tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26844133810345208132024-03-19T03:21:57.735-07:00Jaxon, Fitch & ChiltonInformation, Advice, and Opinions on the Auctions and Economics of World of WarcraftUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2684413381034520813.post-84267107741128223782012-11-27T12:55:00.001-08:002012-11-27T12:56:16.341-08:00Content Curves and ProfessionsIf you are choosing professions for your characters you may want to consider what I like to call the content curve and how your profession will fit into the larger picture that Blizzard has in store for the game and it's economy.<br />
<br />
Let look at Inscription:<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>glyphs - </b>great long term items, as content winds down and players get bored with a lack of new raids they will level alts, and then naturally get glyphs for those alts. Blizzard helped us by resetting glyphs and making a lot of changes to existing glyphs.<br />
<br />
<b>shoulder inscriptions - </b>great items for active content and for players main characters getting new upgrades, epic versions probably will taper off as most casuals will settle for sub quality economic choices especially for their alts during stale content.<br />
<br />
you should pick out the items crafted by your professions and sort them between "made for active content and mains" vs "made for stale content and alts" Post the stale/alt items on the weekends and ramp up stock between raid releases (<b><i>content is getting stale when pugs are clearing almost all raids and you see them forming often, this is a sign of alts and is a sign of profits to be made</i></b>). Items that a for mains and active content should be posted and camped during raid nights. Camp them, sit in the AH, flip them and relay, if you drive out enough of your competition you can greatly increase your volume as long as the demand remains.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2684413381034520813.post-47503085519892065602012-11-14T11:22:00.000-08:002012-11-14T11:27:21.396-08:00Autofill Web Auction House form and undercut the similar auction by 1g<br />
So I was really tired of always filling out and tabbing the form to post my auctions at lunch. I decided to write a script that can be executed in the chrome console and will fill & undercut my competition. Below is the script, just open the chrome JavaScript console and paste it in after selecting your item, quantity and duration. If there is a similar auction in the house it will fill out your fields to be 1g cheaper.<br />
<br />
<b>what it does not do</b><br />
set quantity, time length options, actually post the auctions<br />
<br />
<b>what it does do</b><br />
fills out the 6 form fields so you don't have to set the gold silver and copper<br />
<br />
to access the console you paste the code in:<br />
while you have an item selected to sell with qty and time established, use the following to open the console in chrome:<br />
[ctrl] + [shift] + i<br />
<br />
Then past the following in and hit enter:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
$('#form-buyoutGold').val($('.price')[0].firstChild.nextSibling.innerText-1);$('#form-startGold').val($('.price')[0].firstChild.nextSibling.innerText-1);$('#form-buyoutSilver').val($('.price')[0].firstChild.nextSibling.nextSibling.nextSibling.innerText);$('#form-startSilver').val($('.price')[0].firstChild.nextSibling.nextSibling.nextSibling.innerText);$('#form-buyoutCopper').val($('.price')[0].firstChild.nextSibling.nextSibling.nextSibling.nextSibling.nextSibling.innerText);$('#form-startCopper').val($('.price')[0].firstChild.nextSibling.nextSibling.nextSibling.nextSibling.nextSibling.innerText);</blockquote>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2684413381034520813.post-75459039269127826312012-11-07T08:41:00.000-08:002012-11-07T08:41:50.833-08:00Short Tip: Opportunity Cost and Inscription, Reducing the mailbox relayAre you dealing with a large amount of competition in the glyph market as more players join the lucrative dark moon card trade?<br />
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If you are you may find yourself playing a lot more of the mailbox relay as you try to maintain a market edge in the world of glyphs. I used to spend about 5 minutes flipping auctions 3 times a day. Recently there has been a lot more people joining my competition and flipping has increased to about 15 minutes more than 3 times a day just to maintain the same margin I was getting before the first fair's aftermath. After the first DMF people starting bragging about their profit and a lot of scribes have been showing up since then.<br />
<br />
There are really 2 options you have here:<br />
<br />
1.) start battling with glyph walls and undercuts. Reduce your margin and post above crafting cost making it really low for other scribes to make a decent amount of gold<br />
<br />
2.) reduce your stock to only the highest value glyphs and hover over those auctions to make sure you are getting the sales.<br />
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Personally I like option 2 as it will reduce your crafting time and the amount of time you do the relay. Battling probably won't work well in Mists as the cooldown will maintain a value for the darkmoon decks and scribes probably will not leave the market during the fair.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2684413381034520813.post-35662790770630136732011-09-22T07:29:00.000-07:002011-09-22T07:29:30.923-07:00Where did all the auctioneers go?I'm back to writing my blog again. I took a break from WoW to play Rift and check out some console games I had been putting off. My blood started craving a good profit streak and I could not wait to get back into the swing of things.<br />
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I moved to a newer lower population server recently and my Glyphs don't sell as much as they used to but I was still able to pull ~150k within a few weeks by lowering my volume and micro managing the market (re-posting a lot)<br />
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It's nice to see that not a lot has changed since my break began, I wonder what happened to the podcast "Call to Auction", I really enjoyed that and elaborated a lot on some of their points in my writing. Those guys really inspired me to take more dedication in understanding Auctioning and I wish they were still making shows. :(<br />
<br />
I'm still using TSM with inscription, but I hand post some items that fall into a special category for me. Ember cuts are very rare on this server and so is truegold so I post those by hand <b>over</b>cutting because I know the "Sweet Spot" of the market.<br />
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<b><u>The Sweet Spot</u></b><br />
This falls into understanding your server and the specific items that have a higher value and are less common. lets say you have noticed that truegold moves ~40 bars a night on your servers "busy" nights. You can shoot to be the 12-16th less expensive auction and still sell your stock. This can increase your profit a lot, for me sometimes 50% or more.<br />
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<b>point: </b>You don't always need to undercut if you believe your price is fair and the demand will consume your goods.<br />
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Have a good time and make some gold.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2684413381034520813.post-2023680277822017972011-03-07T10:38:00.000-08:002011-03-07T10:38:20.347-08:00Volume Over MarginI recently have been playing in the glyph market in addition to my usual gem areas of crafting. A principle that all craftsmen should take in to consideration when manufacturing goods from materials in the auction house is the volume of sales you expect to get on a set of items compared to the ROI you anticipate. (ROI == return on investment)<br />
<br />
Within a 24 hour period I may sell 4 <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=52294/austere-shadowspirit-diamond">austere shadowspirit diamond</a> and 1 <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=52295">Effulgent Shadowspirit Diamond</a><br />
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My ROI on the Austere is about 50g, my margin on the effulgent is 150g<br />
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Selling the 4 Austere's provides me with more profit then selling 1 Effulgent, likewise if I could sell two Effulgent SDs a day it would be like selling 6 Austere (I wish I could sell 2 eff's a day, they just don't appeal to my server)<br />
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Knowing the average of volume of a certain good per day is a great way to maximize your profits when deciding what to make and how much to make how often. Let me be clear that I do not choose to make one of these cuts over the other, I make them both. I use my knowledge of volume trends to know how much I am making, what I expect to get back and how many to list at a time to avoid over spending in deposits from returned auctions.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2684413381034520813.post-16658899721931242412011-02-09T17:01:00.000-08:002011-02-09T17:02:04.845-08:00Everything's Better Down Where It's WetterTake if from me.<br />
<br />
Okay so I started farming again. Even though I was making a pretty penny in the AH crafting gems (which I am still making great money at). I recently had a large amount of extra time to play, rather than level one of my many alt projects I decided to do a little farming since <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=52985/azsharas-veil">Azshara's Veil</a> is running for about 7-9g a piece (140-180g per stack). I noticed that I had barely any competition when farming this at peak hours. Then a /who let me discover something I always knew. People hate water levels.<br />
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I think it may have started in Super Mario 2-2. Maybe even TMNT, the damn dam level. You know what I am talking about. Diffusing bombs, running out of air, reaching out and finding those first pre-middle school cuss words that dad says when he hurts himself in the garage.<br />
<br />
So killing time waiting for my stock of meta gems to move I was able to farm about 3 stacks of Azshara in about 20-30 minutes. I also managed to farm <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=53038">obsidium ore</a> at the same time (dual gathering rogue) and I netted about 1200g total with the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=52984">stormvine</a>.<br />
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1200g in 30 minutes isn't too bad for a boring evening. If herb prices are rocketing pre-raid days on your server get a beverage, some tunes and do a circuit. I also run windowed mode and stream netflix sometimes.<br />
<br />
Watch Die Hard, make about 4800g for kicks at the same time. I also bind my water mount to "Z" since I think drawing weapons is a pretty stupid key binding.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2684413381034520813.post-77412694520230634222011-01-27T13:25:00.000-08:002011-01-27T13:25:25.718-08:00Processing ElementiumThere has not been a post here in quite some time. This has a lot to do with waiting for the cata tweaks and inflation to adjust. While waiting for the markets to normalize I have been busy making tons of gold in the meta market.<br />
<br />
Why meta gems?<br />
<br />
1.) I have 2 transmutation specialist alchemists so I can proc on making my meta gems (not that two matters since there is no cooldown on making meta gems).<br />
2.) there is no cooldown on making meta gems.<br />
3.) I have two jewelcrafters at my disposal so we can double the rate at which we acquire recipes<br />
4.) There are not a lot of people saturating the meta market so competition across many patterns is very low<br />
<br />
So I purchase large amounts of elementium which on my server range from 2g to 5+g per peice (I am thresholding this at about 3.5-3.8g) prospect all this while playing internet poker and then load the ah every night.<br />
<br />
I'm making a decent profit off of this and an additional amount when I add in the blue gems I am cutting and auctioning or auctioning raw depending on the current market position. I notice that Ocean sapphires are going well over their cut versions often.<br />
<br />
I'll be posting more soon!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2684413381034520813.post-27326689016921524612010-12-14T07:53:00.000-08:002010-12-14T07:53:10.847-08:00Take AdvantageOne week into the expansion and demand is soaring. Are you seeing peak demand due to all the players leveling and gearing to raid? It is time to take advantage of that while leveling your professions at the same time. Don't hold on to anything that is from cataclysm. Cut, Craft and SELL because this is the biggest demand peak you will see in the next two years.<br />
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If you can farm your own mats you will make the highest profit margin you may see until the next expansion. I suggest leveling a farming toon first if you have one and then crafting and posting as you progress through the areas. My personal example is mining and jewel crafting. Just clearing the Hyjal area on my miner I was able to make close to 7,000g with jewelcrafting the ore he mined as he quested. Now at level 82 and in Deepholm he has made close to another 7,000g and this is within 5 hours of play time.<br />
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Next week will be the beginning of the decline on the demand for goods. I expect by December 21st to begin seeing enchanting and gem prices normalize based on their drop rates. The next market to show a demand peak will probably be raid mats once people gear to 85. After raids pick up look at stocking some items for the new pvp season.<br />
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There is a fortune to be made so now is the time to get to work and stop reading! (oh wait it's a patch day :P )Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2684413381034520813.post-30131766360557452372010-09-21T07:58:00.000-07:002010-09-21T08:08:57.100-07:00Cataclysm Stock PileWith new content within months of release it's time to start talking about liquidating the bubble goods in your bank and stocking up on the long term items which will gain in value post release.<br />
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First up is the bubble goods, typically everything that is top line end game consumable or a item with little to know collecting potential.<br />
<br />
DO NOT WANT<br />
<ul><li>epic gems (cut and uncut)</li>
<li>boe epics</li>
<li>item enhancements</li>
<ul><li>spell threads </li>
<li>armor kits</li>
<li>enchantments (end game level)</li>
<li>belt buckles </li>
</ul>
<li><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=36910">titanium ore</a> and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=41163">titanium bars</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=44128">arctic furs</a>,<a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=38557"> icy dragonscales</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=38558">nerubian chitin</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=38561">jormunger scales</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=33470">frostweave cloth</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=36908">Frost Lotus</a></li>
</ul><div>Most of these goods listed above are not used past 425 when skilling up a profession or a less expensive item can be found in substitution (in other words you can get to your cataclysm level training without anything listed above). epic gems and item enhancements will be replaced in cataclysm with new end tier enhancements.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Next up we have the keep list. If you already have these goods in your inventory I would try to hold off using them before cataclysm as their value will rise 3-5 months after the release of the expansion. If you do not have these goods, try skimming them out of the auction house on a low bid increasing your margins even more as we wait for cataclysm to be released.</div><div><br />
</div><div>KEEP</div><div><ul><li>Eternals (<a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=35622">water </a>and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=35624">earth</a>)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=38425">Heavy Borean Leather</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=36912">Saronite Ore</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=36916">Cobalt Bars</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=34057">Abyss Crystals</a> to smash!</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=34055">Greater Cosmic Essences</a></li>
<li>Green uncut Gems</li>
<li>all northerend herbs<u> except <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=36908">frost lotus</a></u></li>
</ul><div>This list might go further but the idea behind it is keep anything that is required to level a profession and keep them in the most beneficial format (hold stacks of greater cosmic essences instead of stacks of lesser)</div></div><div><br />
</div><div>Here is my additional tip to the big time stock pile: <b>use the 30 day mail between alts to hold this inventory until the demand is peaking which I predict to be after the first progression raid is on farm for your server.</b></div><div><b><br />
</b></div><div>Why wait so long?</div><div><br />
</div><div>Well after a guild gets something on farm, the alts and power leveling of professions is what many turn to in downtime while waiting for blizzard to release something new to conquer. The first raid that gets farmed generally is when most returning players are active. Therefore more buyers.<br />
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One last little thing to watch for is people dumping items that may be more valuable to process. And example would be someone putting 100 raw <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=36930">monarch topaz</a> on the Auction House for less than 4.5g If you have a jewelcrafter than you can easily cut and vendor them at a profit. I anticipate this happening for several items so keep your snatch list up to date!</div><ul></ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2684413381034520813.post-76971484743652952132010-09-15T11:55:00.000-07:002010-09-15T13:56:52.372-07:00Guild Research is Gold(en)You can prevent the loss of sales and gain additional revenue and supplies by researching guilds on your realm and talking with their officers. This article will use mostly pve guilds as an example but many of the principles can be applied across the board.<br />
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Know who is buying what, when they are buying it, and what they are buying it for. If a major guild has a set raiding schedule know their schedule, know the guilds policies and how they acquire the consumables needed for their raids. If they craft their own feasts then find out where they get their base mats from, if they buy their feasts work out a deal to meet them 1 day before their raid or on a similar basis and be their provider. Do they make flasks or buy them, are the members left on their own to come with supplies? Make sure you stock your auctions based on the guilds needs or deal with them directly.<br />
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If you know that they don't need a specific item when they raid then hold out on putting it up for sale until a guild that does use the item. Let's look at some flasks for an example. Lets say Guild A raids Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday and Guild B raids Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Now you could have a routine of placing 20 flasks in per night at Xg. But with some research you find out that guild A crafts their own flasks with mats from the AH and build B buys flasks directly. Lets also say you are slightly overstocked on icethorn. With your guild research you know that guild A will probably buy your icethorn on Tuesday or buy out any competition and you can get a higher amount for your overstock. Then you can also put maybe 10 flasks in on Tuesday instead of your usual 20 and then move the extra 10 to place auctions in quantities of 30 on Wednesday and Thursday for 48 hours.<br />
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these adjustments on a larger scale will create a large increase in your profits over time. especially if the price is fluctuating based on demand. This research gives you a better roi for your flasks and a smarter outlet for excess herbs taking up space in your bank.<br />
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The idea of learning more about guild schedules is pretty easy. Another important item to watch guilds for is their progression level. If they get 50-75% of a raid on farm chances are they are disenchanting a lot of items on a weekly bases. most guilds let these shards pile up or they auction them and have to manage the auction house in addition to their guilds. You can be a great service and setup a relationship with their bank officer, make them an offer to purchase their excess shards or items at 30% less then the current AH rate. Every time the guild is done on a Monday you meet the bank officer and purchase their stock, extras whatever they have for you. Flip it for 25% (30% - AH fee of 5%) or use it for your crafting.<br />
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Keep an eye out for drama, breakups, and server transfers. Characters max at the 10,000g for a transfer so they will probably try to cap as many trustworthy members as possible. Dumping large amounts of raiding mats and items onto the AH at a low buyout to get the gold. Players leaving with large stocks of raiding mats also will usually liquidate their stocks.<br />
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Reading on the forums, paying attention to what guilds are popular and which are not in chat will be a very useful tool to tweak your sales and make relationships that lead to new streams of cash.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2684413381034520813.post-46877022869139694752010-09-03T09:48:00.000-07:002010-09-03T11:55:01.868-07:00Understanding your Server: Trends of DemandA lot of people getting into to the Auction house or people who are hesitant to do so usually have had an experience of not fully understanding their server or at least the current trend of demand. Taking the time to figure out what is going on around you on your realm can make a big difference in your item sales.<br />
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Trend of demand is something that every realm of wow is affected by. PVP, RP, PVE servers all have different and similar demand trends and understanding these is a key component of understanding the auction house mechanics and the natural cycle of materials through your realms virtual economy.<br />
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Picture the circle of life that you might have heard of from grade school or from Elton John. Now apply this idea to wow and overlap it with many other circles. Trend of demand affects one ore many circle(s) of goods. There are a few things that have major affects on trends that you should already know about.<br />
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Patches and Expansions being the first. Whenever new content is on it's way people unload their mats and goods to "not be that guy stuck with everything" when it gets undervalued. Much like the housing bubble of 2008-2009. You want to sell and unload your goods before it pops. Every content cycle in WoW is a similar bubble especially in the consumable pve market (flasks, cut gems, item enhancements ect). PvP seasons can also fall into this category, however keep in mind that many markets will become more popular at the start of a new PvP season and you should be prepared for material prices to increase in addition to competition.<br />
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Aged content that has been cleared and is on farm (at least normal modes) is another major game change for many Circles. When guilds are spending hours wiping on a boss potions and food items are much more valuable. If you pay attention to the longterm trend of fish feasts during periods of progressive PVE in WOTLK you will see when your server aged through it's content. The easier it is cleared the less demand for fish and pots.<br />
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Guilds with large or dedicated membership will also shift goods around your realms economy. If a large guild is rumored to be breaking up or transferring then you can expect a material dump as people leave. Smaller realms will be affected by this much more than a large realm with a stable economy. The key is to pay attention to what is going on in the social portion of your server because that is going to have an effect on the auction house as much as small patch which changes a raw material mechanic such as the purchasable frost lotus. Guild research is so important that I will probably be doing another post shortly on how beneficial it is.<br />
<br />
These few examples should be obvious to many but they should also get you thinking about other things that could be affecting your realms economy. Please feel free to share your thoughts and realm trends in the comments.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0