Transmogrification Gold Run

   Here i am today making yet another Transmogrification post. In one of my previous posts i covered how to get your hands on some items that you can use to get your transmogrification business started, well today is going to be a bit of that same formula, just it is going to be like it's on steroids.

   First of all i would like to say one thing, i did this for a while and it was good for me, but then i read about it on a post which i will link it that pretty much took my usual run and made it to be super awesome and profitable  What i am talking about could be referred as the Transmogrification Speed Run. The reason why i'm calling it that is because it would take less then 10 minutes to complete, and yet it will yield anywhere from 5-15 items, depending on your server. But enough with the gibber jabber let me tell you what this is.

   It is basically a rare spawn run, more accurately would be Blasted Lands run. Why this is so good is that you can take the portal from your major city that leads you to the Outland portal, and from there the hunting can begin right away.

   Now like i said, i did this for a while but it was a post from Power Word: Gold that actually did make me take a second look at it, and it was worth it.

   As you can see on the map above, that is where you might find all the rare mobs in the zone, and as you might see there can be quite a few of them. As these zones are usually empty all the mobs are just waiting there to be killed. Now how this is very profitable is that when killing any rare mob, except the green item they also drop either a Imperfect Draenethyst Fragment or Flawless Draenethyst Sphere.  The deal with these is that you can turn them in at Kum'Isha a mob in the zone that will give you a bag which contains a green or a blue item in every single one you give him. So basically what this means is that you are getting 2 or more items from every single rare mob you kill.

   Another thing i would like to say is that i am always about giving credit where it's due, and this is one of those cases, and this is why. Faid from Nerf Faids made a targeting macro that makes this as easy as simply flying around and clicking that macro and it will target that rare mob if he is anywhere around you. So here is the macro:

/tar akub
/tar blackl
/tar cassia
/tar clack
/tar deathe
/tar dreadsc
/tar grunter
/tar magro
/tar mojo
/tar mord
/tar narix
/tar rava
/tar spite
/tar terem

   So load up this into a macro, then start flying around and get to killing while clicking that targeting macro. In continuation here is a video of the entire run done in less then 10 minutes that yielded some good amount of items, though i have had better luck.



   That is all for now, so as always, keep an eye out for good opportunities out there.

The Spotlight ( January )

   Here we are with another edition of The Spotlight series. In the previous posts i showed you blogs, podcasts, games and anything else i found interesting for that month. For this month i have a few things i would like to share that will prove to be entertaining to all of you that enjoy a good comic book, and after that i will share with you a site that can help you decide which server to go to if you are starting out a new character in WoW.

   First comic i will tell you about is the CAD comic. I have been reading this comic for years and years and have always enjoyed doing so. Just so you get interested in the whole deal let me give you a bit of a basic information as to what the comic is all about. This comic revolves around the lives of, initially the two main characters Ethan and Lucas who are two gamers. 

   If you have never heard about this comic and are a comic fan i would really recommend you start reading it from the first one, and even though it will take you some time to read them all, it will make it so worth your time and you will have so much fun reading it.

   The second comic i was talking about is the Looking For Group comic. I am quite sure that many of you out there have heard about this comic, some are reading it while there are still many out there that have been blessed with never having heard about it. Now don't get this wrong, i'm saying blessed because they will be able to start reading this whole comic from the first page and enjoy in it's pure awesomeness.

   As a quick intro to the comic. It starts off as a introduction of two of the main characters Cale and Richard. Now Cale is a "kind" of a hunter while Richard is a Warlock and in the first few pages you will get the idea as to what kind of a warlock he is. I will refrain of giving you more details only so you can get on there and actually read about it and enjoy it.

   The last page i have for you is wow.realmpop.com . I am showing you this page as it is a visual representation of the population any given WoW server has. This is very useful if you want to know how does the server fare population wise, and what is the average ratio of Alliance to Horde. You can get to the site directly from wow.realmpop.com or you can get there from www.theunderminejournal.com ( i'm putting this down because i had a case when i told someone that the site was beginning with wow.something he accused me of trying to lead him to a hacking site or something like that ... some people )

   Anyways this is what i had to share for this month, i am hoping that for next month i will have a more WoW related sites to share with you nice folks, or even better if you have came upon any worthy site that you deem worthy to share put it here and the people will hear about it.

   That's all for now, so till next time, keep your eyes open for good opportunities out there.

Profiting With Alchemy

   One of my preferred ways of making my sales has always been to use advertisement. The trick to doing this is actually that you need to get into a market that has a fast moving product, and the sales you do are cheap but numerous. Just so it's more clear as to what i mean when i'm talking about a fast moving product, think about the Mysterious Fortune Cookies. But seeing as this is a post that is more about Alchemy, and less about Inscription, i give to you the Potion of Illusion.

   In case you have heard, or used these potions you know that their ability to offer some amusement is very good, but in case you have never heard or seen these potions then the quick explanation would be that they are a appearance altering potion. What this means is that when you drink one of these potions you can look like someone else.

   

   If you look up on the image above i have made a comparation of how the potion looks like when used on different characters. On the first image you can see that my character is a Tauren, then on the second one i stepped next to a warlock and drank a potion and ended up looking just like him, then i did it next to a person that had eaten one of the Savory Deviate Delight that makes you look like a ninja or a pirate, and i copied his appearance. And on the last one i even copied the appearance of a troll druid in his flight form and i became a walking bat, hmm one might say i became a Batman .. or a Batcow.

   Ok so now that you know what this potion does i am sure you can see the possibility this potion offers. As we said the cool factor of this potion is high, so if you put a good price on it and then do some advertisement you end up with loads of gold in your pockets. Best thing about these potions is their crafting cost, they only require 1 Azshara's Veil and 3 Volatile Life so basically they cost next to nothing. When selling these though it's a good idea to put them in stacks of 1's and 5's, i have put them in 20's as well but haven't had as much sales as in the 1's and 5's stacks. As for the prices i have sold mine for anywhere in the 15-40g per one price range.

   As i said in the beginning the good thing about this item is you can use  advertisement to help your sales. What you are going is that you are telling people what the item is, and why they should buy it. As you can see on the image that is the macro that i use, and i have had some good success with it. Now you can take what you learned and go hit the auction house, or you can make one more macro that would be a followup to the first macro. That followup macro is the one i use when someone makes a positive remark about how the macro is composed and they like it. As you can see i take the compliment, then i swing it around and make it so that i 

end up further advertising my product, and with that convincing even more people to buy my potions.

   So i see no point in further breaking it down as it is fairly simple, yet very profitable venture to get into doing. And as the icing on the cake is the finishing touch, i leave you all with another video in which you can see how this whole sale process is going. ( I know i am not the best YouTuber out there but i will try to make more and better videos in the near future )

   A fast recap of this post would be Make the potions, bark the macro, get the gold.
 
   So, like always, keep an eye out for good opportunities out there.
   

Transmogrification, Gold Maker's Style

   In the last few days i was a bit occupied with making the interview with the Mogfather which ended up being a very informative, as well as profitable venture. I did a bit of a research as to how the whole process is done, and then took it upon me to further put the gold maker touch to it. In this post i will cover a few things after which you should have a sold base on which to build on if you decide to get into the transmogrification business. 

   Before i start to get into detail on how everything works, and the how's and why's i would like to clear up one thing, and that thing is the whole logic behind this market. If you get into this market you will be entering the vanity market, that means that the items you are selling will NOT make the buyer stronger in any way, there will be no buffs, but instead you will make them appear different and with that stand out from the crowd. This is actually a very powerful mover, and it will make people spend huge amounts of gold on a piece of gear that in their eyes will make their avatar look awesome, and the place which is between the buyer and it's ability to look awesome is the place where we will put ourselves at, and profit from the whole affair, so let's get started. 

Phase One (Getting The Addons)

   Before you start getting anything done there are a few things you need to get. First thing that will make your entire job a much easier is downloading an addon called Mogit. 

   Upon downloading the addon, what it does is it makes a new view frame whenever you mouse over an item that is equipable by your character and how this makes it more unique then the blizzard frame is that this addon will make your character appear with nothing but the item on him equipped, so you can have a focused view on the given item.

   The advantage this addon gives is that it makes your decision whether to buy the item based on it's appearance or not, much easier.

   The second addon you want to have is Auctionator, but if you have been in the auction house business for a while i am sure you already have that one covered.  

Phase Two (Research and Acquisition)

   So now that we have the addons that we will be using it is time we focus on the research and acquisition part of the whole deal. The first part of the research can be done in two ways, a manual way and an automated way. Both of these ways have their pros and cons, and i will try and explain both.

   The manual way of doing the research is by simply going over to the auction house and start going through the items that are listed there. One thing though when you are listing make sure you are listing them category by category, and make the search to include items that are in the 1-70 item level range. The reason for this is that the items above that are simply too look alike like the current content and seeing as we are in the vanity market where we sell the pretty and cool, it's pretty much not worth it.

   So now that we are on the auction house window and we have set up the range to be 1-70 we can start scrolling and looking for a good deal. Another thing that is important is, if you are selling an item and have the ability check out and see how that model is going to look on a male and a female character, because many of the buyers are willing to spend huge amounts of gold on items that make their female character look like they are in a bikini.

   There are three categories that turn out to be most profitable and those are the Plate, Cloth and Weapons. Now don't take this the wrong way and think that there is no gold to be made because that would be wrong. Anyways when you are scrolling through the auction house what you are doing is you are looking for two things: a cool looking item, and a low price. As you can see up on the image above, and the one on the left i found both of those weapons for a 5g and 20g buyout price. Now what i can do is take those and flip them for 200, 500 or even 1500 or more gold depending on the unique aspect of the item. I will refrain from giving out prices for items because i am quite a new player in the transmogrification business and i have only sold about a dozen items, but there are other people out there that you can ask for prices that are more then willing to help you, like the Mogfather. (check the end of the post for the contact info)

   If you would like to learn how you can make this whole process on a auto pilot kind of a way you might want to check Jim's Post on Power Word:Gold about it, in which he makes a good and quite informative post about it.

Phase Three (The Go Getter)

   This last phase has nothing to do with the basics of the transmogrification business, but is a rather more of a gold maker's view on how to open up a small starting quantity of items for yourself in case someone has bought out all the cheap items and left you with nothing.

   The problem with getting your own green items is kind of a problem due to the randomness of it all, but there is a way you can do it non the less. Instead of explaining how to do it though, i went ahead and made a pretty video of it that will make sure that everyone can repeat and no one will get lost. Just as a clarification you will need to get to Scholomance in the Western Plaguelands.

   So as you can see in the video, you can get a rather good stash of starting items in a fairly quick manner by just doing this and then resetting the instance and doing it again. Though you can also choose to gather up the mobs in the instance and just kill them and loot them all for additional ways to get greens.

   That's all for today, and i am sure i will make an even more detailed post on how to profit further in the transmogrification market as i get more experienced in the market myself. But until then, like always, keep an eye out for good opportunities out there.

The Mogfather Interview

   I have said it before and i will say it again, WoW has multiple ways to make gold, and lately after the 4.2 patch and the release of the transmogrification a new and profitable market has emerged, the market of the item flipping. This market has been quite profitable for some while others haven't had much luck, yet. I am happy to tell you that i managed to score an interview with the one and only Mogfather, and managed to pick his brain about some of the things he is doing and intends to do in the future, so in continuation read all about the Mogfather.

Who is the Mogfather? 

   IRL I'm the head of a design research agency consulting behind the scenes of a few different industries. This is sorta the driver behind why my view on transmogrification is so informed. It was also the fuel behind the blog I started back in August, Disenchanting Azeroth, where I broke down a variety of weapons and gear by their aesthetic makeup and provided readers with various tools to help them decide which items would be the most relevant to wear with the release of transmogrification. 

   When my son was born in September, though, I had to put the blog on hold and have since been living out my WoW experience via iPhone RAH, Twitter and occasional guest posts over at powerwordgold.net. 

   I've been trying to put together a new article on the DA blog, but it's been a struggle with my schedule. That's where this little mini game of gold-making has been quite easy and it only takes a few minutes each day.

   In-game, I've been around since the late stages of Vanilla but I didn't really get into the challenges of gold-making until about a year ago when I had to seek out a different way to play WoW. My life/work schedule got pretty slammed and I just couldn't raid and do all the little things anymore. As it has been for so many others, making gold just became sort-of a mini game within WoW that I could do at my own pace.

Why did you decide to get into the 'mogging market ?

   That's an interesting question if you think about it. I'd actually argue the 'mogging market' didn't exist on my realms. I had to create it and structure it in such a way that it was logical and could sustain growth. In terms of why did I decide to go this route, it really came down to a realization that I, myself, was the target customer. I had certain looks I wanted to acquire for my characters (my Priest, Warrior, Paladin, Mage and Druid are all transmogged), and I found myself searching the auction house for those items. The more I looked, the more I found myself snatching a pair of gloves or a belt for 5g with my heart pounding. I was so psyched that I could get the items I wanted so cheaply without having to pay an arm and a leg like you typically do for anything of value on the AH. That's when it hit me, that I was actually WILLING to pay much more than I had. Take the Hyperion chest piece, for example. That was one of the first pieces that really eluded me. I literally had to transfer a toon to the Moon Guard realm in order to pick one up. And once I got there, I would have forked over 5,000g if I had to in order to get it. As a consultant, I know the biggest advantage anyone in sales or services can have is knowing their customer. Well I knew my customer, because I was one of them. I knew players would pay upwards of 5,000g, 10,000g for a green because I was willing to do so, myself. 

   When that realization hit me, I began buying everything I could find from a list I had in my head that gold-makers now refer to as my "top tiers". So Hyperion plate as well as Glorious, Lofty, Vanguard, Exalted, Overlord and Alabaster. And I moved to Mail and Cloth as well with the same model. I didn't sink into Leather because I personally had no interest in decking out my Druid since he was Feral, and in realizing that my hunch was that left only Rogues for my future customer base in Leather. Did I think no Druids would transmog their gear? No, of course some would. But my hunch was compared with Plate, Mail and Cloth, Leather simply wouldn't generate as much revenue. So I pretty much avoided it, and looking back now I think it was the right decision. I still refuse to put a list together now because I don't think it would be very genuine of me to do so. I built my strategy and made 1 million gold without Leather, so why start talking Leather now? It would be out of character.

   One key point to make, too, is that on the surface it looks like the items I value the most are done so primarily because they look "skimpy" on female models. People have commented on this, and while I'll never be able to convince everyone, that was not the reason I placed such high values on them. Readers that followed my work on Disenchanting Azeroth know I'm breaking down visual elements very carefully and there is a methodology for determining visual uniqueness. I haven't produced a visualization analysis of armor, but if I did you'd see the sets I place such high value on rise way out of the crowd of sameness that we currently see in-game. They are so different, that I've argued you could screenshot some of them in front of an ambiguous background and confuse readers into thinking they were looking at armor from a different game, entirely. 

   

   So some will continue to say "meh, they're skimpy outfits", and I don't doubt that some players are purchasing them for that reason. But I remain convinced that the majority of the intrigue behind these items is they are just so incredibly different from the norm that players have been forced to choose from within WoW over the last few years. Look to the tools on my blog, get into my head a bit, follow me down the rabbit hole and you'll see where I'm coming from. This is where I believe I've earned the trust of a lot of gold-makers over the last month. For many, valuing items for transmogrification is a qualitative, intangible exercise. With my expertise, though, I can make it very tangible and the proof is in the 1 million I made in less than 45 days.

Which were the first items you ever sold that got you hooked?

   You know, the scary thing is I was hooked before anything sold. I was actually willing to just horde everything and use all of the gear on my characters if things didn't sell on the AH. I just thought they were that cool. I've always been a bit of a collector in the game. Not of like, "every mount in-game", but more of an antiquities person that values very niche things. I guess though, if I had to pick something that sold that really sent the message home that my theories were right it would be a pair of Singing Crystal Axes for 10,000g a piece. I had put them up on the AH on Earthen Ring prior to the announcement that you only needed one weapon to transmogrify the items you were dual wielding. So at the time, my theory was put weapons up in pairs so you had a better chance of selling to Fury warriors and Rogues that would buy your items in two's. And the theory clicked because they were only up for about 12 hours and the pair of axes sold to one player. So that was the first sign and was enough momentum to keep me convinced to buy up everything I could at a cheap price right up until patch day.

Do you have a snatch list of items, or how do you go about your business?

   Up until a few weeks ago it was a mental list I had in my head. But I was having such great success that others following me on Twitter really wanted what was in my head down on a list that they could import into mods. So currently my lists live over at The Hatchery on Power Word: Gold. I never wanted my own blog to be about gold-making because it's just not who I am. I've always been in it more for the challenge and I have a deeper appreciation for the heart of the matter with transmogrification, so I've been working with Jim Younkin over at Power Word: Gold to get my content up on a site that makes sense for gold-makers. That way I can keep my gold-making conversations separate from my design-related conversations, and Jim's been fantastic in that regard. But yeah, check out the lists over there because not only do I list the items I look for, you also get a sense of the hierarchy among them and what I typically move them for. And two questions I get a lot are:

   1) Can they sell for more? Yes. But I've been selling these items on more than a dozen servers since patch 4.3, as I've relocated a number of times to help out others create their transmog market on their realm. So I have a lot of experience on what's too expensive versus what's too cheap. So while someone might get 5,000g for a pair of Glimmering Mail gloves, I've found that's not a sustainable price range. I'd rather move 10 pairs of gloves at 1,000g than one pair at 5,000g. The return is still exponential.

   2) Can other items sell as well as what's in my lists: Yes. But again, I do feel the items in my list are going to be the more sustainable items that will appeal to a broader audience due to their unique visual appeal. And I don't flip anything over level 70. This probably isn't mentioned enough. I don't chase anything over level 70 because visually everything looks too close to current content. This is where my theory on the Banner Slicer (polearm) that just came up on Twitter a few days ago will probably be the first thing that bites me in the ass. Gimp over at Gimp's Gold asked me what I thought of it, and the pic I saw was on my iPhone while I was at a stop light (no, I don't surf while driving, haha). So the pic wasn't great, but I saw a unique form, the fact it was one-of-a-kind in terms of its model, it was an extremely low drop rate and it had a banner wrapped around it. For me, it was a no brainer that it could pull 5-10k because I would be willing to fork over that much for it. Polearms are a pain in the ass, if you've ever tried to transmogrify yours. There is nothing unique on the auction house, and there aren't very many models in-game that you could leverage to truly stand out. So it's a weak category in terms of options. So when I saw this blurry pic while in the car, I was convinced it would go big. I later got home and felt my stomach groan because the more I look at it in high resolution, the more I see it looks so much like every other weapon from Wrath of the Lich King. Ugh. So bad call on my part, and I'm now reducing all of the banners I picked up while at that stop light to about 1-2k and I'm crossing my fingers that players who are frustrated with the polearm options decide to go for it anyway for the reasons I mentioned.

  

We have heard that you gave away 1 million gold away, is that true ?

   Yes sir, in fact WoWInsider just released an article on it which really got the word out that I had pulled it off. Again, it's never been about the gold-making. So when I saw the opportunity to flip the equation and give away 1,000,000 gold instead of making it and hording it, the idea felt more relevant to who I was in the gold-making arena. 

Well why did you decide to give it away?

   Well, partially to see if I could do it. It wasn't that easy, I mean I got banned four times. There was one point where I was almost willing to just leave my account banned and not return, it was really frustrating. I think the other reason to do it was to further differentiate myself from the average gold-maker. It's been a fun ride because I've developed this persona of the Mogfather in the process, and with the transmogrification events I've been holding on various servers and the attention from WoWInsider and even Blizzard customer service, it's gotten bigger than I'd even expected. I think I've even got some fans in customer service because the message I've been getting from them lately has been "we really love what you're doing, keep doing it".

What are your plans for the future, and how do you see the 'mogging market unraveling?

   So I've heard a bit of talk about the mogging market unraveling, I've seen it from more than a few people in various places and you're always going to hear me argue against this in force because I really don't hear anyone else taking the PRO side of the argument.

Will the markets we see currently persist over time, where we're able to pull in 10,000g a day? To be honest, I'd answer it depends on what's in your intentory, what your realm size is and your faction. Some of these items are so rare that their value should persist over time because they're that desirable and that difficult to find. I would never want to be on the side of an argument saying that Teebu's Blazing Longsword, the Glorious plate set or the Zulian Ceremonial Staff isn't going to be valuable in a few months. It’s a losing argument. So there are absolutely marquee pieces that will sustain their value.

   But even the marquee items aside, if anyone out there thinks that the transmogrification market is going to disappear entirely and that this is a fluke I believe they'd be wrong. For some players, transmogrification transcends the need for ore, enchanting materials and herbs and you can start that theory with two thumbs pointing right back at this guy, in me personally. For those of us who are passionate about personalization, we will always be in the market for transmogrification items from the auction house. When we find what we want, using external resources and websites, we'll not want to wait - we'll want it NOW. And if we have a disposable income, we'll pay for it. And I now know I'm not the only one who feels this way. Look at the followers that flocked to my blog, which hit over 100,000 page views in its first six weeks. Look at the fresh content being generated on other websites, blogs, on Twitter, in conversation and in-game. It's all about personalization and with transmogrification Blizzard has unlocked a key component to the sustainability of their in-game experience. It's here to stay, and to assume the buyers are going to walk away after this wave is rushing to judgement too quickly.

And for those that would argue that once an item is purchased it never needs to be purchased again - and therefore the buyer population is limited, I would say look to the glyph market. Players only need a glyph once and they will never need it again, yet glyph markets have sustained their value since Cataclysm changed the model. I'm not saying the glyph buyer population is the same size as the transmogrification buyer population. I'm saying it leaves the door open to possibility. Let's take me, for example. I've got about 9 characters I could transmogrify. I've done so with 5 of them, but am I done? Far from it. I mean FAR from it. Really only my Warrior is decked out in his bank and Void Storage to the point where clothing options are starting to overflow. But I would LOVE to build the same wardrobe for the rest of my characters. I just don't have the time right now. And with transmogrification, the fantastic thing is if I want to change my look, I can. If I look to my wardrobe and I don't like what I see, I can go to the store and buy something new. The model of buyer interest is no different than you or I going shopping to get some new clothes for Fall, or something new simply because we've been wearing the same thing for the last two months. This has been a constraint with WoW for years, that your look has always been bound by what the current tier gear is. Not anymore. The door has been unlocked and the versatility of this market is probably yet to be truly tapped. So is this market done? No. Far from it.

   Now, devil's advocate. Will we pull 10,000g a day the way some of us are doing now? It's going to get harder and harder, that's for sure. My main realm on Proudmoore is a great example of this, because I believe we're ahead of the curve on where transmogrification is going to go. I spear-headed it so early by releasing an entire inventory of relevant and highly desirable pieces on patch day, that I believe we're ahead of the average progression towards more of a mainstream market. We've got more sellers of transmog items on Proudmoore now than I even thought would be possible. Everyone's getting in on it. So have I noticed a decline in my numbers? Yes, I have. But here's the catch: that decline hasn't been a slippery slope, it's just dropped to a lower frequency of items sold and it has leveled out. So instead of bringing in 15,000g a day, I'm bringing in about 5,000g a day and about 10,000g every 3 days. Prices haven't gone down! If anything, they've gone up.

Here's the second catch: This is not a traditional market. It's not crafted items. It's not herbs or ore that you have guaranteed nodes you can track. These are not things you can simply "go out and get" and put up on the auction house. These are world drops, and there's just no guarantee of what you're going to get or what's going to pop up on the auction house that you can flip. So this market is going to be extremely unique going forward in that its resources will be limited and unpredictable. And players are still buying, even on Proudmoore. So will I make 10,000g a day? Probably not. But will I make a few thousand a day and have a big day at least once a week? So far that's exactly what I'm seeing. And these items in my top tiers, they're so rare and hard to find that they should maintain their value going forward.   

   So the market will be there, I just suspect it won't be quite as glorified and easy as it is right now. But no, transmogrification as a market is not going away. Will there be commodity items? I think so, especially if you look at sets that either have a higher drop rate or they're from content that is being run again and again by levelers which deluges the auction house with fresh meat. A great example here that I see on multiple realms is the Bloodfist plate set. It's a fabulous set, but it's becoming increasingly common. Well where does it drop? Outlands leveling content. Death Knights. Burning Crusade transmog runs. It adds up. So whereas now you can squeeze in a Bloodfist item for a couple thousand gold, I suspect in a few months the Bloodfist set will be a prime example of something that has had its value decline simply because the rate at which world drops can occur will be higher since Outlands is just a popular place again given the rise of transmogrification. But again, this market isn't going to disappear. It's far too important to those that value it.

Anything else you would like to share with our readers?

No sir. Thanks for the opportunity!

   So if you are still reading that means you had a chance to see how the mind of the Mogfather works, and how he came to be what he is now. I really did enjoy writing this article because there are many gold makers out there, but only a handful that are original and unique, and this guy is one of those guys. So my thanks goes to the Mogfather which you can find on Twitter @DEazeroth.

The Gold Making Carnival

   This is my first entry for the monthly Gold Making Carnival that Cold is hosting, so hopefully we will see more posts in the future. For this month Cold decided to choose a rather, how should i say this so it sounds right, it's a weird yet fun subject, namely he choose a topic where we should name our favorite spot in the WoW universe, and then explain as to why exactly do we like that spot, be it for  the practicality of the spot or some other connection you might have to that spot.  

   I will start off by naming my two favorite places due to their practicality, and just so it's clear upfront, they are both in Orgrimmar so they are both Horde oriented, so this isn't a very Alliance friendly zone.

My Bread And Butter Place

   The place that i am talking about is the auction house in the Troll district. Now the reason why i love this place is very simple. It is the most efficient place for any auctioneer out there because the bank, the auctioneer and the mailbox are all within reach of each other. I could go about and show you where this place is by posting a image of it, but this time around for the first time i will use a video, so hopefully it will be fine.

 

   So the video is quite self explanatory, and you can see just how close the auctioneer, and banker and the mailbox are close to each other.

   Now Cold said that the rules of the post were that the places we share should have a meaning to us, be it practical or emotional or whatever, so the next three places i'll share will be the three places in WoW that i love, and i will even explain why i actually love them.

   The first place i will name as the place i love in WoW would have to be Winterspring. The reason for me loving this place dates as back as Vanilla WoW. When i would do the quests in Felwood and then finally get the high enough level i could progress up to Winterspring which was like going from the place of agony and depression to a place of true serenity and peace. That used to be one of the things i used to love about Blizzard that they would make their games to have those kinds of transitions in the game.
 
   The place that i took the screenshot is one that i love the most, and that is the cave that used to be the entrance to the end chain to the Onyxia attunement quest. I remember that back in the days to do the whole quest chain, then go through the cave trying to dodge all the whelps in there used to feel epic, and when you would finally get to the end and get the attunement done, you felt like you have done a great thing.

   The second place that was special to me was the Western Plaguelands. For those of you that joined the WoW caravan in Cataclysm and only know WPL as the Alliance farm country side i feel sorry for you.

   WPL used to be the most awesome place to powerlevel when you had the level requirement to start doing the quests, but this is not the reason why i chose to mention this place. The real reason why i will always love this place, and the tower on the image in particular is because it was this tower that gave me one of my best WoW experiences, namely it gave me 3 crusader patterns in the course of 4 days farming it, that eventually led to me buying my epic riding skill and horse.

   And the last but not the least favorite spot is the Redridge Mountains but more precisely the bridge at Lakeshire.
Like with all the places i named until now this one has a special reason for me to like it as much as i do even though it is deserted like 99.9% of the time.

   That reason that i was talking about is that on that bridge, back in the first month of the release of WoW i met a very special friend that i ended up playing with him for about 2 years until i switched over to the EU servers, but to make it even more epic when i went over the big pond to the US i met up with him and had a blast. So it is this place that is responsible in my case that i made a friend that i had awesome time in WoW as well as outside in the real world, and that is why this place is always going to be important for me in a special way.

   So that is about all i have to say about the places in WoW that i like, and once again this post is made for Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival. I am hoping that i will continue to make posts for the Carnival in the future, and that next month we will have a more gold oriented topic.

   That's all for now, and don't forget, keep an eye out for good opportunities out there.

The Gold Makers, Who Are We ?

   So all the gold making bloggers, all the hardy goblins hard at work making gold, heck even all the farmers out there, who are we and what is our role in the economy of World of Warcraft? The answer to this question is a very simple answer, yet so complicated as well. We are the life lines of the whole economy.

    What was the reason behind this that made me think about this you might ask, well it's one of the whispers i got when i was trying to help a guy make some gold. The given whisper was that the guy/girl asked me what's the point of hoarding gold. 

   This made me think, and i came up with a rather weird conclusion. The reason why i, and many others like me were "hoarding" gold is simply because that is what we enjoyed in the game. Some people enjoy PvP, others enjoy raiding while we enjoy raiding the Auction House. But this was already known, so i gave it a further thought as in what effect do we have in the economy, and that is when it actually got interesting. The economy if left unchecked simply dwindles down and goes into a kind of recession. To clarify this i will use a few examples:

   As a first example i will use the gathering markets. These markets will have their prices totally decimated to the point of getting to be at 5-10g per stack of herbs or ore, and even then there will be almost no demand because 95% of the raw materials are bought out by people that are gold hoarders, or auction house junkies. Another market that i noticed that requires a constant looking after is the jewelcrafting market. This was the market that i used to make all my gold in, and i was very much into maintaining it  and keeping it at a decent level. Well lately i decided to get out of it and see what is going to happen with it. The findings were quite interesting as well. In a matter of a week the prices of the gems went from a 150-195g sales down to 10-20g sales. Now i though that this might be the case due to many people switching over to using epic gems, and that they weren't buying the rares as much, and boy was i wrong. True, the epics have taken a piece of the market for rare gems, but still people use the epics only for their best gear possible and not everyone takes the step to improve to the epic ones, so they look back to the rares. What i do is nothing complicated and everyone can do it, heck i have even posted it here how i keep the prices of gems up and my favorite late night shuffle tactic. 

   So in a matter of a day i managed to take the prices of gems from 10-20g back up to 195g and sell quite a bit of them. Here's a hint if you choose to do this. Red, Purple and Orange gems have the biggest sale rate while the greens have really went into a deep recession so you can prioritize which gems you want to reset first.

    Behold this is what you are! And no, you are not a faucet, but more of a gold sink. What this means is that if it weren't for us hoarders the amount of gold that would be in circulation would totally ruin the economy to the point where gold is worthless. Just stop and think for a second. everyone reading this has anywhere from 50k to a few million gold, because let's face it if you are reading gold making blogs that means that you are interested in making gold, and if you are doing any of the things that are mentioned here you are already in possession of quite a good amount of gold. Now with the amounts of gold that we have gathered, we have effectively taken it out of circulation, of a better part of it because we still use a small amount to fund our raw material purchases. I for one have had a few discussions on the MMO-Champion and Blizzard forums about what needs to be done to make the economy better, in terms of introducing more gold sinks. The reason why the gold sinks are important is because they make it so the players actually need to have gold to be able to buy something, or pay for their repairs or anything else for that matter, and if you loose that you will end up with a crippled economy like Diablo 2 had in it's case where gold was so abundant that it was worthless. 

   So as a bottom line one could come up with a conclusion that we, as gold makers and hoarders are the life line of the economy, we are the life line of the professions and last we are the life line of the game because we make is so that the economy doesn't crash and drive people away, and in return break apart guilds, PvP groups and the community in general. 

   So when next time someone asks you what is the point of you having all that gold, you can freely go ahead and tell him that you are doing it just so he can continue to play the game, and enjoy it with his friends.

   That is all for today, and like always, keep an eye out for good opportunities out there.

Explanation of Spreadsheets

   Sooooo, i should have known that after making the last post about the Ore Shuffle, and especially the part about the spreadsheets is going to get people to whisper me asking me for how to do it. Well i know i should just put a link to the Consortium where there is an explanation in the posts there and i tried but it only made it worse so here it is, a copy from their comments so everyone can find it easier.

   First thing you need to do is go and make an account on The Undermine Journal, once you are logged there you can download your specific server's data as seen on the image.

   

   Upon clicking that you will be asked where you want to save the file, so save it where you want.

   Now once you have the file that contains your server's data saved you need to open it with Excel. The way to do this is you go in the Data Tab and open Connections as shown on the image.

   Once you open this you get a new window where you need to hit Browse for more and find the file.

   Once you have done this you have a choice, you can either set the refresh parameters to make it refresh it's data so it's current, or you can choose to only use the data you have downloaded and not set it up to refresh it's data. ( Very important is that if you want it to refresh make sure the threshold is over 288 minutes due to the fact that TUJ has a maximum number of allowed hashes you can do per day )

   Hit OK until you're back to your spreadsheet, and make sure the TUJ data tab is selected. Now from the Data tab, hit Existing Connections

   Select your newly-added connection, and hit Open. Make sure it goes in cell $A$1.

   After you have filled this and you go back to the Prospecting tab you will find that all the prices are in the given fields, and all you need to do is set the number of stacks you have bought and it will tell you how much time you will need to invest and how much profit you should expect to get out of it. Oh and just in case, all of this that was explained need to be done while in the TUJ data tab which can be found on the bottom as shown on the image.

   So that should clear up any confusion that people might have as to how to properly use spreadsheets that use the TUJ data as info base. And i will state once again, these instructions are not mine but were posted on the forums of the Consortium and the real gratitude should go to Baconcheese who is the user that made this walk through, i was only the messenger.

   So, like always, keep an eye out for good opportunities out there.

The Ore Shuffle

    The Obsidium Shuffle, or the Elementium Shuffle known by most is the grand jewel of Cataclysm that made many goblins very rich. Now here is the funny thing, even though we are nearing the end of the expansion and almost everything is out there, and everyone is making gold off the gold tricks and tips there are still people that have never heard of the Shuffle. The reason for making this post is quite simple, i have been trying to help people make gold on my server for a while now, and since i started the blog i had a place where i can redirect with anything they might want to know, but i saw that i didn't have a topic that explains the Shuffle so here it is.

The Ore Shuffle ( taken from the Consortium site )

   As you can see from the image above it is very self explanatory, but i will go into a bit of explaining just in case. Just so you know in order to take the full extent of the profits the shuffle brings you need to have a Jewelcrafter, Blacksmith, Enchanter and Tailor (this one is optional).

    The entire shuffle starts with the purchase of Obsidium, Elementium & Pyrite ore. Once you have bought them you have a choice, that choice boils down on whether you want to prospect the ore for the gems or you want to manufacture Heavenly Shards. In order to find out which one would be more profitable you need to check out your prices for the Heavenly Shards and if they are high, or you are low for your enchanting market you might want to go that way, but at the same time you want to check the prices of Greater Celestial Essences and the Infinite Dust as that is what you can get if you choose to take the prospecting road.

   If you go with the prospect option you need to know how to get from having Alicite, Hessonite, Jasper and Nightstone into Heavenly Shards adn Greater Celestial Essences. By crafting the gems into rings and pendants and then disenchanting them you get to have the finished product. Now one of the things you should be aware is that if you decide to go this way you should know that you have a chance to get a rare (blue) ring or a Pendant. Now there is a bit of a trick here, and that trick is the item level of the items you end up getting and i will explain why.

    If you are using Jasper then you are taking the best deal because the jasper is the only one that requires only one gem to make a ring, opposed to the other ones which will require you to spend 2 gems to make a single item. But this is not the best part, the best part is that when you end up getting a rare (blue) item, it is going to be a level requirement of 79 which makes it ideal for twinks and leveling characters, and i have been selling them anywhere from 300g to 50g, and that for a 3g gem is a 10000% profit margin.

   If you are using Hessonite and Nightstone for your crafting you will need to spend 2 of them to get a single item. This on it's own puts it at 50% efficiency, and the other thing is that the rare (blue) items you get have a item requirement of 81 so the twinks are no longer your targeted market. But it's not all gloom and doom, and that is because if you disenchant these rings you get Heavenly Shards, as well as increased chance to get Greater Celestial Essences from disenchanting the green items.

   I really don't see a point in explaining that you need to cut the rare gems and post them on the Auction House as that is quite obvious. And at the end of the explanation i can only offer to give you a place where you can get the best spreadsheet that can automatically tell you which road is the best to take, and which will make you the most gold. The site i'm talking about is the Consortium forums which will give you the most awesome weapon you can wield if you take on to do the Shuffle.

   So, like always, keep an eye out for good opportunities out there.

Inscription 2.0

   Welcome back for another edition in the Inscription profession. In the previous post that covered inscription i went ahead i told you how to get started out in inscription by installing TSM, configuring it and then sell the glyphs you have. Today i am going to tell you how to make profits from the profession by utilizing the other options that the profession offers. 

DARKMOON CARDS

   I will start off with the darkmoon cards. The deal with these cards is quite profitable, but there is a huge drawback as well and i will elaborate as to why. By making these cards early in  the expansion you have a way to get one of the set cards which when you get them all you can turn them in at the Darkmoon faire and get a pretty awesome trinket that in most cases is BiS. Now the huge drawback that i was talking about comes with the introduction of new content patches where new, higher item level gear is introduced. What that does is, it makes them devaulate and loose their BiS status, heck they can be replaced by a instance trinket that might be better then it. But one thing remains, there are still people out there that are trying to boost their item level so they don't mind shelling out some gold for it, though that is very rare.

   As a recap for the cards, they are very lucrative and profitable at the start of a expansion but they loose their worth down the road. But if you take into account that Mists Of Pandaria is nearing it's release, then you should know that this market will be a viable market once again, and if you are a scribe you should think about getting in and taking a slice of the profit pie.

MYSTERIOUS FORTUNE CARDS

   This right here is the Mysterious Fortune Card. Many have had the good fortune of selling these on the auction house and making a killer sale, and many have had fun scratching these, having fun, and loosing all their gold in the process. 

   The fortune cards are an awesome item to sell, but their sales are not dependent on simply putting them on the auction house and expect to see the sales as you would with another item. Oh don't get me wrong, its not all that complicated to sell them as it might sound but it will require a bit of your wits, and a small amount of your time to bark a macro. But why am i rambling on and on, heck i'll get down to an example and show you exactly what it is.

   There are a few things you need to know about the fortune cards before you start to deal with them. 

• Rule 1: Never flip the card yourself
• Rule 2: Never ever even think of flipping the cards yourself
• Rule 3: Ahh .. read Rule 1 or Rule 2

   Now that you know the basic three rules i will give you a quick overview on what to expect from the people and who you are going to sell and when.

   The cards are basically the Vegas of WoW, which means its the only way you can gamble with a chance to win big. What this means is that people can easily get addicted to it and spend great amounts of gold on it, which in return is a great thing for you because that gold goes to you. Now the people that you are targeting are the ones that like to gamble, but in order for them to actually buy your product you need to make it visually alluring. Seeing as how we can't use the usual marketing tactics, we need to advertise the WoW way. This kind of advertisement is done by barking macros. The idea is to make the macro descriptive as well as tempting to buy. The best results i have had were by linking the item as well as the prize in the same macro. I am guessing you know how to link items in macros as i have explained it previously. So with that in mind the macro that i used to make my gold from the cards is as following:

/2 Mysterious Fortune Card on the AH dont miss out on your chance to score the big win and net in 5000G for a measly price. Get yours while they last

/2 Feel like your luck is in your favor today? Well then why not test your luck and flip the Mysterious Fortune Card for a chance to win Fortune Card. Get yours from the AH now!

   These two macros are a few of the ones that i used to make my gold off the cards, but know one thing though, you need to make a few macros that are different from each other buy yet they bark about the same thing. The reason for this would be because no one likes a spammer in trade, but if you are barking 5 different macros in a 1 minute intervals, well then people won't mind that much.

   Just one last thing about the cards. If you happen to have cooking you can take your cards business to a whole new level by making Fortune Cookies. The deal with these is that they offer the same "gamble" as the cards but with an added kick, they give a fairly good food buff so you can sell this to raiders and dungeon runners. Same as the cards you get fairly quick results by making an ad about this and barking in trade. I will give you an example of what i have been using to sell them.

/2 Off to a raid,need food [Fortune Cookie] on the AH. Get your class best food buff along side with a chance to get  [Fortune Card] and profit 5K gold

PVP RELICS

   One of the markets that is generally looked over by the majority of the scribes is the relic market. What this market offers is actually a piece of the PvP profits that we can take for our own. Best thing about the relics is that with every major patch the item level of the relics is being upgraded to match the current honor equivalent. 

    But without making this any longer that it has to be, if you are a scribe make the Vicious Eyeball of Dominance, Vicious Charm of Triumph and Vicious Jawbone of Conquest. 

   

   One of the things you need to know though is when you are buying the needed materials for them, buy them from a vendor don't buy them from the Auction house. You don't want to be on the short end of the stick on a topic that i have covered months ago.

   This about wraps up the alternative to glyph inscription market and if you follow them you are sure to make some good profits.

    So, like always, keep an eye out for good opportunities out there.

   

Inscription

   As you might have seen i like making my titles a bit on the amusing side but today i chose to go with a simple title, inscription. From the given title you can guess that this post is going to cover the profession Inscription. I will try and break it down, and tell you about my experiences with the profession and what to keep an eye out for, and what to stay away from. Ok lets get down to the core of the profession and start from there.

Glyph Market

   Glyphs will be the first of the markets that you will cover with inscription. This market is a rather big one due to the fact that everyone needs their glyphs for their characters to use. This market used to be a lot more dynamic when the glyphs were used every time when you wanted to respec, but since then and the change where it was made into, buy it once own it forever, that market kinda lost my interest in it. Now don't get me wrong, there is metric tons of gold to be made in it.

Inscription TSM settings

   Your first encounter with the glyph market will come quite early on in the game, namely while you are leveling your inscription. Now here is good bit of information, don't judge the glyph market according to the price of those glyphs as you will find their price to be abysmally low in the majority of the cases, and yes i am talking about the low level glyphs. The reason behind their low price is not that they are not used but simply a supply/demand issue. As you are leveling through the profession by crafting those glyphs know that other scribes that are leveling are doing the same thing, and then they are putting their finished glyphs up on the auction house, while at the same time there aren't enough new buyers for that particular glyph so you end up with overstock of that glyph.

   Now one important thing that i would like to make it clear before anything else is what you MUST do to succeed in this market. It is totally imperative that you obtain all the glyphs, and be able to craft them all so your competition doesn't have the upper hand on you with glyphs you don't have. There are three things you must do to obtain all the possible glyphs, those are the daily research minor and major glyphs, the northrend research and last is the glyphs you get out from Book Of Glyph Mastery. If you do all your researches, and read enough books you will be able to craft all the glyphs in due time.

   If you have chosen to take on inscription but you don't like the hassle of having to manually check for undercuts on your 800 glyphs, well then you can make this much easier by using Trade Skill Master. I know i have posted the how to use the addon link in the previous few posts, but i keep finding people that don't know what TSM is, or how to use it, so i like to have it handy for them. 

   On the image above you can see TSM with a single group named Glyphs. What i have done for ease of use is put all the glyphs i have into a single group, with universal settings for all of them. The reason behind this logic for me is simple, all the glyphs cost the same three inks that you can trade down from the latest links available. The settings for this group for me is as following:

• Post Time  12h  ( This is if you can log in at least twice a day, or you fancy yourself a camper )
• Post Cap  3  ( I've used this amount because it's enough to cover the market before i'm undercut )
• Undercut  1c  ( This is a no brainer, i always undercut for 1c so i don't bring down the price much ) 
• Price Threshold  20g  ( I won't sell if the price goes under this threshold )
• Fallback Price   550g ( If no one is selling a particular glyph i have no problem with overpricing it )

   With these settings for your glyphs you can turn a nice profit if you are keen on making it in the glyph market. I have made two other posts about Inscription which you can find in the Inscription section and they give out some nice tips about how to make a profit from inscription other then using glyphs. As for the glyph market i am pretty sure i covered the basics, and in the next addition i will further elaborate on how to make gold from inscription by branching out from the glyphs and using the other goodies Inscription has to offer.

   Before i leave though i want to give you a link to Croda's Blog. This guy is covering the glyph market in his blog and is rather fond of his profession, so if you want to get some deeper appreciation for the glyph market you might want to check out his blog as well as the FREE inscription guide he has on his blog. Oh, oh before i forget, he has awesome music that you can play while at his blog so you might want to check that out as well.

  So, until next time, keep an eye out for good opportunities out there.