I see emails all the time going to Mageshadow from distraught players who want to know how to diversify properly. Since this was sort of my forte back in my wow'ing days, I figured it would be best if I answered them.
More Methods
Diversification means that you sill spend your time on more than one thing in order to make gold. It doesn't necessarily imply that you use more than one profession, however, and a lot of players assume that's exactly what it has to mean.
More Terms
Another part of Diversification that is crucial to your success is having access to three other classifications of gold making methods: long, middle and short term. Having ten different ways that you can make gold in the next day is great and all, but it won't earn anywhere near as much gold as if you had 3 ways for today, 3 ways for the weekend and 3 ways for the month. So you can't just diversify within the short term, you need to also work all the other market cycles of wow to the fullest.
More Buying
Ok one last point about Diversification. Diversification means that you buy stuff, lots of stuff actually. It's not just about selling goods, which is what most people think of when they hear diversification in wow. Oh, so you want me to sell lots of things from all my professions available to me? Yes, of course, but you also need to buy all the materials necessary to open up those options for yourself. That means that you will need a plan for buying in the short, mid and long term.
Sounds complicated right? Well it isn't. More often than not, the number of different materials needed to diversify are not great, you simply need to buy lots of one critical item such as ore, cloth or herbs. Then you can allow the various professions you possess to do the rest of the diversification work.
More Tools
There are many tools out there to help you buy the critical materials as well as random items which sell great today, on the weekends or different times throughout the year. Think small eggs and wool cloth for Christmas. You can create a snatch list with auctioneer, and you can automate the selling of everything you possess in your "gold making portfolio" with TSM.
The world... of warcraft is an economist's playground. Have fun everyone and remember, I make your lives less boring!
~Markco
PS: Would you like me to write more posts, even if I no longer am playing?
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12 comments: on "Proper Planning, AKA: Diversification"
Anonymous said... May 31, 2011 at 8:12 AM
To reply to the P.S.: Yes
Evlyxx said... May 31, 2011 at 8:16 AM
I would like you to continue/resume writing for the blog.
The fact that you are no longer playing WoW does not remove the economic side of your thinking.
jimmyolsenblues said... May 31, 2011 at 8:30 AM
I am far more interested in why Markco stopped playing. I would love a fully written post as to why Markco quit playing. That is far more interesting than any other topic on how to make gold.
I mean there are four steps I feel to making gold.
1) Get more professions if you need to level more characters to have more professions do it. It’s the only way you are going to learn what mats are used for.
2) Google 22 steps to Auctioneer
3) Learn either ZeroAuctions or TSM. I prefer ZeroAuctions, I learned that first and it’s more intuitive to me than TSM. Plus Markco has yet to write his 22 steps to TSM lol
4) Get that second account; you will never be a millionaire in wow without knowing what the cross faction prices are. Selling goods cross faction is key. There are true obstacles built into the game that makes alliance easier to get some items than horde and vice versa. Plus realms are not population equals...more hordes/alliance makes for good gold inequities.
Aside from those 4 fundamental things I don't need any more help making gold. I was at 60k gold in Nov 09 and now I have 1.6 million.
I am far more interested in why Markco quit playing.
Rip the Shaman said... May 31, 2011 at 10:18 AM
Markco,
I personally think that even though you are no longer playing that you should still post tips, hints, ideas, etc. on what you used to do since you originally started this community. I am sure many other people, like myself, miss you posting things at times and wonder how you are doing. I find your ideas fresh, brilliant, and almost guaranteed to work 90% of the time, unless a newb monopolizer is ruining the market you talk about. I myself want you to post more things! [Like] has been pressed for you to come back and post more.
Sincerely
Rip the Shaman
The Gold Queen said... May 31, 2011 at 10:20 AM
'Casual' is not a dirty word
Peter said... May 31, 2011 at 10:21 AM
YES. This point was informative, explicative, and to the point - I'd love more of it!
Anonymous said... May 31, 2011 at 12:28 PM
Hi. What would be great is a post on resetting Market prices. Not quite sure I've seen 1, if there is 1 a link would be awesome. What I'm not too sure on is if for example there are 4 austere metas on the AH and there all around 100 gold mark, should I buy these out and relish at my fallback of 300 gold?
Is this example how resetting market prices works?
Ty for any help
Rob
Anonymous said... May 31, 2011 at 6:38 PM
On the top of coming back and posting. I would much rather have you posting then Mage.
I would also like to see you split your channel form what your currently doing now "TrafficBlogger" and your wow videos. Even if you don't make new videos of WoW.
Lastly, I would much like to know why you quite the game as well. I know part of it, in fact I'm pretty sure the main reason why you left the game is because your two good buddies both quite as well. Which is understandably.
Also, the meeting you where on, where you told everyone how much gold you had when you left the game. I wonder something and this could go into the other reason(s) you left. It seems more and more players who hit the mega gold caps of 1-2 mill leave the game.
My real question is, do you think WOW is dying or maybe now that making gold is so main stream in the wow community now, that Bliz is taking noticed and nerfing it like they have with pve and pvp.
Fex said... May 31, 2011 at 7:12 PM
Regarding resetting markets, Alto wrote a post about it here : http://altosgoldishadvise.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-to-guide-manipulate-ah-to-get-epic.html
But beware that cut gems is not a good idea to try and flip.
I'm actively watching my postings and i have multiple up. Especially if someone buys out multiple meta's all at once, i know something fishy is up. My default reaction is to double my previous amount of listed items and sell at exactely the same price as before. Why? because you were willing to buy me out at that level, and you're unlikely to try and undercut me below that level. Meaning you've only got two options left. Take your losses and leave. Trying to undercut me at a loss, wich i will simply undercut again. Or buy me out again, where i will repeat the proces. I have around 300+ of any colour rare gem in stock at any given time, so all i need to do is craft some more. Same for shadowspirit diamonds. Next to that, i can create those at 45g a piece myself so even at ludicrousely low prices i'm still making a profit with it. Gem markets aren't smart to flip if there is even one active competitor in it. When you try that i'll just ruin it to cause you losses. Since money you lost you can't spend on buying more materials, so i'm eliminating competition in the future while still making a profit out of it.
Fex said... May 31, 2011 at 7:36 PM
Something that might warrant some explenation, why would i stop you from flipping a market and relist it at its previous level? Can't i make more gold when its high?
The answer to that is yes, it also has sideeffects though. Jewelcrafting is a very competative market, tons of players have it but most don't bother selling gems in ah. Due to the immense time consumed to do it properly ( 10 hours prospecting per week, 2 / 3 hours ah pvp, & canceling undercutting each day )
When i allow markets to become "Too profitable" i immediately see in influx in competitors. for instance, red gems, on average 5 competitors, at a price level around 70g a gem. The moment that price rises to 100 and remains there multiple days, there are all of a sudden 15 players posting red gems again, untill it drops to 70g again, and 10 of them leave it. So when the market is high, i get more per gem, but sell less, and on average i get undercut a lot more. 10 extra players listing and undercutting me, the demand for these gems is fixed. Players buy the same amount of gems each day. If they're cheaper they don't buy more, but when they get too expensive they buy less, more go to trade and get a custom cut.
So if i want those sales aswell, and less time to spend on it, its actually more profitable to keep the price low. Less competition, and less players going to trade for it. Jewelcrafters don't make their money out of the price of their sales, they make their money while buying the ores. A lot of new ah players aproach this wrong, they try and sell high, only to see markets crash. Prices fluctuate, a gem selling for 200g right now migh sell for as little as 27g an hour later, it just depends on who is posting, and how they post. Right now there is a guy constantely posting rows of 10 gems, for 50g each at 48 hours. Not a single gem will be sold over that 50g for the recipes he is posting. He's still making a profit, if i look at my numbers around 30g per gem. Id love to get him out since he aims at the rarer cuts, ( the ones with low demand on them wich usually sell much higher ) But i can't get rid of him. Buying him out means i'm stuck with stocks in excess of 10 gems per cut, on gems that sell maybe 3 cuts per week. And likely he'll just put up new ones. I know i would. So my only way out is undercutting him and accepting his price ceiling. In hope to wary him out and make him leave for no sales. He needs to spend 30 mins every two days emptying his mailbox with failed sales, and that must be annoying.
So in essence, flipping a market that is as active as the gem market ( don't mistake slow selling cuts for being inactive, they are checked just as often as the super fast cuts ) isn't a smart move. Regardless of weather someone will actively hamper you like i described, setting the price level high will just cause dozens of goblins to appear from the woodwork and try to get some sales in aswell. You're off safer to try and flip commodity markets. ( volatiles, azshara's veil, pyrite, hardened elementium bars, truegold, etc. ) You want something that has a "limited" supply, gems are simply to easy to obtain to mess with your flip.
Dicci said... May 31, 2011 at 9:29 PM
Just a note, diversification can be a little overwhelming at times. Make sure you're in markets you can handle without stressing yourself out. If you're anything like my husband you'll want to dip your fingers in every honey pot you find, and sometimes that gets you into trouble!
Make sure you don't go head first into big markets without feeling it out first and making sure its one that you want to enter or one you can handle for an extended period of time. Once you invest yourself into it, you've got a long game to play.
Just a thought. :)
Anonymous said... June 1, 2011 at 7:24 AM
Tyvm Fex for the response. A little mor detail would of been great ...... Nah lol great response, I'm currently sitting at 300k liquid and about the same in stock but doing a daily routine is wearing a bit thin so was just looking at ways to spice things up :-) and resetting markets and flipping came to mind.
I've been trying to flip that epic cooking recipe for 3 weeks now with no luck :-(
Thanks again Fex for the detailed response
Rob
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