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?

Darkmoon Cards- Good Enough to Go All In?

With the Darkmoon Faire hitting this weekend, we are once again seeing the prices of both Decks and Single Cards go to the "normal" rate. You know what that means, right? Yeah. If you are a Scribe, don't skim. Take the time to read thoroughly, as you might learn something. =)

With the prices of Herbs on most servers seeing a definite drop from a month ago, they are starting to stabilize around the 30-40g mark per stack (Cata level herbs, Obviously). What does this mean to us? Alot. Ready for some Alto math? Don't worry, there's no tests involved....with most folks having finals coming up, thats the last I want to toss at you.

1:1- Cinderbloom, Stormvine, Heartblossom and Azshara's Veil

1.5:1 - Twilight Jasmine and Whiptail


Ok, here we go. What I mean with the ratio's above is Inferno Ink: Stack of Herbs. So if you are snatching up Cinderbloom at 30g per stack, you are "Alto Approved" through the RNG to get one Ashen Pigment, and 5 Blackfallow Inks (you can turn 2 Burning Embers into a Inferno, and you can turn 10 Blackfallow into an Inferno). Now if you grab a stack of whiptail for 40g, then you are expecting 3 Pigments, and 5 Blackfallow Inks. Make sense? Good.

Now to figure the rest. We need 10 Inferno Inks per Card. At the above numbers, 10 stacks of Cinderbloom means 300g (10 Inks). With Whiptail producing the 1.5 on average, we can get our 10 with only 7 stacks. Math? 280g. So in this case, more profits, albeit 20g, with Whiptail.

Now for Volatile Life. Not much you can do here to change the prices that are in the AH. And per Card, we need 30. So if you hit them up at 10g per, 300g there. At 5g? 150g. Easy, quick math. Now you want to know if they are profitable...

What I look at is my own little RNG (random number generator) when figuring out if Cards are profitable. Since there are 32 options made from the Darkmoon Card of Destruction proc, once again, easy math. The number I use currently use is 1600g (average sale price per card). Take the cost of above (to get your mats) and subtract. There is your estimated profit per card.

Now you want to know how I get my average sale price? Easy. Take the highest and lowest card in your AH right now (mine is 325g and 2875g) add em, and divide by two.

Hope this helps out the folks that are getting into this market, and remember, the week before and week of are "normally" the highest returns, and the most volatile as well, so watch your times and values in the AH. I see that Friday nights and Sunday days are the highest sale prices, but this may vary server to server.

Have fun, and make some gold! Oh, the Faire is outside Shatt this month...Starting Sunday!

Email Question Answered- Alto's Play by Play Morning Ritual

*Edit- I have an update, as I just saw we had another hotfix. I reported back on patch day that it seemed that the cost of PvP gear was raised. Blizz announced that it is was an unexpected error, prices are now back to normal.


Morning folks! I recceived an email from one of my readers recently, and wanted to cover it in a post. I am going to hit on my changed AH ritual, and the basis is going to be my start to finish a.m. process (normally around 30 minutes). So sit back, take a sip of coffee, and enjoy!

Altos,

I want to say thanks for the informaition you have been giving us, it is a great help! Some days, I feel like you are writing just for me, your posts cover just what I ask! I have been a reader for a few months, and I still go back here and there to re-read your posts. I have two questions if you don't mind. One, have you changed your auction house ritual lately? What are you doing different? And two, you interviewed Marcko and asked him what his "day in the life of" was like, what's yours?

Sincerely,
Heather XXXXXX

P.S.
I do miss seeing your mailbox openings. It gives me motivation to pursue my own goals. I started at 22,Kg and am now sitting at 110,Kg two months later, even after buying a Vial of the Sands mount! I have attached some screen shots of mine, they aren't as big, but I had a 9Kg day!

85 Priest 525 Inscription- 525 Tailoring
84 Mage 525 Mining- 525 Herbalism

---------------------------------------------------------------

Well Heather, here you go!

6:45am

Daddy wakes up (I am not Alto yet, so I am better known in life as Daddy....) I go into my office, log into wow, do an AH scan through Auctionator. I now take the role of Alto.

6:50am-

Since there are still some recipies that are out there from 4.0.6 drop, I go into Auctioneer first and click on Rare (so it only shows rare and above recipies). I notice that there is a Formula- Enchant Bracer- Major Strength in the AH for 15K buyout, 7.5K bid. First one that I have seen, so I hesistate, and decide to send an in game mail to the seller with an offer....

6:51am-

Go to the mailbox, SS for "The Openings" and see I have a "few" C.O.D's 19 to be exact. 200+ stacks.

I click each one, pay the COD fee and let them sit. My farmer has his gold, he's happy. I have a ton to prospect.

6:55am-

I now write a mail to purchase the Formula, and send it out (I know I spelled strength wrong, was that intentional? You decide...).

While I am running, I hit the Jewelcrafter's daily to see if I need to list up some uncut gems. Stardust. Some like this one cuz it's easy, I don't because there is no money to be made. Oh well..

6:56am-
Back to the AH to check my auctions, see what I need to relist, and see if I need to buy anything for flips, resale, or crafting needs. I pull up on Auctionator Buy tab a few of my "Shopping Lists" on what are normail undercut items and what I purchase regularly. I see the red X, and that tells me I have been outbid. Since the AH fee is so cheap on the Essences, I delete and relist as lowest seller.

6:58am

I see that Cinderbloom is at a decent price for a "Milling Flip" (so I double check the current Inferno Ink costs), and I see that I will triple my investment . So, 57 stacks of 20 are bought. Now I know that I have milling (about 10 minutes) and prospecting (about 20-25 minutes) to do later. The things we do for virtual gold, huh?

7:00am-
Now I start to relist my "daily" items. Cut/Uncut Gems/Shadowspirit Diamonds, Glyphs, Blackfallow Ink and Inferno Ink, random blues/epic gear and weapons, a few ores and herbs on occasion, any Volatiles, Essences, Dusts, Vendor items, etc (Can you see I am not in one market?) If you count it out, I probably hit about 30 (easy), and am successful in "almost" all of them. Note the "almost". There are folks that camp the AH, or have the mobile AH that undercut consistently. I cannot, as I don't have the time. Throughout the day, I will hit 5 min here and there if I can, but not always..

7:10am-
I now hop on my Alchemist, as I need to do the Daily Transmute and I need to craft some Shadowspirits (I am a few days off, so she has some stock to D/E as well). I open her mail, and 4 pages of work for her as well. Fun times ahead.... (figure the math on that one, 27 mails times 12 per mail. Can you say behind?)

7:12am-

So onto her Transmute. She is based in Dal for the bank and AH access and for Jessica the Ink trader, but since the patch, no need for that, so not sure where she will sit now....

7:16am-

Log off, and start my day. My daughter sleeps till around 830ish, so I have a bit of time to write up the post. I end up not having more time to proofread and post until 10am, when her show is on t.v. 

I hope this gives you a bit of insight to how the ball rolls for me. Day to day the morning ritual changes, logging and posting from three different toons, depending on who has been lacking or who holds what in their banks. Now I did not go into a whole lot of detail, but if you would like a more defined post on a certain area, holler in comments or send an email to altosgoldishadvice@gmail.com .

Now my questions for you. Does this look familiar? Do you do anything different or unique that I didn't hit on? Do you have any ideas/advice for me on this process? Do you agree with Heather and want me to start posting my openings again?   

To Flip or Not to Flip? Using "The Shuffle" Overstock in The AH For Profits

  
*Ok, I want to remind the "farmers" out there that if 4.0.6 drops tomorrow, are you gonna give up a bit of AH love to get your rare world drops (enchant bracers and meta recipies?)? Just remember to pop your Potion of Treasure Finding, as they are up-nerfing those as well. Or are you going to be "farming" the AH to get these on the "cheap", for server firsts? And what about the new "Rare Monsters" we heard about dropping as well? Hmm. I suppose you will find out soon enough what my plan is/was and how it worked out. =)
 

Good day, fine folks! I am starting off with a question to you.....How many times do you read (or hear) "nice idea, but that doesn't work on my server, too much competition" or "the uncuts gems are so cheap, it isn't even profitable to do the shuffle anymore". I see it and hear it quite often. I have even said that myself....


     The problem with this style of thinking is why you are stuck at your current gold "stock". Thinking outside the box, thinking in the box, burning the box, whatever you call it, we all gotta snap out of it, right? Two weeks ago, I had a few bad days at the AH (partially because I didn't post more than 50 or so auctions, as I was extremely limited on playtime) and a good part of it was sales were slumping. A few more people got into my market, and I needed a bit of the pvp AH break.

     Enough with my bla, bla, bla, I am now going to cover what dug me out and back to my usual 10K+ "The Openings" (if you don't know what that is, look back a few posts, I was in a habit of SS'ing my daily mailbox moments).

     Looking at my stock in the bank, and the COD's piling up the in mail with Ore, I came to a conclusion. I missed a market. With all the prices on uncuts down to basically cut/vendor prices, I wasn't selling. I would D/E everything I crafted (the normal shuffle here) with the gems, toss up the blue procs, and that was it. I didn't really think until my slump last week that I am missing out on a huge market.....

     Simple supply and demand, but I seemed to slip this one in the back of the brain, and it got lost in all the cata cobwebs (I used this process all the way back in Vanilla thru Wrath, but not in Cata yet). Time to dust em off and get banking.

     What I am talking about is a type of "reverse" psychology, but in the WoW form. Carnelian Spikes. Jasper Rings. Hessonite Bands. Alicite Pendants. Now this post will explain the process, however if you are not into this game, you will get the picture of how to do this with any item.


I explained in one of my Coaching meetings last night this process with using Savage Leather Scraps to turn into Savage Leather, to turn into Heavy Savage Leather, then finially turning them in at Twilight Highlands to get your Prisitine Hides, and at 50% of current AH prices. Now even though this process seems simple, it's surprising that every server has areas of this sort that are not utilized. The Blackfallow Ink flip (to Inferno Ink) and many others are also viable. If you are interested in a one on one "Coaching" with me, don't hesitate to click anywhere on this paragraph to get more information (scroll down to altosgold for me!), or email me direct at altosgoldishadvice@gmail.com .

     First off, I want you to open up your AH, click onto your "BUY" tab on Auctionator *thanks Azuriel (you should have this addon already. If not, get it, download it, and continue reading). Now I want you to make a new shopping list, and name it carnelian spikes (or whatever, really, it just makes life easier this way to check your prices quickly). You might notice that the names are in quotation marks "". This tells Auctionator to only pull up that exact name, for instance if you just put in carnelian, you will get all the cut gems, the uncut, spikes, etc. It helps out other times, but this one you need to do it this way. Because I said to. Ok? Ok.
     Now you need to check the prices. Disenchanting Carnelian Spikes will give you (on average of 100 blocks that I tested) 1.8 Greater Celestial Essence, and 1 Hypnotic Dust.
     Now you are probably telling me "I call bullshit Alto. You get either one or the other". You are correct. But if you do this on a mass scale, that is what ONE spike averages out for D/E. So when you are pricing if this will work on your server, use that as an estimate (I use 1.5 and 1 when I am doing the flip, but you can use whatever).

 We know that Spikes are 3 Carnelians, so one will cost 16*3, or 48 gold. Now add the 4.5g for three Jeweler's Settings, and we are now at a "current" price of 52.5g. Now there are a few that are cheaper than mats cost, so I will buy these spikes up. Why you ask? You should already be able to answer this question, but humor me and continue reading.... =)

     Now, we check the current price of Greater Celestial Essences, and they are sitting at 39g (current AH price). We know that "mass d/e" says we will get 1.8 of these...(39g * 1.8= 70.2g). Now normally, I do not factor in the Hypnotic Dust price, as I don't use the 1.8 either. For quick math purposes, I use the "times 1 and a half" method. So basically, I am looking at 60g per spike, right?

     So to buy the Carnelian at 16g and craft them myself (not including the "shuffle"), I am looking at a 8 gold profit per. See where I am going with this? Now 8g isn't a lot, but if you were to factor in "mass" amounts of these made, 8g turns into an 800g profit on 100 (actually, I ended up with just shy of 1600g profit on my 100 test I did).





Now like I mentioned, this is a brief "generic" style of working the AH. I talked before about using this style method in other areas, and you might be doing this already, or maybe you aren't. This is a non-server dependent method you can utilize for a consistent profit in almost every aspect. Take a few minutes and check your AH in this situation. Similar? Now check the savage leather I mentioned above. Similar? See, there are alot of profits out there in the AH, you just have to look....

*Edit- Who knows if this will continue to be as profitable, as the blogosphere has been mentioning that the Carnelian Spikes ilvl might get nerfed so they will not proc the Greaters as much anymore. Bah, who knows. No one but Blizzard I guess....

Neutral AH? Cross Faction Trading? What Alto Does When The AH Doesn't Want to Play

Today there was a post by Kreaton over at The Not So Secret Society that got me to realizing another thing that I have not covered on my blog posts. Cross Faction. With all the herb and ore farming going on, alot of people have played this market. On some servers, this ride is almost over. Now to grab a few tickets, and get in line for the next ride:

Ok, ok. It isn't this scary, but it might be....Can you handle it? Can you?

 Purchasing/Selling from both Alliance and Horde. Now alot of people are familiar with this style of play, but since Cata there is alot of focus on playing your own AH, and little checking "the dark side" to see your competition over there (I know, because for the first week, I did nothing but Horde AH, and at the first sign of MAJOR competition, my instinct took over, and I logged into my Ally).

Before I go into this too much further, log into your account, and check your higher selling items on the cross faction (no, not the neutral AH, the "other" side). Is there a significant difference? Like Jasper going for 35g and on "your" side it's only 9g? Is the Cinderbloom reaching 40g per stack when you just bought 50 stacks today for 95g? You see what I mean here? If they are all the same (or near it) just bypass the rest of this post. Although it's very unlikely that there isn't some niche you can get into.

"But Alto, I don't even have a toon on the other side"

Start a new toon. Get your new level one to a "main" town. Thinking back, I believe Alliance closest is Gnome, and Horde's is an Orc. Get to the AH and check the prices (if you use Auctionator, just click on your buy tab and it will remember what you have searched for on your "main"). See what you can get yourself into....*time lapses*.....

"Ok, I found Cinderbloom is waaay cheaper there. Next"

Talk to a friend:  Your best bet is to have another account of your own to do this. However not alot of people do, so here is what to do: Do you have a guild buddy that you trust? A "real life" friend that you know has a wow account (maybe doesn't play on same server)? Give them a holler and ask about assisting you moving gold over to a toon for you (unless you can "trade" money with them if they have one over there already). Just make sure that you cut them in on the first round of gold you will be making (you should already have an idea of your first profits, so base your "tip" on that. 100g? Sounds good to me).

*Now if these options are not available, you can always take your toon and send a tell to the seller of the goods you are looking at. If they are not online, send them a mail. What I have done in the past if I need a quick move is /2. When someone is "barking" their wears, send a tell to them (with the 100g tip I mentioned above) to send it through the neutral AH. I can normally convince someone quite quick to assist me. Money talks. And you might get lucky enough to have a cross faction farmer out of it as well!

Now is where you might run into a few issues. If you end up using the Neutral AH for moving gold (which use at your own risk, I would only move no more than 10K, as that will be enough to get the ball rolling quite quickly). Have your pal toss up an item (junk) for 10K on the neutral, you buy it from your main, the goblin AH takes it's cut (still 10%? I think it's close to that- *Edit- Thanks to Tyrandir- it's 15%) and your buddy has your cash in their mailbox. Log to your toon on the dark side and start your cross faction.

Now make sure that your initial "tip" makes it worthwhile for your "friend" to help you move the gold/items over. It gets a little more complicated when you are getting ready to move your 100 stacks of cinderbloom.....

"Ok, Got my 8400g on my new toon, tipped 100g for my helper, I hit the AH and bought some netherweave bags for holding, bought bank tabs, and now I go to the AH and there are only 50 stacks left. DAMMIT!"

Yeah, that does happen. Figured I would add this in....

"Bought my stacks, now I gotta get them back over"

EZ money. Holler at your buddy (i use vent for this, or over the phone) get in sync (not the band...) and list 5 at a time, buyout. 5 at a time, buyout. If there is a "scalper", they won't get away with much.

"Thanks Alto, but I have another issue. I did this a few times, and am outta money over there."

I hope you would have already figured this one out. Either shuffle more money over there like you did before, but that is where the "cross faction" comes in. You buy/sell both sides, Horde wants Cinderbloom, Alliance wants Pyrite Ore. You get the picture.....

Now there is alot more that I can cover on this post, but I hope you feel where I am going with this. Feel free to leave a comment on something that worked for you, or if you have other questions about this style of play. Till next time.....