At Gold Limit

At approximately 6pm Saturday night I hit the gold cap.
I started the week a little bit behind but quickly picked up the pace. As I said before, the gloves came off and a slew of items were posted, ranging from enchanting scrolls, rods, glyphs, flasks, potions, gems, food, buff items (drums and runescrolls), armor kits, crafted epics, etc. As a result I spent more time working the market than usual, but even so I feel it was still pretty casual.

But Why?
A friend asked me this a few nights ago, and it’s a pretty common question. The easy answer really is that it’s something to do that I enjoy, but that’s not a very satisfactory answer. Another reason is that it’s the end of the expansion and things have slowed down. Building a warchest is a fine way to relieve the boredom. At the end of BC it was leveling alts, now it’s gold and I’m a lot more likely to use the gold when Cataclysm goes live. But there are other reasons both practical and impractical…

Have you ever seen patch notes and thought, “Oh man, I need that item NAOW!” Gold has a tendency to facilitate that need. You don’t have to borrow gold to enchant/gem your gear anymore, hell if you lose a roll on something you really want you still have the option of throwing money at the problem. In the end, having large amounts of gold means it’s one thing you don’t have to worry about, you know you have enough and will for some time.

But all of that really doesn’t matter as much as the fact I, like most Goblins, am simply compelled. The urge to horde gold is akin to the old expression that the man climbs the mountain because the mountain is there. It’s not rational, it’s a compulsion. The best way to put it though, is it’s a little like going for Achievement Points, only unlike achievement points, I can actually spend the gold…

How?
Well, first it needs to be said: I don’t bot, so get that idea out of your head right now. I’m pretty confident that I make more gold than I would if I botted, and my account is much safer by adhering to the rules. Second, if you’ve read the blog for any amount of time you probably have some idea of what I do on a daily basis to generate large sums of gold. The scorched earth directive is alive and well, and continues to work.

For starters, I use what I’ve referred to in the past as the Zamboni method. Simply put, I buyout large swathes of materials from the AH, even if I don’t intend to use those materials right away. This limits competition to farming materials themselves or having their own farmers to deal with. As a result, the competition has to sell their wares at a higher price to break even and I can undercut their cheapest sales while still making a profit, so they either lose money to compete or (more likely) wait till I run out of stock to sell their higher priced goods. And with the proper leverage on these raw materials, I can begin crafting and selling finished goods. That’s where the Master List comes in.

The Master List
This list is simply a list of all of the items I craft and list on the auction house daily. Now, not everything will sell in a day, so I don’t have to make absolutely everything on the list daily. But I maintain these numbers at the beginning of the day, and if I find that something has sold out before the day is over, I replenish my stock. Maintaining the list requires a large supply of raw materials, hence the massive buying mentioned earlier. This is also why I maintain a six tab guild bank for all of my crafters, it allows me to quickly grab materials from storage with any of my crafters at any time. So, without further ado: here’s the list.

THE LIST
Inscriptions
Glyphs (5 of Each)
20x Runescroll of Fortitude
40x Armor Vellum III
20x Weapon Vellum III
2x Faces of Doom
2x Iron-bound Tome

Blacksmithing
2 Eternium Rod
2 Adamantite Rod
2 Fel Iron *Thanks for the correction Krust*
2 Titanium Rod
20x Eternal Belt Buckle

Enchanting
4x Scroll of Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats
4x Scroll of Enchant Chest – Super Stats
4x Scroll of Enchant Chest – Major Health
4x Scroll of Enchant Boots – Icewalker
4x Scroll of Enchant Boots – Greater Fortitude
4x Scroll of Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower
4x Scroll of Enchant Cloak – Major Agility
4x Scroll of Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed
4x Scroll of Enchant Shield – Major Stamina
2x Scroll of Enchant 2H Weapon – Greater Savagery
2x Scroll of Enchant Weapon – Greater Potency
2x Scroll of Enchant Weapon – Mighty Spellpower
2x Scroll of Enchant Weapon – Exceptional Spellpower
2x Scroll of Enchant Weapon – Berserking
2x Scroll of Enchant Weapon – Mongoose
2x Scroll of Enchant Weapon – Fiery Weapon

Leatherworking
3x Earthen Leg Armor
3x Icescale Leg Armor
2x Frosthide Leg Armor
5x Drums of the Forgotten Kings
5x Drums of the Wild

Alchemy
100x Flask of the Frost Wyrm
100x Flask of Endless Rage
20x Elixir of Lightning Speed
20x Potion of Wild Magic

The Bloodscalp Report
With tailoring I make Netherweave Bag and Frostweave Bag depending on availability/cost of materials. But the big one of course is gems, here it’s not really some magical secret. It’s about quantity more than anything else. With an army of alts transmuting epic gems everyday, then sending the raw gems to Khaas to be cut… it makes for a high yield, low risk market. And this has been the number one earner for me, producing profits when other markets fall apart at the seams. As Cataclysm approaches, I’ve decided to continue my efforts in this vein, and expand upon them. Yes dear friends, the market is fluctuating on Bloodscalp. And right now it’s in turmoil. I suspect now that I have hit the cap and will be taking a more casual approach things will start to get back to normal. This does not however mean that I’m stepping out of the market, simply that my presence will be less pronounced… and a bit more random. I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who made it possible, fellow bloggers and goblins, I thank you:
Zamboni, Tella, Markco, Cozmo, Saate, the folks at Warcraft Econ, and the man who started it all (for me at least) Gevlon. And thanks to the farmers, you guys made things a lot easier. I could have done it without you but it would’ve taken longer and it would’ve been a lot more difficult. And finally, what salesman would be complete without his customers? So to you I say, thanks for your business. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Last and most certainly not least, I would like to thank my wife, Brandy. I could thank her for any number of reasons: her support and being my personal cheerleader during the various ups and downs while playing the market, even being my proofreader when I make these posts. But mostly for loving a huge nerd. Sincerely, thank you.

That’s all for this week, join me next week as I continue my quest for more money. Thanks for reading…