Phase 3: Profit !

Editor’s Note: The title of this post is appropriate, and is an homage to Linedan’s excellent post of the same name over at Achtung Panzercow! It’s a great warrior tank blog that I like reading, so I encourage you to take a moment to check it out. (To further encourage you to do so, you can click through to find the translation of the title via his post, but not here.)

Sometimes, Dear Reader, things happen that force P3P to change schedule. Consequently, Part 2 of the State of the Market will have to wait until next week. What happened?

In short, Markco retired from gold blogging.

Personally, I was not expecting this. I’ve known for a while that Markco has been backing off of regular posting to work on other endeavors. But I did not anticipate a full-fledged retirement. So let’s take a moment to consider Markco, to think about what he accomplished, and to generally give him a good send off.

WoW gold blogging, in the form it currently exists, was more or less invented by Markco. Before Markco, there weren’t any free sources of quality information about how to make gold. If you weren’t a serious player who’d invested a lot of time developing strategies, your only option was buying a gold guide. And those guides were shady sources of information (at best). They were heavily advertised, but the ads were short on details. They promised huge gold per hour, but didn’t tell you how those promises would be fulfilled. You had to put your real life money down and hope for the best. And that sucked. And don’t forget that this was at the end of TBC/release of WotLK, when gold was much more difficult to make; 5,000g for 280% flying was a king’s ransom.

Then Markco started Just My Two Copper, and everything changed. Not only was his site free, but it was good! He was the first person to tell everyone things that we now consider very basic, but were relatively unknown at the time. Among other things, he: taught everyone how to use auctioneer; demonstrated that items were regularly listed below their vendor value on the AH; scolded Mike Schramm for vendoring Netherweave Bandages (instead of turning them into bags); told the world about the Saronite Shuffle, and then upgraded it; worked hard to demonstrate profits for cross-faction AHing; promoted the value of a number of toons with integrated professions; talked about profits from BOE items… I could keep going, but I think I’ve made my point.

However, the amazing thing is that he didn’t stop at giving out good gold tips. Markco sunk his time and money into creating the JMTC community, a place where anyone could go (for free) to learn about making gold. And he pushed his site relentlessly. Not only did he let us all learn more, he made gold making a legitimate reason to play WoW. If you think I’m overstating his impact, consider this: he was the only WoW goldblogger to be invited onto the all-time great podcast, How I WoW. There were 21 How I WoW shows, and most of the current WoW titans were guests on it- Scott Johnson, Randy Deluxe, Curt Schilling, Felicia Day, Turpster, The Spags, Mike Schramm, etc. How I WoW was one of the few places for people to find out about old-school players, like Alachia and Jim Moreno. And Markco made the cut; he was the last guest before How I WoW retired.

When I started posting at P3P, Markco and Gevlon were basically the only people writing about gold-making. At that time, Gevlon was hot. The Instance had just given him a huge boost by making his site the Drop Of The Week, and he’d been tearing up the WoW blogosphere with a new style of posts. Gevlon was unforgiving, and he was making a ton of gold with Inscription. When he threw Markco under the bus, it would have been a death-knell for a lesser blogger. I was one of many people who were critical of him on the JMTC forums.

How did Markco respond? He got better, and did more. He wrote more posts, published every day, made youtube videos, and created a top-notch gold guide that people could pay for if they wanted to. Yes, Markco selling a gold guide earned him a lot of enmity across the WoW Blogosphere. But I think that enmity was unnecessary and unfounded- no one was forced to buy the guide (all the content was there on JMTC if you were willing to look); and if you wanted to buy a guide, you were able to see what Markco was promising before you actually had to pay.

What was the result? Now JMTC is the only game in town. It pushes and promotes the community via Blogging Carnivals. It’s captained by some of the best goldmaking gurus around. And Markco even took the time to make sure that JMTC was left in the hands of a very capable and worthy successor, Mageshadow. Whereas Gevlon stopped writing about gold (until very recently, when he started including tips again), Markco didn’t bat an eye. He worked hard, published, and made JMTC successful.

In fairness, Markco was not without controversy. And he has his flaws. But he was the first and the best at WoW gold blogging. If you were going to make an analogy, Markco is the Babe Ruth or Dr. J of his era- better, stronger, and unlike anyone else before him. We here at P3P wish him nothing but the best, and hope that his retirement is followed shortly by a return.

Finally, we here at P3P were incredibly flattered that he named one of my early posts as his favorite post of all time. It was one of my favorite posts to write. I wrote the post before I was asked to host Call To Auction, when I was still just a fan of what Markco was doing. I found myself thinking of an idea for a post, looking around, and then realizing that I’d been beaten to the punch by some content on JMTC. I sat at my computer for a while, thinking, “Why even bother posting? Markco’s saying everything before I can.” I did not realize (until I read it in the retirement post) that I’d given Markco some sort of boost to his morale. I really thought it was worth noting that he was doing what every other WoW gold blogger was trying to do, and was doing it better. We all were, and still are, playing for second place.

That’s about it for this week. Thanks, as ever, for your time, Dear Reader. This post might generate some ill-will towards Markco. (Somehow the trolls are never too far from the door.) As long as all comment are civil, they won’t be deleted. However, outright flaming is not tolerated. With that said, we look forward to your feedback. We read it all.

GL! /bow

-Jimm

Some quick thoughts for you, Dear Reader, as we head into what will hopefully be a happy holiday weekend for everyone, both here in the US and abroad.

Chimera’s Eye gems are the new Jewelcrafter gems; they are the Cataclysm equivalent of Dragon’s Eye gems from WotLK. You get them at a price of one Illustrious Jewelcrafter’s Token (the reward for the JC daily), or by getting very lucky with a Fire Prism.

Right now, Chimera’s Eye gems are exceptionally valuable. They’re selling, consistently, for about 625g on my home server. The JC daily usually takes less than a minute to do, and it’s accessible at a skill level of 475. (If the quest that day is Elemental Goo, it can take a few minutes.) The high price will probably remain for the next few weeks, at least, for multiple reasons:

(1) Demand is high for a bunch of reasons, starting with the large amount of Jewelcrafters. Because JC was the end-game profession (along with Blacksmithing or Enchanting) for much of WotLK, there are, simply, a lot of JCs out there. In this case, more JCs= more potential customers.

(2) Remember how successful Blizzard was at making raiding much more accessible? Well, that has left a whole lot of people trying to gear up to start raiding in Cataclysm. And really, that’s the target audience: people who are trying to raid in this first wave of Cataclysm raiding.

Please, Dear Reader, allow me to rant a little bit about something that I don’t think most people realize: unless you’re in a cutting edge raiding/pvp guild or group, there isn’t a compelling mathematical reason to use the best gems in any slot right now. The extra 81 strength that you’ll get from using three Bold Chimera’s Eyes instead of three Bold Inferno Rubies isn’t going to be what makes the difference, no matter what raid you’re in or how close you are. In fact, one of the best tanks I know is using, as of time of the time of publication, an Austere Earthsiege Diamond and a Sovereign Dreadstone in his Grinning Fang Helm. Those gems are from last expansion. Why? Well, I can’t be sure, but I’ll bet my two copper it’s because (a) he had them laying around, (b) he knows that this piece of gear will be replaced shortly, and (c) it’s unnecessary to put expensive gems in those slots right now.

+80 strength isn't going to get him down

With all that said, there are still people who will buy the best gems for pieces of gear that don’t need it. And those people are worth supplying right now, even if (like me) you think it’s an unwise use of resources. (Gevlon wrote a great post about this early in WotLK, comparing the TBC Aldor shoulder enchants with the WotLK Sons of Hodir shoulder enchants. I was going to link to it, but I can’t find it. Anyone? A little help please?)

(3) Why don’t all these Jewelcrafting, would-be-raiders just use their own tokens? Well… I dunno, exactly. I imagine that a lot of them are collectors that just want all the cuts. Others might not want to deal with doing the (very easy and lucrative) daily. Maybe some people are responsible for getting cuts for their guild. And maybe some people have enough gold to just buy what they need and don’t care how much is costs. (There’s a term for this kind of wealth; it’s vulgar, but descriptive.)

No matter what the reason, very few people are selling Chimera’s Eye gems now, meaning that they’ll never be more valuable. From a gold-making perspective, deciding whether to buy cuts with JC tokens vs. selling Chimera’s Eyes is going to come down to your individual situation. If you’re mining a lot and have tons of ore to prospect, then the cuts will probably be worth investing in. However, if you, like me, don’t have a miner in Cataclysm content, then it might make sense to sell some tokens now, while the price is still very high. Each of the standard cuts you buy costs three tokens. That’s about a 1900g opportunity cost… so think twice about that before you buy the next cut on the page, just because it’s there.

Finally, all this JC stuff has me thinking about inflation. Before Cataclysm, everyone seemed to be speculating that gold would be much more readily available (which was true), but no one was sure how much. I submit that this is one good indicator of exactly how much inflation has occurred between expansions. The price of Dragon’s Eyes in Wrath settled at around 100g (and started between 200g and 300g, I think). When the price of Chimera’s Eyes stabilizes, we’ll have a good idea of how much more money everyone has, and exactly how much less each gold piece is worth now.

That’s all I’ve got today, Dear Reader. Enjoy the holidays! Have fun, be nice to your family, and be careful with the eggnog. The recipe around Casa Bigjimm has a little something extra, so less is more with that stuff.

GL! /bow

-Jimm

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