Market Manipulation

   Today we are going to take a look at a very interesting way of making sure you profit from selling an actual item, while selling your services for prices that are so cheap that even Scrooge would yell out BARGAIN !

   This strategy that i will tell you about is an old yet VERY effective way to rack in some phat profits. Ok seeing as how i don't want to make this a very long post i will get down to the facts and explain how this works right away.

   What this strategy consists of is basically making people buy (item X) that is material for (item Y) that you can craft, and you offer your crafting skills for a very low price. But not to sound too mathematical with this i will get down and explain this with an actual example that should clear up any confusion there might be.

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   Now this is more or less the same with any item and the logic behind it is that you are advertising a finished product to promote your other auctions that are the materials for that item. This works just awesome when you use it on a rare craftable item, and if you happen to be able to craft an item that has a unique appearance to it you can take a cut from the Transmogrification market as well and make those appearance crazed people to get your item or materials for huge profits. 

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

Preparing To Ride The Storm

   So here we are, a week or two, maybe three away from the landing of the next patch Blizzard has in stock for us. This patch is going to bring in some new dungeons, a new raid, but most importantly it is going to bring opportunity to make gold. If you are one of those people that really look forward to making some gold off of this patch, then you need to know a few things, namely you will need to stock up on materials.

   As you can see on the image these guys are "stocking up", well not really, they are probably getting ready for a party, but the basics are the same. So like these guys have booze and snacks, that's how you will need materials for the patch, and the best time to get them, if you haven't already, is now.

   I will try and point out some of the things that people should stock up, things that are always in demand and that you can't loose with.

   As a starter up, if you would like to profit off the start of the patch you might want to get a healthy stock of enchanting materials. This is a good idea due to the fact that with the release of the new patch comes new gear, hence people will want to enchant it, and from there the increase of demand. So Hypnotic Dust, Greater Celestial Essences, Heavenly Shards and Maelstrom Crystals should be on your to have list.

   As you can see on the image here, your stock should be something like this as a basic stock up, so you don't have to buy off the Auction House for your own needs. But, if you happen to be an enchanter, and intend on profiting from the enchanting materials by making scrolls, and then selling them, then you need to take this base stock and quadruple it, or even make it tenfold.

   When we are at the enchanting materials, there's something you need to know. Coming this patch we get Maelstrom Shatter, which is basically taking one Maelstrom Crystal, and breaking it into two Heavenly Shards. This is not a bad thing, as long as you know how to deal with it, and most importantly how to profit from it. So what this actually means is that the prices of the Heavenly Shards is gonna go down for quite a bit, while the prices of the Maelstroms is going to skyrocket. So my tip about this situation would be, get stocked up on Maelstrom Crystals now while they are cheap, and unload your Heavenly Shards now while their price is nice and high.

   So as a recap for enchanting materials, buy out those Maelstrom Crystals, and unload those Heavenly Shards.

   Enchanting is not the only thing you want to get stocked up, if you happen to be a jewelcrafter you want to have a healthy stock of gems (yes i know there are epic gems coming with this patch but until you get them you are going to be using these).

   Usually on patch day, especially when there's new justice points gear and new PvP gear available gem sales and gem prices explode. Last patch i managed to make 270k gold in 5 hours just from selling gems, overpriced, but still, sales are sales.

   This was pretty much a no brainer, but still there are people out there claiming that the gem prices are going to crash because epic gems are going to be the new hotness, but that's simply wrong.

   If you are not into the enchanting market, or lack a proper jewelcrafter and have a blacksmith or a leatherworker, then this would be a good time to catch the last train for the "Restock Express".

   As a blacksmith, you want to get a nice stock of Elementium Bars, alongside with Pyrium Bars and Volatiles, like the Fire, Water and Earth. The reason for stocking up on these is that you will need them to craft all the belt buckles, the new gear that gets shipped in the patch, as well as the weapon chains and the Orb weapons.
 
   Another thing you want to stock up on is Truegold, and if you want to know why check out my previous post The Era Of The Truegold ... Let It Come

   So, in a nutshell, this would be it for stocking up with materials for blacksmithing.

   Same as the blacksmith, if you are a leatherworker you will want to stock up on some volatiles so you can craft some of the PvP gear, that hopefully gets a new boost up, but might not happen. But even with no boost on the PvP front, you will certainly get big sales on the pants armor kits.

   So as a overview of the entire post, buy Maelstrom Crystals, sell Heavenly Shards, buy Elementium Ore/Bars, Buy Leather. (you will buy if the price is low or normal, don't go and buy at inflated prices, there really shouldn't be any reason why you should)

   So there we are ladies and gentle goblins, that's all for this post, and like always, keep your eyes peeled for good opportunities out there.

CSS (Cheap Shot Sales) Not Counter Strike Source !!!

   So here we are back again with me teaching you fine goblins out there how to make gold by using dubious and below the belt techniques and i might add one that's a very very good for your pocket and urge to fill it with gold.

   If you've read some of my other posts you'll notice that i personally love the use of advertising to get my sales up, and this is something that i have found to be a crucial element in my selling and buying setup, so one might say that you need to have a magnetic personality or even be a loudmouth but that's ok if it gets you gold.

   This next bit i am about to tell you fine goblins is something that has made me a ton of gold and i usually don't like spreading the word about it mainly because it involves some not so moral things that need to be done but what the hell, there's gold at the end of the rainbow so why not.

   So i'll try to cut it short and get down to the bare facts and how to do the CSS. Lets say that you have an item that's something of worth but it's simply moving too slow or the demand is too low but you want to get rid of it as soon as possible, what do you do then, why use the CSS.

   Let me elaborate, the CSS is basically you getting other people to buy a given item that you've put on the AH by barking trade channel with a different character saying that you want to buy the same given item for a higher price and hence trying to force someone into buying the item you've previously put up on the AH with your main character. As a perfect example for this would be the titansteel bars which are one of the main ingreedients for making the Chopper-Like mount that many people crave for it. What i did is i went on the AH and saw that there was like 10ish posted for 95g on there and i bought them all out and reposted them at 199g per item and then logged my banker character. As soon as the loading screen was done i started barking trade channel that i wanted to buy 8 titansteel bars for 250g per bar (don't put a number greater then the amount you've posted on the AH, in this case 10 because people will not want to buy it because it will not fulfill your need and they don't want to risk it) and about 4 min later the AH was emptied out from all the titansteel bars. That is when you don't whisper back to the people trying to tell you that they have it and want to trade it to you or invite you in a group, but you rather relog on your main and see that those 950g you invested into the truegold is not actually 1900g after 4 min of barking trade (as a side effect you have a bunch of people that hate you but hey we are goblins we don't belive in Karma).

   So there you are and this strategy could be used for any item of interest and it will always get your sales to go smoother, though if you always do that same tactic from the same alt people might start to catch up and see through all the smoke and mirrors do diversify as what item you are "selling" with this strategy.

   So like always keep your eyes peeled for good opportunities out there.

Big Game Crafter (BGC)

   So here you are, a very skilled and charming Jewelcrafter, Alchemist or whatever profession you might have and are making loads of gold and you start thinking that you are pushing the max out of how much you can be making, be it that mark you've set for yourself is 1k, 5k, 10k or even 20k per day and you feel like you've hit that high quote that you can't possibly go over by using the Auction House. Well you might be right if you are using all your available markets to you, and you are doing it all as you are supposed to be doing it, but what if i tell you that you can make so much more by not expanding into different markets and trying out what sells there and then clash with the other people that are already sailing strong into those markets. Well if that interests you keep on reading about the possibilities that are offered if you choose to be a Big Game Crafter.

   So let me give you an idea as to what i mean when i use the phrase Big Game Crafter, it's actually very simple but yet still ingenious.

   Lets say that you are a Jewelcrafter and you spend your days brushing elbows with the competition on the AH trying to get your gems sold so you can get a slice of the profit pie, you post 200 gems and you are bound to sell some 5-10 gems before you get undercut or even more if it's a busy time of the day and the competition is low but the fact is that no matter what you will never sell your full stock and get 100% back on your posting fees and not to mention there is no way to avoid paying the AH tax A.K.A AH cut, but actually is there ?

   YES THERE IS, and this is the core of the (BGC) strategy, and the only thing you need to do is have some half decent persuasion skills. Ok enough with the beating around the bush, lets go down to the facts and how to of the strategy so you stop wondering what the hell am i talking about.

   Few days ago i had an idea where i talked to my GM about supplying the guild bank with all the gems there are so the guild would get them at the lowest possible price so that it can sell them to the raiders at a 50% discount which in fact would be a moral boost and some effective spending of the guild bank gold. Took me about one and a half hour to make the cuts and filling up the bank with the surplus gems i had and the uncut ones that i had i got around 40k gold from that transaction which was the bare minimum with a very low to none profit margin but that actually gave me an idea to offer something in those lines to the other big guilds on my server and this is where i struck gold.

    I contacted few other guilds, their respectable GM's and told them that i am willing to provide them with a good deal on gems, as well as food for all their raiders if they buy them from me in bulks. I got three GMs that were interested and we struck a deal, took me about 3 hours to craft all the gems that i had told them i would supply them with but it was time well spent because after i sold them the whole package i got about 57k gold from each of the guilds that i made that deal with (well two of them paid the 57 the third one didn't want the whole stock and had a predifined list of gems but still got me about 35k) and on top of that i managed to sweeten the pot with the food thing, and seeing as how i am not very big going out there killing animals for their flesh or fishing i sold the food of the Chinese  people, the Fortune Cookie, but it took some negotiating and explaining but after a while (me telling them that there's a chance for the 5k golden card to be acquired from the food) they agreed and bought them at 220g per stack which was awesome price for a wholesale  as i could cut my production time in half because some idget (word sponsored by the show Supernatural) was posting them for 6g per card and i bought them bought some flour and made them into the cookies and sold them for 11g per cookie. So there i was sitting on well over 150k for that day and wasn't even near a patch day, nor the prices were inflated on a niche market which i had no competition, nope nothing like that, simply using the BGC to rack up some great profits.

   Same technique can be done with herbs, flasks, pots, food, beltbuckets hell anything you might be selling on the AH and has a high demand  and the best part no need to deal with competition only a one on one talk with a certain GM and you could be reaping the profits in no time.

   So try it out people, it worked for me and there's no reason why it wouldn't work for you. I sure hope you get some awesome profits out of this one and like always keep your eyes peeled for good opportunities out there.

Hopping On The Profit Train

   So hopefully you've done your fair share of killing the direbrew boss event every single day with the promise of treasure, mounts and BoE's from the satchel, well unless you've had the most rotten luck of not getting a single drop (this was my luck actually) but even then there's very good profits to be made from this event that will end in 3 days.

   What this gold making opportunity is a limited availability item that usually by now it's price has rock bottomed at 100-300g and that item is Tremendous Tankard O' Terror and this is the item you want to have in stock as soon as the holiday event is done.

   The reason behind this is very simple, the item is actually an ok weapon for Rogues to pick up and it's a item level 365 weapon which puts it neck to neck with the other BS crafted items that sell for the better part of 10K on the AH, so you will have people willing to buy this weapon for three reasons. Main one would be those Rogues and Shamans out there (If it's not the best item i apologize but i saw AGI and thought of Rogues and Shamans), second one would be to break the ilvl requirement to get into the heroic ZA/ZG (this is what all the new level 80s dream of so they can get out of doing the random HC, unless they are rich which in that case they can buy the shiny epics and yes this means your item as well), and third and to be honest i think this would be the best reason and that is the Transmogrification coming next patch because there are sure to be people out there that will go for the look of having a big ass tankard in your hand while smashing people's brains with it.

   So as a recap, you have about 3 days left to do your daily runs for the chance to get a tankard if you dont get it then check your AH for the item and buy it out if you see it at a 100-400g price range, wait for 1 week after the event is over and then repost them on the AH for somewhere between 2-4k (it will be a good DPS wise item for about 2 months which is how much time it's gonna take for the 4.3 to hit live servers) and even after the patch is live the item will still hold it's Visual quality and i'm quite sure people will be looking for it,

   So i hope you get some good profits out of this item, and like always keep your eyes peeled for good opportunities out there.

Suppliers And Profiting As The Middle Man

   In this next bit, i would like to give you an inside on a way how to make gold by actually not doing anything, that will require you to go out, and kill things or stalk the AH. What i mean by this is, not that i am going to tell you how to make a gold forging machine, but something similar, when you see how much gold you can make, by simply doing it.

   Ok so to cut it down to the point, the thing i am talking about is profiting with the use of suppliers. Now before i go on let me give you a simple explanation of the term. A supplier is usually a guy/gal that will supply you with a steady stock of materials on a daily basis at a predefined price that you have both agreed upon and is satisfactory to both of you. For a better explanation i will give you an example of what i have set up with suppliers.

   I have about five guys that constantly supply me with Elementium/Obsidium Ore, and another two that supply me with leather. For this instance i will put the spotlight on the ore guys. What is happening on my server, is that i am one of the four or five main gem suppliers, so i am constantly on the look out for more raw materials (ores), so i keep my eyes open for any chance i can get to buy them. Well at least that's what i used to do. I was trying the AH for my ores until i actually though about getting the ore directly from the source, meaning cutting out the AH, and with that getting a constant flow of ore and denying all the other people the massive amounts of ore that would usually overflow the AH, that would otherwise lower the prices of ore and in return would plunge the prices of gems and BS crafted items. But i keep my eye out even nowadays about new suppliers that i might have missed out.

   Ok so i told you what i do, now to tell you how to get suppliers of your own. Best way to find someone to find someone that could be your supplier would be by checking the AH for guys that are posting massive amounts of certain ore or herbs. They are usually even posting them at a low price all with the hope of selling them fast. What you need to do is very simple actually, just check the name of the seller, and send him a in game mail where you tell him that you would buy out all his stock every time he has some to provide and you don't care how much he has you will simply buy, buy, buy. Eight out of ten times this way will prove to be unsuccessful because most of those huge posters like seen on the image are either bots or farmers that don't speak the language well (Chinese, Arabic or some other language depending on the server, AND NO I'M NOT TRYING TO BE RASIST ahh NATIONALIST ahh , or whatever). But still, you might have some luck and actually get one to talk to you and then hopefully come to an arrangement that would suit you both.

   Another way of getting a supplier is by keeping an eye out on the trade channel for people that would say something as simple as WTS [Elementium Ore]. Now unlike the 20% chance of success from the previous example these guys are actually the opposite and they have like 80% chance to be your guys. Let me elaborate a bit so you might get the idea why. Since they have decided to try out trade channel with their rather big stock of ore that only means one thing, they are smart, why exactly are they smart you would ask. Well they are smart because it's one of two things, first the way they obtained that ore, lets say they have 150 stacks per day that means that requires quite some time to obtain which would imply them having a little brother/sister slaving for them mining all day while they are away or at work, or the more viable choice they have a bot that does the same thing, but in any case that is not the question here but rather their need to stay away from the attention of blizzard by posting a large amount of ore on a regular basis and keeping it down to private COD transaction with a constant buyer (THIS BEING YOU)

   So i have given you the two main ways of getting the suppliers you will need now let me give you one more advice how to deal with them. Before you start talking prices with them remember one thing they like you are guys playing this game and if you try and cheat them out of their profits they wont be happy and might stop with the supplying you part so remember to always keep your suppliers happy and treat them well. Ok about the prices i will give you an example of my server. What is happening on my server is the prices fluxuate somewhere from 18-35g per stack price and that big price difference is due to the time it's being sold which means at around 6-7am (EU Time) when the farmers post their stock prices are lower but as the day goes by price of ore starts climbing because supply is low (be proud of it because its probably your doing as well if you have your suppliers). Now what i have set up with my suppliers if a price tag of 20g per stack no matter of the price on the AH, i always give them a fair price which means they don't have to deal with the AH, with the posting fees and the ah percentage but most of all they keep their anonymity. So there i am i have all those people COD sending me hundreds of ores on a daily basis and what i do is my choosing, be it save them for prospecting or take them and then mail them on my alt in stacks of 12 (max mail stack number) and have them at close reach should i need them.

   So take into account all the things i've told you and you end up with the fact that at any given time i have a large amount of ore in my possession for me to either use it or sell it. And as the title of the post says you can do some serious profiteering by simply getting your stock from the suppliers at the 20g price and then at night time usually after 1am (if you are awake that time) you can swing these stacks for 35g or even higher so for simply being the middle man in the transaction you get a 15g profit over the 20g you paid for the ore. And on the 450 stacks i sold last night i have made 6750g (i know i should have made a screenshot after i got all the sales instead of the first 50 sales but you still get the idea).



   So to summarize this post would be, getting the suppliers should be a thing you are always on the prowl for, treating your suppliers fairly should not be something you would ever forget to do because they are giving you the sweet sweet items you sell for profits and last you need to decide if you want to prospect the ore or sell it as ore.

   So there we are i hope this will help you guys and gals out there to make some serious gold without pretty much doing anything that would be time consuming or boring.

Late Night Gold Shuffle

   WoW is a world that works pretty much the same as the real world, and what i mean by this is the fact that it never sleeps, not even when you are sleeping. Well if you take this into account, then you can see a profit somewhere in there, and i will further elaborate on this.

   When you are selling an item (that's in high demand like gems, glyphs, flasks), then you are more then aware that your ability to sell is reduced down to that brief window of opportunity of a few minutes before you are undercut by the competition, and put down the queue of successful sales. Now knowing that you either need to be brushing elbows with the competition and get your piece of the sales pie, or if you are not a big fan of the endless posting and re posting then try and out maneuver the competition. Going about this the right way could be a tricky thing, but if done right very profitable, i'll take as an example the gem market.

   Ok, so on my server i have seen 4 other major gem suppliers other then me. After doing some of the scoping out of the competition, i noticed that most of them go to sleep around 1-2am and get up at around 6-7am which can be seen in the statistics below.

   As a clarification, these are the posting times of 3 of the guys that are usually posting against me and with the rose color i marked up the times of the day that they simply dont post anything and that is the time between 1 or 2 am till 6 or 7 am which leaves about 5 hours of up time opposed to the ten or so minutes you get if you post during the day.

  

   So, what this means is that i usually do my last posting for the day at around 2am and i know that the following day when i log in i will see 50-100 sold auctions which depending on the prices of the gems it can net somewhere ranging from 5-15K from that single post alone.

   The same strategy that i used for the gems can be used for pots, flasks, (glyphs to some extent) and the best thing is that it's guaranteed to work and be quite effective. One thing that might make you wonder how this would work is the fact that it's only logical to think since the suppliers go to bed it's only logical that the other people do it also and that is the cast for most of the people but not all because every server have people that are playing from different time zones and if it's 2am at your place it might be 10pm at some other guy's place that's playing on your server and he is your potential buyer.

   So there you have it in a bundle The Late Night Shuffle is basically playing a game of last man standing, and if you are the last one to post your wares you are sure to see some great profits the following day.