Monday, January 31, 2011

Making Gold With Limited Time

This post is written for the Blogging Carnival over at JustMyTwoCopper.org




These are three of the simplest tips I can give for someone with limited time.

For Alchemists:

Simply set Hearthstone to your preferred banking location. Then take a portal to your desired zone of transmutation for living elements.

Hyjal - Fire
Deepholm - Earth
Vash'ir - Water
Uldum - Air

Make your transmute, come back, post on AH and profit.

For Miners:

Check prices of pyrite ore and pyrium bars. 2 ore = 1 bar. If ore is selling @ 10g per ore (typical on my server) and bars are selling for 30g per (again typical on my server) simply buy out all the ore and smelt. Take Cold's advice and smelt and afk log for the night, that way, when you log the following day, you have nice stacks of pyrium bars ready. Post the bars in stacks of 4 and buy up more pyrite ore, repeat process! I made 10k alone on this, in the past 4 days!

For Scribes:

Check the prices of Inferno Ink. See if it is remotely close (or higher than) the price of a stack of the following:
Twilight Jasmine
Whiptail (your best bet)

Again, I'll use my server's prices as an example. 1 Inferno Ink goes for 150g. Whiptail stacks sell at 180g (roughly). I buy all stacks Whiptail within 50g of my target price for Infernos (150g). Mill all the herbs (takes a minute max with a macro). Convert pigments to Inferno Inks and Blackfallow Inks. You should get at least 1 Inferno Ink per stack of Whiptail and 4-7 Blackfallow Inks. Post all inks on AH, and repeat the process the following day.


There you have it, three simple tips for making a quick buck.

Cheers - Brouck

Sunday, January 30, 2011

What I Do While Shuffling






As I stated yesterday, the obsidium/elementium shuffle requires copious amounts of time. Typically I spend an hour or two working on the simply spamming my macros. When doing it, I suggest listening to Auction House Junkies Podcast.

For those who do not know, auction house junkies is run by Wes from Capped By Cata and Cold, Colds gold Factory from So far they have had two podcasts, which I listened to this afternoon while doing all my shuffling activities.

So far they covered Mysterious Fortune Cards, and the Obsidium Shuffle in depth. Both podcasts are roughly 45 minutes and provide an easy listen with a good amount of humor, mixed with specifics on different markets. It's nice to hear voices of the people behind the blogs.

Go over there and give them a listen, especially if you involved in something as mind-numbing as the obsidium shuffle.

Cheers- Brouck

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Frodo Potter and The Macro of Shuffle

By now I think most people are familiar with the Obsidium or Elementium Shuffle. For those who aren't, the simple steps are

1. Buy cheap Obsidium and Elementium (my thresholds are 60g/stack for Obsidium and 70g/stack for Elementium)
2. Usually* prospect ores into gems
3. With the gems do the following:
Jasper - cut into Jasper rings/ sell raw gems on daily day.
Hesonite - sell on AH (if prices are low, convert to hesonite bands)
Alicite - convert into Alicite Pendants
Carnellian - make Carnellian Spikes
Nightstone - wait until daily, and sell in groups of 3 at gouging prices
Zephyrite - wait until daily and sell in groups of 3 at gouging prices

4. DE rings and necks and sell raw enchanting mats.

Now there are obviously places to deviate from this plan and continue to make coin. I know I do my fair share. But primarily, I stick to this scheme.

Which leads me to: Macros

The biggest problem with the shuffle is the time invested to prospect and de the mats. Here are a few suggestions to make life easier.

1. For Prospecting, keybind the following macro:
/cast prospect
/use obsidium ore
/use elementium ore
/use pyrite ore

Just hit this repeatedly until all ore is processed. Make sure to have full stacks or multiples of five.

2. Have enough settings for what you want to craft first.
3. With the exception to Carnelian Spikes, craft next to a mailbox, that way you can mail out to your DE'er
4. Use the following macro for DE'ing the rings, necks and/or spikes

/cast Disenchant
/use item:52306
/use item:52307
/use item:52308
/use item:52309
/use carnelian spikes

Step five is to simply profit. Remember, not to undercut too sharply.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Abyssal Shatter is Back!

So prices today on my server went as followed:

Greater Cosmic Essences: 7g each
Infinite Dust: 3g each
Abyss Crystal 6g each

Can you guess what I did?

Yep, I bought a stack of crystals for 120g, and shattered them into 95 dusts and 34 essences.

They yield a total value of 285g for the dusts and 232g for the essences. Once they sell, it represents a total of 517g in a matter of mere seconds. With a profit of close to 400g.

What are you waiting for? Go see how the market is on your server.

Cheers - Brouck

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Nerf to Enchant Off-Hand Intellect in 4.0.6

One of my nice little niche items has been scrolls of Enchant Off-Hand Superior Intellect, which has raised the intellect on off-hand items (including shields) 100 intellect. It has been announced that they will be nerfed in 4.0.6 to only +40 intellect. While it will still be the best choice enchant for shields and off-hands for casters, I expect a drop in sales to occur. Here are my recommendations:

Sell off your existing scrolls now before they drop.

Expect Staves to raise in demand: I'm looking at you, Chelley's Staff of Dark Mending. If you see one for cheap enough on your AH it may be worth investing in.

Cheers - Brouck

Monday, January 24, 2011

Monday Hangover




Does your realm do the same thing my realm does? Everyone knows that Saturday and Sundays are great "buy" days in World Of Warcraft as weekend warriors are practically falling over themselves to sell all of their wares to the masses. It makes for good buying, but terrible selling, as everything has been undercut "to the ground" as Ghostcrawler would say.

But Mondays, well Mondays are the worst. It is impossible to make sales on my realm for any real profit as there are still many people posting at high undercut levels, but none of the quality goods you want are available for purchasing.

For example, I try to find one or two BOE epics every weekend cheap and flip them later in the week. But my main gold making commodity is via the shuffle, and today gems and enchant mats are still being posted at insanely low prices. For me, Monday is a throw-away day.

Things I do instead on Monday's include:
Level new toons
Focus on gearing current toons
Preparing wares for Tuesday's raiding rush.


So.... What do you do on your Mondays?

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Protect your investments!

A thread on the Consortium website brought me to think about this very quick, but important tip. I probably should have included it in my three tips for new goldmakers post for Cold's Blogging Carnival.


Get an Authenticator! Seriously, there is no excuse not to.



Many people take the, my account will never be hacked approach. Or the, I'm safe online I don't need to worry about getting hacked theory. And many of them, after getting hacked, immediately go out and get an authenticator. There is no reason what-so-ever to not do so now. I have had one for two years now (a stocking stuffer from "Santa") and have not had my account hacked.

I know there are instances when Authenticators have been hacked, but they are few and far between. Do not let your hard work go to waste, get an authenticator now.

Cheers- Brouck

Friday, January 21, 2011

80-85 Experiment Results!!!

I know, I know I have been sidetracked by other posts. But, I did not forget, Shiftybrouck proudly dinged 85 a few days ago and without further ado, here are the results.

At 84: 3,354g


At 85, prior to vendoring all my goods and AH sales: 5,123g


At 85, after gear and boe's vendored: 6,028g (poor screen shot)

At 85, after selling my Herbs and Leathers: 10,578g


A far cry from the 17k people had been discussing in trade. But it is important to remember two facts:
1. I was in a level 9 guild earning 10% more experience per kill and quest
2. I was rested the ENTIRE TIME I leveled.

Hope you enjoyed the adventure

Cheers- Brouck

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Don't Be This Guy

Today's JC daily was A Present For Lila on Arygos. Dutifully I went to post my 10 stacks of Nightstone (I post 10 stacks at a time and post more after they've been sold or undercut). Much to my chagrin, I found this


All in all, Mr. C posted 20 sets of Nightstone, 3 each for that price, 115g. When he (she?) posted, she simply undercut the lowest priced Nightstone (of which there was one for 36g. So what is the problem? Well obviously his wares moved, and moved quickly. If that was his goal, then he succeeded.

EXCEPT: Dailies provide us with a great opportunity to gouge people at the AH. Listing gems, at 69% of the going rate is not gouging anyone. By taking a little more time, and scoping the scene out for an extra two minutes, he could have easily listed those Nightstones for at least 180g per stack of 3. His initial set up cost him over 1.3k gold.

Remember, being the first one in for the day sets the standard, to make the most money, aim high and if you have to post more low. Don't be this guy.


Cheers - Brouck

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Thank You Zoxy (and How To Get Wowhead Mouseovers To Work on Your Blogspot Blog)

Last night, after posting the message about Maelstrom Crystals, I checked to see if any other Bloggers had posted about it. Zoxy, had done so at almost the same exact time as me. While reading Zoxy's site, I noticed something. The mouseover links from Wowhead were working.

I must confess, I have unsuccessfully been trying to place the right piece of html in my blog to make this functional. I searched online, in different forums and on different blogs, yet none of them worked. After my twing of jealousy towards Zoxy disappeared, I sent the illustrous blogger a question about it via the Consortium Forums.

Being a true class act, Zoxy immediately sent me very concise directions, which I will in turn pass on to you.

Step 1: In your Design Tab, open a new gadget/widget. Select the HTML one.
Step 2: Copy and paste this line of code directly as it appears.

script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.wowhead.com/widgets/power.js"

Step 3: Do not give your gadget/widget a title, this lets it be hidden and run behind the scenes.

Step 4: Save and profit. When you want to link an item, simply go to the wowhead site, look up the item and copy and paste the hyperlink in.

Cheers - Brouck

If you are having difficulty with this please feel free to leave a message.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

THIS JUST IN: ALCHEMISTS STONES NERFED


It has been reported on two sites, the Consortium and WoW Insider that Lifebound Alchemists Stones may nolonger be disenchanted into Maelstrom Crystals.

All credit to Aeg and Arminias for posting this information there. As Aeg cautions, go and buy out all the Maelstroms you can now, as they will surely jump back up in price.

Cheers - Brouck

Monday, January 17, 2011

Three Tips For Breaking Into Gold Making

This post is being written for Cold's Blogging Carnival for this month. Once again, if you have not taken the opportunity to read the posts over there, you are doing yourself a dis-service.

Without further ado, on to the tips.

1. USE THE INTERNET
In his Little Green Book on poker, Phil Gordon congratulates players who want to become skilled, as they have already taken the first step, buying a book on being a better poker player. Well, the internet is your book, and I congratulate you for already taking the first step to being a goblin, reading gold making blogs. There are many fantastic Blogs, Just My Two Copper, Cold's Gold Factory and Trading With Zoxy to name a few. Make sure to read the comments as well, and do not be afraid to ask questions. In addition there are great forums for your perusal, Markco has one on JMTC and the Consortium is fantastic. The internet, and these sites are a tremendous learning tool to help you improve. Use them early and often.

2. KNOW YOUR SERVER
It cannot be underestimated how incredibly important this tip is, especially if you take the first tip to heart. Sometimes, you will read a tip that sounds so good, you hop online and immediately invest into it, only to find out it is perfectly worthless on your server. I'll give you an example, on some servers, the 2-H Agility enchant goes for 2-300+g profit. On mine it sells for a 50 gold loss. If I were to sink a bunch of money into that idea, without knowing my server, I would have been in the hole. It's also important to identify popular raid guilds and times, other AH players and farmers. Knowing your server makes all the difference between a good goblin and a wanna-be goblin.

3. Don't Fear Add Ons and Macros
At first Add Ons and Macros can be intimidating and confusing. But as Goblins say, "Time is Money Friend" and Add Ons/Macros save you oodles and oodles of time. I suggest at least a mail add on, auction mod (such as auctioneer), lil' sparky's workshop and some form of a quick auction for add ons. Additionally milling, prospecting and disenchanting macros make a world of a difference. Go to www.wowinterface.com or www.curse.com for you add ons, after doing some research first of course. Macro's can be either made by yourself, or found online in the various forums.

There you have it, 3 simple tips to make you a better goldmaker.

Cheers - Brouck

What Cam Newton has to do with WoW Economics?

For those of you who did not know, I am a huge fan of sports. More so, I am a huge fan of the NFL Draft. Nothing is more enjoyable than sitting and speculating about top NFL Draft picks. It is my skills there, that can help me translate to WoW Gold Success.

Today I'm going to explain what Cam Newton has to do with WoW Economics. Cam Newton, the Heisman winning QB from Auburn is set to enter the NFL draft. There is speculation that he will be the first QB taken. If that is the case, he will sign for a lot of money. Now, how does this apply to WoW?




Well, Newton is a relative unknown. This year, his first of seeing any major playing time, was a complete success at the college level. However, history has shown that these "one year wonders" often bust out in the Pros. YET, that does not stop someone from paying a premium price for them. This is because nobody wants to be the one to "miss the boat" on something.

The same can be said for WoW. When new recipes, pets, or boe's begin to drop, people will pay a premium for them, despite knowing whether or not they will be any good. Think of the Elementium Geode, when these bad boys first started appearing, people were paying up to 10k for them. Now they barely sell for 1k.

The moral is simple, if you get a rare drop, specifically a new one (think of the new recipes in 4.0.6 that will be dropping), post it on the AH for an outrageous amount of gold. There is a good chance you'll sell it. That being said, do not be "that guy" who is willing to buy at outrageous prices on an unproven commodity.

Cheers - Brouck

Friday, January 14, 2011

Deal of the Century!

So, I know that this is not the place to brag, but I have to tell this story.

After I did my daily AH scan this evening, I noticed 12 stacks of Obsidium Ore for 60g a pop. Naturally, I snatched them all up, with the knowing about the 54g threshold. After doing so, I immediately received a whisper.

Mr. M: need any more?
Me: @ 60g a stack?
Mr. M: ayep
Me: How many stacks you got?

Now for an interlude. I know Mr. M's a big time AH player. In fact, he dominates my server. He is easily the richest man on Arygos. Every day he posts tons of stacks of raw goods, mostly orbs and herbs. But here is the kicker, he says he's having trouble moving his Obsidium and that he has "a couple hundred stacks of it" in his gbank.

Finally we broker a deal over 440 stacks of Obsidium all at 60g a pop. Sure I invested well over 25,000 gold. But this to me is a no brainer.


That is just a sampling, now I have to spend my time diversifying this investment.

What do you think?

Cheers - Brouck

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Gold Experiment Update: Level 83

Level 83 has come and gone on Shiftybrouck with no real new revelations.


As the screen shot indicates, I reached 2,278 gold by level 83. At this point, I have a few observations of note:

1. The toon I am leveling has had rested experience the entire time thus far, meaning I am leveling faster than my first dash from 80-85.

2. Shiftybrouck is part of my guild, which @ level 9, has Fast Track allowing for 10% more exp. per kill and quest.

3. I am getting significantly less green drops than the first two times I leveled 80-85.

All this adds up to getting less gold than I had anticipated. 10k, which seemed a low estimate to me to begin with, now seems virtually unreachable. All in all, I think I will plateau out around 8k.

Remember this is being done only by selling quest rewards/vendor fodder and posting any drops on AH. I have not included any of my tradeskills.

So question time. Should I continue the experiment the way I am, or should I list my herbs and leathers on the AH as well?

Cheers - Brouck

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Day Late and A Dollar Short: A Tardy Entry to Cold's Gold Factory Blogging Carnival

Well, I must admit, I lost track of time. This post has been on a sticky note, attached to my screen and I never got to it. This post was to be included in Cold's Gold Factory Blogging Carnival; What is One of Our Favorite Farming Spots in Cataclysm. If you read my blog, then I'm sure you already avidly follow Cold's. If not, check it out for great information. But I digress, my favorite farming spot, is one that I have yet to see written about.

Heroic Lost City of Tol'vir





I know what most of you are thinking. What? Farming in a heroic? But please hear me out.

I, like many others out there, hate farming. I only find farming fun, when I am accomplishing something else in the process. Enter Tol'vir. This instance is a blast. Every day, my guild and I run Lost City on Heroic. Our reasoning, it takes 45 minutes or less. In those 45 minutes, on my tailor, I am able to collect roughly 80-100 pieces of Embersilk Cloth. These sell for roughly 100g per stack on my server for a total of 400-500g. Additionally, I am usually the only crafter in my guild that makes this run, leaving the Chaos Orb free for my pickings. I charge 1,000 gold per orb when I craft people something.

Add on to that vendor fodder for another 20-30g, and I am clearing a profit of over 1,400g in a little less than 45 mins. All while gearing my character to be raid ready.

Are there any instances you prefer?

Cheers - Brouck

Monday, January 10, 2011

Levels 81 and 82 an update.

The first to levels are in without too much to write home about.

At level 81, I had 371 Gold, 69 Silver and 94 Copper as can be seen above.




At Level 82, I was up to 864 gold, 10 silver and 40 copper. This was 864 gold purely from leveling, looting, and vendoring quest items and grey vendor trash.




After Level 82 was reached, I nabbed a free port to SW from a very nice mage who's name I sadly forgot to write down. There I posted the following items on the AH.

2 Volatile Air @ 59g 8silver 50 copper - sold
1 Dragon Flank @ 2g 39s 85c - not sold yet
Green Ring @ 86g - sold
8 Volatile Fire @ 245g 70s - sold
Green pants @ 135
Green Hat @ 54g 50s (of the monkey) - sold
Green Helm @ 63g (of the undertow) -
1 stack of ember cloth @ 80g - sold
5 ember cloth @ 20g - sold
4 Volatile Earth @ 58g 50s - sold


Bringing my grand total from AH sales and leveling/vendoring goods to

1,473 Gold 54 Silver and 98 Copper

I expect the amount per level to increase at an exponential (though not off the chart) rate, due to the increased amount of quests and experience required for each subsequent level.

Let me know what you think.

Cheers - Brouck

Sunday, January 9, 2011

80-85 Gold Experiment

While posting auctions today, I found myself staring at the trainwreck that is trade chat. In it, people were trolling about the usual, having too much gold, not having enough gold, etc. etc. That's when one comment strung a chord with me.

stated : Dude, you make like 12k just from leveling from 80-85.

Naturally an argument occurred, people claiming you make no where near that, others arguing you make twice that. I decided to experiment and settle the argument for myself.

It just so happens I have a level 80 Night Elf Druid, Shiftybrouck, parked in Mount Hyjal right now. I have removed everything from his bags, with exception of his gnomish engineering knife. Shifty is an herber/skinner who will send all herbs and skins to my bank alt for safe keeping.

The plan is simple. Level Shifty to 85, while vendoring all grays and bop greens/blues. I will always pick the gear that sells for the most gold when there is no gear that improves my dps. Additionally I will be posting any sellable goods on the AH and gathering that gold. I will try to post updates per each level.

Here's a screenshot of Shiftybrouck right now.


Any guesses on what the final total will be?

Cheers - Brouck

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Meta-tines Day



When 4.0.6 drops, so will three new Meta Gems.

Agile Shadowspirit Diamond - Agility/3% Critical Damage
Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond - Strength/3% Critical Damage
Burning Shadowspirit Diamond - Intellect/3% Critical Damage

Each gem requires three red gems equipped for it to be active.

According to wowhead.com each meta recipe is "unbound and can drop from any Cataclysm creature".

Additionally, Chaotic and Relentless Meta Gems will be fixed to require three red gems.

So the question is, what should the plan of attack be from now until the day the patch drops. Here are my current plans.

1. Stockpile Inferno Rubies and cut equal amounts of Bold, Brilliant and Delicate. Post them all midnight before patch hits (@ 150-200% markup). I'm hoping to post a minimum of 20-30 of each kind.

2. Stockpile Uncut Shadow Spirit Diamonds and Earthsiege Diamonds . Post at midnight before patch hits (@ roughly 150-200% markup). Plan is to sell between 20-25 of each.

3. Stockpile 20 of each Chaotic Shadow Spirit Diamonds and Relentless Earthsiege Diamonds. Post at midnight and sell.

4. After the patch drops, I'll be taking my ret pally over to our favorite embersilk farming spot in deepholm, equipping a potion of treasure finding and farming until I get at least one of the new cuts. Periodically switching to my bank toon to see if any recipes have shown up on the AH.

5. Afterwards, I plan on learning, and creating as many meta's as I can, and listing them for major profit.

Now, I know it is unlikely that I will have one drop for me, which is why I'll be keeping tabs on the AH. This is such a new/rare recipe, that I will likely not be the only one farming for it. There is a possibility of running a monopoly on the items via your AH toon. Simply camping the AH and buying out the recipes as they come in, only to flip them for more via barking in trade. This will require a substantial amount of gold, but it can be done.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Surgery and such

I have to give my apologies for yesterday's and today's posts being short and of lesser value to the reader than I desire to give. I had knee surgery two days ago, and sitting at the computer desk for any long period of time has become excrutiatingly difficult for me to do. That being said, I have one minor tip for all of those interested in the Mysterious Fortune Card game. Two weeks ago, when it was all the rage for bloggers to talk about their Mysterious Fortune Card strategies, most, if not all, forgot to mention one beautiful fact about this opportunity.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE A LEVEL 75+ TOON TO DO IT.

That's right, in case you did not already know, you can make those cards at 450, and the spell is learnable without training Illustrous Grand Master Inscription. That's why I have my level 66 hunter, planted firmly in SW grinding out cards when they are profitable. While I'm missing out on the big Darkmoon Faire card game, I'm finding it still easy to make money and allow me to focus on my enchanting toon to get to 84 and Twilight Highlands, which he did last night.

Another caveat about Mysterious Fortune Cards, check before you post. If you see a bunch on sale for 20-25g, buy blackfallow inks instead of listing your cards. I have found that the price of the cards, lowers in direct relationship to the price of the inks, on my server at least. Wait until it is more profitable to sell. People selling 10 cards and 20g each are only earning a 40 or 50g profit. Bark those out, and then post yours high.

Cheers - Brouck

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Fury of Angerforge and 4.0.6

Patch notes for 4.0.6 were released today, and I pulled at least one piece of gold making information from it. Currently, Fury of Angerforge is a broken trinket. The stacks simply build too slowly and in a disjointed manner, so much so that people have actually bagged it in favor of their Mark of Khardros or Heart of Solace  instead.

However, 4.0.6 plans to fix all of this:
" The Fury of Angerforge internal cooldown has been drastically reduced so this trinket will build up charges much faster."
 
So what does this all mean? Personally, I have added it to my snatch list for now, in hopes of grabbing cheap while it is broken. Then listing for a massive profit when the patch hits. I haven't had luck yet, but maybe you will.
 
How about you? Have you found any potential gold makers in the recent patch notes?
 
Cheers- Brouck
 

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Tailoring from 480-500: a different approach

I like many of you, enjoy using http://www.wow-professions.com/ when leveling a trade skill. It is almost always the cheapest and quickest means of leveling up any profession. It is also a great tool for any gold maker, as one can choose a single mat required to level a profession and attempt to control that market (a post I will make at a later date). But today I wanted to talk about leveling Tailoring.

Of all the trade skills I have been leveling, Tailoring has been the most resource-exhaustive on the list, even more than Blacksmithing. One with a relative low ROI as well.

From levels 480-500, Wow-professions.com has the following recommendations
480-485 - 5 Spiritmend Leggings
485-500 - 15 Spiritmend Robe

The total mats coming to 110 Bolts of Embersilk and 40 Eternium Thread for an average cost of 3,145g!

Due to an influx of people leveling their tailoring, I have found that it is impossible to sell either of these on the AH for more than 25-30g. Valuing them on the high side of 30g each yields a return of 600g. Creating a net loss of 2545g.

Disenchanting does not leave one with a much better option. the Leggings have a 71% chance to give between 1-4 Hypnotic Dusts and a 29% of 1-4 Lesser Celestial Essences. 5 DE'ed leggings will yield approximately 3 Lesser Essences and 10 Dusts. Likewise the 15 Robes disenchant into (roughly) 27 Dusts and 10 Lesser Essences. This leaves one with 32 Dusts and 13 Lesser Essences, an AH value of 740g. A net loss of 2405g.

Meanwhile, I decide to craft two Otherworldly Bags and two Hyjal Expedition Bags. The mats here total 58 Bolts of Embersilk, 80 Volatile Life, 16 Hypnotic Dusts, 16 Greater Cosmic Essences and 2 Dream Shards. All said, a total cost of 2498g. I was able to sell each bag for 400g a pop, creating a net loss of only 1,298g.

This is a savings of over 1,100 gold! Until there are any other options out there, I feel this is the best way to go from 480-500.

Cheers - Brouck

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Trouble With Transmutes

The past few days, I have spent trying to figure out the most lucrative manner in which to blow my transmute cooldown. As a half ass gambler, I wanted to use my transmute in a manner that produces the greatest amount of gold, based on the least amount of luck (or procs).
The way I see it, there are only four widely used ways of burning one's transmute CD.

1. Buy all mats for Truegold, transmute (hope for procs) and post on AH.
2. Offer your Truegold transmute to the masses, for a fee (including procs)
3. Offer your Truegold transmute to the masses, for a lesser fee, keeping any procs for yourself to put on AH
4. Transmute: Living Elements in Uldum and post Volatile Airs on AH.

We're going to look at these four methods with Wowhead's Prices and Average Prices from my server

First Wowhead


1. Truegold Mats include 10 Volatile Fire @ 17g/each, 10 Volatile Air @33g/each, 10 Volatile Water @ 4g each and 3 Pyrium Bars @ 24g/each. For a grand total of 612 gold. Wowhead lists Truegold at 927g. Bringing our total profit to 315g (927-612).
315g x 7days = 2205g/week
1 proc = 3132g/week (likely)
2 proc = 4059g/week (probable)
3proc = 4986g/week (unlikely)

2. The average transmute CD giving away procs sells for between 250-300g. We'll assign it a total of 275g.
275g x 7days = 1925g/week
Price remains same regardless of procs.

3. The average transmute CD for Alchemists who are non-transmute specced or keeping their procs is between 200-250g. We'll assign it a total of 225g
225g x 7 days= 1575 g/week
1 proc = 2502g
2 proc = 3429g
3 proc = 4356g

4. 15 Volatile Life @ 8g = 120g
15 Volatile Air @ 33g = 495g
Profit of 375g x 7 days = 2625g/week
* Calculating Procs gets more tricky as blue posts have stated the proc is in now way related to the zone you are in. Therefore I am using a composite average of the five volatiles, which works out to be 14.2g
1 proc = 2838g/week
2proc = 3051g/week
3 proc = 3264g/week


Clearly using Wowhead's data choice one is the way to go. The data however changes slightly when using the average prices found on my server
Fires 27g
Water 20g
Air 48g
Pyrium Bar 44g

This totals the mats to be 1082g.

Truegold is valued at 1336g. Making a profit of only 254g

Where as Life is valued at only 9g x 15 =  135g Making Transmute Living Elements profit = 585g

Choice 1: Buying mats and selling Truegold.
1778g per week
1 proc = 3114g
2 proc = 4450g
3 proc = 5786g

Choice 2: Selling Truegold CD in trade with procs
Remains the same 1925g/week

Choice 3: Selling Truegold CD in trade keeping procs and listing them on AH
1575g per week
1 proc 2911g
2 proc 4247g
3 proc 5583g

Choice 4: Transmuting Living Elements in Uldum for Air
4095g per week
*Avg. proc = 24.6 * 15 = 369
1 proc = 4464g
2 proc = 4833g
3 proc = 5202g

What this data all boils down to is whether or not you think you will proc at least three times in a single week. My own personal experience is that I proc once, maybe twice a week. Therefore on my server, I'm sticking with choice 4, and marching my butt to Uldum every night.

Cheers - Brouck

Monday, January 3, 2011

Holiday Hangover

Were you online at all during traditional working hours 8 am to 5 pm today? Did you notice anything different from the past few weeks? Maybe less anal spam, Chuck Norris jokes and nerd rages? Yep, that's right, today schools across America re-opened their doors and millions of students and teachers returned to the classroom. The holiday season is over, in game and out, and I have the latest update(s) on how it may effect the economy on your realm.

1. Small Egg/WinterVeil Leftovers Overload. Go ahead and check your AH, are small eggs back down to 40 silver each? Probably, being that many would-be gold makers caught on late and have too much surplus. If they are buy them up for Children's Week. Also be sure to check for other holiday gold makers; clothes, pets (vendor and Winter Veil) and any of the other moneymakers (recipes)

2. Time is money, and with more players having less time, they will have less gold. This means niche, or non-neccessity markets are going to take a hit. When I logged this evening, I discovered I sold very few Mysterious Fortune Cards. Expect this profit maker to take a major downward spiral. I won't sell or craft them unless I'm making at least a 10g profit.

3. Since time is money, if you're a heroic geared tank, you've got a decent cash cow. Players with two hours of gametime a night do not want to spend their first 45 mins in a queue for heroics. I have seen tanks commanding up to 250g per person. So if you're thinking of running Heroic Deadmines, throw out a flyer in trade and make an extra 1,000g.

4. Lastly, the times are changing, people with less time will be looking to gear up quickly since raid season is right around the corner. This means your crafted BOE's will never be more valuable then they are right now. Keep your eye open in trade, or even bark your services. Judge it on your server, but you should be getting at least 1k per orb.

Cheers - Brouck

Sunday, January 2, 2011

The Midnight Hour

2.bp.blogspot.com
This entry is written as part of the Best of the Month Blog Carnival, over at Not So Secret Society. If you haven't perused the writings over there, I highly suggest you do.

Many players are looking for ways to exploit the basic tenet of a supply and demand economy. While performing my evening routine, I came across a lightbulb moment. After being caught up in my routine, I realized it was 12:04 am, therefore my Transmute CD was fresh and ready on my Alchemist. I immediately logged onto him, only to discover I was three volatile water's short of the needed mats. Dutifully, I marched down to the AH to buy some.

The AH was crowded, especially for the lateness of the hour, but I thought nothing of it. I entered my search into and found a handfull of the volatiles at 12g a pop. I tried buying out the first, but the auction was gone already, same with the second and third. I quickly realized there were many others just like me grabbing their transmute mats now at midnight. That got my half ass mind working. Immediately, I went to my snatch list and grabbed all volatile waters under 15g. Which turned out to be 65 waters. I reposted the waters in stacks of 10 for 200g a pop, or 20g a stack. I pocketed the remaining volatiles for my own transmutations. Sure enough, before I even had to time to finish my transmute, my screen was blinking with "A buyer has been found for your Volatile Water". Six times. I had almost immediately sold out. This confirms my idea, that buying low and selling at normal at the right time will yield immediate positive results.

 
Cheers - Brouck

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Introductions and explanations.

I figured for my first blog, it would be important to tell you a little bit about the intention of this blog. It will function like any other gold making blog that is out there, with tips, tricks, ideas and information on my journey to earn as much gold as possible.

I started getting involved into serious, half-assed gold making right as Wrath of the Lich King was winding down. I had already achieved Kingslayer on my main, and gearing up other toons simply was not providing me with any sort of challenge. I had always read Markco's blog for quick hit ideas on maintaining an average level of gold. I decided that being a AH powerhouse on my realm would be my new endeavor.

Leveling through content, farming the same old raids and heroics simply do not capture my full attention like playing the AH does. I have had a few ups, and a large number of downs on my journey thus far. I look forward to being able to share my future ones (and maybe even some from the past) with you.

Cheers - Brouck