What still sells

I think we all have experienced the slow down in sales at this point in the game. Call it what you will. Seasonal slowdown, post-patch blues, loss of players. It all adds up to lower sales for the auction house goblin. Personally I am seeing about a 50% slowdown in sales. There are many ways you can choose to view this. I prefer to see it as a challenge to my creativity.

We need to take a new look at how we handle our game. How we react to changes is what differentiates a successful goblin from an amateur. We must learn to lead the herd instead of just following it. We must find new markets and blaze new trails. As the old saying goes; we must think outside the box.

The fist step is to re-evaluate our current process. Take a look and see which markets to keep, which to abandon, and which to adjust. Each of us are different in what professions we have, what our markets are like and how our server functions. However the process to success remains the same.

First we take a look at what we are doing now. Usually we have become so ingrained in our daily routine that we don’t really put much thought into it. The current market wont allow us to keep doing the same thing over and over. As the market changes we must learn to adapt or die. Herein lies the challenge.

Below is a list of items that are still selling for me. Each server is different so be sure to check yours. Hopefully this will give you new ideas for old markets.

Engineering:

For me the best selling engineering items are pets. De-Weaponized Mechanical Companion, Tranquil Mechanical Yeti, Lifelike Mechanical Toad, Lil' Smokey, and Pet Bombling are excellent sellers. The bow Overpowered Chicken Splitter is also a good seller. This market was flooded at one time but most sellers have moved on, leaving very little competition on my server. The High-Power Flashlight trinket also sells well. On my server there is a steady demand for Purple, Green, and White Smoke Flares which typically sell for 20 times their mat cost. Check your server for other items that sell well.

Alchemy:

Unfortunately Alchemy is not a good profession on my server. Increased competition has caused the market prices to collapse in Potions, Elixirs, and Flasks. The only useful money maker for this profession remains in transmutation. My alchemist is currently relegated to support staff for my other professions. Whether he transmutes Shadowspirit Diamonds for my jewelcrafter or transmutes Truegold for my blacksmith he provides much needed support for my alts. When these items are not needed I simply complete the daily Living Elements transmute for some profit.

Blacksmithing:

Ebonsteel Belt Buckle is still a great seller. Even with high competition for this market there is enough of a demand to keep the prices profitable. The current ilvl 365 weapons are slow but steady sellers for a great profit. However my most profitable sellers are PvP gear. Bloodthirsty Ornate and Bloodthirsty Pyrium armor sells extremely well on my server. Low competition and high profits for this gear. Don’t forget to check your servers sales for enchanting rods as these can be very profitable as well.

Leatherworking:

Item enhancements are always great sellers. Charscale Leg Armor, Dragonscale Leg Armor, and Drakehide Leg Armor are excellent sellers. However don’t forget Earthen Leg Armor, Frosthide Leg Armor, and Icescale Leg Armor for level 80's also sell very well. Royal Scribes Satchel and Triple-Reinforced Mining Bag are two Leatherworking bags that sell very well for me. Bloodthirsty Leather and Bloodthirsty Wyrmhide PvP gear are another excellent seller. However Bloodthirsty Dragonscale and Bloodthirsty Charscale do not sell very well on my server.

Tailoring:

Tailoring has some great item enhancements. Powerful Enchanted Spellthread and Powerful Ghostly Spellthread sell very well. Don’t forget to check the prices for the level 80 spellthreads as well. Bags are every tailors mainstay. Its a market with great potential for profit. Illusionary Bags usually sell for 3k+ on my server with almost no competition. Embersilk Bags are fast sellers for a small but decent profit. Glacial Bags are another 22 slot bag like the embersilk but usually sell for 100-200 gold more than the embersilk ones. Frostweave Bags are another great seller on my server at 150-175 gold each. Many people recommend selling Netherweave Bags however the market for these have become flooded on my server and there is little profit in them. Other good sellers are the crafting bags. Otherworldly Bag for enchanting, Luxurious Silk Gem Bag for jewelcrafters, and Hyjal Expedition Bags for herbs. As always PvP gear sells very well on my server. Bloodthirsty Embersilk and Bloodthirsty Fireweave armor sells for huge profits.

Enchanting:

Enchant scrolls are selling very well. As the game wears on with no new content many players are leveling and equipping their alts. This has caused a great demand for enchants. Check your server or The Undermine Journal website to see what sells best on your auction house. Don’t forget to check the Wrath enchants as these are also selling very well. Now may also be a good time to check and see what the enchanting pets are selling for. If you left the market due to low profits and increased competition now may be a good time to jump back in.

Jewelcrafting:

While enchanting scrolls are selling to people leveling their alts, gem sales have not followed suit. Due to increased competition on my server, and fewer buyers, the prices of gems has fallen across the board. At this time I have temporarily withdrawn from the gem market except for metas. I still do the obsidian shuffle, however, I use the prospected gems to create rings and necklaces to be disenchanted to provide mats for my enchanter. Don’t forget to check your server prices for the PvP rings and necklaces as this market has good potential and little competition.

Inscription:

Inscription provides multiple opportunities to make gold. Glyphs can have a huge return versus cost of mats. However, massive competition is standard in this market. I recommend identifying the highest priced glyphs and sticking to selling those. You can make gold on the lower priced market but this begins to take up too much time for too little profit. You time is better spent elsewhere. Offhand items such as the Divine Companion, Dungeoneering Guide, and Battle Tome are good sellers on my server. Relic prices are too low to make a profit on for me. Be sure to check your server prices for these items. The second best Inscription profit maker for me is darkmoon cards. Everyone knows about the level 85 trinkets. Unfortunately with the recent release of newer trinkets as well as the brewfest trinkets, these trinkets are outdated. The true moneymaker for Darkmoon cards, decks, and trinkets lie in selling the level 60 and 70 trinkets. For people trying to level and power-level alts these are the best and easiest trinkets. They sell like crazy on my server. Also don’t forget that selling the decks to people trying to get exalted with Darkmoon Faire is a great way to make gold. Don’t forget to check out your servers prices for Mysterious Fortune Cards as a great way to make money. Check out Colds Mysterious Fortune Card Guide for more information on making money on the fortune cards.

Recipes:

Last but not least is one of the best profit makers in the game for me. Selling recipes. Recipes fall into one of two categories Crafting and Cooking. Each server has a “sweet spot” of pricing for these recipes. On my server I have found that to be 65 gold for the crafting recipes and 55 gold for the cooking recipes. This is a tremendous profit for an item which sells for fifty silver to two gold. Finding recipe vendors is easy if using an add-on such as RecipeProfit for GatherMate available at Curse.com. It is best to avoid the recipes in the capital cities. The harder to find recipes the better. I have found that many of the best sellers are the recipes from outland. Start in Shatt and work your way around the map picking up recipes. This is easier when coupled with another task such as archeology or farming herbs or ore.

These are a few things that still sell for me even in a depressed market. Hopefully it will give you additional ideas for your markets. Please leave comments about what sill sells for you. Thanks

Repping for Gold (Part 3)

Argent Dawn

There have been many changes to the Plaguelands over the years. If you haven’t been there in a while you might be very surprised. Many of the previous regular quests and repeatable quests have disappeared from the game. With new quests and quest chains replacing them. Many of the original repeatable quest turn-in chains have been removed. The quests requiring Bone Fragments, Crypt Fiend Parts, Dark Iron Scraps, and Savage Frond are now gone. Insignia of the Crusade and Insignia of the Dawn reputation turn-ins have also been removed.

Click this link to be taken to the wowhead.com comments section. Read the post written by Malgeras. He gives detailed step by step instructions for leveling reputation. He shows the quests you need to open the repeatable quests necessary to go from revered to exalted. The repeatable quests are Annals of the Silver Hand and Aberrations of Bone and are obtained from Fiona. Fortunately with the nerf to all Vanilla faction reputations you should be able to reach exalted in 1-3 hours, depending on your play time.

Argent Quartermaster Hasana sells the following items:

Recipe: Transmute Air to Fire

Formula: Enchant Bracer - Mana Regeneration

Formula: Powerful Anti-Venom

Pattern: Argent Boots

Pattern: Dawn Treaders

Plans: Girdle of the Dawn

Formula: Enchant Bracer - Healing Power

Pattern: Argent Shoulders

Pattern: Golden Mantle of the Dawn

Plans: Gloves of the Dawn

Repping for Gold (Part 2)

Thorium Brotherhood

Today I'm going to cover the Thorium Brotherhood faction located in Searing Gorge. This faction only has one alchemy recipe, one enchanting recipe, and no engineering recipes. There are many leatherworking and tailoring recipes available but the best recipes are for blacksmithing. This includes the Hand of Ragnaros, a two-handed mace that will be in great demand for transmogrification.

There are two NPC's that accept item turn-ins for rep. The first is Master Smith Burninate located at Thorium Point in Searing Gorge. He accepts Incendosaur Scale, Coal, Heavy Leather, Iron Bar, Kingsblood, and Dark Iron Residue as turn-ins. However you can only get your reputation to honored with this NPC. I recommend simply skipping this as it is a waste of time.

The second NPC for rep turn-ins is Lokhtos Darkbargainer. He is located in the Grim Guzzler, a bar inside BRD. There are two ways to reach this NPC. The first is if you or a friend have Direbrew's Remote from the Brewfest Yearly Event then you can teleport directly into the Grim Guzzler from anywhere in the world. The second way is to enter the BRD instance and find your way to the bar. To get to the bar you need to enter BRD. Take a left as soon as you enter and go though the gate. Take a right and pass though another gate. There is a door on your left, open and enter. Run to the end of this room and click the big machine to unlock upper BRD. Go up the stairs in this room and take a left. Follow the area round, and go across the bridge overlooking the big gate. When you get to the next turn take a right, towards Golem Lord Argelmach. Before you get to him, take the right turn out of his room and over a bridge. Welcome to the bar! He is upstairs at the end all alone.

Lokhtos Darkbargainer accepts the following items as rep turn-ins:

Blood of the Mountain 2000 Rep
Core Leather 1400 Rep
Dark Iron Ore 300 Rep
Fiery Core 2000 Rep
Lava Core 2000 Rep

Check your reputation tab too see how much rep is necessary to raise your toon to exalted. Check the prices on your servers auction house for each item and calculate the necessary numbers. On my server Fiery Core and Lava Core are plentiful with each selling for about 2-4 gold. On average you will need 2 stacks of 20 each.

Lokhtos Darkbargainer sells the following items:

Friendly
Transmute: Elemental Fire (Alchemy )
Dark Iron Bracers (Blacksmithing )
Enchant Weapon - Strength (Enchanting )
Molten Helm (Leatherworking )
Corehound Boots (Leatherworking )
Flarecore Gloves (Tailoring )

Honored
Fiery Chain Girdle (Blacksmithing)
Dark Iron Helm (Blacksmithing)
Dark Iron Destroyer (Blacksmithing)
Dark Iron Reaver (Blacksmithing)
Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spirit (Enchanting)
Lava Belt (Leatherworking)
Black Dragonscale Boots (Leatherworking)
Flarecore Mantle (Tailoring)
Flarecore Robe (Tailoring)

Revered
Fiery Chain Shoulders (Blacksmithing)
Dark Iron Leggings (Blacksmithing)
Dark Iron Gauntlets (Blacksmithing)
Black Amnesty (Blacksmithing)
Blackfury (Blacksmithing)
Enchant Weapon - Mighty Intellect (Enchanting)
Chromatic Gauntlets (Leatherworking)
Molten Belt (Leatherworking)
Corehound Belt (Leatherworking)
Flarecore Leggings (Tailoring)

Exalted
Dark Iron Boots (Blacksmithing)
Nightfall (Blacksmithing)
Ebon Hand (Blacksmithing)
Blackguard (Blacksmithing)
Sulfuron Hammer (Special)

Next Post:

Repping for Gold (Part 3)

Argent Dawn

Repping for Gold (Part 1)

Zandalar Tribe

The Zandalar Tribe was a faction created in the Eastern Kingdoms during the original release of WoW. They were located on Yojamba Isle off the western coast of Stranglethorn Vale (Coordinates 15.0, 16.0). This faction was removed in Patch 4.0.

While this faction is gone they are not forgotten. If you are one of the players who were able to obtain the recipes from the Zandalar before they were removed then you have an extremely rare opportunity. These recipes remain in the game however they cannot be obtained by new players in the game. This provides you the opportunity to be the only seller for these items on your server.

When selling these items be sure to bark in trade chat. Many players have never seen these. Adding a link to your bark is extremely helpful.

Available From: Rin'wosho the Trader

Items:
Formula: Brilliant Mana Oil (Enchanting)

Pattern: Bloodvine Boots (Tailoring)

Pattern: Primal Batskin Bracers (Leatherworking)

Plans: Bloodsoul Gauntlets (Blacksmithing)

Plans: Darksoul Shoulders (Blacksmithing)

Recipe: Greater Dreamless Sleep Potion (Alchemy)

Schematic: Bloodvine Lens (Engineering)

Formula: Brilliant Wizard Oil (Enchanting)

Pattern: Blood Tiger Shoulders (Leatherworking)

Pattern: Bloodvine Leggings (Tailoring)

Pattern: Primal Batskin Gloves (Leatherworking)

Plans: Bloodsoul Shoulders (Blacksmithing)

Plans: Darksoul Leggings (Blacksmithing)

Schematic: Bloodvine Goggles (Engineering)

Pattern: Blood Tiger Breastplate (Leatherworking)

Pattern: Bloodvine Vest (Tailoring)

Pattern: Primal Batskin Jerkin (Leatherworking)

Plans: Bloodsoul Breastplate (Blacksmithing)

Plans: Darksoul Breastplate (Blacksmithing)

Recipe: Mageblood Elixir (Alchemy)

Yojamba Isle before Patch 4.0

Yojamba Isle after Patch 4.0

Next Post:
Repping for Gold (Part 2)
Thorium Brotherhood

Repping for Gold (Intro)

There are many factions in WoW in which a player can earn reputation. Some of these factions sell items based upon your reputation with that faction. The vendors items vary widely. Many are useless in making gold in the game but not all. In this series of posts I will focus on gaining reputations with specific factions that will allow you to purchase items which can help you to make gold in game.

This is the first of several posts that will focus on reputation vendor items. Most of the items I will be covering are recipes and patterns. They cover all the crafting professions. The recipes are almost exclusively BOP and the value of the crafted items will vary by server. Please check your individual server Auction House or check the Undermine Journal to determine which factions and items would serve you best. While most of the crafted armor and weapon sets used to be useless to make gold, the advent of Transmogrification makes some of these sets potential gold makers.

It is my intent in these posts to offer you, the reader, with specific information on each faction, its vendor items, and instructions or resources for leveling your reputation in the easiest, quickest, most affordable way.

They Nerfed What?

As a long time player of WoW I am familiar with the term “Rep Grinding”. This term brings me back to the horrible experiences I suffered through at the beginning of Burning Crusade. I first started playing WoW during this expansion. After leveling my main, a mage, through BC I decided to go back to the Vanilla content and raise my reputation with those factions. My first choice was the Thorium Brotherhood. I have few memories of this, mostly bad. I do remember that it took me over three months to reach exalted status. The grind was long and painful. I do remember, vividly, the joy of finally hitting my goal. At that time I swore I would never rep grind another toon through that again.

Unfortunately I suffer from a major problem. Actually many problems. I am not only an altoholic but I am also a completest. Being an altoholic is not too bad. It has enabled me to level multiple toons and that has allowed me to to obtain all the professions. It is the “completest” part that is the problem. I want all the recipes available for my professions; and I mean ALL of them. I have spent tens of thousands of gold on the auction house buying out recipes. Unfortunately this will only get you the BOE recipes. For the BOP, you are on your own.

A while back I decided that I needed to get my blacksmith to exalted with the Thorium Brotherhood so I could obtain the blacksmithing recipes I took my time to prepare myself. I bought large amounts of reputation turn-in items off the auction house. I took a deep breath and plunged into BRD to begin the grind. I was prepared to begin my rep grin from neutral to exalted I expected it would take one to two weeks, depending on the time I spent on it.

I started at neutral. I began turning in items. I hit exalted in one minute. ONE MINUTE????

What???? Little did I know that at some point Blizzard nerfed the rep grind for all Vanilla factions. No longer does it take weeks and months to gain exalted status with these factions. Thorium Brotherhood? Exalted in one minute. Timbermaw Hold? Exalted in one hour. Cenarian Circle? One to two hours. While this makes it easier for Vanilla rep grind the bad news is that BC, Wrath, and Cata rep grinds are still difficult. Fortunately I will try to show you the easiest way to achieve these too.

Darkmoon Faire Changes

Blizzard has announced new changes to Darkmoon Faire coming in Patch 4.3.

4.3 Preview - The All New Darkmoon Faire

Gold makers should look to this to expect what changes will be gold making opportunities. At this time there is too little information to make an informed decisions, however, we can take a guess at what opportunities may exist. One staple gold making opportunity that always occurs with the faire is the ability to buy BOE pets.

Flik is a small green kid that runs around the faire He sells two pets. A Tree Frog Box which is unlimited in availability and a Wood Frog Box which is a limited sale item. Typically I will buy several of each of these and sell them during times when the faire is not around. However, with the coming of Darkmoon Faire 4.3 there is no guarantee that this vendor will remain at the faire. Therefore I will be stockpiling a large number of these before the patch, just in case. This is a low level risk as these do sell steadily year round.

Another pet is available in the Faire. This is a BOP pet called jubjub. This pet can be obtained from an NPC at the faire called Morja. This quest requires two Dark Iron Ale Mugs which can be acquired from The Grim Guzzler inside Blackrock Depths.

There is no guarantee if these pet vendors will remain in Darkmoon Faire 4.3 but it would be prudent to get them just in case. If they do remain the pets can be sold over time for a decent profit. If they are removed then the price of the pets will skyrocket for those who had the foresight to stockpile them.

Leveling Your Character: Choosing your professions

Whether your starting your first character or starting an alt it is important to choose the right professions to help you. Most gold makers agree that the best choice is to choose a gathering profession while leveling. This allows you to make gold while leveling as opposed to spending gold to level a crafting profession. It is much easier to power level your crafting profession once you hit max level. There are three gathering professions you can choose.

Mining:

Mining is probably the best profession to choose while leveling. There are multiple crafting professions that depend on mining to create their crafted items. These include Blacksmithing, Jewelcrafting, and Engineering. Each node of minerals that you mine grant additional experience for leveling. Stacks of ore sell pretty well on most servers.

Herbalism:

Herbalism is the second best profession to choose while leveling. There are two professions that depend on this. Alchemy and Inscription depend heavily on herbalism. Herbs sell very well once past the starting areas. Each herb grants additional experience for leveling your character.

Skinning:

Skinning is the third gathering profession choice. Skinning is not an ideal choice for leveling your character. Skinning does not grant additional experience for each leather skinned. Skinning and leathers do not tend to sell well until the very high levels.

I would recommend that you learn mining and herbalism as your professions while leveling your character. The experience gained from these will help to level your toon much faster. I would only recommend skinning if you plan on picking up leatherworking at a later time.

If you don’t believe that this experience gained would level your character faster, you could not be more wrong. When Cataclysm launched I leveled my miner from level 80 to level 85 in three days doing nothing but mining. That was faster leveling than I was able to make on my main simply by questing. While prices vary by server you will be amazed by the gold to be made by selling your ores and herbs on the auction house.

Why this blog exists

About me:

I started playing WoW shortly after the release of Burning Crusade. During that time I leveled 2 toons to max level with two more toons started. At this time I have ten toons with six at maxed level. I have maxed out all the professions including the secondaries. I began to raid in Karazhan and continued into Wrath and beyond.

Towards the end of Wrath I began to become interested in gold making in the game. I started out by reading all the blogs I could find. One blog would lead me to another and so on. At this time I read about fifteen blogs that I consider to be high quality with useful content. In addition I listen to about ten WoW podcasts. Half of these are gold related with the rest relating to the casual aspects of the game.

After reading so many blogs I began to realize that I had ideas that may be useful to the community. I considered submitting guest blogs to the sites that I frequented. At the time I did not know if I had it in me to write enough articles to create my own blog. However after reading a post from a blogger that I admire I decided to make the attempt. Only time will tell if it is successful or not.

Thanks to flux of Power Word: Gold for providing the inspiration.

Why this blog was created:

While I have been thinking about writing articles for some time now the real causative was created when trying to teach another guildie about how to earn gold. This new player had just reached level 85 on his first toon. One day he asked me to teach him how to make gold in the game. This started a conversation that lasted for about two weeks. In the end we both walked away in futility. He walked away because I wouldn’t tell him what he wanted to hear. I walked away because he wouldn’t hear what I was trying to tell him.

I continued to think about our conversations for a long time later. Trying to reason out what went wrong. I knew I was trying to help this new player but I had failed. Perhaps I was supplying him with too much information for a novice. The truth is that even now I'm not sure. This blog is an attempt not only for me to teach but also to learn.

A Common Misconception:

When new people enter the gold making community they seem to believe that there is a “Secret” to making gold. They want to learn the “Secret” and are sure that as soon as they learn it they will begin to start earning thousands of gold per hour. The truth is there is no “Secret”, there is only the “Grind”. This is the ability to play the auction house with persistence, knowledge, and patience. This is what this blog is about. To teach, to inspire, to inform.

Welcome to The Auction House Grind.