Wednesday, November 16, 2011

White Ribbon - Heart of Gold

White Ribbon Campaign Website


Everyday courage has few witnesses. But yours is no less noble because no drum beats for you and no crowds shout your name - Robert Louis Stevenson

Thursday, February 17, 2011

It's all about timing...

Two weeks ago, there were posts galore on blogs and forums about the ever popular Dense Grinding Stone turn in for the Darkmoon Faire. The problem is, remember to buy the stones the week of or before the Faire is a crappy prospect. Why? Because somebody, almost always goes and bumps the price of Dense Stones up a ton. That's why timing, on this trick just like many others, is everything. Check your AH prices today. Dense Stones are selling on my server for 76s a stack. During the Darkmoon Faire, they go for over 5g a stack. Now, that may not seem like a ton, but unless you are nabbing super rare recipes, it can tank you profits. So what am I doing, well currently while I write this I am AFK crafting my Dense Grinding Stones, while listening in on vent as we try to (unsucessfully) pug a healer for BoT. Prior to that, I bought up all the stones under 1g per stack on the AH. This was over 30 stacks! So go man/woman go and buy your Dense Stones now!


Cheers- Brouck

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I think I just made a big mistake!!!

So, I was just browsing the BOE Epic Gear on my AH for any great bargains, when I came across Pauldrons of Edward the Odd for all of 7k! I immediately thought woot, and bought them out.

Now here is where my mistake was made. I do things half assed, always have, always will. My big mistake was not doing my research ahead of time. So what is it I did? I went ahead and listed those bad boys without finding out just how rare they are. I posted them for 25k. Not bad I thought an 18k profit.

Well, in a matter of minutes I found out my auction sold. Now they are being barked in trade for 40k. Could I have really missed out on an opportunity for an extra 15k????

What do you think?

Cheers - Brouck

Monday, February 14, 2011

The Best Blog (post) Ever!!!

Alright, that might be a bit of hyperbole, but I have to go ahead and shout this out. When most people go to these gold making blogs, it is to try to get a quick fix, a new idea or get rich scam. Some of them can backfire epically (I'm looking at you advice to stock up on Tome of Polymorph Turtle and Icy Dragonscale). However, unless you're buying a gold guide (which I have yet to do, sorry Markco) your seldomly get long term advice in the quality of the following link.

The self proclaimed Worst Blog Ever came out with the most beneficial post I have read in recent months. And trust me folks, I'm all over these blogs, day in and day out.

Before you make the jump, let me tell you what Altos did that was so spectacular. In this post, you learn the ins and outs of AH PVP. He demonstrates how buying out and reposting for a profit of a mere 5 gold can be amazingly profitable (when done 400 times). He also gives great advice on stack size when posting, specifically how to take advantage of laziness in other players.

Overall it was a great read, and a must read for any apprentice gold makers like myself. Keep up the good work Altos and we'll have to change the name of your blog.


Cheers - Brouck

Friday, February 11, 2011

A funny thing happened on the way to the AH...

I wanted to get a quick apology post in to my readers. This week I have been pre-occupied from my blog and gold making ventures due to a merger of my guild with a sister guild. After losing our best healer to retirement, two kick-ass hunters, an irreplaceable tank and his healer buddy, our guild was absolutely gutted. Recruitment was a fledging effort, and raids were out of the question. Fortunately, we were able to merge with a guild looking for some high quality players for their second ten man group (soon to be a pure 25 raiding guild). Needless to say, I've been putting some finishing touches on my spec(s), gear and keybindings, and reading/watching up on boss fights. This has left me with little free time.

However, onto the post.

How was 4.0.6 for you? For me, it's been fair. Here's a list of my likes and dislikes.

Like:
Inferno Rubies
: I bought 110 of these bad boys the night before 4.0.6 for 80g a piece (8,800 gold invested). After patch dropped, I was selling cut rubies (strength, agility and intellect) at 180+g each. I was making over 100% RoI on these bad boys.

Whiptail:
As my previous posts have noted, I love buying cheap high level herbs, milling them, selling the inferno inks and converting the blackfallows into Mysterious Fortune Cards. With the new whiptail spawn rates in Uldum, prices have dropped significantly on the herbs, but remained steady on the cards and inks!

Uncut Metas: Shadowspirits hit a new high, with uncut ones selling for 100g more than prior to Tuesday. I have managed to sell just under 100, for a profit of around 10k.


Dislike:

AH Prices: All the rare JC and Enchant Recipes that have been posted on the AH are listed at insane, not even going there prices, with 25k being the cheapest I saw. There went any plans of buying one and selling the product. :(

That's pretty much it, I have no other complaints.

So how is 4.0.6 treating you?

Cheers - Brouck

Monday, February 7, 2011

What I've Been Doing Lately

After listening to the podcasts over at Auction House Junkies last week, I decided it was time to attempt to enter the Mysterious Fortune Card game.

The Setup:

I started with 400g and a level 75 scribe alt. I immediately invested in 2 stacks of Whiptail at 150g each. I was able to mill and convert to inks, scoring 3 inferno inks and a handful of cards. I posted the Infernos on the AH for 150g a pop (already clearing a profit) and then posted the remaining Blackfallows as Mysterious Fortune Cards.

Unfortunately, at the time, the Mysterious Fortune Cards were selling for 12g each, roughly a 50 silver profit over listing the inks by themselves. Still, I posted the cards, and dutifully went about barking my wares. Quickly, in fact way faster than I had anticipated I sold out.

Hmmm I said, maybe Cold was actually onto something.

Still there was a major problem, there were many people who have obviously heard that Mysterious Fortune Cards were profit turners and therefore post obscene amounts at marginal prices. In order to clear a major profit, I had to do something about the competition.

I decided to avoid the bark my competitions cards out philosophy. Rather, I sat on my cards, and just continued to mill for Inferno Inks, being that I was assured a profit off of those alone. While doing this, I kept a close eye on the Mysterious Fortune Card market. And you know what? there were NONE moving.

It's pretty much a fact on my server, if you're not barking your cards, you're not selling any cards.

So I let the competitions cards sit, for 96 hours. All while I flipped Inferno Inks. Finally they gave up, because nobody was buying their wares. I was able to start listing cards at 30g a pop, and I was selling over 100 a night (I'm very half assed and bark for roughly 20-30 minutes).

All the while, I kept on flipping those Inferno Inks. I cannot tell you how important that is to making gold with this strategy. If you can find stacks of Whiptail or Twilight Jasmine, that sell in the range of 1 Inferno Ink on your server, that is your golden goose my friend. Skip the Cinderbloom and go for the Gold.

Cheers - Brouck

Sunday, February 6, 2011

UFC 126 and how to apply it to WoW.

Last night, I had some guys from work over, as well as my brother and brother-in-law to watch UFC 126. It was a fantastic card, that was well worth the $54 bucks I plopped down to see it. After it was all said and done, I thought to myself, man, I wonder how I can write about it in my blog, and connect it to Gold Making. So here it is; my observations from UFC 126.

Observation 1: If you have a good product, people are willing to pay outrageous prices for it. As I said before, I plunked $54 bucks down to rent the fight. I was willing to spend an extra $10 just to get it in HD (I have a high definition TV, I better watch fights in HD). This means three things in WoW.

1) If your product is good/great then you can charge an inordinate amount of gold for it and people will still buy it. This is where flipping epics can become so profitable.

2) People will pay more for an enhanced product. Once again, flipping epics is where it is at. When I flip them, I make sure to fully gem and enchant the gear before posting it on the AH. That way, when someone else undercuts me, people will look at the two items and take the pimped out one.

3) If you get people hooked on something, you can gradually raise the price of that item without much fuss. The UFC fights used to be $40, then $44, now I'm paying $54. Next year it might be up to or over $60. And you know what, I''LL KEEP BUYING THEM. I use this same strategy on Mysterious Fortune Cards (MFC). (Stay tuned for tomorrow's full post on my MFC strategies). When I first got into the MFC game, they sold for around 12g on my server, if at all. After some hard work and barking, I consistently sell them for 30+ gold. It's key, get em hooked cheap, and raise prices over time.

Observation 2: From the John Jones vs. Ryan Bader fight. Size/muscle sometimes is everything. Jones (a local boy for me) was absolutely huge, and dwarfed the already large for 205 Bader. It was amazing to see Jones manhandle Bader for the first round and a half, until he finally submitted him. In WoW, size has the same effect. Only it is the size of your gold that matters. When I invest, I invest heavily. I want to have the size in my bank to be able to buy out all the materials I need for investment, and be able to control the market I'm in. If I'm making 20g off a manuever I use, I want to have enough gold to make 200 of those manuevers, not 2. Weild your gold powerfully and wisely, and make it work for you.

Observation 3: The Anderson Silva, Vetor Belfort fight was highly anticipated. At one point early on, Silva tried his usual, dance around the ring, and almost got caught. That's when he switched it up, and finished Belfort with a jaw dropping front kick to the face, an unheard of idea. Silva was willing to change it up and try something new, and by doing so was able to win in spectacular manner. The same should be said for us Goblins. When our "usual" routine isn't working, examine the market and see where a "change of gears" will make us profit. I did this recently when I made a switch from the Shuffle to Inscription for gold making.

Hope you enjoyed the post, and enjoy the Superbowl.
Cheers - Brouck