Gold … More is Better, I Say

So if you read the previous post, you know how to find stuff on the cheap and you have stuffed your bags with … stuff. Well if it’s in your bags it’s not making you gold. Time to post on the AH.

In the last post you started using the searchers like Resale, Vendor and Snatch. Those are part of the Auctioneer add-on. Now it’s time to start using Auctionator. You’ll notice that after having installed these add-ons you have many more tabs at the bottom of the auction house window. Click the one called “Sell”. It’s pretty self-explanatory from here. Drag and drop the item you want to sell and it will scan the AH for that item and list the auctions currently up, with the lowest buyout price on top. It will automatically list yours for less, under-cutting all of the other sellers of that item. You can configure how much to under-cut, but I just go with the default. You can also choose the length of time your auction will go. I always choose 48 hours and have configured that to be my default.

Now sometimes you will drop an item on that window and will get no results because there are none being sold. You have a one-of-a-kind! Well, for the moment at least. Back to Auctioneer. Drag the item back into your bags and then click the tab on the bottom called “Appraiser”. Now drop the item in the square and it will appraise it and give a suggested bid and buyout pricing (which you can always change) then click post item(s).

You have now bought and posted. Time to go do other things now. Sip honeymint tea in Dal and watch the purdy sparkle ponies go by. Steal some britches. Spend the afternoon perfecting your gnome-punting. Or ….. go fishing in Wintergrasp. That’s right guys and Galadins! PvP with fishing poles! Actually, my gold comes in by some farming and crafting, as well as the AH flipping. So why Wintergrasp? All the mats for the Fish Feast are there (except the Northern spices) and fish feasts go for around 10-14 gold …. each. I sell them in stacks of 5. You could also check the AH for the cost of the mats and if they’re “on sale” then “buy / cook / sell”. The key with fish feasts though, is to post them Tuesday after maintenance because raiding folk will usually pay top dollar for them because their lock-outs have expired and they need them NOW! Many times I have bought fish feasts off the AH on the weekends and then sold them all for a profit come mid-week. Let’s see, sometimes 12-16 stacks of 5 at 70-75 gold per stack …. By my calculations that equates to a happy mailbox on Wednesday night!

So far I’ve described AH flipping (buying low/selling high), some crafting (feasts, drums, and of course Da Hog). There’s another method I use and that’s playing the market trends. Here’s an example: Titansteel bars. They range in price from 85 gold to 135 gold. So when they’re around 85-90, what do you think I do? That’s right, I buy. And when they’re around 120-135? Right again! I sell them! Unless I used them to make a bike, but that’s another whole source of income. The same with Arctic furs. They go from 50 gold to 85 gold. Buy low, sell high.

So let’s re-cap what we have so far:

Add-ons. Auctioneer and Auctionator. Check.

Scans. I scan once a day, but 4-5 times a week is good, just make sure that before you run any searches, scan first so it’s all current. Ok, check.

Searches. Play with them and get familiar with them, but take care and don’t get scammed because you were click-happy or greedy. Check.

Posting. Except for a few cases, keep your inventory on the AH. You’ll get a lot that “fall off”, aka didn’t sell. Just put them back on, they’ll sell eventually and if they don’t, and it’s gear, have them DE’d and the mats WILL sell. Roger.

Crafting. You know what you can make. Find a couple of things that sell reliably (mine are drums and hogs) and get the mats on the cheap. Then make them and sell them. Okey-Dokey.

So there you have it. Making gold has become a game within the game for me and has helped to relieve the “Pre-Cataclysm” doldrums. Besides, I want to be ready for the expenses coming up in Cataclysm. I don’t want to get there and have someone tell me, “You are not prepared!”

I mean c’mon. That’s been done.