The Good Life is a Profession-Dump Away

BRK » 23 February 2007 » In Best of, Guide, Professions »

So you’ve been wallowing in the depths of Empty Bank Account City and want to break out, move on up, and get some Yellow back in that I-Got-Gold fellow. You want to be The Millionaire, not Gilligan. BRK can help. We have some theories, some ideas, some schenanaggans, and some tricks up our sleeves that will get the gold rolling. But if I had to break it down and give you one piece of advice that would dramatically increase your wampum production, it would be this:

Professions Are For Suckers.

That’s right, baby, they’re junk. Crapolla. Festering pools of gold-sucking depression. They are cool, fun, interesting, and colossal wastes of time, energy, and money. Sometimes they are very functional and a great help to your guild. A hunter or rogue engineer can survive a wipe and use their jumper cables to rez a priest. Alchemists can bring critical potions that give just the right buff to take down a tough boss. Leatherworkers and blacksmiths can make special gear that just cannot be bought or obtained anywhere else. Jewelcrafters can make fascinating rings and trinkets, and the socket-gems are obscenely desirable. Tailors make sweet and special bags and, of course, enchanters can turn your great gear into godly gear.

But they do this at the expense of generating revenue. Yes, yes, there are folks who make a good cash flow with their profession, they work hard at it, market their wares, yada yada yada, but you and I both know that is the exception, not the rule. So what are you going to do about it? BRK says, you will listen to me now and believe me later - drop your manufacturing profession.

To make money, you must find a need and fill it. The more people with the same need, the greater your reward when you are able to give them what they want. So what is the one thing that the greatest number of people need?

Ore, and ore by-products, which are obtained by Mining.

Alchemists, blacksmiths, leatherworkers, jewelcrafters, engineers, enchanters, and tailors all need something that miners can get. Whether it be the raw ore, processed bars, primal fire and earth, stones, or gems, crafters crave these materials. These crazed people love their professions, they want to reach 375, they want every recipe they can get, and they need mats to get there.

So you’re going to fulfil this need. Become a miner. Sell everything you get. Make profit. Repeat. Come back when you’ve ready to go to the next part.

{softly whistles a dwarven tune of love, women, and beer. oh, and epic flying mounts. and a sandwich. a sandwich with turkey on a keiser roll…}

“Ok BRK, I’m a miner. I got lots of good stuff, now what?”

Huh, what? Oh yeah.

We want to sell our goods, but want to do so to maximize our profit. To illustrate the method we want to develop, let’s do a scenario:

I have a stack of Eternium ore, and there are seventeen Eternium ore auctions, all selling the stuff for 40g per stack. I installed Auctioneer and it says that a stack of Eternium ore has been selling, on average, for 40g per stack. How much is our Eternium worth?

The answer is: Nothing.

Remember, an item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If there are seventeen auctions for the same item, that means that nobody is buying it. The people with money have not been convinced to part with it for that product. And this is your goal; getting people with money to part with it.

People want a deal, and buying a mat at the average price is not a deal. Why should they buy your ore, there are seventeen other auctions for the same price that nobody is buying. There is no sense of urgency, no “I gotta get it now!” feelings.

When you look in the Auction House and see a rare, blue piece of armor, you freak out, don’t you. ZOMG! It’s beautiful, it must be mine! You drop your cash like Brittney dropped her hair. This works for armor and weapons, or stuff that is either infrequently seen or for which there is no competition. But for mats, where there is a new load of the same stuff every day, you’ve got to make an effort to make someone go ZOMG.

Here’s BRK’s strategy: If I have three stacks of Eternium ore, and there are seventeen stacks on the Auction House already, all going for 40g per stack, here’s how BRK prices his ore:

1st stack, 30 gold
2nd stack, 35 gold
3rd stack, 37 gold

Now, imagine you’re a blacksmith, building stuff like crazy. Mats are outrageous, (mats are always expensive to crafters, aren’t they,) and you see a stack of Eternium at a 25% discount. Holy crap, you gotta get that, right? That’s insane!

Kaching.

And now that you’ve got him spending, now that the money is flowing, it’s really hard for him to turn off the impulse to buy. That second stack is still a steal, isn’t it? He knows he’s going to need it anyway. What the heck.

Kaching.

Now, there’s just one stack left that has any kind of discount. This is no longer Eternium ore, it is “rare” Eternium ore; the only stack in the Auction House that is below the market average. He’s bought two stacks, you think he’s going to stop now?

Kaching.

He trots of to the mailbox to get his bounty, and you get a little “you’ve got wowmail” icon on your minimap. What are you going to get in your hot little hands?

102 gold, that’s what.

But what about those other stacks of ore selling for 40g for each stack? Aren’t those sellers going to make 120 gold?

Um, no, they’re probably aren’t. You’ve already decreased the population of people willing to spend 100+ gold for Eternium ore by one, and you’ve also single-handedly brought the price Auctioneer calculates for Eternium down so that all that ore on the AH now is overpriced! It’s not going to sell, but will instead end up back in those sellers’ mailboxes. Let’s tally that.

You = 102 gold
Them = unsold stacks of ore in the bank

So does this really work, BRK? Yes, it does really work. Here’s my proof:

I ran an instance last night, and in the time before we started, I flew around Terrokar Forest and mined my little dwarven heart out. You can look down this blog and see how my bank roll has been increasing as I save for my epic flying mount.

It. Works.

And it gets even better. If you can stomach not have a manufacturing profession at all… get Skinning too. Sell everything you get. Make profit. Repeat. Especially at low levels when you’re saving every copper to get your first mount, being a Double Gatherer makes life so much easier. You’re not wasting time building worthless junk to level your profession. You’re out questing, getting XP, making money, and learning where all those farming spots are so when some 70 in your guild needs Copper Ore to start jewelcrafting, you can become his personal-mat farmer. He’ll pay you get money to get this stuff just because he doesn’t want to waste his level-70 time running around Loch Modan.

Also, there are certain creatures you can farm that drop stuff that certain professions pay out the nose for. Crafters have needs. Find out what they are and get what hey want. There are places to farm these mats and make a tidy profit from just a little farming every day…

You want to know what they are?

Hmmm… that information might cost you a little gold. Lemme think about it.

Best of, Guide, Professions | February 23, 2007

Comments

4 Responses to “The Good Life is a Profession-Dump Away”

Lassirra on February 24th, 2007 3:26 pm

I must sadly admit, that on occassion, I’ve been known to be that silly person spending a ludicrous amount of money on mats in the AH. *hangs head in shame*

Although, on my server, stacks of Knothide Leather Scraps were selling for 14g at one point (not sure if they still are, I haven’t farmed in a while). So, naturally, I put in the three stacks I had sitting around, priced thusly: 1st stack: 9g, 2nd stack: 11g, 3rd stack: 12g.

All three sold, of course, and I had an extra 32g to show for it. Not that impressive, but still that’s 32g more than I otherwise would’ve had. All from just running around Terokkar Forest. (Not to mention the fact that I got two blues to drop off the same mob, and about 10g worth of vendor trash.) All while I was just out grinding xp.

Heh, that’s the other nice thing about Outland: even vendor trash is worth a fair amount of gold. (Which reminds me… I need bigger bags…)
Damh on February 24th, 2007 3:41 pm

BRK applauds Lassirra and her application of the BRK Economic Principals of Mega Wealth. You are absolutely right; that’s 32g versus 0g.

And I should’ve asked for a cut…
Anonymous on February 24th, 2007 10:13 pm

that does work but can bite you in the but…when i started out i was mining copper sold for 1g + a stack of 10 at the time(it has went up to 20 in one patch or another)and there was very little in there so i could put 5 stacks in there and have 5g before i logged out i never put to much in at a time but others found out about it and the market was flooded soon copper sold for 20 to 30s a stack from every one under cutting each other it has recovered some it sells for about 1g50s to 2g for a stack of 20 witch is a close to were it was

adrus
Damh on February 25th, 2007 7:21 am

In other words, the need for copper dried up. So, you find a new need. All the jewelcrafts need bronze, get bronze. They need iron, get iron. Be one step ahead and get the mats they’ll need in two weeks.

Find the need. Fill it. Make profit. Woot.