#3: Blacksmithing: Status and a Summary on AH Fees

Fees Suck

Post Focus:  Blacksmithing

Skill Level:  Beginner



My Blacksmith is by far my oldest character.  I've seen the profession (and the class) change pretty drastically over the years.  I've always liked the profession and found it useful for gearing yourself to some extent.  Lately, I've been looking for means of making money via Blacksmithing.  Here's what I've learned and a report on what's working and not.

As you'll see, this summary really shows how important it is to have alts with multiple professions.  You'll see that by funneling resources through your own characters that it will really open up the doors to making more serious gold.

What's Selling:

1.  Epics, ...on demand.  The BS epic items are taught via recipes purchased from the Blacksmithing vendor in major cities or Twilight Highlands.  These usually sell, but I'd recommend only making them when you have a buyer lined up in trade chat.  They will require a list of mats that buyers will often provide.  They also require (soulbound) Chaos Orbs which require you running heroics.  What to charge for your Chaos Orbs will vary from server to server.  The more, the better, of course.  I also don't know of any rare recipes available (as of 4.1) that allow for the crafting of epic items beyond what the vendor sells (readers will likely inform me via comment below if additional recipes are available).

You can also make them and post them on the AH.  There's often not a lot of competition due to the risk of not being able to sell them.  I rarely see more than 2 of any BS epic listed.  Getting into an undercut battle with these sorts of item can quickly whittle away profits and should be avoided.

2.  Obsidium Skeleton Keys.  These are probably what I sell the most of.  They cost very little to make.  2x Obsidium Bars crafts in to 1x Folded Obsidium which crafts in to 2x Obsidium Skeleton Keys.  Total cost to craft is 2-3g per key.  I typically post 20 per night (48 hours at 13g50s) and sell between 5 and 10 per 24 hours usually.  There's also virtually no competition on my server.  At the time of this post, I've seen 2 other sellers in the past month.  The rest of the time, it's been all me.  Price them at where ever you want, but remember that these only open locked chests and most items in there aren't worth more than 13g or so.  Go much higher and they won't sell very well.

3.  Greater Eternal Essence.  I know, I know... What's this item doing on my list, right?  It starts with crafting Enchanted Thorium Blades.  I can craft these for 6x Thorium Bar, 2x Enchanted Thorium Bar and 1x Rugged Leather.  Total cost is around 11g.  These items will disenchant in to the following

1.  1-4x Greater Eternal Essence (Bountiful Bags guild perk is awesome)

2.  1-2x Illusion Dust

3.  1-2x Large Brilliant Shard

The Greater Eternal Essences sell for 25-36g each on my server.  When one 11g item can DE in to 4x GEE's at 36g each, that can add up to some serious cash.  There's been a bit more competition lately, but for the most part, I'm usually one of 2 sellers and I have the most to sell by far.  You have a lot of room to undercut due to the huge markup on these items.  I usually undercut them pretty harshly if they post large amounts.  I don't want them to feel welcome in my market.  When no one else posts, it's back to 36g each and they sell fast even at that price.

The Illusion Dusts sell for 6-10g each on my server and I save the Large Briliant Shards for Enchant Weapon - Crusader which I sell on my server for around 380g each.  I've had this enchant since vanilla and it's paying off more now than ever.  Otherwise, the shards can sell for market price.  It's all profit at this point.

4.  Arcanite Bars.  These are also great.  I buy Thorium Ore and Arcane Crystals for this (if you want to farm these, do circles around the border of Silithus and you'll get a ton very quickly).  I can typically buy the ore and the crystals for around 1g each.  These will transmute (no cool down) in to Arcanite Bars.  I typically sell them for around 25g each.  I'm careful to only post a couple at a time to guarantee sales and to avoid undercutting.  Posting massive amounts of this stuff will end up costing you a lot.

What's Not Selling:

1.  Pyrium Shield Spikes.  I've had the worst luck with these.  They're expensive to make, very competitive and hard to sell.  I don't bother.  Plus, I use Enchant Shield - Mastery on my tank's shield instead.

2.  Ebonsteel Belt Buckle.  These sell, but I'm not selling them.  I only craft them for alts and friends.  The market's been far too competitive and the profit margin simply isn't worth it on my server.

What I'm Buying:

1.  Cheap Ore.  Fairly obvious answer.  Set your deal finding apps (like TradeSkillMaster) to look for ore beyond a certain threshold and snatch it up.  Use the Obsidium for skeleton keys, Elementium for various BS, Engineering and JC items and Pyrite/Pyrium Bars for Truegold (alchemist transmute) and other BS epic items.

Also, look at the price for Ore versus Bar.  Two ore will smelt in to a bar.  Do the math and buy the cheaper of the two.

I also shop for cheap Thorium Ore and Dream Dust.  I buy any Thorium under 1g each and get Dream Dust for virtually nothing (5s each or so).  I use these to make the Enchanted Thorium Blades that I disenchant.

As I mentioned above, add Arcane Crystals to this list as well.

2.  Cheap Volatiles.  I typically buy all of the cheap volatiles that I can get my grubby little hands on.  I use most of them for Truegold Transmutes, but use the Earths for making Hardened Elementium Bars as needed.  Other items will occasionally require volatiles so getting them "while the gettin's good" is always a good move.

AH Fees and Mitigating Profit Loss:

1.  The Heavier the Item, the Heavier the Fee.  I cringe at the idea of posting weapons, armor and ore/bars on the Auction House.  I try to avoid it where possible and when I do post, I try to only post what I believe will sell.

Some items can have massive deposits that are no big deal...  if the item sells.  Otherwise, you're eating the fee.  Post small amounts with the shortest time frame of 12 hours.  Undercut as needed to be first on the list.  If the going prices are too low, hold off and sell later.

Of these item types, I'll typically only try to sell level 40-45 Mail/Plate items for varying classes.  I'll pick up these items mostly as drops in Live Stratholme while farming for Righteous Orbs (for Crusader).  These items typically get snatched up by leveling Paladins, Warriors, Hunters and Shamans all looking for gear upgrades at level 40.  Don't gouge too hard on the price.  You want these to sell and you want to avoid eating fees.  I typically go fair on these items.

Some items have a deposit fee that doesn't vary with auction time.  These are the items that I'll go 48 hours with.  Why not?  It doesn't cost any more and you can always cancel it if needed.  Enchanting Mats and other select items have a virtually nil fee that encourages posting and reposting as needed.  Unfortunately, not much in Blacksmithing shows up on this list.  :p

Patch 4.2 Shopping List.  Like other gold making blogs, I whole heartedly recommend stocking up on Chaos Orbs and Truegold for patch 4.2.  Blizzard will be introducing epic weapon recipes in this patch and the prices for both will jump up quite a bit, we're guessing.  Truegold is currently selling for 600g or so.  My guess is that there will be a mass posting when 4.2 is released.  That will sell out and that's when you'll want to post... as everyone else's supply is exhausted and prices top out.

To give credit, many of the tips in this article have come from various other gold blogs.  I'm simply gathering what I've learned from reading and playing and sharing it this format.  No ripping off intended.  :)

Thanks for stopping by.  -GNS

About Goldnut Sachs:

Follow me on Twitter:  @GoldnutSachs

#2: Inscription: A Different Way To Sell Glyphs

OK, Maybe I'm Not...

Post Focus:  Inscription
Skill Level:  All



My Inscriptionist (Scribe) / Jewel Crafter is my favorite money maker right now.  Inscription was the first new profession that I picked up after starting my gold making bender 2 months ago.  My 74 warlock was a JC/Miner.  I had 3 other miners already, so I dropped it for Inscription instead and haven't regretted it once.  It's already paid out well beyond what it ever cost to grind it out in the first place (which was pretty pricey for a fledgling gold maker).

Here's the status on what's selling, what's not and a tip that (hopefully) will be useful to all of you.

What's Selling:

1.  Glyphs, of course.  I'm still doing my daily researching.  I'm learning two new glyphs per day and taking advantage of them as soon as it's practical to do so.

2.  Darkmoon Cards.  These are expensive to make and are a bit of a crap shoot.  You can sell certain cards for over 2,000 and others you'll have a tough time selling for what it cost to make.  Be patient and sell at the right time.  They will sell, trust me.  If you've got 3x of those Ace of Stones that have been going for 250g on the AH, just hold on to them.  You'll see them selling a week or two later for 800g.  All of these cards seem to bounce around.

What's Not Selling:

1.  Mysterious Fortune Cards.  I love Cold but MFC's are painfully dead on my server (though he could probably find a way to revive it).  There are a handful of sellers dumping hundreds of cards for virtually cost.  I've considered resetting the market but they post literally up to a thousand at any time and I don't feel like possibly eating that much if they continue to post a few thousand more after I clean our their initial inventory.  Any barking at that point sells their cheap merchandise and undercutting at that point is a complete loss.

I did pretty well with MFC's initially (made almost 10k in a few hours selling them at 25g each).  Now they're selling for 6g each or less and I'm having trouble finding the courage to jump in and compete.  These conditions are likely unique to my server though.  They're still a huge money maker for Cold and others.

What I'm Buying:

1.  Cheap Herbs.  Any Cata Herbs on sale for less than 20g per stack (on my server at least), I'm snatching up in droves.  Watch prices and you'll figure out what the typical bottom price is on most of these.  Also, check www.theunderminejournal.com to see what the floor price is on your server.  I'll mill all of these and turn them in to inks.  I'll use the Blackfallow inks for glyphs and researching and will use the Inferno Inks for Darkmoon cards.

2.  Volatile Life.  As I generally don't farm, I'll typically buy out masses of Volatile Life when I find them at floor price.  I use them for Darkmoon Cards and also for Elementium Moebius Rings on the Jewel Crafting side.  I've been making those rings for a total of 600-800g and selling them for 2500g.  I've sold 3 in the past 2 weeks but haven't sold any in the past few days.  I'm sure they'll sell, though.  I only make them one at a time so there's not much to sweat.  Patience is the key.  The payout's worth it and make deposits not much of a concern.  Also, there's no competition for these on my server at all.

3.  Cheap Books of Glyph Mastery.  I'm picking them up if they're listed under 300g.  250g is the lowest I've seen any listed.  I'm sitting on three right now.  I'm waiting to learn more how they'll work in 4.2 before using them or flipping them (which can sell for 800g and up).  They may not be needed to learn unique glyphs any more after 4.2 so I'll definitely flip before the patch if this ends up being the case.

How I Sell Glyphs:

1.  Know what's in demand.  People will generally look up what the best in slot glyphs are for their various class/spec combinations.  They'll look at sites such as wowpopular or elitistjerks to read up on what others are doing or what statistically works best.  This will send people marching right over to the Auction House with a shopping list in hand.  Here's your target market!

Also, people have come to expect to pay premium prices for best in slot items.  That's why they won't think twice about shelling out 140g for a glyph that costs exactly the same to make as a 20g glyph. 

2.  Know what you don't have.  As I'm still learning inscription techniques, I keep a notepad with all of the glyphs that I haven't learned yet.  How did I get this list, might you ask?  I use the "Buy" tab in Auctionator to search for "Glyph of".  Now, this can be a painful search that can yield excess of 30 pages of results.  But it will show you something very useful:



Auctionator Can Show You Items That Are Currently Out of Stock!


This is where your regular scanning of the AH pays off.  Auctionator remembers items that it's seen before and will show you when certain, usually obscure or popular, glpyhs are out of stock!  I go over this list and check to see which I can make and not.  I jot the ones that I can't make down on my list and scratch them off when I learn them.

The real gold here is this:  This is your chance to make those particular glyphs and post them all at jacked up rates.  Here's generally how I price them.  You feel free to do what you like based on what works for you.

Level 60+ Prime Glyph learned via Northrend Research = 140-200g.
Any Prime Glyph Taught Via Trainer = 40-50g
Any Major/Minor Glyphs learned via research = 40-60g
Any Major/Minor Glyphs Taught Via Trainer = 36g.

Most glyphs on my server go for 33g or less.  If I post 10 of these different glyphs, 3-5 will sell in a matter of a few hours.  The others likely won't due to undercutters catching up and easily beating my high price.  No biggie, I cancel and undercut them and still sell out at typical prices.

I generally only make one of each glyph at a time.  Making too many can put you in the undercutting war and cause you to lose out more than you need to.  Plus, there are almost always glyphs out of stock.  Why bother haggling 5x "Glyph of Slice and Dice" down to 7g from 36g when you could be selling another glyph that's out of stock? 

Another tactic is to scroll down that list in Auctionator and see which Glyphs are selling for the most gold.  You'll often see several in the 80-200g range.  Undercut them by a few silver and those will sell too.  Cha-Ching!

I make this part of my twice daily 15 minute routine and it nets me several hundred gold per day.  This combined with other similar methods of earning income makes for some nice collective cash flow.  Hopefully it'll help you as well.

Thanks again for stopping by.  -GNS

About Goldnut Sachs:

Follow me on Twitter:  @GoldnutSachs

#1: So You Wanna Be a Gold Maker, Eh?

I'm New to Gold Making so Where Do I Begin?


Well, so far, it looks like you did what I did:  Start searching on the internet for people talking about gold making.  You've undoubtedly bumped in to 200+ ads for Hayden Hawke and various other gold guides promising unlimited fortunes (while also costing real dollars instead of WoW gold).

Believe it or not, there's actually a really great community of gold making experts that share their knowledge to help others, to learn from others and to have fun.

From my experience, just about everything you could ever want to learn about gold making is currently available on the Internet, for free.  You just have to know where to look and I'll do my best to help with that.

1.  Read Blogs and Learn:

Of course, you've found my blog and I hope you find it useful.  Here are some other blogs that I've followed and learned from.  Some are better than others.  Take all of the information you get from any of these blogs with a grain of salt, however.  Many people exaggerate their earnings.  Other people claim the sky is falling with upcoming patches and such.  Apply any advice against your own common sense and you'll usually do OK.

Here are some of my favorites.

Cold's Gold Factory (The Fortune Card Master)

CappedByCata  (Cold and Wes do a great podcast called Auction House Junkies)

Trading With Zoxy (I love Brits!)

The Gold Queen  (Another Brit!)

Just My Two Copper 

2.  Get your Character(s) Ready:

To do your best at gold making, you'll realistically need to have a number of higher level characters with varying professions.  If you're completely new and are working on a first character, then consider the following:

Start with a pair of professions that will directly benefit your character.  Usually, people will match a gathering profession with a crafting profession.  I'm not big on farming, but it will help you get through your first professions fairly easily.  Here are the preferred pairings:

Alchemy - Herbalism

Blacksmithing - Mining

Engineering - Mining

Inscription - Herbalism

Jewel Crafting - Mining

Leatherworking - Skinning

Tailoring - Enchanting

For Tailoring, cloth drops from humanoid mobs.  You can disenchant tailored items for enchanting materials so they work well together.

If you're a more established player with several characters and professions already, then you'll probably want to double up on crafting professions and buy your materials cheap via the AH.  Farming is something I generally avoid all together unless absolutely necessary.  I dropped mining on my JC so that she could pick up Inscription which is very profitable.  Doubling up on crafting professions will also save you having to level additional characters which takes precious time.

My Top 5 Most Profitable Professions (as of the time of this post):

1.  Inscription

2.  Engineering

3.  Enchanting

4.  Blacksmithing

5.  Jewel Crafting

3.  Questing:  The World (of Warcraft)'s Oldest Profession:

This is a fairly obvious tip.  Questing will earn you a good amount of gold.  Be thorough and complete as many quests as you can in a zone.  This is especially important in Cataclysm content because at 85, quests pay out significantly more gold instead of experience.  Clear Hyjal, Vash'ir and then continue on to Deepholm.  Yes, some quests will be green, but once you're at 85, you'll be getting some pretty nice paydays.

Secondly, when choosing a reward item from quest givers, look at what each item can vendor for.  If the item isn't an upgrade for you, then pick the item that sells for the most cash.

4.  Farm As You Quest:

Another obvious tip.  If you see something you can gather while questing, take the time and gather it.  Sell it when you can on the Auction House which should net you some fairly good cash for a low level character.  Pay attention to deposits and don't post more than what you think will sell.  There's no harm in selling things at a slow pace.  Deposits can be high on weapons, plate items and ore/bars.  Be careful only to post what you think will likely sell.

Many people have easily earned all of the money required for everything up to Master Flying Skill simply by questing and casually farming.

5.  Save Your Money:

Don't buy stuff if you can help it.  Don't buy gear, collectables, materials for professions and other junk until you've reached 85 and have a steady stream of income to feed your cravings.  Obviously, the whole point of having gold is to buy stuff.  The whole point of gold making is to make more than you spend.

Ever see those people in real life who live on food stamps but some how manage to have a big screen TV and nice rims on their crap car?  The "Make and Spend" mentality is what creates this situation.  There are millions of players in WoW who share this mentality.  You're here because you're trying to stop thinking that way.

You'll always get better gear as you quest and run instances.  Buying upgrades are not required (until very end game when you're buying epic's from crafters and there's even a cost effective way to do this instead of getting gouged on the AH).  In short, save your money.

6.  Add-Ons

I use a ton of add-ons and find the game unplayable without them.  Here are the gold making add-ons that I use primarily:

Essential:

1.  Auctionator

2.  Trade Skill Master

3.  Altoholic

Optional:

1.  Auctioneer

2.  Gatherer

3.  NPCScan

4.  Bean Counter

Some of these are straight forward.  Others are insanely complicated.  There are guides out there to setting up TSM which I'd recommend you look at.  Otherwise, you'll install it, shrug and ignore it.  I don't even fully utilize it yet due to it's intimindating nature.  I'm already hooked on deal finding and other features of TSM though.

7.  Get in the Mind Set, Establish Goals and Track Your Earnings:

What's your goal?  The Current Character Gold Cap of 999,999g99s99c?  100k so you don't have to worry about cash for a while?

How long do you think it will take to get to your goal?

Whatever your answers are, there are some great add-ons that will track your spending and earnings pretty accurately (I'll update this post with more information when I can regarding this).  I'm currently earning about 30k a month after my spending eats away at everything.  I've already bought master flying for 3 characters and other mats needed to finish Tailoring, Enchanting, Engineering, Inscription and Jewel Crafting.  Realistically, my earnings were probably in the 45-50k per month range, but I can't know that for sure without accurately tracking my cash flow.  I'll be finding and reporting on ways to do this more efficiently in upcoming posts.

Gold making is a mind set.  Once you think like a gold maker, you'll find that you always have gold and are always looking for ways to make gold.  Funny enough, the same applies in real life.  Poor people earn money and buy things.  Rich people typically earn money and buy things that continue to make them money with little to no effort.

That's enough for now.  Thanks for stopping by.  -GNS

About Goldnut Sachs:

Goldnut Sachs: A Gold Making Blog For Newbs... By A Newb.

Well, to start things off proper, I'll explain a little about myself and what the goal for this blog is.

1.  About Me:  34 year old guy who's played WoW since launch in 2004.  I have many characters, most of which are over level 70.  Having many alts with many professions already at high level definitely made it easier to get in to gold making.
 

"So I got that goin' for me..  which is nice." 



I work full time as an IT guy.  Married with 2 kids and we all play WoW, sadly.  lol  It does save me the grief that many of you fellas probably catch from your wives that don't play though.  I'm a very experienced player with a broad range of game related knowledge, but relatively new to gold making.

2.  My Characters: (listing only ones involved with gold making).  I've also decided to keep my characters names and server locations private.  I may change my mind on this later.

     Protection Paladin - Level 85 - 525 Blacksmith/Miner
     Arcane Mage - Level 85 - 525 Engineer/Miner
     Holy Priest - Level 85 - 525 Enchanting/Tailor
     Warlock (spec varies) - Level 85 - 525 Jewel Crafting/Inscription
     Wife has a Moonkin - Level 85 - 525 Alchemy/Herbalism

3.  Why Make Gold and Why Blog About It?  I've typically been broke for most of the time that I've played WoW.  You earn money, buy crap and you're broke again (just like IRL for many of us).  Epic Mounts, Gear, Materials and other crap cost a fortune.  The game is designed to keep you busy chasing something and broke all the while.  If your goals were completely attainable, WoW subscription rates would plummit as people essentially beat the game by meeting all of their goals.  Unfortunately, the game doesn't allow this for a whole list of reasons.

I got tired of being chronically broke and I got pretty hardcore in to gold making in early April, 2011.  I started with a combined total of roughly 300g.  Two months later, I was sitting at around 60,000g.  I've never had this much gold, ever.  I'm only here to share tips on what I've done up to this point and what I continue to do to make gold.  No gold guides for sale, no paid coaching.  Just free "take it or leave it" advice for people who may be interested in solid entry level advice.

I will also share articles from other gold bloggers if they have great tips.  Also, if I list a tip that someone else has already posted, I'll promptly apologize and give credit where due.  Many tips are fairly common sense oriented and ripping anyone off is potentially pretty easy and is of course not a goal.

Welcome to the site and I hope your visit is worth while.  Please feel free to ask questions or to share any tips you may think the community will find useful.

-GNS