Discipline: The Most Hated Word in Gold Making

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:04 PM

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Mommar here.

Discipline is one of those words that brings memories to the forefront.  Whether it's talking about how your parents raised you,  or the need to control your actions and choices to reach a higher goal.

Since I don't know how your parents raised you,  nor do I really want to know I'm wanting to talk about the latter.  Fun toys all the time come up for sale or auction.  Players wanting to get rid of BOE pets,  gear,  transmogrification items tempt the best of Gold Goblins in spending their hard earned gold. 

I was sitting on the Black Market Auction House deciding if I wanted to raise a big higher for an item I wanted.  This last week I was on a pet collecting march and one of the rare Trading Card Game pets came up.  The Banana Charm was up for bid,  with the price when I arrived at 21k.  That's a hefty amount of gold for a pet,  but I was in a spending mood plus it's an 80 dollar real money pet if you buy the card from ebay (or other sources).

So I sat there thumbing through the web while I waited for the auction to end.  I was outbid once,  twice (nope,  not three times a lady) by someone who obviously wanted this pet too.  I used all of my auction house techniques other than calling them bad names (they were Alliance) and then proceeded to make a decision.

I had enough gold I could drop a 100k bomb on them and knock them out pretty quickly.  But that is a seriously overpriced payment for a battle pet.  Or I could discipline myself into saying this is the amount I'm willing to pay and no more.  So mentally I set that price,  and then walked away.

As I logged on this morning I found myself the owner of a new Banana Charm and the pet that comes with it.  Frankly, it doesn't always happen like this.  Someone might want the item a little bit more than I do.  Items such as rare mounts tend to get a lot of interest and spirited bidding.  The key is to discipline yourself into knowing just what you want and what it is worth to you.  If you have higher plans for your gold (Spectral Tiger anyone) then you have to look at each purchase you make and how much that will delay your ability to reach your goal.

My Achilles heel is helping others.  I probably have given up a million gold simply by not charging my guildmates for items.  Giving materials that could be resold for bundles of gold is one of the simple pleasures I get out of life.  If I know you then I will probably help you.  But there is a limit to any generosity because I have plans of my own.  I have goals I would like to reach gold wise and purchases in the future that will be my next expectation.

So finding balance and discipline in every transaction goes to the heart of being a Gold Goblin.  Keep this in mind the next time you bid on your own Banana Charm.  Not just looking at it in how much gold your spending,  but how much time it will delay you from reaching your true epic expectations.

Good Luck and Good Profit Hunting

Crashing The Market
Pet Battling For Profits
Prime Time Professions
Retrain Your Gold Instincts:  Trigger Words
It's Patchy McPatch Day
Timeless Coins They Are A Changing
I'll Buy That For A Gold Piece
The Value of Garrosh BOA's
It's Monday Already?
Adopt A Warcraft Child Today!
Welcome To The Tuesdaydome 
Not My Server.. No No No
Maintenance Of Your Toon Army: Garrisons
The Art of Negotiation: Warcraft Style
Cooking For Fun and Profit

Crashing The Market

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 1:01 PM

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I was gluffing around Orgrimmar, getting ready to run through some old raids when an interesting chat discussion came along.

Paraphrasing,  two players were taunting someone else for a advertisement they had been barking for cheap glyphs.  In their advertisement they bluntly stated that they wanted to crash the inscription market to bring 'cheap glyphs to all'.

I had spoken about this before the first time that I watched an inscription market crash and burn.  Of all of the different markets, inscription is really the easiest to crash.   Herbs on many servers are at dirt cheap prices.  Being able to craft hundreds of glyphs,  listing them at inexpensive prices and still being able to net a small profit. 

To crash any market you need to have a base amount of gold sitting unused.  Mostly because it would be impossible once someone has bought out your first round of glyphs to have that many herbs stockpiled.  I probably shouldn't say impossible but ultimately you will run out of raw material and either have to purchase extra or go and farm them.

A conglomerate of players would find crashing the market easier simply by one or two funneling the herbs into the scribe.  That way the scribe can be keeping the product artificially low.  

Where morally crashing a market could be seen as reprehensible,  financially it can be a very strong strategy.  There are 150+ glyphs.  Only about 30 of those actually making a large amount of profit.  The others end up dribbling profits since they are not in high demand.    So let's say you take the 10 highest profitable glyphs.  You can live healthily off of those 10 glyphs and then crush the rest of the scribe market.  Many players run away from markets that aren't quick 'list and profit' type of markets.  This leaves only the die hard players who know how to fight back.

Ultimately a market will snap back simply because the planning on keeping the market artificially becomes boring.  Even the best of intentions will get someone only so far.  But the damage has been done when a player leaves the market for easier and more fertile ground.

With Warlords of Dradnor,  inscription is going to have some changes in different glyphs.  Many of the more powerful glyphs will be given to players in their book as they level.  New Glyphs will become important to players,  with the 'best set' of glyphs yet to be determined.

Don't let the chain rattling of someone determined to sew anarchy into the mix to remove you from the scribe market.  Look at how the scribe market has always reacted to incursions and be prepared.

Good Luck and Good Profit Hunting

Pet Battling For Profits
Prime Time Professions
Retrain Your Gold Instincts:  Trigger Words
It's Patchy McPatch Day
Timeless Coins They Are A Changing
I'll Buy That For A Gold Piece
The Value of Garrosh BOA's
It's Monday Already?
Adopt A Warcraft Child Today!
Welcome To The Tuesdaydome 
Not My Server.. No No No
Maintenance Of Your Toon Army: Garrisons
The Art of Negotiation: Warcraft Style
Cooking For Fun and Profit

Pet Battling For Profits

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:58 PM

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Every profession can make a profit.

This should have been written into your mantra from day one of your adventures in Azeroth.  We have talked about it many times how each profession can make some profit (yes even fishing and Engineering).

Even the quasi profession of Pet Battling can make a profit.    It just takes some planning and some time to rake up major gold.

I started off the Pet Battling profit making journey by leveling one of my pets to level 25.  The reason this is important is because you cannot add to your journal any level 25 pets that are purchased until you have hit level 25.  In this case I leveled up my Anubiseth Idol.  He dropped for me on one of my runs through Temple of Ahn'Qiraj.   Took me about 3 hours to level (I took my time over the weeks, so that would be three hours of actual pet battling time).  During this time I also added to my collection through the different leveling zones.

After he hit level 25 I picked up a couple of pets that I knew could be repackaged and sold.  When looking for the future captives of other battlers I wanted the more rare pets that people weren't stacking on the AH.  This cut out a lot of the holiday pets and easily purchased pets.  I decided to power level my Ghostly Skull (found in the Dalaran sewers).   While power leveling him from level 1 I dropped in one of my higher level pets to protect just in case there were issues with taking on the wrong type of pet.

Leveling Bobtheskull (yep,  that's what I named him) took about an hour and a half.  The basic idea is to throw him quickly into the ball from the start,  let him have one round (and make sure he survives) then drop the hammer for one of the higher leveled pets.  After you win all of the pets that are used in combat receive the XP (and any bonus XP for the pet being a higher level). 

Profiting with Bobtheskull is where you have to learn the way your server works.  If you have a strong pet battling group then you can drop your newly minted level 25 on the market for the going rate plus a premium for the time it took to level your toon.  The more rare the pet is,  the higher the sales price the pet should be put in.  So a pet such as Lil' Bad Wolf from Karazhan should be placed at a higher cost than one that can be purchased and sold quickly.

There are two paths you can take when selling your pets.   You can go for the quick turnover on sales.  If it takes your pets an Avg of an hour of game time to level and you sell them quickly then you are filling the need quickly.  The problem with this theory is that there is a limited amount of players willing to pay for higher level pets.  Once that quota is full (the ones that actually have the money to spend on a luxury item) then the sales will dry up.

The other thought process is to make sure that the pet is going for a higher price.  Even at 10x the sales cost of a lower level pet.  This will put a higher profit in your pocket and still keep the demand intact.  Basic sales technique says that if your item is continually out of stock then you raise the price to meet the demand. 

You can expand these ideas to your farming for those that one an extra type of income.  Paying a premium for your farming group for resellable pets can allow you to keep a different revenue stream together without tying up all of your time.  The important thing is to keep an eye on how your pet sales market is functioning.   A poor pet battling server can have you placing highly profitable pets on the market and having to list them time and time again.  A strong market can allow you to resell pets and even look at flipping pets that are listed by unaware sellers of their value.

Expanding your profit pyramid into Pet Battle sales can give you another road to profit as your other professions begun to wind down with the end of the Mists of Pandaria expansion

Good Luck and Good Pet Hunting

Prime Time Professions
Retrain Your Gold Instincts:  Trigger Words
It's Patchy McPatch Day
Timeless Coins They Are A Changing
I'll Buy That For A Gold Piece
The Value of Garrosh BOA's
It's Monday Already?
Adopt A Warcraft Child Today!
Welcome To The Tuesdaydome 
Not My Server.. No No No
Maintenance Of Your Toon Army: Garrisons
The Art of Negotiation: Warcraft Style
Cooking For Fun and Profit

Prime Time Professions

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 10:52 AM

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Mommar here.

Get ready for a big shock.

Professions and crafting is one of the major backbone elements to your gold fortune.   Okay,  so it isn't that big of a shock.  The basic tenant is that if you don't craft you don't make gold.

I've shown over the months of talking to you that you could technically make gold without ever needing a crafting profession.  Between questing,  gathering and reselling you can make a large amount of gold.  Add onto this a network of crafters you can request items to be made and resold you never have to have a crafting profession of your own.

But then a man with a bad leg could technically walk around without a crutch.  It will be slow,  tedious and painful, but it is possible.   Every so often the popular question is 'what is the best gold making profession?".  It could easily be on repeat for every time it is spoken in forums and in game.  Players want to know what profession to jump to making their small fortune. 

But choosing that first profession is a personal choice.  Three rules that I set up when I tell anyone what profession they should choose.

1)   Choose a profession that looks beneficial to your character.

A freshly laundered Druid will get more benefits out of having a Leatherworker/Skinner than they will have a Blacksmith.  The same for a warrior running around with the tailoring profession.  This doesn't mean that you shouldn't ever have a profession that seems odd for the class,  but as a first profession look at what will be the most beneficial.

2)  Do not choose a crafting profession till you are close to the maximum level of the expansion pack.

I have always believed that the first two professions a player should take are gathering professions.  Mining/Herbalism/Skinning are all very strong base professions to have when you look to start building a gold fortune.  With the benefits of receiving experience points with each gathering node/skinning mob you get, the quicker leveling opportunities along with sales.

3)   Market conditions can tell a lot about what professions to choose.

Just looking at the market and seeing what sells will answer a lot of questions on the best profession that you take.  This is affected, especially if you have someone teaching you the ropes on what to sell and where to sell it.  Most players do not have a guru sitting around with them helping them to not make mistakes their first time out.  Looking at the conditions of the market should tell you what will be the best items to sell from the crafting professions.

4)  Have fun

The biggest item when choosing that first profession is to choose one that you will have fun with.  Even with the removal of profession quests there is a certain amount of enjoyment of crafting that plate item to strut around your home city to wear.  That uber awesome sword that people go ooo and ahh about.   Or just simply flexing your crafting muscle to raise your ilvl gear to shock and awe factor.  Making gold with professions, isn't just about putting items on the Auction House to sell.  Making gold becomes a new profession in itself.  If you are not having fun doing it,  then you will slowly drift away.

Keep in mind that choosing that first profession is a personal choice.  Everyone has an opinion about what to choose the same as everyone has a... well you know the rest of that saying.   Choosing your own profession path and your reasoning behind it is why every character is different, unique and enjoyable to come back to time and time again.

Good Luck and Good Profit Hunting


Retrain Your Gold Instincts:  Trigger Words
It's Patchy McPatch Day
Timeless Coins They Are A Changing
I'll Buy That For A Gold Piece
The Value of Garrosh BOA's
It's Monday Already?
Adopt A Warcraft Child Today!
Welcome To The Tuesdaydome 
Not My Server.. No No No
Maintenance Of Your Toon Army: Garrisons
The Art of Negotiation: Warcraft Style
Cooking For Fun and Profit

I'll Buy That For A Gold Piece

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 7:00 AM

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I love playing monopoly.   I've always used the grab corner areas and then start building strategy for my wins.  Thrills abound when the strategy works and heartbreaks occur when it happens to you.

One thing about monopoly is the idea of sore winners and sore losers.  At the end of it all, no-one truly wins at monopoly unless everyone has fun.

Playing the auction house has the same rules when it comes to winning and losing.  You can set your strategy and find out what works and what doesn't work, compared to other players.  That item that you get underbid on that you really, really wanted for your collection.  That sale that pushes you over your goal for the week only to just miss it because no one wanted to purchase it this week.

Both the auction house game and Monopoly can be very frustrating.  But that is also why it is one of the world's most popular games.  Frustration breeds learning how to play better.  Losing at games gives you the lessons needed to later on win.  What items sell and what items do not sell on your server of choice.

Many players choose not to challenge themselves with playing the auction house.  They will throw up a few items to pay for repairs, but anything beyond that is too much work.  Their prize just for participating is a small shiny trophy that everyone received at the game for showing up.  A gold goblin in training strives for the big trophy that only the highest achievers receive.

This week is going to be another week of winners and loser in the game of auction house trading.  I switched from just disenchanting everything in sight to dropping a lot of my green and blue gear on the auction house for sales.  Enchanting materials have dropped to a new low so it ends up making me more gold to sell the occasional pieces and then looking for vendor all of the rest at the end of the season.

Keeping up with my daily 'transmutes' from Leatherworking,  Engineering and Tailoring has kept me up on being able to profit both now as well as later.   The large bags (24 slot bags) produced both for standard items as well as specialty items are being sold at a good pace.  Netherweave bags have taken a drop down to regular levels so I have left those off the rotation for a few weeks to see if the market recovers.

As always,  I am still collecting specific items to resell with the next expansion.  Tailoring and Jewelcrafting still does not have a catch up mechanism announced so older materials will be in demand as players level their professions organically and not through the boosting mechanism.

With finishing another SOO flex 4 run for BOAs this week will be busy as we wait for the announcement of the new expansions beta key date.

Keep your head above water and keep off of my Boardwalk.

Good Luck and Good Profit Hunting


The Value of Garrosh BOA's
It's Monday Already?
Adopt A Warcraft Child Today!
Welcome To The Tuesdaydome 
Not My Server.. No No No
Maintenance Of Your Toon Army: Garrisons
The Art of Negotiation: Warcraft Style
Cooking For Fun and Profit
Cycle of Life
Road to WOD:   Finish Your Chores
Some Day I Will Learn
Garrosh Is My Friend
You Lost That Alpha Feeling
Too Many Coins On My Hand
We All Make Mistrakes
World Without The Auction House
Not So Smart Loot