Ironpaw Tokens - Yet More Thoughts!

Do you ever have a subject that ties you up in knots & you just can't seem to get your head around it? Then, when you finally think you've understood it, someone says something & you're back to going round in circles again? Yup - the Ironpaw Token shuffle is my achilles heel right now! Ok, so last time I wrote about Ironpaw Tokens, I thought I'd finally got my head around it but after chitchatting with Cold, I realised I had still missed something!

I wrote that I was 'fixing' my Ironpaw Token cost at around 30g so I knew my base cost was a maximum of 24g per single +300 buff food. With my own tunnel vision firmly in place, I was merrily buying all meat/fish under 1.50g each and converting 90% of them to Ironpaw Tokens then using those tokens to buy a bag of 5 of the specific meat/fish that I needed. It seems that Mushan Ribs & Raw Tiger Meat are the most easily available at low prices & as I didn't want to hold loads of stacks of those, I was converting the Mushan Ribs to Tokens too!

Cold pointed out that by using my Ironpaw Tokens to later buy  Mushan Ribsx5 from the bag, I was effectively paying 120g a stack! Ouch! Needless to say, that woke me up a bit!

So I've changed my tactics yet again. I am still buying every meat/fish for under 1.50g  and if I get lucky, vegetables for under 30s each to convert to Ironpaw Tokens BUT if I'm short on my specific required meat, fish or vegetables for crafting then I check the Auction House for any of those under 6g each (or 1.20g for vegetables). This maintains my 30g maximum Token cost even though I'm sometimes using the raw mats rather than tokens.

This way, I'm almost never short of materials to cook with - either by converting Tokens or by buying the correct items to cook the buff foods with. I'm still buying loads of Mushan Ribs under the 1.50g cut-off point but I'm saving more stacks as they are rather than converting them. By expanding my cut-off point to 6g per specific type of fish though, I'm not having to use up my precious Tokens to Buy Giant Mantis Shrimp or Emperor Salmon (for the Black Pepper Ribs or Mogu Fish Stew).

Hopefully I've got it sorted in my head now! I have to say I love this market, I'm almost the only seller of Black Pepper Ribs & Shrimp & I've got the price up to 78g per item. I can barely keep the Auction House stocked even at that price. The Mogu Fish Stew is running second but it's a fair way behind, selling at around 55g per item. I have a bit of competition for the other +300 buff foods but they are listing them at 25g each. Needless to say, I'm buying those up - it's only just above my base cost & it saves me using my own tokens for the Rice Flour & saves me lots of time too!

As an added bonus from all this converting - my level 85 Rogue is almost level 86 now too - the hand-in for the 'Replenishing The Pantry' quest gives 25k XP per turn in so if this market stays profitable for me, I may never have to quest on my Rogue! Woop Woop!

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Nev's First Ever Public Rant!

It's not often I have a little rant about something but this morning on Twitter I saw a tweet go out to help one of our own fellow WoW players regain his sight by raising funds for his treatment. His disease is so rare that the authorities in his area won't pay for the treatment. I'm talking about @DemonicRic aka @Richard_Harlow, a young man I first heard on Hearthcast - talking about how he manages to play World of Warcraft although he is legally blind.

So why did that make me rant? Well, with all the excitement of Blizzcon being announced recently, several fairly well known players with livestreams, podcasts, forums, networks etc are raising money to go to Blizzcon & it's all over my Twitter feed. I am NOT pointing a finger at any one person - there are several going on - I also have nothing against them personally - I applaud their efforts & wish them well - I just wish they'd take a break from raising their own cash & perhaps point their followers to Richards cause. Maybe this post will make them aware of the situation if they don't follow Richard on Twitter.

Having tried to raise money for Breast Cancer Care last year when I was hit with breast cancer myself, I was hoping that my little bit of 'fame' in the gold making world would help me raise just $1500 for such a good cause. I ended up raising just $440 even after some great support from fellow bloggers & being able to talk about it on a couple of podcasts too. At the time I was raising money, there was a fundraising effort going on to raise cash for a CD of original hunter music - that raised $1000's. I know the Hunter community doesn't know me but it still kind of frustrated me.

Now we have a similar situation - a guy who is always positive, actively working to benefit disabled gamers of all types needs some help. I know he's trying to raise a huge sum of money but that shouldn't stop us all dipping in our pockets - even $5 (the cost of a raffle ticket) makes a difference, especially if enough of us donate.

DONATE HERE NOW!

By my rough calculations, those raffles going on have raised over $4000 already - just how much does it take to get to Blizzcon from inside the USA? That would be enough for me to get there from the UK!

I know there have been arguments & disagreements about advertising on blogs, paid for guides etc but at least that is upfront & is obviously there to make money. I have advertising too - it makes me almost nothing to be truthful, but then I don't push it & I don't have my own guide to sell. I'm not perfect but other than my charity fundraising last year, I have never asked for donations & I never will even though I honestly could do with some help myself right now!

I'll probably surprise a few people with this rant - I'm not known for ranting after all but this really galls me. If you can afford $5 for a raffle ticket for a chance of winning an electronic/virtual pet or mount, can't you dip your hand in your pocket for $5 for Richard's medical bill? You could help save his sight.

What's Been Selling This Week?

Now that I am ramping up my gold making activities again, I thought it might be interesting to restart my What's Been Selling posts. I'm not expecting any major surprises to show up in my top sales but then it wouldn't be a surprise if it was expected would it? So it's probably just going to be a recap but you may find some inspiration for new markets to look at or just find comfort in how bad my sales figures compared to your own! I'm not the most efficient gold maker so my numbers are never going to be as impressive as some bloggers out there.

If you've been reading here for a while, it will come as no surprise that my best selling item this last week has been Black Pepper Ribs & Shrimp - the +300 strength buff food. With the release of the new raid in patch 5.2 just a few weeks ago & the opening of The Isle of Thunder still in full progress on most servers, I should have known really but it still caught me unprepared for the sheer quantity of sales on my quiet little server!

Unsurprisingly then, Mogu Fish Stew (the +300 intellect buff food) is also in my top sales this week as are Flasks. Sadly my alchemists are both transmute masters so my flask profits are based purely on buying materials as cheaply as possible. I did score 60 Golden Lotus for just 25g each a week or two ago which has helped keep my costs down. There's a fair bit of competition in the Flasks market & the price can drop to just 35g per flask so I don't list any on those days.

Living Steel & Living Steel Belt Buckle are mainstays of my gold making - I always make my daily Living Steel on both Alchemists and built up a bit of stock whilst my Blacksmith was still leveling. Now that she can make the Belt Buckles, I'm selling much less plain Living Steel and focusing more on Belt Buckles as the sale price is usually higher. This market is pretty volatile though - just yesterday, Living Steel was down to 375g & tomorrow it could be back up to 550g.

I've also been doing my daily Leatherworking Magnificent Hide cooldown to get the new PvP patterns & I make 2 of each new piece straightaway. I check to see which have sold overnight & make new pieces to keep my stock at 2 for each PvP item. I do the same thing on my Tailor with her Imperial Silk cooldown too and as you can see above, the prices are holding up fairly well.

I'm also still selling Mammoth Mining Bags although I have a competitor now who seems to think they should be priced at 150g-ish when I've been selling them for months at 375g. I did buy her out a couple of times but she just keeps on listing so now I've decided to buy all the Borean Leather & starve her of materials! It's working but slowly - I've got the price back up to around the 250g mark this week. She may have done me a small favor though - at 375g, I was only selling 1 or 2 a week but at 250g, I've sold 4 this week & 8 last week. Maybe I was being a little bit greedy but it is a good reminder that taking a little bit less profit per item may result in increased sales thereby increasing overall profits.

Just yesterday I crafted a whole bunch of enchant scrolls so next week, we'll see how they did! I also made up a bunch of Rich Purple Silk Shirts after snagging a bunch of Silk Cloth for just 4g a stack. I price these at 79g each but again, I may drop the price a little to see if I end up selling more.

Plans for this week include going back to some old favorite markets & seeing if they are still viable, keeping up with buff food production & keeping a close eye on the enchanting scrolls market. Have a prosperous week my friends xxx

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Time To Get Back To Some Serious Gold Making

I've had a quiet couple of weeks in game - real life got a bit too busy for me to do much other than just maintain my auction house activities. But it's quietened down a bit now so it's time to get down to some more serious gold making efforts! I'm planning on being a very busy bee over the next few weeks so hold on to your hats people! lol

Whilst I may not always agree with how Zerohour phrases his posts, I do agree with much of what he says. I guess I'm a gentler soul & I've always worked on the basis that sugar is better than vinegar! After his first post or two, I wanted to hate him but how can you hate a guy who talks so much sense! Some of his stuff hit a nerve with me & I've been doing a little analysis of my gold making style. I realised that I am very risk averse so taking a gamble on flipping high cost items has never been my thing but in my safe little world, I've also not been buying much more than what I really need to craft stuff for the next day or two.

His post about stockpiling (or Just in Time crafting) made me realise that I have all this gold just sitting there & not really working for me - in keeping my 'costs' down, I actually wasn't investing in future profits either. It can be easy to get tunnel vision and just keep doing what works for you & that's what I think I've been doing.

So over the last week or two, I have been buying up raw materials like crazy. The cheap stuff has been there all along, I just didn't want to buy too much. Not anymore though! I am now the proud owner of almost 200 stacks of Exotic Leather, 150 stacks of Ghost Iron Ore & 60 stacks of Bolts of Windwool Cloth not to mention about 40 Ironpaw Tokens & 20 stacks each of Mushan Ribs, Raw Tiger Steak & Raw Crab Meat!

Now as stockpiling goes, I know that still isn't that much stuff but I'm working on it! With the leather at 17-25g, I can make Magnificent Hides for a cost of 63g by using the non-cooldown way (50 leather = 1 hide) & with Magnificent Hides selling during the week for 100g or more, I can still make a nice chunk of change without even crafting anything else! I am doing the daily Magnificent Hide cooldown too though - got to get those PvP patterns discovered after all!

The Ghost Iron Ore is fuelling my 2 transmute spec Alchemists for their daily Living Steel cooldown & I'm also prospecting stacks on my Jewelcrafter - making rings/necks to disenchant & keeping my daily discovery of new cuts going too.

The Windwool Cloth is fuelling my daily Imperial Silk craft & as I discover more PvP patterns, I'm making sure I craft those too. Unfortunately, whilst the leather/mail PvP gear is maintaining its price, the cloth PvP gear is dropping rapidly - some pieces are as low as 90g!

I'd forgotten how much of a buzz it can be to open my mailbox to 10k+ gold overnight. I've been poodling along since early last year really and it shows in my gold balance. I'm almost back to my 1 million gold balance & if the Amani Dragonhawk I bought to flip sells soon (negotiations are in progress!) then I'll be a happy camper once more.

I'm going to start doing my weekly 'What's Been Selling' posts again. I had a lot of positive comments on those & I think they can be helpful to kickstart your own ideas. I've got a lot to relearn over the next few weeks & a fair bit of exploring & testing some new markets so hopefully my posting frequency should return to normal service shortly!


Bumble Bee © Arty Allsorts & available as a notecard in my Etsy shop!

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Yet Another Cooking & Ironpaw Tokens Post!

It's been a while since I created my Ironpaw Token spreadsheet & made it available to my readers but I have to admit, I've been slacking! Not only have I not been doing much with the cooking materials, I haven't really been very focused on gold making at all. But a week or two ago, I read Zerohour's post about his approach to Ironpaw Tokens & it struck a chord with me so I thought I'd have a go at something similar on my server.

To do so though, I needed to really understand what his spreadsheet was showing us. I got there eventually - it seems that getting my head around the variables is taking me longer each time I tackle this Ironpaw Token stuff! Must be getting old or something :P

Anyway, I discovered that my server has some nice inexperienced Auctioneers who post the various meats & fish for silly low prices so I initially set my top value per stack at 25 gold. I've since been buying everything  (well, meat & fish) under that price & converting much of it to Ironpaw Tokens via the Bundle of Groceries & Restocking the Refrigerator quest in Halfhill.

I've also been concentrating on the 300+ buff foods (mainly Black Pepper Ribs & Shrimp & the Mogu Fish Stew) as the various Banquets are selling for only 10-20g each on my server. Each of the 300+ buff foods has 4 ingredients - by fixing my Ironpaw Token price at 25g per token, each recipe costs just 100g to cook and as each 'craft' makes 5 items, that's a base cost of 20g per 300+ buff food.

The Black Pepper Ribs & Shrimp I have been listing at 58-65g & they are selling out quickly. The Mogu Fish Stew is slightly lower priced at 35-45g but I'm creeping the price up on those & they are still selling well.

What I'm finding is that the Raw Tiger Meat & the Raw Turtle Meat tend to be the items listed cheaply most often along with Krasarang Paddlefish.  I'm keeping a few stacks of the meats in reserve so that's actually 1 less Ironpaw Token I need to cook the Sea Mist Rice Noodles & the Chun Tian Spring Rolls.

I haven't gone into full 'dominate the market' mode just yet - I'm still testing the markets. I also don't have a huge stock of Ironpaw Tokens but with 2 alts doing the Tillers dailies as well as buying all the cheap stuff, my inventory is bound to increase over the next week or two. I've also increased my 'base' price per stack of meat/fish to 30g as there just wasn't enough supply under that price. It means that each single food has a maximum price of 24g each & with my sell price at 60g-ish, that's still plenty of profit for my liking!

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What To Do With My Sunsong Ranch?

I can't believe it's been a month already but yup, it's that time again! This month's topic over at Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival is very timely given that Patch 5.2 has just landed & changed quite a few bits on the Tillers Farm.

What Are You Currently Doing With Your Sunsong Ranch / Ranches?

Are you growing crops to level cooking skills? Growing raw materials? Doing the Ironpaw Shuffle? Abandoned the farm all together?

If you've been reading a while, you may remember I did quite a few posts about the Farm & the Ironpaw Shuffle too. I even created a spreadsheet to share with you but what have I been doing since then? Well, to be perfectly honest, not as much as I could have!

I only have 1 farm with all 16 plots available and that is on my Leatherworking Paladin. She's been growing mainly Songbell Seeds to get a regular supply of Motes of Harmony whilst I've been leveling my Warrior & DK. I've been making some of the Epic gloves which use 6 Spirits of Harmony and as they can take a little while to sell, in between times, I've been making a selection of the 3 leg armours. They've all been selling but not very quickly & not in large numbers. The gold has been quite nice though - anywhere from 5-8k for the epics & usually around the 700-800g for the leg armors.

When I originally wrote about farming & it was all new & shiny, I started farms on 3 of my level 85's - just the basic farm but they were all planting vegetables that I needed for leveling my Cooking. Once I'd maxed all the Ways, I kind of forgot about those mini-farms. I'm not planning on leveling those alts for a while yet so I guess their farms will just sit there for now.

Just in the last week or so though, I have been doing the Tillers dailies on my Warrior & my DK - both now have 8 plot farms & should hit 12 plots each this weekend (unless I get sidetracked yet again!). My plan for these 2 farms is to provide Spirits of Harmony for the Blacksmith and a few Spirits for the JC to make the 2 pets then I'll swap the DK's farm to either Enigma Seeds (depending on Golden Lotus & flasks prices) or one of the other 'special' seeds depending on my raw materials requirements. I'll consider using the new Work Orders too although I'm not too worried about most of the reputations for these two alts.

I do love the new seed bags though! Planting 4 plots all at once is just so much easier and along with the Plough (that I eventually got around to buying!) it does make farming just a little less irritating. I still hate those damn birds though.

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