Don’t get greedy…

While most markets are winding down in the final days before cata’s release, it seems like the Glyph market is really heating up on my server. There are 3-4 major contenders, with another 3-4 others trying to get in on the glyph market. While undercutting is fierce, it’s not too horrible as we all tend to stay within the same price ranges (except for the newer people, who sometimes sell their glyphs uber cheap, which get bought up by me or my competitors for resale).

The issue we seem to be facing is Overpricing, and I am not really sure it’s even overpricing – let me explain.

Prior to 4.0.3a if you were a serious goblin, you made sure you traded a bunch of Ink of the Sea for other inks, as you knew about the Ink Trading change. Prior to that, Major and Prime Glyph prices were around 25-35g per on average.  After that change, overnight glyph prices rose 30g and they keep getting higher. Right now a lot of glyph’s are being posted at 130-150g.

I am not posting at 150g. Part of me would love it if my Glyph stock sold at 150g a pop. But the other part of me is realistic.  While others post their Glyph’s for 150g, mine are being posted at 75-90g (depending on glyph).

You may ask why I am not charging huge prices. If all the major sellers agree to prices on my server (as they tend to do within a few silver) then everyone will have to buy at our insane price. Why am I not making that much more gold?

Because it feels greedy. Yes I play to make gold. Yes I believe in supply and demand, but marking up something 900% doesn’t seem like good practice to me.  At the end of the weekend, 80% of my glyphs sold and I post twice a day, every day. Since I stuck to my guns I think more of my stock sold than normal netting me around 22k since Friday in glyphs alone.  I also monitor my competitors and while some of their glyph’s sold, it didn’t seem like they were selling as fast as mine where.

What does that tell us? Don’t get Greedy!

Yes, there are people willing to pay 150g  or more a Glyph just because they want it now. However there are also a bunch of players who would rather wait for a lower price, or worse go make an alt and level inscription themselves, or go find a guildy. Personally I feel that if prices are too crazy, then you drive people away from your market – especially in one as competitive as glyphs. In my opinion its best to find a nice comfortable price, one that others are willing to pay and one that still nets you a decent profit.

With my 90g average that’s 70g profit per Glyph (average herb price 40g a stack, 1 stack = approx. 2 Glyphs). That’s a nice chunk of change for a single glyph. Some of the more rare glyphs I do increase the price, and obviously the common ones go for lower. But that’s a comfortable price for me that it seems like customers also agree with.

You may not agree, but I think that is one of the Keys to AH success in common markets.

Leveling Status update

Paladin is 67, mainly because I think I am part cat and had tons of naps over the weekend that seriously interfered with wow time. Or I would get distracted as I am attempting to enter the market on the horde side of my server. Hopefully with the holiday over I will find more focus and get the paladin to 80 before cata’s release.

Market within a Market - Minor Glyphs

If you are a goblin fond of risky roller coater markets, then you probably partake in the Glyph Market.

I am relatively new to the Glyph Market but so far it has been very lucrative.


One thing I noticed was that there was fierce competition on Prime and Major glyphs, currently the running average on my mid/high pop server is 35-55g per glyph.

But then I take a look at minor glyphs and notice that the average price for those is 125-155g per glyph and that the market is not as saturated.


I believe the majority of people are learning their glyphs from Northrend Inscription Research (which normally grants you a Prime or Major Glyph) and not doing their Minor Inscription Research which grants Minor Glyphs. Both share the same cooldown.

So what's the solution?

as Kreaton posted on his blog not too long ago, if you have a lowbie banker (as I did) make him/her a scribe and grind to 75. Once there you can learn minor inscription research and have your lowbie craft the minor Glyphs, while your main scribe can still learn the Major or Prime ones.


The Glyph Market is getting a few more competitor's on my server as people are board and attempting to make money for cata, even with this i am still able to average around 30-45g profit per glyph in sales and make around 2000g a day in glyphs alone. Vanishing Powder is still selling on a regular basis (wtf?) but Enchanting Vellum's are not. I think that's because most people who are making scrolls are AH savvy and know they can buy it from a vendor now, whereas vanishing powder is used by the general population.


I haven't made any large deals in the last few days, with the holiday I spent a lot of time cooking and cleaning and visiting family, spending little time on the AH. The biggest deal I think I made was getting 2 Arctic Fur and 40 Frozen Orbs for 100g (Seller in Trade Chat).


The Paladin has reached level 66 and I hope to have her to 72 before the weekend is over and 75 before next Friday, still trying to get to 80 before cata hits.

I hope you have a great holiday weekend filled with lots of turkey :)

The Shattered landscape …is amazing

4.0.3a was released yesterday and Azorth will never be the same. I logged into my primary AH toon and found that Vanishing powder was still available via vendors, so one rumor was indeed a bug. I posted all the vanishing powder I stocked up on the auction house anyway, and it has already sold.

Enchanting Vellum is available now via Enchanting vendors, so I bought up a few stacks of those and placed them on the AH. My hope is to take advantage of this market before it becomes common knowledge.

After I posted those items and relisted my glyphs that had expired, I decided to explore the destruction that Deathwing brought starting in Stormwind.

Stormwind is much more polished, I am very happy with the changes. I ran around checking out all the new and old vendor’s to see if there were any changes or additions.

First thing I noticed was the new bag vendor and bags such as "Carriage - Exclusive" Enchanting Evening Purse. I didn’t buy any yet but I think I may invest in a couple to see if they would flip on the AH.

The second thing I noticed was the new bank and auction house locations. Love it. With two locations there should be less crowding for my bank toon if I do decide to move her from the Exodar.

Next of course was the Cooking daily, the reward of which is the new cooking award. This means that players can start getting the recipes to help level their cooking before Cata is even released.

After I got done exploring  Stormwind I decided to get some of the new flight paths. As I was getting flight paths, I of course decided to look at the new vendors. Low and behold most of the General Vendors had limited supply green items, mainly Wrist and Back items such as Owl Bracers for just a few silver, I decided to pick up each item I found and by the end of the night I had all the flight paths on Eastern Kingdom and 15-20 green items.

Once I was done with Eastern Kingdom it was, unfortunately, time for me to go to bed. Before that I put the items on the auction house for 8-15g depending on the item.

Wake up this morning and over half of the auctions have sold for a total around 115g. Not a huge money maker, but it was nice to make a profit while I was running around exploring the new zones. Perhaps I can have the same luck tonight with Kalimdor.

If you haven’t already, be sure to go learn Glyph of Mage Armor from the trainer.  I learned this first thing last night and posted a few for 100g on the Auction house, which have already sold. This morning people are posting them between 250-400g but I think I’ll keep my price 100g or below,  I would rather sell consistently than wait for the higher price – as I am sure word is going to get out about the Glyph.

Tomorrow I’ll report on Kalimdor and see if I find anything noteworthy.

The quiet has been shattered!

At least that is what my mage thinks. Previously I would rarely be bothered with Portal Requests – once the servers  are up and people realize that they can no longer portal jump everywhere they are going to be screams on anguish from all the non-mages of Azeroth.

I also expect screams from other quarters. If you have been reading gold blogs then you  have heard the rumor that Jessica Sellers the ink trader will no longer be trading Ink of the Sea for other inks, instead she will be trading Blackfallow Ink (which is unobtainable), which means glyph prices are going to go up yet again.

Another rumor is that Vanishing Powder will not be available on the Inscription vendors, so I hope you stocked up!

Last night I spent most of my time posting. I posted a bunch of glyphs and enchants. I didn’t invest in the BOE market, but I wanted to make sure I focused on the Glyph market this time around. I have a ton of ink (about 3000 broken down into various inks) and a stockpile of common glyphs.

Let’s see what the take is once the servers come back up.

Emerald Whelp – o How I love thee

What a weekend. As you may note, I don’t blog much on the weekends – I get really caught up in gaming so I tend to not read blogs nor write them – it’s also because I want to save the content so I have something to do other than work on Monday morning.

I surprisingly didn’t play much wow this weekend; I started playing Fable 2 and got caught up in it. I did manage of course to do a daily post/scan of the auction house, while I was reviewing the auction I noticed the elusive Emerald Whelp for 11k buyout, whist I can afford it – I can’t really bring myself to spend that much on a vanity item. However I noticed the bid of 300g. Knowing that I would probably be outbid, I bid on it anyway. After that I put it from my mind and continued my endless posting of Glyphs while exploring the land of Fable.

Low and behold I login this morning to a bright and shiny new Emerald Whelp for only 300g. Somehow, no one outbid me. Before the Goblin could rear its head I sent it to my main and learned it.

To appease the Goblin, the Red Whelp which I purchased for 500g is now on the AH for 8k. I don’t expect to sell it soon, with 4.0.3a around the corner, but you never know. 

Tip of the Day:  Don't put an item up with a low bid unless that is a price you are comfortable with. That Whelp should have really gone for 3k minimum, but because of lazy or intept posting - I walk away with it for 300g.

Regardless my play time, I did manage to net around 9k in misc items this weekend. But I spent another 10k (5 of which was a loan) on more cataclysm goods (ore, eternals, ect).

Everyone ready for 4.0.3a? I’m pretty sure I am going to go insane with all the tells I am going to get (being a mage) from all the people not used to actually Flying everywhere. 

I think it would be good if they made scrolls of recall something that could be used by everyone, not just Inscriptions. That way it would be another commodity that we could sell and give non-engineers, non-mages a second way of traveling. Or perhaps expand upon the potion of Deepholm, where you can create potions for major cities. I understand that blizzard wants everyone to experience the new zones and not just port anywhere – but that is going to get really old in a few months.

A Crimson Conundrum

I woke up at 5 am this morning and started my morning routine

Ø  Login to Wow

Ø  Scan AH

Ø  Shower while scan is in progress

Ø  Once complete, review emails…

And that’s when I saw this

O…M…F…G…

I snatched it up. I have always been an avid Pet Collector and the Whelping’s have always somehow evaded my grasp. When I do see them, they are for insane prices on the AH, and the Goblin in me wars with the Pet collector and I don’t end up spending 30k for a freaking pet.

Now I have a Whelp. But now…what to do?

The average price for the Whelping on my server is 5k. That’s a 1000% turn around if I sell it for the average price.

Once again the Goblin and Pet Collector are at war.

If this was the Tiny Emerald Whelping, there would be no competition. The Pet Collector would buy the pet, equip it and strangle the goblin with her purse strings if she uttered a single protest. But its not. While I do want to collect all the whelping pets, I could sell the pet and purchase more herbs for inks or raw materials to sell and possibly make a killing in Cata.

Right now the Pet Collector seems to be in the lead and I did not put the Whelp on the AH before I left for work – but I didn’t send it to my main to equip either.

On the Gold Front I have recovered from my AH Spree and I am back at 30k on my banker (I don’t really look at my other toons personal loot) Doesn’t seem like a lot to some of the Major gold contenders, but I’m happy with 30 k liquid and 4 guild bank + 2 Character banks filled with materials.  With the weekend coming up I am hoping to drop another 10k on cheap materials once the farmers come out to play. We’ll see how it goes.



4.0.3a on the Horizon!

With 4.0.3a on the horizon many inscription changes are in the works. If you read the Consortium Forums (which you should), the Elen Posted that come 4.0.3a the ink trader change will be in effect, even though blackfallow ink will not be available yet. In addition, Vanishing Powder will no longer be available from inscription vendors – instead Dust of Disappearance will be in its place.  Last, but not least Glyph of Mage Armor will again be trainable.

Because of these changes, and because Pilgram’s Bounty is on the horizon, I don’t think that 4.0.3a will be released 11/23 , especially with reports of all the bugs present in the current beta version. I think it more likely that they will release 4.0.3a on 11/30 just 1 week before Cata goes live. Of course I could be completely wrong.

What does this mean for you? This shortens the time you have to stock-up on inks so get out there and trade your ink of the sea while you can, stock up on vanishing powder and sell those Glyphs of Mage Armor if you have been holding on to them!

Buying Herbs for Inscription – prices

One of the first mistakes I ever made when I entered the AH was to buy material at prices that when crafted would sell for less than I paid in materials. Now I am very careful to only buy materials at my lowest crafted threshold.

For Glyphs, my threshold is 10g. When I look at Herbs and Glyphs this is what I do

20 x Herb Price: 12g (.6 s per herb)

20x Herbs = 12 Azure Pigments = 6 Ink of the Sea = 2 Glyphs =  6 g per Glyph Cost (12g/2)

Therefore if I sell at my lowest threshold I will still be making 4g per glyph in profit.  I also take this into account when I am reviewing my competitor’s stock. If they are selling at below my threshold, then I buy up their stock – they have already saved me the milling/trading/crafting time by providing the glyph at below cost.

Now, many Glyphs will sell above (or way above) my threshold of 10g – but the inscription market is very competitive and risky. The prices of Glyphs change from 13g one day to 130 g the next, all in a blink of an eye. Because of this I choose to be a bit on the conservative side when buying materials.

Here is a quick spreadsheet, just plug in your Northrend Herb Prices to get a quick estimation on what the cost of crafting a glyph would be: IM A GOOGLE SPREADSHEET

Note – this is estimating an average of 3 azure pigments per mill – results may vary.

Gold Glyphmas

I'm dreaming of a Gold Glyphmas

Just like the one 403 brought

where the Auction House glistens

and Sellers listen, to hear,  buyers bitch and moan

I'm dreaming of a gold Glyphmas

with every class glpyh that I scribe

May your glphys and inks be sold

and may all your glyph-masses be gold!

Auction House Abeyance

Deals seem to be winding down on my server and it now takes a mere 2 minutes to scan the auction house (used to be 10) as there are less and less items as people are focusing more on the Elemental Invasion and Cata.  I am still doing my daily grind on the auction house, looking for deals and buying up any cheap items I can. But I have stopped my hard-core Glyph war I have with my major competitors in the Glyph Market.

I have a few competitors on my server and we are consistently trying to run each other out of business, lately some have been posting Glyphs as low as 3g per, so instead of fighting this war I decided to buy up any Glyph under 5g and just save them for the Cata-Glyphmas. Even if I only sell these for 10g per, it’s still a profit.

I was able to find a nice flip, I found Schematic: Crashin’ Thrashin’ Robot for 100g and flipped it for 1200g.

Crunch time is on for getting my Paladin to 80 before Catacysm is released, I figured if I get to level 65 by Friday, I can crank out 5-6 levels over the weekend and hopefully be in Northrend by Sunday. Then its two weeks to 80. If I get 2 levels during the week, and 3 on each weekend then I should just make it by Monday 12/6.

I am trying to stock up on Inks as I expect the prices of herbs to skyrocket. Since Jessica Sellers, the Ink Trader will be trading Blackfallow Ink instead of Ink of the Sea, then people will not be able to get the cheap inks they can get now. While I don’t expect the Cata Herbs to be in as high of a demand as Cata Ore, I am guessing that it will be a while before it is worth it to trade Blackfallow ink for anything. Also with all the new characters leveling, or people leveling their Alchemy (Mount anyone?) I expect pre-cata herbs to also spike in price.

My Goal Stockpile

2000 Ink of the Sea

600 Etheral Ink

600 Lion’s Ink

500 Midnight Ink

300 Jadefire Ink

200 Celestial Ink

200 Shimmering Ink

Nov. 16th Status and Gold Making Tips!

According to Rumor, 4.0.3 drops today – preparing the world for cataclysm. Great news as the closer we get to the expansion, the more people login and the more people there are the more people buying my stuff…

O yea and the expansion is pretty exciting too :P

Yesterday I broke down and got the remote auction house, for which I am very grateful now. Once I got the remote AH, I set up some notifications on TUJ. Within 10 minutes I found a deal, the First Mate Hat for 1g.

Afterwards I was all set; I found another few items including a few Glyphs of Mage armor.

I spent lots of time investing in some items; I just can’t resist the eternals that are going for less than 1g. I am buying up lots of water, and then I plan to flip them to Fire and re-sell or save.  I do have a method. I don’t invest in items I won’t be able to use. With Eternals and Ore, I will soon be leveling Blacksmithing and possibly engineering, so even if I don’t flip the Eternals and ore, I can use them.

Even so, I am taking lots of Risk – let’s see if it pays off in Cata.

Tip of the Day

With the elemental invasion and the expansion on the horizon there are a lot more people in the Vanilla and Outlands either with the Event quests or leveling alts, if you find yourself out and about, give a quick look at the vendor’s in your area for limited supply recipes.  Acadia at Acadia’s Gold  gives a great tip here for Ashenvale

Most of these recipes you can sell for 10-15g on most servers and the cost just a few silver. Some of the really rare ones you might be able to get 80-90g on.

Another Example is Lebowski in Honor Hold, he sells

Schematic: Cogspinner Goggles and Schematic: Ultra-Spectropic Detection Goggles both of these items consistently sell for 80-90g

Nov. 15th – Leveling and Profession Status

Paladin Farmer

Ø  Level 60

o   Now with Flight skillz!

Ø  Herbalism

o   365

Ø  Mining

o   340

Notes: I probably could have gotten a few more levels this weekend, but I had D&D Saturday and took a nice long nap on Sunday.

Rogue – Inscription

Ø  Inscription – 401 – up from 200 since 11/8

Notes: Had to spend about 400 gold between some herbs I was missing and then the training itself. But I finally made it to the 400’s. Now I will probably level up using Northrend Research. Already the return I am getting on the glyphs I made just to level is paying off.

Week of 11/15 Schedule

This week’s plan is 70 for the paladin, that way I can get into Northrend and get some more herbs, my stockpile of Northrend Herbs will soon be depleted.

Current Investments

I was unable to meet my goal of 40k this weekend and in fact ended the week with a 5k loss. However 3k of this was to my husband’s riding skill. I have stocked piled quite a few more items (ore, eternals and frozen orbs primarily) so I don’t really think it’s such a bad thing.

I spent some time on the Paladin farming Essence of Air and Earth for the Agility and Strength enchants, just to realize that my Enchanter doesn’t have the timbermaw recipes or faction. Another goal to add is going to be to get her to the correct faction level (revered I think?) so she can buy the recipes.

Also note my productivity at work will take a hit, as my Realm is available on TUJ, WOOT!

Another 5k bites the dust and Hatchlings available again!

I just couldn’t help myself. I started investing in some of the ridiculously low priced Saronite Ore, Cobalt Ore and Eternals/Frozen orbs. I have a few plans for these items but nothing too concreate on what I plan on doing with them. Good News is that since I am going to level blacksmithing, if push comes to shove I can just use this to help level that.

So I spent 2k on various materials. I was finally able to start posting again, and I posted all of my glyph stock and so far 600g has returned.

The rest I loaned out to the hubby who has finally gotten to level 70 so he can get an epic mount.

Sadly (or not depending on who you are) the Razzashi Hatchling will be available once again come cata. It will still be a rare pet, but probably will not sell for the hundreds of thousands of gold that some people where speculating. If you have done a lot of investing in this pet, you may want to get rid of them now while they are still selling for high prices (before word leaks out). (Source) 

I only bought 1 Hatchling for around 4k, so I am hoping that I can sell it for 5-6k but if I don’t, it’s the one Raptor my main is missing and she is a pet collector so I could just absorb the cost and bind it to her.

I do feel bad for all those people out there who invested a ton of money into the hatchlings, but as we all know there is risk in every venture. Actually, this makes a lot of sense, as I was surprised the Hatchling would not be available by other means with ZG being changed which is why I was hesitant to invest to heavily into them.

NOTE: did a quick check on the Undermine Journal  on Horde Side of my server (alliance isnt up yet) the quantity of these has trippled in the last 24 hours and the price cut in half (avg. 8k is now avg. 4k).

Mid-Week Status Report Nov 10 Edition

Paladin Farmer

Ø  Level 52

Ø  Herbalism – 314

Ø  Mining – 299

Notes: Slow going on my gathering professions, mainly because the herbs/ore are few and far between in the questing zones. I have entered the worst leveling bracket – 50-58 – I am hoping to get to 58 by Friday so that I can start in outlands, but I may have to detour to gather some herbs for my rogue.

Rogue – Inscription

Ø  Inscription – 235

Notes: I have not been able to farm many herbs so my inscription has suffered a bit. I kept a bunch of peacebloom and silverleaf in case I need more alabaster pigment for Minor Inscription Research – I want to make sure I get every glyph possible. I have also added the Mastery Books to my snatch list so I can save them for when I need them.

No new news on the gold front. I didn’t post any auctions today – didn’t have time this morning, but I did manage a quick scan. I should have plenty of time tonight put up all my auctions.

Blue Post: “Exalted reputation with Shen'dralar will no longer be required. As this is the only reputation that will be unobtainable in Cataclysm, we've simply decided to remove it as a requirement”

I suspect that the materials for this achievement will no longer be so sot after now that there is no pressure from it going away. I would be careful of any flipping of the Pristine Black Diamonds.

Great News Everyone!

Last Night was a great night for me, quite a few of my normal glyph auctions and misc. resale’s sold, I also sold a Wispcloak. Over the past few weeks I have been selling one Wispcloak and one Deathchill Cloak about every 2 days, for around 485g. It only costs me around 100g (per) to make, so that’s  a little over 2k per week.

I would not recommend going to your tailor and cranking out a bunch of these to sell. Right now I make one of each and put them on the AH and don’t make any more until they sell.  So far it’s been pretty consistent, but I am on a high population server and most people are pimping out their high level alts right now.  Your server could be different and you don’t want to invest too much as this is a risky item.

Between Glyphs, the Cloak and misc. sales I made around 8k. Then as I was watching the Walking Dead and semi-monitoring trade I saw the most wonderful thing

Free Guild, 2 bank tabs – PST

I rushed to get it. I gquit my guild (which gave my GL a heart attack is it is my mains guild but I didn’t want to stop to type in case I missed it) and sent him a tell. I am now the Owner of a Guild Bank! Woot!

Previously, I spent loads of time in IF/SW trying to get signatures with 10-20g offers, but often time’s people would take my gold and run – my server is not very trusting so they wouldn’t sign before their gold was received. I got tired of being scammed so I figured with Cata on the way, smaller guilds would be liquidated and the member base consolidated into larger guilds to take advantage of the new guild perks – that’s exactly what happened here.

Now that I have doubled my storage space (haven’t bought more tabs – I am waiting until I need them) I spent the 8k I gained on some investments including

Ø  Iron Ore

Ø  Mithirl Ore

Ø  Mid Level Gems

Ø  Misc. Items that were too low price

Ø  Razzize Hatchling (3000g)

Ø  Orb of Deception (400g) 

Ø  A bunch of other items that I cant remember at the moment.

The Razzishi Hatchling  and Orb of Deception are going to sit in the bank a while, waiting for a good time to sell.  By this morning I am at a 8g loss for the week – but I am confident that I will be able to meet my goal of 40k by next Monday.  

Misc Gold Total & Recent Deals - Nov 8th edition

This weekend was very lucrative. First Friday night I stumbled upon 2 Glyph of Mage Armor for 80 g each, bought them and flipped for 400g each. I then found a pristine black diamond for 20g and sold it for 440g. Saturday my husband asked I run his druid through scholomance, and during the run I looted 2 pristine black diamond, which again sold for 440g.

Although I think I could have increased the price on the diamonds on my second go. Friday there were about 5 on the AH ranging from 550 to 430, so I picked 440g as my sell price. Saturday there were none so I could have kicked up the price to 600-700g but I was in a hurry when I posted the auctions.

Gold To Date: 32,175g

Friday I was around 29k, so between the deals I found and my normal auctions I broke the 30k mark. Not bad for my second month of serious auction housing, especially with the economy the way it is.

Week of 11/8 Schedule

This week the plan is to get the Paladin to level 58 so I can start outlands, to get herb and mining to minimum of 350, and to complete the stockpile of Vanilla materials for Blacksmithing.

Secondary Goal is getting Inscription to 300.

Current Investments:

My current investments are the materials for the +22 intellect enchants and +22 strength enchants, I want to have 50-60 of these stockpiled away for cata. Of course I am also on the lookout for Small Eggs, Woolen Cloth and Rugged Leather in preparation for the Feast of Winter Veil.

Misc. Farming

If/when I get tired of leveling the paladin, or if I have met my goal prior to the weekend, I will be farming twilight texts and essence of air in Silithus. The essence I plan to save for the agility enchants and the twilight texts to turn in for the rare recipes.

Gold Goal

40K – I want to have 40 k by next Monday 11/15

Nov. 8th – Leveling and Profession Status

Paladin Farmer

Ø  Level 50 (10 levels since Friday 11/5)

Ø  Herbalism – 300

Ø  Mining – 275

Notes: So far so good on my paladin, it was rough going with mining for a while as I kept finding mithirl before I was able to farm it. I enchanted my gloves with Advanced Mining, and that has helped me a lot so far.

Rogue – Inscription

Ø  Inscription – 200 – up from 0 since Friday 11/5

Notes: All the herbs I farmed on my Paladin went to leveling this characters inscription. I did have to invest 30 gold so far and get a few herbs from the AH, however I have made over 400g so far with just the glyphs and items created leveling to 200 so it was a worthy investment.

Priest – Blacksmithing

Ø  Blacksmithing – 0 – not trained

Notes: my priest is my current level 80 miner with epic flight so I am hesitant to remove her mining skill until my Paladin is up to par. I don’t want anything to interfere with my plans to mine come cata, so it’s better safe than sorry.

I do have quite a bit of ore saved up so far from leveling the Paladins Mining skill, about 400 copper ore, 300 tin, 40 silver, 120 iron, 40 mithirl and 25 truesilver so far. I am keeping it all as ore, that way what I don’t use can either be prospected or sold off, depending on what’s better.

I did however make a mistake in sending it to my priest in ore form, is should have left it on the paladin, as once I start learning blacksmithing the priest will not be able to make the bars. I think my brain was asleep when I sent it all.

What are you doing in preparation for Cataclysm?

This question is prevalent in the blog-sphere of pre-cata, every blog has tips and tricks and lists for what they are stockpiling, based on all the speculation of what items will be of high value with Cata’s Release.

Often the list is the same across the board:

>  Netherweave Bags

>  Netherweave

>  Raw Materials (gems, herbs, ore)

>  Items being removed (Pets, Tome of PolyTurtle,)

> The list goes on…

If you read any of the gold making sites, then you know most of this list already and I don’t want to repeat it. I am hesitant to stockpile or invest too much gold in these items and here is why.

 Over the past week I have gone to many of the most popular gold making blogs and reviewed their tips and stockpiling lists, noticing the trends between them all. If I went to this list, how many other people on my server are also going to do the same thing? Will the market be flooded with these same materials?

The thing every reader has to take into account when reviewing a gold blog, and what even the writers advocate, is that not all the tips are going to be shared. Each blogger is going to keep a few items or plans secret, that way they can avoid competition.

So, what am I stockpiling? The same things really but not in large quantities. I have been unable as of yet to purchase a guild bank or create my own guild (haven’t really tried), so with my limited space I tend to not horde things. What I am doing is getting my characters ready for the release and ready for the initial boom of Cataclysm Materials Prices. Just like the previous expansions before it, I expect the new ore, gems, herbs and cloth to explode when cataclysm hits as everyone rushes to get their mat profession and replace their now outdated gear with crafted items.

I decided to level my paladin (currently 40) to 80 and as she has both mining and herbalism. With her increased mount speed, I plan to spend the first few days of cata farming and supplying those people attempting Realm First with materials.

This helps me twofold:

1.    I get to take advantage of the initial crazy that is the material selling at the beginning of an expansion

2.    When I am done farming and decided to level my Main, most of the player base will be a few levels ahead of me and in different zones, so the questing area should be less crowded.

In addition to leveling my paladin I plan on power-leveling both Inscription and Blacksmithing, the two profitable professions I am missing in my retinue. I am sending my materials gathered while my paladin is leveling to the two toons who will be leveling new professions (Priest is getting blacksmithing – to replace mining; my Rogue is getting Inscription, to replace herbalism).

That way, once the initial crazy of materials is over and as the expansion progresses, I can utilize all the tradeskills to make profits. Just like WOTLK, I suspect that having multiple professions working together will net larger returns than having a single professional focus.

That is my current plan. I am missing out on some profits as old world materials are selling really well on my server as people stockpile, but it’s more important for me to set up my characters for the long term gains. Although to be honest, I am still doing my daily AH scan and looking for deals and potential items to stockpile – but only if the price is right.

Buy Low – Sell Normal, unless supply is limited – take risks, but don’t be too hasty.

“Buy Low – Sell High” is a standard economic statement that is easy to understand. Buying something below cost or as close to cost as you can, and selling for a higher price results in a profit margin.

However with wow, there are multiple items that can be supplied in great quantities and it’s almost impossible to control the supply of any one market. Buy buying low and selling at normal prices, you are almost guaranteed to sell your items and still make a profit.

Selling high can be beneficial, and there are times when you can make a larger profit, however with that comes risk. The higher your sell price, the greater the chance of the item being underbid or not bid on at all. This all depends on supply.

If the item you are selling is a limited supply or a highly sought after item, then an increase in price is a good risk to make. It is still a risk, but the chances of a sale are greater.

For non-limited supply items or items that are not in high demand, charging higher than normal prices can result in returned auctions and increased auction fees (some items have very high auction fees and multiple auctions of said item can result in a loss).

Making large profits depends on your knowledge of the current market, where the market is going and what kinds of risks you are willing to take. You also have to take into account the game and what the majority of players on your server are focusing on. In between raid releases? Reputation and Vanity items may sell more as players concentrate on other parts of the game. New Raid or Boss release? Items needed for raiding may increase. Holiday? Items needed for holiday quests and achievements should spike in price.


Keeping all this in mind is one of the things you need to do to become a successful Auctioneer.

Welcome to The Golden Muse, a world of warcraft blog by yours truly, Cindia

My gaming career and gold making career started in Ultima Online where I loved setting up my vendors and exploring other people’s vendors for underpriced items and flipping them for profits, or farming with my pack of frenzieds. I stopped UO for Everquest, and my passion for profits fell as I had to contend with the EQ economy (was not friendly toward new or starting players).

I started wow a few months after its initial release and I now look back and laugh at my nativity. I remember looking at people in blues and epic mounts in awe, never dreaming that I would be able to afford the 100g epic mount.

I made lots of mistakes in my early wow career, first was not utilizing the auction house. I didn’t even know it was there until 6 months into playing. Once I knew it was there I didn’t really think of it as a valid source of income.

Another mistake I made was selling or vendoring items that if sold on the auction house would have netted me a nice profit (I once vendor’d the Parrot Cage (Hyacinth Macaw), I thought it was ugly and this was back when pets where actual items). Most of this behavior continued through vanilla and into BC.

When BC was in full throttle I found my interest waning in Raiding, but I still wanted to play wow so I started an Alt Draenei mage, as I leveled I found items of worth and actually started posting them on the AH. The profit I was returned was amazing and I was soon surprised that my little level 40 mage had more gold than my level 70 raiding priest. The Auctioneer in me was born.

With WOTLK launch the little mage became my main and I decided to start reviewing the AH more and actually make gold with the AH, but I was bombarded with leveling and raiding and didn’t have much time.

The last 6 months I have remedied that. I now am making gold consistently and I have my fingers in lots of pies. I spend lots of time reviewing gold making blogs to compare ideas and see other methods other people use to see if they can be applied to my server and my markets.

With Cataclysm a month away, I decided it was time to become a serious competitor in the Auction House on my server, and see if I could reach the new gold cap of 1 Million Gold.

Therefore I decided to start a blog and chronicle my progress and report my thoughts, tips and mistakes along the way.