The End of a Pricing Era

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:58 PM

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Mommar here.  I play multiple games on different platforms.   Most of them are played from my PC.  On Facebook I play Marvel Alliance.  I also play Marvel Heroes on my PC.  Just about every game has opened up the idea of having microtransactions.

Microtransactions are items you can buy inside (or even outside) the game that will offer you different bonuses,  costumes and even advancing in levels.  In some cases such as Marvel Alliance to be one of the top players you end up having to sink some gold into buying new and advanced weapons.

I've written about this before in Why Warcraft Needs Microtransactions.   The one caveat that I've always had about World of Warcraft is that it should stay with cosmetic items to purchase.  Items that do not have an actual effect on ability.  Blizzard just introduced it's own ingame store to introduce purchases from inside the game.   This means you should be able to buy your in game pets,  new shiny transmog helms and other items to make your character look spiffy.

But on the PTR's they have also introduced potions that can affect how you play inside the game.  It looks at minimum there will be new potions to give you faster leveling ability.  Other potions could easily be added to give you more temporary health,  Attack power and any other stat.   This could easily kill the transmute market for players with more pocket money that others.   But it also could drive the market even higher because it puts these potions (Potion of Luck anyone?).

But this does create a dangerous curve that happens with many of these games that have in game microtransactions.  It tilts the game towards those with more cash instead of evening the playing field.  There have already been many complaints about the 'dumbing down' of wow for the casual player.  Players who put hundreds of hours into their character in leveling,  obtaining gear and working their professions getting lapped by someone with a hundred dollars to spend.

I"m curious just how much they will add onto the in game purchase system and just how much effect it will have on the hard core player.  And just how much profit will this add to the coffers of the corporate company.

If you want a quick preview of the new in game purchase system go to Wow-Insider and watch the short video.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Patch 5.4 prep:   Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?
The Pitfalls of Trade Barking
7.7 Million Customers and Nothing Sells
Priorities in PVP Gear Pricing
Prep for Patch 5.4: Long Term Goals
Weekend Is Here
Take Me To Naxx
Profit Anonymous
Only Worth What Someone Will Pay
What i learned from Marvel Heroes....
Patch 5.4: Arise Scribe Arise!!!!!
Walking On The Dollars

Let The Stockpiling Begin

My Precious Transformer

Bang The Drum Slowly
Five Rules For Dating My Gold Stash

Patch 5.4 prep: Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 11:54 AM

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The most difficult part of having multiple professions is to know where to apply your time management skills.  Spending hours gathering, buying and producing for sales.  Dividing your limited time between multiple professions that you allot.  This becomes much more apparent when a new patch arrives.  Jumping on those opening week sales where players are upgrading new gear.  Players playing with new toys from professions and hunting new little niches in the Warcraft sales world.

Tailoring is peculiar because the main tent pegs for production is the Windwool Cloth.  Windwool Cloth is Being different than other raw materials (Ghost-Iron Ore and Exotic Leather) in that everyone can collect Windwool Cloth as they loot dead mobs.  The other materials have to be gathered by specific professions.  Taking this into consideration Windwool Cloth ends up being the lowest of the different raw materials in Pandaland.  And can end up being the most profitable.

But with 5.4 another tailoring cooldown is introduced for Epic 545 gear.  Celestial Cloth will require 10 bolts of Windwool Cloth with a daily timer per construction.  There is a work around using the new Spirit of War item that is obtained from DE'ing high raid gear.   The Spirit of War is also used for the actual crafting of the new 545 epic gear so using this for a simple timer would be a bad idea.

So will a new cooldown affect the amount of cloth on the Auction House?   Most tailors already have a large amount of cloth they have kept for their Imperial Silk daily.  This still will leave a good boost to the market for both the Windwool Cloth and Bolts of Windwool Cloth.  So buying and stocking inexpensive Windwool cloth and bolts can put you ahead.  This is especially important for current tailors who aren't stockpiled yet to last 30-60 days of daily transmutes.  As players again continue to explore the new areas the cloth will go back down to the levels they are now.  But taking chances to bank on a few gold savings isn't always wise.

Also with 5.4 older cloths are going to be that much more valuable.  Cloth from the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and Cataclysm expansion (Frostweave Cloth and Embersilk Cloth respectively).  There is still a nice steady stream of income from production of Netherweave Bags for new and alt toons.  Where a 50-60% profit might not always seem like a lot of gold overall.  Small amounts add up very quickly.  Selling 10 bags a day at a 30g profit (buying at 5g a stack of netherweave and selling at 38g)  can net a nice 1500g profit a week.  Some servers might not be as profitable but looking at when players are buying their bags on your server can give you that much more access to the stead bag making income.

Tailoring isn't a big mystery.  Just like all other professions it depends on supply and demand.  But the most important part is to make sure that you are the one supplying to the demand.  Players abandon professions as they continue to drift farther and farther away from Warcraft.  Jumping into those markets and being prepare will set you with your sewing machine ready to provide for the next raid tier.

Knit one.. pearl two..  

Good Luck and Good Sewing.

The Pitfalls of Trade Barking
7.7 Million Customers and Nothing Sells
Priorities in PVP Gear Pricing
Prep for Patch 5.4: Long Term Goals
Weekend Is Here
Take Me To Naxx
Profit Anonymous
Only Worth What Someone Will Pay
What i learned from Marvel Heroes....
Patch 5.4: Arise Scribe Arise!!!!!
Walking On The Dollars

Let The Stockpiling Begin

My Precious Transformer

Bang The Drum Slowly
Five Rules For Dating My Gold Stash
Transmog Me Baby

The Pitfalls of Trade Barking

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 8:36 AM

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Mommar here.

For the past couple of nights that I have logged onto my home server,  There has been a player that's been barking up trade chat to sell Ghost Iron Bars.

Now this is probably nothing new on your home server.   Trade Chat (never to be confused with Barrens chat) has been a lively market to buy and sell.  Memories of running clear across Azeroth to sell a gem cut or an armor piece still make me smile.   Even today I still will jump under one of my other toons and do a little sales in trade chat.

Something stood out with this salesman (at any time you step into the trade chat arena you should stand out).  They seemed to be receiving an inordinate amount of grief about pricing.  Their pricing was a little bit below what was available on the Auction House (both from Raw product and the bars themselves).   So something must have sparked someone to start offering them much lower offers for their goods.  To the point that others began to heap onto the grief.

I looked at my notes (yes,  I do keep notes on some salespeople that stand out) and hadn't seen anything that stuck out as a problem.   So I could only surmise that he had upset someone with a previous sale and the person was making it their personal goal to destroy their business.  The abuse became so bad that I almost did a pity buy and purchase all that he had in stock (1000 bars).  When doing the calculations I could easily break even through manufacturing gear and my daily Blacksmithing creation of Lightning Steel Ingots.

But something kept me from pulling the trigger.  Generally I consider myself a good listener to my gut feelings.  If they feel something is wonky,  then I go with that feeling.  (Probably why there is no Mrs Mommar or any little Mommar's running around camp JMTC).  So I decided to walk away and do other activities before shutting down the game for the night.

More and more players entering the auction house game make things exciting.  And many blogs,  journals,  players and 'experts' will tell you that making gold is about mechanics.  That's 85% true by my estimation.  But no matter how you automate gold (TSM is still excellent at doing this), there will always be that 15% that is your feelings and emotions.  You cannot and shouldn't eliminate that gut feeling you have that a deal is too good to be true.  Especially as we continue through 5.4 and more players look to sell off massive amounts of gear to prepare for the next expansion.

But then after tonight,  anyone want to buy 1000 bars for cost plus a 'little' profit?   We shall see

Good Luck and Good Hunting

7.7 Million Customers and Nothing Sells
Priorities in PVP Gear Pricing
Prep for Patch 5.4: Long Term Goals
Weekend Is Here
Take Me To Naxx
Profit Anonymous
Only Worth What Someone Will Pay
What i learned from Marvel Heroes....
Patch 5.4: Arise Scribe Arise!!!!!
Walking On The Dollars

Let The Stockpiling Begin

My Precious Transformer

Bang The Drum Slowly
Five Rules For Dating My Gold Stash
Transmog Me Baby

Distopian View Of Money

Dailies, Weeklies, Now yearlies

The Barrens Feel So So Barren

My Favorite Addon

I Need More Fun Sales

7.7 Million Customers and Nothing Sells

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 11:18 AM

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If you hear in the distance you can hear the rat-tat-tat of the drums.   The Bugle is warming up for the last hurrah.  Players are ready to lament the end of an era.

Okay,   well that was silly wasn't it?   The powers that be reported once again that they lost subscribers in the past quarter.   Dropping from 8.3 million subscribers to 7.7 million in the last quarter.   That is a little bit over 8% of the subscriber base heading to greener pastures.

But in all reality are they really dropping out?   Every quarter with each new expansion, players come and go.  The burnout rate in MMO's is high as an expansion matures.  Players find other things to do.  They find new games to play for a while.  They look at the money investment they put in every month and decide whether it's worth continuing or not.

So why do some players panic when subscribers start to drop off?   Is it the bandwagon of naysayers that come around listing Blizzard as an inept company.  Are they disgruntled because everything they want is not immediately placed in the product.  Or have they lost their smile (you get a quarter if you know the reference).

How many of that 8% lost are multiple accounts,  overseas gold farmers,  players switching over free to play accounts etc.  No one really would be able to find out unless a universal survey is put out by the powers that be.  The other reality is that does it really matter?

Until the gates close in World of Warcraft,  there will always be people to sell too.  There will always be an Auction House and opportunities to strengthen those gold goblin muscles.  When the announcement of the next expansion pops up there will again be an increase in subscribers.  And with their return,  more sales will occur.

So panicking about numbers never solves anything.   Keep selling,  doing your gold progressions and be patient.  Patch 5.4 is just on the horizon.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Priorities in PVP Gear Pricing
Prep for Patch 5.4: Long Term Goals
Weekend Is Here
Take Me To Naxx
Profit Anonymous
Only Worth What Someone Will Pay
What i learned from Marvel Heroes....
Patch 5.4: Arise Scribe Arise!!!!!
Walking On The Dollars

Let The Stockpiling Begin

My Precious Transformer

Bang The Drum Slowly
Five Rules For Dating My Gold Stash
Transmog Me Baby

Distopian View Of Money

Dailies, Weeklies, Now yearlies

The Barrens Feel So So Barren

My Favorite Addon

I Need More Fun Sales

Priorities in PVP Gear Pricing

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 2:18 AM

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'Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes' was a nursery rhyme that I remember hearing when I was little.  The same can be applied to how you look at what to put up for your auctions.  Especially when it comes to PVP gear.

By now if you have finished all of your dailies on your tailor,  Blacksmithing and/or Leatherworker you should have all of the PVP patterns to craft.  As players finish up with Patch 5.3 and continue on to Patch 5.4 they will be looking for other things to do to occupy their gaming time.  PVP is one of those adventures that players will dabble their toes in.  And they will be looking to get their toons up and running as fast as possible.

PVP gear when it was produced in the Cataclysm expansion had a very nice profit margin for all of the pieces.  Now players have been much more particular in what they purchase.  Obtaining honor points quickly (either by exchanging extra justice points or random battlegrounds).  With the hands and boots being some of the most inexpensive of all of the honor points purchasable armor.

So why did the nursery rhyme come to mind on what to prioritize in your sales?   Because Head (helmet), Shoulders, Pants and boots will still be your bread and butter sales.  Chestplates also give the best boost for their cost to the players.  So when you look at your resources and the cost/sales ratios you create with each sale.  Deciding what to produce for sales should be based on how popular that item is (sales are going to be much lower if there are 10 pairs of boots on the auction house).  Each player will be looking to undercut the other each time that the item is relisted.   As the expansion winds down,  players will start dropping profession sales as they look to do other things in and out of the game.

Many gold goblins do not play the long game when it comes to sales.  If an item does not sell immediately they become frustrated and stop selling.   Even if an item takes a week or two weeks to sell,  you're still looking at a profit if you take the sale price and subtract the production cost and auction house listing cost/percentage).   If a pair of PVP pants costs you 250g to produce,  listing 10x (once per day for a week and a half (50g)).  If that pair of pants sells for 1000g (standard average for most pvp pants) you're still looking at over 600g profit.  Do this often enough and your ready to purchase your own condo in Azeroth.

As patch 5.4 becomes closer and closer,  looking at what to list and setting aside what materials you need will again put you on top of the pile.  So remember your nursery rhymes,  and don't sell any tuffet for that miss Muffet.  She does not tip well.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Prep for Patch 5.4: Long Term Goals
Weekend Is Here
Take Me To Naxx
Profit Anonymous
Only Worth What Someone Will Pay
What i learned from Marvel Heroes....
Patch 5.4: Arise Scribe Arise!!!!!
Walking On The Dollars

Let The Stockpiling Begin

My Precious Transformer

Bang The Drum Slowly
Five Rules For Dating My Gold Stash
Transmog Me Baby

Distopian View Of Money

Dailies, Weeklies, Now yearlies

The Barrens Feel So So Barren

My Favorite Addon

I Need More Fun Sales

Prep for Patch 5.4: Long Term Goals

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 11:59 AM

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Mommar Here.

If the powers that be keep up their normal schedule,  We should be getting what could be the last patch to Mists of Pandaria in the next month or so.  Currently they are testing the new Raids (finally get to boot up Garrash's ample posterior).

Keeping an eye on the market and the changes have always kept gold goblins ahead of the curve.  Patch 5.4 should bring some interesting boosts in the economy for a short term.  That means getting your gear together,  your valor points maxxed and items in the bank ready to sell from the start.

The odds are that this will be the last patch before the introduction of a new expansion.  If you have been running instances even during patch 5.3 you've probably noticed a speed increase in completing them.   Unless you end up having a completely new level 90 geared players,  the tank and healing combo can blow through most of the instances between 20 minutes.   The benefit of this will allow players to get their new ALT toons that much quicker into high level raiding.

There has already been a slowdown on many servers for materials on the AH.  The ebb and flow of farmers and investors has kept the prices higher than normal.  Every so often you can find a pretty good deal on Gold Iron Bars (or ore) which can add to your profit margin.  Now is that a good idea to start your craft one/put materials away for a later technique that has been used many times for future profits.

The other thing to use is your lineup.   Setting your profit goals for your first week in the new patch,  your first month and even to the introduction of the next expansion will give you a base for your future professions. Do you want to make 10,000g a first week,  25,000g a first month or whatever your goals are.   Setting your goals now and expectations will guide you on what to invest in materials and time.

Time becomes your most important commodity with the next patch.   The idea is that you have to spend time to make gold changes.  You need to spend time wisely to make gold.  

Keep this in mind in the next few weeks while you're preparing for the next patch.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Weekend Is Here
Take Me To Naxx
Profit Anonymous
Only Worth What Someone Will Pay
What i learned from Marvel Heroes....
Patch 5.4: Arise Scribe Arise!!!!!
Walking On The Dollars

Let The Stockpiling Begin

My Precious Transformer

Bang The Drum Slowly
Five Rules For Dating My Gold Stash
Transmog Me Baby

Distopian View Of Money

Dailies, Weeklies, Now yearlies

The Barrens Feel So So Barren

My Favorite Addon

I Need More Fun Sales

Weekend Is Here

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 11:26 AM

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Mommar here.

I've worked many different jobs as I was becoming an adult.   And with anything that happens in a person's life,  I choose to pay attention to see if I could learn anything.

One of the jobs that I had was as a morning prep and pizza delivery driver.  It was an interesting job for a young adult who didn't have a lot of requirements for cash other than pay the rent and make sure the pizza was in the refrigerator.

What I did pick up from the job was the beginning of understanding of how a business works.   In this case the pizza delivery/eat in business in a small town was interesting.  During the week there was a trickle of customers that ate in the restaurant.   Including in this was also the deliveries that were made to outside customers.  It would seem that during the week the store made enough money to keep the lights on,  pay the bills and pay the employees (my favorite part of course).

It was the weekend that the store made the bulk of its profitable income.  This was the normal difference between the weekday and the weekend.   The same occurs when dealing with income in World of Warcraft. During the week you will find many times that income will be much less than during the weekend.  Consider it in mind the idea of root beer and wing money during the week,  making the house and mortgage payments during the week.

The reason for this is very similar to what happens in the restaurant business.  A smaller percentage of players log on during the week.   Finding other activities including work,  family enjoyment, etc.  On the weekend players find more time for looting,  pillaging and upgrading their gear for the raiding exploits.

It bears repeating that knowing your clients can elevate yourself into a higher tax bracket.  Allowing you to expand and even franchise your gold goblin abilities.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Take Me To Naxx
Profit Anonymous
Only Worth What Someone Will Pay
What i learned from Marvel Heroes....
Patch 5.4: Arise Scribe Arise!!!!!
Walking On The Dollars

Let The Stockpiling Begin

My Precious Transformer

Bang The Drum Slowly
Five Rules For Dating My Gold Stash
Transmog Me Baby

Distopian View Of Money

Dailies, Weeklies, Now yearlies

The Barrens Feel So So Barren

My Favorite Addon

I Need More Fun Sales

Take Me To Naxx

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 1:30 PM

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Naxxaramus during Wrath of the Lich King was the intro raid to many guilds.   Gathering 10 (Or even the brave 25 players) to run rampant around stitched golems,  Undead and even Mr Bigglesworth.   Good Fun for many including the guild I belong to.

Now that players are 10 levels ahead this ended up being a dead end to most players unless they were into nostalgia or leveling toons quickly.   This all changed in patch 5.1 with the introduction of Raiding With Leashes and Raiding With Leashes Attunement Edition.

With Patch 5.1 came three pets in Naxxaramus that players could pick up.   Even at 5.1 it was a challenge for most classes to solo with anything less than the epic raiding gear.  With 5.4 just on the horizon it is much easier to solo at least two of the three sections that drop pets.

Blighted Spore drops out from Loatheb in the plague wing of Naxx.   This can be tough to get too because of the second boss Heigan The Unclean.  On my warrior I was able to burn him down with cooldowns and a pot.  Once I reached Loatheb I was able to burn him down.  Luckily he dropped my new pet and I was able to run.   The next week I ran Naxx again and the other pets dropped for me.   Dropped it on the AH for an easy 8k counting gold and extra items sold or DE'd).

Dusty Clutch Of Eggs drops from Maxxena in the Arachnid Quarter.   These end up much easier to run (took me less than 20 minutes total) and I sold one of the eggs for 7.5k (adding the other gold and items it netted me around 11k total).

The biggest difficulty is reaching Gluth.  All of the other bosses are easy but you run into Patchwerk who can still kick most classes carcasses around.   Studying up on him and the different ways to get past him (I brought a tank friend along which helped get me past).  Once your past him then Gluth (after finishing Globbulus) is a piece of cake.   These pets can sell from 6k all the way up to 12k on some servers.

So why now talk about these?  Because with Patch 5.4 most players will have easy access to epic quality items.  Among the different professions,  faction rewards and dailies being in 490 and higher gear are relatively easy.  This means more players (especially us goblins) can run Naxx every week for a couple of hours. Netting between 6-18k for only a few hours work.  

Other raid instances exist that drop pets.   But ones like Karazhan and Molten Core and run more often than Naxxaramus.  But if you're feeling froggy running all of them can net you a nice weekly reward for the extra pets and items you sell.

Next time your in Naxx,  Smack Patchwerk for me a couple of times

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Profit Anonymous
Only Worth What Someone Will Pay
What i learned from Marvel Heroes....
Patch 5.4: Arise Scribe Arise!!!!!
Walking On The Dollars

Let The Stockpiling Begin

My Precious Transformer

Bang The Drum Slowly
Five Rules For Dating My Gold Stash
Transmog Me Baby

Distopian View Of Money

Dailies, Weeklies, Now yearlies

The Barrens Feel So So Barren

My Favorite Addon

I Need More Fun Sales

 

Profit Anonymous

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 1:42 PM

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There is a balance between the search for profit and enjoyment of the game.   Yes,  shockingly you read that sentence correctly.    I have many times talked about the fine balance between reputation and profit.   At some point if you are known as a person who will take advantage of anything it will creep up on you and players will stop making deals with you.

Every deal that is made between two players,  buying or selling or trading will give you a boost or a drop in your reputation.  Even the deal that I talked about yesterday hopefully left the player with the knowledge that I wasn't attempting to slight him on his offer.

The key is to approach every deal as if it was the first of many deals you will make with this person.   Granted that most players do not look at who they are buying from on the Auction House.  Their only concern is who has the lowest cost for the item that they want.   But when you get out into the wild wild west of trade chat, your reputation is your lifeblood.

There are players on the server that I do most of my work at that have stellar reputations.  They are known for beings good negotiators.  They are known to be able to give good deals (including the free with materials deal that many use as a loss leader to get customers in).  There are other players that are known to be troublesome in their deals.  This includes the buying of spots for epic raids.

As Mists start to drift toward middle age in respects to being an expansion,  more and more sales of 'raid spots' occur in trade chat.  500g for a guarantee mount all the way up to 10,000g.  You will also see the creation of gold runs where players will throw in 500g at first and then bid gold for an item they want.  At the end of the run the profits are split among the players that finished the raid.  This again can also be an excellent way of making gold over a 3 hour period. (I'm one of those people that will join the raid but rarely buy anything.)

The reputation that someone has for putting these raids together determine just how many players will join.  If they know that there are going to be troublesome spots,  including arguments and questions of integrity on dividing the spoils,  then players won't join.   This is where your reputation that you have built in your smaller trades can affect your larger more adventurous exploits.

Keep your own mental reputation in mind with every deal you do this weekend.  Did it go well?   What profit did you make and what did it really cost you?   You might be surprised at what answers you get.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Only Worth What Someone Will Pay
What i learned from Marvel Heroes....
Patch 5.4: Arise Scribe Arise!!!!!
Walking On The Dollars

Let The Stockpiling Begin

My Precious Transformer

Bang The Drum Slowly
Five Rules For Dating My Gold Stash
Transmog Me Baby

Distopian View Of Money

Dailies, Weeklies, Now yearlies

The Barrens Feel So So Barren

My Favorite Addon

I Need More Fun Sales

Only Worth What Someone Will Pay

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 8:00 AM

0 comments View Comments

Mommar here.

This weekend was relatively successful.   As with many weekends the bulk of my gold ends up being purchased from weekend warriors (and weekend Mages,  weekend Shamans.. You get the point).

I received an in game email from a player who wanted to purchase one of my Lionheart Champion Reborn that I have crafted and listed.   Every so often I've picked up a couple that players have listed for what I felt was too low so that I could flip for a good profit.

It wasn't the first time that someone had sent me an email asking for a reduced price on my item.  I have a decent idea of what I've invested in everything I sell so if it's possible to be flexible for a sale I will be.  In this case I had the blade listed at 17k (I had sold one earlier in the week for this price) and they offered me 10k for the blade.

The 10k was the amount that he was willing to pay for the item.  So I mentally looked at the material requirements

First needing to craft the Lionheart Blade, Reborn

Lightning Steel Ingot x5
Living Steel x 3
Spirit of Harmony x 3

Then the materials Lionheart Champion, Reborn

Lightning Steel Ingot  x10
Living Steel x 6
Spirit of Harmony x 6

So to Craft the entire item you need

Lightning Steel Ingot x 15
Living Steel x 9
Spirit of Harmony x 9

The Living Steel and Spirit of Harmony are easily replaced through a little farming (Halfhill farming or just overall beating on mobs) but the Lightning Steel Ingots take 5 days to replace.   The makes these the real push of how much the item is worth to sell for me.   Between that and the previous sale earlier in the week at 17k I decided to politely decline the offer and counter offer for 15.5k.  

How the transaction ended isn't important (mostly because I still try to keep some of my transactions private) but the important lesson I hope people get is just how I calculated the worth of the item.  On my server a rough estimate to replace the Spirits of Harmony would take me about two hours at most.  Living Steel goes for between 350 and 400 per item.  So a total of 15 days if I craft everything on my own (I have purchased a premade  Lionheart Blade, Reborn and then proceeded to craft the Lionheart Champion, Reborn.  This saved me the original 5 days and some material costs.

But for our discussion let's just say I finished my daily Blacksmithing crafting of Lightning Steel Ingot every day for 15 days.   Give an approximate cost for the Spirit of Harmony at 100g.   My goal was to arrive at somewhere between the 12k-13k in mythical profit covering over the 15 days it takes to craft the item.

If I would have taken my new friends offer then my 'profit' would have dropped down to 7k to 9k for the same item.   That means that I was valuing every Lightning Steel Ingot at 900g per where his value was hitting approximately 700g per.   How much I was willing to sell the entire item determined just how much the individual rare crafting item was valued.

Neither of us are wrong with our pricing points.   If you have ever watched a version of Pawn Stars,  you come the realization that a value is an arbitrary number that is placed on an item.  The true value of an item is just how much someone is willing to pay.   That same sword could sell for 20k if I was able to find the right buyer.   Later on as more powerful items are offered,  it could be worth a dirty wet sock.

Keeping this in mind will help a lot with your price points and how much to sell an item.  You determine just how much value you have in an item simply by calculating the material cost and just what your time is worth. Once you have this ability in your arsenal to work these quick calculations in your head,  then you have the ability to explain your pricing point and be much more flexible.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

What i learned from Marvel Heroes....
Patch 5.4: Arise Scribe Arise!!!!!
Walking On The Dollars

Let The Stockpiling Begin

My Precious Transformer

Bang The Drum Slowly
Five Rules For Dating My Gold Stash
Transmog Me Baby

Distopian View Of Money

Dailies, Weeklies, Now yearlies

The Barrens Feel So So Barren

My Favorite Addon

I Need More Fun Sales

What i learned from Marvel Heroes....

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:09 PM

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Mommar here.

So in my spare time I started playing the Free to play MMO Marvel Heroes.   It is a nice switch from World of Warcraft (for those that enjoy food it's a palette cleanser).

The game itself is much less involved than World of Warcraft.   It boils down to a hack and slash using a modified Diablo 3 engine.  It's major drawing power is the vast world of Marvel characters that can be drawn upon (assuming they will add future characters at a later time).

One thing that I noticed that was missing was an auction house or any type of economy.  In World of Warcraft a major source of revenue is the excess greens and blues (and even the glorious purples) that can drop in different areas.    Whether you disenchant your items,  wear and sell your items on the auction or even just vendor them for profit,  they are a good source of quick revenue.  In Marvel Heroes you basically have the option of either vendoring the extra items or 'donating' them to your crafter or vendors to raise their level.   Where this is a novel concept it has a sticking point of some very elite awesome items aren't sold between players.  

Once your crafter arrives at a certain level items can be 'converted' to higher items using the material drops that occur along with the green item drops.  If you play this game for any sort of time you will spend a lot of time converting base materials to higher and higher levels.   Basically everyone just has an enchanter at their home base.   This has been used by other games (including Diablo 3) and adds to the hack/slash style of gaming.  

The one thing I missed between World of Warcraft and Marvel Heroes is the flexibility of professions as well as the drive to purchase storage space.  Having had to put my crowbar into my wallet to put 20 dollars on my account to add storage space (and pick up playing Wolverine to play), it puts a kink in the plan as I had used in Warcraft.   One of the goals when Guild banks were created was buying storage space became easy.

So why did I decide to talk about this today?   Because there was another game that I was talking to a friend of mine about (Perfect World).  I asked them to describe the economy and how things worked.   That has been the biggest draw for me in both my writing and my play style.   Games come and go,  having few interesting tidbits to bring new players in.  But the economy and daily gameplay is what keeps them coming. Otherwise you end up with a game that players will pick up from time to time,  then realize they have other things to do with their life.

So the next time you are looking at the Auction House and saying 'is this all there is'?  Keep in mind that the grass may look greener on the other side,  but fertilizer can get very expensive.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Patch 5.4: Arise Scribe Arise!!!!!
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Patch 5.4: Arise Scribe Arise!!!!!

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 1:16 PM

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There have been many times that I've wanted to take medication for my scribe to make gold.   Now I can make gold in any of my professions.   But the amount of work required has been better spent on my other professions.  Whether you choose to use the wall-o-glyph method of listing glyphs or pick your battles on what is hot at that time.  Either method can grind out gold over a long time.

Patch 5.4 being right around the corner could give people a chance to ride the bubble that occurs when new glyphs are introduced.  Players race to fill in the slots that open up in their books,  and with so many players having alt's leveling the chances to jump that gold bubble is highly possible.

I say highly possible because it's still possible these new glyphs won't be brought into patch 5.4 (they are listed at NYI which I would assume probably means Not Yet Implemented).

If they are brought in (with the normal costs and probably learned from one of the vendors) it will be a first come first serve on the Auction House or Trade Chat to sell.  

The list of the new glyphs includes:

Unknown (probably one Paladin and One Rogue)

Glyph of the Headhunter (Rogue?)
Glyph of Pillar of Light  (Paladin?)

Mage
Glyph of the Unbound Elemental


Monk
Glyph of Detox
Glyph of Expel Harm
Glyph of Fortuitous Spheres
Glyph Of Nimble Brew
Glyph of Rapid Rolling\

Paladin
Glyph of Divine Shield
Glyph of Devotion Aura
Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice
Glyph of the Exorcist

Priest
Glyph of Inspired Hymns

Rogue
Glyph of Improved Distraction

Warlock
Glyph of Curse of the Elements
Glyph of Havoc
Glyph of Unending Resolve

Warrior
Glyph of Impaling Throws
Glyph of the Executor
Glyph of the Raging Whirlwind
Glyph of the Subtle Defender
Glyph of the Watchful Eye
Glyph of the Weaponmaster
Glyph of Victorious Throw

There is a mix of different glyphs in per class with Warrior and Monk get the most scribe loving.  If these are brought out this will give a nice boost for the opening two weeks of the new patch.  Letting things die down to the normal gold grind that happens once the majority of people have filled up their scribe books.

Now is a good time to start farming materials from either normal means or off the auction house.  Having a good supply of ink to craft from the start will get you ahead of the game.

Patch 5.4 brings out a lot of interest in what could be the final patch for Mists of Pandaria.   Time to get ready for a Garrosh sized bun whooping.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Walking On The Dollars

Let The Stockpiling Begin

My Precious Transformer

Bang The Drum Slowly
Five Rules For Dating My Gold Stash
Transmog Me Baby

Distopian View Of Money

Dailies, Weeklies, Now yearlies

The Barrens Feel So So Barren

My Favorite Addon

I Need More Fun Sales

Toxic Sales

Engineering Love With 5.4

Why Warcraft Needs Microtransactions

The New Face of Opportunity