fraud factory - mysterious fortune cards

Whilst I thought I'd let his previous post pass through to the keeper Cold's salacious licking of his fiscal chops has thrown me over the edge into response land:

"I admit that I do feel a little dirty from swindling so much gold away from other players by getting them hooked on in game gambling."
Cold - Cold's Gold Factory

Admitting it is the first step they say…

It's single-arrow sales time all over again people except that this is quite a lot darker. But I’m not interested in Cold himself here – yes, he’s is an early adopter and a highly visible one but his is more a cautionary tale within the in-game gambling into which Blizz is delving.

It's worth considering for a moment why Blizz introduced this product in the first place.

I read a forum comment where a pundit was asking ‘how could this be a gold sink’ when more money was being created. After all the purchaser buys the ticket, the ticket pays money and the initial purchase money goes to the poster – ie, ‘more’ gold is there than before. Sure it is but it’s not the amount of gold in game that’s the issue, it’s where it ends up – or rather who ends up with it. Another 60g in a goblin’s bank is a drop in the ocean, whereas to the purchaser that gold could be the last 60g they had – yes, there is a chance he/she will walk away with 5000g but excuse me if I tell you now, I don’t think it’s a very high one. It’s far more likely that on average these cards will return less then they were bought for. So now our optimistic purchaser has less than they started with and needs to farm/quest for more gold. They will spend more game time and consequently play for longer. Good work by Blizz imo – they haven’t created less gold, but they have created more time spent ingame and as a result, more RL money in their coffers as game time is purchased. Goblins hawking these cards are not the Pimps they imagine themselves to be, they’re occupying a lower rung on the ladder.

Now a couple more points before I get off my soapbox:

Firstly, the World of Warcraft works on an abundance system. When people say that making gold in WoW is hard, that's irony! The system is designed to allow you to profit from your work and hence inspire you to continue, seeking further rewards. The saronite shuffle is a good example, there are so many ways to turn a profit that unless you buy the initial mat at crazy prices you will make gold. The introduction of the Mysterious Fortune Cards is a definitive move away from abundance towards paucity. Now Blizz is trying to motivate you to play/work longer not but giving you nice things, but by arranging to have them taken away from you so that you can work to get them back again (endgame/new expansion model in microcosm ; ) Further, you may also find it harder to gain gold in the future due to your new addiction to games of chance on the AH – it’s a worrying trend for WoW and certainly not a pretty one.

Most disturbing about these cards is what happens outside of WoW. Young folk play this game. Sometimes they are young of heart (ie, old ; ) but often they are young in age. Deliberately introducing to a young person’s game what is in effect online gambling is neither a cool nor a responsible thing to do. You're setting people up to chase similar experiences in RL.

The thing I think we, as Auctioneers, need to ask ourselves is which way we fall on this? As Cold points out this is a totally legitimate part of the game, as supplied by Blizzard. I myself, however, will not be selling these on the AH. I think they mark a departure for Auctioneers from supplying products which are of use and help people pursue their ingame aspirations (at a reasonable profit certainly) to supplying, occasionally gold, but mostly... thin air. Our usefulness to our communities becomes diminished, and so do we.

Golden Opportunity – Hyacinth Macaw

Okay folks – this one’s an oldy but a goody. This sweet little bird is on everyone’s snatch list as we all hope for the ‘noob factor’ of a 50g posting.

Since Cata though there’s been a change – this bird is still a 1 in 5000 drop but is now a ‘zone’ drop rather than just a pirate drop. So though the drop rate remains unchanged there is now a larger pool of mobs from which it might drop and at the moment as the levelling wave passes through STV a lot of these fellahs are popping up on the AH.

The Undermine Journal gives a spead of about 15K from a few 5K sales through to the standard 20K.

So where’s the opportunity here? Well, the levelling won’t be here forever and once the wave of goblins and worgens passes we can reasonably expect these items to become not ‘as rare’ as before but definitely ‘rarer’ then they will be for the next couple of months. Some servers are reporting two or three birds up on the AH at once.

So if you see this item for between 5000 – 10000g I’d buy and hold for the next three to six months at which stage your investment should have matured. This one is not without risk but potentially will have sizable payoffs.

Cheers,

M.

on triple cap and the dangers of fishing

Current liquid: 650K.

Woot! Triple cap! The old cap anyway. ; )

The stockpiling that I did for about three months or so leading up to Cata appears to have been worth it. I was buying both netherweave and frostweave for 6g a stack max with the occasional frostweave purchase going up to 8g a stack when I got excited.

Netherweave bags are now selling for between 25g and 29g, or on average 20g profit and the frostweave bags are going for around the 95g mark; about 50g profit.

Glyphs are also selling very well - in terms of Outwit, Outlast and Outplay, glyphs at the moment come well and truly under the Outlast category on our server – as the days pass I’m uncontested in more and more glyphs. The new Cata herbs are still very expensive and in sufficiently small volumes as to not be worth buying; the old world herbs can be very cheap but supply is patchy/laughable. I have a fallback on my glyphs of 65g and its very rare that I see anything sell for less than that. Stocks are starting to run low but I'm still holding at least a half stack on most glyphs.
I’ve started selling Cata green gems and am putting the dailies together for JC. This evening I should get my first blue pattern though I don’t intend to delve too deeply into this market, saving my tokens instead for the epics.

Looking forward - where to now? Well, a couple more months on this server before I start putting my exit plan into effect. At that stage I'll be purchasing a second account and moving most of my gold across to horde, taking a 15% loss in the process. There I'll stock up on whatever epic goodies / high-end mats I can and will then be moving them back across the neutral AH for peppercorn gold.

Why move all that gold to horde and the mats back? Well, I like playing Alli and there are no mats on our side of the fence, certainly I doubt we’ll ever see BOE Cata purples in any great abundance. The horde side of our server is very strong; the alliance has fewer than 1000 active toons. Mats might kick in when people have finished levelling professions and if so I’ll change my strat but it ain't looking rosy.

There is of course another option… level all 10 server toons to 81 and carry 500k out that way. ; ) I should be able to move at least 300K on characters so there’s that.

Here’s something amusing to finish on:

I had an epic pvp last night with a 62 pally (my lock is 61). I logged in to see a bunch of dead, skinnable hellboars dotted away into the distance and instantly started following the trail before they despawned, skinning as I went. So preoccupied was I that I didn’t notice the pally who was creating the trail until I was almost upon him. He mounted up and came straight at me. So with no Soulstone or Healthstone I only had a pot, Drainlife and Deathcoil to get my health back up. He charged across the red plain, jumped off and got into it – I slapped Exhaustion on him, whacked up a couple of dots and kited the bugger. His Exorcisms hit like a truck; I dotted and bursted him down as I was able whilst running. In one of my longest PVPs so far I got him close a number of times, forcing him to stop and heal himself up, but finally he got me low enough to finish me. I was itching for a rematch but by the time I rezzed, got all buffs and so forth up and jumped on the gryphon he was long gone. I was surprised at how tough he was and decided now might be the time to get those Knothide LW patches to up my health. As I logged out to swap to my crafter I saw that instead of beating on the pally whilst holding my heirloom staff I’d be doing it with, you guessed it, my fishing rod. My SP with fishing rod equipped is 334, with staff equipped is 540.

: )

Ahh fishing… such a pleasant pastime and yet, so unexpectedly dangerous.

Have fun out there guys,

Mogul.

pvp happund!

This past week as the furore that is horde levelling on my server died down I dusted off my druid and braved Vash'jir. This fellah is ICC 10 and 25 geared and at 80 is quite competitive for deeps although unlike my mage he’s done little pvp and wears no resilience gear. I respecced, put on my deeps gear, reviewed my deeps rotation (I’ve been tanking on this guy for a very long time), glyphed, remembered where ‘stealth’ was and headed out.

First things first, Vash’jir is beautiful, hats off to Blizz for creating a lovely zone. Not that I saw too much of this as I was looking over my shoulder the whole time. Although we’re a while after Cata dropped the start zone was still awash with horde. As mentioned I love a bit of pvp but because of the sheer mass of horde toons around no sooner have you engaged with that rogue who jumped out of stealth and begun making him regret his decision but three more horde jump in on the fight and that’s it. Luckily ocean-going druids are built for speed with angry-sea-lion form properly glyphed being very fast. Regardless of this I would still not class the 80-85 zones as ‘fun’ yet.

So again I find myself considering the levelling experience on an unbalanced PVP server.

Blizz has placed many of the quests for horde and alli from the same quest givers. This is not a new trend but it seems to be more prevalent in this expansion; more prevalent also in the reworked areas below 80. On servers such as mine this bottlenecks a minority in with a majority – merciless ganking of said minority follows. Soon after that follows a litany of claims as to what should be done to fix the problem.

There’s no answer for this although the forums present many amusing views:

Blizz should open free transfers for X (minority) faction from other servers.
Why would they do that? You’re playing on a PVP server because you like a fight – now you’ve got one. Also, when you eventuially get tired of being ganked you’ll transfer off = more money for Blizz.

People should not pvp when levelling!
I love this one – it seems rational, world PVP is often unequal and as a result can be unfair. Either levels are not aligned or you get others joining in to gank; doesn’t it make more sense to simply live and let live until we’re all 85? Why yes, yes it does but many folks who play our grand game like dishing out regular gankings to those of lower levels, many are so skilled they can stroke their epeen at the same time. So good luck with that one. I’m reminded of the classic MiB quote:

Edwards: People are smart. They can handle it. Kay: A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.

Get a bunch of your faction together and gank em back – it’s what world PVP is about!
Coooeee! Anyone out there? …. anyone? There’s no one there, certainly not on my server where in the aforementioned crowded start zone I was the “only” alli around, but in general as well. People are enjoying levelling their toons and dropping everything to traverse a zone to come to your aid when often the assailants have flown, does not usually doesn’t happen.

So if you’re PVPing on an unbalanced server then you’re doing it on your own. So how do you enjoy the process?

Well, PVP seems most enjoyable when the odds are even. So if you have to be on your own then make sure that those you’re PVPing against are on their own as well. And at this stage of a new expansion that means you need to be in the lower levelling zones. 20 to 75 is where all the fun is at. : )

Since my lock broke free of his dwarven nursery I’ve been having compound fun on him. He’s geared in BoAs and I know how to play him + horde on my server, if you’ll pardon me for saying, can’t PVP for shit! It’s not their fault directly, they get no practice on what is largely a PVE server for them and have not for some years now. The few roaming Alli who are brave enough to venture out on the other hand get a bunch of practice. Of my recent encounters I have to say 80% have gone my way, sometimes with a serious level imbalance not in my favour. I’ll stop there ere I stray into the epeen stroking myself. My point here though is that the game is not just enjoyed at cap, in fact in some instances the simpler world of levelling is where the most joy is.

So enjoy yourselves out there guys and remember, 80-85 will still be there when you want it. In the mean time roc those lower levels and get yourself into some trouble.

; )

M

Elementium my dear Watson...

What an odd time to take a break from WoW right?

Surely levelling new crafters is a buzz no mogul could resist. Well you’re right, I can’t resist it but I can’t do it either. I have mentioned in the past that I’m on a very small server – well a very small server Alli-side anyway. So here’s what being outnumbered 10 to 1 on a PVP server at the release of Cata looked like:

Cata drops – very smooth, thank you Blizz : )
I fly in Dala – how very useful : )
I fly for the first time in Azeroth – simply wonderful : )
I carry out the prequests and hit Hyjal…

…only I don’t. The closest I can get to the quest giver for the jump-off point is to hover overhead while a mass of horde toons crawl all over each other like a thousand drones trying to impregnate their queen. Straying too close earns me a bunch of dots and leaves a buzzing noise in my ears.

Now this might be starting to sound like a whinge and yes, the simile above does stray close to invective. But, I play on a PVP server and a severely unbalanced one at that so I was kinda expecting this. Alli-side the discussion was that we’d all be levelling worgens and goblins for the first few weeks and that was cool by me. And don’t get me wrong, PVP server = good. More horde = good, more chances for me to find foes for world PVP, which I rather enjoy.

What I hadn’t counted on was the severe restriction on mats that this festival-of-the-horde would create. I knew mats would be low due to the low Alli numbers but was confident I’d be able to use my muscle to get what I needed. No dice! Very little is finding its way on to the AH at all. The multitudes of horde are finding the Alli rarespawn too tantalising to resist and I assume that the few Alli farmers brave enough to venture forth are getting ganked mercilessly; a couple of stacks of Savage Leather does not a capped leatherworker make.

It’s an interesting take on the standard WoW supply and demand. I’m sure I’m not the only person Alli-side on server willing to pay the big bucks for mats at this early stage of the expansion. But why pay those big bucks for an amount of mats that won’t allow me to reach my goal quickly? Under the circumstances I should wait until supply is better established and costs are lower.

I’ve also realised that I’ve missed a vital element of what one might call “small faction procurement”: normally I’d proudly proclaim that I would never farm mats for myself. At the release of an expansion though it really is opposite-world. Farming is big and profitable and I should have been better prepared, levelled up my DK and lock and been out there seeing the new sights and making good goldz.

Ah well…

So I’m taking some time off. I’ll do a little lock levelling and will refresh my bags and glyphs every 48 hours but for the next few weeks it’s going to be mostly WoW holiday for this mogul.

Let me know how supply and demand on your PVP server is working out.

: )


Mogul.

600000

Well folks it's the end of WOTLK and I've hit the 600K mark.

This make me a very happy Mogul.

What have I been up to recently? Levelling this guy! : ) I've got to say that levelling an affliction lock feels perilously close to cheating and is a bag of fun. It's likely though for the next couple of days I'll hop onto my crafters and open up the higher levels.

What was my Cata prep? 3500 glyphs, 5x 32 slot bag of all sorts (well, almost), 200 Netherweave bags and 80 Frostweave bags. I'm pretty relaxed about it and am not expecting huge things early as all those worgens need a chance to level out of the starting zones before they really start buying.

So thanks for coming along for the ride in WOTLK guys - it's been fantastic fun, both the gold making and the learner blogging.

Have fun guys,

M.

A new life awaits you in the Off-world colonies!

A chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure!

New Shattrath!

New Shattrath is a master-planned community that has been designed to capture the essence of the vibrant Outlands region. With streetscapes reflecting the mystery that is space goats on elephants you can now enjoy the rustic and technologically-challenging aesthetic of crashed spaceship while basking in a powerful sense of civic pride: streets are lined with a variety of interesting refugees whist the city itself is sited amongst winding walk trails which link the beautifully landscaped parks of Terokkar Forest. It all combines to offer you the ultimate in relaxed sanctuary living.

Did I say sanctuary? That’s right people, in beautiful Shattrath that pesky other faction won’t be crashing your auction house cause A’dal won’t let em! Gone are the days of post post post “Awww c’moonnnn”. Plus the Shattrathians have gone all out to provide a higher and better standard of trading than their Azarothian rivals. Sure the décor is a little rustic but the Shattrathians have provided a one-stop-shop of auction house, bank, guild bank and post box. It’s all under one roof people! With potentially the shortest AH to bank run in game and a non-lethal auctioneer environment the only cutting you’ll receive in this fine city will be “under”cutting!

So call 555-Sanctuary now and one of our friendly mages will be on your doorstep and before you can say “recombined DNA” will port you away to New Shattrath!

taking stock

I’ve been firing along on wowmogul since 11 December 2009 – that’s about 11 months. I love to go big picture on gold making and I hope that folks like hearing about what I personally am doing as much as I like reading that sort of content (Hit the Cap and Stokpile still remain my favourite blogs).

After hitting the ½ mill recently and getting my interview up on Warcraft Econ I stopped to take stock of where I've got to. Initially this blog was a vehicle to chart my progress towards, and hopeful achievement of, gold cap. It’s the first blog I’ve kept and it’s been a great ride full of discovery and fun.

I’m taking things in a different direction now and I’m letting you guys know as I believe that within blogging is the unwritten social contract that the author will provide content in keeping with his or her stated interest. As I’ve blogged I’ve been conscious of making sure that I stuck to my initial premise which was the charting of my gold journey. Other posts have been put aside if they did not fit the general meme of the blog. I'm changing direction now and as a courtesy am letting my readers know. I'm hoping you'll stick around though as writing for you guys is fun. : )

So where will I be going in the future? Well for a start there will still be plenty of posts about making gold – I would always want to write on this front, it’s simply too much fun not to. Cata looks amazing and I can't wait to start crafting the new gear and working out the best path from raw mats to gold in the bank. I'll be giving myself the leeway though to write about anything WoW that takes my fancy. Even a little philosophy might creep in - but is most likely to be connected back to WoW in one form or another. ; )

So thanks for being along this far guys and I hope you stay for what's to come.

Cheers,

Mogul.

making gold on a dying server

It’s true – my server is dying.

Raids have not been run for a long time and last night although a small and merry band (yay the 10 of us!) held WG this is indeed a very rare event. Usually we play spawn camp bingo with our horde compadres – it surely can’t be any fun for them either. It’s taken about six months but with the departure of the last of a string of big Alliance raiding guilds (swapped to Horde last week – others went off server entirely) the last nail was tap.. tap.. tapped into the coffin.

Still, there is a pride on server. Alli know how vastly we’re outnumbered and many of us revel in it. Where though does this leave a mogul with a vault full of gold and a rapidly drying well of mats?

Nowhere good – that’s where. : ( I could sit on the gold and use it to quietly progress through Cata without needing to make gold again – but making gold is a part of the game I love. >.< and making gold without a mats base (or a consumer base) is going to get increasingly difficult.

Mats are hard: Herbs are non-existent and when they do turn up are going for 30-60g a stack (five whole stacks posted this morning); rare components such as golden pearls turn up about two a week; cloths and metals are also sufficiently rare as to make crafted items expensive to make and expensive to buy – I’m selling eternal belt buckles now for over 100g and the few I can get mats for are snapped up.

So what am I doing then? How does the economy of a dying server faction play out?

Glyphs: Making a bunch of gold still – 30-40 sales per day at 20-60g a pop. Most are selling in the 60g gold range. I’m still making good money here. Mats though are insane; I’d pay very high prices indeed for mats but simply cannot get the herbs.

BS: Buckles, weapon chains and the occasional cobalt or saronite armour sale. Rods sell here and there.

Tailoring: Am I the only one making bags on server? Almost – my large stock of netherweave (bought for 6g max a stack) is selling for around 20g a bag. Frostweave bags are going for 65g and sell.

JC: Out of it – the odd epic. Transmuting still but nothing much in this area.

Alchemy: As above, transmute only.

Enchanting: Gold here – I’m converting my huge stock (and buying for 2g an eternal in the AH) of eternal earths and shadows into chant mats and crafting five of each chant in game. When trade chat has people begging for enchanters you know it’s time to capitalise on the market.

So I’m simplifying, I’m buying cheap mats where I find em for levelling Alch, I’m clearing out the rest of the crap from my three guild banks… I’m lamenting that in order to continue to enjoy playing this game I’m going to have to move off-server.

Now as to the “how” of that process – I’ve got some ideas but it won’t be simple. I can see a second account for a period being essential due to there being nothing within my faction to fill my bags with for resale when I go. I’ll post on this as soon as I’ve firmed my program up but “staying liquid” is unlikely to be something I’ll be doing in the future.

Have fun out there guys,

Mogul.

argent tournament pets = sweeping profits

Find them – buy them – store them – add a zero.

This is a “keep for later” acquisition but one that should pay off quite nicely. I recently swooped on an Enchanted Broom and a Mulgore Hatchling going for 500g each. I won’t be trying to sell these pets until about six months into Cata but when I do I’ll be adding that zero.

Argent tournament isn’t going anywhere but it’s unlikely that people will spend their time grinding here when far shinier things will be beckoning them at level cap. These pets are likely to become quite rare and serious collectors will definitely want them.

Play the long game folks and grab these pets for future resale.

M.

through ruby-tinted shades

Sometimes those of us who follow the golden path need to step back and have a think about who’s buying our stuff! It’s fine to sit in our gold-encrusted ruby-studded floating mage palaces (it really is) but part of moving product is understanding just what its worth. This knowledge of item worth becomes more important the more rivals you stomp into the dust. Oh sure the stomping is fun but as your competition wanes (as it will as we approach Cata, regardless of stomping) you could be paying a hidden price…

That price could be sales.

“You’re crazy Mogul,” I hear you shout through your platinum-plated sapphire-studded megaphone, “I’m selling plenty of stuffz! Look at all my goldzz. Look at mah hog!”

Oh but are you? The less competition you have the more you creep your product prices up – and the less likely you are to move that product.

Here’s an example: Cobalt sets are a must have for all 70s plate-wearing tanks. I stock these and they sell. The demand is constant but not high. I stock two of each piece of the cobalt set at all times. For those of you who don’t BS here’s a breakdown:

Now when this set does sell it sells all 9 pieces (or 8 if you’re a DK). Even at 2g50s per bar there is only 102g outlay here. I’m currently the only person selling these (bar levelling blow-ins) and I know there’s a demand – so what do I price them at? 100g each? That’s about 753 gold profit after the AH 5%. Sounds great, except that crafted epics on our server are having trouble holding 200g so what are the chances of selling these bad boys for 100g each? Slim is what they are… slim.

So what price do we sell these at? Okay, here’s where it gets a bit fuzzy. Put yourself in the shoes of a level-70 tank. Assume they don’t have your financial backing, assume it’s a standalone toon.

- steps inside tank’s head -
WOW, it’s cool in here… strategies, weapon skills, situational awareness, a neurotic concern for keeping my healer alive – umm… a bit dark – but roomy! Focus Mogul – hone in on the issue at hand… I’m excited about tanking Wrath instances – goood – and I’ve got some gold – excellent! – do I want to pay 900g for a tanking set I’ll replace relatively quickly – No! – for a full set I’d pay a max of 500g I reckon. It’s not too crippling and I can get tanking NOW which is what I want.

- steps out, shakes off urge to hit the gym -

So that’s about 55g a piece! There’s your price point. Yes it’s fluffy reasoning, yes you will find starter tanks out there who will pay more but what you’re aiming at is “moving product”. These items are cheap as chips to make and even at 55g return almost 370g on sale (bar listing costs).

Now I like price-gouging just as much as the next guy and when demand is high it has its place. But there is great opportunity over the next 6 weeks to move product with little competition as periodic posters fade out running up to Cata. Price like you were going to buy it and you’ll catch the “charge of the alts” and move more units and make more profit overall then you have in a while.

Stay liquid guys,

Mogul.

five hundred thousand gold

It's done. I was hoping it would happen before Cata and here we are:

The night of the patch I had 443,723g. Over the last 5 days the coffers have swelled with 56,312g to now put me over half a million.

I was prepared for this patch - on the morning before I put up 3500 glyphs, five at the market price (nothing below 20g though) and five at a 60g fallback for every single glyph in game. Just as well as once the patch came down I couldn't get on until Thursday evening. My glyphs timed out Thursday morning but even still when I finally was able to log on that evening I'd sold 440 glyphs, making over 25k gold. The rest came in quietly until Friday night and then in two big chunks over the weekend.

Prior to 4.0.1 I'd also been converting my entire herb stock to inks and ink stock to glyphs. I went into the shutdown with 10,000 glyphs in my inventory. : )

This is my glyph guy - he's enjoying the moment!

So where to now? I believe this is officially more than I could ever spend - still, I'm thinking 310 flight on all my toons is a good start, then I'll wait and see what Cata brings by way of fun gold sinks. ; )

I'll be taking my DK to level 75 (once I get used to blood tanking) and then starting on my lock. I'd like to have him up to level 20 or so before Cata drops so that I can outgun the horde levellers - Alli are considered rare spawn on our server so it's useful to have the advantage if you can get it.

And gold? Well, I still have a bunch of glyphs to burn through and will be riding what's left of the wave but believe this could be a very uncertain industry going forward. It's likely I'll be focusing on gems in Cata although I'll never give up glyphs; they're too much fun.

I'm fascinated to see what changes are coming in Cata and how my cadre of crafters can rise to meet new situations. Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog. : )

Stay liquid friends,

Mogul.

For I am the GLYPH STEAMROLLER

Stand aside you petty posters
With your one-copper undercuts
Your single-glyph postings
Your sticky insistence, dogging me for months
You are sticks before my steel
A paraphernalia of paucity

For I am the GLYPH STEAMROLLER
Gleaming in the firestorm’s blaze
Burnished and honed
I roll and I roll and I roll

Ten thousand glyphs thick my red hot rollers
Slapping paper down on the AH floor
Dare you post against me?
BAM! You’re gone!
And I, the glyph steamroller
Post on!


Anyone else feeling like this at the moment? : )

I was warned...

For the past two or three weeks my modem has been dropping out at odd times and I’ve needed to power cycle the unit and restart the PC. Now I’ve had this modem for about 4 years and replacing it was on my list of things to do. This morning it was functioning well until I started to download the patch – whereupon the modem and all peripherals were kicked offline. A freak occurrence – nope – 4 more tries gave the exact same response.

Obviously my modem knew that 4.0.1 was coming and tried to warm me. It’s done good work and needed to be retired. I just didn’t listen.

So a new modem today and hopefully online later this evening.

Should I have been surprised? No! Since I’ve been actively playing the AH (late last year) I’ve not been online for a single patch or release: ISP issues (for days), software corruption (entire OS reinstall and client download); moving house (even with forewarning no connection); and just plain ol glitchy downloads from Blizz.

At lease this time I threw up 3500 glyphs prior to patch – they oughta drop out tomorrow morning local time so I’m a whole heap better off than previous patches : )

Something else – I couldn’t get the ipod app to go either this morning. Has anyone heard whether it’s down?

Hope you’re all having fun out there in patchland guys!!


M.

wow economic review

This mogul shed a tear this morning for the passing of the wow economic review. A much-loved website for not only it's terrific linked content but also the great posts of it's owner.

I'll be updating my blog list in the next few days to try to capture all the great sites I previously went through the Review to find.

Stay liquid guys,

M.

expectations

Since bidding for my jewel-encrusted bra in the eBay charity auction has exceeded our original expectations, I'm concerned that some of you may be confusing this bra for something that it's not.

- Britney Spears


The glyph industry makes me philosophical. It makes me think.

I can’t help it – it just does.

Here’s an example: Recently I’ve had issues with a camper. He only posts a single glyph of each sort at a time… that’s all he needs to do cause he’s always at the ready to post again. If I post at 7am in the morning – he’s there. 12 midnight – he’s there! During a day off from work – he’s there! At any time over the weekend or on a weeknight – he’s there ! It’s truly astonishing. And no, I don’t think he’s a bot as he’s offline and then logs on the instant I’ve logged to another toon.

To say the least this got to be quite frustrating.

I tried to think of ways to defeat this fellow and decided upon creating for him his very own category in QA3. He’s doesn’t carry a full contingent of glyphs so I now post glyphs under two separate sets of parameters. The camper’s glyphs get a 2g25s fallback with a 1g90s minimum – 4 glyph posting, every other glyph I have is set to a 59g fallback and a 4g80s minimum – two glyph posting. My process is to scan the AH and search under his name – every time he learns a new glyph it pops to the top of my search and I reassign it and crash it down to 2g25s. On a good day our little AH moves about 80 glyphs – now at 50g that’s 4K but at 2g25s it’s only 180g.

Unless he’s herbing himself and his herbs are therefore “free” ; ) surely this limited gold is sufficient to move him to another patch – after all, on each glyph he potentially has an investment of somewhere between 1g50s to 3g50s. So that really oughta crush his spirit and move him on – surely…

Apparently not. : )

So expectations then. For this fellow making 40s a glyph could be an incredible high – a windfall of unprecedented proportions. Or… he could be financially backed and working up to having the full contingent of glyphs. Been there myself – it’s fun! What I’m getting at is that his expectations of the process he and I are engaged in could well be being met and/or exceeded. He might be happy with a crashed glyph market – he may be exuberant in the knowledge that he is building his stake and not expecting to make much gold at all.

So where does that leave us?

With “my” expectations of course. They’re the only thing I really have any control over. Control over the glyph market – an illusion… control over a camper – doubly so! I used to expect to see a minimum of 8K glyph gold a week. Now I expect to see about 450g every 48 hours. …so this is still a good industry for me as my (adjusted) expectation are being met. ; ) Every non-camper-glyph sale is a success, every camper-glyph-sale a victory!

I’ve said it before – glyphs are a long game. Due to the general view that there is easy money to be made competitors tend to come and go. This fellow may be going back to school on Monday and his time investment may come to an end, or he might be independently wealthy and sit on the AH day and night for the next two years. So I’m fascinated to see how this plays out – I’ll keep you all posted.


Stay liquid guys,


M.

Blizzmas

Well well well… December is the month and the 7th is the big date but what does this mean to us oh gold-making members of the blogosphere?

Here we go then:

1. Level all “profession” toons to level 75 so that you can max professions. This will get you around that embarrassing situation of all the other goblins laughing at you as you spend the first precious days of the new release levelling toon X (where X = your major gold maker)
2. Stock up on a few things – are you levelling a toon come Cata? Yes? Then work out now what they’ll have as profs and get the mats together. Prices will start to peak soon but you should still have a bit of time to get together that alchemy 1-450 mat list for when your worgen gets up. There is some risk here as levelling mats may change but I'm thinking Blizz will have enough to worry about without changing too much here.
3. Organise yourself. I said it before but I’ll say it again – clean up that bank vault and stock it with things that you know will move. The 10 stacks of BC healing potions can go now. This should also make you a little room to craft extra items and stockpile them for release date.
4. Reserve your copy. Store clerk: “I’m sorry sir we just sold the last copy of Cata in the country to that guy”. You:
5. Negotiate. You heard me! I think it’s time to chat with the other goblins on your server and get a nice little cartel going. I don’t mean one of those intricate cabals where people decide who’ll sell what on what day – I’m talking a bit of the old-fashioned price fixing. A million glyphs will hit the streets on patch day that have previously seen one sale per every 1000 of their more attractive cousins. I’m talking real back-catalogue stuff… Anyway, many people will soon be flocking to these dogs like Goths to vinyl – curiosity, amusement, completionism – who cares! Wouldn’t it be nice if they snaffled them for 25g a pop? Wouldn’t it be nice if you and the other glyphers started all glyphs at a 50g fallback and undercut from there. This process (or organising goblins) will be much akin to herding cats but for the potential profits it’s worth a try. Talking to goblins has worked for me in the past ; )
6. Lastly – on glyphs remember there’s two dates to work from: 7 Dec AND … either tonight of next Tuesday shutdown for Patch 4.0.1. This patch is where a bunch of glyph changes are coming in. Likely not the new herbs/inks, maybe only the new template – I’m looking into this at the moment and will report back. If the capacity of toons to hold multiple glyphs happens with 4.0.1 then glyphers will be getting their present early and will need to be ready.

Oh and one more thing – DOUBLE CAP! I was going to post on this but then hit 440K and the moment had passed : )

Stay liquid folks,


Mogul.

I would have hit double cap too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids.

Sometimes you have to be the villain. (twirls moustache) This mogul finally crashed the glyph market! : ) I’ve danced around it here and there to make the odd point but am now doing it from a more strategic position.

I’m 3k from double cap and have just reduced my earning per glyph to one tenth of its value. All down to an AH camper who has been signing on immediately after I post and undercutting – which tbh was really starting to annoy me. I spent about an hour last night playing that game and then decided this morning that I was going to ruin his fun and have a little of my own.

I cut to 3.5g min and 5g fallback and posted 10 of each glyph. Immediately there was an undercut of 4.99g. I couldn’t be happier : ) Now he’s selling his stock for low prices which the folks who’ve been paying 50g will hopefully snap up. Tonight I’ll craft back up to full stacks and then tomorrow morning will cancel all and repost with a 65g threshold and 4.80g min to take advantage of the glyphs he’s not posting on. Going forward I’ll be undercutting on a 48 hour cycle by 50s a go. Too big a drop each time and he might lose interest or, worst still, I might sell some glyphs.

I’m looking at this period as a kind of holiday. Glyphs (as those of you who post this market will know) are a relatively intense business on the AH. The rewards are good but the process is continuous. What I’ll be doing for the immediate future will be focussing on all the other markets that I’m posting in but am not a knowledgeable player about. I’ll also level up my BS – I’ve been sitting on all the mats for this for a while – and start experimenting will selling rods, buckles and a few purples.

So how long will this current glyph cycle last for? Who can say – glyphing is a long game, I’ve seen a bunch of competitors come and go. This new guy might have transferred from a server which has had a capped AH – reducing his profit might not bother him in the slightest… or, given that it’s just gone school holidays here, he might be a kid with nothing else to do for the next two weeks. Weeks, months… all that’s required is to stay the course.

Time will provide the answers.

Stay liquid folks,


Mogul.

It’s spring and a young man’s mind turns to… STOCKTAKING

That’s right folks it’s all gotta go. I’m keeping 1 tab of curios but everything else must have a purpose in this post-Cataclysm world.

What has brought this rash of rationalisation on I hear you ask? MMO-Champ reckons that at the recent drop of 4.0.1 we have 8 weeks before Cata comes out. Hmmm – that date is suspiciously close to one previously put forward by a relatively unknown gold blogger about a month ago.

Now I’m not suggesting you clear out all your active stock – I’m in agreement with Markco on that one; I’m making very good gold at the moment selling all the things I've always sold as the alt army continues it’s rampage through the AH. What I’m talking about is the junk that no longer has a home in your vault. Turn you vault into a model of ruthless efficiency – start Cata as you mean to go on: as a lean mean gold-making machine. ; )

Selling update: I spent 6K on very cheap Eternal Lifes recently and created a bunch of decks. I felt it was high risk and went into this venture knowing I could get burnt. I’ve been posting them for slightly under the moving price and guess what – everything’s been moving. I’ve easily made back my stake and am into profit now with a good amount of stock on hand. When I made this move I thought it was risky and bold. No way! It was timely and an opportunity almost missed. My advice is that if you’re putting together Nobles Decks in particular then convert them to cards. Many people new to the game do not remember the hype around Nobles and often don’t know what the decks convert to. When you’re converting go for str and agi decks. I’ve noticed the str variety moves much faster. I’m calling this the DK effect!

If you’re feeling truly mogulish then why not sell the decks twice! How? Sell the rep from the decks and then sell the cards. There are folks out there chasing DMF rep who will pay a couple of hundred gold per deck hand in (it’s cheaper than buying the deck). Of note is that the cards are BOE so you pass them the deck, they hand it in and they then hand you the card to sell. The careful amongst you may require a deposit before this happens but basically you sell the rep separately as a commodity all in itself.

One last thing which is exceptional news for the crafters amongst us – Blizz is making farming herbs and ores properly profitable. On the PTR when you hit a node as either a herber or a miner you get XP. This is a smart way of getting those mats onto the AH without relying upon botting gold farmers. Skinners kill a mob get XP and get a mat, tailors kill a mob get XP and get a mat – now the other guys get something too. It’s encouragement for every levelling toon to have a gathering profession and gives a much better provision of supply for crafters. Love it and hope it makes its way through to release.

That’s all for now folks.

Stay liquid,

M.

400K

I’m approaching the big double cap peoples – by my calcs I’ve been pulling in almost 15K a week which is modest but compelling over time.

Chants are playing a part in this as are gems and inscription purples and a bunch of minor decks I’ve been turning out recently. The biggest earner though is glyphs! I don’t check earnings every day but it looks like my wall of “competitively priced” glyphs is grabbing about 50 sales a day on our low pop server – I’m averaging somewhere between 35g and 45g a sale.

Mats I have in plenty following the AH splurge of our low-price listing botters – hence the previous post – and yes, unfortunately they appear to have been found out with prices rising back to 40g a stack. “Unfortunately” I say? Maybe, maybe not. I’m pretty sure that not many of the other glyphers got a look in on the cheap herbs – which could be why the market is clearing of competition. I managed to buy almost everything they had there for about a month, producing a bulging inbox and full bank tabs. I figure my supply should last through to Cata and hopefully double cap. ; )

Other news:

• My hunter is finally at 80! Now grinding rep with some factions necessary for crafting recipes.
• My 71 DK is next on the list but I'll likely only take him to 75 so that he's good for the expansion.
• Mats are drying up on our low-pop server like spilt cordial on a hot sidewalk - chant mats are now impossible to get. Cloths are the only mats turning up in abundance - sometimes borean leather and saronite. Gold is made by shifting quickly through a variety of processes - ie, saronite shuffle when it's cheap, borean to furs when it's cheap, cloth to bags when it's cheap.
• I've been spending some Gs on my hunter - PVP is fun but I need some PVE pieces to bolster him at this early-80 stage. 245 and 264 epics incoming (bid only of course :P )
  
  Current gold: 400,000
  
  Stay liquid,
  
  Mogul.

my botfriend's back

Warden got him but you hung around
And bothered me, days and nights
And when I wouldn't buy from you
You said things that weren't very nice

My botfriend's back and you're gonna be in trouble
(Pay yah late-ah my botfriend's back)
You see him comin' on your margins he will pummel
(Pay yah late-ah my botfriend's back)
You been spreading lies that I was untrue
(Pay yah late-ah my botfriend's back)
So look out now cause he's undercutting you
(Pay yah late-ah my botfriend's back)



With apologies to Feldman, Goldstein and Gottehre.

more gold

Let’s see – time for an update people:

Gold – 366,224G:

I’ve been spending a bit here and there – bought a Hilt for 9500 and a tundra mammoth for my DK while he levels. I’m happy with where the businesses are going and although I’m not focussing on pulling in the gold I am finding double cap just a bit alluring. I’ll keep doing what I’m doing and see how I go by cata which I’m thinking is about 11 to 12 weeks away. My cata speculation being based upon:

Blizzcon 2008 – Oct 10/11
Wotlk release – Nov 13 2008

Blizzcon 2010 – Oct 21
Cata release? Nov 22/23???

Professions
Coming along – I’m now the proud owner of a lvl 71 DK and a lvl 77 hunter. Hunter has Alch and Tailoring (hahaha tailoring on a hunter – I LOVE to fly around on my frosty carpet). The DK is soon to have BS and I’ll keep Skinning on him for cata. I'm now at 440 LW on my druid after swapping out Mining.

While I’m on this here’s a tip for all those skinners out there: Rugged Leather is a chokehold for this profession – you need a boatload to level LW and at this stage of the expansion there was only a stack or two of either this or knothide on the AH. I actually had to farm about 300 pieces of each myself. Arranging artistic screenshots of dead yetis was my only release.

Guild Banks
I still have 2 – went to 5 tabs on both and now a 6th tab on my crafting bank.

BOA Gear
Hello – yes? Ok – I am indeed grinding through 5 mans for emblems on my bear – I need 50 more and I’ll have the chest, shoulders, wep and two trinks for my new lock and worgen priest come cata : ) My DK is already wearing chest, shoulders and wep and the hunter has chest and wep.

Master List
Here’s what I’m regularly posting on the AH.
Glyphs – full listing of all glyphs – hold a stack of each glyph, posting 2 at a time and over posting rather than cancelling when I’m lazy – I’m riding the AH pretty hard atm and soaking up what herbs I can which seems to be weeding out the nuisance posters.
Inscription purps – they keep turning over, I’ve been posting these at 210g for ever – sell one of each ever 2 days or so
Blue gems – reds have a top listing of 99g, everything else is capped at 55g – I keep 2 of each gem up and recently bought 135 ore stacks for prospecting.
Epic gems – small business for me – I cut transmutes and anything I snag in trade. I got on the epic gems late and am really waiting for Cata to revive JC as a money maker given that my current workhorse inscription might not survive the changes coming it’s way (Link here).
Flasks – nothing doing, no one is really raiding so I’m sitting this one out. I am holding sufficient stock to produce about 2 or 3 runs of flasks though so will either mill them or have a couple of last hurrahs in the market and see how I fair.
Vanity Pets - Still a good business – slow selling for a while then everything sells for max price in a few days as someone decides to build their pets up – I’ve capped price on 40s pets at 35g
Decks – got quite a few of these up at the moment as I liquidate a portion of my 2000 strong snowfall stockpile (hey, don’t point, it just happened) I’m selling them too expensively atm and will continue to do that until Darkmoon, then I’ll drop the price if they don’t move.
Bags – I’ve felt out the market a few times and am stockpiling netherweave and frostweave but won’t post seriously until Cata on this one. This is more of a hobby than anything else – I have at least a banktab full of netherweave bolt stacks and half a tab of frostweave bolts – assuming netherweave bags go for a conservative 10g more when cata drops I’m only looking at around 8-10k profit. Still, it’s a fun enterprise.
Weapon / Armour Vellums – autopost 5 of each when I refresh chants – good sellers
Scroll of Fortitude – I post these in 2s for 25g on my server. They sell at a low but steady rate.
Snowfalls – I post with everyone else at about 15g each then once a week or so drop to 10g and post about 5 stacks at 200g. They usually all sell.
Chants – I’m flush with this profession at the moment, lots of chants selling well. Weekend turnover is around 2-3K a day. Difficulty with this one is mats. When prices were low prior to ICC going easy mode I bought everything the server had (and I mean EVERYTHING). I’m turning chants over now for good profit. Mats can dwindle very quickly on our little server though as is happening now. As a result this profession may choke prior to cata coming out.

Coming soon – BS. I have full sets of mats in the bank to power level to 440 – now I just need the time to do it. : )

What am I adding to my master list for Cata? Crafted purples for BS and LW (and JC if they’re in demand), patches for LW and tailoring and belt buckles.

I’m looking at crafted purps as the next stage in my AH strategy as you need a high stake to get into this field but the margins are good and the rewards for patient sellers are there. I won’t hop in until the first patterns from Cata drop.

Other news: I recently went auto with KTQ and the associated addons needed for compiling a buy/crafting list – In a word this addon is Brilliant. I’ve been manually processing on QA3 for glyphs – now I simply hit the "20" macro to get back to full stacks (following a bunch of crafting ; ). Look here for the youtube tutorial, very nice work by AH-whoring. Not to mention Kevmar’s great work in creating the addon.

: )

Stay liquid.

M.

I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans…

It’s official, the botters are back.

For the past two weeks I have been very carefully pulling about 20 stacks a day of Icethorn off the AH from a fellow who sells only Icethorn and nothing else. He’s been keeping his stacks under the craziness of current prices on our low-pop server but high enough that he ‘looks’ legit. I have been buying his wares in toto every time he posts – my strat has been to starve the other glyphers of resources and it’s been working nicely with prices popping up to my fallback as the competition drops out of the market. This weekend just past a new poster has turned up and stacks plunged down to 7g50s – so time for a new strat as with plentiful cheap herbs come plentiful cheap glyph posters.

Recent Fun Facts:

• Had my biggest day ever recently pulling in 11.9K gold. I can’t be absolutely certain it was all within a 24-hour period as I can’t reliably remember when I opened mail previously. Still it’s close enough – most of the 12K was from glyph sales.
• All glyph stacks are now at 20 – I have become a very lazy poster indeed although I still make sure to do a full repost every 2 to 3 days.
• I’m such a miserly bugger that I still resist buying my 6th tab on my second Gbank. : )
• I’m about to level blacksmithing and a large part of my excitement is to see what new icons Blizz uses for BSing mats lol
• I've got a substantial post coming soon showing what I've been up to over the last few months and what I'm currently making money on - watch this space ; )

Total gold: 350,000G

Stay liquid folks!

herbification

And the old stories tell of one who shall come from the darkness in a time of great need.
And he shall have instant flight form and catch only the purest of cuttings within a bowl made from naught but gold.
His eyes will shine like diamonds and his flesh will gleam with the inner light of a thousand captured suns.
Where he goes prosperity will follow, where he goes the tyranny of scarcity has no place.
And though he labours through the hours of darkness when others raid or sleep, yet shall thou know his name.
And though his watchword be caution and his body be marked by gankings past, yet shall thou know his name.
And though he toils in the knowledge that his only thanks will be bad poetry, YET SHALL THOU KNOW HIS NAME!
So verily does he now stand revealed in his glory! He is… THE FARMER! And he was returned to us.

See previous post :P The farmers are back – well, one is – bought many stacks for between 10g and 15g. Oh happy day!

blizz broke my server

Hiya folks – I’ve come to the patch late unfortunately due to a kerfutted graphics card followed by having to reinstall a bunch of corrupted software. Unsurprisingly upon my return I find things are not where I left them.

I was very interested to find how ol’ Frozo had gone in his role as creator of panaceas:

Problem 1 – Frost Lotus is rare and therefore flasks are too expensive, Blizz would like them to be plentiful and cheap so that raiders raid rather than bitching
Problem 2 – most servers are swimming in near-vendor priced frozen orbs on the AH, there’s a million of em around and they’re getting underfoot.

Eureka! – Blizz 1) ups the drop rate of Frost Lotus; 2) Brings in Frozo who will do a 1 for 1 swap of orbs for lotuses + he’s good for a bunch of other goodies.

Problem solved right?

Wrong!

There are a variety of key ingredients that go into a flask: yes yes, the Frost Lotus is definitely one but there is also a mix of various Northrend herbs. On my server Frost Lotus has stabilised at the price of orbs pre patch, roughly around 20G, so less then half their previous AH value… but the Northrend herbs have gone way up. Most are trading at 180-300% or their previous base value. As a result flasks have gone through the roof settling at somewhere around 35G – 45G a flask up from the low 20s. This is great for the moguls around who have stockpiled orbs “and” herbs but pretty bloody awful for the punters who are now paying even more for their raiding mats.

Why did this happen? Because herbers, similar to all farmers are used to getting a random payoff when they hit up a node. In almost Pavlovian antiscipation they’re used to waiting hopefully for the frost lotus drop and when it does BANG they’ve made 40G. Now it drops a lot more often but due to the Frozo Effect it’s worth only half as much and sales are not guaranteed – they have to battle against every man and his dog who might get an orb and throw it onto the AH. Many of them have, understandably, become disheartened. With a much reduced hit of WHOOPEE to sustain them many appear to have packed the game in – at least for the time being. So the serious farmers appear to be taking a holiday (or, the horror the horror, may have retired permanently) – well fine, everyone needs a holiday sometime. But as a result pressure from the big consumers, ie, the inscription and flask barons, is driving the market into the stratosphere. Lichbloom is sitting at 80G a stack on server with most others hovering around 55G. I’d imagine other larger servers are fairing better but on my low-pop server when a large farmer drops out it’s felt – when several go it’s bedlam.

For myself I’m making hay in the flask market with a bunch of stockpiled mats but I have stock for only about 4 or 5 weeks of heavy trading (or 6 to 8 medium trading which is more normal) but if the farmers haven’t returned by that time it’s going to get interesting. And I’m not talking “My what an unusual downturn” interesting I’m talking “Let’s eat that guy over there” interesting.

So I’ll report back in a week or two on this one and let you guys know how it pans out.

My advice… If you need mats and are able to focus on other money making ventures... do so. Prices will drop if not back to pre patch values at least a good deal lower then currently. If there is indeed a void in the farming market peeps will rise to fill it.

Stay liquid,

M

glyph flipping

Wut?!?

I’ve noticed a particularly industrious dwarf buying out my low-priced glyphs and reposting up around my cap limit.

Art imitates nature?

I should be annoyed but in fact for lowbies or for those making their first stack it’s a great scheme. You want a gold boost? Get out there and get on with your herbing/mining + skinning then when your stake is big enough buy out a bunch of low priced glyphs and reset back to the post limit (that's for roughly 10 times your original outlay on my server). All you need to do then is join the repost cycle and get a few wins – voila you’ve just had a very nice return on your original investment.

Glyph flipping – seemed like a bad idea when I first caught him at it but in the right circumstances it’s very effective.

I should be annoyed but just can’t bring myself to get cross at the little fellah – he reminds me of me.

M

at gold limit

I certainly am!

Here’s my guy – looks happy eh? Trust me he does, that’s how nelfs look when they’re happy.


It's taken 11 weeks work to get from 38K to here. That’s an average weekly income of about 16,000G per week. And the knowledge that in the future nothing that requires gold in this game will be out of my reach. It’s a good feeling.

Here’s the breakdown by week:

Starting capital – 38,000
W1 – 48,324 (10,324)
W2 – 64,205 (15,881)
W3 – 78,435 (14,231)
W4 – 92994 (14,559)
W5 – 107,769 (14,775)
W6 – 118,745 (10,976)
W7 – 143,015 (24,270)
W8 – 153,582 (10,567)
W9 – 170,421 (16,839)
W10 – 195,322 (24,901)
W11 - 218,256 (22,934)

Markets I am involved in are Tailoring, Inscription, Alchemy, Jewelcrafting and Enchanting.

I got into chant scrolls late but the numbers show their relative power (the 81K is on my chant scroll alt) – there’s work involved but if I wanted to have a big week then I knew I’d need to have a fully stacked scroll list up on the AH. DKs, druids and warriors were well represented in terms of glyph purchasing patterns - multiple trees being used for deeps or tanking really put these classes into the "respectable earner" category.

Overall I’m pleased as punch to have pulled it off. I remember when I engaged my first farmer– it was a stretch to make that deal, something very different to what I was used to in wow. Farmer number 1 sent me about 24 stacks in the mail per week at 12.5G/stack. I’m still working with him, it’s just that now I have at least 2 or 3 other farmers all of a much larger scale supplying on average 200-350 stacks per week.


What’s next? Well, I’ve said a bit on that already but I should add that I there’ll be some skiting to a few close friends and then I’ll move on to the next stage of both wow play and wow gold for me. I would be lying to you if I didn’t admit that I’ll be doing this with a very self-satisfied glow. I'll also be spending some of the gold I've been earning - as we speak I'm back down to 198K having grabbed one of these from the AH and got going on the primordial saronite I'll need for crafted gear.

I hope you guys have enjoyed coming on this part of the journey with me – gold updates will no longer be weekly but I’ll still be cataloguing my experiences as I refine processes and look for new ways to make da goldz!

All the best,

Mogul.

week 9 & 10 update

Greetings friends,

Here’s numbers for weeks 9 and 10:

Total liquid - 195,322G
This week’s gold – 24,901G

Total liquid - 170,421G
Week nine gold – 16,839G

As I write this I’m over the 200K mark and closing in fast – I’m thinking that I’ll cap sometime early next week : )

Then what… ?

Refinement that’s what!

I’ve definitely felt the pull towards making cap but after this am keen to see if there’s better ways to do what I’m doing. I’ll be focussing primarily on time and money exercises – better ways to track inventory, new addons for following AH data, maxing professions and even levelling characters to fill out my crafting profile (I see a DK in my future O.o) Basically a total revamp on how I conduct my business – I’ll keep you guys front and centre on that journey.

I’ll also be doing a bunch of min/maxing on my raiding toon. Our 10 man raiding guild and recently brought down LK which was a total buzz! On my bear I’ll be will be making the most of blitzing ICC as I won’t be raiding in Cata. You’ll hear less about this but a bit will no doubt filter through ; )

Making gold will still be uppermost in my activities though. I’ve plans to put about 30K against a campaign in the glyph market to weed out the cappers and will be making my third guild bank to hold the stock I seem to be accumulating at a rate of knots. Also I’m going to need the space as I stockpile heading towards cata.

I’ll be spending the goldz too : ) My mage who was my old main will be getting some nice gear and I’ll be vanity petting out my druid (who’s almost at the 75 pets). There’s also a vanity mount in my future, not a motorcycle (unless I can ride it in bearform) but definitely something fun.

In short – after cap I’m gonna enjoy my wealth and set about making a heap more.

Cheers guys,

Mogul.

mogul’s ten not-so-well-kept secrets to becoming capped

I know – presumptuous hey? But I have the feeling nothing can stop me now and the below is why/how so I thought I’d share:

1) Take risks – and scale your risks as you get bigger. When you’re starting out you might buy abyss crystals whenever they’re under 20g – as you get bigger remember to use your size. Buy out the store – grab every crystal on the AH. You put at risk some known profit as perhaps you paid 28g max on the buy for some items. Your reward though lies in the potential profit of drying up a bunch of enchanters who were going to use those crystals to put competing scrolls up on the AH.
2) Have a system – and work your system with self discipline. You can have every gem in game and a flawless delivery system but if you don’t replace stock when it’s low, or neglect to stay across new cuts when they emerge then your great system doesn’t mean nuts.
3) Always look for new revenue avenues – at a simple level this means opening up new crafter skill sets, at the more complex levels it’s anticipating trends from patches or even more advanced, finding new pathways within the existing framework. Hey! – where do you think the saronite shuffle came from?
4) Marry well – no seriously, those of us who take the golden path towards cap are probably a little “too” goal focussed. After all you can get by perfectly well in this game with 10K, you can have all the latest BOE gear with around 50K – what do you need 214K for!?! A supportive home environment in which to work your magic makes making gold a lot easier.
5) Know your supply chain. Where does infinite dust come from? Who uses it and for what? In what other areas are you competing with them? What changes are upcoming ingame that might effect its value and/or it’s availability. What do you use it for and more importantly what “can” you use it for? What areas of gold making are you neglecting because you don’t understand the products you’re dealing with?
6) Develop relationships – and keep them sweet. If a favourite herb supplier always throws a few items in at the end of the transaction for free are they going to stick in your memory? – you bet. These items (herbs, eternals etc) mean very little in a monetary sense – after all you probably just spent 5K, however “free stuff” still cements him in your memory. In return of course throwing the odd BOE his way that might be useful or interesting is going to work for you. This relationship and the lower-priced goods it garners will “earn” you invisible revenue. Personally I’m working with a couple of herb suppliers now and calculate that these relationships earn me between 500-1500g a week.
7) Addons addons addons – you will never hit the high earning levels without installing and customising time-saving addons. QA3, Auctioneer, Postal, Altoholic, Skillet, these are your bread and butter, unless you learn how to use them you will never hit the high numbers – I guarantee it.
8) Enjoy yourself – reward yourself. You’re making the gold cause it’s fun in its own right. Reward yourself as well to make it even more fun – pets, mounts, the latest BOEs, that chopper you’ve had your eye on… Use your gold every now and then to keep your motivation fresh.
9) Keep your friends close and your enemies… closer. Got a friends list? For goodness sake don’t put your friends on it – to an auctioneer that list is for the opposition. You want to know when they’re on and what they’re doing. I’ve been known to swap to my mage, port to distant AHs and follow the opposition around… who knows what you might learn.
10) Keep it secret, keep it safe. Anonymity is your friend. It’s likely that eventually your guildies will get wind of who your alts are – this is not a great outcome but it’s not the end of the world. Now your opposition working out who your crafters are and being able to tie them in to your posting alts is disasterous. From the safety or your crafters or your main you can see the competition log on, or more importantly off – clearing the way for some retributive posting ; )
11) Read your wow gold blogs – there’s a bunch of talented, scheming, devious gold-making dudes all publishing some pretty interesting stuff on the interwebz – stay across it.

BTW – that 11th one there, that’s for free ; )

M

to hold down a pillow

"To Hold Down a Pillow" means not allowing the enemy's head to rise.

In contests of strategy it is bad to be led about by the enemy. You must always be able to lead the enemy about. Obviously the enemy will also be thinking of doing this, but he cannot forestall you if you do not allow him to come out. In strategy, you must stop the enemy as he attempts to cut; you must push down his thrust, and throw off his hold when he tries to grapple. … The important thing in strategy is to suppress the enemy's useful actions but allow his useless actions".
From Miyamoto Musashi’s Go Rin No Sho.

My 5G undercutter has shown intentions. Kboom has begun undercutting but only by 1s per time. So it looks like he doesn't have the patience to starve me out (by putting the entire server under 5G and waiting) and also that he feels he is not making enough gold (the 1s undercut tells me he would “like” to be getting the 5G). Even though my 57G glyphs are disappearing at a rate of 1 or more a day this recent development has made me a very happy mogul. If he wants gold then he’s very firmly in my territory.

My strategy with this guy has been to deny him. I am always lower then him with sufficient glyphs to cover the time period. He posts infrequently on a 48-hour post so this isn’t too hard.

I cannot control the price he posts at but I can effect what happens after that. So what have I done? So far I’ve simply dropped my threshold to 3g50s (as he’s still above this) and due to the large stock on hand I have now I can comfortably throw a post in before work without having to cancel. Tonight I’m making kboom his own QA category where each time he drops a glyph I’ll take it out of my main list and add it. The kboom category posts 5 or each glyph instead of three and has a threshold of 2G and should he fail to keep his glyphs up falls back to 57G.

If the 2G to 5G band is to be my new playground then I’m going to revel in it. I’m going render his actions useless. I’m going to hold down a pillow.

week 8 update

Let’s see:

Create a new 4-tab guild bank… tick!
Engage Mr 100 as full-time farmer… half tick! (I think I got him but not sure yet)
Level tailoring… tick! Past 400, making the lesser leg enchants, bags soon.
Start using QA3 – bow booowng Didn’t make it – too much going on, too many stacks to turn to either flasks or inks. This is on the list for next week… along with swapping in Altaholic. Ever since I went to 2 Gbanks my old addon gets confused and doesn’t track mats properly, the Gbanks have become invisible.
Get back into blue gems… tick!

So on the whole – good progress this week.

Midweek Mr 100 turned up with 230 stacks – I bought them all. It felt pretty damn good to clean out a serious farmer. I grabbed all the eternal lifes he had and frost lotuses as well; fodder for my growing flask business. By my calcs I earned about 1000G in the transaction, although I parted with 4200G. It was a lot of fun. Especially the bit where he said “Nothing left lol”.

I’m now swimming in stock – and it’s inspiring me to be a better mogul!

Total liquid - $153,582G
This week’s gold – 10,567G

So not that great but here’s the expenditures:
New guild bank – 4 tabs – 1940G (bought sigs for 10G a pop)
3 Stacks frost lotus – 2475G
230 stacks herbs+eternal lifes+more frost lotus – 4200G
Firefly – 1000G

So there’s about 9K expenditure, the 4200 should come out as although it was greater then I’d normally get (sunk a lot into getting my stack numbers up on herbs) it’s still going towards standard product. So that puts me around the 15K mark.

Oh and the Firefly… what can I say, I couldn’t resist. I used to farm Zanga every time I went through for one of these little fellahs to no avail; they’re quite a low percentage drop. They’re rare on the AH too – only 9 showing from my data and a moving price of 2600G, so when I saw this guy I couldn’t swap to a monied alt fast enough.



He’s a pic of the little guy… awww... I’m going to call him “Sparky”

Now a couple of things before I sign off:

Blue gem market
Is good – I’m posting with a 15G min sell and a 55G max on lesser blues (which is everything except reds). It costs me about 30G on a 12-hour cycle to post and I’m making about 400G back on a good weekend post. This process is young yet and I’ll report back once I have more data; it seems quite viable though. Saronite ore is a problem with stacks fluctuating from 16G to 24G but the surge in chanting mats on our server actually makes the saronite shuffle a reasonable process again – all mats go straight to scrolls for me though. I’m working a “total coverage” angle with 2 of each and every blue going up. This is the way I sold gems in the past and it was very profitable – this time out I’ve been selling greens for 55G. It seems the alt market is pretty big.

Flask market
Is a whimsical beast – On Saturday I got my post time correct and sold almost everything and made a stack, on Sunday I got it wrong and sold 6 flasks. I experimented with Mojo and tanking flasks this week, they sell out quickly. Contrary to what I’d heard I think the flask market makes good money – the difficulty of getting one main reagent though is the problem and I don’t think this will ever be a reliable area of income.

That’s it for the week guys. I’ve been thinking about streamlining my operation so that I’m not double handling – I’ve put two crafters into the new Gbank but am going to overhaul the whole operation and reorganise… all the way down to how I post. More on this throughout the week.

All the best out there guys,

M

week 7 update

24000G people!

Yep – that was this week’s take.

Here’s the numbers:

Total liquid – 143,015G
This week’s gold – 24,270G

Ok, now we get down to how this /boggle of a number happened. Two words – Darkmoon Faire! There’s 4600G from a Nobles Deck, another 700G from a single card + another 400G from a lesser deck. Even without these numbers I pulled an 18K week. Surely this is rare and I’ll drop down to 14K next week again. Surely… ; )

Actually I’m in for a decent amount of expenditure this week as my much-neglected tailoring levelling starts to get up there. I’ve been buying frostweave as I go but the 2750 cloths required is still a fair way off. I was lucky that mageweave finally turned up on the AH for about 10G a stack – I happily paid it; that cloth has been ‘very’ rare over the last few weeks. I almost farmed it myself which is a particularily un-mogulish thing to consider. O.o

My campaign for a half stack of all glyphs is coming together – I added another couple of classes over the weekend but this has been playing havoc on my stock-in-hand. I’m sucking pretty much any herb I find that’s under 17G out of the AH which is hopefully freaking out the competition. Sunday saw neither of my two major glyph competitiors repost for the entire day. Is this a result of them being “herb starved”?!? I doubt it but it’s nice to think that might be the case.

The benefits I’ve found of having this level of stock is that you simply over-posting when you don’t have the time to carry out a cancel/repost cycle. Additionally, it never hurts for the other posters to see that you’re capable of throwing a big chunk of stock up just for convenience’ sake.

Pots went off over the weekend – I posted 100 dps pots (50 of each) on Saturday eve just before raid time and then again on Sunday. I’m posting in stacks of 1, 2 or 3 with a slight discount for numbers. I’ve decided to start looking into other areas of alchemy where profit might be made – particularily elixirs. I’m assuming that I need to make “discoveries” for this but haven’t done my regooglesearch yet.

Focuses this week:

1) Level tailoring
2) Set up blue gem “pathway”. I have set up three categories: low and high selling blues (ie, greens through to reds) and an epic category. I need to establish how I get the gems regularily through to my posting alt. I’m posting prior to raids on a 12-hour time limit - getting much better sales this way.
3) Assess QA3 – yes, I’m still using QA2… I need info as to whether all of my various lists will reset with the new version. If they do then there is “a lot” of work in setting things up again which will slow me down.
4) Complete snatch list – a lot of items/mats are on there now but I need to complete and close this out.
5) Engage Mr 100 Stacks as a permanent supplier – I missed him this week and it hurt. Time to lock him in. I’m going to offer 14G/stack, 38g/Frost Lotus, 19G/Eternal Life. I’m going to ask that it all arrives in a bulk lot though – I don’t want him to think he can send dribs and drabs through as he might decide to send to other buyers that way. A bulk send should focus him on sending just to me! ; )
6) Create a new guild bank – what can I say, I needz more room.


Cheers,

Mogul