This is my entry for the Just My Two Copper Blogging Carnival. The topic this month is whether it is better to focus on one market, controlling it completely, or to spread yourself over multiple markets, always ensuring you have your hand in something. The obvious and easy answer is, of course, "both!" But obvious and easy answers are rarely much fun. So instead, I'll try to break them down, and figure out which choice is best under what circumstances.
For me, specializing in a market (your "niche" market) means complete and utter domination of that market. You not only control how many items are up and at what price, you also control the markets that supply your niche. Diversification, on the other hand, is a lot less about dominating and a lot more about ensuring you always have something profitable going on. You have so many options available to you, that if one market becomes unprofitable, you can simply ignore it and move on to the next. So at first glance, niche markets seem to be a lot more work, however, successful diversity does mean you need access to a lot of different professions, which in itself can be quite a investment in money and time.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Patch 4.1 Enchanting Speculation
Alright! So, on the off chance you haven't heard by now, patch 4.1 is now on the PTR! Check out Wowhead for a list of everything going on in this new patch. I will just be discussing my thoughts on Enchanting and how it will be affected by 4.1.
There's really not much in the notes that directly lends itself to gold making. Nothing about Pyrite prospecting in to Epic gems, no new glyphs, no new crafted BoEs, nothing particularly obvious. However, what will definitely have an effect on the market is the new 5-man dungeons, which will be dropping Epic level gear! As Faids pointed out yesterday Maelstorm Crystal prices will drop as a direct result of people being able to disenchant the epics that will be obtained through the new dungeons. She wisely suggests that now would be a good time to start moving any stockpiles you might have left. But I want to go a bit more in-depth on exactly how much the prices will drop, and how that will affect the enchanting market at large.
There's really not much in the notes that directly lends itself to gold making. Nothing about Pyrite prospecting in to Epic gems, no new glyphs, no new crafted BoEs, nothing particularly obvious. However, what will definitely have an effect on the market is the new 5-man dungeons, which will be dropping Epic level gear! As Faids pointed out yesterday Maelstorm Crystal prices will drop as a direct result of people being able to disenchant the epics that will be obtained through the new dungeons. She wisely suggests that now would be a good time to start moving any stockpiles you might have left. But I want to go a bit more in-depth on exactly how much the prices will drop, and how that will affect the enchanting market at large.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Leatherworking!
So over the weekend I added a new profession to my repertoire! I am now the proud owner of max leatherworking, and already it's been making me some good money. Hopefully this will give me something else to blog about that's not jewelcrafting updates.
So first things first, I'd like to mention a few triumphs and hitches I ran in to while leveling LW. Unless you really want to power level your way up to max, it's not a bad idea to make stuff that actually sells or that you can profit off of. When I first started leveling LW, DEing the greens I made wasn't really viable, but depending on the cost of savage leather on your server, that is certainly something to look in to. Also, making Savage Leather from Savage Leather Scraps will work all the way to 450. This is probably the most cost effective way to get from 425 - 450, as you will be using that Savage Leather for other things. Other items you should make until green or even grey are the Blue quality Leg Armors. You can start making Scorched Leg Armor at 475, and Twilight Leg Armor at 480. Obviously this will be server dependent, but I can generally sell Twilight Leg Armor for well above the cost of mats. SLA turns green at 490, grey at 495, TLA turns green at 495, grey at 500. You can also make Heavy Savage Leather from 485 to 490 if you want to cut costs down a bit. At 500 skill, you hit a snag where all you can really make are the two cloaks, Cloak of Beasts and Cloak of War. Of course, this could be awesome if your server actually shells out money for these, but from what I've seen, they rarely sell for more than the cost of mats. You could do your Draconic Embossment from 500 - 505, but it does start out green. On the plus side, it only costs two Volatiles to do, so while you won't make any gold, you might loose a lot less than if you just made cloaks.
At 510 is when the fun starts, and you can start buying PvP gear (if you've unlocked the vendors in Twilight Higlands). Simply buy whichever piece sells best, and make them up to 525! And with that, I'll explain a bit about what pieces I've found sell well, even in the short time I've been in the PvP gear market.
So first things first, I'd like to mention a few triumphs and hitches I ran in to while leveling LW. Unless you really want to power level your way up to max, it's not a bad idea to make stuff that actually sells or that you can profit off of. When I first started leveling LW, DEing the greens I made wasn't really viable, but depending on the cost of savage leather on your server, that is certainly something to look in to. Also, making Savage Leather from Savage Leather Scraps will work all the way to 450. This is probably the most cost effective way to get from 425 - 450, as you will be using that Savage Leather for other things. Other items you should make until green or even grey are the Blue quality Leg Armors. You can start making Scorched Leg Armor at 475, and Twilight Leg Armor at 480. Obviously this will be server dependent, but I can generally sell Twilight Leg Armor for well above the cost of mats. SLA turns green at 490, grey at 495, TLA turns green at 495, grey at 500. You can also make Heavy Savage Leather from 485 to 490 if you want to cut costs down a bit. At 500 skill, you hit a snag where all you can really make are the two cloaks, Cloak of Beasts and Cloak of War. Of course, this could be awesome if your server actually shells out money for these, but from what I've seen, they rarely sell for more than the cost of mats. You could do your Draconic Embossment from 500 - 505, but it does start out green. On the plus side, it only costs two Volatiles to do, so while you won't make any gold, you might loose a lot less than if you just made cloaks.
At 510 is when the fun starts, and you can start buying PvP gear (if you've unlocked the vendors in Twilight Higlands). Simply buy whichever piece sells best, and make them up to 525! And with that, I'll explain a bit about what pieces I've found sell well, even in the short time I've been in the PvP gear market.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
How to Put a Little Extra Gold in Your Pocket
Just a forewarning, this is a Horde-only tip, though there may be something similar for the Alliance.
So quite a few blogs have talked about the wonders of flipping vendor recipes. People are either lazy, or don't know better, and will often buy recipes worth a few silver for a fair bit of gold. This is an excellent way to add some passive income, though it's something I don't often do. For much the same reason people will buy them from the AH, I don't bother getting them from the vendors to flip on the AH: a lot of them are just too out of the way. Except for one.
So quite a few blogs have talked about the wonders of flipping vendor recipes. People are either lazy, or don't know better, and will often buy recipes worth a few silver for a fair bit of gold. This is an excellent way to add some passive income, though it's something I don't often do. For much the same reason people will buy them from the AH, I don't bother getting them from the vendors to flip on the AH: a lot of them are just too out of the way. Except for one.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
A Quick Post-4.0.6 Update
As some of you undoubtedly noticed (or rather, didn't notice), I haven't updated for quite some time. RL coupled with writer's block has prevented me from taking the time to make a genuine post. As it seems to be the trend (though I'm a little late on it), I thought I would take a few minutes to go over my thoughts on the post-4.0.6 gold market, as well as a quick update on what I'm currently doing to make gold.
The most notable changes influencing gold making that occurred in 4.0.6 were the addition of new Meta gems and bracer enchants, the fixing of Meta gem requirements, changes to the material costs of Flasks, and the addition of new sockets to crafted gear. There were a few other changes, such as the new glyph and the addition of an ink trader in Org, but those didn't affect me quite as much as the others.
The most notable changes influencing gold making that occurred in 4.0.6 were the addition of new Meta gems and bracer enchants, the fixing of Meta gem requirements, changes to the material costs of Flasks, and the addition of new sockets to crafted gear. There were a few other changes, such as the new glyph and the addition of an ink trader in Org, but those didn't affect me quite as much as the others.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Right Place, Right Time
This post is mostly random anecdote, but I do believe it is illustrative of a part of gold making that can have a significant impact: Luck.
So I'm at the AH, going through my regular routine, when I see in trade chat that someone has just posted 66 stacks of Obsidium Ore for 50g a stack. Now I don't know about anyone else's server, but mine is experiencing a dearth of cheap Obsidium. For whatever reason - bots being banned, Ore Crusher alerting JCs to the awesomeness of prospecting, lazy farmers, etc. - it has been quite rare for the past few weeks for Obsidium Ore to be posted below 70g, and often there's a huge shortage, with some stacks even up to around 100g. Try as I might, I've yet to snag a dependable farmer (the one I had seems to have stopped farming...), and unlike some people I didn't buy up G-Bank tabs full of Ore (a lack of foresight on my part, I guess), so 66 stacks at 50g seemed like a godsend. Sure enough, there they were, and I managed to buy up every single one. I sent the seller a tell too, and it turns out that someone had hacked his account and used it for botting, and when it was recovered he was left with an extraordinary amount of ore and wanted to syphon some of it off. He's currently keeping some to level his engineering back up, but he has agreed to send me any leftovers he has.
So what's the point of all this? Simply that being lucky can pay off big time. To elaborate, this is why we have things like snatch lists. (Or at least, we probably should. That's an area I really need to work on) Being able to spot good deals is a key skill all goblins should have, but it's something that really only comes through experience. 50g per stack of ore may seem to be an obvious deal, but that's only because we know of the 54g "floor price." Other examples from my past include things like a 2k Parrot Cage (Hyacinth Macaw), or Hurricane Decks for 10k. So be sure to keep up with gold blogs and patch notes, and keep an eye on your server's prices, because you never know when someone will be selling something for cheap, and you won't know that it's cheap unless you know what it's really worth!
And to make this post a bit more interactive, please share what the best deal you've snagged or are currently snatching!
So I'm at the AH, going through my regular routine, when I see in trade chat that someone has just posted 66 stacks of Obsidium Ore for 50g a stack. Now I don't know about anyone else's server, but mine is experiencing a dearth of cheap Obsidium. For whatever reason - bots being banned, Ore Crusher alerting JCs to the awesomeness of prospecting, lazy farmers, etc. - it has been quite rare for the past few weeks for Obsidium Ore to be posted below 70g, and often there's a huge shortage, with some stacks even up to around 100g. Try as I might, I've yet to snag a dependable farmer (the one I had seems to have stopped farming...), and unlike some people I didn't buy up G-Bank tabs full of Ore (a lack of foresight on my part, I guess), so 66 stacks at 50g seemed like a godsend. Sure enough, there they were, and I managed to buy up every single one. I sent the seller a tell too, and it turns out that someone had hacked his account and used it for botting, and when it was recovered he was left with an extraordinary amount of ore and wanted to syphon some of it off. He's currently keeping some to level his engineering back up, but he has agreed to send me any leftovers he has.
So what's the point of all this? Simply that being lucky can pay off big time. To elaborate, this is why we have things like snatch lists. (Or at least, we probably should. That's an area I really need to work on) Being able to spot good deals is a key skill all goblins should have, but it's something that really only comes through experience. 50g per stack of ore may seem to be an obvious deal, but that's only because we know of the 54g "floor price." Other examples from my past include things like a 2k Parrot Cage (Hyacinth Macaw), or Hurricane Decks for 10k. So be sure to keep up with gold blogs and patch notes, and keep an eye on your server's prices, because you never know when someone will be selling something for cheap, and you won't know that it's cheap unless you know what it's really worth!
And to make this post a bit more interactive, please share what the best deal you've snagged or are currently snatching!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
JMTC Blogging Carnival: Making Gold With Limited Time
This post is for the JMTC Blogging Carnival.
I already "make gold with limited time" as it is, but if I had to cease the majority of my operations and limit my AH endeavors to thirty minutes or less a day, this is what I would do. Jewelcrafting! No, not that horrendously time consuming goldmine that is the Obsidium Shuffle, just good old fashion cutting and reselling gems. This is the origin of my gold making back at the end of Wrath, and for someone with limited time, this is one of the easiest ways to make a decent amount of gold. I went from less than 2k to over 10k liquid (and probably in the realm of 20-30k net worth) simply by doing my JC daily, and buying and reselling cut gems on the AH.
But this was before the days of TSM. I absolutely love this addon now, and with its help, it can streamline this process and help you make even more gold with even less effort. So let's go through it, shall we?
I already "make gold with limited time" as it is, but if I had to cease the majority of my operations and limit my AH endeavors to thirty minutes or less a day, this is what I would do. Jewelcrafting! No, not that horrendously time consuming goldmine that is the Obsidium Shuffle, just good old fashion cutting and reselling gems. This is the origin of my gold making back at the end of Wrath, and for someone with limited time, this is one of the easiest ways to make a decent amount of gold. I went from less than 2k to over 10k liquid (and probably in the realm of 20-30k net worth) simply by doing my JC daily, and buying and reselling cut gems on the AH.
But this was before the days of TSM. I absolutely love this addon now, and with its help, it can streamline this process and help you make even more gold with even less effort. So let's go through it, shall we?
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