Catching Up On Great Comments

Thanks for the well-wishes as I still wage my war against this crummy flu. In between sniffles I've been able to catch up on some great comments that have been left over the weekend. Especially the my post on why expired auctions are OK and how they shouldn't get you down.

I appreciate and will respond to all comments. It's also a good source of new topics. So feel free to jump into the conversation or plant a seed for a topic you'd like to see.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to feeling sorry for myself and being excessively whiney to Mrs. Og.

*Cough*....Sniffle...Blah

/grab Kleenex
/whine

The Not-So-Mighty Og has been leveled by a nasty bug these past few days. I'm a little backed up on responding to your comments from the weekend, but I will.

Ugh.

Expired Auctions Are OK

Inspired by some of the comments I received from yesterday's post on my failures in the WoW Auction House (AH), this post shines some additional perspective on my wins and losses in the AH.

Yesterday I mentioned my overall rate of failed vs. successful auctions. Those are average numbers. Averages smooths out all the rough spots. That means that on some days I feel like I'm King of the World. On others I feel like I'm King of the Chumps.

Looking back at the last 17 days, here's how my successes compared to my failures:



It's pretty obvious which days were the really, really good days and which had me guessing if I had any cheese left at all. This is normal. The AH is volatile.

But it's predictable over time...and that's the real secret.

Bottom line - you are going to have Good Days, Bad Days and days that make the bad days look like Freakin Awesome Days. But as long as you are sticking to the fundamentals, you'll keep growing your pile of gold through them all (even when it doesn't feel like it).

I'm A Failure...

...approximately 32.64659271% of the time.

It's a rough guess.

That percentage represents how many of my auctions failed when I was doing my latest Rags to Riches experiment. For whatever reason those items just didn't sell how I thought they would.

Taking a look at how I'm doing post-experiment I'm sitting pretty at about a 44.25% failure rate.

A 44.25% failure rate?!?!

You got it.

Does that bum me out? Nah. Do I go in the corner and crawl into a fetal position? Nope. In fact I'm pretty darn happy about it.

Why? Because you cannot succeed at flipping in the World of Warcraft Auction House (AH) without failure. Small failures. Spectacular failures. Noobish, /facepalm, I'll-never-speak-a-word-about-this-to-anyone failures.

It's how you learn. A failure is only a failure if you don't learn something from it. When an auction fails, ask these questions:

1. Was my price too high?
   
2. Was it a low volume day on the server?
   
3. How was my price set in comparison to the competition?
   
4. Was there A LOT of competition (saturated market)?
   
5. Did I post too many of the same item at once (saturated market)?
   
6. Is this item really as valuable as Auctioneer says it is?
   
7. Is there a very low demand for this item?
   

You should have a good sense of what the answers are to all these questions by the time you're done scrutinizing the expired item. Having these answers will position you better the next time you target/flip these items.

Now you may be thinking, "Whoa Og, let's back up a second. Your failure rate has jumped nearly 12% after the series. That's huge! What in the Hellfire Peninsula is up with that?!?!"

It means I'm taking more risks and pushing the Lucky Red Envelope of this getting-less-new-by-the-day AH. I'm buying more goods, seeing what the saturation point is and getting a feel for demand.

And I'm sprinkling in a few bonehead purchases that prove I still whip out the [Flashlight of the Noob] to sniff out bargains from time to time. Which means I'm not taking my advice, chasing profits that aren't there and not walking away as soon as I should.

It's OK to fail. Your successes will far exceed the failures and fund your "education." I'll leave you with a bit of baseball trivia...

When Babe Ruth was the home run king, he was also the strikeout leader.

/cast [Create Food For Thought]
/chew

Long Live The Gold Farmer!

I'd shout that from the rooftops of Orgrimmar if Blizzard would implement the same legit method of selling gold as Eve Online did. 1,000 gold in exchange for no subscription fees for the next six months? Heck yeah! Or whatever the going rate is.

I agree with Mystic's (so terribly sorry that I don't know the author's name.../kick myself) opinion that this kind of trading will not create raging inflation and wreck havoc on the economy. It might actually help the economies.

/step on soapbox

Though I do think it's a mistake to take this type of Real Money Trading (RMT) market and say that all RMT is OK. The reason this works is because companies can't apply Timecodes to EBITDA or pay employees with it. No profit = no go. The minute companies can get cold, hard cash for selling in-game gold that's when the problems start.

Profits grow companies. Companies grow competition. Competition drives prices down (for products whose only differentiation is price). When prices dive low enough where it doesn't make sense not to buy it - that's the problem.

/nod sagely
/cast [Appear Smarter Than I Actually Am]{Rank 4}
/trip stepping off soapbox

Armor Kits = Gold For You

In addition to strategy, examples and tool advice, I also want to be able to give you very specific items for your Auction House grocery list. These items are (or have been) on my personal shopping list and are favorites of mine because the bargains occur quite frequently, are a guaranteed sell and the profits are nothing to sneeze at.

I've done this a few times already on food, cloth and spider silk. Adding to this growing smorgasbord of gold making targets are armor kits.

/flashback

I never knew what these things were until I completed one of the quests in Redridge on my first toon (the mage with the twitch). I remember thinking "these things are great...I just hope I can find more quests that have these for rewards." My noobness shined like a beacon back then.

/flashforward

Now it's more like a flashlight.

Armor kits make great targets for your bargain hunting in the World of Warcraft Auction House (AH). Leather workers will churn out a bunch of these as they're leveling up and often post them cheaply. And they usually post bigger stacks than they should - more than 4 for most...the expensive ones should be posted in singles or doubles.

By now, you know that you find a good deal by keeping Auctioneer well fed. That'll give you the scoop on what kinds of profits you can expect to reap.

How well can you do with these things? Good question!

Looking back through all my deals over the last 2 months on just armor kits, here's the breakdown of which armor kits I've bought, the total profit for all my sales and the profit margin on average for each.

(UPDATE: I replaced the original HTML table with what's below. The way it as before looked like gah because, well, Blogger hates me.)

First, the kits I target...

Medium Armor Kit
Heavy Armor Kit
Rugged Armor Kit
Knothide Armor Kit
Heavy Knothide Armor Kit

Next, what I've made recently on them...



Profits Grand Total: 159.43g
Overall Profit Margin: 106%

I usually buy Medium kits in the early stages of building my bankroll and then taper off as I set my profit requirements higher once I crack 100g.

You'll also note that the higher up you go on the scale, starting at the Heavy kits, the profit margins get smaller. My theory is that leather workers have a better sense of what the market rate is for kits the more experience they get. The higher level the kit the more coin they can fetch and the more they cost to make (from what I understand). So they'll squeeze every copper they can out of the auction.

One final tip, when reposting kits, do them in 1's and 2's. While it is possible to use up to four kits on your armor (gloves, chest, bracer, boots), my thoughts are that people don't always want, or have the money, for stacks of 4. And not too many people want to buy these in bulk for the "armor-to-come" in future levels so don't post any stacks over 4.

Good luck and happy hunting.

PUG's Are Powered By This

This has nothing to do with gold or the Auction House. Or anything else in this blog. A random post that I had to right. Kinda like the power of suggestion that occurs when someone else yawns and before you know it your yawning right along with them.

Actually, this is more like word association. You know, someone says a word and you blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. That happened to me today.

I saw this and the first thing that popped into my head was "PUG."

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