Monday, May 17, 2010

Farming for Profit




I found this video on YouTube of one of my favorite farming spots. The drop rate for Crystallized Fire seems decent and they're easy kills, once you get past the annoying charge/stun mechanic. While waiting for respawns head outside the cave. Located nearby are plentiful ore and herb nodes, as well as beasts that can be farmed for meat and skins if you have Skinning on your farmer.

The great thing about farming is that it is always 100% profit, all you need to do is invest your time. With every other strategy, whether it's AH flipping or crafting Flasks for the raiders, you're dealing with a profit MARGIN only. The gold per hour farming may not compare to that of an established crafter with several alts, but if you're looking to get started, supplement income, or ride out a tough market period then a great framing spot can't be beat.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Titansteel Bar still Profitable?



Is Titansteel Bar still profitable on your realm? In looking at the current market price of these on several servers this morning it looks like it is still a solid earner. Once the cooldown on creating these was removed, many miners assumed that the profit margin would dwindle and abandoned crafting these creating a low supply that has kept prices artificially high. Remember, Frozen Orb can be exchanged for Eternal Fire, so if these are cheaper on your AH you can drive your crafting prices even lower. Check the prices on your realm to see if this will still work for you.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Stockpile Mats Now


When Cataclysm hits there will be a huge influx of new toons on most realms, many of them with BoA gear equipped. An Enchanter that prepares for this in advance will stand to make significant gold in the first few months of the new expansion. Due to the limited number of useful enchants that can applied to the BoA gear, it's a simple thing to do. Below are the enchanting scrolls most likely to be in high demand.


Enchants:
Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Crusader
Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Fiery Weapon
Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Agility
Scroll of Enchant Chest - Greater Stats


Mats Required:
Large Brilliant Shard
Righteous Orb
Small Radiant Shard
Essence of Air
Essence of Fire
Illusion Dust

There are other enchants that work for BoA gear as well, but these will be the biggest sellers. More sophisticated enchanters can look up the rest and try to get the mats for those as well. If you decide to do nothing else, just add these items to your Snatch list in Auctioneer and grab them anytime they're selling at a reasonable price. Either turn them into the scrolls above or just hold them until Cata and sell them at a huge profit as demand will skyrocket.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Cheap Saronite Ore?


Recently I've noticed the market price of Saronite Ore dropping like a rock and decided that I needed to take advantage of it. Leaving too much ore available at low prices will depress the prices of Infinite Dust, Titanium Bar, and Bold Scarlet Ruby, among other things. Since I'm heavily involved in these markets, I've got a vested interest in supporting the prices.

I found 100 stacks of Saronite Ore on the AH at a buyout price of 12g50s. Since I'm currently well stocked on Infinite Dust and Titanium Bars I decided that I wasn't really interested in either Prospecting/Shuffling or Transmuting that much of it. Being a little low on Cardinal Rubies I prospected 40 stacks of it to resupply, leaving myself with 60 stacks. So I smelted it into bars and sold it to the closest vendor. I queued up the smelting and walked away to do some work around the house. At 25g per stack of Saronite Bar, I'm just breaking even on this.

Even though I won't make a single copper on those 60 stacks directly, I've likely made significant gold by keeping those cheap mats out of circulation.

Has anyone else ever purchased at break even or a loss just to regulate the market?

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Work with Your Guildies

Just because you don't have every profession in the game is no reason to not use them to profit if the opportunity is available. The odds are good that someone you know has the skill you need and isn't using it as a source of income. Many people level their professions just to get the profession bonus for their main toon and never craft single item with the intent of posting it on the AH. If you can find a profitable item and a friendly crafter in your guild you can move into a market without the hassle of picking up a profession yourself.

One example of this that I frequently use is the Arcanite Rod. Used by levelling enchanters, these are in near constant demand on my server and yet rarely found on the AH. Since I don't have a Blacksmith, I've made an arrangement with one in my guild. I send him enough mats to make between 10 and 20 per week, paying him 5g per rod for his time.

Cost of Mats = Approx 32g(4x Dense Stone, 3x Arcanite Bar)
Tip per Item = 5g
Total Cost = 37g
Market Price = 55g
Total Profit = 18g(not including AH cut)

In this scenario we have a happy crafter who is now making some money with his rarely used profession, and a happy gold gobbler turning a profit with a minimum of effort. This particular item may not be the most profitable on your server, but the same strategy can be applied to almost any market where an opportunity exists.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Use your Alts Wisely

Serious gold making players almost always have a line-up of alts to leverage the different professions available to them and it's important to make the right choices for which professions to take. It's not critical to have every profession, but the difference in profitability increases exponentially the more markets you have available to you. So what's the best way to go about choosing which professions to take?
Do your market research for your particular realm. Not all realm economies are created equal, and for that matter the faction economies on each realm tend to vary widely. Use Auctioneer scans for a few weeks to get a good feel for what will sell and identify areas that are currently under served by your realm's crafters. Professions that pair well together:

Alchemy/Herbalism
Skinning/Leatherworking
Jewelcrafting/Enchanting
Mining/Jewelcrafting
Mining/Blacksmithing
Enchanting/Tailoring
Herbalism/Inscription

You don't necessarily need to pair professions like this, it all depends on your server. If cheap mats are consistently available on your AH, then replacing a gathering profession with another crafting profession may be the way to go. However, one thing that should be avoided is redundant professions. I read a post earlier this week from an alleged gold guru who stated this was his gold making "machine":

Toon1 - Mining/Jewelcrafting
Toon2 - Mining/Blacksmithing
Toon3 - Mining/Alchemy
Toon4- Mining/Tailoring
Toon5 - Herbalism/Inscription

To me, this seems like a lost opportunity. Why have 4 toons with 450 mining when one can do the job equally well? I would drop mining on three of them and replace them with Transmute specced alchemists to take advantage of the epic gem transmutes, leaving my list looking like this:

Toon1 - Alchemy(transmute)/Jewelcrafting
Toon2 - Alchemy(transmute)/Blacksmithing
Toon3 - Mining/Alchemy(Elixir)
Toon4- Alchemy(transmute)/Tailoring
Toon5 - Herbalism/Inscription

Even with the recent changes to the epic gem market, this would still prove a more profitable set-up.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Getting Rich Quick

To start off this blog I'm going to let everyone in on the biggest secret to gold making in the entire game. This is something that is well known by all the serious Auction House heroes and gold making gurus but seems to have been missed by the general population. There is no way to get rich quick.

While it is true that you can make a large profit very rapidly by flipping certain items on the AH and certain people are happy making a killing by selling an uninformed player worthless items for well above their value, it's no way to get yourself gold capped. Like most other things worth doing making yourself rich in the game takes time, effort, and discipline. That said, there are a variety of strategies that can be followed to minimize the time and effort, leaving you with little to worry about except which raid group to join.