I will fully admit that most of my WoW time is based on one goal (given that I haven't raided for months, PvP is dead, and everything else is stale pre-Cata), and that is to hit the gold cap. I'm making a final push at the worst possible time. I tried half as hard a few months ago and made gold easily, but now I'm refining my thought process and strategies just to eek out the final 45k or so I need.
Ultimately, this is highly beneficial. I inadvertently discovered the saronite shuffle at the beginning of LK and didn't have the common sense to ride that as long as I could. I got in, made a ton of gold, bought my mammoth, and got out more or less. I tapped the market as needed, but was content to hover around 20k to 30k gold as needed. It's really only the past six months I've made a passive (and now aggressive) goal to gold cap before Cata.
That said, margins are low and volume is down. I have a few relative cash cows, but am steadfast is my desire not to fire sale. I think that approach is wrong, and I'm willing to fall short of my goal in order to be better set for Cata and beyond.
Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
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)