Showing posts with label Money Money Money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Money Money Money. Show all posts
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Monday, 28 April 2008
Nothing is free
I hear time and time again in the general, guild and trade channel the advice "don't pay good money in the auction house, go and farm it, it's free". But it's not free and I am not talking about the flight costs and battle expenses such as potions, food and drinks, although those should not be discounted. Just because you didn't pay for something, does not make it free. Every item you use is an item that has a market value and could have been sold for real virtual gold in your pocket, I mean bag.
Nothing is free. You may not pay for it in a way that is easy to understand, but you pay for it by not making money from it. In effect, that's very similar than paying for since it's potential earnings out of your pocket. You make not have any less money right now, but tomorrow you will have less money than you could have had if you sold the item instead. Nothing is free.
That brings me to the second point. Time is money. If you are going to farm, then farm for the most expensive thing you can at your level. Don't spend hours chasing birds for a hundred or more feathers that could have been bought for a few gold, if not silver. Farm where the money is, sell your farmed goods and then buy the feathers on the AH if you must.
Whether you farm, craft or work the AH, don't forget the hidden costs: auction deposits lost, the auctioneer cut, postage (30 bronze a pop do add up), the cost of levelling up professions, the cost of recipes and mats, travelling costs etc. I am far from a penny pincher, my postage tallies up to gold very quickly, but I do watch for small savings when I can. I hand things over to someone I play with, log out, log in the alt and then ask the person to hand the stuff to the alt - postage saved. I quest and build up good rep so that my flights and goods are discounted wherever I go. I try to stock up my regular supply where I have the highest rep and the largest discounts. I loot for health and mana potions as well as food and drink - or ask my very local mage to supply me free of charge. I buy recipes from vendors and trainers and plan my route before I set out to minimize travelling costs. Small things that accumulate to save me money.
I don't play the game to stockpile gold, I accumulate gold to play the game as it should be played - with good gear, full supplies and life's luxuries (potions and enchants for me) for pure indulgence sake. I spend my solo time making money so that when I play for fun with C, we can not worry about the money. Now that's how the game should be played.
Nothing is free. You may not pay for it in a way that is easy to understand, but you pay for it by not making money from it. In effect, that's very similar than paying for since it's potential earnings out of your pocket. You make not have any less money right now, but tomorrow you will have less money than you could have had if you sold the item instead. Nothing is free.
That brings me to the second point. Time is money. If you are going to farm, then farm for the most expensive thing you can at your level. Don't spend hours chasing birds for a hundred or more feathers that could have been bought for a few gold, if not silver. Farm where the money is, sell your farmed goods and then buy the feathers on the AH if you must.
Whether you farm, craft or work the AH, don't forget the hidden costs: auction deposits lost, the auctioneer cut, postage (30 bronze a pop do add up), the cost of levelling up professions, the cost of recipes and mats, travelling costs etc. I am far from a penny pincher, my postage tallies up to gold very quickly, but I do watch for small savings when I can. I hand things over to someone I play with, log out, log in the alt and then ask the person to hand the stuff to the alt - postage saved. I quest and build up good rep so that my flights and goods are discounted wherever I go. I try to stock up my regular supply where I have the highest rep and the largest discounts. I loot for health and mana potions as well as food and drink - or ask my very local mage to supply me free of charge. I buy recipes from vendors and trainers and plan my route before I set out to minimize travelling costs. Small things that accumulate to save me money.
I don't play the game to stockpile gold, I accumulate gold to play the game as it should be played - with good gear, full supplies and life's luxuries (potions and enchants for me) for pure indulgence sake. I spend my solo time making money so that when I play for fun with C, we can not worry about the money. Now that's how the game should be played.
Leatherworking Profits
Each day of playing leave me with a colder chill when I open up my crafting professions screen. It takes so much effort and work to first find the pattern and then the mats and before I know it, someone else is crafting ten and dumbing it on the AH and profits plummet. I enjoy crafting and will not want to give it completely, but I do think it's time to seriously evaluate how much money it can make me, or more likely, how much money it is costing me.
- First rule of crafting - never buy patterns off the auction house for anything other than personal use.
- Second rule of crafting - never buy patterns off the auction house that is available at a vendor
- Third rule of crafting - never craft if the mats will sell for more unless profit is not the number one goal
- Fourth rule of crafting - never pay market price or higher for any mats
- Fifth rule of crafting - never join the undercutting madness, either hold back your item or place it up for the usual price. Once the undercutting frenzy subsides, customers will return to your goods that are always there.
Saturday, 5 April 2008
When to buy, when to sell
Auction House Tip Of The Day: Buy at off-peak times and sell at peak times.
In other words, for good sales, hold back all your key items for the weekend. If you want to sell things during the week, sell your lower priced items and only commit to 12 hour auctions that nicely cover the evenings.
When buying, log on when nobody else does, i.e. the early morning hours. On the weekend, shop for bargains on rarer items that may not be available at all during the week. On weekdays, buy the common stuff for a tenth of the price you'd pay on a Saturday afternoon.
In other words, for good sales, hold back all your key items for the weekend. If you want to sell things during the week, sell your lower priced items and only commit to 12 hour auctions that nicely cover the evenings.
When buying, log on when nobody else does, i.e. the early morning hours. On the weekend, shop for bargains on rarer items that may not be available at all during the week. On weekdays, buy the common stuff for a tenth of the price you'd pay on a Saturday afternoon.
Thursday, 3 April 2008
Auction House Basics
It's virtually impossible to finance levelling up without making frequent use of the Auction House. Not all of us are budding economists, but a basic understanding is required. Even if you never buy an item on the AH, you definitely will be selling a plenty.
I was a little intimidated at first, but now that I have placed a few bids as well as auctions, it's surprisingly simple. There is no hard and fast rules to make money by putting things in the AH, but if you want to give it a go, there are a few simple facts that is most definitely need to know. All the basic formulas are at Wow Wiki.
Three pieces of information are crucial for any auctions in the faction AH.
One: On putting an auction, the AH will charge you a deposit immediately. In the faction auction house, the deposit is roughly as follows:
Three: If your auction is succesful, the AH will take a 5% cut.
Happy Auctioneering!
I was a little intimidated at first, but now that I have placed a few bids as well as auctions, it's surprisingly simple. There is no hard and fast rules to make money by putting things in the AH, but if you want to give it a go, there are a few simple facts that is most definitely need to know. All the basic formulas are at Wow Wiki.
Three pieces of information are crucial for any auctions in the faction AH.
One: On putting an auction, the AH will charge you a deposit immediately. In the faction auction house, the deposit is roughly as follows:
- 15% of the MSV (merchant sell value) for a 12 hour auction
- 30% of the MSV for a 24 hour auction
- 60% of the MSV for a 48 hour auction
Three: If your auction is succesful, the AH will take a 5% cut.
Happy Auctioneering!
Monday, 31 March 2008
Spend money to make money
I couldn't have imagined a month ago that I would feel poor with 200 gold in the bank, but alas, I do. Chris and I have a joint 'bank' account with his auction toon and that's the balance: 200 gold and a few silver coins. His playing a level 43 mage and I have dwindled down to one main and two alts, level 43, 38 and 32 respectively. 200 gold between four characters just doesn't seem like enough money to play comfortably.
I know that Chris' enchanting and tailoring is currently a huge money pit, but that's okay. I have done the math and both tailoring and enchanting will be making us money in the future. The near future, I daresay optimistically.
I do doubt whether my crafting professions are making any money. On weekend when five or six blue items sell for around 100 gold, I feel optimistic. On weekday mornings when I spend gold coin after coin to pick up cheap materials I can feel the money seeping away with a deathly finality. I fear I may never get it all back.
It's a game afterall and I am surprised to find myself hoping that more children will choose to play this particular game. It simulates world economy and personal finances pretty well from where I stand. There's room for a variety of different entrepreneurial pursuits and it's a difficult decision to choose any particular route. When I have a few additional bits and pieces left from gathering professions, I sell them on the auction house and feel as if they do not make enough money for the effort I put in. Conversely, when I buy these off the auction house it feels like day light robbery.
As for crafting professions, making 1 gold off an item seems small and insignificant, but when purchasing item after item, 1 gold per item soon becomes 10 gold. It somehow never sink in that selling 10 items will also add up to 10 gold. Not that 10 gold is a significant amount of money, of course.
I am learning quick. Making money is all about specializing and multi-tasking. Buy what you need only at bargain prices. Farm what you can farm quickly and efficiently. When crafting, first craft for yourself, then for skill-up and lastly for profit. "If you can keep your head when all about you are loosing theirs..." I wouldn't want to think of either this universe or the Warcraft universe as such a hostile world where Kipling's staunch self-reliant individualism is required.
Soloing as much as I do does make it feel at times as if I'm pulling myself up by the bootstraps when playing. But I don't mind. I'd rather be lost in my own imagination - that is after all my main goal for playing - than continuously reminded by other players that I am not a very good team player.
And so I spend my gaming days trawling the auction house for cheap items, selling any excess I have at market value and crafting and then selling rarer items in the hopes that one day, in the World of Warcraft, I'll be rich and able to buy the best gear to facilitate the best gaming experience. In the meantime, I plan to not dwell too much on any possible future and just enjoy playing, both the actual playing and the axiliary components of play.
I know that Chris' enchanting and tailoring is currently a huge money pit, but that's okay. I have done the math and both tailoring and enchanting will be making us money in the future. The near future, I daresay optimistically.
I do doubt whether my crafting professions are making any money. On weekend when five or six blue items sell for around 100 gold, I feel optimistic. On weekday mornings when I spend gold coin after coin to pick up cheap materials I can feel the money seeping away with a deathly finality. I fear I may never get it all back.
It's a game afterall and I am surprised to find myself hoping that more children will choose to play this particular game. It simulates world economy and personal finances pretty well from where I stand. There's room for a variety of different entrepreneurial pursuits and it's a difficult decision to choose any particular route. When I have a few additional bits and pieces left from gathering professions, I sell them on the auction house and feel as if they do not make enough money for the effort I put in. Conversely, when I buy these off the auction house it feels like day light robbery.
As for crafting professions, making 1 gold off an item seems small and insignificant, but when purchasing item after item, 1 gold per item soon becomes 10 gold. It somehow never sink in that selling 10 items will also add up to 10 gold. Not that 10 gold is a significant amount of money, of course.
I am learning quick. Making money is all about specializing and multi-tasking. Buy what you need only at bargain prices. Farm what you can farm quickly and efficiently. When crafting, first craft for yourself, then for skill-up and lastly for profit. "If you can keep your head when all about you are loosing theirs..." I wouldn't want to think of either this universe or the Warcraft universe as such a hostile world where Kipling's staunch self-reliant individualism is required.
Soloing as much as I do does make it feel at times as if I'm pulling myself up by the bootstraps when playing. But I don't mind. I'd rather be lost in my own imagination - that is after all my main goal for playing - than continuously reminded by other players that I am not a very good team player.
And so I spend my gaming days trawling the auction house for cheap items, selling any excess I have at market value and crafting and then selling rarer items in the hopes that one day, in the World of Warcraft, I'll be rich and able to buy the best gear to facilitate the best gaming experience. In the meantime, I plan to not dwell too much on any possible future and just enjoy playing, both the actual playing and the axiliary components of play.
