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.