TradeskillMaster Tutorial - Posting fast using the mouse wheel

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

instead of me pressing the Post or Cancel button a hundred times every time i post glyphs from a character i have it set up that if i spin the mouse wheel up or down whilst pressing CTRL (the mouse pointer does not need to be over the Post or Cancel button) then the Post or Cancel button is pressed multiple times.  Speeds it up massively.

in this post  i will show you how i link the Post and Cancel buttons to my mouse wheel to speed things up.

1. Open TradeskillMaster and press the "Auctioning Groups / Options" button as shown below to bring up the Auctioning screen

 

this will open up the Auctioning window as shown below.

at the bottom part of the screen, in the section "Macro Help" tick the "Up", "Down" and "CTRL" boxes, and leave the "ALT" and "SHIFT" blank.

then press the "Create Macro and Bind ScrollWheel (with selected options)" button

 

 

 

i always seem to have to do it a few times to get it to work.

Now, when you come to post your auctions using TradeskillMaster - once the glyphs have been queued to be posted, you need only hold down the CTRL key and spin the wheel!  and likewise for cancelling.

 

 

 

 





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.

 

 

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.

 

Keeping my minimum glyph selling price at 40gold.

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

Having come back after 5 months i have noticed that the supply of herbs has gone down and indeed the price of the staple inscription herb “whiptail” has moved up from 1gold to 2gold per herb over these 5 months.

And, as the chart below from The Undermine Journal shows, Whiptail is not in great supply either.  And shows no sign of falling in price.

Hence using the assumption that it takes 10 to 12 whiptail to make a glyph (see my Reference Page) then the manufacturing cost of each glyph for me is 20 – 22 gold.  Therefore i am leaving my 40gold minimum selling price in place.  Gives me a minimum profit of 18 – 20gold per glyph sale which is a reasonable profit per unit of time spent crafting and posting.

There are 3 other players in my market at present and two of them operate below my 40gold price level.

I suspect my re-entry into the market has not disturbed it sufficiently for these participants to take counter action and therefore it appears they are happy to accept lower profits.  In fact, i suspect a weaker participant will drop out and focus on their other markets leaving 3 of us to participate.

Milling - is there an easier way?

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

I often get an email asking me if there is an automatic way to mill my herbs rather than the current method of one click per milling of 5 herbs.


The bad news is that there is not, at least not that i am aware, another way that is allowable.


My current stragegy is to fill a 36 slot Hyjal Expedition Bag full of herbs from my Guild Bank (i have been buying cheap herbs from the Auction House and storing them in my Guild Bank) and to mill them using the Addon TradeSkillMaster, specifically the Destroying addon for TradeSkillMaster.  I do this when i have spare time but for sure on a Saturday morning to clear out my herbs in my Guild Bank.


It still requires me to be at my computer and press the button once for each mill.  And i admit this is the most tedious part of Inscription.


there are other Addons which can be found at the curse.com website


Or you can create your own milling macro


/cast milling
/use (herb 1)
/use (herb 2)
/use (herb 3)

. . . . . . substituting herb 1, herb 2 for the different herb names.  given the macro limit of 255 characters you will likely need 4 or 5 buttons.  And what is more, if herb 1 gets down to 3 herbs in your bags then the macro will not go onto herb 2 and onwards until you have either increased the number of herb 1 to at least 5 or removed herb 1 from your bag.


Its a slow process - but on the bright side all market participants need to endure this!

Ink prices for Scribes

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

Similarly to Herb prices and as was the case in Wrath of the Lich King, the lowest price ink is normally the new common ink introduced by the new expansion and Cataclysm is no exception.  Hence, for us Scribes the lowest price ink today is normally the Blackfallow ink.

That should be no surprise and follows from the lowest price herbs being Whiptail, Stormvine and Cinderbloom, see my post Herb Prices for Scribes.

However, there are two things to note here.

Firstly, it is almost always cheaper to buy the herbs to mill/craft the Blackfallow inks.  That makes sense – the only people that can craft inks are Scribes and the only people that can use Inks are Scribes.  Therefore, any Scribe posting inks to sell is clearly looking to make a profit.

The likely buyers of Blackfallow inks are:

1. new Scribes levelling up
2.  exisiting Scribes that are heavily into the Fortune Card business and so need  a high supply of Blackfallow ink that can not be met by the supply of herbs on the Auction House
3. where the Scribe does not have the time to mill the herbs – milling herbs is time consuming and can not be done automatically and afk unlike crafting inks from pigments.

On my server, the Blackfallow inks typically sell for 5.5gold each but never falls below 5gold and often rises to nearer 10gold.  See my post Herb Prices for Scribes which explains how buying Whiptail at 1 to 1.5gold each and Stormvine/Cinderbloom at 1gold each means that my crafting cost of each Blackfallow ink is 3.33 to 5.0gold each.

Secondly, there are often times when the pre-Cataclysm inks come onto the market at below the crafting price of 5gold.  At these times i buy all those inks out and store them for future crafting.

Again, it is worth having all the inks on your snatch list and just going through them once per day.

Herb Prices for Scribes

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

As was the case in the Wrath of the Lich King, the lowest price herb is normally a new herb introduced by the new expansion and Cataclysm is no exception.  For us Scribes that means we are buying Whiptail, Stormvine and Cinderbloom.

The primary reason for this is that Whiptail, Stormvine and Cinderbloom are relatively easy to gather and there is demand from Scribes and Alchemists for these herbs making them a good source of income for farmers.  But the demand is more than matched by supply therefore keeping the price low.

Looking at my Reference Guide at the back of Croda's Inscription Gold Guide or the post on Herb to Gyph Conversions it can be seen that Whiptail gives more ink per stack than Stormvine and Cinderbloom and hence why Whiptail is normally found at a slightly higher price.

I am willing to pay up to 1gold 50silver per Whiptail though i normally pay about 1gold and only up to 1gold per Stormvine and Cinderbloom given Whiptail converts into more Inks and procs more Burning Embers to make Inferno Inks.

For Whiptail that means that my crafting cost per glyph is 10 to 15 gold each and for Stormine / Cinderbloom the maximum crafting cost per glyph is 15 gold each.  Or, putting it another way, the cost of each Blackfallow ink is 3.33 to 5.0 gold each, and therefore the cost of any common ink to me is 3.33gold to 5.0gold each.

Indeed, when i look at herbs on the Undermine Journal only Peacebloom, Mageroyal, Liferoot, Silverleaf are cheaper in any reasonable quantity.

Worth noting these – often Lions Ink and Midnight Ink can be crafted cheaper by buying their associated herbs Liferoot and Mageroyal respectively rather than buying the Cataclysm herbs to craft Blackfallow ink to convert to Lions / Midnight ink.  And indeed, that is why Lions Ink and Midnight Ink can typically be found for less than 5 gold on my server and often approaching 3gold each.

But, having all the herbs on your snatch list is a good idea.  Once per week i often come across someone dumping their herbs for a low price.

Lord Rottington's Pressed Wisp Book

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

This off hand gives the user +127 Intellect and +191 Stamina, +91 Spirit, and a small increase to Mastery when equipped.  But more importantly the player needs to be level 81 to equip it, not level 85.

The crafting cost on my server is 140 gold (20 volatile life + 10 resilient parchment).

I sell very few of these, if any at all – and that is because of my high sales price of 1500 gold fallback, 1000 gold minimum . . . . . . . whereas i sell the quite similar Book of Blood for 200 – 250 gold to use up my surplus Inferno Inks.

In many ways this is a better off-hand than the Book ofBlood with gives +127 Intellect and +191 Stamina, and a small increase to Haste and Critical Strike when equipped, and is also equipped at level 81.  And therefore, like the Book of Blood, would commonly used by casters that are levelling to 85 before they buy the “Divine Companion” off hand when they reach level 85.

I am the only person on my server posting this off-hand – and with good reason, the sales are few and far between, and there are two of us selling the Book of Blood.

I post at a fall back price of 1500 gold and a minimum price of 1000 gold.

Still, much like the Glyph market i seek to own this market and therefore posting a complete range of product offerings is key to this aim.

Twilight Tome

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

The Twilight Tome is an offhand that gives +25 Stamina, +35 Intellect and increases Haste by a small amount.  The player needs to be level 70 to equip it and is normally the first thing a caster will equip when reaching level 70.

It is likely to be replaced by a better item within 1 or 2 levels before the caster then equips an Iron-Bound Tome or a Faces of Doom at level 77.

The crafting cost is c50 gold on my server (5 Ink of the Sea + 2 Eternal Life + 10 resilient parchment) and i sell them for 200 to 250 gold.

I sell at best one a week – reflecting the low usage time by casters.  But I am the only person selling these on my server.

As with all pre-cataclysm of-hands I post at a fall back price of 250 gold and a minimum price of 200 gold.  And as with the other off-hands in the past, when i increased the fall back price to 400 gold i merely attracted new competitors.  Hence i now keep the price between 200 and 250 gold.

As an aside, it is loosely related to the Rituals of the New Moon, the connection is the Twilight series.  I have heard this suggested but never tried it myself – but selling in trade chat the full Rituals of the New Moon collection and the Twilight Tome is an idea.

Rituals of the New Moon

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

The acquirer of this off-hand is able to transform into a giant wolf for 2 minutes  with a 10 minute cool down.  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 do things like using or creating items.  If the user un-equips it then the effect is dispelled.

Hence it serves no useful purpose other than cosmetic.  It is the only item in the game that allows the user to do this.  Much like Certificates of Ownership, there is demand out there for these.

A scribe can produce the Rituals of the New Moon with 5 Ink of Sea + 3 Eternal Shadow + 10 Resilient Parchment.  The book created is either red, white, black or grey – that is random.

On my server the cost of materials is 135 gold – used to be 85 gold but the cost of Eternal Shadows has gone up.  But, as with Certificates of Ownership, the sales price a buyer is willing to pay has little to do with the cost.

I should be more sophisticated, but it sell each book for 500 gold (despite the grey one being the most common) and i post for 48 hours.

I sell one every one to two weeks and i am the only person posting.  For 1500 gold per month, i suspect my competitors don’t bother.  But that is the point of these off-hands markets, pick up a 1000 gold here and a 1000 gold there and quite soon it is something meaningful on a weekly basis.

Operating under the radar of my competitors is the aim here, not ramping up the volumes.

Do i worry if my competitors know my minimum posting price?

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

Do i worry if my competitors know my minimum posting price?

In a word, no.

My minimum posting price for glyphs is 40 gold.  My competitors must know this by now.

At the launch of cataclysm is started off at 80 gold and has steadily fallen back to 40 gold over the 14 months.

I know all my competitors have lower minimum posting prices, indeed some go all the way to cost.

However, i am sending a signal to my competitors that whilst i will be a fierce competitor i am also signalling that as long as i am happy with my profits i am happy to let them participate in the glyph market.

In turn, my competitors seem happy with their profits and therefore allow me to keep the market where glyphs are priced above 40 gold.

Next step will be 35 gold.

Faces of Doom

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

as part of my review into the non-glyph markets in Inscription, today i am looking at the off hand Faces of Doom.

Faces of Doom is an offhand that gives +63 Stamina, +42 Intellect, +42 Spirit and increases Critical Strike by a small amount.  However, the important point here is that the player only needs to be level 77 to equip it, not level 80.

They are used by casters that are levelling and normally kept until level 81 at which point the “Book of Blood” is bought.  If the caster wants more intellect at the expense of Spirit then they will go for the Iron-Bound Tome instead.

The crafting cost is c80 gold on my server (5 snowfall + 1 frozen orb + 10 resilient parchment) and i sell them for 200 to 250 gold.  I sell 3 or 4 a week.

I am the only person selling these on my server.

I post at a fall back price of 250 gold and a minimum price of 200 gold.  Similarly to the Iron-Bound Tome, i post one at a time.  If a sale is made then i risk losing another potential sale until i log back on and post a new Faces of Doom.  However, if i were to post more than one at a time my competitors would realise that there is a market here and potentially seek to enter.

In the past, when i increased the fall back price to 400 gold i merely attracted new competitors.  Hence i now keep the price between 200 and 250 gold.

Iron-Bound Tome

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

as part of my review into the non-gylph end markets in Inscription, today i am looking the the Iron-Bound Tome.

Iron-Bound Tome is an offhand that gives 141 Armor, +49 Stamina, +63 Intellect and increases Critical Strike by a small amount.  However, the important point here is that the player only needs to be level 77 to equip it, not level 80.

They are used by casters that are levelling and normally kept until level 81 at which point the “Book of Blood” is bought.  If the caster wants spirit at the expense of intellect then they will go for the Faces of Doom instead.

The crafting cost is c80 gold on my server (5 snowfall + 1 frozen orb + 10 resilient parchment) and i sell them for 200 to 250 gold.  I sell 3 or 4 a week.

I am the only person selling these on my server.

I post at a fall back price of 250 gold and a minimum price of 200 gold.  I post one at a time.  If it is sold then for sure i miss the potential for other sales until i log back on and replace with a new Iron-Bound Tome.  But if i post 2 at a time, or more, then my competitors will realise that there is a market present here and perhaps seek to enter.

In the past, when i increased the fall back price to 400 gold i merely attracted new competitors.  Hence i now keep the price between 200 and 250 gold.

Book of Blood

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

as part of my review into the non-glyph markets in Inscription, today i am looking at the off hand Book of Blood.


I sell 5 of these off hands a week, it feels like 1 a day at times.  I sell them for c220 gold and the crafting cost is c90 gold (3 inferno inks + 6 volatile life + 10 resilient parchment).  It is the only Cataclysm off-hand that i sell for below 1000 gold but i have surplus inferno inks from my milling of Cataclysm herbs hence i am only really buying the volatile life.

It gives +127 Intellect and +191 Stamina, and a small increase to Haste and Critical Strike when equipped.  But more importantly the player only needs to be level 81 to equip it, not level 85.

Therefore it is commonly used by casters that are levelling to 85 before they buy the “Divine Companion” off hand when they reach level 85.

At present, there are only two of us on my server selling them and we are both happy with our profits so the competition is very low.

I post at a fall back price of 250 gold and a minimum price of 200 gold, and i post one at a time.  I dont want to be greedy or force my competitor into aggressive competitive actons – my competitor seems to do likewise.

Of all the off-hands, it is the one that seems to sell the most consistently.

Non-glyphs end markets for Scribes

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

Much like the series on Advanced Strategies i am now going to start a series on non-glyphs end markets for Scribes.

Many scribes ignore these markets because they are greatly difference to glyphs.  They don’t all lend themselves to automation for example.  And they are mostly consumable items as opposed to glyphs which are capital items (only bought once and therefore sell at a higher price  - see one of my initial posts which refers to glyphs as a capital item).

And indeed several compete against other items such as potions and items dropped by mobs – hence the scribe is competing against other end markets.

It is for these reasons that many scribes skip these markets.

And, to be fair, my experience is that these are low income markets.  But they are steady income markets where competition is low.

And, as my readers know, i love steady income markets.

By what amount to undercut

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

When posting items on the Auction House, does one undercut the current cheapest item by 1 copper, 1 silver, 1 gold, 5 gold, 10 gold or what?


This is a keenly debated question amongst gold makers.  All agree that the aim is for your item to be the cheapest on the Auction House at the time a buyer steps in.


The 1 copper argument centres on the argument that the aim is to be the cheapest available item when the buyer comes to the Auction House but to maximise the selling price.  And indeed, profits are maximised for all market participants.


The other end of the extreme, the 5 gold argument centres around making a statement to other market participants that using the cycle of continuous undercutting will bring down the prices for all.  Works well in low volume, high value markets.  I find it works poorly in the high volume markets like Glyphs where indeed the prices will soon be brought down for everyone!


Myself, i undercut by 50 silver.  In part, i must admit, this is historic.  It was the amount first suggested by Gevlon from The Greedy Goblin blog back in the day when i first started gold making.  It reflects the time taken between scanning the Auction House and posting the items and hence using a 1 copper undercut ran the risk that my item would not be the cheapest posted item by the time i came to posting!


However, i am sticking to 50 silver given it has worked so well over time.  The recognition that there is still a time gap between scanning and posting exists - though less so with the TradeSkillMaster addon.  Furthermore, it is my trademark in the market and all my competitors know this - so why tamper with it now.  Perhaps i should reduce it to 1 silver or 10 silver.  But that is for another day when i come to taking a close look at optimising this part of my gold making process.

Lowering the cost of glyphs – looking at the manufacturing process

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


Inscription has a very simple three step manufacturing process: herbs are milled (step 1) into pigments which create inks (step 2) which combine with parchment to make glyphs (step 3).

In my experience the vast supply of cataclysm herbs and the low supply of pre-catacylsm herbs on the Auction House adjusts this construction chain towards a four step process: cataclysm herbs are milled into ashen pigments (step 1) which create blackfallow inks (step 2) which are exchanged for the required inks (step 3) which combine with parchment to make glyphs (step 4).

Therefore there are three steps in this process that can give rise to a cost saving and can thus allow the Scribe to lower the cost of glyphs - Steps 1 to 3.

Before we look at each step lets be aware that the key part, however, is making this process as automated as possible.  Saving 1 gold in the 10-12 gold process cost of a glyph is not desirable if the extra time required is too high.  Personally, i do not want to spend more than 10 minutes in a week attempting to make those savings.

To put this in context, if i manage to reduce the construction costs of my weekly glyphs by 50 silver and i sell 500 glyphs per week (at 100 gold) then i have made 250 gold additional profits on the normal profits of 44500 gold.  Not much, but it all adds up and worth the 10 minutes.  In a month that is 1000 gold.

This is my process, and it takes 1 minute a day.  On my server the blackfallow inks go for 5 gold each.

Firstly, whilst all herb prices gravitate towards the cataclysm herbs there will be occasions when a lorry load of pre-cataclysm herbs are posted on the Auction House at a low value.  Make sure your snatch list has all the herbs listed so you can quickly go through them looking for the cheap ones and buy them up.

Secondly, have all the pigments on your snatch list – i have no idea why, but on occasion i get to buy some pigments at very much less than half the cost of an ink.

Thirdly, have all the inks on your snatch list.  There are plenty of times when the pre-catacylsm inks are going for less than 5 gold on my server and so less than the cost of the Blackfallow inks.

In summary, have all the above on your snatch list (all herbs, all pigments and all inks) and each day use your snatch list to scan the market.  Takes a minute a day.  And stock up on those that are going cheap in preparation for the Saturday morning milling and glyph construction hour.

As an added benefit, for those 10 minutes spent a week my awareness of the wider herb market is greatly enhanced, and that is no bad thing.

Herbs to Glyph Conversions

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

knowing what the crafting cost of a glyph from the herbs that they are made from is a key part of pricing your glyphs.

(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


1 Azshara's Veil creates 0.4 Ashen Pigments therefore it takes 15.0 Azshara's Veil per glyph

Checking to see what recipes you still have to collect

The addon Ackis Recipe List integrates into the crafting addon Advanced Trade Skill Window (and others).

When you open the crafting window for any profession there is a button called “Scan” on the top bar on the window – put there by Ackis Recipe List.  Pressing this button will reveal all recipes that you still need to collect and also a summary of how many recipes you already have expressed as a percentage of all available recipes for that profession.

You can sort the recipes to collect by:

·         Acquisition – which sorts the recipes to collect into the headlines Mobs, Reputation, Vendors etc which can be expanded further

·         Location – which sorts the recipes to collect by area of Azeroth

·         Recipes – which just lists the recipes to collect

Running your cursor over each recipe will show you the location on the map and any other relevant information (like if the vendor is Horde or Alliance!), you can click the recipe to get further information on the collection requirements.

If you do nothing else with this information then at least go and get the recipes available from vendors where you do not need reputation or a daily cool down.

as you can see - i have plenty of work to do with my Jewelcrafter!



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

Skipping items to post

Keep an eye on the prices of the items you are posting, even when they are posting above your minimum price (which all items will do so if you have your posting addon set up correctly!)

There are times where the cheapest glyph on the Auction House (or any item) may be a large amount lower than the normal price or indeed other glyphs posted at the time.  This may not be a concerted strategy by an aggressive competitor but merely a normal player selling an item at a random low price.

In this situation don’t undercut the glyph (you don’t want to reset the market price at this level) but either don’t post at all or post higher up the undercut the other glyphs at the higher prices.

You can best see what prices the glyphs are posted by pressing "Show Auctions" on TradeSkillMaster before you press the "Post" button

Of course, if the posted glyph is below cost then buy it!



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