Time to close businesses....

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 6:00 PM

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Mommar here

If you have been paying attention to your profit margins for the past couple of months,  they have been slowing being cut due to lack of demand.  PVP items,  armor patches,  epic weapons have been slowly drifting into unprofitable ranges.

Basic economics (not to be confused with Warcraft economics) give the idea that once something stops being profitable,  then stop selling it.    This simple philosophy works the same on your warcraft economic services.  Most items will ultimately sell on the AH,  but there comes a time that relisting them continually eats up your time that you could be doing other warcraft errands (farming,  looking for deals to resell at the beginning of Mists of Pandaria,  talk to your friends outside your apartment).

I already decided to close two of my sources of income til Mists of Pandaria,  keeping them restocked with selling items while profits continued to dwindle.   Consolidating my time and efforts into both collections of items for Mists of Pandaria,  and also continuing to list items that are still selling at a healthy profit (using my Zero Balance Investment Strategy).

Consolidation of your services now will allow you to hone your skills to razor sharpness.  Giving you a good base to rebuild your other professions.  Whether your base of operations will be enchanting,  or Jewelcrafting or even Engineering,  the money you make from your 'best' operation will allow you to expand the rest of your gold making ventures.   With all the information that is available on the future of professions during the MOP expansion,   taking an hour to study and prepare your strategy now will reap benefits once the panda invasion arrives.

Now don't get me wrong with the idea of closing everything and starting to suck your thumb.  I like the idea of income continuing to arrive in the mail as your prepping for MOP.   But cutting down the time spent on less profitable ventures gives you that necessary planning time to prepare for the burst economy that always occurs during the opening of an expansion.

Prepping for Mists of Pandaria can be just as exciting as the opening of the expansion itself.  Knowing you are ahead of the other 99% with your planning,  and your execution is just as exciting and taking out your first boss in an instance (okay,  maybe not quite as exciting but you get better loot from the AH).

Get ready for the next two weeks,  saddle up your pack horses and know where you're going to be at when the gates open.  Prepare to ride the wave of players wanting your items,  and waiting to give you their gold.

Good Luck and Good Hunting


Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at "@JMTCMommar" You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server, chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice. 


Previous Entries

Would You Save World of Warcraft?
Tips for the Junk Impaired
Its not being lazy,  it's being unmotivated
Lost Pets for MOP
Leveling Digging, Grass Picking O My
Is it Worth It?
MOP Prep:   Enchanters Pt 1
MOP Prep:  Enchanters Part Deux
MOP Prep: What to save for the Pandas Pt 1
MOP:  Powerleveling Leatherworking in the Vale
MOP Prep:   Prepping the Farmer
MOP Prep:  Get to the Points
MOP Prep:  Reduction in Inventory
MOP Prep: Stuff to Gold,  Gold to Stuff
MOP Prep: Setting the Lineup
MOP Prep: Setting up the Cartel
MOP Prep:   Zero Balance Investment

Lunar... looney, it will both drive you mad

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 5:34 PM

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Today is the start of the lunar festival.    One of the longest warcraft holidays of the year.  3 weeks of explosions of firecrackers,   kissing long lost elders feet for coins,  and lots of fancy dresses.

For the gold goblins,   there ends up being a couple of new twists this year.   Two new pets are introduced the [Lunar Lantern] for the alliance and [Festival Lantern] for horde players.

The interesting thing about these pets is that they are Bind on Equip.  So they can be traded (for now)
and also sold on the AH.    The color description on the pets also do not show a faction limit so
both can be seemingly owned by one toon.  A great opportunity for those having the ability to swap
across faction Auction houses for a big sale.  Or listing on the joint AH in either Tanaris or in Booty Bay.

Don't forget as well the Engineer patterns for the fireworks and the tailoring patterns for the dresses.

With cataclysm elders you have 84 possible coins as well as any you kept from previous years (one good reason to continue to do these even if you've completed the achievements.

Wowhead has a very detailed walkthrough with all of the different positions for the elders,  as well
as the patterns available here.

Enjoy the holiday,   and don't let the elune bite you too much.  

Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at  "@Dragonbearjoe" or leave a comment here.   You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server,  chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.

Straight to the hearth

Dont flip out

Go invest young man

Engineers do it with Power .. and Portals

Happy New Tear

Tip the light fantastic

Tis the season to be goblins

My rod shall comfort thee.. and make gold

Tip the light fantastic

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 8:00 AM

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I hope this entry finds you enjoyed the afterglow of the Christmas holidays.   Preparations for the New Years bash has  begun as well in your future.    Nothing like spending the new year nursing a hangover and exploring the world of gold making in Azeroth.

Something that both new and experienced crafters learn quickly;   there will be a time that you expect a large tip for your efforts.  Only to find that the person thanks you with a tip of the cap and a thank you.   Somehow not realizing just how much you invested in the pattern,  and leveling your profession to its maximum ability.    Their newly crafted items equipped and ready for action.  

The definition of a "tip" is a gratuity.  By definition it is optional to give a tip  if you have an item crafted for you.  Etiquette would say that if you have a task performed,  then a tip should be offered.   Problems arise many times when the 10g tip that used to be a large amount of money in game during the burning crusade expansion is no longer appropriate in cataclysm.   Inflation of quest rewards and easier availability to obtain gold has raised the expectation of crafters.   But many times those asking for the items have not changed with these times.   Multiple times i have taken the time to answer a request for an epic item crafting in trade,   only to be offered 5g in tip.   In my mind I jokingly will say 'I do not even go over to the other side of orgrimmar for less than 100g'.

If your tips have not been to your expectation,  it may be time to go ahead and explain that there is a crafting fee for your time and effort.   Sometimes where there is a large amount of competition for items (Rare Gem cuts etc) this might not be the best technique to use.   Finding yourself with one of the only trained crafters with a specific pattern would change the idea of asking for a 100g or more crafting fee.   Just be careful to know what your server population will support.  Making sure that you do not quickly drive yourself out of the market.

Supply and demand should be your main drive in understanding when to ask for a crafting fee.  And when to just invest your own mats and put the item up on the AH and not worry about non tipping customers at all.



Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at  "@Dragonbearjoe" or leave a comment here.   You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server,  chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.

Past articles by Mommar:

Tis the season to be goblins

My rod shall comfort thee.. and make gold

Your milage may vary

Would the owner of the saronite please stand up?

Stars are full of gold

You got your jewelcrafter in my alchemist

join the fun ... buy the t-shirt

Gold-Making Implications from the 4.3 PTR

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

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If you aren't familiar with the way Blizzard works, there are multiple levels of testing before a patch comes to the live servers. After internal testing, Blizzard releases the upcoming patch to the infamous PTR, or Public Test Realm. This is a place for them to test new things out, make changes and get player feedback. If you haven't already heard, the 4.3 PTR is up and running, and with it come some significant changes that will impact our gold-making businesses. If you haven't already read it, give Mommar's post a read for a first glance at the PTR.

Standard Disclaimer: Just because something is on the PTR, it doesn't mean it will make it to live servers. Things can and will still change. Case in point: the last week has seen many more additions and changes to the PTR.

So what does this mean for us? Well, let's dig in.

Direct Gold-Making Changes

Some changes have a very obvious impact on our gold-making. To summarize, here are some of the major things being reported:

• Chaos Orbs will no longer be soulbound. If Wrath is any indicator, this means everyone (not just crafters who can use them) will be able to roll on the orbs. Watch for them to start appearing on the Auction House shortly after the patch hits live servers. If you have a good stash, I would try using them up now while they're more valuable. I also won't be surprised if more recipes start requiring the orbs, which could bolster prices.
• Raw gems are no longer vendorable. Flux at Power Word: Gold posted about it recently. You should read his post for more analysis and information. My hunch is this is an oversight/bug by Blizzard, but maybe not. Perhaps the Jewelcrafting nerfs are not finished yet. I'm not panicking about it, but if you have a large stash of raw commons that you don't have anything else to do with and don't feel like cutting, you might want to vendor them before the patch if this goes live. For ideas on how to use the raw gems, check out Shockkmaister's post on the Obsidium Shuffle.
• Epic gems transmutable? Dataminers discovered that there will be alchemy transmutes for the epic gems. However, Kaliope logged in and couldn't find the spells on the Alchemy trainer, nor did they appear as a discovery from an existing transmute. Either Blizzard hasn't connected the dots yet, or the spells are in and won't be added until after a few months on live servers. Keep your eyes on this.
• PVP armor sets are being automatically upgraded again. Kaliope also confirmed that our existing PVP starter sets are being automatically upgraded to the new iLevel 377 versions. These are usually pretty solid sellers during the opening week, then settle into a sometimes profitable price point. Stock up the materials now and be ready to craft them upon logging in.

Indirect Gold-Making Changes

There are other changes made to the game that will impact our gold-making business as well. While in-direct, these might be more significant to track:

• Tier Gear is only available from raiding. The best armor for your class, that gives you a bonus based on wearing 2 or 4 pieces from the set at the same time will only be available as boss drops from the new Dragon Soul raid. No more buying that armor with Valor Points. However, to compensate for the lack of tier gear, more VP items will be available to cover the missing slots. Non-raiding characters will have the same number of items to gem/enchant as before, but raiders could conceivably enchant a non-tier chest, followed by their tier drop. 
• Looking For Raid will be added. Much like the dungeon finder, people will be able to join a queue to do a random Dragon Soul raid. More raids might be added later, but for now it's just the "current" raid in 4.3. Gear progression will now go Regular Dungeons >> Heroic Dungeons >> 4.3 Heroic Dungeons >> Raid Finder >> Normal Raid >> Heroic Raid. This adds a level of gearing that should help stabilize the gem/enchant market later into the patch. This is good news.
• Gear from the new dungeons will be iLevel 378. The linked article has an up-to-date as of posting list of gear in the new dungeons. These will be upgrades for anyone not raiding Firelands. All those troll pieces people have been getting will need to be upgraded. Even some normal Firelands raid gear might be "sidegrades" for people and will need enchanting and gemming. 
• Valor Point rewards are changing again. The current plan is to give 150 VPs from any heroic dungeon (from the original Cataclysm dungeons through the new 4.3 dungeons. Troll dungeons will be shortened to 4 bosses from 6 and placed in the same tier as the 4.0 dungeons. The new dungeons seem to be designed to be shorter as well. All this adds up to faster dungeon runs and more people capping Valor Points for the week, which will lead to more gear purchases. Initially, we'll also see a larger influx of Maelstrom Crystals from the new dungeons, which will lower the prices. The new Maelstrom Shatter spell for enchanters will allow you to convert each Maelstrom Crystal into two Heavenly Shards. After people get tired of the new dungeons, however, many will return to the older ones and the supply of Heavenly Shards vs. Maelstrom Crystals will start to balance out.
• New crafted epics were added, then updated. Mostly this is just an update to the existing items that were found and mentioned in Mommar's post linked above. Sockets have been added and their stats are a little higher. The patterns look to be obtained in the Dragon Soul raid and will require a raid-drop material to create, much like the patterns from Firelands did.

4.3 is shaping up to be another gold mine for those who prepare. How are you tracking all the changes? What sites would you recommend? Any tips for people who are preparing for the patch?

I consider myself a somewhat casual auctioneer. I can be found via Twitter @Aleithia3. I also like getting email at Aleithia AT jasonthedce DOT com. Send me your questions and I'll try to write about them on the site.

"The Gamblers" Guide to making Gold

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 8:00 AM

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Growing up in Iowa music was very important to me. Many times it would set my mood
for the day.  From listening to an old 8 track player (ask your parents if you're not sure what
that really is) to slipping a cassette tape into a player.   Even today I will add an mp3 to my Ipod
to drive me through the day.

But even in music,  we can learn lessons.  Some of them are lessons we already know.   But then
some can be relearned as the days go by.

Playing the auction house is very much like a poker game.  But it goes by many of it's own rules.
And where many will assume you're playing against another auction goblin.   In reality you're  playing against the auction house and your own mental accuity.   Let's go over the rules that we can learn:

1)  Know when to hold em'


Everyone has run into that day where the bloodletting of undercutting is at an all time high.
One person lists a Inferno ruby at 110g.   Next person lists it at 109g and so on til it gets
to it's barely profitable line of 90g per.    But there is no doubt that  when all of those cheap gems are sold you can get your money,  and more on the weekend if you just drop those extras in the bank for one or two days.   Hold onto them when everyone has burnt through their stacks and you are the only gem game in town.    Sometimes it's even profitable to see 4 or 5 gems at a low price and flip the market.   Grab them at 90g and then flip everything up to 175g per.   One or two sales and then the rest of your sales are profit.   Gamblers always have an ace in the hole and a deuce up their sleeve.

2)  Know when to fold em'

Looking at the auction house market.   Question yourself, what raw materials can be converted to finished products for sale?  Where an obsidium bar may not sell on it's own,  your blacksmith can create  folded obsidium.   Ask a premium price and you have just made double your investment.   Same with "folding" your mats into scrolls instead of just listing them in groups of raw materials.   Have extra Savage Leather to sell?    Craft 10 of these to 1 piece Heavy Savage Leather and list it for twice the price.   The Gambler knows when to rake in the profits.

3)  Know when to walk away

Someone has come into one of your favorite markets (Inscription is a great example) and listed all
of the glyphs at 20g per glyph.   Rubbing your head and looking at your Darkmoon Faire Cards questioning "how can I make money at that price?".   Answer yourself this way:  walk away from
inscription and let them burn their stock out.   Concentrate on mastering a new branch of inscription
(Crafted Offhands,  PVP Relics,  Darkmoon Faire Cards) and you will be back on top,  with the added
money making opportnity.    The Gambler always knows there is a new poker game opening somewhere.

4)  Know when to run


Between visits to the Auction House,   Run an instance.   4.3 has introduced that Chaos Orbs will be
BOE,   giving it a large demand for those that want items crafted.    Buying and selling Chaos Orbs
will be a big boost in the economy as people go to craft epic items.    Run instances now so that you
have a stockpile of them to drop on the AH.    Have you been running Direbrew boss?    Gearing up your alternate toons?   Fill that idle space with even the idea of selling your tank and pocket healer
for 100g a run.    With 4.3 endgame approaching people will be looking more and more to have their
toons geared up.    The Gambler always knows when it's time to get a few more gold for your time
and effort.


5)   You never count your money,  when your sitting at the table

BBD should be your new motto (Bigger,  Better Deal).   Offer packages of the PVP gear.  Full Bloodthirsty leather gear for 6k.   Full Ornate pyrium gear for 7k.   Have you checked the PTR's for the new recipes?    Know what volatiles to save to craft those recipes right at the restart of the server?  
Your only as good as your last deal,  and there is always time for a Gambler to make another deal.

6)  There will be time enough for counting when the deal is done


At the end of the day,  did you make enough gold?   What is your goal?  Make 1000g an hour?
Buy your entire raid group Mecha-hogs?    Set your goals,  meet your goals,  then move onto your
next goal.    Your making gold at a higher rate than 90% of the server population.    Gamblers know when to tip their cap and move onto the next game.

It's all in fun,   is there any new information provided?  Of course not.   But in the long run,  gold making is supposed to be fun.  Entertainment is why we pay the money every month.  And in this case,   it becomes a personal quest on why we play the auction house.  Why we announce our crafting wares in trade chat.  Why we run hastily to get that 25g tip for crafting an item.   Performing our trade chat version of Mister Burns swimming in his millions of gold to entertain the masses?  Why we will do anything for the sake of more toon pocket money?

Tune in next week for how Metallica makes me money.   Unless Lars sues me too.    Maybe Not....

Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at  "@Dragonbearjoe" or leave a comment here.   Would love to know how your experience with this tip works out.

Gold-Making Opportunities from Firelands Nerf

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

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Unrelated Update: Lead Systems Designer Greg Street says epic gems will be dropping from raids in 4.3.

Blizzard recently announced a significant nerf to the Firelands raid:

With the final showdown against Deathwing approaching, we’ve been keeping a close eye on players' progress through the current Firelands raid content. Before patch 4.3 is released, we want groups who are working on Heroic-difficulty content to be able to get as close to Ragnaros as possible, and we want players who are tackling normal progression to be able to experience as many of the encounters as they can. To achieve these goals, we’ll be toning down the difficulty of both normal and Heroic raids through hotfixes in the coming weeks. In general, we plan to reduce health and damage of all raid bosses in both normal and Heroic Firelands by around the same percentage we brought difficulty down for the original Cataclysm raids when Rage of the Firelands (patch 4.2) was released.

We're looking forward to seeing more groups of players face off against the firelord in the weeks ahead. However, before we make these changes, we want to give everyone a final shot at the bosses at their current difficulty level -- so this is a heads up that we’re planning to applying the difficulty hotfixes beginning the week of September 19.

What does this mean for making gold? How do we profit off this and other content changes that might come up in the future? Click through to find out.

Thinking Through Game Updates
Why is Blizzard making this change? What's their purpose? What are they trying to achieve? Understanding Blizzards motives and goals will help us find gold-making opportunities when game changes like this happen. Up until this point, Blizzard has seemed satisfied with the progression rate for raiders in this patch. But I suspect that their internal data is suggesting that the rate of progress has slowed since the patch was released. Normally we don't see nerfs of this level until a new tier of content is made available.

This signals to me that Blizzard is interested in more people experiencing the raid content. Couple this with a recently leaked interview about patch 4.3's raid finder adding a new (lower) level of difficulty for raids and you can start to see one aspect of Blizzard's plan to combat subscriber loss: Get more people participating in end-game content by making it more accessible.

So how do we profit on this?
Raid-related business is going to surge with the nerf. Existing raid groups that are stuck are going to get help progressing. People who haven't been raiding because PUGs (Pick-Up Groups) were hard to come by will start to raid more as the content becomes easier. This will lead to an uptick in consumables (potions, flasks, food) on the front end of raids and item enhancements (gems, enchants) on the back end for all the new loot.

The Firelands Raid has the following gear (complete list) types available:

• 2 cloaks
• 6 chests
• 8 boots
• 3 rings
• 7 gloves
• 7 helms
• 2 off-hands
• 5 main-hand weapons
• 7 one-hand weapons
• 8 two-hand weapons
• 4 ranged weapons
• 1 shield (Tank)
• 6 legs
• 5 necks
• 6 shoulders
• 9 trinkets
• 4 belts
• 10 wrists

That's a total of 100 pieces of gear, most of which can be enhanced in some way (either gems or enchants). Tier pieces (that gear for your class/spec that gives a 2 and 4-piece bonus, consisting of head, shoulder, hands, wrist, legs) are a high priority for people to purchase with valor points, so my guess would be that non-tier slots will need more enchants and gems. If you see popular gems or enchants selling for low right now, you might consider purchasing them and reselling after the nerf.

In addition to the gear, there are also drops like Living Embers and crafting patterns. Expect the prices of embers, the patterns and the gear from the patterns to decrease as the supply increases. Also expect the price of Bind-on-Equip epics to decrease as more are dropping with the higher number of people getting into the raid. If you're sitting on some, try selling them soon before the price drops. You might also want to keep an eye on trade chat and the auction house for those same BoE epics at highly reduced prices. Up until now, experienced raiders and epic trash farmers have been doing the selling. With less experienced raiders, there's a great chance they'll underprice their items.

What other opportunities arise because of this game change? How do you see this effecting markets? Any specific plans to capitalize on this?

I consider myself a somewhat casual auctioneer. I can be found via Twitter @Aleithia3. I also like getting email at Aleithia AT jasonthedce DOT com. Send me your questions and I'll try to write about them on the site.

Going Retro

Posted by Shockkmaister at 8:00 AM

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Most of the times people earn money by trading items of the latest expansion. Right now, the latest expansion is cataclysm, and people are making and selling level 85 goods. They have a stable and big market. It's a safe way to earn a considerable amount of money. What most people don't realise is that items of past expansion did not disappear, or lose all their value. Trading with these items is a bit more risky business, but they can also mean great profit. Let's see how it works.

Click to Continue Reading...

I Can't Get Past XXX,XXX K

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

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Stuck... Stuck... STUCK!!!!

Yes, it's the dreaded "stuck" scenario that you all hear so much about from fellow players and maybe you yourself have experienced. I wrote about dealing with being stuck in the past, but I thought that today I'd share some more thoughts on the matter since inflation has changed so much about the way players accumulate gold in cataclysm.

XXXX Gold

Have you found yourself saying "I can't get past a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand gold"? With inflation these days, I doubt that people at level 85 cannot get past a hundred gold, and most will probably get past a thousand with questing. If you are stuck at a thousand, you need to really consider the idea that you are probably spending too much. Cut back and see what happens. Just doing dailies should be enough to cover the base expenses of your character as well as normal upgrades to gear. If you want to go beyond that point then you need to learn the auction house.

Addicted to Buying

Perhaps you know how to use the ah and you are getting stuck because you buy too much in order to make more gold. Guess what people, if you are always putting your excess earnings into buying new items then you will never have more gold than you started with. Yes, your net value will be higher and higher each day, but the number of coins in your pocket will not grow alongside this number. If you find yourself in this situation, then please, try not buying for a week. If you have the stockpiles to survive more than a week without buying new items then do it and you'll be amazed at how much money you pull in. Go back to what you were doing the next week and then try to get into a more balanced ratio of buying and selling that perhaps even favors selling over buying.

Poor Investments

Another reason you could be stuck making gold is because you make poor investments or you don't utilize your professions correctly. Re-evaluate your strategies and go elsewhere to find additional opinions on the matter. I've seen people who shuffle dead wrong but when they are told the correct way to do it they tend to ignore the advice and continue failing. Be open to new ideas and try everything at least once until you get into a system that works on your server.

Ask Questions!

For more professional advice on professions and making gold, as well as access to a forum where you can ask questions to many experience players, try the Cataclysm Gold Forums.