Do you ever put gold into a random idea you saw online because well, someone told you to?
Yes, I'm talking MMO-Champion down to the random selfproclaimed expert you find on any old blog (including myself on this one).
Well do you? When I say "Netherweave Bags R Gre4t!!!11!" do you go off and buy cloth at any price and then flood the auction house with 50 bags? Well then, you're in luck because this article is for you!
The reason you shouldn't follow a blogger's opinion word for word when it comes to making gold is that we do not include every ounce of nuiance you require to make the strategy work 100% of the time. Sure, under the conditions we talk about in our articles, yeah, the strategy works great, but on your server things will often be different! Instead of following the strategy to the letter, you should think about why the strategy works in the first place for the blogger who is talking about it.
Let's take those netherweave bags for example.
Netherweave bags are my absolute favorite way to make gold. Why? Because they sell on every server I've tried to sell them on. There I go again, writing as if your server is the same as mine! Let's get into the why behind the sale, shall we?
First off, identify the materials for the item in question: Netherweave Bags. You need 1 runethread and 20 netherweave cloth (1 stack) to make each bag. Not to mention it takes 10 seconds to craft the damn thing (buff plz blizzard?). So if you can buy the mats for half the market price of the bags it is probably worth your time to craft them right? Well, at this very moment that might not be the case. Maybe you will only be able to find the mats cheap enough on a saturday morning and never on a thursday evening. Plan ahead and wait for the price to be right.
That's the buying end, let's talk selling. Do you flood with all your items or do you learn the market slowly by only posting a few each time and watching to see how many sell and when they sell? You may find that you can sell 100 bags on the weekend but only 75 throughout the work week. Maybe it's the opposite on your server! You will have to do the leg work.
You see, we bloggers already did the leg work and now we're running off to post another tip assuming that you will do the leg work as well.
Remember to start learning and stop running from strategy to strategy.
Have you ever followed a strategy and had it backfire on you?
(By the way, do you know there are tutorials at the top left hand side of the site?)
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22 comments: on "It's Your Gold, Your Decision... But..."
Thoriadok said... January 27, 2011 at 8:46 AM
Actually, the bag needs 20 netherweave cloth, not 20 runecloth, to craft it.
Smudger said... January 27, 2011 at 8:54 AM
Very good post Markco. I always try to stress the words "on my server" or "check your servers prices" when blogging on flips and gold making ideas.
I think one of the biggest blind faith buys was the saronite ore at the end of wrath. Many people just bought it up not really knowing why, emphasising your point.
Markco said... January 27, 2011 at 9:01 AM
Woopsies, thanks Thoriadok.
Vince said... January 27, 2011 at 9:17 AM
I'll have to second Smudger on the saronite thing, and almost on the stockpiling thing in general. I have about two guild bank tabs full of saronite (and I'm assuming that's pretty low for a lot of people), and I've yet to do anything with it. Though since I did buy it below vendor value, I'm not really concerned. And since I'm planning a little xmuting experiment comparing titanium xmute to shadowspirit xmute, it'll actually turn out quite well!
Another stockpiling tip I sorta blindly followed was low level epics. I started snatching up every one I could find for around 100g. Though that's actually been paying off, as I'm slowly selling them back at 500g each!
Cea said... January 27, 2011 at 9:19 AM
Ok... Now what am I to do with the stacks of runecloth I ran out and bougth cause Markco siad... LOL
Skab said... January 27, 2011 at 9:20 AM
Also, the cast time to create the bag isn't 10 seconds.
The time to craft the bag is 45 seconds.
So, yes, it's a painful thing to craft 100 bags.
Factor that into the price you list at.
Kammler said... January 27, 2011 at 9:27 AM
Learned my lesson early in my WoW career but not on someone else's tip. It was my own fault.
I spent about half my gold on a bunch of uncut gems that seemed like a good buy. It took me weeks to resell them and I wasn't able to make other, better purchases because I was almost broke.
I still carry a Chalcedony in my bags to this day as a reminder.
Check the temperature before diving in.
Good post, and as usual, solid advice.
Unknown said... January 27, 2011 at 10:41 AM
It seems everyone is off when it comes to crafting time. First of all the 4 bolts needed take 2 seconds each. Then on top there is the 15 sec craft time for the bag itself. Thats 23 seconds per bag in crafting time from start to finish.
Ron said... January 27, 2011 at 12:52 PM
The netherweave bag didn't work for me for a while actually. My previous server was pretty low-population so there weren't enough farmers to make it worth it. With the inflated prices of Cataclysm, they're worth making again.
I'll usually make between 5-7g profit on each bag, and I can only really put 5 bags up at a time. So while its steady income, my tailor isn't going to be retiring in a mansion any time soon.
Anonymous said... January 27, 2011 at 12:53 PM
I've found on my low-population server prices are often irrational, because it can be hard to move items at even great prices. Supply is greatly outstripping demand, and ores frequently sell for below their prospect-cut-and-vendor price.
For example, I have a miner, JC, and enchanter. Even though I can snag plenty of ore that could be converted to bars, gems, blue/green jewelry/fist weapons, enchanting mats and/or enchant scrolls, you can only put so much on the market without crashing it dramatically.
For example: in such a market, it might make sense to sell uncut gems for a fraction of the cut version's price, because it's another item you can list and still profit from.
If I decide to enter into a market, I have to take into account the impact my presence will have, because I would be one of the few people on the server working that niche.
Silverthorn said... January 27, 2011 at 4:02 PM
Another reason that a gold strategy might not work for you is... if your competitors read the same blogs and have already acted on it.
That being said, that doesn't mean the tip isn't useful. You may need to try a little harder or wait until next week when they go after yet another hot tip, while you work the other ones.
On my server, almost all the cross-server vendor pets are flooded. If I gave up instead of trying again later with my items, I could miss out on more gold.
bags99 said... January 27, 2011 at 4:18 PM
I agree Markco,
It is a nuiance, a really big nuisance.
I'm assuming you know your demographic, but wouldn't think that many would know this nuance of which you speak (plsss, don't hate me :).
Anyway, good to see you guys banding together. Look forward to Basil's post soon.
You do take the time to point out your market quite often & it is markedly different to mine. As painfully spelt out at JMTC, it's up to us to get to know our server. No overnight get rich schemes (well there was that one time in the Maelstrom - crystals that is).
Brouck said... January 27, 2011 at 5:23 PM
Icy Dragonscales anyone?
Anonymous said... January 27, 2011 at 6:32 PM
I usually stick to markets I know a lot about though I admit I plunged a ton of money into saronite ore. The prices on my server are still at around vendor price though I've had a lot of success buying up the auction house of cheap stuff on the weekend and selling it for 3g/bar. I'm still stuck with 2 bank tabs of it though.
I've had a lot more success with frostweave cloth. I mentioned it on the forums about 6 months ago as a good investment and my 25s investment is now paying between 2-3g. I went into Cataclysm with about 2 bank tabs and a mailbox full of it and now wish I had more as it is all gone.
Bottom line is it is all speculation and diversity is the key.
Anonymous said... January 27, 2011 at 7:28 PM
Are you kidding me? I LOVE it when you or one of the other gold bloggers say "make this". That is my cue to run to the AH and buy up the mats and re-post at inflated prices. Made plenty of gold of the would-be AH giants.
That aside, you can wreak havoc on a market with a handful of words. Dalaran vendor pets as an example. They sell well.. and often at about 400% markup. One quick post from a gold blogger and the AH gets flooded with them, some selling below the vendor purchase price. Screws up that market for days. Fortunately, there are plenty of gold-making opportunities.
Oh yeah, I don't want you to take my comment the wrong way. Please keep up the good work. The helpful advise found on sites such as this is gold in the bank.. if you do your homework.
Anonymous said... January 27, 2011 at 9:43 PM
same as a lot of others here i have often found a suggested stratergy on mmo-champion is a gold mine.
Demand for the raw materials involved always goes through the roof and i normally have a solid stockpile as they used the market would have previously been profitable and the competition for the crafted materials always ends up with them going below mat cost eventually. This is mainly due to the limited funds most who are trying the strategies have and the fact that they cant afford to just hold onto their investments so they offload it at whatever they can. Save up the below cost items and sell them once the market resets sure it normally takes a month or 2 before its back to normal but it happens. In many ways it drives competition away as it makes everyone try it at ocne and therefore try it at the worst time. They fail and never try again
<3 ah posts on mmo-champion.
With JMTC i always find there is a lot more in the articles about how to find markets or exploit them properly than about a particular market so i always enjoy the read. thanks all
Sarge @ the.movies said... January 28, 2011 at 3:36 AM
Definitely Icy Dragonscales ! ^^
Luckily I bought em at vendor price.
Unknown said... January 28, 2011 at 7:53 AM
Great comments! This article is a perfect illustration of my previous guest post here at JMTC about "Defining your niche and Knowing your market".
Gold tips from this and other blogs are simply that...tips. Readers have to realize that those of us who are writing these tips are usually expert sellers who have months if not years of experience crafting, buying, diversifying, flipping, and selling market goods in the WOW virtual market.
So what does this mean in essence? These tips may not work for the reader. There are lots of variables that the reader must know before attempting to put our gold making tips into action like server prices, item availability, supply and demand, etc. They must know their market which means watching the market, monitoring supply and demand, learning prices, knowing best days and times to buy mats and knowing when to sell items and how many to post at a time.
Without this knowledge, our readers could end up losing gold rather than profiting.
Deepcut said... January 28, 2011 at 11:06 AM
I went with Frostweave bags for Cata. I bought hundreds of them at 50g, and resold for 100-150g. You may get a larger margin % from Netherweave, but I came out ahead in overall profit per bank space. Not to mention time to list all those netherweave bags.
Unknown said... January 28, 2011 at 12:57 PM
Normally I do look at the auction house but when you mentioned to stockpile saronite ore, you also mentioned you if you bought it for 12g and under there was absolutely no risk because you could vendor 10 saronite bars for 12g 50s. If you mention things like those I don't question whether I should buy it or not.
bags99 said... January 29, 2011 at 3:55 AM
I have an answer for this.
Stop blogging, owait!!!!!
/cry
Anonymous said... January 29, 2011 at 8:48 AM
I actually did something like that and made allot of profit, Around patch 3.2 or the ice crown patch someone told me buy all frostweave, and I did. The day cata released it sold each and every single frostweave with 5 profit PER cloth and I had 2 bank chars full of them :)
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