The Importance of Quick Decisions

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 11:19 AM

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Mommar here.

I seriously thought about titling this 'my 20,000$ days' but that felt a little too much like humble bragging.   But I will share a story that occurred this weekend to help you understand why it's important to not just sell but know how to trade your items.

Since the opening patch of 5.4 I have burned my cooldowns on all of my professions.  Many players have been slowing down their professions and just concentrating on the items that make direct sales.  One of the items that are produced on the dailies is the Balanced Trillium Ingot.   Each of these if done on your daily rotation costs you a the Trillium Bar (yes,  I know you can use a Spirit Of War + a Trillium Bar but these are still expensive on many servers).

Most of the time,  when I've produced 21 of the bars I will go ahead and craft one of the belt recipe.   Having an overabundance of plate wearers on my server that DPs I generally will craft an Avengers Trillium Waistplate selling at around 9500g.   Doing quick math and producing my own Trillium bars from my miner, I end up profiting the entire 9500g.   For the 21 days that ends up Avg about 450g a day.  Some servers show this item going for higher.   My server seems to like this number with maybe a 10% give or take.

So I listed my belt (Saying "Avengers Belt Assemble' because it amused me) and went on my merry way to finish up some game chores.  Receiving an in game message a player asked if I would take 6500g for the belt.   Depending on my attitude for the day I sometimes would take that deal simply because I am not that worried so much about eeking out every bit of profit I can.  (Save the bricks and pitchforks,  I'm not the overbearing miser that some have set me up to be).

Deciding that his offer was a little low I dropped my price 500g.   He countered with an offer of 3000g and throwing in a Gooey Shaling from SOO raid.   Those that have read my missives before know that I do not like to buy pets from raids.   They feel unearned and I like to think I've earned everything I have in my inventory.   In this case I made an exception and considered making the trade.  I was near the AH so I went to see what the going rate on the Board was for the little Gooeyness to see just what the entire total was being offered.   To my surprise, I saw that there was one listed on the AH for 500g.   Knowing the drop rate for pets in any of the current raid tiers is pretty low that seemed very cheap to me.  So I jumped over to my favorite listing place theunderminejournal.com  to get a quick peek at what the normal going rate was.   The barterer had graciously suggested that the pet could easily be sold for 5k.   On most of my trades I like to trade for a little higher value than an item would be just from a gold transaction.   TUJ showed that the going rate for the pet was 7500g.  Doing quick math in my head that gave me an approximate value of 10,500 g.  I liked that number so I made the trade.

Here is where the fun begins.  After making the trade I quickly grabbed the 500g Gooey Shaling pet off the AH,  listed one on the Ah for 8500 and then added the new Shaling pet to my stable of awesomeness.   30 minutes later I received an ingame message saying that my pet had sold for 8500g.   So after all of these trades I ended up with

3000g  - original trade
1 Gooey Shaling - Original trade
8500g  sale on the AH

Subtract the 500g investment to flip the pet
Subtract AH fees

Ending up with a profit of just over 10,000g.   Now I could probably take the Pet I added to my book and sell that for another 8500g which would net me for three transactions just over 17500g.  But he's so cute that I just can't sell him... til he starts eating at my profits.

So why tell you this?   It truly isn't meant to make me feel superior.   I've told many stories of where I took the wrong end of a deal and ended up eating some crow.  Everytime I see someone selling a Sky Golem Mount for 15k it makes me kick myself for how much I paid to try to control the market early.  The reason I shared, this is simply because direct sales can net you a lot of cash.  Bartered sales or combinations that allow you to flip items off the AH can net you a huge increase in revenue.  Plus, you can come out with some nifty little toys in the end.

Now me and my little pet Blinky have to go whoop some pets around Azeroth.  Papa needs a new achievement.

Good Luck and Good Profit Hunting

PS.   The reason I was going to call it 25,000 day is because adding all of my professions that day I netted around 36,000g.   But that just was a really, really good day.

Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbear @ 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. 

 WOD:   Leave The Wheelbarrow At The Door
Adding To The Sales Floor
60 Dollars to Leave Your Level
Stop Teasing My Rocket
Stop Beating My Warforged Seals
Buying Vs Ending
My 15 ate your 14 (Season 15 PVP)
Keep Your Head Up
Disenchant,  Rinse and Repeat
WOD: Guild? I have a Guild?
Leave Your 'Tude At The Door
Going Looney over the Lunar Festival
Cleaning Out The Closet (Achievement Edition)
WOD: Future Catch Up Zones
Ebay Warriors Prepare For Battle

The True Cost of Goods

Pitty Pat Sales

The Value of Material Assets

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:33 PM

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Any Gold Goblin worth their salt will tell you they like having assets.   With man speak this is translated to 'I like having stuff'.   The entire goal of our gold goblining (is that a word?) adventure is to make more gold than we really and truly need.

But lost in the translation many times is the advantage of not just having liquid assets but material assets as well.  I am a self professed packrat.  Rarely do I just toss something away.  Even venturing the limitless amount of food that is available from drops and quest rewards.  If it won't sell on the Auction House for a pretty penny it can sell to the goblin vendor I have to lug around on my might might yak of doom.

Material assets are also very valuable when it comes to bartering.    There are those times that no matter how much gold you have,  the item you want isn't available on the Auction House.   And no matter how much gold you throw out there,  the item isn't for sale.   This might seem strange because who would turn down a cubic ton of gold thrown at their feet.   But the value of anything is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

The key to bartering is to not just add items but also add services.  With a Blacksmith I can craft the entire PVP set for someone.  At some point gold becomes relatively meaningless.  But if I can trade for raw materials I can make more than the value that the item would be for just straight gold.  Ore and rarer herbs is especially useful for this idea.   2500g is a nice profit.  But give me 50 stacks of Ghost Iron Ore and I can make much more than 1000g in profit.

Also add to the idea that creative bartering can be enjoyable all by itself.  It's easy to craft,  place on the AH and then pick up your profits the next day.  At the beginning the numbers are exciting as they tick into your coffers.  But later making gold becomes a chore.  Bartering can sharpen your wits and your abilities to enjoy making gold once again.

So the next time you talk to a player about crafting an item,  quote them a price in materials instead of gold.  You will be surprised at just how valuable your materials can be.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

PVP Sales Are Not Kind To Me
Finding A New Ryhthm
Breaking The Million Gold Barrier
Bye Bye... I Will Take Your Gold Now
Post Patch 5.3:   The Lineup
Patch 5.3:   It's here... well tomorrow
Patch 5.3:  Preparing for the Arrival
Patch 5.3:   Grasspicking World Order
Patch 5.3: Bring Out Your Miners
Enchanting add-on for quick flips
Prepping for 5.3:   Profit lines

Realities Of Making Gold