Markco's Corner: The Mats are Too Expensive and New Carnival!

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

ZOMG PROTECTION GLADIATOR RUNZ!!!one1!!

Next Blogging Carnival

The next blogging carnival will be on this topic:

How can you turn 1000 gold into 2000 gold?

The scope of this question is not limited in any way, you can use any tactics you wish to blog about. The Blogging Carnival will be scheduled for Thursday, September 2nd. Simply send in a LINK to a post what you've written regarding this topic (you can write one now and publish it before the 2nd, then send me a link). Here's how the last one went if you're interested. Also, don't be afraid to send in youtube videos as well for this, that will help diversify the information I present on the 2nd of September. For blog writers everywhere this is a tremendous opportunity to share readership and reach a larger audience as well as network with each other.

Real Life

Thank you for your kind comments, emails, tweets, facebook wishes, etc.

Blog Discussion - The Mats are Too Expensive

Here is a conversation I had with myself today:

Self: "Marcko, or however you spell it, I can't sell frostweave bags because the mats are too expensive."

Markco: "This is the inexperienced and brutal opinion (usually) of someone who is actually a very intelligent and thoughtful person but also one who doesn't truly understand how the auction house market cycles work in wow. Yes it's true that today, at this moment, calculating the price of frostweave bags will be a zero sum game. You will find that the mats are as expensive or possibly more than the price the bags are selling for."

Self: "So I'm right? They aren't profitable today?"

Markco: "What if I told you that tomorrow when you looked the same would hold true, and the next day and the next day?"

Self: "HUH?!"

Markco: "Stop scratching your head and think about it."

Self: "Wait Markco I thought you said they were profitable, are you saying they aren't?"

Markco: "I'm saying that you are correct that the mats are more expensive than the final product's price."

Self: "How then can you state that it's profitable to sell frostweave bags?!"

Markco: "Simple my adorable yet naive auctioneer, the price of frostweave bags is 45 gold today but tomorrow they will be 70 gold and the mats will reflect this price. Therefore if you buy the mats the day that the bags are 45 gold you will then be able to craft and sell at 70 gold."

Self: "Oh wise and benevolent gold guru, couldn't I just flip the bags and relist instead of crafting? You know, buy low sell normal like you always say?"

Markco: "Of course!!! You should however look for farmers dumping materials such as dust and cloth to construct your own bags. I also find that there are far more mats available than there are bags on the auction house. It's probably a good idea to mix buying the bags as well as the mats on days that they are cheap and if it's more profitable to sell the mats than the bags you can keep a stockpile of both at all times. Diversity is the key, if all you do is stockpile mats then it's like trying to sell all your products through a little funnel. You may not make quite as much selling bags as mats but if you sell both you will make more and faster than if you were to just sell one or the other."

Blog Redesign


I am officially done with the blog redesign at the moment and will leave everything the way it is for now. It was a huge time sink getting to the current version but thanks to all the emails, forum posts, tweets and facebook suggestions I can say that you were all a very big part of the final design. Thank you!

With blog redesign out of the way I can focus 100% on the two things I am actually good at: Collaboration and Content. I'm going to start 'wowing people' on this blog again. Watch out >:)


Starcraft 2

I made gold league on my first 5 games ever played! Apparently rushing with terran by flying your barracks into an opponent's corner of their base is a legitemate 1v1 strategy! I caught several players rushing me but they left their probes undefended to my 6 or so marines hiding in their base. By the time their units came back I would have their probes decimated and sometimes I'd even win the marine vs whatever fight right there in their base. I've also developed a marine/helion to battlecruiser strategy which works really well in 2v2 because I have access to several key terran units to provide utility for my partner. At any moment I can shift production to vikings and I have speed on the ground with helions to counter protoss and zerg melee.