Cross Realm Zones Impact on Your Gold (Part 3)

So far we have covered what Cross Realm Zones is and how it works as well as the impact to lower level zones on different servers.  Let’s move on to part 3 of the Cross Realm Zones Impact on your gold.

High Population Zones

When I first learned about the technology that Blizzard announced was coming in MoP, I really only focused on the High Population Zones impact to gold making.  No one knows for sure how big of an impact it will make until we see it in action, but we can certainly take some stabs at it!

My initial thought that has persisted even as I learned more about how this will work, is that the zones for levels 8-90 will be the most affected by the “splitting” of the zone due to the high number of players trying to quest.  For those that remember the last couple of expansions, the starting zones for the new levels were insane.  Too many people trying to get what they need and in a hurry to get it done.  Mix in with this, the toons that simply want to farm nodes to make gold (prices are always highest at start of expansion) along with the professional farmers (bots) and you had a rough time getting any substantial supply.

What we do not know is at what point do they separate or split the zone, is it 100 people in the zone?  200?  500?  I would be willing to be the number is high which means there will still be some serious competition but at some point the supply will double in availability because the zone will split into 2 zones.  That means we should see more supply hitting the market faster.

My guess is that this will not really impact pricing in the initial 2 weeks because demand will outstrip supply no matter what due to the number of people trying to level crafting professions and get ready for raiding.  What we will see are prices will fall sooner than they did in Cataclysm or WOTLK.  This will be truer for those on low pop servers than the high pop servers because of the demand levels.

In any case, beware of flipping at high prices for very long as the price may fluctuate a lot during the first months of the expansion.

My Strategy

I see a huge potential right now in the lower level commodities, the ore, herbs and leather that are used for leveling from 1-525.  This stuff is cheap right now, insanely cheap in some cases, so buy it.  You filled up your Guild Bank and your bags?  Good, then go buy some more because the new technology combined with a new class/race is going to drive demand higher than people expect and not many people are stocking up on the low level supplies.  If they were buying it up then the AH would be seeing much higher prices.

Be patient on this strategy.  This is a midterm investment that I think can earn you back 500-1000% returns on your investment. 

I will post more about how to flip MoP commodities as we get closer to the release but for now, go develop a game plan for the lower level supplies and buy now before you miss the opportunity as I expect that once the prices start to climb in MoP, they will not drop as often or as much as we have seen in the past.

Cross Realm Zones Impact on Your Gold (Part 2)

What started this posting was a conversation with one of my guild mates who mentioned a frustrating experience for one of our guildies in a low level zone where she was trying to farm ore.  She was being beat to mining nodes and was seeing players everywhere she went in the zone and then realized these players were from a different realm.  A few days ago she was farming this same zone with no competition and only running into the occasional player.

That is when I had an “Aha” moment.  Cross Realm Zones has already impacted us, now the question is how and what to expect going forward.  Up until this moment, I was only thinking about how this change would impact leveling zones from levels 86-90 when MoP is released.  The reality is that there is now a major change throughout the entirety of the leveling experience which in turn will drive changes in the economies on each server. 

To better explain this I am going to give 2 different examples, lower populated zones versus higher populated zones.

Lower Populated Zone Impact

This is a rather interesting change because of the impact it will have on the supply in your Auction House.  This change will impact all lower level commodities like ore and herbs.  This really impacts the toons that want to level their professions more than anything else. 

Leveling requirements have changed so dramatically over the years that toons now level faster than ever and will sometimes skip entire zones because they out leveled the zone before getting to it.  If that toon was leveling a “farming” profession like mining, skinning or herbalism, they may go to that zone to level their skill and could so very quickly since no one was there.  Until now.

By implementing this new technology, the toon that had an entire zone to themselves to farm their nodes is now competing with many people who are from different realms.  Translate this to the impact on the Auction House and you will possibly have a lower supply, or at the very least, a slower supply into the Auction markets than previous.  What does this mean to prices?  Seems to me that when supply slows up but demand stays constant then prices go up and for someone like me this is going to be a great way to flip more goods at higher prices.

We may also see fewer people choosing farming professions because of the competition in the zones will make it slower to level the skills.  If this is the case it will only further suppress the supply side of the equation.

Larger realms will more than likely see prices slowly increase without much of an issue and will be absorbed into the game because there is a ton of gold floating around on higher population servers.  Small population servers may be hurt the most by this, as they may see higher spikes in prices that is not as easily absorbed.  Both markets will be prime space for people like me who make the majority of their gold flipping items for profit.

Cross Realm Zones Impact on Your Gold (Part 1)

I have been so focused on what will happen in MoP that I didn’t even notice the changes in our server economy until a guildy mentioned it to me last night.  You may not have noticed either, in fact, I was expecting the change to impact the economy upon the release of MoP that would effect MoP commodities and never thought about the how the change would be felt in all of the game.

The change?  Cross Realm Zones

Let me explain how this works before we discuss the impact to the economy.  Blizzard has initiated this new technology that allows servers to “merge” in zones that are under populated and "split" zones that are over populated.

Have you leveled a toon in the last year or two and felt like you were the only person in the entire zone?  You probably were!  One of the major differences in WoW since its launch is the number of players in a zone.  I can remember leveling my very first toon in Vanilla WoW and while running around questing in a zone I would pass by other players or run into a player working on the same quests.  It was very rare to be in a zone and not see some else for any length of time.  Fast forward to today, leveling a toon from 1-80 can be a lonely experience.  The only time I have seen another toon in a low level zone was because they were a level 85 farming commodities or working on their Loremaster Achievement.

Were you one of the folks that bought the WOTLK or CATA expansion and were leveling your toon at the moment it was released?  Then you can remember, as I do, the absolute craziness of how many toons were trying to complete the same quests you were trying to complete.  There were times that you had to “stand in line” to kill a particular NPC or get a mob kill that you needed.  It was very frustrating, especially the higher population servers.  If you have not experienced this, then think of it this way; Take all of the toons you see on any given day right now in Stormwind AND Orgimmar, double it and then put them all in the first leveling Zone!  Good luck!

Blizzard sees both of these scenarios as issues that impact the experience of the game player and has introduced Cross Realm Zones to even out these imbalances.  According to Blizzard’s site “When you’re in a zone that is set as a ‘cross-realm zone’ you’ll notice that in addition to the players you’d ordinarily see from your realm, you’ll also see (and be able to play with) players from other realms.  This will happen seamlessly, and players will be able to group and quest as they normally would with players from their own realm.”

I love this from a leveling standpoint, it gives us a much richer experience and allows us to meet other players even if they are from different realms and establish friendships, recruit guild members and group up instances and deliver a more social leveling experience.

OK, that is how it works.  So how does it impact your gold making?  Stay tuned for Part 2 to get my take on this!

Make Gold for Your Guild!

My main interest in playing WoW has always been raiding; farming the Auction House has always been a fun secondary diversion that helps my main interest of raiding.  Having a lot of gold when you raid is a huge advantage; you can buy gear when it firsts hits the Auction House, buy recipes for gear, buy all the materials you need, etc.  It just makes raiding that much more enjoyable and easy.

But what else can you do with these Auction House skills?  You can help your raid team or your Guild Bank.  In my case, I am also a GM for a medium sized guild of about 500 toons and over 100 unique accounts that loves to do casual raiding.  We have been around for over 3 years and have cleared all non heroic content and dabbled a little in heroic content from time to time.  Before the guild changes were introduced in Cataclysm, I would spend part of my Auction House time making gold for the Guild Bank.  I had a separate toon that handled all the gold for the guild, bought and sold items, cleaned the Guild Bank tabs of the clutter and was mostly focused on bringing in about 20k gold a month for the guild to use which then purchased herbs, fish or whatever materials were needed for flasks and feasts.

Once Cataclysm hit though, my duties were needed less because of the guild perks and the guild challenges that were introduced.  But that doesn’t mean we cannot give to our guilds and our raid teams for a worthwhile reason, after all, we still need to raid and progress.  So I look for deals that help the raid team.  Everything from buying materials, gems, recipes and even enchants to help the team above and beyond what the guild pays for already. 

I don’t just give my gold, but instead I leverage (with Officers consent) the Guild Bank to achieve our gold goals by using my knowledge and experience. 

As an example: A few days ago, I was able to purchase a Rare Spectral Tiger Mount for about 200k gold.  This is a good price, too good to pass up.  This is also where you need to make a tough decision, buy it for me to resell and make gold for me, or buy it with the Guild Bank and resell it for the Guild. 

I bought it for the guild, an easy decision based on my personal gold stockpile and the need to help my guild prepare for MoP.  Within 2 days I sold the mount for 325k, still a great deal for the buyer but a nice, fast return of gold for the Guild Bank.

Another way that you can create great amounts of gold for the Guild Bank is through crafting in the early stages on raid releases.  Even with very high costs for materials from raiding and the cost of a recipe, you can easily craft raiding gear and charge accordingly.  Why do this?  Because the gold generated buys more materials, crafts more goods and then you can sell some while retaining some items for the raid members who now get geared for free. 

Not everyone is in a position like I am, as a GM of a raiding guild, to be able to use the Guild Bank to build more wealth for the guild.  But there are still many ways to do it on your own.  Making gold is fun, but it is even more fun to be able to share it in a way that helps everyone meet their goals.  For me, that is a better feeling of accomplishment than simply giving away gold to people or buying things for people just because you have stockpiled so much gold.  It has a purpose; to help the raid team progress though content without costing them a ton of gold.

There is so much gold that can be made in the game, and it is a ton of fun to have it and spend it on things you want in the game that separate you from the common player.  But don’t forget about your guild, your raid team and others you spend time with in the game.  Figure out what and how you could help and then set that as a goal for yourself.  Trust me, it is more fun giving back than just stockpiling more gold.

Patch 5.04 Brings Glyphmas or Glyphcrash?

Like most of you, I was excited to log into WoW yesterday to experience the latest patch that prepares us for the Mists of Pandaria.  After about 5 minutes of looking around to see that all was well with my characters, I quickly dove into the glyph market expecting there to be some frenzy.  What I got instead was a rather lackluster result for all of the prep work that was done.

The Background: Patch 5.04 had major changes to the glyph system, by eliminating Prime Glyphs and then adding a bunch of new glyphs into the game.  Inscriptionists everywhere prepared for the patch by stocking up on inks at all levels to be ready for the mass infusion of sales.  It appeared on the Beta that the Blackfallow inks would not be tradable for lower level inks, so everyone traded and hunkered down for the storm.

The Reality: The patch hit, the glyphs changed and new ones were added.  Blackfallow ink is still tradable after all and the market is flooded with glyphs.  Sales were slow.  I am betting this was on most servers, so I would be curious to hear from others how it was on their servers.  I posted about 200 glyphs and sold maybe 12 for a total of about 2400 gold.  On a typical day this would be fine, but on patch day this is horrible.

Some of my feelings about this are probably stemming from the awesome patch 3.0 which was the pre patch to the expansion for WOTLK.  This patch introduced us to Inscriptionists and glyphs for the first time.  This is also known as “Glyphmas”.  I was posting glyphs, as were others, and they were selling so fast we could not keep up.  I made over 50k in sales that first day and nothing can really compare to that day since then.  So when we do have a day like yesterday it seems so mild in comparison that it feels likes a letdown or a market crash even though it wasn’t.

So why was it a letdown?  There were many people posting glyphs, more than ever on the server.  Normally there are about 3-4 regular posters of glyphs on the Auction House on my server, yesterday that number was over 20 and each one was undercutting the last one, cancelling their listings and reposting them etc.  I am sure that if you were willing to sit there and post, cancel and repost these glyphs for a few hours straight then you would probably have made some decent sales for the day.  But that is not my game, I love to spend a small amount of time to get big rewards and I had other stuff to do, like check out my talent specs, try out an instance to see how they affected game play etc.

Yesterday was not a bust however…Most people overlooked the secondary market.  This would be the herbs that people use to mill and get ink.  I made a killing here.  I spent most of my auction house time over the last month or two stockpiling herbs that were selling so cheap due to the large number of alts running around the server who were farming their herbs to level their profession.  Everyday these herbs were sitting at such low prices, many times I would pick up entire stacks of herbs for less than 10 gold.  Sales were slow on herbs for the last 2 months; evidently few of these alts were becoming alchemists or inscribers. 

How good was it?  I was selling those stacks of herbs that I bought at 10 gold, for 200 gold or more!  Sales were not crazy, but I had little to no competition and after spending all of 10 minutes posting some of my herb stocks I was able to clear a handsome profit of over 10k in one day and the sales are still coming.

Lesson of the day: Don’t follow the crowd!  While everyone else was focused on inks, I decided that I would focus on herbs and it is paying off.  There are many people unwilling to spend the 400-500 gold for a new glyph and are either an inscriptionist or know one in their guild and so they just make them and buy the herbs in the AH if they need them.  Based on what I saw in the AH, very few people were stockpiling herbs, they had milled them into inks.

The Recipe to Making Gold is in the Recipes!

There are tons of ways to make a lot of gold in WoW, regardless of which expansion or Tier of raiding is available.  There are so many that sometimes I even forget until I am standing at the mailbox and wondering what made me so much gold and then I see it, recipes!

I have seen many suggestions about buying recipes from vendors and then reselling, a legitimate way to make some gold but not what I like to do.  I prefer flipping recipes.  These are the ones that can net you big amounts from one sale and require very little effort.  I have several recipes that I search for each day and will buy out and then relist at much higher prices. 

These are niche recipes, rare or uncommon drops that people need to fill out their collection.  Some are used for their purpose, such as the recipe for enchanters, Formula: Enchant Weapon - Fiery Weapon.  People still use this enchant and so it has demand for those who want to use it as well as the collector.  Others, like the recipe for Leatherworkers, Pattern: Dusky Boots, are more for the collector wanting to complete their list of recipes but can sell for big gold!  Just ask Chame (guildy of mine on Bronzebeard) who bought this for 150 gold and then listed and sold it for 10k gold. 

So why don't more people do this?  Why do some people list them so cheap?  How come everyone else isn't writing about it in their blogs?

Because it requires patience.  Some of these may take several weeks to sell while others may move a little faster.  This is not a method to get gold rich overnight, but it is an awesome way to make thousands of gold over time.  In fact, I would venture to guess that I have made well over 200k from recipes over the last few years and that is probably understating it.

To get into this market you need to know your crafting professions and prices and be prepared to buy more of the same recipes if they should hit the AH before your sells.  Here are some of the recipes I go after in the enchanting profession:  (this is just a small sample)

These can go for 2-5k easy and more!

[Formula: Enchant Boots - Cat's Swiftness]
[Formula: Enchant Boots - Boar's Speed]
[Formula: Enchant Boots - Vitality]
[Formula: Enchant Boots - Greater Agility]

[Formula: Enchant Bracer - Restore Mana Prime]

[Formula: Enchant Chest - Greater Stats]
[Formula: Enchant Chest - Major Resilience]
 [Formula: Enchant Cloak - Major Resistance]

[Formula: Enchant Gloves - Herbalism] 
[Formula: Enchant Gloves - Advanced Mining]
[Formula: Enchant Gloves - Advanced Herbalism]
[Formula: Enchant Gloves - Riding Skill]

[Formula: Enchant Shield - Frost Resistance]
[Formula: Enchant Shield - Shield Block]
[Formula: Enchant Shield - Resistance]

[Formula: Enchant Weapon - Potency]
[Formula: Enchant Weapon - Battlemaster]
[Formula: Enchant Weapon - Spellsurge]

Happy recipe hunting!  Remember to put these and otehr recipes into your daily Auction House hunt so that you do not miss out on some sweet easy gold.  It is not uncommmon to find them for as little as a few hundred gold or less.

Stockpiling for MoP Part 2

One of the areas many people do not think about before an expansion, is what items will I need to level my professions?  This mistake could cost you thousands!

I highly recommend that you research your professions in MoP and figure out what recipes you currently have that could award you skill points (the ones in green, yellow or red) and stockpile those now!  By the time MoP hits those same mats will go up big time as others buy them for their professions to level.  Many folks will want to use the new recipes but supplies in the AH will be limited for the first few weeks.  This is BOTH a gold making opportunity and a Heads Up for you profession levelers!

Take some time and look at your current list of recipes that will award points, then figure out what the materials are and start collecting them now.  Get enough to level at least 10 points to 20 points for yourself.  If you have multiple professions as I do, then you will need even more stock!

On the other side of this equation will be the buyers!  There will be tons of people who did not stockpile enough or at all, and they will be buying mats like crazy for the first few weeks of the expansion.  Mats that went for 1 gold will now suddenly be 10 gold or more!  So when you are looking at your list for your toons, take the time and buy more to resell.

Example:  Hypnotic Dust.  This stiff was selling for as low as 10 silver each a week ago.  It is already climbing on my server to as much as 3-4 gold each!  I bet that it will hit as high as 15g each within the first few days of or weeks of MoP being released.  If you can still find it cheap, then buy it!  I have well over 500 stacks of this stuff!  I have even unloaded a few stacks now at the current prices to recoup my investment. 

There are tons of examples though; Savage Leather, Heavy Savage Leather, Embersilk Cloth, Bolts of Embersilk, Pyrite Ore, Pyrium Bars, Maelstrom Crystals, Heavenly Shards, Volatiles, Herbs etc.  These are still cheap, but they won't be for long. 

Watch for prices to start climbing each day we get closer.  The farmers will either stop farming or stop posting so supplies will dwindle as we get closer.  Others will not post because they want it for MoP, so your time is short for this massive potential of profits!

Before you ask, yes, I am taking my own advice.  I have been stockpiling for the last 2 months as prices bottomed out.  I have 18 Guild Bank Tabs that are full, 3 Auction House Toons that are maxed out on bags space and banks space that are full.  I also am bouncing mail between toons to keep inventory! 

Stockpiling for MoP Release?

If you have not already started your stockpiling, then you are behind!  With about 7 weeks to go before the official launch of Mists of Panadaria, there is still time to get a few good deals.  Here are a few of my thoughts on things to buy.

Pyrite Ore - If we use the release of Cata as a benchmark for pricing, then there is a huge opportunity for this to make tons of profit.  On my server I am finding the ore for about 30 gold per stack as people dump their stock.  During Cata, I was averaging about 400 gold per stack of Titanium Ore, WOTLK's equivalent of Pyrite Ore.  Could it go this high again?  Who knows?  But I am willing to sit on a a few hundred stacks to see.  If it does then you will make a HUGE profit.

Chaos Orbs - I really don't see too many people discussing this item but I think there is a huge upside to this one.  It is hard to compare these to their equivalent, Frozen Orbs, but I think there is even more upsaide this go around.  Why?  Illusionary Bags.  We have found out that there will not be a new bag in MoP that is more than 24 slots.  Illusionary Bags are going to remain the biggest bag in the game at 26 slots.  The way to make these is by using Dreamcloth.  Dreamcloth is made with bolts of Embersilk and either Chaos Orbs or 30 Volatiles of your choice.  For now, there is no change in the cooldown period for Dreamcloth (which could change) so you are limited to 1 per week per type of volatile.  The good news?  No cooldowns for Chaos Orb Dreamcloth!  Want that bag right now?  You need 8 Dreamcloth.  At least 3 will have to come from Chaos Orbs which means 15 orbs!= with very few people running heroic 5 mans from Cata...get the point?

Whiptail - Herbs always have a use, but I like Whiptail for 2 reasons; alchemy levelers and inscription.  The trick here is to stock up on while it is cheap.  I see thousands sitting in the AH for about 20 gold per stack or less.  Buy it, mill it and process it into Blackfallow Ink then trade the ink for lower inks in inscription.  You will have 2 ways to make some serious coin, selling glyphs or selling the ink.  I tend to get bored with the glyph market so I usually sell the ink.  While everyone yells at me for this strategy, let me just say that if you do it right you can make 5-10 times your investment selling the ink which is far less work and effort.

I will be back to post some more items, but this gives you something to think about for today!

MoP Release Date!

You may have noticed that I have been absent, mostly real life keeping me busy and some WoW doldrums keeping me away. I have been doing the raid thing and that's about it. Then I see an article over on WoW Insider that MoP will be released on September 25th! Holy cow do I have a lot to do until then!

One of the best times to make gold, and I mean a lot of gold, is to flip mats that people are stocking up for MoP. Yes, you need to stockpile for MoP as well, but you need to be smart and watch the market fluctuations and supply. I am willing to bet you will see some mats suddenly dry up and prices sky rocket just because of this announced release date. So if you needed to stock up it's too late right? Nope.

Make a list of what you think will be in demand in MoP and watch the markets closely. Buy on lows and buy it all if you can. Then take 50% of your newly purchased goodies and relist at much higher prices. You would be surprised how many people will stock up on these mats even at the higher prices! I call this "Free Stockpiling". The concept is simple. Buy it as cheap as you can, stockpile half and relist half for at least double the price you paid. Stay in this market and keep buying and resisting, you will sell the stock and when you do you will have earned back all the gold you spent on your stockpile! That means your stock starts out at zero cost so anything you sell it for is profit!!!

Be patient, I say this a lot because to make serious gold you must have nerves of steel and be patient for the rewards sometimes, and stick out the market. It will be a wild ride for the next 3 months!

Profits with Fiery Weapon

One of the oldest enchanting recipes, fiery weapon, is still one of the best moneymakers in the game! It it used by leveling toons because it is a great stat modifier for dps and it works on BoA gear for alts. The recipe requires 4 small radiant shards and 1 Essence of Fire. These mats are cheap, unless I am the one selling them! Try to keep the market clear of these mats at cheap prices while you work the enchant market. I can usually find these items for 2-3 gold each or even lower. Sell the enchant for 150 gold or better if you can. On my server we seem to sell about 30 of these per week right now.

you will see people post these for much less, so you have 2 choices; buy them out or let them sell them cheaper. you may have a 3rd choice which is to undercut them but I hate undercutting if it means low profit margins. my strategy is simple, buy out the mats in the AH and buy out the cheap enchants, relist 4-5 at a time for 150-100 gold each and watch my profits soar!

Don't forget about those mats either, I usually relist the Small Radiant Shards for 15g each and the Essence of Fire for about 20g each.

Easy Gold!!!

D3 Auction House Blues

Diablo 3 has been unleashed and it is wreaking havoc on our sales because so many that play WoW have gone to the dark side to play Diablo 3.  Mists of Pandaria is on the horizon, most progression raiding has come to a halt and now the release of Diablo 3.  It is the perfect storm!  Sales have slowed, prices have fallen and for those that are willing to invest in the market, there will be plenty of opportunities to buy, buy, buy!

This particular combination of events has combined to give us a unique look into supply and demand at work.  Most people know that when supply is high and demand is low then prices fall, when supply is low and demand is high then prices rise.  A lot of people don’t know what happens when supply and demand meet in the middle, this is called equilibrium.  Basically this means that we have hit an unusual point in time in the AH, where we see the equilibrium of prices for the goods we sell because the demand and the supply are balanced.

This also means that we are about to shift, meaning that the market is about to move in a direction from here based on the laws of supply and demand.  The question is whether it goes up or down.  I believe that prices are about to down because I see demand slowing for a while and supply rising. 

This is considered a tipping point.  Why do I think this?  Diablo 3 will keep people busy for the next few weeks, and then slowly they will come back to WoW and put more time into WoW, we have seen this before so the pattern has already been established.  But raiding will still be slow, so what do people do when raiding is slow?  They start ALTS!  That’s right, more toons!  Most people think this means demand will go up on items, and it is true we will see some spikes here and there, but many of these toons will will have farming professions of mining, herbalism or skinning.  That’s means we will see supply increase for all levels, demand will not catch up and prices will drop.

Oh, and one more thing, summer is here which means kids are out for the summer and they will be logging in more than ever to play which will also increase supply.

I see the following weeks as an opportunity to stock up when prices are at low points, in many cases these low points have not been seen since last expansion.  Relist when the opportunity presents itself but do not go overboard because you will find that there will plenty of others listing under your price.  Do not let this discourage you, be smart, buy smart and stock up!

Flipping Gold

Most of the ways I make gold in WoW is through the simple concept of buying and selling the product through "flipping" it. This method is widely used, but very few understand the intracacies of what, when, where and how to do it to maximize profits. So here are some simple rules to follow or guide you in the process of flipping.


First of all, know your market. I used to be against the idea of buying and flipping armor for example, but when Blizzard added the ability to Transmorgify armor it changed the game. I only do small amounts of armor, but knowing which pieces are in demand and having patience to relist them a few times can pay off big time. I have purchased items for under 25 gold and simply relisted them for 500-1000 gold and they have sold. I could write up an entire method on just flipping armor and weapons because the market has changed so much.


Second, be willing to relist items many times. A good example is Copper Bars. I love to buy out Copper Ore and Copper Bars then relist them at higher rates. I have two strategies here, price them high enough that I make lots of gold but not so high that no one buys them; and price the Copper Ore higher than the Copper Bars so that people feel like they are getting a deal to just buy the Bars. Copper Bars will usually sell for about 1g per bar or less until I buy them and relist them for 2.5g per bar. This equates to about a 150% profit or more, but it does take patience because they are not a high demand item.


Third, be willing to buy more even after you have bought and flipped. Be careful, this is where most people go wrong. They come in and buy out the Copper Bars, relist them for a higher rate and then see that someone has come to the market and undercut them or filled the low end pricing of 1g each or less. So what do you do? Buy it. If you don't have the stomach for this then don't try flipping. There have been times I have bought Copper Bars for 4 or 5 days straight without selling a single stack. Most people give up and then relist lower and make very little or no profit. This cannot be done unless you are willing to buy, buy, buy. Eventually the market will stall, your copper will be bought and you will make tons of profits.


Fourth, be willing to cancel auctions and relist again. Ok, so now you bought the Copper Bars and relisted them for 2.5g each and some guy undercuts you buy a copper, what do you do? Well it depends on how many they listed. If they listed a stack or two then I would leave them alone and let them be happy. Chances are you will never see them again and they just listed based on what the current market showed. However, if they listed several stacks then you may want to go ahead and cancel your auctions and relist them by undercutting the competition. I usually do not bother undercutting unless I see it is a regular competitor of mine or someone posted a ton of stacks under mine.


Fifth, be willing to wait. Sales happen in spurs, do not relist items thinking they will all sell overnight because if you do you will be disappointed.


Sixth, you do not need to undercut all the time. If the item you are selling is in high demand then undercutting is only temporary, if enough of them sell then the buyers will eventually reach you so don't worry about it. This really wraps back up to knowing your market, if you know what the demand looks like then you will know what to expect, what to price them at and how long it will take.


I will elaborate further on this topic, but this will give you a start at how to flip items in the AH. Good luck and happy auctioneering!

Choke Points = More Gold!

One of the methods I like to employ is by knowing where potential choke points are in the crafting process.  There are several if you look for them and are patient enough to let them work out for your profits.  One that comes to mind is Eternal Fire, something I discussed in an earlier post.  Eternal Fire is used in 40 recipes, most of which are not really used unless someone is leveling their crafting skills on an alt.  So how is it a choke point?  One recipe: Smelt Titansteel

Titansteel is not in huge demand but is in demand.  It is used in many recipes, but one in particular helps keep this material in demand, the Mekingeer’s Chopper.  People are still buying that mount and having it crafted.  The only way to build this mount is to smelt Titansteel Bars and to do that you need Eternal Fire which means it is a choke point!

How to capitalize on this?  Buy Eternal Fires and mark them up.  Buy Crystallized Fire and create Eternal Fire with them.  Craft the Titansteel Bars and mark them up.  Make it tough on your competition to craft Titansteel Bars because you own and control the Eternal Fire market.  If they want to craft them then they need to have Eternal Fire in their bank, or farm them. 

How much profit?  This one opportunity gives us the following:

Eternal Fire – I buy them for pretty much any price under 50 gold and then relist for 75 gold minimum.

Titansteel Bar – Takes 3 Titanium Bars, 1 Eternal Fire, 1 Eternal Earth and 1 Eternal Shadow.  The average cost of these mats are 25g for the Eternals and 35 gold each for the Titanium Bars so that is an overall cost of roughly 180 gold.  I sell these for 400 gold each.

Titanium Bar – I buy any bars listed for under 35g a bar, most of the time they are around 20-25g each.  I then relist them for 50g each.  These are smelted from Titanium Ore, another great choke point! 

Titanium Ore - I buy the ore at under 20g each and most of the time I buy them for 10-15 gold per each ore.  It takes 2 ore to make 1 bar.  I relist the ore for 25g for each ore.  This helps push the price of the Titanium Bars which I then relist for 50g each.

So let’s review.  I found 2 decent choke points that both lead to an end product, the Titansteel Bars.  I try to control the different levels of the production line so that the costs to create the bars justify the cost for the end product, in other words, they can’t make it cheaper by buying the lower mats and smelting them so they just buy the bars from me.  But if they do buy the materials then I make huge profits there too.

At each level I am making a minimum 50% profit, and in most cases over 100% profit.  There are tons of other choke points in the market, can you find them?

Black Market Auction House!

So, like several others this weekend, I browse MMO Champion to find out they discovered a new feature in MoP Beta, the Black Market AH!  Are you kidding me?  This is awesome!  So the basics of how it works is easy (as far as we know now), Blizzard has created a way to buy limited items in the AH from NPC toons.  Need that mount that never dropped?  Want a pet that won’t drop?  Can’t finish the achievements you need to get that mount?  Limited time to raid so can’t get the best gear?  Fear not!  Just go to the AH and buy them!  Yeah baby!

I see this as a huge win for people like me who just want that one item and are willing to pay the price.  I have seen several bloggers talking about whether they can flip the item into the regular AH and make gold, maybe we can but I have a feeling that Blizzard will make these all BoP items, even if they were BoE normally.  But who knows?

What really fascinates me about this move is the number of blogger’s who are talking about this being a “gold sink” to remove massive amounts of gold from the economy.  The theory is that this will force prices down in the AH and bring back some normalcy to the WoW economy.  By removing tons of wealth from the game, there will be less to spread around.

That’s their theory, what’s mine?  I seem to be of the very few who feel that this will really have no impact in the economy.  My reason is simple; removing some gold from the game is not the same as removing the source of the gold.  The sources are; Players, Bots, Gold Sellers.  Players are stable at around 10 million accounts so there probably will be no change there, so that leaves Bots and Gold Sellers.

The Bots have not only made it through each expansion, they have grown in numbers.  Blizzard cracks down on them but each time they make progress the clever software developers find ways around it and they come roaring back.  The only nice thing about Bots are that you can watch them in the AH as they over supply the market in items like ore until the market is bottomed out and over supplied, then move on to another item like herbs and repeat the pattern.  This creates great buying opportunities for people like us if you are willing to invest the gold.

The Gold Sellers keep doing what they do; selling gold.  They run some of the Bots, they also hack accounts, and they buy gold from legit farmers.  They use whatever means they can to obtain gold cheaply and then sell for profits.  As long as there are buyers there will be gold sellers.  They will only come out of the cracks as MoP hits the market.

So, while everyone else keeps saying that this Black Market AH will take gold out of the economy and be a price reliever to the Auction House prices, I say that nothing will change and prices will continue to inflate at rapid paces because unless Blizzard removes the Bots and Gold Sellers, nothing really changes.  The gold will still flow into the game and with a new expansion, the demand for this gold will only increase.  In fact, the demand may be even higher than in past expansions because of the inflation along with the new Black Market AH demands.

Whether I am right or wrong, time will tell.  But regardless of the outcome, the Black Market AH is a freaking awesome addition!!!

Easy Gold

One of the methods I have used to make some gold is very easy, all you need is access to Dalaran and a few gold and patience. The externals from the WoTLK expansion sell very well and can sell for high amounts because of their limited supply. Why are they limited? People do not want to farm, people do not store them in their banks for a rainy day when they need them on alt and bots do not farm them because the potential sales are too low for them to bother. Method 1 Buy them cheap and resell them. The eternal fire, air, shadow and earth are in more demand than others because of their recipes uses for people to level professions. I buy these when they are listed in the AH under 15 gold, sometimes I will go as high as 25 and even higher for fire. I relist them for 35 to 40 gold for earth and shadow. Air goes for 50 gold and fire goes as high as 75 gold. Fire has more potential not just because of how many recipes they are used in, but they are a necessity for those wanting to craft the mekingeer chopper. The chopper requires titansteel bars and to craft those they need eternal fire. Because of this supply chain, I often find that titansteel bars are only available if there are eternal fire available and that is not always the case. So people are willing to pay for them. As you may know, I hate farming unless it is Auction House farming! Method 2 Buy Frozen Orbs. This is where Dalaran comes into the picture. Most people have forgotten about the trader by the AH in Dalaran who will trade Frozen Orbs for several different items, one of which is eternal fire. I find Frozen Orbs on the AH for 5 gold to 35 gold all the time....buy them up and trade them for eternal fire and list them on the AH for 75 gold. Easy profits! These 2 methods alone will net me about 1k a week in profits for about 10 minutes work or less.

PVP Gold!

I don’t see many folks talking about this, so let me be among the first to give you a great tip on some easy gold: PVP.  Yep, PVP.  This is the dead time between expansions and so many people who continue to play WoW are looking for something to do and will start playing PVP.  This means there is a great opportunity to make and sell PVP gear, gems and enchants.

Over the last 2 weeks I have seen a huge increase in PVP gear sales of all varieties.  There are great profits to be made in these items, of course some of that depends on the competition on your server.  I am currently seeing a 65% profit margin in my sales and the only farming I do is in the Auction House for materials!

Side markets due to PVP include materials like leather and cloth.  I do not include the metals because it seems there are always “bots” running the mineral market down and flooding it with tons of ore.  Savage leather and Embersilk cloth have been dwindling in supply as fewer people have been playing (thank you Beta) and the increase in demand due to PVP gear, leveling alts etc.  This has resulted in the prices of leather and cloth going up over 50% on average.

How do you benefit? Buy low sell high.  Try buying your Embersilk cloth when you see it hitting low end prices and buy it up then craft it into bolts and list the bolts.  As an example, I am buying all Embersilk cloth that is at 4g each or lower and converting them into bolts.  It takes 5 pieces of cloth to make a bolt.  The bolt cost me a total of 20g maximum (most lower) and I am listing them for 40g each on the AH and they are blowing out the door.

How about your server? Are you seeing some of the same trends?

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.