Announcing...The AH Addict Newsletter

Yes, I've finally got organised enough to put together a newsletter! I've been meaning to do this for a while as I know how handy it can be to have blog posts delivered directly to your email inbox. In fact, I still get regular newsletters from sites I signed up with years ago & although I've not been involved very much, I do read them & it's a great way to keep up with stuff I might miss otherwise.

So what can you expect from my newsletter?

• Well, first & foremost it's the easiest way to make sure you never miss one of my blog posts especially as I'm not always the most regular of posters! 
• Newsletter only content - mini-guides, 'secret' farming spots (if I find any of course!) & any 
• Newsletter subscriber only competitions & giveaways

I hope you'll consider signing up - I hate spam so I won't be sending loads of spammy sales emails or anything like that, just the regular blog post & occasional extra bit of content or information I think you may find useful.

There's also an unsubscribe link in every email so if you do decide not to continue, it's easy to opt out again (but I hope you won't!).

Thanks for all your support over the last 2 years, I still love my WoW time & I hope I'll still be blogging like crazy in years to come. It's been great so far, come join me for the rest of the ride :)

Nev

Update: Cold pointed out another great reason to sign up "Email newsletters are also great for those readers that can't access your site from work, but still have email access. The newsletter allows you to actually read posts from work and ignore issues like Websense, school filters, etc."

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Happy 2nd Birthday AH Addict! Competition Time!

Birthday Giveaway - AH Addict is nearly 2

With Auction House Addict hitting two years old next week & coinciding with Blizzard's pet sale, I thought I'd run a little competition here to celebrate.

I started writing here as a diary for one of my little side projects but to be honest, that didn't make for very good reading & I got very bored of writing it too so I turned to more general gold making topics. It's been an interesting couple of years, made new friends in game & on twitter, talked to lots of different people via comments here & even managed to guest on several episodes of PowerWord:Gold podcast, played AoE trivia against Rewt on Hearthcast & most recently, met Rez & Cold on Eviscerated Gaming Podcast.

It's been a fabulous ride so far, even with a few breaks here & there. I'm looking forward to many more, especially now as I seem to have hit my stride a bit & visitor numbers are climbing! I don't write just for the numbers but it does give me a boost to think so many of you visit to read. Please don't tell my old English teacher that I'm writing voluntarily though, she'll have a heart attack! I was a maths & science girl at school & my English essay homework was always my most hated & usually most delayed subject!

Anyway, down to business! What sort of competition & what are the prizes?

Prizes

Well I have both an EU & US account so I'm going to be offering  a pet of your choice from the Blizzard Pet Store (NOT including the Cinder Kitty) & there will be 2 winners - one from EU & one for USA.

I know it's not a superduper mega prize but 1 overall winner will be chosen from the comments here - name your new pet & the reason that makes me giggle or groan the most will win a Cinder Kitty - the newest & possibly the cutest pet in store & of course, it's a charity pet too.

How to Enter

1) Starting today, retweet this post & use #AHAgiveaway = 1 entry per twitter account (I don't want to encourage tweetspamming!)

2) Leave a comment here telling me which pet you'd choose, which region (US/EU) & what will you name your pet & why? Each comment = 1 entry

3) Overall winner will be the comment that makes me giggle or groan the most! So choose your wished for pet & get your thinking caps on & you could win a Cinder Kitty. (If you want to make a naughty joke, keep it clever please, pure filth will be disqualified & deleted, no matter how much it makes me laugh!)

Choosing a Winner

I'll keep two lists (EU/US) of everyone who comments and/or retweets & allocate a number to each. Using a random number generator, I'll get 2 numbers & those will be the pet winners. The Cinder Kitty will be awarded by my choice, once I stop giggling.

Closing Date

Closing date is 6am Friday 21st December GMT - that will be 5am for most of Europe & about midnight Thursday for Eastern & Mid USA.

So there you go - yet another competition/giveaway running right now. If you're on Twitter & aren't seeing loads of Cinder Kitty giveaways in your feed, you should follow some of my peeps - my feed is full of homeless Cinder Kitties right now :P But if you want a chance at some really nice prizes, pop over to Cold's Gold Factory - his 3rd birthday giveaway has TCG pets, mounts & in-game mounts as prizes.

I look forward to reading your comments - just keep it clever peeps xxx



Image © Will Clayton under Creative Commons licence

New Way to Spy on your AH Competition

Spy on Your AH Competition - Ninja style!

I don't usually spy on my Auction House competitors but I do enjoy rummaging through the Armory, looking up random strangers' alts to see what transmog gear they have or to check out gear, reforges & enchants if they have impressed me in a dungeon or something. I was checking out one of my guildmates the other evening to make them some armour when I clicked on the Roster button.

Out of curiosity, I sorted the roster by Achievement points (I'm the Achieve Queen in my guild :P) to see who was catching me up & it suddenly dawned on me - with the new Account-wide achievement system, all my alts have approximately the same number of achievement points. There is some variation but not very much as you can see from the screenshot below.

So how can we use this to our advantage in the Auction House? Well, if you saw my Rogue posting on the Auction House then went & checked her out on the Armory, you wouldn't be too far off in guessing that Hunter, Death Knight & Warrior are also mine - same guild & same number of achievement points. The rank would also give you a clue normally but my Rogue has a special rank so that throws this example off a little!

Taking it a step further, I could also keep an eye on the GM Paladin & the Priest (perhaps even the lowbie Druid too) - just above & just below, especially as no-one else in guild is even close to these alts. By adding them to my friends list, I could see when the Rogue logs off & one of the others immediately logs in.

What this doesn't do is find the lowly level 1 bank alt characters that so many serious goldmakers use. Usually the bank alt is in a guild on it's own so this wouldn't work but if you were to check out the Guild roster of your competitors alt - you may find other alts in there that are higher than level 10 & therefore show up on the Armory. Again, add them to your friends list & watch for the log out/log in connection.

How does this help us? Well, one technique to deter competition in a market niche is to post the same items at different prices on different alts - it then looks like a busy, competitive market which may deter less experienced goldmakers from even entering it. Using this spying method, you would know when someone is doing just that & then you wouldn't be scared away from that market.

Do you keep an eye on your competitors? Have you found an easier way to check them out that you are willing to share?

The WoW Factor Comes To EU Servers

My only mogged girlie - still needs work tho

You may have noticed a distinct lack of mogging (transmogrification) related posts on my blog but that doesn't mean I haven't been interested. Oh no! I have a bank full of bits I've kept because they look good & just maybe I will get around to using them & I also have materials to make some crafted pieces for my girls. I also follow many of the top moggers on Twitter. But somehow I've just never found the time & energy to go looking for that perfect outfit for each of my girls.

So when I saw a tweet asking Keelhaul (The Mogfather) if there were any EU shows planned, I just dived in and offered 100k gold for prize money. After all, I have all this gold & I'm not spending it on anything so why not? Besides it will be fun!

So the time has finally arrived & the first WowFactor show will be appearing on my server - Chamber of Aspects EU Alliance side, at Stormwind Cathedral 9-11pm (CEST so 8-10pm UK time)on Friday 8th June. You can read more about it on the WoW Forums here but it's time to get your gladrags on & party like it's 1999 again!

If you want some last minute inspiration for an outfit, have a look at Wow Roleplay Gear - a site I found last year before transmog was even live but they have gone from strength to strength since then!

I'd like to give a big thank you to Keelhaul from DEAzeroth for getting so fired up on this & inspiring so many others too. Farli over at The Overcut, Elvine over at Elvinemod & Argo of Epic Penny Pouch also deserve big shout outs as does Jim from PowerWord:Gold for all his support of the mogging movement!