Apprentice Training

Gold Secrets 101

The biggest question I always seem to garner from my guildies and others on my realm is, where do I start and how do I do what you do?  Seems like an easy enough question but the answer is not that easy.  It really depends on what professions you have, your game knowledge, the amount of gold you want to invest, your patience level, the amount of time you are willing to put into learning, the markets on your server, and several other factors.  I know that you are reading this because you want an answer so I will do my best to give one or two for you.
First off, let's be clear here, my methods are not going to net you 10k or 20k in a day, unless you are willing to invest at least 20k or more to start with...for most people this is just insanity and welcomes a whole bunch of pain and frustration.  Sure, I can make that in a day, but this is with tons of experience, knowledge and a huge bankroll.  If you truly want to learn how to master the Auction House then my first piece of advice is to start slow.
Now that you have agreed to start slow and really learn how to master the trade of auctioneering, let’s look at our options of how to make gold.  I will list just a few of the ways that someone can enter the market safely and make gold coins.
Enchanting Scrolls - Enchanting Mats - Disenchanting greens/blues for Mats - Disenchanting crafted items - Glyphs - Inks - Crafted Relics - Uncut Gems - Cut Gems - Prospecting - Dreamcloth crafted items - Crafted PVP Gear - Armor Enhancements - Flasks - Potions - Elixirs - Transmutes - Smelting - Market Speculation - Market Timing - Resetting the Auction Price - Recipes from Vendors - Trading in Commodities - Pets from Vendors - Old World Materials - Dumb Luck
Has that got you thinking?  I will hit on these and other items as I post each day so that you get better insights.  One of questions I am also asked quite often is "Do you farm?" the answer to that is yes, I farm the Auction House every day!  I hate traditional farming, spending hours collecting herbs, leather, cloth or minerals is just not my idea of fun.  There are those who like this method, it is simple and they make gold at it.  We need those players, they are my best friends!  Why?  Because they typically do not care about market timing, market pricing or anything else other than making a quick turnaround in gold.  So they will undercut and drop their stacks in for me to buy them and resell them.
Think about what I just said.  They spend hours farming materials, sell it in the AH to me for a good price (cheap is good) and then I repost them in the Auction House for a higher price when the timing is right and make even more gold off the materials.  Why is my way better?  Because for every hour they spent farming to make their gold, I spent 5 minutes making the same amount of gold from their hard work.  :-)
"Where do I start?"  My best recommendation is to start small and start in area that you have a lot of knowledge in already, this will make it easier to learn the concepts of market timing and how to manipulate the markets to your advantage.  There are hundreds of ways to make gold in the Auction House, so rather than trying to learn a dozen or more ways and taking on too much risk, just take on one way at a time and master it.


Gold Secrets 102

One of the biggest mistakes I see from people who think that making gold in the AH is only about buying low and selling high.  You have seen these guys, they go and buy every single item in a category, like wool cloth, and then relist them at ridiculously high prices because someone told them this is how you do it.  They end up getting stuck with stacks of materials, no sales and then get frustrated and dump the items into the AH for a loss and tell everyone that you cannot make money in the AH.  Don’t do this!  If you do this method then you will lose gold and miss the opportunity.
That doesn’t mean you can’t make some nice gold coins on Wool Cloth, in fact it was one of my staples for years and I even dabble in still today.  When starting out in the Auction House game, it is always wise to start in the commodities like cloth, ore, bars, enchanting materials, leather, herbs, etc.  These items are always in demand, people are leveling alts, new players are always joining the game and they all want to level their skills along the way.
Basic Strategy:  Let’s use the Wool Cloth as our example, unlike the idiot who bought it all in the Auction House and then relisted them for 100g per stack, we will look for the sweet spot and try to maximize the amount we can get for our cloth.  Now remember, that ever server is different in pricing structure so it is very very very important that you have a basis of reference when you decide you want to resell the cloth.  What is the average price?  How many are selling?  What is the deviation (the spread between the average price, the low price and the high price.
On my server, Wool Cloth averages about 8gold per stack.  I find stacks listed between 5g and 100g and I know from watching the market for years (you may need to use Auctioneer or The Undermine Journal to know this data) that people will pay as high as 40gold per stack before they resist the purchase.  That means I have some profits to make!
Depending on the spread in the market, I will buy the Wool Cloth as long as I can generate more than 100% profits (this is my goal) which means I will buy all the cloth I can up to about 20g per stack.  This is also a great price point because fewer people will list these stacks over 20g per stack thinking that others would not buy them.  I will.  I buy the stacks, relist for 39.99gold for each stack and then monitor and wait. 
Is it that easy? Yes and No.  First of all, there may be some cloth stacks for 30g when I relisted mine for 39.99g but I’m ok with this for two reasons.  One, it is below my profit threshold so if I buy it I will only make 33%, not 100% that set my bar at.  Secondly, I really don’t mind seeing it sit there cheaper because that means other people will price theirs lower to undercut and the more they do that the more Wool Cloth I get to buy at the right price.  It will sell; I just have to be patient.
Patience is not just a virtue, it is a necessity in the Auction House game at times.  When I relist my Wool Cloth it might sell within minutes or it may take a week.  Quite frankly, I don’t care because my margins for profit allow me a ton of room to relist them every day.  The only time I may relist them cheaper is if someone decides to undercut me by less than a gold per stack and they list a boatload of it on the Auction.  In this case, I cancel my auctions and relist it undercutting him by a copper.  As long as there are less than 30 stacks or fewer listed below my cloth, I will be fine and leave it.
Lastly, you may have noticed the price point was 40g per stack but I listed it for 39.99 gold per stack.  This is on purpose; it is a mental thing where people perceive prices differently when priced under a price point rather than at a price point.  When was the last time you saw a house for $150,000 or a care for $25,000?  Not often, if ever.  They price them at $149.999 for the house and $24,999 for the car and I use the same method, whether it truly matters or not…who knows?  But it makes me happy!
When setting your price, you need to know what % you want to make on your investment and you also want to plan on how fast you want it sold.  In my example, I know it may take a week to sell it but that is ok with me.  You may want your gold back faster so you gain momentum and if that is the case then you have drop your margins down.  Selling it 20g will be faster than 40g, so if you find that you buy a few stacks for under 10g and you see that you still move these quick at 20g, the go for it!  Profit is profit and when you are starting out you may need to go for higher volume over increased margins.
So now you want to drop into a market and use this method I explained, and hopefully what you learned from this post are the following:
·        Know the market really well that you want to enter
·        No how far you can push the price of an item before people stop buying it
·        Have a goal set BEFORE you enter the market for the % return on your gold investment
·        Be Patient
·        Undercut if necessary, but it is not always necessary
Good luck and Happy Auctioneering!

 

 

Secrets to Gold Making 103

Today we will expand our training from lesson 102, where I used the example of Wool Cloth and how to buy your stock and then resell it.  This strategy is simple and straight forward but there is more to learn!  Once you understand the basic premise of buying a segment of the market reselling it and being patient for the income stream it can be applied to many various segments.  The example of wool cloth can be translated into several items such as:
·        All Cloth; Linen, Wool, Silk, Mageweave, Runecloth, Netherweave, Embersilk
·        Minerals; Copper Ore, Tin Ore, Mithril Ore, Thorium Ore, Silver Ore, Adamantite Ore, Khorium Ore, Eternium Ore, Saronite Ore, Cobalt Ore, Titanium Ore, Pyrite Ore, Elementium Ore
·        Bars; Copper Bars, Tin Bars, Bronze Bars, Silver Bars, Mithril Bars, Thorium Bars, Khorium Bars, Eternium Bars, Adamantite Bars, Saronite Bars, Cobalt Bars, Titanium Bars, Titansteel Bars, Elementium Bars, Pyrium Bars
·        Leather; Light Leather, Medium Leather, Heavy Leather, Thick Leather, Rugged Leather, Knothide Leather, Heavy Knothide Leather, Borean Leather, Heavy Borean Leather, Savage Leather, Heavy Savage Leather
·        Herbs; Silverleaf, Earthroot, Peacebloom, Liferoot, Khadgar’s Whisker, Sungrass, Golden Sansam, Dreamfoil, Mountain Silversage, Mageroyal, Stranglekelp, Kingsblood, Bruiseweed, Ghost Mushroom, Blindweed, Wild Steelbloom, Swiftthistle, Icecap, Briarthorn, Goldthorn, Ancient Lichen, Ragveil, Dreaming Glory, Teracone, Felweed, Nightmare Vine, Mana Thistle, Netherbloom, Tiger Lily, Talandra’s Rose, Deadnettle, Goldclover, Lichbloom, Icethorn, Adder’s Tongue, Stormvine, Cinderbloom, Whiptail, Twilight Jasmine, Heartblossom
This is not even the complete list of opportunities; there are entire categories like Enchanting Materials, Elemental Materials, Cooking Materials, Uncut Gems, and more!
So in lesson 102 I gave you 1 example of how to use supply and demand, low prices and timing to make profits.  You probably thought, big deal, that’s only a few gold pieces a day at best.  But once you learn the art of one it can be applied to many and this list should open your eyes to what is on your server in terms of gold making!
Remember my lesson on starting out in a sector of the market that you know the best before jumping in to all of it.  Too many people see all of these items and try to do too much too fast without really understanding the market.  Stick to one category in the beginning and learn it before diving into another category.
When I started my gold empire, I started in copper because I was a miner and blacksmith so I was learning the market and how it worked for that sector.  I gradually added several other mineral ores and mineral bars to my list and was posting in several of these each day.  Once I learned this sector and I had a strategy for each price point, then I went into cloth.  I went into it because I needed cloth to level my first aid skills, so it paid to learn the market since I was having to buy in the market.
Folks ask me which market is best or where to start that will gain the most gold the fastest.  That really depends on your server and your knowledge.  Personally, I always like fast moving markets like cloth to start in because everyone needs it for tailoring first aid and even in other professions.  Whichever market you pick, learn it and stick to it.

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