#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:

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