Saturday 22 February 2014

Saturday Celebrations - Goldmansax


This week we have a tale of big money from Goldmansax - very appropriate name there! He doesn't say which server or whether he is USA or EU but that doesn't really matter - all gold stories are different depending on server as so many of us gold bloggers regularly point out!

If you'd like to submit your own gold making Milestone Interview, instructions & more details are on my Milestone Interviews page. Any milestone is suitable - whether it be 100k or 10 million, we want to hear about YOUR story. Don't be shy! You've seen what others are sending in over the last few months so come on - tell us how you've been doing it!
I'm running low on submissions so if you'd like to see this weekly story continue, I'm going to need more stories!
I try to reply to each submission quickly so if I don't reply - poke me again as I may have missed it or leave a comment on a post - those I definitely see more easily. Now that AH Addict is getting more popular, the email address is busy with spammers coming out of the woodwork so I do sometimes miss things :(


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What is your milestone amount?
I originally started with a milestone amount of 1million gold; however, as I approached that, it switched to “I want enough to buy a Swift Spectral Tiger and have at least 400k leftover to rebuild.”

What got you started making gold and when?
I’ve played WoW for quite a long time and, for whatever reason, never gave goldmaking much thought. I was chronically poor and struggled to keep gear gemmed and enchanted, let alone my altoholic/twinking problem (before heirlooms). I stumbled across a youtube video about the shuffle during Cataclysm and dabbled in that for a short while, turning ~2k into 30k in a short time.

What really got me started, though, was finding the Consortium forum and, particularly, a post entitled “March to a Million” written by Faxmonkey and posted on April 9, 2012. I think I read that post the day it came out and it essentially “clicked” for me. I decided to re-roll on a high pop server and try to replicate what Faxmonkey wrote about – start with nothing and turn it into big bucks by flipping high volume materials and eventually moving into flipping higher value items.

Through this method, I was able to turn a few silver and some linen cloth into 100k within about a month and half. Not a huge amount, but I was keeping my pally’s weapon enchanted with Crusader throughout leveling (no heirlooms) and buying other, slightly, frivolous items. The new server became my main server where I built up an army of alts, covering all professions, and began to branch out into profession-based gold making.

Which markets have you concentrated on, if any?
I primarily stick to flipping still. My favorite has been the 77-79 Cataclysm green gear. They still sell incredibly well (we’ll see after the squish :/ ) and have been a huge part of my income, of late.

Favorite niche market?
Despite a large portion of my income generated from a niche market, my favorite is actually Enchanted Elementium bars. They don’t sell often, but when they do it’s an amazing day to open the mailbox J

Biggest yay?
When I started on the new server and flipped an Axe of the Legion from 100g to 10k within 12 hours and then did it again within a few days.

Did you reward yourself for reaching your goal?
I actually got very bored with WoW last spring and decided to hang it up at around 900k. I came back after about 4 months and decided now was the time to buy that Spectral Tiger. I found one for 420k or so and didn’t even think about it, just bought it. I’ve since moved servers, again, and begun rebuilding on my new server and am up to about 500k, after leveling some new alts (only transferred a couple).

Shout outs for any blogs, podcasts, or streams that helped you along the way.
Several – first off is the Consortium forums. Can’t even begin to describe how much insight I have gained from the people over there. Also, Faxmonkey for their post that got me started, Nev, Phatlewts, Sapu and the TSM team and Manthius. Thanks!

What’s your new goal, if any?
Mostly my goal, now, is to continue generating income to support my playing the game. I really want to ensure that I enjoy actually playing and don’t spend hours staring at the AH or my TSM crafting windows. I would like to hit 1M before Warlords of Draenor, but it’s not a priority. Thank you all for reading!

-Goldmansax

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Thank you for sending in your story, Goldmansax - I am terrible for not reading forums but I should really, there's so much useful information to be found there. Congratulations on your Spectral Tiger and I hope you get back to your 1 million again soon!

Happy goldmaking peeps!

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Tuesday 18 February 2014

The Accidental Goldmaker - A Challenge from the Godmother!

Cute kitten pic...just because!
A fair few weeks ago now, Marcus & I had the opportunity to chat to The Godmother about her adventures in WoW and her accidental goldmaking on episode 21 of The Journal of Marcus Ty podcast. She told us then that she was going to issue a challenge to the goldmaking community and soon after, she did indeed, publish that challenge.

So here is my answer, albeit rather later in the day than planned, for which I apologise profusely - I've been kind of spaced out/absent due to some new medications but I'm getting used to them now so hopefully, normal service shall be resumed soon.

The Challenge

To suggest the best way to make gold from the stuff she had picked up whilst farming skyshards in the Vale. You can read her challenge post here.

The Stuff

Windwool Cloth (over 200) plus 3 Bolts
17 green items(416/429's)
+10 plus of the three new Pandarian Cookery materials
34 Ghost Iron Ore
25 Black Trillium ore, 18 White Trillium ore
40 Spirit Dust
30 Exotic Leather

Shadowsong-EU server alliance


My Suggestions

Windwool Cloth
Currently selling for about 16-17g per stack which is about 4g per bolt - but bolts are only selling for 3-5gold at the moment so personally, I wouldn't bother making the cloth into bolts just to sell. I know Godmother has all professions maxed so I'd suggest looking at the Crafted Malevolent PvP gear market - most of those items take between 4-6 bolts of windwool cloth so even if the PvP gear is only selling for 100g (as it is on my server!), there is still more profit than just selling the cloth.

Green Armor/weapons, ilevel 416 & 429
These are the level 87 & 88 items - not much market for these and although they could be disenchanted, the enchanting materials are so cheap right now, it's better to just vendor these - unless any alts can make use of them of course. Vendor prices start at around 9g from what I can see so unless you were to get lucky & d/enchant them to Mysterious Essence, you'd only get Spirit Dust and probably not 9g's worth either!

3 new Pandaren Cookery materials
I'm going to assume Godmother means the Aged Balsamic Vinegar, the Aged Mogu'Shan Cheese & the Ancient Pandaren Spices. I checked out the Undermine Journal for these as I haven't kept up to date on their prices. I was surprised to find them selling for little more than 1g each. Not much profit there then! 

They aren't used in the Noodle cart recipes either so the only other use for them is the 6 new Bind on Pickup cooking recipes that provide the new 300+ buff foods. These recipes use the other new ingredients like the Fresh Pomfruit or the Fresh Lushrooms but these have to be gathered specifically as they only have a 2 hour 'life'. If you're in the Vale grinding out rep or stones or whatever is going on there, then it might be worth a few minutes to pick up some of the Fresh ingredients even if only to make buff food for your own endeavours!

Ghost Iron Ore
Currently selling around 45-50g a stack is a nice price - my server has it around 35g most of the time! I checked out the bar price just in case but Bars are at 5-6g each so not much profit there at all. There are several options for Ghost Iron Ore in general - make bars for Engineer or Blacksmith, send Bars to your Alchemist to make Trillium or send Ore to your Jewelcrafter to prospect. With only 34 Ore though, I'd be tempted to make Bars & send it to my Blacksmith to craft the Malevolent PvP gear (yes, again!)

Black Trillium Ore, White Trillium Ore
Black trillium is selling for 5-8 gold and White Trillium is selling for 6-7.50g - that's nice profit right there but what else can we do with it? It takes 2 Black + 2 White trillium to smelt to 1 standard Trillium Bar. So that would be a cost of 22g-31g per Trillium Bar which is selling for 39-45g - still not that much profit but better than selling the plain black & white ores.

With 18 White Trillium as the limiting factor - Godmother could produce 9 Trillium Bars from this haul which would be at least one Living Steel Bar (sale price 284-340g) which could then go to make a Living Steel Belt Buckle (sale price 330-390g).

Spirit Dust
This is selling for around 1g on Godmother's server and on my own. I've even dropped my maximum buy price to 80s as I was getting way too much availability for the number of enchant scrolls I could sell. It used to be worth converting Spirit Dust up to Mysterious Essence & just selling the Essences but the prices have stabilised to a point where there is very little profit there now.

Looking at prices on Shadowsong-EU, I'd suggest the best use of these dusts is to make a few of the Spirit Dust only enchants like Enchant Gloves - Greater Haste or Enchant Chest - Mighty Spirit. Both use just 4 Spirit Dusts but sell for around 30g. Not great prices but better than just selling the dusts alone.

There are better enchants to sell of course but they use Mysterious Essences or Ethereal Shards - not a problem these days as both are fairly cheap but the current best way to get Mysterious Essences is to buy Ethereal Shards and break them down, not to convert the Dusts up! So for this exercise, I've assumed Godmother doesn't want to go buying extra materials to make stuff.

Exotic Leather
For me, the very best use of these is to make Magnificent Hides either through the daily cooldown which uses just 20 or even the more expensive way but without a cooldown of using 50 leathers. At the current sell price of Exotic Leather of 87silvers, even a 50 piece Magnificent Hide only costs 44g - massive profits when I make my Crafted Malevolent PvP gear which sells for 700g or more.

Summary

There's definitely some gold laying around to be picked up when you are out & about doing other stuff as this shows very clearly. It's hard to make accurate suggestions for selling such small quantities for profit as so much of what I do requires more materials than Godmother picked up. But I've tried to limit myself to suggestions that don't require buying extra materials but one thing I would do, is to not sell everything in a rush.

If, like the Godmother, you are out & about picking up random stuff like this - don't be in too much of a hurry to sell it every day. Sometimes it is worth hanging on to a few smaller stacks until you have enough materials to make a proper go at crafting something profitable! Like the Ores - if you pick up more black & white trillium the following day which would add to the pile of standard trillium you could make then you could make 2 Living Steels Belt Buckles & the greater profit from them, rather than 1 Belt Buckle and selling the remaining trillium at the lower profit price!

I hope that makes sense but all I'm trying to say is patience is a virtue - don't be in too great a hurry to sell everything when a little patience may make you a better item in a few days.


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Saturday 15 February 2014

Saturday Celebrations - Psaronius, Icecrown-US


Another success story from the USA - this time Psaronius of Icecrown server has shared his story with us. This touched a chord with me as I started playing just a few months before him & I started my gold making just a few months before him too! It seems we were on the same schedule there for a while!

If you'd like to submit your own gold making Milestone Interview, instructions & more details are on my Milestone Interviews page. Any milestone is suitable - whether it be 100k or 10 million, we want to hear about YOUR story. Don't be shy! You've seen what others are sending in over the last few months so come on - tell us how you've been doing it!

I'm running low on submissions so if you'd like to see this weekly story continue, I'm going to need more stories!

I try to reply to each submission quickly so if I don't reply - poke me again as I may have missed it or leave a comment on a post - those I definitely see more easily. Now that AH Addict is getting more popular, the email address is busy with spammers coming out of the woodwork so I do sometimes miss things :(


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What is your milestone amount?My first milestone was likely when I hit around 20,000 gold, I realized I could play and not be broke in-game again, and the next was breaking 100k and feeling a great deal of success. I’m currently sitting just above 600k and I feel the end is in sight. 
What got you started making gold and when?
I started playing in January 2010 and knew nothing about the game. While my son tried to explain the in-game currency, I could not grasp the entirety of the game. One thing I knew is I never had enough gold to buy what I needed. In February 2011, my son told my he was going after his Loremaster achievement and at that point I decided I needed a goal, but something I could achieve, and I needed gold; at that moment I chose the gold cap as my goal. 
Which markets have you concentrated on, if any?
At present my main markets are glyphs, JC, PVP gear, and thanks to Nev, Mammoth Mining Bags. In addition, I have three guild banks full of transmog gear and typically have 300 or so pieces posted all the time. 
When did you start a banker alt?
I started a guild bank before I really started working on gold making. I used it to save mats I thought I would need in leveling a number of alts. I still use him but only for transmog, and I’ve added two more guild banks to store gear in and sell transmog gear. 
Do you farm materials?
When I started gold making I always farmed anything I could. For the most part I now buy most mats in the AH, but if the price is more than I’m willing to pay I’ll still farm. 
Lesser known gold making addons
Addons are such huge time saving tools, using them is an absolute must. One I don’t hear about often but I use a lot is Panda. Its used for milling herbs and prospecting ore faster than the standard WOW interface. In addition I use it for crafting gems and glyphs. If you’ve updated prices through your auction tool, Panda will show you current unit prices and inventory in your bags. 
Biggest successes or biggest failures?
I think of any gold loss as a failure and I’ve had my fair share of those. The thing that really bugs me is when I hold on to purchased mats for too long and the price drops to a loss. Biggest success was when I sold a panther mount for 27K and cloth slippers for 22K in one day. My biggest oops! was selling a tailoring pattern I got as a drop, Star Belt. I realized, after selling it immediately, that its a super rare pattern and I could have tripled my money. 
Professions?
My characters have Mining/Blacksmithing; Enchanting/Leatherworking, Jewelcrafting/Tailoring; Herbing/Inscription. I am leveling a couple of other alts so I can round out the mix with top level alch, engineering, and skinning. I don’t see a need to level the professions until the alt hits top level so the little guys just mine and skin and I sell the mats. 
Advice for new goldmakers?
  • Low level mats sell, especially leather and ore so I always start mining and skinning on new characters. The 10 or 20 or 36 gold per sale will always add up.  
  • Use the auction house and try to sell everything you acquire. 
  • Use addons. 
  • Know your market(s) and know prices. Perhaps most importantly know your crafting cost and use this to determine your bottom price, and don’t sell below this. 
  • Use Wowhead as a resource for learning about items, bosses, and drops.
Shout outs for any blogs or podcasts that helped you along the way?
Auction House Addict is my favorite blog, the tips have been fabulous! The Undermine Journal is huge, there are links to other goldmaking blogs and the thoughts and ideas I get from them are awesome.

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There's some very good advice there from Psaronius - low level mats are often overlooked by more experienced goldmakers but when you are starting out, there can be some really nice profits there. And if you've been reading my stuff for a while, you'll know I always say 'know your prices' :)




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Saturday 8 February 2014

Saturday Celebrations - Lindrayn, Twisting Nether-US


This week, we have a tale of millions from Lindrayn on Twisting Nether-US server. I have to apologise here now, I missed this email a few weeks ago so it's a bit late being published! I'm so sorry, Lindrayn.

If you'd like to submit your own gold making Milestone Interview, instructions & more details are on my Milestone Interviews page. Any milestone is suitable - whether it be 100k or 10 million, we want to hear about YOUR story. Don't be shy! You've seen what others are sending in over the last few months so come on - tell us how you've been doing it! 

I'm running low on submissions so if you'd like to see this weekly story continue, I'm going to need more stories!

I try to reply to each submission quickly so if I don't reply - poke me again as I may have missed it or leave a comment on a post - those I definitely see more easily. Now that AH Addict is getting more popular, the email address is busy with spammers coming out of the woodwork so I do sometimes miss things :(

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What is your milestone amount?
My first million

When did you start?
I started getting serious on a whim during Firelands in July 2011. I had heard about the “obsidium shuffle” on making gold and I had a max level Jewelcrafter, a max level Enchanter and a max level Alchemist so I thought “why not?” I bought my first load of ore for 30g a stack and I probably bought 50 stacks. After processing it and cutting gems I doubled my investment by the next day. It all went downhill from there. 
Did you set a goal?
My goal was 1 million gold in one year. I barely made the goal. I started with 70k in July 2011 and by the end of June 2012 I was sitting at 960k. I had a friend loan me the last 40k just so I could screenshot it and celebrate (took me 4 days to pay him back)

First tips & tricks?
For me, its frequent undercutting. Be bold about it. If the market dips too low, don’t be afraid to be aggressive and buy someone out and reset the market. The gem market has been ruthless at times on my server. Also, the phone app is a must. It allows me to check auctions every hour or two while I’m out and about. 
When did you start a banker alt?
I don’t really have one. I moved my main toon, Edrisa, to Proudmoore late last summer and this toon was originally intended as a bank alt. As you can see I’ve made it a full fledged alt that I raid on too.

Best market over the years?
Jewelcrafting by far. I would say 80% of my wealth has come from gems.

Favorite niche market?
I dabble in inscription. I picked it up at the beginning of MoP just for the 476 caster staff. I make a fairly decent amount of gold off shoulder enchants and occasionally dabble in glyphs. I just don’t have the patience to do it full time.

Do you farm materials?
Never. Early on I had some supply problems with herbs to transmute gems, but near the end of my first year I got rid of all my gathering professions. I buy 100% of my materials from the AH or private farmers.

How much playtime devoted to gold making?
I devote probably an hour a day to managing my auctions. 2-3 times a week I spend a couple hours processing ore to make gems, rings, and enchants. When patches first drops its not unusual for me to spend twice that managing things.

Professions
Jewelcrafting, Enchanting, Alchemy, Inscription.

Flipping
I make a moderate amount of gold flipping transmog gear, mounts, and pets. Recently I’ve found its profitable to buy cheap pets on Proudmoore and sell then for 2-3 times as much on Twisting Nether.

Reward yourself for reaching goal?
Therein lies my weak point! I tend to spend WAY too much gold on things I want. When MoP launched, I think I spent nearly 200k gold just buying myself gear off the BMAH and from players.
 
I’ve bought many mounts for 70-90k off the BMAH and I can’t resist buying mini-pets. I would likely already have my new goal of 2 million gold if I would stop spending it on big ticket items. But hey, what good is the gold if you can’t get what you want!

What's your new goal, if any?
With me moving my druid to Proudmoore, my new goal is to cap on both servers. When I transferred my druid, I had just over 1 million gold. I transferred 920k to Proudmoore and that left me a nest egg of 100k on Twisting Nether to bounce back from.
 
Since August, I have turned that 100k back in to 350k. I have lost gold on Proudmoore but I’ve also bought easily 150k in gear over there to raid with. I’m sitting at 870k there. So right now I’m sitting at just over 1.2 million and I am shooting to make it 2 million by the launch of the next expansion.

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A perfect example of one of my newbie tips - a copper saved is a copper earned! If you want to build your gold stash more quickly, then you have to stop buying yourself luxuries! I'm a fine one talking though - I hit my million as Lindrayn was getting started and I still haven't hit my 2nd Million! I do have a fine collection of mounts and pets though so I don't care!


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