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Hey Immy
OK firstly thank you for volunteering to help with my blog experiment. There is no pressure on you at all, and I have no expectations. If it works then wonderful, but if at any stage you decide you want out just say the word and its over. There will be no hard feelings in the slightest - this isnt about me 'making' you do anything.
Secondly this is not about me telling you to do anything. I will make some suggestions, but this is about empowerment. I know (and deep down I know you know) that you have all the knowledge you need to make gold. As I said earlier in the week I just think its that you dont quite go with your convictions, when you should. Below are three ideas for you - one based on your gathering professions, one on your manufacturing professions and a third based on the AH alone. Feel free to pick all/some/one/none of them. I cannot promise to get it right everytime but they are varied and I hope they show the breadth of thinking I generally have about WoW economics. They also give some broader concepts I've covered in the blog over the past couple of years.
Thirdly, on Wednesday I will have a wee challenge for you. I will set us both the same challenge and we will catch up on Saturday night to see who made the most gold. This is hopefully going to add a friendly edge of competition which should keep the readers happy :). Think of it like the Celebrity Chef Challenge on Austrlian Masterchef :)
Fourthly - auctioneer. Due to changes made at Blizzards end, Auctioneer isnt as efficient as it used to be. Due to techical changes the 'GetAll Scan" (the >> button) often doesnt do a complete scan. Its a complete pain in the ass, because the secret of Auctioneer is having good data. When you run a scan you will often get missed items and see messages like the one attached (errormessage.jpg). There is no sure fire way of not getting it, but scanning out of a main centre ( i.e be in Darnassus or Exodar), at quiet times etc increases the likelihood of success. Also you can do a getall scan every 15 mins, and I often find that if you can hang around for the second getall scan it often goes through ok. Or try running the getall scan, logging off, logging back on and running it again - it removes the 15 minute wait. Ideally get two complete scans done a day, but one will do if its proving difficult.
Finally before I put down the ideas - just some common sense things. I am just putting these down because they are worth keeping in mind, although I expect you know all this already:
1. People farm on weekends. Therefore prices of trade goods tend to get cheaper on weekends and increase during the week. Making gold is not never going to be an immediate thing, so buying when prices crash and just storing them for a couple of days before selling is easy money.
2. Raids mostly happen at fixed times during the week. Rading guilds tend to start their weeks raiding the day after reset. Wednesday and Thursday are particularly busy. Weekends are busy to, but less so in the evenings because people go out and get pissed on friday and saurday nights. Demand for raiding items such as flasks increase during these peak times.
3. AH etiquette - Never cancel an auction even if you are undercut. You lose your deposit and if these are high it can seriously each into your profit. And as for undercutting, I personally would never undercut by 1c. I generally undercut by 20s or 2% depending on what it is. Have a bid price of around 80% of the buy now price.
OK so to the first set of ideas:
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1. Gathering Profession - Herbing
Currently Cata herbs are selling for the following (approx):
Cinderbloom 5-6g, Azshara's Viel 6g, Stormvine 6g, Heartblossom11-14g, Whiptail10-12g, Twilight Jasmine 10-12g.
These are being farmed constantly, and currently (because of the Darkmoon Faire) demand is high. But even with high demand if you wanted to you couuld buy the following:
Cinderbloom 600
Azshara's Veil 500
Stormvine 250
Heartblossom 120
Whiptail 1000
Twilight Jasmine 300
As you can see from both lists, the herb with the highest price and the lowest number of the AH is Heartblossom. This can only be herbed in Deepholm, and alchmeists use for 9 different recipes - most importantly the spirit flask, flask of flowing water.
IDEA ONE - farm heartblossom from deepholm for no more than 30 minutes in a day. Sell in stacks of 5s (not 20s). Post for 24 hours. Any cinderbloom you gather sell in 20s, and sell volatile life in 2s
2. Manufacturing Professions - Jewelcrafting
Your most powerful profession is your JCing. You were hugely committed to the Dalaran JC dailies and it shows in the cuts that you know. The WotLK cuts are not to be dismissed for gold making opportunities. Before Cata was released you could put any gem into any item with a socket. This meant that towards the end of WotLK, players would get their first piece of Outlands gear with sockets and throw epic WotLK gems into them. It was a huge boost to their stats and made leveling a lot easier. When Cataclysm hit, everyone thought that you would be able to put in Cata gems into all gear but we were wrong. Cata gems can only go into ilvl 285 gear or better, which means for those people leveling alts through Outlands and Northrend the best gems available are still WotLK epic cuts.
IDEA TWO - purchase epic WotLK gems and cut them. Relist them and make a profit.
The trick here is knowing what is worth cutting and what isnt. There are addons which do this for you but I will introduce you to those later on during the experiment. Meanwhile here are some current AH prices:
Cardinal Ruby - 3 for sale - cheapest 48g
Majestic Zircon - 6 for sale - cheapest 45g
Eye of Zul - 13 for sale - cheapest 10g
Ametrine - 26 for sale - cheapest 16g
Dreadstone - 18 for sale - cheapest 14g
King's Amber - 5 for sale - cheapest 33g
In comparisions here are some cut prices:
Delicate Cardinal Ruby - None on AH (!)
Flashing Cardinal Ruby - 1 listed, cheapest 120g (Raw Gem 48g)
Brilliant Cardinal Ruby - 7 listed, cheapest 116g (Raw Gem 48g)
Stormy Majestic Zircon - 5 listed, cheaptest 123g (Raw Gem 45g)
Rigid Majestic Zircon - 1 listed, cheapest 120g (Raw Gem 45g)
Sparkling Majestic Zircon - 1 listed, cheapest 120g (Raw Gem 45g)
Potent Ametrine - 2 listed, cheapest 61g (Raw Gem 16g)
Inscribed Ametrine - 1 listed, cheapest 60g (Raw Gem 16g)
Fierce Ametrine - None on AH
Mysterious Dreadstone - 4 listed, cheapest 99g (Raw Gem 14g)
Purified Dreadstone - 1 listed, cheapest 75g (Raw Gem 14g)
Defender's Dreadstone - 1 listed, cheaptest 69g (Raw Gem 14g)
Etched Dreadstone - 4 listed, cheapest 61g (Raw Gem 14g)
Regal Eye of Zul - 8 listed, Cheaptest 60g (Raw Gem 10g)
Energized Eye of Zul - 3 listed, cheapest 40g (Raw Gem 10g)
There are currently no cut King's Amber on the AH. Thats gold right there
Just a couple of hints with this one - dont mass buy uncut gems, buy a couple of gems (obviously the cheapest) of the each type. Cuts is down to knowledge. You know what sold in LK, they still sell. int, agil, str sell. agil/crit sell. agil/spirit cuts dont! You have decent knowledge of most classes and know what are viable stat combinations. Sometimes there are good reasons there arent any of a particular cut type on the AH!
The only other tip for this one is how long to post for. Cut LK epic gems vendor for 9g. AH posting fees are based on vendor price - so cut gems have a horrifically high posting fee. Obviously if the cut gem sells you get the deposit back but if it doesnt sell then you lose it. This can significantly affect profit. Also there is one active seller in this market, who tends to undercut. I would personally post the gems for 12 hours, as this quarters the AH deposit, and means that if they are undercut they arent stiuck there for 2 days. Also dont post 5-10 of a cut - post 1 or 2. Think of it like bottled beer, its better to top up your glass regularly than pour it all at once and watch it go flat :)
And as for the undercutter.... if you notice you are getting undercut within a very short time of post then you are being tracked. AH campers are known to add sellers to the 'friends' lists so they can see when they are online. I personally dont use this tactic, but vary the time I post each day. You are looking for windows for sales. The majority of listed items on the AH get undercut - and sales are mostly made in that window before teh undercut occurs. Dont get into undercut tennis - it just eats into profit. Its better to just hold your nerve, and post later.
Remeber that making gold is about your bank balance, not anyone elses.
3. AHing for profit - buy low sell normal
Read this http://csahf.blogspot.com/
Look at trading goods on the AH. Find one or two that have have less than a page worth of listings, where the cheapest are a good 5-10% cheaper than the bulk of the rest. Buy, relist at slightly above the bottom price.
Even if your Auctioneer data isnt up to date, the last column label Pct is your best friend. I dont know whether you have been scanning the AH a lot recently, and because of the massive changes in so many things since Cata was released, if your data isnt update date (i.e havent scanned much since Cata) I want you to not make risky decisions. You will have an idea of what things cost just from your day to day purchases from the AH.
You know that a volatile air is worth approximately 22-25g. If you were to log in and see 20 volatile air at 15g each, grab them and relist at 25g. If you log in and see 20 volatiles at 30g, and the next at 40, dont buy them and list at 40g. Trust your instincts of what something is worth. The key is buy at a low price and sell at market price, not buy low and sell high.
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Dont make huge investments into a market. You have 1000g gold start up. If you have read my blog, the Rags to Riches stories show you can make gold from 5s. 1000g is a huge start up fund in comparison. In my opinion the key to making money is diversity - many eggs, many baskets.
http://csahf.blogspot.com/
Our aim for the first week is that you still have at least 1000g gold at the end of the week, with items on the AH and stock to boot. That gives you the foundation from which to grown your empire.
I hope this made sense, but I am happy to answer anything you want clarified. This mail will be full of typos (my typing always is) so if it doesnt make sense its most likely my fault!
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Imrahill has now had a few days to get started with this information. Please feel free to add any comments or feedback you may help to assist Immy with his first week
3 comments:
As far as trade goods - a good portion of established players (with an alt obsession), tire of farming goods or use a profession guide (www.wow-professions.com) being a well known one. read some guides and take note where the author offers a few options in the process. These goods may be at good price point for the buy low sell normal tactic.
Good Luck to you both!
Leather isn't just a great way to entertain the gf (or wife). Its a great flipping target.
Look at Rugged Leather. I regularly buy for around 60% (about 1.2g/unit, 24g/stack) value on the weekends, bank till Tuesday after maintenance, and then re-list for ~120% at around 12g per 5 stack. I sell out within 12 hours every time. Can be repeated Wednesdays and Thursdays, listing on Fridays.
Watch prices of Savage Scraps--if a stack of 20<5 Savage Leather, buy scraps and convert them. Easy money there.
Good luck!
Perhaps in due time, don't fret if you've bought something and the prices are down. Experience has taught me that later on prices will go up again. Just back outta the market, store your goods, and check back a week or two later. Fel Armaments have been a great investment over the years. They have continually jumped from less than 9g to over 40g - and no deposit fee. Buy up cheap..store them...check back later...profit.
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