So you're trying new methods to make gold in WoW and you come across this interesting addon called TradeSkillMaster also know as just TSM. You read stories about how lots of people are getting millions of gold with it and you decide to try it out. In your first 10 minutes using it you become overwhelmed with all the configurations required to make it work, but do not fear, I present you the How to Use TSM4 series, starting with one of its most famous features: Sniper.

In this guide I will show how to set everything up in the most simple way. It only takes a few minutes, promise!

What is Sniper?

Sniper is a TSM module that scans the first and last pages of the AH searching for items which are priced below their market value, allowing you to buy them out immediatly or make a bid on the last minutes. Afterwards you can resell them at their actual market value and collect a great profit. Sounds amazing, right? Let me show you an easy way to get started using TSM Sniper, in just a few steps.

How to get started with Sniper

You need three things to make it work: the TSM4 addon, the TSM App Helper addon and the TSM Desktop App.

(1) Installing the addons should be a no-brainer for you. Simply download the TradeSkillMaster and the TradeSkillMaster_AppHelper addons from your usual addon database. Personally I use the Twitch app to search for these addons and keep them updated.

(2) Register for free on the TSM website and install the TSM Desktop App by downloading it there. (Official Website: https://www.tradeskillmaster.com). This app is where you will automatically obtain the market value of items for your server. It updates its database several times a day and then sends the information to your TSM addon through the TSM_AppHelper.

After following the previous step, make sure that everything is working correctly with your TSM Desktop App by seeing if your data is updated (orange rectangle below). If it shows you the current date you are ready to start Sniping! To do it, just open the AH and select the "Sniper" option on the TSM module window.

In the next menu you can choose to do a Buyout or Bid scan.

• The Buyout scan will search the first pages of the AH for items below market value and will show you their buyout price and the percentage of market value which that price represents. As it keeps finding items, it will put them in a list where you can see more details and buy them out with just 2 clicks.
• The Bid scan will search the last pages of the AH for items below market value which are only a few minutes away from having their listing removed, so you can easily make a last-minute bid and win the auction.

Just choose one those options and start scanning the AH like a true goblin. Usually you can find more deals using the Buyout scan because it's continuously scanning the most recent postings so you have a high chance of being the one who sees a bargain first. Give it a try, but don't start trying to flip every item you see just because it's on the Sniper window. Make sure you're fully informed about market values before you pull the trigger - remember uninformed flipping is dangerous.

And that's it, you're now a fully licensed AH sniper!

TSM already has a scan criteria by default, that's why it's so easy to set up and start doing it. If you want to snipe by using your own criteria you can always change the string used for the search. This is for the more advanced users, but you can do it by opening the TSM options menu (type /tsm) and editing the Sniper Operations.

If you found this post useful and want to learn more about how to use TSM4 the easy way, drop a comment and let me know!

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This is part I of the new Finding New Markets series. In this series I will provide reports on several uncommon ways of making gold. Unusual items or methods of making gold will be documented here as I find them.

For this first episode I'm bringing you Shadoweave Masks.

Credit. Wowhead.com

What's so special about this headpiece item? I mean, it's just a bandana...

It's a requirement for one of the riddles that lead you to the Lucid Nightmare mount - a unique mount which many players desire. It's a reward for completing a series of riddles throughout Azeroth, and hundreds of players are trying to obtain it every week!

Credit. Wowhead.com

Shadoweave Masks can be crafted with Tailoring and you can learn this craft from a recipe that drops in northern Searing Gorge from the Dark Iron Steamsmiths - [Pattern: Shadoweave Mask]. The drop rate is around 0.4% and you should be able to get it by farming the dwarves for around 30 minutes depending on your luck.

Credit. Wowhead.com

The materials needed to craft the mask are the following:

• 2x [Bolt of Mageweave]
• 8x [Shadow Silk]
• 2x [Heavy Silken Thread]

You now have two options. Choose the cheapest one for you:

(1) Gather the materials yourself by farming the dwarves and spiders of Searing Gorge that drop the Mageweave Cloth and the Spider Silk (with a low drop rate)

(2) Buy the materials directly on the AH and apply a chunky markup to obtain a high profit

Depending on your server's economy you can now choose one of these options and see the gold coming in.You will be surprised by the demand that exists for this item. It's not a fast-selling piece but you will be able to keep a steady source of income from them, even if you can only sell 4-5 a week. I have seen other players obtain profits of over 7,500 gold per mask which is a nice addition to any goblin's portfolio, specially if the materials are available at the AH for low prices and the low effort it requires once you already have the pattern.

Try it out on your server and see how it goes. Is there any other unusual item that you usually craft to make such a profit? Share it with us below!

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There are dozens of ways to make gold in WoW, but it's just as important to know how not to lose it. If you're making mistakes that cost you thousands every week, you will never fulfill your potential to be rich, even if you're dominating the AH in your server. So here are the top 3 strategies that will make you lose gold. Pro tip: don't follow them.

Trying to control a market

Let's picture this scenario: you see a specific market where everyone made crazy undercuts and sank the prices below crafting costs. The market has been like that for weeks, you happen to have a load of gold in your bag and you think "You know what, I could buy all this and just post the items and reset this market by posting at any price I please". STOP RIGHT THERE!

This is one of the most dangerous things you could do with your shiny hard-earned gold coins. Some will say it's a high-risk/high-reward situation, but it's a trap. It's like shifting sands, where the more you move trying to get out, the more you get stuck in there (increasing your chance of dying, by the way).

If you want to continuously control a market you will need to buy every single item day after day. You might be able to earn some gold for a while, but eventually you won't be able to catch up with all the players who post items every day. This is specially true in high-population servers, where the goblin-to-normal-player ratio is 1 to 100,000. Over time, this procedure will become to heavy for you to handle and you will start losing money. Don't throw your gold coins in a bottomless pit.

Uninformed flipping

So we all have that friend who made millions flipping items on the AH, taking advantage of the poor blokes who wrote a few less zeros than they intended. That's actually a good method to become rich in this game, but it's not as easy as it seems. 

Some markets are being manipulated by some players to trick you into thinking they're worth more than they really are. You see, when you're scanning the AH prices, several people have posted items way more expensive than they should be just to make you record that price and consider it "market price". After a few AH scans, the more uninformed goblin could start thinking every price in his database is fair, and suddenly every single BFA BoE will seem like a bargain you can flip and triple your investment. Never forget: you need more than a few AH scans to consider your database reliable, and even after dozens of them you should always be careful and make sure you know what you're doing. For example, check out resources such as the Lazy Goldmaker's guide to flipping BFA materials or other resources you can find online!

Don't let yourself become that poor uninformed goblin who lost thousands trying to be a flipping master.

Not adapting to change

This is the most important point on the list. Like any economy, WoW's economy is dynamic and goes through continuous change. Market trends rise and fall, and a savvy goblin knows how to ride these waves without stress. If you're not able to adapt your strategies and create new ones you risk losing thousands of gold or earning less than optimal amounts of it. 

Even if Blizzard nerfs one of your gold-making methods you should always accept it as part of life and move on to finding new markets. This way you will save yourself the stress of losing a source of income, and at the same time you can look at it as a chance to go through the fun process of finding new markets to take advantage of! There's no point in becoming toxic about it. This is just a game and these challenges are part of it.

Are you guilty of any of these mistakes? Let me know your worst AH mistake in the comments below!

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...in fact, it was too good!

At first, I feared the worst. ZeroAuctions wouldn't work. QA+Fix wouldn't work. After spending over half an hour trying to sort it, I realised QA was working but had no item groups in it (ZA probably messed it up or something). The solution: building item groups all the way from the start and getting in the AH as fast as possible. And it all worked fine after that little obstacle!

I just regret not having as many glyphs as my server demands (the usual after-patch syndrome). The demand was overwhelming, I never thought there would be so many buyers. After roughly 1 hour and a half (right after lunch time, so not a peak time), I had already managed to get over 3,000g profit.

During the rest of the afternoon, and during the evening, the rest of my stock of glyphs was sold, and I'm now sitting on over 65,000 gold. Lots of glyphs were priced way over 100 gold, and even competitors messaged me trying to keep it that way (Hey Cheapglyphs!). We even discussed which glyphs were hot so we could craft more!

Now, onto other subjects! Still getting used to my Restoration Shaman again, as they changed a few spells and added new stuff. Healing Surge, the new Greater Healing Wave, and other spells still sound weird to me. Soon, I shall go do some instances and practice some rotations, as mana management seems harder now (so I heard from experienced players).
2/3/31 seemed like a good spec, so that's what I chose. Hopefully, the ideal Resto spec won't be too different from mine.

The whole UI changes are also pretty amazing, and it feels nice to have a fresh UI! (despite those nasty addon errors everywhere, huh...)

Overall, it was a great day for a WoW gamer!

How was your patch day, how did you adapt to it?


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This is a new series that I'm starting, to show you that it is possible to become a rich player while leveling,  by playing through levels 1-25 (the noob levels!), and therefore it's even easier to be rich at level 80.

I have created a Warrior for this purpose, and I'll just skip the initial area because there's really not much room for profit there. The place is just meant to get you to learn the basics, get to level 6, and start your journey.

This guide is about questing effectively, and using the Dungeon Tool to get mats, and XP (Heirlooms are optional, but they're a great help)

There are 3 main rules you should always keep in your mind from this point onwards:

1. Always loot EVERYTHING in the mobs that you kill. You will need to vendor every grey item, and keep some white items with you to sell at the AH (meat, low level gems, etc.). The money you get from this will be your base money. This is the money you will always keep in your bags, no matter what, so you can acquire stuff that is necessary, so why not pick everything up?
2. Get 2 Professions as soon as you can, but no need to stop your initial questing sprees. If you're questing, stay on it until you're done with all the quests from the city you're currently on. By level 10, I recommend you take those professions no matter what, but until then don't rush it.
3. Be fast, be effective, and don't waste time. Time is money! This guide is about leveling fast and make money fast, so there's no other way for you to be than being fast!

I took Tailoring and Enchanting on my new character for this experiment, but Tailoring was more of a thing I've wanted to have for a long time, and I didn't find many ways to profit at such a low level (I'm expecting a lot from Bags in the future though!). Enchanting was the main money source, and I'll tell you how.

Get to level 15 as fast as you can. After this, you'll be able to join the LFG Tool while leveling and this is where the real game begins.

With Enchanting, I was able to disenchant everything and create hundreds of Dusts and Essences while doing instances. With all these mats, you can either sell them immediatly OR level up your Enchanting a bit, and sell some of those cool enchants everyone buys all the time (Beastslayer for red glow, +Damage for blue glow, you name it)

With Tailoring, profits are definitely lower in this stage, but you can still sell Linen/Woolen Shirts (people buy them very often actually, for their "fun" costumes). I have found that Woolen Bags actually sell very well too, specially on weekends, so you should try that on your server and see if it works!

After reaching the level 23-25 stage, my Professions were already at the 100+ level, and making money became even easier...

So, if you've come this far in the guide, what are you waiting for to make lots of gold on your new character? The noob status doesn't last forever, and you're just about to stop being one!

Interested in more episodes of this noob guide? Let me know!


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Good ol' Moroes is right. Preparations must be made...for Cataclysm. That's right, I am late once again, and I've only recently started to prepare my bags for Cataclysm. But insane profits are on my wishlist for this year's early Christmas (November 2, so I've heard), so take a look at my current arrangements.

Saronite Ore (and others)
Been investing a lot in hundreds of stacks of Saronite and a few dozens of stacks of the rest of the ores. I'm currently sitting on nearly 200 stacks of Saronite and raising every day. Not so sure how I will handle them all at the expansion launch, but I'll find a way! I heard these things will get a surge of demand because of all the new Alchemists and Engineers (those greedy green new guys in the Horde) that will show up, so I didn't think twice and started stockpiling right away.
Current investment: Close to 3,000 gold.

Inscription Goods
Inscription has been one of the best sources of income for me and even though it's still not certain how it will work in Cataclysm, I think it surely won't die. Therefore, I've been getting the cheapest herbs, and started building my Cata-labeled stocks of glyphs for all classes, vellums, inks, runescrolls, nearly everything that this Profession can provide! I'm still working on what to do with the leftover inks I will have after all this, as I haven't read a lot about them yet, but hopefully they won't become useless (pretty please, Blizzard?). In summary, I'm expecting a deja-vu of 3.2 all over again. Are you with me?

What else are you hoarding for Cataclysm, and why are you certain that it will provide profit?


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A whole week has gone by and it wasn't as bad as I expected. Last week I showed you that I had 13,939g 59s 22c, and after a whole week of work remembering how to look at the AH from a smart salesman's perspective, this is what I reached:

That's right, my first week after returning was amazing. I spent lots of gold leveling Blacksmithing on my DK (still on BC levels at the moment), and I still managed to reach 24,000 gold (10,000 more than what I had one week ago!), and I'm tremendously happy with this. In detail, I've sold glyphs, runescrolls, gems, powders...and I flipped lots of goods like pets and item enhancement stuff (those two never let me down). My motivation really paid off, as this is a record for me. However, I know that it's possible to get a higher weekly average by using every profession in the perfect harmony, and I'm still working on gathering stuff to powerlevel a few extra professions.

Yeah, Inscription is dead. It's a shame you can't make gold with it anymore...


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 After a few days of endless AH investigations, I have found that many markets are based on dull principles (at least in my point of view). Lots of them have pseudo-barons that flood like maniacs and usually buy the items from whoever posts in their domain so they can be the only ones selling. Maybe they're not so pseudo in the end, because they should actually make gold from such a technique, but guess what I've been having fun with!

The gem markets (both Rare and Epic ones), the Metals market (both Ores and Bars), even some aspects the Inscription Markets! I had a lot of fun posting stuff way over the cheapest price, and they all sold. They would either sell because Mr. Baron bought them, or because the cheapest ones sold and Mr. Baron wasn't paying attention, so mine sold afterwards. Either way I had 100% guaranteed sales at excellent prices, especially from 9 PM to 3 AM (it seems this is the absolute peak on my server every night). I guess I could call myself the King of the Night.

 I really shine at the AH at night!

Remember to always search for the flaws in your server's markets!


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Too Greedy seems to be missed by quite a few people (thank you loyal followers!), and I came back to WoW recently so I might aswell make this work again. Quick recap: I'm on the server Karazhan-EU, and I'm trying to prepare for Cataclysm, while gathering a few coins in the process. I've gone mad for gold again, and the AH has been my playground for a whole week. The glyph market doesn't seem as profittable anymore, and I'm ashamed to say that I only had Inscription and JC for a good while because my toons are now spread across a few European servers and right now (on Karazhan) I only got those 2. My goal is to have some more professions as quick as possible so I can expand to more markets, because Cataclysm is on its way. Yep, I've been a slacker! But I'm trying to correct it now, and this is how I'm standing:

Surprised I'm this poor? I lost money during the server transfer. 20K was the limit and I brough the rest in item value. Some items were missing, I bought some vanity stuff just for fun, and some other lame stuff happened (and the GMs didn't fix it), and I was down to the 10K-ish level again. Not complaining, just looking forward to take a lesson out of this, and I have already made a few coins just from a couple of days of looking around the AH (still trying to raise my pace, so to speak). All the markets have changed a lot since the last time I played and I'm still trying to adapt.

WoW is different and I'm feeling that Cataclysm will be huge, and I'm working hard on catching the same wave as the whole Gold Making Community. I've even been re-reading the whole JMTC Forums again just so I could remember lots of useful stuff I forgot!

Now, it is just a matter of time.

On another note, what do you think about the whole revamp around here? Need feedback on everything you see on this page!


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After all my game sessions, I mail the stuff I don't need to my lower level Paladin, who is my Bank Alt at the moment. Posting all the stuff on the AH might seem like an endless job, but it's not. All thanks to Auctioneer and its Appraiser part.



If the video is hard to understand, here are the details of all you have to do.

1. What you need is Auctioneer, and goods to sell.

2. At the AH, do a complete scan of all the auctions. The time it takes varies, depending on your PC and depending on if you choose a quick scan, or a normal scan.

3. After the scan is complete, click on the 'Appraiser' tab, on the bottom of the AH Window. This will bring up a new window with options like Stack Size, Number of Stacks, Batch Posting, etc. What you want to do, is select the items you want to sell on the list on the left of the window (this has to be done one by one, but it's really easy). Then, just choose your stack size, and click 'Enable Batch Posting' (the price should be set to Market Price already, so you probably don't have to worry with that).

• 3.1. What stack size should you choose?
  
  That depends on what item you're selling, and how many of those items people use for their professions (or any other purpose). Let me show you some examples.
  
  *Metal Bars
  People use these for Blacksmithing mainly. What you have to do is find out the most popular BS recipes and set your bar stack size accordingly. If it doesn't work, sell them 1 by 1, as it's most likely to sell rather than in full stacks. And you can often raise the price a bit if you're selling them 1 by 1. Why? Because people who only need 2 bars prefer to buy 2 bars costing 10g each, than buying a full stack costing 150g. Wouldn't you do the same if you were the buyer?
  
  *Unidentified Plant Parts (check them out in the Video)
  These can be handed in for reputation in Zangarmarsh, in stacks of 10. So, what stack size do you think people will buy the most? Of course, any multiple of 10. 10, 20, 30, 100...You choose.

 
 4. After all the details on the Appraiser tab are decided, and every item you want to sell is 'Enable Batch Posting' ticked, just Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Click the 'Batch Post' button, and the items will be posted automatically.

And that's it. If you have any question, let me know below!

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We're all slaves! Slaves to the gold. Well, some are more than others, but if you think about, your power in this game has a limit, and that's not the limit of the gear stats, it's the gold you have. Let's take a look at this.

If you're a raider, you need several things to be at your top game: enchants, gems (epic ones), belt buckles, that extra BoE that helps you when the RNG doesn't allow to get upgrades. All these require gold, and lots of it. I see discussions all over the Internet all the time about this. Raiders need to be as good as they can, period. If you seem to be skint all the time, it's time for you to get some spare time and earn gold. It benefits you and your raidmates.

If you're a PvPer, the same principle applies. You need the best enchants and gems, thus you need lots of gold.

If you're bored, you may want to create a twink. Twinking a character requires lots of gold too.

I could go on all day with this, but my point is, gold is your limitation in anything you do, so why not take some time out of your "jumping around in Dalaran", or even your "farming herbs for selling at the AH", and actually doing something more. Jump to the next level, and try to be rich. "Well, that's easy for you to say", you might say. It's easy to say and to do. The AH is no rocket science. There's people like you there, trying to make a living. Join them!

How? The Internet is filled with information about how the AH works, and how people use it most of the times. What you have to do is taking advantage of some people's bad use of the AH. After you know those basic skills, it's just a matter of learning the right times to buy and sell, and you're set. Does it seem too hard? It isn't, that's a myth. Let's go into details, and perhaps I can even teach you something.

I mentioned that people use the AH in a wrong way previously. What I mean by this is that some people just dump their goods there and pray that they sell; they don't care about the price, all they care about is to undercut the competition. On a few cases, that's the way to go, but it often isn't. First, think about how popular the item is, and think about its probability of selling. By using common sense, you will probably find out that stuff like gems, enchants, metal, cloth, are the most popular. So, if these items sell all the time, why undercut? Every silver coin you're missing is money. Do you like to lose money? No, that's why you should not undercut in these cases. Post it a little higher than the cheapest one that is there. That one will sell, and then your item will be the first on the list. Try it and you'll see!

This is just the beginning of a neverending list of stuff you can do every day at the AH that will allow you to have no limits on this game. And does it feel nice to open the AH window and buy anything you feel like buying, just for the sake of it. Even stuff you don't really need.

I hope you find this little help useful. Make a comment below on how it works for you if you didn't know this yet!

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I have now reached 350 gold, just by questing and selling stuff in the AH. I sold several items, like:

• Netheweave Cloth - These things drop like crazy in Hellfire Peninsula. This place is filled with humanoids and if you also do Ramparts and Blood Furnace, you'll get tons! I've raised a lot of money just from this cloth.
• Arcane Dust - Now this is where the instances played their part. With the new Disenchant (instead of Greed) option, I've managed to get quite a few of these, and do they sell well in here.
• Meat (Buzzard and Ravager) - If you have quested in Hellfire before, you sure know the crazy amount of Ravagers and Buzzards you have to kill for some quests. I have gathered a lot of meat from both these kinds of beasts.

But leveling isn't just about the gold I earn. It's about enjoying the game as a whole, and I am really enjoying doing this all over again. I'm also learning how to play a DK, and I think I'm doing well, or maybe I'm just being fooled by the number of Alliance people I have beaten, or the number of instances where I have been first on the DPS charts. Each new level I acquire means I get new skills for my DK and it has been a real challenge to find the best skill rotations (I'm Blood, by the way). I'm still far from perfect, but I think I'm in a good way to success.

Besides mentioning my gold goals, I'll also try and acquire as many nice achievements as I can. Perhaps I'll even find new stuff that I have never noticed! Meanwhile, I will also get my 2 Professions leveled; really boring farming sessions incoming!

Anything I'm missing? Let me know below!

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Time for more updates! This week, I've had some fun both in ToC and the AH. I found that resetting the prices for glyphs isn't risky because there are close to no goblins at all, and the ones who try to goblinize the market only show up every 5 days or so. Still, it's been kind of a slow income...but steady. I can now be sure to make around 1,000 gold each day if I do my work correctly and timely (craft, post, cancel, post), based on my competition's behaviour. This is definitely my favourite kind of PvP, and the most profittable too!

Raiding wise, no new gear for me, mainly because I haven't had much time to raid. Damn you, real life. The only raid I've done is a 'fun' ToC. By 'fun' I mean those raids when people decide to get together and wipe on every encounter 10 times before being successful...just for 'fun'. Still, it was better than sitting in Dalaran doing nothing. I find myself just running around there randomly...do you do this too?

I'm probably resuming raiding next Monday, so perhaps I'll get to see new stuff if I'm lucky!



Video 2G Updates have been short so far, and that's how I want them to be. For more detailed info, you just have to read the blog post :)

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I'm not getting ready for 3.3 like I did with 3.2. I don't know why, I just don't have the will to do it. In 3.2 I stockpiled Titanium. I had it planned for like more than 1 month ahead. But in 3.3, I can't find anything which I find worth stockpiling. I could go and buy thousands of Borean Leather for the first Leather-Arctic Fur conversions but I'd get crazy and buy dozens of thousands of stacks, and I don't believe I'd be able to sell them all.

Because of this, I'm sticking to Inscription as my ever lasting boat, which never sinks. In every patch, there's been a glyph rush and 3.3 should be no exception. This time, I'm putting ALL of my efforts on glyphs and maybe I can get large amounts of gold.

How will I prepare for it then?

I will start rising my stock of inks and 1 week before the patch hits, I will craft every glyph available, giving special attention to the ones I know that will be most popular. I hope to be at the AH all night, not even lag will stop me (it didn't on 3.2, and believe me, posting/crafting 10 glyphs each 7 minutes is a bit awkward), so I better have enough glyphs on my mule. That way I won't have to go to my Scribe and craft more unless it really gets out of control.

Will this be enough? Maybe not, but I just don't feel like stockpiling a stuff to fill a whole Guild Bank again. Something tells me that it won't be necessary to stockpile stuff in order to make money this time. However, there should be more ways of making money without too much risk (= large investment).
What are you doing/will do to make money when 3.3 arrives?

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2006. Pre-TBC. "The days when having epics meant something". Was it better than today?

I found this while browsing the web: WoW @ 60. It's a (now outdated) guide that teached 'new' 60's what to do when they got to max level. They could do instances like Stratholme, Scholomance, Blackrock Spire/Depths (which were raids at that time, by the way); they could do some nice quest chains...everything required a solid group to beat. And hell, it would be hard to get a 40 people PuG back in those days. Was it enough?

PvP "wasn't balanced"; has it ever been? Rogues only needed one skill to kill people. Shamans only needed Frost Shock to crit and they were successful. Basically, it wasn't much different from nowadays, except for the whole plethora of skills you have to use now. The only totally new thing that was implemented in PvP was Arenas, but that's a whole new story.

My point is: was it a lot different? Therefore, was it better or worse back then?

It was definitely worse from a 'casual' point of view. Very few had epics back then, and whoever did was admired by others, who only managed to get blues from 'lower quality' raids. Doing MC/BWL/OL meant you were pro. You were recognised by your T2 helm. Having a Thunderfury was amazing, and it actually required effort rather than luck to obtain.

From a hardcore player point of view, it was probably better, because people complimented their gear and how pro they were. I'm sure they loved that, everyone does. However, they can't say it was better because content was harder to beat. I'm willing to say that I find some encounters from WotLK (Hard Modes) even harder than MC or BWL.

I'm completely sure there will never be a conclusion about the previously stated questions. It's something that people will always be divided about, but if we think about it, we have a much bigger variety of stuff to do now, than we did in 2006. We got lots of intances, heroic instances, barber shops, arenas, a lot of dailies, achievements...I could go on all day. And last, but not least, 2 new professions: Jewelcrafting (introduced in TBC) and Inscription (introduced in Wrath). And that's why I prefer WotLK against Vanilla. It wasn't as easy to make money as it is now, not even close. A lot more money circulates; people have new things to buy (which they didn't back in pre-TBC), specially 'must-have' items like gems and glyphs. That's why those 2 professions are the best features ever. I make insane amounts of money with them. With that money, I make sure that I am properly prepared for my raids (or any activity I'm part of), and I can certainly enjoy the game more than I did 3 years ago, and still not be a hardcore player.

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My gear is significantly better since my last update. I finally got a new mace, a new ring, and a new totem.

 

 

My performances have been rising in quality also. A few days ago, I've even reached 5,000 HPS on ToC 25 Heroic (a very good achievement for me). With all these upgrades, I'm also able to reach 3,000 Spell Power when I'm fully buffed and flasked. Things are working good for me, and I'm starting to enjoy playing again, now that I've got more time.

My guild's progress has improved also. We've finally killed Yogg-Saron on 25 man, and we're clearing every Normal Mode currently available in the game every Wednesday and Thursday, which allows us to go for Hard Modes on Mondays (our 3rd raid day).

That's it for the raiding updates. Now, onto even more shiny things: gold coins. The glyph market on the Horde is definitely worth it, just like on the Alliance. The glyphs have usually higher prices than they did on the Alliance, and they actually sell very often. The competition isn't very strong also, so I'm lucky once again!

Here's a partial example of a few hours after my posting session:

 The total income was 543g.

(Oh, the accent!)

Yes, some glyphs sell for over 30-40g, and those are not even fallback prices! I'm digging deeper and deeper onto the glyph market every day, and my total glyph posting should reach 500 soon like they did on the Alliance. I still haven't got rid of the laziness and haven't really tried to even go mill "a few" herbs now that I'm over 50k gold. I've lost some of my momentum, but my regular income from glyphs is usually around 500g per posting session (only 200ish glyphs), which covers my raiding costs easily. Maybe I'll get going for 100k if I get the motivation for it soon. Until then, sorry, but don't expect those nice profits over 2k.

That is all for now! Things are definitely looking good.

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Boubouille from MMO-Champion posted an Auction House Guide yesterday. There were lots of QQ replies to the topic I linked, stating he had just crashed every economy on every server in the world. There's also a topic at the JMTC Forums discussing it.

People will always QQ about everything, no exceptions, but I'm not discussing this now. What I found interesting in Boub's post was the fact that his intentions were based on "everyone should be able to do X, because only 0.1% of the WoW population uses these methods [or mods, or whatever]". Why would he use his website's popularity to spread info among "everyone"? Why is he also intending to give away an Inscription guide (like if I didn't have enough glyph undercutters already)? He must have some sort of "background" interest, by revealing this kind of methods most people don't even suspect about.

Still... there are ways for us old-school (who knew how to play the AH way before Boub's post) players who have already grown roots to the floors of the Orgrimmar/SW/(...) banks and Auction Houses. Think to yourselves, what will all those uneducated and gold hungry masses do? They'll surely buy the materials which the new "Gold Expert" Boubouille told them, and they'll face one out of two situation: either they'll find an empty market, because another MMO-C reader bought everything first, or they will arrive first, and buy everything, regardless of the prices. This means that they're lucky because they brainlessly bought lots of stacks of items which will give profit after all, or they'll fail miserably and will end up with even less money than they started  (they'll go angry, like some people did when they took Markco's advice on Icy Dragonscales). Nonetheless, all these miracle techniques to earn gold will only be well used by a few, so it's not as much of a big deal as some may think. We all know those methods don't work on every server.

But... no, I'm not against Boubouille! Good for him if he did it just to be a "good" website admin to his users.

Although I'm not against Boub, I'm far from concerned with it. Since I'm pretty sure the herb markets may dry (even if just for a few days) when the Inscription Guide is released, I actually took a look at my bank and found hundreds of inks. So, markets drying mean less supply of inks. Brainless MMO-C readers (there should be a lot of them who will go buy stuff right away) will just find inks for sale and buy them even for insane prices, which means lots of profits for me. A few weeks later, the dust will settle anyway, because I don't believe many people will actually like to use their (limited) precious playing time just to mill herbs and post glyphs, and I'll be back to my regular routine. Am I being to confident? Perhaps, but I've learnt that underestimating the brainless WoW masses is always the way to go. They always follow another person's way of thinking, and think they've found the golden eggs for life.

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What changed besides my race (and therefore, faction)? Everything. And that includes the Auction House and its markets.

Glyphs have way higher prices. The majority of them sell for over 10g, which seems like a good thing. What I don't know yet is how often they sell. If they don't sell very often, 10g each might not be a good thing after all. Next week there will be a glyph market report.

Gems are amazing sellers here. Epics are usually over 250g, and Blues are around 50g in average. They sell quite well, even out of raid end times (22.00-23.00). I've made a couple thousand gold from gems just on the first few days after faction changing!

I'm yet to discover how profittable both this markets will be long-term, but you can definitely expect some more detailed analysis soon. I haven't had much time yet to get into the weekly market flows, so can't have accurate information for now.

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Out of money? Go farm, if you're not willing to spend time at the AH, or working with your professions. Farming can be relaxing. You can treat the mobs as dummies who you can hit to test your DPS...but it's a dummy with loot! If you farm often enough, you can get rich too.

Are you bored? Go farm! You may think farming is boring, but if you do it as a hobby instead of a daily chore, it gets funny. You can even do it while watching TV, or listening to the radio.

Basically, any status you acquire while playing this game can be "cleansed" by going farming.

So, go farm!

Here's a list of nice places to farm stuff:

Storm Peaks: Here, you can farm elemental stuff (crystallized X), Iceweb Spider Silk, ...
Sholazar Basin: Icy Dragonscales, Chilled Meat, ...
Borean Tundra: Rhino Meat, ...
Howling Fjord: Shoveltusk Flanks, Icy Dragonscales, ...

These are just a few from the top of my head, but you can be sure they're all profittable (on most servers, because there are exceptions).

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• Day Two

On Day 2, there were slight changes. My ink cost was significantly reduced due to the fact that my Snowfall Inks sold, therefore my net profit rose...a lot.

The day started with the posting of another 500 glyphs, my second batch. I have to admit that I cancelled-undercut a bit more than I did on Day 1, and perhaps that's why I got better results too, along with the lower ink cost.

Summarising day 2, I can say I tried a little harder and it paid off.

Results

The results were certainly positive. At the end of day 2, here's the net profit:

(Bear in mind that this is day 1 and day 2 combined. The result of day 1 was 2,041g. Therefore, the result of day 2 was 3,951g.)

Now, let's analyze what I did during these 2 days, and how you can do it too.

You must be willing to spend 1-2 hours before actually posting the glyphs. Buy herbs for milling. If there are no herbs at the AH for good prices, just buy the inks. They're usually not very expensive. Use Quick Auctions, always. Go to the AH, type /qa summary and scan data for Glyphs. Anything that sells above your threshold must be crafted. Then, it's just a matter of posting the glyphs, and cancelling-reposting whenever you get the time among your other activities. There's no need to be an AH camper. If you follow these steps (anyone can do them, and you don't need to play 24/7, like I mentioned before), you're on your way to success. On the other hand, if you follow these steps on my server, I may not be too happy about it!

( /point Nectarine )

Just kidding...!

Now, some answers to the "Part 1" post comments:

Out of interest, how do you have your groups set up in QA?

by Sarainy (hey, free link love ^^)

I would tell you, but to be honest, my competition would love to know too. But it's not really important for me to mention my specific configurations anyway. I'll explain how you should config your own. Basically, your threshold (the minimum price you sell your glyphs for) should be a bit higher than your ink cost (this topic at JMTC should help), say 1g or so above your ink cost. The undercut value is up to you, but usually a few copper/silver is okay, and that's what everyone uses (except Goblins). The fallback value should be high, but shouldn't seem like an outrage. Usually 35-45g is the way to go, but you may find yourself pricing it differently depending on what people on your server are willing to pay (some are willing to pay more than those values; some would think they're way too high), which you will only find out after you try several different prices. About the auction time, 12 hours is what I use (and I guess everyone else does too, because of all the undercutting that happens on this market).

Can't wait for day 2!!! Yesterday I just start leveling my Inscription and ended with 100 auctions (and I'm not lvl 200 skill yet!!).

by Raddik

Not bad. Keep it going, and you'll be amazed on how many auctions you post when you've got most or all the glyph recipes ;)

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