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Monday, June 13, 2011

Partnership with another banker

This is my post for the JMTC blogging carnival for June " What is your most devious gold making strategy"


This is actually a hard post as I am not a very devious person, but this I guess falls into a somewhat devious plan.
It started a few months ago when I noticed another gold making banker(who this blog is named after) on my server and started chatting with him a bit, we threw some ideas around and formed an in game friendship. We both wanted to explore new markets and mainly wanted to get into Arbitrage. I wont go into much detail here because there is a ton of info already blogged about for cross faction trading. Faid has put up excellent post about this topic.It is titled Arbitrage: What is it and why aren't I doing it?

We both had a few bank alts or slots open for new bank toons.So we start by moving 50 of each pet and recipe cross faction through the neutral AH and put a bank toon in each others bank, and use one bank for the pets and one for recipes.

We each have two toons to sell these recipes and pets on plus our main bank alts, so a total of 3 bank toons each not counting the toon we each use on the other faction. Now what this does is create false competition making it look like 6 toons are already in these markets, we also have different play times for the most part although some times are overlapping, but we each have our eyes on the market when the other is not on, and finally if one of us needs a break from listing or isn't going to be around the other can take over the duties.Another tip is that we list at different Auction lengths and different price points.

 
It started with just vendor pets and recipes but we have moved into other markets such as Lamps, Lanterns, Epics, and Darkmoon decks.

I would recommend a RL friend for this, but we have been doing this for about two months and have had no problems. We both had to put out a level of trust in the other and we could have lost a bit of gold if the other was dishonest, but I think it was worth the initial gold invested to see if it could work and it has.

I'm sure that this could work in other markets, but as we didn't have a second account this made more sense then getting into a market that we could just do by ourselves.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Do not lose Focus! Auction House PVP

This is my submission to Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival, for the month of June. If you have not checked out Colds Gold Factory or GoldGrub's Goblin Academy yet please make sure you do for some great WoW Gold-Making tips.Also make sure you check out the Auction House Junkies Podcast Put on By Cold from Colds Gold Factory and Wes from Capped By Cata.

How much time do you spend focusing on your competition? Are you constantly watching what they are doing, when they log, when they post, what other markets they are in? Do you find yourself constantly cancelling auctions and re listing based on what they do on the Auction house? Could this actually be hurting you?




Let me tell you a real life story that I feel relates to the Auction house and your competition. A few years back I was a manager of one of the big three pizza companies.We were doing well, the crew was having fun, and sales were on the rise, So much so that our major competition, another big chain,closed their doors. Boy was that a rush! We shut them down and at the same time reaped the sales growth from crushing a big competitor. Can any of you relate to that in one of your Gold-Making markets? A competitor that you pushed out or maybe they transferred, left WoW, or whatever happened your competition is no longer there. We will say for your own pride sake that you pushed said competitor out. So what happens next? You set your eyes on you next major competition of course!


In my real life story this was exactly what I did, after a few months of getting sales under control and manageable, I was ready for the next guy. The next pizza shop down the street. I was going to crush them like I did the last and continue my rise to dominance in the pizza market.



This is where everything started falling apart though,While I was focusing on the first guy, and starting to focus on the next, a few other big pizza shop players moved into my market that I didn't even see coming, that coupled with the fact that I had been neglecting things in my own store, Marketing opportunity(or in the case of WoW other Markets,Barks,etc), trouble with my employees(Suppliers,White Lists) Cleanliness (Guild Bank Organization) I started to see my sales decline, I was lucky enough to have a supervisor pull me aside and explain that its great to focus on your competition and know what they are doing or even try to plot the next move they might make, but if you are spending more time worrying about them instead of your own store then you are being counter productive and things can spin out of control very quickly.


To sum this up in the WoW markets and on the Auction-House you need to make sure you know whats going on with your competition, but you need to make sure that its not taking up all of your time, make sure its not hurting you in any of your markets,make sure that you are not undercutting so much that you are taking a loss just to prove a point, and make sure you are staying in control.

Then when the time is right, Make your move, crush them, and watch your back, because trust me the next Auction House superstar is gunning for you!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Gatherpalooza

This post today has nothing to do with making gold, But a fun little gathering event that we did in our guild to stock the Guild-Bank back up. We run these every few months and it it gets pretty competitive. The points are for each individual item and not for full stacks.

The Rules and The list!


1. You cannot buy things from the AH to turn in.
2. No turning in items from your bank, go collect them after the start of the hunt!
3. Your own alt professions may be used.
4. Only what you gather and create will count, no outside help!
5. All items MUST be received by "Insert guild treasurer here" no later than Sunday at 7:00 PM
6. HAVE FUN!!!!

Of course these rules are based on the honor system, so be mindful of that. (If I see 10 mails full of stuff at 6:01pm server Friday, I'll know you have been pre-gathering :-P)
Please mail all collected items to Guild Treasurer and mail them with your main toon.

THE LIST!!

FOOD
Fortune Cookie - 75 points (single person good feast) (limit 3 stacks)
All 96000 health food - 5 points

FISH/MEAT
Deepsea Sagefish - 30 points
Fathom Eel - 30 points
Lavascale Catfish - 30 points
Highland Guppy - 25 points

HERBS - max 5 stacks of any individual herb (10 stacks for azshara's veil and twilight jasmine)
Cinderbloom - 15 points
Azshara's Veil - 20 points
Stormvine - 20 points
Whiptail - 20 points
Twilight Jasmine - 20 points

ENCHANT MATS
Lesser Celestial Essence - 25 points
Greater Celestial Essence - 75 points
Hypnotic Dust - 25 points
Heavenly Shard - 125 points
Maelstrom Crystal - 250 points

INKS
Burning Embers - 50 points
Inferno Ink - 100 points
Ashen Pigment - 35 points max 4 stacks
Blackfallow Ink - 70 points max 5 stacks

GEMS max 2 stack of each gem
Jasper - 20 points
Hessonite - 20 points
Nightstone - 20 points
Carnelian - 20 points
Alicite - 20 points
Zephyrite - 20 points

Ocean Sapphire - 40 points
Dream Emerald - 40 points
Ember Topaz - 40 points
Demonseye - 40 points
Inferno Ruby - 40 points
Amberjewel - 40 points

Shadowspirit Diamonds - 200 points max 4 total

ORE / BARS
Obsidium Ore - 15 points max 3 stacks
Obsidium Bar - 30 points max 3 stacks
Elementium Ore - 15 points max 10 stacks
Elementium Bar - 30 points max 10 stacks
Pyrite Ore - 25 points
Pyrium Bar - 50 points

ELEMENTALS
Volatile Earth - 10 points - max 2 stacks
Volatile Water - 10 points - max 2 stacks
Volatile Life - 10 points  - max 4 stacks
Volatile Fire - 10 points - max 2 stacks
Volatile Air - 10 points - max 2 stacks

BLACKSMITHING
Ebonsteel Belt Buckle - 350 points max 40

SKINNING / LEATHERWORKING
Pristine Hide - 50
Blackened Dragonscale - 10
Dragonscale Leg Armor - 250 max 20
Charscale Leg Armor - 250 max 20

ALCHEMY

Deathblood Venom - Used in cauldrons - 20 points (max 4 stacks)

Mythical Healing Potion - 25 points (max 4 stacks)
Mythical Mana Potion - 25 points (max 4 stacks)

Flask of the Winds - 400 points (max 5 flasks)
Flask of Titanic Strength - 360 points (max 5 flasks)
Flask of Steelskin - 360 points (max 5 flasks)
Flask of the Draconic Mind - 400 points (max 5 flasks)

CLOTH/TAILORING
Embersilk Cloth - 10 points max 5 stacks
Bolt of Embersilk Cloth - 50 points max 2 stacks
Dreamcloth level spellthreads - 700 points max 10
Ghostly Spellthread - 210 points max 10
Enchanted Spellthread - 210 points max 10

ENGINEERING
De-Weaponized Mechanical Companion - 700 points max 11
Personal World Destroyer - 650 points max 12
Lure Master Tackle Box - 650 points max 10


GOOD  LUCK, and happy hunting!!!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

The results of what if you sold it all?

As Yesterdays post stated, I was going to drink a Potion Of Treasure Finding farm for an hour and see what my results were if I sold all the non junk on the auction house. So here are the results of my little test. Please let me know if you try this yourself on your server and let me know your results too.


14 Tiny Treasure Chest
The breakdown on the chests were as follows.
1. 3g20s84c-10 Embersilk Cloth 5 Volatile Water 1 Volatile Earth
2. 2g45s18c  1 Elementium Ore
3. 4g21s35c  1 Volatile Water
4. 2g26s39c  4 Embersilk Cloth
5. 4g74s62c
6. 4g86s85c
7. 4g64s7c    6 Embersilk Cloth 2 Elementium Ore 3 Volatile Fire
8. 4g28s81c  8 Embersilk Cloth 3 Volatile Earth
9. 4g35s82c  10 Embersilk Cloth 1 Volatile Water
10.1g92s21c  5 Volatile Earth 2 Pyrite Ore
11. 5g45s33c 1 Pyrite Ore 1 Volatile Earth
12. 4g58s96c
13. 3g67s32c 10 Embersilk Cloth 3Volatile Fire
14 4g 44s 55c 4 Elementium Ore
Total gold received from Tiny Treasure Chest was 55g12s30c

Junk Items that got sold to the vendor
Efflorescing Shards x40 9g99s60c
Hoary Crystals x178 34g81s68c
Pockmarked Cloth Shoulder Pads 1g10s57c
Melted Cleaver 5g57s77c
Robble's Wobbly Staff 5g17s77c
Dirt-Caked Shoulderpads 1g41s84c
Total gold received from junk 60g09s43c

Next on the list are the Green Items, I only had two that I had to use Auctioneer prices on which actually makes me think that since they sold so fast I may have been able to list at a higher price but I took the Auctioneer price and added 10-20g to Each and listed them.
Sundown Helm Of The Zephyr 77g22s54c
Stagalbog Jerkin Of The Stormblast 67g99s29c
Mosshide Shoulders Of The Monkey 59g68s99c
Yojamba Waistband Of The Bandit 41g94s68c
Rethban Pauldrons Of The Soldier 67g13s78c
Baradin Cord Of The Invoker 49g83s55c
Angerfang Greatsword Of The Earthshaker 85g16s63c
Razorwind Sword Of The Stormblast 68g22s99c

Total Gold Received from selling the green items was a very nice 517g29s45g
Lets add that up with the Junk and the Gold From Tiny Treasure Chest
and we are already at a total of 632g51s18c
Now for our final section, The Ore, Volatiles, and Cloth. I looted 33 Volatile Earth in Addition to the ones that I received In the Tiny Treasure Chest so lets start with those.
Volatile Earth 417g22s91c
Volatile Fire   75g03s18c
Volatile Air 106g94s0c
Volatile Water 28g52s58c
Embersilk Cloth 58g42s30c
Elementium Ore 11g58s10c
Pyrite Ore 18g71s25c
Total for these items adds up to 716g43s99c

Add that up with our other totals not counting a 9g Repair bill since it was paid for by my guild
and you Gold-Making per hour or GHP for this run was Drum roll please 1348g95s17c
Wow! Do you remember how long it used to make 1300g back in the days of Vanilla? Farming may not be your thing, but I think this at least shows that if you are tired of staring at Trade-Chat or the Auction-House and want to get out and see some of the world that you can still make some decent gold.

If anyone would like to try this and leave your results in the comment section, I would love to see them

Friday, June 3, 2011

What if you sold it all?

Power Word:Gold had a fun little contest a while back called The"Treasure Potion Trash Dash" Challengers You! Go check it out and I will wait here for you while you read some of the surprising results. Back? I told you I would still be here.

So here are my results in the run I did for the contest.I chose to farm Scalding Rock Elementals Hyjal.

Greys and Vendor Items
Hoary crystals-173 total 33g83s88c
Efflorcing shards- 33 total 8g24s67c
Pockmarked Hat-3 total 3g45s33c
Pockmarked cloth bracers 77s02c
Perforated Plate boots 1g98s92c
clammy mail belt 1g12s22c
Clammy mail pants 2g26s92c
Perforated plate gloves 1g32s18c
Pockmarked cloth vest 1g46s88c
Clammy Mail gloves 1g11s
Total 47g76s62c

Greens
Design:Keen Hessonite 0g0s0c
Angerfang Knuckles Of The Bandit-17g22s40c
Yojamba Waistband Of The Marksmen-4g18s01c
Nazferiti Belt Of The Marksman-4g80s96c
Yojambi Bindings Of The Marksman-4g44s89c
Mosshide Gloves Of The Galeburst- 4g15s66c
Mosshide Bindings Of The Monkey- 4g35s78c
Sundown Greaves Of The Bandit-7g44s43c
Total 46g62s13c
Volatile Earth-total 11 96s25c



15 Tiny Treasure Chest( didn't expect that many!)
51g02s25c
Embersilk Cloth total 52
Pyrite Ore total 1
Volatile Life total 3
Volatile Air total 4
Volatile Water total 7
Merceldar Spellblade Of The Undertow
Total 71g10s10c

Overall vendor value of all items 166g45s10c

Not to bad, but this got me thinking "what if I sold it all?' I would still vendor the junk but I would like to see what I would get on my server if I sold the other items, I will post my results tomorrow and whatever doesnt sell I will go by Auctioneers numbers to see what the GPH is using one of the Potion Of Treasure Finding in the same location. This isn't a challenge as its all server dependent but I still would love to see everyone's results.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Check out the other blogs, while I get started

 This is not your average first post on a blog about gold-making in the World of Warcraft, But I feel it is appropriate to thank a few people for helping me get started.

I have to admit that I don't get to read all the gold blogs out there and two months ago when I started play WoW again, I didn't even know that gold blogs existed. It wasn't until someone mentioned The Undermine Journal in trade chat that my eyes were opened to a whole new world of gold-making. That being said, I am not new to blogging as I have done it in the past on a variety of topics, and I am definitely not new to gold-making or the auction house game in World of Warcraft. A little rusty, yes, but not new.
 
You can see to the right under other useful resources a few blogs that I read as often as possible, If your gold-making blog isn't listed its nothing against you or your gold-making tips,the people listed have been selected because they have been consistent in their content on gold-making, they have a writing style I enjoy, and they have made themselves available when I have had questions on either gold-making or blogging.I only have so much time to read gold-making blogs each day and these are the ones I try to keep up with.
 
My hope is that I can bring something new to the table on making gold and being a goblin in WoW, but honestly a lot has been covered, and repeated over and over.A perfect example of this is selling vendor recipes on the auction house which Power Word:Gold has a great article on Parking Unused Characters for profit,or even cross-faction trading, also know as arbitage which was the topic of Cold's gold blogging carnival for April over on Cold's gold factory. I may even write a post about those too, but maybe I can bring something new to the topics.
 
I may not always be right, I may go against the grain on what some of the other gold-making blogs suggest, but I promise to always be honest and provide ideas that are making gold in WoW for me. If you see in any of my posts where I can improve my gold-making by taking it down the line a bit more,by either crafting,disenchanting,milling,or even flipping let me know.There is still a ton for me to learn about being a goblin.

Please check out the blogs listed in the other useful resources section, you wont be sorry! They are all great and provide excellent gold-making tips.

My gold-making tip of the day is flipping Goldthorn, It can often be found on my server from 2g to 10g each and consistently resells for 25g to 30g each. If farming is your thing, check out Arathi highlands.