[Secret Warcraft 21] Get Yourself Organized to Make Heaps of Gold

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Hello again, Korsaan... Jon here!
Welcome to the 2nd series of Secret Warcraft tips for earning gold and leveling fast in WoW. Think of the first series of 20 newsletters as a beginners guide, and now you're moving on to the intermediate level :)
I left off the first series, in Secret Warcraft #20, with a detailed case study of trading Wool Cloth on the auction house. The main point was that you need to really get to know the true prices, buy and sell ranges, of the profit-making goods on your particular server.
That's a great starting point, and I hope you've started working on it for yourself. But it's only the beginning.
Recently, I've spent some one-on-one coaching time with a couple of Secret Warcraft subscribers (stay subscribed, and pay attention to the fine print, if you'd like a chance to get some personal guidance from me in the future!).
One of the biggest skill-ups I found they needed was this:
** GETTING ORGANIZED to make huge gold profits **
It isn't hard to make 10G here, 50G there, on a casual basis, following the methods I've been describing in Secret Warcraft. You don't have to try very hard, just follow one or two of the specific techniques I've described.
If you want to step up to a higher level, and make 500 - 1,000 gold per week consistently, week after week, you have to put in some effort. Not a lot... but some :)
Two things you must start doing right away:
  1. maintain a personal watch list
  2. keep a transaction notebook
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1. Make a Personal Watch List +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A watch list can be a spreadsheet, a word document, or sheets of paper in a binder... whatever you find convenient. I prefer to use a spreadsheet so that I can keep updating the details easily.
The watch list is simply a list of the items I have found I can make a profit buying and selling.
I actually separate the list into groups, starting at the top with an "A-List" of bread-and-butter items that have proven most successful. After that, there's a much longer set of sub-lists, call it the "B-List." These secondary lists break down just about everything in the trade goods and consumables categories.
Here's what you need to track for each item on the list:
  • target buy price
  • current sell price, Horde side
  • current sell price, Alliance side
  • sales volume rating
  • ideal stack size
  • AH deposit required
I've talked about most of these points in previous e-mails, but here's a quick recap.
Target buy price is the price you will pay any time you see the item offered as low as this, knowing you can turn around and sell for a profit. In the Wool Cloth case study, my buy price was 50s per stack of twenty.
Current sell price is the going rate right now on each auction house. I break it out into Horde and Alliance prices because they are generally different, and I make a lot of extra gold by taking advantage of the differential (see Secret Warcraft #18 and #19 for details of the cross-faction trading method).
Sticking with the Wool Cloth example, my current sell prices for stacks of twenty are 3g - 4g Horde side, and 1.5g Alliance side.
Sales volume rating is critical to AH selling strategy. It decides how many stacks you can put up for sale at once, and suggests how to set minimum bid and buyout prices, as well as auction duration. I just rate each item as high / medium / low sales volume. Wool Cloth is a high volume item, while Elixir of Shadow Power is medium volume, and Savory Deviate Delight recipe is low volume.
Ideal stack size is more important than most players realize. It's based on your knowledge of how the item is used, price per unit, and also what experience has shown about how the item sells best. Wool cloth is always best in full stacks of twenty, while Elixir of Shadow Power is always best as singles, and Mithril Bar goes well in stacks of 5 and 10.
It's good to know what the AH deposit fee is. Items with no fee, such as enchant materials, and vanity clothing items like Festival Suits and Blood Elf Bandit Masks, are at an advantage, because you can price them aggressively without fear of losing gold if they don't sell. The opposite is true of items that have relatively high deposits, such as Netherweave Cloth or Mercurial Adamantite (not to mention high-level armor and weapons).
++++++++++++++++ How to use this watch list? ++++++++++++++++
It's pretty straight forward. The buy price is the most important thing to watch. Every time I go to the AH, I check every A-List item against my buy price, and buy out everything that meets the price. Then I use the rest of the info to determine where, when and how to sell.
The more information you have on your list, and the more solidly you have researched the details, the more gold you are going to make.
Start with just a few items, and build out reliable information for them. Then gradually grow the list, as you learn more. Use the Auctioneer add-on to speed the process, of course.
Here is part of my current A-List to get you started on the right path:
  • Fel Armament
  • Arcane Tome
  • Large Brilliant Shard
  • Large Radiant Shard
  • Small Radiant Shard
  • Greater Nether Essence
  • Greater Eternal Essence
  • Large Prismatic Shard
  • Illusion Dust
  • Nexus Crystal
  • Void Crystal
  • Jagged Talasite
  • Radiant Talasite
  • Dazzling Talasite
  • Void Sphere
  • Elixir of Shadow Power
  • Ghost Mushroom
  • Fel Lotus
  • Ancient Lichen
  • Briarthorn
  • Wild Steelbloom
  • Wool Cloth
  • Heavy Leather
  • Pristine Black Diamond
  • Primals (Water, Fire, Mana, Earth etc.)
  • Motes (Water, Fire, Mana, Earth etc.)
  • Mithril Bar
  • Solid Stone
  • Deviate Scale
  • Perfect Deviate Scale
  • Savory Deviate Delight
Whew, that's enough for starters :) I've actually got about 60 items on my A-List, and they're a little different for each server.
Now, what about the B-Lists I mentioned?
That's the feeder system. I spend a lot less time working on these secondary lists, but they are still very important: this is where I spot new opportunities.
Whenever I have the time, I'll do some research on one of the B-List categories, such as Alchemy potions. I'll pay special attention to every item in the category for a few days, revise the prices, read up on how the items are used (Thottbot and Allakhazam), look for good money-making opportunities: big spreads in prices, over time or between factions, volume of sales. Now and then, I find something that qualifies for the A-List. Flask of Relentless Assault, anyone?
Basically, the more profitable items you have on watch, the more gold you make. With Auctioneer, you can trade profitably on 100 items just about as easily as you can on 10 items. So if you want to earn more, all you have to do is build a better list :)
What about you, Korsaan?
Let me know what your own favorite A-List items are, I'm always looking for new tips to pass along to the Secret Warcraft family.
Next issue of Secret Warcraft, I'll explain how you can push your gold-making efforts even higher by keeping a transaction log or notebook.
Jon
Warcraft Bible: http://www.warcraftbible.com Secret Warcraft: http://www.secretwarcraft.com
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