I admit I found somewhat disconcerting that I let my presence on the AH slip, if only for one day. My glyph data is now corrupted (zero glyphs posted yesterday), I missed unknown bargains on the AH.

But the wand was a good reminder - bargains will always be there. If I'd logged on 10 minutes later this morning I might have lost it to another bargain hunter. And the reality is I cannot (and dont want to be) on the AH 24/7 to squeeze every last copper out of the system.

When I panicked a about three weeks ago because I was around the 110k I started a concerted effort to grind my way back to cap. 20k profit a week, plus gearing up a new 80, I've not done so bad.

I saw a message in trade last night which I'll paraphrase, in relation to the Reins of the Crimson Deathcharger, which has started appearing on the AH for 50-100k:
: Who has that kind of money?
: Brodeur had over 100k

Brodeur was a point of amusement when I last played the arrow market, but has since jumped server or name changed (link above), but that's not the point. I am still amazed that 100k is seen as a lot of gold, but I know of good friends in guild that also feel that way. They think 20k is a fortune. And I stress being under 150k? Reality check!

I think my day away from the AH was good for me, I have more gold than I need now and for heading into Cataclysm, and I have to remember that I make gold for fun not because I have to. Its all a game for me, I just sometimes lose sight of that.

But games need to evolve, and I have a new idea I am going to try this week. Let me get some data together and I'll give more details then, but its something I have considered for a while. To whet your appetite, it will take a 10k 'punt' to test a hypothesis of whether Auctioneer can be given too much rope, and how easy it is to hang yourself if you don't remember its just a tool.