Power Word: Gold

Gold-Making with HayFayFay and Xsinthis - Recorded Livestream

2012-05-25T13:49:00.000-07:00

In this recorded livestream from May 14, 2012 we chat with HayFayFay (Twitter: @HayFayFay, Blog: Closet Dork) and Xsinthis (Twitter: @Xsinthis, Blog: The Golden Crusade) about gold-making, Diablo III and more.

Part 1 (Above): WoW Gold-Making 5.14.12 PM (Part 1) - Late-Night Chill by Jim Younkin

Part 2: WoW Gold-Making 5.14.12 PM (Part 2) - Late-Night Chill by Jim Younkin

Like this post? Get even more Power Word: Gold - Purchase our 100-Page Illustrated Gold Guide, subscribe via RSS, subscribe to the Podcast via iTunes or RSS, watch our Livestreams, follow us on Twitter, Circle us on Google+, Like us on Facebook, subscribe via Youtube and join us on reddit.

Proof That Diablo III Is Affecting The WoW Economy

2012-05-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

Have you been noticing slower than usual auction house sales? Do your cities seem to have less and less people milling around in them? Many of us have felt that Diablo III's release has been affecting the World of Warcraft economy but until I saw the above charts while on my server page at WoWuction.com I didn't have any real proof. Read on past the jump for the evidence.

How is Diablo III's release on May 15, 2012 affecting the World of Warcraft economy? Quite a bit it would seem. On my own realm the average market value of out auction house on May 14, 2012 (the day before Diablo III was released) was 3.60M gold. As of today, May 22, 2012, that average is down to 2.14M gold. That is a drop of just over 40% of the total market value of our auction house.

The US Alliance auction house average market value was 4.03M gold on May 14 and is now down to 2.97M gold a drop of just over 25%. The global US auction house market value was 1.85B gold on May 14, 2012 and is now down to 1.34B gold on May 22, 2012, a reduction of over 27%.

Think about that for a minute. My server has 40% less worth of auctions on the AH today than before Diablo III's release. All US Alliance are down over 25% and total US server market value is down over 27%. Diablo III is causing some serious shrinkage on the World of Warcraft auction houses.

My guess is this is mostly due to people playing Diablo III who have competely stopped playing WoW and thus stop reposting their auctions. This is very understanable as World of Warcraft hasn't had any new content for quite some time and Diablo III is brand-spanking new and full of fresh gaming content to consume.

That said these may be lean times for WoW auctioneers. Then again, if you are able to find the right angle a smart auctioneer may be able to take advantage of the reduced competition and and reduced supply.

Have you noticed changes in your server since Diablo III's release? If so let us know about them in the comments below.

Diablo III Auction Houses - A Race To The Bottom?

2012-05-18T21:33:00.001-07:00

Now that Diablo III is out and we're actually able to play the game and get acquainted with the Auction House (gold for now, the Real Money AH has been delayed) we can finally start to get an idea what we might be able to expect from the Diablo III Auction Houses.

Whether these auction houses (Gold Auction House and Real Money Auction House) will be a success really depends a lot on what side of the auction you are standing on. While I won't go too far into my own theories on how this will pan out I wanted to take this chance to bring up a few things that are concerning me about the Auction Houses and their ability to provide players with real-money.

(It should be noted that this may likely be the last Diablo III-specific post on the main Power Word: Gold blog. About 6 months ago we set up Power Word: Gold Diablo which can always be found at diablo.powerwordgold.net to discuss making real-money in Diablo III. All future Diablo III-related posts will be presented there. If you want to be updated on new posts please follow our Diablo III-specific RSS feed.)

Read on past the jump for my thoughts on the Diablo III Auction Houses.

It's All Fun And Games...

...until the market is flooded due to items never leaving the game. Faid sent out this tweet in which she highlights this Diablo III forum post in which the poster Fulcrom goes over some of their concerns about the fact that since items are not "soul-bound" they will never leave the game. This continuous influx of items into the game and Auction Houses will eventually mean that the Auction Houses (both Gold and Real-Money) will ultimately end up flooded with all sorts of high-end gear.

"Given this understanding:1. Every item in the game is tradeable.2. All players are re-using loot to level up.3. The game generates loot constantly through drops and crafting.3. The best items will not be sold or salvaged, for obvious reasons.

The only possible result will be an AH flooded with legendaries (which it already is, less than a week past launch) with market prices dropping at an ever-increasing rate as more items are posted. Fast forward a few months and players who have maxed out (more or less) will be dumping gear that has no use anymore to any of their alts, flooding the market with even more gear and correspondingly low prices."

I think Fulcrom has a very good point and one that I had not even taken into consideration. With no reason for "good" items to ever leave the game it would seem that as the supply increases the prices for both the Gold and Real-Money Auction Houses will only drop.

I think that while this may be great for players looking to buy these items (from both Auction Houses) it isn't really looking good for anyone looking to sell items for real-world money.

I think this is one more indication that Blizzard has really set up the Auction Houses as a place that is great for buyers but not so much for sellers. Buyers benefit much more from the lower prices. While I might love this while leveling my alt I won't love it when trying to make real-money.

The Devil You Know

When I did a Warcraft Econ interview last month (See "Interview with Jim Younkin – Founder of Power Word Gold. On Gaming as a Profession, Gold Guides, and Diablo 3 RMAH") I was concerned that Real Money Trading (RMT) companies would flood into the economy and that the influx of items from those companies "going legit" would lower the prices for items.

While I still think the above will happen, I think that I may have over-estimated their influence on the Diablo III economy. I think ultimately it will be the over-supply of items coming into the Auction House by regular players that may ultimately create an environment where few (if any) items are able to be sold for high prices.

Seller Beware

The game is only 3 days old and it can be tough to get a real idea on what the Diablo III Auction Houses may end up looking like. What it might be like to play them. I'm being very cautious about any sort of enthusiasm for being able to make real-money selling items inside Diablo III.

Like I stated in the interview above, I'd love to be proven wrong. I'd love to see people being able to play a game they enjoy as well as make real-money doing it. It's sort-of a geek "American dream" to be able to get paid to play games.

That said, I'd urge all of my readers to be cautious in your expectations about making real-money in the game. I'd also ask that you be extra cautious when you hear anyone telling you you'll be able to "get rich" in real-life by playing Diablo III.

Conclusion

While the environment may, at some point, be created to allow gamers to make real-money from Diablo III, I am certain no one can say for sure when and if that will actually take place. The best we can all do is to continue to familiarize ourselves with the game and with the Auction Houses and continue to share information with one another while we all figure this new system out.

If you'd like to follow our thoughts, ideas and adventures in exploring the Diablo III Auction Houses be sure to visit Power Word: Gold Diablo as well as following out Diablo III-specific RSS feed.

Now go kill some monsters. It is very satisfying (and more fun than really should be legal).

Project Goblin: Episode #006 - "Got Water Walking!"

2012-05-18T07:55:00.000-07:00

Today we bring you Episode #006 of Project Goblin where we start on a random server with a random class and random professions. How much gold will we make? What sort of adventures will we have? Watch and find out.

Part 1 (Above): WoW Gold-Making 5.7.12 PM (Part 1) - Project Goblin Ep #006 by Jim Younkin

Part 2: WoW Gold-Making 5.7.12 PM (Part 2) - Project Goblin Ep #006 by Jim Younkin

Live Gold-Making Q & A Session From 5.1.12

2012-05-12T23:40:00.001-07:00

We dedicated our entire livestream on May 1st 2012 to answering any and all questions the viewers had. We feel it was a great sessions with all sorts of questions asked and answered. You can find the three hour livestream here broken in two parts.

Part 1 (Above): WoW Gold-Making 5.1.12 AM (Part 1) - Q & A Session by Jim Younkin

Part 2: WoW Gold-Making 5.1.12 AM (Part 2) - Q & A Session by Jim Younkin

Breaking: Multiple Copies of MoP Zones Will Impact Ore/Herb Prices

2012-05-10T15:17:00.000-07:00

Breaking News: Mists of Pandaria zones might have multiple copies per server if there are a high number of players. This has huge implications on the amount of materials that miners, herbalists and skinners will be bringing into the game and may have huge impact on those of us who were planning on farming to make gold at the beginning of Mists of Pandaria

Read on for a few excerpts from the official blog post by Blizzard as well as my thoughts on it.

You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

So the important parts of Blizzard's blog post Cross-Realm Zones Coming to Beta are below. (Emphasis added.)

"Q. What about zones that are already overpopulated, like new race starting zones?
With this technology, we can also flag zones to allow for more than one copy of that zone per realm. Players on that realm will be split among those copies in order to alleviate problems due to overpopulation. Players won’t normally see or interact with those on a different instance of their zone, although joining a party will relocate all party members to a single instance of that zone."

So basically this means that if areas such as the level 85-90 leveling zones are over-crowded (which they will be on launch) Blizzard will be able to spawn "multiple copies" of an area.

While having multiple copies of an area is nothing new in MMORPGs it is very new to World of Warcraft and more importantly means that we could be having ore, herbs and skins gathered from multiple copies of a zone flooding into the auction house.

The Important Bit

If this is implemented how they say it will be the prices people like myself were hoping to get for farming ore/herbs in early MoP will be significantly reduced as there will be far more materials from all the miners/herbalists/skinners farming in all of these copies.

While this instancing of zones will likely be great for not having over crowded zones while leveling I am lowering my expectations for the amount of gold I could have made if this wasn't implemented.

How do you think this addition will change gold-making potential and the early-MoP economy in general?

UPDATE: As a few people have mentioned if multiple servers are sharing lower level zones it could also mean more competition for low level mats thus slowing down people gathering them and ultimately allowing less low-level mats to be brought into the market.

Project Goblin: Episode #005 - "What Is Juice?!?!"

2012-05-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

Today we present Episode #005 of Project Goblin our project where we start on a random server with random class and random professions with only our gold-making experience to help us strike it rich.

In this episode I am extra sing-y for some reason. ("Dong dong dinga dinga ding!" is an actual quote.)

YouTube: WoW Gold-Making 5.2.12 PM - Project Goblin Ep.#005 by Jim Younkin

Project Goblin: Episode #004 - "Beatbox's In The Box"

2012-05-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

We present the 4th installment of our start-from-scratch experiment. This episode is in two parts with some beatboxing and lots of other gold-making goodness.

Part 1 (Above): WoW Gold-Making! 4.22.12 PM (Part 1) - Project Goblin Episode #004! by Jim Younkin

Part 2: WoW Gold-Making! 4.22.12 PM (Part 2) - Project Goblin Episode #004! by Jim Younkin

Buying 77-80 Cataclysm Items With Auctioneer Saved Searches

2012-05-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

If you've been watching my recent livestreams (http://www.twitch.tv/jimyounkin) you'll know that I've been making a significant portion of my gold lately from flipping level 77-80 Cataclysm items. (See "Selling 77-80 Cata Gear To Scroll Of Resurrection Level 80s".)

As this is one of my main markets I'm always interested in finding ways to speed up the process. Thanks to livestream viewer Ironhead I've been able to speed up my 77-80 Cataclysm Item searches and purchases significantly with Auctioneer General Saved Searches.

Read on past the jump to learn how to quickly and efficiently find and purchase 77-80 (and any other level for that matter) armor, weapons and more.

Auctioneer?

Many might be wondering why I would choose to use Auctioneer to do my 77-80 Cataclysm searches. Isn't Auctioneer a dinosaur when it comes to gold making? While Auctioneer is the grandfather of all gold-making addons that doesn't mean is still doesn't have some neat tricks.

The three things that make these searches so strong are the ability to choose a maximum price, the ability to "Ignore" unwanted items from future searches and the ability to quickly purchase all the items the search finds.

Set Up

In order to follow this guide you will need Auctioneer installed. The Auctioneer feature we are going to be using to do our 77-80 Cataclysm Item searches can be found by clicking on the "Search" tab at the bottom of the auction house window.

Auctioneer Search Tab

Once we get onto the "Search" tab we need to tell Acutioneer what type of search we are wanting to perform/build. For these searches we are going to be using the "General" search. Click "General" from the list of "Searchers" on the right hand side of the panel.

Auctioneer's General Searcher

Now that we have the "General" Searcher selected it is time to select our search parameters. In the case of 77-80 Cataclysm items I build two searches, one for armor and the other weapons. For this example we will build the "armor" search.

We are going to be searching for items that are between levels 77 and 80 that have an Item Level of at least 272 (the lowest Item Level a Cataclysm item can have).

For armor my current maximum buyout price is 65 gold (for weapons it is 100g) so we will be adding that into the search as well.

In this example I will be building the search for 77-80 armor. The only difference in the weapon search is the "Type" and the Maximum Bid and Maximum Buyout settings. Also feel free to experiment and use these techniques to buy other types of items from the auction house.

Setting the Search Criteria

Now that we have a General Searcher selected we will want to give the search a name and click the red "Save" button at the top of the panel. This will give us our initial saved search. Name it something descriptive. In this example I've called the search "Cata Green Armor".

Auctioneer Saved Search Name

It should be noted here that the color of the text in the "Saved searches" dialog box is very important. If the text is green in color it means all the criteria and "ignored" items have been saved. If the text has turned orange it means that the search has been modified and must be saved.

This will be most important when we start "ignoring" items from our lists a bit later. For now know that if it's orange it needs to be saved before you close the auction house window.

Now that we have the saved search named and saved we are going to start adjusting the individual search criteria. This is where we will be telling this Auctioneer search what the exact items we are looking for.

The first few criteria we are going to adjust are the "Type" which we will set to "Armor". We also slide the slider or type in "272" in as the "Min item level" and "410" as the "Max item level". We also set the Minimum and maximum level (next to the item level boxes) to "77" and "80" respectively.

Auctioneer Search Criteria

Your final settings should match the image above. Once you're done be sure to click "Save" at the top.

The last setting we have to set is the Maximum Bid and Maximum Buyout. Since this example is my 77-80 Cataclysm Armor I set my max prices to 65g. (You can adjust this up or down depending on the max price you are currently willing to pay to flip these items.)

(If you don't see the Maximum Bid and Buyout settings be sure to scroll down using the scroll bar on the right side.)

Auctioneer Maximum Bid and Buyout

The above setting will limit the search results to items that fall under your maximum price (65g in this case). This alone saves lots of time as you don't have to bother with items that are out of your price range. After you have set your Maximum Bid and Buyout besure to save your search by clicking the "Save" button at the top of the panel.

Searching

Now we've built our saved search it's time to search the auction house for items. We do this bu making sure we have the proper search loaded. You can do this by selecting the search you wish to load from the drop-down menu that appears when you press the down arrow to the right of the "Saved searches:" field. After the item is selected press the red "Load" button next to the field to load the search.

Save Search Selection and Loading

If you've been following this guide you very well may only have one saved search. If you start to use the technique more you will certainly have more than one saved search and each needs to be "loaded" before it can be used.

Now that we have the proper search loaded we are going to be telling Auctioneer to do a "snapshot" of the auction house and search it for items matching the search criteria we have loaded. We do this by pressing the red and white "swirl" button on the lower left of the panel.

Auctioneer Snapshot Search Button

After pressing the button there will be a "cooldown" type indicator over the icon as Auctioneer creates an auction house snapshot and searches within it. The time this takes will vary depending on the size of your servers auction house but in general is it fairly quick for me.

Once the search is finished it will show you the search results that match the search criteria we set up earlier. Now all that is left to do is "ignore" all the "bad" items we don't want to purchase and want to ignore in future searches and purchase all the rest of the items.

Using Ignore

One of the most powerful features of the Auctioneer saved search is the ability to ignore specific items from all future searches. This is very important in doing 77-80 Cataclysm Item searches because there are some items we never flip due to their bad stat allocations.

I did a post a while back about which 77-80 items I don't flip. (See "Items To Avoid When Flipping 77-80 Cataclysm Items"). In short, I avoid "...of the Whale", "...of the Beast", plate items "...of the Tiger", Jasper Rings and Alicite Pendants.

Auctioneer Save Search Results

Above is the search result I got when running my "Cata Green Armor" search. It should be noted that I have been "ignoring" items on my current list for around a week but there are still a few "bad" items that appeared.

It is important to always check over the search results for "bad" items, ignore them and save your search. This will make your lists more and more efficient as time goes on because they will ignore more and more "bad" items and only "good" items will be given in the results.

In the example above I've selected a "Rethban Girdle of the Tiger" which I know to be a plate item with Agility and therefore a "bad" item that I don't want to flip.

Auctioneer Search Ignore Button

To ignore the item you select it so the item is highlighted and press the red "Ignore" button at the bottom of the panel. Once you click the red "Ignore" button that item will be ignored from all future search results for this saved search.

You can now ignore all the other "bad" items in the search results. The first few times you do this you may be ignoring many items but it get less and less as you use the search more.

Always Save Your Changed Searches

It is important to note here that you have to save your search after you ignore any items. If you do not do this your "ignores" will not be saved. To know if your search have any unsaved changes (like ignores or other changes) you need to look at the color of the search name in the "Saved searches:" field.

Auctioneer Unsaved Changes

If the text is orange (as in the image above) it means your search has unsaved changes. If it is green it means all changes have been saved. After ignoring items be sure to press the red "Save" button at the top of the panel.

Now that we've ignored the "bad" items and saved the changes so those items will not be shown in future searches we can move on to purchasing all the items that matched out results.

Purchase All The Items!

Now that we've got our search narrowed down to just the items we want to purchase it is time to buy them all. Normally purchasing large numbers of items involves clicking each item, pressing a "Buy" button and often a confirmation button. Auctioneer allows us to queue up all the items we've found and buy them all quickly.

Auctioneer Purchase All Button

Auctioneer accomplishes this by giving up the option to "Purchase All". If you hold down the modifier keys Control + Alt + Shift at the same time the "Purchase" button in the lower left of the panel transforms into a "Purchase All" button. (You can see the button change name from "Purchase" to "Purchase All" in the image above.)

(If for some reason the button doesn't transform into a "Purchase All" button your cursor may be in the name field. I've found clicking my cursor into the name field and hitting the "Escape" key will fix the issue and holding Control+Alt+Shift will properly produce the "Purchase All" button.)

Now we press the "Purchase All" button. Once we press this button Auctioneer will start to process all our purchases. It will ask for confirmation of each purchase in a new confirmation dialog box that shows up in the middle of our screen.

Auctioneer Purchase Confirmation

All that you have to do now is press the "Yes" button over and over to quickly purchase the items. I simply repeatedly click my mouse button on the spot until the purchases are finished. It happens quite quickly and it saves me many many mouse clicks I would otherwise have to use to select each and every item.

Once you are done clicking "Yes" in all the dialog boxes you are done. All the items you have searched for are now purchased and ready to be retrieved from your mail box and flipped. (In my case they are immediately added to the proper TradeSkillMaster groups and posted for sale.)

Conclusion

The above technique has saved me lots of time as I've went about searching for my 77-80 Cataclysm Items to flip. What used to take me 5 or 10 minutes not takes 1 or 2 minutes at most. It is a huge time saver.

I recommend that anyone that regularly searches the auction house for items to flip should give this a try. I've since moved into using Auctioneer Saved Searches for not only 77-80 Cataclysm Items to flip but also lower level leveling gear flipping as well.

Having such an efficient way to search for and purchase items with Auctioneer (and get them ready to be flipped with properly set up TradeSkillMaster groups) really opens up all sorts of gold-making possibilities.

It just goes to show you that no matter how old an addon is or how long you've been making gold there are always new ways to make your routine more efficient.

Project Goblin: Episode #003 - "What's In The Box?!"

2012-05-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

Here is Episode #003 of Project Goblin! How much gold can I make from scratch on a random server with a random class and random professions? Let's find out!

YouTube: WoW Gold-Making! 4.21.12 PM - Project Goblin Episode #003! by Jim Younkin

Guide Pricing, Real Money and Diablo III - An Interview at Warcraft Econ

2012-05-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

When Oligopoly from Warcraft Econ contacted me about doing an interview about the pricing structure of my paid guide I'm not sure he knew what he was getting himself into. Nevertheless I was more than happy to answer his questions and surprised myself with how much I had to say about guide pricing, making real money from World of Warcraft, what I thought about the upcoming real-currency auction house in Diablo III and much more.

You can read the whole interview in the Warcraft Econ post entitled "Interview with Jim Younkin – Founder of Power Word Gold. On Gaming as a Profession, Gold Guides, and Diablo 3 RMAH"

Project Goblin - Episode 002: "See You At The Crossroads"

2012-04-30T08:51:00.001-07:00

Here is Episode #002 of the resurrected Project Goblin. This 3 hour episode features more adventures in Northern Barrens rare spawns, Dead Mines, Bone Thugs N Harmony sung extremely badly and more.

Part 1: WoW Gold-Making! 4.17.12 PM (Part 1) - Project Goblin Episode #002! by Jim Younkin

Part 2: WoW Gold-Making! 4.17.12 PM (Part 2) - Project Goblin Episode #002! by Jim Younkin

Project Goblin - Episode 001: "Resurrection!"

2012-04-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

So after an initial false start last year I realized that livestreaming would be the perfect medium with which to resurrect Project Goblin. In this project I start on a random server with a random class and random professions with only my wits and gold-making skills to help me make gold.

Episode 001 is embedded above. YouTube: WoW Gold-Making 4.15.12 PM - Project Goblin: Resurrection Ep.001! by Jim Younkin.

The Power Word: Gold Podcast - Episode 033

2012-04-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

Episode 033 of The Power Word: Gold Podcast. Your hosts Jim Younkin and Faid bring you the latest World of Warcraft gold-making news, tips and strategies.

In this week's episode we discuss what we've been doing to make gold recently, give a beginner tip for fishing, speculate on how to prepare for the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria expansion and more. And now on with the show!

Embedded Player - Episode 033:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Power Word: Podcast directly in iTunes.
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[MP3] [Ogg] Download/Play the Episode directly.
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Full show notes after the jump.

Episode 033 Show Notes

The Power Word: Gold Podcast: Episode 033 was recorded Monday, April 23, 2012.
You can find more podcasts by selecting "Podcast" in our top navigation bar, selecting the "Podcasts" in our tag cloud and/or subscribing via iTunes or our Podcast-only RSS feed.
Previous Podcasts:

Faid's blog: Clockwork Riot. Twitter: @YoClockworkRiot. YouTube: GoClockworkRiot.
2:01 Shoutouts!
3:31 What Faid has been doing in gold-making recently.
6:41 What Jim has been doing to make gold recently.
24:50 The psychology of hitting 1 million gold.
37:10 The Newbie Zone: A few 77-80 items to flip.
45:31 The Great Stormspire Scavenger Hunt.
50:14 Making gold from scratch on a new server.
1:10:54 Coming to terms the end of an expansion.
Thanks for listening!

MP3 link for feed:
http://archive.org/download/ThePowerWordGoldPodcast-Episode033/PowerWordGoldPodcast033_20120423.mp3

Burnnhildar Harpoon: The Best Mogging Item You Never Knew Existed

2012-04-22T21:45:00.000-07:00

It's not often that something completely takes me by surprise but learning about this particular mogging item from one of my livestream viewers certainly did. I present to you the Brunnhildar Harpoon. This is a common (white) quality polearm sold by an NPC that can be used for transmogrification. Not only is this item freaking huge, it has a built-in glow that covers up enchants and can be sold on the auction house. Read on for more details on this hidden mogging gem.

The Brunnhildar Harpoon: Beauty and the Beast

What It Is

Put simply the Bunnhildar Harpoon is one of the only common (white) items I've ever seen in the game that is allowed to be used for transmogrification. I'm assuming this is because, although it is common, it has green text indicating that is has the special equip ability "Equip: Inflicts 5 additional Frost damage per swing." as part of it's tooltip.

Were To Buy

Brunnhildar Village in Storm Peaks

The Bunnhildar Harpoon is sold for around 18g by a faction NPC named Warsmith Sigfinna. She is located in Burnnhildar Village in the Storm Peaks in Northrend. In order to purchase from her I believe you have to have finished at least part of the Sons of Hodir reputation unlock quest chain that begins with the quest They Took Our Men which can be acquired in K3. If you unlocked the Sons of Hodir reputation during Wrath of the Lich King you should be able to purchase these. If not, start the quest noted above and work your way through the chain until you can buy from her.

Warmaster Sigfinna's Items For Sale

In addition to selling the Bunnhildar Harpoon Warsmith Sigfinna also sells two other common items that can be mogged: the Brunnhildar Great Axe is sold for 18g and the Brunnhildar Bow is sold for 11g. While the bow is visually quite striking it does share a model with a few other bows. I believe the axe also shares modela with a few axes (although perhaps not it's frosty blue glow). The harpoon on the other hand does not share it's model with any other polearms in the game.

Why It Might Sell

Once I found out that this items could be mogged I immediately mogged it to my polearm and was delighted with the result. This item shows up properly in the MogIt addon as being moggable. It is absolutely massive and has an certainly looks like a harpoon one of the nice (and giant) ladies of Brunnhildar Village would use to shishkabob their enemies.

My first sale of the Brunnhildar Harpoon for 250g

As a test I purchased a few of each of these items and quietly started posting them on my auction house for 250g each. My fist harpoon sold within the day. I took this as the first piece of evidence that, despite the fact that it isn't obvious that the Brunnhildar Harpoon can be used for transmogrification, people might still buy it once they either a) have MogIt and realize they can transmog or b) they see someone with this item transmogged and head to the auction house to pick one up for themselves. Either way, I think this may be a sleeper hit for me.

Selling Advice

My personal advice for anyone trying to sell the Brunnhildar Harpoon is to keep it quiet. I wouldn't advise advertising this thing in trade chat unless you want tons of competition buying these up and driving your prices down.

"Low and slow" is the name of the game for selling these for me. Keep prices low enough to not make competition notice but high enough to make a tidy profit. Right now my price for the Brunnhildar Harpoon is 250g. I'm wearing one transmogged on my hunter and that is all the advertising I need.

I plan to keep this quiet on my server and sell these for as long as possible before the competition catches on. While these might not ever be huge sellers, getting a few sales here and there for 250g will be nice. I am also trying to sell both the Brunnhildar Great Ax and the Brunnhildar Bow although my hope for their success isn't as great.

Items to Avoid When Flipping 77-80 Cataclysm Items

2012-04-18T13:10:00.000-07:00

Today's post is a bit of a follow up to my post Selling 77-80 Cata Gear To Scroll Of Resurrection Level 80s. I've been asked many times for shopping lists/item lists for the 77-80 Cataclysm Items I flip. The truth is, due to the number of items involved, it is easier to tell people which items to avoid rather than which to buy. Read on past the jump to learn how to identify the "stinkers".

How to Buy

Before we go over what not to buy, lets get a quick refresher on how to buy them. The easiest way to find these auctions on the auction house is with the Auctionator addon's "Buy" tab. Once on the "Buy" tab enter the first search term below to search for armor and the second term to search for weapons.

Armor/77/80/i272
Weapon/77/80/i272

Once the search is finished press the "Lowest Price" column to sort items so the cheapest items are on top. Now we are ready cull through these items for the profitable ones.

You can also add these to a Auctionator Shopping lists. (If you'd like to learn more about Auctionator shopping lists check out our post Auction House Basics: Auctionator Shopping Lists.)

The 5 Things What To Avoid

When searching through you search there are 5 major categories of items that I avoid like the plague.

(Three of the items in the list are suffixes to avoid which means look for the words that come after the item name. Example: "Moonbrook Crystal of the Beast", the "...of the Beast" is the part to look for.)

"...of the Beast" - These items have not major stat (Agility, Strength or Int).Instead they have Crit Hit and Stam. Not having a major stat is a major no-no.
"...of the Whale" - These items have only Spirit and Stam. No one wants that. No one. Avoid at all costs.
Plate items that are "...of the Tiger" - This gear has Agility and Stam. No plate-wearing class needs Agility. None. Stay away.
Jasper Rings - These items are often crafted by Jewelcrafters as part of their shuffling routine and therefore at risk of large numbers of undercuts. I don't try to flip them.
Alicite Pendants - These necklaces are also crafted by Jewelcrafters as part of the shuffle and therefore very prone to being flooded and undercut.

Lets Practice!

Here is a typical search I might get when searching for 77-80 Cataclysm.

Here is the list showing the items I'd avoid in this particular search

The more you search the better you get good at spotting the bad items. You want your items to sell. By avoiding these type of anomalous items you are more likely to pick winners.

To recap, I sell all 77-80 Cataclysm (above iLevel 272) items except the ones that match the criteria listed above. I've had great success in this market and think is is a market everyone should look into.

A Note On Pricing

I just wanted to add a note on item pricing. I've found a good pricing scheme for these items on my server. You may be able to adjust these prices up or down based on your own server.

I sell all armor pieces for 254g. Weapons I sell for around 225g for wands and off-hands, 345g for 1-handed and 445g for 2-handed weapons.

I like the prices above because they are low enough to not draw heavy competition but high enough to still make a nice profit.

When purchasing these items I'll pay up to 65g per piece for armor and 100g for weapons.

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Morning Gold-Making Routine 4.5.12 Livestream Recording

2012-04-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

Above is the our morning livestream recording from 4.5.12. YouTube: WoW Gold-Making: 4.5.12, AM - Morning Routine by Jim Younkin.

One Million Gold (And Counting!)

2012-04-14T16:40:00.002-07:00

I finally reached "gold-cap" of 1 million gold yesterday (Friday the 13th of April, 2012) on the morning livestream! (To see the moment I actually hit gold-cap follow this twitch.tv link.) I have to say that, while I am feeling mixed emotions, the feeling I'm feeling most is happiness. Read on past the jump for a few of my thoughts as a newly gold-capped player and where I go from here.

I'm a Tortoise, Not a Hare

The first think I have to admit is that I am much more of a "tortoise" than a "hare" when it comes to gold-making. I feel it has taken me significantly longer than many other gold-makers I know to reach gold-cap. I started writing Power Word: Gold over a year ago and that is about how long it has taken me to reach gold-cap.

While I know each gold-maker is different I have to say that a few factors contributed to me taking so long to reach cap. Namely my penchant for experimentation along with my risk and competition aversion. For me making gold is much much more about the journey. About the exploration. About the experimentation and enjoyment of teaching and sharing with others. The gold I receive along the way feels much more like a by-product rather than the goal in itself.

Also contributing to me slow gold growth was my high risk aversion. I like to make gold in ways that have very little risk. These ways often offer a fairly low amount of gold in return but can (almost always) be relied upon to provide profits. A few of these techniques are selling only when prices reach a level of my liking (which often involves waiting). Other techniques in this vein are flipping items at reasonable markups. If I feel I can make some gold on something, even if only a little, I'll do it.

The last factor that I feel lead to my slow gold growth was my tendency to steer clear of markers with heavy competition. If a gold-making technique required me to constantly camp the auction house, competing against what I call "tenacious competitors" I often simply left the market all together. This happened, for example, in glyphs and gems. I like to enjoy myself while making gold and playing on their terms isn't enjoyable for me.

What Sold?

A question many of you might be asking is what did I sell to get to gold-cap? Well it depends on which "era" of the expansion and my gold-making journey you are referring to. One of the advantages of writing a blog, doing a podcast and livestreaming is that you talk about what you do in gold-making. A lot. While some of it is a bit fuzzy here are a few of the things that stood out in my mind as far as ways I made my gold.

1-250k - The Obsidium Shuffle (and lots of it). Early on in the expansion the Obsidium Shuffle was one of my major gold-making tactics. Back when uncommons vendored for ridiculously high prices, the Shuffle was a way of life. Other tactics I used to make gold during this time were Alchemy transmutes many other things I can't quite remember. (See also: My Secret Shame: 250K Is The Most Gold I've Ever Owned and Hall of Fame – 250K Gold Club: “fluxdada” aka Power Word: Gold)

250-500k - This era gets a bit fuzzy. I believe I was trying all sorts of techniques to make gold on my push to 500k. I know for sure that I got stuck around 400k for a long time. I think I was selling a little bit of everything and trying lots of things. I do remember I had pretty much stopped shuffling by this point. (Thanks for the nerf Blizz!)

500-750k - This era is much easier to remember because I believe that I was just over 500k or so when I started my One Month, One Toon Challenge. This means that a large chunk of this gold-making time was devoted to two techniques: flipping mogging items and (once the new Scroll or Resurrection came along) flipping 77-80 Cataclysm greens. I'd love to tell you mogging took off but it really didn't on my server. I did much better in 77-80 Cataclysm greens though.

750k-1,000,000 - This part of the goal is very fresh in my mind. I think I've made the last 250k in the last 3-4 weeks and the vast majority of this gold has come from flipping 77-80 Cataclysm green items. Every once and a while the stars align and you find a technique that not only has low competition but high demand. For me, right now, on my server, this is that market and I've been working as hard as I can at the market and it's been paying off. The reason I was able to hit gold-cap before Mists of Pandaria was because of these 77-80 Cataclysm green items.

So Now What?

So, now that I've reached a million gold, what does the future hold? Well, to tell you the truth, it holds about the same things that is has held in the past. I've often said I'm a gold-maker much more interested in the process of gold-making than the end result of obtaining the actual gold. With that being true, I was never actually "going for gold-cap", it just sort of snuck up on me.

I don't expect to be doing anything different than before because you can never really learn everything there is to know about gold-making. That is the beauty of gold-making as a meta-game insider World of Warcraft, there is always something new to learn. I look forward to learning (and sharing) much much more.

How Does It Make You Feel Baby?

How does hitting gold-cap make me feel? Happiness as well as a bit of relief. When someone asks me how much gold I have it seems right to be able to tell them "1 Million". As a gold blogger, someone who works to teach others about gold-making, being able to have the fact that I hit gold-cap as a sort of onofficial "credential" feels good. While I never judge anyone based on the amount of gold they have, others aren't so open-minded.

Also it feels good to be able to add my own One Million gold milestone to our Community Gold-Making Milestones page. (If we've missed your milestone post please let us know. Instructions are on the page.)

Most of all I was glad that I was able to hit gold-cap while on a livestream and have many of you there with me. I care about this community so much and loved being able to share the exciting moment with you all. We have such a great community. I would have never maintained the drive and motivation to keep pushing ahead if I didn't have all of you.

Here's to all of our continued success!

The Power Word: Gold Podcast - Episode 032

2012-04-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

Episode 032 of The Power Word: Gold Podcast. Your hosts Jim Younkin and Alaeriel bring you the latest World of Warcraft gold-making news, tips and strategies.

In this week's episode we discuss what we've been doing to make gold recently, give a beginner tip for fishing, speculate on how to prepare for the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria expansion and more. And now on with the show!

Embedded Player - Episode 032:

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Full show notes after the jump.

Episode 032 Show Notes

The Power Word: Gold Podcast: Episode 032 was recorded Friday, April 6, 2012.
You can find more podcasts by selecting "Podcast" in our top navigation bar, selecting the "Podcasts" in our tag cloud and/or subscribing via iTunes or our Podcast-only RSS feed.
Previous Podcasts:

Music used in this episode: (All music used under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) License.)

Intro: "1 Ghosts I" by Nine Inch Nails from Ghosts I-IV.
Break: "7 Ghosts I" by Nine Inch Nails from Ghosts I-IV.
Outro: "6 Ghosts I" by Nine Inch Nails from Ghosts I-IV.

Alaeriel's blog: Alaeriel's WoW Stuff. Twitter: @alaeriel. Twitch.tv: alaeriel.
4:46 What Jim's been doing recently in gold making.
9:50 What Alaeriel's been doing to make gold.
14:39 Our experiences with transmogrification sales over the last few months.
36:26 Break
37:10 The Newbie Zone: Fishing on Darkmoon Faire Island for profit.
48:14 How expiring Scroll of Resurrection accounts and end of the expansion may effect the economy.
1:02:34 What Alaeriel is doing to prepare for gold-making in Mists of Pandaria.
1:11:36 What Jim is doing to prepare for gold-making in Mists of Pandaria.
1:17:05 Datamined information about a possible (very expansive) Jewelcrafting mount from the Mists of Pandaria Beta.
1:26:44 Alaeriel's experience in the Mists of Pandaria Beta so far.
Thanks for listening!

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MP3 link for feed:
http://archive.org/download/ThePowerWordGoldPodcast-Episode032/PowerWordGoldPodcast032_20120406.mp3

Livestream Recordings From 4.1.12 With ElJeppy

2012-04-09T13:27:00.000-07:00

Here are the livestream recordings of my late-night gold-making routine for 4.1.12. In Part 1 we chat on Skype with ElJeppy (twitter: @eljeppy). Part 1: WoW Gold-Making 4.1.12, PM (Part 1) - Late-night Routine. No Pandas, Just Gold by Jim Younkin

Part 2: WoW Gold-Making 4.1.12, PM (Part 2) - Late-night Routine. No Pandas, Just Gold by Jim Younkin

Morning Gold-Making Routine 3.30.12

2012-04-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

These two videos show my morning gold-making routine from March 30, 2012. To catch our livestreams live be sure to follow our twitch.tv account at http://www.twitch.tv/jimyounkin.

Part 1 (above): WoW Gold-making 3.30.12 (Part 1). Morning Gold-making by Jim Younkin

Part 2: WoW Gold-making 3.30.12 (Part 2). Morning Gold-making by Jim Younkin

Early-Morning Gold-Making Routine 3.28.12

2012-04-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

Above is part 1 (of 3) of my recorded morning livestream for 3.28.12. You can find parts 2 and 3 after the jump. Part 1: WoW Gold-making: 3.28.12 Early-Morning Routine. (Part 1) by Jim Younkin

Part 2: WoW Gold-making: 3.28.12 Early-Morning Routine. (Part 2) by Jim Younkin

Part 3: WoW Gold-making: 3.28.12 Early-Morning Routine. (Part 3) by Jim Younkin

Early-Morning Routine 3.27.12 (Parts 3 & 4)

2012-04-02T16:07:00.003-07:00

Here are parts 3 and 4 of our recorded livestream from 3.27.12. (You can find parts 1 and 2 here.) Above is Part 3: WoW Gold-making: 3.27.12 Early-Morning Routine. (Part 3) by Jim Younkin

Part 4: WoW Gold-making: 3.27.12 Early-Morning Routine. (Part 4) by Jim Younkin

To catch our livestreams live be sure to follow us at http://www.twitch.tv/jimyounkin.

Early-Morning Routine 3.27.12 (Parts 1 & 2)

2012-04-01T03:08:00.001-07:00

Part 1: WoW Gold-making: 3.27.12 Early-Morning Routine. (Part 1) by Jim Younkin

Part 2: WoW Gold-making: 3.27.12 Early-Morning Routine. (Part 2) by Jim Younkin

We chat with @HayFayFay over Skype in Part 2. We love FayFay!

Parts 3 and 4 tomorrow.

Beverly Hills, Baltimore and Baghdad - Server Makeup and Mogging Sales

2012-03-30T16:54:00.000-07:00

As I have been struggling to sell mogging items on my server, all the while watching other prominent gold-makers raking in (what seems to be) tons of gold selling mogging items, a theory started to slowly develop in the back of my mind.

Today I present this theory, refined over many many livestreams, to everyone today. I call it the "Three 'B's" theory and it very well could be the answer to why you have been seeing lower than expected results selling mogging items on your server. Read about the "Three 'B's" past the jump.

A Caveat

First off, a small caveat. I make many sweeping generalizations and characterizations about the places and people mentioned in this article. In no way is it meant to be accurate to the actual real-world cities but, rather, the writer's own general ideas about the places. The cities are simply tools to get an idea across.

A Tale Of Three Cities

Once upon a time there were three cities. One city was over-flowing with well-to-do individuals. Wonderful boutiques and specialty shops dotted its streets. Residents went out and spent large amounts of money on the most extravagant and wonderful items. The sky was the limit in this city. You could get anything you wanted as long as you had enough money. The residents here lived fully and had the means to acquire (nearly) anything they desired.

The second city was full of what some might call the "working-class". These were hard working individuals. The city was home to many large stores that carried essential items at very reasonable prices. The residents were careful with their hard earned money but weren't above "splurging" every once-in-a-while. A nice shirt here, a few extra Blu-Ray discs there. The residents worked hard and were generally happy.

Many parts of the third city lay in rubble. The residents, having gone through very hard times, didn't have much. While there were shops to buy essential items, anything that you might consider "extra" was almost never considered. The residents worked hard and saved. They were able to get buy and provide themselves an adequate, if small, living. The residents didn't have much but they had each other.

The State of Cities

The tales above are rough generalizations but I think everyone reading this has some semblance of the three cities I'm talking about, specifically: Beverly Hills, California, Baltimore, Maryland and Baghdad, Iraq. While you may not be familiar with the specific cities you can likely think of cities you know of which match the levels of income, spending and attitude mentioned above.

My theory is that what type of "city" your server/faction falls into has a large part to do with a seller's success (or lack thereof) in selling mogging items. Are you on a "Beverly Hills" type server? Lucky you! Read on for some thoughts on each "city".

Beverly Hills

There are players and bloggers in the community that, through hard work and being on the right server, have been able to make vast amount of gold selling mogging items. All one has look at is the screenshots they share on a regular basis showing mogging items being sold for multiple-thousands of dollars.

These players were/are in the right place, at the right time, with the right skills and are making more gold than most players can ever dream of having. Unfortunately the success of these "Beverly Hills" boutique sellers is not able to be applied universally and (unfortunately) that is bound to cause lots of heartbreak as people try to replicate it.

Baltimore

Then there are players (such as myself) who have struggled to make the techniques that work on these "Beverly Hills" servers work our own servers/factions only to find that there is a not "snowball's chance in hell" that we will ever be able to sell the same items for those prices on our "Baltimore" servers.

There is no way that someone shopping at a department store in Baltimore is going to be willing to pay $300 for a pair of "designer" jeans when there is a perfectly good pair of jeans there for $30. They are two completely different types of markets and buyers.

Baghdad

Just like the buyer in Baltimore doesn't have the means to buy designer jeans from Beverly Hills, the buyer in Baghdad would consider $30 for a pair of jeans to expensive. It isn't that they don't want the items, it is just that there is no way they could ever pay those prices.

A "Baghdad" buyer may be willing to pay $5 for a pair of jeans. A seller in "Badgdad" may be happy to sell jeans for that price. There are just huge differences in the buying power and availability of items in these three places.

Location, Location, Location

I also don't think anyone would argue that, as far as base raw materials go (cotton, thread, zippers, etc.), there is a negligible difference in the cost of producing the same pair of jeans sold in Beverly Hills, Baltimore and Baghdad. The reason that jeans cost $300 in Beverly Hills, $30 in Baltimore and $5 in Baghdad is less about the object being sold and more about the buyers and sellers involved.

The reason people are able to sell jeans, mogging items, and many other things for vastly different prices is because buyers in different locations, different servers/factions, etc. are willing and, more importantly, able to buy them. You could try selling jeans in Baghdad for $300 but I doubt you sell as many as you could in Beverly Hills.

Not Better, Not Worse. Just Different.

So how does this all tie into selling mogging items in World of Warcraft? If you've been trying (and failing) to sell mogging items for what others are able to sell them for, you may need to admit to yourself that you may not be on a "Beverly Hills" server and adjust your pricing and strategy accordingly.

I think anyone, after reading all they can about mogging, building lists, collecting inventory, setting up addons, and spending at least a month trying to sell mogging items can quickly identify what "city"" their server/faction falls in to.

You are selling to real players with real limitations on what they are able and (more importantly) willing to spend on cosmetic items. You can play World of Warcraft and never mog a single item. Mogging is a unnecessary, optional and purely cosmetic activity.

So, now that you've come to terms with what "city" you are selling your mogging items in, it's time for some advice for the inhabitants of the various server/faction "cities".

Advice for Beverly Hills

If you find yourself on a "Beverly Hills" server. If you are able to sell mogging items often and for very high prices, congratulations! Keep doing. While I can't say I've had the experience selling on a server like this, I'd imagine you can expect there to be a growing number of competitors knocking at your door.

Keeping up on undercuts and keep your prices as high as you are able, while still selling items regularly is about all the advice I can really give. Count your blessings. Don't slack-off or others will eat your lunch.

Advice for Baltimore

This is the type of server I play on. I've been selling mogging items here for 3 months and am only now starting to see somewhat steady sales. That said, my prices are 1/2 to 1/3 of prices I see on the blogs of those who seem to be selling on "Beverly Hills" servers.

This is the "city" I know best. My best advice is to start your prices high and slowly lower them little by little over 4-8 weeks until you start to get steady sales. Once you found the price point that finally tips your server into buying your items, stay there and sell, sell, sell. You may not be selling items for "Beverly Hills" prices but you're also less likely to have stiff competition due to the significantly lower price points.

Just like Wal-Mart's sales volume likely ultimately makes more money than a "Beverly Hills" boutique's higher markup, so a dedicated seller on a "Baltimore" server might be able to set themselves up a nice, steady income.

Advice for Baghdad

These servers do exist. I've spoken to many people on my livestreams who reside on these servers. Just as the number of "Beverly Hills" servers is likely small in comparison to the number of "Baltimore" servers, the number of "Baghdad" server is also likely very small.

That, however, may be small consolation to a seller on a server with extreme circumstances such as large faction imbalances, extremely low population, extremely erratic auction house prices and a hundred other things that can make a server/faction an outlying oddity.

To these sellers I would say "Only you can prevent forest fires." That is to say, you may be the only one who can really find the proper solution to your mogging problem. If you've done everything you can think of, followed every piece of advice, and you are still unable to sell mogging items, then you've got yourself a riddle that only you may be able to solve. Put on your thinking caps. Get creative and try tons of different things until you find something that works.

The alternative is to admit that your server, for what ever reason, is simply not ready/willing to spend gold on mogging items. I wish I had more advice for those of you on "Baghdad" servers/factions but I just don't.

A Tiger Can't Change It's Stripes

I hope my "Three 'B's" theory has helped alleviate some of the anxiety that you may have been experiencing while trying to sell mogging items on your server. Selling mogging items is one of the most server-dependent gold-making techniques out there right now.

Your server/faction make up is unlikely to change any time soon. Thousands of players have been playing together for thousands of days, buying and selling millions of items. That kind of activity weaves a complex tapestry which ultimately makes up the fabric of each and every server/faction out there. Just like a fingerprint, no two are the same.

All Is Not Lost

It's a complex market. It takes lots of dedication and a bit of luck. Even with all the heartache and hair-pulling it has caused me over the last 3 months mogging has been one of the most enjoyable markets I've worked in in years.

Many parts of selling mogging items, the hunt for items, the pricing (and repricing), the setting up addons, and (gasp) actually getting sales, are all extremely fun.

Not only that but I've taken what I learned from selling mogging items and moved it into other flipping markets. I've made a absolute killing using the systems and techniques I developed for mogging sales in the 77-80 Cataclysm greens market.

Conclusion

The bottom line (and what I try to impart in everything I do when teaching gold-making) is do what is fun for you. Every gold-maker is made up of different gold-making "DNA". Some of us enjoy camping the auction house. Some of us enjoy working with tons of alts. Some of us like searching for new ways to make gold. Some of use like dominating markets (and making our competition cry like babies). We're all different and unique.

Consider selling mogging items as simply one more tool to your ever-growing repertoire of gold-making techniques. Each and every one of use should continually be exploring new and diverse ways to make gold.

Not only will it make us more resistant to market fluctuations but it will help train us to more easily spot new opportunities when they come along. Most of all: have fun!