Make like a Tree and Leaf! Expanding Markets

Hey folks!

I had a comment on one of last weeks posts about making a post on Expanding Markets. Since that can be taken a few ways, I will work on answering an email as well:

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Alto,

I have a guy in my AH that I compete against quite often. The worst thing about this guy is that he is on for 16 hours a day straight (except for server maintenance) 7 days a week. Does this seem odd to you? I am not sure how to check if he's a bot, some guy in china, or if it's just someone with lots of time. If you wanna check him out on TuJ, the server is XXX and his name is XXXX.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks a bunch man,

Joe

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After receiving this email, I shot right over to TuJ and checked it out. What did I find?

Yup, Joe's right on the money. His competition is on. All the time. Or, as you might be thinking, he is a pro using such tools as the Remote Auction House or even the "new" TuJ Seller Notifications (which I would advise any AH'er to get set up!). Or, he could just be getting beat from some cat in a china prison.....we really don't have much to decipher this issue, but we can work around it by Expanding Markets. Let's drop down the page and look into what he is selling:

Looks like a taste of a few different pies. Not really heavy in any main area, and here is where you can take advantage. Like I mentioned above and below, instead of playing the defense, roll into offence and take on new markets that he isn't selling in. He has some Shadowspirit Diamond cuts, but not uncut. Go there. He has only a few Enchants posted. Get the others on the AH. Yup, go there too. Unless this guy/gal reads you, or stalks you, then you have many options for some sales....until they mirror you. So get up, get out, and make some gold!

Overthinking Profits - Giving your AH a KiSS!

Hey folks! Back with a vengeance! Well, not really...

I was working on a post about the highs and lows of the Auction House when something hit me. What does it take to be successful in the Auction House game? Quick thinking, or better yet, NOT overthinking.

There is a saying out there that I learned from my boxing coach back in the day. KISS- Keep it Simple Stupid. It's one of life's great sayings. Now I can't give Roddy (Coach Rodriguez) all the credit, as I am sure he didn't invent the saying, but he sure as hell beat it into us during training.


Ever hear boxers "kiss"? Well, it's more like a "ssssss", but that's what most people hear. I hear a "kiss, kiss, kiss" when I see them shadowbox, or even fight in the ring. I really think more folks do this than just my Coach. Where are you going with this Alto?

Where I am going is when we would miss a round, get caught with a "counter" or swing "pitty pats", Roddy would make us spar for ten minutes straight (it doesn't sound tough, but try it sometime, it's a bitch!) and on every punch we would have to "kiss". Or hiss. Or sssss. Really, by the end of the 10 it was more like s.

I am sure you are bored by now, but that saying holds true, even more than you could ever know. Keep it Simple. Don't Overthink.

Let's relate this to WoW. I have been talking back and forth with one of my loyal readers over some time now. One of the issues that he had is running out of stock...Inferno Rubies. We all know they have been selling crazy, and unless you had a few rows stacked up in your AH, you are probably flush out of em (or running low). My advice?

Make it a habit to restock upon selling materials. Everyday that you are logged in, check your markets. One of the best ways to do this is through a "shopping list" (1) via Auctionator:

It's easy, just click the (2) "Search for all items" and you will get a quick birds eye view (3) of your mats (The screenie is mainly for my herbs/ore, but I think you get the picture).

Still not reformed on this process? Want another story? Okay.....

Let's go back to the Inferno Rubies. If you are running out of stock, what do you do? Just say fuck it and go without? Here's my thinking:

Pyrite Ore will give you one Inferno Ruby per stack and a half after prospecting (this is an average over nearly thousands of stacks). If Inferno Rubies are sitting at 150g, then, in all reality, a stack of Pyrite Ore has a floor price of 100g (if only factoring Inferno's), right? Everything else is profit. See what I did there? I have talked about this way of thinking many times in the past, and it's a great way to get on the goldmaking mindset. Isn't it?

What's it Worth? Better yet, What's it's Value?

"An item's worth is only what someone will pay"

We hit on this on A2A, Cold and Wes talked about it on  AHJ this last weekend, and it has been in buzz chat since the mount's release. Anytime something 'new' hits, like the new BoE mount, we all start to speculate on pricing....But how do you actually get a starting price?

Looking at a tooltip will only give you as much information as you have data stored. But let's look anyways...

TSM or DBMarket (1) is the most recent price, so you could use that to "figure" a price (although in this case, it's unkown- bad Alto for slacking here). Or, if you keep up on your scans, you might use Auctioneer's tooltip (2). Now this will tell you how many your AH has seen (in this case 19), and what the "simple" auction price is....Right tool, right job?!

I still get a kick outta this item....I still think something cheesy should be added, like "A girls best friend" or something of that sort.

Now lets look at TheUndermineJournal. Easy to search. On the main page, you can go to the search tab and type in your Reins of Poseidus. Scroll down to the middle'ish of the page, and look at the "snowfall" screen.

Here, you can mouse over any of the "snowflakes" to see prices and server info (alot of folks don't know this, but the left of the screen is low pop, the right is high pop servers- obviously up and down is prices). This is probably the best judge of finding a "starting price" if your server has not seen a specific item.

Now, onto blogs and/or "wow knowledge-based" websites. Since there are more "server" specific ways to judge starter prices, I do not recommend this way unless absolutely necessary. If you really feel the need, wowhead, wowwiki, or mmochamp will have fairly updated info- READ THE COMMENTS! That will help you more than the actual prices. Yeah, it might take a few minutes, but is a few minutes worth 10's of thousands of gold?

With that being said, those are just a few options you can use to reference your items "worth" or "value". Using any of those tools you have in your "wow" shed can be great, but is it the right tool for the job?

I was talking with a fellow blogger earlier when she mentioned the price of Poseidus on her server. This reminded me...I saw one on the AH a few days back, added the "seller" to my friends list, and forgot about it. Till now. I log in, see that he is on, and within a few clicks of my AH search, he pops in trade selling the Reins for 75K. I immediately send him a tell, and offer 40K (the price that I will pay, not what he is selling for).

Now some folks would say that was a complete and utter lowball (think of this in smaller terms)... A stack of Twilight Jasmine is offered in trade for 75g, and you offer 40g. Normally, you will get laughed at for the lowball, and if you are lucky, an ignore from the seller. But....

To my surprise, there was ZERO negotiation. Nothing but a "ok". So I instantly invited him to group, went over to meet him, and completed the trade. Good deal? Or bad? Hmmm....

What does this mean the 'worth' is on the Reins? 40K? What's it's Value? 85K? Not sure, as that is what I reposted for. Will it sell? Only time will tell. I know that the AH takes 5%, so, in all reality, I can sell it for around 42K and break even (if selling in the "local" AH).

Do you use a "price finder" different than what I have listed above? How do you determine the value on a "never before seen" item on your server? Or is it just a "guesstimate"?

In the Beginning, there was a Blog.....

I want to say thanks to all my readers, as I never figured my blog would be where it is today (just hit 200K views), and it wouldn't have made it without ya'll! To give you an idea, the first whole month, I had around 150 hesitant folks reading my stuff. So I am looking back on a few posts that you might not have seen:

Crusader Enchant Farming- This was my first post. It was a favorite spot to farm for me, but alas, it's outdated. No Crusader drop there anymore. Favorite quote from the post? " Take a run out to vanilla and make a few shakes"

Glyph Sales Slowing, Ink Sales Skyrocketing- This was classic Alto in his goldmaking prime. Favorite Quote from this post? Notta. But some rough AH tactics here....

"With Glyphs selling in the almost before patch range (some as low as 3g, others are still near the 100g height) I am getting 12.5g for each stack of 4 (so 50g per stack.....and why in stacks of four you ask? supply and demand prospers here). Yes, you only need three for a glyph, but this also helps twofold- one, i have sold some of my ink in the AH, and had that same person come to me with 4 inks (yup, bought em from me) tipped me 20g plus gave me the extra ink for making a glyph so one is freebie tips for scribes, and for two, I can basically get a free sale on an ink that might have otherwise unsold (simple economics here...)"

Skinner's Paradise- Still viable farming spots for leather...fun to write. Favorite Quote? "Can't beat it. Even with a stick. Ok, you can, but it will hurt it's feelings."

Cata Content in 4.0.3- This was a post that I did after a little hiatus from the game, and I was getting Cata drops (loot) before it even hit. This is probably my only exploit I have ever wrote about. Favorite Quote? "I would love to tell you not to do this, as the famed Blizz Ban-Hammer is always willing to hit, but I am sure you won't listen"

The New WoW Crack- My hit on MFC's- And me opening trying to get my readers a screenie of the 5K card. Yeah, didn't happen. Still pop a few here and there. Bad Alto!

Cataclysm and the Trade Channel $$$- The sickening price of obsidium ore the first weekend of Cata release...Favorite Quote? "I shift click the Ore to see what it's selling for in the AH. 265g average. Ok. Lowballer" And I made gold off this? =)

Tol'Barad- It will "Lure" you in- You might not remember the blog, but you know their writer....hint, hint, JMTC (mageshadows old blog) "There is a loop that you utilize for picking these herbs (first seen at The Gnomish Coin)"

This was fun going back and reading my old posts. If you all have time, don't hesitate to go back and read a few of them, they are good for something...if not just a laugh (and to see what happened...obsidium 265g a stack? Jeebus!). If you are a fellow blogger, I highly advise you to jump back to the beginning and see where you started. It's a great motivator!

Good or Bad Advice? How Can You Tell?

There are quite a few gold blogs out there. We all know that. They have a ton of information they give out, we all are aware of that. Do you listen? Do you use the tools that we provide to you? Or do you just read the information provided, toss it in the back of your head, and then a few weeks later wish you would have used it? Hmm.... I know I am guilty of this (see the alchemy disenchant a while back for Maelstroms).

I am asking this because we all talk a big game, on things that we do or have done that makes us gold. I know I try to give you my side of the WoW gold game, so you can prosper in this "game within a game". Have I given you bad advice? I would like to think no. Have I given you good advice? Well, I do my best to try to write my posts to make you think. I try to make posts that are not "server" dependant. Of course, due to my style, some things fall into that niche.

But working with many folks on many servers, I see that most markets flow from server to server. Be it the "small" low population server, the "mid" server, and the high population servers. This will probably get some hate, but experience doesn't lie. We sell the same goods, we use the same mats to craft, we have the same dungeons, the same heroics, the same locations, well, I can go on and on, but I think you get my point.

When bloggers cover information, we "kinda" always assume that there will be comments. Sometimes there are, other times there aren't. I for one like to read other folks blogs, and try to comment when I can, especially if I am agreeing or disagreeing with a certain "arguement" that they present to the masses. As a gold blogger, as a gold maker, and as a experienced AH PvP'er, I am stubborn in what I know makes gold in the game, and if I disagree with X blogger, I try to give my two cents.

Not to start a fight or hate on them, just to explain why I do not agree with their post. I for one know that alot of time is invested into blogging, and if you blog, it's your blog, and I don't want to take that away. If you feel the need to delete a comment of mine, so be it (this has recently happened, a few times to be exact). Some folks don't like to be called out, but at least they see my comment before it does get tossed in the trash...

I really enjoy when I hear something new that I haven't heard about. Lately, it's just the same ol', same ol' that is repeated over....and over.....and over. It gets bland.

Now enough of my rambling on, the second part of the title of this post is "How can you tell?". Well, that's the tough part. The way I try to explain my information allows you to search your AH to see if it's profitable on your server before you jump feet first. Although I do write an occasional "stockpile" post, I try to explain how I come to that conclusion so you can see exactly what and where I come from. You can once again use that information to see if the advice I toss your way is valid for you: both on your server and with your bankroll.

Now I do have a tagline at the top of my page, The Worst WoW Blog Ever, but I am confident in what I post for ya'll, and that you will make a nice chunk of gold in this little game called World of Warcraft.

Now I gotta ask....Do I give good or bad advice? How did you tell? Have I made you more gold than I lost you? Have I coached you? Have I helped you on IRC, JMTC Fridays, Emails, or Skype? How did it work out? Holler out, let me know. 

I would really appreciate it, as sometimes bloggers just need a little nudge to keep writing...so nudge me.

Completely off Subject- To Troll or not to Troll?

Trolling is not only an art but it takes either a true comedic genius or a just a truly stupid comment to get things going. You have seen it in /trade, but here's a little video of what I have seen (this was a while back, so please don't mind the retro feel).









In my experience, my own trolling is nearly non-existent anymore, other than when I need a bit of a pick me up. I normally ponder to myself, curled up into a ball, in the darkest hallway in my house, safely rocking back an forth in a somewhat crazed matter. Then, I normally hit on a topic. Now you want your troll to apprear to be harmless in nature with severe undertones for the unknowing "answerer".

Something like "I cannibal once told me that clowns taste funny." is more of a light hearted troll, and now that I think of it, this wouldn't work too well unless you add the fabled "discuss" after. Personally, I think the use of that word, discuss, is for the amateur troll, and will most likely end in you getting nothing out of your well thought out comment on clowns.

Here is another video link on how to properly troll your audience (I recommend it to be a funny yet hillarious video). This is a must see for proper trolling techniques.....

I do however fall into the troll trap now and again, in fact my favorite fall was the "Why does my magnet not work?" question. I followed up with "you need to turn it around". Yeah. I am a genius. Sure.....didn't work, I was raped by the troll, catching me up with "I turned around, and it still doesn't stick to anything". Now I felt the kid was dumb, or just not understanding what I was saying. After a few minutes back and forth, I was hit by the troll hammer. I laughed, I cried, I envied him. I though that was hillarious that someone kept me going, all the while just busting up behind the glow of their computer screen...



There are other ways to troll by commenting on a topic/comment/subject. One that I can recall reading, I think it was at collegehumor.com . It was a question from a girl that says her boyfriends buddies come over and eat all her food, and make a mess. She is basically looking for advice on how to get rid of them without pissing off her ol'man. The troll kindly suggests "put some Beiber on the radio". It's simple but strategically placed comments like that one that make me totally laugh out loud. I guess it kinda goes back to my childhood when the big "trolls" were saying anything related to size, "thats what she said" or the answer to anything "your mama".....

Here's a few more of the cheesier ones I have seen:

"Is there really more than one way to make ice?"
"I was wondering how to ask a question here?"

And basically anything that starts with these can be a great troll tread starter:
"How do I...."
"When do I know I can....."
"Where is the...."
"What is the opposite of"

So for the next time that you want to troll, how about a "Can I ask you one question?".......you know what they will answer....."sure"......your turn now......"thanks". mmmmm. Trolling is good. Kinda cheesy, but good none-the-less.

And remember..."Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down".

Your turn, feel free to troll on your troll stories. Don't be scared, it's okay..... =)

Alto vs. Alto - My 4.0.6 Predictions and Results

I looked back to last weeks post on Stockpiling for 4.0.6 and compared my pre-patch post to what really has happened. Who will win? PrePatch Alto or PostPatch Alto? I know who I bet on.....

"I only really recommend this if you are willing to pay an exorbitant price for the new formula's, as they will hit the AH, and I feel that 10-15K will be a starting price for these"

As you know, I picked up a meta cut yesterday, and tried to sell for an "exorbitant" amount. Didn't fly. I ended up learning it, and am doing okay, sold 11 to date (decent profits, so far 10K out of the 12 I paid for it, so I am confident that my decision to keep it was worth it) but the thought of a 100K flip just held me back for a few hours. Do you blame me? What if it was you? Would you have done different?

"You have heard me talk about stocking up on Shadowspirit Diamonds. Yup. I got a few, actually about 50K in them as well. These will be a big hitter for me come 4.0.6 drop."

I advised a few times to stock up on Shadowspirit Diamonds, and if you happened to be on my server, that was correct. Even more than I expected, they are floating around 140g over list pre-patch. Hows your server look? Did you follow my advice and profit? Or not?

"Now there are some out there that are Stockpiling Volatile Life. Not that I am against this, but I feel the prices are not going to move signifigantly enough to take up the space in my bank for this."

Now I wasn't a follower of the thoughts that Volatile Life would be a great investment, once again, those that did know their AH, so it was viable for them. I didn't. Bad mistake. Kinda. Yesterday, they hit 14g from a pre patch price of 8g. The thing was, I checked a few times throughout the day (no daughter yesterday, so I actually had time to WoW and blog it up!) and it seemed that the same sellers had the same amounts up, so very little movement (other than the bully I mentioned yesterday). A day after patch back to normal. Now with all the stock that's out there, I believe it will drop further.

How's your Volatile Lifes? Did you stock up? Did you not? Hows your prices looking now?

"Also, the new meta gems have a requirement of 3 red gems equipped, so stock up on the Inferno Ruby gems as well, as I see their sales to be consistent, and raise a bit in price when the patch hits"

This is a double edged sword. I took this screenie tonight, and by tomorrow night after raiding (and new gear is "found") the prices will rise by about 20%. They were last night, and that's a given on tues, thurs, and sat, as those are the raid nights on my server. Now by raising "a bit", I am right and wrong. As you can see, there is quite a few in the gem game, and I am not. Why? I didn't realize till just now actually. I didn't post any.

*Edit- Smudger at Warcraft Corner posted on his Inferno Ruby sales, it's nice to know that someone got some change out of these!

So I guess the good thing is my cuts sold, but now after I am done with this you know where I am heading....sometimes it gets hard trying to run multiple markets while only having a few minutes to log in and get mail, and repost (especially my "normal" routine is twice a day, once in morning, once in the evening). Now I might get lucky and hit a midday, and it usually makes the difference in my "openings".

Overall, my "edu-micated" guesses were a little better than I thought, spot on. Now you all know that this is obviously on my AH. And you know from reading my blog, thats what I talk about. Your server could be 180 degrees from this, and all my information I post for that matter. I try to be as relevant with the scoops I provide you as I can be, by talking more about things that aren't server specific (although my screenshot prices are), but as a "generic" how-to for you to take my advice and apply it to your prices you see daily.

So how is 4.0.6 working out for you? Any positives? Any negatives? How's the gold flowing? Or is it trickling?

Alto vs. World of Warcraft Blogging

Patch day. What I normally do today is when I have a minute, I read through my blogroll, leave a few comments here and there, click on a few ads to help some bloggers when I like their topics (my way of saying thanks!) and write a fresh topic (not like I don't have a few backups, but this one will be posted live).

I am not posting a gold topic today, as I got extremely frustrated reading comments left on a fellow blogger's Guest Post on an extremely popular blog. I left a comment there, but decided to go a bit further with it, and felt that here is a great spot to do it. I might offend some of my readers, I might not, but I need to get this out there:

The Reasons I Started

One of the reasons I started blogging was after reading some top blogs out there, I felt that they were missing something. Me (I know, that sounds like I am being conceded, but I will add on this later). I started at the beginning with my favorite farming spots, then got more into the AH game, what to look for, what to buy/sell, and finially I decided on just writing about what I do daily: if I look at patch/hotfix notes, if I farm mobs somewhere, if I am doing a new style of an old AH trick, you name it, if I do it, I write it.

So in other words, you get a taste of how I am where I am (one server, just shy of cap, spread on three toons, net worth fluctuates, but around 1.3m currently, with 900K liquid). Now I am not a writer by any means, and make quite a few errors, but I feel I get my main point across to you folks, and that is my goal.

My Take on Blogs- Others and My Own

As I wrote in my comment earlier, Bloggers are like newscasters. In wow, there are only so many things you can do. You start to see overlaps of the same processes. How about the Obsidium Shuffle? I think every blog hit on that. Or 4.0.6? Shit, when it was first talked about a month ago, I wrote on it, and I hope that you folks take the time to look back on them, but I haven't wrote a blog dedicated to them since. Why is that? Because I didn't read it. Not in my daily ritual. See where I am going? Some people prefer FOX news for their viewing pleasure, some like CNN, ABC, NBC, etc.

They all cover the same information, but some cover it differently. You might have one taking from a desk, very educated I might add, talking with a picture adding to his/her commentary. There is another that uses video. And yet another interviewing folks on the street. Then you have what I feel my blog is, "in the field". I am out there. I am doing it. I screen shot to explain my process. And why did I decide to do it that way? Because that's what I was looking for in a blog about WoW. And didn't find one. Hence the "me" above. I wasn't being conceted by any means, but even though I write all my posts, belive it or not, I still go back on my own and read them. Call it forgetful memory, or stupidity, but I read them and don't even really register that I wrote it. That might not make sense to you, but it does to me.

My Take on Comments

This is what made me write this today. Back to what I hit on earlier, I was reading comments on JMTC, a fellow blogger Kammler had a guest post on JMTC. Well written. I was going through the comments and everyone had their two cents on the post. Some were hating, some were loving, others hated on Mage. Now reading these, I agreed on some, disagreed on others:

*   One bashed his grammar. Grammar Police. I get it. When I was reading his post, I didn't think about that. I was reading his take on the topic of the article. Notice I said "his" take. But, that is what they saw in the post. This bothers some, others can give a shit...

*   A few of them bashed his thought process. What he felt the topic meant to him. That is a thing us bloggers deal with. People have different viewpoints on EVERYTHING. "Well, I do it this way, so it's right, and everyone else is wrong". I fall into that trap sometimes, because when I do something and it works, I say to do it that way. If someone comments to do it another way, well, that what works on their server. No hating, just a different view on the same topic. CNN vs. Fox.

*   There was a bash towards Mage not reading other blogs before posting on his (Markco's) blog, that this post has been out in the blogosphere three times already. Now I feel I keep up on other blogs, but somehow I missed the three post part. That would bother me too, if I was expecting fresh information from JMTC, and I got hit with something like that. But, I wouldn't comment about it, just not how I am. On the flipside of this, I haven't seen this article yet. If it wasn't for JMTC, I wouldn't have seen it, and had a chance to read it's content. JMTC has an easy 5-10K (probably more, just guessing here) reads a day, and Kammler's blog has a small percentage of that (once again, just a guess). I feel that I am correct when I say that's why Markco does that, he wants other blogs to be known by his readers too (I get almost 50% of my readers referred from JMTC- so I know this and have thanked him often for that.).

*   Another comment said something I love, they were basically asking for Markco's "two copper" on the post. The reason I started reading JMTC was for the fact that I loved the way Markco supplied his information to me. Great insight, great writing, well thought out. I would enjoy seeing his comments on guest posts. So Markco, if you read this, know there is one more vote for you to do that.


Learning from Comments

Quite a few times, when you folks leave comments, I learn from them. Many times, if a comment is viable and works, I will *edit my post to add that information, so the masses that don't read comments can see this great tidbit of information (that I either left out, or that is new to me- I never claimed to have the "best" wow information, as you know from the title of my blog). In a perfect world, everyone that reads my posts would write a comment. Now there is my goal. Too bad I have zero control on that one.....

Double Posts with No "Link Love"

Once again, another pet peeve of mine. I will write a post, and a few hours later see someone cover the exact same topic. At times, word for word. Like they took mine, copy and pasted, and added a few other things. I read it, get pissed, and soon get over it. If they don't have something to cover and have to "steal" my post, at least give me a link to my page. Fuckers. Excuse that if you are offended. This just really pisses me off to no end....
Now on the flipside of this, I have been guilty of my own pet peeve. Now I do my best to view my WHOLE blogrolls posts, there are times when I miss things. Just last week I did a post (OreCrusher) and there were two different bloggers that already posted this information, one I knew about (so I gave the link love), and one I didn't remember where I saw it (and added an update after they commented). I hope I didn't bother anyone, but that "for instance" falls back on my comparing ABC to NBC to Fox News. Three different viewpoints. And due to my style, I don't think I caused hate by anyone, as all my posts are my viewpoints, using my own screen shots, with my own information inside.

Random

Ok, a few other things here. One, bloggers that are against the "ads" that are used. So if you don't have ads on your page you are better than those that do? Cmon. Ok, I agree. You are better than me for that. Happy? I have ads on my page. I will always have them. Cmon, 21 bucks for a 60day gametime card? Yeah, Amazon baby. I buy em, do you? Cheapness. Once again, something I saw that I am showing the masses. Buy gold here? Nah, google adwords, you are wrong. My readers dont want a diamond ring. They want wow gold, and they want to make it themselves, not buying it from you and getting the banstick....

Last one, I promise....Those that think blogging is a popularity contest. Hating on other blogs, while promoting others. Really, I don't care one bit which "club" you are in, if you are an "elite" member somewhere, and "brag" about it constantly. If that is what makes you happy, by all means, be proud of it. But don't lose readers because you talk about it almost every post. Or do lose them. It's up to you.

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So overall, the whole Alto vs. WoW blogging got canceled. No fight card. We are buddies. And will continue to be. I am sure I didn't cover some scoops on blogs, and overcovered others. It happens (probably due to ADHD and Adderall- or just the fact that this post was written in two hours, when in all reality with no distractions would have been 30 minutes).

I do want to reiterate my "sorry" to all my readers that were expecting a gold'ish post from me. I guarantee you will get some "hot of the press" scoops on the patch today later this evening. I will make up for this rambling I had this morning. Promise. Pinkie swear. Oh, speaking of swearing, I used a bit of profanity, and sorry if that bothered you, but sometimes I don't have a better word for it.....


Now it's your turn. Comments. 3........2.........1.........GO!

< Insert "Catchy" Blog Title Here >

While hanging around /2 this evening, I saw some interesting comments, along with some interesting names, and figured I would share them with you.....so here's you's go:

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Believe it or not this cat was a level 60. I mean, what made him finially realize to change it?

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  After reading this one, I laughed, actually out loud. Like not a lol. But really. And then I looked at his name. Not that it is really funny either, but for some reason, I laughed so hard that I stopped making noise. You know that laugh? Yeah, that one. BTW, did you know that Bud Light coming out of your nose feels like fire? Well, you do now....

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I am not sure if this is a prayer, or if he thought he was typing this as an ad for eHarmony. The thing that bothers me is he posted this one a few times within a spam (err. I mean span) of a few minutes. That means he actually has this as a macro....

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Now this one had nothing to do with /2, but I have some magnet on this toon when it comes to finding Blizzards errors.

 Take a glance to the left. Whaddya see?

You know what's coming next right? Yeah, it sold....

I got a feeling that my buyer didn't necessesarily look at the stats when he bought this. I do have a feeling that a blue ring with +0 stats does look better than a green one though... Amirite? =)

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*If you happen to be one of these folks, leave a comment on this page (or send an in game mail from the character) and I will toss you some gold, since I couldn't really fuzz over, as this post would have been blank without you. Thank you......

By the way, the Faire is coming into town in a few, what does that mean to you? Do you have a game plan? Or don't really care, too worried about getting bets down on the Super Bowl?   



--Alto vs. TSM-- Who threw in the Towel?

I am feeling that you guys are ready for another deathmatch. This time, I am getting in the ring with TSM. This addon called me out around a week ago, and I took the challenge....Let me explain:

I have been using Auctionator for basically all of my buying and selling for quite some time now. I have hit a few posts on my what's and why's of doing this, for instance my "Alto's Ritual" post where I covered what I use which addon for (if you haven't seen that post, go check it out, and then come back and finish here, as there are some similar "conversations" you will see).

Recently, the blogosphere was lit up with a new addon called TSM. As always, I am up for trying new things, and this was one of them.

So I went to curse, downloaded the addon and installed it. Blah. What the hell? It said I needed to download more "suites"....if you used this, you know what I mean, as it probably happened to you. So I downloaded them, reluctantly, already frustrated with the hassle of not an all in one download (addons are supposed to be easy, right?).

I was expecting an easy user interface. Call me dumb, but it is far from it. I had some Ink of the Sea left over, so I tried again. After clicking some things (not really sure what, I think it was when I smashed my head on the keyboard a few times) I finially saw something other than a blank screen.  Blood dripping down my forehead....And this ----------->

Finially, I was getting somewhere. I did the logical thing, I hit Craft Next with a killer hook. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Oh shit! Something happened. I made a glyph! Woohoo! Happy days! What's that? Another glyph made? Cool! Really slow in between, I am beginning to think this program is as lost as I am...

As this is happening, I suddenly see a barker for Mysterious Fortune Cards selling in /2 Trade. So I immediately run to the AH and post. I am down to 50 in my bags, but I just milled a bunch of Blackfallow Inks, so I tap my mount (Traveler's Tundra) and buy up 100 parchments. Ok. This tripped me out, thinking something was jacked on Blizz side...I get 40 of common, 50 some of light, 30 of another (dont remember right now)...you get the picture. Then I realize that this is some part of TSM, like an auto vendor "pull" function. I think....

So I take care of the cards, now back to TSM. So I do the same "head mash" on my keyboard to get this to work for me again, and what happens? I start making glyphs. Again. It crafts a few of each glyph, slow as molasses. On the second set of three (where did this 3 come from anyway?), I decided to go back to my good ol' Auctionator to finish crafting them. I threw in the towel.....you win by default TSM.

In conclusion, good ol' Auctionator did the job for me, crafting around 70 glyphs in about 10 minutes (including post time). Now if you add in the 15 minutes I spent on TSM making 6 glyphs, I see that I shouldn't have taken on TSM, that Auctionator should have.....

My lesson was learned. Time restraining, I will not get in the ring with something again "blind". I will make sure that my training fits the fight. I promise to have a rematch with this wonder called "TSM".

"BE WARNED, I WILL BE BACK! I will destroy you and make you make me GOLD! Be afraid, be very afraid!" I said to this addon, who has beat me senseless, battered and bruised me....as I walked away from my computer cowering.....

Now you must excuse me, as I have to figure out how to explain the multiple keyboard dots and minor bleeding on my forehead to my wifey. Any suggestions? =)

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As always, feel confident on posting a comment. If you have seen any sites that have great TSM "training", holler out! If you hit it on your blog, let me know!

Alto vs. OreCrusher- "The Death Match"

Ore Crusher. It is a fairly new addon, so I figured to test it out a few days back (a blog hit on it, but I can't recall who or where I saw it- if it was you, holler in comments please so I can give you credit. *Edit- It was over at Trading With Zoxy- OreCrusher- Prospecting Addon). As I was writing this, midway through I took a break to read up on blogging, and Smudger did a post on his blog, The Warcraft Corner (and I hope you check it out if you haven't yet). He mentioned that he isn't a big fan of spreadsheets, and this addon basically does all the manual work of the ones that are out there. After using it myself, I was amazed at how quick it worked, and I love anything that can shave time off my daily "ritual". Can you blame me?

Now for all you folks that have been doing this shuffle for quite some time, you already have a good idea of the gold that can be made, and estimate your profit, correct? If you answered kinda, we are in the same boat....

Using this addon (or the spreadsheet that is floating out in the blogosphere, Stede at Venture LLT has a great one) takes 100% of the guesswork out of your profits, if you sell the uncuts, if you vendor, if you craft and D/E, if you transmute to Shadowspirit Diamonds, what-have-you.

Here is the addon. Not much to do, other than to enter in your cost, your # of stacks, then click "Do It". That's it. You are done. Total time, 2 seconds. Now there is a catch, you have to have your AH scan up to date. Either Auctioneer or Auctionator is fine, just do a scan and it will use the most recent information available. Ez peezie, right? 

Now for the main gunk of my post. I had to find out how accurate it is to real-time. Now we are all aware that to get an accurate number is extremely tough, especially when Blizz has the "drops" or "procs" of prospecting is all based off random numbers (or RNG), so I can understand where this can be off, but I wanted to see how far off it is. Now this is not meant to hate on the program (I can only imagine how tough it is to program something like that, and how much time was invested), I just want to know how accurate it is. So here goes:

For my comparison, I used the magic number, 100. Not that it can disappear, or pull a rabbit out of it's hat, but just because it works. And just in case, I did it twice. Two seperate sets of 100 stacks prospected. Now you are probably thinking that's quite a bit, it must have taken a long time. Well, I was surprised when I timed it.....

100 stacks. Almost 23 minutes. Now it seemed like an hour, but it wasn't. So, I got a screenie, got a count, and started fresh with a new 100 stacks for Test 2.

 Here are my results:

ROUND ONE

Dream Emerald: 4

Ocean Sapphire: 9

Inferno Ruby: 7

Demonseye: 3

Amber Jewel: 3

Ember Topaz: 7

Jasper: 91

Zephyrite: 103

Carnelian: 101

Nightstone: 97

Alicite: 106

Hessonite: 103

601 Greens

33 Blues

Now this is very close with what I have been estimating, 6 greens per stack, and 1 blue per three stacks. So nothing new here, and extremely close, give or take a few greens. So far, so good. 1st round, I call it a tie, what about you?

ROUND 2

Dream Emerald: 2

Ocean Sapphire: 7

Inferno Ruby: 5

Demonseye: 8

Amber Jewel: 3

Ember Topaz: 9

Jasper: 96

Zephyrite: 111

Carnelian: 80

Nightstone: 98

Alicite: 110

Hessonite: 104

599 Greens

34 Blues

Damn. Still extremely accurate. Now I am not necessarily looking at the exact amounts "here and there" for the greens or blues, but just going off the overall numbers. I am extremely surprised how close blizzard has this random number thing down. Fairly even across the board. Once again, I feel that round two is a tie as well.

Now I also did a comparison with the D/E'ing side of OreCrusher, and it was basically a tie as well, however I only compared Carnelian Spikes and Jasper Rings, so it wasn't a "complete" competition, so I cannot judge, however.....you guessed it, very close.

*Edit- Kammler, from Kammler's Korner updated some info in the comments below (to read his whole comment, check below):

"Also, the projected number of crafted items is not visible, and neither is the raw gem data except on the main page. For example, the data I just generated for 10 stacks of Obsidium suggests 9.6 Carnelian and 9.6 Jasper. The Transmute button says I should expect 6 Greater Celestials from the Carnelian Spikes (at a rate not disclosed per unit) for a total of 284g, and 2.8 Hypnotic Dusts (again, rate not shown) for 19.60g. Now I know the Carnelian Spikes take 3 gems each so I should produce 3 total. But it isn't shown in the data. It would be helpful to determine "what if" I sold the DE mats from two units at a high enough rate to get that return--then I could bank the extra 3 Carnelians for later.

Similarly, the Jasper Rings show a predicted 10.8 Hypnotic Dusts (total only, 75.6g) and 1.2 Greater Celestials (total only, 56.88g). I know it takes 1 Jasper per ring so that must be based on 9.6 rings. But the totals are not shown so I can't run any other models--its all based on the lowest price listed in the AH."

Now only one area that I seen was WAY off, the transmute Shadowspirit Diamonds....(I am sorry to say I did not get a screenie of the addon's estimate, but it was 74. I ended up with 64. Now that is a 2500g difference. Out of the 30 I did, only 4 procced as 3's, the rest were 2's. And yes, I am transmute spec, so I will be trying it again to see if proc's get more on my side...). With this round, we are about 15ish percent off. But I won't hate, because I think that I had bad luck there.

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Overall, this addon comes highly recommended if you are looking for an estimate of what prospecting will give you (at least for Obsidium- I cannot speak for the others). Now after adding and subtracting, I saw that there was just shy of 1200ish gold difference on the price it listed (for just uncut) between the two rounds, but 10ish percent is still close in my book, and it beats guessing.....this addon is definitely staying in my bag of tricks. If you prospect, I imagine this will be of assistance to you as well. Ok, now for some questions for you reading this...

Are you using this addon? What do you think? Are you as happy as I am with the results?

Even the Orgrimmar Grunts are Addicted!

This is a 100% "ish" post. No gold involved, but I thought you all might get a kick out of this if you haven't seen it yet...

A while back, I posted about the Mysterious Fortune Cards being the WoW Crack. Well, not only are the players addicted, but one Org Grunt admitted it publicly....

I am not sure if there is some Blizzard program that saw me list some on the AH, or if it was just completely random. Bah, who knows. It's funny anyways.

BTW, don't get used to short posts like this, I just wasn't finished with my post for the day when this hit, and figured I needed to share this with ya'll. Now to open up some cards...erhm, i mean play the AH and get my shuffle and mill on. =)



Things in Life Aren't Free- But in WoW They Are?

Alot of folks have different optinions on what is actually "profit". We have all heard the "I farmed it so it's free" line, which, in all reality it's true. You did spend the time to farm, and it was "free". We have also heard "well, it procced on the transmute, so it's free", which is also true. But I don't see it either way, and neither should you if you have the same mindset. Let me explain:

"I farmed it so it's free":

How long did it take you? What was your GPH (gold per hour)? Did you stop and take a second to check it out? How did you factor it in?

Ok, so you were in Twilight Highlands farming your Elementium Ore for an hour. You ended with 160 ores. A few green gems, and a blue. Oh yeah, 6 Volatile Earth, 2 Volatile Fire. Was it worth it?

8 stacks of Elementium: 720g
3 Pyrite Ore: 36g
Green uncut gems: 40g
Dream Emerald: 35g
6 Volatile Earth: 75g
2 Volatile Fire: 45g

Total is 940"ish" gold. Alright, not too shabby. But that is just the start. "It's all free". So you mail the ores to your gemmy, and prospect them. You end up with 930g worth of gems (AH price). So is that your GPH now? What about when you take the gems, cut them into Alicite Pendant, Jasper Rings, Carnelian Spikes, and then D/E them? Then you are looking at around 1100g? But is it still "free"? Now you notice that Nightstones are the Jewelcrafter's daily, so you get 80g each for the two that you got from prospecting. Now we are looking at almost 1300g. See where I am going with this? Sure, just from farming you can sell your "mats" straight out, and clear 900g. But spend a bit more time and you get 400g more. I know this is total common sense, but try to get in this mindset on what you can do with your time. This example can work with many different types of farming, so place yourself in your normal farming situation and go from there. Next.....

"Well, it procced on a transmute, so it's free"

So you are doing your daily transmute of Volatile Life to Volatile Air. Or Truegold. Or when you made your Jasper Rings, you procced a Blue one. You procced 3 on your Truegold transmute, and you want to sell them quick, so you hit the AH and toss em in for 100g UNDER the lowest price. You just lost dough buddy. Instead of them being free, you now have to pay for that Potion of Treasure Finding out of your own pocket, instead of using the system to pay. Get it? Got it? Good.

"I can sell it cheap, because I wasn't even expecting it, so it's free"

Wrong. And right. If you sell it cheap, you are losing money. This is once again common sense, but it seems that people don't see it that way. I see that Blue ring selling within a few days for 200'ish gold. But others seem to not do that, D/E it, get a Small Heavenly Shard (worth about 17g), and go on. That, my friends, is a loss. Not a "free" 17g, but a loss of 180g. But once again, it was free (as I am told)......

Ok. Now this is the one that burns me the most. Listening last night to JMTC reminded me of this. To each their own, but you are reading this because you care about my point of view, and here it is....

"Well, when I mill, I make my money back on Inferno Inks, so the Blackfallow Inks are free"

This one for some reason is my biggest pet peeve. Sickening. Now you are probably thinking "this alto's full of shit, why does this bother him so much?". Or you don't care. But tuff, I am gonna tell you anyways. Folks like this piss me off in a few ways. One, they lower the price of Blackfallow on the AH to next to nothing. Which in turn lowers the prices on Mysterious Fortune Cards. Which affects my bottom line.

Now before you say "Alto, you do the same thing, isn't that a contradiction?", Yes, I do "near" the exact opposite. I mill, sell my Inferno Inks, and use my Blackfallow Inks for other uses, unless the Inferno's are full of competition, then I will make Destruction Cards or just sit on them. I don't kill (flood) the market and make the prices lower to zero worth. Bah.

So as usual, I started going off and rambling for a bit. Yes, this is all common sense once again. Things in Life Aren't Free. Ever. Ore are they?


*pic is used from http://www.famousbloggers.net/