Phase 3: Profit !

“Streets full of water. Please advise.”

Telegram from journalist/humorist Robert Benchley to his editor at the New Yorker, upon Benchley’s first visit to Venice, Italy.

Well, Dear Reader, it’s getting close. We’re about a week away from the Dec. 7, Cataclysm launch date.

The above telegram is all I could think of when I logged into WoW for the first time, post-4.0.3. All of the sudden, all over Kalimdor… water is everywhere! I expected it, but it was still a shock to see.

Hopefully your stocking up is in full swing at this point. In fact, in an ideal world, you’ve (almost) completed it already. I had a few things on my mind that I thought I should remind people of, especially ahead of a Tuesday that will, I assume, bring a normal maintenance:

(1) Now is the time to start selling all the leveling things that you’ve been amassing. Maybe you should hold onto your really big leveling investments until the prices go though the roof with the advent of Goblins and Worgen. But the other things, the things that are much more common? Start selling now! What am I talking about? Items like Netherweave Bags, old glyphs that you’ve had trouble selling, leveling plans that are common, enchanting rods, etc. People are starting to see the writing on the wall, and they’re buying.

(2) Be prepared for a very difficult first few days of Cataclysm. I anticipate that, like Wrath, Cata will bring massive lag, queues for high-pop servers, and general annoyance for all. If you’re like Sterling and hoping to be the server-first level 85 then you can’t afford to wait. For the rest of us mere mortals? Maybe watch a movie on Dec. 7/8, and try to log in during slower server times.

(3) Consider one last item for stocking that I haven’t seen too many people mention: the Argent Tournament pets. The AT will still be around in cataclysm, but it is a long slog to get the required emblems for the pets, especially for toons that start fresh with Cata. I can’t guarantee anything, but it stands to reason that an boom in the number of players coupled with a simultaneous drop in the number of players doing the AT dailies means that the pets will become much more valuable in Cataclysm. If you missed out on Dirge’s Kickin’ Chops, then this looks to be one of the best long-term investments you can have to hedge against the predicted Cataclysm inflation.

(4) One last thing: Inscription is going to be a mess for a while, and everyone would do well to read Zamboni’s comment on Zekta’s recent post. If you’re a farmer, consider hitting up the (new) old-world now, before Cataclysm; you should do this while simultaneously scouring the AH for cheap herbs. Zamboni is one of the masters, so heed his warning.

That’s about all I have for now, Dear Reader. As ever, we look forward to all feedback. Thanks in advance.

GL! /bow

-Jimm

Hi everyone,  sorry for lack of posting for a long time (Thanks BigJimm).
This will be a quick post before, I got dragged into endless of meeting again.

There is a shocking news referring to inscription and shattering.
Jessica, our beloved ink trader, decided she don’t want ink of the sea anymore.

While I call my trading buddy immediately (I am out of the inscription market, since I don’t have time to craft things, but he’s still in. And Taiwan’s patches are usually hit at Thur).
There are some implication we can draw from the change.

• Ink of the sea price drop, this is a no brainer, demand decrease….
• Low Level Herbs will sky rocket, until 1-2 month after catalysm, when the Blackfallow Ink price stabilize
• Glyph will skyrocket in the coming months, until Blackfallow Ink settle down

Let us know your thought on the change…. we’ve got some milling to do atm….

Until next time, o7

Zekta

The news is at the end of the post. The goal is to encourage you, Dear Reader, to read the rest of this long post, but I won’t be offended if you decide to skip to (3) below to get to the news. Yes, this makes you one of those uncool people who read the last page of the novel in Lit class, but I won’t hold that against you. Onto the meat of the post!

Markco posted something interesting yesterday that got me thinking, and I’d like to ask you, Dear P3P Reader, what you think about it. Part of Markco’s post was devoted to recruiting Euripides into writing a book about WoW Gold. This would not be a book about how to make WoW gold (aka: a guide), but rather would be (I assume) a bunch of stories and anecdotes about making their experiences making gold, mixed in with economic theory and advice.

I have two things to ask, both of which are basically iterations of the same query. My simple question is the same as Markco’s: would you buy it (a book of that nature)? I realize that pricing and length would both play a role in your decision, but let’s assume that it’s a modest price for a proper book (much more than 10,000 words), written by two well-established WoW gold-bloggers. Are you interested? Would you consider it? Would you, Dear Reader, forego a sparkle pony or a night at the movies to buy a book like this? I’m interested in that short answer. That’s part 1.

Before moving on, allow me to preface part 2 by saying that I’m asking these questions as a writer. I’m not just talking about blogging; I went to law school in the US (but you know that already, Dear Reader), and in law school the one thing you do, above all else, is write. It’s not glamorous writing; it’s technical. And you do a lot of it. Consequently, I like to know how people perceive writing in this little corner of the Internet. (And I’d also like to point out that a law school education is probably one reason that Matt McCurley can write so many great articles for WoW Insider: writing is, literally, his day job.)

ANYWAYS, part 2: the longer question isn’t as easy to sum up, because it has to do with my position as another blogger, one whose site has a specific history, and one who has a specific set of personal goals. Basically, I’d like to know not only IF you’d be interested in buying this theoretical book, but also WHY? Why would this be something of interest?

Please allow me to editorialize a bit. The history of P3P, as I understand it, is thus: Zekta started writing about WoW gold because he was into it, and wrote in a fairly specific/meticulous fashion. This was back in the “early days” of gold-blogging, aka: a few years ago. Gevlon and Markco were both, separately, ascending. At some point Gevlon put P3P on his blogroll, and P3P began to see a much higher volume of hits per day. This made us more relevant.

Gevlon and Markco went back and forth, and also had their own very-public tussles. Over time, things changed: Gevlon stopped writing about hardcore raiding and gold as much, Markco founded the JMTC community, and P3P… well, we floundered. Zekta lost some steam, posted less, and P3P became less relevant.

At some point I applied to be a P3P writer. I was accepted, and this made me very happy. I am good (not great) at making gold in WoW, and I wanted to write about it. I will always owe Zekta and P3P for giving me a shot. Also, I personally think that I’ve done well over time- I’ve done some things and the site hits are back up, I’m a co-host on the Call To Auction podcast (another thing I really enjoy), and generally we’re humming along.

I think that part of this success has been, in part, due to how I approach blogging: I try to provide you, Dear Reader, with equal parts (a) gold-making advice, and (b) insightful questions, while simultaneously, (c) writing one of the best-written blogs on the web. This is one of the reasons why I don’t post as often as other gold bloggers; whenever I post, I want it to matter, and I want it to have Quality.

With all that said, I wonder what kind of audience would be interested in the book that Markco proposes writing. What do you, Dear Reader, value? Value is really what we’re talking about- if you’re willing to spend actual money on something, then you value it. I want to know why you do. What would you be looking for in this book? Why would you care? I have my own personal opinions, but I don’t believe that the discussion would benefit from my espousal of them. However, I want to know what you, Dear Reader, think about all this. Please, let everyone here at P3P know via comments to this post.

A few final notes:

(1) Thank you to everyone who has given me input, public or otherwise, about whether or not (and how) I should get rid of some of my gold. Please keep the feedback coming, either as a comment to that post or via another method. I am still leaning toward giving it away (probably before Cata), but every response has made me think about it. (Seriously. Every bit. I read all of it.)

(2) The lovely Ms. Jimm and I are going out and about for a bit. Thanksgiving is this week upcoming in the US, and we have plans. Consequently, I do not anticipate posting much for the next week or so. Thanks, as ever, for your patience.

(3) Finally, I have a bit of news that is, well… news and not-news at the same time. Basically, I know someone who knows things. These things are not big-time, “next-gen-MMO” type things. But still, that person is someone who knows things in WoW. That person told me that patch 4.0.3a will be released after the next maintenance, and in the US that means after the maintenance for Tuesday, 11/23/10. I trust this person and hope that the information is accurate, but obviously have no way to verify it. Mea culpa in advance if this is wrong, but let me be one of the first bloggers to report that Tuesday the WoW world will blow up, and Vanilla will be gone forever. Go into ZG one last time, get the Baron’s mount from Strath, and take all the screenshots you can- this is, truly, the End of Days.

GL! /bow

-Jimm