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

Damaged necklace

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

I am seeing more of these on sale at low prices.  Doubtless picked up by players unsuspecting of their value and put on the Auction House.

These allow a Jewelcrafter, after a simple repair, to claim one Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Token which goes towards buying Wraith of the Lich King Jewelcrafting recipes off the vendor.

There are two other ways to collect these tokens: one is to do a daily quest which is the norm - takes 5 minutes assuming you start of Dalaran (big ask); the other is to trade in 10 titanium dust which is hideously expensive.

On my server, Jewelcrafters are willing to pay up to 500 gold for these Damaged Necklace’s – so picking them up for less than 100 gold to flip is a sure fire winner.

They should be on everyones Snatch Lists.

Week End Post - No concept of banking system

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

I aim to post every two days one this blog.  For the weekend post i plan to post on how the World of Warcraft economy relates to the real world or theoretical concepts for the World of Warcraft economy.  Ironically, it is this subject matter which causes the most email traffic!

In the World of Warcraft there is no concept of a Banking System that is similar to the real world (no bad thing i hear some say!).  I.e. there no institution out there that allows savers to earn a rate of interest on their savings and for borrowers to borrow money from at a cost of an interest rate.

We all have surplus gold sitting in our banks earning no return.

In the real world surplus cash can be invested in US Government Treasuries and earn an annual return of 1.4% at almost negligible risk (i know, that may not be the case forever!).

This return of 1.4% can therefore be assumed to be the return one makes with no risk.  Hence, any projects one would want to invest in need to earn a return more than this 1.4% to compensate for the risk taken.

In the World of Warcraft that is not the case.  There are no Azeroth Treasuries etc.  There is therefore no risk free rate of return.

Therefore, surplus gold just sits in bank accounts earning no return.

Furthermore . . . . there is no one on trade chat asking for an interest bearing loan.  There is no one on trade chat asking to invest in their venture for a promised return.  Indeed, there is no system to facilitate such a mechanism of investing.

Hence there is no need for an institution to be set up to allow those with surplus gold to lend to those who need the gold to invest in projects thereby giving a return to the investors.  Hence, no need for a bank.

In turn, this leads to no concept of a bond market or equity market.
. . . . . and hence why our surplus gold earns no return.

Probably a good thing - but boy would that be fun to the very very small proportion of the player base that plays the auction house and enjoys the WoW economy.

Though, with a bit of thought it could be extended to allow guilds to become richer.

Looking forward to inter server lending rate!

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.

The Flipping Market – watch the cross realm prices!

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

i have had loads of emails on the Flipping Market following my prior post with some asking what the common traps are.

Below is one of those common traps:

A recent scan using the Undermine Journal showed a potential great deal to buy a “Pattern: Heavy Scorpid Belt” for 20.65gold when the mean price is 4772gold and one standard deviation is 1061gold.  Hence, the current price is strongly below the mean less 2 standard deviations.

Indeed, a look at its recent posting history suggests that it is not often on the market and one has been on for 5000gold recently.

So far so good.  But the next steps of my research shows a problem and emphasises why these steps are important.

On other realms the Pattern sells for a mere 85gold!

Therefore, it appears that we are seeing an inflated price here, caused by someone posting the Pattern for a very high price over a few days.

It is unlikely that my realm will have seen the prices jump to these new levels whilst the other realms have not followed.  Hence, the mean price stated of 4772gold is unlikely to be a true and fair reflection of the price i would achieve and indeed a price of the mean price less one standard deviation is still very unlikely to be achived.

Hence, i did not buy this Pattern.

Weekend Post – No Concept of the Cost of Storage

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

I aim to post every two days one this blog.  However, i find that my weekend posts generally get less attention (i suspect most people read posts during the week and therefore land on my homepage and read the post i did at the weekend at the same time).  Therefore, for the weekend post i plan to post on how the World of Warcraft economy relates to the real world or theoretical concepts for the World of Warcraft economy.  Ironically, it is this subject matter which causes the most email traffic!

In the World of Warcraft there is no cost in tying up your gold in raw materials.  Neither a direct cost nor an opportunity cost (potential profits lost by using the gold elsewhere).

We do not have to rent storage space and gold used to buy raw materials could not otherwise be earning a risk free return elsewhere given there is no concept of the risk free rate in World of Warcraft.  I.e. we do not need to make the choice of buy Herbs or invest the gold in Azeroth Treasuries that make 2% pa and you are guaranteed your gold back.

Other than buying the bank tabs, guild tabs and bags there is no ongoing cost of storage (i.e. rental costs) and the raw materials are not perishable (i.e. our Herbs do not wither and die over time if not used).

The absence of this cost from the market is what, in part, what allows World of Warcraft gold makers to operate strategies that are not so easily adopted in real life.


For example:

A gold maker can attempt to control supply by buying up all raw materials.  As long as they have the gold and storage space then their risk is that they can't make a profit on the raw materials they have controlled.

They benefit by preventing other crafters from competing due to lack of raw materials.

They also benefit by forcing up the price of the raw materials and therefore forcing up the price of the crafted products as other crafters raise prices to restore profit margins.

In the real world such an action would require considerable storage cost and the money tied up could be usefully earning a return elsewhere.

In the game, we all sit with surplus gold hence our inventory is not preventing us making profits elsewhere.  I am not having to make that decision of “invest at no risk for a small return vs invest at some risk for a greater return”.  My choice is “use some surplus funds to make an investment for risk vs leave the remaining surplus funds earning no return for no risk”.  Hence, buying up all the raw materials is a strategy seriously considered.


And the view of Blizzard on such an action?

To me, it is not clear what Blizzard’s view on this is.  I suspect they don’t really care given there is no obvious abuse of the market going on to the detriment of the player base that plays World of Warcraft for the questing / dungeons / raiding.

Furthermore, i can’t readily think of what Blizzard could do that would not have consequences elsewhere.  It is arguable that gold makers do keep the market alive with a consistent stream of raw materials and crafted items – though whether the prices are higher or lower than would otherwise be the case is debatable.

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