Thoughts and Blogs

Another week

Blogosphere

One-Copper.com

Seth got a new site Good for him, I really like the theme and layout, and I expect with higher degree of freedom on the site, we’ll had more interesting thing going on there…
And the podcast, now that’s one is great, Although he did a little nervous on his first one, I guess tonight’s one will be great, Keep it on, Seth!

That’s remind me the time I get my own domain name. Someone told me that, I am so lucky that I can get a domain with my own name. It’s kinda reverse, I get people call me Zekta, after I got Zekta.com . A shorthand for my original 8-letter long net-name. My parent and friend call my Chinese name (and other nick name) anyway.
Uniqueness is what I am looking for when I am creating this name. So that Google will rank me higher for anyone who look for me (If anyone ever wanted to).

JMTC IRC

JMTC IRC, what’s more exciting than that… I feel so noob after I listen to the chat with some giant in JMTC forum.

A slip of thought pass thru my mind that I wonder if I should keep blogging. Nan, They really should start blogging, but until then, I am safe . (finger crossed) But then I’ll have great blog to read, That would be nice too, that’s okay…

My Business

Aka Time to Cut loss

The Arctic Fur and Titan Changes interrupted my purchase plan. Now, I got 3 set of Arctic Fur and some Titan Steel to unload. Should able to get them out before the 3.3 patch.

I get my hand on two epic BOE dropped in Ulduar, and I got no use of it. I noticed that the price drop when the new raid CD refresh (New supply I guess) I’ll keep that until Sat-Sun….

I really got not much to said about business and gold making lately. (Got tons of ideas from IRC chat though…)

My Raid

aka Gold Pugs are Loverly!

I Bought 2×245 upgrade from 25 ToC Normal. For 1k each. The Trinket and Main Hand sold for 6k each, I should get my hand on that next time. But since it’s my first bidding, I should test the water before jumping in. A side note, The [item]Trophy of the Crusade[/item] Sold for 4k each.

At the end of the pug, each person got 2.2k. Which my net payment is 200g (it’s more like wage than profit, since I worked for it) With gemming and enchant, it’s even. (I am not using epic gem, since it’s 100% price, but only get 10-20% increase in stats)

I would said it’s even better than a “roll pug”. Chances of getting upgrade much lower (and Much inefficient), since rival-role player will roll on a minor upgrade, since it cost them nothing.

Note-to-self: I should talk more about gold-pug later on.
That’s a “short” update for this week
Happy Hallow End

Thoughts and Blogs

Naming

Okay, I know,
This was called Sunday report…
then I slipped Sunday and make it into Weekly report…
And now we don’t even have a report weekly…

Should we just call it “Report”, “Report when I feel like it” or something else ?

The 100th Post

And yay, This is the 100th post… It takes about 6 months time to acculmulate this amount of post. Now, let’s look around, From a handful sites of wowecon, now flourish into near one to two dozens of them. And we even got a forum on gold making on JMTC.

For me, I gained around 200k (Spending included, while balance is around 100k now), from basic vendor trash, buy low sell normal, to a on going profit glyph industry.
I still not comforatble on investment yet. But I did started to learning(50k on preparation of 3.3 patch). And I am also back into raiding again

(This is not much compare to Gevlon and Markco, The first spike is Markco’s mention of the site back in April.)

Like KevMar, I would like to thanks Gevlon, Markco, Jederus, Seth and others blogger who bring traffic to me . Which fuel my ego on conintue writing.

Also I would like to thank Larisa and other commenter for helping me kick start the site.
And, most importantly, My Girl Friend supporting me

Blogosphere

Seth got his first podcast. Gratz Seth..

Sarainy got her site on, featuring the Ultimate-SpreadSheet

Cameron Smith got a Wow Econ RSS WoW Economic Review

Here, I know I missed out some new blog out there… (And I had a memory-leaking problem)
let me know so that I can add to my blog list.

My Business

3.3 Preparation is on, I asked my trader-buddy to LFB in trade channel to me.
couple sets of titansteel bar, shrouds etc…
Planning to spend 50k on this investment.

Glyph selling is kinda boring, so I wouldn’t say much about it. I started to sell the new Scroll as well. Also selling Nether weave Bags. I am too lazy to level my enchanting alt, May be when I had more spare time, I would spend that Gold

My Raid

Naxx – Skipped
EoE – Done
Ulduar – Entered
10 man Normal ToC – Done (Carried)
Ulduar Hard Mode – Being Invited, but refused, since I am not prepared for that yet. (And timing)
25 man Normal ToC (Gold Raid) – Same reason as above. Gotta stay with girlfriend this Friday

10 man Onyxia – Tonight!, We canceled Yesterday, since half of the raid got DCed.

I am also on Daily Heroic (Too easy), and 5-Man ToC (Considering stop running this now)
2 Trinket Slot Left till The EPIC Achievement…

P.s: I know it’s kinda short post, I had delayed some post so that this would be the 100th…
P.s 2: I am still looking for Guest Post

This would be yet another boring post

Thoughts

A little wrap up

it’s the start of a new month, I guess I would have some review on the state of blog
It had been around 5 months (153 days) from the time I started this project.

We had 3.1 and 3.2 patch through the time. I gathered gold from 4k to 60k now, with my own guild bank and a steady income of 1-2k per day (compare to 100-200g/day on AH flipping when I started)

Had been learning a lot from blogging and the blogosphere.

Once you start thinking like a trader, many thing changes, e.g. opportunity cost, human behaviors etc etc, all have an interesting interpretation… I am having fun on discovering piece of gem by reasoning that.

Met lots of people, Seth, Larisa, Gevlon, Markco and all the fellows on JMTC forum…
I even started to listen to podcast every week, The Instance and Twisted Nether

And yes, I still found gevlon’s idea fascinating.
(Are we that sure he’s a single person?)

Will continue and find some interesting piece to share Stay tuned.

Business

Oops, nothing new here, except I am on 70kg now. And My shaman Alts is still stuck on Outland…

Blog

Recent Posts

I shared a little tips on my inscription setup and a little DK I came across in Stormwind…

LF Co-Author

I had a lot of plan, and not much of them worked. I was planning to write a session on the geology of Wow, Talk about Econ-book I read about, and introduce blogger I appreciated.  May be I am just too lazy or hard to stick to a fixed scheme for things.

I still looking for co-author on the Food-Chain topic or the site, so if anyone is interested, please contact me. (Oops, I didn’t say that I want a co-author before?)

(I guess I’ll need another indivial post for the invitation?)

Thoughts and Blogs

Seems that I am facing a writer block recently (again), I hesitate to said much about my business in regular post, since there are nothing much to said.

The trading and setup tutorial are abundant and in good shape, and I don’t want to add yet another tutorial our there… Guess I should finish those draft I had now….

Blizzard Con

This worth its own session this week…
I am upset by the fact Goblins are on horde…
Arrgh, I want my Goblin banker Especially for the bank racial and discounts…
Anyway, got to live with it /. . with my Worgen banker (Sprint for AH to bank, Yoy)

Blogosphere

A new wowecon site by Basis had been born.
Story of his rags to rich, he’s quite thoughtful on many subject, Another RSS feed for my daily blog read. Good work there…

My Business

With the introduction of the QA2 into my system, Profit Sky rocketed. Instead of listing all auction out at one time, I can easily post them and in a much more efficient way.

For the record, I had made 5k solely on Glyph selling, and reach my 50k milestone.
(I kept running out of ink of the sea though…. and had even more time on playing with that setup)

Thoughts and Blogs

I found that I didn’t quite stick to the Sunday Schedule now, so I’ll just call it Weekly report now.
Didn’t had much time to blog and play, since work issue… (Project Deadline is close again )

I warped up some old draft (And silly post ) that I drafted long before…
I’ll find time for more updates, expect 1-2 updates per week though…

Everyone is exicted in 3.2 now (Taiwan didn’t get that up yet though…) and JM2C forum is storming with news. For my fellow trader, I urge you to look into that if you didn’t already…

Will be staying with Jessica for my ink all night in the coming Thursday I guess….

Blogosphere

As any other blogger, we continue to read, even if our own lawn is weeding. Suprisingly there are still new wow-econ blog blooming…

Here is two blog that I had been reading, and think they’re kind of promising… (Will add to my blog roll soon)

http://wowbanker.blogspot.com – KevMar
KevMar started his blogging on his AH Trading back from June. I love his Auction House Automation series. I learned my BulkMail2 setting from his hint, quite helpful on multi-industry trader like myself. (I am on inscription and Tailoring right now)

http://thehappyscribe.blogspot.com - BelsebubBelsebub’s post focus on inscription, and more like a journal of his money making progress. We miss out most of those action once Skrooge had gone (Missing Skrooge )

My Business

As I said before, I had been into the Netherweave Bags business. Last Sunday, I had my factory fully running. I sold 150-200 bags just for the weekend. Material cost = 3g-3.5g Cloth + 40s Thread, Sold at 6-8g. yielding 2-4g per bags depends on competition.  Total 300 – 800g.

Sum up with my glyph selling business, I had made 3-4kg on this weekend. (While I am playing my Alts, at relogin to the bank alt in 2 hour interval). A personal record on non-investing business. (I didn’t do much investment on my tradings though…)

A Good news is that, my trading partner is back to the game, And we expect some action will be on soon. He’s into the Fishing, Cooking, JC business and AH flipping. While I slowly takes on massively production craft industrial (Bags and Glyph sold < 10g in my server, yet the volume generate decent income for me)

Regarding 3.2, I didn’t had any investment on Ore nor other hot goods though, Since I don’t have JC trained (yet).
However, I do stack up lots of ink of the sea (around 1000 vital now), and expect a great sales on the coming  Thursday.

It’s a short update on what I had done, Until Next time…

Zekta

Thoughts and Blogs

I don’t want to turn this into a rant post, but I guess some may interested why I didn’t update for 2 weeks.

I was having some Real life problem these weeks, and my girlfriend was out of town in the moment, so I am having a bad time on comforting myself. (Though I never able to express my gratitude enough to her)

Don’t want to have my negative energy spread thru the blog (I suspect my warlock alt is responsible for this), I decided to stop writing altogether.

I guess I’ll get some old draft polished and publish them right away.

Focus, must stay positive

Funny Thing of The Week (At least I found sth funny this week )

Diamond Ring and Its Box

The Guy who charge for the box of a diamond ring

I keep buying Herbs for milling, I mill all my Ink of the sea myself, and always reserving a 300-400 stock, in case I am busy.

So I would LFB in trade, whenever I am in city, and have people COD them to me. I paid them right away and forward the herbs to my bank alt (Of course I only mill them when leisure).

So, here comes this special farmer, the Herbs is sold on 10g per stack, and for every stack he mailed me, he charge an extra 30 copper for it.

Cute, isn’t him?

I mean, come on, it’s a freaking 0.03% (33333:1) ratio…

Or I can manifest this in a RL example.

At a Tiffany Retail

Shopkeeper : “Sir, here is the ring you purchased, The price is 33000 USD, and we charge an extra 1 dollar for the box holding it,
so it’s 33001 dollar in total, thank you.”

He (and the staff at Tiffany) had the right to charge for the mail cost (and the box), but is it really matters?
Consider the time he needed to type in the mail box for the 30 copper each time he sell, how much time he spent to earn 1g for charging the 30 copper? (Compare that to the time he needs to kill a random mob at ice-crown then)

What was he thinking?

Thoughts and Blogs

The summer debuff strike here as well…

But as BRK Daniel put it

But for the time being, I’m going to try not to be boring. Instead of being boring, I’m just going to shut the heck up.

I am convinced that I rather had some good content than some frequent updated cr@p.

Will update time to time for another article crafted. Until Next time

P.s Again, Thanks for Zupa for editing my posts

Thoughts and Blogosphere

Quite busy this week, had been trying to put myself together, but no luck…
There are some interested topic (experiments) reported last week, last talk about it

Begging

Seth concluded his experiment on begging

I must say most of us won’t take the time to do such an experiment.

Leveling an alt named after beggar, leveling it 40level and begs for 8 hours? I’ll never do it myself…

It spring lots of thought for me (Yet-Another-Thing-Want-To-Blog)… but I will not risk this idea from not publishing, I’ll just make a short list instead L

Here is a short list:

1. We tend to have a implicit thoughts about old people (See Reference), which also apply to beggars (IRL) as well. Do our despite for beggar really work as rational, or a comfortable (defensive) excuses for not helping (Social’s Subroutine)?
2. Reasoning if a person is indeed need of help before giving out the gold, seems pretty make sense to me, it’ll be much better than, “I’ll give you gold, since you asked”(Is the mount necessary is another question)
3. Is helping others that bad? E.g. the example Larisa talk about in comment a IRL’s friend first character on your realm, will you give them gold said (10g for first 10 level’s training fee)? Consider the fact, You earn money much faster than them (Since you have a 80 toons).

I didn’t make up my mind on this one yet. While a green goblin in my mind said “Don’t this will encourage slacking, and why don’t they earn their own gold?” and a pink-haired Gnome would say “It’s only cost you for selling a glyph, and they need to collect the trash on low level area, for at least 30 minutes”

I don’t know…

I used to give little change to old ladies on street, but not now, I keep thinking about it though. For the old ladies are picking cardboard box, and recycling beverage can. I know their life is harsh, that’s 160 beverage cans worth $1 USD.

The Apprentice

I love this series of blog from Gevlon I must say.

http://dalarangardens.blogspot.com/

from the first glance of the post

http://dalarangardens.blogspot.com/2009/07/mishaps-of-misguided-apprentice.html

I clicked the subscribe button on my Google reader

Gnome – Check (I grow up as a gnome mage)

Mage – Check

Sense of Humor – Check

Sarcastic – Check

Keep the good work coming, Ydraisa

Business

It had been boring recently, continuous on glyph business. Nothing special other than 2.6k /week (Try to avoid using the gold/day for weekend sells much better). With 10-30 mins play time per day on Auction Hall, I guess it’s more than enough for me. Saving up for my level Alt… (Should be able to meet my 20k milestone this few days.)

Reference:
From Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ageism
In Freakonomics, Stephen Levitt’s surprise hit of 2005, the study of hidden (or “implicit”) ageism was brought out of the psychologist’s laboratory and into the TV studio. Levitt described how, in the US version of The Weakest Link, contestants’ voting decisions were, on average, biased against older panelists. At the stage of the game where it is in participants’ interests to vote for poor performers, older people were likely to be chosen even when younger adults had performed worse. But when contestants would benefit by choosing top-performing rivals (to eliminate the competition), they tended to choose lower-performing, older contestants. Subconsciously, the panelists simply did not want to be around older people.^[27]

P.s a post about undercover economist is still on my pending list… didn’t finish the book yet thought ;P

Thoughts and Blogs

Added About me link, and planning to write yet another pages about the blogs and invite guest posts. Had a discussion with Seth a month before, and I didn’t expect many people would like to become guest blogger instead of having their own blog before. Anyway, asking won’t harm I guess.

Had been busying tidy things up at the blog, trying to get a contact form working but no joy.
(After half-day of working on this, It’s the permalink problem. And after I hacked the plugin, it worked…)

Zupa offered helps on my writing, which I am honored for that. Sorry mate, that I didn’t come close to have a piece of work done recently (laziness, my bad)

I am keep messing around with new drafts…
My excuse is that I got my copy of a great book, and new ideas had booming in my head.

Excuse of Infrequent Updates

Blogosphere

Blogosphere Meme

There are discussion on Failure Stories.

I don’t have a strong opinion on that, and I can’t really think of reasons that people hate Gevlon so much. IMHO, Gevlon is just honest and brave to speak out what most of us really do. Some of his opinion may be too extreme, but what I saw on others respond, is rather irrational at all. (I don’t want to go into detail and quote their line here)

I am with Larisa on these…

Holidays

Seth is taking a break, and Miy decided that it’s time to quit blogging to get some real life action. I would kinda miss them. (Watching Seth’s updates really encourage me to keep things up )
Seeing fellows stop blogging is kinda make me sad… Like one of your favorite novel ended

Updates: I write the note in the morning, and at the afternoon, Seth is back posting again. That’s really mades me looking like an idots , nevermind, I am happy…

Thoughts and Blog

There was a saying that, 90% of the company opened will shut their door at its first year. I guess it goes true for blog as well, but in a much shorter span (one or two month I guess), so I was reserving strength for longevity, on the other hand, I would love to have one meaningful article per week, and some trivial report or idea in between.

Lucky or not, there was 4-5 blogs started on the very same topic in April, which form a nice community and reader awareness, on the other hand, it’s more-the-less harder to stand out in the mass.

I am not sure about the others, but I would be more focus on theory-crafting, that is, more detail about the reason behind their behavior rather than tactics articles, or business reports. The reasoning human behavior always subject to bias, since I can’t (and not have time to) find prove of them…. but hey, that’s what I am interested in

The 2-3 posts per week schedules I am trying to keep, so that I can had more time to tailor my idea before publishing. By the idea, I would have more and more idea around on my drafted post, and always had idea to work out. Sometimes there would be 2-3 weeks lag from the time the idea is formed and the post is created.

This will be my 39th post on Wow’s Econ. (Including Sunday Reports)
I didn’t write as frequent as Gevlon and Seth, but more-the-less like Larisa’s.
It would be nice if I can have a Bartender like Larisa or an Editor like BRK’s TJ.
And yet, this is a luxury dream for me…

Blog Downtime: We had some difficulties on the web server (The router actually). and my DNS seems failed to catch up the new ip address. Hopefully the router will behave itself now. Sorry for the downtime .

Blogosphere

I did made couple of friends in the process and many interesting blogs.
I get to know more people along the way. while it’s not so challenging to think up an interesting topic once a week, since interesting thing happens all around us anyway, but it really takes time to think about it, solidify the thoughts and write it down… I appreciate that from all my fellow bloggers.

Similar to Seth, I would like to start different column here soon, I don’t know if I can stick with the Thur is The Food Chain thing, but I would try to…
The problem of sticking to the schedule is that, it takes me much time to clean up the article, and my leisure time is pretty random, so maybe I’ll miss one or two column date, if I can’t tidy up the articles on time.

I don’t know if it’s because I get busy on life/work, or because I draft most of my article while I am traveling (On Train) I am having difficulties of organizing my thought into well-structured article. While I am trying to make them clear and stay focus, sometimes a thought will get its own way and developed a totally different article. That’s a strange experience.

Oh, and I’ll start take parts in one of the Seth’s column as well, let see what we can do there…

Business

the BLSH business is shrinking, and I am only selling the remaining stocks (can’t spot any sweet deal recently), that grant me about 100-200g per day.

I do gain more and more from the glyph business, buying the materials(Herbs), books (80-100g each) used up most of the revenue (I bought about 3-4 book a day) (Who said Education is cheap?), and I am heavily undercutting the others. Say, from auctioneer, the market price is 18-19g; I am willing to undercut it till 4-5g, which is 50% profit for the ink. (For the book of learning it yet, I need to sell 20-30 glyphs for the price of a book). I am listing 400-500 glyphs per day,

Subtracting the cost of the books and herbs, I still earn around 300-400 per day (which deduced I got 50-100 glyph sold every day). Pretty decent compare to the BLSH business. This may be not much compare to farming, but a good start for a profitable business.