Ok, so this post will be a bit off-the-wall, and I'm hoping more to generate comments than anything else. The gold blog community is awash in amazing posts right now with detailed lists on items to stockpile, items to dump, items to flip, and items to avoid. I can't say it enough, that's awesome. I would not describe my forte as being able to track down or even analyze item-related trends. I don't have the time or focus.
However, something that I've been mulling for a while and has been recently quasi-confirmed, is how the future of true WoW profit will arise. To somewhat cartoon it a bit, I think there are three main levels within the WoW economy:
Commodities or "origination"
This is the bread and butter of trade in WoW. Ore, leather, etc. Ok, we all get that. You originate the materials.
Value add items
This is the second tier of production, where a commodity is modified to add value. Cutting a raw gem is a fine example, or crafting blacksmithing items. If the commodity business is the bread and butter, this is the meat and potatoes (geesh, sorry, I'm writing this while Horde is finishing another lopsided loss in Wintergrasp). No explanation needed, really.
Derivative profiteering
Most auctioneers fall into this category, on a small scale. Identify disequilibrium, profit, etc. No lecture needed for this part. HOWEVER, here's where it gets interesting. For a few months now, I've wondered when someone would string it all together and try to run an actual business in WoW. This is a truly derivative activity, and I'm not aware of it being done yet. It could take the form of insurance/annuities, or even basic savings/investment management (i.e., some poor soul who doesn't like to farm and is afraid of the AH gives you his hard earned 1k gold and you agree to pay interest on it or invest it and take a cut of the profit). The issues of collateral and counterparty risk are significant enough that I can see why this isn't common. I have read a few blurbs about it existing in another online game, but again I don't have time to research it and I'm not sure if it's an apples to apples comparison.
When I saw a post on another blog highlighting a new pay-based "remote auction house bot" that allows you to use the remote AH to buy/flip items, I thought two things: "uh oh" and "oh boy." I do not use this addon, nor can I see myself doing so. However, I think this is a watershed event. The program itself turns AHers into, essentially, day traders. Granted, the 200/day post limit is still hard-wired by Blizz, but I hope the significance of this is apparent...
Anyhow, I don't have any answers, and as stated originally I view this post as one long question. The comments I've received on this blog so far have been insightful and intelligent, so how do YOU feel about these developments? Where is WoW heading re: finance? Are there any true banks in WoW that you know of, and if not how long will it be?
Showing posts with label addons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label addons. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Addons in 4.0.1, my initial patch postmortem, and tips going forward
Addons in 4.0.1
With a hectic real life schedule, and general post-patch chaos of the past few days, I haven't spent much time in-game other than to capitalize on "M&S"* (as Gevlon would say). That said, I have made a few adjustments to my addons in 4.0.1.
First, Auctioneer is out. I've used this addon for years, but it's just too bloated and too large. It's a huge memory hog, and I have performance issues as it is. Most of the features don't even qualify as bells and whistles, so I've finally cut the cord. I'll miss BeanCounter, but that's about it.
Second, ZeroAuctions and Auctionator are in. Well, to be fair, I've used QuickAuctions3 -- and ZA is the functional replacement for it -- along with Auctionator for quite some time, but mostly as a supplement. They are now my primary gold-making addons.
4.0.1 Postmortem
So, how did 4.0.1 go? Well, as with many others in the gold-making blogosphere (ugh, I do hate that term, why do I use it?), I made an absolute killing. My scribe doesn't have much of a knowledge set, and I didn't go crazy stocking up on herbs, but between pumping out Bold Cardinal Rubies and all of the glyphs I could, I've made about 30k the past few days. I know that pales in comparison to others, who have reported 50k+ in one day's worth of sales alone, but in my own little corner of the world I'm happy with this.
Tips for the coming week
Although my primary purpose in this blog is to present theoretical and strategic approaches to WoW profiteering (again, I will never purport to be a master of finding little tricks and flash-in-the-pan techniques), I understand that if I'm to expand my reader base I need to offer concrete suggestions. So, with that in mind, there a few areas in which I anticipate a surge:
Herbs - highly speculative, but I suspect the latecomers looked at glyphs and went "hmmm, time to crank those out!" So now they're buying up anything and everything...without realizing that glyph prices are crashing. If you have a stockpile and can get good prices, sell the herbs. Or farm them, depending on prices on your server. In general I steer away from farming, but there could be some niche opportunities
Enchants - with players returning to test out new talents and abilities, along with preparing for Cataclysm, I've seen a boost in demand for all sorts of enchants. The good news is that the underlying materials are still cheap, especially if auctioneers stocked up on eternals assuming the gem transmute cooldown was being removed (take that, everybody), so if you have a jewelcrafter just crank out rings/necklaces and disenchant them. You'll have cheap mats that you can turn into scrolls to sell. Dream shards and abyss crystals are still cheap as well, and I've found high end weapon enchants are still moving.
Meta gems and nightmare tears - I am shorting (i.e., expecting a decrease) in epic gems, so am trying to cash in while I can. However, meta gems and nightmare tears have been flying off the shelves. I suspect it's related to players returning and also reconfiguring their gear.
Hope this was a useful post. If it was -- or more importantly, if it wasn't -- please add a comment so I can work on improving.
Happy Hunting!
-Quaaid
*Just to save you the Google trouble, Gevlon is a prickly but entertaining blogger who runs the Greedy Goblin. You can see his blog linked via my site, but M&S stands for "morons & slackers." In this context, those who waited until Tuesday to address 4.0.1 needs in regards to gems, glyphs, etc.
With a hectic real life schedule, and general post-patch chaos of the past few days, I haven't spent much time in-game other than to capitalize on "M&S"* (as Gevlon would say). That said, I have made a few adjustments to my addons in 4.0.1.
First, Auctioneer is out. I've used this addon for years, but it's just too bloated and too large. It's a huge memory hog, and I have performance issues as it is. Most of the features don't even qualify as bells and whistles, so I've finally cut the cord. I'll miss BeanCounter, but that's about it.
Second, ZeroAuctions and Auctionator are in. Well, to be fair, I've used QuickAuctions3 -- and ZA is the functional replacement for it -- along with Auctionator for quite some time, but mostly as a supplement. They are now my primary gold-making addons.
4.0.1 Postmortem
So, how did 4.0.1 go? Well, as with many others in the gold-making blogosphere (ugh, I do hate that term, why do I use it?), I made an absolute killing. My scribe doesn't have much of a knowledge set, and I didn't go crazy stocking up on herbs, but between pumping out Bold Cardinal Rubies and all of the glyphs I could, I've made about 30k the past few days. I know that pales in comparison to others, who have reported 50k+ in one day's worth of sales alone, but in my own little corner of the world I'm happy with this.
Tips for the coming week
Although my primary purpose in this blog is to present theoretical and strategic approaches to WoW profiteering (again, I will never purport to be a master of finding little tricks and flash-in-the-pan techniques), I understand that if I'm to expand my reader base I need to offer concrete suggestions. So, with that in mind, there a few areas in which I anticipate a surge:
Herbs - highly speculative, but I suspect the latecomers looked at glyphs and went "hmmm, time to crank those out!" So now they're buying up anything and everything...without realizing that glyph prices are crashing. If you have a stockpile and can get good prices, sell the herbs. Or farm them, depending on prices on your server. In general I steer away from farming, but there could be some niche opportunities
Enchants - with players returning to test out new talents and abilities, along with preparing for Cataclysm, I've seen a boost in demand for all sorts of enchants. The good news is that the underlying materials are still cheap, especially if auctioneers stocked up on eternals assuming the gem transmute cooldown was being removed (take that, everybody), so if you have a jewelcrafter just crank out rings/necklaces and disenchant them. You'll have cheap mats that you can turn into scrolls to sell. Dream shards and abyss crystals are still cheap as well, and I've found high end weapon enchants are still moving.
Meta gems and nightmare tears - I am shorting (i.e., expecting a decrease) in epic gems, so am trying to cash in while I can. However, meta gems and nightmare tears have been flying off the shelves. I suspect it's related to players returning and also reconfiguring their gear.
Hope this was a useful post. If it was -- or more importantly, if it wasn't -- please add a comment so I can work on improving.
Happy Hunting!
-Quaaid
*Just to save you the Google trouble, Gevlon is a prickly but entertaining blogger who runs the Greedy Goblin. You can see his blog linked via my site, but M&S stands for "morons & slackers." In this context, those who waited until Tuesday to address 4.0.1 needs in regards to gems, glyphs, etc.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Some basics
Although these topics have been covered in greater depth (and quality) elsewhere, here's a very brief overview of some basics as I get the ball rolling on The Real Quaaid.
Addons
Probably the single most important factor in streamlining gold making is the use of addons. I'm not particularly adept at such matters, but the following are extremely useful (if not quite mandatory):
Auctioneer
QuickAuctions 3
Altoholic
Postal
LilSparky's Workshop
Links
Just my two copper - this site, and its forums, are the impetus for this blog. Fascinating posts, good insight, and an extremely intelligent community.
Phase 3 Profit - Frequently updated, with some good tips and overall good flow.
Greedy Goblin - not an egalitarian bone in this guy's body, I love the pithy tone.
Strategies
It cannot be said often enough, "time is money, friend." The one thing I loathe about many gold capped bloggers is how they reference doing AH scans multiple times a day, posting/reposting, and crafting for hours. My attitude is, get in, do your crafting/posting efficiently and with a minimum of frequency possible, and get out. I post auctions once a day -- if that -- and do batch crafting maybe once a week, and for some items less frequently than that. Bragging about being gold capped is fruitless when it's a part-time job.
In other words, work smarter and not harder.
How not to do it:
Spamming trade must be the greatest detriment to profiteering possible. If you spam trade like these players below, you'll never get anywhere...it's fighting for tips, which is basically no margin, and your competition is in plain sight. I generally ignore trade channel, except to sometimes find tailors, leatherworkers, etc. (professions I don't have access to) to craft items. I'll buy the mats on the AH, tip them 10g for a combine, and post the finished product on the AH...usually with at least 50% margin. That could've been theirs.
Volume vs. margin
A legitimate, healthy debate can be had between those who prefer quantity (i.e., a high volume of sales at ostensibly low margins) versus quality (i.e., infrequent sales at much higher margins). I was formerly in the latter camp, but have come around a bit to the former. I still think the middle ground is the best approach, as you can't get by on high frequency sales with razor thin margins and expect much net success. I don't have any rock solid answers to this question, but wanted to post it for consideration.
Addons
Probably the single most important factor in streamlining gold making is the use of addons. I'm not particularly adept at such matters, but the following are extremely useful (if not quite mandatory):
Auctioneer
QuickAuctions 3
Altoholic
Postal
LilSparky's Workshop
Links
Just my two copper - this site, and its forums, are the impetus for this blog. Fascinating posts, good insight, and an extremely intelligent community.
Phase 3 Profit - Frequently updated, with some good tips and overall good flow.
Greedy Goblin - not an egalitarian bone in this guy's body, I love the pithy tone.
Strategies
It cannot be said often enough, "time is money, friend." The one thing I loathe about many gold capped bloggers is how they reference doing AH scans multiple times a day, posting/reposting, and crafting for hours. My attitude is, get in, do your crafting/posting efficiently and with a minimum of frequency possible, and get out. I post auctions once a day -- if that -- and do batch crafting maybe once a week, and for some items less frequently than that. Bragging about being gold capped is fruitless when it's a part-time job.
In other words, work smarter and not harder.
How not to do it:
Spamming trade must be the greatest detriment to profiteering possible. If you spam trade like these players below, you'll never get anywhere...it's fighting for tips, which is basically no margin, and your competition is in plain sight. I generally ignore trade channel, except to sometimes find tailors, leatherworkers, etc. (professions I don't have access to) to craft items. I'll buy the mats on the AH, tip them 10g for a combine, and post the finished product on the AH...usually with at least 50% margin. That could've been theirs.
Volume vs. margin
A legitimate, healthy debate can be had between those who prefer quantity (i.e., a high volume of sales at ostensibly low margins) versus quality (i.e., infrequent sales at much higher margins). I was formerly in the latter camp, but have come around a bit to the former. I still think the middle ground is the best approach, as you can't get by on high frequency sales with razor thin margins and expect much net success. I don't have any rock solid answers to this question, but wanted to post it for consideration.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)