Just My Two Copper - WoW Gold Guide

Hey Marco

I'm a very big fan of your blog and i try many stuff that you tell on your blog.
And most of it works for me ^^

So today i saw something interesting at mmo-champion.com

Abyssal Shatter - Disenchants an abyss crystal into greater cosmic essence or infinite dust.

So i think going PDC every day a few times and disentchant everything and stack the Abyss Crystals would give at the beginning a few cash
The other thing would be that the price of greater cosmic essence and infinite dust would go down.

Maybie it helps you maybie not.

Thanks for your great work and continue with your work.

Greetings

Calede

My opinion on this? Abyss shatter will work like disenchanting any level 80 green: 3.5 infinite dust and 1.5 Greater Cosmic Essences. This will help put a floor on the abyss crystal market... which desperately needs it right now!

Crystallized Fire - Another Farming Option

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

I've gotten this email a couple times now so I thought I'd share the most recent one:

Marcko,
I just recently found your blog site. I have always struggled for gold and i have learnt so much in the 4-5 days from reading your blogs.

Took me a while to find a decent one for me but i picked up some great stuff.

Anyway to the point. Whilst i was flying around trying to find you "#1 best farming spot in WOTLK" Loc.

I got lost... and i found a different cave. This cave is GREAT for farming crystalized fire.

1 single eternal fire goes from 20-30 gold on my server. It has about 33% drop rate with the occasional

2. The mobs have the same amount of health as the Scions of storm and die quite quickly, but unfortuneately. they have a charge effect.

But this place is great if fire is worth more on the server or air is being farmed out. Great place.

Check it out loc (62, 41) Storm peaks

Cheers
Relsk.

Season 7 Deadly Honor Weapons

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

You're probably looking at that title and getting very excited...

Only to see this:

THERE ARE NO PVP WEAPONS TO BE FOUND ON PVP VENDORS

What does this mean for the pvp community? Major let down.

What does this mean for the auction house community? Major profits.

Those titansteel weaponry are still going to be of value to new 80's and what's more the prices have remained rather high with the rush to buy titanium ore instead of selling the bars.

Enjoy some easy profits and be sure not to post more than one or two each day as well as focusing on selling in trade chat to avoid ah posting costs and cuts.

Be prepared for major increases in enchanting mats, boe weapons, belt buckles, epic gems, blue gems, and other gear enhancers.

Selling your honor in Wow?

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

19 comments View Comments

"So, a few days ago i wanted to buy epic gems for 100g/each, after 5 hours of sitting in trade, i got 1 gem total.

(in my server epics go for 150-250g depending on color and cut)

After a while i got so bored that i started asking a friend of mine to buy gems for honor for me,
and then it hit me, why not buy honor from players?

Advertising in trade that i buy large amounts of honor (10k/20k etc.) 1 honor = 1s
and all they have to do is buy the gem and sell it to me.

At first i didn't think it'd be of any help, but after 3 hours in trade i had made over 40 epic gems for 100g each as i wanted to.

I don't know if anyone has done it before, but maybe it's useful.

thought i'd share my success with someone ;)

Added a screen shot also of chat."

Aruk-Defias Brotherhood EU

EJ's Lesson on Deflation and Oppurtunity Cost

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

As both an avid investor and avid Wow player, I find a great deal of parallels between the markets in the world and the markets in the world ... of warcraft. Right now, RL markets are still in a great deal of trouble and its difficult to predict where either are heading. Our retirements may not depend on the price of goldclover, but if we miss out on a market move in the auction house it can erase a lot of hard work and create many hours of more mindless farming instead of hours playing bg's or (dare I say) something other than WoW.

There are two specific things I would like to focus on in this post, the first being a phenomenon called deflation. Deflation occurs when there is downward pressure on prices and your money can buy more today than it could in the past. This happened earlier in '09 when the market tumbled and prices were falling. Similarly, it happened when Wrath of the Lich King went live and prices for everything dropped through the floor. Everyone stockpiled everthing they could, thinking demand would skyrocket. They were right; demand sky-rocketed but supply grew even faster and outstripped demand. Consequently, prices collapsed and the people who made out like bandits (like myself) were the ones that stockpiled gold and didnt both buying items. That same amount of gold now bought more goods than before.

The second item to discuss is opportunity cost. Basically, this is the cost of any decision when you could have made alternatives. So for example, I invested gold to buy eternal fire and resold them a week later for 20% more. This sounds good, but I could have spent the same amount of gold buying bolts of frostweave and in that same amount of time the price for that went up 35%. So although I made gold by investing in eternal fire, I had an opportunity cost of 15% by missing out on a better deal. If a majority of people were to take advantage of the better rate of return, then I technically would have lost money. Senarios like this happen every single day on servers, so it's important to not just make gold, but to make as much as possible. Remember, if everyone else doubled their money, and you only got 10%, are you really a winner? When people have more gold they are willing to spend more for the same stuff, and prices are going to go up. Can you keep up with prices doubling? Not on a 10% rate of return - you're gonna get smoked.

Remember to watch out for two things: prices unexpectedly falling, and a better rate of return. The first doesn't come often but can make you lots of gold. The second is almost always out there, you just need to look for it - and looking here is a good start.

Good Luck,

Ej of Onyxia

Preparing for Cataclysm - Alchemy and Engineering going UP

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Goblins are going to increase the value of mid-high level herbs pretty substantially. Even with lots of farmers and faster leveling of professions every person is going to likely have a few herbs that they need for leveling alchemy. Every goblin should become an alchemist/engineer for arena purposes as they will get more tricks to include with their utility belt through engineering and more mana/health from potions. If you're alliance, this won't affect you but you may want to start sending herbs that you get cheap on your side to a horde character for sale later.

On the flip side worgens are going to gain a skinning increase. Expect mats for skinning to go way down as lots of players will level their craft. Leatherworking/Enchanting will be an excellent way to make money since low level to high level crafted gear will be much cheaper to make with the influx of leather from all those worgen farmers. If you are horde be ready to buy the leather when all the alliance worgens are leveling and resell horde side.

Remember that this is a looooong way off so don't start doing any of my suggestions just yet.

Suggestion Box Friday (8/27/09)

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

20 comments View Comments

Suggestion Box Friday is your chance to be the blog writer! Leave comments and start some discussions as I will once again take this day to prepare for the upcoming week... and quite possibly get my drink on.

Kylol sent me this email and I'd like to make it the Community Spotlight for the week:

I farmed at this spot for about 45 minutes and got 593 gold worth of cooking mats!

Its in westfall.. COMPLETELY secret!

Here is a video showcasing its raw awesomeness (brace yourself).

This video is not made by me :P.

If you watch how he kills them you will notice they INSTANTLY respawn after dieng, if you kill them all for 2 minutes going back and forth and then loot (you dont want corpses to despawn) for an hour i bet you will make 1000g!

Just wanted to throw this tip at you because its such an odd and secret spot with masssive gold, and good also because you are farming 3 diffrent items in abundance so you dont have to flood one market really.

Credit goes to Top Game Guides Premium's youtube channel for this tip.

Discussion:

Speculate on Cataclysm... there is way too much to talk about. Also, I somehow managed to sell Icy Dragonscales (about 80 of them) for 2.5 gold each last night!

Flying Mounts in Cataclysm

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Flying mounts in Azeroth are going to change the economy greatly. In fact, it's going to flip many markets completely upside down. Changes to the cost of leveling professions will also add to creating less of a need for old world mats.

You're going to have huge increase in farmed supply and a huge decrease in need, even with new races leveling their professions.

If you have old world mats, get rid of them in a timely fashion before Cataclysm... which could be a year away, so you have some time to farm Darkwhisper Gorge before it becomes a home for the Twilight Cultists.

Reforging - Cataclysm Ability

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

With the Cataclysm will come sweeping changes to professions as well a new one and some new abilities for past professions. One of these new ideas is the ability to reforge created (and possibly non created) gear for the purpose of changing stats. You will not be able to change all your gear but gear will be forever changeable and never stuck with whatever you first picked. Gear cannot be changed to a stat it already has either. Basically you cut one stat in half (or possibly more than one stat) in exchange for a new one. Think of getting hit instead of agility or something along those lines.

I really like this change and I'm sure there will be some sort of regent or something gained from gathering that will allow you to reforge items. Since each profession will be able to reforge different types of gear (plate for blacksmiths, leather for leatherworkers, etc.), expect multiple reagents for each item type.

Do you think reforging will work this way, any additional ideas?

Gems will be destroyed by the Cataclysm

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

15 comments View Comments

Many of you have probably found out from other news sites already (darn the fact that I post once a day), that many stats you've come to dislike accumulating are being destroyed. That's right, no more armor pen, attack power, spell power or MP5 on gear.

I'm not going to get into the new stat balancing changes or anything like that, but I will give you a warning:

Gems are going to have to be destroyed or changed in some way.

Let's say you have +40 Attack power gems or w/e the maximum epic is these days. Cataclysm hits... BAM that attack power is now removed from items. Will it also dissappear from gems? What will happen to your gems? It's possible that attack power gems will remain, however certain stats will have to disappear, such as MP5. Maybe the MP5 will be converted to spirit, but odds are those gems are going to have something happen to them.

I hope that blizzard simply changes all current gems in the game that represent stats no longer being supported in cataclysm to something more useful, but only time will tell.

Think of this as a warning but also as a tip: Don't stockpile useless stats for cataclysm and focus on the stuff people are really going to want to stock up on, such as the new and improved spirit or agility.

Yellow gems are probably the only unaffected ones.

Loremaster EJ

Posted by Markco at 1:53 AM

My brother just achieved Loremaster :D

The Goblin Race and Why I'm Rolling One

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

14 comments View Comments

Goblins... those sly green midgets are finally entering the horde, and I'm so rolling one next expansion. I'm not doing it for their reverse-disengage belts or rocket launching ones either. Nor am I doing it for their passive racial. Instead, I'm picking a goblin because they may single handledly be the greatest money making machines in the game.

I'm going to give you several cases where being a goblin is better than any other class:

You're out farming at your favorite farming spot and run out of room. You've already dumped all grays that you don't need onto your mammoth vendors so now you have a full stockpile of goods you'd like to store. Instead of hearthing or running to a mailbox to send the items to an alt, for the first time ever you can summon a helper goblin and put the items directly in your bank or your guild bank. You've just eliminated the middle man. But wait... it gets better.

Want to send items between your characters for crafting without using a mail box and having to log in and out... put all your items into a guild bank for your alts.

Let's say you want to buy some reagents or other items that might be more expensive based on reputation with a faction. Maybe in the expansion there will be an item you'd like to buy off a faction's vendor that is necessary to some profession. Get your goblin to buy it, he always gets the best deal, as if he was exalted with the faction.

All I have to say is... goblin is going to be my favorite class. Who knows, he might even replace the mighty markco.

Posted by Markco at 10:19 PM

Back from blizzcon!!! BTW Thunderion and I both won spectral tiger mounts :D

Now for a random post at 10:20 PM at night...

Frompy sent me a mail in game and I got to share this:

I'm really happy he took the videos the right way because we really did just mean it as a joke. I'm glad he thought it was funny :D

I sent a mail back promising that next time we saw him we'd take great pains to kill everyone but him and leave him the last man standing lol.

The vids were slam montage and poor frompy.

Abyss Crystal Money Strategy

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Currently abyss crystals have fallen around 60% on my server, but the enchanting recipes are still worth around 80% of their original value. Therefore I've been crafting various high level enchants that take abyss crystals for huge profits (often 125-150% profit). Only a few sell each day but it's a thousand more gold for very little effort. Been using trade chat like crazy to pick up dream shards and abyss crystals cheap.

Since this market could go sour anytime, I am selling off all my excess mats each day for a few gold below the current price and only making 1-4 of each enchant. This way when the market does crash to where it should be I will have come out on top in the long run.

Hope this information helps you enchanters out there make some easy money!

Ogres Raid WSG!

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Was fun :)

At Blizz Con

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Having a blast at blizz con, meeting new people as well as tons of fans/readers of the site. It's actually been really touching and I've enjoyed meeting so many people.

I've met the developer of the wow laptop from Dell, Zach Yonzon from wow.com, members of 'The Guild' and a slew of other interesting characters... and blizzcon hasn't even started yet!

I walked around early afternoon with the newest host of PUG at wcradio.com who you'll meet tonight at 9 PM PST who also happens to be Thunderer on the JMTC forums.

Looking forward to meeting many more of you, keep a lookout for the black JMTC shirts :)

Fill the comments with anything you'd like me to ask the panels or want me to look into.

Boar Ribs - The other White Meat

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

21 comments View Comments

This post ranks right up there with one of my favorites of all time because it's simple, effective, and gets you lots of gold. Thanks to Will of wowconfidential for this tip :)

I just finished a video on a farming spot I make 500+ gold from an hour.

The video is based on the cooking market. Most players wait until the level cap to start power leveling their professions and the fact that cooking really isn't necessary until you start raiding (for making your own food stat buffs) it is easy to understand why people hold off leveling cooking.

Many of the ingredients needed for power leveling cooking are found in the old world and level 80's don't want to go through the hassel of travelling back and finding the most efficient spots so they just buy the meats from the Auction House.

After analyzing all the meats needed to go hit the cap I've noticed that "Boar Rib's" are consistently in demand and in low or no supply on the AH.

I've sold Boar Meat now for 2g 95s EACH, and given that I can farm 180 an hour this comes out to 531g an hour.

Here's a video of the best route:

Thanks for reading

-Will

www.wowconfidential.com

Stationary Farming of Frostweave Cloth - Mobs come to you!

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Not everyone who reads this guide also looks at my youtube profile, so from time to time I like to link to current videos.

Here's one on farming frostweave cloth, greens, and grays but with a twist... the mobs come to you!

Blue Gems Sell Better Than Epics

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

10 comments View Comments

"Hi Marcko,

Bucknastee here from the Rivendare server Crimson Eclipse guild. I have a gold making tip. Right now blue gems CUT are going for about 50g. UNCUT they are going for 10-15g. Buy them, get a jc to cut them and watch the money roll in. but be careful not to flood the market or prices will go down"

Currently players are getting new gear and looking to gem it out, but not with epics! Since epic gems are currently still pretty expensive and new arena gear is just around the corner, there's a real market for blue quality gems.

Farming Herbs in Swamp of Sorrows

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Stonard Herbing Route

After 20 minutes of running this route I made:
35 Blindweed: 98 gold
5 Goldthorn: 10 gold
3 Fadeleaf: 6 gold
17 Liferoot: 17 gold
11 Khadgar's Whiskers: 30 gold
6 KingsBlood: 5 gold
1 Stranglekelp: 2 gold

Total Gold: 167 gold

Not bad for 20 minutes of mindless farming!

This made me smile :)

Posted by Markco at 11:46 PM

I don't post anywhere near the number of thank you's I get but this one made me smile when I was very tired and busy:

"The Guide is Awesome. made 300 gold my first 2-3 days using a strict limit of 100 gold. Upgraded all my bags and leveled my Tailoring about 100 lvls in 1 day. Thanks"

This is probably a low level character on his way to making some serious cash.

Making Money With Nothing

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

http://20kleveling.com/JMTCforum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=754&sid=554b2520bfe723c5fd0ba3194519e6c4

Here are my three favorite ways to make gold when I have little to none on a new server:

Farm Low Level Meat - Level 9-12 mobs
Disenchant Low Level Greens - Level 5-13
Trade Low Level Reagents - Usable by 80's (if they don't have the minors). Shamans in particular have enough useful minor glyphs that they sometimes won't get water walking or water breathing glyphs, thus keeping the fish oil and fish scales valuable whereas light feathers have become worthless.

Please note that none of these methods make you rich, they simply provide you with some starter cash at lower levels.

Skyguard Gold

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Hey Marko,

A great way to make money @ 80 is to go back and grind Skyguard rep in terokkar forest. I went from neutral to exalted in just 3 days of grinding rep. You can get TBC greens, blues and BoE epics( if you're lucky, i got 2) from the mobs and you never really see anyone else there. There is a quest line but you don't really need to do it if you're only after the money just make sure you do the introduction quest in Shattrath

1. Keep the shadow dust for shadow elixers
2. use the scrolls on skull piles
3. Sell everything from the mobs that are summoned from skull piles (or keep them to summon terokk if you can solo him)

You make more than enough money to buy the mount and the pet.

Mágus (May-guss) of Dalvengyr

To Mágus:

Very nice find. I found about a hundred of those shadow dusts in my bank and boom sold them all in a week for about 1.50 gold per! I may have been lucky and found someone leveling rep that week but I think that there are actually quite a few people doing this grind. Back at 60 I managed to get exalted from friendly in about two weeks, with just a few hours of grinding plus daily quests. Now that we're 80 it has to be a breeze ripping through all the mobs there and what's more, this place is easier than grinding rep with ogrilla (no huge starter chain that an 80 can't solo).

Nice find indeed :)

Suggestion Box Friday (8/14/09)

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Another friday, another list of my favorite comments this week :)
Oh and you can post some of your tips if you'd like to try your luck!

Discussion: I'm looking forward to blizzcon next week, I'll be wearing a JustMyTwoCopper T-shirt so I should be easy to spot as well as my 2v2 partner should you want to say hi.

Comments:

Regarding Eternals On the Rise

Boilanger said...
You're not kidding about Eternals being on the rise! Because I farmed so many though, I just sell them for cheap and get a nice little profit off of each one. Sold about 12-15 altogether over the course of 4 hours on my server, making just over 51 gold total off of it.

Regarding Pick Pocket Farming

Auturgist said...
It only takes about two minutes to go through the whole place once you are practiced. I typically get 1-2 Runic Healing Potions, 5-25 silver per pocket, and a couple pieces of vendor trash that are typically worth 1-2 gold. It's not something that will net you a fortune, but it's basically free and is near a good area for farming Frostweave and greens, so it's convenient.

Regarding Abyss Crystals and TOC

Kohaku said..

Why's everyone so unhappy about prices of frozen orb + abyss crystal dropping?
It just means two things to me:
1. leg armor kits just got cheaper to make.
2. Enchanting scrolls are easier/cheaper to make.
Since they'll probably sell due to people getting new gears... really, I don't see discontent.(Unless more people want to go into the market due to the lower cost of entry.)

New Excel Addon for Auctioneer

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

I received an interesting email regarding a new addon for you wow auction house nuts:

"Hi Markco,

I've developed an application that takes WoW Auctioneer data into a spreadsheet format and even creates reports in Excel, if it is installed.

I'm currently trying to make it known to the world so that more people can enjoy the result of my work.

I'd very much appreciate if you could help in this regard (post on your site, link, mention in any other way), as well as if you could send me your feedback about how you think I may improve it.
The addon is hosted here: http://sites.google.com/site/wowsalesreports/ and at curse.com (search for "wow sales reports").

Thanks a lot!"

Give it a try and please give any feedback you have to the author, it will help improve the addon. Thanks guys and girls!

Pick Pocket Farming - Cathedral of Darkness

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

12 comments View Comments

Valustria presents: Pocket Farming the Cathedral of Darkness!

This is a very well done guide, I'm impressed! Basically you get to pick pocket some mobs and get tons of free gold.

Abyss Crystals Trial of the Crusader

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

18 comments View Comments

The newest instance is Blizzard's way of basically handing out abyss crystals to non-raiders. Perhaps this was an accidental side effect of helping gear out newer players, but the effect is still the same.

The bosses drop a TON of epics and every single one that no one wants will turn into an abyss crystal. Since so many characters in wow, particularly raiders, do not need the gear dropping from these instances there is going to be a huge crash of abyss crystals.

I predict prices dropping by about 20-40% by the end of this week. A frozen orb also drops off the last boss, which will probably seal the fate of those as well.

Cross Faction Trading

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

19 comments View Comments

Step 1: Create a level 1 of the opposite faction (better be alliance) on your server.

Step 2: Run the alt to the auction house and compare prices.

Step 3: On your mail go to booty bay and grab an alliance friend.

Step 4: Place items on the neutral auction house for 1 copper buyout and have your friend buy them off you.

Step 5: Your friend should mail all the items to your level 1 on the other side.

Step 6: Sell your goods (make sure your friend gives you some starter cash)

[Comment regarding high neutral cut removed]
EDIT: Sorry I mispoke. I meant to discuss the fact that transfering gold across characters isn't worth it (because the neutral cut is so big) and that it's better to sell items 1 copper at a time then sell it on the other side. Don't know what I was thinking lol.

Communication is the key to this, if you don't have an alliance friend, you won't be able to buy your own auctions (game won't let you).

Don't forget that if you've never experienced the opposing faction that the day you get on could be a super low price or super high price for whatever item you're comparing. Get some data over the course of a week before jumping into a market.

New Mounts and Turn Ins

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Eternals Rising Again

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

3 comments View Comments

Here are a list of some of my favorite eternal farming spots, take heed and get out there if you want to make some easy cash with all the epic gem transmutations.

Eternal Air
Eternal Water
Eternal Fire
Eternal Earth
Farming Eternals in Wintersgrasp (best spot for life and shadow as well)

There are many more farming spots listed on this site for those eternals, so feel free to 'shop' around for your favorite spot.

Suggestion Box Friday (8/07/09)

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Community Spotlight: Veritable Avarice
This is an interesting new blog in the wow economic arena and I think the content + quality of writing deserves some attention. Give him a read, Veritable Avarice looks really promising.

Discussion:

Feel free to comment on your ideas regarding the patch so far and wow economics. It's your chance to be the blog writer :D

PvP Dilema:

It's been a great week for the blog, breaking 1600 readers for the first time and I've received more whispers/emails/youtube messages about successful gold making players than ever before. The patch really took the wind out of my sails and I honestly was upset with the changes to prot. I will do my best to try and do well in 3's, but there isn't that thrill that I used to get out of it anymore. 2's is a total wash now because I will never kill a shaman or paladin again in arena. Now I get to anxiously watch as mediocre teams slowly inch closer and closer to knocking us out of glad range, completely defenseless and unable to play.

I blogged about prot, I spent a year gearing out and learning to play prot, and I loved every minute of it. I think it's wrong to continue dwelling on this patch though, so I will do my best to pick myself up by my bootstraps and get back to making prot work. I need to adopt a new attitude: "I may not kill you, but my partner with ms will." Now it's just a matter of finding partners on a server where only three horde teams managed to get into glad range, and of those they all played 2v2.

Believe me and you, I'm working my ass off trying to discover any possible way to make prot work. Fury/Prot builds will be my goal this weekend. 2 minute Deathwish + 2.33 minute recklessness may make conc + shield slam + devastate + shield slam a pretty decent combo in full ap + arp gear.

I've tried full armor pen, full block value, full furious and mixed sets. Against melee of any armor type full block destroys them. Against casters and healers mixed sets do the best, however unless I outgear the healer I really don't have any chance of bringing them down. Shamans are literally impossible to kill with earth shield for me now.

Since we have no hunter, thunderion is working on one right now and it's possible that instead of looking for a hunter, we'll look for a druid instead.

Thank you for your supportive emails and tales of success, I never get tired of reading them. You made my success in arena so much more fun, because I had someone to share it with.

I spoke to thunderion last night and we had a blast joking about teams we outplayed and the exploits we had. Like our last game, in which thunderion hit divine plea with 0 mana and had just enough at the end to shock a rogue to death, then we had to run like little girls from a disc priest with both of us below a thousand health. I reflected a shadow word death and bandaged, he did the same. It was the best way to end the season in my opinion.

Another game, I had a druid who went to bear without hots to stun me and was at about half health, had regrowth and no trinket. I concussion blowed before he could bash and took him to about 30% while also slamming his regrowth off and then I feared him just as it ended. I go on skype "He's feared, come over here and finish him!" I then charged the warrior partner and shockwaved him, giving thunderion enough time to get over to the other druid and hammer, shock, glowy execute him with me intercepting plus shield bashing to finish. We laughed about these times when we completely outplayed teams, and how we made something work that never was meant to exist.

We laughed at some of our favorite moves, like concussion blowing or hammer of justicing a druid or shaman just as he hit nature's swiftness so that I could knock it off.

Reflecting COI and gag ordering dk's so that they could do nothing but watch my pally run by them, those were the times :)

Speaking of reflects, catching earth shocks and strangulates were so easy... we even had teams get on level ones and complain about that on multiple occasions. Come on, you think we actually were gonna let you interrupt a cast? Silly deathknight.

Then there were the games were we knew we were beat and so we made one final outrageous attempt at victory which actually worked more than it didn't! And there was a game where I solo'd mage/rogue because thunderion disconnected while they were nuking him... you should of heard us celebrating on skype afterwards.

All in all, getting to play competetive arenas with my cousin was the most fun I've ever had in this game and I wouldn't trade it for the world... of warcraft.

Some hated us, some loved us, but I think everyone saw what we did as something special.

Runed Orbs Post 3.2

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Runed Orbs are going to plummet with the onset of patch 3.2. Think of their frozen cousins, which at one point sold for a hefty 100-200 gold but now sit idly in the 10-40 range. Right now Runed Orbs can go for as low as 500-800 gold, but usually sell for around 1000 gold, and it's going to get a lot lower after the patch.

Basically, Runed Orbs are going to become the frozen orbs of 3.2, the easily obtained and farmable orbs perfect for entry level 80 gear.

If you have a stockpile of these or are a guild master definately start selling these off or craft the starter epics and sell those.

As their price decreases it may become possible to start making the epics and selling those on the auction house. Spiked Deathdealers and Battlelord's Plate Boots are going to be nice starter boots for death knights should you choose to make those.

With the onset of 3.2 expect to see a new Orb appear as well as the reemergence of standard crafting materials such as dragonscales, nerubian chitan, arctic fur, heavy borean leather, titansteel bars, and the various spell weaves.

Cross Faction Purchases - Quick Gold Tip

Posted by Markco at 11:56 PM

This is a heads up to any savy auctioneers that want to make thousands of gold. I will have a post in the near future and probably a video regarding this topic but for now I'm going to tell you one piece of advise:

On pvp realms you can now make cross faction characters.

Take that information and run with it, remember that you can't buy from yourself in the neutral auction house.

Wood and Cloth - Salute to a Warrior

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

36 comments View Comments

Patch 3.2 came and went with the excitement of ore selling like crazy, gems going for 500 gold cut, and lowbies rushing into bg's. But markco was no where to be found in the auction house.

He was alone, in the valley of honor swinging his gladiator's furious axe into a big stick and bag of cloth that made up one of ogrimmar's level 80 dummies. The bag head seemed to smirk at Markco as he attacked, and after every shield slam he swung from side to side as if to say 'no, you won't beat me.' Markco worked up quite a sweat and was seen changing into four different sets of gear while he compared all kinds of stats and the results of those changes on the dummy.

Try as he might, Markco never even put a dent into the thing.

3k, 4k, 2k, 2.2k, 4.2k... the numbers just wouldn't go higher. The devastates didn't live up to their name.

Frustrated, he swore and put on his full block value set... 13k with shattering throw, shield bash, shield block, and greatness proced with full sunders. A day ago that would of been 18k, and what's worse, the resilience changes made it so he could not possibly wear that block value set any longer. The devastates were too low, as low as 1.4k and he was too vulnerable in this gear set. In 2's he could survive, but not 3's.

So then Markco got an idea, a crazy idea that no one else seemed to have thought of... he put on full armor pen. Epic gems, worth 750-1000 gold each he bought without even thinking about it. As quickly as possible he put on the few pieces of armor pen he had and regemed everything.

The end result? A measly 28.63% passive + 10% from battle and +20% from sunders. 58.63% all together.

3.8k, 4.6k, 2.4k... the numbers didn't seem to go up much at all. Maybe with full pve dps gear he could do it, but after hundreds of hours of gearing for the block set, Markco didn't seem to think he had the power in him to do it again.

After almost four years of mastering his character, perfecting arms, perfecting prot... Markco suddenly backed away from the dummy. He wasn't upset, he didn't cry or turn his back to his opponent in disgrace. He simply looked down at his weapon, took a deep breath of the smooth, cool ogrimmar air, and held the hilt with suddenly sweaty palms. The smell of kodo, caked mud, and the flowing river next to him filled his senses with dreams of when he first ran through this great valley. Small and alone, he had looked at Ogrimmars wonders with such passion and respect. These memories were replaced with the thrill of combat, the hundreds of thousands of alliance he'd slain. Suddenly he roared with his axe held high in his right hand and let his shield fall to the ground.

The axe flew so fast that it took the dummy's head clean off. Tired but satisfied, Markco headed off to the auction house, leaving his weapons behind.

RIP MARKCO

9/17/2005 - 8/04/2009

----------------------------------------------------------

So Markco is getting shelved because I just don't feel like running hundreds of hours of pve to get armor penetration to make prot somewhat viable. What's worse is that there really isn't a hunter good enough on my server to do 3's to glad competitive levels. Therefore markco is getting shelved for the time being and I have several alts I can pick up to start over. Who would you pick?

Mage, Shaman, Lock, Rogue, Hunter, Druid, or Paladin

Now Markco isn't totally going away, let's face it, he's my favorite character. I will do my best to get him into a 3's team with good players and attempt to get high as prot or arms, but I'm definately not going to keep him as my main character.

Epic Gem Transmutations for 3.2

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

This email pretty much sums up what you should do with your twilight opals, forest emeralds, and sky sapphires (SAVE THEM FOR THE PATCH - HINT HINT).

With the newly announced mats for the Alchemist transmutes to make epic gems in the next patch there's a chance to probably make some very good money, the materials are sky sapphires, forest emeralds and twilight opals, all of which sell cheap on my servers (sapphires for as little as 5g per!). The transmute takes 3 of that particular type to create one epic gem (i.e.; 3 sky sapphire transmutes to 1 Majestic Zircon).

Even if you can't transmute them yourself I imagine the prices will skyrocket once people start stockpiling.

I'm definitely going to give this a go and see if it can make serious bank! :)

Sahiel - Medivh

EDIT: This post was prewritten weeks ago, unfortuneatley some of the information is outdated, here is a more accurate summary, thanks Hatch.

This information is outdated the current transmute materials are:* Red: Cardinal Ruby (mats: 1 Scarlet Ruby, 1 Eternal Fire)* Yellow: King’s Amber (mats: 1 Autumn’s Glow, 1 Eternal Life)* Blue: Majestic Zircon (mats: 1 Sky Sapphire, 1 Eternal Air)* Orange: Ametrine (mats: 1 Monarch Topaz, 1 Eternal Shadow)* Green: Eye of Zul (mats: 3 Forest Emeralds)* Purple: Dreadstone (mats: 1 Twilight Opal, 1 Eternal Shadow)

Lesson from Walmart

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

2 comments View Comments

"So I was at Walmart yesterday in the medicine section. I saw this stomach medicine Zantac in two different packages. One had 8 pills and was about $3, one had 65 pills and was $17, so I thought "Hey someone at Walmart read your blog about marking up individual quantities of popular consumer items!" So for a blog post perhaps you could share other insights such as these and different strategies you have seen that work well in the real world economy that could relate back to the WoW economy."

Thanks,

Deip of Korgat

Deip, wow is a totally free market, devoid of government influence. Because of this, you will see some pretty wacky price gouging and fierce undercutting wars that you won't see in the real world economy, especially the US economy. Plus, there's no one around to stop monopolies!

There's something else missing from the wow economy, and that's quality. Often, people will buy something because of the brand name or the supposed quality of the item, and that's something you just don't have in wow.

The stock market closely resembles the wow auction house but it's still an auction house with it's own limitations. Your example is an excellent one in terms of relating wow to the real world. Ok, my turn:

At the end of a season (let's say Christmas), all the santa cookie jars go from 120% price down to 30% price in order to empty store shelves for room for normal inventory after the season. A savvy entrepreneur can buy out all those santa cookie jars and then resell them next Christmas for 80% when everyone else is charging 120%.

If you listened to the podcast then you know about the cyclical nature of wow; although this example is seasonal and the typical WoW one is weekly.

21 Tips in 21 Days - Last One!

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

It’s finally here, your last day and time for the best tip you will ever get. Take a break today. Don’t play wow, but instead go for a run, call a friend you haven’t seen in a while, or do some chores. Stay away from the computer as long as possible, as well as any screen. Give your eyes and your brain a break today; you’ll be shocked how much better you play tomorrow.

I'm dead serious about this tip. The more rested you are, the more relaxed your muscles are, and most importantly the less strained your eyes are the better you will play.

I hope you enjoyed the 21 tips in 21 days and feel free to click on the topic '21 tips in 21 days' to view all the tips at once.

21 Tips in 21 Days to Auctioneering: Tip #20

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Advertise in trade chat to buy goods for 20% less than they are worth on the ah. Post after buying, though not right away to avoid suspicion. Always look for people selling huge amounts of an item in trade to empty their bags or buy their flying mount.

Basically, do not ignore trade chat, even if idiots are spamming about somebody's mom or advertising the newest and greatest guild.

Suggestion Box Friday (7/31/09)

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Suggestion Box Friday is your chance to share your wisdom or newfound tactics with the rest of the JMTC community. Anything goes today so feel free to comment as long as it has something to do with making gold.

Discussion:
Still working on the format for the next gold guide contest as well as timing. As Blizzard likes to say: Soon. My pvp video is still in the 'collect footage' stage and I've gotten a few really cool/funny shots so far including the 2450 Rated Farmer with pitchfork killing people, going 1v6 in wsg, slamming montage openner, and much more. I still haven't decided if I want to turn the video into a tutorial or just show off the skillz. Perhaps you have some suggestions or requests for the video?

Comments:

Regarding Saronite Over Supply

Outdps said...
Just an FYI- saronite ore should have a hard minimum price of 12.5g a stack- anything less and you can smelt the ore and vendor it for a profit.

Regarding 3.2 Flask Prices

Andy said...
Flasks are selling a lot better on my server currently, but at market prices - not that I'm complaining as I make a nice profit. I sold 20 flasks of endless rage last night, for example.I plan on buying some hopefully cheap mats this weekend in preparation for the probable patch next week.

Regarding Auction House Talent Points

Frogi said...
Funniest post ever.

To Frogi: I agree :D

Saronite Over Supply

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Titanium ore farming has been on the rise ever since epic gems were announced by blizzard in the next patch 3.2 and the fact that prospecting titanium ore will produce these gems. How many and how often is anybody's guess, but this simple announcement has created rampent stockpiling of Titanium ore by savy speculators on every server.

A side result of the Titanium farming is the mass flooding of extra saronite bars onto the auction house. Many see this as a negative: lower priced saronite bars means more blue gems being prospected and thus lower prices for gem sellers.

I see this as a great thing for crafters. If you're quick at buying out saronite bars now when they drop too low then you will allow yourself to craft blacksmithing items much cheaper than the competition.

Eternal belt buckles, saronite weapons, saronite pvp gear, etc are all going to be cheaper to make. If my manage to buy out the saronite ore as it comes in then the prices of these goods will remain the same whlie you manufacture them for even cheaper and thus make even more gold than normal. Always look into disenchanting items after creating them to see if buying saronite bars for various blacksmithing greens will be worth it to craft and disenchant.

Flask Prices - 3.2 on the Horizon

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Usually when a patch is coming players will attempt to get rid of their goods for fear that they will be made worthless after the patch arrives. If you're currently dumping flasks you're making a big mistake. For one, no new flasks have been mentioned besides flask of the north, which will only effect alchemists in the arena and not pve raiding.

Currently, guilds are trying to make last ditched efforts at algalon and various hardmodes throughout ulduar. Time is tight so maximizing performance during the raid is key and thus raid leaders are cracking down on getting players to bring flasks to the raids.

If you're an alchemist then I highly recommend looking into the flask market not only just before 3.2 but also just after it.

I recommend selling the flasks in stacks of 1-4 since raids usually don't go for more than 3-4 hours at a time. Figure out how many can sell in a single raid night and avoid selling more than that to reduce the amount of flasks that come back in the mail as well as help to drive prices down with extra supply.

How are flasks doing on your servers during raid nights currently? Notice a slight increase?

Making Gold Syndrome - Addicting?

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

17 comments View Comments

http://20kleveling.com/JMTCforum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=677

From the JMTC forums, Ceffo writes:

"Ive got over 120k now in gold but i still got that feeling its not enough. (already bought the mounts/pets/chopper etc). Yet everytime i look at the bank roll i think hmmm.. thats not much.. all my guildies think im being a smart arse.. but in all honestly it is a small amount to me imo. Anyone else have this syndrome?"

Is Ceffo right? Anyone else found that once they reach their previous goal, regardless of whether it's the gold cap or 10k, that you can't stop chasing more gold?

For me, the fun of making gold isn't making it, but coming up with new ways to make it. Hence why you get this blog with all my money making ideas, because what fun is it to just keep it to myself?

I agree that making gold can be rather addicting once you start passing your own expectations and start grasping at loftier goals. That next 1k, 10k, 200k is always right around the corner and there seems to be no end to the race of collecting gold. This is one reason why I enjoy my playstyle and how I avoid the gold collecting addiction.

For the comments, are you addicted to making gold in game? Is it a fun addiction or annoying for you?

Auction House Talent Points

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

10 comments View Comments

I came up with this idea as a joke, and it is kind of funny but can you imagine how fun it would be to have a character class known as 'bank alt' with the following conditions:

It can be any race/sex and is considered a hero class with no requirements.
Bank alts require focus to use abilities, and this focus is generated 50 per hour with a cap of 100.
Bank alts are the same level as your highest level character.

Talent Points

What do you think? I tried to add a little humor to the talents here and there :)

21 Tips in 21 Days to Auctioneering: Tip #19

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

2 comments View Comments

Ask another auctioneer what they sell to make gold. Be sure to share your own tip as well, so as to make it a profitable discussion for both.

This tip sounds stupid at first, but it's surprising the kind of useful information you can get from someone else that you'll never think of on your own. Be kind and share something back.

The forums are a great place to do this anonymously.

21 Tips in 21 Days to Auctioneering: Tip #18

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Discover the limit to your market. To find this first you have to break that limit. Post a stack today, two tomorrow, three the next and keep posting until your items do not get purchased in full. Then scale back and you have your limit. If your goods sell prematurely then by all means post a little bit more after that. The goal of this exercise is to see how many items you can sell in one posting so go nuts :)

Once you find the limit (the point at which not all your goods sell), start scaling back until you find out just how much of your item your server is willing to buy on a given day.

For me, pygmy oil sells about 8-15 stacks of 20 per 24 hour period, so I rarely post more than that.

Suggestion Box Friday (7/24/09)

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Another suggestion box friday, another chance for you, the lovable auction house amateur to show off your strategies and share your insight with the JMTC community. Anything goes in the comments section, so have fun!

Comments

Regarding Spring Cleaning
The Grinch said...
I really liked the video, but watching the results vid I especially liked the utility addons you're using like the mail one and the message one. What are they?Also do you know any way to get more then 25 "letters" at a time from the mail box. The time spent waiting for the mail server to respond takes a full quarter of my auctioneering time?

Regarding Spring Cleaning
KevMar said...
You can either relog or /reload to refill your mailbox.

Regarding Apprenticeship
Darth Solo said...
They say that a good deed never goes unpunished. The apprenticeship wouldn't work for me. I've tried helping a couple of people by giving them tips on how to make money after they whispered me for some gold and then I couldn't get rid of them for months. They kept begging for freebies, dungeon runs, gear and stuff. It's just not worth the hassle.

Regarding Portals and Tips
Gibbiex said...
Same thinking for enchanting, regarding tips. My rule: If they've been spamming trade for 5 min or more, are level 80 (or high level), and i have the enchant, i'll switch over to my enchanter. I got really tired of 'can you come to org', 'what, you don't have mats', 'what you mean you expect a tip after wasting 15 min of your time?' Its not like I don't like helping people, but I have stuff i could be doing instead of dealing with idiots.

Discussion

How many more weeks until the next season and patch 3.2? 4? 5? 6? My money is on 4 more weeks but we'll just have to wait and see! I hope it's not much longer or else I'm going to have to play more arenas.

Gold Guide Update (7/23/09)

Posted by Markco at 12:00 PM

20kleveling is a pretty ambitious and groundbreaking guide when you think about it: attempting to teach gamers how to play economics and how to think in order to procure large stockpiles of in game gold. I could just say go farm here or go do this, but then within a week they'd need more assistance. The success of the guide so far is tied to the fact that it leaves room for you to grow and become a better auctioneer without chaining you to too many specific strategies. The beauty of this strategy is that two guide holders on the same server can come up with completely different ways to become filthy rich without stepping on each others' auctioneering toes.

I'd like to give a heads up for gold guide holders and anyone who is considering buying it, I am currently working on the next Bonus Chapter for the guide: "Case Studies." I expect to get several of these done each week, so stay on the lookout for some nice updates to the guide which will focus on valuable items of all levels that you might not realize the value of. Each case study will include a video ranging from 2-6 minutes long as well as a conclusion paragraph in case you don't feel like listening to the videos.

I am also leveling an enh shaman who will hopefully break 4k gold on his own tomorrow (if my auctions sell). He is following the gold guide and using a banking alt on his server to help make the gold. His level? He's 38, and he's not using a single profession (he'd have more gold but be leveling much slower). I'm hoping to take what I learn from running another character using the guide to create several additional case studies.

For today's actual post, go here.

Spring Cleaning - A Bountiful Harvest

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

I haven't done any serious auctioneering for a few weeks.... months? Other than the occasional 1-2k a day of course. So I decided last weekend to post one of my alt's ~600 auctions for fun and see how much gold I made. This alt is my random arbitrage alt, so the items have absolutely no rhyme or reason other than to be sold for more than I purchased them at. Many of the items involved are old world (pre BC), some BC, and a couple are WOTLK. It probably took about three periods of scanning/collecting to build this stash, but I can't give exact figures since I hadn't touched this alt in so long.

The point of me posting this video is to show that you can make THOUSANDS of gold without a single profession. Simple arbitrage is amazing and all this money was made using my 22 steps to auctioneer. If you're confused or having trouble please see that post. Here's the result from my ~600 auctions:

Rerolls in 3.2

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Anyone else sick of questing? Do you find that you just want to log on, kill some stuff (particularly players), and then log off? Well with 3.2 Blizzard is going to make leveling through bg's a legitimate method to earning experience.

I have tons of alts sitting close to the level cap and one or two I'd be willing to level from around 30 to 80. But questing has become way too boring, thus bgs are the only way I'd be willing to level these toons.

Many players level their alts with lack luster attempts at improving professions. Sure they start off strong, might even make some low level gear for themselves but eventually the speed of leveling overlaps the speed at which you can level professions. You're in and out of areas too quickly to gather adequate supplies for leveling (except first aid) and thus professions will almost always become a 'I'll do that at 80' thing.

With all these new level 80's created through bg leveling (particularly hardcore arena players who are tired of questing like myself), there will be a real demand for the choke points in various gathering professions. My favorite choke for multiple professions is Thorium ore, since BS, JC, and Eng all require this before outland. Since BS, JC, and Eng are the most popular arena professions, expect Thorium to shoot through the roof shortly after 3.2 hits.

If you need help finding a good Thorium Spot, look no further than these posts:
http://justmytwocopper.blogspot.com/2009/01/where-to-farm-thorium-ore.html
http://justmytwocopper.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-farm-thorium-on-crowded-server.html
http://justmytwocopper.blogspot.com/2009/05/mazthoril-cave.html

For tailoring you may want to stock up on runecloth and netherweave:
http://justmytwocopper.blogspot.com/2009/01/farming-runecloth-in-hellfire.html
http://justmytwocopper.blogspot.com/2009/01/farming-fel-armaments.html

For the comments: Any ideas on other 'choke points' that will provide a lot of gold for the savy auctioneer who prepares now for the oncoming storm?

Apprenticeship

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Gevlon came up with an interesting idea for helping out players who are struggling with the auction house: become his apprentice. I've received a few emails and even a comment on this site asking if I would do this on US servers.

I have two answers to this question, one will make you go "awwww :(" and the other will make you go "oooooo :D".

So here's answer #1: I don't have the time to take someone under my wing and truly tutor them (probably 2-4 hours of work). Every time I log onto wow I get an insane number of whispers regarding prot pvp, the gold guide, youtube videos, and this blog. I actually avoid getting on Markco unless it's essential (pvp or the occasional raid), because I do take the time to answer everyone's questions which can be quite time consuming. Whenever possible I redirect people to my forums, because many many questions have been answered there by the readers of this blog. In conclusion I just don't have the time to do what gevlon does.

Ok, I know you're all depressed so here comes answer #2: I will be running another gold guide contest! I haven't ironed out the details but I'm going to make one winner this time and allow voters to vote on ALL the entries; with one vote per person on the JMTC forums. I don't think it's going to be video format again, or even the same topic (all gold making tips), so give me some time to iron out all the gritty details.

For the comments: What kind of contest would you like to see? Another tips focused one? Perhaps something different like a wallpaper for justmytwocopper or an ingame screenshot? Be creative, all suggestions are welcome!

Portals and Tips

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

18 comments View Comments

Portals are an interesting way to make gold in world of warcraft. Many players will pay upwards of 10 gold for a main or alt to get a hearthstone set in dalaran, just as shattrath was popular in the Burning Crusade. Being a mage has its uses, that's for sure!

My mage is one of my favorite bankers (blinking around corners and through mail boxes to the bank in org is fun!) and so I usually keep an eye out for people in need of portals between my auction house activities and quite often it's a free 5g+ to port them to dalaran.

If you have a mage and haven't started responding to "LF Port to Dalaran, tipping well," then you are missing out on free money!

For the comments, how much do you expect someone to pay for a portal to dalaran?

You can also join the discussion on the forums.

21 Tips in 21 Days to Auctioneering: Tip #17

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Learn about a profession you’ve never owned. See if it interacts with any of your current professions and start making gold modifying goods. Every profession except fishing, first aid, and cooking interacts with every other profession in some minor way at the very least. Whether it's materials for crafting a weapon or requirements for a trinket, they are all connected in some way. Learn these connections and see if there is gold to be made.

21 Tips in 21 Days to Auctioneering: Tip #16

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Flood your market today. Post everything you have and watch people dump their items back at you. When they get to be pretty cheap buy them out. Repost in a few days when the dust settles. When I say 'flood your market' I do not mean undercut yourself to death. Instead, place double or more than the normal amount of items you would likely post at around 120-140% price. Supply and Demand is a mysterious but often predictive mechanism of free markets: Post double your normal amount, watch your prices get cut in half.

When the dust settles start buying up the competition. Remember that all those items you posted are not likely to sell so be ready to accept that deposit cost (if any).

HowIwow Back Online

Posted by Markco at 9:43 PM

Use this link to listen to the podcast, as of 9:43 AM EST the site was back online.

Suggestion Box Friday (7/17/09)

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

It's time for another Suggestion Box Friday! It's when I, the guru of gold, the sultin of surplus, the diva of deposits, the extraordinary economist and overall good guy, retreat from my saronite plated throne to my saronite plated jacoozi and allow you, the lovable auction house amateur, a chance to share your thoughts on world of warcraft economics.

Community Spotlight

I really enjoyed doing an interview with howiwow.org, so I started browsing around for more world of warcraft podcasts (quasi radio shows) and I found WCRadio.com. Pretty cool stuff all around, although there isn't the focus on gold gathering, it does have a large following and enjoyable content. You can head over to their site and find hours upon hours of recorded shows (one of my favorite parts about podcasts is the archives they create). Go give them a try and be sure to contact them and let them know what you think.

Discussion

Do you think that the 21 Tips in 21 Days has been a success so far? Are there any tips you disagreed with or felt were spot on? Any of them actually help you out?

Comments

Regarding Wow Popular

Uzuri said...
I'm sure this goes without saying, but people also need to keep in mind that things vary from server to server.For instance, the list has Shaman's "Glyph of Astral Recall" marked as a rather unpopular choice (two stars), but I find they sell very well on my server.So this is definitely a great starting point (especially since, I would imagine, the most popular glyphs involve min/maxing and thus are most desirable), but I would encourage new scribes to keep track of what glyphs they've sold themselves, as no one can tell you what sells best on your server aside from those with experience.

Regarding Essence of Undeath Video

Anonymous said...
Great spot for starting on a new server. Go there with a death knight and you are all set.

Regarding Tip #14

Anonymous said...
The best play I have is typically on market monopolizers. They've bought out the whole market hoping to double the sale price and I slowly post one or two at slightly above reasonable prices which they then buy in an attempt to continue to control the supply. I keep unloading my inventory slowly at very favorable prices until they break.

New Mounts and Turn Ins

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Hey Marko!

I have now re rolled horde, and as such became interested in the new items available to the horde, including the new raptor mount. I came across a comment on wowhead sayong how to get the mount, which included giving the npc 20 runecloth and 20 Rugged leather. I just wanted to ask your opinion if it is worth buying these out now and hope for an increase in price, or to save my (at the moment low amount of) gold?

From Necrolia of Draenor EU

Hey there Necrolia, here's my answer: Look at the auction house currently, how much Rugged Leather and Runecloth is there? The less there are the more potential for profit. What I would do is set a price that you are willing to buy out all runecloth and rugged leather in preparation for this quest. If you're low on cash it's quite easy to just go farm stratholme or various other places for the cloth. The leather can also be farmed but is a little more time consuming (I'd rather just buy it).

Sorry allies but sadly rugged leather and rune cloth are too numerous for horde to want to travel to the neutral auction house so allies won't be able to make any gold off the new raptor mounts. It's a shame because I think this quest alone is going to make tons of gold for clever horde auctioneers when this goes live.

How I Wow - Podcast

Posted by Markco at 11:48 AM

Thanks Sean and Patrick for having me on their podcast and to introducing me to the podcasting world... of warcraft.

Here's a link to their site, check there for the interview on making gold, playing with 0 resilience, and much more :)

For feed readers check here for today's post.

EDIT: Howiwow is down because of either too many people trying to access their site or they are having issues with something else. Please be patient and be sure to let them know what you thought of the show afterwards. Be sure to keep listening when the initial show ends because they go into their thoughts and how they fared afterwards. Also, you should be able to click the little arrow to make the podcast play even with the page the way it is now.

Funny side note but I will be going to blizzcon which is hillarious because a month ago when this was taped I was totally against it.

Farming with Players Doing Their Dailies

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

3 comments View Comments

Here's a nice tip for those of you that do the Hodir dailies. My only additional thought I had regarding this method is that it would be unwise to just grab the ore as soon as a mob dies. Be sure to wait and make sure that the person who killed the mob is not also a miner.

Hello this is Lògosh of Mug’ thol again I found a wonderful spot to make gold Frostfield Lake yes this sounds odd but this is mostly for miners.

You must farm brittle revenants. Not in the normal way but mining there corpses for the Geodesic Fragments and ultimately Crystallized earth Notice all the people killing the brittle revenants for there dailies most just leaving the corpse behind to be mined so miners can keep mining them for crystallized earth and Geodesic Fragments

Geodesic Fragments sell 4g 50s per stack and eternal earth prices varies server to server but this is so easy corpses everywhere and no miner usually bothers mining the Brittle Revenants. Thanks to Metamaster for this original Idea.

You could kill them too they do drop Relics of Ulduar aswell.

This is a better spot than those Zuldrak sentinels when you do not have Wintergrasp for killing as I got crystallized earth a lot faster.

WowPopular - Best Glyphs to Sell

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

13 comments View Comments

I've had numerous people ask me what the best glyphs, gems, etc are for selling on the auction house. Finally I came across a helpful site that literally tells you the most popular items in the game. I highly recommend this site for anyone who is struggling with deciding what items to craft and sell on the ah.

Here's a link to WowPopular with glyphs selected.

Essence of Undeath Video

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Thanks to ZalyksVidz for this video regarding a farming post on JMTC. It was a while back but it had to do with farming essences of undeath, mojo's, and tons of runecloth. I never made a video regarding these mobs so thanks again for your efforts!

21 Tips in 21 Days to Auctioneering: Tip #15

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

2 comments View Comments

Undercut someone by 1 gold, 15 silver, and 39 copper with one item. When the item is purchased repost two at the same price. Keep doing this until you get undercut.

Do you have to use 1 gold, 15 silver, 39 copper? No, but the purpose of this experiment is to show you that a random undercut (by random I mean it looks like a robot decided the number), does not come across as an aggressive takeover or undercutting war. The seller above you will either buy you out or just wait until your item has been sold. I'd say undercut by 5% with some random silver and copper ammounts mixed in.

Try to do this at a time when you can check the auction house about every hour for about three hours. Each time you check simply increase the number of reposts by one if any of your items have sold.

21 Tips in 21 Days to Auctioneering: Tip #14

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Ever play poker? Well then, it’s time to start reading auctioneers.

Ask yourself, why is this person posting these items, what benefit is there to this crazy undercut? Does this person just want fast gold and therefore I can flip the item? Is this person emptying their guild bank?

Why, what, when, where, etc. Don't just bid/buy/post blindly before you understand why your opponenets are doing what they're doing. Get into their heads and you'll be surprised at the kind of mind games you can play with people.

For the comments, does anyone have an example of when they 'played' a fellow auctioneer?

Suggestion Box Friday (7/10/09)

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Suggestion Box Friday is when I, the gold making master, abandom my instruments of communication and allow for you, the lovable amateur, to share your opinions in place of my own. In other words, I basically take a day off.

Comments:

Regarding Using My Power for Profit

Kring said...
Only people who inherit power use it for evil. People who worked for their power know how to use it. :-) Just an update. A few month ago I asked if I should buy azure dragon pet on the AH for 500g (which were obviously sold by a bot, because all had the same seller).I finally sold the first two last week for 1300g each (I didn't try sooner because I don't need the gold and I wanted the demand to grow). You were right, thanks. :-)

Regarding How to Use Routes

Sekirei said...
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/1092/wowscrnshot070909185021.jpg - Sample route

Regarding The 4th of July

Anonymous said...
Dalaran server - complete dump in prices over the weekend. picked up a 20-stack of void crystals for 70g (typically 230g on my server). Shards dropped dramatically as well. I can't give meat away right now. I will no longer buy this product (ie. chilled meat, fish, etc.). I plan on continuing to buy up shards for enchanting at these low prices. I've never seen such a flood of enchanting mats on the market.

Discussion:

Share your thoughts on the upcoming patch and the economic changes involved.

Using My Power for Profit

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

15 comments View Comments

I had a very interesting message from Sparks over on the JMTC forums regarding using my "Power" for evil and profits. Sparks wanted to know if I would ever say something on the blog, forums, or gold guide just to make myself a profit. When I first read this I started laughing so hard at how evil that would be.

Picture this, I have a huge stockpile of long elegant feathers and can't sell them no matter what I do. After a few weeks of fruitless attempts at rock bottom prices I decide to write a post about how these feathers are oh-so-important for a particular hat's recipe. Within a few hours all my feathers sell and I happily bank two hundred gold from ten gold's worth of feathers.

No, I didn't actually do this, but what if I did? Obviously I wouldn't throw away all the work I've done in creating this blog for a few hundred gold, but would you? What if it was ten thousand gold? Twenty? At what point would you go over the edge and use your "powers" for evil?

Thanks for the message Sparks, I had a blast coming up with imaginary ways to con my own readers.

How to Use Routes

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

The addon Routes is a great way to create your own map for flying around like mad and collecting some ores. The best part is that you can import the entire wowhead database to assist in your mining/herbing/clouding/fishing/etc needs. Here's an excellent write up of how to use routes by Sekirei.

Hellos. For those who are wondering what Routes and Gathermate are or how to set them up here is a short guide.

1. Download and install the two addons(duh) and make sure to get the gathermate_data file as well.

2. In game do /gathermate and use the import database option choosing the type of resource you'd like to import: Herbs, Clouds, Mining nodes, Fishing pools etc.

3. After import is done and you can see a shitload of dots on the map do /routes.

4. Chose the option "Add", select the zone you'd like to create a route for, put a name there and hit OK.

5. Chose the type of resource you want to make the route for and hit Create route.

6. Your map should be full of crazy lines at this moment. Select the zone you created the route for and then select the actual route. Go to optimize and hit cluster and then Foreground.

7. If you did this right a nice continuous line should appear on the map.

All thats left to do now is mount up and go gather and laugh in the face of the other lesser farmers >:).

I know this is a big wall of text and I thank you for reading and hope this will help your gathering future :).

The 4th of July

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

14 comments View Comments

I didn't get onto wow once this past 4th of July weekend, however, I bet that I can tell you exactly what the market looked like.

Perhaps a picture will be more powerful than my own words:

Weekends are normally violent in terms of price fluctuations, but JULY 4TH is possibly the most violent in terms of how low the prices can get. This weekend was probably your best buying oppurtunity for the upcoming patch. If you saw titanium ore at crazy low prices I hope that you bought them out if nothing more than to resell them in the upcoming weeks.

I want to apologize for sharing this information *cough* a little late *cough* but I had no internet access the whole weekend and thus no way to get the word out. I'm sure that the few of you that did take advantage of the prices this weekend are somewhat greatful that I didn't get the word out.

On the plus side for some servers there may still be great prices to be had. Remember that prices will eventually climb back to pre-4th of July numbers so be on the look out for uninformed auctioneers continuing to sell their goods based on this weekend's numbers.

Expect prices to be near normal by next wednessday.

Avast Ye Admiral

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

I was perusing the JMTC forums and came across an interesting post about selling admiral's hats. The recipe is sold by cowardly crosby on the beaches of STV, with a very slow restock timer.

I'd been selling the recipe itself for a very long time but never even thought to craft the hats themselves. /Bonk !

Apparently they sell amazingly well (as much as 50 gold) but there is a catch. The item icon doesn't even look like a hat so you are better off selling in trade or by standing in sight of other players and waiting for them to whisper you "hey where did you get that hat."

The hardest component to find are long elegant feathers, but thankfully there was a gold guide contest entry not too long ago that explained a great way to find them. Of course if you don't have the time to go farm these feathers then you will want to just snatch them off the auction house whenever they are cheap (and that's pretty frequently the case).

Mining Saronite in Sholozar Basin

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Hi Markco! This is Zakky from Az'galor and i have a saronite route that makes me rich!

[BLACK ROUTE]- My favorite route by far. I average around a stack and a half of ore PER ROUND. just follow the outer edges and watch out for your Nodes. Also, your gonna wanna check out the rivers/lakes that are close to the route because you never know where some titanium will be hiding. I usually farm at around 2 in the morning so that might make a difference but i usually get around 10-12 stacks of ore per hour. and ive gotten up to a stack of titanium ore in an hour but it fluctuates

[RED ROUTE]- Not my favorite but it still works. Dosent put out as much saronite for me but if my Black route is occupied by other farmers this is where i go. I pay special attention to all the nooks and crannies of the lakes. Around 3/4 stack of ore per round. I have only solidly farmed this for an hour once and i got 8 stacks of ore and 7 titanium ore. not bad for an alternate route but if your looking for hardcore farming go for the black route

[BLUE CIRCLED]- HOTSPOTS! If you can check around the base of these because usually they hold between 1-2 nodes PER pillar.

I use this method of Farming along with JC and i make tons of gold off cut/uncut gems!

HOPE YOU ENJOYED!

21 Tips in 21 Days to Auctioneering: Tip #13

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Between posting your auctions and picking up successful sales, try running someone through an instance and have them loot then mail you all the items they find. See how much money you make from disenchanting/looting everything.

My favorites are:

ZF (mainly for the cloth), Scarlet Monastery Cathedral, and RFC.

Disenchant everything and be sure to sell the loads of cloth you get on the auction house. A single run through RFC can net you fifty strange dust which can sell on my server for 25-30 gold. The linen isn't particularly valuable but you can craft it and disenchant to get even more strange dust. The greater magic essences are nothing to sneeze at either.

Having a Tundra Mammoth to get rid of items (or an engineer's mail box) is a huge bonus in ZF.

Suggestion Box Friday (7/3/09)

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

http://20kleveling.com/JMTCforum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=515

Another month has passed and more records broken for the site!

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Comments

Wiggin said...
Hey Markco, check out this excellent post on the new crafted items in 3.2, which include a lot of existing mats, I.E. Saronite Bar, which definitely have the potential to rise in price. http://www.warcraftecon.net/?p=1538

Anonymous said...
I always use the following macro when entering a city:

/run SendChatMessage("Enchanter looking for work - 10 gold tip - "..select(2,GetSpellLink("Enchanting")), "CHANNEL", nil, 2)

Great way to get the info out there!

Community Spotlight

Keganscoin is a relatively new blog that I'd like to give a shout out to. I love these 'journal sytle' blogs similiar to what scrooge had going until he mysteriously stopped blogging. Keep the updates coming Kegan!

Discussion

Twinking changes are getting very interesting: the ability to turn off xp, the need for lower level enchants due to higher ones being disabled on lower level characters, and BOA gear being BIS for several item slots. How will this effect the economy?

JMTC Going to Blizzcon

Posted by Markco at 11:00 AM

14 comments View Comments

Great news everyone, I was invited to Blizzcon! My 2's partner (thunderion) and I will be going to our first Blizzcon and I honestly can't wait. It's disneyworld for nerds lol.

We're trying to work out getting T-Shirts or something made and some other fun stuff. What questions do you have that you would like us to ask the developers at blizzcon? Maybe I could compile the questions and bring them with me.

For feed readers go here for today's post.

China Bans Gold Farming

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

12 comments View Comments

As pointed out on the JMTC forums:

China is apparently banning the sale of virtual goods within their county (both imports and exports) as of June 29th, 2009. Here's a link to the article from Information Week:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/ebusiness/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218101859

EDIT: Check this article as well - http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/reports-of-chinas-gold-farming-ban-misinterpreted - who do you think is right?

Very interesting stuff. So how will this affect the world of warcraft economy? The way gold farmers make their gold is by farming massive amounts of goods (usually materials for enchants or crafting) and then selling as much as possible for ridiculously low prices (as compared to market norm). The end result from removing the 80-85% of gold farmers of the world who live in china will be rising prices across the board in world of warcraft, particularly in the area of material goods.

If you're thinking to yourself "self, there are no farmers on my server," well then think again. Farming and account leveling groups usually operate together. When you see someone spamming in trade chat about a new powerleveling service you can bet money that there are also high level farmers on that server who will double as account power levelers. They are hard to find on the auction house by name because they try to meet quotas at the end of their shifts; They'll dump everything for super low prices at once, get bought out, and then dissapear until the end of their next shift.

Will this kill gold farmers? Absolutely not. They will adapt and get back into business as usual eventually, but hopefully many of the smaller operations will be shut down. The problem with gold farming is that there are gold buyers, so as long as there is a market then the former will sell to the latter.

I'm going to be watching the prices of easily farmed goods (herbs, ores, skins, etc) closely to see if they slowly increase over the course of the next month or so.

On a side note, the sale of pre-paid game cards are also banned.

21 Tips in 21 Days to Auctioneering: Tip #12

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM