TradeskillMaster Tutorial - How i set up my Glyph Auctions

for other ideas on the glyph market and other general tips see the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

TradeskillMaster is currently the most powerful tool an auctioneer can use to make gold in World of Warcraft today.  It has a steep learning curve but time spent initially is handsomely paid off.

In this post i will show you the step by step process that i used to set up TradeskillMaster for auctioning glyphs.  It need only be done once.  I can do it in 5 minutes though someone new to TradeskillMaster will take longer.

This is purely aimed at Scribes - for a fuller review of TradeskillMaster then you can watch some videos by nerffaids, or buy the Powerword:Gold Guide or visit part of the Consortium forums which deals specifically with TradeskillMaster 

My aim is to post a maximum of 2 single glyphs or each glyph at a minimum price of 40 gold, a fall back price of 600 gold and to undercut by 10 silver.

It is a three stage process:

1. Create the glyph category
2. Create the glyph category pricing / posting parameters
3. Populate the glyph category with all glyphs



Creating the Glyph Category

1. Open TradeskillMaster and press the "Auctioning Groups / Options" button as shown in the graphic below

 

 

 

This takes me to the Auction Group Screen.

2. Select the "Categories / Groups" on the left hand side to bring up the page with the three tabs at the top: Auction Defaults; Create Category / Group; and Quick Group Creation - as shown below.

 

 

 

3. Select the "Create Category / Group" tab which opens the Category / Group creation window as shown below.

4. In the field titled "Category name" i type the name of the Category i want to create, in this case "Glyphs" and then press "Okay"

 

 

 

and, as the graphic below shows, that creates a new Category called glyphs.

 

 

 

Now i need to provide some pricing and posting paraters to my newly created category.


Creating the glyph category pricing / posting parameters

Because i use the same pricing and posting parameters for all my gylphs i can create the pricing and posting parameters for the category and then have this applied to all the glyphs i put in this category.  (TradeskillMaster allows you to set Category paramaters and Group parameters, and you can dictate which ones dominate).

From the above graphic again, i select the newly created "Glyphs" category to bring up the Category window, and then select the "Category" override tab as shown below.

 

 

 

1. The top part is called General Settings - i leave the defaul values in and scroll passed it.

2. Under "Post Settings" i: set the "Post time" for 48 hours; set the "Post cap" to 2 (by rightclicking the input field, deleting whatever number is there, inputing 2 and then pressing enter); set the "Per Auction" to 1 (by rightclicking the input field, deleting whatever number is there, inputing 1 and then pressing enter).  The text above should change to "Auctions will be posted for 48 hours in stacks up to 1.  A Maximum of 2 auctions will be posted".

3. Under "General Price Settings (Undercut / Bid)" i set the "Undercut by" to 10s by rightclicking the input field, deleting whatever number is there, inputing 10s and then pressing "Okay" which pops up.

(dont use "S", use "s" for silver, similarly for gold use "g" not "G")

4. Under "Minimum Price Settings (Threshold)" i: set the "Price threshold" to 40g by rightclicking the input field, deleting whatever number is there, inputing 40g and then pressing "Okay" which pops up; and in the "Set threshold as a" i select "Fixed Gold Amount".

5. Under "Maximum Price Settings (Fallback)" i: set the "Fallback price" to 600g by rightclicking the input field, deleting whatever number is there, inputing 600g and then pressing "Okay" which pops up; and in the "Set threshold as a" i select "Fixed Gold Amount".

6. i leave the default parameters in for the final two sections: "Advanced Price Settings (Reset Method)" and "Reset Scan Settings".

and that is the pricing and parameters set for the new "glyphs" category.  all i need to do now is populate this Category with items - in this case glyphs.



Populating the glyph category with all glyphs

1. I press the Inscription Button on the left hand side, as shown in the graphic below.

 

 

 

 

This will bring up the crafting window.

2. I select the first class, which in this case is "Warrior".  That will bring up the Warrior glyph crafting window as shown in the graphic below.

3. I press "Enable All Crafts" to put a tick in all the glyph boxes

4. I then press "Create Auctioning Group"

 

 

 

this will bring up a new window to create the auctioning group - as shown in the graphic below.  What we want to do is create teh group and place it within our new "glyphs" category and so have the Category pricing and posting paratemers apply to this group.


in this new window:

1. In the "Category to put groups into:" select "glyphs" (or whatever you called the new category that was created earlier).

2. In the "How to add crafts to Auctioning" select "All in the Same Group"

3. Tick the box "only include Enabled Crafts"

4. Press the "Add Crafted Items from this Group to Auctioning Groups" button.

and now we have added all Warrior glyphs to our "glyphs" category.

 

 

 

back on the auctioning page we can check this by looking at our category list.  Expand "glyphs" and it will show "inscription - warrior" as shown in the graphic below.  Select "inscription - warrrior" and it will show all the warrior glyphs as also shown in the graphic below.

 

 

 

Repeat the above process for all classes and you will end up with what looks like the graphic below.  In my "glyphs" category i have all the classes added.  If selected one of these classes it would show me all the glyphs which have been added.

 

 

and that is it all done!


when i go to the Auction House with whatever glyphs i have on the character at the time and press "Post Auctions" it will post the glyphs at a maximum of 2 single glyphs or each glyph at a minimum price of 40 gold, a fall back price of 600 gold and undercut by 10 silver.

 

 

Preparation for Mists of Pandaria - Converting my Blackfallow Inks

for other ideas on the glyph market and other general tips see the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

i came home on Friday to find patch 5.0.4 downloading.

Going back to Catacylsm - the pre-Cataclysm patch took away the ability for Ink of the Sea to convert to other inks via the Ink Vendor.  That was not critical given Ink of the Sea was still the most popular ink for Inscription.

However, Blackfallow ink is only used for one glyph / 6 scrolls / 1 book and therefore i dont want to be left with many.  Indeed, given i can use my Herbalist to gather whiptail i dont want to be left with any.

Hence, i have converted almost all of my spare Blackfallow inks into Ink of the Sea and Ethereal Ink.  And i have milled all my Catacylsm herbs.

as of right now, i have:

134 BLackfallow inks to be converted = 44 glyphs.

1927 ink of the sea = 642 glyphs. Target is done.

1002 ethereal ink = 334 glyphs. Target is 350 glyphs worth.

686 Midnight ink = 229 glyphs. Target is done.

678 Jadefire ink = 226 glyphs. Target is done.

658 Lion’s ink = 219 glyphs. Target is 350 glyphs worth.

641 Shimmering ink = 213 glyphs. Target is done.

471 Celestial ink = 157 glyphs. Target is done.

i will be keeping an eye on the Auction House - there is a decent chance that Catacylsm herbs are dumped for low prices over the next few weeks giving me a chance to quickly buy them and convert to other inks, if that opportunity still exists.

and i will be keeping an eye on information out there to further fine tune my perparations.

Splitting my end market

for other ideas on the glyph market and other general tips see the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide


There has been recent debate in the gold making community about posting at high prices vs constant under cutting.

I would have to admit that i am in both camps!

It is worth remembering that maximising gold earnings in World of Warcraft is not only a function of “gold per hour” but also a function of the time a player is willing to devote to gold making vs other activities such as questing and raiding or even levelling alts etc.

I would rather make a steady 5000 gold per day with an hour’s work rather than making 7000 gold one day, 1000 gold the next, 5000 the next etc and fighting the whole time to achieve this.  Even if i found that the stable market earned slightly less than the unstable market the time i could devote to other projects whilst operating in a stable market would surely offset this.

The way i achieve this is to make my minimum glyph price 40 gold per glyph against a crafting cost of 20 gold (currently a stack of herbs costs 40 gold, and each stack can make 2 glyphs).  I have a fall back price of 600 gold (and i sell at this level).

And hence i am adopting a strategy of splitting the glyph market.

The image below shows my Tradeskillmaster settings for posting 1 of each glyh at a minimum price of 40 gold, a fallback price of 600 gold and undercutting by 10 silver.

There are plenty of my competitors who are willing to operate in the 20 to 40 gold range earning profits up to 20 gold per glyph sold (which is still a good return compared to the crafting cost of 20 gold) to generate their daily earnings from the glyph market.

By setting my minimum price at 40 gold there is one less competitor at this 20 – 40 gold end of the market (i.e. i am not there) and hence my competitors have it slightly easier.

Furthermore, i find that because my competitors are happy with their daily earnings from the glyph they are less likely to camp the Auction House to squeeze every copper out from their glyphs.

That makes for a stable market.  It also makes for a market where what all participants fear most is an aggressive new entrant and we all will fight hard together to prevent a new entrant destabilising our market.

Preparation update for Mists of Pandaria

for other ideas on the glyph market and other general tips see the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

The launch date for Mists of Pandaria has been announced as 25^th September 2012.

That leaves us under 2 months to be prepared for the launch – to that end below is an update of where i currently stand and what i need to do.

I have 5 professions fully levelled over 3 characters – Inscription, Enchanting, Tailoring, Jewel Crafting and Alchemy.  On my Scribe i also have Herbalism which is fully maxed out.



Raw material stocks for my Scribe – work in progress:

I have 8 of every glyph.

My aim is to have sufficient inks to cover until the herb farmers get up to speed and start providing the Auction House with Mists of Pandaria herbs at sensible prices.  If there is a huge rush for glyphs then i would expect the price of glyphs to rise substantially more than offsetting the higher prices of herbs.

Given it takes 3 inks per glyph, then my current ink stock pile gives me:

867 BLackfallow inks to be converted = 289 glyphs.

1655 ink of the sea = 552 glyphs.  Target is 600 glyphs worth.

695 ethereal ink = 231 glyphs.  Target is 350 glyphs worth.

521 Midnight ink  = 174 glyphs.  Target is 230 glyphs worth.

678 Jadefire ink = 226 glyphs.  Target is done.

325 Lion’s ink = 108 glyphs.  Target is 350 glyphs worth.

641 Shimmering ink = 213 glyphs.  Target is done.

437 Celestial ink = 145 glyphs.  Target is done.

Given the Blackfallow inks i already have i am well on my way to getting there.

I don’t plan on stocking any herbs.



Raw material stocks for my other professions – all done:

I don’t plan to stock any additional raw materials above the norm for these – all my focus will be on my main profession which is Inscription.



Profession Completeness – work in progress:

My Scribe has all the recipes.  My other characters are busy picking up the recipes that drop from specific mobs.



Character progression  - all done:

Scribe done enough – could do better but will be able to level through the next content.

Enchanter / Tailor may need some work – could level but currently only at beginning dungeon ability on Cataclysm.

Jewelcrafter / Alchemist – all done, will be fully able to level through the next content.



Addons:

I have made sure they are all up to date and i have Auctioneer and Auctionator as backups to Tradeskillmaster in case it breaks.  I also have two postal addons in case on breaks.

Speeding up the emptying of mailboxes

for other ideas on the glyph market and other general tips see the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

Every gold maker in World of Warcraft will spend time at the mail box.  Indeed, players covering a mailbox with their mount and so making it hard to access the mailbox is almost considered an act of war!

Therefore, anything that can be done to speed up the unloading of mails is welcome.  To that end, there are two things that can be done:

Firstly, the mailbox will allow you to unload the first 50 mails.  To speed up this process press the “config” button on your mailbox page (assuming you have an addon such as Mail Opener)

When the Configuration window opens up - select the "Open All" as shown in the image above

And then set the opening interval times to the above - this is the fastest time to open 50 mails, assuming latency allows this.

Secondly, when you have more than 50 items to empty from the mailbox you need to wait a full minute before the mailbox loads the next 50 items to allow unloading to continue.

To skip this part you can put “/reload” in the chat box to reload your UI.  If you computer is fast enough then this only takes a few seconds (for me about 8) – which is a great saving on the 30 seconds i normally have to wait.

Something that every serious gold maker needs to be aware of.

Weekend Post: A new glyphmas – perhaps not?

for other ideas on the glyph market and other general tips see the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide


The launch of Mists of Pandaria will give us Scribes a nice boost to income – but perhaps not the boost that we say back with Cataclysm.

In October 2010, upon release of the pre-Catacylsm patch and then again on release of Cataclysm Scribes everywhere made so much gold.

There is much talk of a new “glyphmas” upon the patch and release of MoP.

It is worth looking at what caused the “glyphmas” of 2010 and hence allowing us to compare to today.  I suspect we will see that there are few, if any, similarities.

When Patch 4.0.1 arrived in mid October 2010 glyphs went from an average 15 gold on my server to over 150 gold and held at over 100 gold for a year.  In my mind, there were five main reasons for this:


1. Announcement of the change of glyphs in the summer of 2010 led to a reduction of Scribes participating in the market: over the summer Blizzard announced that the glyph system was to be changed. At that time, glyphs were destroyed when they were swapped out – hence characters had to buy a new glyph every time they swapped one out. When the change was announced to the current system many forecast the death of glyphs. Hence, there were very few new competitors and existing competitors started to leave the market. The view was that glyph prices would collapse. Hence, when the patch arrived the number of scribes was low and indeed the scribes left had reduced their stock of glyphs.

That will not be the case this time – the number of Scribes participating in the market has, if anything, increased.



2. Demand went through the roof and the supply was not there: When the new glyph system arrived characters went to the AH to buy up a complete set of glyphs on the first day. What glyphs were on the AH ran out very quickly. Indeed, i could not post quick enough and hence the selling prices rose rapidly.

We are likely to see an increase in demand from returning players + pandas + Monks.  However, existing characters will only have a demand for new glyphs.  So a slight similarity here.



3. Players returned to the game: on Patch 4.0.1 and generally though the Cataclysm launches old players returned and so added to the demand for the glyphs. Indeed, there were various surges of demand as new patches came and old players came back into the game.

This will be the case this time too.



4. Inks from 1 to 3 per glyph in October 2010: the cost of crafting tripled but more importantly the demand for herbs rose firstly due to the tripling of materials required per glyph and secondly due to the strong rise in demand. Hence, herbs started to run low and their prices rose forcing the prices of glyphs higher still.

This will not be the case this time – the number of inks required to craft a glyph remains at 3.  Herbs may run low initially though.



5. Warden in summer of 2010: in the summer of 2010 Blizzard launched a program to catch and ban bots. It was very successful and overnight many bots left the game. However, their herbs remained on the AH and in their guild banks (i assume the AH posters were on different accounts to the bots though i guess Blizzard can now detect that?). Hence, whilst the bots were gone, the herbs were still hitting the AH at very cheap prices. The timing of those cheap herbs running out varied by server. On my server, it happened just at the time of Patch 4.0.1. Hence, the ongoing availability of herbs went through the floor which was a third factor pushing up the price of herbs and restricting supply to scribes trying to meet demand. Indeed, for myself, i was often in danger of being unable to meet demand on several occasions due to lack of herbs to mill.

On my server at least, there are no bots and hence there will not be an effect  from them disappearing this time.



In summary – demand will rise driven by returning players / pandas / monks but at a lower rate than was the case at Cataclysm.  There will be the usual effect on supply as the herb farmers start to farm the Mists of Pandaria herbs – but that will soon stabilise.

Friday shout out - critical goblin

for other ideas on the glyph market and other general tips see the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

Critical Goblin has a blog - a rather good one.  And it also deals in glyphs, and in depth.  Critical shares his processes and strategies on his blog with plenty of analysis.  His blog is well written and an easy read.  It has many valuable tips.  I am not ashamed to say I have picked up a fair few ideas from it.

Indeed, it is well worth having a read - notably his (I believe it is a he?) strategies on glyph walls, his 11 day glyph war with a competitor.

Critical has also written a review on my Croda'sInscription Gold Guide - the paid version.  I will let you read his review - but I like it.

For any other established gold bloggers out there who would like to give a “warts and all” review of my Inscription Gold Guide please contact me and i will send you your free copy for such a purpose.

Reference Data - Scribes knowing their herbs

for other ideas on the glyph market and other general tips see the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

How many cataclysm herbs does it take to make a glyph?  How does this vary by cataclysm herb?  What herbs do you need for what Ink?

All key reference points of data the scribe should have their finger tips to minimise costs and determine acceptable sales prices to generate their acceptable levels of profits.

To that end I have a page on this blog that will show these handy bits of data: reference data.

See the page for the answer to the above questions!



on the page today:


Herbs to Glyph Converions - Cataclysm Herbs

(using 2 ashen pigment per Blackfallow ink and 3 Blackfallow ink per glyph, to 1 decimal place)

1 Whiptail creates 0.6 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 10.0 Whiptail per glyph

1 Twilight Jasmine creates 0.6 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 10.0 Twilight Jasmine per glyph

1 Cinderbloom creates 0.4 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 15.0 Cinderbloom per glyph

1 Stormvine creates 0.4 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 15.0 Stormvine per glyph

Below is a table that shows the Inks with their related pigments and the herbs they are milled from.

Ivory Ink /Alabaster (rare – none): Bloodthistle, Peacebloom, Silverleaf, Earthroot

Midnight Ink / Dusky (rare – Hunter’s Ink / Verdant): Briarthorn, Swiftthistle, Bruiseweed, Stranglekelp, Mageroyal

Lion’s Ink / Golden (rare – Dawnstar Ink / Burnt): Wild Steelbloom, Grave Moss, Kingsblood, Liferoot

Jadefire Ink / Emerald (rare – Royal Ink / Indigo): Fadeleaf, Goldthorn, Khadgar's Whisker, Wintersbite

Celestial Ink / Violet (rare – Fiery Ink / Ruby): Firebloom, Purple Lotus, Arthas' Tears, Sungrass, Blindweed, Ghost Mushroom, Gromsblood

Shimmering Ink / Silvery(rare – Ink of the Sky / Sapphire): Golden Sansam, Dreamfoil, Mountain Silversage, Plaguebloom, Icecap

Ethereal Ink / Nether(rare – Darkflame Ink / Ebon): Felweed, Ancient Lichen, Dreaming Glory, Mana Thistle, Netherbloom, Nightmare Vine, Ragveil, Terocone

Ink of the Sea / Azure (rare – Snowfall Ink / Icy): Goldclover, Tiger Lily, Adder's Tongue, Fire Leaf, Icethorn, Lichbloom

Blackfallow Ink / Ashen (rare – Inferno Ink / Burning Embers): Azshara's Veil, Cinderbloom, Heartblossom, Stormvine, Twilight Jasmine, Whiptail

Friday Shout Out – Hunter Mastery

for other ideas on the glyph market and other general tips see the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

Hunter Mastery: admitedly this is not the catchiest title for a blog that deals in gold making – but it does, and rather well.  Also covers matters pertaining to being a good hunter, hence the name.

As well as the many posts to date it has a couple of podcasts up already – split into two parts – Hunters and Gold Making.  And focushot has featured Jim Younkin's Livestreams recently and his own youtube channel



A Review of Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

In a recent post the author of Hunter Mastery, Focushot, has written a review on my gold guide (the paid version costing a mere $5).

A fair review i think, covers the ground well and comes up with his opinion on the guide.  Well worth a read for yourself for a honest third party view.

For any other established gold bloggers out there who would like to give a “warts and all” review of my Inscription Gold Guide please contact me and i will send you your free copy for such a purpose.

Surplus Inferno Inks – what to do with them

for other ideas on the glyph market and other general tips see the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

Now that times are slower ahead of the new content i am finding that my inventory of Inferno Ink is building up fast – they are proc’d from my milling of Cataclysm Inks.

Much like Snowfall ink i will doubtless get through them slowly at a profit in Mists of Pandaria – but despite that my inventory is still too high for my liking.

There are 3 things i do to turn them into gold: sell them; sell the crafted items; and disenchant them.


Firstly, i can try and sell them as Inferno inks.

On my realm Inferno Inks are selling on the Auction House for about 13gold to 28gold.  Sales are slow.


Secondly, i can use them as crafting materials.

Inferno Ink is used in the crafting of 17 items – all only from Scribes, and most of which are offhands or relics.  These are selling slowly but surely and at very high profit margins.  However, despite this my inventory of inferno inks continues to build.


The third route is a derivation of the shuffle – i am watching this carefully.

One of the items i can craft is an Etched Horn.  It requires 4 Inferno Inks and and 1 Scavenged Dragon Horn.  The Scavenged Dragon Horn can be bought from Cassandra Downs in the Twilight Highlands (for the Alliance) [the Horde vendor is Una Kobuna] in the Twilight Downs for just over 17gold.  Hence, the cost of crafting an Etched Horn is 69gold to 129gold.

They disenchant into 1 to 4 small heavenly shards – on my realm they are selling for 30gold, though the heavenly shards sell for 72gold suggesting that the true price of a small heavenly shard is 24gold (3 small heavenly shards for 1 heavenly shard)

Assuming an average of 2.5 small heavenly shards per disenchant then the disenchanting process is worth 60gold.

The Etched Horn gives the best disenchanting value per input of Inferno Ink.

I suspect in the coming weeks the price of Inferno Inks will fall sharply as Scribes dump their inventory on the Auction House whilst the price of Heavenly Shards will most likely hold.  Therefore, once the price if Inferno Inks falls below 11gold i will switch from selling my Infernos Inks to crafting Etched Horns and disenchanting them with my enchanter.

I suspect i wont sell the shards but use them in my Enchanting market – which is my number two gold earner.

Furthermore, if i determine that the price of Heavenly Shards will hold its value in Mists of Pandaria then i may even become a buyer of Inferno Inks at the low values.

Friday Shout Out - FriendsShare

for other ideas on the glyph market and other general tips see the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

Jim Younkin of Powerword:Gold on his great Livestreams about 1:26:00 in mentions this blog when he was looking for an addon called FriendsShare Resurrecton.

I use this addon as part of my glyph market process to keep an eye on my competitors - so, worth a recap on what it does.

FriendsShare Resurrection is an Addon that lets you keep the same friends list across your characters on a server.

If you add or remove a friend then that friend will be added or removed on your other characters the next time you log onto them.

Hence, it makes sure all your characters automatically have the same friends which is very useful, indeed required, if you want to determine if your competitors are online and gives you an idea where they are and what they do whilst they are online.

When some of your friends/competitors leave WoW you will get the notice “player not found” and in which case you enter /friendsshare rebuild only once and your list is rebuilt on all your characters when you log onto them.

Jim Younkin's livestreams can be found on YouTube or embedded on Powerword:Gold

Scribe scrolls – i am selling more of these

for other ideas on the glyph market and other general tips see the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

Just recently i have started selling a lot more of the Scribe scrolls – notably Scroll of Agility IX and Scroll of Intellect IX.

Unlike many other items a scribe can produce, these scrolls can be substituted by other items – either a spell or a flask, for example.

These scrolls give the users an increase in the relevant ability by 100 for 30 minutes and counts as a battle elixir or gives some other stat increase and counts as a guardian elixir.

Hence, an increase in sales of these Scribe’s scrolls would indicate that there is demand and that the substitutes are not available or only available at a higher price.

I suspect during these slow times ahead of the Mists of Pandaria there are players levelling their toons at a time when the flask equivalents are not available.

These Scrolls of level IX all cost 1 blackfallow ink and 2 resilient parchment to craft 5 at a time.  Given herbs are now selling for 2 gold each (40 gold a stack) that equates to each five scrolls costing c7 gold (each stack of herbs produces c6 inks) and therefore each scroll costing 1.4 gold.

I sell them with a threshold of 10 gold each and a maximum price of 15 gold each making a hefty profit.

I set the threshold price at 10 gold so that if someone else starts posting lower i don’t start a price war and take the price all the way down to 1 gold – which is perfectly possible given these scrolls have competition from other items such as flasks.

I post 10 single scrolls at a time and they all sell at once.

At the moment i am the only seller and therefore i am selling each scroll for 15 gold.

Setting up a Guild Bank

for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

If you are entering a crafting market or markets in a serious fashion then storage space is a key resource.  The ability to store raw materials as you buy them at low prices on the Auction House is an absolute requirement.  The Bank and its bag slots are unlikely to prove sufficient and shuffling materials between alts will prove cumbersome.  To resolve this, owning a guild and being the sole member will give you an additional 588 storage slots.

In the Guild, each tab has 98 item slots and tabs are purchased much like bag slots in Banks.  The first tab costs 100 gold, the next 250 gold, then 500 gold and so on.  To buy all 6 tabs you would spend 9350 gold.

Technically, you can get 8 guild tabs but your guild needs to reach at least level 5 and, lets face it, a guild of one person used for crafting is not going to advance.

Setting up a Guild Bank.

The good news is that setting up a guild bank is very easy, quick and has a low cost (easily under 100 gold).

1) Talk to the Guild Master NPC in a major city to purchase the Charter for 10 silver (see below for the names and locations – but asking a City Guard will give you the location).
2) You need three other players to agree to be members of your guild to get it up and running. So, go to the starter area and ask players to sign the Charter in exchange for 10 gold.  All starter players, and even new alts, will be willing to do this.  Don’t be deceiving, explain that you only need their signatures and that they will be kicked from the guild when it is started.  So whisper the question first, if the answer is yes then present the charter to be signed.
3) Once you have the three signatures get back to the Guild Master NPC to register the guild and start it up
4) Kick the signatory players and there you have your Guild.

Be aware that the players that signed your Charter can delete their character or sign another Charter and so remove their signatures from your Charter.  So don’t hang around once you have your four signatures. Also, be aware that it is one signature per player – so a player’s alt cannot sign the charter.

The whole process should take less than half an hour.


The Downsides to having a Guild Bank.

1) That character can not belong to another guild –so say goodbye to raiding for that character.

2) It is hard to pass a guild bank to another alt –you will need a trusted friend online to allow you to pass the guild bank to them and then log on the alt to receive the guild bank.

Names and locations of the Guild Masters:
·         Guild master Lysheana at the Craftsmen's Terrace in Darnassus
·         Guild master Jondor Steelbrow at The Commons in Ironforge
·         Guild master Aldwin Laughin at the Trade District in Stormwind
·         Guild master Funaam at Trader's Tier in the Exodar
·         Guild master Andrew Matthews at Dalaran Visitor Center in Dalaran
·         Guild master Urtrun Clanbringer at the Valley of Strength in Orgrimmar
·         Guild master Krumn in Lower Rise in Thunder Bluff
·         Guild master Christopher Drakul at The Trade Quarter in Undercity
·         Guild master Tandrine at the Walk of the Elders in Silvermoon

Selling more of Rituals of the New Moon

for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

This is another item i am selling more of recently.

A scribe can produce a random book called Rituals of the New Moon with 5 Ink of Sea + 3 Eternal Shadow + 10 Resilient Parchment.  On my server that costs about 120gold (it used to be 85gold but costs are rising as the supply of Eternal Shadows falls).  The book created is either red, white, black or grey.

The acquirer of the book is able to transform into a giant wolf for 2 minutes.  The colour of the wolf is determined by which book they buy: red; white; black; or grey.  When transformed the user is pacified and silenced though they are able to, still do things like using or creating items.

The Rituals of the New Moon can only be crafted by a Scribe.  It does not drop from a mob nor can it be bought from a vendor. Scribes therefore are the sole supplier.

Furthermore, few Scribes bother to post these - making the supply very low.

Clearly, it is an item that serves no purpose other than aesthetics and yet there is demand.  There is very little competition on my server reflecting the low demand – though i now sell one a day.

I used to differentiate between the books given grey is the most common but now i just sell them all for 500 gold.

Required return per hour spent

for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

There is no concept in World of Warcraft for how to measure what level of profit you should make to cover the risk you are taking.  For the record, in the real world it is about 2% (10 year US Treasury yields).

However, in World of Warcraft i am able to determine what level of profit you should make for each hour of time spent.

i do this with reference to gathering herbs.  Though it is not without its flaws.

I can gather 20 stacks of whiptail in an hour.  I can sell those at present for 40 gold a stack (2 gold a herb) over a 24 hour posting on the auction house.  Therefore, for each hour of gathering i can earn 800 gold.

Therefore, i determine that my gold making activities must make more than 800 gold per hour else i am better off gathering.

Following this through a bit more.  At present, the supply of herbs is low, hence i believe i could gather for 2 hours a day and therefore sell 40 stacks of whiptail each day at 40 gold a stack for 7 days (i.e. 2 hours gathering every day).

That gives me 11200 gold per week.

Therefore, i determine that if i spend 2 hours a day on gold making activities then i must make over 11200 gold per week – else i should revert to gathering.

Though markets are slow, my Inscription profession is earning me over 11200 gold per week at present before i add in the profits from Enchanting and flipping.

 

Croda's Inscription Gold Guide - Paid Version

I am soft launching my paid for version of the Croda’s Inscription Gold Guide.

I have two Guides available. One free, and one which can be purchased from gumroad.com - Croda's Inscription Gold Guide.

The paid version Guide has more sections, graphics and can be purchased as a pdf. See the Paid Guide FAQ

It has 100 pages with graphic illustrations to enhance the text and additional information such as a review of the Off Hand market i deal in, looking at how to minimise the cost of glyph manufacturing, how to prepare for new patches, what to do when coming back from a break, and additional general tips.

and only for $5.



The Full Contents Are:

1. DESCRIPTION OF INSCRIPTION

2. GOLD MAKING POTENTIAL

3. ANALYSIS OF THE MARKET

4. What changed the prices of glyphs after Patch 4.0.1?

5. LEVELLING

6. HOW I OPERATE IN THE INSCRIPTION MARKET
6a. My use of addons
6b. How i am set up
6c. What do i stock?
6d. When do i mill and craft?
6e. How i price my items – glyphs
6f. How i price my items – scrolls
6g. How i price my items – Runescrolls
6h. How i price my items – Certificates of Ownership
6i. How i price my items – Darkmoon Cards
6j. How i price my items – off hands
6k. My routine – for glyphs, darkmoon cards, scrolls, runescrolls and certificates of ownership
6l. My routine – for off hands
6m. My routine – for surplus inks
6n. Other items which i tend not to deal in
6o. How I compete
6p. How I deal with a serious new entrant:
6q. How i deal with an existing competitor that turns aggressive
6r. What i have on my snatch list for inscription

7. ADVANCED STRATEGIES
7a. The starting point
7b. The Glyph Wall –what is it and what is its purpose?
7c. The Glyph Wall –how to combat it
7d. The Auction House Camper - what is it and what is its purpose?
7e. The Auction House Camper – how to combat it?
7f. The Pricing Trap strategy – what is it and what is its purpose?
7g. The Pricing Trap strategy – how to combat it
7h. Hello there stranger!- what is it and what is its purpose?
7i. Hello there stranger!- how to combat this
7j. Who are my Competitors Secret Alts?
7k. Getting the Drop on your Competitors
7l. Never Buyout items to reset the price

8. THE OFF HAND MARKET
8a. An Overview of the Off Hand Market
8b. Book of Blood
8c. Lord Rottington's Pressed Wisp Book
8d. Faces of Doom
8e. Iron-Bound Tome
8f. Twilight Tome
8g. Rituals of the New Moon

9. MINIMISING THE COST OF THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS
9a. Lowering the cost of glyphs – looking at the manufacturing process
9b. Herb Prices for Scribes
9c. Ink prices for Scribes

10. MARKET OBSERVATIONS
10a. Forcing a competitor to leave the market
10b. Stable markets is what every scribe wants.
10c. Sales on a sustainable basis
10d. Who is the Market Leader?
10e. Sunk Costs
10f. Cash Margins vs Profit Margins
10g. Measuring Gold per Hour
10h. All counter strategies lower profits for a while
10i. By what amount to undercut
10j. Why have a high fallback price
10k. Do i worry if my competitors know my minimum posting price?
10l. Some Glyphs are being undercut, some are not!

11. PREPARATION FOR NEW PATCHES
11a. What to do before Patches and New Content
11b. Better safe than sorry – have backup Addons
11c. Loading out of date addons.

12. COMING BACK AFTER A BREAK

13. GENERAL TIPS FOR SCRIBES
13a. Books of Glyph Mastery - a form of insurance
13b. Casandra Downs in the Twilight Highlands
13c. Dust of Disappearance
13d. Alt posting location
13e. Setting up a Guild Bank
13f. Checking for Recipes on the Auction House
13g. Checking to see what recipes you still have to collect
13h. Podcasts i listen to
13i. Post Patch work –reset your Auction House data
13j. Better safe than sorry
13k. Skipping items to post
13l. Loading out of date addons.
13m. Let Sleeping Dogs Lie (have a backup market)

14 REFERENCE DATA
14a. Herbs to Glyph Conversion

15 SCIBE'S GLOSSARY

16 BLOGS I READ (which have been updated in the last 3 months)

APPENDIX
A A bit about myself
B Why did i start gold making in World of Warcraft?
C Guide FAQs


What are the differences to the Free Guide?

there are graphics to give added clarity to the text. For example, graphics showing what i enter into Tradeskillmaster to price my glyphs.


added new sections on:

8. THE OFF HAND MARKET
8a. An Overview of the Off Hand Market
8b. Book of Blood
8c. Lord Rottington's Pressed Wisp Book
8d. Faces of Doom
8e. Iron-Bound Tome
8f. Twilight Tome
8g. Rituals of the New Moon

9. MINIMISING THE COST OF THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS
9a. Lowering the cost of glyphs – looking at the manufacturing process
9b. Herb Prices for Scribes
9c. Ink prices for Scribes

11. PREPARATION FOR NEW PATCHES
11a. What to do before Patches and New Content
11b. Better safe than sorry – have backup Addons
11c. Loading out of date addons.
12. COMING BACK AFTER A BREAK


16 BLOGS I READ (which have been updated in the last 3 months)



and some additional information in:

7. ADVANCED STRATEGIES
7j. Who are my Competitors Secret Alts?
7k. Getting the Drop on your Competitors
7l. Never Buyout items to reset the price

10. MARKET OBSERVATIONS
10h. All counter strategies lower profits for a while
10i. By what amount to undercut
10j. Why have a high fallback price
10k. Do i worry if my competitors know my minimum posting price?
10l. Some Glyphs are being undercut, some are not!

and some additional General tips


and its a nice pdf to print out.

Selling more of Certificate of Ownership

for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

I am selling more of these recently.

Perhaps hunters are coming back before Mists of Pandaria to level up and at the same time choosing to change their pets name?

The Certificate of Ownership can only be crafted by a Scribe.  It is the only thing that a Hunter can use to change their pet's name - it does not drop from a mob nor can it be bought from a vendor.  Scribes therefore are the sole supplier.
Furthermore, few Scribes bother to post these - making the supply very low.

If a Hunter wants to change the name of their pet, they are unlikely to be put off by the price of this scroll.  Therefore, the sales price need have no relevance to the cost price.  The sales price merely need not be off putting.

To craft it costs 2 celestial inks plus 1 common parchment.  On my server that is c10 gold per certificate.  The 48 hour deposit fee at the Auction House is 15 silver.

I sell them for a maximum of 100 gold and a minimum of 20 gold.  So my profits per certificate sold is 10 to 90 gold.  I post 5 at a time in singles.

When to sell inks instead of glyphs

for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

My minimum price for selling glyphs is 40gold.  It takes 3 inks to make a glyph therefore i should be indifferent to sell inks at c14gold each.

However, i must consider the actions of me selling inks at this price.

Firstly, the only buyer of inks are other scribes and the only reason they would buy inks is to craft glyphs or other inscription items or to level.

I can’t slow down the levellers (the future competition) by restricting my sales of inks to Blackfallow Inks – they can merely buy those inks and convert them to their required inks.  So, by selling inks i do provide the future competition with a route to levelling.  But at least i pick up gold along the way.

The other Scribes will be buying my inks to produce items to post on the Auction House to compete with me.

Now, by selling inks at 14gold i am setting their floor price at c40gold per glyph.  Given most of my competitors are willing to take glyph prices down to 15gold my actions of selling Inks at 14gold is forcing them to reset their prices upwards and therefore forcing discipline into the market.

Another way of looking at this is that for every 3 inks my competitors buy off me i therefore can claim 40gold of each glyph they sell (i am their cost price).

I can withdraw my sales at any time.

Therefore, i am happy to sell inks at 14gold each.

My cost price per Ink is 7 gold (it takes c3.33 Whiptail per Ink) therefore my profit per Ink is 7 gold (or 21 gold per 3 inks bought = the profit per glyph sold at my minimum price of 40gold).

Quick update to the podcasts i listen to.

for other ideas on the glyph market please follow the link to the free Croda's Inscription Gold Guide

Updated as of 10^th June 2012.

As well as the blog roll on my blog marketsforgold.blogspot.com the gold making community in World of Warcraft is active in podcasting.  Times change and podcasts and blogs come and go.  And some are restarted.

Below are the podcasts i listen to as well as the non-gold making podcasts related to World of Warcraft that i also listen to.

As ever, it is not only the ideas the hosts discuss but the thinking behind the ideas that is of benefit to us all.  And they make for good listening.  Indeed, i tend to need to be doing something mundane like gathering whiptail or milling / crafting if i am listening to them.

They are in alphabetical order split between the pure gold making podcasts and the podcasts what are about the World of Warcraft in general.  For a complete list of Gold making Blogs and Podcasts see The PowerwordGold Blog Directory.


Pure gold making

Auction House Junkies - Hosted by Cold and Wes from Cold's Gold Factory and Capped by Cata, respectively

Call to Auction – hosted by Euripides and guest.

Powerword:Gold - Hosted by Fluxdada from Powerword:gold and a guest host.

The Mana Cooler - Hosted by George

Addicited to Azeroth – inactive as of October 2011


Mixture of gold making but mostly other World of Warcast

The Instance - Hosted by hosted by Scot Johnson, Dills and Turpster from Frogpants Studios, AIE Podcast and The Incredible Podcast of Amazing Awesomeness respectively

Warcraft Lounge - Hosted by Chris and Ryan, going since November 2010, range of topics and debate.