Yup, I spent almost half of my liquid gold yesterday morning after the server restarted - I happened to be trying to log in just as they were coming online & had spent the previous hour or so, reading about the Maelstrom Crystal nerf over on Zoxy's blog and loads of others.
I logged in & nabbed the whole lot while most people were still blissfully unaware that the servers were back up or that the hotfix had gone live. I am now the proud owner of 27 Maelstrom Crystals and very few fingernails.
It's taken me a further 24 hours or more to come to the understanding that I am more risk averse than I ever realised! I think that perhaps if I'd reached 200k before this happened, maybe I wouldn't be worrying so much. Not only that, it's just a bloomin' game for pete's sake! It's not even 'real' money after all!
But you know what? I've actually worked pretty damn hard for that stash - I've read blogs, I've made spreadsheets, I'm going to suffocate under an avalanche of sticky notepaper soon & I've spent hours upon hours in the AH, watching markets, trying to get an understanding of things.
In my head, I know these things will sell & I 'know' the market will rise for a while. I also have a maxed enchanter so I can always use them for the top end enchant recipes & sell those instead.
But in the meanwhile, I'll still be gibbering in the corner, chewing my fingernails!
What's the biggest purchase you've made & how long did you deliberate before or worry about it after?
You dont need to worry about the Malestrom Crystals, as I imagine that you have probably flipped a few of them already.
ReplyDeleteMaking big purchases is kinda like weight loss (among others, but bear with me on this). If you look going into it that you are gonna lose 50 pounds (or risk 50K), you are gonna struggle when you have a slow week and only lose a lb (sell 1K). But the next week you end up losing 10 (selling 10K). Before you know it, you lost 100lbs (gained 100K) and don't have a worry in the world.
Same/same with gold. You will have good weeks and bad weeks, just keep doing what you have been doing, keeping up with the Jones's, starting new trends, and following up with old ones that worked in the past. Before you know it, you can invest 50k a few times a week and not really blink an eye over it, because once you weathered the storm once, you aren't as worried to do it again.
Big risks can net big rewards. That was one of them with the Crystals. If you are worried, cut your profits shorter for quick sales. Then once you made your initial investment back on your 27 (probably by selling half I imagine), then go back to higher profit and enjoy doubling your money (if not tripling).
However to keep the nerves down, never risk more than you can lose, as it does happen in every market to everyone (I made a big mistake with tens of thousands lost back in Wrath on Titanium Ore and Epic Gems- Spent 50K and got back 25ish- Gold was ALOT harder to come by back then as you know. But I turned around and got into the enchant market and capped). Live and Learn. =)
ALTOs Gold"ish" Advice- The Worst WoW Blog Ever!
Single purchase? 12k for the Epic Leather Belt for my Rogue. Multi purchase? Last night I transferred 30k to the Horde side of my server to buy and flip epics on the Ally AH. We'll see how that pans out...
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the crystals, Nev - I think you're gonna do fine with them, and the experience will help a lot. Trying new things in the gold-making game is what makes it fun & rewarding.
Awww, thanks guys :) As I said, - A big part of me knows these will sell just fine but the risk taking scaredy cat bit of me is definitely not being quiet :)
ReplyDeleteNev,
ReplyDeleteI am also relatively risk-averse, partially because I am still working on building up capital - didn't get into the AH game right before Cata's release.
A couple ideas:
1)Set a cap for your risky purchases. Invest no more than 30% of your liquid capital. You want to maintain at least some comfortable degree of liquidity so you don't miss out on the next big gold-making opportunity. This also plays into diversification.
2)Sometimes it's best to flip timely and quickly. What if Blizz unintentionally gives another cheap way to get maelstroms in 4.0.6? Just playing the devil's advocate here. Maybe set a limit on the sale price/profit margin (say 40% ROI) to help you track and decide?
3)Focus on other markets. Find another market niche to play in if you are not flipping for weeks/months. Try the neutral AH/cross-faction trading or something along that line. This will help taking the edge off.
As for maelstorms, they were already going for 7k+ on my server when I got home last night, and there were only less than a dozen for sale, so I didn't/haven't jumped on the wagon yet.
@Der - arrrgggghh at #2 - don't say things like that! lol the rest is some good pointers though.
ReplyDelete7k already - crumbs - I bought mine all at less than 2k each. Put 2 back on for 4k & thought I was being greedy but they've been undercut back down to 3k now. I guess my server hasn't woken up yet! I'd love to grab these few as well but I'm going to resist - I can't stand the stress!
My biggest purchase has been the Sandstone Drake. That wasn't much of a deliberation, as I had planned on doing that for quite some time. I had also saved up Truegold xmutes (managed to proc 4 at once, so that helped!), so It came out to only about 31k out-of-pocket for it (got a guildy to make it for me). What was a huge deliberation was getting Maimgor's Bite (http://www.wowhead.com/item=59462/) for 20k, RIGHT after I had promised myself I wouldn't spend any more on epics! Since the beginning of Cata, I had already bought around eight epics, including two DMC for ~25k each, so I really wanted to start gaining wealth again and try to reach the old gold-cap. But then someone had to go and post a BiS weapon for my Enh shammy at a very low price for a weapon, and I just couldn't resist. Probably spent 20min researching it and my other options, all the while worried someone else would snatch it. But I'm really glad I did, since there are now two more posted, both at over 35k!
ReplyDeleteI will agree, I'm generally risk-adverse too. I'm no longer buying Obsidium Ore over ~60g a stack, and I rarely touch Elementium (though with Stede's spreadsheet, I really ought to look into it again). I did drop over 10k buying out 9 MC, though through a stupid oversight using the remote AH, I accidentally posted 8 of them for the price of one... Overall though, I prefer to go the route of a sure thing. And when I do take "risks," rarely do I drop more than a few thousand at a time, knowing that even if it doesn't pan out, I can make it back with little effort.
Of course, if you don't take those risks, you could be missing out on some great rewards!
Der - MCs were going for 3.5~5k on my server last night. The cas-core (yeah, I made that up just now) raiders will start getting into full swing next week, and they will need crystals for top-level enchants. These will move; don't sell yourself short.
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