Ready to Stockpile for Mists of Pandaria?

We have hit the infamous “brick wall” in game, the time between expansions that seems like everything comes to a crawl.  I see it as the time to start investing in the future, in this case the future is MoP.  This lull in between expansions will do some crazy things to the Auction House; prices will probably have erratic ups and downs tied to the summer (kids are home) and the increase in alt leveling and people preparing for MoP while some are still finishing their Cataclysm raiding and achievements.  I see this time as opportunity.

First let’s look at what we want to stockpile.  We can learn lessons from the past expansions and our gold making lists to gain insight as to what may be of value in MoP.  My shopping list includes the following: (Some of these are from WoTLK expansion and should not be overlooked)

Ores – Pyrite, Elementium, Obsidium, Titanium

Volatiles – Air, Fire, Water, Life, Earth,

Herbs – Whiptail, Heartblossom, Azshara’s Veil, Cinderbloom, Twilight Jasmine, Stormvine

Gems – Uncut Uncommon gems and Uncut Rare Gems

Leather – Savage and Heavy Savage Leather

Enchanting Mats – Hypnotic Dust, Maelstrom Crystals, Greater Celestial Essence, Infinite Dust

Inks – All lower level inks for glyphs

Cloth – Embersilk and Frostweave cloth!

The items in bold are my priority for stockpiling while the others will get some of my attention.  Be wise on your stockpiling by watching the market over the next several weeks and try to buy when prices are hitting new low points.  Be careful because there will be some new low points coming in the next few weeks due to an influx of kids home from summer,  people bored and a lot of people unloading their banks before MoP. 

How much to invest?  This is all about your comfort level and the amount of gold you have on hand.  I plan to invest about 10% of my current in game gold which translates to about 150-200k investment, but I expect that this will give me back over 1 million gold within 3 months of MoP release.

Gold Secrets 101

Gold Secrets 101

The biggest question I always seem to garner from my guildies and others on my realm is, where do I start and how do I do what you do?  Seems like an easy enough question but the answer is not that easy.  It really depends on what professions you have, your game knowledge, the amount of gold you want to invest, your patience level, the amount of time you are willing to put into learning, the markets on your server, and several other factors.  I know that you are reading this because you want an answer so I will do my best to give one or two for you.

First off, let's be clear here, my methods are not going to net you 10k or 20k in a day, unless you are willing to invest at least 20k or more to start with...for most people this is just insanity and welcomes a whole bunch of pain and frustration.  Sure, I can make that in a day, but this is with tons of experience, knowledge and a huge bankroll.  If you truly want to learn how to master the Auction House then my first piece of advice is to start slow.

Now that you have agreed to start slow and really learn how to master the trade of auctioneering, let’s look at our options of how to make gold.  I will list just a few of the ways that someone can enter the market safely and make gold coins.

Enchanting Scrolls - Enchanting Mats - Disenchanting greens/blues for Mats - Disenchanting crafted items - Glyphs - Inks - Crafted Relics - Uncut Gems - Cut Gems - Prospecting - Dreamcloth crafted items - Crafted PVP Gear - Armor Enhancements - Flasks - Potions - Elixirs - Transmutes - Smelting - Market Speculation - Market Timing - Resetting the Auction Price - Recipes from Vendors - Trading in Commodities - Pets from Vendors - Old World Materials - Dumb Luck

Has that got you thinking?  I will hit on these and other items as I post each day so that you get better insights.  One of questions I am also asked quite often is "Do you farm?" the answer to that is yes, I farm the Auction House every day!  I hate traditional farming, spending hours collecting herbs, leather, cloth or minerals is just not my idea of fun.  There are those who like this method, it is simple and they make gold at it.  We need those players, they are my best friends!  Why?  Because they typically do not care about market timing, market pricing or anything else other than making a quick turnaround in gold.  So they will undercut and drop their stacks in for me to buy them and resell them.

Think about what I just said.  They spend hours farming materials, sell it in the AH to me for a good price (cheap is good) and then I repost them in the Auction House for a higher price when the timing is right and make even more gold off the materials.  Why is my way better?  Because for every hour they spent farming to make their gold, I spent 5 minutes making the same amount of gold from their hard work.  :-)

"Where do I start?"  My best recommendation is to start small and start in area that you have a lot of knowledge in already, this will make it easier to learn the concepts of market timing and how to manipulate the markets to your advantage.  There are hundreds of ways to make gold in the Auction House, so rather than trying to learn a dozen or more ways and taking on too much risk, just take on one way at a time and master it.