Friday, June 22, 2012

Farming To Increase Profits

Farming To Increase Profits

During the time i have played wow as a gold maker i have found that crafting can be profitable and using addons to find out how much you should pay for each mat to make the most profit out of what you are crafting. I realized that some of the addons were very useful but i found myself sitting at the AH all day buying mats to craft more and more. I still have lots of mats sitting in my multiple banks awaiting my return so that i may use them to craft or sell in bulk as raw materials at a profitable margin.


This brings me to the part where i get out of the AH and the city and decide i need to stop spending so much especially for a  % of profit. What if..i know this sounds crazy and all but, what if i farmed the mats i needed to make all those scrolls and all those gems and all those glyphs or whatever it is i want to craft to make a few extra copper. Crazy i know, but it just so happens to work and it's not as bad as it sounds.  farming = (100% profit)  -  (time it took you) + (gold saved sitting at ah finding deals on mats). this is not a formula i would use in any strict manner but hey, looks good to me. When you return to the AH and you craft everything and get it all up on the AH you can spend that time you sit on the AH worrying about prices on mats, out and about farming up what is needed to keep the high profits coming in.

I am not saying that it is a bad idea to buy mats off the AH, but i am saying that you can save gold and increase profits by getting out and exploring Azeroth by farming.

If you have any great farming spots you would like share please leave a comment with what material it is and where it can be farmed at, along with any other details you can give such as where you got your info or possible requirements for said farming spots.

A few farming spots i can think of is for starters, Silithus which not only has some great rare spawns to farm transmog gear on the entire map but North West corner at The Crystal Vale, where you can kill air elementals to get Essence of Air which is needed for enchanting to make the BOA,  [Enchanting: Enchant Weapon - Agility]. I also enjoy taking a treasure potion and farming in Uldum just west of where you spawn from taking the portal over at Orsis where many air elementals are located. It is a really nice place to farm Volatile Earth at. Both of these materials i have mentioned can be produced by using an Alchemist's Transmutes however the Water to Air transmute is a waste in my opinion unless you have multiple Alchemists as it uses up your daily cooldown on transmute. The Volatile Air can be obtained from  [Alchemy: Transmute: Living Elements] by taking 15 Volatile Life and casting your transmute: living elements while on the map of Uldum however you will only get about 15 each time sometimes more sometimes less. I feel this is another waste as i can farm up 40-50+ Volatile Air in one hour of farming at Orsis.

I hope you enjoyed this short tid bit on farming for profit. If you enjoyed it and would like to see me in motion and hard at... *cough cough* work you can find me streaming once in a while at twitch.tv/shannonlasell. Make sure to leave a comment and follow my blog here on Blogger.com and to follow me as well on twitch.tv and twitter.com as well @shannonlasell. Thanks and have a great day/night.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Shannon's Addon List

Shannon's Shenangans Addon List


altoholic
auctionator
autorepair
bagnon
bartender4
buyemall
gbanker
handynotes
mail opener
mogit
mr plow
_npcscan
_npcscan.overlay
_npcscan.overlay.broker
orecrusher2
postal
reagent restocker
recipeprofit (for gathermate2)
gathermate2
gathermate2Data
selljunk
silverdragon
the undermine journal GE
trade forwarder
tradeskillmaster
tradeskillmaster accouting
tradeskillmaster auctionDB
tradeskillmaster auctioning
tradeskillmaster crafting
tradeskillmaster destroying
tradeskillmaster itemtracker
tradeskillmaster mailing
tradeskillmaster shipping
tradeskillmaster warehousing
WIM

Monday, May 14, 2012

Long Term VS Short Term Investment

Long Term VS Short Term Investments
In World of Warcraft

by Shannon Lasell

 Hello and i am very sorry for the lack of recent blog posts but i have a special article for you to read today about the difference of long term investment and short term investment and how that can effect your overall profit each day in and out of the auction house. I hear a lot of people complain about how some items do not sell very well and that it is not worth selling, whereas other items are worth selling because they sell very quickly and for a high amount of profit total NET. Now let us step back and think about the negative and positive side to thinking this way and then i will tell you my opinion on what is the best way to make the most profit based on these complaints and opinions of others.

 First i want to talk about what is considered a long term investment and what is considered a short term investment in my opinion. A long term investment means that you will buy an item or materials to craft an item knowing that the overall outcome will be indeed profitable with no doubt within a small margin for error and that this item will indeed knowingly sell within a long period of time, which could take anywhere from a few hours to a few days, up to a few week. A short term investment means that you will buy an item or materials to craft an item knowing that the overall outcome will be indeed profitable with no doubt within a small margin for error and that this item will indeed knowingly sell within a short period of time, (usually within the same day or the next).

 I would go into exact items that are considered long and short term investments, however it decided to go more into why its important to learn about the 2 and how it effects your total earned profit per day/week/month. If you are receiving 20k a day from just shuffling ore and selling raw materials you might be happy with it cause you don't wake up with any left overs. But what if you took some of them and make enchant scrolls along with what you were selling every day and a few a day started selling throughout the week. This total possible profit that could be earned could turn into the equivalent of more markets with half the efforts since you only need to make long term investment items once or so a week but waking up to 30k a day instead of 20k sure is nice.

Long Term Investment ideas....
Phat Lewts of http://www.phatlewtsgold.net/ brought up the point of 77-80 twink gear and i would like to add that all leveling and twink gear in general are great investments for the long term, though some might have a larger profit margin than others.

Farli made a good point that even though an item might be short term during it's time doesn't mean that if you hold onto it for a long term period it will lose value or be any harder to sell. As he stated in his comment about Essence of Air and how the drop rate changed and its demand grew. When Supply decreases but demand increases then you have an item that has gained in value. More people should be aware of how long term and short term investments can effect the over all profit of said item. 



Short Term Investment ideas...
  • Glyphs
  • Trade Goods
    • Elementals
    • Cloth
    • Leather
    • Metal & Stone
    • Meat
    • Herbs
    • Enchanting Materials
    • Jewelcrafting Raw Gems
    • Engineering Parts
  • Item Enhancements
    • Cut Gems
    • Enchanting Scrolls
      • BoA
      • Twink
      • Current Raiding
  • Consumables
  • Alchemy Transmutes Phat Lewts of ( http://www.phatlewtsgold.net/ )
Phat Lewts of http://www.phatlewtsgold.net/   gave us his idea about short term investment by bringing up uses for Alchemy such as transmutes. I could see in my opinion the use of transmute elementals, gems and bars being all valid short term investment ideas and is indeed a profitable profession ability in general.

    Blog Post Submission Noobness.

    I would like your ideas and input so i can quickly edit and update the post to add yourself and your opinion on the subject. All you need to do is leave a comment titled somewhere in the comments below,  "Long Term Submission" or "Short Term Submission" with your idea of what else should be added and any other comments or thoughts.

    Reader Submissions


    Phat LewtsMay 15, 2012 7:05 AM
    Long Term Submission:

    77-80 twink gear. Although it sells pretty regularly, you need a large amount of stock before you get daily sales.

    I also feel like Alchemy cooldowns should be somewhere in there, most likely short term, although truegold has been suggested many a time as an inflation buster for MoP.

    Side rant: Power leveling any profession to 525 is a "long term" investment. You don't make all your gold back in one sitting, and most of it will be made over a (very) long period of time.



    farli May 17, 2012 1:33 AM

    Trade Goods elementals

    Think of Essence of Air during wotlk you could farm up 80-90 per hour now its more like 10-15 per hour. Drop rates change.
    Eternal Earth was going for around 1g each in wotlk now i sell it for 30-50g.
    Primal Air (primal might), Living Essence (engi toad)

    Holding on to this sort of material can really pay off as long as there is still a use for the item.


    Saturday, April 28, 2012

    Transmog Shopping List's For TSM

    Transmog Shopping List's For TSM (Trade Skill Master) Addon




    Some items in the code are from http://www.clockworkriot.com/ Faid and some are from the Keelhaul tier list made for Auctionator i put into a TSM list properly. If any questions or concerns please feel free to comment and tell your friends about how amazing and good looking i am.

    How to import shopping lists in TSM:

    Step 1: open TSM ( /tsm) and click on Shopping Options
    Step 2: Click Shopping Lists to open the import settings on the left side of TSM


    Step 3: Click on the Import Shopping List button and input the code i have given below into the required field and name it accordingly.


    Step 4: Press accept in both fields and press the import button to complete the import process.


    Step 5: Browse through the list to see what you want to remove.


    Step 6:  If you have a lot of competition on your server for Transmogrification you might want to stick to only Legs and Chest pieces so going through this list and removing items might be more beneficial other wise keep it the way it is and just buy what you want once you search.


    Step 7: Now go to the Auction House and open the TSM tab on the far bottom right. At the top you will see a button called "Show Saved Searches" click that to open your lists you have either created or imported. Now just click the list name in the window frame "Shopping/Dealfinding Lists" to begin searching for your beautiful shiny treasures. 


    THE END


    Leather Transmog Shopping List:



    Cloth Transmog Shopping List:



    Mail Transmog Shopping List:



    Plate Transmog Shopping List:



    Weapons & Shield Shopping List:

    Sunday, April 15, 2012

    Professions 101 For Profit: Alchemy



    Professions 101 For Profit:
    Alchemy with Shannon's Shenanigans






    Alchemy


     Alchemy is a profession that requires mostly Herbs which can be obtained from Herbalism among other miscellaneous materials. Alchemy uses these materials to create a variety of items in the game.

      Elixirs

     Elixirs are made using mainly Herbs around the same Level of the Elixir being made. These Elixirs provide a variety  buffs which last for a long duration for the character when consumed, however these effects do not last  when the character dies. The benefit of Elixirs are that they have 2 seperate categories of which both can be consumed to obtain 2 seperate buffs for the character. The categories are Guardian Elixir and the other is Battle Elixir. A Guardian Elixir gives the character a defensive type buff, where as the Battle Elixir gives the character an offensive type buff and when combined properly can compliment eachother very well when fighting enemies.

      Flasks

     Flasks are made using mainly Herbs around the same Level of the Flasks being made. The Flasks provide a variety of strong buffs which will last after the character has died. Like the Elixirs the Flasks offer a long buff duration, however unlike the Elixirs there is only one category and so only one Flask at any given time may be used on the Character.

      Potions

     Potions are made using mainly Herbs around the same Level of the Potions. Potions provide a short duration buff but offer a extremely useful and strong buff for many in combat and out of combat situations.

      Transmute

     Transmute is an ability Alchemists have that can take one material and convert it into another material. There are specific Transmutes that Alchemists can learn which can do a number of actions. Alchemists can Transmute Bars created from Smelting Ore (Smelting is an ability Miners have to turn Ore into Bars) and Several different Elemental materials as well. Alchemists can also Transmute  Raw Gems (Gems can be obtained by the process of Prospecting using Jewelcrafting) into higher quality Raw Gems.
     Alchemists can currently learn the skill Mixology which makes the effects of Flasks/Elixirs/Potions last longer and more effective. Alchemists can also create their own Trinkets which are created to improve the Character's stats as far as gear goes and also increase the effects of Flasks/Elixirs/Potsions.
     Alchemists currently have 3 specializations they can choose from, such as Elixirs (and Flasks), Potions or Transmutation. These specializations help increase the chance of a extra creation of the item of the specialization.


    Making Gold with Alchemy

     Alchemy is not a very large market for making large amounts of gold but it is reliable since it is needed for many Raids and in some cases PVP. Making Flasks especially with main stats and putting up on the AH is going to help you out the most from what i have seen. The other option to making gold that most other do is Transmute. Transmute is great but can take over life quickly. I hear all the time about multiple Alchemists and this is a great idea....if you already have all of the other professions and it is purely exxtra profession. (i personally would go for JC for more cuts per day still). Transmuting can help with taking those uncommon gems from Cata Shuffling and making them into Rare Gem quality which i have said in the past main stats sell the best. You can also transmute bars such as Pyrium Bars these are usually much more than double the price of the ore but all servers prices will vary.

    Leveling Alchemy

     Leveling Alchemy can be tricky as any profession can be so i decided to use my favorite source to help me minimize time/waste and i will also be adding my own take on leveling as far as how to make gold while leveling Alchemy.

     I love www.wow-professions.com and always use it as a source for the amount of items i need to properly level a profession. I suggest you go to Alchemy Leveling Guide 1 - 525 to get started on Leveling however i want you to know my take on risks and benefits of leveling Alchemy and how you can help yourself out by making gold on leveling Alchemy

     4I recommend if you are Leveling a new toon to pick Herbalism and Mining till you hit atleast level 40 and then drop Mining and then pick up Alchemy and use the saved up Herbs to level your Alchemy. Sell the materials you received on the AH or to someone you know will buy them. I personally would wait till you hit max level or close to it before dropping the other gathering profession as you gain Experience from Gathering Herbs/Ore from nodes and you Have more gold from the Mining as well.

     Note: If you plan on buying all the materials to quickly level the profession make sure not to go ahead and buy all the materials needed to level the profession all at once since you aren't 100% sure if you need that exact amount, you might get lucky or unlucky with the amount needed to continue leveling.

    Tuesday, April 3, 2012

    Professions 101 For Profit: Jewelcrafting


    Professions 101 For Profit:
    Jewelcrafting with Shannon's Shenanigans



    Tips for leveling Jewelcrafting:
    • Have a character with Mining so you don't have to buy expensive Ore if you cannot afford it.
    • Powerleveling Jewelcrafting will cost you anywhere from 10k - 20k (i have spent 12k doing this)
    • Prospecting is an ability Jewelcrafters have which destroys (gathers gems) 5 of the same Common Ore (uncommon ore cannot be Destroyed to gather gems). This is key to gathering the gems needed to level up Jewelcrafting.
    • Never go and just buy all materials needed at once. Get enough mats to level up to the next learned ability for Jewelcrafting
    • Jewelcrafting Designs for each type of raw gem is an ability that the Jewelcrafter uses to cut the raw gems into a specific cut to make them gem a socket-able gem. Each design for these gems create specific statistics which can be used to socket gear.
    • Sockets in gear/weapons have specific colors which a lot of the time mean when matched give a socket bonus. This bonus will increase a specific statistic for the gear on top of what the socketed gem provided. An orange cut gem could be used in a yellow socket to get a socket bonus if specified to use a yellow gem. Cut gems do not need to match the socket colors and still can be used to get desired statistics but in some cases the desired result comes from matching gems to the socket bonus colors.
     Use online resources to help in your journey to leveling any profession. I suggest using  WoW-Professions.com to get a descent detailed list of materials you will need as well as finding out where to go if you need to farm at all. It is my favorite site for leveling professions and honestly it is all you really need.

    Making Gold with Jewelcrafting:

     
    Prospecting Ore in Stormwind City
     Jewelcrafting is a great way to make a descent gold profit, however you should be aware that you are limited untill you learn specific cuts. You can learn specific cuts from vendors in both Dalaran and Stormwind City/Orgrimmar. In Dalaran you will find that you will need specific items to purchase Designs to cut the gems into desired cut gems. These items are called Dalaran Jewelcrafter's Token. You can receive these tokens by completing daily quests in Dalaran where the Jewelcrafing Trainer is located. As for the  Stormwind City/Orgrimmar items needed again you will have to head to the Jewelcrafting Trainer to complete daily quests to receive Illustrious Jewelcrafter's Token

    Now that i have that information out of the way, which by the way, is all very relevant in making gold aside from needing to level Jewelcrafting.

    So for now since we are still in Cataclysm waiting to be cute booty shakin' Panda Monks, we will focus on the daily quests at either  Stormwind City or Orgrimmar. These daily quests need to be done each day in order to get more useful designs needed to sell on the AH for considerably large profits. I would like to point out that when getting started to stick to getting the Inferno Ruby Cuts first and pay attention the best selling gem cuts on the market for other types of Cataclysm rare gems. I am not going to tell you which cuts to get but rather to do your homework as always. The Inferno Ruby market is always great for profit since they offer the main statistics for all classes, such as: Strength, Agility and Intellect.

    Remember when you had to get 3 of the same type of uncommon gem to complete your daily quest? Well you aren't the only one doing so. I like to try getting rid of my Zephryite raw gems in stacks of 3 on the day when they are needed. If you don't plan on shuffling or don't have an enchanter then use up the other uncommon gems as well be sure to cut at least 3 of each uncommon gem to  more popular cuts to sell on the AH. (basically shuffling is breaking down raw materials into more useful materials to create other crafted items which can be done many different ways and i will cover this in detail at another time.)



    There are many great resources on "Shuffling" and ways to calculate the risk of buying ore, especially Cataclysm ore on the internet but i will leave you with my opinion again. My opinion on risk is if you can quickly and roughly calculate a large profit from buying the gems and prospecting, cutting/crafting/disenchanting and whatever else you can think of doing with it, then buy the ore and buy lots of it, other wise, don't bother at that moment.

    Always be patient and never rush sales the sooner you try selling the worst the prices will be and that could cause flooding in the market. (flooding is the ability to not care about your market and take a large dump on other people in that market that hold off on posting more than a few of each item at a time. 

    In conclusion this is my simple but long guide to Jewelcrafting for Gold Makers in World of Warcraft. I hope you enjoyed it and it was useful. If you feel you have any questions/comments/concerns just email me at shannonlasell@gmail.com. You can also follow me on twitter @shannonlasell. 

    email: shannonlasell@gmail.com
    twitter: @shannonlasell
    blog: shannonlasell.blogspot.com
    twitch.tv (Live Stream): twitch.tv/shannonlasell

    Tuesday, March 27, 2012

    To Control a Market, Or Not Control...

    To Control a Market, Or Not Control...
    ...that is the question.
     Controlling a market is not as easy as some make it sound. First of all, if you actually plan on controlling a market, you need to know the market you are controlling and know it well. Don't try controlling the whole market all at once either. You are probably asking many questions at this point, or have many comments, so let me dig deeper and describe what i am talking about a bit more.

     First you want to watch and research the market you plan on controlling. Check to see how many others are actually in the market a good 2 week study will tell you all you need and using TUJ (The Undermine Journal) helps a lot with this.

     Second of all you need to realize if you want to control a specific market, that you don't want to control the item itself you are targeting, you want to control the source of the item you are targeting, if possible. Don't try to take over a major market try for a small portion of a market first and work your way into the market. It might be better to only control only small portions of certain major markets as well.

     Third is deception. You need to make the item you are controlling seem rare and not easy to get. Don't ever flood any market. What i mean by flooding a market is, over-posting/listing items you want to sell on the AH. Try to keep it to a minimum so that the new reset price you will be controlling seems more reasonable to buyers.

     So now that i have the steps of controlling a market in place let's talk about it more, because this is a set-up for failure. So what do you look for when researching the market you want to control? See the price difference of a 2 week span of whatever market it is you want to control and see who were the main contributors to the posted/sold items. Look out for unusual behavior such as always posting for a certain amounts, even when the average price of the item is much higher. Such unusual behavior shows you right away that you most likely won't be able to control the market because you cannot control another players behavior no matter how weird it might seem to you, you can't do anything about what someone else wants to do. (Learned this type of thought process of knowing you cannot control basic human behavior from Powerword: Gold)

     As far as controlling the targeted market you want to control, let's say gems to keep it simple and in my ballpark of reasoning since i am fairly new to gold making still. So, how do you control this huge constant mass of gems incoming and outgoing? You watch/research the Ore needed to prospect to make the gems and also watch the raw gems. Now in cases such as bots farming ore, you cannot control the ore itself since it is massive enough as is, so your next plan other than buying as much as you can afford, within budget you set for yourself, is to control the raw gems that are needed to cut the gems that are the targeted market. Now this is fairly easy to do with gems, but i assure you it is not an easy task in other markets. I have started trying out Glyphs and even though i joke with a friend that i will control this market i have high doubts that i will be able to succeed. Why do i have doubts? Glyph market has many more items to watch and there is many ways to create the glyphs so to cut off the source i would have to watch all herbs, pigments and inks needed to make all 300+ glyphs available currently in patch 4.3.

     My conclusion to controlling markets is that, it can be done, but is not very easy and in some cases just not possible now matter what the market is due to uncommon variables that can and will occur. So do you research and watch the market closely and make sure you can do it before you jump into it.

    Wednesday, March 7, 2012

    Eternal Fire's from Frozo the Renowned

    Shannon's Simple Shenanigans

    Eternal Fire's from Frozo the Renowned

     Hello again and thanks for stopping by to check out this quick tip to make a few extra gold coming to an end of a funky expansion. These Eternal Fire have been, since Wrath came out, a means for people that have a hard time to make gold, make gold easily. This time the price is off the charts and i found that those beautiful  Titansteel Shield Wall's are made with of course Titansteel Bar's and since we are going to be talking about Frozo my favorite Frozen Orb Trader who indeed sells various Elemental items from Wrath in Dalaran one of these items are Eternal Fire as well as Eternal Earth and Eternal Shadow but as long as i can remember the Fire have always sold for much more possibly because it's more of a pain to farm or for whatever reason this item is sell fast and i am currently still rising the price of them im at 70g each and im buying the Frozen Orbs for around 20g each. If you are a Blacksmith i recomend making these shields as they are currently going for 3k gold on my server. 


     I hope this little tip was helpful and useful. Please remember to sign up for my blog to get more tips as i come up with them and as always remember to check the side bar on the right to see my friends in the gold making community for more tips and strategies to making gold. 

     If you have any questions be sure to send them to me:

    Email: Shannonlasell@gmail.com
    Follow me on twitter: @shannonlasell



    Tuesday, March 6, 2012

    Diary of a Gold Maker: Think for yourself

    DIARY OF A GOLD MAKER
    Think For Yourself


     Hello all you eager to make gold or you filthy rich gold makers out there. I have something to say that should ring some bells for more experienced gold makers and hopefully shake some brain cells for new eager to make gold players. I know that starting out with little or no gold is hard, and it really isn't as easy as some people say it is, but sometimes it is easier. I am bringing up this long and boring but helpful topic because of the large mainstream popularity of selling transmogrification items. Not everyone is going to make the amount of gold that some people are reporting. I would like to point out that those that are reporting this amount and trying to help others make the same amount to what you are doing should be aware that there are many variables involved.

     You ever see that blog about gold making and say to yourself, "WOW, that is amazing i can do that and make all the gold i want in the world!!!!" Let's stop for a second and logically think about this idea. First we need to always remember and think about the fact that we all play on different servers. Different servers mean many different results will occur such as, a PVP server with high population will have the Tailoring PVP gear much more often stocked on the AH meaning it will be lower priced, which can also cause Heavenly Shard prices to decrease from large competition. This shows that because of the server type it effects several items differently then other types. I don't really want to go into several explanations so hopefully that gives you a better idea of what im talking about in general now.

     So basically when you decide to look up a way to make gold or you just don't know how to start making gold in general i want you to stop and first keep in mind that these blogs and articles aren't going to teach you to do exactly what they are blogging about, but rather give you a large overview of what they are talking about. I love explanations because like im trying to explain in this blog post, not everyone is the same. Now like i said im not just talking to the people trying to learn how to make gold but to the the ones that already have plenty of gold and like to teach others how to make gold. People aren't going to "Learn" if you tell them exactly how to make gold, but when you teach them how to make gold they should, in theory, by the end of all that is presented understand topic and conclusion of the topic.

     Am i boring you yet? Then maybe you aren't ready to make large amounts of gold, because what im saying is you have to find out more than what these people are teaching you. You have to find out if your server sells whatever it was that is that is the main topic and if it sells well or for as much as the average server sells it for. You have to see if the topic you learned is popular on your server. So on and so on.

     In conclusion i would like to point out that all these blogs and sites really do have great topics and great ways to make gold, but you have to understand that you have to apply your situation and circumstances into the equation of what you are being taught. I would like to point out that bloggers should try to make this a point one way or another in their posts of each topic so that the viewer doesn't feel disappointed when the idea to make gold you taught in your post didn't work.