Monday, April 30, 2012

My Favorite Cataclysmic Market

This post is for Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival which will go live on May 11th, but I know I'll forget until the 12th if I don't come out with it now so here goes :-P.  I'll try to keep reminders up on my site so you can read all the other great posts when they come out.

This month's carnival asks: "What Was A Niche Market That You Were Suprised To Find Or That You Did Better Than Expected In During Cataclysm?"

Two markets that I really loved that were introduced in Cataclysm were Transmogrification and Mysterious Fortune Cards.  They are very interesting markets and fun to play with.  By far though, my favorite new market was the "Cataclysm Twink Market" brought on by overly powerful  level 77+ gear being introduced to low level cataclysm zones (80-81).

Why it's a Great Market
The reason why it's a great market to focus on is two-fold.  First and foremost, everyone wants the best gear for their character.  If you've done PvP in 75-79 bracket you'll know that without it, you're going to have a bad time.  The stats are more than double that available on even the best LK gear in the area, and gives a big boost to any character using it (even in PvE).


Second, the gear is not obtainable AT level 77.  Period.  You can't quest in Hyjal until 80, and you can't ENTER Cata dungeons until 78, and even at 78 you'd need to be carried because you cannot queue for randoms yet.  At 77 characters have no way of getting these greens other than randomly grinding mobs on an alt and hoping that their armor and stat type drop.  Not very fun or productive.  That's where I step in.

Methodology
Many people like the broader spectrum of this level range of gear, mostly 77-80 or 77-81.  I prefer 77 and 78.  My reasoning is again twofold.  People will want the twinked out gear as soon as they can get it, ie at level 77.  Second, even a level 78 or 79 can benefit from the 77 greens, if there is not the armor type/stats they want on the AH.  On the other hand a 77 can't use a piece of 79 gear because there's not what they need on the AH.  Also, at level 78 you can attain some blue pieces of gear, only 5 that are BoE, but they're deadly.  Agility daggers, an agility staff, and strength pants are my best sellers.

I use Auctionator to do searches, mainly:
Armor/77/77/i272
Weapon/77/77/i272
Weapon/78/78/i308
Armor/78/78/i308

From there I buy any armor or weapons that would be remotely useful to players.  One thing to avoid like the plague is agility plate.  For a full list of things to avoid check out PW:G's post, about items to avoid when flipping twink gear.  In general for the 77 gear I'll buy anything 250g or under, and I sell for 499g99s99c.  For the 78 rare gear I buy anything under 500g and sell for 999g99s99c.  Over the long run I've had the same return as Jewelcrafting, as seen in my 1,000,000 gold post.

There is already on the beta sets for a similar market being added (83-84) and I hope it does just as well come Mists of Pandaria.

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

If you like my blog follow me on twitter, @PhatLewtsGold!!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Weekly Lewt Review Week Ending 4/23

Had a busy week this week so the Weekly Review is a bit late, apologies.


Transmog
Last time I posted about my transmog sales declining, after the post, on my first 48 hour reposting, between reposting and buying new transmog gear, I made only 315 g profit.  Over the week I made around 7k in profit, but it's just not what it used to be on my server.  I'm still peddling all the gear that I did originally and I've acquired some more-rare pieces like a few Jade pieces.  Just nothing is selling.

Coasting
I haven't been posting much recently because over the past few weeks I've been in coasting mode in WoW gold making.  I am literally just reposting what I already have and stocking only some essential items.  I'm still making around 20k in profit per week, which for some would be amazing, but I usually average 75k/week in full production.  I'm spending 30-45 minutes a day at the AH and doing some PvP with guildies to end the expansion.  I'm already really excited about the prospect of gold making in Mists of Pandaria, and it's going to be a fun ride.

My New Side Hobby
I've been peddling Mysterious Fortune Cards (MFCs) since Cold first came out with his strategy and it's a really fun thing to do if you're looking for a new market.  Basically you craft these on your Scribe, make a macro to get people interested and they sell like hotcakes.  Pairing this gold making activity with iSold which makes a cash register-esque "Cha-Ching" every time you make a sale just makes it all that much more sweet when you sell 20 in a row.  I made about 6 stacks of 200 about 2 weeks ago, And I've sold 4 out of the 6 stacks, and probably could have polished them all of if I wasn't being lazy about it.

Yes these cards lose money for the buyers, otherwise you wouldn't sell them, but the more people that that point that out in trade, the  better your business is, so dont worry about the "negative press" it's actually a good thing.   If you're interested in MFCs check out these posts on Colds blog for more in depth information.  I'm finding that at the end of the expansion cycle I'm able to get a decent amount of these out to players looking for something to do in game.  A player who had only bought 3 cards whispered me and said "If I lose money I want my gold back" I replied "Over my dead body!".  A few seconds later (presumably after flipping the cards) he whispered back saying "Ya I didn't win, but that was fun, thanks a lot man".  There are still some out there that have not tried this method yet, and the quotes on the cards are great entertainment even for a loss.

Anyway that ends my rant on MFCs.  If it's not your thing you don't have to do it, but with herb prices so low, they're cheap to make {(Whiptail Price / 6)+.5} and sell for a decent profit on most servers.


Cheers,

Phat Lewts

If you like my blog follow me on twitter, @PhatLewtsGold!!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Phat's Weekly Lewt Review: Week Ending 4/16

Let's start out with the "bad news" of the week

Transmog Woes
This week I was barely able to make a profit off transmog, and twice after collecting and reposting 48 hour auctions I was posting for a loss (ie. posting cost > what I made in 48 hrs).  I expect transmog to be a strong market when the player boom associated with Pandas comes along, so I may start sending the mogging gear between my 2 not played alts on my server to start posting again in MoP.  Definitely going to give it another week though to see if it was just a dryspell or my server's mogging market going down.

Now on to the good news...

Inferno Rubies Sold Off
If you've been reading my blog a while, a few weeks back i was able to buy something like 600 inferno rubies for 100g a pop.  At this point I have sold all but a few of them at an average of about 170g (after AH tax).  The profit margin wasn't as great as prospecting, but I personally enjoyed having the break from prospecting and it gave me some time to focus on other things, as noted below.

Alliance Side Project
On my server I have 9 Horde characters and 1 Alliance character.  Using the neutral AH I transfered my character Alliance side 300g and the pattern for Icy Cloak.  Using the 300g and mostly investing in 77 Twink Gear as well as some "prime" transmog gear, I am now over 10k gold on a level 33.  Not too shabby.  The character now has maxed Tailoring/Enchanting that a level 33 can have (75 more levels at 35 soon to come though), and over 10k in her pocket.  Not crafting anything now other than the Icy Cloak, just reinvesting in Mogging/Twink Gear.  I enjoy leveling the character with BoAs from the Horde side, mostly in BGs.  Being a healer in BGs, especially at that bracket in the 10 and 15 man BGs can really be the difference between a win and a loss.

Mysterious Fortune Cards
Since I had a lot of free time Horde side from not prospecting, I decided to focus in on a market I hadn't played for a while - Mysterious Fortune Cards.  MFC's are one of the easiest ways to make gold with a scribe, but you need be willing to make macros and advertise them in trade.  I've been able to sell a few stacks of these while doing other things on my computer (such as writing this blog).  I just play windowed and tab back and hit my macros every few minutes and continue on as usual.  I'm still working on the 600 Whiptail that I bought for 15g/stack 4 weeks ago, not sure I can ever get through it all.  This price puts my cards somewhere around 3.5g to make, and I'm selling them for 12g a piece, so nice returns.

In all I'm enjoying using some alternative methods to make gold this week than I normally use, and it's a nice break from the usual.  I probably won't get back to prospecting for at least another week or two, so I'm going to continue using alternative methods and working on acquiring more gold, as per usual.  If you have any ideas/suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments, and I might just try em out this week!

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

If you like this post check out my twitter, @PhatLewtsGold!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Overcoming Obstacles in Gold Making

Today I read a blog post from 'I am Mcfluffy' called Why everyone is making millions of gold but you....  This is probably the most well written and in depth blog post of it's kind, and you should really give it a read.



 Seriously, read it now.  



Now if you are someone who is in the position of those who are written about in that article, I have an idea of how to get past it, and start making some serious gold.

Set Goals
If you want to seriously start making gold, set small goals, and set them often.  Start out with maybe 5k.  Don't spend the 5k once you have it though, your overall goal should be to have a much larger wealth of gold.  From there aim for 10k, or 5k plus 'Maxed Alchemy or JC'.  From there keep building.  Don't have a goal of "Buying 310% flying" (unless you're a farmer wanting to be more productive).  Setting such goals will not make you the most possible in the long run.  To make the most gold, you're going to need to spend your gold on raw mats to craft, or items to resell.

Be Realistic.
We don't all need 1 million gold.  Hell, I don't even know why I'm sitting on a mill right now, I have nothing to spend that much on!  For me the fun is in making the gold, and the more the better.  Set a realistic overall goal for you.  Maybe 100k, even 50k.  Make this goal an "At all times goal" once you hit it.  Once you get it, don't go below it.  Continue making gold, and always have at least your minmum on hand.  Your minimum can be the cost of raiding flasks for the month or 150k because you feel like it.  Whatever you want it to be, choose what's best for you.

Don't expect to make this much gold overnight.  Expecting to make 100k in one week is preposterous.  Are there people who can? Yes.  Can most?  No.  Planning out your day (Purchasing, Crafting, Listing) is important because how you manage your time directly relates to your gold making.  If you only have around an hour on any given day to dedicate to gold making, you have to optimize your time.  Learning to use addons like TradeSkillMaster to do this is a great use of your time, and are a gold maker's best friend.

Choose Gold Making Strategies That Work For You.
When choosing a gold making strategy, of course there are some that make more gold than others.  During expansion releases, farming is probably the best way to make gold for the first few weeks.  But if you don't like to farm, don't get those types of professions.  If you don't like crafting 100's of glyphs, don't waste your time leveling inscription.  There are a lot of resources out there for gold making, read up and figure out what method is best for you.  There's no right answer, as long as you're doing something that's making gold and not losing it!   If you choose something that you ENJOY, you will be much more likely to stick with it, and not get bored of it over time.

Try New Things
There are lulls in every expansion, especially during the end of patches, but don't let that get you discouraged.  Can you get good at PvP by sitting in Trade Chat and reading PvP guides all day?  No.  You can't get really good unless you get out there and use them for yourself.  The best way to learn how to make gold is through experience.  Reading all the gold blogs in the world won't make you a single copper.  You have to try some of the methods for yourself, and see if it's something you want to do, or something that works on your server.  Always keep up with your gold making, and always try new ways of making gold.  I hope this helps some people out, and more so I hope that if you're interested in gold making at all that you read that article.  It's a really great read.


Cheers,

Phat Lewts



If you like my blog posts follow me on twitter @PhatLewtsGold!

Monday, April 9, 2012

MoP: Millions of Profit

If you like my posts, follow me on twitter @PhatLewtsGold!!

Recently Farli from The Overcut put out a post about how he theoretically plans on making 1M Gold in MoP.  I too have a strategy for making tons of gold when the expansion comes out, but there are a few road bumps in the way that I think that I, as well as most, will have to deal with.

Leveling
If you are an experienced gold maker, you know that there are very few times when farming is a viable (in terms of gold per hour) way of making the most gold in game.  The first month or so of a new expansion is one of those times.  For me, gold wise, the best thing for me to do would be to get my farmer  (mining/herb) to 90 ASAP, get Pandaria Flying, and start farming.  This is easily the best source of not only profit, but materials to level my Alchemy/Jewelcrafting alt, which is my first priority.

This is NOT an easy task for me, and probably not most.  My main isn't my Tauren Druid farmer.  My main is a Belf Mage that I love to play, but does not need to be max level to get the most out of her professions (Tailoring/Alchemy).  Will it be hard to put my main on the back burner?  Yes.  In fact I'm considering going after server first 90, which although daunting, and not likely, is something I think I'd have fun going after.  The thing is once you spend all the time leveling, when you could have been leveling your farmer, it cuts into your profit.  So the real question is what matters more to you in game?  Now in the long run will maybe 20 hours or so really cut that deep into your pocket?  Probably not.  But herbs and ores are going to be insanely expensive the first few days, and the faster you can get your hands on them, the better it is for you.  Just something to consider.

MoP: Money or Pandas?
Another thing that may cut into your money making on the first few days is Pandarians.  If you are like me, you most likely won't have access to the beta, you will probably want to get the full Pandarian experience first hand within the first month of the expansion.  My advice for this (from a gold making standpoint) is to hold off as long as possible.  Every decent or better gold maker out there will tell you that time is money, and gold per hour is a very REAL thing.  Every minute that you dedicate to leveling a panda is worth 16g 33s for every 1k gold you make per hour.  If you end up (theoretically) making somewhere around 10k gold per hour the first week of the expansion, every minute you play a panda is costing you over 150 g!!!  Just something to consider.

My Battle Plan
From launch my goal is going to be to get my main professions maxxed ASAP.  My (loose) priority is as follows, again with (considering) doing the "max the gatherer first", but not including it in the list:

1) Alchemy/JC
2) Enchanting
3) 2 other Alchemists
4) 2nd JC (for faster tokens (more cuts = more gold))
5) Tailoring
6) Inscription
7) Blacksmith
8) Whatever's left.

That's just my loose order, not necessarily static, and based on market price.  What's yours?

Cheers,

Phat Lewts


Monday, April 2, 2012

Blasted Lands NPCScan Add Macro

If you like this post follow me on twitter @PhatLewtsGold!!

I recently decided that it would be a brilliant idea to delete all my addons and start from scratch without making backup copies.  I'm a brilliant man, what can I say?  Anyway the result was me not having any of my rare spawns from blasted lands that I enjoy hunting so much in my NPCScan search.  I was feeling a bit lazy, and wanted to find a macro that I could copy/paste to add all of them at once.  After hunting for about 10 minutes I realized that I could have added them all in that time and that I can just make a macro myself, and here it is (separated into 2 macros due to character limits)

Blasted Lands Rare Spawns


/npcscan add 7846 Teremus
/npcscan add 8296 Mojo
/npcscan add 8297 Magron
/npcscan add 8298 Akubar
/npcscan add 8299 Spite
/npcscan add 8300 Rav
/npcscan add 8301 Clack
/npcscan add 8302 Deathe


/npcscan add 8303 Grunt
/npcscan add 8304 Dreadsc
/npcscan add 45257 Mordak
/npcscan add 45258 Cassia
/npcscan add 45260 Black
/npcscan add 45262 Narix

So there you go, just in case anyone wanted it, or is interested in hunting these rare spawns, the macro is waiting for your love.  The names after the numbers are irrelevant as they are just the nicknames you see when you type /npcscan.  If you want the full names for your reading pleasure, feel free to add them yourself :-)

Also as an added bonus, this is the route I take in Blasted Lands to hunt the spawns.  Is it the best way? Maybe/probably not.  Is it a decent/good way?  Yes.

Original Image from Wowhead.com

Have fun hunting your rares! 

Cheers,

Phat Lewts


Sunday, April 1, 2012

Endless Gold

If you enjoy my blog posts follow me on twitter @PhatLewtsGold!

Today I've decided to come clean.  Amongst the gold community we have a sacred trust in one another, not to let slip the most ultimate gold making strategies, but I just couldn't hold it in anymore, and keeping the secret from you has been tearing me apart.

How to Get More Gold Than You Ever Imagined
It's simple.  You don't need 10 85s on a server, no alchemy, no inscription, no jewelcrafting.  Forget the Shuffle, forget Transmog, forget Milling, forget Transmute cooldowns.  It's the secret that all the gold makers have been keeping from you since day one!  It's the profession combination that's  SO EFFECTIVE that gold bloggers and podcasters have actually been telling you NOT to do them so that they can keep all the profits to themselves.  If you are one of my astute readers, you know that the combination is none other that Mining and Herbalism.  This is THE deadly combo among deadly combos in the gold making field.  Getting these two professions to max level is like opening your very own gold factory.  After this post I'm probably going to be shunned from the gold making community, but I look forward to the continued support of my readers.  I hope you continue to read this blog even though you now have the most effective gold making tip available, and nothing could live up to this.

Cheers,

Phat Lewts


Don't Call it a Comeback

Okay. You can probably call it a comeback in this case. I've been gone a long time. So if you follow my Twitter you'll know I recent...