Friday, December 21, 2007

WoW AH Flipping For The Beginner

So you're looking for a way to get your feet wet into this whole "flipping" business, but you worked pretty hard for your coin. Heck, you didn't grind Westfall sans quests for six hours because it was "fun." How many Gnolls do you have to kill to get that Sentry Cloak anyway?

Um, a lot.

And it's depressing you. And if you loose any of this coin you won't get a good night sleep for at least another week. And you'll definitely stop reading this blog, which wasn't much good anyway.

The good news is I think we can ease you into this gradually. The bad news is that if your playing habits are anything like mine your sleeping habits are hosed for,um, the foreseeable future.

OK, let's get started and make that money work for you. We'll also play it as safe as you can play it without buying Ironforge Treasury Bonds. We'll focus on the items that have some of the highest demand and highest supply. This keeps the prices pretty stable with a lot of willing buyers. I'm talking about cloth - Linen, Wool, Silk, Mageweave and Runecloth.

There are others but these are all movers and also provide a variation in how much each will cost you to flip. Another plus is that these mats are included in a LOT of profession and skill recipes. Plus I'm sure you understand these markets pretty well because you've got them from drops, sold them and probably used them leveling up professions and First Aid.

(for those of you who said "First Aid?" I'll pretend I didn't hear that and recommend you RUN to the nearest guard, find a trainer and level, level, level that skill up).

To get an idea of the volume of these four items, here's today's pull from the AH on Exodar.



You'll note that these five items represent five of the Top 6 items by auction volume. You can play around with these until you get the hang of it. Now markets can change, and I've seen some cloth dry up, but it's rare that it's drastic.

OK, time to fire up Auctioneer and hunt for bargains. First a quick look at Linen Cloth and I'm using Auctioneer Advanced for this one. After doing a quick search and here's what pops up...



Looking at the buyouts here there are three auctions, totalling 52 linen cloth, that are priced between 30%-38% of their value. If you flip these three you should be able to clear somewhere around 50 silver. OK, nothing to brag to the other guys and gals in battle grounds about but you did want to start on the safe side.

Want to earn a little more? Let's look at Wool Cloth...



We can turn a couple of these into a couple gold pieces just by buying them, running to your mailbox and running back to the AH. And so on up the chain of cloth items.

Not bad. So give this a go for a while to get the feel for it and leave the gnolls alone.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey cool, I was a bit scared to start -flipping? is that the term?-'cause I'm Scrooge and hate to see gold slip away. But that sounds reasonably safe.

Og said...

Having a mild case of the jitters is normal. I just don't want you to break out in cold sweats and a case of the shakes.

Put aside a little coin that you'll use just for flipping. When starting out it can be 10s, 1g or whatever you are comfortable with. Use the profits you make from your successful flips to build that kitty.

The key is to buy things for resale that are items you understand the market for. That is you know that it will sell, what the turn around is and what the prices are in general.

You can also try combing for either Clam Meat, Tangy Clam Meat or White Spider Meat at low prices - somewhere around 5s, or less, a piece. Then post them for anywhere between 15s and 25s buyout. Don't worry if everyone else is posting them for less and there's a lot of them listed. Post them for 48 hours and eventually it will dry up. As I mentioned in an early post there are always buyers who will snatch these up to level their cooking.

Have fun and let me know how you do.

Anonymous said...

I just rolled on a server where I don't know anyone, so I'm starting from scratch. I was wondering how many scans would be necessary before auctioneer can be "safely" accurate to reflect the market.

One thing I have notice the first day (i.e. today) is that there are very few bags on AH, and that made me wonder if it's worth training tailoring just for those.

I just found this blog but you have a new faithful reader ;)

Mhur - Sporeggar EU

Og said...

Mhur - Great questions. The first one was so good that I created a post about it...http://ogsledger.blogspot.com/2007/12/ask-og-how-many-scans-does-auctioneer.html.

On your second question on containers, once you get the hang of flipping you'll find that there's no need to pick professions on the basis of generating gold. You won't need it. You'll be able to generate more coin through flips in a day than you can from anything produced by a profession. I'm talking profit. Those items created by professions need mats so the price of those (either in time through farming or gold through buying) eat into your profits.

The great thing about being able to generate gold from the AH is that you can choose the profession you really want instead of one strictly for income.

Sellia said...

I must admit that I'm a little bit lost when using the new Auctioneer Advanced. Do you think you could make a post that ?

Thanks in advance !

Great blog btw ! =)

Og said...

You bet! An Auctioneer Advanced basics post is definitely due. There's A LOT of stuff you can do with it and much different than the Classic version (what they're calling the original add on).

Thanks for the good suggestion.

cas said...

Thanks a lot. I started playing a few days ago and I find it very helpfull.