A lot of people on Khadgar ask me where I get all of my money. The short answer is that I’m a total AH-whore. The longer and more detailed answer includes getting to know your markets, finding ways to make repetitive tasks faster, and time. In this post I’ll give tips on how I make my gold, and how I keep it even when Hymn keeps spending it all.
Must-have ModsThe meat of this guide lies in the mods I use to assist in my money-making schemes.
Auctioneer Suite – This mod is where most of my time is saved, and there are many, many features that can help save you time and money. It takes some getting used to, as it’s quite complicated, but it’s well worth your time. Here are the best features:
* Scanner – this will take a snapshot (usually 10 minutes) of the current auction house and everything in it. This information is useful because you don’t have to then search the AH for every good you’re thinking about putting up for sale to find out the price. You just mouse over the finished good in your recipe book, decide if it’s worth the mats, and craft away.
* Post – Infinitely better than the standard WoW auction posting interface, this lets you post several of the same item at once, split however you would like it split (eg. 10 stacks of 2, or 5 stacks of 4, etc.) I think this mod saves me the most time out of any other, as I have posted nearly 21,000 auctions since achievement tracking started.
* Snatch – This is my *favorite* function. You can set a list of items that you buy often, and set a maximum price you want to pay. After you take an Auctioneer Snapshot, you can scan for your snatch items, all in one neat little window. Using this function, I can find 100 stacks of ore under or equal to my minimum price, and buy them all within 15 seconds.
* Resale – This feature requires you to set a minimum profit, and then searches the latest snapshot for items that have been posted under the market price. The idea is that you then buy that item and resell it for a profit. Being able to control both the percentage and volume of gold you deem worth it makes this feature really cool.
* Beancounter – This feature tends to be a bit buggy and doesn’t seem to capture everything I sell, but in essence it is a searchable database of everything you’ve ever sold or bought.
Postal – This mod allows you to open all your mail at the same time, inventory space allowing. You can make it open only expired auctions, only auctions sent to you by other people, only won auctions, or any combination of sources you can think of.
Onebag3 – I know this sounds silly, but having a single inventory window instead of 5 separate ones *really* helps to keep me organized while I’m crafting and selling. It’s a personal preference thing, but I dig it and this is the best mod I’ve found for it.
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The rest of my guide consists of general tips, and how I use the above mods to my advantage.
Don’t be a Pack RatThis is a tip contested by many, but the simple fact of the matter is that if something is sitting in your inventory or bank, it’s not making you money. If you know you’re going to need something later, then by all means, save it. But if you’re unsure, selling it is the smartest way to go. After all, you can always just buy it back or farm it later. An exception to this is stockpiling things to sell for a new patch, and I do this quite often – which brings me to my next point.
Preparing Goods for PatchesI would say that 50% of my cash is made on Patch days and the short time following them. Spend time stocking gems and cutting them into popular stat cuts, putting the most popular enchants on scrolls, making spell threads, patches, glyphs, whatever your market niche is. Post them on the auction house the night before the patch hits (if you know when that is). Lots of people plan ahead and make sure they have all of their gear enhancements ready for the patch, but a greater number don’t bother until the day of.
Another good patch-day tip is to make yourself available, and post in trade chat with your skills. Even if you don’t usually make a lot from crafting tips, the sheer volume should be worth it. After all, you can keep an eye on your goods and restock the AH while you’re tradespamming.
Spending Money to Make MoneyI will admit that people with farming professions often are pretty much robbed of their goods, with how low the prices can get for ore, herbs and other trade goods. And yes, I take full advantage of this. The time I spend not farming on my alt is spent buying 10 times the number of goods and converting them into more expensive products. Maybe I’m a slow farmer, but the value of what I can farm in Icecrown on my herb/miner alt is far inferior to the number I can make in an hour in Orgrimmar, even accounting for the fact that I also spend a great deal of money in that time.
Buy in BulkIf you advertise that you are buying things in bulk, you’ll often get friendly people that will auto-COD all of their farming goods to you. This is beneficial to both parties, as there is often a lower price involved for you, and the farmer then doesn’t have to worry about both finding a buyer, or paying AH cuts and deposits.
Patience is a VirtueIf an item you want to sell is lower than usual on the AH, it doesn’t hurt to wait until the price rises again. Flooding the market only drives the price down further, and your patience will be rewarded. Some items this won’t make much of a difference on, but it’s meant a larger profit margin by at least 30 per gem on several of my gem cuts.
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So what do I do specifically? Here’s a list:
* I try to keep around 150-200 auctions up at any time; these are about half enchants and half gems. I keep the popular cuts up at all times, and often some of the less posted in case someone needs them.
* I always use the AH for trading. You just get trolls if you try to sell stuff in /2.
* Something specific to JC/Enchanting (my professions) that I do, is save all of the crappy green gems from the mass prospecting that I do, and make Bloodstone Band, Crystal Chalcedony Amulet, Crystal Citrine Necklace, and Sun Rock Ring, purchasing the Eternal Earth from the AH. I then blow these up into enchanting mats. This is a lot of work, but well worth it, as you get a large amount of mats for a tiny cost.
* I make my own Armor and Weapon vellums on my alt.
I think that’s about it for my usual AH tricks. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or ask me in game
