Bank Alts Anonymous - 20 Days of Gold Making Days 4 and 5

My pet Secretary is camera shy :D

For days 4 and 5 of Nev's 20 Days of Gold Making, she asks "When did you start a banker alt?" and "Do you keep the same banker alt?"  I'm combining these two into one post for two reasons.  First, these questions go great together, and second, I don't feel that I can write a meaningful post on each question by itself. 

Day 4 - When did you start a banker alt?
Day 5 - Do you keep the same banker alt?

I started my very first banker alt after my first month of playing WoW.  A co worker of mine introduced me to the curse website for addons.  After he pointed out some helpful UI addons, I browsed around a little.  I stumbled upon Auctioneer, my first auctioning addon, and it sparked my curiosity.  To learn about how to use Auctioneer, I did a google search and somehow came across the idea of using a bank alt to auction my items for me!  Garmemnus was born!!!  A level 1 human warrior destined to live out the rest of his days in the Commons of Ironforge.  With the release of Cataclysm, Deathwing forced my hand in moving Garmemnus to Stormwind so he could be easily accessible to his customers.

Garmemnus' Glorious Glyphs (3G)

My auctioning has evolved since then.  I now participate heavily in a few markets and I'm continuing to expand!  Garmemnus now handles glyphs only.  He doesn't need a guild bank, but he does belong to one of my banking guilds.  After Garmemnus started to handle around a 300-400 glyph posting cycle, I decided that I needed another bank alt to manage all of my other items.  For this purpose I created Selltacular.  Any item I picked up that could be useful to someone else was sent to Selltacular for listing on the AH.  Now that Selltacular is managing random items, gems, enchants, shoulder inscriptions, DMF items, he is carrying a pretty heavy stock.  Things were a bit chaotic with Selltacular.  I needed a better way to organize my auctioning.  Consequentially, I decided it's time to bring on another toon to handle the selling of all gear.

Behold!  My latest creation: BILLINGTRON!!!

Billingtron Doesn't Know Where His Diamond-Tipped Cane Is!

Billingtron got his name from the MoP Engineering robot - Blingtron 4000.  I was posting something on one of my banktoons in Stormwind, keeping my eye on trade chat, when someone asked if there was a 'bilingtron' up anywhere.  I was already thinking of creating another bank toon, and was just waiting to come up with a name that I liked before creating the new guy.  So I am giving a warm thank you to that random person who had trouble typing 'blingtron'!  After I finished posting my auctions, I created Billingtron and got the guild set up.  The next step was sending Billingtron all of my gear that had been crafted, dropped, or purchased for resale.   Once I finished and listed his auctions, I was quite happy with seeing my name in the auction house UI. 

I logged on to Billingtron to relist auctions the next day and almost immediately, someone asked trade chat for a bilingtron again!  He specified that he wanted it on the Trade District bank steps.  I took this opportunity to speak up in trade chat.  I stated that I was on the Trade District auction house steps if he really needed me.  My chat box was soon filled with whispers of laughter from others who had saw the entire event transpire.  That made me smile!

I have established a good name for myself on Selltacular by utilizing clever barking methods that were inspired by Cold of Cold's Gold Factory.  And for that, I believe I will always keep using him.  Come to think of it, I need to update and generate new barking macros.  Garmemnus will probably always continue to sell glyphs, and as far as Billingtron goes, I LOVE him!

Patch 5.2 - The Aftermath of Patch Release

Here we are, at the beginning of week 4 of patch 5.2!  The belt buckle rush has slowed down and on my server, we are have just unlocked stage 4 on the Isle of Thunder. 

~ These numbers were gathered on March 20, 2013.  I've had way too many distractions in the last week to finish this post in time :(

The Belt Buckle Rush

The belt buckle rush is something I anticipated prior to patch release.  Looking at the available gear from the Kirin Tor Offensive, I knew that once people started hitting honored, the under geared alts and returning players would be needing to add that extra socket to their belts.  This rush completely ate through my tiny stock of 60 living steel belt buckles, I currently have about 40 more crafted, but sales have slowed back down and prices have begun to drop back to their norm.

Belt Buckle Total - 28776g69s27c

The Lightning Forge

Once the Lightning Forge becomes available (it's available now), I'm hoping that Living Steel will be in a higher demand, again raising prices to just under the belt buckle rush numbers.  On my server, I predict that the active black smiths will most likely run out of belt buckles after a few weeks of playing with the Lightning Forge.  Once the supply is shorter, the prices for belt buckles will be able to be tailored to my liking, for about 350 gold profit each.  From what I have seen so far this expansion, most of the active black smiths on my server are kobolds (posting for little to no profit - Thanks Cold for coining this term for those players).  These guys make it difficult to stay competitive in the blacksmithing market, but I'm still holding my own and making profit.

Crafted Gear

Patch 5.2 has brought many new crafting patterns to my arsenal.  Sales for this gear are very slow and competition is very high.  Prices are bottoming out to minimal profit right now (mostly the tailoring items) but some items still hold a good profit margin and I am continuing to post those for 100% profit or more.  I look for this market to make a good rebound once everyone stops learning their new recipes every day and dries up their supply from crafting one or two of each item. 

It seems as if crafters on my server leveled up their crafting professions at the last minute, either right before or just after patch release.  I am constantly finding ilvl 415 crafted blues at rock bottom prices.  I've been snatching every one of them up and re listing them at the normal prices.  However, they haven't really been selling well up until this last weekend.  I'm not sure if it's because I was getting undercut with ridiculously low prices or if the gear just wasn't selling.  Every time I would check for undercuts, I was the lowest seller.  Oh well, we're back to making profit in that market now, thanks to all of the leveling crafters restocking my supply and for way less than crafting cost at that!

Crafted Gear Total - 26876g66s24c (Mostly flipped items)

Finding a Major Increase in AH Listing Mistakes

Since patch release I have noticed a lot more mistakes being made across many markets on the AH.  I have been snatching up every single deal that I discover and flipping the items for some nice profit.  The only items that I'm not flipping yet are the darkmoon cards.  I haven't decided whether to take the time and extra investment to craft the decks or just flip the cards themselves.  The best deal I've found on a card was the Five of Cranes which is shown below (I'm pretty sure they meant to list it for 726 gold).

When people get busy and try to rush through things, they tend to make more mistakes.  I've always known this, but I've never applied this to the auction house.  People seem to be listing their auctions in a hurry so that they can get more dailies and LFR runs in.  I'm going to apply this principle to peak pre raid times on my server and focus more of my time into deal finding when people are listing as much as they can before they have to raid.

Flipping Total - 25975g (does not include flipped gear or gear enhancements)

The Gem Cutting Market

Sales are still strong in this market and the competition's stockpiles are drying up.  Less auctions are being posted for each cut that I sell (basically all but any non pvp cut and the expertise, parry, and dodge cuts).  When prices get too low for my taste, it's becoming increasingly cheaper to buy up all the auctions and re list them.  This helps keep my stock a little more healthy but it does slightly eat into my profits, but profit is profit! 

Not many guilds on my server have progressed very well and a lot are not doing the new raid content yet.  Raiding consumables (specifically flasks) are still dwindling in price as well as their raw materials.  As flasks get cheaper, so do the Golden Lotus it takes to make them (or maybe it's the other way around).  They've dropped from 50-70 gold each to 30-50 gold each.  I've been buying them all up and using them to transmute gems.  This actually just compensates or over compensates the recent increase in price of the uncommon gems. 

Gem Cutting Total - 108435g75s06c



Shoulder Inscriptions

Shoulder inscription prices were drastically affected by the patch release being during the same week as The Darkmoon Faire.  Unfortunately, I didn't account for this coincidence.  My stock was completely dry before the beginning of week 2.  Starlight Inks were either extremely expensive or unavailable on the AH during the week of The Darkmoon Faire.  The tanking shoulder inscription has since then dropped to well below pre patch prices.  The rest of them still sell for twice what they sold for pre patch.

Shoulder Inscription Total -  25282g44s28c

Glyphs

I finally restocked my glyphs two days ago and have only posted once since the patch.  I know, bad Selltacular! BAD!  I didn't make very much off of that one posting session, but I did learn something!  Most of my competition has left the market, at least for now.  I think I am only left with one or two major competitors and the occasional person who lists the glyphs they used for leveling inscription.  Some of the levelers are smart and list with the competition, and some of them are blind or careless (KOBOLDS!) and list their glyphs for just a few gold or even silver.  I often check for glyphs that I sell often and occasionally am able to restock them by purchasing them for absurdly low costs.  Hopefully sales pick back up and the competition stays away for a while.

Glyph Total - 975g ish.... I don't even want to look at the exact number again!

Heirloom Enchants

Enchants for heirloom gear are still selling just as slowly as they were pre patch.  I guess my server is just too small for a rush in the heirloom enchant market.  As long as it's still providing profit, I can't complain.  Heck, maybe the rush will come once more players go back to putting significant time into leveling alts, rather than their level 90s and the new content.  Only time can tell.

Heirloom Enchant Total - Less than 5k, but definitely more than 2k.


5.2, Thoughts So Far

This is the first set of content that I've ever attempted to prepare for as far as gold making goes.  I feel like I've done pretty well so far this patch.  I've made some mistakes as well.  Everything that I've learned from this patch experience can and will be applied to the next major content patch (5.4?).  My total income for the patch so far is - 219821g54s85c

I'm pretty disappointed that I didn't get into the enchanting scroll market like I had planned.  I should be ready for the next major content patch when it eventually gets here.  I still have professions that need to be used to their fullest extent, but that will require getting those toons from 85 to 90 and then raising their reputation with the factions respective to their professions.  I'm missing major money makers such as; leg armors, spell threads, bracer enchants, and weapon enchants.  I can't wait to tap into those markets, especially for 5.4!

I Use Sunsong Ranch for My AH Salad

Cold's Blogging Carnival topic for the month of March revolves around the Sunsong Ranch.  This month, Cold asks us to blog about our current Sunsong Ranch activities.  So what am I currently doing with my Sunsong Ranches?

Currently, I have three level 90s at my farming disposal, each with their own 16 plot farm which I utilize every day.  I have two level 85s with 4 plot farms, but I have abandoned those, as vegetable sales, and the ironpaw shuffle have lost their luster on my server.

Hunter - Alchemist (Transmute Spec)/Herbalist

My hunter is using Enigma Seeds for the herbs and Golden Lotus procs.  Each plot has a chance to spawn as a Golden Lotus or any other Pandaria herb.  I use the Golden Lotus that I get each day to transmute gems.  I send the other herbs (save Fool's Cap) to my Scribe to mill and turn into inks.  I send the Fool's Cap to one of my bank toons to post on the AH.  During the weekdays when supply is shorter, I can sell the Fool's Cap for 100-120 gold per stack.

Shaman - Engineer/Jewelcrafter

My Shaman plants Songbell Seeds for the Motes of Harmony.  I use these in crafting Lord Blastington's Scope of Doom and the Long-Range Trillium Sniper.  My original plan was to use these to craft the occasional Geosynchronous World Spinner.  Once I amassed 12 Spirits of Harmony, I did the research to see how much that mount was going for.  After factoring in the cost of all of the materials, I was extremely disappointed to find that I would only be making about 1-2k gold in profit.  At best, that would be about 166 gold per SoH.  Yep, I think I'll stick to making 500-1000g per SoH by selling the scopes and rifles.  As an additional note, whenever I end up with a stockpile of scopes and rifles, I'll start using the SoHs to create Primal Diamonds, which, when cut, bring me 400g-800g each.  I'm glad this option for creating the diamonds was introduced in patch 5.2!

Paladin - Blacksmith/Scribe

My Paladin plants Songbell Seeds as well.  And again, I use these for crafting.  I craft all of the Masterwork weapons, as well as the ilvl 476 gear from patterns picked up from the Klaxxi. (Fun note: Wowhead has listed the Klaxxi as 1337 !)  There's a lot to list so I have included links to Wowhead.com if this piques your curiosity, leaving you to want to learn more. I also craft the Inscribed Fan which use in crafting the Inscribed Jade Fan and the Inscribed Red Fan.  Once the initial rush of 5.2 is over, I will get back into crafting the level 85 gear on all of my toons, as right now, not many people have time for leveling due to the need for completing the new dailies on their level 90 toons. More on this in a future post.

Overview

Overall, I feel like I put my farms to good use.  I can't wait to get the rest of my crafters to level 90 so I can start pumping out some more gear to list on the Auction House.  I feel like it will be a while before I get back to that project.  The new content of patch 5.2 is currently occupying most of my time.

Check out what others are currently doing on their farms!  Cold of Colds Gold Factory posted a list of this month's Gold Blogging Carnival Participants.  Add him to your blogroll, follow him on Google Plus, or just see my blogroll to see his latest updates.  Didn't participate and want to add what you do?  Leave a shiny new comment below :)