Monday, September 29, 2008

Gold Guide

Updated:  September 21st 2009


I thoroughly enjoy attaining wealth in World of Warcraft. There is a certain freedom in having extra gold to throw around. It truly makes my life easier, as I can acquire things the moment I want them (enchants, potions, glyphs, re-specs, gear, etc.).

I currently have 74k gold (about 10k in auctions), two Epic Flying Mounts, three Dual-Specs and one Motorbike. I created this wealth over 16 months of playing (I used to play as Alliance).  I've attained this wealth without farming or dailies.

  








The easiest way I have found to attain wealth in my five years of playing WoW is at the Auction House. I've done this without the help of Auctioneer.

There are two different methods I have used to create wealth at the Auction House.

The first method I used was mildly successful at creating wealth, I call it the Stock Market Method. I used it on a low population server. It involved watching 3-5 mildly expensive blue items (usually weapons).

I would buy the items when I saw they were being oversold at prices below market value, and sell when the items were being undersold at prices above market value.

Along came the Burning Crusade and washed that method away. The blue weapons were really inexpensive, as all the best gear was BoP, in instances or BG/Arena.

The second method I currently use and it is extremely successful at creating wealth, I call it the Small Business Method. I use it on a high population server. It involves crafting a few items in demand and selling them over and over.

The key to creating a tidy profit is an excel spreadsheet.  The excel spreadsheet helps you determine what price you can buy mats at and still turn a profit on the finished product. I am almost always the cheapest seller of these items, yet I can still make a tidy profit because I know exactly what my expenses are.

Here is the current spreadsheet that I use for my high end market goods:





As you can see I make a tidy profit on each sale.  If people try to undercut me I can either undercut them and still make easy money, or if they get into an undercut war with a few people I will usually just be patient and wait a few days for most of them to exit the market after their sale.  Most people selling are not trying to make a business out of it and are just selling one or two.

The reason for creating a spreadsheet is because this AH market is dynamic market (constantly changing).  Over the last month I have witnessed Runed Orbs go from 500 gold to 150 gold.  I usually do not stock up on materials unless I know its a great deal, as this type of fluctuation can kill your profits.

For those that cannot afford to get into the high end market of goods.  I suggest Enchantment AH selling.  I would label Enchantment selling as the middle of the market price wise, and high demand.  Here is my spreadsheet for Enchantments that I sell:
   





Caution:  Do not spend all of your money on one item.  If the prices of the item you are trying to sell take a dramatic drop and all your money is in that item you are trying to sell, you might end up losing money instead of making money.
    

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

all i got to say is - Recipes
i make 750 - 1000 G a week from farming recipes once a month and storing them in my mailbox slots. This method works extremely well if u have a horde that can buy Horde-only recipes and put in neutral AH, then get a friend to buy them and hand them back to you.

vanilla said...

That makes no sence, at all, your friend buys them, so u get money from him and he gives it back to you??????? I think you missed a few steps.. Pls explain..

Anonymous said...

You make the trade so you can sell the items at the alliance AH instead of the neutral one. It goes like this: Post something on the neutral AH as horde > have an ally friend buy the item (since you can't purchase items from yourself) > have the ally friend give you (on an ally alt) the item in trade > use your ally alt to post the item on the alliance auction house.

It's a greater profit if you can sell it on the alliance AH instead of the blackwater AH simply because you're reaching a larger market. When you sell something on the blackwater AH, you're basically selling it to a savvy ally who is going to mark it up ever further and sell it to more allies on his own AH. =p Using the above method, you get all that profit for yourself.

Elia said...

I like the spreadsheet idea a whole lot - might have to try that one. How do you determine Sale Target? Is that an arbitrary number or based off of other listed sales?

David said...

I generally take a look at what others are selling the goods at on a given day and see if I can undercut them by a decent amount and still make a good profit. If that is possible that will usually end up being my Sale Target.

If I have to end up lowering it I adjust my Sale Target accordingly to make sure I am still making a profit.

silvre said...

Great idea as I was using the AH to sell gears from mob drop.