Been getting a lot of replies and emails from you guys over the last 2 days, I'm very overwhelmed and have to say thanks to all of you for helping me out so much. I'm trying to reply to each one, but apologies if it takes a little time.
I thought I'd have a nice light hearted post to follow some of the more serious ones. I'm interested to know what you guys are thinking in terms of the expansion, where you want to spend your money and what not. Do you want to have a base amount of money going in? Personally I've set my goal to have 13k gold going into the expansion, which I feel is a nice amount to get my main anything I want on release. This is an overly self indulgent amount, but I'd rather put in some work now and not have to think about money later; I just want to level in peace. I only have one level 70 to think about, so I'm lucky I don't have to worry too much about treating one character and leaving the others behind. I'll be able to level professions and buy rep items with relative ease. Overall I'm looking at my costs like this
- I want to get my engineering up to the cap as soon as I can. This will probably be a large money sink, but not too bad thanks to my mining. I'm guessing 1-3k gold.
- If I can buy reputation items from the auction house, I always will, because grinding them on my own is a bore. I'm guessing 2-4k gold on these items.
- Unrevealed gold sink; Burning Crusade had the 6k to spend on flying, and Wrath's most likely going to add passenger mounts & maybe even faster ones. One thing we do know is that there will not be a massive 5000g gold sink as previously, but smaller ones, so expect maybe four or five gold sinks costing 1-3k each. It's possible some of the siege weapons and vehicles for PvP might cost money.
- My level 36 druid who I primarily use as a disenchanter will have to level to 50 so she can step up her skills to disenchant level 71-80 items. I will probably spend a bit leveling the enchanting skill, but overall I have a huge stockpile of materials, so costs might be manageable.
- The Death Knight could end up costing a bit. I'll be training inscription and herbalism, and if I manage to level it up, a few mount training skills. This is more long term (6 months into the expansion) so I'm not too worried about these costs.
For most players I think 5000g will be a reasonable amount of money, as long as you're prioritising one of your characters. This is fairly easy to achieve and not taking into consideration the amount of money you will be making once you are actually playing in the new continent. One thing that will probably throw these estimates off track is that we're more than likely to see inflation. We all know a thousand gold today is worth less than it was before the Burning Crusade, and the same will happen here. I'm hoping auction house prices do not rise so much and the removal of daily quests at level 71 could help; educated guesses suggest current daily quests will reward more XP than gold, although I've yet to see evidence of this from the Beta (anyone playing it let us know!).
If you do focus on one main, now is a good time to make that final push for you epic flyer. It's never been easier to get, and once the expansion will come you can enjoy saving for fresh new things, instead of worrying about old world content you wish you had. We won't be able to fly until level 77 in Northrend, but the last 3 levels will be the easiest of your life with an epic flying mount. Don't worry about the cost of training falling, in a year 5000g might be as easy as making 1000g today!
Let me know what you're saving for, or if there's anything from the Beta thats already tempted you.
Showing posts with label warcraft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label warcraft. Show all posts
Thursday, 24 July 2008
Auction House: Consumer Psychology
Members of my family have always owned retail stores, ranging from fast food, toy shops and even Pound shops ($1 stores which you get over in America). Although these shops had nothing to do with me, I noticed that the vast majority of the items they sold were never a round figure. I carried on this approach to how I've done business on the auction house, and for me it's been very lucrative. While browsing online I came across this article today from the BBC, and if you're new to this theory, it should explain things very well (note; we use Pounds and Pence, instead of Dollars and Cents). Some key points in the article:
- A French study has shown that "lowering the price of a pizza from 8.00 euros to 7.99 euros boosted sales by 15%".
- "In 2005, Britons discarded or stashed away £133m in unwanted coppers", i.e. There is £133 million in waste 1 and 2 pence coins in the UK.
- Consumers "tend to put numbers in categories like under £5".
So how does this apply to you within the World of Warcraft? I'm sure everyone would welcome a 15% increase in auction house sales, which in my experience as a trader was very easy to tap into. I would often visit the auction house and see silver bars listed for 1g, list mine for 99s 99c and sell them out...return to the auction house to see the 1g priced bars still unsold, list some more of mine, and then instantly see them sell whilst the 1g ones remained. Sure that does include the element of undercutting, but usually that was not the case and using the 99copper charge has been an old tactic of mine even when no one else had a similar item listed. Its worth noting in our e-currency we can use this tactic on coppers, silvers and gold, depending on the value of the items we're using. Furthermore, I found that using the 89 silver/copper charge at the end can help even more; not with sellers, but avoiding undercutters. For some reason your usual undercutter will be a mere 1copper under the price you listed. So if your selling something for 20g, he will sell for 19g, 99s, 99c. But if I list mine for 19g 89s 89c, he's far less likely to undercut me, and just set his own price or wait out for my auction to sell. Of course this is purely anecdotal evidence on my side, and could be plain old lady luck.
Using this method is even more useful when it comes to selling those everyday items you come across, stuff like Primal Earth, which is not worth a huge amount but you'll have a large supply off and be able to sell regularly on the auction house. Primal Earth usually fluctuates in price day by day, but within a range. If the average price of Primal Earth is 5g on your realm, you will often see them for 4g and 6g also, depending on rise/fall in demand on any given day. However, using the 99pence method, you can encourage impulse buys. A buyer might see you selling 4 primals for 4g 89s 89c and quickly buy all of them in the fear tomorrow's price will be 6g. In reality he might make a saving or loss tomorrow, but certainly not enough to celebrate/commiserate over. But you've sold your primals and that's the bottom line, whereas had you listed them for 5g the buyer might not have been tempted. The theory apples more so in Warcraft than it does in real life. We all know how much an iPod costs, and the price will be the same tomorrow so I'll hold out till I get my montly salary. In our WoW Economy however there is awlays a fear of rising prices and in a volatile market this psychological trick plays even better.
I never use dubious trading methods in Warcraft, and I despise scammers/hustlers. This trick is useful because it doesn't make me feel bad about the way I trade. The buyer has specifically searched for an item, and you're just helping him make his mind up.
- A French study has shown that "lowering the price of a pizza from 8.00 euros to 7.99 euros boosted sales by 15%".
- "In 2005, Britons discarded or stashed away £133m in unwanted coppers", i.e. There is £133 million in waste 1 and 2 pence coins in the UK.
- Consumers "tend to put numbers in categories like under £5".
So how does this apply to you within the World of Warcraft? I'm sure everyone would welcome a 15% increase in auction house sales, which in my experience as a trader was very easy to tap into. I would often visit the auction house and see silver bars listed for 1g, list mine for 99s 99c and sell them out...return to the auction house to see the 1g priced bars still unsold, list some more of mine, and then instantly see them sell whilst the 1g ones remained. Sure that does include the element of undercutting, but usually that was not the case and using the 99copper charge has been an old tactic of mine even when no one else had a similar item listed. Its worth noting in our e-currency we can use this tactic on coppers, silvers and gold, depending on the value of the items we're using. Furthermore, I found that using the 89 silver/copper charge at the end can help even more; not with sellers, but avoiding undercutters. For some reason your usual undercutter will be a mere 1copper under the price you listed. So if your selling something for 20g, he will sell for 19g, 99s, 99c. But if I list mine for 19g 89s 89c, he's far less likely to undercut me, and just set his own price or wait out for my auction to sell. Of course this is purely anecdotal evidence on my side, and could be plain old lady luck.
Using this method is even more useful when it comes to selling those everyday items you come across, stuff like Primal Earth, which is not worth a huge amount but you'll have a large supply off and be able to sell regularly on the auction house. Primal Earth usually fluctuates in price day by day, but within a range. If the average price of Primal Earth is 5g on your realm, you will often see them for 4g and 6g also, depending on rise/fall in demand on any given day. However, using the 99pence method, you can encourage impulse buys. A buyer might see you selling 4 primals for 4g 89s 89c and quickly buy all of them in the fear tomorrow's price will be 6g. In reality he might make a saving or loss tomorrow, but certainly not enough to celebrate/commiserate over. But you've sold your primals and that's the bottom line, whereas had you listed them for 5g the buyer might not have been tempted. The theory apples more so in Warcraft than it does in real life. We all know how much an iPod costs, and the price will be the same tomorrow so I'll hold out till I get my montly salary. In our WoW Economy however there is awlays a fear of rising prices and in a volatile market this psychological trick plays even better.
I never use dubious trading methods in Warcraft, and I despise scammers/hustlers. This trick is useful because it doesn't make me feel bad about the way I trade. The buyer has specifically searched for an item, and you're just helping him make his mind up.
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Essential Add-Ons 1: Igor's Mass Auction
Been over a week since I last posted. I've managed to write a series of articles about how to use the Auction House, however I'm pretty stumped on which order to publish them. Also I don't want them to come off too meaty, which at times they are. Hopefully I can edit them over the next few days and start to release them. In the meanwhile, I'm going to get started with one of the regular features I hope to have on the blog, this one is for the Add-Ons I use to help me make money.
At times using the auction house can be a pain, especially when you have large quantities of the same item you want to sell. Posting each one separately is time consuming and frustrating, and Igor's Mass Auction has been the answer to my prayers. It allows you to post different items, different quantities of items, and can also maintain the prices between different stacks sizes. You can post a maximum of 18 auctions at once.
This image I took from Curse should gave you a basic idea of how it works.
When i was selling lots of copper bars last year, I would use it to put up stacks of 5, 10 and 20. By setting the base price for one bar, it would calculate for me what price to sell the larger stacks. It would also work the opposite way, by setting a price for a 20 stack, it can calculate how much to sell the lower quantity stacks for. For people selling trade items on the auction house in huge quantities this is a massive time saver.
There are a number of bugs and issues you should be well aware of before you start experimenting with the add-on. The add-on itself is no longer updated, in fact its been close to a year since it last was. So you will have to activate load out of date add-ons on the Log In page to use it. Fortunately it works the same as it always did, although that does include certain bugs. In my experience it's best not to overly confuse the poor fella, so avoid putting 20 different types of item on. If you want to sell 10 stacks of light leather, this will usually do the job perfect. On the odd occasion however it will freeze, and give you an error message. When this happens I have two bits of advice. First, check that it put you auctions up at the correct price, because when it freezes, it has the habit of mispricing them (especially when you've been selling stacks of different sizes). Secondly, any time you get an error message a log out from you character will get the add-on working again. 95% of the time it works perfect, however I always check if it's listed them correctly, otherwise you could be in for an expensive mistake. It's a shame this add-on is no longer in development, because come Wrath of the Lich King we might have to do without.
At times using the auction house can be a pain, especially when you have large quantities of the same item you want to sell. Posting each one separately is time consuming and frustrating, and Igor's Mass Auction has been the answer to my prayers. It allows you to post different items, different quantities of items, and can also maintain the prices between different stacks sizes. You can post a maximum of 18 auctions at once.
This image I took from Curse should gave you a basic idea of how it works.
When i was selling lots of copper bars last year, I would use it to put up stacks of 5, 10 and 20. By setting the base price for one bar, it would calculate for me what price to sell the larger stacks. It would also work the opposite way, by setting a price for a 20 stack, it can calculate how much to sell the lower quantity stacks for. For people selling trade items on the auction house in huge quantities this is a massive time saver.
There are a number of bugs and issues you should be well aware of before you start experimenting with the add-on. The add-on itself is no longer updated, in fact its been close to a year since it last was. So you will have to activate load out of date add-ons on the Log In page to use it. Fortunately it works the same as it always did, although that does include certain bugs. In my experience it's best not to overly confuse the poor fella, so avoid putting 20 different types of item on. If you want to sell 10 stacks of light leather, this will usually do the job perfect. On the odd occasion however it will freeze, and give you an error message. When this happens I have two bits of advice. First, check that it put you auctions up at the correct price, because when it freezes, it has the habit of mispricing them (especially when you've been selling stacks of different sizes). Secondly, any time you get an error message a log out from you character will get the add-on working again. 95% of the time it works perfect, however I always check if it's listed them correctly, otherwise you could be in for an expensive mistake. It's a shame this add-on is no longer in development, because come Wrath of the Lich King we might have to do without.
Sunday, 13 July 2008
Making money with gray items and big bags
My first post is going to deal with gray loot, having big bags & making the most of your limited game time (yes, these things are linked together). I've always been the type of player who looted every item that dropped, and was ready to vendor it after a play session. It was a habit I always had. So when grouping with people in my guild recently, I was fairly shocked to discover many of them never looted gray items. I also noticed in PuGs that many players would leave gray loot, which I would then scoop up.
Typically, if I'm reputation grinding Netherwing or Shattered Sun for an hour, I'll get a couple of gray items at least which could add upto 5 or 10 gold. Now say if I spend 2 hours a day on dailies (or even better leveling in Outland), that's potentially 140g a week. It could be significantly more if your spending time questing in Outland. That's a huge amount of money to be throwing away long term. It's certainly a nice way to cover your repair and other maintenance costs at minimum. Personally I find it a great source of income, as I don't spend all that much on repairs.
Asking people why they don't loot gray items, I'm often faced with the same answer; I just don't have the bag space. The same people however often have 16 slot bags, which for anyone level 70 is a poor effort. Having large bags for me is an investment every WoW player should make. Earning the 40g to buy an 18 slot bag off the auction house, is about 30 minutes worth of dailies. A small price to pay for something that will make you time and money. If you upgrade from a set of 16's to all 18 slotters, thats 8 gray items you may have previously left unlooted. Vendoring these items soon adds up, and soon the 160g spent on the 18 slot bags has turned into hundreds more.
I carry 20 slot bags with me, which set me back 400-500g each, but I feel it was money well spent. Looting everything you see is not the only way you're making money out of having large bags; you're actually buying time. Say you spend 2 hours a night questing or farming, and you have a set of 16 slotters. 30 minutes in your all out of space and you have to run back to town to vendor your trash, or mail stuff to your bank alt. Meanwhile the extra 16 slots I have mean I've gone uninterrupted for the entire 2 hour session. Again this time all adds up.
The next patch update will see the introduction of 22 slot bags priced at a massive 1200g. I'm probably going to buy at least two, but most likely I'll get four for my main. That's 600g for one extra slot, so it will probably take a long time to make any return on that investment (if at all, Wrath of the Lich King will probably introduce a 24 slot bag before I get the chance t0), but I have the funds to indulge myself. However, this post still serves as a useful tip for lower level players. You might be new to the game, in your 30's and still carrying 6 or 8 slot bags. You can buy 14 slot bags on the auction house for just a couple gold, which really is not a huge amount of money, certainly achievable. Soon your first mounts will be available at level 30 for a mere 40g, and maybe the 60g saving will encourage you to spend money on 14 or 16 slot bags, which will certainly make your leveling process towards Outland more enjoyable, easier and maybe you'll end up a little richer along the way.
Typically, if I'm reputation grinding Netherwing or Shattered Sun for an hour, I'll get a couple of gray items at least which could add upto 5 or 10 gold. Now say if I spend 2 hours a day on dailies (or even better leveling in Outland), that's potentially 140g a week. It could be significantly more if your spending time questing in Outland. That's a huge amount of money to be throwing away long term. It's certainly a nice way to cover your repair and other maintenance costs at minimum. Personally I find it a great source of income, as I don't spend all that much on repairs.
Asking people why they don't loot gray items, I'm often faced with the same answer; I just don't have the bag space. The same people however often have 16 slot bags, which for anyone level 70 is a poor effort. Having large bags for me is an investment every WoW player should make. Earning the 40g to buy an 18 slot bag off the auction house, is about 30 minutes worth of dailies. A small price to pay for something that will make you time and money. If you upgrade from a set of 16's to all 18 slotters, thats 8 gray items you may have previously left unlooted. Vendoring these items soon adds up, and soon the 160g spent on the 18 slot bags has turned into hundreds more.
I carry 20 slot bags with me, which set me back 400-500g each, but I feel it was money well spent. Looting everything you see is not the only way you're making money out of having large bags; you're actually buying time. Say you spend 2 hours a night questing or farming, and you have a set of 16 slotters. 30 minutes in your all out of space and you have to run back to town to vendor your trash, or mail stuff to your bank alt. Meanwhile the extra 16 slots I have mean I've gone uninterrupted for the entire 2 hour session. Again this time all adds up.
The next patch update will see the introduction of 22 slot bags priced at a massive 1200g. I'm probably going to buy at least two, but most likely I'll get four for my main. That's 600g for one extra slot, so it will probably take a long time to make any return on that investment (if at all, Wrath of the Lich King will probably introduce a 24 slot bag before I get the chance t0), but I have the funds to indulge myself. However, this post still serves as a useful tip for lower level players. You might be new to the game, in your 30's and still carrying 6 or 8 slot bags. You can buy 14 slot bags on the auction house for just a couple gold, which really is not a huge amount of money, certainly achievable. Soon your first mounts will be available at level 30 for a mere 40g, and maybe the 60g saving will encourage you to spend money on 14 or 16 slot bags, which will certainly make your leveling process towards Outland more enjoyable, easier and maybe you'll end up a little richer along the way.
Learnin' the hustle
Why should you care what I have to say? Well I could tell you how I managed to make (at least) 35, 000 gold in my first year of playing the game...how I had over 8, 000 gold before I even hit level 70...how I was running around with 20 slot bags by the time I was in my mid 40s...how I bought a Zul Aman bear mount despite having never stepped into Kara, let alone ZA. But really none of this matters, and I only tell you these facts because maybe its grabbed your attention. I'm just an Economics student at University, who somehow found a game which has actually made my education interesting. I never knew when I first installed this game that I'd get so much enjoyment out of making virtual money. Having made my "fortune", I no longer care enough about keeping my secrets. I have enough gold to last me the next expansion, or maybe even two.
In all honestly, making money shouldn't be difficult for any level 70 player. But not everyone is level 70, or has the time (patience?) to do 25 daily quests everyday. Nor does this consider your raiding/arena commitments, whilst holding down a job and family. Or the fact you may have a couple level 70s with no realistic chance of ever getting that epic flyer for all of them. However, there is a severe lack of basic knowledge amongst much of the WoW community on how to achieve balance between making and saving money, whilst still keeping the game fun. Do you buy that epic gem you need off the AH, or that Orb of Deception you've always wanted? Most players are constantly facing a battle between buying stuff they need and buying stuff they want. I managed to find this balance for myself easily and this blog will hopefully help you find it for you.
The blog will talk about ways of making money, saving it...and sometimes I'll go a little off topic.
I'm not for one second claiming I know it all. I learnt about small parts of the WoW Economy to make myself some money. But there are hundreds of other avenues that I either don't have the time for, or just don't know about. Hopefully my ideas will blossom ideas for you, and you'll find your own niche. Some of these suggestions will seem very basic, yet I can assure you a lot of people will not know about them. I'm also sure there are plenty of things I don't know about, and you'll fill me in on them. Hopefully you'll enjoy my articles, and leave feedback (positive and negative). Let's get to work!
In all honestly, making money shouldn't be difficult for any level 70 player. But not everyone is level 70, or has the time (patience?) to do 25 daily quests everyday. Nor does this consider your raiding/arena commitments, whilst holding down a job and family. Or the fact you may have a couple level 70s with no realistic chance of ever getting that epic flyer for all of them. However, there is a severe lack of basic knowledge amongst much of the WoW community on how to achieve balance between making and saving money, whilst still keeping the game fun. Do you buy that epic gem you need off the AH, or that Orb of Deception you've always wanted? Most players are constantly facing a battle between buying stuff they need and buying stuff they want. I managed to find this balance for myself easily and this blog will hopefully help you find it for you.
The blog will talk about ways of making money, saving it...and sometimes I'll go a little off topic.
I'm not for one second claiming I know it all. I learnt about small parts of the WoW Economy to make myself some money. But there are hundreds of other avenues that I either don't have the time for, or just don't know about. Hopefully my ideas will blossom ideas for you, and you'll find your own niche. Some of these suggestions will seem very basic, yet I can assure you a lot of people will not know about them. I'm also sure there are plenty of things I don't know about, and you'll fill me in on them. Hopefully you'll enjoy my articles, and leave feedback (positive and negative). Let's get to work!
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