Just My Two Copper

The Artificial Ceiling

2009-12-10T08:00:00.003-05:00

There are so many ways to trick people on the auction house that I could sit down and write 5,000 words in about an hour on the subject. One of these 'tricks' is something I like to call the Artificial Ceiling. Perhaps someone more astute and in line with marketing jargin can reveal the proper name for this method in the comments section.

It's elementary my dear watson... first you get on a toon and post items for 200% market value. Just a couple as you are not trying to sell these items. Next, you get on another toon and post the same items for 120-150% market value. If there isn't much competition you are creating the stage for someone to come along and think that they see a great deal. Sure someone can undercut you but they also look like a great deal as well! If a new person running auctioneer or even just a noob browsing the ah sees your goods they will possibly buy them out as well as anyone who undercuts you.

Not a foolproof method but still an interesting way to make gold. I used to do this frequently with mammoth meats and it seemed to help me sell about 25% more meat when I set up the artificial ceiling. People just love deals, even if it's only a perceived deal.

Where Did the Farmers Go?

2009-12-09T08:00:00.003-05:00

If you go on the JMTC Wow Gold Forum you will find people with gold in more than 6 figures... and they haven't been playing all that long either. Although blizzard took steps to reduce the effectiveness of farming, they actually increased the amount of gold circulating within the economy tenfold with this expansion. From daily questing to leveling people now have been given fun new ways to make more gold than they will require for repairs and other minor expenses. The overall effect on the game has been simple: people purchasing expensive items on the auction house or on vendors. If the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth had existed in vanilla or even burning crusade it would of been very rare to see anyone with the mount. With the onset of easy to get gold outside of farming for hours, players can just save up from their dailies and eventually get their vendor toting mounts or gasoline chugging motorcycles.

Blizzard created this system of providing large amounts of gold because of farming concerns. Now farmers can still run around for hours making money but the margin of gold they get compared to someone who just does their dailies and calls it quits is far smaller than it was in burning crusade. With mobs dropping very specific drops per mob type and few boe epics/blues in their loot tables there just isn't much to actually farm at one time. When relics of ulduar were big you could farm seething revenants for insane profits, but now they are about as good as any level 80 clothy you farm with the tailoring specialization.

The only prevelant farmers left in the game are mining/herbing ones, using the fancy fly under the world hack that reminds me of noclipping from doom II. These farmers are awesome because they use the auction house to sell all their goods and at amazing prices for milling.

Eventhough farming was greatly reduced during wotlk the past few weeks I have seen an incredible drop in the number of materials normally farmed by the farmers appearing on the auction house. I can only assume that many have been banned or moved on to other methods of making gold.

Some players (including yourself I assume) have discovered just how to grab up all that excess gold that people have been aqcuiring this expansion with... cough... the auction house! I have to wonder though, how many farmers have learned to use the auction house? What if someone like myself were to start selling gold to gold companies? Hell I can pump out a good 10k gold profit a day with ease if I use all the tools at my disposal... what's that? $20 a day? Now imagine if I played all day farming my mats and then started crafting items for even more profit. That kind of salary would be amazing in some of the poorer countries that setup gold farming companies. The only thing holding back this kind of farmer is the shifting nature of the auction house: their profits would not always be gauranteed with some days being better or worse than others. Businesses don't like to operate that way and it would take an owner willing to gamble on the skills of his farmers to make this happen.

Would you be able to make 10k gold a day if you played let's say 10 hours a day using both the auction house and farming? You'd have to diversify like crazy and make use of every market in the game, but it can certainly be done and consistently at that.

Large Brilliant Shards - How to Make Easy Wow Gold

2009-12-08T08:00:00.002-05:00

Enchanting mats are such an awesome way to make easy gold in wow. Oh I'm sorry was I typing out loud again? I apologize for that, excuse me.

What I meant to say is that large brilliant shards are one of my favorite enchanting mats to sell and farm for that matter. On my snatch list I buy out these babies for 4.5 gold a piece or lower and I relist them at 6-8 gold depending on market value and day of the week. When I've posted all my auctions and have nothing better to do I go to old world stratholme and farm the whole instance for tons of blues to disenchant. Farming this instance is one of the oldest forms of making easy wow gold and it has been farmable by a single player since burning crusade. Every single blue in the instance becomes a large brilliant shard and there are tons of other great items to grab such as stacks of rune cloth or righteous orbs. If you don't have a dispeller for the nasty diseases and curses you can get from the mobs of this instance then you have two options:

1. Use my video to see how you can skip all the way up to the live side of the instance where righteous orbs can be farmed.
2. Bring potions that dispel the debuffs.

Many players go for Baron runs in an attempt to get the Baron's mount but do not finish the live side of Stratholme. I am the opposite: I always finish off live side with the Scarlet Crusaders before deciding whether or not I want to do the Baron's side. Regardless of whether you do either side or both, this is by far one of the easiest sure fire ways to make gold in wow. If you want to make even more profit from this place then you may want to invest in creating enchanted vellums from the mats you farm. There's a lot of easy wow gold to be made from these enchants and that's the market you're selling to anyway with the dream shards, illusion dusts, and greater eternal essences. That being said, be sure to diversify as sometimes you are selling straight to enchanters trying to level their profession and they don't want your enchanted vellums.

10 Things You Should Know About Patch 3.3 Analysis

2009-12-07T08:00:00.019-05:00

Patch 3.3 Analysis from Just My Two Copper

What's going to happen in 3.3? I'm sure it's on everyone's minds. If you've been checking the JMTC forums then you are aware of several major item changes that will affect the game and making gold in wow.

1. Saronite Bar -> Titanium Bar Transmute Cooldown Lifted

This has sent buyers running to grab up all the Saronite Bars and Ore that they can find in anticipation for transmuting them into titanium bars. What will this do? Decrease the value of titanium bars and all the items made from them, as well as increase the value of saronite bars. Saronite ore will also be affected and this will greatly damage the profitability of the 'Saronite Shuffle.' Infinite dusts being made more readily thanks to a recent hotfix will also help to ruin the profitability of this method. Will it still exist after 3.3? Probably, but it will not be as profitable.

2. Heavy Borean Leather to Arctic Furs

Arctic furs and 10 heavy borean leather are going to even out to the same price.

3. Rare/Epic Gems going up in value along with other with upgrades

People are going to be upgrading at an insane pace thanks to the 5 mans. Not to mention the fact that t9 will also be available for triumph badges and 5 mans will drop it. Getting 25 arena points for the daily bg will help people upgrade somewhat faster as well. Leg enchants, enchanted vellums, titanium ore and spellthreads should see huge price increases for the first few weeks of the patch.

4. Raid Consumables

The more top end raiding guilds you have the better this market will be on your server. Everything from flasks to potions to elixirs to fish feasts will fly off the proverbial auction house shelves.

5. Snowfall Ink Glyphs

Two new glyphs are appearing which cost snowfall ink. Expect the price to rise on your server for these inks. I predict that it will increase even more so than the week of a darkmoon faire.

6. Pygmy Suckerfish Flood Incoming

With the emphasis on fishing and leveling fishing thanks to the new fishing competition expect pygmy suckerfish to flood the auction house. Definitely look for some great deals on turning these into pygmy oils for resale directly or indirectly as potions.

7. Disenchanting Option

Disenchanting option is equal to greed. If you roll a 90 on De and someone with greed rolls an 89 you will win the item in disenchanted form.

8. Random Dungeon

People will run WAY more dungeons thanks to this new tool. Get ready for enchanting mats to drop like a rock with this new option. People will que for dungeons the way they que for battlegrounds, resulting in far more runs and the incentives to try this new tool will have everyone doing it.

9. BOA Shoulder Enchants

Say goodbye to what was left of the Relics of Ulduar market.

10. New Leveling Rings

Say goodbye to the amazing profits of selling low level bis rings. Look into disenchanting if the mats for these rings plumet.

For a second opinion on Patch 3.3 Analysis here is Mark from Wowzer Gold

Hello my name is Mark(not Markco :)) aka The Wowzer and this is what I have done to prepare for Patch 3.3. The obvious ones have been stocking up on Heavy Borean Leather and Borean Leather for the Arctic Fur Exchange and Saronite Bar for the Titanium Bar Cooldown removal. The not so Obvious one are stocking up on things like Pygmy Oil, Flasks, Frost Lotus, Eternal Life, Lichbloom, Goldclover, Tiger Lily and Icethorn, and that's just for One Profession. Other mats are Rare and Epic Wrath gems, Infinite Dust and Abyss Crystals, Glyphs Galore and Nobles cards. Yes, I Don't Believe the new DPS trinket that drops from the new 3-Part 5man is that much more desirably and you could always have both. I predicted the 15th for the drop of 3.3 but am quite happy to be wrong and for it to drop this Tuesday/Wednesday as the Darkmoon Faire is in Elwyn Forest that week (Yup I'm Alliance). Last but not least, Eternal Earth and Shadow for the new ammo as they will take 2 Crystalized of each for a stack of the new ammo. Massive Thanks to Marco for the guest post and all his help.

What do you think will happen after Patch 3.3 hits? What have you done to prepare? Comment!

Sweet Spot for Cooking Gold

2009-12-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

Cooking, like every other profession has what I like to call 'sweet spots' that make leveling it difficult because materials are no longer farmed on a regular basis.

For Blacksmithing this is thorium bars, for tailoring it's bolts of netherweave (largely due to bag makers buying up the cloth), etc.

When I was going through auctioneer I noticed something peculiar that really surprised me: Burning Crusade fish going for 60 gold a stack. At first I thought it was just some fool dumping his guild bank, but after watching the market for a week I noticed that it was actually pretty active with about six sellers and obviously more than one buyer. Since the food from these fish weren't appearing on the auction house I had to assume that it was for cooking. Having leveled my only cook during BC I never knew this market existed until now!

Spotted fel-tail and Crescent-Tail Skullfish seem to be the real money makers, possibly for the 330 and 335 cooking recipes that these are required for.

Definately add these to your snatch list as they can easily sell at 2-3 gold a piece.

Markco's Carrying Club

2009-12-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

One of my most lucrative business areas of interest right now is none other than the arena. Getting paid 1.5-5k gold to carry someone up to 1800 for their weapon has not only been easy and quick, but also hillariously entertaining.

What I do is join someone's team and have them que me while I simply go in and lose the game (sometimes I play for the fun of it and crush some 1600 teams 2v1). Once my mmr is down to 200 points below the team I'm going to carry, I then proceed to win 6-12 point games all the way up to 1800. By the time we get to 1800 usually we are facing 1700-1900 teams and my partner has learned a thing or two which helps the odds of winning tremendously.

NOTE: The team I'm carrying and the team I tank my rating are different and have different players queing me.

So far I've carried ret pallies, disc priests, mut rogues, resto druids, resto shamans, holy pallies, and even a destro lock. It's been an absolute blast and I'm getting to play with teammates who would normally be strolling around trade chat dreaming of a chance to play more competetive arenas. By the end of the carrying session I hope that they not only had a blast but learned a thing or two.

If you are a gladiator or even a really good duelist don't just sit up at that pointless rating or mmr, tank your team and make some easy gold! Be warned, tanking your mmr too low is pointless; ie more than 200-300 points below the starting team rating of the person you are carrying.

I'm Drowning in Undercutters... Help! (Suggestion Box Friday)

2009-12-04T08:00:00.002-05:00

"Hey Markco,

I wanted to ask you about something I've got mixed up in with the greedy goblin.

A guild mate of mine directed me to his main page branding me as "moron of the week" informing me that I was a moron for attempting to explain to this "Jason" on my server why he shouldn't undercut glyphs by 40% (the conversation with Flamybank, who is me).

This person would go down to 11g on ~20g glyphs that I had listed throughout the day. When I went to go check on them, I didn't expect for the price to be as low as it was. Spirestone has four players on it who habitually undercut on glyphs regardless of their price. Several others had undercut his 11g, he undercut again to 5g, and believe it or not, three others had brought it down to 3g per glyph, this particular case being the popular Glyph of Judgement. I believe he's citing his piece about inelastic demand and supply as the source for me being a "moron," because dogmatically, higher prices = higher profits = more sellers (according to his blog). This is definitely not the case on my server, as these four individuals don't seem to mind undercutting to 2 or 3g on important raiding or PvP glyphs.

My only strategy for attempting to sell glyphs in such a market defined by "geniuses" who think everyone else are "morons" is to attempt to sell them as high as possible and hope that players needing the glyphs will go to the auction house while mine are the cheapest. I do post these only at prime hours. I've had conversations with many people on the matter, particularly what they believe a fair price is for a glyph and the herb supply on my server. In my surveying, I have found no reason to believe that individuals are turned away by a 20g price tag for a glyph, nor have I found any reason to believe there is a shortage of ink supply for these four players.

I apologize for the lengthy e-mail, but I was hoping you'd be able to shed some insight on my situation. Frankly I'm quite offended to be publically listed as a moron when very few people are aware of the greater picture (my server's dynamics) and read his blog with a dogmatic knowledge of "right" and "wrong."

Thank you for your time :)

~Flamy"

It's suggestion box friday, so how would you handle this?

I'll give my response, then you guys as a community take a crack at it.

First off, they are mocking you because they are undercutting you and still making money and they really don't care how far they undercut as long as they make a sale. To them they are winners whether you whine or do not, so therefore they don't care what you have to say. If you want to win, then you need to compete with them. Start selling the two ink types themselves, armor vellums, weapon vellums, offhand weapons, cards, and glyphs that are discoverable. This is what I do and I make an easy 500-1400 gold every day.

What you posted to the person screenshotting your conversation was actually a viable way to deal with the situaion. You could also offer to buy his glyphs up every day and relist them. In the end though these players only really hurt themselves. They compete with each other down to the wire and scrape up a small fraction of the profit they could make sharing the market and diversifying. Be smarter than them and expand into the other ways to make money with inscription. Also look into all the other ways you can make money on the auction house; never ever stick to one market/profession.

Looking for Guest Posts

2009-12-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since this blog has had a guest post (not including the countless gold tips that stream in on a daily basis from normal players) and I wanted to offer the opportunity for any gold making blog out there that would like to reach this astute audience.

Looking for quality information on making gold or even just conversation starting material on patch 3.3. Feel free to email me at freebeertomorrowonyxia AT gmail DOT com with your submission and I'll be happy to respond with an approximate date of when I will be able to display your work.

I ask for these guests posts because I understand that it is refreshing to hear someone else's opinion on making gold and it opens up more discussion as well as provide you the reader with even more blogs to dive into. There are some really high quality blogs out there with the same gold tip sharing orientation as JMTC, and I highly recommend visiting the Link Love section of my forums for a list of wow gold blogs.

Put in the comments section if you have any posts you'd like to see in the near future; which will in turn provide these aspiring authors with some material to work with.

Live Mail Box On Xfire

2009-12-02T11:00:00.006-05:00

Today I'm going to be openning my mail box live for all to see on XFIRE at 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.

It will be an excellent time to chat up with each other live on xfire and you can discuss what I'm selling and why. All auctions were posted yesterday between 4-8:00 PM Eastern Standard Time and will show up as having 29 days left in the mail box tab.

I expect it will take the usual 45 minutes to 1.5 hours to unload the mail box so feel free to stop in any time between 7-8:30 PM Eastern Standard Time on XFIRE with the name markcolol. I sold items from all of my professions at once except for jewelcrafting and engineering on one toon so that you could see how much money I typically make without having to switch characters.

My XFIRE link is in the side bar but for those reading on a feed, go here.

I highly suggest being intoxicated to help pass the time between mail box loads, as I expect 35-50 of them. See you tonight!

For feed readers today's actual gold making post was on Cataclysm Flasks in PVP.

EDIT: That was fun although I didn't sell as many auctions as I thought I would in the 24 hour period. Ended up with about 800 still being sold on the auction house but from the 20 minutes of openning mail I made almost 6k gold. Not too bad, I apologize to those that came late and were expecting it to go longer :(

Flasks in Cataclysm

2009-12-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

This will be one of the greatest level 85 money makers. I highly suggest leveling up a level 80 alchemist with flask specialization before cataclysm hits.

Why? Well because of rated bg's that's why! There is one thing every pvper is going to need for group bg's and that's flasks which persist through death. This will greatly increase the value of the mats for flasks (mostly herbs and oils) as well as provide a constant stream of buyers for the market. Let's not even discuss consumables like free action potions...

Don't delay, get an alchemist today! I highly suggest getting two (potion + flask specialization) but not everyone wants to be as hardcore as me so I understand if you only get one.

Discuss in the comments section :)

Smelting The Golds

2009-12-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

There are two ways that I make gold with smelting (mining's better half) and they are titansteel bars and cobalt bars. First, I buy the materials off the auction house cheap every day as I see them. Once I have enough to make a few stacks of cobalt or one titansteel cooldown I craft the bars and sell at 75% market price to ensure that they sell quickly and I get about 20%-30% return on the investment.

Another item you can make gold off your miner with is bronze bar. These take 1 tin and 1 copper bar so check your auction house prices to see if this can also make you money.

Any other bars that you know of that will turn a profit simply by smelting them? It's not usually the case because of prospecting being so much more popular than blacksmithing.

How to Defeat a Goblin on your Server

2009-11-30T08:00:00.010-05:00

I've had numerous emails from people trying to discover the secret to out'ing a goblin on their server. Some even have an infestation of goblins running around undercutting glyphs down to 50 silver.

Before I explain how to defeat a goblin, perhaps I should discuss what exactly being a goblin entails? A goblin gets their herbs and focuses on selling the snowfall ink to make up for most of their herb expenses. If they sell their snowfall ink for 60-100% of the cost of their initial investment then they can sell their glyphs (using the average 6 inks per stack of herbs) for super cheap and that is where their profit comes from. This profit margin is entirely dependent on how much the goblin paid for his/her inks, but the key here is that the snowfall ink is always the linchpin for their profits.

How then, do you defeat the goblin and raise the price of glyphs on your server? I have a theory and I'm going to implement it very soon on my own server. There are currently three goblins I've found using approximately 3 gold threshold and QA2. They post a 40 gold glyph three times and if anyone undercuts they will in turn keep undercutting down to this 3 gold threshold. To defeat these goblins I've been recruiting dedicated farmers with these mouth watering prices for herbs:

10 gold a stack of lichbloom, icethorn, or adder's tongues
5 gold a stack for any other stacks of WOTLK herbs

Sounds delicious right? Well with that price I can sell snowfall inks for 7 gold and then glyphs for 1.1 gold and make a 10 silver profit (-50 silver each for resilient parchment). The only thing is... I'm not going to sell glyphs! In fact I have almost never sold glyphs (I only focus on the discovery ones), and instead sell armor vellum III's and weapon vellum III's, as well as the inks themselves.

So my plan is to focus on getting snowfall ink [EDIT: I wrote ink of the sea here by accident the first time this was posted... sorry!] down to the 10 gold range (It's going to take thousands probably over the course of several weeks, I'm currently down to the 13-14 gold range) and in a sense cut the legs right out of the goblin method. Next, I'm going to control the armor and weapon vellum markets so that they have no way to compete with my prices. They will be FORCED to sell glyphs for more in order to make any profit at all.

I like to think of it as out-goblining the goblins. What do you think of my master plan? Comment!

Ashegaming Gold Challenge and Youtube Videos

2009-11-29T08:00:00.004-05:00

Many of you may know Ashe from his YouTube videos on making gold, well he's back again with a series this time... he's going to try to make as much gold as possible on a new server within two weeks. All the gold he acquires will go to his first YouTube subscriber that has apparently helped him greatly since he started putting videos up.

Here's the link:
2 Week Gold Challenge by Ashe

OK so what does this have to do with JMTC? Well I want you guys to get involved with this. Discuss it on the forums, in the comments section here, and on Ashe's YouTube channel. Get involved and see if you can help Ashe make as much gold as possible in two weeks. Who knows, maybe you'll learn something from this as well!

Good Luck Ashe!

The Art of Flipping

2009-11-28T08:00:00.005-05:00

Flipping, like undercutting, is a true art form in world of warcraft. In order to perform a plethora of profitable purchases periodically you will need to have a grasp of how much an item is worth (ie auctioneer) as well as how much the item will normally sell for. Just because essences of earth sit at 10 gold almost all the time doesn't mean that people will actually buy them for that price.

What to flip?

Flipping is most frequently used to make money with enchanting mats and other items that require 0 posting cost fees. This allows for margins of error in the flipping and cuts the loss to the flipper tremendously should they fail. The most popular item to flip in the game is probably greater cosmic essences currently. Other items that should interest you are:

Essences of XX, max level glyphs selling less than 2 gold, Vellums, entry level meats, low to mid level herbs/ore, and even high profile epics like gems and armor/weapons... (fill the comments with other items you like to flip as I am deliberately keeping the list short).

How to flip?

Simply buy out when items reach [Normal Selling Value - X] and then repost for [Normal Selling Value]. Notice I said normal selling value, not auctioneer's price. You need to understand the market and have a feel for how much items will actually be purchased at, especially some of the low level stuff that could be ridiculously overpriced.

Deciding on that normal selling value and the X are what differentiates you from a good flipper and someone who is going to lose a lot of money quickly. Practice with enchanting mats first, then move on to items that have a posting cost.

Good Luck!

PS: Word of advice, be careful not to invest too much into flipping or else you will end up being pressured to selling your goods for less than optimal prices.

Suggestion Box Friday (11/17/09)

2009-11-27T08:00:00.006-05:00

Happy day after turkey day! I hope you are having a blast with family/friends.

Feel free to write about anything regarding making gold in wow!

Discussion:

Will new glyphs that require snowfall inks in the next patch drive the price of snowfall inks back up to what they were a few months ago? Will the item level 200 trinkets (aka greatness) still hold enough market value to keep people buying snowfalls? Something to think about as many people have stopped producing the cards all together.

New Epic Ammunition

2009-11-26T08:00:00.001-05:00

Some of you may have heard that new epic ammunition is coming out for engineers. It will require rep with a new reputation group poised against the lich king but I'm under the impression that the new 5 man dungeous will give you plenty of rep with this new faction.

Engineers create the ammunition using 2 crystallized shadow for the arrows or 2 crystallized earth for the bullets and I would definately advise buying up these materials in anticipation for the patch. Earths can spike heavily but crystallized shadow is often pretty cheap so look for some deals while you wait for this new ammunition to hit the scene.

Shadow can be farmed easily in wintersgrasp and the earth can be farmed off of Revenants in stormpeaks.

Declining Price of Epic Gems

2009-11-25T08:00:00.003-05:00

Pots of Gold - On The Fall of Gem Prices

I loved this article on gems falling in value because it's spot on: Epic gems have been slowly decreasing in price since they were introduced. Many gems I paid 400 gold for when they first come out have dropped down to an measly 160. Why is this? Supply and Demand.

First off, more ways to get epic gems were introduced, everything from transmutes to honor purchases to badges to prospecting. More and more gems appeared but what's worse, gems could be gathered by anyone, not just jewelcrafters and in large supplies.

As supply rose with the easy methods for gathering gems demand could never keep up. People were getting the gems they needed for free and then selling off the extras. This led to lower and lower prices. Myself, I make around 600-1000 gold selling epic gems a week. I buy them wtih honor, badges, and the uncuts off the AH if they are 25 gold below a cut gem's average value.

I also pay attention to trade chat for people looking for cuts and have a few of each gem on hand for this. One word of warning: if you don't make use of the cheap methods of getting gems and just try to resell them you will have trouble maintaining a steady cash flow. Mix it up and look into the badge/honor/prospecting/transmuting route for the majority of your gems.

I fear that all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve. ~ Isoroku Yamamoto

2009-11-24T08:00:00.032-05:00

Besides being a proud American and an enterprising entrepreneur, I am also a member of the Roman Catholic Church (tithing ftl). This being said, I have always felt that getting to heaven was the number one goal to hold for myself. I apologize if you are atheist or of a different religion and that offends you, but I have no problem with you expressing your own beliefs anytime you want on my forums or blog. Although Gevlon's attacks against me were a planned (notice he waited 6 days to make his post on a Tuesday?), unprovoked, brutal and brilliant surgical strike against myself and my blog, to retaliate would in no way bring me closer to my number one goal. So therefore I am not going to retaliate, however I will do my best to provide a thorough explanation regarding what happened for you, my readers.

Gevlon's Intent

What Gevlon did was attempt to assassinate my character, because, for whatever reason and I won't pretend to understand his thinking on this, he actually views my blog as a threat to him. Why I am not sure, but the facts all point to this irrationality:

1. Gevlon deleted perhaps a hundred comments from his blog (75 that I know of for sure). Every single deleted post disagreed with him or called him out for his actions. Seems like someone wants it to look like 90% of the commenters agree with the greedy goblin.
2. Gevlon brought Tobold into the mess with the hopes of spreading the news deeper across the interwebs. Tobold accepted and in one of his comments made the accusation that I was performing tax evasion. This of course was based on 0 facts and made him look rather biased.
3. Gevlon posted my personal email. This was not a big deal because I did send it to him. However, when commenters started posting much more dangerous personal information about myself Gevlon left the comments as they were. Judging by how actively he deleted comments he obviously wanted those to remain visible and that speaks volumes to his intent with the tabloid post.
4. Gevlon misinterpreted what I was asking him to do and exploded like he always does. However, in the past the greedy goblin has linked to me talking about how JMTC is the place to go to learn about making gold in wow and this sudden outburst just didn't make sense to anyone who had read those previous posts. In my email I tried to explain (although I was pretty angry in the second) that I wanted him to honestly and truthfully compare my guide to other ones. Coming from him this would of created huge buzz and generated lots of sales, and this would be a wise business decision unless of course your goal is to destroy JMTC.
5. Gevlon used the words lie, scheme, and marketing tricks throughout his tabloid article. First off I never lied in either of those two emails. You can accuse me of stretching the truth on my numbers, however they were based off of projections of readership vs past conversion rates on other blogs/sites. Second, there's no scheme here and the fact that my sales have gone through the roof since Gevlon's post and yet only one person has asked for a refund speaks volumes on the content of my guide NOT being a scheme. Marketing tricks? Since when does the greedy goblin know ANYTHING about marketing? There were no 'tricks' in my sales pitch. You can doubt what I said but that doesn't mean it's false.
6. Gevlon waited 6 days to post his response to my emails and perform his attack. Somehow I feel that if his actions were genuine and if he truly believed that I had wronged him that he would of reacted a lot sooner. The way he wrote it sounds like I had infuriated him into immediate action, but he actually took the time to carefully plan and arrange his assassination attempt.

The Fallout

There were no apparent winners in this Pearl Harbor style attack. The wow blogosphere showed how shallow it really is, with many sites following the greedy goblin and feeding off his every word without thought to the possibility that he could be lying. I have never had the support of the vast majority of wow related sites, but luckily for this blog that has not made a difference on readership growth. Every week hits go up, subscriptions go up, and the forums grow ten people per day on average. This is without the support of wow.com, mmochampion.com and now the wow blogosphere. The real thing I lost in this was my pride, and that's something I am grateful to be rid of as it's one of the hardest things to shake off in your lifetime. I did learn some value life lessons from this, and I am prepared to move on as a better person.

Greedy Gevlon didn't win either. You see he lives off his subscription numbers like an IV to a dying child. This incident only made him cling to them more. Here is a true marketing tip for you Gevlon: hits are king in this business, not subscribers. Evenmore than subscription numbers Gevlon craves attention. This is why he will lie about anything that seems to put him in a negative light. Remember when he said that he was messing up on purpose in the raiding guild that he purchased a spot in? Yeah right, if he was good enough to raid with that quality of players then he wouldn't of needed to buy a spot in the first place. Throughout this dramatic story Gevlon proved himself to be the self indulged, greedy, and just flat out evil person I've guessed he might be all along. This whole incident smacks of him attempting to assassinate the character of someone he deems to be a threat and he's shot himself in the perverbial foot with this tabloid mess. What businessman will ever approach him now? What blogger in their right mind will trust him? In the end Gevlon has shown himself to be the very scum he accused me of being. I forgive him for it, and I pity him.

The True Winners

But someone must have won in this matter right? It's the clash of the titans! Do or die, someone must come up victorious, right?! Well I can tell you that there was one clear winner in this whole mess:

YOU. The readers of this blog.

I received 186 emails the day Gevlon posted. One email was from a 16 year old boy asking for help finding a job. Another email basically said I'm never coming back bai! 184 emails were sent by concerned fans and supportive members of this community. I was overwhelmed by this. Every time I opened an email that said "per the greedy goblin incident" I was expecting hate but got kind words instead. You are the reason I removed many of my comments on other blogs and took down my shameful post which attacked the greedy goblin back. You are the primary reason I managed to get my cool back after angrily reacting, and who wouldn't react angrily to what had happened? Who wouldn't want to lash out at the idea of those close to you being made vulnerable by a lunatic's actions?

I thank my loved ones for their support and the members of this great community for their overwhelming enthusiasm. This is the best gift I could of asked for regarding the one year anniversary. In fact I will go so far as to say that what Gevlon gave me for the blog's birthday was more than anyone could have: Determination.

Here's to another year, and thank you! I promise no more drama posts regarding this matter, I'd like to move on and get back to the gold tips. /cheer

Turkey Time! Price Changes on Auction House

2009-11-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

A handful of items are going to see their values plummet during the thanksgiving turkey events:

Netherweave Cloth, Large Prismatic Shards, Ancient Lichen, and Adamantite ore.

These items drop in the instance Sethek Halls and it's part of the pilgrim's plight achievements to kill the final boss wearing the proper attire.

Keep an eye out for netherweave dropping as well as netherweave bags this week. Large prismatic shards aren't used that much but you should still look to flip them for moderate returns after the holidays. The ancient lichen and adamantite ore are not in very high demand but if the prices get low enough look to pick them up and flip just like the prismatic shards.

Drink too much, eat too much, and enjoy your time with your families!

2700 Rated Prot Warrior Tanks Team to 1000

2009-11-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

I wanted to start carrying friends in 2's but it was getting really difficult because of my 2700+ mmr. Therefore I decided the only solution was to go 2v1 until I bottomed out at whatever rating. That rating ended up being 1,000. Here are some of my wins while I was tanking down from 2700, including the first one which was an ~1850 team. Enjoy!

I've had this article in my que for about two weeks now and I have made 10,600 gold so far from carrying teammates to 1800. Everyone I've carried so far has had an absolute blast (that's part of my goal to let them have fun) and I think many of them emerged a better player. Not to mention the fact that they walked away with a shiny weapon to pwn in bg's with.

Upgraded Saronite Shuffle

2009-11-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

Some of you may not know what the Saronite Shuffle is, well in lay mans terms, it's the process of prospecting saronite ore, creating necks/rings, and disenchanting said rings or doing other things with the gems to make gold.

The game was recently patched (around two weeks ago) so that infinite dusts now drop around 1 more on average from level 71-80 greens. This greatly increased the value of greens for disenchanting, especially crafted greens.

Check out A Gnome's Conquest for this article on the Upgraded Saronite Shuffle to learn more.

Suggestion Box Friday (11/20/09)

2009-11-20T08:00:00.049-05:00

Suggestion Box Friday is when I, the gold making guru, step down from my saronite plated frozen thrown (what else are you supposed to do with all that extra saronite anyay?) and allow you, the loveable auction house amateurs take a stab at making heads or tails of wow economics.

Feel free to discuss anything gold related, here are the comments of the week:

Regarding Vendoring Saronite Bars
Jeff said...
Stacks of green WotlK gems have been selling for 2g on my server. :-) Cut and sell for 5g, more if you get perfect cuts....

Regarding Titanium Bars vs Saronite Bars after Patch 3.3
Mus1k said...
I concur with Euripides mostly. I'd stack couple of tabs of saronite ore just in case, but won't be hasty to convert it to bars even, so that i can prospect em, if titanium hits the ground.
More interesting question is: how will the tit.bar price affect the ore price. One would think that the ore price must fall accordingly, but i feel it will not be the case for a while after the patch hits.

Discussion: Patch 3.3 2 weeks... 4 weeks.. 2 months away? What are your thoughts? I'm betting on 3-5 weeks with the arena season ending about 2 weeks after.

Knothide Leather

2009-11-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

Knothide Leather is something that everyone has to burn through in order to level their leatherworking. I found an absolutely fantastic place to grab the knothide leather quickly and efficiently:

Talbuk Thorngrazers are your primary target, although you will find the occasional elek and Clefthoof Bull to skin as well. There are groups of four or so around every tree as well as by the lake which will provide you with a steady stream of fresh kills. What's more, by the time you finish killing them the original pack of 3 or 4 should have respawned, allowing for constant farming and skinning. One run through this place netted me almost 1 1/2 stacks in around 5 minutes. Not bad considering the heavy version of this leather can go for as much as 12 gold a piece.

Vendoring Saronite Bars

2009-11-18T08:00:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite ways to make gold is by simply buying items people posted on the ah below the price that a vendor is willing to pay for it. Upon purchasing these items I either use them in one of my professions or simply vendor for usually a small profit. One item I consistently see falling below market value is Saronite Bars. Eventhough blizzard included a small tooltip which tells someone how much the item vendors for on mouse over, people still post below vendor value.

The vendor value of Saronite Bars is 1 gold 25 silver per.

I have probably bought and vendored thousands of saronite bars over the course of a month, each one netting as little as 3 silver or as much as 75 silver per. What's more, I often find these get sold in stacks of 20 when they are below vendor price so it makes for some nice profits.

Are there any items that you often find below vendor value?

Some vendor items which auctioneer confuses for being worth more than they actually are:

Fish feasts, corpse dust, and fel hides. Watch out for these!

One Year Anniversary of JMTC

2009-11-17T08:00:00.008-05:00

Just My Two Copper's One Year Anniversary is today!

So much has happened and been going on that I didn't really even notice the time going by like a freight train. I hope this year has been an amazing time for you as well and that I provided you with the information, inspiration, and most imporantatly the intellectual enhancements you needed to become an expert at the world of warcraft auction house.

In celibration of the one year anniversary of the blog I've dropped my gold guide's price down to $27 for the holiday season as well as added an amazing update with a niche market I discovered that provides an average of 600% profit on investment depending on server prices (based on testing on a dozen live servers). The item involved will blow your mind because I gaurantee you weren't expecting it to be this valuable. Besides this sweet method, I've also upgraded the guide to include several walkthroughs for key addons that will make your life so much easier in world of warcraft. Guides for professions have been updated as well with a few minor specific methods.

Please comment on your experiences with the blog and how it has impacted your wow life, or perhaps your real life as well. As mentioned on the how I wow podcast (RIP), I'm a pretty good motivational speaker and I hope I've positively influenced your habbits both by my words and my achievements.

Never stop learning, reading, experimenting, and most importantly... HAVING FUN!

Thank you for this amazing year. Looking forward to another!