Biweekly Sales Report 06-19.06

  It has been almost two weeks since my last post. I slowed down on gold making. I am not a very disciplined person so with a lack of the next big gold-making goal I got easily distracted by other things in game. The result you can see from the numbers below. Also I was actively stockpiling materials for the coming patch and that made a significant dent in the profit too.

  Previous gold total: 1,020k

  Total sales: 262k

  Profit for 2 weeks: 93k 

  Current gold total: 1,113k

  

  You will find a few details under the cut.

One Million Gold: My Road To and From

  Last week I hit that magic number - one million gold. Am I excited? A little, but not very. There is a start to the journey but there is no finish line. The current gold cap is just a built-in limit for one character, so you can accumulate 10 mil on one realm and up to 50 mil on one WoW account plus some more in guild banks. I can't imagine anyone would ever want so much gold, even 1 million is an insane amount. And here I am, staring at the screen, at that number in the Auditor add-on window.

  My Road To

  Was it my goal to get 1 million? Yes. Why? Because it is often mentioned as a goal of other gold bloggers, though not every one of them is going in that direction.

  Now it is difficult to remember how and when I started making gold in WoW. I told my story in the very first post. You can see that my journey began already in Cataclysm. I missed all the gold making opportunities of the beginning of the expansion, such as "glyphmas". My way was steady, without big spikes in sales and income, and that is the way I prefer.

  If you look through all the posts in the blog, you will see a few weekly reports with pretty big numbers of sales and profit and a few small gold making tips. There is not much there, I agree (the only post I am proud of is the one about flipping single Darkmoon cards). A logical question to ask is: where all that numbers come from?

  What professions do I use?
  Jewelcrafting, enchanting, inscription, tailoring, alchemy. I also have herbalism and mining, but I don't farm, only pick something on my way.

  What gold making methods do I use?
  All that are available to me with the given set of professions. They are described very well in all the major gold blogs. Here is the list:

  - Jewelcrafting: cut rare gems and metagems, obsidium shuffle, elementium shuffle, high level jewelry, WotLK rare and epic gems
  - Enchanting: disenchanting for materials, 10-15 enchants that are the most profitable, enchanting pets
  - Inscription: all glyphs on one side and some on the other (my second scribe is still doing research to discover more), relics, Dust of disappearance, inks
  - Tailoring: cloth pvp gear, bags, low level vanity gear
  - Alchemy: Truegold, rare gems transmute, Primal might, Arcanite bar, some potions
  - flipping and cross-faction trade: single Darkmoon cards, pets, cloth pvp gear, relics
  - Cooking: Cata buff food

  I guess you did not see anything new in my list as these are all well-known methods. You can find many more gold tips, tricks and strategies. The most important thing I understood was that you can not cover each and every profitable market on your server. Any gold making method takes time and time is limited.

  How long did it take to reach the gold cap?
  Milestones:
    beginning of April - 400k
    beginning of May - 500k (after spending 170k on mounts)
    beginning of June - 1 mil (after spending 60k on a mount)
  It is nice to know that I can make 500k a month. Weekly reports are very useful for getting a big-picture view of all your gold-making activities and organizing them more efficiently.

  Why I had so much time to devote to gold making?
  The answer is very simple - my guild is small and is not raiding. Often there are not enough guildies online to run a heroic. I was looking for something to do alone.

  What do I do in game besides making gold?
  I do not raid. I rarely run dungeons. The last time I pvped was when Blizzard was giving 1800 honor points for a win in Tol Barad. Is there anything left? Yes, there is. Achievements. I mean those other kinds of achievements, like reputations, quests, professions and general. The most valuable to me is Mountain o'Mounts (got it on May, 27th), not to mention that I bought three TGC mounts that cost me 200k total and delayed my reaching the gold cap by two weeks. A valuable achievement, indeed.

  My Road From

  How did I reward myself for reaching 1 mil gold mark?
  Probably, you will laugh at me. I bought 310% flying for my main. I can spend huge amounts of gold on rare mounts or stockpiling materials, but tend to delay the purchase of those things that I can buy in game at any time.

  Where am I going to do now, when the goal is reached?
  I have not decided yet. This week I continued my daily routine and made more gold. I am doing it "on autopilot", but I plan to change the way I spend time in game. Here is the list of options that I am considering:
  - to post auctions less frequently (once a day or every other day)
  - to drop some markets completely
  - to make a list of 50/100 best-selling items across all the professions and sell only those

  What do I plan to do with the time that will be freed?
  Anything that I don't do now: heroics, battlegrounds, twinking, dual boxing and, of course, all kinds of experiments in gold making.

  Have a nice day!

  P.S. My post looks much like a Warcraft Econ interview, but I did not do it on purpose. I am still thinking if I should submit my interview there. 

Weekly Sales Report 30.05-05.06

  I will make just a quick overview of what has sold last week.


  Previous gold total: 886k

  Total sales: 209k

  Weekly profit: 134k 

  Current gold total: 1,020k

  For details go under the cut.

Selling Low Level Crafted Items: Tailoring

  Tailoring is not the best profession for gold making. It is a fact. Spellthreads, high level gear and all kinds of bags are the major markets where competition is strong on most servers. Trying to get their share of the big pie, many tailors forget about the low level items they can craft. It seems strange to me, as tailoring offers some of the most popular vanity gear. One of the reasons for this may be that many of those patterns can not be learned from the trainer but are sold in limited supply all over Azeroth. 

  This is the list of what I craft and sell (numbers in brackets mean the level of tailoring skill needed to make the item, then comes the information about where you can find the pattern):

  1. Vanity gear often is bought for bank alts:

    Black swashbuckler's shirt (200) - Narkk, Booty Bay, limited supply

    Haliscan pantaloons (245) - Haughty Modiste, Gatgetzan, Tanaris, unlimited supply

    Haliscan jacket (250) - same as above

    Tuxedo pants (245) - Oufitter Eric (A), Ironforge or Millie Gregorian (H), Undercity, limited supply

    Tuxedo jacket (250) - same as above

    

  2. Low level gear:

    Spidersilk boots (125) - trainer

    Spidersilk drape (125) - trainer; this does not sell often since the introduction of heirloom cloaks

    Icy cloak (200) - Ghok'kah (H), Dustwallow Marsh.*

    White bandit mask (215) - random drop from the Old world mobs.

    I used to sell Dreamweave gloves, circlet and vest, but all these patterns require Wildvine, which is now rare and expensive.

* Note: It seems after the Shattering the Pattern: Icy Cloak can be bought only by Horde players, as the Alliance vendor was located in Southshore that is now... Ruins of Southshore. I should check the rest of his patterns too and try selling them cross-faction.  

  This list is not exhaustive. It includes only items that are selling well for me. While writing the post I found a few more things (Dress shoes and all kinds of shirts, for example) to try crafting and listing on the AH. I will tell you about it in my next weekly report and update the list if necessary.

  Have a nice day!

Weekly Sales Report 23.05-29.05

  Another week of active gold making has passed. It is time to show you a few numbers and a nice little table again. I like to think that there is someone out there reading my boring reports, but I admit I write these weekly posts mainly for myself.


  Previous gold total: 776k

  Total sales: 184k

  Weekly profit: 110k 

  Current gold total: 886k

  If you are interested in what is behind those numbers, go under the cut, please.

Selling Low Level Crafted Items: Jewelcrafting

  There are not many opportunities left for making money selling low level grafted gear. Blizzard added even more heirloom items in Cataclysm - cloaks and helms that you can buy if your guild is of enough high level. That said there are still several gear slots which you have to fill with dungeon drops, quest rewards or... crafted items. The neck slot is one of such.

  Here are several necklaces that I make and successfully sell:

  1. Malachite Pendant. I told about it in details in my post Today's Special: Malachite Pendant.

  2. Thick Bronze Necklace. Another neck piece that is good for any low level character because +3 stamina is a nice boost for any class. The materials are:

  

  It costs about 2-3g to make and can be usually sold for 15-25g. 

  3. Necklace of the Deep has two red gem slots. This makes it so powerful that it can not only make leveling a rogue or a hunter through Outland very easy but also last well into Northrend or even till the Cataclysm gear can be equipped. Though many players prefer leveling through dungeons and can get their amulets there, I can still sell 2-3 of these each week. The materials are:

 

   It costs about 50g to make and can be sold for 150g.

  These are the items I am consistently making and selling. I will look more into low level jewelcrafting and update this post if necessary.

  The next post will be about tailoring, and the list of items there is a little longer.

  Have a nice day!

Weekly Sales Report 16.05-22.05

  No mounts were bought last week, so the profit is a nice three-digit number.


  Previous gold total: 671k

  Total sales: 162k

  Weekly profit: 105k 

  Current gold total: 776k

  Sales by category

  Details will follow under the cut.

Looking For a New Market? Your Competitor Can Help

  We all are in a constant search for new markets, aren't we? Analyzing the competitors is the obvious way to go. Here is what I do when I am bored by gold making routine. 

  Check the competitors on the Undermine Journal

  If you are like me, playing on a US or Oceanic server, the Undermine Journal (TUJ) is always your best friend. I like to check periodically what my major competitors are selling and see if I can find anything to add to my own list. 

  Watch the combat log

  I have a bunch of alts and sometimes use them to spy on my competitors, standing next to them and reading a combat log. You can use this method even to watch characters of the other faction. Nowadays, when Dalaran is empty and the auctioneer is located conveniently right near the profession suppliers, it is a nice place to do crafting and selling. One of my characters is based there too, making things, posting auctions and watching one of the competitors from the other side, who probably think that I am not online.

  Pay attention to visual effects

  To explain this last point I will tell you my story about discovering a niche market. 

  One day I was chilling in one of the major cities and saw a visual effect that I have not seen since the beginning of Cata but it was very familiar. Someone was making Moonshroud and the pillar of light made him stand out of the crowd. (I remember back in Wrath I always went out of the city to make these special kinds of cloth). I checked the guy on TUJ and the only thing he was selling were Emerald bags. That is how I found a new market. If that person had known how I did it, probably he would have tried to hide somewhere too.

  Sorry, I have to go. One of my competitors just came to Dalaran and is crafting something.

  Have a nice day!

Weekly Sales Report 09.05-15.05

  I was planning another post for today but just got some more thoughts to add there so I present you my weekly sales report instead.

  Last week I bought a mount again. This time it was a Crimson Deathcharger.

  Previous gold total: 638k

  Total sales: 173.7k

  Weekly profit: 33k (after buying the mount = - 60k)

  Current gold total: 671k

   Sales by category

  You can read details under the cut.

Weekly Sales Report 02.05-08.05

  Here is my first weekly sales report.

  I forgot to write down the amount of gold I had on Monday morning, so the start point will be Wednesday morning.

  Previous gold total: 588k

  Total sales: 198.6k

  Weekly profit: 50k (after buying another Traveler's tundra mammoth and 5th guild bank tab = - 18.5k)

  Current gold total: 638k

  Certain features of MySales still don't work for me but I got all the data from its file and made some calculations in Excel. So I have no pretty screenshots of the add-on to show you, just a little table:

  Sales by category

  After the cut I will go in details about each item category.

Two Semi-Rare Pets: Green Wing Macaw and White Kitten

  With the introduction of the new pet collecting achievements that increased sales of all kinds of pets, now is a good time to review all the related tips.

  Today I want to remind you of these two semi-rare pets. I do not farm them but rather keep an eye on the Auction House and buy them when they are selling cheap to flip for more. 

  Where do they come from? And why are they semi-rare?

   Cat Carrier (White Kitten) is sold in Stormwind by the boy named Lil Timmy. The trick here is that he is not in town all the time. He spawns every 2-3 hours, follows a set route around the city and then despawns. Each time he has only one kitten in stock and will happily sell it to you for 60s. For a detailed guide on how to get this pet and for a good laugh check this post on Wowhead. 

  Parrot Cage (Green Wing Macaw) is dropped by the Defias Pirates in the Deadmines, both normal and heroic, with roughly 2% drop chance and now it also can be found in the Satchel of Exotic Mysteries. Either way it is not the most common pet.

  I suggest you check your auction house for these pets from time to time. They come in limited quantities and often people post them for as little as 50g. I managed to sell them for around 400-500g. The price for a kitten maybe a little lower on the Alliance side, but check the Horde auction house and you may find there is none listed there.

  Now I will go and get my Winterspring Cub. Somehow I do not have it yet. Have a nice day!

Epic Penny Pouch = Epic Fail? I Hope Not

  I have to admit that the beginning of my "epic" blog was an epic fail... I started the blog with only two clear ideas in mind and a strong wish to write only on topics that were not touched by other bloggers. I thought there was no sense in bringing up the same topic again and again. And here I am, stuck with only two posts in a whole month.

  But I am not going to give up so easily. The post For the potential blogger by Stockpile came just in time for me. Every single point in there is valuable and I found more tips in the comments. With all that knowledge I hope I can do better. 

  While I was not blogging I was, of course, still playing AH and making money. One day I found four different TGC mounts posted on the AH for a good price. (Sadly, there was no spectral tiger. And I like that one the most). At the time I had 480k and decided to choose and buy just two of them. That is how I got Mottled Drake and White Wooly Rhino and went back to 330k. Two weeks later I got all my money back and, with the 4.1 patch and uncommon and meta gems selling like crazy, two days ago I broke 500k gold mark.

  As for blogging, I like the idea of posting weekly sales reports and will start doing that too, though MySales add-on is not working properly for me. I cannot get a report for the last week or month, only all the data at once. It seems the "Relative Date" option is broken and always shows the time of a sale "0s ago". I checked the data file and all the information there is correct, including the date and time of sales. Is anyone having the same problem? At least I can use MySales Converter written by Vayaz to get the numbers for my weekly reports.

  To make this post not so useless here is a small gold tip for you. The Darkmoon faire is running this week and all kinds of pets are selling well right now. Don't forget to grab some frogs from Flik and post them on the AH. 

  Have a nice day!

Cross-Faction Trade: Flipping the Darkmoon Cards

  This is my entry for Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival on the topic "What are your favorite items to transfer to the other faction for sales?" I should say that this post is one of the reasons that I started this blog. I wanted to share my idea but didn't have a place to do it.

  I am going to tell you about my latest idea for cross-faction flipping. Attention: it is highly risky and can cause you big losses! But we all know that the more money we get the more risk we are willing to take. At least it is true about me.

   The idea

  I am talking here about single Darkmoon cards that are used to create Darkmoon decks. The main idea is to compare what cards are available on each side and at what prices. There can be two possibilities for you to make money:

  1. A particular card is missing on one side and is available comparatively cheap on the other side.
  2. A card is selling cheap on one side and is going for a much higher price on the other side.

  How to do it

  The most convenient way to compare what is available on each side is to use The Undermine Journal. It has a "Darkmoon News" page in the "Enhancements" tab. If you open such page for Alliance and Horde, you can easily see and compare all the information.

  Let's look at the example. This is the data on Volcanic cards for the Alliance side (first table) and Horde side (second table).

  What opportunities for flipping do we see here?

1. Two cards are not available on Horde AH at all (Two and Three of Embers) and are selling for a normal price on Alliance side.

2. There is only one Four of Embers on the Horde side, going for 1000g, but there are 9 of them on the Alliance side, the cheapest available for 550g.

  Tip: if you see that there is just one particular card available for medium-low price, you can try to buy and resell it for a high price on the same side.

  Another tip: if you end up with almost the full set of cards, assuming that you buy them all for medium-low prices, you can consider getting the missing cards and making a deck yourself.

Do not try this if:

  1. You don't want to invest large amount of gold in a highly risky enterprise.

  2. You don't know the Darkmoon card market well enough to assess the situation. 

  Many factors are important here:
  - faction ratio on your server
  - is the Darkmoon card market declining or not yet
  - how many scribes are involved in making decks
  - when will be the next Darkmoon faire and how it influences the market

  3. You do not have an opportunity to transfer cards cross-faction quickly. Two accounts work the best for this.

   My experience

  I am keeping records of all the cards that I buy, including the information on what side I buy and sell, dates, prices and profit after AH cut. For the last week I bought 27 cards for a total of 13k gold. I managed to sell only 10 of them for the total of 19.5k. So my enterprise is already profitable and I still have 17 cards to sell or make decks. According to my records profit from each card varies from 500g to 2300g. 

  And yes, I know that this week the Darkmoon faire was running and this may not work so well when it is over. I will keep doing such flipping and will see how it goes in between the faires.

  Please, let me know what you think of my idea. Have you tried it? What amount of gold are you willing to invest in a new risky enterprise?

Today's Special: Malachite Pendant

  Target market: level 14 twinks and leveling characters.

  There is simply no alternative to this neck piece on its level. With the introduction of the new 10-14 battleground brackets this amulet became the only option for level 14 twinks. It is good for any class that can make use of agility, that means such popular twink classes as rogues and hunters.

  Materials, production cost and profit: 

  To craft this you have to be a jewelcrafter of level 20, and this is one of the first designs that you will learn. The materials needed:

 

  On my server the overall cost of materials is 2g at most and I am selling the pendants in the range of 10-25g each, depending whether I have competition or not. That mainly comes from leveling jewelcrafters and does not last long. Usually they post theirs for 1-2g so I just buy them out and repost. You can try to do the same as TUJ shows that on most servers they are going for 1-2g too.

  I have sold 29 of these and made about 400g total profit in 10 days. I also tried flipping them on the other side and on another server where I have a low level alt and it worked well there too. 

  Is your jewelcrafter standing next to a huge pile of ore, prospecting it day and night? Let him rest for a moment and make something simple and pretty! You don't have a jewelcrafter yet? Then roll one and start making money from JC on the first day! Give it a try and tell us about it.

I'll just start it

Hi all!

I am a WoW player. I have been playing for two years and lately I found a new interest in making money in game.   I was playing the Auction House in WotLK and could afford some things that other people considered very expensive (mammoth mounts, BoE ICC gear) but it was never my main activity. It all started a couple of months ago and I don't remember how exactly it happened. Most likely I followed a link to one of the gold-making blogs from WoW Insider that is one of my favorite web resource about WoW. Long story short, now I'm really interested in playing AH and going for the gold cap.

I am following a number of blogs but was only a silent reader till now. I am starting my own because I have some ideas and tips to share with the community.

P.S. To prevent possible questions, for now I have no intentions to reveal my characters or the server I am playing on.

P.P.S. Yesterday I hit 400k gold mark!