20 Days of Gold Making: Day 20

This is my last post for the 20 Days of Gold Making. I'd like to thank Nev for organising it and writing the questions. I've really enjoyed taking part and it's safe to say that I've learnt a lot! It's been especially interesting to read what more serious gold makers answer and compare it with my own. I've picked up some great new blogs to read and some handy tips - like using Trade Skill Master (I have now started using it but quite often forget that I have it! It will take time).

Just incase you missed any of my previous 20 Days of Gold Making posts I'll put links to them all at the end.

Lets spread some blog love - which are your 'must read' or 'go to' gold blogs or even other places you go for information & reading matter?

Prior to taking part in this community event I only read a couple of gold making blogs such as Nev's Auction House Addict and Xsinthis' The Golden Crusade. Aside from reading these blog's most of my knowledge about gold making came from a combination of Google searches, my boyfriends knowledge and playing things by ear. When it comes to professions I use wow-professions to find good farming spots etc.

So, since I started taking part I've found a lot of new gold-related blogs to read. A full list of participants can be found here. In addition to discovering established blogs such as Phat Lewt's Gold Blog, The Overcut and Power World: Gold I have discovered Selltacular of Copper to Gold. Mr Selltacular is relatively new to blogging with just a handful of posts to date. Nonetheless, he has left me a load of comments with helpful links, which I'm really appreciated of. If you're reading this, thanks again and the rest of you - check out his blog!!!

Links to my other 20 Days of Gold Making posts:
Day 1 - When did I start gold making & what triggered it?
Day 2 - Goals
Day 3 - First techniques/tips and tricks
Day 4 - Balking alts: do you use one?
Day 5 - Banking alts: same one or different?
Day 6 - Biggest gold-making market
Day 7 - Starting over
Day 8 - Did I achieve 'Day 2's' goal?
Day 9 - Favourite niche market
Day 10 - Farming materials
Day 11 - Addons
Day 12 - Biggest 'oops'
Day 13 - Biggest 'Yay'!
Day 14 - Dedication to gold making (or lack of)
Day 15 - Professions
Day 16 - Flipping!
Day 17 - Pets
Day 18 - Advice
Day 19 - Rewarding myself with... Pierre

20 Days of Gold Making: Day 18

What is the most important bit of advice you could give to a new gold maker? (not a game newbie though, just a newbie gold maker)...

Well I don't really have a notebook full of tips for gold making so I'll keep it short with three simple tips....

1. Be patient! It will take you a while to work out what sells well on your server and what doesn't. Don't expect to hit the gold cap in a weeks time unless you're willing to put the time in and even then I'm not sure if it would be possible.

2. As you've already been playing the game you'll have some characters. They may not be max level but a few levels is better than nothing. Assuming you've chosen to level your professions as you're going you'll also have some valuable skills. It's just a case of working out what you can make/gather that's worth selling. Note: don't dismiss items just because they're low level - the beauty of WoW is that there's always someone leveling a prof!

3. Find a market that you enjoy. This is a bit of a weird one but I think it's pretty important. If you're going to spend all or some of your time in the AH browsing and listing items why not focus on something you enjoy - after all it's a game and meant to be fun!

And ofcourse - Good Luck!

20 Days of Gold Making: Day 14

How much of your playtime is devoted to gold making? Do you raid/pvp/pet battle too or is the AH your main playtime?

On average, very little of my in-game time is spent making gold.

I do, however, go through phases. From time to time I find myself flying around simply mining or picking herbs for no use other than to sell. Usually, this type of gold making activity happens when I'm bored of doing what I should be doing and am looking for an easy distraction. I guess you could say the same applie to fishing - I do it as a bit of a side thing but at the same point I tend to use what I catch for cooking more often than I sell it.

I recently posted about my daily ritual of things I do when I log in. Once I've completed my AH-checks and dailies I spend my time doing whatever. Most of my in-game time is me bumbling about really. I do pet battle everyday - even if it's just the dailies to get the Sack of Pet Supplies.

More recently with the addition of the Raiding with Leashes achievement I have been raiding - even if it's seriously out of date! Whilst I have enjoyed going back and doing these old raids, that I wouldn't otherwise have seen, it hasn't inspired me to raid properly.

I guess the fact that I spend very little time working the AH and only sporadically farm items for sale is one of the reasons I'm only an apprentice gold maker who's no-where near the gold cap!

20 Days of Gold Making: Day 12

What was your biggest 'oops' moment?

Hmm... I know I have definately made some silly mistakes but remembering what they were isn't proving easy! In fact I'm struggling to think of anything - even small things.

So, I've been thinking about my answer overnight and still nothing major has sprung to mind. Instead I'm going to talk about some other silly things that I've done.

I have frequently, and will no doubt continue to, buy items that I already have / can get for free without realising. This sounds really dumb, I know, and it mostly happens when I'm in a rush and not thinking things through fully. Whilst this isn't directly related to making gold it certainly is a waste of the gold.

For example, I purchased all of my hunters glyphs and atleast half of my mage's from the AH. At the time I didn't have an inscriptor and believed my only option was to purchase my glyphs. Little did I know that my guild had a guild vault tab full of them - including the ones I'd purchased! I now know to check the bank first!

I previously mentioned that I'm a bit of a hoarder. My personal guild bank is full of items waiting to one day be used. I am in no doubt that one day I will need and use these items but not when this day will be. As a result I'm sat on a lot of gold, just waiting. Not all of the stuff I hoard is worth a lot - some of it just 1 or 2gold a stack. But if I were to sell the lot (or even vendor it) I'm sure I'd make a fair bit. I just can't bear the thought of selling it, then needing it and having to acquire it again. So, maybe my hoarding is a bit of an 'oops' moment and I should just sell the lot for gold. However, I don't think that will be happening anytime soon.

20 Days of Gold Making: Day 9

What's your favorite niche market & why?

This is quite a tough question for me so it's only a short answer. As I previously mentioned on Day 6 I sell whatever I have in my bags or excess of in my bank. This means that I haven't expanded into every niche of the gold-making market, meaning I'm not really sure what all the niches are.

My banker hanging out in the Stormwind AH (Dwarven District)

Being a battle pet collector and battler I always check what pets are available on the auction house. I've sold a few pets on the AH but it's safe to say I've bought more than sold. This is in part due to the short time I've actually played the game so I haven't managed to acquire of the world event pets etc. One thing I do enjoy about the battle pet market is that the pets can be found under two sections of the AH interface and I like to compare the prices and find a real bargain. I spoke about this previously and I guess it's a bit weird but it's something I enjoy. 

20 Days of Gold Making: Day 8

Yesterday I didn't do a 20 Days of Gold Making post as I was busy working on my Battle Pet Theme Team: Lunar Festival post. But I'm back on track today...

Thinking back to day 2, did you ever reach your goal or are you still working towards it? If you reached it - have you set yourself a new one?
In my Day 2 post I spoke about how I've never had a goal in terms of wanting x amount of money. Instead my goals have been to acquire an in game item for which I've needed a lot of gold to puchase. I gave two mounts as examples - the Sandstone Drake and Mekgineer's Chopper.

 

As you can see from the screenshot of my achievement window above I did manage to acquire both mounts.

 

I got the Sandstone Drake on 17/08/12 and I remember it very clearly. My boyfriend was browsing the auction house when he spotted two Vial of Sands for a cheap price. I can't remember the exact price but I think it was around 17k gold. At the time I only had 15k so he gave me the extra to buy it.

 

I got my own Chopper much later on 24/11/12. This was in part because I sold the first one that I made. The materials to make the Chopper are quite expensive and they always seemed to sell well on my server. So, I decided to try and sell mine with the aim of making 50% profit. The best part being that I did meaning my own chopper was effectively half price. You can't beat a bargain like that!

 

Since getting these two mounts I haven't really set myself any official goals. My unofficial goal is to have enough money for my hunter to purchase faction mounts/pets as she gets to the approproate reputation standing with them.

As you can see in the screenshot above my I've got a fair bit of gold in my guild vault / spread across my characters - just over 30k. So, getting the faction mounts/pets shouldn't be a problem.

I have therefore decided to set myself a monetary goal! In a few weeks it's my 1-year-of-playing-WoW-iversary and I'm really happy with myself for hitting the 30k mark and for getting the mounts/pets I want thus far.

So, my goal is to have 50k in 6-months time (by mid-end June 2013).

20 Days of Gold Making: Day 7

If you were starting over again (maybe on a new server perhaps), how would you start building some capital & what goal would you set yourself?

Whilst I play Alliance 95% of the time, I do have a dark-side and play Horde-side for a change. I would play more Horde-side if my Tauren, Moochew, was on a different server. I want to find a new server for my Horde-characters and I spoke in more depth about this in an earlier post.

For the purporse of this post I will assume I've found a new server and have re-created Moochew (and some other alts) there. So, how would I start making some money?

I'd like to say something like - 'I'd watch the auction house for a few weeks and work out what sells well on this new server and go from there' but that would be lying. I would certainly keep an occasional eye on the AH but I wouldn't do this in any more depth than a quick browse when I'm near one.

"I wonder what sells well here?"

I would definately take a gathering profession on Moochew (or whichever character I leveled first). This would probably be herbalism and then I would take inscription as my second - as everyone needs glyph's. I think I would also condsider having a tailor as people always need bags - including myself. Another profession that I find makes money is engineering (via selling pets/mounts) so I would probably consider a miner/engineer combo aswell - depending on how many characters I take on leveling.

As I mentioned in a previous 20 Days of Gold Making post (Day 2) I've never had a money-based goal. If I were to start again on a new server I think I would try having a goal. However, I wouldn't be too strict about it and would probably be more focused on leveling.

20 Days of Gold Making: Day 6

Which market has made you the most gold over the years?

The honest answer is I have no idea. I tend to sell whatever I have lying around in my bags or I've got a surplus of in the bank.  As I really don't have a clue what the honest answer is I'll talk about the top 2 markets I usually play as these are most likely to have made me the most gold.

Selling gathered profession materials
By 'gathered' I mean herb and ore/bars that I've collected and for ease will also include cloth. I've always sold any surplus of these materials and found that it can be a good way of making gold. However, the quantity and price at which you can sell these items really depends on the amount available on the market and demand. Some days its easy to sell a stack of 20 ore for over 200g, aother day the same ore will make maybe 50g. It's safe to say this market is very unpredictable but one I've found to be worth playing.

Homemade pets & mounts
Theres a hole range of in-game pets and mounts that can be homemade and sold for a profit and I've played this market since I was able to make my first pet. I think this first pet was the Pet Bombling made by an engineer. I have made duplicates of every pet that I'm able to make and sold it. If the market price is low and I won't make a profit then I keep hold of the pet until it will. Concerning mounts I sold the first Mekgineer's Chopper that I made. I managed to make a tidy profit that paid for half of my own chopper.

Aside from selling gathered materials and pets/mounts, I try to sell whatever I can - from gems to food. Not everything sells but I think it's always worth a shot.

20 Days of Gold Making: Day 5

Do you keep the same banker alt or do you change them up occasionally? Why?

When it comes to banker alts I've been very loyal to Bankingbob and have used him from the start.

I guess it's fair to say that I have considered what will happen when I run out of character slots on my main server. I know the chances of me ever leveling Bob is slim because he's a priest and after my first experience of a priest I don't think I'll ever go back. This means that if/when the time comes Bob will be going and one of my alts will take over as my banker. But if I ever need to undergo this drastic overhaul is another matter.

This question and in particular Nevs answer has got me thinking about how you get to know sellers on your server. There's a number of banking alts that I know and recognise sat in Stormwind on a daily basis. One in particular stands out and he (assuming the player is male like the character) doesn't have an amazing reputation. In fact I know people who will willingly pay more for an item off of the AH than buy his stuff. I'm honestly not sure why his reputation is so bad but I suspect it's partially due to him over-charging and constantly spamming in trade. Fortunately, my banking alt seems to have atleast a neutral (if not better) reputation.

20 Days of Gold Making: Day 4

Do you use a banker alt/guild? When did you start doing that & why?I started off storing items in my mains bank but soon it was full of random items. Some of these items were recipes/schematics/plans that I didn't want to get rid of thinking tht one day an alt could use them. The majority of it was materials (i.e. cloth) that again I didn't want to get rid of knowing that one day I would have an alt that was a tailor etc. Naturally, I am a hoarder and am reluctantly to bin most things and it seems this habit followed me to the vitual world.

 

In addition, I was getting fed up of hearthing back to city's just to access my bank or to use the AH to sell or buy some stuff. As a result I was generally using an alt to sit in Stormwind and wait for post to sell/auction. This worked fine until I wanted to play on said alt and moved them out of the city into the world.

 

As a result I made Bankingbob and my own private guild 'Bank of Jo' at the end of April 2012. I clearly wasn't feeling particularly creative with my naming when I did all this but oh well. Bob is my only male character and has a few times been misread as 'Bankingboob' which is quite amusing.

 

Bob's brilliant. He lives in the Dwarven District of Stormwind somewhere in between the bank and AH. He ferrys items between the two and the mail boxes located outside of each. It's so much easier to log over to him to purchase something or to send him some items to be sold or kept in the vault.

 

As mentioned above I'm a self-confessed hoarder and having my own guild vault has only served to increase the problem. I have 5 tabs for: mining related, cloth related, herb related, food & gems (odds go wherever theres room). If left unchecked I often end up spilling items over to other tabs which then messes up the system and is a pain. I now have regular clearouts and keep as little crap as possible.

20 Days of Gold Making: Day 3

What were the first techniques/tricks/tips you used when starting out?

So if you've read Nev's answer to this question you may have already read part of my answer.

 

My first real way of making gold was vendoring everything! It's amazing how grey trash items soon mount up and of course as you progress up through the levels the amount of gold you make from this increases. In part this technique requires you to loot everything possible - something that I do. I think it's good practice to loot everything as you never know what gem you might find hidden away in a pile of corpses.

 

However some exceptions - in the form of items that should be auctioned (if possible) as opposed to vendored. For example any cloth that you pick up and don't need. I've only recently started tailoring and have made a lot of gold from selling various cloth on the AH. Personally, I store cloth in my guild bank until it's selling reasonably well but at the end of the day anything is profit.

 

This brings me on to professions and specifically gathering profs. Now all profs have a means of making you money but I find the gathering profs to be the best. The individual items may not make a lot (compared with items crafted using other profs) but you will almost definately sell more. I'm sure nearly every alchemist has bought a couple of herbs, miners some ore to smelt and so on. Plus it's worth noting that whilst most professions work hand-in-hand with a gathering one (i.e. leatherworking & skinning) it doesn't mean that everyone chooses to do their own gathering and may instead buys materials.

 

The above three hints/tips were what I started off using and still do! They're simple and effective - what more can you want?

20 Days of Gold Making: Day 2

If you set yourself a goal, what was your goal & at what point did you set it?

I've never really set myself a goal in the sense of "I want this amount of gold by this date". My general goal is to have enough money to be able to buy items that I want in-game as and when. Two such items really stand out for me so I'll talk a little about them.

Reasonably early into my WoW-life I saw someone in Stormwind on the Sandstone Drake or rather someone transformed into one. I loved how it looked and asked my boyfriend how I could get one. For me this is quite a common occurence (even now) I see a cool mount and instantly consult my walking, talking guide (aka the boyf). In this case he explained that the drake can be made by alchemists with the recipe. At the time I lacked an alchemist and no-one I knew had the recipe. And so it began - my quest for gold in order to purchase this awesome mount!

Later I again saw a mount I wanted and this time it was the Mekginner's Chopper. This mount was more achieveable as I had an engineer and was in the process of leveling her. However, these bikes don't come cheap and it's necesary to grind rep with the Alliance Vanguard to get the schematic. Whilst I was working on the rep I made making gold a key priority. I was still building a stock pile of gold to purchase the Sandstone Drake and so I just increased my efforts.

On Day 8 you'll find out whether I ever met my goal of having enough gold to purchase these two mounts...

20 Days of Gold Making: Intro & Day 1

Last weekend Nev (of Auction House Addict and She Rides Dragons) posted her idea for a community event - 20 Days of Gold Making. I've been following her and others responses (list of participants here) this week and have decided to take part myself.

I don't consider myself to be as good a gold maker as many of the participants but it is something that I attempt to do. I guess I'm more of an apprentice gold maker still learning hints, tips etc.

Day 1 - When did you start gold making & what triggered it?

In short, I had a keen interest in gold making from the beginning and a combination of greed and wanting cool mounts triggered it.

My boyfriend had played WoW for several years before me and is a 'gold maker'. So when I started he told me to vendor everything grey and not to just drag & drop delete it from my bags (which I was doing at first). He also introduced me to the auction house. From this I started to auction gathered items (i.e. herbs and ore) and start making gold.

Initially greed and the desire to make as much gold as possible was what fuelled my selling and thus gold making. Then I reached level 20 and could buy ground mounts. This then gave me something to spend my gold on. I wasn't content with having just one mount - I wanted all of the ones I could. On my hunter, I had enough gold to buy the Brown Elekk, Purple Elekk and the Gray Elekk so of course I bought all three! Despite only needing and being able to use one at a time.

Since I started playing I have found more and more things to spend my gold on and have thus increased my efforts to make gold. You'll hear more about this in the subsequent questions.

Second-Hand Pet Prices

When Pet Battles first went live I was curious how this would impact upon the prices of pets on the auction house. I noticed that there seemed to be a 'second-hand pet prices'. So, what exactly do I mean by this???

Just to recap a few points regardign battle pets. All wild pets can be captured via pet battles. These wild caught pets can not be caged and sold/swapped etc. However, pets that have been purchased from vendors, given as quest rewards etc can be.

On the auction house, pets for sale are now listed under two categories. The first is listed under 'Miscellaneous - Companion Pets' (see pic, blue highlight). Pets listed under here are new and unused. The second set of listings are under 'Battle Pets' (see pic, red circle) and these pets are those that have been used and later caged for resale. Quite simply, these are second-hand pets.

Earlier today, whilst browsing the AH, I noticed some good examples of what I mean by 'second-hand pet prices' and these finds have inspired this blog.