Phase 3: Profit !

The previous starter cash posts have required that you have a high-level toon, at least high enough to solo Stratholme or Scarlet Monastery. This strategy does not. This is something you can do from level 10. It is a short and sweet approach that will give you solid returns that will finance your first mount, skills, and all that sort of thing.

This little guy can make you some money: Mechanical Squirrel. This is a pet made by Engineers. It typically sells for at least 10g, depending on the server and the time of day, day of the week, etc.

The schematic is a world drop that drops off of almost anything at an extremely low drop rate. This means that it is a pretty common schematic to find on the AH. If you make it a priority, I’m sure you’ll see it in short order.

Here’s the plan: let’s pretend that you’re a true nub. You’re new to the game, or you’re re-rolling on a new server, or whatever. The first thing you have to do is make it out of the starting zone, meaning, you have to reach level 10. This is, even for a true nub, is not a tall order.

The next step is to go to a trainer to train mining. After that, keep questing and running around, but do so in order to farm Copper. Copper is going to be how you get your starting nut. Gather a stack or so of copper; smelt some into bars, keep some as ore. Then, sell the ore and bars. Sell them in stacks of 5, or 20, or whatever. Copper Ore can sell for as little as 5g/stack or as much as 20g/stack (on those rare, super-demand days). Nobody wants to farm copper, so there’s constant demand for it.

So, get a little gold, keep farming copper, and keep questing until it’s time for the next step of the plan. What is the next step, you ask? Assuming that you’ve already got the schematic for the squirrel, either via the AH or a drop, the next step is leveling Engineering on this toon! (If you don’t have the schematic, then get it, then level Engineering.)

You don’t need to level Engineering very far at all. In fact, you only need to get to level 75, which is doable at level 10. If you’re a gnome, this is even easier, as gnomes get the ridiculously overpowered racial buff that gives +15 to Engineering.*

(*In fact, if you’re thinking of creating a toon solely for this strategy, make that toon a gnome. Seriously. A gnome rogue engineer/miner will make this very, very easy.)

Training engineering to level 75 is pretty easy. Leveling to 75 requires about 90 copper ore/bars, 25 weak flux, and 40 rough stone. This is peanuts. You can do that in an hour or less, even on a level-appropriate toon (ie: this new toon we’re talking about). Again, if you’re a gnome, it will be even faster and cheaper.

After that, you’re basically set. Malachite can be a little pricey on the AH, but you can also get it cheaply; I’ve noticed wild fluctuations in price. Learn the spec for the squirrel, do a circuit to mine copper, make a few squirrels, put them on the AH, and watch the money roll in. It is as simple as that. Demand stays constant because it is a cheap, accessible pet for new pet collectors… and there are always new pet collectors.

Potential drawbacks? Very few, but one is that engineering is tough to level after Journeyman status. It’s very ore-intensive, and so if you want to go any further than the squirrel it can be a hassle. (It’s not as bad as Blacksmithing, but still…) Another drawback is that, at least in theory, you might be able to make more money with two gathering professions, especially if you’re going all the way to 80. Finally, the last drawback that I can think of is that, while demand is constant, supply can fluctuate. What does that mean? Well, it means that because this is such an easy pet to make, AH undercut battles around this item are common. So if you post too many, or if someone on your server is trying to corner this market, it could be a hassle.

With all that said, this is an easy, reliable way to make money. You probably won’t get gold capped this way, but you will at least make a reliable income. So if you want to make some money, go make some squirrels!

GL! /bow

Carrot on a Stick?

Carrots keep us running – Gold, Gears, Fame, Friends, Oh and pets. To me, Argent Torment is another one.
Vanity Item, mounts, Pets… I had a hobbit of collecting pets, so I always keep an eye on Breanni’s Site .

Blizzard do a great job on the target marketing.

Target Marketing

The Marginal cost of time increases steeply if you really want them fast.

Take the Aspirant Phase as example:

In order to go to the next rank you need to complete Up To The Challenge which requires 15 [item]Aspirant’s Seal[/item]. Which is from the following quests.

1. Learning The Reins, takes around 2-3 minutes without flying, reward 2x [item]Aspirant’s Seal[/item]
2. Training in the field, takes a flight to the nearest  for mob, around 6-8 minutes, Rewarding 1x [item]Aspirant’s Seal[/item]
3. A Blade Fit For A Champion or or A Worthy Weapon or The Edge of Winter takes 20+ minutes (Just the time for flying forth and back are huge) rewarding 2x [item]Aspirant’s Seal[/item]

As there are only 3 quests you can do per day. Player will takes different part as their preference.

1. Very eager player who wish to finish the phase as soon as possible. Doing 3 quests for 30 minutes each day, Totally 90 minutes.
2. Only do the first 2, will takes you 5 days, with 10 minutes each day. Totally 50 minutes.
3. Only do the Learning The Reins for 8 days, 2.5 minutes each day. Totally 20 minutes.

So basically, The more eagar you want to get thru the phase, you pay more time than the others.

If anyone aim for the top, they are actually playing near double time for the next group (90 mins vs 50 mins) to take a lead of 2 days.

Blizzard set up different grind plan for player to sign up. So if you want to get there faster, you pay more.

Personally I don’t pay much attention to the “I-have-something-you-don’t” thing, so I just going for the second option (The 20-30 minutes flying really cool me down).

How about you? How many quests you take?

P.s Miy at Auction House Trading, simplified. consider the issue on the gold gathering perspective, which is nice to provide you another view angle for the event….

Kitty on Sale!

After got my hands on my four kittens. I kept thinking about when I should let them go?
Re-list right away?
Smuggle them to the Horde’s AH?
After some consideration, I’ll hold on them for the market price to raise.

Here is why…

Upon release of 3.1, Elven new vanity (non-combat) will be added. While more supply means lower price (the pool of existing pet increases, while the achievement only requires 50/75) The overall vanity pet price will drop only a little.

Acquiring new pet get more people close to the pet achievement goaland thus more eager on finishing it (consider a person with 38 pets and one with 48 pets). The incoming child week will also add 2-3 pets into play. While the urge of getting the achivement had lay low on the market for long. New obtainable pet will make some of them start their collection again, and they need to wait another week to obtain a new one.

Will you pay 300-400g to get the pet  achivement today,
rather than wait for another week?

I don’t know you, but I know many people will say yes.

As rare pet’s production will not increased over night, there should be a 1-2 month increases in price for my kitties.

I’ll place my bet on those cute kitties. How about you?

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Edit
Another factor may affect the market is that: there are fewer Gold around as the Dual Spec consume a large amount of it.
That’ll lower their avaible cash for luxuries (e.g. expensive pets)

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Update
The Patch 3.1 finally hit Taiwan server yesterday. Getting the pet is much hard than I thought. That’ll increase the price they willing to pay, but the demand will raise pretty slower.

On the other hand, the easy pet for children day will hit nevertheness. So the prediction of pet price raises should remain correct.