I ended up purchasing a Diablo 3 gold guide for $7. It was such a steal I couldn’t pass it up. The real reason for the purchase is the 6 month private forum access that comes included since the actual guide is not done yet. This will give me a change to talk to some other players about money making ideas in a private area even though I have ideas of my own. Diablo 3 is projected to be released  between April and June so the free access should last till the end of August. I personally value the information in order to help me succeed; I mentioned this here. Information is key when it comes to making gold and money, not just in Diablo 3. So buying a guide was a no-brainer, it will pay for itself on the release date of D3. I normally do not do advertorial posts, but $7 was a good enough deal that I think some players wouldn’t want to miss out on. On top of that, the $7 deal expires on 2/22/2012 before the price goes up.

So we wanted to let our readers know about this special deal that Markco has given his readers. I personally believe in his products, otherwise I would not be writing a post purely to promote something. If you don’t need a  guide or will never buy one, feel free to ignore this offer, but even I couldn’t ignore the value of this, all for some pocket change I could find laying around.

For Just $7 You’ll Get:

• Permanent Access to Guide (when it’s done) Worth $47
• Free 6 Months Forum Access Worth $24
• You’re SAVING $64

Again here is the link.

Full disclosure: I get a small commission if you purchase the guide. However this does not influence any of my thoughts on it and wrote this post without the influence of the guide creator. It only comes out to a few dollars per sale, so it isn’t the reason I’m sharing this with you. 

No related posts.

The Warcraft Econ Hall of Fame interviews the few elite players that have hit the World of Warcraft gold cap of 999,999 gold 99 silver 99 copper as well as ones who have obtain 500k and 250k. We have with us, Minihax of Sunstrider-EU, who will be sharing their story with us today.

Please tell us a little about yourself and your gaming experience.

I’m Minihax from EU-Sunstrider. I’ve played WoW since vanilla, mostly raiding. I’m a 21 year old computer science student from Sweden.

Do you raid or PvP? How do you enjoy the game?

I’ve raided almost every tier. I consider playing with friends the best thing about WoW, so I haven’t pursued any high ranked guild dreams, and have played with friends on Sunstrider most of my time. At one point I was into achievements aswell, spending insane amounts of gold to get the insane title back in Wotlk. I’ve never pvpd other than the odd weekly arena point cap.

What motivated you to collect this amount of gold?

I used to be a poor guy in WoW. Not poor as in ”I have 46 gold and can’t buy enchants”, but floating around a few thousand gold and never really farming but not spending much either. The first thing that motivated me to earn some gold was the “Traveler’s Tundra” mount in Wotlk. I farmed for a few weeks and eventually bought it, of course showing it off proudly afterwards. After that, I went back to being apathetic towards my amount of gold again. My ”Scrooge McDuck”-nature of spending lead me to have about 100k gold in the end of Wotlk, just through raiding and random drops. I spent this entire amount on getting the Insane title when it was rumored that it was going to be removed. In cataclysm I didn’t raid as much and raided more casually. I had some spare time so I started to gather some gold on the side. My goal was always just to have some gold lying around if I ever felt like buying new craftables and BoE items.

How did you learn to do it?

I didn’t really learn how to make gold. I don’t see gold-making as something you ”learn” to do. It’s pretty self explanatory, I had just never bothered with it before since there was no motivation for me to obtain more gold than I had. I didn’t have a guide or anything telling me what to do. I just went to the ah and started making gold.

Is there anyone, hall of fame interview, or resource you would like to thank that contributed to your success?

I don’t know if he is in the Hall of Fame, but Kripparrian US-Ysondre got me thinking that it shouldn’t be too hard to make gold. I also want to say hi to Bozzor from EU-Sunstrider!

What were some of your early mistakes? How would you do things differently if you had to go back and redo them?

In the very beginning I used to farm stuff and try to look for the best places to farm. This sounds typical, but I realized very quickly that farming is very limited in terms of how much gold you can make. When I actually started making gold, I had already played for many years so I wasn’t a newbie. Therefore, I went straight to the auction house. I’ve never lost gold on an investment, so there is nothing really that I would change.

How did you go about getting to this gold amount? Any creative or original ideas?

It started out with one profession, jewelcrafting. I started to level more professions, and now I have most of the professions spread across my many alts. The key to making gold is to have professions. The more, the better. To me it’s a no-brainer how to make gold with them. You buy raw and sell crafted. Since my time is limited, and I’m lazy, I’ve been focusing on goldmaking that requires very little time. This means that I prefer automated crafting over say milling or prospecting, since then I can be completely AFK. I don’t bother much with re-listing auctions and usually post them once per day, with a 12h timer for gems and 24h for anything else.

It started with the gems, but in cataclysm the gem market was pretty much destroyed by the obsidium shuffle. I didn’t do much shuffling since, as I said, I’m not a fan of non-automated crafting even if profit was guaranteed. Don’t get hung up on the word ”crafting” there, I know that prospecting and milling technically isn’t crafting. I mostly just went into obvious markets like crafted pvp gear, but I did earn gold from some niche markets. These niche markets are markets I have found that work on my own server using the undermine journal and wowhead.

There was a time when I read so called gold-blogs. This didn’t last very long though, as I got tired of all the self-proclaimed experts giving out blatantly obvious tips calling them ”gold secrets”. Some even trying to sell them for money! And the promoting of blogs, I mean come on. You can say whatever you want, but I know that the reason these bloggers have their blogs is to make money from advertisements. Some say they want to help the community but I don’t really buy it. The whole scenario is just ridiculous in its nature. You have these ”experts” sharing their ”secrets” as if it’s hard to figure out how to earn gold yourself. No, they just want to make some money on the side from their blog. You could argue that it helps new players or even experienced players make gold, but i think if you can’t figure out how to make gold yourself, you don’t deserve it either.

Pardon me, I got a bit derailed there. Making gold comes from one basic idea, supply and demand. With just this idea, and a few tools, you can become an expert instantly. Perhaps then, if your ego is really big, you can start your own gold making blog! The tools I use are: Wowhead, The Undermine Journal, MMO-Champion and the addon Auctionator. I have never used auctioneer, as I don’t see a need for it. If you understand how supply and demand affects server economy, you know how the prices of mats fluctuate. Use this to buy cheap mats. If you are devoted to making gold you could also find a ”farmer” to buy from. Use your mats to either sell them high if the prices fluctuate much or craft stuff with them. When you’ve found a market that yields a secure profit, write it down so that you remember it. It’s easy to forget about niche markets if you’re selling a lot of things. Then just add more and more markets/niche markets to your list and soon you’ll have a great list of markets that each give you profits. More markets, more profits. When you have a lot of them, you can cherry-pick the ones that are most profitable and consumes the least amount of time. This is what I did. But if you’re devoted to making gold, you can just keep them all and spend more time. Check mmo-champion for game-changes regularly. This is especially important before major patches. It’s easy to predict how changes will affect the economy most of the time. And the profits are huge. And there we have it, that is how I make gold. You just need a basic understanding of supply and demand and an understanding of your server economy.

What is your master list?

I don’t use an addon to track those kind of things. But I will list some items I sell consistently:

• PvP relics
• Fortune cards
• PvP plate armor
• Belt buckles
• Rare gems (cut)
• Volatile air
• Potion of illusion
• TBC uncommon gems
• Adamantite powder
• Vendor-bought pets (I only bother with the ones that cost 50silver)
• Vendor-bought recipes
• Electrified Ether
• Infinite dust
• Greater cosmic essence
• PvP jewelry

What items are on your shopping list?

• Abyss crystal for shattering
• Adamantite ore for prospecting
• Elementium ore for crafting
• Rare gems for cutting gems
• Cinderbloom and Whiptail for fortune cards, dust of disappearance and pvp relics
• Vendor recipes
• Vendor pets
• Volatile life, fire and water for crafting relics, rings and pvp armor
• Basically all of the raw materials from Cataclysm are on my shopping list

What addons, if any, do you use to help you make gold and why are they needed?

Auctionator for convenient browsing and posting.

Postal for fast and automatic mail recovery.

Are you still going for more gold?  If so, do you have a new goal? Are you close?

No, 1 million was my ”goal”.

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

No, just a few friends pretty much. But it’s not like I keep it a secret, I just don’t shove it in peoples faces.

Did you spend your gold on fun things? What have you bought? What things would you like to buy?

I gave 10k gold to my friend who needed gold for the rogue legendary quest daggers. But other than that, there is nothing that I’ve bought since I don’t really want anything. I did technically spend gold when I gave out mats worth about 100-150k gold to random people on my server last tuesday.

If you were the professor of a gold making 101 college class, what would be some things you would talk about?

I must say that this question amuses me greatly. In line with what I’ve said earlier, I don’t think it’s hard to make gold for anyone. Therefore the idea of a college class on this subject seems very bizarre to me. However, I will answer the question. I would focus on ”teaching” how to understand the economy and using the tools I mentioned in the section about how I made my gold creatively.

Do you have any good farming strategies or spots? If you don’t farm, please suggest something to farm if you had to pick the best items and locations.

To me, farming is a waste of precious time. Not to mention really boring. The only time I’ve farmed for gold was in the beginning of Cataclysm, with my tauren druid herbalist/miner. Since you could get XP while farming, and also about 3-4k gold per hour at the time, I found it acceptable. The leveling pace was decent and the gold as well. I don’t know anything about any good farming spots now, however.

What are your future plans with WoW?

I don’t have any future plans with WoW. Reaching one million gold was the last thing I wanted to do. I don’t see myself playing Mists of Pandaria, since I find it a joke of an expansion.

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

I predict that hypnotic dust which is very cheap now, going for as low as under 5g per stack on my server, will increase when mists of pandaria is released. Maybe not right away, but it will just like all the old enchanting dusts, go up in price quite a lot. Perhaps even more so than the previous expansions, because there is only a 5 lvl window where you will go from 80-85 before going into mists of pandaria content.

What your favorite artists, songs, movies, shows, or streams to watch while you are making gold?

I don’t really spend a lot of time making gold, so I don’t know really. When I mill inks for relics/fortune cards, I usually watch a documentary, online lecture or youtube videos at the same time. This way it doesn’t feel like I waste the time since I would’ve watched those videos anyway. Carbon based lifeforms is a great band I listen to a lot.

What are your thoughts on the real money auction house that will be implemented in Diablo 3? How will you take advantage of this new change?

I do plan on trying out Diablo 3. I haven’t played Diablo before so I don’t know a lot about it, but I will definitely look into making real money with Diablo. Although, realistically, I don’t think it’ll be that profitable. But perhaps a good way for a goblin to make some money on the side.

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for Warcraft Econ. Do you have any last words?

I might come off as arrogant in this interview, but really I’m not. I just think gold making is really easy and that anyone who wants to do it can and should do it. I apologize if there is any gold-blogger reading this that actually doesn’t do it for the money and has a non-profit blog.

My computer restarted itself when I was writing this and was almost done, and I lost all of it (THANK YOU windows update, WHY am I not on my Linux computer). Final note: Get an authenticator. Just do it.

No related posts.

Although this has nothing to do with making gold we though we would share some free videos with you. We all love free stuff right? Recently we had a chance to talk to an Arena Rank 1 Gladiator that creates instructional videos to help players like you play better. His team was not only rank number 1 in his battlegroup, but also in the world. If you are interested in arenas and PvP, check him out.

Hello everyone, my name is Ivan Georgiev, more commonly known as Cottage. I am a passionate gamer of competitive nature who always strives to excel at what he does.

In 2010 my partners and I became the highest rated 3v3 team in the world, which turned our gaming hobby into a profession. Now, 2 years later, my goal is to provide the best instructional content for World of Warcraft players. I also post a dozen of non-commentary entertaining videos on YouTube, so make sure to check them out!

http://youtube.com/Cottagex

Today I share this instructional guide with you, as a warm welcome to my channel. I hope that you will have a good time watching it and will pick many tricks along the way!

Related posts:

1. Videos: Diablo 3 Runed (Rank 7) Spell Animations
2. Cataclysm Beta: New Class Abilities/Talents Videos
3. Videos: Trade Chat Talks About 4.2 Changes
4. Videos: Blizzcon 2011 WoW Panels (Over 6 Hours of Footage)
5. Video Preview: Heroic Zul’Aman and Zul’Gurub 5-Player Dungeons Patch 4.1 PTR

The Warcraft Econ Hall of Fame interviews the few elite players that have hit the World of Warcraft gold cap of 999,999 gold 99 silver 99 copper as well as ones who have obtain 500k and 250k. We have with us, Vile of Skullcrusher-EU, who will be sharing their story with us today.

Please tell us a little about yourself and your gaming experience.

Hey everybody I’m Vile from Skullcrusher-EU server and the author of vilesauctions.blogspot.com, a blog about making gold. I’m an individual that enjoys playing games in general, but more importantly loves playing games that have working economies in them. I started out playing games way back in 1997-98 I think when I bought my first PC, that is for the PC era of gaming, but for gaming in general I would say much earlier in the days of the Commodore 64 and the arcades. I just want to add that to this day I am still amazed at how games could have been played off a cassette, but hey it happened. So thinking back at it all now, I can say with confidence that I’ve grown up with games, and that might explain why I love them so much.

Do you raid or PvP? How do you enjoy the game?

Well I have been playing the game since the very start. In this period I have pretty much tried it all. I will start from back in the Vanilla WoW time. I used to be a part of a PvP group called PoP ( Parade Of Pwnage), that was a dedicated group that used to chain run AB’s and totally own anyone we came against. After that would be done, we would jump in and do our raids. The raiding urge lasted the most, so basically from the first raids in UBRS, then ZG, then AQ and so on and on through TBC and WOTLK. I stopped raiding when Cataclysm shipped, and that is when I got ONLY in the AH PvP game. That is what has proven to be most fun for me and been my sole motivator to play the game.

What motivated you to collect this amount of gold?

Well what was my motivator? Hmm the answer to that question would not be easy to define, but I will try. For the longest period of time I played the game with my friends, battling it out in the PvP battlegrounds as well as the raids. Now one of the things that I would have to say were the main motivators would be that I loved to do that. Now the correlation of playing with your friends, and then that being your motivator for making gold is simple actually, the guild we got into. This guild I am talking about was a server first guild, that was always pushing for a kill and always requiring it’s members to have the latest gems, flasks and food. All this meant was that they needed gold to make it to the guild raid runs, and as the luck would have it they sucked in the gold making department, so that was put on my plate. While here, I might add that this was one of the main reasons why I decided to level up all the professions so that I can actually make it cheaper to get all the required goodies.

How did you learn to do it?

I would have to say that my starts were in the most unpopular manner that I keep telling everyone to get away from nowadays, and yes I am talking about Farming. So for longest time I used to farm for gold, be it killing mobs for the drops they have or picking herbs as well as mining ore. TBC was the last bastion of the killing mobs for farming because as soon as WOTLK came out there was simply no more mobs worth killing that would yield enough gold to rival the auction house. So you might guess that by this time I had all the professions leveled up, and was making my gold on the second tier of gold making, the manufacturing way. So if I would have to say how I actually did learn to do it, I would have to say that I did it by the good old way of trial and error.

Is there anyone or a resource you would like to thank that contributed to your success?

Well I have always been a person that kind of sucked in the social media department up until lately, so I can’t say that I have had much help from it. But as for sites as well as blogs I can say that I have gotten some ideas as well as massive amounts of entertainment, while reading or listening to them. I would like to link a few of them here because they are still active and still have awesome tips and ideas.

http://coldsgoldfactory.blogspot.com

http://altosgoldishadvise.blogspot.com

http://kujasgoldmine.blogspot.com

There are more but these were couple of the best ones I came upon that are still active and still are true to their readers.

What were some of your early mistakes? How would you do things differently if you had to go back and redo them?

Well I think I have already said what my earliest mistake was, farming. If I would be able to go back in time I would most definitely… well I would still farm, because I still believe  that we all learn from our mistakes, so if I never learned from my mistakes, who knows I might have still be farming ore and herbs today.

How did you go about getting to this gold amount? Any creative or original ideas?

This is a very funny question, because I must say that getting to this amount boils down to two things, persistency and originality. Just so everyone is clear on one thing, when you see or hear about someone that has a million gold, or two or heck even five or more million gold know just one thing, he is probably using a few tricks but he is good at those tricks and he has been doing it for a very long time. Ok now since we got this out of the way I can go ahead and tell you what has been working for me and what hasn’t.

Profession wise I have already stated I have every single one, but unlike everyone I tend to try out a market and then if it gets too easy, or if I dominate a market I don’t stay in it for too long, but instead I get one of my friends to get in on that market and use my tactics for their own profits. I have done this with so many things that I can’t even remember them all. But all this aside I didn’t get to shoot past two and a half million gold without being constantly in a single market, and that market for me has been gems.

As I have explained in a few posts on my blog, the reason as to why I was good at what I did was simply because I had the motivation for it, I had the time to do it and I befriended the competition and made sure we all acted in sync, almost as a syndicate. With that done we had the server prices tailored to our needs, where prices of raw gems were high as well as the prices of cut gems because we made sure to control the market as best as we could. What this meant was on certain days we would end up buying 1000+ stacks of ore, but with prices of gems of over 200g it was a very profitable arrangement.

One other market that I have been into for quite a while is the crafting PvP items market. I like this market because of one thing only, with every patch they make the crafted items better or more in line with the current PvP gear so that makes that market always viable.

Another market that I used to be very active, but decided to leave it is the Inscription market. Well this is not correct because I have only left the glyph market while all the other goodies that profession has to offer, I keep using. What I mean here is the Mysterious Fortune Cards, and yes they have made me a true fortune in their time, as well as their Cookie counterpart.

I could go on and on about what to sell but I have that covered on my blog, so while here I can only give you one advice that I think is the most valuable, Advertise. Yup you heard it right, advertising has been one of my best weapons that I have been using in the AH PvP. The best thing about this is that advertisement works with any profession, heck it even works great if you are selling ore or herbs. And don’t forget the best part is that advertisement is free in WoW, and all you have to do go to a major city and enter the trade channel. Just so you get the basic idea of how this whole thing work. If you are selling product A, you go on the trade channel and simply say that your Product A will make you better, stronger and more awesome in any way possible, and you will shortly see that people start buying your given produce. Just don’t do it with these words, but more of a cheesy hamburger commercial way.

What is your master list?

Hmm if I would have to name items I constantly sell that would be a list that is always changing as I am jumping from a market to market. But I guess I can name the constant sellers that I have had in my experience. I will put gems as one thing, there really is no need to get into details which ones sell the best. Another thing that has been working for me for two expansions now is the blacksmith enchanting rods market, as I have been getting a constant stream of income from that.

What items are on your shopping list?

I am always on the look for raw materials that I use in my crafting, things like ore, herbs, cloth and leather. So pretty much always keeping my eyes open for good opportunities, and cheap items. One other thing that I always keep an eye out is the WOTLK level gems, the rare ones and the epic ones, as those are one of the markets that I stuck into even when Cataclysm came out.

What addons, if any, do you use to help you make gold and why are they needed?

Oh I have always been an addon buff. I have addons for almost anything, UI, bars, cooldowns, raiding, pvping and of course the auction house. With the amount of addons out there that cover pretty much everything, in the department of the auction house I’m using what any good informed player is using. In that bundle of joy I have Auctionator, Auctioneer and for my posting and checking I’m using TSM. I  know there are some people out there that have never heard of TSM, so if you happen to be one of those people and you are reading this, go download it and then take some half an hour to familiarize yourself with the addon as that will save you a ton of time in the long haul.

Are you still going for more gold?  If so, do you have a new goal? Are you close?

Hmm, well to be honest when I got the 1 million I felt like I should push for more, then when I got to 2 million I still felt like it’s not enough so I kept pushing on. So I thought about what should I make the next threshold, so I put it up at 10 million. I made up my mind for that number because that is the “hard cap” because you can’t have more than then split on 10 characters. As it is now I have an easy percentage based progress bar that is easy to follow, and I am still at 26% now so I have a lot of way to go to my “sweet spot”.

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

This is a funny story as well. As I told you I used to be a part of a server first guild and only the people inside the guild knew about how much gold I had because I would “lend” people gold, and by lend I mean give. But as time went on and on the guild kind of fell apart as people left for whatever reasons and the people that stayed they moved on to other guilds. Now it’s a given fact that people talk, so in a very short time my amount of gold got to be well known amongst people and I started getting whispers from people I never knew asking me about an investments they did, and asking me if it is a good one. Then after the question about investments came questions about how to do things that were profitable, which eventually led to me making my gold making blog.

Did you spend your gold on fun things? What have you bought? What things would you like to buy?

I have told this to many of the people I know, I am a good earner but a crappy spender. It’s true that I have bought the Mechano-Hog mount, as well as the repair mammoth, but other than that I haven’t had any spending excesses. But on the other hand I have given loads of gold to friends, guildies and even random people that were just starting out. As for things I want to buy, well this is a joke that I’ve told many of the people that have asked me why I’m gathering all this gold, and I tell them that when I get 10 million gold I am going to contact Blizzard and ask that they let me buy a raid, and some day people will come over trying to kill me and when they do I shall throw gold at them.

But jokes aside, I would love for new and exciting gold sinks in the game. I have even had a few civil discussions up on the forums with people about it. If you ask me I think that Blizzard needs to bring in more then one gold sink to draw some gold away from the economy because if something doesn’t change and gold gets deflated I’m afraid the economy might crumble.

Few of the ideas I have heard going around as far as gold sinks go have been:

Ability for spectators to bet on arena teams as to who wins.

Introduction of Gambling Dens in WoW

Make more dailies like the one back in Sunwell days where you had to pay gold as a donation to help the families of the fallen heroes, or something like that.

If you were the professor of a gold making 101 college class, what would be some things you would talk about?

HIT THEM BOOKS PEOPLE ! … max out your professions and then simply dominate the market !

How about an advanced gold making class?

As for an advanced class I could only tell people to do one thing, branch out. What I mean by this is, you should never keep all your eggs in one basket, or to make it even simpler, go into multiple markets because if one of them crashes you have others to keep you afloat. Also it would be a good idea to get on Twitter and dig around who are the people worth following that are spewing awesome tips on a daily basis be it for crafting, auctions, transmogrifications or anything for that matter.

Do you have any good farming strategies or spots? If you don’t farm, please suggest something to farm if you had to pick the best items and locations.

Well I am going to go out and say it, I suck as a farmer per se but sometimes I can actually go out and do some farming when I am waiting for a queue, or I’m simply bored. One of my favorite spots for farming would be the trogs, or whatever they are, that are found in Deepholm fighting the dwarves.

But if I am not in the fighting mood then I would probably just hop on the druid and go for some Hearthblossom farming in Deepholm, so there it is two of my favorite spots are in Deepholm.

What are your future plans with WoW?

Well we never know what the future brings, but one thing is for certain as long as I have my friends up for playing PvP or do some instances I will keep playing the game, and have fun while doing it all.

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

Well this is another tricky question. I have said it multiple times that something needs to be done before inflation eats up the worth of the gold. I am a Diablo franchise fan as well as a WoW player and I am just hoping that I will never have to see that scenario where gold is worthless ever again. With the preliminary information about the decrease of the item level of items I am kind of hoping that Blizzard will address the issue where we have too much gold, and tone down the income for quite a bit. Just so I’m clear on what I mean, I hope that Blizzard tones down the income to that line where this is not the 2 million club but a rather 200k club,

Please tell us a little bit about how you handle your real life finances. What are the differences and similarities with how you do things in WoW?

Well actually in real life I’m pretty much like I am in WoW. NO that doesn’t mean that I go out and kill animals and dragons, no, what I mean is that in real life I do my job with a determination and persistence just as I am making my gold in WoW.

What your favorite artists, songs, movies, shows, or streams to watch while you are making gold?

I used to be very dedicated to playing the game and just the game, so no music, no movies no nothing. That is when I found the awesome aspect of the internet called Podcasts. I did a bit of reading and now I can’t wait till I get my weekly podcasts released so I can listen to them while I am making my gold, or even working my real life job. For the Podcasts that I follow I would have to say it’s Rep Grind Radio which is slowly becoming my top recommendation, then The Chaos Stream as well as few more but I won’t get into more details about them here now .

What are your thoughts on the real money auction house that will be implemented in Diablo 3? How will you take advantage of this new change?

I am going to playing Diablo 3, well actually let me give you an example of how much exactly. I lost a year at college because of Diablo 2, but even if that does sound bad I say it was good times. As for Diablo 3 I had the chance of trying out a bit of the beta, a whole 7 minutes of it before I deleted it from my PC. Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t delete it because I didn’t like it, heck I loved it, but I deleted it because I didn’t want any sneak peaks into the game that I believe is going to be the game of the decade. And as for the RMAH, I am going to rock it for all it’s worth and use my experience I got from playing Diablo 2 and WoW to actually make some RL cash.

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for Warcraft Econ. Do you have any last words?

I would just like to thank the readers as well as the Warcraft Econ for giving me the opportunity to share out my WoW life.

Related posts:

1. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Breshota of Skullcrusher-US
2. Hall of Fame – 2 Million Gold Club: Sovash of Korgath-US
3. Hall of Fame – 2 Million Gold Club: Elmenog of Bronzebeard-EU
4. Hall of Fame – 2 Million Gold Club: Kermillion of Medivh-US
5. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Chukchi of Arthas-US

The Warcraft Econ Hall of Fame interviews the few elite players that have hit the World of Warcraft gold cap of 999,999 gold 99 silver 99 copper as well as ones who have obtain 500k and 250k. We have with us, Kermillion of Medivh-US, who will be sharing their story with us today.

Please tell us a little about yourself and your gaming experience.

Originally, Kermillion of Medivh, My name has been changed for privacy reasons. Most people on there would recognize my bank toon name before my main character!

Do you raid or PvP? How do you enjoy the game?

Lately, I have just been on the gold cap and 2 million cap lately. I was a serious raider until cataclysm. Time constraints dictated less playing time, so I chose to collect gold!

What motivated you to collect this amount of gold?

The challenge! After obtaining 1 million gold, 2 million just looked impossible. I just kept chipping away at it, and at about 1.4 million realized it could be done. So at that time, I just decided to go for it.

How did you go from one to two million gold?

No secrets really. I just did the same things I did to hit 1 million. Adjusting to changing game conditions is a must. At each major patch, there is a surge of items that sell well. Gems, enchants, and enchanting materials always sell well after each major patch.

Why did you do the things you did between one and two million?

Just tried to maximize profits. There were some stumbles along the way, but you just have put your mistakes behind you, learn what NOT to do and keep going.

What are your most profitable markets that represent a large percentage of your net profits and why?

Jewel crafting! Glyphs! The Glyph market has died down, still profitable, but not like WoLK. I also sell a lot of enchanting materials. Jewel crafting and enchanting just seem to be the most profitable duo in the game, at least to me.

What is the best advice you can give to other players?

CONTROL YOUR SPENDING! This is the single most piece of advice I can offer. DON’T buy the brand new items off the auction house for at least 2 weeks after a major patch. Let the prices come down. And there are other ways to obtain gear. If leveling a profession on an alt, don’t do it all at once, do about 25 skill points a day. If you buy out all the materials you need on the Auction House, the price will be triple the next day. Do just a little, farm the rest. It will save you tons!

How did you learn to do it?

Trial and error.

Is there anyone, hall of fame interview, or resource you would like to thank that contributed to your success?

I try to keep up 2 websites, Warcraftecon and My2copper. Other than these two, I just experimented.

What were some of your early mistakes?

Assuming people would buy anything. Paying WAY too much for materials because I had no idea what they were worth.

How would you do things differently if you had to go back and redo them?

I wouldn’t redo them. Every mistake taught me a valuable lesson.

How did you go about getting to this gold amount?

Making gold started with wanting enough funds to do anything I wanted. So I found warcraftecon, saw what others were doing and got started. Controlled spending! Two weeks before a new expansion or major patch, DON’T buy lots of new gear! Shop smart, become one of those coupon shoppers on TV. I see people spending insane amounts on stuff that they really don’t need.

I cannot stress enough the Elementium shuffle! Prospect Elementium ore. Craft cut gems from the rare gems for sale. Use the common gems to craft rings and necklaces, and then disenchant them for enchanting materials. Use the Carnelian gems for sale, they are needed by alchemists to craft epic red gems.

 Any creative or original ideas? 

I created a “savings bank” toon. I have a bank toon that all my auction house posts are run through. But I have a toon I send my profits to, never to be touched. I usually sent 50% of the days take to this toon so I would not spend it.

What is your master list? 

Bold/Brilliant/Delicate Inferno Rubies, Carnelian, Celestial Essence’s, Heavenly Shards, Glyphs. 85% of my profit comes from these items.

What items are on your shopping list?

Elementium ore, Whiptail, Cinderbloom. 90% of all items I buy are these 3 items.

What addons, if any, do you use to help you make gold and why are they needed?

Trade Skill Master is a must, used to post multiple items rapidly. Realm Gold, gives you a total gold count on all of your toons. Other than these two, just plain old pen and paper.

Are you still going for more gold? If so, do you have a new goal? Are you close?

Not really chasing more gold at this point. I now want to level my other alts!

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

Only 4 or 5 people.

Did you spend your gold on fun things? What have you bought? What things would you like to buy?

All of my level 85 toons have every mount you can buy, as well as my son’s toons. I buy pets, patterns, etc., to try and make the most complete character. Now I’m going to try to get maximum achievements.

If you were the professor of a gold making 101 college class, what would be some things you would talk about?

Loot everything you kill for vendor sale. If you can’t use it, sell it, either on the AH or a vendor.

How about an advanced gold making class?

Shop smart! Don’t over pay for crafting mats! CONTROL YOUR SPENDING! The dungeons reset every Tuesday. That means people will be getting more gear Tuesday and Wednesday. They will need Gems and Enchants. About 65% of my profit comes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Do you have any good farming strategies or spots?

Another trick to gold making!  Recruit 2 or 3 dedicated farmers to supply you with materials. I have one for ore and another for Herbs. They send me their items COD for less than the AH. I have a source of materials cheaper than the AH and they have a guaranteed sale without spending time and gold on the AH. We both win!

What are your future plans with WoW?

Level my alts so I have all professions available to myself and the guild. Be self reliant. Get more achievements! I may start raiding again, I miss it!

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

Inflation has already begun; things will just keep getting more expensive. There are usually 10 – 12 people on a server that control most of the auction house; I don’t really see that changing much.

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for Warcraft Econ. Do you have any last words?

Do things smart. Control your spending. And if the game becomes work, take a break! At the end of the day, it’s just a game!

Related posts:

1. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Kermillion of Medivh-US
2. Hall of Fame – 2 Million Gold Club: Sovash of Korgath-US
3. Hall of Fame – 2 Million Gold Club: Elmenog of Bronzebeard-EU
4. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Chukchi of Arthas-US
5. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Amathis of Garona-EU

The Warcraft Econ Hall of Fame interviews the few elite players that have hit the World of Warcraft gold cap of 999,999 gold 99 silver 99 copper as well as ones who have obtain 500k and 250k. We have with us, Breshota of Skullcrusher-US, who will be sharing their story with us today.

There are a number of other items I sell on a regular basis but these are the cream of the crop and have been selling well since I started posting them.  You’ll notice that all of my top sellers are cataclysm level items.  I don’t completely ignore items from other expansions, that would be a bad business decision, but I prefer to sell current items.

What items are on your shopping list?

I typically start my day by collecting all my mail from the previous night then searching the auction house for obsidium, elementium and pyrite ore to be prospected.  Then I go to herbs, mainly whiptail, stormvine and cinderbloom because the other three are rarely cheap enough for milling.  I continue on to savage leather and blackened dragonscales for leg armors and finish up by looking for inexpensive maelstrom crystals, heavenly shards and greater celestial essences.  I keep my eye out for cheap carnelians and heartblossom as well for the transmute possibility but on my server the carnelian price is generally higher than 1/3 the price of inferno rubies.

What addons, if any, do you use to help you make gold and why are they needed?

TradeSkillMaster is the big one in my opinion.  It makes life so easy when posting a large amount of auctions to the auction house.  It is also great for keeping glyphs stocked by using the crafting feature.  There are various other features TSM has but these two are the main reasons I need it.
Auctionator is a great addon as well.  It makes purchasing items from the auction house a breeze and would recommend it to anyone.
MySales and Auditor are both great addons but not necessary to make gold.  MySales is good for tracking your sales and Auditor is good for showing your total gold across all of your characters.

Are you still going for more gold?  If so, do you have a new goal? Are you close?

I don’t know that I’ll ever not be going for more gold.  I plan to continue my routine as I have been but at a more relaxed pace.

In the past I attempted to set maximum limits for purchasing materials but I always ended up pushing them upwards to keep stocked on top selling items.  Now that I’m taking a more relaxed approach to making gold I think I will be able to stick to those maximum limits.  A great example of this would be elementium ore.  I had my maximum purchase price at 60g per stack to keep a decent profit margin; however as prices rose I pushed my purchase price up to 80g per stack.  There was still profit to be made and I managed to keep stocked on rare gems but I felt a twinge of guilt for going past my limit, knowing that I could keep a higher margin.  The drawback now; I won’t always be well stocked, but since I’m not pushing for a certain gold amount I won’t feel the need to go past those limits.

As far as a new goal; I am toying with the idea of getting to 10 level 85 characters, I am at five so far with another at 82.  For gold making specifically I am not setting my sights on another number just yet.  That may be added on down the road.

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

On my server just my guild mates are aware that I have hit the one million mark.  It is not something I’m going to flaunt but it is something I am proud of and did share with my guild when I first hit it.  I prefer to post auctions from a bank alt so I can play my main without constant tells asking for trades, discounts or hate mail and I will not be letting the world know that I hit one million for the same reasons.

Did you spend your gold on fun things? What have you bought? What things would you like to buy?

So far I have not bought anything special.  When patch 4.2 came around I made 300,000g in the first week and quickly proceeded to spend all of it and more on top bind on equip items from Firelands for my main.  This time around I don’t have any gear that I’m interested in.  I also already own most of the big gold sinks, mounts, toys, etc.  I’m sure I’ll find something to spend it on before too long though.

I have considered giving some of my gold away to close friends and guild mates that I know don’t make a lot of money, but in the past I have preferred to teach them ways to make gold rather than just give it to them.  I liked the idea that I was not keeping my knowledge to myself but rather sharing it and growing the general knowledge of my friends and guild.  I’m thinking some type of guild competition would be fun and get a few more people involved in guild activity.

If you were the professor of a gold making 101 college class, what would be some things you would talk about?

Sell items that are in demand!  I personally like to sell items that are always in demand.  People will never stop getting new gear.  Whether they are leveling alts or Blizzard is introducing patches with new instances and raids, there is always a demand for items like gems, enchants, belt buckles, leg armors, etc.  I feel there is a smaller risk in these markets because people constantly need them.

How about an advanced gold making class?

Farming and gold per hour.  Farming is something a lot of people consider ‘free money’.  That tells me that their time and effort is worth nothing to them.  I used to farm but once I got into the gold making business I felt my time was better spent buying materials for crafting.  Here’s an example of how I would explain my reasoning:

Objective: Craft 40 glyphs.

Data Given:

1. 40 glyphs require 120 blackfallow inks which require 240 ashen pigments.
2. One stack of whiptail mills to 10 ashen pigments (actually ~12, but I still use 10 to be on the safe side).
3. Whiptail costs 2g per piece or 40g per stack.
4. Farming takes approximately 1 hour.
5. The glyphs you craft all sell for 100g each.

Based on the data given we can calculate the following:

1. 24 stacks of whiptail will be needed to obtain 240 ashen pigments. (240 pigments divided by 10 pigments per stack equals 24 stacks)
2. Milling 24 stacks takes approximately 5 minutes. (96 total mills times 3 seconds to cast and loot equals 288 seconds, divided by 60 seconds per minute equals 4 minutes 48 seconds, rounded up to 5 minutes)
3. Crafting 120 blackfallow inks will take approximately 5 minutes. (120 inks times 2.5 seconds to craft and loot equals 300 seconds, divided by 60 seconds per minute equals 5 minutes)
4. Crafting 40 glyphs will take approximately 4 minutes. (40 glyphs times 6 seconds to craft, loot and switch glyphs equals 240 seconds, divided by 60 seconds per minute equals 4 minutes)
5. 24 stacks of whiptail will cost 960g. (24 stacks multiplied by 40g per stack)
6. All the glyphs sell for a grand total of 4,000g.

Out of all this data the final results are this:

If you farm, craft and sell your glyphs you will have gold per hour income of 3,243g, which is very respectable. (4,000g profit divided by 74 minutes invested equals 54.05g per minute, multiplied by 60 minutes equals 3,243g per hour)

If you purchase, craft and sell your glyphs however, you will have gold per hour income of 13,028g. (3,040g profit divided by 14 minutes invested equals 217.14g per minute, multiplied by 60 minutes equals 13,028.4g per hour)

Now some people just enjoy farming and that’s great.  Way back when I was one of those people, but if you’re going to get serious about gold making you need to focus on gold per hour income.  By the example above I hope to convince people that your time invested has an extremely high value!

The second debatable topic here is the definition of gold per hour.  I define gold per hour as the total amount of sales divided by the number of hours invested in farming, crafting, posting and opening mail resulting from said sales.  Notice I said posting and opening mail, which is the key.  I do NOT consider the time auctions sit on the auction house to be a part of gold per hour income.  The reason for this is because once the auctions are posted, you aren’t doing anything to make them sell.  Now if you spend time barking in trade or canceling and reposting them, that would be added to the equation, but if you are like me, you post and go do something else, you are no longer adding any time to the equation.  I know people have differing opinions about this topic but this is my definition and thus far it has not led me astray.

Do you have any good farming strategies or spots? If you don’t farm, please suggest something to farm if you had to pick the best items and locations.

I have not farmed in some time.  I used to farm elementium ore like a possessed demon when I first hit level 85 and for that I flew around Uldum until I had sand in my eyes in real life, which is hard to do in Indiana!  Nowadays the only farming I do is a quick trip to Deepholm once a week for embersilk cloth.  If you look at a map of Deepholm you will notice a place called Needlerock Slag on the western edge, just below that is what looks like a crater.  Within that crater are more humanoids than you could hope for and, on my server at least, people rarely farm there.  I take my tailor out once a week to farm the embersilk cloth for his dreamcloth cooldown.

What are your future plans with WoW?

At the moment I have not made specific plans.  I will ride out the remainder of Cataclysm with a relaxed attitude now that I have achieved my main goal.  I am looking forward to Mists of Pandaria and what it will bring.  I’m sure I’ll be raiding there like I have the past seven years, but I will make those decisions when the time comes.  As I stated in a previous question, I am toying with the idea of getting to 10 level 85 characters but right now it’s just an idea being tossed around in my head.

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

I don’t tend to speculate about future possibilities because I like to focus on here and now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t get excited about what has been said so far.  I am looking forward to experiencing the launch of Mists of Pandaria as well as future patches because I feel much more confident in my ability to prepare for a content patch.  Obviously the launch will be a time when everyone gets put onto a level playing field but having the knowledge I’ve learned from the past two patches I am excited, rather than nervous, to see what it has to bring.  It certainly won’t hurt to have a decent bankroll to get my professions leveled once Mists of Pandaria drops either.

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for Warcraft Econ. Do you have any last words?

Thank you for allowing me this interview!  This journey has been a blast for me.  Discovering gold making refreshed a game that had become somewhat stale to me and it renewed my desire to play.  I have also met some great people along the way, all of whom have been friendly and encouraging and made this adventure that much more fun.  It has been a pleasure to be involved in the gold making community and an honor to do this interview and to say I finally did it!

Also, you can follow my weekly sales and find more information about me at www.afkrafting.wordpress.com.

Related posts:

1. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Chukchi of Arthas-US
2. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Amathis of Garona-EU
3. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Locavore of Uldum-US
4. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Navanya of US-Malfurion
5. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Breja of Duskwood-US

The Warcraft Econ Hall of Fame interviews the few elite players that have hit the World of Warcraft gold cap of 999,999 gold 99 silver 99 copper as well as ones who have obtain 500k and 250k. We have with us, Breja of Duskwood-US, who will be sharing their story with us today.

“I believe success is preparation, because opportunity is going to knock on your door sooner or later but are you prepared to answer that?”  – Actor, Omar Epps

Please tell us a little about yourself and your gaming experience

Greetings fellow gold makers!  I am Breja of Sen’jin on the Duskwood US Server.  I have been playing World of Warcraft for 5 years now, but only engaged in gold making for the last 18 months.  I began playing video games back when arcades had such new hits as Super Mario Bros., Tempest, Pac Man, and other great quarter eating machines.  As I grew up, so did the industry surrounding video games.  I owned the Atari 800, Atari 2600, Sega Genesis, and PlayStation and was drawn to sports games and single player adventure games.

I began playing computer games after college with such titles as Age of Empires, Warcraft II, and Neverwinter Nights.  I then moved onto playing Diablo II for about 6 years, along with starting a family, before I finally picked up World of Warcraft in 2007.  Back in 2003, A few friends had shown me the MMO that they were playing, called Everquest, but I was just not interested in playing “that type” of game (meaning any MMORPG’s).  I was a huge fan of Warcraft II and its expansions, so I followed the news surrounding World of Warcraft for a few years before I finally purchased it in February of 2007.  This was an exciting time, as the Burning Crusade expansion had just been released and new servers were being opened.  I joined Duskwood to follow some friends to play here.  My initial experience was that of fascination with the idea of such a large virtual world with so many other people interacting with each other within this environment.  I was hooked within the first week of playing my Tauren Warrior and have been playing ever since.

Do you raid or PvP? How do you enjoy the game?

I began playing WoW from the only perspective on gaming that I had at the time, as a single player questing campaign.  Eventually, I joined a friends and family guild and began to run dungeons, raid, and PvP with them.  , I really enjoy raiding and running dungeons with guild mates the most out of all the activities in WoW.  I love the experience of coordinating a group of people to overcome challenges in defeating a boss.  It’s the fellowship and fun that we share in conquering PvE content that appeals most to me.

When not raiding, I enjoy crafting and utilizing my professions to make gold.  I love finding items cheap and turning them into other items that I can sell for profit on the auction house.  I will explain more about this in the questions ahead.

What motivated you to collect this amount of gold?

It all began with me wanting to have extra gold to set aside for a rainy day, after I found myself broke from purchasing epic flying on my second character.  That idea evolved into setting a goal to collect 300,000 gold prior to the release of Cataclysm; so that when this expansion hit, I could purchase whatever I wanted from the auction house for my raiding needs.  I reached that goal a few months prior to Cataclysm’s release.  I used most of that gold to get all my professions leveled to 525, leaving me with a small amount left over.  I realized that I enjoyed having “big” numbers of gold, but had not set a specific goal or plan for doing this.

At the time I was looking to restart my gold business on my server, I was listening to the “Auction House Junkies – episode 9” where one topic of discussion was about “Do you need to be gold capped to be credible?”  The idea from other bloggers at this time was that only people who make large amounts of gold have the experience to draw from in being able to tell others about how to make gold.  Wes and Cold made a compelling argument that gold capped is just a number, and it’s the experience that a person receives through the process of gold making that is important.  Even though I had less than 100,000 gold at the time, I felt that I knew as much about making gold as anyone out there.  I decided to put my knowledge to the test and set a goal to make one million gold.  Setting a goal is never enough, you need to create a plan to reach your goal and commit yourself to doing what it takes to reach your goal.  I decided to focus on what I know best, utilizing my profession and researching patch changes.  Doing what I love in game, within the confines of my plan, helped to carry me during those days in which I did not “feel” like working towards my goals.  There are several paths to reaching gold capped, but if you do not use the one that excites you, you will at some point abandon your plan before you reach your goal.

How did you learn to do it?

Only few months into the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, a friend rode up to me on his new mechano hog.  I was amazed that he made that much gold so quickly and asked him how he did it.  He explained that he made “stuff” and placed them on the auction house.  He suggested that I do some research on the internet to find out what other people are doing.  I began frequenting forums and various websites of people explaining what they do to earn gold in the game.  I became a voracious learner of other people’s methods and tested many of those ideas out to find strategies that worked for me.

I am constantly reading or listening to other people to find ideas in gold making that I may need to add to my current gold making routine.  Markets change frequently, so it is important to keep informed to help me make the best possible decisions for making gold.

Is there anyone or a resource you would like to thank that contributed to your success?

Speaking of resources that have helped to shape my gold making decisions, I would like to thank the vast gold making community that has developed over the last 2 years.  When I began researching how to make gold, I frequented the JMTC forums and learned a lot from the many posters involved in that community.  I still peek in on the “Consortium” forums where many great topics are currently being discussed.  I continue to follow Warcraft Econ for gold related news and to see who else has made the Hall of Fame to read their story.  I follow several gold making blogs, too many to list, but be assured that every one of you has had a lasting impact with the great information you provide for your readers.

I am a big fan of podcasts, and my first gold making podcast that I still look forward to is Euripides’s “Call to Auction” podcast.  I would also like to thank Flux, from the “Power Word: Gold” podcast for nurturing a gold making community, which encourages people to share gold making ideas that are current.

What were some of your early mistakes? How would you do things differently if you had to go back and redo them?

Everyone can look back and see things that they could have done better.  When I began utilizing the auction house for gold making, I believe that I frequently undervalued the items that I posted.  I often thought I needed the fast sale and would undercut by 20-50%.  After studying gold makers, I found that people buy items for a variety of reasons.  The theory of “supply and demand” has helped me to understand how to value items that I am placing on the auction house.  It took me a while to understand that I can price certain items much higher than minimum auction house listings and it will still sell.

The other early mistake I made was in not understanding the value of time.  I spent a lot of my early days grinding mobs and gathering raw materials to sell.  Looking back, if I spent more time researching the items I was grinding or gathering on the auction house, I could have saved so much more time by farming the auction house, which is what I do now.

How did you go about getting to this gold amount? Any creative or original ideas?

Seeds of Gold Making – There are several gold makers that have reached a million gold faster than I have by using a variety of methods.  For me, I have a passion for professions and decided that this is how I would focus my gold making endeavors.  I took advice a long time ago from the “Call to Auction” podcast to research all professions and find where the synergy exists to put them to their best gold making potential.

I have all ten characters on my realm with maxed professions, covering them all.  Prior to the release of Cataclysm, I made a point to get every profession maxed and the characters to level 75 to take advantage of each profession through level 525.  After looking at what was being developed through professions in the Cataclysm beta, I decided to carry 2 jewelcrafters and 6 alchemists, all transmute specialized.

Maximizing My Research on Professions – Regardless of what you decide to do in making gold, I believe that it is important to take the time to research what method of gold making you want to use.  The time spent looking at patch notes, listening to others, or participating in the gold making community can help you save time, gold and frustration.  I have utilized the 2 jewel crafting dailies to allow me to gain recipes faster this expansion to gain a greater a share of the gem market.  I had continued to spend the 1-5 minutes each day to get jewel crafting tokens to take advantage of the epic gem market.  It turns out that this market is not what I had hoped for on my server, but those excess tokens have allowed me to have a store of Chimera’s Eye that other jewelcrafters have been buying from me in bunches.  There is always a way to make something positive happen, even when your speculations do not pay off as you intended.

Transmute alchemy for me was going to be king in Cataclysm, which lead to my decision to carry six of them.  I knew that Transmute Volatiles, Pyrium Bar, and Truegold were all going to share a cool down, so it was necessary to carry multiple alchemists to take advantage of this ability every day.  Volatiles are used in most of the useful Cataclysm recipes for all other professions.  I wanted to take advantage of volatile procs in the various zones to produce a continuous flow of volatiles into the market.  At times, Pyrium was less expensive to create through transmutation than to smelt directly from pyrite ore.  It was good to have this option available if I was out of volatiles or needed pyrium for Truegold on another alt.  Truegold was where the gold profits were at on my realm.  I could utilize my other alchemists and buying materials under my purchasing value on the auction house to gain a large supply of Truegold that I have been able to sell consistently this entire expansion.

Value of Having All Professions – The value of having every profession available has been immense.  I strongly believe that having many options in every aspect of utilizing your professions is a key component to successful gold making.  If a raw material cannot be used for profit in one profession, it is possible that the same item could create profit in another profession.  Having options helps to minimize your risks associated with an item and maximize your profits.  While several other gold makers have mentioned being stuck in a rut on their gold making techniques, I have been consistently able to generate profit every week.  When someone moves into a market I currently have items listed, I can decide to fight for the market or leave it for a while to work another market.  For example, I produced a number of tailoring spell threads and bags, but when I got undercut, I would hold my stock and move to the gem market.  I never got hung up on selling one specific item.  For me, I can hold an item and be patient to sell it at a price I want to list it for on the auction house.  By being a participant in your auction house, you can learn the patterns of your server’s market and the players involved.  This has helped me to know when the best times to post for sales and when to buy items, as well as, the patience to let an aspect of the market play itself out.

What is your master list?

This list has changed several times over the last 18 months of gold making, based on the value of items I have at the time of posting:

Last 6 months of Wrath expansion: all cuts of epic gems, eternal belt buckles, flasks and potions, spell threads, and enchanting materials.

Going into Cataclysm, I had a stockpile of items that I quickly sold out of in the first 4 months: Burning Crusade ores and herbs, tons of Netherweave bags and profession bags from BC, Wrath level profession bags, Frostweave bags, and Eternals.

I leveled a miner/herbalist early in Cataclysm from 80-85 only through gathering and sold everything on the auction house, after I used items to level some professions.  Herbs, Ores, Volatiles, Bars, Embersilk Cloth, all went for very high prices for first 6 months of Cataclysm.

Currently, I have been selling the following consistently: Cut Red, Orange, Yellow, and Purple gems; Flintlocke’s Woodchucker; Pyrite Ore (paid 60 g a stack, selling for 170g or more); Hardened Elementium Bars; Volatile Air and Volatile Water; engineering pets; ilvl 377 PvP gear from tailor, jewel crafter, and blacksmith; Spell threads; all forms of tailoring bags; Truegold; Pyrium bars; arcanite bars; and all forms of enchanting materials.

What items are on your shopping list?

As you would expect, my shopping list is mostly for raw materials that I can use towards crafting.  I do also tend to look at the crafted item as well, because it lets me know if it is still worth my time to craft an item, or that I can flip the item later.  I use Auctionator for buying, so I list the item by partial words to scan all forms of it on the auction house.  For example, I search “elementium” to see the current prices of ores, bars, hardened elementium, and crafted elementium items.

Elementium

Obsidium

Pyrite

Volatile

Embersilk

Netherweave

Jasper / Hessonite / Alicite / Nightstone

All specialty cloth (for making bags)

All cataclysm herbs

All BC ores and herbs

All Wrath ores and herbs

What addons, if any, do you use to help you make gold and why are they needed?

I use Auctionator to buy and sell items on the auction house.  I know that there are other addons out there that make a more efficient use of time, but I prefer to get a current picture of what is out there and control my own pricing on the items that I post.

I use Skillet and Lil Sparky’s Workshop to help me craft items and see the current value of items that I scan on the auction house.  I have looked at other crafting addons, but I feel most comfortable with this set up at this time.  I do want to continue to look at other addons, and will change if I find it more comfortable to use.

I use Panda to help with prospecting, disenchanting, and milling on my characters.  I like the interface and how it shows current auction house values of what is being broken down.

I like to use Altoholic to help locate item that I have on other toons that I can them mail to the appropriate toon for crafting.

Finally, I use Postal to help me with mailing items and opening mail.

Are you still going for more gold?  If so, do you have a new goal? Are you close?

I am going for more gold, but not how I originally intended.  I wanted to go for the 2 million gold and was at 1.3 million, but life changes have gotten in the way.  Mainly, I have a new job that will require more of my time, but also my guild has fallen apart on our server and the few of us that are left want to find a stronger raiding community.  We have no decisions as of this writing where we are transferring to.  I think I will begin fresh on that new server and try to again reach 1 million gold with testing out different ideas from the gold making community.  Whether I make another million gold or not, I know that I have reached this achievement and I am happy for the experience that it gave to me.  It is an exciting time for me to be moving into a new phase of my life and WoW seems to be moving that direction with me.

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

A few friends that are left in my old guild know of this and a few people who have followed me on twitter, @brejapriest.  It was fun when my friends would open up trade and ask me to put all my gold in there to trade.  I would and when we accepted trade, we both got the message “at gold limit.”  This is hilarious and I suggest that you do this at least once with a real friend in game.

Did you spend your gold on fun things? What have you bought? What things would you like to buy?

I am currently spending my gold on mounts and pets for my main raiding toon.  I have also bought several items for friends and given gold to them as well.  I am buying high ilvl items for my raiding toon as well.

I kept joking with my friends that I need a million gold to buy the new mount that Blizzard will give as a gold sink.  It’s going to be Horde Zepplin with full bar and vendors for all members of my guild to be able to use.  It comes complete with my own monkey in a fedora piloting the zeppelin, because fedoras are cool.

If you were the professor of a gold making 101 college class, what would be some things you would talk about?

I would start with the basic tools all good students need to succeed.  They would be taught how to research data and examine the usefulness of the information being provided.  There are a ton of tools in game and on the internet to help you make decisions, but you need to learn what the information means to you.  I would also include a lesson on how to develop goals and create a plan to achieve those goals.  It is difficult to succeed in anything in life without having a clear goal and a plan of action.

How about an advanced gold making class?

In the advanced gold making class, we would start examining several microeconomic concepts.  The Quantity Theory of Money would examine why gold has a different value for people within the game and why items have differing values on several servers.  The Elasticity theory would help us to examine what happens to goods placed on the auction house and why people will buy items that shift in value; and also why some items never sell when the prices move up or down.  Finally, the theories of supply and demand are a must to understanding why people will make their decision to purchase items or to sell them in the server’s marketplace.

Do you have any good farming strategies or spots? If you don’t farm, please suggest something to farm if you had to pick the best items and locations.

When I do farm, I prefer to combine my farming efforts to save me some time.  I prefer to farm for herbs and ores on the same toon in Twilight Highlands and in Deepholm for the obsidium and elementium ores, Twilight Jasmine, and Heartblossoms.  I also like to drink a Potion of Treasure Finding and grind out the Twilight mobs between Victory Point and Crushblow for the tiny treasure chests and loads of embersilk cloth.

What are your future plans with WoW?

Currently, I plan on finding a new guild and server to call home.  I then plan to prepare for Mists of Pandaria by researching beta changes and acting accordingly with my new toons.  I love this game and plan on continuing to play this for some time to come.  I will only take a break to play Diablo III, when it is released.

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

I think that Blizzard finally plans to bring the wow economy under a closer examination than they have in the past.  I know that they have recently been looking to add a professions designer to their development team.  My hope is that this person is given the opportunity to closely examine the professions and overhaul them.  There are points in the leveling process that are still major choking points.  Also, value of items introduced must been scrutinized more closely, Obsidium shuffle at the beginning of Cataclysm anyone?  Blizzard spent the entire expansion trying to fix the value of uncut gems and the impact easy shuffling has made on the economy.  I hope to see more exciting changes to the professions with customization of gear or providing more fun attributes to all professions.  I plan to spend time looking into the professions specifically and seeing what is done over time to add variety, while maintaining accessibility to players.

What are your favorite artists, songs, movies, shows, or streams to watch while you are making gold?

I love to listen to podcasts while I am making gold.  It is fun for me to pop on my iTunes and listen to Convert to Raid, All Things Azeroth, Auction House Junkies, Call to Auction, Group Quest, Horde for Life, The Instance, Legendary, The Mana Cooler, The Obscurecast, Power Word: Gold, Rawrcast, Twisted Nether Blogcast, WoW Insider, among many others.  When grinding mobs, I like to listen to music because it keeps me constantly moving and makes the grind more fun to do.

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for Warcraft Econ. Do you have any last words?

First, I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to build the communities involved in gold making.  All of you have valuable information and a passion that shines through your efforts.  It is people like you who create the atmosphere for people like me to prosper, and for that I thank you.

I would like to thank each of you readers for taking the time to read my story.  Enjoy the journey and when you set a goal, keep working towards it.  Hard work and perseverance will overcome many obstacles.  See you around Azeroth!

Related posts:

1. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Chukchi of Arthas-US
2. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Ellannan of Magtheridon-US
3. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Amathis of Garona-EU
4. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Locavore of Uldum-US
5. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Navanya of US-Malfurion

WoW is Slow

WoW economic news has been slow lately. There isn’t much going on and we have no reason to push past 1 million gold. In fact every time I get close again, I end up giving a huge chunk of it away to friends and guildies. Although I haven’t been playing much WoW, I still stay up to date on the news and still read blogs. I enjoy the Diablo 3 editorials by Greedy Goblin / Daeity.

WoW Gold Community News/Updates:

Tarou WoW Guides: WoW Multi-Millionaire The You’ve Never Heard Of

It’s interesting that the gold community doesn’t mention or really know about Tarou. He has made millions of gold, writes profession guides, created videos, and streams his auction house business. Did I mention it is all free? Yet most of us have never heard of him. Definitely check him out.

Trade Skill Master – Version 1.03 Released

The Undermine Journal – Releases Realm Pop API Site

We at The Undermine Journal are proud to present a new service for World of Warcraft fans: Realm Pop. Realm Pop uses the Battle.net APIs to find all the characters on every realm in the US and EU. With this information, Realm Pop provides pie charts and lists, breaking up the population into categories that you control. Want to know which guilds have the most members on your realm? Want to find the largest, or most balanced German PvP realm? Curious about which races and classes are most popular? You can explore all that at Realm Pop.

Nerf Faids – TSM Videos – A Beginner’s Guide

New to TradeSkillMaster, the ultimate gold making addon? Faid had created some awesome videos to get you started. Even if you are familar with it, you may learn a few things to make it work even more efficiently.

Power Word Gold – Podcasts, Updates, and The Chronical

Never short on content. From podcasts, news, new site features, and editorials, flux has always kept us informed on the community.

Diablo 3 Release Date?

If you haven’t heard from out Twitter feed, we have picked up Diablo 2 again to play through while patiently waiting for a Diablo 3 release date. It’s a nice change of pace from WoW and we are having a lot of fun with it. For those that are curious, we are on the Reddit SlashDiablo server playing a level 71 Blizzard Sorceress in Hell mode. As for real life happenings, I have a semester off, which would be perfect if Diablo 3 was coming out any time soon. The release date is still speculated to be early 2012 or even quarter one however with Blizzards two month lead time to a release date, a first quarter release is looking grim. Maybe the second quarter or a right before summer release? There was a recent beta patch that change a lot of things, which you can read about here. However they are still working on some major system changes which make take some time. The Activision Blizzard investor conference call is coming up in February which may bring us some news. I can’t wait to play in the same region (North American will be my default one) as a lot of the amazing gold bloggers and people have I have met online. Whenever it comes out, it is going to be a great year! See ya on the auction house!

Markco Gets Banned From D3 Beta for Exploiting the Economy?

It looks like Markco (Chris/the original one) has been banned from the beta. While the Blizzard email is very vague to the exact reason why, he thinks it has to be doing the various strategies he using to make a ton of gold which included stacking magic find and buying vendor items to disenchant. If this is indeed the case, where do we draw the line for the expert auctioneers that will find ways to make insane amounts of gold when the game goes live? I hope a blue post addresses what is considered “exploiting the economy” and what is not.

Diablo 3 Day Job?

With my semester off and a lot of free time, could this be a possibility? It’s already a given that I’ll be playing Diablo 3 a lot to begin with, but could I turn a decent profit? It really won’t hurt to try. It will be an interesting experiment to say the least. I’ll be preparing in the upcoming months to see how I can get an edge in doing so. Figuring what items are going to be in demand while leveling and if artisans are going to be worth leveling. Although I can’t really control the random nature of awesome gear drops, there are a few things I can. I’ll even be upgrading my old slow Gateway computer right before release (it has been long overdue) and I may stream on Twitch.tv my journey to level 60, maybe even my auction house business.

Future Projects

I am considering creating a D3 guide. You would think by now, I would have my own WoW guide, but I don’t. This along with playing the game is going to be my attempt at turning Diablo 3 into a full time job at least for a year to see what happens. This isn’t something I’m throwing together overnight and random tips like “buy low and sell high”. No, this will be something I will heavily research and make sure it is of the highest standard. After all, there is real money on the line in D3. I know some of you will never buy a guide or pay for an sort of premium content or feature online. And that is just fine, you guys and gals are incredibly resourceful and can devote a lot of time finding and creating these strategies.

However these products will be aimed at those that see it as an investment. An example would be someone with limited play time that want to succeed in an aspect of a game, so they spend some money on a step by step guide to save time. I personally do this with things I want to learn. I wanted to learn about personal finance so I bought a few books on the topic. This was a huge time saver since it would have taken me a lot of time to sort through all the free information available online. A $15 book was well worth it in how much money I have saved as well. The interesting thing is the psychology element in these books; be it direct or indirect. There are millions of tips on how to manage your money available for free online (32 million Google search results just for personal finance tips). This goes for almost any topic like dieting and fitness. Yet how many people are still bad at money management or have terrible diets and don’t know how to workout properly? We know what we should be doing but why aren’t we doing it? To use WoW as an example, with all the free gold tips and blogs online, why aren’t more people rich especially the ones that complain about not having enough gold? Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. Once you have a system in place, it because almost second nature. There is just too much info out there and it becomes overwhelming to a lot of people. There have been studies done on the effect of too many choices. Most of the informational products and books I’ve bought in the last few years have really addressed this issue. As a beginner in almost anything, we need to be taught what to do in what order and what not to do. Some will address the psychology of our inaction directly and others will just lay it out in the simplest way possible and cut through all the BS that is out there. You don’t need to become an expert on the topic, just good enough.

I personally see a benefit in informational products so I am going to create one with a close friend of mine. Yes it will cost money but can you really argue that someone is going to get paid for doing what they love? That is most people’s dream; I know it is mine. Although it won’t be a lifetime thing obviously, it would make for an interesting experience for me. Whether it succeeds or not, I would have learned a lot from it. Saate from Saate.net mentioned once that I probably learned more form running this site than school has taught me. Being a business major, this just feels right. I want real world experience and I’m taking the first step to get it.

Real Life Update

Thanks for listening! Take care!

Here is a TLDR for those too lazy to read.

• WoW is slow, so I’m playing D2.
• Still no D3 release date, but it is speculated to be in the first half of 2012
• Markco (ex-owner of JMTC) gets banned from D3 beta for making too much gold
• I will be creating a D3 guide, videos, product
• D3 as a day job will be my experiment
• Training for competitive powerlifting in real life.

Related posts:

1. Oligopoly Plays Torchlight (Practically Like the Diablo Series)
2. WoW Patch 4.3 Release Date is Tuesday November 29th
3. WoW Patch 5.0 – Mists of Pandaria Release Date and Information From Blizzcon
4. WoW Patch 4.2 Rage of the Firelands Release Date Tuesday, June 28th Scheduled Realm Maintenance 6/28/2011
5. WoW Patch 4.2 Release Date is Tuesday June 28th Confirmed. Official 4.2 Patch Notes

Wizard Skills Runed

• Hydra Runed
• Teleport Runed
• Electrocute Runed
• Explosive Blast Runed
• Meteor Runed

Demon Hunter Skills Runed

• Grenades Runed
• Bola Shot & Grenades Runed
• Rain of Vengeance
• Runed Elemental Arrow

Related posts:

1. Video: Diablo 3 Presentation at Gamescom 2011 – How Crafting, Gems, and Items Work
2. Diablo 3 Article Round-Up From Our Sister Site – Diablo3Professions.com
3. Patch 3.3.3 PTR Runed/Crusader Orb Crafting Reagents Reduced
4. G4TV Gives Us an Intelligent Discussion on the Diablo 3 Real Money Auction House (RMAH)
5. Diablo 3 Auction House: It’s a Game Changer

Thank you for all of your continued support of our sites, bloggers, and the players that participated in an interview for our Hall of Fame!

Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Related posts:

1. Warcraft Econ Reader, Guest Post, and HOF Contest Winner’s Announced
2. The Warcraft Econ Time Machine: May 2009
3. New Warcraft Econ Feature: The Hall Of Fame
4. MMO Econ Forums – Warcraft Econ’s Upcoming 3 Year Anniversary
5. Join the Warcraft Econ Team!

Danielle Elizabeth of Trade Chat has created a video that covers some recent Blizzard news. This is for those who like to get their information through a video rather than walls of text. She also created the video that features gold tips from some of our Hall of Fame gold capped players when the gold cap was 214k.

Follow @TradeChat on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Video: Trade Chat Talks About New WoW Patch 4.3 News
2. Video: Trade Chat Talks About New WoW Patch 4.3 News, Transmogrification, and Void Storage
3. Video: Trade Chat Covers WoW Patch 4.3 and the Diablo 3 Auction House
4. Video: Trade Chat Talks About The New WoW Expansion: Mists of Pandaria
5. Videos: Trade Chat Talks About 4.2 Changes

Episode 28 is now available at www.warcraftlounge.com and iTunes (where we have a 5-star rating from our listeners).  Topics for the show include:

-What we are doing in game:

Chris: Did a FLs pug (me pugging is a big deal enough) with some douche bags that went over the line on a girl in the raid, I took our own advice and got some mechanical chickens, 4.3 launched and spent a lot of time “fixing” toons.  Capped valor on 8 toons the first week and my 10 man went 4/8 normal in DS the first week despite being shorthanded and raiding only 5 hours that week.

Ryan: Winning the “Meta War” on Gilneas, ran multiple toons through lfr, prospecting a lot of pyrite he didn’t fire sale a few months back, and his new dungeon experiences.

-Economic Minute: What is selling and what is not.   How has demand been vs. our expectations? How have the co-hosts done the first few days of 4.3?  Discussion of the price of chaos orbs.  Any regrets we made prior to 4.3?  Any sweet deals we’ve made?  Discussion on arbitrage and how it can make you a ton of gold if you know what to look for.

-New Dungeons: How do the co-hosts feel about the quality, story, and voice acting (SHAAAAAAAAAAAAA-MAAANNNNNNN).  Tips for bosses.

-LFR: How do we feel about LFR?  How will it change the game?  Discussion on the difficulty.  People “screening” for lfr.

All this and more on our 4.3 edition of the Warcraft Lounge.

Related posts:

1. Warcraft Lounge Episode 27: Poultry Edition
2. Warcraft Lounge Episode 23: Transmogrify This!
3. Warcraft Lounge Episode 26: The Pandas are Fu**ing
4. Warcraft Lounge Episode 24: Winter is Coming (And so is Epic Gems)
5. Warcraft Lounge Episode 22: Don’t Quit Your Day Job

The Warcraft Econ Hall of Fame interviews the few elite players that have hit the World of Warcraft gold cap of 999,999 gold 99 silver 99 copper as well as ones who have obtain 500k and 250k. We have with us, Ermorden of Scarlet Crusade-US, who will be sharing their story with us today.

Please tell us a little about yourself and your gaming experience.

It’s hard for me to pick a “main” but if I did it would be my disc priest Navanya , US-Malfurion.  I’m 31 years old, married to the most awesome man in the world and am a stay at home wife.  I started playing WoW in 2006 because I knew some people at the time that played it, I had honestly never played an MMO before and was never that interested in most video games – but something with WoW just clicked, and I was off to the races on my little gnome mage, I loved it – I loved everything about it.  During BC I joined my first raiding guild, via that guild “Vanguards of Azeroth on Sargeras – US” I actually met my husband!  So even beyond the pure entertainment that Blizzard has given me over the years I’m eternally grateful to them because I would never have met my husband otherwise (we lived like 1800 miles apart!) Currently, we have our own private guild which houses are army of alts and we really enjoy doing old content together, doing 5mans and now we LFR together! When I’m not busy in the World of Warcraft I take care of our two dogs, spend time with my friends, read, and dabble in photo and video editing which has been a hobby of mine for awhile.

Do you raid or PvP most? Both? How do you enjoy the game?

I have so many characters that I honestly do a little bit of everything. I love leveling new characters but I do have four healers that are pure PVE, I do instances and LFR on them currently, during BC and Wrath I raided on them pretty heavily.  I PVP occasionally on my mage and sometimes on my rogue, but I do think my gaming tends to lean more towards the PVE aspects of the game.  I also spend a lot of time doing old reps, raids, and just generally exploring every facet of the game.

Why did you choose to collect this amount of gold?

I never really was into the gold game until towards the end of BC, a guildie of mine had a decent amount of gold and I noticed how they never really struggled to pay for repairs or to purchase fun things for their character.  So towards the end of BC I started coming up with goals, my initial goal was to reach 50k by the time Wrath came out, I ended up blowing that completely out of the water by about 75k more reaching about 125k total.  I started realizing that I was actually pretty decent at making gold so I started researching gold-making blogs to see how others did it and how I could improve my gold game.  When ICC came around in WOTLK there was a really well done popular GDKP run on my server at the time (Sargeras), I liked having gold to buy the items I wanted and ended up making a decent amount of gold from those runs as well. However after that for me it became more of a self-challenge rather than “Oh I need gold to buy things”, I wanted to do it just to prove that I could. I wanted to prove that it was possible for me to make gold on my terms, using what I had learned from other people but doing it in my own time frame and having fun with it.

Anyone or resource you would like to thank?

The Consortium- I have only posted a few times but I’m a constant lurker! Kuja’s Gold Mine – I really love that website! The Undermine Journal – such an awesome resource! Also, of course my husband (Terros-Malfurion US) he’s been awesome about being my own personal tank in old world content and for making the time I spend in game even better!

How did you go about getting to this gold amount? Any creative or original ideas?

Alts – I am an altoholic.  I have 13 characters on my server not all of them are capped, but they all serve a purpose. I discovered as I was leveling characters that you actually make a decent amount of gold just from the leveling process and items you pick up along the way.  Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that every person out there needs to level a bunch of characters to make gold, I did it mainly because I enjoy the leveling process but I did find that when it came to gold making it really made it easier because it leads directly to the next part – plethora of professions!

Professions – I have every profession, some I have multiples of (herbalism, mining, inscription and alchemy).  Number one thing is if you have every profession you are self sufficient, I don’t have to buy gems on the auction house for my characters because I can prospect them, transmute them and cut them myself.  You save a lot of gold this way. Number two by having access to all the professions you can use them to build off of each other, i.e. the Obsidium/Elementium shuffle (I use both kinds of ore depending on cost), I can prospect the ore on my JC, I can take some of the gems and make jewelry, I can DE that jewelry on my enchanter and use that dust/essences for scrolls, I can take the other gems and transmute them on my alchemist, then going back to my JC I can cut gems.

I use my scribe mainly for new glyphs that show up in patches, mysterious fortune cards, dust of disappearance and the ritual of the new moon offhands – for the most part I stay away from the glyph market as it is completely oversaturated on my server.  I use my leatherworker for leg armors and for making heavy savage leather to get pristine hides.  I use my tailor for bags and for spellthreads, my engineer I use really only for crafting pets and sometimes the scopes.   For my enchanter I tend to make some of the cheaper mat enchants from the current content as there seems to be less completion on these items but they still sell at a regular pace. I do try to keep an eye out on old world enchants and sell those if I feel the time is right (i.e. when goblins and worgen came out enchants for BoA gear became nice sellers again).

Farming – I know it’s not very popular on a lot of gold blogs, but I farm not because I feel like I have to but because sometimes I just want to, sometimes it’s nice to just turn on some music and zoom around some zone looking for materials, you never know what else you might find out there.  Often while waiting for a dungeon queues instead of sitting in Stormwind I can make a couple rings around Uldum for herbs, or sometimes I just feel like flying around looking for a rare spawn or something and farming is something to do in the meantime.  I will of course buy raw materials off the AH when they are a good price or when I need to restock, but I also will use my gathering professions to gather some of those raw materials.

Time – You aren’t going to go from having two gold to one million gold overnight, it takes time and patience especially if you are trying to sell a rarer item that has a much smaller buyer pool, and I think a lot of people get frustrated with relisting stuff I tend to see it as just part of the gold game.  Also, time in the way that I probably have more time to invest in this game then someone with a full-time job, I feel that I am lucky in that way.  When my husband is at work I take care of my house and then I have time to log on to wow if I want, but I also have to be careful that I don’t play too much if I do I tend to burn myself out and then have to walk away from the game for a few weeks.

Old World Items – I have actually made a decent amount of gold via old world items.  I have spent a lot of time in old instances and old raids, partly because I enjoy them, partly because sometimes they are a bit of a challenge with only one or two characters, and partly because I know that there is gold to be had there.  Rare recipes, rep items that people don’t really want to farm for, old gear that people now really want for transmogging, and items for leveling professions such as enchanting mats or leather are all items that I have used to push myself towards my million gold goal.  There are also vendor recipes that people will commonly purchase off of the AH instead of hunting down the particular vendor that sells it – I find these to be especially true for items from Outland.  I will typically make a route about once a month and stock up on those recipes.  Also with all vendor recipes it’s very important to make sure they haven’t been added to the recipe trainer over the years so always check wowhead first!

Holidays & Patch Days – I tend to stock up throughout the year for different holidays especially winters veil, I really wish I could know the amount of gold I’ve made over the years from small eggs alone! I also know that people like to buy pets come winters veil as they make great gifts so I tend to try to unload a decent amount of them then.  I also pay attention to what’s going on the PTR to know what’s coming down the line for the next big patch – doing this can really help you prep properly for when patch does go live.  I stockpile not as much as some I’ve seen but I try to have a decent amount. Also, I think some people make the mistake of blowing all their stock on the day that the patch goes live, I tend to put only about 25% of my stock up that day then I wait a few days and wait for a lot of people to empty their stock and then come in with probably another 25% of my stock then I somewhat let the rest of my stock trickle in – this of course may not work for everyone but it is what has worked for me.  I find two weeks after a patch people are still getting gear they need to enchant and gem but the competition on the AH to sell those items is much lower so my items tend to sell for a higher amount and they tend to sell faster.

AH Deals & Knowing the market – Every few days I will comb through the AH looking for deals, items that are selling for less than vendor, items that have really low bid prices, items that have buyouts that are much cheaper than what I know they will sell for. If I see something that I know I can make money on I bid on it or buy it – but you have to know the markets, when I first started I made some mistakes that were somewhat costly about thinking I knew what would sell and what wouldn’t sell now I feel much more comfortable in my market knowledge.  I also look at an item not just for what it will sell for but also for “what can I do with this”, such as herbs I might find a bunch of cheap herbs on the AH so I snatch them all up now I have to decide is it more profit to flip them or to mill them and sell the ink or sell the glyphs that can be made with the ink (thankfully I have addons that help me with all that math!) I also tend to go on a bidding spree before servers go down for regular Tuesday maintenance.  I truly believe that in a certain way this has helped me nickel and dime my way to a million gold, if I can make a profit off of selling it I do.

Be knowledgeable and friendly – Because I know the market and stuff that might be coming on the horizon via the PTR, when I’m sitting in trade and I see people ask questions I try to answer them, I try to be courteous and help them out.  If I did the opposite people probably aren’t going to buy my auctions, why save only one copper to give money to a jerk.  Perhaps, it doesn’t help as much as I like to believe it does but it also doesn’t hurt.  I remember when I was leveling my first toon I wouldn’t buy from people who spammed trade with stupid stuff or were rude to people in trade.

Quantities matter – The more familiar you get with gold making the more you will realize what quantities are going to sell.  Not everything is best in stacks of 20 and not everything is best in stacks of one.  For example, I always check what the jewelcrafting daily is and I will list those gems not only in stacks of 3 but also some single ones as well as there are always players who might have two already and only need one more.  If I sell ore I will sell some in stacks of 20 but some in stacks of 5 for leveling jewelcrafters, same with herbs for scribes.  I have found that if you are throwing up a lot of something sometimes it can be good to put up a variety of stacks and observe what sells faster for future reference.

What is your master list?

In one way it’s hard to come up with a “master list” as I pretty much sell everything that I can squeeze some profit out of, however here lately I have found these items to be performing well:

• Inferno Ruby Cuts – Brilliant, Bold, Delicate
• All other gem cuts
• Spellthreads
• Leg Armors
• Enchants – most of my enchanting gold comes from Enchant Chest – Mighty Stats, Enchant Gloves – Mastery, and Enchant Gloves – Haste.  However, I do post others depending on my mat situation.
• Belt Buckles
• Engineering Pets – This is one area that I found to be much more profitable than I ever expected, Lifelike mechanical toad and the mechanical yeti tend to be my biggest sellers.
• Rituals of the New Moon – I try to sell these on a pretty regular basis, they go for about 350g each on my server

What items are in your Snatch list?

Raw mats for engineering pets & Ore.  However, I will constantly be on the lookout for any other good deals!

How did you learn to do it?

Trial and error, lots of research, and time.  I have a very long blog roll that I read on a daily basis, so I bow down to them! If I had a slow week I had to allow myself to not get frustrated and tell myself that I would do better next week.  If I had too much stuff going on in real life, I had to learn to be fine walking away from the game for awhile, realizing that the game itself and the ability to make gold will still be there when I get back.

What addons, if any, do you use to help you make gold and why are they needed?

I use Auctionator, Ackis Recipe List, Altoholic, Auditor, LilSparky’s Workshop, MySales, and Postal.  I use a lot of addons but those are the only ones I can think of that somehow relate to the gold game at all.

Auctionator – I like the way its set-up and in my opinion it’s easier to use that Auctioneer it also tends (in my experience) to break less on patch day.

Ackis Recipe List – Awesome for knowing if there are still recipes out there I need to get for any of my professions and where I can get them at!

Altoholic – Best addon ever for keeping track of everything regarding an army of alts!

Auditor – Simple addon that shows me all my gold across all my toons

LilSparky’s Workshop – My mathematical genius workhorse, does the entire math for my crafting costs and shows me what is profitable currently and what isn’t.

MySales – Keeps track of what I’ve sold in the past month

Postal – without this addon checking my mail would probably give me a nervous breakdown

I have thought about trying TSM (TradeSkillMaster) as I know a lot of people in the gold making community swear by it, I haven’t downloaded it yet simply because I haven’t wanted to devote the time to setting it up.  Also, I am a creature of habit and I somewhat already have my posting habits down.  However, based on what I’ve seen of it and the reviews I’ve read I do recommend it!

Are you still going for more gold?  If so, do you have a new goal? Are you close?

Honestly, probably not.  My husband and I are planning on having a baby soon and we know that when that happens I’m just not going to have the time to devote to it that I do now.  I do believe though that there comes a point where you have so much gold and are so used to making gold that it’s almost impossible not to continue with a positive stream of income.  So currently the goals are to not go on a spending spree and try to maintain some of my gold making just not to the extent that I have

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

Honestly no, I pretty much keep to myself in game. All the people that I played with regularly were on my old server or have quit the game.

Did you spend your gold on fun things? What have you bought? What things would you like to buy? 

Like I said earlier I spent some gold during Wrath on GDKP’s but even then I was always very mindful of what I was spending.  All my characters don’t even have 310% flying because I couldn’t justify the cost!  Now that I have reached my goal though, I want to make a bunch of Mekgineer’s Choopers for some of my toons and some of my husband’s toons.  I also plan on perhaps buying a few of the rarer pets that I’ve wanted for a really long time.

If you were the professor of a gold making 101 college class, what would be some things you would talk about?

I would start out by telling them that “Patience is a virtue”, gold-making requires patience to get the most profit, and it also requires tenacity in sticking to crafting, posting, and reposting.  I would also introduce them to the great blogging community out there, there are so many great resources that we have access to – UTILIZE THEM!!

I would try to cover the importance of having multiple professions and how to use each of those professions in connection with each other to make the most profit.  Also, going over some Addons 101 there are some addons out there that can really make it or break it as far as how easy posting, reposting and maximizing your profit are.

Also, I would go over the importance of finding what works for you.  Just because I enjoy farming or making gold via old world content that isn’t necessarily going to work for them, perhaps they would find that the glyph market is better for them or perhaps they would find that only having two or three professions is really the way to go for them.  You have to find what works for you, it’s a game enjoy what you do in it!

Organization Skills – You need to know what you can make, how much of an item you have, how much it has sold for typically, and where everything is located.  This is especially true if you have a bevy of toons.

How about an advanced gold making class?

I honestly don’t feel that I would be qualified enough for that teaching position.  But, if I were to tell them anything I would tell them to enjoy what they are doing.  I think that there are some people who start to see not just the auction house but WoW itself as a job, it shouldn’t be a job it should be entertainment.  Keep in mind I’m talking about the game not the blogging or the real-life income derived from that, I’m speaking more to the logging in and playing.  If you dread logging on and reposting or crafting or even playing, then you probably shouldn’t log on at least not for awhile!  Life is too short to spend it doing things that make you miserable or unhappy.

Do you have any good farming strategies or spots? If you don’t farm, please suggest something to farm if you had to pick the best items and locations.

I really enjoy Deepholm for farming ore, it tends to be pretty quiet (at least on my server) you can get either Obsidium or Elementium there and there are some pretty good rares in that area.

I enjoy going to Tol Barad on my mage and fishing – I find it strangely relaxing not to mention profitable.

Outland – When leveling it seems that people try to get into and out of outland as quickly as possible.  Due to this, I find that herbs and ore from there tend to sell well, as does profession recipes that are sold by vendors.  Blizzard also saw fit to put umpteen enchanting rods into that expansion, so I also like getting the mats for that either by farming or on the cheap when I see them and crafting the enchanting rods on my blacksmith – there is typically little competition.

What was the best deal you ever came across?

On the Neutral AH there was an incredibly varied amount of items (ore, herbs, old world rep items, cloth from every expansion, etc) that someone had posted for about the 1/4th  of the price it would actually sell for – I bought it all, spent about 5k and probably made 20k if not more.

Do you remember any of your worst deals?

Oh god, I’ve had some strange notions over the years, random “markets” that I decided I was going to own and they never panned out – worst was probably my Azerothian Diamond debacle of 2010 – I bought every single one that was on the AH for about two weeks then decided I would start leaking them back onto the market – yeah because people run into them while leveling the competition never dried up and I was left trying to hack Azerothian Diamonds for like a year.  If nothing else it taught me a lesson about ever trying to own an incredibly stupid and random market!

What are your future plans with WoW?

I plan on continuing to enjoy the game in my own meandering way.  I’m really enjoying the addition of the LFR tool so I hope to continue to utilize that every week.  I’m also really looking forward to leveling in Mists of Pandaria seeing what a Monk healer is going to be like. I also foresee myself spending way too much gold with the fun that is transmogrification.

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

I think the LFR tool is really going to up the number of buyers for gems, enchants and leg armors so I think those are going to remain study throughout the rest of this expansion.  It’s incredibly hard to predict what will happen with a new expansion but if they put ilvls on the new gems like they did this expansion I do believe that it won’t hurt to have a bit of stockpile going into the next expansion.

Please tell us a little bit about how you handle your real life finances. What are the differences and similarities with how you do things in WoW?

Just like with WoW I’m a saver in real life, I tend to not spend money unless I need to and prefer to save for bigger purchases (i.e. our house that we bought). Unfortunately, it is easier to make large sums of money in game then it is out of game, but still I like to save and refuse to spend frivolously in either game or life.  In real life I would however never really seek out making a million dollars, to me there is no joy in that journey – I live simply with my husband and with my dogs, I share my life with people that I love not with things that you can buy.  There is joy in that for a lot of people and everyone should do what they love in life, but for me that’s not it.

What your favorite artists, songs, movies, shows, or streams to watch while you are making gold?

I tend to listen to music while online partly because I love it and also because I would get way too distracted trying to watch a movie or TV show.  As far as music it depends on what I’m doing, I love so many different types of music but lately my gold making soundtrack has had a lot of Mumford and Sons, The Smashing Pumpkins, Dresden Dolls, Ani DiFranco and Miranda Lambert on it.

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for Warcraft Econ. Do you have any last words?

Invest in an authenticator they are cheap but the peace of mind they provide is awesome.  I take my account security very seriously so the addition of the authenticator was awesome! Mainly though my last bit of advice would be to have fun with what you are doing; there is no point to any of it if you don’t enjoy it! Also, thank you WarcraftEcon for the opportunity to do this interview and for being one of the WoW blogs I enjoy reading!

Related posts:

1. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Zemora of Elune-US
2. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Chukchi of Arthas-US
3. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Ellannan of Magtheridon-US
4. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Amathis of Garona-EU
5. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Locavore of Uldum-US

Update: Manaview is having a Cyber Monday sale, 50% off its’ products. Lasts all week!
Just want the WoW Tycoon Gold Addon? Click here.

According to MMO-Champion.com, patch 4.3 will be released on Tuesday, November 29th (the 30th if you are in the EU). Here is the official Blizzard preview of the patch. While servers are down, we would like to ask our readers how they have prepared for this patch.

Also confired by a official Blizzard Tweet:

• What is the first thing you’ll do in game the day 4.3 comes out?
• How prepared are you for this patch?
• What is you most profitable markets/items you are selling right now?
• What do you think will be the most profitable markets/items after the patch?
• Any last minute advice for newbies as well as expert auctioneers?
• What is your inventory and bankroll worth pre-patch 4.3? (Addon: BigPicture)

Related posts:

1. WoW Patch 4.2 Release Date is Tuesday June 28th Confirmed. Official 4.2 Patch Notes
2. WoW Patch 4.2 Rage of the Firelands Release Date Tuesday, June 28th Scheduled Realm Maintenance 6/28/2011
3. WoW Patch 5.0 – Mists of Pandaria Release Date and Information From Blizzcon
4. WoW Patch 4.3: Speculation on Release Date, Legendary Weapon, Patch Notes
5. Wow Cataclysm Patch 4.2: Rage of the Firelands Will Be Released on June 28th

Episode 27 is now available at www.warcraftlounge.com and iTunes (where we have a 5-star rating from our listeners).  Topics for the show include:

-What we are doing in game: Transferred my pally to Lightbring, had a guy randomly whisper my hunter to tell me (and summon me!) that Jadefang was up, made a cross-realm RealID buddy, frustration over irrational pug leaders, Ryan teaches you how to get poultry pets including one that takes less than an hour to get and can be sold for 10k gold, buying up super cheap metagems in anticipation of 4.3, reps you can focus on while we wait for the new patch, why is anyone still running randoms or Firelands for that matter, and more!

-Economic Minute: Discussion of WoW wealth survey, what items should you be stockpiling now to make mad money in 4.3, changes to Alchemy specializations, and more.

-Discussion of the exponential growth of numbers and why it is a problem for WoW.

-Discussion of the proposed change to Intellect and mana pools.  Do the co-hosts like or dislike this change?

-Discussion on SWOTR and DC Online.  Are these games threats to WoW?

-Introduction of two websites that will help your gameplay.

All this and more is discussed in the latest installment of the Warcraft Lounge.

Related posts:

1. Warcraft Lounge Episode 23: Transmogrify This!
2. Warcraft Lounge Episode 26: The Pandas are Fu**ing
3. Warcraft Lounge Episode 24: Winter is Coming (And so is Epic Gems)
4. Warcraft Lounge Episode 22: Don’t Quit Your Day Job
5. Warcraft Lounge Podcast

The Warcraft Econ Hall of Fame interviews the few elite players that have hit the World of Warcraft gold cap of 999,999 gold 99 silver 99 copper as well as ones who have obtain 500k and250k. We have with us, Borgthor of Dath’Remar-US, who will be sharing their story with us today.

“Nothing is worse than the opportunity cost of doing something in game that you just don’t enjoy doing.”

Please tell us a little about yourself and your gaming experience.

My main is Borgthor, US-Dath’Remar, a warrior tank who from the moment I rolled him was the absolute right character for me. In gaming, I started out in the usual way, with one of my best friends showing me Wolfenstein 3D. I was immediately hooked on FPS, and devoured the ID stable of games as well as many others from the genre. I developed a love for RTS games (including the Warcraft series) as well, with the resource development, tech development and the statistics after every battle appealing to my love of numbers. Console games have always been more of a social outlet, and I remember vividly the laughter and screams (of both victory and defeat) playing Mario Kart with friends.

In World of Warcraft, I play with my wife who picked up the game initially because she could no longer grasp my vocabulary. She plays a restoration Druid, who was immediately the right choice for her, since she started out with the object of being a pacifist in a game with the word WAR in it. We have very different interests in game, and different ways of appreciating Azeroth, but we come together for raiding, guild activities and just hanging out with all our friends in game.

Do you raid or PvP most? Both? How do you enjoy the game?

I am the guild master of <Fidelity>, a small raiding focused guild I created with friends for Cataclysm. We are progressing though heroic mode content and having a blast, raiding three nights per week in a 10 man team. We’re very pleased to have completed 6/7H in Firelands and earned our corrupted firehawks before 4.3 comes out.

I am an altoholic, and have seven level 85 characters, five of them with the Defender of the Shattered World title (and three now 7/7 Firelands). As with all altoholics, my major frustration is that I couldn’t possibly have time to get through all the content on all my toons at the same time as my main. However, I really enjoy the process of hitting the level cap and gearing up a new character to hit the raiding scene.

Why did you choose to collect this amount of gold?

While raiding is my favourite activity in game, that always depends on other people. Much of my time is spent organising a guild, and pugging content can get a little exhausting. Gold making for me, is my favourite solo pursuit which started from my immediate love for the profession system, and a love of numbers.

The choice to aim for 500k gold came well into Cataclysm, after the coin started rolling in from the heavy investment into the Darkmoon Card market. Initially I wanted enough to afford a Vial of the Sands, then I declared that at the 250k milestone I didn’t need any more coin… but just couldn’t shake the bug.

Anyone or resource you would like to thank?

I’d like to thank an old friend of mine, Barrath, a stout dwarf hunter if there ever was one. He introduced me to World of Warcraft, and more specifically to the sniper scope market. When I thought back on my time in warcraft for this interview, looking for cheap Star Rubies, Thorium and Mithril is how I caught the gold making bug.

Addon authors too numerous to mention. Without the myriad of addons I’ve used over the years, I wouldn’t have considered starting on the road to 500k.

The Undermine Journal is just phenomenal. It had me at graphs. Add to that the notification system, and ability to monitor your competitors’ activities and I have everything I need outside the game to learn about the markets in game at my leisure.

Thanks to my friends and guildies that have helped me with crafting while I leveled my other professions (particularly to Jondy for the endless transmutes, alchemy and leather working). Thanks to Kal, since his lovely shaman is still creating all my potions while I get my third alchemist levelled.

How did you go about getting to this gold amount? Any creative or original ideas?

My gold making has centered around the glyph market for a long time. My answer to the following question about my master list has some specific detail on where my revenue has come from recently, but everything is still built around the glyph market.

Glyphs

Ever since I started leveling Inscription (purely because I couldn’t stand to face the Sons of Hodir grind again) I was delighted with the gold making potential. Even though I was leveling Inscription while the profession was reasonably new (so a lot of competition for the common glyphs used to level) the gold started to flow in. So much so that leveling inscribing was an even greater incentive to level Twitchie than his sparkling personality and quick wit.

Twitchie became my go to gold making character, and when I discovered Quick Auctions 3 the challenge was on to streamline my glyph selling process to rake in the coin. After setting up automated posting, I started to play with inventory management. I kept upgrading my bags, until now I have 4 inscribing bags (and 4 large bags to replace them for milling) alongside my backpack and 6 inscribing bags in the bank, and 3 guild bank tabs (only one of which I actively use for storing glyphs). I made a conscious decision to only post from one character, which meant managing inventory (both on hand, in raw material form and on the AH) much easier but with a large storage requirement. A true goblin can’t afford to be sentimental about old gear, so everything outside of Twitchie’s hat collection and heroic DFO was moved aside to make room for glyphs.

I also decided that I wouldn’t ever cancel and repost glyphs, which seems to be an uncommon choice in the gold making community. I figured that the materials are so plentiful, and the markup so generous, if I wanted to have the cheapest glyph on the AH, I’d just make another one, and repost the undercut glyphs after they expire. For most of my time in the glyph market, I’ve only posted two of each glyph per session. I believe that the chances of selling more than two of a glyph before I’m undercut is quite small, and since I don’t cancel and repost, my undercut glyphs are still on the AH for an extended period giving me some depth if demand increases. I really enjoy experimenting with different durations of auctions, price ceilings and taking advantage of higher demand (and competition) on weekends. I could talk glyphs all day, and do so at least once a month on my blog, chart of glyph sales included.

Profession Empire

As an altoholic and a lover of professions, it was only a matter of time before I had everything covered. As I leveled up each profession, I would add another tab to a master spreadsheet of profitability, and experiment with different markets. I maintain a master list of prices for materials, both to set up my snatch list and calculate my floor and ceiling prices for each item. Even in a post-Undermine Journal world (which is great for quickly exploring new potential markets), I find it valuable to keep a record of what I consider the maximum reasonable price to pay for materials, and as that changes I can make sure that my sell price changes accordingly.

Once I had every profession covered, every new alt picks up Alchemy and when my little shaman gets to max level (probably in Mists of Pandaria) I’ll have all the specialisations covered. My gold making routine includes a couple of transmutes, JC daily and dreamcloth (when it’s off CD).

Automated Posting

Everything aside from glyphs that I make to sell on the auction house ends up on one character (who is also my jewelcrafter) for posting. Absolutely everything on my master list is in a Trade Skill Master auctioning group. My philosophy is that if it’s not worth taking the time to set up a group for items in a new market, it’s not worth selling. The basic mechanics of gold making can be quite tedious, but exploring new markets and experimenting with automation processes and pricing is great fun; automating my selling affords me more time to have fun with gold making.

The major advantage in automating sales is taking advantage of how I spend time in World of Warcraft. When I have extra time, I can afford to craft in batches and manage bulk inventory. I can also spend time writing about gold making and my other projects in game. When I have little time, I can log in, hit post, go shopping and be done in 5 minutes without missing a days trading.

Cross Faction

I have really enjoyed trading cross faction, and the bulk of my volatile life has been supplied by hard working hordies. In cataclysm I started moving Darkmoon Cards across to the horde side to fund my pillaging of their supply, and never looked back. There is just something so satisfying about grabbing cheap materials from the enemy and selling it back to them at an as extortionate markup as possible.

What is your master list?

While I haven’t got my database up and running with my nine months of data, I did run the data through a google docs spreadsheet and got some interesting statistics. Firstly since google docs couldn’t handle that much data in a single spreadsheet, I separated out glyph sales from everything else to find that 78% of my sales by volume are glyphs. While glyphs by their nature are a high volume market, I didn’t realise it was just that high a proportion of my sales.

In the last nine months my major sources of revenue have been:

• Glyphs: 583k
• Ebonsteel Belt Buckles: 259k
• Darkmoon Cards and Decks: 333k (511k since the beginning of Cataclysm)
• Leg Armor (all epic versions and rare): 181k
• Flasks: 102k
• Enchant Scrolls: 90k
• Potion of Treasure Finding: 21k
• Other Potions: 14.6k
• Cut Rubies: 15.7k
• Other Cut Gems: 10.9k
• Shadowspirit Diamond cuts: 8.5k
• Fortune Cards and Cookies: 9.3k
• Engineering Pets (Destroyer and Companion): 17.1k
• Enchanting Pets (Lamp and Lantern): 22.6k

Please note that the data there is purely sales data, so doesn’t have any direct information about the profit gained or time spent in any of those markets. The glyph market is my favourite, purely due to the scale of the market, and the efficiencies that can be introduced with tuned processes and addons. The nice surprise is just how much profit I made from the Darkmoon Cards, since aside from Exalted reputation with the Darkmoon Faire, I consider inferno inks a bi product and one of my more risky ventures.

Ebonsteel Belt Buckles have just been a solid performer right throughout this expansion, and a market I aggressively sell in.

Flasks are a horrible market, and my sales are usually just taking advantage of fluctuations in price when I have too large a stockpile from resupplying my guild with flasks. The margins are quite thin most of the time, and having my own Elixir Master is essential. The profitability of potions surprised me, particularly since I set my threshold and forget them, only posting when the market rises sufficiently. Treasure Finding Potions are just awesome profit for effort.

From this data you can tell that I’m not really a gem guy. I have an extreme prejudice against the market because I’m paranoid about losing too much coin to deposit fees. I’ve thought about approaching my fellow gold bloggers for some therapy about this issue, but haven’t yet reached out for help. Deposit fees are one of the reasons I enjoy the glyph market so much.

My hunter hitting 85 and entering the Leatherworking market in a big way just before 4.1 was absolutely fantastic. When everyone got T11 tier legs from justice points for their army of alts, it was like Glyphmas, but for legs. I used to swamp my wife’s Leatherworker with raw materials during Wrath, but since Cataclysm, her second druid hasn’t seen the light of day.

I have dabbled in PvP gear, bags, uncut JC daily gems, flipping raw material and spell threads but just as side projects or experiments alongside my staples.

What items are in your Snatch list?

Almost everything. If a raw material is used to make anything on my master list, it’s in my neatly organised TSM Dealfinder list. In addition to purely raw materials (enchanting mats, ore, herbs, cloth, leather, scales, volatiles), I have metal bars, inks, fish for feasts and Mighty Rage potions for Borg. Automating the purchasing of cheap materials is key to my gold making strategy.

For specific items (like particular Epic BoEs) I will usually set up an Undermine Journal notice.

How did you learn to do it?

I was introduced to the Auction House and AH addons by friends in game, as well as the Sniper Scope market. From there, I started using wowhead, my professions and a spreadsheet to calculate the potential markup on crafted goods.

I spent a lot of time in Wrath managing the guild bank for my large social guild. Epics that couldn’t be used for main spec would be sold at a discount to alts in the guild (or on the Auction House), and in return we provided subsidised flasks and belt buckles (and some enchants) for raiding. I was spending guild funds, so I used to keep immaculate track of my expenses. That process throughout an entire expansion taught me a lot about price fluctuations, particularly as Blizzard messed with the drop rate of Frost Lotus so much. It also taught me the value of stockpiling and buying in bulk, since the greater the stockpile, the more patience you can have for purchasing at the lowest possible price.

It wasn’t until I got in to the glyph market on Twitchie the Gnome Warlock that I started do a little outside research into gold making. At that point, I was reading great things about Quick Auctions 3 and really enjoyed setting it up.

More recently I’ve been listening to the Power Word: Gold podcast, and while I haven’t learned anything revolutionary, I really enjoy hearing about other experiences in gold making and the guest hosts have been great. Some of the smaller tips from the show have been the most helpful. I hadn’t considered making plate shoulders to generate Heavenly Shards, which immediately saved coin on enchanting materials, and helped burn through a stockpile of cheap ore.

What addons, if any, do you use to help you make gold and why are they needed?

Auctionator. There is no better auction house addon for quickly finding, sorting and buying items. Grouping items both by price and stack size was a giant step forward for auction house searching and I can’t imagine going back from this point.

Trade Skill Master. Standing on the shoulders of the profession and automation addons that came before it, TSM is the big kahuna of production addons. There is not a single item in my master list or snatch list that is not represented in TSMs Auctioning Groups or Dealfinding lists. Automating my purchasing, crafting and auctioning is the cornerstone of my gold making, allowing me to spend more time on the fun side of gold making, the analysis, number crunching and counting coin.

MySales. The last vestige of Auctioneer that I remained faithful to was BeanCounter, so I could keep a track of my sales, but I made the switch when I read a blog that recommended MySales. I archive my MySales data once a month, primarily so I can produce my monthly glyph sales chart for my blog, and occasionally I’ll run the numbers for other markets as well. A side project that I would love to develop is a relational database and web application front end to dynamically query all my sales data (which now dates back to January 2011).

BankStack. BankStack is crucial to my glyph strategy, since I only post glyphs from a single character, Twitchie the Gnome Warlock. I have four glyph bags next to my backpack, six in the bank and guild bank tab dedicated to glyph storage (plus two more bank tabs for related inscribing materials). BankStack allows me to quickly moves glyphs from bag to bank and back again for quick storage or reposting.

Postal is essential for clearing my mailbox.

Are you still going for more gold? If so, do you have a new goal? Are you close?

When I hit 250k I mentioned that I couldn’t possibly have a use for more gold than that, but even spending generously on my alts, my daily routine and my goal of 25,000 glyphs created in a year since Cataclysm saw the gold keep piling up. As I started reading gold making blogs and listening to a podcast or two, I got the itch to make the 500k milestone.

I’m sure the one million gold milestone will occur naturally, but I won’t be aiming for it any time soon. Aside from my daily routine in purchasing, crafting and auctioning, I would like to try my hand at more speculative and risky markets to spice things up.

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

My guildies and friends know, and I write about it on my blog that announces I’m Borgthor on Dath’Remar. Is that many people? Not really, since my readership right now consists of a subset of my guildies and friends. I do enjoy gold making and talk about it freely with anyone that is interested. One of my guildies who makes his coin on the horde side of our server has over one million gold, but I haven’t managed to convince him to write his interview for Warcraft Econ yet.

Did you spend your gold on fun things? What have you bought? What things would you like to buy?

Some of my early purchases I felt were extravagant are some of my favourites. Bag space is important to gold making, but it was still a thrill visit Harris Pilton and pick up one of her sacks. I was disappointed that there was no achievement for purchasing her portable hole, but I bought that as soon as it came out.

Patch 4.3 will bring some great gold sinks in Transmogrification and Void Storage. Regardless of the cost, I can’t wait to free up as much space in my banks on all my characters as possible. I’ve thrown away gear on Borgthor that I wished I had room to keep, and even though I try not to be sentimental on my alts, I just can’t help keeping those key pieces that bring back my favourite memories from in game.

While my wife has her Salty title, randomness has not been kind to her in regard to the alchemy mount. The delay has only made the mount cheaper, having access to Sands of Time with the guild discount for vendor goods… so I’m looking forward to splurging on that.

If you were the professor of a gold making 101 college class, what would be some things you would talk about?

Why make gold at all? A discussion on the gold requirements for various types of players, as well as a quick rundown of the most fun gold sinks in the game. Setting a budget, and how to avoid turning gold making into a chore.

A decent definition of opportunity cost, and a discussion on the ways of generating income: questing, farming, crafting and flipping.

How to build a bankroll.

How to utilise resources outside of the game, including wowhead, wow news sites and the gold blogging community.

How to calculate the profit margin on crafted goods.

How to use addons to better interact with the AH in game. This would cover the basics of searching, buying and selling.

A quick course on the professions and the synergy and dependencies between professions.

How about an advanced gold making class?

A major topic would be automation, most likely looking at a case study of a complex market (like glyphs) and how to set up an addon like TSM to deal with crafting, posting (including setting floor and ceiling prices and duration) and a cancel / repost cycle. How to apply these lessons to all your other markets, no matter how small.

The art of purchasing, including snatch lists and developing relationships with raw material farmers.

Cross faction arbitrage.

Maximising your AFK time, including bulk crafting and options for milling / prospecting while you are doing something else.

Inventory management and stockpiling (including preparing for a new patch).

Some classes I would add with more experience (Hint: I’m suggesting post topics for gold bloggers out there)

1. Strategies for participating in the gold making community.

2. Deposit fees: When to be cautious with volume, and when to recognise you are making less coin because you are a cheap bastard.

Do you have any good farming strategies or spots?

I farm for relaxation and fun rather than profit, although I do like to track my productivity so I can compare it against my other gold making activities. I find it disturbing how much prejudice against farming there is in the gold making community, since farming always has its place.

My Boomkin recently hit level 85, and I have to say that herbing as a druid in flight from is just fantastic fun. Swooping in and quickly gathering herbs with your talons only to soar away to the next herb is great. I find that farming up Heartblossom in Deepholm (for transmuting Inferno Rubies) a great way to relax while waiting for a dungeon queue to pop.

In Wrath of the Lich King I was a skinner on Twitchie the Gnome Warlock, which gave me an immediate excuse to have a Demonology offspec. I would drop out of the sky into a herd of Mammoths, pop Metamorphosis and literally melt them. Since I now have a leatherworking, skinning hunter at 85, and leather bound mobs aren’t organised is such neatly roaming packs. So as soon as I hit 500k, Twitchie power levelled enchanting for a nice change of pace. I highly recommend skinning for a hunter that doesn’t need better profession buffs, as you can let your pet do most of the work, and chat to you friends while doing laps of the Molten Front spider fields.

Borgthor rarely stops for mining nodes.

If you find farming enjoyable, go nuts! If you do the math and find a niche that nets you a reasonable return on your time, don’t let anyone dissuade you. Nothing is worse than the opportunity cost of doing something in game that you just don’t enjoy doing.

What was the best deal you ever came across?

Buying Pauldrons of Edward the Odd (359 tanking shoulders) at the start of Cataclysm before we had everyone at 85 and into raiding for 15k is one of my favourite purchases. Not only do they look awesome, but I only recently upgraded them in Firelands (for the love of Elune, please drop something other than rogue / DK / Druid / Mage shoulder tokens, Domo).

While my wife was working on her Insane title, back when Shen’dralar exalted reputation was still required, she found a stack of ten Pristine Black Diamonds for a tenth of the usual price! To illustrate our different attitudes towards the game, she almost had purchasers guilt over the bargain… and still wonders if the seller had made a mistake to this day.

Do you remember any of your worst deals?

While I haven’t been burned badly or often, I don’t enjoy flipping epics for profit. My most recent flash in this pan was the Lava Bolt Crossbow. As my hunter got to 85, I started getting the itch to buy the bow for him, so I set a watch at 25k. The first one available landed on the horde side, and I snapped it up for around 22k. I thought rather than transfer it to the alliance side, I’d flip it (since the price for these things generally decays over time) and make some quick coin. In the next 48 hours, prices were slashed to the point where one poster had 3 (yes THREE) crossbows on the AH for 14k each. Had I had the extra coin on Horde, I might just have snapped them up… So I just sat on it, and eventually managed to sell it for a tiny profit, glad to be rid of the thing. I did manage to get one on Alliance side a little cheaper, so the story ends well.

So now that I have the bankroll, I might see if I can develop the patience to try some higher risk, potentially higher return ventures.

What are your future plans with WoW?

I’m currently looking forward to patch 4.3 and Mists of Pandaria… and some compelling new gold sinks.

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

I’m looking forward to 4.3 and unbound chaos orbs… I have a heap. Unfortunately I think the market for chaos orb based blacksmithing goods will plummet, but at least I’ll be able to boost our numbers towards the Master Crafter guild achievement.

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for Warcraft Econ. Do you have any last words?

Thanks for the opportunity to tell my story. I had a great time thinking back over my time playing World of Warcraft, and it was a great excuse to look closely at my sales figures over the last 9 months. If readers want to read more, they can find me at borgthor.blogspot.com and @twitchiegtw on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Hall of Fame – 500K Gold Club: Carra of Uldum-US
2. Hall of Fame – 500K Gold Club: Prfct of Quel’Thalas-US
3. Hall of Fame – 2 Million Gold Club: Sovash of Korgath-US
4. Hall of Fame – 2 Million Gold Club: Elmenog of Bronzebeard-EU
5. Hall of Fame – 250K Gold Club: Menagilda of Terokkar-US

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The Warcraft Econ Hall of Fame interviews the few elite players that have hit the World of Warcraft gold cap of 999,999 gold 99 silver 99 copper as well as ones who have obtain 500k and 250k. We have with us, Ermorden of Scarlet Crusade-US, who will be sharing their story with us today.

Please tell us a little about yourself and your gaming experience.

I’m a 35-year old gamer with two kids, my son is age six and my daughter is age eight. In March my son was diagnosed with leukemia, so life has been busy for us battling his cancer but he’s working on making a full recovery. During the time we spent in the hospital (approximately fifty days), I had a lot of time on my hands, some of which was playing WoW while my son slept in his bed. Recently, Blizzard put their old realm servers up for auction for St. Jude’s Childhood Cancer Research so I put in an eBay bid (or five) and won Perenolde-US realm blade, the first realm I ever played on back in “vanilla.”

My first level 85, now retired, Auction character is Ermorden from Scarlet Crusade-US.  I started playing World of Warcraft when a few of my Guild Wars guildies talked me into a trial account. Unlike World of Warcraft, Guildwars really did end at level cap and I grew bored after leveling one of everything.

I’ve been playing WoW since Vanilla but struggled with money from day-1, when getting 10g was a monumental task. I really got the itch for end-game during Wrath of the Lich King… I never had a level capped toon until the third Expansion, I just didn’t give the game enough attention. Now, I’ve got five level 85′s in which I mainly play tanks and secondary as healers for most of my classes. I have a warlock I leveled for fun but don’t use him. I have one geared DPS assassination rogue that I have fun with when I’m given a chance to not have to tank a raid.

All my toons are named in German and they all represent something about their class. Ermorden, “to murder” – seemed fitting for a Death Knight.

Do you raid or PvP most? Both? How do you enjoy the game?

I am the guild master for a casual raiding guild of roughly twenty casual yet dedicated gamers. We have a small group of PvP folks that got me into PvP for a short bit, but raiding was more my style. I respect the PvP folks because I believe the “on the fly” nature of having to learn an enemy play style is a huge challenge, maybe more so than a 10-man raid boss.

Why did you choose to collect this amount of gold?

My original goal was to collect roughly 10,000 gold as a nest egg for upgrades, alts and such. But, once I realized how easy it was for me to make gold, it became a secondary game for me. I always worked with small goals: obtain 15k, obtain 20k, obtain 40k, hit a 50k, 100k, etc. Once I hit 600,000 gold I made a stretch goal, hit the gold cap.

Some folks play the game for achievements, others to explore all the lore and then there are people like me, that play the auction house (AH). It’s like a third style of play: PvP, PvE, AH.

Anyone or resource you would like to thank?

I have read a bit of Wow Insider and I’ve tried a few gold making podcasts but they couldn’t hold my attention. For the most part, I learn as I go using the best addons I can find.

How did you go about getting to this gold amount? Any creative or original ideas?

–Professions–

Jewelcrafting:

I started with a small nest egg of 500 gold. I then picked a profession, which required me never to really farm—Jewelcrafting. I despise farming for materials; I have only done it in moments of sheer desperation. In most cases, if the materials are not on the Auction House, I just wait until they are or ask trade chat.

About 80% of my wealth was obtained through Jewelcrafting. I took my 500g and bought raw cuts of the most popular gems at the time, Cardinal Rubys (I started my gold conquest in WoTLK when I was finally level capped). The concept is very straightforward: buy raw gems for less than I can cut and sell the good cuts. For example, I’d buy a gem for 50g to sell it for 80g. If I could make 10% profit then I was happy (keep in mind the AH takes a 5% piece.)

In wrath I did every daily and eventually owned every WoTLK gem recipe (I also bought the titanium dust off AH to buy tokens). Once Cataclysm arrived, I started doing those dailies and obtained all cuts, starting with the most popular and the most unusual (hey, bear tanks need cuts too) and exploit those markets. Remember, though, posting 30 Brilliant Inferno ruby’s isn’t cost effective, you’ll be undercut in 5-minutes anyway so post no more than five (remember, some people buy two to three to gem out their new gear). I pick unusual cuts as well, with lower competition because wanna-be gold cappers think they can do it with the three main inferno cuts in cataclysm… and there are a LOT of wanna-be gold makers.

My main JC approach is a shotgun method, I have every single cut the game offers and I have three gems of each posted on the AH at all times. I may cancel/repost a lot but my audience for a sale is much larger than the niche JC cutter. You can sell two delicate inferno’s (before being undercut to hell) or one delicate, brilliant, potent, veiled, fractured and puissant. So, if I tell you, “you can sell two gems in five minutes or six” which sounds better? Broaden your audience.

Alchemy:

I’m a transmuter as my secondary profession to synergize with my JC. It allows me to make my own gems and open more avenues for buying material. I need a lot of avenues because I may sell 100+ gems a day, I consume all materials on the AH (if the price is right). Also isn’t bad for Living Elements transmutes and True Gold (when it’s hot).

Enchanting:

I use enchanting To disenchant my rings and such, when I need materials. I sell a few enchantments and a few spell materials but mainly I use this as a cost-saver. I make money with enchanting by not spending money on the AH on materials and enchantments for my main characters.

Blacksmithing/Engineering:

Another internal cost saver, making my own weapons saves me from spending on the AH. Saving money is another way to gold cap, because you’re not wasting your profits on the actual game. I also found some success selling belt buckles and, at one point, the Kickback 5000. Overall, the up-front cost to invest in making armor to sell on AH (slowly) isn’t the best way to start building a gold nest egg. Your audience is often limited to plate-wearing characters and that’s too limiting for me when my gems sell to all classes.

Inscription:

Cost saver for my glyphs and moneymaker in terms of fortune cookies and mysterious fortune cards. I sell about 900 fortune cookies a week on AH with my inscription alt. I buy materials to make blackfallow ink at 3-6g per ink and sell a fortune cookie for 11-16g each. Little dedicated competition means you can own this market and frustrate any newcomers out quickly. Could I gold cap with inscription? Most definitely but then I enter a completely new realm of competition and I only have time to be aggressive in one market so I stuck with what I knew: JC.

— How To Really Make Money in WoW —

This is it, this is how I pulled it off. I will list the key elements in what I deem the highest priority (based on what I’ve learned and had to start again). Here is the magic 14 keys to success…

#1: Addons

You’ll want some good addons to make life easier. . I use auctionator, auctioneer and tradeskillmaster (with all its subcomponents). My goal is to build money fast with very little effort, I want to login and cancel/post/cut all my stuff in under 10-minutes so I can raid or log out.

#2: You Must Be #1 on AH

I realized that I could move more gems if I was at the top of the auction list, obviously. So cancel and reposting is a big part of my gold growing lifestyle. I will cancel and repost all my auctions 15-20 times a day or more.  You won’t sell gems if you’re gem is #4 in the AH. It’s not unusual for a player to buy 3 cuts for their new stuff.

#3: Aggression

I don’t care what they say, I do not believe you’ll ever meet a gold cap if you undercut your competitors deeply and hope to sell faster than everyone else while setting your auctions to 48h.  I see people who say, “I can sell all my gems at a 60% discount and still make money. You don’t like me undercutting you by 50g, just buy mine out.” No. In those cases, I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of buying them out, I have more money than they do… I’ll sell for 80% loss if it means they can’t sell anything! Either play by my rules or get out. The fact of the matter is, if you post an item for 20g that typically goes for 140g you will indeed sell it in 5-minutes. But you know what? Had you sold it at 140g you’d have sold it in…5-minutes. Why do you want to lose money? It makes no sense to me.

I post 12h auctions and take any opportunity to undercut the competition by 1 copper. Why 1c? Because that means after we’re done with our 10-time undercut war we’re not losing money from our sales. If some new guy comes to try to be an AH gold miner, I will undercut and lose money if it means frustrating them out of the market. Once you’ve got some money to toss around, say 8k, losing 500g to keep competition away means making more money in the end. Consider it your marketing budget, the price of doing business.

#4: Keep Your Enemies Close

Believe it or not, one technique I’ve never read about is one of my most profitable and usable. Once you’re in the AH and playing “the game” of undercut, watch who you’re fighting against—don’t do it blindly until you know your environment.

Who are you undercutting? The usual suspects, those that I stuff on my friends list and watch come online over and over.  You’ll probably build a list of 10 offenders, those that cause you the most harm… you logout and they undercut you the second you’re offline. Find them, reach out to them in a whisper and say something nice and let them know you’re a human. You’ll find people are less aggressive to undercut you when they realize you’re a dad with two kids, working a 9-5 and love minecraft. Find a bond, say hi to them when they login and get to know them. Do they have kids? What do they do for a living? Do they know anyone else that plays the AH like you guys?

Once they find out you’re not just an avatar, life gets easier. Seal the deal with an alliance—no more undercutting. Matching prices is easy if you use TradeSkillMaster and its whitelist. My top AH competition all whitelist me, so when I post they match! That means I spend almost 50% less time logging in to undercut them and, as an added bonus, the prices on the AH never fall.

Use this technique, open a line of communication with your new “friends” and build a common enemy (everyone else). Follow up with “wow, sam1233 think he’s going to dump the inferno market today, hope this doesn’t last long” etc.

#5: Stalking, it’s good for everyone. Okay, just you.

Yes, stalking. You want to learn everything you can about your competition. Once you’ve contacted them and learned a bit about them, you may find out key information like, “I work nights at a club” or “I’m a stay at home mom” or “I work from my home office.” This information, along with Undermine Journal, gives you post frequency information (post high volume at night for the Club worker for instance).

Secondly, watch their guild tags. Many of these people will be in a small guild, when you see them logout, watch their guild list—find their alts (sometimes they’re the only ones online or in the guild!) Keep track of everyone and their alts, because those alts may be their “mains.” I will post more aggressively when I see my competition on his other toon in a 5-man instance like DeadMines. That means I’ve got at least 30-minutes to own the market. Watch which alts login first, and get an idea of when they’re toon that will compete against you will login. Hold off posting your auctions until you know they’re coming online to do the same. Go login with an alt and watch them on your friends list. When you see them login (they’ll probably look for you and see you offline), let them do their business and when they alt-hop, jump on and be top poster.

My biggest competition is on my friends list on all the toons I regularly play.

#6: Build Partner Channels

I made at least 700k building relationships with people that sell materials. See someone constantly posting ember topaz? Write down their name and whisper them when they’re online, or send an in-game mail to them saying, “look, I see you’re selling ember topaz on the AH for 35g each? How about you sell them directly to me for 28g and avoid competition/AH fees?” You’ll find most are much more willing to C.O.D items to you directly than go through the AH nightmare. I was buying about 100k a month in items off my “channels” and saving a good deal of money on the quantity. I would still be halfway to gold cap if it wasn’t for my channel partners.

Would you turn down a guy like me if I was to say “I’ll give you 100,000 gold right now for all that stuff”? In many cases, if you see someone posting a specific raw gem the chances are they’ve got more gems of different colors sitting in their bank. You may struggle to get them to sell you inferno ruby’s and carnelians (if they’re too smart), but it’s about volume of gems not just one niche. Take what you can get if you can get it for a great deal.

#7: Audience Expansion

Don’t stick with your niche, expand slowly into new categories and see what moves and how much you can make on an item. For instance, I realized I could make a good deal of money on Fortune Cookies so I expanded into that audience. A person must have maxed cooking skill plus maxed inscription to truly benefit in terms of cost savings on cookies, not a lot of people level cooking high enough.

Besides every JC cut, I try to sell cookies, severed sagefish, delicious sagefish and lavascale minestrone because those four food recipes cover every class of player.  I also sell darkmoon cards and decks once a month when my milling for blackfallow (for mysterious fortune cards) procs burning embers. After a month of making thousands of cookies you end up with a good deal of burning embers which can then be turned into darkmoon cards. But the darkmoon card era may be coming to a close, so it’s really just useful as a semi-free byproduct of cookies.

I also sell some belt buckles, and flip any epic weapons/armor I see for cheap by buying and reposting for more.

#8: Buy Low, Sell High

If you’re working on your gold cap, you’re camping the auction house a lot. While you’re there look at high moving items and costly items and watch trends. When I see ebonsteel belt buckles selling for 150g, heavenly shards for 20g, living embers for 3000g, I buy them all (remember, you gotta spend money to make money). I will then hold them for days or weeks until I see prices rise up (usually Tuesdays when everyones auctions expired) and I repost for 100%+ more than I bought them for and let them sell. If you make double your money, you only have to sell half the crap you bought to call it even. When I see rare drop gem recipes, blacksmith recipes or other epic items way below price, buy them and repost.

Some people have a hard time wrapping their mind around this, even if I buy 20 belt buckles and sell 10 of them before the competition gets hot (or drops the price back down again), I still sold all I need to break even–that means, the ones I put in my bank or keep on my person are “free money” when I sell them. Yet, I still will sell them at the highest price I can get.

#9: Variable Stacking

Don’t forget your audience within your audience! You’ll make more money selling Fortune cookies in stacks of 5, 10 and 20 than just in stacks of 20. Most people will buy four stacks of 5 fortune cookies because they think it’s “cheaper” than buying a stack of 20.

You can’t seem to sell pyrite ore because John Q posted 30 stacks of 20 for half the going price? Sell quantities of 1, 2 and 5 for double (or triple) the price John Q posted his stacks of 20. Many people will buy a single item for 20g if they only need one or two than 200g [10g each] for a full stack. Why? Because then they have to somehow sell the rest! You’ll find a larger audience buying smaller quantities for more actual money than vice versa and, if you’re lucky, the dumb player that will buy all 20 of your single-posted items for 100% more money than if they bought the 20-stack (because it looked cheaper item-by-item).

Even if you own a market completely, sell in varying quantities to expand the possibilities of a buyer. Severed Sagefish is not different, sell in stacks of 5, 10 and 20 and you’ll see a variety of buying patterns from different people (and repeat sales). Selling metal? Sell 1, 5, 10 and 20 stacks of obsidium ore AND 1, 5, 10, 20 stacks of obsidium bars. You’ll sell more and risk being undercut less if you vary your quantity. People will most often undercut one quantity size, not all. Let them undercut your 20-stack and sell singles out from under them.

#10: Trade Chat, Hate It But Make It

Everyone hates trade chat, right? Not me. I have a separate tab in my chat frame just for trade chat. Some of the best deals come out of trade chat. When you see valor bracers (patch 4.2) selling for 3.5k in trade and I know I can sell for 8k on the auction house I will whisper them and ask them to buy me DPS plate or DPS cloth bracers (biggest audience). Why not tank bracers? You see tank queues? If we’re waiting that long for a tank, how long are you going to wait to sell a tank an item? Let someone else try.

When I talk in trade I keep it intelligent, to the point and try to help people out when they have pricing questions. Believe it or not, some people back me up when I give advice because I’m known to own a large segment of the auction house (this can be a blessing but also a curse). Heck, I have also been called out as a “bot” in trade by a few people (because I login, undercut and logout). I whisper them and say “hi” and let them know what I’m doing, and if they have deals, come to me. I’ve made some great friends from those that used to hate me; some even asked to join my guild.

#11: Selling Price vs. Posted Price

Just because it is on the AH for a price doesn’t mean it’s SELLING for that price. You may find people that won’t sell you materials cheaper because “they’re selling on AH for ___ price.” So I say, “no, they’re listing on AH for that price, but I’ve seen that guy posting those for five days, you wanna wait five days or have your money now?” People selling in trade chat want money NOW and they’ll sell cheaper if it means money now. Make sure you stress the fact that “I’ll give you _____g right now, why do you want to compete on AH for it?”

#12: Be Nice.

This goes back to alliances a bit, but be friendly. Nobody wants to buy or sell with a douchebag. That means, sometimes you give deals, 10% discount for them being a buddy, or “look, I’ll buy these off you right now for the same price as the ones on AH because I like you.” And, “I typically buy these for 15g less, but you’ve been nice.” Don’t lie, be honest and give them the deal, don’t just pretend you’d buy it for less as lying can catch up to you and burn you later. I know I have more gold than most people on the realm, but being nice goes a long way to making more off those people. Even the goldfather was nice to the people he know would help him out, right? You’re rolling deep hommie, but that doesn’t mean you have to go full gansta.

I once gave a player 3,000g because I felt I had done him wrong on the AH by aggressively undercutting him and frustrated him. Sure, I had 980k but I didn’t have to give him 3k to make it right, but it builds respect, and that may pay off later when they’ve got something to sell and need it sold fast. Share the wealth and you’ll find building connections and channels happens naturally.

#13: You’re Not Butter, Don’t Spread Too Thin

Doing too many markets means you’re basically online to be an AH gamer. You’ll have many aggressive competitors in each market and many of them only focus on their core market. Which means you’ll logout to post your glyphs and the JC competition will undercut your gems. Then you login to repost your gems and the glyph guy will undercut your glyphs. Repeat for potions and the like.

That doesn’t mean you can’t tap into those markets for some areas, like my Fortune Cookie segment, that is probably ripe for inscriptionists but they don’t “see it.” They see glyphs and inks and undercutting… but what about mysterious fortune cards and cookies? Nobody seems to care, but people seem to want to buy them. Even if it only contributes to 10% of your wealth, if you get 10% of your wealth from one channel, 10% from another and the rest from your main craft, you just increased your wealth by 20% without entering into the blood bath of the core professions sweet spot. Also consider Greater Celestial Essences, Heavenly Shards and buying cheap maelstroms to post for double later.

#14: Play Lean.

There are farmers and there is us. We’re not farmers, we need to play it lean. I don’t have a guild bank alt, I don’t have a traditional bank toon setup nor do I use my guilds bank to hold my materials. I keep it all in the space provided by my bank (all slots and biggest bags) and my toon. If it doesn’t fit there, then it needs to be sold or turned into something else.

Why? I know everything I sell, what the going price is and what my bare minimum sell price is going for at any given time. I know what sells fast, what sells slow (but for good gold) and what only sells on a specific day. I can’t do this with a vast inventory, nor can I remember what I originally purchased all this inventory for when I laid out gold. I run a lean house, my bank consists of (besides my armor and actual game items): spare elementium ore (that I got dirt cheap), stacks of uncut gems, darkmoon decks, darkmoon cards, volatiles, lavascale catfish, sagefish and a few odds and ends metals (truegold, hardened elementium) that I may need to trade up to make epic items to flip.

What is your master list?

I sell anything I get my hands on for cheap money. People start to learn your name in trade and private channels. They start to turn to you for rare items, stacks of items and such. If I have hardened elementium in my inventory, it’s viable for a sale if the price is right. I sell all gems, and use TradeSkillMaster to manager them, the rest of the stuff I keep in my head. When it comes to selling volatiles and other misc. items, I pick a mental number in my head, say 33g per item, and only sell if it hits that number. For example, I will only sell volatile water if it is going to sell for 22g+ because I know a) I’ll find a buyer and b) it will hit 22g+ by Wednesday morning. I’ll sit on my volatiles until I get my number.

Remember, I still play lean. If I come upon some cheap stuff that I can sell, I try to sell it to keep my inventory from getting too large. If I’m low on space, I rent space on AH. I’ll post items for well above market value just so I can use the 48-hours to clean up my inventory. Hell, sometimes people will buy it for high prices and I don’t have to take it back.

What items are in your Snatch list?

I buy all cataclysm herbs I can find cheap and send to my inscriptionist for when I feel like going over and milling for mysterious fortune cards. I buy all blue quality gems that I believe are going to make me money—all of them. If there is a good deal of ember topaz I will leave none for my competition to take. Great deal on ore? Fine, I’ll prospect it (but, usually I pay people gold to prospect it for me as I have better things to do).

How did you learn to do it?

Trial and error. Much of it was common sense to me, if I buy a raw gem for 10g and see that they’re selling for 20g, then that’s money in my pocket for me hitting a create button. Take that theory and expand it out 25 recipe cuts and it’s all the same, more money for me.

I watch the competition and see how they post, what quantity, what timing, etc. Learn from others.

What addons, if any, do you use to help you make gold and why are they needed?

TradeSkillMaster:

* Working queue for cutting gems. This works for the most part, but when someone is selling gems for way above value on AH TradeSkillMaster refuses to cut any because it believes I’m losing money. But, I bought my gems through my channels of friends for a big discount so these high prices don’t apply to me. Sometimes I have to force it to cut gems.

* Minimum Pricing: I use the addon to only post when my prices are met, and I have different prices for each quality of gem. That way I never lose money.

* Mass Destroy (for milling) to mill all cata herbs for ink on my fortune cards.

* Cancel/Repost: Big time needed so I can enjoy playing wow for more than AH.

 Auctionator:

I deal mainly in gems, I use auctionator for everything else. For mass posting cookies, sagefish, etc. I use this for varying quantities on items for biggest audience. I also use this to quickly buy items that have great deals or all gems I can find for my price points.

Auctioneer (for trending %)

I am not 100% sure why I still like this addon, perhaps because it gives me a percent near the item to let me quickly know how overpriced or underpriced it is. I only use this as a signal to do further investigation; especially on items I’m not 100% familiar with yet.

iSold:

This addon plays a “Cha Ching” sound when something sells. This addon is clutch when I’m sitting in orgrammir watching TV or on a conference call/working. I only need to restock the auction house when I hear something sell.

Are you still going for more gold?  If so, do you have a new goal? Are you close?

I am trying to wean myself off of intense AH activity, but I also can’t sit idle knowing more patches are coming out. Every time a patch lands I make 30,000g to 50,000g in a two day span. A JC’s favorite day is the day they convert valor to justice points and people go on a buying spree for armor. They need new gems ready quick.

While I’ve lowered my attendance at the AH doorway, I also want to say relevant to the market. Some people still depend on me for items and my contacts. Also, it’s still fun (more so than troll heroics.)

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

The people that know I have this amount of gold are the ones I tell. If I’ve told you there are only two reasons: You asked (because you see me a lot) or I want you to know I have a lot of power over the AH. Once you know I’ve got this much money you know a) I am a great source for you to move items b) I can find you good deals on stuff c) I am a threat if you try to get in my way on the auction house.

Of course, many of my guild mates know my money. I try not to tell too many strangers if I find no value in it or to younger players because then they begin to beg or ask for a loan. I’ve given out loans but only to those I respect and know will pay me back (with interest of course).

Did you spend your gold on fun things? What have you bought? What things would you like to buy?

Oddly, I don’t even own the mounts that can be purchased for 18k. Nor do I own a motorcycle even though I’ve made them for guildies as door prizes for guild sponsored events. I just can’t justify spending 13k on a bike when I can ride my basic lion mount. When I spend gold it’s to make items as prizes for the guild such as darkmoon decks, bikes and purple items I find cheap on AH.

If you want to find a way to sink money, buy cheap living embers or whatever the current “hot item” is for crafting materials. Or, buy companion pets that are rare and hard to get as they will survive through inflation.

If you were the professor of a gold making 101 college class, what would be some things you would talk about?

Three key focus areas: 1. Economics and Buying Low/Sellingi high.  2. Establishing Relationships with others and making contacts. 3. How to bully people out of your market so you can own it—the godfather effect.

How about an advanced gold making class?

Explaining how elementium ore pricing correlates directly to the cost of greater celestial essences and such advanced ideas. How people convert from one item (ore) into another item (carnelian spikes) down to the new product (greater celestial essence).

A secondary course on making friends with bribes and paying people off with discounts or direct gold to “thank them.” People hang around the rich guy if it means they make something out of it.

Do you have any good farming strategies or spots? If you don’t farm, please suggest something to farm if you had to pick the best items and locations.

To enter into a market of making money, if you farm Wrath of the Lich King materials you’ll find lots of buyers but only moderate profits. If you want to make real money, farm obsidium and elementium, prospect it and transmute them into gems for the Auction House.

But, if you don’t have enough toons with those professions, take that ore and smelt 50% of it. Sell ore in varying stacks, sell bars in varying stacks and work around the gold farmers selling it in mass for cheap. Chinese gold farmers never seem to smelt, just sell raw ore so make sure you can smelt.

What was the best deal you ever came across?

I bought a reverberating shadowspirit diamond recipe for 300g. Flipped it for 8,000g. Then, used 3k of that to re-buy it and learn it myself (see my priorities).

Do you remember any of your worst deals?

I recently bought the Claw of Agony off a contact of mine for 3.5k, thinking I was getting it super cheap (knowing a strength based weapon that required its pair was a hard sell). Turns out, nobody wanted it for 2k either… I don’t know what I sold it for, maybe 900g.

What are your future plans with WoW?

Take my own DPS toon (assassination rogue) and obtain legendaries with the 4.3 patch.

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

I believe we’re about to see the end of making money on Darkmoon Cards. The materials are used in many costly (and profitable) items but the cards themselves will continue to be less and less useful. This pattern has existed beyond the current cards and will always be an issue. Watch patterns to see lifecycles of specific wow items, it’s all cyclical.

The price of a gold will continue to decrease as uncontrolled inflation continues to be a common theme. Wow’s economy prints money every second without any care of the amount in the market. This means that the 4,000g you have today is worth about 2,000g within two major patches and 500g by the next expansion. You either continue to make more or find companion pets or non-volatile (pun intended) products to put your material worth. Or, like me, just accept it as reality.

Please tell us a little bit about how you handle your real life finances. What are the differences and similarities with how you do things in WoW?

Thanks to my job in technical sales, I’m very financially stable. I’ve worked for two startup companies that were bought for a significant amount of money. So, I don’t really watch my monthly budget very closely, I just know that I make more than I spend and that’s good enough (I have a finance manager that handles my major assets).

I run my real life account much like I run my wow account, I keep track of general pricing in my head and make determinations by estimate. This only works if you’re not watching every penny that comes in and out in order to pay your bills.

What your favorite artists, songs, movies, shows, or streams to watch while you are making gold?

I sit in orgrammir and watch Netflix at night, waiting for iSold addon to go CHA CHING saying I sold something. I’ve gone through all the old school sci-fi action shows from Buck Rogers to Battle Star up to the new Star Trek: Enterprise and Battle Star. If I’m not on Netflix I’m watching Pawn Stars (irony?) or The Colbert Report/Daily Show.

For music, I’d be listening to Disturbed or something like that, but music interferes with my ability to hear Cha-Ching.

What are your thoughts on the real money auction house that will be implemented in Diablo 3? How will you take advantage of this new change?

I’m not really sure I can afford to play yet another auction game. I usually grow tired of Diablo within two months of play. If I grow bored too quick, I won’t really have time to take advantage of the new auction system. We’ll see, if I can make real money and it’s actually worthwhile, I’ll give it a try.

As for my thoughts? I think Blizzard is one of the most intelligent gaming companies of our generation. They play it lean like me, they’ve got only three major intellectual properties and they release the games when they feel like it and never earlier. They make major bank on each title. I trust that they know what they’re doing and can become the next iTunes of video game auctions. If they take their share and people can see real money being made, life is all good.

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for Warcraft Econ. Do you have any last words?

1. By the gods, use an authenticator. No point in amassing cash if you cannot protect your assets.

2. You can always apply some of your experiences in games to real life friends and relationships. Remember, nobody likes a douchebag so be friendly and courteous to people in game and in life and the rewards you’ll receive will be endless.

Related posts:

1. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Doppelganger of Scarlet Crusade-US
2. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Amathis of Garona-EU
3. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Chukchi of Arthas-US
4. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Locavore of Uldum-US
5. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Preheat of Staghelm-US

The Warcraft Econ Hall of Fame interviews the few elite players that have hit the World of Warcraft gold cap of 999,999 gold 99 silver 99 copper as well as ones who have obtain 500k and250k. We have with us, Carra of Uldum-US, who will be sharing their story with us today.

Please tell us a little about yourself and your gaming experience.

Carra, on Uldum, here. I started playing WoW a little over two years ago, in 2009. On a summer road trip, I stopped to visit a friend I hadn’t seen in fifteen years, and found her playing Warcraft with her husband. I started playing to hang out with her, and I was hooked. Another friend from high school convinced me to transfer to Uldum to play with him, so I rolled a dk to level with his 60-somethingish toon.

I now have 4 85s – a JC/alch, an alch/enchanter, a BS/tailor, and a skinner/LW. I have a lvl 75 inscrip/eng, and two lvl 65 alchs.

I bought my kids WoW for Christmas and used it to power level three sets of toons on two accounts. They play on my original, non-main server, leaving me with ten slots for my toons on Uldum. Unfortunately, I’m only so nice; I didn’t buy them Cata, so one account can only go so far. (I, of course, have Cata – I’m the mom.)

I have three alliance bank alts – one is my “main”, one is for paper (scrolls and vendor recipes), and one is for glyphs. I have two horde bank alts – one for glyphs and one for everything else. I don’t really play on the horde side, but I intend to one of these days. I’m fairly lazy on my Horde bank alt, because of the PITA value of transferring things over.

I’ve seen people question the value of a bank alt if you play the other side; that 15% neutral AH cut is a crock. However, I use my Horde alt primarily to buy mats. I snapped up a Theck’s Emberseal for 15k Horde side, transferred it to Alliance, and resold it for 33k. I use it to buy ore like there’s no tomorrow, which I transfer to my main and prospect endlessly. When chaos orbs were too expensive Alliance side, I found a cheap BS Horde side to do some crafting for me. But as you can see, most of my gold is Alliance side.

Do you raid or PvP most? Both? How do you enjoy the game?

The only PvP I’m good at is AH PvP. I raid on Carra, quasi-casual. When I get tired of dealing with people, I tend to focus more on the AH; when I get tired of that, I go back to raiding.

Why did you choose to collect this amount of gold?

I started out my gold career just trying to get a little something. I won a battered hilt the first week ICC was out and sold it, and felt rich to have the 17k. At least briefly – a friend convinced me to pick up the Kirin Tor ring. Still, it was nice to have the feeling of being able to do whatever I wanted with so much gold.

I’m a numbers person. I like the idea of concrete goals. I enjoy buying something cheap and reselling it for more. I like watching the numbers go up when I open my mailbox each morning. And I like knowing I have enough gold to buy whatever I want.

Anyone or resource you would like to thank?

I wish I could remember the name of the first page I googled that pointed out the best time to buy was on weekends and the best time to sell was Tues/Weds/Thurs, because that’s what really started me on my quest, I think. I follow a slew of gold blogs, all of whom have helped me on my way. I love the forums at JMTC and the Consotorium.

But really, I think my biggest shout out has to go to the Undermine Journal. I don’t use the addon, I just use their web page, but I love it for quick snapshots of costs and mats, for keeping an eye on previous prices and sales, for notifying me when someone posts something insanely cheap, and just for making me a better goblin all around.

How did you go about getting to this gold amount? Any creative or original ideas?

Almost two years ago, a friend/guildy told me that if I really wanted gold, I should start jewelcrafting. He said he wasn’t making nearly as much as he had previously but the gold was still good. I took that advice, started googling, and ran with it. JCing remains my bread and butter, my easiest gold. I didn’t even pick up on the shuffle until Cata dropped; well, I figured out on my own to buy ore and prospect it, but in LK I was mostly buying uncut gems on weekends and cutting them for raid nights.

Probably the strangest thing to me is the fact that people vendor or cut their nightstones. I list mine for anywhere from 18-30g each, a better price than I generally get from the mats. This works even when they aren’t the daily gem, although I always list in sets of 3s. I get a decent return on jasper, as well, though not quite as high.

From jewelcrafting I began to branch out. My mage, who was my first toon, picked up herbing and alch while I was leveling her, and she kept them until a few weeks before Cata dropped. At that point, I no longer had the desire to farm, so I dropped herbing for enchanting.

With the rise of the cauldron, I haven’t really bothered to pursue the elixir market. But like most alchs, I’m neurotic about my daily transmute. (Of course I’m a transmute master.) Volatile air volatile air volatile air. I dropped mining on my dk and took up alch, as well, because I was tired of sending gems to my mage to transmute to metas or reds, and then sending them back. So while my mage is busy making air, my dk makes volatile water, which on my server are just a touch lower in price than the airs, and sometimes as high.

Making my JC a transmute-master alch has been a huge time saver/money maker. Before that, I would send things over in batches to be done, and transmute them en masse, when I felt like it. I am an admittedly lazy person, and logging over and back for a few things just didn’t seem like a good use of my time. Now, I simply prospect, then transmute, then cut; all on one toon.

After JCing, enchanting is my next big money maker, I think. I’d like to give a shout-out to Stokpile. I printed out his list and tend to run down it quickly for all my enchants, using TSM to set up the to-do list. I make most Cata enchants, some LK enchants, and a few vanilla/BC enchants in groups of 5, although I list them one at a time.

Blacksmithing is the next quick gold maker. The cata PvP sets are still selling decently. I list belt buckles fairly steadily. And of course, stormforged shoulders to DE for shards.

My leatherworker mostly makes leg armors, sometimes pvp sets. I don’t keep her as busy as I should.

My tailor makes spellthreads. And bags – all kinds of bags. You’d be amazed at the wrath bags that still sell. At the moment, I’ve given up on netherweave bags but I keep saying one of these days I’ll go back to them. I make my dreamcloth every week.

I have glyphs but the market on Uldum is cut-throat; it takes more camping than I want to put into it. I put both of my glyph sellers (Horde and Alliance) on my second account, with the theory that I can keep it open and list while playing/crafting/flying, but in reality, the profit margin isn’t enough for me to spend the time. I have a friend/guildy who says she makes good money doing it without camping, but apparently I haven’t figured it out. I could spend more time and energy figuring out how to wring gold from the glyph market, but my time is at a premium, so /shrug. I’ve learned all of the glyphs through the books and Northrend discovery. Somehow I let the lesser discovery slip past unnoticed, so I’m playing catch up.

And, while I have an engineer, I admit that I don’t do anything with him yet (he’s on my scribe, which doesn’t help his case). That market is also on my “to do” list.

What is your master list?

• Red gems – bold, brilliant, and delicate primarily
• Bags – Hyjal expedition, Frostweave, Embersilk, Pack of Endless Pockets, emerald bag
• Nightstone & Jasper
• Cut Shadowspirit gems
• Cut orange and purple gems
• Ebonsteel belt buckles
• Rods – titanium, truesilver, elementium, fel iron
• Dragonscale leg armor, twilight leg armor, scorched leg armor, charscale leg armor
• Blue rings
• Spellthread
• Bloodthirsty gear – blacksmith and jewelry

Per MySales (which I only installed about three or four months ago), I’ve made the most gold (consistently) off of brilliant, bold, and delicate inferno rubies, with nightstones at a close 5th, averaging 61g89s30c for a stack of three..

What items are in your Snatch list?

• Elementium and obsidium ore – despite people barking in trade I still tend to pick up a good amount, which I prospect en masse
• Embersilk cloth
• Heartblossom
• Savage leather
• Volatile life
• Enchanting mats when they’re under my threshold
• Frostweave cloth, bolts, and bolts of imbued frostweave
• Obsidium & Elementium bars
• Blackened dragonscale
• Chimera’s eye
• Coilfang armorments (raising rep on one toon for an alch pattern)
• Eboneweave & spellweave
• Inks
• Seafood magnifique ingredients (to supply my raids)
• Pattern: rich purple shirt (I want I want I want)
• Primals
• Truegold
• Whiptail

How did you learn to do it?

I started with Google, then moved on to TUJ. At some point, I googled “warcraft gold” and picked up a number of blogs to watch; then I just picked up their feeds to read in my spare time.

What addons, if any, do you use to help you make gold and why are they needed?

TSM helps me with crafting, and purchasing for my crafting needs. Auctioneer for scanning the AH, although I haven’t learned it as well as I need to.

Are you still going for more gold? If so, do you have a new goal? Are you close?

I’m going for 1 million, strictly for the “I can do it” value. For me, gold (like most goblins) is about keeping score, and I want to push the cap. I’ll probably stop at one million.

However, I’m trying to ease myself off WoW; I have four kids that I homeschool, and I need to get offline more. On the one hand, the “you have to have money to make money” comes into play – I should be able to continue rolling to go faster than two years. Not to mention the knowledge. On the other hand, I’m trying to log in at night only, which means resisting the urge to list my auctions first thing in the morning; I found when I log in during the day, I spend more time playing in the day than I should, so I need to nix that. So we’ll see how it goes.

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

Yeah, I kind of “woohoo”ed on realID when I broke 100k, lol (and 200k the next day) But it’s caused some problems. I made 100k profit when the firelands recipes came out by selling the tanking/healing weapons. I spammed trade at one point on my BS instead of my bank alt, and my guild master began to give me grief for not giving my orbs to the guild. But I told him point blank there was no one in the guild I liked enough to give 20k to, and since I was making 20k profit per weapon the first day, it was the same thing. He didn’t like that much… /shrug. But we’re not a serious raiding guild, and I didn’t think anyone needed them immediately.

I like to help people out, but I generally prefer it to be on my terms, not because someone expects it of me. My friends know I don’t loan gold – or borrow it. That’s an extension of my real life ethics; I never borrow money from friends because it screws up friendships (I just saw that happen to two friend of mine), and I don’t loan it for the same reason. I keep the gold the same.

Did you spend your gold on fun things? What have you bought? What things would you like to buy?

Yes and no. There isn’t a lot I really want. I bought the phoenix mount when my guild got BOT and BWD down and cringed at the price. I made myself buy the BiS BOEs for my tank because I refuse to farm Firelands for epics, but I really had to force myself to do it. I went ahead and geared up my mage – I consider both her and my tank my “mains”.

I’ve been saying I would buy either the chopper or the mammoth once I hit 500k but I just picked up the horseman mount on both toons. I’m kind of bored, so I’m doing archeology; if I ever pick up the sandstone drake mount, I may use it; I also just picked up the raptor mount on one toon and so I’m still kind of enjoying all of them. I’ll probably get the mammoth for raid assist, but I’ve cut back on raiding lately (plus most raiding is in Firelands, where the repairs are done up front), so I’m not feeling it strongly. So….maybe later, when I get bored with my newest mounts. But I’m not really a mount or pet person, so I’m not sweating either.

Most likely, I’ll keep both my mains up to date on BOEs when 4.3 drops, and I may get around to eventually gearing my other two 85s…or not. If I could buy BOAs with gold, I’d so be there….

If you were the professor of a gold making 101 college class, what would be some things you would talk about?

Opportunity cost. The whole concept of “I got the mats for free” makes me insane. People, in life and out, don’t seem to understand what they are giving up, whether it is potential gold earned or time. Every time someone in my guild says they are transmuting truegold, while the mats cost more than the bar, I want to smack my head into a wall. I posted something on OC in my guild’s forums but I have little hope.

Efficiency. I’m a big proponent of maximizing this IRL, and the same way in game. The more tasks you can gather to do at once, the better. I always prospect my ore when I have more than a thousand ore to prospect. Since I have gems stockpiled anyway, it’s rare that I’m desperate for new ones.

Stockpiling. Or, buy low, sell high. My stockpile is…probably insane. And I honestly need a better method of storing it than the mailbox method currently being used (a more EFFICIENT method, lol). At the moment, I have over a thousand volatile life bought from the AH, spread over my two alchs, my LW, my BS/tailor, and my scribe.

Educate yourself. Read gold blogs, google your heart out, make use of tools like TUJ, Wowhead, and addons. Know what it is that you need to learn, and then go about learning it. (For instance, I *know* that I need to learn more about glyphs and engineering; I’ve identified it. I just need to sit down and learn how to succeed in those markets.)

How about an advanced gold making class?

Do one thing and do it well. Then do the next.

I honestly haven’t been good at that, I get spread thin, but that’s when my goldmaking slows down. Keep your focus on one market ’til you know it well, then move on to the next. But at the same time, it doesn’t hurt to broadly dip your toes in all of them, just know you won’t maximize your profits.

Never stop learning. The day you stop (in or out of WoW or goldmaking) is the day you stagnate and regress.

Know what the value of your time is to you. But remember that it isn’t always a hard value. Factor in enjoyment. If you like farming, then do it. I hate it, but I know some people find it relaxing. If you like raiding, do it. It may not net you gold, but it isn’t always about hard numbers.

Patience. If someone is dragging the market down but you know it will go back up, and you don’t *need* the gold, then wait for it to go up. (Or aggressively go after them, one or the other.)

Have fun!

Do you have any good farming strategies or spots?

I don’t farm. But when I did, I loved Carbonite. I think it was the numbers person in me; for some reason, I get a huge kick out of following the path the addon lays out. I would say, keep a farming toon. You never know when the market will come back. I’m in the process of leveling a druid with mining/herbing. The first two hours Cata dropped, I was mining. I listed the ore for something like 75 g each. I made 15k in the first two hours. It was awesome. There have been times when I’ve looked at herb prices and wished I still had my flower picker. It’s rare. Every once in awhile, I take my leatherworker out to skin. I did the Molten Front dailies every day for the first month on her, and loved the Shadow Wardens for skinning.

What was the best deal you ever came across?

The Molten Front patterns. The first three days, I sold four pieces for 25k each; they cost me less than 5k to make.

In terms of flipping – when they stealth nerfed the epic recipe drop in Firelands, I picked several recipes up off the AH for 5k the first few hours that I flipped later for 10-15k each.

Picked up a Theck’s Emberseal for 15k – actually two of them. Sold one for 33k. Forced myself to wear the other one on my tank. It was hard.

I can’t remember any large deals further back.

Do you remember any of your worst deals?

I tried flipping living embers at one point and was lucky to get out even. Thankfully I didn’t lose any money.

At one point, I tried to control the netherweave bag market. I bought all of the cloth for a two week period of time. I think it was coming out of my ears. I was controlling it, I don’t think I lost any gold, but…it was close. And I now hate netherweave.

I don’t think I’ve had any other seriously bad deals go down.

What are your future plans with WoW?

To reach a million! To continue raiding. And to lay back and spend more time with my kids. I’m not sure how well these will all work out together though….

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

Since I’m a Wrath baby, it’s been interesting for me to watch how things unfold over a new expansion, and to compare it to what I knew in the past. I think epic gems will be interesting to watch, although I hate how the stacking of gems seems to have brought more sellers into the marketplace – but gems were always pretty popular.

I don’t really have any predictions. But I know that the people who keep themselves informed and are proactive tend to be the ones who come out ahead.

Please tell us a little bit about how you handle your real life finances. What are the differences and similarities with how you do things in WoW?

I am debt free; I paid off my credit cards and student loans a few years back (I’m in my early early 30s) and haven’t taken out any loans since. I buy things when they are a good deal, if they have a long shelf life. In the past, when I was willing to put the time into it (pre-wow), I was an avid couponer, so I really learned how to stockpile from there (what? a four pack of tp for .75? /buys 100 packs. What? brand-name cereal for .50/box? /buys 100 boxes.) I paid cash for my car.

Unlike WoW, I don’t have a high income; I’m a single mom who works from home. But as I do when goldmaking, I think outside of the box. If I have a problem IRL, I figure out a creative solution to it, sometimes not the obvious one. I have always been an avid reader and someone who loves to learn, which has helped me when it comes to making gold.

I’ve considered starting my own business, and done ample reading on the subject. Some of that – learning concepts like opportunity cost and efficiency – have helped me in making gold.

I suggest ‘The 90 Minute Hour,’ ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad,’ ‘The Total Money Makeover,’ and ‘Guerrilla Marketing’ to anyone, when it comes to finances. Much of what they teach about real life is applicable to WoW – but the RL skills are, IMO, even more important.

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for Warcraft Econ. Do you have any last words?

Never stop learning. Knowledge is power.

Related posts:

1. Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Locavore of Uldum-US
2. Hall of Fame – 500K Gold Club: Prfct of Quel’Thalas-US
3. Hall of Fame – 2 Million Gold Club: Sovash of Korgath-US
4. Hall of Fame – 2 Million Gold Club: Elmenog of Bronzebeard-EU
5. Hall of Fame – 250K Gold Club: Ryankam of Drak’Thul-US

Danielle Elizabeth of Trade Chat has created a video that covers WoW patch 5.0, also known as the next WoW expansion: Mists of Pandaria. This is for those who like to get their information through a video rather than walls of text. She is also responsible for the video that features gold tips from some of our Hall of Fame interviews back when the gold cap was 214k.

Follow @TradeChat on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Video: Trade Chat Talks About New WoW Patch 4.3 News
2. Video: Trade Chat Talks About New WoW Patch 4.3 News, Transmogrification, and Void Storage
3. Videos: Trade Chat Talks About 4.2 Changes
4. Video: Trade Chat Covers WoW Patch 4.3 and the Diablo 3 Auction House
5. WoW Patch 5.0 – Mists of Pandaria Release Date and Information From Blizzcon