Saturday, January 26, 2008

Rags To Riches In WoW - Horde Style: Day 4

By the time my mage wrapped up with the calmer side of Day 3 (as opposed to the mild nervous breakdown part of Day 3) I was nearly level 10. That's a fun level to hit because you get to spend the very first talent point. It's also a bit anti-climatic since you realize that that one talent point has very little impact on combat.

But that's OK because she's taking names and kicking tooshie. I feel I'm actually playing the class the right way. There's no down time between mobs. Frost Bolt, Fireball, Fireball, wand, kite, wand and wand. Repeat as necessary. Ages ago, with my very first mage (the one with the twitch), I'd down a couple gallons of liquid every other fight. Slow going that method. Especially when factoring in bathroom breaks.

What's that?

Oh right, right - the Auction House (AH). Of course I should "get on with friggin Auction House stuff already." Thanks for the reminder.

Mage-hater.

Alrighty then, let's dig in. Logging in this morning before heading to work I have page after page of Auction Successful messages in my mailbox...



Once I'm done collecting all my coin I'm sitting pretty with 11.43 gold...



...much better than yesterday morning. If you remember the last part of Day 3's second post I mentioned I had 45 gold in posted auctions. So why only 11-ish gold this AM? Well I wrap much of my posting up right before bed so there hasn't been much time between then and now. Also, most of people who are potential buyers probably won't be on till this evening.

Patience is key. With the AH what's important is calendar time (real world), not game time (how long you've been logged in and playing).

OK, a few things are picked up for a couple gold and posted. Now Og has to go to work...

When I log back in later in the evening I find that many other Auctions have sold. Once all the cash has been collected I'm sitting pretty at about 23 gold.



If you've been following this series you know the drill already. Scan using Auctioneer Classic, search for bargains, snap up the deals, post and quest. Here are a few snapshots from my searches...



...and...



By the time I log off for the evening here's a summary of what I've bought and sold that's new. The # in parenthesis is the number of items. The number before the slash (/) is the buyout for all and the number after is what I posted it for (total).

Adamantite Ore (x6) 3.60g/6.67g
Arthas' Tears (x2) 0.46g/0.82g
Bard's Trousers (x1) 0.10g/1.16g
Briarthorn (x7) 1.70g/2.71g
Citrine (x2) 0.64g/1.64g
Deviate Scale Gloves (x1) 0.43g/0.37g 1.67g <--Updated
Fel Iron Ore (x6) 2.40g/3.56g
Gold Bar (x2) 0.45g/1.76g
Greater Healing Potion (x5) 1.00g/1.79g
Greater Mystic Essence (x5) 1.56g/4.03g
Gromsblood (x5) 1.40g/3.16g
Healing Potion (x4) 1.00g/1.33g
Khadgar's Whisker (x20) 1.00g/2.11g
Lesser Moonstone (x3) 1.00g/2.57g
Mageweave Cloth (x19) 1.10g/3.34g
Medium Armor Kit (x12) 0.96g/2.25g
Moss Agate (x1) 0.50g/1.39g
Pattern: Dark Leather Shoulders (x1) 0.10g/1.24g
Plans: Jade Serpentblade (x1) 0.39g/1.35g
Raider's Chestpiece (x1) 0.30g/0.86g
Rumsey Rum Black Label (x6) 0.05g/1.65g
Scroll of Strength III (x1) 0.03g/0.40g
Silk Cloth (x20) 0.53g/0.91g
Silver Bar (x4) 0.50g/3.16g
Small Lustrous Pearl (x2) 0.08g/0.80g
Soldier's Wristguards (x1) 0.10g/0.60g
Strange Dust (x100) 1.00g/7.76g
Superior Mana Potion (x2) 0.88g/1.24g
Swiftthistle (x20) 1.02g/3.20g
Truesilver Rod (x1) 1.25g/3.14g
Wintersbite (x27) 5.00g/14.21g
Wool Cloth (x10) 0.16g/1.13g

Total Cost of Buyouts: 30.69g
Total Of New Auctions Posted: 82.3g

...things are going well.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Og,

Good going. My start over on the Horde side is going pretty well too. Im actually on day 4 or so of flipping, just worked out that I was unintentionally mirroring you. I am about 10g behind you right now. I think that the reason is that this server that I am on now has a much higher population now then my previous server, which tends to make the good deals a little harder find and reduces volatility (a flipper's friend to be sure.) KEep up the good work. Still waiting on yoru Btmscan post. ;)

Unknown said...

With the recent Search Auction trouble, I've installed the same version as you 2616, delete the scan data, and did a scan. Lo and behold, it works now, though I do get an error about the ui after the scan, but I can live with that. So, my question, now that I have to load the DB from scratch, how many scans do you think is the minimum needed, before you can start looking for bargains ?

Oh! And keep up the good work, I thoroughly enjoy reading your blog.

SuperCasual said...

No,

I dont know what Og recommends but I Feel that a week of scanning twice a day, e.g., morning and night, is sufficient.

Og said...

Chris - Keep me updated on how you do and gl with it. I find that more volume markets make the formulaic approach more effective. With light activity it takes a little more market know-how and some risk taking.

And I go to sleep dreaming about the BottomScanner posts. It's coming.

Soon-ish.

No - WooHoo! Glad you're back in business. I think you might find this post answers your question...http://ogsledger.blogspot.com/2007/12/ask-og-how-many-scans-does-auctioneer.html.

VolturesRow - Thanks for the adds to the discussion. Twice a day is awesome. Those that aren't able to do scans that often should be relieved to know that once each day they log in should be just fine.

Anonymous said...

Og,

BTW, Chris=vulturesrow, I hit the wrong radio button on my second post.

Anyhow, on my old toon, I got very knowledgeable about the market for twink gear. Lots of money to be made there. Maybe a future article? I'll even contribute to it if youd like. RL work keeps me pretty busy but I could make some time to help.

I totally agree with you that more mature servers make a formulaic approach much more reliable. So far some of that is just because I dont really have the funds yet to finance a big profit flip. I saw an item on the AH tonight that was so underpriced I wanted to cry because I couldnt afford it. Of course some of it is just luck of the draw too.

One thing I wanted to point out to your readers that I wasnt sure if you had brought up yet. Funnily enough, I did find some comments about this on the mmo Auctioneer site. Be careful of tying your money up in bids. Basically, dont bother unless there is very little time yet. Your either going to get bought out or outbid and you've tied up money for nothing.

Enough stream of consciousness commenting for now, keep up the good work Og!!

Unknown said...

I've played for a long time, and really only used Auctioneer to tell me the prices of things to put up for auction. I've always ignored the call of the epic flying mount, but that call is getting strong, very strong, so I've decided to try go for it. At this point in time I have about 2000g on my AH mule, and I'm thinking of trying to flip that to 5000g for the flyer. I'm just very nervous on how to go about this. Maybe your next project can be 1000g to 5000g ? :) Going to build up the scan data this week, then next week see where I stand, and try decide how to do this. I'm not sure if I should try flip epics (ouch don't want to get burned) or try it with rares and small amounts. I apologise if this is not the right place for this discussion.

Og said...

Chris - Lots of good advice in that comment. I make a lot of gold on twink gear and it's definitely in the queue for an upcoming post. If you feel up to the challenge, go ahead and write something up. E-mail it to me with some screenshots. I'll sprinkle on some Og Dust and *poof* - more good info for the masses.

More right-ness on the luck factor. You make your own by looking for them and there's always going to be another one.

I agree on the bids advice. Bids are good once you get a lot of gold in your pocket and your having trouble spending it all on buyouts. Even still, I only bid on things that have 2 hours or less to go. However, if you are still building up your bankroll buyouts are the way to go.

Og said...

No - Go for the mount! You'll definitely want to change your color choice to be blues and purples for flips. I started writing about this with Day 5 of the R2R series, and will be putting more on this topic going forward.

And any place is a good place to put these comments. I read 'em all.

Thanks for all the comments.