Addendum to How to be a Great Transmog Salesman Part 1

If you read my post yesterday and liked it, a reader, lasagna left a note in the comments, and pointed out that there's an even FASTER way to do this search, which takes little (or almost no) time.  It involves using a dealfinding search with up to date scan data so that it only scans items that are actually on the AH, below a defined price, and takes just seconds to do!

TSM App
Since you need recent scan data, there are two ways to go about it.  The fist is using the Tradeskillmaster App, which will download your data about once per hour (it's an external application to WoW), and you can get that data into WoW with a /reload.  What the dealfinding list is going to do, using this strategy, that a normal shopping list won't, is it will only check for things that were cheaper than your threshold at the last full scan.  Using this TSM App, downloadable straight from the TSM website at this link, you will be able to constantly update your data without ever doing a scan in game!  You will have to do a /reload to retrieve the most recent data if it has scanned since you've been logged in, it's a very useful application to have.

While visiting TSM's website, be sure to check out their Child's Play Charity Fundraiser.  They're currently raising money for the Child's Play charity, and are matching every donation made!

Alternatively, if you don't want to download the application, you can just click Run Scan (under AuctionDB with the AH window open), and then "Run GetAll Scan".  This will also provide you with the data you need to do a quick dealfinding search.

Two Different Lists
If you want to skip my ramblings and just download the precious lists, click the "TSM Transmog Lists" button above.  

Now there are two different ways to do this, and I'm just going to go into what each scan brings to the table, and why I personally prefer one to the other (although both are extremely useful in their own way).  The way we're going to use these lists, they're going to take our recent scan data, and then use our list to only search for items that were below our threshold price at the last scan.  Basically it will scan only the items that are on the AH, below your defined price, which is very nice.

List 1: 745g
The list I prefer is one where the limits are set just below my 750 minimum posting price, at 745.  This scan is preferable to me because I will not be scanning any of my 800+ auctions, saving a lot of scan time for me.  The con of this list is that some items you'd be willing to pay more for, you won't see.  The best deals for flipping on the other hand will mostly be below 745 gold, so to me, it's preferable.

List 2: 999,999g99s99c
Now if you either don't have a large inventory, or just want to see EVERYTHING, that is another viable option, my second list has a limit of 999,999g99s99c, which will of course show you every item.  This list will scan every item that was seen in your AH at the last scan.  This will still scan less items than a shopping list, but will find your own items.

List 3: Custom
If you want to easily change your limits to whatever you see fit (especially if you have different limits than I do), see my quick write up above the lists.

All of the lists can be found at this link, or by clicking the "TSM Transmog List" button above.

Importing Your Chosen List
Last but not least I will go over how to import a dealfinding list for those of you who do not know how to.  First type /tsm, and click Shopping Options at the top.

After doing this, click Dealfinding Lists then Import Dealfinding list.

Now enter a name, hit Okay, Then paste the list data you chose into the box, Hit accept, then Import List

And there you go, your list is imported!!

Using the List Properly
Now to use the list properly for fast search times, do a GetAll scan or refresh your data if need be (detailed above).  Then, in the TSM Auction House window, click Search -> Special Searches -> Dealfinding Search.  And there you have it!  A Simplified Search!

Thanks once again to lasagna for this awesome idea, for some reason it never occured to me, but doing it is so simple and worth it!

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

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

How to Be a Great Transmog Salesman Part 1

**In the comments in this post, lasagna pointed out that there's a faster method to doing this search. I outlined this method here.  You can still use this shopping list, but the other method utilizes dealfinding lists for quicker searches.**

This is intended as a simple guide to purchase transmog gear in the most efficient way possible.  If you're not familiar with Transmog or TSM, learn how to use the addon package TradeSkillMaster before reading this guide, it's necessary, trust me.  Check out Faid's Instructional TradeSkillMaster videos here.

1. Addons

To be a great xmog seller you really only need 2 addons (although TSM is a package of addons):

Tradeskillmaster: I use this to buy, post, and empty my mail (as well as keep track of sales).  In particular you'll only need the Auctioning, Mailing, and Shopping packages, but all are recommended. 

Mogit: Great addon that adds hover over previews to armor items.  You'll have to check off "Load out of date addons" on your login screen for this one to work in it's current version.  It works flawlessly though, which is probably (hopefully) why they haven't updated it for 5.1.

2. My Strategy

Shopping:

A lot of gold makers use separate lists, say Cloth, Leather, Mail, Plate, Weapons, and Shields.  While doing this has it's pros, you're wasting a whole bunch of your own time sitting and searching for 100 items.  I often found myself AFKing or browsing the web while doing these searches, and coming back to searches that were completed 10 minutes earlier because I got distracted.  Then it hit me.  If I'm going to do 6 huge xmog searches, why not do them all at once?  Search for 500-600 items, browse the internet, go AFK, or read my Favorite Gold Blog, and then come back later and go through the results.  I've tried it out for over a week now, and I really like my results with this method.  Generally I'll buy anything under 50g on this list, and the rest I judge by the appearance whether it's worth buying to flip.  My list is based on a compilation of these lists from Faid at GoClockorkRiot, Shannon, and myself.  Shannon's list I trimmed down a bit for my own tastes, it originally had over 200 weapons, it now has only 151.  

Selling:

For those of you who are new to transmog, I'm going to go over my shopping strategies.  Those of you with preset Groups for selling set up already feel free to move to the next section.  For selling I break my items down into 4 tiers.  Some people like less, some people like more, I like four.  My different groups are set up for 48 hour posting, and priced as follows:

(Threshold/Fallback)

499/749g - Common Transmog

750/1250g - Better looking/rarer Transmog

4499/4999g - Really Cool looking/unique Transmog

17,999/18,000g - Ridiculously Rare Transmog (think Jade, Exalted, etc)

As you start working with transmog gear you may decide you want different prices or more tiers based on your server's needs.  This is what works for me, and I've had success with it.  The first 2 groups above were originally 500 and 1k in Cata, and I bumped them up when MoP was launched because inflation.  Use your best guess.  Transmog doesn't sell constantly, so don't change your price levels around too much at first.  You have to set a standard for your server, and possibly work against any competition.  Use your best guess when first making sets.  Base it off of the look, and what you think you can get out of your potential buyer for it (use Mogit to mouse over and see what it looks like).

3. The List
Below is the list, Import it by typing /tsm, going to the Shopping Options tab, clicking Shopping Lists, then Import Shopping list.  Name it and copy/paste the following data into the "List Data" field.  Hit the Accept Button, then Import List.  I had some trouble importing this list, most likely because it's so huge.  The name didn't go through at first and it took a while to load after importing, but these are minor problems that should not effect the list.

s1@13035,12784,13043,12535,7944,13053,3854,19169,13065,8226,23540,9511,7961,2077,2205,12838,31234,36601,25126,25138,25142,10571,23632,37749,31318,31322,37805,37813,32661,31139,4696,23505,15229,55066,15239,15251,15265,21800,12974,12976,25127,15275,25139,25147,2244,23629,31291,17015,31299,43871,25191,13014,13018,25215,12769,12775,12777,13034,13036,68601,13044,13046,13052,35664,6802,65013,8223,8225,1391,23542,25331,37808,37824,1394,36589,25144,31268,44311,55284,25208,31332,31336,25220,9718,30077,25236,8190,35652,12528,870,25221,15925,13004,15216,25119,23746,25214,23499,31153,59463,1728,15232,10570,15236,43611,25316,15238,10573,65318,9383,25336,2299,25212,15256,13983,25216,68161,20698,15266,21802,36599,15272,16039,15276,15278,25141,1986,15240,25161,55286,23631,9427,15273,14531,12825,866,23543,1925,2801,15267,1607,13017,13051,55289,3208,12260,13027,17054,25233,25237,1958,14913,25001,14915,14917,14918,14920,14921,14922,14924,14926,14927,14928,14929,10368,10369,8138,10371,24934,10373,8140,24940,8141,24944,10378,8143,10382,10383,10384,10385,10386,10387,14833,10389,10390,14838,14966,14840,14968,24984,14970,14971,14972,14975,14976,14977,14978,14980,14854,14855,14856,14857,14858,14859,14860,14862,14863,14864,14865,14867,14868,14967,14839,10376,14981,14905,14908,24987,14906,24935,24937,24939,10206,14904,12618,24947,25000,31232,14900,13072,24982,24988,24936,14895,14896,14897,14898,24983,10201,24999,10203,25003,10205,12619,24985,10208,10209,14909,14911,10380,8139,13082,14973,14942,15352,66895,10093,36452,4068,15891,15892,4069,1204,12997,14825,1169,14954,1203,15648,14947,9974,31292,15494,14800,13079,7496,36447,7465,2040,10078,10362,14930,15592,36448,31200,14964,10365,4444,14902,25076,10367,25073,25079,25080,25081,25082,14780,14812,45450,9899,13083,1168,8309,7489,7490,6411,4079,6412,14793,14794,15050,7494,15052,14799,14802,14803,10232,10233,10234,10236,15575,15576,15578,10118,10119,15581,15582,4712,10124,10125,12415,15591,4717,24839,15596,24843,15598,10266,15601,10268,10269,10270,4725,7454,10273,10274,24867,24865,14798,15680,4727,7486,10154,24862,8303,10157,6596,10122,15609,10161,10162,4697,6594,7491,15607,7455,6386,6592,8265,8267,15506,15511,8269,15509,15510,2989,6590,15513,15514,2990,9928,4073,4076,2991,4071,9933,15051,2992,15524,4072,24863,15527,15528,15529,10121,8271,24840,4074,6402,1988,14789,4075,14792,6595,12420,16984,15669,6597,24864,7487,14805,14796,10230,6409,15168,10220,10221,10222,14670,14671,10227,24773,24775,14675,24779,14677,14680,15189,15191,15192,14685,14559,14560,14562,4054,14565,14566,4055,24694,24696,24698,6430,4057,4721,9887,9892,9894,4062,15195,6431,4063,14687,14564,15370,15372,8255,8256,15369,8258,8262,8260,24776,15374,15167,15376,9782,15378,15379,15386,15381,10183,15383,6581,15385,6582,10189,10187,10182,6584,24695,6587,15139,6586,10188,15142,10190,15144,24778,15130,15194,15148,15149,15150,15151,24774,24699,9947,9948,10186,9950,10225,9952,14681,9954,15162,20575,15164,6408,15166,14684,10214,14025,7110,14413,14294,14296,14297,14425,6610,14175,17050,3291,6615,6617,14441,14442,14443,4714,14445,14192,14452,14453,10143,7517,7518,14213,7520,7521,7522,14231,14232,14106,14234,7468,14367,7470,4037,7471,14371,14119,14120,6395,3309,8111,4040,2034,14117,8113,14113,8114,18486,3308,14254,4038,24585,10216,14091,6527,6531,6393,4035,2800,14272,14273,10210,14275,10178,10215,8110$@

Tomorrow I'll be going over more specific strategies I use.  This should be more than enough to get you going for the time being!   

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

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

Phat's Weekly Lewt Review: 12/18

Those of you that have been regular readers of my blog for a while know that I used to regularly come out with a "weekly review" going over what worked for me and didn't work for me in the past week in WoW.  I haven't come out with one in a while since MoP launch, but I think that now is a good time in the expansion to look at weekly trends.

Living Steel
Living Steel has still been strong for me.  I get weird peaks and valleys of selling it, it seems that when it does sell, it sells somewhere in the 8-12 range at a time, which is nice.  Again being on a small server, I'm sure most other servers have a steady in and out stream of Living Steel, but it's just not the case for me.

Transmog

My level 1 transmog seller (pictured here) has been very busy as of late!  This week I tried a new strategy with transmog, which I'm liking quite a bit and I'm going to address in it's very own post.  What I've been doing is searching for items 600 at a time.  Yes.  A 600 item TSM list that takes a ridiculously long amount of time to search for.  I go afk or browse the internet while it's working, and go through the results when it's done buying anything under 50g that will sell.  It's been working quite well so far, and hopefully later today I'll have a post up here including my list and how to use it if you're new to transmog (or not).  It makes transmog shopping a bit more painless, which is always great in my opinion.



DMF Trinks
On my server DMF trinks are still going strong, during DMF I was able to sell quite a few individual cards for a nice markup, and I came out with 3 trinkets (one of which sold already).  A good haul IMO, still burning those cooldowns daily, and will in the weeks to come!

Gems
JC has also been doing decently well on my server, mostly because the halving of the ore nodes actually impacted my server.  A lot of servers are back to normal, or at least near it, but my server, because of it's smaller size still has high prices on Ghost Iron Ore, and it's making gems worth slightly more, which is nice.  Worth me doing a bit of prospecting and cutting now with my WoW time.

Halfhill Market
If you haven't been already, get rep with the Tillers!  I've been planting Enigma Seeds recently (see my previous post) and I'm making about 750g/day worth of herbs.  Quite the nice haul from farming.  In Halfhill as well there is Nam Ironpaw, and this dude should be your new best friend.  If you go to theunderminejournal, and click "Gathered -> Cooking" after getting on your server, you'll find a list entitled "Ironpaw Token Trades" of the cheapest items turn into Bundles of Groceries (containers from Merchant Chang after doing starting quests).  Buy those up off the AH, bundle them up, and exchange them in Halfhill for Ironpaw Tokens.  Using them you can buy 100 Year Soy Sauce, Black Pepper, and/or Rice Flour and sell them for a markup on your AH.  I find that these usually sell to people who are trying to max their cooking for the first time rather than max chefs for raiding guilds.  The max chefs tend to know about this arbitrage, but are using it for their guilds.

That's all for me, one last thing to note is I recently bought a Battered Hilt off the BMAH for 10k, and I put myself on a deadline to sell it by the end of the year.  If I don't I'm going to do the quest line myself as I never got to do it in Wrath.  My week in WoW was pretty good, I crossed the 1.75 million threshold on my server, aiming for 2 million by Jan 8th, but we'll see how that goes!  Also bought an invite to the Brawler's Guild, and I found it quite boring actually, but I did not pay much for it, so no big loss there.  How was your past week in WoW gold?  What is/isn't selling for you?

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

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

Dispelling the Enigma Surrounding Enigma Seeds

After 5.1 nerfing the exchange of Spirit of Harmony to Golden Lotus, many people were up in the air about what seed to plant at their Tiller's farm, and you may have recently read that Enigma Seeds (which produce herbs) got a stealth-buff, possibly the better alternative for providing Golden Lotus.

My Findings
I have been planting Enigma Seeds over the past 10 days or so, and every day so far I have gotten 4-6 Golden Lotus each day.   On top of that, the other plots that aren't Lotuses are other herbs that I send off to my Scribe to mill into pigments.  Below is a screenshot of my normal yield:

So not only do you get the 4-6 Golden Lotus, you get other herbs on top of that.  When you plant Songbell Seeds on the other hand, you get 1.6 Spirits which turns into 3.2 Golden Lotus.  So 4 Golden Lotus alone and you'd be better off.  Add to that the other herbs and you're much better planting other seeds.  On some servers vegetables may be the way to go, but the price per Golden Lotus (on average across servers) is currently: , which with the addition of the other herbs are worth more than vegetables (at 5-7 per plot).

If you haven't yet began grinding Tillers rep, now is certainly still a good time.  The rep is a decent grind, and as far as gold making is concerned, is by far your best rep (minus the profession specific grinds).  Cooking is also doing (semi) well for me currently, don't forget the Ironpaw Exchange!!

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

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

The Return of Realistic Returns

Many times, as gold makers, we get dismayed if we can't make some major returns on our investments.  I know I always try to focus on the highest return activities, well letting others fall by the wayside.   Flipping things for twice what they cost is almost ingrained in our brains.  While this of course is the easiest and fastest way of getting gold, there's no point missing out on other opportunities available.  Diversify!

Investments
Quite like real life, the more you invest in profitable things, the more money you're going to have in the long run.  Say (hypothetically) you are able to make a 10% return per day by using some profession, selling everything you post daily and using the new amount as investment capitol.  By the end of the week, you would have (roughly) doubled the money you initially invested.  Now there are of course better investments than this to be made in WoW, but know that  every investment counts, small investments that sell constantly are just as good as long term investments that make tons of gold from 1 sale (such as transmog/leveling green market).

Prioritize
That being said you can't do everything all the time.  Some days you don't play, some days you don't have time to play the AH, or only a limited time.  Do what makes the most gold for you.  This is hopefully something everyone already does out of instinct alone.  Daily cooldowns to me alone across a few characters are more than enough for the average player to have a mass of gold, and be able to pay for what they want (within reason) in game.  But just because uncut gems are 50g and the cut are 70g, doesn't mean that this 20g isn't worth your time.  When I post a spread gems on my server, I sell at least a handful each day.  At 20g profit per, even with selling costs factored in, it's not a negligible gain in gold each day.

That doesn't mean I'm going to focus in on JC first, by all means I'm not.  I prefer to focus in on things like Inscription CDs as well as Alchemy and Tailoring before I get into any sort of mass processing of ore.   Diversification is key though, and it's important to do the things that may not net you as much overall gold, but good and fast returns.

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

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

What 5.1 Brings to (and takes away from) the Table

5.1 brought some changes as a patch, noted in the Patch Notes, but has also brought around some stealth changes that were not anticipated.  I'm going to go over some of the ones that I think are important to us as gold makers, feel free to chime in if you think I missed one or want to add!

SoH + Node Nerfs
In the official Patch Notes, they noted that 1 SoH will only get you 2 Golden Lotus now (as opposed to 3).  Also, you can now purchase SoH for 600 Conquest Points if you're a PvPer.  Now this significantly decreases the value of your SoH, consider growing some of the higher value plants on your farm instead of Motes!  Check out my previous post here for more info on determining what your SoH is worth.

Also, Blizzard announced that all nodes in Pandaria have gotten a 50% nerf.  This is pretty big, as they're trying to make the ore/herbs more valuable (see the post).  This is good for us as both crafters and farmers.  Assuming that we make the same percentage return regardless, having the mats cost more means that for each thing we craft we're getting more gold.  For farmers they're getting more for their work, for crafters they have to do less work to make the same profit.  It's a win win situation for all of us!

Pet Battle Changes
There are a few major pet battle changes that I think (sort of) impact the gold making community, one is that for completing the full chain (EK + Kalimdor, Outland, Northrend, and Pandaria) you are rewarded with 3k.  For me this is nice because I enjoyed the pet battles to begin with and it gives me an excuse to go finish the quest line!  Also, a reward from the bags for completing these quest now includes the Flawless Battle-Stone which can be sold on the AH.  This item will automatically upgrade your pet to rare, which is a helpful thing for players with pets that are only uncommon (learned from items), or for the ones in the wild they're too lazy to hunt for.

Mr. Bigglesworth (image from Wowhead)

It's also useful to note that a few pets have been added to the game, I'm not going to go too in depth into these, but a lot of raid pets have been added, the reward for getting them all being the much coveted companion, Mr. Bigglesworth, from Naxxramas!  If you want to read more about these pets check out Wowhead's article here  I think this will encourage some players to get into the new pets as this is one awesome vanity pet that's hard for anyone to pass up!  Another nice addition for Tailors is that they can now craft 2 new pets, the Imperial Silkworm and Imperial Moth, which can both be created by using your Imperial Silk Cooldown.  A potential extra profit/reason for tailors to burn their CDs every day!

Darkmoon Trinkets Upgradable
Another nice feature they added in 5.1 is the ability to upgrade epic items with valor points.  Previous to this Darkmoon Trinkets were BiS, and now they are upgradable as well, helping ensure their value for at least a few more DMFs!

The one last thing that may be of value is that we can now enter old raids by ourselves, and some solo friendly changes have been made to some bosses.  This could be useful if you farm raids, but was not essential, just makes your life (slightly) easier.  So, what is your favorite or least favorite part of the new patch?

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

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

Brawling Time - BMAH

I want to start out this post by appologizing a bit for the lack of content in the past few weeks.  I was busy for a while IRL and when Sandy came (I live in NJ)  things got hectic for a while, but now things have settled down and I finally have some time to write and play WoW.

First Rule of Brawler's Guild
Well I'm breaking the first rule by writing this post, but when reading an article on Wowhead about Brawler's Guild on the PTR, I was surprised to see that you can access this content by invite only.  And where does one obtain such an invite?  The Black Market Auction House, or as Cold pointed out to me, through member invite.  Invites take Rank 7 in the guild which this post (read it for more info) says currently requires ~75k dps on the PTR.  Needless to say these non-BMAH invites won't be spreading around for a while.

BMAH on the PTR courtesy Wowhead.com

Now, the number of invites  you see in this picture will most likely be more than that on the live servers when 5.1 comes out (maybe not though), but these are going to be a pricey commodity when 5.1 first comes out and the weeks to follow.

What does this mean?
Well, you have two options.  Maybe you're one of the elite gold makers on your server and you want to try out this Brawler's Guild before everyone else, perhaps because you're after the Realm First Achievement associated with it.  If your pockets are deep and you can outbid your competitors, and babysit the auctions, you can be the first to try this, and possibly get the Realm First.  On the other hand you can just wait.  If you're not interested in the Realm First I HIGHLY suggest this route.  Sure go back and check daily what they're going for, or check trade for people selling cheap invites, but wait it out at least 1-2 weeks.  Maybe even get an invite from a friend if they have one.  Prices will drop exponentially by then and you can get your invitation for a great deal.

General BMAH Tactics
In general when using the BMAH you have to take 2 things into consideration.  What you're willing to pay, and where you're going to be when the auction expires.  If you're not going to be on when the auction expires you may very well lose the item to someone who is willing to just pay 1k more than you at the last second.  You may have to pay a premium if you really want an item on the BMAH but just can't be in game when the auction expires.

Always set a price threshold.  If there's an item you're interested in, decide what the maximum price you'd be willing to pay BEFORE you start a bidding war.  This way you don't get caught up in a silly bidding war and end up in a situation like this:

Click to Enlarge.  Image courtesy reddit user jlwg.

Finally, if you're able to be in game near when the auction is expiring, don't start bidding until then.  This one is pretty simple, if you start bidding before then you're only raising the price for yourself, and why do that?  If you're going to start a bidding war, do it as late as possible.

So, if the system goes as planned, when are you going to try to get your invite to the Brawler's Guild after 5.1 is released?

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

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