Oh like you actually expected it to be anything else.
You did?
Fine.
I really did mean this.
But finding the Black Market Auction House was almost as exciting.
What? I said almost.
Auction House
The success of this blog stems from this time last year, when I took part in the Blog Azeroth Thanksgiving event put on by AmerPriest. I even finished second in said contest, and have been humbled ever since. I signed up for it again this year (the event, as I don’t believe there was a contest) but my mind was blank on what to write. I knew something I was planning on doing, but I sure couldn’t write about that because it would spoil everything. So I kind of played dumb when people asked about it, and the Thanksgiving event came and went.
Remember when I posted about wanting to earn a fair amount of gold by Winter Veil? No one ever asked me what it was for. Actually, Magik did and I dodged the question rather well. But other than that, people supported my effort but never questioned why I was trying to hoard it. Well, try I did. However, in six weeks or so I made less than 30 thousand gold. So I knew I was never going to achieve my goal. I was dejected, but was going to make the most of it anyway.
So I’ve quietly gone about my business, nickel and diming wherever I could. I acquired most of the things I needed in anticipation of Winter Veil when I would execute my plan. Well, with all the talk of Thanksgiving this week, and some things I will get to in a moment, I began thinking about moving up said plan. Low and behold yesterday came. I looked at my Friends List prior to the Laid Back Raid and there were seven of the eight people on that I needed to talk to. The only one missing was Healblade and while I knew he was coming to raid, I still e-mailed him and ninja’d my wife’s Facebook to message him there as well. Fortunately as I was rounding up the others, he made it on.
First I had to get Navimie, Helke, Repgrind, and Tome to roll toons on Runetotem. Then I had to say no DK’s, Worgen, or Pandas. I needed something that didn’t have to sludge through a start zone considering I gave them zero notice. They all obliged, and as we started to come together there were many questions I refused to answer. Instead I had the Mages take everyone to Ironforge while I zipped to Shattrath quickly (because what I wanted wasn’t closer!). I circled back and picked up Repgrind and we arrived at Bruuk’s Corner. This is a significant location as it’s where I used to hold our guild Winter Veil parties.
With everyone gathered, I began handing out a present to each one. Once I was certain everyone had their gift, I allowed them to open them. Now before I get to the what (and someone of you will know from reading other blogs), let me get to the why. I hold friendship in very high regard. Each of these people, and more, are incredibly important to me for their own reasons and it comes down to being who they are. So, it was a short time after Mists launched that I got the idea to give my friends each a Jewelcrafted Panther Mount for Christmas/Winter Veil.
As I said, I decided to bump up the timeline. Arv was supposed to be one of the recipients, but I found out he snagged them all at some point, and as such I was able to move on to another person. That’s good because I was disappointed I couldn’t make one for each person that I wanted to. Jai, Matty, Shoryl, and more were all people I really wanted to give this gift to and I couldn’t make it happen. Yes, it disappoints me. I could have pulled it off, but I refused to accept someone’s offer of gold (or buy it online) because I wanted to earn each of these my way. It was more rewarding, but in the end I didn’t get to give to everyone.
As it was, talking to a Jewelcrafter and saying I had the money and mats for eight panthers was enough to floor someone. Heck, they thought with all those materials that I wanted the Black one. Thank god there was no red stack of gems or my plan would have been foiled (I had them made 20 minutes before I rounded everyone up). But everything did work out just fine in the end. I would have liked to have celebrated with everyone for far longer, but there was a Laid Back Raid scheduled that some of us had to get to.
Firelands was interesting. It didn’t occur to me the zone would look very much like it did amidst all those bloody dailies. I’m also glad for the folks that came along, because I never would have known where to go. We had a few wipes, but we pressed on. It was nice to have content that had its challenges, but we perservered in such a casual manner. I again have to thank Arv and others who provided great leadership with each fight. Alas, we were not entirely successful on this night. Despite many efforts, we were bested by Ragnaros himself. The mechanics of that fight are still pretty tough. But he can rest assured we will be back.
I had dying down to an art form.
I had a great time in there, but the truth is…I didn’t want to go in the first place. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go to Firelands, I didn’t want to do LBR or really even be on WoW. I haven’t for some time. I kind of just go through the motions off and on. Up until now, very few people knew that I am suffering from serious depression at best, more likely it’s bipolar. Don’t know for sure, because I’ve not yet had the referral processed for proper analysis (long wait around these parts). But needless to say, it has diminished my interest in a number of things and one of those is WoW. For a long time I’ve been logging on just to get those panthers made. Add in my video display issues when I have been wanting to play, and my time has been slim.
Christmas is coming. That’s a busy time for me, and I will also be sending my laptop away for repair at some point. Combined with my mindswings and it’s hard to say when I’ll want to be on or what I will want to do. I like LBR runs, because all of the people involved are great to be around and do cheer me up. At the same time I have to recognize there will be a period where I’ll simply be offline and not able to run them. Whether someone else is able to take over in my absence or not will be determined before I take off. But I will be taking what I’m terming a sporadical. It’s not a full sabbatical but my appearances will be much more, well, sporadic.
I also recognize with the holidays coming, it would have been harder to get all those people together as I was able to in that instant last night. It was important to me to be able to have them all together at the same time, because that’s just how I am. I know there was some concern I was doing it because it was my swan song, and in some ways this post might suggest that, but that’s not the case and nor was it the plan. These mounts were always meant to be a Christmas gift to great people. Nothing more, nothing less.
I’ve just had a lot going on mentally as of late and that’s becoming a focus for me because it’s gotten worse in the last month and in ways I’m becoming much more concerned about it. I’m taking the appropriate actions of course, with counselling and meds and a strong network of support. So that’s why I moved up the date, why you haven’t necessarily seen me online as often, and most certainly why I haven’t been posting or commenting nearly as much. I just haven’t had it in me, and when my laptop goes on repair vacation it will be even more so.
To those I gave the cats to, I’m going to reiterate just how important each of you are to me and how awesome you’ve been just being you and this is a small way for me to say thank you. To others, I wish I could have fully shared that thanks. But if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re one of those people and I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart.
~Jayson
Talking a bit more about gold today and it’s something I should have hit on a week ago, or even earlier. For many items right now, there is a threshold. Basically your crafting materials and crafted goods. Over about the next month or so, that threshold is going to change significantly. But before I get into that, let’s determine just what the threshold is that I’m talking about.
Pandas and Monks.
What do I mean? Two weeks ago, thousands of pandas and monks were created. Recruit a Friend and Racial changes aside, about 90% were started at level one. Many have a profession or two. Let’s just say half for the sake of argument. That still means thousands of toons are out there working on their professions. Sure, some will wait…but there are plenty of new gatherers and disenchanters out there. As such, the market is getting flooded. Why? Because these characters are getting their points and dumping the excess (or possibly even just trying for a quick buck off them). This is our threshold. The median level of those new characters as it relates to their professions and what they can do with them.
No doubt on your server the price of Copper Ore and Strange Dust, for example, has been relatively cheap. It’s probably starting to return to pre-Mists levels now or in the coming days. If you caught it, you could have purchased a tonne and started to slowly put it back into the market for a reasonable profit. I managed to do so, to a small degree. It actually made me harken back to when I had three bank alt guilds. I could have used the space again on my main server. But the point to be made here, is as those low level materials have resumed their normal values, the next tier has dropped. You can probably see where this is going.
The caravan is moving through the levels and materials. As a seller, even as a buyer, you need to recognize where that caravan currently is on your Auction House. If you catch it as it’s coming through, you’re going to get barrels of goods for an incredible price. You don’t even have to remove it from your mailbox, it will sit there for 30 days (about the time it’ll be worth plenty more, coincidentally). But if you do, hang on to it. Whether you use some of it for your own skills or to profit elsewhere, or simply just hold the line, you will be rewarded. You just need to show a little patience.
This also means, keep an eye out when you’re selling. Items could be listed incredibly lower than usual, and you’re cutting yourself short if you list your goods at this time as well. Take a look at other items in that range. If Fel Iron Ore looks low, and Fel Iron Bars look low, check the price of some of the Outland Herbs. You’ll get an idea of where things are at. To get a better picture, check the current price on mats that come before and after that tier. If they’re cheap as well it could just be a change in the market. But if they’re normal, than you can tell what’s going on rather easily.
The market will fluctuate regularly, but not as diversely as it is now as a result of this leveling boom. It’s in your financial interest to take advantage of it.
I’ve been rather excited to have snagged two of the Panther mounts already, and have made no bones about wanting the other two. I just happen to be cheap. Well, not cheap. I just don’t like dropping below certain gold thresholds. I’ve had a few comments about having more than enough gold and that’s true. But I’m the only one who knows where my gold comes from or even how much I have these days, so that suggestion is made without knowledge. Also, while others were buying Yaks and Tundras and pets and gear…I was saving. You have your gold vices and I have mine. Sorry, where was I?
The panthers. I’ve purchased two now, and to be honest they are the only ones I’ve seen in Azeroth so far. It’s kinda nice being the only one, but I do honestly expect that to change. Plus, most people are in Pandaria at this time…and while I’ve not seen anyone riding them I have seen people trying to sell them. Emphasis trying.
The going rate for the Panthers is roughly 30k, slightly higher for red because Blizzard’s absurd emphasis on putting the Intellect, Strength, and Agility cuts in one colour continues to cause red gems to sell for more than any other colour. To me, 30k is about right. On most servers, that’s going to be a slight profit for you unless you’re just buying the mats at whatever the Auction House price is. Let’s look at it closer:
- Orb of Mystery is 20k from a vendor. Now, you can get that reduced to 18k via your guild, but no lower.
- Living Steel is about 1k a bar. You need four. There’s ways to lower that cost via do it yourself, but not everyone will want to wait four days.
- Serpent’s Eye vary in price and you need two per cat. I got some as cheap as 22g, while other servers are in around 70g.
- A stack of colour appropriate gems (green=Wild Jade, red=Primordial Ruby, yellow=Sun’s Radiance, Blue=River’s Heart). At this stage, getting a stack for less than 2k can be done, but mileage varies.
So if someone is selling the Panther for 30k, they’re probably making a 2k profit. Perhaps a little more, perhaps a little less. Still, I don’t see the panthers ever settling in for less than 25k unless someone’s basically just giving them away for the cost. The thing is, the players who want the mount now like myself -we’re going out and having it made. We’re doing the legwork. Others are no doubt just making it themselves. So I just don’t see a market for the Panthers -yet. I know plenty of people who want them, they just can’t afford them.
I think that’s where the real issue lies at the moment. The people that can buy them are making them privately. The ones who would openly buy it, can’t afford it. There seems to be no grey area in-between. Now, raiding is starting and players are getting capped. That means more dailies and more gold drops, so the gold should start coming in. Once a couple of panthers start to pop up, you’ll see players having financial goals and they’ll start saving to buy them. That’s when I think there will be a market for these mounts. Until then, I’d really only make it for yourself, a friend, a guildie, or someone looking to have one made.
Saintvache, with Navimie and Cymre
- Despite my lack of fondness for the whole Fall of Theramore, I’d still like to take Saintvache and see it Horde side.
- It can’t be any worse.
- I’m hoping to do a post on “how I would have done it.” If you’re going to criticize, it’s always nice to present an alternative.
- Speaking of Saintvache, he’s got a date with Arthas Saturday night. 8pm EST time. Kingslayers indeed.
- I’m also looking forward to Sunday’s LBR on Alliance side.
- Farming a BoE green that has a 0.5% chance of dropping sucks.
- I had to explain to someone once that killing 200 of said mob will not guarantee the drop. S/he didn’t understand the idea of individual random results vs. cumulative.
- I’ve got two more Posthumous chapters almost ready for publishing.
- Once again, I surprise myself with where things go.
- Now I just need to work on the in-game version of Liam.
- He’s 30, after 5 levels of farming the same rare in Wetlands.
- Man, do I have a plethora of hatchlings to sell.
- Speaking of which, anyone trying to auction cut gems at this point is just throwing away gold.
- Unless someone asks for it, don’t bother.
- I just remembered Tome reserved a name on my Server for her Panda.
- That’s assuming at this point she chooses Pandaria over Tyria.
- And speaking of which, I forgot to tell my Mac friends that Guild Wars 2 is now available to them.
- I owe Matty for that one.
- All Mogolympics prizes have finally been awarded.
- Now I just have to work on the site some more. Thank goodness for Draynee’s help because I’ve done very little myself.
- This is the last weekend of WoW Cataclysm.
- Even those of us not buying the expansion will feel the effects from Mists.
- People are just frothing for pet-battles.
- I should’ve gathered more pets to sell.
- If you’re buying pets, and you’re on multiple servers…do the smart thing and compare prices. The realm with the most money doesn’t mean you need to spend the most.
- Same for mounts.
- Learned this week the Choppers are considered two different mounts and can’t be shared cross-faction. Understandable, but disappointing.
- I’ll be getting a Jewelcrafting Panther before I get another chopper.
- I determined this week Formula: Enchant Chest – Greater Stats has finished paying for itself. It was 19k I didn’t really miss.
- I was hoping to be back over 200k on my one server by now. Damn recipes.
- I wonder how far I’ll be able to level my Jewelcrafting when Mists goes live. If I don’t have to go to Pandaria to train, I’ll be “all over that.”
- The same could be said for all my Professions, really.
- I’m glad the “Stay Classy” guild achievements stayed at 85 (including the Monk). Just Pandas need to make it to 90.
- After Liouxpold hits 85, I have no idea who will be next.
- I wish VoA wasn’t server restricted. When we have Wintergrasp, no one is interested.
- Just remove the Wintergrasp requirement already.
- Speaking of annoying…if cross-realm zones weren’t bad enough, I had the “Confection Sugar” quest in Stormwind today.
- That Cooking daily takes an hour at the best of times. Having three times the people running around the city doesn’t help in the slightest.
- At least the powers that be were smart enough to remove the fishing tournaments until that gets sorted out in the cross-dimension nonsense.
- Oh well, should be dead again on Tuesday.
My Auction Housing is no secret. I enjoy it, and even on the days my mailbag comes back half full of items, I am no less determined. But I never go out to make a great deal in one fell swoop. I’m more of the nickel and dimer. Looking at my current balance, I’m ok with that. Really, that’s all that matters. If you’re on the up and up, and succeeding enough for your own goals, then your gold making life is good.
But in order to give yourself that opportunity, you have to have a key understanding of one thing: the economy of your server. I’ve spoken about it before, how “item X” sells for far more on “Server J” than “Server “T” for example. But I was asked a question that I have taken for granted all this time. “How do you determine your server’s economy?”
First, I need to preface things a bit. I’m going to explain how best to do it, but understand that if you follow along there is an incredible likelihood you are going to get an inaccurate representation which is exacerbated by the fact we know a new expansion will be live in less than two months. The end of an expansion can be a hard enough time to gauge your economy, but the first month or so of a new one can be even worse. Keep in mind not every niche is affected, but most are. Also, as I’ve preached for some time…there’s a plethora of gold to come out of Pandaria and that’s going to no doubt inflate things even more unless people sink said gold into something else such as Pet Battles or the ever expensive mounts that are on the way. That said, let’s press on.
If you want to get an accurate snapshot of your server’s economy (and remember this is just your faction as well, unless you start playing both sides), the first thing you should do is grab yourself an Auction addon. There are several with varying degrees of what they offer. Myself, I use AuctionLite. It’s simple and lightweight, and for my efforts does what I need. 
Regardless of choice, once you install it head to the Auction House and do a full scan. This will give you a “current picture.” Your results will vary as well based on your settings. For myself, I go with a 20% or better opportunity for profit and a financial value of 1g or more. This gives me a slightly longer list, but never underestimate how much Malachite adds up (to say nothing of the Mechanical Squirrels it’s good for). The first scan usually takes a while, so it’s a great time to go putter afk or read a good blog (like this one!).
I’m going to reiterate this scan only gives you a snapshot of the current economy. What you need to do from this point out is run a scan at least once a day if you can. Personally, when I’m trying to get a true reading, I run mine twice a day, as opposite as I can. Also, weekends are a must. That’s when there’s the most activity. Keep in mind, that’s also when items tend to come down in price because of supply and demand (and more undercutters, in all honesty). After a few weeks, your numbers will start to settle and you’ll get a fair represenation of what’s worth what. It really is as simple as that.
Also, the more you scan, the more you’ll start to connect the dots, or prices. If you ask me about average materials and popular items, there is a good chance off the top of my head I can tell you what they’re worth on my main server to within 10%. The items I keep on my favourites list (another scan option in most addons) will be even tighter. You don’t have to keep track of what everything is worth, but knowing the values of the area you’re focusing on can help, as it saves you time. If you just know what something’s worth, it means you immediately know whether to buy, sell, or ignore. Like the Goblins say, “time is money.”
Of course, there is a second way that is more or less involved depending on your approach. Over there, to the right, in my blogroll is a link called The Undermine Journal. It’s not only great for determining your economy, but it’s a “must” point of reference for goldmakers. Remember what I just talked about in terms of scanning? The Undermine Journal datamines and records the information all the time. For all the servers. At any time you can head over there and check the information you want, including a great Current Deals list and what items are “hot.” This doesn’t even factor in the ability of TUJ to show you a selling history on any item, including its value, the last time it was on the AH, and even the average price across the game.
So why not just use it as your source? Great question, and you’re actually welcome to do so. However, keep in mind nothing is perfect. When you look at something such as the Current Deals List, the site will say “as of X min ago.” If I’m not mistaken, that could be up to an hour. Your in-game scan is real time. That isn’t important for determining your economy, but it can be vital once you have it. Also, in the time you spend looking at TUJ’s info, someone like myself may have come in and scooped up said item. The Undermine Journal is an amazing site and resource but I recommend using it secondary to your addon of choice.
Something else I’d like to mention is that you’ll never truly know your economy. You’ll have a pretty solid grasp of it, but it’s something that is always in flux. So if you make the effort to understand it, but find it changing drastically, then there’s almost always a factor as to why. Determining what that is, be it new raid content boosting gem and enchant sales, or a patch note that changes what a Glyph can do (or God forbid a class’ dependency on a certain stat), can help you adjust to the flux. And don’t forget every server is different. I’m on one right now where Elementium Geodes hover between 90 and 150g. That’s an adjustment for me when everywhere else I see them for 200-300g. It took some time, as I thought it might be a fluke that week, but I’ve learned that’s genuinely how it is. Such is the adventure of learning the economy of a server.
The final point I would like to make is if you want to really learn the economy and generate some gold, then I can’t put enough emphasis on learning it for both factions. That the two can be night and day is an understatement. Learning both puts you leaps and bounds ahead of at least 25% of the Auction House players out there because if you have a means of getting your items to the opposing faction, then your benefits increase exponentially.
Happy Auctioning!
As I was telling Tome yesterday, I woke with a bit of a bug in my bonnet. I had the urge to start making some gold. I used to basically play the Auction House religiously but as of late haven’t bothered all that much. I more or less do it when I need to now. Until yesterday and today, that is. I focused on two realms, one holds a level 10 Gnome Warrior who does nothing but the Auction House 5-15 minutes a week. The other is my home server.
The Gnome generated somewhere between 50 and 100g and is up over 700 now with a few items on hand. I was fortunate to snag a couple of Darkcrest pieces and flipped those for solid profit. I imagine it could have been much more if I was familiar with the economy of the server. I also did the same with an Elementium Geode…and never underestimate the profit in buying Copper Ore and smelting it into bars.
On my home server, things were a little different. I put every profession I had to work on just crafting items they had the mats to make. Then I grabbed a couple things here and there from my banker to craft more lucrative items such as Barbaric Bracers and some of the Enchanting Rods. I also sold a stack of Cobalt Ore for 140g, which is just absurd. Since yesterday morning I’ve had no less than 150 auctions going. Here’s a screenshot of my latest venture to the mailbox:
Now understand that I really never dabble in what I consider “high end” items. So while I could luck out and make 8k off one item alone, I tend not to. I believe the most expensive thing I sold was a Lifelike Mechanical Toad for about 250g. My motto is more “sell a lot and let it add up,” rather than “please let this one item sell.”
I also managed to boost my Tailoring to 400 and Blacksmithing to 471. As you might guess, I don’t have all the mats to get the points, so that’s coming out of all the profits as well. But, the more I can make with my professions, the more I can make in my pocket. Now if only I would make an Alchemist…
