Phase 3: Profit !

Spaces are not created equal
Some space is more useful than others.
No, I am not talking about profession bags. That would be too trivial (It’s still trivial for some trader though).
When it comes to trading there are different types of space.

1. Backpack
Backpack space is most useful, since all your traffic from AH is on your bags, All the mail first go into your bags. Here is a tip: Consider having different bag for switching
My Glyph and AH alts had both normal bags and glyph bags, in case I need to route my traffic to other alts. I can change an empty glyph back to a normal one, and switch back to glyph bags after.
2. Bank Space Slot
Bank space is second most valued, because of the ability of switching; you can switch a bag from your bag directly with one in the bank slot. This is the Dual spec of you backpack.
Use other means for long term storage, if you do this a lot. (E.g. My shaman main will also do some auction posting; I’ll switch her normal bag with the 3 scribe bag in the bank, and switch back after posting)
3. Mail box Space
The beauty of Mail box is that it’s near infinity. The Cons, only the top 50 mail can be retrieved (No random access beyond that), and risk for out dated mail to be lost if you are not careful. It takes a long time to clear out the storage, and block your traffic as well.

4. Auction Hall Space
It’s a specialized storage, for low deposit cost goods, you can actually store your material on AH! One of my friends stores all his enchanting material stock on AH. He set an overpriced price of each component. If anyone request an enchant, he cancel those auction. And a plus, if anyone buy his overpriced material.

5. Guild Bank
The first 3 tab is much cheaper than an alts’ bank. Good for storage for a long term investment. As mentioned bank space is better for switching, from a trader, it easy to over stock goods. This should be your largest temporary and long term storage (Though Gevlon against long term storage, since the econ is always deflating. That would be another post)

I come to notice that Sarainy had two similar post about the very topic.

But since I already finished this one, and scheduled this, I am not going to trash this…
This post is more on trader’s perspective than storage. There will be another post about the different (if this is not too trivial)

Be sure to visit Sarainy for some complement information I missed.

Did you notice, after each patch,
The price of Fish and Eternal Water will raise?
And then fall back to normal after 1-2 week?

Demand for buff food increases after patch? That’s one of the factor…
But Today I’ll tell you a secret one….

Fishing activities, reduced a lot after each patch. But after 1-2 week, they’ll return to normal.
The shortage of supply will cause the spike.

One of the reasoning would be fisher gone to raid, after the patch.
That’s possible too…

The Reason

But one of my friend got another explanation.
The 1-3 week is highly co-related to the bot-program update schedule.
On the very day the new bot version hit the net, price start to drop significantly.

You don’t need a bot nor be a fisher to get profit

By knowing this cycle, you can just buy those fish when the price lay low and Supply the market in those 1-2 weeks. Beware that you need to sell all stock in 2 weeks though…

Thoughts

Sadly,
I don’t have enough data to prove this observation…
Maybe anyone can continue this work?

Why Having Alts increase Gold/Hour

In respond to Gevlon’s Post
No, I am not against his point.

But Rather I want to point out why people think (Or may be indeed there are) there is a synergy

1. Time reduced on listing and buying (Gevlon’s point)
2. Reduced some factor on price fluctuation (Since you had more way to get what good you want, e.g. Infinity Dust for Bags, can be from Gears (Disenchant) / Eternal Earth (JC/Disenchant) rather than LFCrafter)
3. More Profession, really means more Gold/Hour! (Thus the Reason for this post)

Why More Gold/Hour

Said giving a profitable profession A, (Same apply to dailies as well)
There are Three Operation to earn gold
A1, yields A1g/hour
A2, yields A2g/hour
A3, yields A3g/hour
for A1g>A2g>A3g, a rational person will always pick A1 first…

the catch is, A1g will decrease if you keep doing Operation A1 …. (Making/Selling too much Netherweave bag, will result in returning bags, which increase the deposit cost and time needed)  Diminishing_returns

Gaining access to an additional profession grant him more choices, (Think of open up new daily quests for a player, with similar Gold/Hour Ratio to the existing ones…)
Say Profession B, with A1>B1>A2>B2>A3>B3

With a player can only do 3 Operation,
Player with only A will do (A1,A2,A3)
Player with both will do (A1,B1,A2)
Which always had a higher Gold/Hour  (B1 > A3) by definition

Exceptions

1. One operation already use up all the time of the player’s play time. (e.g. for Casual Traders or glyph making (Which need very long AFK time))
in that case, Since Player can only do one operation, picking one profession is enough
2. There exist one or two Master profession with All A > Bs

In which case, having another profession gives you no benefits at all…

However, Don’t

Don’t mistaken me of agreeing on leveling alts for profit
Even with DK, that’s a large chunk of time to spend, The extra Gold/Hour just couldn’t justify it.

This post is for my fellow trader, who had a long trip from farming / dailies struggle on our earning to the level of income that sole trading (or “milking the Moron” by Gevlon) can yield more than enough…
It’s a good point to review your gold making scheme

Not more delay, presenting my “Ten questions to ask yourself, on a pile of gold.” (and answers of mine as well)

1. How long did you spend on making gold every week?
2. How much you earn a week ?
3. Do you really need that much ?
4. Where are you going to spend your extras ?
5. Is there anyway can increase the amount you can get ?
6. Is there anyway can decrease the time you need ?
7. Will the method you are currently gather gold be obsolete soon ?
8. What’s the last time you get a new method for profiting ?
9. Is it fun at all ?
10. Planning to share what you had learnt ?

A quick review on how much time you spend, how much you earn, and how much you really need. The current state and future, and most importantly, is it fun for you? it’s a game after all…

Answers of mine:

1. 30mins a night for relisting, another 2 hours for crafting and milling, I would said 5.5 hour/week
2. 2-4k now, more than I ever need
3. No… , I don’t need that much gold for now, but later? Maybe, at least for me and girlfriend leveling, and occasionally I can buy her something special.
4. Was planning to stockpile it for the moment and buy BOE when my Shaman get to 80
5. Yes, I am currently leveling an alt for fun and profit (aimed at 50lv), for the netherweave bags and disenchanting business.
6. Am teaching others to make gold, for the business I left over. And one of my buddies is return after his exam, guess I can co-trade with him for some business. (Especially the LFB in trade channel, since I don’t have so much time to stay at city anyway)
7. I am selling glyphs, pets… glyph may obsolete soon (I always prepared for the worst), but I guess pets will stay. Also into the new business as I mentioned on Q5
8. Last week ?
9. Kinda boring now, that’s why I kept looking into new way of making gold
10. That’s what I am doing here for months…

P.s This is the 105th day that I started to gather gold, I did learn a lot from it. From market pattern, human behaviors, profession etc…

For the record, I started my trading at 1kg stocks, with a lot of left over of green leveling items, and I had 26kg now with a GrandMaster scribe and a Netherweave bag crafting Alt, I may goes into Jewel Crafting later, if the market settled down, for my newly leveling shaman.

My gold/day on trading raise from 50g/day to 2-400g/day (and I don’t farm nor do dailies, I value my playing hour a lot). I spent on everything I need from the fund e.g. dual spec, mounts etc… I didn’t buy much vanity though(But I did sold a lot ), Since The money can always put into better use.

I am kinda full of the money making game now, So I am working on new way of gold making, more on human behavior observing and reasoning from now on…

Nice to have business with you, mon

Spamming Channel or Gold panning field?

I know, many people hate channel and I was one of them.
I even /leave trade when my alts first got into city.

But, it’s very different for me now.

End of Spam, Beginning of Gold Mine – The Second Chat Log

I got a second chat log frame solely for chat channel, and get it off the main chat log frame (And this really help a lot, and I recommend on that)
And yes, people will keep spamming it with the same sentience again, again and again.

But once in a while, just once in a while, something very different will happens. I got a [Proto-Drake Whelp] for 100g and resale if for 400g the week after. I got four [Frostweave Bag] at 40g, while immediate reselling in AH for 68g.

Rusher do announce on the trade channels, when they need for leveling, or get rid of the goods, they annouce in trade channel. And also for the fellow trader wish to get rid of goods.

The Talking

Some people like direct trade since they can squeeze more from the seller. I normally avoid that, since it gives a bad reputation around.  What I do is to ask around if the buyer/seller who are willing talk about it. It’s free for them, but I’ll get to know more about what’s going on.

The Leveling Crafter:

• What’s in demand, why is he buying but not on the AH.
• What’s in need when they raise a certain profession especially when you are not familiar of them.

• And Chances are,

• they’ll need some other goods very soon as well.

The (Rushing) Farmer :

• These poor souls had no other methods for making money, or at least not willing to learn about it
• they’ll keep supply goods when they are in need of money, so forming a COD relationship with them is great. Or at least tell them to look for you instead of yelling at trade channel. If your pricing is right, they’ll probably come back

Fellow Trader or (Long Term) Famer:

• What profession he’s in, and goods that possible will interest him. (E.g. a Epic-Trader will always found interested on [Titansteel Bar])
• It’s good to know if ever there are goods I’ll need to get rid of, I’ll know who to ask first

My Precious

There are may items in wow have Social value
e.g. [Mekgineer's Chopper], [Reins of the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth] and Raid Gears.
Some of them are tradable, and then money follows.

There are three types of buyers with a different price range.
Prices vary as time passes.
I’ll list them by the order of the markets.

I buy, because no one owns one.

- The Fashion Leaders

They are focused in competition, and always want to be unique.
They pay steep for the premium to others.

What’s the price of the first Chopper on the server?
How much will one pay (time, effort and gold) to be the <a href=’http://www.wowhead.com/?search=Realm+First!’> Realm First!</a>

That’s the type of player.
When they knew the [Darkmoon Card: Greatness] will buff, they’ll get their hand on it at once.
These type of buyers always want to be focus of others,
They Strive to be the top in their “specific area”

e.g.
Top Dpser dealer in raid,
The person with all the mini-pets
The guy with most Achievement points
The list goes on…

You’ll probably have one or two in your guild
and they enjoy anyone ask them about it.
As a matter of fact, they love the difficulties of getting there
as that’ll cut off the followers. (E.g. high price of getting them)

To Profits:

These markets are most profitable,
but shrink very quickly.

You had to be very sensitive to news;
News from PTR on wowhead and wowinsider is a good place monitor.
New Epics, receipts, pets sell great to these player
but the price will drop very soon,
as the rarity of the items decrease very fast.

I buy, because someone owns one.
- The Followers

They are followers of the Leaders,
while they pay second to the leaders,
they are not striving being the top.

They’ll wait when the price stabilize.
What they really want is to keep inline with the leaders.
They want their name mentioned next to the leader on the guild channel.
Here is what they like to hear
” Mr.MaxDPS got the Greatness, wow that’s very dedicate
Oh, Mr.Followers had one too, no doubt they’ll had the top Dps in raid”

To Profits:
While they won’t buy the 1^st -10^th item from you,
they’ll buy from 11^th to 100^th
As their number is large.
They won’t pay for receipts either.
They’ll be the profitable on the long tail with decreasing prices.

I buy, because many own one.
- The Group members

These are people struggle to avoid being out of the group.

If every hunter in your raid is using [Nesingwary 4000],
Will you buy one if your others gear already get you to the middle among them?
(One may get a full set of T7 without a decent gun dropping)

Will you buy the red dragon if everyone else is riding one when you raid The Obsidian Sanctum?

They pay much lesser for the goods,
since there is much lesser value except the feeling of being a member in-group.
They won’t brag about having the mount or gear,
but they’ll feel safe when people target them and possibly click the

To Profits:

They are good buyers of left over.
It’s better than a stockpile item when you missed the previous group.
They come in a group too,
since the Leader and followers influence them.
So expect they’ll buy when you lower the price

I buy, because everyone else owns one.
- The Leftovers

They are buying out of fear of alienation.
5000g on epic flying to avoid hearing
“lol, you fly so slow, you noob”
on a naxx wipe run

They are like the group member, but they are out of fear instead of trying to be in group.
They’ll buy when those “mean” people bugged them.

To Profits:
They aren’t willing to buy one unless they “necessarily needs” one

(In fact, they don’t have to, since the goods is by no mean necessary by definition)
They pay the lowest price.
The profit margin is low,
but they’ll keep coming. Slowly.
And most of the market seller will left the market by the time,
since the deal is not heat anymore.

However, if you are okay with the little profits,
you can dominate the market.
If the market do not replace by other goods it’s a good place to stay.
(Greatness will be replaced when a better new moon card is out,
However, White kitties, proto whelp will never be)

Remarks:
Please leave a message if you got any thoughts on that.
I would like to hear more from you guys.
Any suggestions on writing style or topic are appreciated.
Even a drop by of “I like it” is fine
since I had no idea what people will like yet.
Thank you in advance.

I took the advice from Markco as well
(but you can see, I am far from “simple”)
Thanks for that mate

I’ll schedule post on a 2 days cycle now,
you may expect posts  on
Monday, Wednesdy, Friday – Sunday as well
(I’ll add more if I see fit though…)

Thanks for watching

Citation:
The Idea of the type of buyer is from Seth Godin’s Idea Virus
(I put it into the social value of goods, and how to deal with them though)