Something Stinks In The Air

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 8:00 AM

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Mommar here.

What a great way to start the week.   Everyone is getting ready for the new patch 5.2 (Whenever it's released.   Have to love Blizzards 'it will come out when it's ready' policy).

Also getting to start this Monday with the Love Is In The Air event (or what I refer to as the love stinks event).    This is one of the grinds for items that takes time and really can't be done in just a few days.  Especially if you're wanting one of the mounts available.

There really isn't anything new with the event.   Most of it involves finishing a quick quest in your home city,  and another one down in Uldum.  You'll notice that they didn't update the mobs in Uldum so at level 90 you'll be smacking around level 83-84 bad guys.   Unfortunately this also removes a semi decent grinding spot for your creation of Lovely Charms.   There was much fear and trembling in the blogosphere that Disenchanting the necklaces from the event boss would drive down the price of materials.  The powers that be hot fixed this issue so the items aren't disenchantable anymore.

There is a small (and I mean small) possibility that the patch comes out this week  With patch 5.2 all of your valor points get converted to Justice points (and Conquest turn into honor points).   Patch 5.2 introduces a new tier, so no one gets a head start to the new items.  So if the conversion will put you above your maximum justice points (4000) then it will be a good idea to buy something from the current tear to keep from the points converting to gold (never a good option).

With new areas,  new quests,  new raids there will be a huge demand for enhancement items.   We will be taking a look at different areas to be prepared for before the patch hits.   But keep picking up your items you use for your enchants,  patches and saleable items.  Also Leatherworkers and Blacksmiths might want to look to dump some of your crafted PVP inventory since new more powerful PVP patterns will be available with the new patch.

Enjoy your monday.   and as always....

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

Get a Grip On Your Pricing
Patch 5.2:  Prepping for the rush
How Do You Effect The Market?
He's So Great He's A Fivefather
Patch 5.2:   Farming For Rep.. With A Farm?
Archealogy:   Digging up stuff for gold
Phoning It In....
Daily Quota Buying
Who Are You Feeding Sales Too?
Taking Advantage of 5.2 PVP Gear Changes
Patch 5.2 Prep:   Will players be returning?
Sales Triage
Lost In The Guild Traffic
Finally the end of Cataclysm
Preparing For the Future:   Alts 101
Anonymous Gold Goblin 

Long Term vs Short Term Profits

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 1:05 PM

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Your Friendly Neighborhood Mommar here.

We're all looking forward to the Panda Invasion with Mists of Pandaria opening its gates.   Every expansion brings new opportunities and new ways of making gold.  Along with the classics that bring in the gold into the coffers.

Players are centering in on areas of market exploitation with new players leveling toons,  as well as experienced players who want to try something new.  All of them need items,  items that the gold goblins on each server want to sell.

But with every investment you must look at when will it truly sell to make a profit?   Certain items will be a no brainer when it comes to sales.   Cloth,  Ore,  Bars,  Dust and products that are in high demand  will sell quickly and often.  But some items it will be different,  because they are dependant on how quickly new players will have the excess gold to spend.

Many players are chugging along in the Cataclysm expansion,  picking up items such as pets,  and vanity items.  The adage of  'if they really want it,  they already own it' is the bane of any gold goblin. The truth is that many investment items we are looking to sell,  will be dependant on how much gold new players have.   The expansion of markets of the old world will need this influx of players and their demand for products.

Players are becoming more and more intelligent when it comes to making gold in Warcraft.  There is an influx of quality guides and forums that can give you step by step on how to make gold.   The Trade Skill Master add-on even creates the opportunity to Semi-Automate gold making with professions.   Gold will become more and more prevalent

The twist is that many investments,  especially Vanity items such as pets will end up being a longer term investment.  There will be sales of course to established players who on flights of fancy buy an item they want.  But the new sales will take a longer time to become available.

When looking at your investments,  categorize them into who your target sales will.  Planning based on time and gold availability  will set you up for more sales over a longer period of time

Good Luck and Good Hunting


Previous Entries

Two Accounts.. Twice the Profit
Thanks Uncle Scrooge McBlizzard
Goblins, Pandas and Blood Elfs O My
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
The Secret For Investing for MOP
I know what the Rock is cooking (in PVP Gear)
How Much Effect Do Bloggers Have?
The Death and Life of Truegold
Time vs Gold Investment
Return to your Essence
Harmony - We Don't Need Harmony
Jewelcrafting dailies or something
Its All Attitude
It's the Little Things
The Doh Club
Psychology of Selling

The Secret of INvesting for MOP

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 1:44 PM

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We have approximately 45+ days til the release of Mists of Pandaria.  Exciting things are on their way including pandas and monks and all sorts of new toys.

If you read other journals as well as this one,  you've noticed that writers have given you good (and the occasional bad) suggestions on what to invest.   I'm no different in that regard,  next week will have my master list of what to invest in each profession.   Including where I've put my gold.

But one thing I do enjoy is to give you knowledge to come up with your own investment strategies.  Not just so that you can advance your gold making goals.  But also because I believe that one person cannot know everything there is to know about investment and gold making.  So the more ideas that are thrown around the better.

So where is the number one way of knowing what to invest in?   You should ask yourself who is going to be your customer.  Who is going to want the majority of your Material investments.  The answer is very simple.  It will be the players leveling professions.

Now after you have said duh a couple of times,  there is an explanation.  It's easy to identify who your target buyers are.  But the difficult part can be what to sell them.   How do I know what to sell them?  Enter the power of internet searches.  Type in the word "Powerleveling Leatherworking and you will get a good listing of suggested paths to leveling Leatherworking to 525.    Replace Leatherworking with any other profession and you will get a cornucopia (quarter word for the day) of suggestions.

Now the one I always use is at http://www.wow-professions.com/.   Click at the top for Profession Leveling Guides and select the discipline.  Let's use Blacksmithing for our example.   Right there is a list at the top of just how much you will need to follow that guide to level the profession to 525.  Viewing that listing gives you exactly what to invest to reach new players.   You can decipher just what parts will not be useful.  Some items will not end up being in demand or the profit margins are low.   But certain items in that list should spark your imagination.   Investment in Ore/Bars is an easy step into selling.  Whether your mining them yourself or just setting up for a long resale market.

The other thing this allows you to do is to set up a leveling package.   You have an excellent idea here of just how many materials it would take to level specific professions.   A little math and market value will give you a cost to collect these items.  Once MOP hits,  reselling for a substantial profit.   Players will look for the easiest way to level professions.  They won't think of anything of dropping 15-25k to be able to powerlevel.   All for the investment of as little as 5k at the right time.

This is just one of the many things that can be used out of a little information.  You can see certain areas in profession leveling that will be bottlenecked.  The rarity of certain necessary items will drive the prices higher.   Rare means profit to the gold goblin.  And it's one of our favorite words to hear.

Now is the time to look for information and extract what you can.  Profession leveling guides give you a good view of what will be in demand.   And demand is what gets the gold goblins pulse higher.

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" 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. 

Previous Entries

I know what the Rock is cooking (in PVP Gear)
How Much Effect Do Bloggers Have?
The Death and Life of Truegold
Time vs Gold Investment
Return to your Essence
Harmony - We Don't Need Harmony
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
Jewelcrafting dailies or something
Its All Attitude

It's the Little Things

The Doh Club

Psychology of Selling

MOP Prep: Zero Balance Investment

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 1:31 PM

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Markets for items on World of Warcraft fluctuate depending on multiple variables.   Players questing wanting better equipment.  Players raiding wanting the best in slot items.   Vanity items for those that like to stroll around major cities getting looked at.  Even players who look for the best in transmogrify to get that awesome look.

But as an expansion starts to show it's age,  items start to lose their luster and become more and more difficult to sell.  This isn't a new concept since I have been saying this for a little bit now in these pages.  Players dumping inventory that they do not feel will sell at exorbitant prices.   Auction hunters looking to get as much gold recouped out of items they invested in.

As I was buying multiple stacks of Elementium Ore for a good price on my main server last night,  i was mentally taking inventory of what could be done with them.   I could take the ore and prospect it,   saving some of the gems back and producing materials for disenchantment (Obsidium/Elementium Shuffle 101).   Other options were to send these items to my miner to manufacture bars and sell at a premium.  Even the option of storing these back to sell at a later date (yes it was that good of a deal per stack).

So what was my gold goblin mind to do?    These truly is the mental battle that has to be done every time I invest in a commodity.   One of my main goals for long term storage is to make sure that I have a zero balance in all my investment.

Now how does zero balance investment work you might ask?  It's very simple.   Lets say I buy 100 carnelian gems for resell later on at 12g a piece.  My investment is 1200g.   I take 39 of those and convert them into Carnelian Spikes.   This gives me 13 Carnelian Spikes that I can sell on the open market,  or send to my disenchanter for conversion and selling on the market.  The proceeds of the sales can easily recoup my investment of the initial 1200g (also including the cost of the Jeweler's Setting).   This sets me having 61 carnelian gems that I have a zero investment in.   Sometimes these numbers have to be adjusted depending on the market but the principles still remain the same.

Also all of your raw materials can be converted in the same way.  A tailor investing in Netherweave Cloth will craft Netherweave Bags with some of the investment to cover the cost of the initial investment.   Where this activity will not work with all investments,  it can be applied to many items including off hand items and even item turn ins.  The usage of this is only limited by your base knowledge of products that are selling,  and the professions that you currently have.

Expand on these Zero Balance concepts to place more gold into your pocket and more opportunities in your future.

Good Luck and Good Hunting


Past Entries

Slow and Steady
Behold the Reputation Rush
Never Play Poker with Orcs
Monday Morning Blues
Jewelcrafting dailies or something
Out of the Market Too Early????
Welcome to the Cult
Born to be Mild
Its a Date

Its All Attitude

It's the Little Things

The Return of Portal

The Rod Giveth and Blizzard tTaketh Away

The Doh Club

Wowcations

Psychology of Selling

Value for the Buck

The Return of Vendor Prices

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

Jewelcrafting Dailies.... or Something Similar

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 9:00 AM

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The powers that be at the Blizzard control center have released the second part of their master plan for the Jewelcrafting profession.   Along with the Zen Jewelcrafting token there will be a daily mechanic to produce the possibility of new patterns.

The whole thing seems to be revolving around having 3 of a specific color of raw gem.  After you have gathered this,  then you perform the spell based on the color of the gem.

There also is a wildcard Jewelcrafting transmute based on the BOP item Spirits of Harmony.  The Transmute called Secret of the Stone ignores the normal Jewelcrafting timer so it can be repeated based on how many Spirits of Harmony you have (it requires 3 each time)   So that gives you the possibility of multiple attempts to gain access to new patterns.  Look for a lot of money to be sunk in this,  and the base gems to get expensive from the start.   Once the new Elementium Shuffle for MOP is found,  this is going to be a huge advantage to Jewelcrafters.

The BOP nature of the Spirits of Harmony crafting material also gives a huge advantage to players that quest and enter into dungeons.   It allows them to be able to craft items that other players can't due to the requirement.

The target gems needed for the Jewelcrafting transmutes will be:

Wild Jade (Green)

Vermillion Onyx (Orange)

Imperial Amethyst (Purple)

Primordial Ruby (Red)

Rivers Heart (Blue)

Sun's Radiance (Yellow)

With the big three gems coming from the Red Gem Camp

Delicate Primordial Ruby (+160 Agility)
Brilliant Primordial Ruby (+160 Int)
Bold Primordial Ruby (+160 Strength)

These will be the three that will be in demand the most.  So grabbing these as quickly as possible and posting products for sale will be your first priority.

As with any new mechanic,   something like this could change in a moments notice.   Including whether there will be a guarantee recipe each timer period,  or a "chance" at one.    Both the token purchasing and the random pattern generator option will allows players to get into jewelcrafting quickly.

Good Luck and Good Hunting


Past Entries

Out of the Market Too Early????
Welcome to the Cult
Born to be Mild
Its a Date

Its All Attitude

It's the Little Things

The Return of Portal

The Rod Giveth and Blizzard tTaketh Away

The Doh Club

Wowcations

Psychology of Selling

Value for the Buck

The Return of Vendor Prices

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

Out of the market too early?

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 1:35 PM

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The onslaught has begun when it comes to inventory.  With the announcement of Mists of Pandaria released in September,  players are emptying all their reserves into the market.   They do not want to get caught with their proverbial gold pants down.

This is where your training and experience will come into play.   As markets start to become less viable,  there will still be demand for some items.   Raw materials will still have some market acceptance as players finish off their crafting queues to reach their maximum level.  Inventory dumped in one area can easily become saleable items now,  or later down the road.

My personal favorite is the Jewelcrafting area.   Players are dumping their extra gems that were produced with the Elementium shuffle.   Leaving inventory at low costs and driving down prices.

But remember,  you have an army of new players that will need leveling gems.  They will also want to use gems for turn ins for their Jewelcrafting dailies.   Plus those gems are easily converted into materials that will still sell if you have access to an enchanter.  Even the lowly Zephyrite will be useful for turn ins as Mists of Pandaria begins to mature on the servers.  So instead of just vendoring everything or selling at a steep discount.  Look to see what can be converted or the chance later on in the market.

Volatiles will still be needed as MOP continues on.  Players will want to level their professions,  and make an occasional item.   So investing in Volatile fire for 2g a piece could easily double your investment down the road.    Gold Goblins never turn down a chance for profit.

Also look for guild banks to come up for sale.  Players deciding not to return to the game after their wowcations.    Raiding guilds no longer viable,  jumping on a quick buy of a guild can give you a large amount of items to profit from.

Where markets are slow to buy,  there is a trickle down for large items that can continue on through the expansions.  Mounts,  pets and vanity items become big sellers as players sort out space in their banks,  and look to entertain themselves.

Keep your goblin eyes open,  and be on top of the markets.

Good Luck and Good Hunting


Past Entries

Welcome to the Cult
Born to be Mild
Its a Date

Its All Attitude

It's the Little Things

The Return of Portal

The Rod Giveth and Blizzard tTaketh Away

The Doh Club

Wowcations

Psychology of Selling

Value for the Buck

The Return of Vendor Prices

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

cleaning out your closets

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:56 PM

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Being less than 6 months from the release of the Mists of Pandaria expansion,   the scramble is on for getting ready as a gold goblin.   Structuring what items to store,  what items to produce to eek out that last amount of gold that's available before people stop buying crafted items.

This is also a good time to restructure your storage system.  Especially if you are holding more than one guild bank in your personal cartel.   Keeping a well organized bank,  including like items or items for specific professions will make things a lot easier time wise.   You will know exactly what toon to swap to, and what tab holds the item you need.

Also with this change in organization you can keep track of supplies.   there are addons such as Ark Inventory that will make the viewing easier.    Setting your cursor on an item in your main inventory,  or even on the Auction house will give you a report on any similar items you carry across your toon storage.   Even covering the usage of guild banks as well as personal banks.   This will also allow you to do directly to your storage center that contains what you need quicker,   and with less hassle.

One other item to look to reorganize in this "down" time between the end of cataclysm and the beginning of Mists is what professions your toons carry.   Mists is identifying to have an extra character slot (at least in the betas) which will allow at least one more game character per account.   This gives you a prime opportunity to add another alchemist or another jewelcrafter to double your potential for profits.   Some players have set up a multiple amount of alchemists to allow multiple transmutes,   and multiple amounts of items on the market.  With jewelcrafting it gives you the option of multiple amounts of jewelcrafting tokens,   getting the prime cuts at a much faster rate.

Also your reorganization should include changes in placement of your toon.   Do you have a game character in Dalaran to pick up items for resell from there?    What about one in Tanaris giving you access to the joint AH to pick up items cross faction?   Do you have a hearth set in Shattrath ready to do a recipe run?   Placement of your toons across the continents can make things easier for not just crafting,  but also for farming and resell.

The last thing to look at in your closet cleaning is your addons and game files.   As the game continues,  we all uninstall addons,  leaving just the base files to sit there.   Or stop using addons and forget they are even there.   cleaning out your game files,   and even to the idea of downloading a fresh copy of the game and reinstalling your addons can increase not only your gaming speed,  but help to eliminate some of the possible errors when it's time to play with panda pride.

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 "@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.


5 habits of successful goblins

Its all in the bag

They call me the mad hatter


Should I sell or should I use


Upgrade your game, and your sales


Cruising around

Didn't I just read that there?

You talk to much... losing the sale

Five things you should be selling: Cooking Edition

Five things you should be selling: Engineer Edition

Managing Inventory as Cataclysm Winds Down

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

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How do you calculate the cost of an item? Without getting into opportunity costs, let's assume all raw materials have a cost associated with them, even the self-farmed items. We'll use Dragonscale Leg Armor as an example as it only has two components: 1 Pristine Hide and 20 Blackened Dragonscales.

Figuring out the cost is easy enough for the Dragonscales: look up the data on the Auction House, your favorite pricing addon (ie, Trade Skill Master, Auctioneer or Auctionator) or at an independent auction site (The Undermine Journal, AH Spy). All will return different prices most likely, but you'll be able to get a good sense of what it's worth.

Pristine Hides are a bit trickier, because they can be purchased at three different levels:

• Buying 50 Savage Leather, converting them into 10 Heavy Savage Leather and trading for a Pristine Hide from the leatherworking supply vendors.
• Buying 10 Heavy Savage Leather and trading it in.
• Buying 1 from the Auction House.

So you calculate a cost for that Pristine Hide, add it to the Dragonscales and you've got the cost of one Dragonscale Leg Armor. Except it's a little more complicated than that. Here's why: raw goods aren't always worth what you paid for them, but rather what it would take to replace them.

Prior to patch 4.3, I purchased large amounts of Savage Leather to turn into leg enchants for sale after the patch. My average price was around 3.75 gold/leather, or 187.5 gold/Pristine Hide. The Blackened Dragonscale cost me around 14 gold each, or 280g/stack. Add in the cost of the hide, and I was able to make the armors for 467.5g each. Post-patch, they were selling for roughly 800g on average after the initial surge in pricing, for a profit of 333.5g. Not too shabby.

The problem is that replacing them costs much more now. Savage Leather is sitting around 6g on average (300/hide) and Blackened Dragonscale is actually down a bit at 13.75g or 275/stack. The cost of producing them now is 575g and the average sale price has dropped to around 700g. That's a profit of ~125g—Still nice, but not as good.

Of course, right now there's not a real problem because I'm still making a profit on the leg armors. But what if prices for finished goods have dropped below the cost of your materials? This is a very real possibility the longer 4.3 lasts before Mists of Pandaria comes out. Raid Finder has been great for business, but soon the large uptick in business will fade and prices will begin to dip lower and lower. So what to do?

Well, I've not been as aggressively restocking my large supply materials (Leather, Ores, Herbs) as aggressively, instead waiting for prices to drop and my inventory to dwindle. Some items will continue to hold value into MoP, but many won't. Rather than gamble on a large overstock of something, I'd rather use up my inventory and then restock as needed.

I'm also only restocking my limited supply items (enchanting mats) in small batches to better control my costs. The last thing I want to do is purchase 500 Maelstrom Crystals at 200g each, only to see them drop back down to 150 or 125 as more gear from raids and 5-mans starts getting sharded again.

The Cataclysm is far from over. Best case scenario, MoP arrives in May or June. More likely it's August or as late as December. But with the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, declining subscriber numbers and Dragon Soul fatigue soon to set in, it's time to start thinking about ending in a good position to start the next big surge with the release of Mists of Pandaria.