Making Gold in WoW- Are you Puzzled?

Generic title, huh?

I know, I know. The title itself leaves you with a ton of empty questions. Time and time again, and throughout everyone's gold making experience, they hit a brick wall. I hear it often, that "you guys [bloggers] pull in 10K a day, and I want that, but I can't do it!". Do I have an answer? Sure....but you might not want to hear it.

I have been in the gold game for years, so I will let you in on a (not so complicated) secret: You need time and gold to make gold.

Let's look at a few examples:

You have 10K in hand. You don't have a guild bank, you log in once every other day. You have a stack here and a stack there of goods to sell. You have, at most, around 50 auctions a day. You sir/madam, are not going to pull in a ton of gold. My guess is you might make hundreds on a good day. You know what? That's good. But, and emphasis on the but, you need gold (and stock) to make more gold. A good number I figure is that one percent of your liquid gold you have you should be pulling in a day. 10K=100g. Don't worry, it will creep up, you just need to re-invest that gold to continue making more.

You have 100K liquid. You just got a guild bank, you log in "almost" daily. You are starting to build up a stockpile of materials, and you are starting to know what sells on your auction house. You read blogs. You do what you can to get the sales. But you are struggling. You are pulling in around 1K a day, and can't get much more. You wonder why. 1%'er. You are doing exactly what you should be doing, but once again, get your stocks up. You need to continue to stock up on goods on the low end (price point) on your server, and repost during the high times. This is where the AH gets interesting, and more of a "watch and learn" than the "read blogs and learn".

What and where I am going with this is DONT GET FRUSTRATED in your quest for gold in WoW. There are many different options to make gold in each auction house, and you need to find them. Sure, you can hire me to Coach you, you can buy my Gold Guide, you can buy 20KLeveling, and you can learn what is needed to make gold. But the absolute best way to learn is to know your AH, and on a more personal level. How you ask? Here's a few things to get started:

• What are the ebb and flows of the market? Do you notice that Volatile Life is sitting around 5g on Mondays, and kicks up to 14g on the weekends or vice/versa?
• Are you always looking for "x" material- Noticing it's never on the AH? Farm it. If you can't, find someone that can. 
• Are you re-investing your profits? Do you have a guild bank to store your AH schtuff? Do you have a stack (at least) of each material that you use in your crafting? No? Get stock my good friend. 
• Are you only in one market? Or two? Or ten? Or fifty? Remember, gold is gold. Whether you make 5g on a sale or 500g, profit is profit. The lesser profits are normally the easiest. Vendor items, gear "flips", and quick to craft items normally give the least amount of profit whereas high risk (BoE mounts, TGC cards, BoE epics) will give the most profits. *but beware of a potential loss if not done correctly.
• Do you post Auctions? Or better yet, do you FOLLOW up on them? Do you see what is selling and when? When you sell "x" glyph, do you already have 3 of the same posted? Do you automatically run TSM or recraft another and repost? Or do you just run to your bank and grab one and toss it on the AH immediately? Know your role. As I mentioned many times before, if it's not on the AH, it's still selling.....for someone else. They get your sales. Take advantage of that. Let that sink in. 
• Are you utilizing posting "times" correctly? Do you utilize your 12, 24, and 48 hour auctions? Auction "fees" go by a percentage of vendor price, then multiplied by length of time. Are you posting your epic BoE's for 48 hours and paying 20+ gold if it doesn't sell? Day after day, week after week? Or are you selling your Enchant Scrolls on 12 hour when it's only silvers more to post 48's? Take that in consideration.
• Are you utilizing posting "days" correctly? Are you posting your items on Tuesday night for 12 hours or 48 hours? Are you posting your Ore 7 days a week and losing out on the highest prices on Thursday evening? Those gems/enchants used to sell like hotcakes on Tues and Thurs nights (raid times on your server), so you only post then? With the dungeon queue, you might want to reconsider and rock them 24/7. 

Think of WoW like a Puzzle:

Everyone has to start out with a "kiddie" 6 piece puzzle (the 1-10K'ers). The first few times you put it together and pull it apart, it gets easier each time (the 10-50K'ers). But then, you get "older", and it turns into a 20 piece, then a 100 piece, then a 1000 piece. You can work on it all hours of the day (post/repost), and get it done faster, or you can break it down into hour blocks and knock it out little by little (the every other day posters). It's up to you on how you play with your "AH" puzzle, and how well you understand the process, and more importantly, how quick you gain gold. 

After time, you will realize when you open the box, you seperate into shapes/corners/edges/colors/etc (multiple markets). You might pick one part of the puzzle to work on first (posting days), maybe the "easiest" part of the picture (posting times). Then you go into another part and branch off (vendor items to crafting goods), and so on and so on. 

Then, you realize that you are missing a piece. You look all over, can't find it anywhere. Maybe the cat ate it. Maybe the dog. Maybe your kid/sister/brother/parent (competition). Now, you are on a hunt for it. You need to find that piece. Are you one to give up, and throw it away? Or are you the one that will, after completing your puzzle (other than that one missing piece) will "make your own"? What I mean here is going "outside the box". Making your own niche market that no one has talked about (in any blog/forum/website) that is a market on your server that no one else is in?

This, my friend, is where I feel the "top of the mountain" is in gold making. And boy, does it feel good to reach that peak. 

What to do now? Start another puzzle......

"Help! I Can't Make Gold" --- Selling on the Auction House

Ugh. You know what? This is something I have seen and heard quite a bit over my blogging "career". If it isn't those exact words, it's something near: "I was making gold, and lately, I just have too much competition" or "I got bullied out of "X" market". There's many of them. You know what I say to that? One question, simply answered.

No, it isn't "oh, go do this, pick up this, grab these mats, craft this, post at this time and at this price" or something to that affect, which, although it is good advice, but no advice helps if you don't do one thing.....

I have coached near a dozen folks over the past month, I have assisted people with answering questions in emails, on skype (altosgoldishadvice), through twitter messages (@altosgold), a bit here and there in IRC, basically everywhere, and the number one issue that people have with making gold can be answered by one simple statement.....

I can hear you now. "CMON ALTO, GET TO THE POINT!". Great! I like your enthusiasm. Now use it. The number one issue folks have with making gold is......Auctions. Not that they are getting undercut, not that they are only posting once (or twice) a day, not that the materials cost is too high, but the issue is that they do not post auctions. Easy huh? Mos definitely. Do me a favor. Check TuJ (if you are US) and search yourself. How many active auctions do you have? 5, 10, 100, 500? 1000?

Ok. now, check your personal bank. If you have one, check your personal guild bank(s). What do you see? Schtuff? Probably. And alot of it. Why are you not selling it? Why are you not using the items in there to craft and sell? Ok, you might have some stockpile of XX item(s), but my point is why are you not listing them? And don't give me the "They don't sell" or "They cost too much to list" answers. Not a good enough excuse. I don't buy it (see the pun there?).

Ok, ok. You are wondering if this makes a difference. I keep a contant 4-600 auctions on this toon (shown below). For those unfamiliar, the top is when I post, the bottom is sales.

As you can see here, you need to keep a constant supply in the auction house to get consistent sales. Other than a few blips here and there (and server downtime), I basically have sales every hour of every day....and I am not on 24/7, I am not always undercutting, I am not always canceling and reposting (with the exception of glyphs here and there). I just keep things in the AH. Simple as that.

Or are you the type that gets into a market, sells a few here and there, gets into another market, and forgets about the first one? Probably. Alot of us fall into that, and I admit that it happens to me as well. But it happens. Dust off your shoulders, get back in.

Once again, this is so simple. But it's the simple things we forget about the most, and this is one of the traps that we all fall into, and it really disrupts our "goldflow". I will leave you with a thought:

"If you don't have it in the AH, there is no sale. Someone else is getting gold because you are slacking. You need to always have something posted. Always. If you can afford it, always have two of them in the AH. If one sells while you are away (sleeping/working/etc), there is another one to sell....Once you get back logged in, make/craft more, repost so you have two, then go on with your day"

Get to "work", and start making that gold again!

Bored? Alto's "How-To"-Farming BRD for Fiery Enchant

You have heard me hit on this before, as it was one of my favorite "stealth" spots since back in Vanilla WoW. On my server, I noticed the enchant was selling for just shy of 800g recently, so I decided to do a few runs there. Blizz still has instances on a 1 hour reset (being able to reset 5 times per hour), and in all reality, with no distractions, you can knock out all 5 of them in less than 15 minutes.

First off, you will be going to Searing Gorge and a quick "flight" to Blackrock Depths. Once you get near the instance, you go up a "wooden slabbed" hill near where my cursor is. Once inside, follow the curve and just fly down toward the fire pit, and on your right you will see a little doorway, go in, maze a bit, then BAM! at the instance....

Once inside, there will be a doorway to your left. Enter through there. Immediately to your right (after going through the doorway), you will see another door.

Once again, you have another door to go into (on your left), but this isn't like the other "gates", this is a solid "steel" door. Go right in...You will see a set of stairs on your right. Two sets of stairs, go up em both. 

Once you get through the second staircase, you will see the "Ring". Run around the half circle to the highlighted doorway, then take an immediate right (there are a few packs of lvl 51-53 mobs before you see Pyromancer Loregrain, which is the "mini boss" that will drop your Formula: Enchant Weapon- Fiery Weapon.

If you see this, then you found him. Easy Peasy? Yup. He's at the back of the room. After you take care of business (and hopefully get the drop), then you can run out the way you came, get to the "Ring" again, and jump over the "lip". See the little door to the left there? Run through there, and take a sharp right.

When you get to the opening, the start of the instance is literally across the open space in front of you. Now you are done with "round one". Step outside the instance, do a "Reset all Instances" (right click your picture in the upper left of the screen, and there's a dropdown box). Now all you gotta do is this four more times, and then hit the AH with your recipe(s)!

If you are one of the lucky ones, you can get a few per run. If you are unlucky, well, you can walk away with just vendor blues from the boss (last night I was 1/5- didn't get screenies....this morning, 0/5). Now there are plenty other ways to farm in this instance, if you are interested, holler and I will do a total run through (but a warning, the other drops are not nearly worth the time or effort with current prices). Most of all, this isn't meant for a "UBER GOLD PER HOUR" spot, it's just a fun location that brings me back to my WoW "childhood".

*the post is a bit sloppy with all the pictures, hopefully it isn't too distracting...

Do you have an "old school" instance you like to farm here and there? Or a certain spot for soloing mobs that you frequent lately? Holler out, as I am always looking for new "soloists". If you don't feel like commenting, and are interested in turning it into a post, toss me an email at altosgoldishadvice@gmail.com

Xander had a great point as well in comments that needs to be met:
Hey just wanted to add in that there is a vendor inside the instances. Instead of turning left turn right and go to the npcs and look for Yuka Screwspigot the Engineering Supplys npc. You can sell your vendor trash and repair but all she sells and on the last page pick up the Schematic: Deadly Scope. and Fyi everytime you reset the instances it reappears. Sells for about 20g each if not more depending on how many people are farming BRD.

Did you Forget Something? Dust off those Unused Professions!

JMTC has their carnival tomorrow, and here is my "entry" post.  If you haven't already, I want you go over and check it out, as there are quite a few bloggers now with a ton of information. Now for my post, here is how you should start taking on specializing and diversifying the AH on your server. Ready? Set? Go!



Pic from Jack Nadels:
Use What You Have
To Get What You Want



How good are you on the AH? Have you hit 10K, 50K, 500K, a Million? Whichever spot you are at, you mos def need to use what you have to get there. Think about that a second.....

Use what you have. Now this is gonna be completely common sense, but hear me out, as this basic necessity may have passed you by. Use what you have.....

If you are stuck at X amount of gold and wondering why, I can give you one answer (but do you really want to hear it again?) "USE WHAT YOU HAVE". I mean really use it. If you have a toon, and your have Jewelcrafting and Leatherworking (just a for instance here, it can be anything, keep reading...), and you only cut gems and post, what is happening with your other craft? Nothing? Collecting dust? Get the Pledge out and dust that off!

You have professions for a reason, be it to craft goods for yourself or your guild, add to your "buffs" from the profs, but most of you reading this will have a profession for making gold. So why aren't you using it to post your AH? Because you don't want to hit your next 100K mark. That is the only answer you can give. I won't believe anything else.

"Well Alto, it's only 420"

So go burn one. Wait, what? Really, you need to utilize that prof to make you gold. There is probably a reason you stopped leveling. Raiding, got bored, ran outta cash, etc. Whatever excuse you had, you stopped. Pick it back up. If you stopped leveling it, my guess is you also have random mats in your bank near that level too. Use them. Check TuJ or wowhead to see what is available at that level. In leatherworking, there are quite a few niche markets, not all sell daily, but often enough to make a profit. See where I am going with this? Good. Now get it done.

"Alto, I stopped at 515 because I ran out of materials, and the cost was too high"

I am gonna guess that was a few months ago now. The mats have dropped considerably since then, and you need to recheck the AH again. Get up to "cap", and then get some epix recipies (I am still using the leatherworking as an example, but this works with most "crafting" profs other than scribes- as Cata added very little to that prof glyph wise). You spent time leveling that to get to the 515, go that little bit further, because now is the time to make your $$, before 4.1 and a bit after that they will still be selling too (for the ilvl requirements for the heroic 5 mans).

"Bah. There's too much competition"

I have to call bullshit on that one. I really, really, hate that. Too much competition to me means "I am too lazy to look at the different areas". I can personally guarantee there is a niche market somewhere in each profession. Glyphs? "I get undercut". Ok, I believe you. But I bet there are glyphs that aren't even up in the AH right now. It might be a level 25 glyph that sold for 12g last post, but if there isn't one there, it won't sell, amirite? I am. Check. Spend your time, and it will payoff. Guaranteed. Oh, you are a Jewelcrafter? "The gems are worthless, all of them". I call bullshit again...Ok, so you must have every single cut available, along with every "crafted" necklace, ring, etc. And you have checked each one of them at the AH. I bet there are at least 5 "cut" gems that aren't even on your AH. And the crafteds? Yeah, probably half of them aren't on their either....

"Well, to tell you the truth, I was looking at changing profs to XXXXX, because I am bored of it, and haven't used tailoring in a while"

Look above at that answer. Have you checked EVERY possible craft? Are you posting EVERY possible craft? Once again, I see so many folks that don't utilize what they can, or should be, posting daily. You aren't on everyday? Post 24 or 48 hours.....

"God Alto, you know how much AH fees I will lose on 48 hour posts?"

Yeah, I do. But you know how much profit you are losing? You are gonna risk a 10g AH fee if it doesn't sell against a 2-4K profit? Once again, that is one of the worst excuses I have heard. You know Johnny, if you keep saying this stuff, I am gonna have to kick you outta class, I don't think you are even reading what I am talking about....


So in order to specialize and diversify, you need to first see what you can do, what markets (or niches) you have available in your AH, and what time you are willing to spend to find what you are looking for. If you have more money than time, or are just stuck, you can always go to my coaching program and I can assist you in finding what you have been searching for.....gold.

Now log into your toon and start crafting and posting. Then after you sell some, come back and holler. Chanks!

Altos "How To" Guide- Manipulate the AH to get Epic Results

I have hit on this before, but not in complete detail. Well, here you go folks. This style of AH PvP is hated by some, as I am sure to get some blast on my comments for covering this....

This is in fact a two part post combined into one. Since Cata, I have seen this example happen on almost every "farmable" mat that is used in crafting, and have used this style of PvP with almost every one of them. Mysterious Fortune Cards is a biggie. Volatiles, Gems, Leather, and Ore/Herbs are heavy hitters too. Enough chit-chat, lets get this goin, right?

First off, check your AH. You can do it many ways, but the best is using the Auctionator Buy tab. Go to my "Recent" searches (like my jacked MFC twice in a row? lol) and in this example, I am using Volatile Life. Be prepared in some markets to do a hefty investment (in this case around 3300g). The reason I focus on Volatiles for this is they are a quick sale, everyone and their grandma are snatching these up all times of the day. So I am warning you to be weary of what markets you do this with, as I prefer the ones with the quick flip like I mentioned above. Next.

See the 7.99g posts?

There are 8 stacks of 1, 2 stacks of 200, then it goes to 10g with two stacks of 1. Total around 3300g investment. Buy em all up. Got me? You are looking for the "big break". 8g to 13g is a 5g profit per sale, correct? And how many did I just buy? 400ish? So really, I am looking at a near 2K profit on this "flip". But I bring it a bit farther. Why do you ask? Read on, young grasshopper....

Click on the SS above, and study it, then come back. "What are you doing Alto?", "You are already undercutting yourself!". Yeah, you are right. But no, not in all senses of the term. You see, Volatile Life is used by a few different profs. And really, you need multiples. Not just one. When crafters purchase these from the AH, they buy bulk. I would go into why, but it would take too long. Trust me. You have already and made a ton of gold from my advice, why stop now?

Now I know your next question. "Why are you only listing half of what you bought, and why in 50 stacks?" The 50 stack reason is due to my answer above. If someone needs 36 to craft XX item, they will buy 50 and have extra. Why? Because to buy 36 in the example above, they would have to click 12 times to buy the stacks of three below me. We all know we make more gold from the lazy people. One click versus twelve clicks? We win. =) The second part of your question is....wait. I answered the second part first. Thanks for correcting me. The "first" part of your question was why am I listing half right now....that is twofold. One, you create a false sense of "rarity" of the item. Two, well, in this case, I was planning on being on for a few to prospect and mill, so I would have easy access to the AH when they sell. And if I saw no movement in 20 min or so, I would double back, check to see undercut, and change my gameplan.

So, I post my 4 stacks of 50, tap the button for a fresh AH scan, go downstairs to put a load in the wash, go out back, smoke a stogie (thanks to a twitter post by CbC earlier, I broke out a Cohiba, went on the porch, and watched the snow melt for a few minutes). I come back to see that my four sold. So I repost the other four stacks of 50, do my Auctionator scan now, and go to finish my stogie. I come back, and this is what I see:

Ok. Add that up quick. 3737.5g is on it's way to my mailbox. 250 outta the 400 sold, and I have already made a 400 gold profit. Now I am writing this post around midnight, and havent logged back in yet to check, but I can guarantee they sold, for another 2200g in sales. So if you wanna see it as a 2600g profit for a few minutes work, then I am gonna have to agree with you. Not too shabby, huh?

Now this is not server dependent. You can run multiple markets with this idea, and even go further and "bully" with this style of AH PvP. So when your niche market is slowing, search around and do a test run. Remember, I know my markets, along with the ebb and flow. You might not want to risk this, as certain markets will seriously stress you out if you toss some gold at it and see no returns right away.
I can guarantee if you see the same screen above on your server, follow my steps, you will succeed. Well, unless you are on my server, you won't see this too often, unless I miss it.... =(

Now I need something from you. Tweet me, Follow me, Digg me, whatever all those little circles are up there. If you have one of those accounts, get my blog out there. I am not asking you to buy anything, just shout out to your WoW friends. It took me about about an hour and a half to write this post and make it all pretty for you to read, I imagine you can take 10 seconds to do this for me. See how easy that was?

And to all those that are filling up my inbox the last few days, know that the emails do not go unnoticed, and I enjoy reading what you have to say! Thanks again, and always feel free to contact me or ask questions in comments below.