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.