Cata-WHAT?

Gathering. Get on it. If you currently have a level 80+ character with any Gathering profession, preferably Herbalism and/or Mining, you need to start farming. With stacks of ore going for upwards of 200g, and herbs at 5g apiece, you can't lose. You can easily make 2000+ gold PER HOUR if you find an efficient route and stick to it. You will need Epic Flying, and if this is beyond your price range, try completing the first few quests in Vashj'ir to get the Abyssal Seahorse. I've found Vashj'ir to be a good region for both herbs and mining. There is no trick to this money-making technique, just put in the time, and reap the benefits on the AH afterwards.

Picking up the Prices

By now, you probably know about Auctioneer. For those of you who are more experienced with the AddOn, this wont be very useful to you. For those who think you know how to use Auctioneer, this could be a wakeup call. For those who see the insane and seemingly complicated new auction window, and are scared by the unknown, this could be the info your looking for. A very common reason for using Auctioneer is keeping track of item prices. These prices vary server by server, and day to day. To get an accurate picture of these prices, you will have to scan your server's auction house. Try to scan 1 to 2 times a day for a couple weeks, in order to eliminate any outliers and find a good average price. If you can, scan at different times a day. After this, you wont have to scan so often, but anyone who wants a fine view on item prices can feel free to scan daily. Always be careful of overscanning, you don't want too many concentrated scans throwing off your prices.

I hope I don't have to say this, but in order to scan, you can press the button on the left side of the top menu bar in your AH window with the "Play" icon on it. Always allow the scan to complete fully, and wait until you get a long message in your chat window showing you a summary of the scan (items added, items removed, etc.) If you wish, you can pay attention to how many auctions are posted at a given time, to know when you want to post.

Insanely Busy

First off, I'd like to apologize for a lack of posts lately. It seems like as soon as I get a project started, other projects get in the way. But no more excuses.

Today I'd like to point the finger at keeping yourself organized. A big part of playing the AH, as well as motivating yourself to keep playing the AH, is being organized and orderly. I used to be frustrated not knowing which bank what items were on, who to mail what items to, etc. This is especially important when you are dealing with large quantities of different sorts of items, as most AH players are. I used to log in and out of many toons to find items, and it was extremely frustrating. Because playing the AH can be stressful for some, you want it to be as seamless and smooth as possible.

My favorite organization AddOn is.... drumroll please..... ALTOHOLIC. Altoholic, while being great at things like tracking money, /played time, and professions without logging into your other toons, it has a little easter egg that I find extremely useful. Altoholic adds a section to item tooltips that shows how many of the item you have. It breaks it down into items in the mail, in the bank, in your bags, on the AH, and of course, a total. It also shows you a character-by-character breakdown of which items are where.

Altoholic can be found here: http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/altoholic.aspx

Also note that you must log in to all of your characters, and open up all of their professions and banks to allow Altoholic to properly scan and save the data.

Supplying The Raider, Part 3: Enchants

So you picked up your new Sword of Epic Win from Trial of the Champion, and you want to get it up to snuff with the latest beastly enchants. Uggh. All these crystals, dusts, and essences, and on top of that, you have to find an enchanter! But no, you can buy a Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Berserking, right off the Auction House! Wouldn't you do it?

Most WoW players would. The hardcore of the hardcore, those who need all the beastly enchants, are willing to pay a few extra gold to save a bit of time. This provides you with an opportunity: Use your enchanter to either buy mats off the AH or disenchant AH-acquired greens. Turn these into some of the best-selling scrolls, especially best-in-slot ones for the

min-maxers among us. These will need Abyss Crystals, which have dropped sharply with the release of free epics from ToC. Find ones with a good profit margin (Once again, Value - Mats Cost+AH Cut, factoring in time spent) and post 'em during peak hours. Another good time is after raids end, as raiders will be eager to enchant their new phat lewtz. As usual, focus on the 20% of endeavors that make up 80% of your profits, and you can maximize your moneymaking potential.

Get out there and try it.

(Also, apologies for the lack of posts recently, I haven't had a lot of WoW time, and with Brewfest out, the 15 minutes a day I have are spent on my dailies. Gotta get that Beerboy title!)

Supplying The Raider, Part 2: Grub!!

Many players will pay for the extra stat boost from buff food. While most raids have one or two people who bring Fish Feasts, some raiders will pay an extra 25 gold for 10 more attack power, 20 more spell power, stuff like that. While there is little room for profit if you buy both the Northern Spices and the meat, if you can get a direct supplier of either, or both, you can profit. Try to find someone who doesn't want to deal with the AH, and is willing to miss out on an extra few silver for a quick sell. Trade chat is a good place to find a supplier.

Back to the cooking. When you have found what food is best, check the prices. You don't want to cook 200 Firecracker Salmon if they aren't worth anything. On the flip side, you don't want to make 200 of the most expensive food on the Auction House if its not going to sell. Try to diversify at first, in order to find out which ones sell the best. Make 5-10 of each and post 'em right before raid time. Of those that sell, find the one with the highest profit margin. (Profit minus mats cost or value of time spent farming). And make these. You can make as many as you'd like, but don't plan to post them all at one time. Try stacks of 5, 10, and 20. I'd recommend selling the stacks of 20 at a slight discount (per food). For Example: If you sell 5 of X food for 5 gold, try selling 20 of X food for 17 gold. People will see these posted at a lower cost per food, and are likely to buy them. I repost after around 75% of my posts have sold. When you get undercut, DO NOT cancel your auctions if you have more items in your bags! Post the ones you have under the undercutter's posts. In the event that there is a mad rush of purchases, you want to have auctions up. If you get into an undercut war and have run out of items to post, cancel the highest priced ones you have, repost, and work your way down from there. There is a limited time when these will sell well, take advantage of this by staying on top of the competition for this short period.

In summary:

~Highest Profit Margin among Best sellers

~Find a direct supplier for meat or spices

~Post in stacks of 5, 10, or 20 at a slight discount

~Post before prime server raid time (usually around 7-8pm, your server may vary)

~Undercut Undercut Undercut!

Supplying The Raider, Part 1: Flasks

One way that I make money is by supplying the raider. Specifically, providing Flasks of Endless Rage to the hardcore WoW players. Every weeknight before raid time, I buy mats for Flasks of Endless Rage (1 Frost Lotus, 7 Lichbloom, 3 Goldclover, 1 Enchanted Vial) in bulk. Usually, the market allows for a small profit (between 3-10g per craft of 2 flasks). However, most of the profits comes from proccing flasks. Each proc is an extra 2, 4, or 6 flasks for free. Thats between 60 and 180g of free profits on one proc. I usually sell around 20-25 flasks per raid night, but there is definitely room for more sales. Make sure you are posting during your server's prime raid time, which is usually between ~6 and 10pm. If you keep at it, you will sell out without a problem. Remember, even if you craft 40 flasks without procs, you will still make off with over 150g in profits.

Looking for a way to make more profit before procs?

Find a direct supplier of Frost Lotuses. I can get my lotuses from between 5 and 10 gold cheaper than the AH price.

Sorry for such a short post, I'm swamped with work for tomorrow, and still getting over my cold and fever. Good fun.

Khurse

Khurse Out!

I've been busy with work and a high fever/cold combination. Posts will resume tonight as soon as I get through the stack of papers I have sitting on my desk. Thanks for bearing with me!

Khurse