Turning a Profit – The Changing Economics of Mining

Mining in the Badlands

Turning a profit is a column focused on making gold in WoW, through farming materials, working professions and the Auction House.

Today we are going to take a look at how The Shattering has changed one of the classic gathering professions, Mining.  Its not a sexy profession, and the profession perk of extra stamina is not very appealing for a min/maxer.  But it is a good solid profession for first time players and provides good income if you enjoy farming materials.  As of patch 4.01 it also provides an alternative form of leveling xp every time you mine a node.  This xp is a constant and is still awarded even if the node is “grey” to your skill level.  More after the break.

Turning a Profit – Profiting from Disaster

Orgrimmar Burning from the Elemental Invasion

Turning a profit is a column focused on making gold in WoW, through farming materials, working professions and the Auction House.

Its 15 days to Cataclysm and its the riskiest time to be working the auction house, but if you have a clear crystal ball, deals made in the next two weeks could pad your wallet and give you money for the large expenditures that will surely come with the Cataclysm expansion.  Everyone will want to maximize the amount of money going into the expansion, as there will be a crazy period right after the expansion hits.  Auction prices will be all over the place as markets are tested and prices are normalized.  The best way to work the market is to make best effort guesses to how the market will shift.  Lets look at the different types of players we’ll see now and in the expansion and how to profit off these difference playstyles.  More after the break…

Cyn’s Guide to Using Level 1 Characters with the Remote Auction House (via Cynwise’s Battlefield Manual)

While I don’t use a low level alt as a banker, and thus did not have a problem using the Iphone app, I have heard of players complaining about this very issue. This is a very detailed step-by-step guide to using a under level 10 character with remote auctions. Now if only there was a way to use the remote auction app with multiple characters without having to change your main character each time.

The lack of Armory entries on level 1 characters has led to a lot of people thinking that you can’t use the new Remote Auction House application with level 1 bank toons. Don’t worry.  Your fabulous level 1 banker is safe.  You can still use the Remote AH with them. Here’s how. Step 1: Go to Characters. Step 2: Go to My Characters to view all of your characters, including those who don’t appear in the Armory. Step 3:  Sort by level and scroll to t … Read More

via Cynwise’s Battlefield Manual

Turning a Profit – 8 Ways to Make Money w/o a Profession.

Turning a profit is a column focused on making gold in WoW, through farming materials, working professions and the Auction House.

Most gold making guides and tip will revolve around using professions.  The work put into crafting is the justification for the premium you pay over the raw materials.  In addition, the premium you pay for materials is the for the labor spent gathering them.  So while it is much easier to make money by using a profession its not impossible. Here are 8 ways to make money without using any professions.

Turning a Profit – Exploiting Children for Profit

Turning a profit is a column focused on making gold in WoW, through farming materials, working professions and the Auction House.

Children’s Week is upon us and if you are a savvy business woman/man, you can exploit the holiday to make good money.  Players going for the Long Strange Trip Achievement and those trying to complete the Children’s Week meta Achievement will need some items that you can provide as a cook.  Lets look at the two items after the break.

Turning a Profit – Do these pants make me look fat?

Turning a profit is a column focused on making gold in WoW, through farming materials, working professions and the Auction House.

The auction house is ever changing and the hot fashionable item of today may be the fashion no no of tomorrow.  Primodial saronite was in steady decline to about 1k gold over the last few weeks after enjoying a good price of 1.3-1.4k gold in the last two months as raiders and casuals rushed to craft better gear for progression and to get a higher Gearscore to get into ICC pugs.  Now with the 10% ICC buff, there is less gear pressure and the overall improvement in gear means more players are willing to wait for ICC drops rather than the drop counterparts.  In addition hardcore raiders, which were willing to pay a premium for saronite while saving badges for tier gear should have exhausted a need for badges and unlike TOC tier gear, have no need to stockpile badges for token upgrades.  So these raiders are now dumping saronite into the market lowering the prices.  A slow but steady decline is all but expected.

The profit to be made will come from more casual and unlucky raiders crafting the ICC pants in the next few weeks.  As prices drop, the excellect crafted pants offered with be more affordable.  That means if you are a Blacksmith, Leatherworker and Tailor with access to those recipes, you could make good money in tips crafting those.  Look for people asking in trade.  50-100g tips are common so about 10 crafts will pay for the recipe.

In addition as a Tailor and Leatherworker, expect to see a rise in demand for leg enchantments, with more product moving.  Increase the number of these you post daily and push it as far as the market can bear.

Turning a Profit – Frozen orbs

Turning a profit is a column focused on making gold in WoW, through farming materials, working professions and the Auction House.

Its perhaps the hottest commodity in the Auction House post 3.3.3. Like scientists discovering that french fries cures cancer, prevents male pattern baldness, this once limited use item is now the most versatile crafting material in WoW. The new vendor Frozo will exchange orbs for any Eternal (fire, shadow, life, earth, air and water), Frost Lotus as well as Runed and Crusader Orbs for 4 and 6 Frozen Orbs respectively.  Tailors also get a new profession specific mount in the form of a Frosty Flying Carpet.  Prices for frozen orbs shot up from 15g to 30g following the announcement of the change in the official forums and stayed high until last week when the market flooding lowered the price down to a respectable 20g.  There are still deals to be had on the Auction House with prices as low as 15g appearing at odd hours.  So is the gold rush over if you had a bag full of frozen orbs?  Not if you know how to work them.  More after the break.