Phase 3: Profit !

The WoW marketplace is, Dear Reader, complex and ever changing. As a consistent reader of P3P, I’m sure you already know that. But this was something I had to deal with recently, with my return to a consistent, post-wedding WoW schedule. So I think a quick survey of macro trends might be useful. I started thinking about lots of things, ie: market movement, Wrath vs. Cataclysm, complexity, and more. Since tonight is the State of the Union address here is the US of A, a State of the Market post seemed appropriate.

(Note: Since this is a fairly long list, the P3P editors have decided that we should break it up into two parts. So we’ll do half today, and half later in the week.)

We are exactly seven weeks into Cataclysm. At this point in WotLK, the market was just starting to take shape. This is what I remember from the first few weeks of WotLK:

Part 1

(1) Commodity prices were very high;

(2) There were wild price discrepancies and money-making opportunities across professions (especially Inscription, which was brand new);

(3) Craftable BOE raid-level gear was very expensive (and profitable);

Part 2

(4) Raiding guilds were able to make money by selling raid drops (especially enchanting mats);

(5) Niche markets were popping up all over the place, and formed a nice side business for many auctioneers;

(6) Finally, because of daily quests and questing generally, there was a huge influx of gold in the market.

Let’s go down the list now and talk about how things stand in Cataclysm.

High Commodity Prices

Prices for commodities are still high, but they’re falling. Already the standard price for most of the basic Cata commodities has dropped by about 40% from the standard price a month ago. Prices are still high, but are also prone to wild price swings, depending on the day and time of day. For example, Obsidium Ore sells on my server for about 4.5g/piece (90g/stack). However, on a recent Saturday evening, I was able to buy about 200 stacks of Obsidium Ore for less than 3g/piece (60g/stack). This is true across the board: need Whiptail? Or Cinderbloom? Or Elementium Ore? Try to buy them at night, ideally late night (around midnight server), and/or on weekends generally. And keep an eye on trade chat. Why? Because those are the times that more people are playing. More people= more farmers= more supply= lower prices. You don’t have to be John Maynard Keynes to understand that.

There are still a few commodities that have such strong demand that their price hasn’t dropped off, and I’m not sure that it will. Volatiles of all types are staying stubbornly pricey. Volatile Life, specifically, has huge demand pressure on it (Darkmoon Card of Destruction, Transmute Living Elements, etc.) and so I don’t see price falling off too much. So keep an eye out for price deals if you can find them, and go from there.

Professions

Professions make money, and the market is so varied that I’m confident that if you have any profession at max (or near-max) level, you can make money with it. The big-money professions are, more or less, the same- Jewelcrafting, Inscription, and Enchanting, followed by Blacksmithing and Alchemy in some order of profitability. (All followed, very distantly, by my beloved Engineering… which is still a dog compared to the other professions. It’s fun, it’s profitable, but it’s probably not going to get you goldcapped.) So all that is, more or less, the same as WotLK

However, there are some serious differences, specifically regarding gathering professions. In short, farming was heavily. Mining and Herbalism (and Skinning to a lesser extent) have been buffed! They now reward experience (if you’re leveling), nodes are very common, it is possible to display both types of nodes on your minimap (herbs and ore) and 310% flight speed is commonly available.

Also, the new profession isn’t a hulking monstrosity that requires multiple addons (read: Inscription). Instead, the new profession is a gatherer’s dream (read: Archaeology). Supposedly, it makes money. I don’t know yet, personally, because I found it to be really boring. But if I was leveling, say on a dual-gatherer Deathknight with … it’d be great.

BOE Gear

BOE gear is still expensive and profitable… but I’m not sure how much. There’s wide variety between items. Here are three examples: I bought an Elementium Girdle from someone for 2,400g (and resold it for 8,500g); I made a Three of Winds and sold it for 2,800 gold (about 1,000g profit at the time); and I made and Silver Inlaid Leaf for 1,400g (so far below the cost of the mats that I don’t even want to think about it). There are two points I’d like to bring up with this: first, the BOE market (including Darkmoon Decks) is inconsistent; second, I don’t have a Blacksmith, so I don’t really know what I’m talking about. In sum, I’m looking for some feedback. Let me know, Dear Reader, about any BOE experiences.

So, Dear Reader, that’s the Part 1 of the P3P State of the Market. Hopefully 2011 will be as good to you as 2010 was to Markco, Gevlon, and Euripides combined. We’ll be back later in the week with Part 2. As ever, thanks in advance for any and all feedback. We read every comment.

GL! /bow

-Jimm

Edit: To all you bloggers out there who are killing time for the next few hours, I challenge you to do what I have done in this post: go public! Matticus did it back in the day, and Shamaenei did it today, so (wo)man up! I hereby challenge you to put your bank up for all to see! Let’s keep this pre-expansion tradition alive. (Yeah, I’m looking at you Cold, Markco, et al.!)

One of my favorite posts of all time, Dear Reader, is the post that the excellent WoW Blogger Matticus made in anticipation of the release of WotLK. In that post, he revealed his bank. In that grand tradition, I’d like to be the next to give you a look into what I’ve got stocked up for Cataclysm. It may be embarrassing, it may be inspiring, and it’s probably just a big mess, but I thought that you folks would enjoy seeing what I’m up to.

One caveat: I’m not great at preparing. Let’s give an example: Markco, Gevlon, Mageshadow, Cold, Sterling, Zamboni, and many of the other notable WoW gold bloggers/millionaires prepare for months for any given expansion or patch. (My apologies to any bloggers/players I left out- the list is potentially too long, from Linedan to Tyberiuss to Foo… there’s a lot of great folks out there!)

I also prepare for months, but do it in a very half-assed way. Ie: I stock mats and think, “I’ll make this into X/Y/Z before the expansion, no problem!” And then, I’m left with an unorganized bank 24 hours ahead of an expansion. With that said, let’s take a look at what I’ve got. We’ll start with the bank alt:

There are a few items of interest here- some Gromsblood, a few stacks of Adamantite Powder, some Toads to sell, and a schematic for Arcane Bomb. My only loser? A Savory Deviate Delight recipe that I got for a (relatively) cheap 100g a few months ago. Now they’re worth 10g. Boo!

Wait, what’s that you say, Dear Reader? The demand for Netherweave Bags is going to be through the roof? No way! Who knew?! I swear, I haven’t been preparing for this for months by buying up all Netherweave Cloth stacks for less than 5g each… I swear!

/cough.

What else? Well, is anyone leveling Blacksmithing, Engineering, or Jewelcrafting? Anyone? Well, to those folks I ask, who needs ore?!

What’s that? You want Saronite Ore? I’ve got that too, all purchased for less than 12g/stack:

Hm, what’s left? I think Enchanting will be a popular profession in Cataclysm. So, out of sheer laziness, I’ve just socked away mats for a while. This is what I’ve got:

There are some Eternals and Primals in there as well, and I’m sure I’ll get rid of them and/or use them, as the need or profit presents itself.

What about cloth? Well, I’ve got a little socked away, but it’s not really my bag, baby. (See what I did there? A joke! /coughcough)

There’s also some meat in there, and other miscellaneous stuff. It’s one of my weaker markets, and I mostly use cloth for toons, rather than fighting for that market.

But what about leveling? Well, Bigjimm is in fine shape. I think I’ll level him and my druid alt/gatherer simultaneously. I’ll pick herbs on the druid, go back to Jimm, etc. I’ll sell the herbs for the first few weeks to feed the demand of all the Scribes and Alchemists, and then when demand quiets down, I’ll level Jimm hard. With that said, here’s a look at his bags:

It’s nothing crazy, just a lot of functional stuff- bandages, engineering trinkets/items, fishing stuff, and a bunch of buff food/potions. The rest? It’s trash that I’ll get rid of or sock away. The crazy thing? All my DPS gear is GONE! It’s been vendored or deleted. It was hard to do, especially the things that had meaning from various stages of raiding, etc. But it’s gone, long gone. Out with the old, in with the new!

So, that’s about it. That’s what I’ve got for Cataclysm. It’s a few hours away at this point, and hopefully everyone is ready.

GL! /bow

-Jimm

PS: What’s that, Dear Reader? You don’t see any glyphs or herbs? Well… that’s true. You didn’t think I’d give the world a look at everything I’ve got, did you? I left my Inscription/Herb bank alt off of this list. I do play on one of the biggest servers in the game, you realize, so I need a few tricks up my sleeve!

This is one of those times that I try to help out a fellow gold-blogger as best I can, as I am made aware of something of interest to all of us. Do you, Dear Reader, remember our old friend Euripides, Call to Auction co-host and WoW Gold Blogger extraordinaire? Of course you do! Let’s give him some help.

He noticed earlier that it was recently reported on the JMTC forums that leveling a profession past 500 in Cataclysm will require a character level of 84 to train.

Euripides did some digging, and then posted on twitter indicating that apparently this level restriction was limited to only a few professions, specifically the crafting professions that craft BOE gear- Leatherworking, Blacksmithing, and Tailoring.

I’m not sure where good ol’ Euripides got this information, but he’s typically very thorough about these sorts of things. Also, I’m not clear if level 84 is required to train past 500 for these professions generally, or if it’s for something specific, ie: a new form of specialization. (Granted, this seems very, very unlikely, but I can’t discount anything at this point.)

So, Dear Reader, let me know what you think. Do you have anything to add to this? If so, put it in the comments. P3P is all ears. Thanks in advance for all the feedback.

GL! /bow

-Jimm