Preparation for Mists of Pandaria - First night after the patch

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

I went straight to my trainer to learn all the recipes.  I crafted the new glyphs – but not the Monk glyphs.  Is anyone buying Monk glyphs?

Demand for glyphs rose and good sales were made.  But as i suspected the demandwas not abnormally high – certainly not another glyphmas.  I was still making good sales at 10pm at night.  On my server i was selling the new glyphs at 600g as fast as i could put them up until competitors came on and started posting at 100g.  They are now trading down at 30g to 75g and falling.

TradeskillMaster worked a charm – so hats off to Sapu the author.  Indeed, all my addons worked with the exception of Gearscore which i disabled.

in all, a good day at the Auction House.

Worth noting that Blackfallow Inks can still be converted at the ink trader for now – maybe it will be fixed in the near future.  But in any event it still means that Cataclysm herbs can be used for Inscription and i am buying the cheap herbs that the panic’d sellers put on the Auction House and converting them as i go.

 

as can be seen above, i am buying 20 Ink of the Sea using Blackfallow Ink.

 

 

Preparation for Mists of Pandaria – the night before

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


I am as about as ready as i can be:

1.  All addons are updated and i will be doing another update run tomorrow during server downtime.

2.  All key addons have a back up addon – Auctioneer for TradeskillMaster; two mailing addons.

3.  Almost all Blackfallow inks are converted.  Those that remain are for use in specific crafting items.

4.  One of my alts is ready to receive the Monk glyphs that i craft - i.e. have enough bag space.

5.  All alts and mains are in a main city with a Trainer within reach


Meanwhile i have been picking up cheap Cataclysm herbs that people are dumping – of course milling and converting them immediately.

I have also been picking up cheap enchanting, tailoring, alchemist and jewelcrafting recipes that i don’t have which people are also dumping.


What will i be doing straight off the launch?  To be honest, i may be gathering herbs rather than wading into the glyph market (my Scribe is also herbalist).  I will see how it goes.

Final countdown to Mists of Pandaria

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


So here we are, under a week to go.  This is my final check list:

1.    Almost all Blackfallow inks are converted to Ink of the Sea and Ethereal Inks.  I will keep a back of 100 for the off hands in case they sell.

2.    I have backup addons ready.  Auctioneer and Auctionator in case TradeskillMaster breaks.  And Postal and xxx incase the TradeskillMaster postal breaks.  And i have spent an hour familiarising myself with them.  Call it insurance.

3.    I have 8 of every glyph prepared and 4 weeks of ink ready.


From here i am just making sure my alts are ready to level – nothing more i can do for gold making.

I am a big believer that if demand is better than i expect then the end prices of glyphs will rise to maintain the profitability on what will be higher priced herbs.



Out of the ordinary things I will be doing on patch day:

I will reset my Auction House data – prices will be moving fast and I will want to set my prices with reference to the most recent data.  I do this once a quarter anyway to get rid of stale data.

For Auctioneer the command is: /auc cleardata ALL
For TradeSkillMaster the command is: /tsm adbreset

And of course I will be doing a complete scan of the Auction House daily. Every gold maker should.


Loading "out of date" addons: A new patch will mean that some addons are considered "out of date".  Hence, I will need to check that “load out of date addons” box again.

1. on the opening screen that lists your characters at the bottom left there is a button "AddOns" - click it

2. the AddOn List window will open - at the top of this window is a checkbox labels "Load out of date AddOns" - click it

3. Press "Okay" at the bottom of the window to accept and close.

 

Returning Players = cheap recipes to buy

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

With many new and old players coming back ahead of Mists of Pandaria being released i am picking up lots of cheap recipes that i did not own for my enchanter and jewelcrafter from the Auction House - which have been dumped by these players as they power through content preparing their characters.

There is a very easy way to do this, only takes 20 seconds if you are at the Auction House.

Open the Auction House window:

· tick “Usable Items” on the top bar of the window

· click Recipes and then select the profession you are searching

· the press Search

A list of recipes that you don’t own will appear. (if a very long list appears then it is likely you have not ticked “Usable Items”

I always buy recipes that are priced under 100 gold - though these days i am taking any that look good price given this is a once in a while opportunity as these returning players are here.

the example below shows that my the Auction House has 5 recipes that my enchanter does not have though none are below my 100 gold price.

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.

Old players returning ahead of Mists of Pandaria

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

These former players are returning to complete old content, emptying bag space and completing quests to prepare themselves for the new content.

Hence, they will be putting surplus items onto the Auction House to make a quick sale without really knowing their true worth.

This is a great time to pick up those recipes you are missing, buy cheap raw materials or even cheap rare drops.



Picking up those recipes you are missing

I use Auctioneer and it only takes 20 seconds to do when you are at the Auction House.

1.  Open the Auction House window

2.  Click Recipes and then select the profession you are searching

3.  Tick “Usable Items” on the top bar of the window

4.  then press Search

A list of recipes that you don’t own will appear. (if a very long list appears then it is likely you have not ticked “Usable Items”

I always buy recipes that are priced under 100 gold.

the example above shows that my the Auction House has 7 recipes (4 different ones) that my Tailor does not have though none are below my 100 gold price.

Only takes 20 seconds to do.

Seeking out cheap raw materials

I use Auction Snatch for this.

Auction Snatch keeps a saved list of items i want to buy from the Auction House and will automatically scan the Auction House for those items.

It is linked to the Auction House and will either open when you open the Auction House or you can press the tab, as shown above.

the starting window will look like the image below. you can add new items you want searched over time - by typing them into the query box at the top and pressing "Add Item". It is very intuitive. I initially set it up to scan for Titanium Powder (for my Jewelcrafter), Volatile Life, Book of Glyph Mastery and all the inks, all the herbs. Over time i have added other items such as cloth.

Pressing "Search" will start the scan.

When the first item on the list is found in the Auction House a new window opens with pricing information on this time and various options allowing you to Buy for example - as shown below. If you dont want to Buy you can move to the next item on the list by pressing "Next in List". The information is also displayed on your Auction House window as if you had manually searched for the item.



Hence, in a very short period of time you can go through all the items you often buy to see if there are any cheap items on the Auction House.

I do this scan at least once a day and it is a great way to pick up those cheap raw materials to craft as well as find cheap items that are normally highly priced.

Buying rare drops

These returning players will be putting rare drop items on the Auction House without being fully aware of their value or they may be wanting to get gold quickly.  This gives us a great opportunity to buy them and resell them at a much higher price.

See my main flipping market post and a follow up post on this matter.

It is a great way to earn gold and does not need a profession - just some bag space and some starting gold.

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.

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.

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.

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

Preparing for Mists of Pandaria

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

Its a while off but something to keep in our minds.

I rarely go into new expansions or major content updates “all in”.  I take the view that if the market starts to run short of crafted items (glyphs for us Scribes) or raw materials (herbs for us) then those who did go “all in” will make gold in the short term but pretty quickly prices will adjust upwards as their supplies run out.

It is worth remembering that many market participants will have left the market (or WoW) during the pre-new content slow down anyway so any major increase in demand will benefit all the remaining market participants.  And then add in an increase in new entrants levelling the profession keeping the cost or raw materials up and so the cost of the crafted items up and hence profits up.

Having said that, i do make some increased investment.  As a rule of thumb i at least double my inventories of inks and as we get closer to the expansion or new content i increase my holdings of the key glyphs.

So, there are some things i am doing now – but at a slow rate over time so as not to disturb the market.

Stocking up on inks:  Currently i hold 2 weeks worth of inks.  I will be increasing this.  Not thought yet to what but in the medium term i am buying cheap herbs i see on the Auction House with the view to increasing it to 4 weeks.  The holiday players are here so occasionally i am picking up herbs at cheaper than normal.

Stock up on all the inks:  I suspect there will be a new converting ink (i hear called Ink of Dreams that can be converted into any of the other common inks, much like Ink of the Sea was pre-cataclysm and Blackfallow ink is today).  Hence, i will need to make sure i have each individual ink in plentiful supply.  Non cataclysm herbs are in short supply at the best of times on my server, especially the Northrend herbs.  So making sure i have plenty of all inks is important.  To do this i am still primarily crafting Blackfallow ink to convert into those inks.

Making sure my Scribe and Herbalist are ready to level:  My Scribe (which is also my herbalist) is level 85.  His gear is not heroic level.  I may run some heroic dungeons just to get his gear up to standard.  But mostly i am done here.

Also: I suspect i will increase my fall back price from 400gold to 600gold.  No harm in doing this.  If demand takes off and the Scribes are unable to meet demand then this is a good opportunity to take more profit in the short term and reset the fall back prices in the medium term.