Rags To Riches - Horde Style: Day 7 (Woot!) And Day 8 (For Good Measure)

I have a pretty good feeling going into today. Towards the middle of Day 6 I hit 72 gold. That was after I already posted a few things in the Auction House (so I had some new funds coming to me) and I used up nearly the rest of that coin to grab some great deals.

Time to visit my best friend, the mailbox. Before I grab my mail I'm at 4 gold.



Once all the cash is scooped up I'm feeling rather proud of myself with 98 gold.



And I still have a number of auctions sitting out there. Some are blues. Since it's still early in the evening I expect some additional action from my existing auctions. Plus I have nearly 100 gold in my pocket so I'll be able to grab some higher ticket deals.

As you can see from the screenshot up there, I'm already looking for bargains. I wrap that up quickly and head off to beat up some undead in The Scar. While I'm out gallivanting I noticed that my stuff is selling. Oh happy days.

Later that evening I wind up in a familiar spot in Silvermoon. Time to grab whatever is in the mailbox before making my final flips of the evening.



And after mail...wOOhOOt! 141 gold.



/cheer
/dance really badly

At this point I've shot over a couple of my goals already (as flimsy as they were). I have more than 100 gold in my pockets and I've gotten some nice things for myself along the way for my fearless level 13 mage. While I'm not wearing gear hand-me-downs, it's time to look for some bling.

Just no teeth grillz.

/shudder

Tip: since you are now an uber-savvy shopper in the AH, use the same strategy to get yourself the best gear by not being shortsighted. Do yourself a favor and look for gear before you can use it (or need it). I always tend to look for gear and weapons up to four levels higher than where I am at the moment. This allows me to get the best deals on my own gear and snap up rare pieces that might not sit around in the AH long. This is a perk with having a nice bankroll.

Before I look for me though I see something I must buy - The Butcher. This is one of my favorite deals. The sword is a good twink item for the 20-29 brack of battlegrounds, looks great and always fetches good money at the AH.

Auctioneer Advance (AA) tells me this is near the market value already. I'm thinking I can get more.

/snatch

Now something nice for little 'ol me: Skycaller.



Something to look forward to when I hit 16...yay me!

Time to do some more bargain hunting. More goodies for Og. Some examples...



...and...



Time to post my auctions and hit the hay. Here's what I bought and what I posted it for. Notice how much smaller my list is now that I'm mixing in blues into the mix - bigger investments, same margins, bigger payouts and less auctions to post (can it get any better?).

As always, the price before the slash is the purchase price and after is the posted price. Changes in stack size are noted (i.e. I may not put all items in the AH if I think the market is saturated).

Ancient Lichen (x19) 10.00g/4.22 <-- Posted 4
Bearded Boneaxe (x1) 3.82g/23.86
Briarthorn (x29) 0.43g/8.60g
Ironweb Spider Silk (x2) 2.00g/3.21g
Khorium Ore (x3) 3.80g/7.61g
Mask of Veiled Death (x1) 45.00g/88.34g
Rugged Armor Kit (x2) 0.66g/2.06g
Skibi's Pendant (x1) 15.00g/27.26g
Small Radiant Shard (x1) 4.87g/6.98g
Swiftthistle (x8) 0.51g/1.74g
The Butcher (x1) 40.00g/89.04g

/sleep
/hit snooze for 10th time
/drink pot of coffee

Log in on the morning of Day 8 and wooHoo! 182 gold. And just when I don't think it can get any better take a look at what pops up during my AH search...



Magefist Gloves for 90 silver! Silver! These will look real nice with my shiny blue wand.

/grin

And at this point I think this rags to riches story is a success. Hopefully in this series you can see how a little bit of coin combined with following some fairly basic steps can get you pockets full of gold.

That's a wrap.

Blogger Hates Me

I don't know what I did, or what I said, but Blogger is definitely mad at me. I try saying I'm sorry, but then I get the stealth bomb question "Sorry about what?" I don't know, and if I say that then Blogger will know I don't mean it or don't care or whatever.

/sulk

If you see goofy things going on with posts or this blog it's my punishment being delt to me. I'm probably going to have to do some form of corporal mortification to make amends.

/whimper

Minor House Cleaning

If you notice some format changing on the it's from a little house cleaning. You can expect a bit more tidying up so don't freak out if the site changes on you.

Don't come a runnin' to my site if you're grabbing this from a reader. It's still plain-Jane Og's Ledger design. If there's an award for most aesthetically boring WoW blog site, this is your blog!

Added another four gold selling domains to my AdSense ban list. It's like caching water with a strainer, but it's out of principle now.

Principle = Stubborn As A Mule

Fix The Funk - New Version Of Auctioneer Advanced And Classic

If you had problems with your Auctioneer Classic search functionality from the r2783 release of Auctioneer, there's good news from Team Norganna - there's a new version that fixes that problem.

You can read the release notes here and download here.

If you do decide to update your add-on, please read the release notes and back up your Auctioneer database files (just in case). These are the LUA files located under the WTF\Account\\SavedVariables directory off of your World of Warcraft directory.

Rags To Riches - Horde Style - Day 6 (Part Dos)

I really should put more time into my code that rips through BeanCounter data to make it just a wee bit easier for me to pull this info together. Here are the buys and posts (for those buys) on Day 6. For this one I actually have Wowhead linkage for each item.

/cheer
/procrastinate updating older posts with this functionality indefinitely

As always, the number before the slash is total buyout (in gold) and after is the total posted value (in gold). Changes in stack size are noted.

Cow King's Hide (x1) 6.00g/14.38g
Dreaming Glory (x4) 0.80g/3.66g
Girdle of Siege (x1) 17.60g/48.60g
Headdress of Inner Rage (x1) 15.50g/39.34g
Humbert's Helm (x1) 3.00g/23.73g
Knothide Armor Kit (x9) 13.00g/31.02g
Lesser Mystic Essence (x2) 0.46g/1.07g
Looming Gavel (x1) 2.00g/19.32g
Mote of Life (x10) 2.00g/9.09g
Ruby Crown of Restoration (x1) 10.00g/22.14g
Small Radiant Shard (x1) 4.87g/7.41g
Soul Essence (x9) 8.95g/28.87g
Swiftness Potion (x7) 1.40g/5.08g
Thick Leather (x40) 2.00g/4.16g
Warbringer's Sabatons of the Bear (x1) 5.00g/13.44g
White Smoke Flare (x20) 1.00g/2.00g <-- Stack of 10
Wool Cloth (x156) 7.33g/7.26g <-- Stacks totaling 63

A quick note on the White Smoke Flare - I have no freakin clue if I can do anything with these. No research was done. Actually I got these for fun. Had the idea of throwing them around Silvermoon for laughs on my way too and from the mailbox. But they didn't work for me.

/facepalm

I am such a noob.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I am having auctions fail on me. I have not noted those here because that's too much data to put in these pages. The basic strategy for failed auctions is:

• Make sure my price is slightly below market value.
  
• Check on market saturation. If so, post smaller stacks or hold.
  
• If no competition, determine if I bought something I didn't understand and cannot unload (i.e. scammed). If so, vendor-turf it or sell for next to nothing (always get some coin for your items).
  
• Post and post again (as long as deposit is not sucking profits from me in big chunks).
  

Hopefully I'll be able to do a little analysis on the repostings vs. successes and other fun things.

Rags To Riches - Horde Style: Day 6

I log in first thing in the morning to give a quick check on how things are going. I was very happy I ended Day 5 with a measly 60 silver in my pocket. Woot! That means that all my gold is working for me in the AH.



Grabbing all my mail I end up with nearly 40 gold. Failed to get the obligatory post-opening-all-my-mail-money-shot-in-front-of-mailbox screenshot, so this one with me looking for blue light specials will have to do.



Grabbed a few bargains before I head to work and then I'm out the door kissing Mrs. Og on my way out the door. I ask her to keep an eye on my auctions and pick up a few bargains while I'm gone for the day.

Mrs. Og gives me the I-am-so-not-amused-with-you-or-your-silly-game look. I take that as a "No."

When I login later in the evening I am one happy flipper.



The musket sold! I knew it would but my fingernails are a little shorter while waiting. By the time all the coin has been collected I've got about 72 gold in my pockets.



Time to do some shopping....



I wanted to show the above screen shot to give an example of what you may see occasionally if you are using both Auctioneer Advanced and Auctioneer Classic. Above we see a really good deal on some motes by using the Auctioneer Classic search feature. Like I always do, I do a quick browse on the item to see what the market is at the time of purchase. And I see this...



Notice anything? No, not you. You always raise your hand. Give someone else a chance.

Everyone else, take another look. I'll wait.

Still not seeing anything? On the second screenshot up there Auctioneer Advanced (AA) is showing these motes are priced at 20% of it's value. That translates into about an 8 gold profit. But on the Auctioneer Classic (AC) search results screen it's showing just a little over 4 gold as a profit. Different answers.

/gasp

AA and AC use different algorithms. I find that AA tends to be more on the mark with market pricing which means that any profit AC reports I can expect to be a little more. Usually they're both pretty close, but it's something to keep in mind.

Time to search for some blues. You'll see that I'm finding all kinds of great deals on these from the shots below. No luck on purples, but I'll be honest - I rarely find a good deal on purples. It's OK. I'm perfectly content with flipping blues, like these...



...and these...



...and this...


Hmmm? Oh no, you couldn't possibly have seen a BottomScanner window in that last screenshot.

/cast [Jedi Mind Trick]
/sigh

See, this is one of those things that irked me about how I tackled this series. At this point I started using BottomScanner to grab deals so I could use up the rest of my coin. It wasn't my primary tool. It just helped fill the holes.

What irks me is that I haven't written about that part of the Auctioneer Suite yet. And I don't want to take a break in the series to write a new series all about BottomScanner. Don't worry, the BottomScanner series is coming sometime after this one wraps up.

For now I just wanted to open the Kimino and put everything on the table.

/contemplate poor choice of visualization
/change subject

OK, now that my money is all gone, I'm going to keep leveling up my First Aid. Nothing like heading into Warsong Gulch with a 225 in First Aid. Woot!



I'll post the details of bought/posted later in a part deux to this series.

A Couple Corrections On Rags To Riches

There is one typo and a clarification that needs to be made on a couple of the Rags To Riches posts. Of course, Og never makes mistakes which means heads are gonna roll over in Editing.

Here are the corrections...

On Day 4

Deviate Scale Gloves - resale should be 1.67g (not 0.37g...gah!)

On Day 5

Thanks to some astute readers, some of the resale values for items seemed kinda low. And they're right...because I didn't put the whole stack back into the market. These are the items where I only placed a few back in the AH (which also means I'll have a small inventory to manage now)...


Brilliant Necklace x1
Citrine x2
Elemental Earth x1
Silver Bar x4
Small Glimmering Shard x4


...let me know if anyone else finds any other funny-ness in my posts. There are plenty of heads left in Marketing and Research that can take the fall for those.

Rags To Riches In WoW - Horde Style: Day 5

I'm now level 11, looking good (can you imagine an Orc with a plunging neckline? /shudder) and having fun. I'm on Day 5 of my rags to riches story. If you are just joining us, go ahead and click on the Rags To Riches category along the right side of this blog to get caught up.

I'm feeling pretty confident about my progress, though I still feel a bit hampered by an auction house that is more sluggish than the ones I'm used to on the Alliance side. No worries though. I will break through.

Logging on this evening I'm happy to see my mailbox fairly full.



Now, before I get to how much my auctions bring in, take a good look at the previous screenshot and let me know if you notice anything that irks you. OK, something that should irk you by this point of the series. Give up? I'll give you a hint: take a look at how much money I have.

2.59 gold! Why is that a big deal? Because that means that I couldn't spend all my coin. Ideally I should have barely enough to buy a Hordebucks Black Coffee. If that gold is in my pocket it's not working for me in the Auction House (AH). You need to spend to make.

Let's see if I can't remedy that problem. After collecting all my auctions I have 31 gold and change.



Off to the AH. After a scan and some purchases I still have waaaaay too much gold in my pocket so it's time to step it up a notch.

I'm going start performing a different kind of bargain hunting that is a little more advanced than what I've written about so far in this series. In fact I haven't written about it before in this blog.

I'm going to hunt for blues.

Like I mentioned earlier, a key principle in making money in the AH is to spend money. While profit margin percentages won't change much (the difference between what you bought it for and what you sell it for minus any fees) when shopping for blues, the amount you receive is much greater. With blues and purples you can focus on bigger ticket items and generate much more gold.

There is also more risk in this strategy. It's possible to put all your coin into just a few items. If you are attempting this strategy for the first time, I recommend using no more than half of the money you have set aside for the AH when shoping for Rares. That way if you make a mistake on a purchase (it will happen and that's OK when it does) you'll still have a cushion along with your regular gold flow.

My plan today is to search in the Weapons and Armor categories for items that are Rare or better and pick up the bargains. I'll be using the built-in searching that the AH interface provides out of the box along with the color-coding that Auctioneer Advanced (AA) uses to show how an item is priced compared to what it's market value is.

There's an added twist - I won't necessarily rely on what AA thinks the market value is when sizing up a potential item. Here's where market knowledge comes into play.

When I fire up the search I find a good target...



The Chesterfall Musket is a good twink item for hunters in battlegrounds. It's level requirement of 28 makes it next to the best rare gun you can get for the 20-29 bracket (with Ironweaver being the best). Since there are a fair number of players that stop when they hit the high end of a bracket for battlegrounds, people will spend more on a blue because the weapon/armor will be used for quite a while (and carry over into the first couple levels after they crest the bracket).

While AA is saying that this price is practically market value I don't buy it. On the Alliance side, in other realms, I've seen this go for somewhere in the 40's. Now, I don't know if there are a lot of hunters on the Horde side that use guns. From my battleground skirmishes when playing alliance it seemed like all the hunters I encountered where using bow and arrows.

But I do know that there are some hunters out there carrying some big iron. Because this AH sees lower activity overall my bet is that rares are tougher to come by as well. I don't think it will go for what I'm used to seeing, and I want to turn a profit quickly. So I grab it and post it for a little more than twice what I bought it for.



We'll see how well I do tomorrow. As for the other things I've picked up today, here's the list (number before slash is total purchase price and after is total posted value).

Aquamarine (x1) 0.40g/2.36g
Blue Sapphire (x1) 2.75g/4.94g
Brilliant Necklace (x3) 0.60g/0.94g <-- Stack of 1
Chesterfall Musket (x1) 15.00g/31.04g
Citrine (x4) 1.28g/1.39g <-- Stack of 2
Core of Earth (x1) 1.00g/5.46g
Dense Stone (x6) 0.36g/1.48g
Elemental Earth (x2) 0.41g/1.05g <-- Stack of 1
Heavy Hide (x10) 0.80g/2.90g
Heavy Stone (x40) 0.96g/3.30g
Knothide Leather (x20) 4.00g/11.41g
Lesser Eternal Essence (x2) 2.00g/5.97g
Long Elegant Feather (x5) 0.54g/2.40g
Mageweave Cloth (x40) 2.00g/4.30g
Primal Earth (x2) 5.00g/7.01g
Scroll of Protection (x2) 0.15g/1.25g
Silver Bar (x7) 2.25g/2.27g <-- Stack of 4
Silver Ore (x2) 0.95g/2.41g
Small Glimmering Shard (x11) 1.00g/0.78g <-- Stack of 4
Watcher's Cinch of Fiery Wrath (x1) 0.20g/1.20g
Wool Cloth (x27) 1.42g/3.06g

/cross fingers

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.

Update On Funked Search In Auctioneer Classic

There's a slew of activity over on the Auctioneer forums on the search problem in Auctioneer Classic. You can read through the nearly 50 comments (and growing) here.

Here's the short of it as I understand it:

1. If you use Auctioner Classic and haven't grabbed the most recent release of the Auctioneer suite (build 2778 and release a few days ago on 1/19) then don't! This bug was introduced with that release.
   
2. There is no fix yet, however there are some work arounds (keep reading)
   
3. The Auctioneer team is kicking into high drive on this and a solution is in the works
   
4. Have patience around this problem. The Auctioneer team is made up of volunteers and many have to work. They feel the pressure already.
   

If you are one of the unlucky ones that's having this problem, read through the thread. In some cases it looks like turning off BottomScanner will bring back the search results (a temporary fix for now).

Good luck. Hang in there. And give the Auctioneer developers your support. If you have something insightful, go post it on that forum I linked to above. If you don't, just show your support...like doing a cheer:

Here we go Auctioneer Team, here we go!
Here we go Auctioneer Team, here we go!

/shake pom poms
/jump off top of human pyramid

Is Your Auctioneer Classic Search Funky?

I've gotten a few comments that their searches in Auctioneer Classic (AC) aren't returning data. According to the forums (which are down), that you can get to from the Auctioneer home page (also down), I saw at least one post regarding this problem before the server gods dealt a crushing blow to their forums.

My version of AC is working fine (5.0.PRE.2616), but it's also the one from December. Just didn't have the time to upgrade yet.

So if anyone out there has this problem, please post a comment. If anyone knows what the problem is or, better yet, has a fix/workaround, post a comment or e-mail me and I'll help get the info out.

Circle the wagons

Rags To Riches In WoW - Horde Style: Day 3 (Part Deux)

This is the second part of Day 3.

Didn't know there was a part one to the day? Well then, you missed a morning filled with whining, paranoia and self-doubt...ended up with me doing an extra 10 minutes of self-affirmations in the mirror.

But, over the course of the day, I remembered some of the key principles to flipping in the WoW Auction House (AH):

• Patience is key. Bargains do happen all the time, but sometimes there can be lulls where the really sexy ones can't be found. These lulls don't last long.
  
• Feed Auctioneer and build history. I should remember my own advice. It's only day three.
  
• Know your market. Some of the pricing her has me thinking I'm on a bubble caused by a drought, or something, but I don't understand it...yet.
  
• Aim for quick turnover. I've been posting my items for 48 hours, which is a mistake. I need to change this to 24 hours. If it doesn't sell by then I want to know so I can adjust my pricing.
  

Things are bound to look up. It's statistically guaranteed. At least that's what my independent panel of statisticians tell me. And who am I to argue with that!

Time to login...



Nothing much sold, but that's OK. Let's keep to the plan and hit the AH to scan and search for bargains. And I find a good one...



I also find some good pricing on Strange Dust and pick up whatever I can afford. Which is depressingly little.



Normally I stay away from Enchanting mats, but this is one of those servers that looks like it can be very lucrative. There's barely any supply for any mats compared to what I'm used to seeing. Plus in the early stages of building coinage I will pick up mats if the bargains are too good to pass up.

This takes the rest of my coin so I'm off to quest. I'm really digging my wand I picked up, but I must say I was a little taken aback by how my Blood Elf looked when I was using it. Let's just say it doesn't look that graceful. It reminded me of how Elaine danced on Seinfeld. If you have a Blood Elf wand wielder, you know what I mean.

Since my auctions are taking some time to turn, I make sure I skin everything in my path and hit every mining node...all one of them. It's like Kansas around here.



When I'm ready to wrap up for the night, I head in for one last swing through the AH. Some things have sold and I'm finding some good deals. Life is good.



...and gets even better...



Didn't capture every screenshot so here's a rundown of what sold, was bought and was posted (not necessarily in that order). Remember, all prices are in gold.

Successful Auctions

Rough Stone 0.05
Linen Cloth 0.17
Linen Cloth 0.17
Linen Cloth 0.17
Linen Cloth 0.17
Light Leather 0.07
Fadeleaf 0.26
Silver Bar 0.75
Linen Cloth 0.17
Bruiseweed 0.27
White Spider Meat 0.36
White Spider Meat 0.36
Strange Dust 0.16
Strange Dust 0.16
Greater Healing Potion 0.35
Greater Healing Potion 0.35
Silver Bar 0.75
Flask of Mojo 0.17
Runecloth 1.29
Wool Cloth 0.75

Total Successful Auctions: 6.96g

Items Bought

Webwing Cloak - (x1) 0.18
Greater Healing Potion - (x2) 0.10
Strange Dust - (x14) 0.30
Swiftthistle - (x1) 0.02
Linen Cloth - (x20) 0.09
Linen Cloth - (x20) 0.09
Wool Cloth - (x20) 0.26
Wool Cloth - (x9) 0.24
Bruiseweed - (x4) 0.05
White Spider Meat - (x10) 0.43
Scroll of Protection V - (x4) 0.16
Wool Cloth - (x6) 0.08
Earthroot - (x10) 0.10
Raptor Hide - (x10) 0.21
Superior Healing Potion - (x5) 0.75
Pagan Bands of the Owl - (x1) 0.07
Blazing Wand - (x1) 0.20
Emblazoned Boots - (x1) 0.88
Mystic's Wrap - (x1) 0.32
Minor Healing Potion - (x5) 0.02
Mageweave Cloth - (x20) 1.00

Total Spent On Items: 5.56g

Auctions Posted

Because of how I'm splitting stacks there are about 100 auctions (thank you Auctioneer team for auto-splitting!). I'm sure you'll understand why I don't post them all here. On pricing all I did was take Auctioneer's advice. What I will say is that the value of all my auctions I have posted is about 45 gold.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Rags To Riches In WoW - Horde Style: Day 3

It's the morning of Day 3 of this series and I'm going to take a peak at how I'm doing before heading to work. So, logging into my most favorite Horde alt of all time (which is one of the perks of being my only Horde alt of all time) here's what I see....



Hmmmmm. There are some successful auctions, but there are also some failed ones. Eggs are coming back, but that's no surprise - there were a TON of them up for sale. Here's what sold:

Silver Bar 0.75g
Silver Bar 0.75g
Silver Bar 0.75g
Earthroot 0.05g
Earthroot 0.05g
Earthroot 0.05g

After I clear my mailbox I'm left with...



...4.74 gold and some change. Not bad, not bad. But, something is nagging about how this is progressing. Something feels off.

Bah! I brush that feeling off - I have an auction house to scan and fortunes to make! I am Og. Hear me roar!

I scan the AH with Auctioneer Classic (AC) and start browsing the results. I won't burden you with as many screenshots going forward because I think you get what I'm doing here. If you missed it, you can see what I did in Day 2 of this series as well as my post on how to search for bargains using AC searches.

These are the bargains I find during this search:

Spider's Silk (x1) - 0.33g
Silver Bar (x1) - 0.15g
Silver Bar (x1) - 0.30g
Swiftthistle (x1) - 0.15g
Fadeleaf (x6) - 0.60g
Runecloth (x9) - 0.60g
Flask of Mojo (x15) - 1.25g
Linen Cloth (x20) - 0.05g
Linen Cloth (x20) - 0.07g
Linen Cloth (x11) - 0.04g
Linen Cloth (x10) - 0.04g
Linen Cloth (x20) - 0.08g
Linen Cloth (x20) - 0.08g

By the time I'm done with my search that feeling is back. It feels like I'm not in sync with what's going on here on Blade's Edge. Why? Well, I think I've boiled it down to a few things that's gnawing at me:

1. There are about 8,000 auctions going on here at any given moment. On my previous Realms the auctions have been about 12,000 - that's a BIG difference.
   
2. Things are very expensive here. I use Netherweave Bags as one of my barometers for comparing on market to another. Bags for the Horde on Blade's Edge are going for nearly 50% more (nearly 10g a bag). Other commodities are going for up to three times what I would expect.
   
3. The enchanting market is usually overflowing on other Realms, but here most are less than half a page worth of auctions. I'm used to seeing Strange Dust spilling over to 4+ pages. Here there are about two dozen auctions that fill less than half a page.
   
4. I saw some stats on AH activity between Horde and Alliance for Blade's Edge that showed Alliance outpacing the Horde by 3-to-1. Of course for the life of me I can't find that link now. If I find it I'll post it up here in an update.
   

What's making this "feeling" worse is that Silvermoon is so devoid of players that it's really, really compounding this negative energy I'm feeling. Is this a foreshadowing of things to come? Have I been a lucky bugger all this time and my time has come? Is the end of the line for our hero?

/click heals of ruby slippers
/say There's no place like the Alliance Auction House
/say There's no place like the Alliance Auction House
/say There's....
/ignore all the people looking at me strangely

Good thing I have to go to work now. That way I can obsess about it all day. Yeah!

Well, before I leave here's what I post in the AH...

Linen Cloth(x20) - 0.17g
Linen Cloth(x20) - 0.17g
Linen Cloth(x20) - 0.17g
Linen Cloth(x20) - 0.17g
Linen Cloth(x20) - 0.17g
Fadeleaf(x1) - 0.26g
Fadeleaf(x1) - 0.26g
Fadeleaf(x1) - 0.26g
Fadeleaf(x1) - 0.26g
Fadeleaf(x1) - 0.26g
Fadeleaf(x1) - 0.26g
Runecloth(x9) - 1.29g
Flask of Mojo(x2) - 0.33g
Flask of Mojo(x2) - 0.33g
Flask of Mojo(x2) - 0.33g
Flask of Mojo(x2) - 0.33g
Flask of Mojo(x2) - 0.33g
Silver Bar(x1) - 0.75g
Silver Bar(x1) - 0.75g
Small Egg(x4) - 0.34g
Small Egg(x4) - 0.34g
Small Egg(x4) - 0.34g
Small Egg(x4) - 0.34g
Small Egg(x4) - 0.34g
Small Egg(x4) - 0.34g
Small Egg(x4) - 0.34g
Small Egg(x4) - 0.34g
Small Egg(x4) - 0.34g
Small Egg(x4) - 0.34g
Flask of Mojo(x1) - 0.17g
Flask of Mojo(x1) - 0.17g
Flask of Mojo(x1) - 0.17g
Flask of Mojo(x1) - 0.17g
Flask of Mojo(x1) - 0.17g
Swiftthistle(x1) - 0.32g
Spider's Silk(x1) - 1.76g
Small Egg(x3) - 0.26g
Light Leather(x5) - 0.07g
Malachite(x1) - 0.08g
Rough Stone(x4) - 0.05g
Silver Bar(x1) - 0.75g

Total for all auctions just posted 14.37 gold. Hope I sell a few of these.

Fingers are crossed.

I've been Schooled

/equip [Feathered Pointy Hat Of The Noob]

I had a professor once tell me that the more you know the more you realize what you don't know. So the more you learn the stupider you get.

My goal is to become a Grade-A, First Class moron, and now I'm one step closer.

I've just caught up on the great podcasts being put together by Tyson over at mmo Auctioneer. So far he's got six podcasts in a series that shows how to get from zero to 1,000 gold without using any add-ons. It exemplifies how knowing a market can boost your ability to make good buying decisions and even better profits.

With his recent two podcasts he discusses the key of his strategy which is flipping recipes. There's been mention of it through his previous four podcasts, but now he's talking brass tacks. You'll learn which recipes to look for, how to get a price check and what to do if it's not moving.

You'll also be lifting your jaw off the ground when you hear the profits he's making.

For making monster profits, my experience is that Auctioneer becomes a little less important to the equation. After my bankroll grows large enough I start trading in Blues and Purples from the Weapon/Armor market. At that point knowing the market will find you killer deals that Auctioneer misses, and sell them for what their market really is as opposed to what Auctioneer thinks it is.

Personally I have learned a ton after listening to this series. I knew next to nothing about the demand for the recipe market before listening to his series. Now I'm feeling like a kid in a candy store and can't wait to give his strategies a test drive.

He also gives excellent advice on how to use the Trade channel to sell items that might not be moving in the AH. Listen carefully. Pay attention. Take notes. Do not vary. Memorize it.

The keys to negotiating are to get the other person to offer a price first, keep an even keel and use the AH to support your case. I don't talk about the Trade channel in this blog. Why? Because I don't use it. I don't get that much time online so I don't want to filter through whispers and run all over Azeroth to sell something. I'm interested in creating something formulaic and repeatable.

But, after listening to Tyson, if the profits are significant you bet your bottom copper that you won't be able to shut me up on Trade.

Rags To Riches In WoW - Horde Style: Day 2

On day 1 of this series most of what I did was just get the ball rolling. Now it's time for the fun part: logging in. It's like Christmas.

Please let there be no lump of Coal. Although, I could probably sell that...

After what seems like an eternity, I'm in and staring at the mailbox. And let me tell you, there is no better feeling than to open your mail and see this...



WooHoo! Here's what sold and for how much...

Rough Stone: 0.06g
Copper Bar: 0.84g
Linen Cloth: 0.18g
Light Leather: 0.24g
Light Leather: 0.28g
Small Egg: 0.10g
Small Egg: 0.23g
Small Egg: 0.38g
Small Egg: 0.38g
Linen Cloth: 0.06g

In case you haven't figured it out, I'm going to represent all prices in gold to make it simpler to manage for me. To read the above, everything after the decimal point is silver. What's before is gold. Copper is not included because it's a trivial amount. So my Rough Stone that I have listed there for .06g can be read as 6 silver.

Minus fees from the Auction House (AH), and what little I have in my pockets, I'm sitting pretty with 2.68 gold.



Now we're cooking with Condensed Nether Gas! I enjoy the moment by just standing by the mailbox for a little and jingling the coin in my pockets just like Grandpa Og does when he's got nothing better to do.

Feels good.

OK, back to the AH!

The first thing I should look for are bargains, but I need a wand. For all you low level mages, locks and priests out there you need to get a wand. Mana control and really good DPS. They're essential. Not all wands are the same so read through the stats first. I like the Lesser Magic Wand, Greater Magic Wand and Skycaller in that order for under 20.

"Og, Skycaller is a blue wand. They sell for 15 gold or more. Cripes! What level 16 main has that kinda coin?"

/cheer
/throw confetti

Welcome! If you're asking that question then you must be a new visitor to this blog. Here's what you do:

1. Keep reading this series
   
2. Read my first series on this very same topic
   
3. Add my blog to your feed
   
4. Read all my other posts in this blog
   
5. Tell me how wonderful I am
   

Step #5 is more for me than for you...I could use a little boost to my self-esteem.

/look in mirror
/repeat self-affirmations

So, back to my wand, I find a Lesser Magic one for 13 silver and snatch it up.



Time to fire up the search!

If you aren't sure how I'm doing my scans for these screens, I'm using Auctioneer Classic (AC). If you want to know how to configure and use it you can read an earlier post of mine on how to search auctions using AC.

After my search (I've already scanned the AH...always scan before searching with AC) I'm seeing this...



I see a tempting auction of Spider's Silk (one of my favorite targets) at 1 gold for the pair. It's really tempting since AC is telling me that I can sell it for nearly 3 gold a piece. Hmmmmmmm, that's kinda expensive from my experience. Usually it sells for just under a gold on other realms/factions.

My concern is that I only have two scans of the AH under my belt. I don't have historical data to even out the outliers (i.e. the really, really, really high prices that are out to gouge or manipulate the market). This could be a case when only the gougers have Spider's Silk up for bid, I buy and the market get's saturated.

Abnormally high prices encourages farming like moths to a flame.

So let me check what the competition is...



Awesome! Waaaaay under competition. And it's easy to tell how under priced it is because of the color coding Auctioneer Advanced does. Blue is good. Red means you-gotta-be-freakin-kidding-me. Based on this info I know these will sell.

Bought them.

More searching uncovers Silver Bars at a good price...



Bought those too.

You're getting the idea. By the end of my session I've purchased these items (the Earthroot is from a bid I placed earlier and won so it's included here)...

Spider's Silk (x2) 1.0g
Shadowgem (x3) 0.2g
Silver Bar (x3) 0.9g
Silk Cloth (x20) 0.24g
Earthroot (x3) .01g

...and here is how I list them...

Spider's Silk: (x1) 1.76g
Spider's Silk: (x1) 1.76g
Earthroot: (x1) 0.05g
Earthroot: (x1) 0.05g
Earthroot: (x1) 0.05g
Silver Bar: (x1) 0.75g
Silver Bar: (x1) 0.75g
Silver Bar: (x1) 0.75g
Shadowgem: (x1) 0.28g
Shadowgem: (x1) 0.28g
Shadowgem: (x1) 0.28g
Silk Cloth: (x20) 0.64g

At this point I only have a couple coins in my bag so I go get First Aid (love, love, love that skill) and I'm off to tryout my new wand.

Life is good.

Shiny New Versions Of Auctioneer

There are new builds of the Auctioneer Advanced and Auctioneer Classic suites available. These fix some errors you might have been experiencing since the 2.3.2 patch. Not sure what other goodies might be included since I just caught the announcement (which is two days old already). These are still preview versions, but the releases I've been using since around November have all been pre-releases.

The announcement is here and you can grab the preview release here.

I haven't checked them out yet myself, but I know what I'll be doing later on today!

WooHoo!

Make A Deposit

Auctioneer is well fed. You're doing well in the WoW Auction House, the mailbox is practically overflowing, every gold farmer that gets too close to you gets mooned and you're having trouble spending all that gold of yours.

Congrats to you! Now give some of that back.

Back to the guild bank. And when I say "back" I'm talking in Karma terms. I'm sure that there have been plenty of folks that have helped you out along the way. It's time to return the favor.

Throw some gold into the bank. If you come across some deals on items that you wouldn't trade in, but know some of your guildies can use, buy them up and throw them in the bank. Mats, armor, weapons, potions or whatever. The bank is such a great resource and not everyone reads my blog (shocking, I know).

Feed it and your generosity will be greatly appreciated even if they don't know where this generosity came from.

Rags To Riches In WoW - Horde Style: Day 1

Again I find myself all alone in a brand new place. And I'm as poor as a ball of pocket lint.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

The Plan

Just like in my first series on going from rags to riches in the World of Warcraft, my goal is to prove that you don't need a lot of coin to start making a lot of coin in the WoW Auction House. All you need are the strategies and tools I write about in this blog along with your own smarts.

The last time I did this experiment I picked a realm that was similar to one that I was familiar with. I shot over to Warcraft Realms to take a look at population and AH activity for U.S. realms and picked Exodar. But I knew that the next time I wanted to do things a bit differently. I didn't want to hand pick the realm.

Instead I had it picked for me - Blade's Edge. Sellia's comment in the final post of the first series planted the seed that led to this series. Naturally that also means I'm blaming him if anything goes wrong.

/grin

If you read the preamble to this series you'll see that I went into this rather willy-nilly (I almost scrapped the series), but my goals are pretty much the same...

• Over 100 gold in my pocket (with plenty more in the AH)
  
• Best gear for my level
  
• Show how anyone can turn a little extra time in the AH into gobs of gold
  

The Toon

In addition to flipping for riches at the AH, I want to have a little extra fun and will be leveling this toon up. So I want to pick a class and race I'll enjoy.

And nothing brings a smile like hurling large balls of fire at mobs or sheeping anything that moves in Warsong Gulch. That's right, I'm rolling a Mage. My very first toon was a Mage and I played him horribly. He's still going through therapy to get rid of his twitch. I'm going mage because I want to know what it's like to play one well.

Since Orcs and Tauren look silly in dresses, Undead creep me out and Trolls just don't do it for me, I'm going with a Blood Elf. Female this time. I might be poor but I sure am pretty.

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.

The Action

Let's get this party started...


I have zero copper. Zilch. Nada. And there's no "you've got mail" icon showing which is more than a little depressing. Being I'm part of a new faction, and therefore new race, I have no idea where anything is. I'm lost.

/whimper
/pull myself together

OK, there are two things I need to do: generate some seed coin and get a first scan of the AH using Auctioneer.

The best way to generate some initial funds is through the two best coin making professions there are for the beginner: mining and skinning. At low levels, there's nothing else that will bring in more silver (maybe even a little gold). I'll need to be level 5 to learn them. Sooooo....

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding and ding.

I'm off to Silvermoon to hit the AH. I go through Falconwing Square and ask where I can learn Skinning which I learn on the way to Silvermoon. Once in Silvermoon I head right to the miners and get that taken care of.

And then I see it.



/sound trumpets

My goal is really to get a first scan of the AH so I can start building that Auctioneer database. There's also 7 silver and 33 copper burning a hole in my pocket and I'm hoping to start my flipping career ASAP. Woot!

I perform two scans. One using Auctioneer Classic (AC) and the other using Auctioneer Advanced (AA). I'll use the search functionality in AC for my initial bargain hunting. AA scans will help during posting and browsing for bargains that AC might not pick up.

Once AC is done scanning here's my first search on Trade Goods...



Interesting. At first blush things are MUCH more expensive than I'm used too, but I need to be careful about making assumptions based on one scan. Without historical data there's no way to know whether most of this information is accurate (Spider's Silk going for nearly 3 gold!?!?!). What I can count on are some high volume items like cloths, metals, etc.

I'm a little gun shy right now because I want my coin to turn over fast. The deals that I do see aren't convincing me and I want to keep my coin for deposits. Instead I post the 20 Linen Cloth I have along with two Small Eggs....and I'm floored. These eggs are going for 13 silver each. Each! Those flying things around here drop eggs like mad so that will be a nice bonus as I can skin them too. I'm not going to farm, but I'll definitely make sure I'm running through the countryside on my way from quest to quest.

So I head back out to quest a little, skin a little and mine very, very little. Um, there aren't a whole lot of mountains around here so Copper isn't exactly abundant.

By the time I'm done for the day this is what I post in the AH:

Linen Cloth x20 18.2s
Small Egg x2 23s
Small Egg x4 38s
Small Egg x4 38s
Small Egg x4 38s
Small Egg x4 38s
Small Egg x4 38s
Small Egg x4 38s
Small Egg x4 38s
Small Egg x4 38s
Small Egg x1 9.5s
Light Leather x13 27.82s
Linen Cloth x7 6.37s
Malachite x1 9.89s
Rough Stone x10 6.1s
Copper Bar x7 83.65s

...and I buy my first bargain! Here she is (number before slash is what I paid and the number after is what I posted it for)...

Light Leather x11 4s/23.65s

Boy that felt good. Well, now that Day 1 is official done there's only one last thing to do...

Rags To Riches in WoW - Horde Style: The Preamble

This series almost never saw the light of day. It was almost tossed. Thrown out. Scrapped. Eighty-sixed.

Why?

A couple of reasons.

You see, like with my first series on going from rags to riches in WoW, there's a lag from when the days happen to when they get posted. Primarily, it's because it takes a while to put it all together. Secondarily, it's because there are other things already on deck that need my attention. Thirdarily, I put a lot of research into these things (i.e. I have zero willpower and play when I should be writing).

With my first series this worked well (even the pathetic lack of willpower). However, with this series, there were some things I didn't do that made me question how good this series would be from a "how to" perspective. These included...

• I didn't set concrete goals at the outset. Sure, sure, there's the 100+ gold and great gear, but I wanted to be clearer on the "great gear." Before I knew it I was chest deep in the series and setting goals then is like making bets on a NFL game in the final 5 minutes of the fourth quarter.
  
• BeanCounter was going to help me be better at capturing the transaction details. Waaaaaaay better. So I didn't take any notes about buying/selling - BeanCounter rocks! One problem - it doesn't capture the size of a stack of goods you won at auction. That puts a crinkle into my ability to document my finds in the detail I want.
  
• There were times when I fired up BottomScanner for finds. Problem is that I haven't written anything about BottomScanner yet. And I didn't want to interrupt the series to include that series (Og writes serially and slowly). Didn't stop me from snatching the deals though. A couple insanely good deals. Can't.....stop........myself...........from............clicking.................Buyout.
  

Those were the biggies. After wrestling with it I decided to publish the series because...

• There's still a lot of great information in there that I think people will appreciate.
  
• BeanCounter did capture some great information (it'll be better than last time in many respects).
  
• It was a success. Even though I failed to clearly state my goals in the beginning, I think the only thing that would have done is moved the end of the post one or two days further at most (depending on what I would target...like Mystic Spellthread and other twink enchants...woot!).
  
• It was a unique economy that posed some new twists and challenges and I wanted to share that experience.
  
• If I didn't post this series based in the Horde faction of Blade's Edge, then Sellia might not see this series. His comment on the final post of my first series is the reason I picked this realm - it was my first and only request...behold the power of planting seeds.
  

So that's it in a Blackwood Nut shell.

Stay tuned for Day 1 of the series as I share my experience as being Horde for the very first time. Horde? Horde!

/snarl

Unexpected Hiatus #2

I've been traveling this week and haven't had a whole lot of time to post. The good news is that today wraps up Og's world tour.

Take A Break From Og - Different Strategies

If I haven't made it clear before let me just say that there are many strategies at making gold in the World of Warcraft Auction House (AH). My ramblings are just what I know. While I am of small brain, I still know that I don't know everything. And it's good to get different perspectives so you can fit in the tips and tricks with your own style and preferences.

Plus you've got to be getting bored of me by now.

Here are a couple of recent links that I recommend checking out...

• Cameron discusses his strategy and guidelines for amassing wealth in WoW. Solid advice. Found this post because he linked to me. Flattery will get you everywhere, people. Especially when dealing with low-self-esteem folk like myself.
  
• Tyson is in day 3 of his run to 1,000 gold without using an add-on. This is awesome. I've done something similar, but it's good to see different strategies. Without an add-on! Sure, certain strategies for rolling in the big bags of gold rely on an add-on much less, or not at all once you understand the market. But building the kitty without an add-on? WooHoo!
  
  Warning: his podcasts are looooooooooonnnnnnnggg. But cut some slack. He's working to make it the best he can and gets major kudos for this endeavor.
  

Even with different strategies you will see some of the basics that are universal - like knowing your markets for most of your purchases. And taking risks to expand your markets.

Auctioneer Advanced Overview - Part II

In the first part of this series that attempts to give an overview of Auctioneer Advanced (AA) I touched on the general layout, how you can use it to scan for bargains and, my favorite, BeanCounter.

This post will deal entirely with Appraiser - my other favorite.

Appraiser At First Blush

Appraiser is where you will be posting all your auctions and the Auctioneer crack team really hit it out of the park with this new interface. I spend MUCH less time posting my auctions with Appraiser now. And that leaves me oodles more time to spend procrastinating. That I do very well.

When you click on the Appraiser tab you'll see one of two interfaces. If you don't see the interface that I have in my examples click the SwitchUI button at the bottom of the interface. I really don't like the other interface for Appraiser, but it's been so long I don't remember why. I'm a creature of habit. My habits die kicking and screaming and taking down anyone within striking distance.

But I'm pretty sure my way is the better way.

Now when the tab is clicked, you'll see the interface below.



You probably noticed the annotations on the screenshot. These are the most important pieces to understand. It's not rocket science. Forgive me if I'm rehashing stuff you already understand.

• Pricing Model: There are a number of models to choose from in this drop-down. I use two: Fixed Price and Market Value.
  
  
  
  • Fixed Price will get selected as soon as you name your own price by changing either the Bid or Buyout price. Or, if you like Market Value and want to keep that price for future auctions, you can select Market Value to get the Bid/BO and then select Fixed Price to lock it in for future auctions(AA will remember what your settings are for each item you post).
    
  • Market Value uses the sophisticated algorithms of AA to tell you what's a fair Bid/BO for an item based on historical prices (you are scanning regularly, right?). This value tends to be spot on for what a fair price should be.
    
  
  Of course what really helps determine the price I set is...
  
  
• The Competition: At a glance you can see what your competition is pricing their wares at. This is based on the last scan for this item and it'll tell you how old this data is. If it's not recent (like right now!) hit the Refresh button.
  
  Never, NEVER, NEVER post an auction without seeing what the current competition is.
  
  These prices are color coded based on how their price relates to what AA feels is the fair market value. This is very handy because I can quickly see how many are...
  
  
  
  • Blue - a steal
    
  • Green - a good deal
    
  • Yellow - a fair price
    
  • Red - Rip Off City - price much higher than Market Value
    
  
  
• Auto Stack Splitting: Pre-AA I spent oodles of time splitting my stacks. Smaller stacks is a great strategy that I use a lot, and AA allows you to enter in how many stacks you want and what size to make each stack. When you post it will automatically split and post them all. Automagically! It might be super lame for me to be so excited about this feature but it really saves a lot of time.
  

UPDATE: I've been schooled in the comments - Auctioneer Classic could split stacks as well. I didn't know that! All that time I was splitting manually. The agony. The pain. The stupidity. /cast [Doh! Rank 5]

Simple Example Using Appraiser

So I've got 20 Essence of Air that I need to unload. You can see from the previous screenshot that the last time I sold a few I was aiming for a BO of about 42 silver. There was much more competition then. Now there's none.

Oh sure there are a couple up for auction, but they've priced themselves out of the picture now that I'm about the flood the market.

/grin

My guess is that I can charge the market rate for these and make more than what I was making the last time I posted these. Changing the pricing model to Market Value confirms that - 54-ish silver each. That's a 28% increase. That's an additional 2.5 gold in my pocket. I'm a happy camper.



The screen shot doesn't show it but I upped my # of stacks to 10 while keeping a stack size of 2. When I hit the Post Items AA does all the work for me...



Part II Wrap-Up

Basically AA is worth having loaded for better "manual" scanning enhancements and BeanCounter (both explained in Part I of this series), Appraiser (this post) and BottomScanner (to be discussed later). Appraiser can save you a boat load of time and you will make better pricing decisions to boot.

The next part of this series will be the configuration settings for AA. Then I'll tackle BottomScanner but that will probably be it's own series because of all the settings (a beast).

For those pros out there, did I miss anything on Appraiser?

For those that are experiencing AA for the first time, how's this series so far? Be honest. I'm a big boy and can take it.

Plus you can't tell when I curl up in the fetal position anyway.

Patch Jitters

According to WoW Insider, patch 2.3.2 is going live today.

/pray

Since patches have a nasty reputation of wrecking havoc with add-ons, I'm more than a little nervous with what this update might do to Auctioneer. While the release notes don't seem to have any updates that would affect the Auction House I'm sure there's a number of under-the-cover changes that we regular players aren't aware of.

Until the add-on breaks.

Here's hoping that my Auctioneer Suite of add-ons don't skip a beat after the patch. I'm sure the guys and gals on the Auctioneer team would appreciate not running around like a Murloc with their head cut off to fix new bugs.

I won't know till much later today.

/pray some more

Auctioneer Advanced Overview - Part I

I've been getting lots of comments regarding Auctioneer Advanced (AA). They range from "how the heck do I use it" to "it makes me want to beat the monitor with a Wii controller." It comes up on the blogs I read from time to time as well, like Gitr's recent post (big GRATZ on the 69 ding, Gitr!).

So to all of you who /shrug when trying to figure out what AA is all about, this post is for you.

Keep in mind that we're talking about a pre-release candidate. Some of the things that AA falls short on will be fixed with the major release. I'll note those things I know about.

OK, let's get started...

The Tabs

If you are running only AA, you'll notice three new tabs in the WoW Auction House interface: BeanCounter, Appraiser and BtmScan (i.e. BottomScanner). You'll also note that the Scan button is in a different place if you are used to Auctioneer Classic (AC)....



Browsing Auctions

AA does not have a search interface like AC does. The good news is that the Auctioneer team is working on it already and it will be part of the final release. This is one reason why I still run both.

Why both? Why not just AC?

Because, in addition to a bunch of great tools and features, AA also shows how well items are priced, compared to their fair market price, as a percentage. And they're color coded. I'm very visual (though you wouldn't know it by my underwhelming blog design) so I like this feature A LOT. It tells me instantly what the great deals are. Here's an example on a browse through the Rare and Epic weapons on sale (pages 1-3)...





One thing you'll notice about the previous screen shots is that just because I sort by the "Percent of Market Price" it only sorts it on a per page basis. Remember that. You'll need to page through all pages to make sure you don't miss a good deal.

The Slider Bar

Configuring the AA Suite of tools is done by clicking on the appropriate icon on the slider bar. The slider bar? Yes, the slider bar. It's hidden off to the right of your screen right below the minimap (at least on my plain ol', non-add-on interface). Just move your mouse over to the edge there and it'll "slide" out - hence the name.



I'll go into my configuration settings for AA later in the series.

BeanCounter

This tab rocks. This is one of the add-ons bundled with the AA suite and it is simply the best thing since sliced Conjured Bread. What it does is keep track of what you bought from the AH, which auctions were successful, which weren't and what your net (what you brought in after the AH took it's cut) was.

Since I avoid manually keeping notes of what I buy and sell like the plague this has been a godsend. When posting I can very quickly see what my purchase price was and get an idea of what I'll be making. Or if I should hold because I'll break even at the current market price.

Here's a screenshot showing some auctions of Wool Cloth...



BeanCounter can also tell you which items you should stay away from (if you see a lot of failed auctions) or ones you're not making the money you thought you were.

Part I Wrap-Up

So that's a wrap for Part I. Next up I'll hit on the other most-favorite-AA-functionality - Appraiser. And then there's the matter of my settings and BottomScanner (which is going to be over several posts).

I'm thinking this topic is going to keep me busy for a while.

Getting To 1,000 Gold In The Raw

Want to know how to hit 1,000 gold without using any add-ons at all?

I do too. So I'm going to keep an eye on Tyson's series that will do just that. Day one was published today.

Good stuff. He has a cheerleader.

/pump pom poms

Update: Actually meant to link you right to the podcast which is on his forums right here.

New Milestones

Over 1,000 unique visitors have visited this humble blog. Plus there are now 106 of you grabbing my RSS feed according to FeedBurner.

It'll be interesting to see where these stats max out and levels off. From my own personal view point, the people who like the bean counting aspect of the game are in the minority. Plus WoW is growing some gray in its beard and there are lots of high level players out there who can make quite a bit of coin just farming high-level mats and questing.

Though that means you have quite a bit of capital to make serious coin in the Auction House.

Thanks for your visits and for all the comments along the way. This wouldn't be a whole lot of fun without people getting something out of it.

And hopefully that "something" is a boat load of gold.

There Are Mules In The WoW Auction House

Do you find you spend a lot of time just going back and forth to one of the major cities to scan, flip and check mail? You'd rather be out mowing Murlocs, but your bags are full, there are bargains to be had and stuff to put into and take out of the bank. All this legwork is necessary, sure, but it's crimping your style.

The good news is that there's an answer - roll yourself a mule.

A "mule" is a new toon that is created for the sole purpose of making your life easier. They live in the city and do all your AH scanning, buying and selling for you. Kind of like a personal assistant except they won't answer phones, walk your dog or remind you that your anniversary is in two days and you need to get off your butt and get Mrs. Og something very nice for putting up with your sorry self.

/tie string around finger

All you do is create a new, level 1 toon on your realm and of the same faction as the character(s) you need this mule for. It's a good idea to create a character that has the easiest run to a big city. Get them to work fast.

One nice thing about having multiple characters of the same faction in the same realm is that they all share the Auctioneer data so you don't have to start scanning from scratch with the new toon (but you still need to scan every day).

Once you have this character created, you have one of two options. On one hand you can run them straight to the big city and get them to work right away. No quests. No mob kills. Straight to the mailbox and then the AH. And then the mailbox. And then the AH.

And so it goes.

For example, let's create one for the Alliance. Race is human because humans practically get a personal escort to Stormwind city it's so safe on the roads. I'll call him Oggrunt, make him balding and unhappy looking. After all he's going to be sitting in front of the mailbox and AH all day.



Then we run straight for Stormwind...



...and introduce ourselves to our new best friend - the mailbox.



The second option is to level the character to level 5 first and then run them to the city where they can learn a profession. That profession is Enchanting 99.9999999999% of the time. Why Enchanting? Because you can disenchant any low-level greens you get and sell the mats. Usually those mats will sell better than the greens will. Lots of folks do this.

I've done both. Though if you read my posts you know that I have little patience for the enchanting market. I'll only dip my toe in if the temperature is just right. My lack of interest is because I don't feel like managing inventory. If I've got inventory then I've got gold tied up that's not working for me. But that's just me. There's something about the swings, thrash and competition of the Enchanting market that draws people. If that's the way you roll, go for it!

Either way, once you have your mule go ahead and send them items to sell and gold to wheel and deal with. Then they can funnel gold back to you whenever you need it.

It's a great system. You don't have to worry about going out of your way too go to the AH and the bank and the mailbox and the AH and the mailbox and the...you get my drift.

OK, there is a third option. For most people do not level these alts up past 5 at the most. They've got one job to do and that's it.

I'm an altaholic. I level mine up.

My strategy is that when I'm ready to play an alt for a while I park the other one (usually only have two per realm) in the city to be my mule. I like to level mine up to a level that has a "9" at the end of it and then battleground like mad. The cool part about muling this way is that when I'm ready to take an alt out I'm usually earning 200% experience for at least half my bars.

Woot!

Full On Og Right To Your Reader

Changed my feed to publish the full post instead of a partial. Now you don't have to click through to read the full story. Of course you'll loose the ultimate experience of incredibly boring blog design. But hey, your loss.

Phantom Post - Sorry

In the middle of creating a new post instead of saving the draft I accidentally published the unfinished drivel. So if you're reader comes up with a post titled "There" and it looks unfinished and you click on it and you get an error from Blogger then you've seen my mistake.

Ooops!

Grumble

/snarl

Not sure exactly what happened, but I started getting errors from BottomScanner (we haven't talked much about that yet) yesterday that would hose my Auctioneer functionality yesterday. Am I collecting too much data? Did Blizzard update some server code that's causing fits? Was my Auctioneer add-on software outdated?

Dunno.

Or maybe, just like BRK says, the game is hating me now. By name.

/whimper

In any case, I was focused (obsessed, sweating, shaking) on figuring out what the problem was yesterday. I updated my version to the most recent (which is from 12/12/07) and it seemed to fix most of it.

I'm not worried about some errors. The software is still in pre-release and the 95% of it that does work keeps my pockets full.

If anyone else is having problems I recommend checking your version and heading over to the Auctioneer site to see if you have the recent version. Grab it if you don't.

Make Your Own Luck

I'll be honest - to be successful flipping in the WoW Auction House (AH) you have to be lucky.

Sure Auctioneer is a great tool and there's a lot of different strategies you can throw at your quest for gold. But coming across great deals, the ones that will really rake in some coin, takes a four leaf clover, a rabit's foot and a Crate of Horseshoes to coax fate to make happen.

You might be thinking to yourself "but Og, if it's all about luck what am I doing reading your crummy blog?" Good question. Really, really good question. I mean, I don't even have a logo or pretty graphics on this blog for crying out loud!

Here's your answer - you make your own luck by being consistant and tenacious about scanning the AH, doing the searches, sticking to the things you know and taking a few risks from time to time.

Luck (also known as opportunity) is going on all the time in your AH. But you'll never know about it if you're not looking for it. Heck, you probably missed a deal or ten just reading this post. I probably missed five times that just creating this post.

/nervous twitch

That's OK that you missed a few. It's not a one time deal. Luck happens all the time in the WoW AH.

10 Steps To Making Gold In The WoW Auction House

1. Get the Auctioneer add-on for WoW. Get the Classic version if you are a just starting out.
   
2. Scan the AH every day you log in.
   
3. Search auctions for bargains immediately after each scan.
   
4. Stick to items/markets you know.
   
5. Build and keep a set amount of coin strictly for AH flipping.
   
6. Don't force a profit. If a market gets flooded either hold (if it's temporary) or unload (if it's not).
   
7. Learn from your mistakes.
   
8. Be patient - 48 hours is a loooong time.
   
9. Take some risks. It's how you learn about markets you don't understand.
   
10. Try to learn something new about the Auctioneer suite of add-ons every once in a while.
    
11. Read Og's Ledger like your mount depended on it.
    

What's that?

There are 11 steps?

Hmmmm, not sure how that slipped through. I'll have to speak to the editing department about that and, um, get back to you.