30 Minutes a Day Project - Days 25 - 27

And so we come to the last of the daily updates - I've got one more post after this to summarise the whole project and wrap up some final numbers for you but I won't be boring you with big spreadsheets for a while again now! 

Day 25

I picked up almost 200 gold from the mailbox today which wasn't too bad considering I didn't have too much more actually listed on the Auction House! I did a scan and grabbed what bargains I could find quickly. I really am trying to buy a lot more stuff but there just doesn't seem to be that many obvious bargains around at the moment! I scanned the herb market as usual and dipped into the Mists cooking materials too but the deals were few and far between.

As you can see, I did pick up 3 cheap Clockwork Rocket Bot pets for around 120g each - I'm hoping these will sell quickly but I have my doubts to be honest, I haven't had a huge amount of success with Battle Pets. These may turn out to be better as longer term investments - once the buzz of Winter Veil has died down and these aren't so easily available, they should fetch a very nice price but sadly, that will be too late for this little project.


Day 26
Only 125 gold from the mailbox today but that's partly a timing thing again as I logged in early today and late evening yesterday. At this point, I still have a bunch of auctions still listed from yesterday so they could still sell at some point today.

I grabbed another piece of level 83/84 green armor for just 18 gold. I don't have a grip on this market on this server so I played it a bit safe and relisted it for just 75 gold. On my main server, I'd be relisting at 185 - 199 gold but only because I have that market almost to myself there.

I did pick up a sweet deal on the Briarthorn though - I just hope it sells for that crazy high price! I'm already regretting buying the Khadgar's Whisker for so much - it seemed like a sweet deal given the current prices but when I was filling in my spreadsheet, I realised the whole market was inflated and I think I'm probably going to lose on that one.

It does show the importance of checking trends though - this isn't going to kill my efforts or bankrupt me but if I was investing in a much larger purchase, I'd have been stupid not to check out the market averages on The Undermine Journal at least.


Day 27
So given that I missed 4 days at some point during the month, today is 31st December and it's the last official day of this project. The mailbox gave me about 270 gold and as I suspected yesterday, the Khadgar's Whiskers didn't sell.

As I was listing the remaining stock, I did buy a few bits and pieces, just to raise the bottom price in those markets. Sometimes, it's worth spending a few silvers or gold to clear out the bottom items before you list your own stuff. It's what I've been doing all along of course - buying the very cheapest items and relisting them at a higher price but if you're not used to flipping and you're trying to sell stuff your alts have picked up, it may be a new(ish) idea to you.

I relisted everything in my bags and logged off. Tomorrow I'll collect my gold and say a fond farewell to Kalanna, my banker.

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30 Minutes a Day Project - Days 16 - 18

I'm A Tree!

It's a few days before Christmas and I've missed 4 days so far. I knew I'd be missing a few days due to my operation so that was kind of planned for but I did think it would only be 2 days! So day 16 is actually 20th December in case you were wondering.

Day 16

Today's mailbox held over 200 gold for me and a lucky Blingtron drop gave me another 25 gold. I went a bit crazy with the Spirit Dust but as there was a shedload available at well below usual prices, I thought it was worth a little gamble.

I did the Gaudy Winter veil Sweater to Strange Dust thing again too but I wasn't really in the mood to scour the Auction House for deals so I just relisted stuff that hadn't sold and called it a night.

Day 17
I logged in hoping to see lots of gold in the mailbox from last night's listing and I wasn't disappointed. With sales of almost 290 gold, it was a relief to see all the Spirit Dust sold and the Strange Dust too. I had a look at the herbs category again but it seems with the influx of players for the holiday week, herb prices are stabilising and although there were plenty of cheap herbs, there weren't any obvious gaps to take advantage of.

What do I mean by 'gaps' - well, when I see a few herbs, say Silverleaf, listed at 9 silvers and the next listing is for 20 silvers, I would normally buy the few cheap ones and just undercut the 20 silver listing - that way, I'm kind of moving the bottom of the market up and closing the gap. When there is a wall of herbs in the 9, 10, 11, 12 silvers range though, there often isn't much of a gap to close so for the purposes of this project, I leave those alone.

If I didn't have a time limit or an end date to this project, then I may very well buy them all up and just sell them at my leisure when the prices are better for profit making. That's something you can do as a newbie gold maker but apart from the fact that I haven't spent any gold on bigger bags or increasing my bank storage space, I just don't want to be left with a bunch of herbs to store at the end of this project.

One of the things about gold-making is having patience and time. Having the patience to buy and not be in a rush to sell can make a huge difference to your profits. It's about timing too - listing your cheap purchases when the market price has risen and not listing them when there's no profit to be made. I know that seems really obvious but you'd be surprised! Some people say that holding stock and waiting is a pain, they'd rather sell them again, even for a loss just to get the gold back in their pocket to re-invest. I've had in-game friends who wanted to learn but didn't have the patience to just wait it out.

Now don't forget, I am talking low price stuff here - if you've bought something expensive to try to flip, knowing when to cut your loss is another skill. It may sometimes be better to sell at a small loss if you can see that prices are dropping steadily and your loss is only going to get bigger. It is possible for markets to bounce back of course but often, they will never bounce back to their original levels to make you the profit you were hoping for.

Day 18
Not so many sales today but given that I didn't really list much extra stuff yesterday, that's understandable! I'm definitely a casual gold maker and with Christmas looming, my energy to play seems to be fading. Still, the Strange Dust is proving to be very lucrative for this baby banker so as long as the market stays steady, I'll keep disenchanting those horrible sweaters!

Having said that, I did an Auctioneer scan today and didn't end up with much time left so I just listed everything in my bags and gave up. This is definitely not the proper way to make gold you know!

I'm nudging ever closer to 1000 gold and although I'll be pleased to reach that, overall I'm really disappointed with my efforts so far! I don't remember it being this hard last time I did a challenge like this but then I haven't been playing so much at the top levels or even leveling alts much recently so my knowledge of markets is definitely rusty!

I can certainly find loads of cheap stuff to buy but without knowing my mid-level profession markets and what stuff is still useful, I feel kind of lost. I used to sell Globe of Water, Essence of Air, Spider's Silk etc, knowing that they were in high demand for various specific patterns or recipes. With the introduction of Pet Battles, the Globe of Water market is dead (used in the Engineering pet, Tranquil Mechanical Yeti) as the pet is not that desirable anymore. With the introduction of additional heirlooms and changes to PvP, Spider's Silk is also pretty dead - it was used for several Tailoring and Leatherworking low level patterns for the Twink markets.

This is where research comes in - I may not have the current knowledge but knowing where to find information is the next best thing! Looks like I may have to spend some time, racking my brains and checking stuff out on The Undermine Journal! I may have to leave that for the next project though as I do have family time commitments over the next few days. Arrgghh why is there never enough time?? lol

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Flasks - Testing the Market

Flasks & Potions

Just about a week ago, I posted about What to do with Golden Lotuses & came to the conclusion that I should dip my toe into the Flask market. The comments to that post seemed to confirm this so off I went to make some flasks!

Since I wrote that post however, my ever so slow moving Leatherworker finally made it to honoured with the Golden Lotus faction & gained access to the Epic armor recipes. It turns out that what I thought was a good stock of Spirits of Harmony wasn't anywhere near enough so this week, she's been planting Songbell Seeds again, thereby crimping my Golden Lotus herb production!

I thought I'd report back on my market test so far anyway, just so I don't forget.

Over 8 days of planting Enigma Seeds, I gained 47 Golden Lotus - that's almost 6 each day - I like this increased drop rate for sure! Enigma Seeds cost only 1g each so for a total outlay of just 128g & 2 stacks of Crystal Vials, I managed to make 35 flasks & still have 7 Golden Lotus left over. I also only used the other herbs I got from the farm produce - none were bought or herbed. I have quite a few of the other herbs still in my bags too.

I checked the Auction House prices manually & decided to make just 3 of the 5 types of flask to start with. As they sold, I made a few more & also added a few of the other 2 types. As of this morning, I have only 14 flasks left to sell.

I also made 5 Potions of Luck just to see if there was any interest there - not so far but I'll keep listing them as long as their price is above the cost of the Golden Lotuses.

Flasks & Potions Spreadsheet

You can see from the spreadsheet screenshot that so far, my gold made from flasks is over 2500g & as I said earlier, that's with just an initial investment of 128g. So I'd say this was a fairly successful market test but it is a small market & it has taken all week for these few flasks to sell.

To be fair though, I haven't been listing them just before raid time & when I have listed them, I've listed them for 48 hours & walked away. I'm pretty sure, if I had paid more attention to posting times & reposting when undercut, that I would have made that profit more quickly. But this is a side venture for me as I explore various markets to write about & with an eye for future profitable endeavours.

So now what to do? Flasks are showing themselves to be profitable for now but I also need Spirit of Harmony for my leatherworker to craft Epic armour! I guess I'll have to get my DK & Warrior to 90 so I can start expanding their farms! Arrrgghh! more dailies!

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Vendor Herb Supplies for Making Starter Gold in WoW

Herbs in Boots

So I've mentioned before about buying some herbs from various vendors to sell on the Auction House for starter cash but whilst I was farming recently, I stumbled over Vi'el in Winterspring & found that he sells Gromsblood. I was there for a little while so I managed to raid his limited supply 3 times & ended up with 8 Gromsblood. When I went to the Auction House with them, they were listed at around 15 gold each!

That got me thinking about what other herbs might be available from vendors so I spent a little while on Wowhead having a look & decided to summarise them here. As I expected, there aren't many higher level herbs available from vendors but the ones that are available are usually expensive on the Auction House so may be worth picking up if you're in the relevant areas.

Starter Cash - Alliance

Stormwind, Maria Lumere, Alchemy Supplies, Mage Quarter
The Exodar, Altaa, Alchemy Supplies, Vaults of Lights
- sells peacebloom, silverleaf, earthroot, mageroyal, bruiseweed, wild steelbloom, kingsblood and liferoot (40 copper to 1silver 20copper)

Stormwind, Bernard Gump, Florist, outer edge of Trade District, Old Town side
Elwynn Forest to Redridge, Antonio Perelli, travelling salesman
Wetlands, Kixxle, by a cart at junction of main road & the road to Dun Modr in the North
 - sells earthroot, mageroyal, bruiseweed, wild steelbloom, kingsblood and liferoot (80 copper to 3silver)

Starter Cash - Horde

Silvermoon City, Melaris, Alchemy Supplies, nr Court of the Sun
- sells peacebloom, silverleaf, earthroot, mageroyal, bruiseweed, wild steelbloom, kingsblood & liferoot (40 copper to 1 silver 20 copper)

Northern Barrens, Hula'mahi, The Crossroads
Ghostlands, Rathis Tomber, near Tranquillien
Tirisfal Glades, Selina Weston, Brill
- sells peacebloom, silverleaf, earthroot, mageroyal, bruiseweed (40 copper to 1 silver )

Higher Level Areas

Winterspring, Vi'el, Exotic Goods, Frostwhisper Gorge - sells Gromsblood 10silver

Netherstorm, Dealer Sadaqat, Stormspire
Isle of Quel'Danas, Mar'nah
- sells icecap, felweed, dreaming glory, netherbloom & mana thistle (10-60 silvers)

My New Server Start Up Process

When I start on a new server, I usually level a banker alt to level 5 before running them to Stormwind (my bankers are nearly always human!). On average, my alt leaves Northshire with around 9 silvers & I run her straight to Maria Lumere, the alchemy supplies girl in the Mage Quarter. Watching my pennies, I buy whatever herbs she has available, making sure I still have 1 silver left for each type of herb I buy so the Auction House listing fee is covered. So if I can get 3 types of herb from her, I must keep back at least 3 silvers to be able to list them!

Then I go and create my new character that I'm going to play & level her for a while. Once she has done a little questing, she will start to pick up linen & other bits that I can sell - I post them to my bank alt & often add a little cash too - after all, she doesn't have anything left until those initial auctions sell.

Depending on what time of day I am playing, I will often log in & out of both alts quite a bit at first - getting the questing going & sending stuff across to sell then logging banker to get all these goodies listed. This way, I also see when the initial herbs sell & pick up that extra cash quickly.Then it's back to the alchemy supplies & off to the florist to pick up whatever herbs I can & get them listed too.

Rinse & repeat until you have a nice little stash of gold then I hit the cooking recipes guy in Stormwind Old Town - approx 1 gold will get you about 10 recipes - all of which sell for anywhere between 2 - 30 gold each although they don't sell as quickly as they used to.

So there you go, an easy & fairly painless way to get those first dribbles of cash into your pockets on a new character. To my more experienced readers - Is this what you do or do you have another method of getting that initial cash?

Mysterious Fortune Cards & Adventurer's Journals - not for me!

As you can see from my blog list, I read a lot of the most popular gold blogs out there. Most of them have at least mentioned the Mysterious Fortune cards over the last week or so but I am yet to jump on that bandwagon - why? because the demand for these has stripped our auction house almost bare of Cata herbs so the prices have skyrocketed!

I've also found a lovely quiet spot in Vashj'ir which nets me 2.5-4 stacks per 10 minute circuit (as well as 15-25 volatile lifes) & they are selling at 12-18g a piece, almost faster than I can list them! With herb prices so high, a single blackfallow ink can cost as much as 60g & the cards are selling for about that too so I'm giving them a miss for now.

I mentioned the lack of Outland herbs for Ethereal Ink to my husband & he decided he needed to get his Explore Outland achievement & made a killing on the Outland herbs too. They are selling individually for 8 gold or more, as the scribes are not forking out for the Cata herbs to mill and exchange, but are buying the correct herbs for each type of ink they need.

Obviously this is not happening on all servers, so if you have a level 80+ herbalist, it may be worth checking out the various prices before deciding where to spend your time - herbing for xp & profit or levelling inscription for profit.