Formula: Runed Arcanite Rod

"Gold-Making Classics" is a column dedicated to celebrating methods that have been making auctioneers gold for years. These are tried and true tips and tricks that work time after time.

"I have the perpetrator in sight."

Today I wanted to give just a quick tip on something I do when I'm competing with a player who is currently online.

If you're are experienced auctioneer you already know to put frequent undercutters on your friends list. This is taking that idea a step further.

Are you the Keymaster?

After listening to my wife look for a rogue to unlock a bunch of Elementium Lockboxes  in trade chat for a couple of days she asked if I had a skeleton key that might open then.

I had used skeleton keys in the past and thought there might be a new Cataclysm version. I had power leveled my blacksmithing and so must not have noticed the new skeleton key recipe when I had learned it.

What I found led me into a new (and potentially profitable) market that seems nearly untouched on my server.

On this lazy Saturday night as I sit here cutting and vendoring an obscene amount of Zephyrite I have to wonder. Is the Obsiduim shuffle still worth it?

With ore prices dropping to rock bottom on many servers (many believe because of an increase of botting activity) you'd think the shuffle would be more profitable than ever (although my sore gem-cutting fingers may disagree with you). Is it still worth the time to do 'the shuffle'?

Ashes of Al'ar.

I'm just going to put this out there right at the beginning: I got incredibly lucky yesterday. Perhaps it is loot karma for those 6 months I spent farming Legacy. I don't know. Please don't hate me. I'm trying really hard not to sound like a douche (although I'm sure i'll fail miserably).

With that said, read on for the incredible story of how my gold-making helped me get one of the rarest mounts in World of Warcraft.

I'm sorry. I can't let you do that.

Sorry for the slightly misleading title. I did make 5k gold in Netherstorm in one week except that it was 4 years ago. This is my entry into Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival for March 2011 entitled "What Was Your Defining Moment?".

Gather around children because Old Grandpa Flux is going to tell you a story about making gold back in the day. Back in a time when flying mounts were slower than ground mounts.

Back in a time when we fed our pets Roasted Clefthoof and the Track Treasure was actually useful! Pull up a seat and settle in as we take a trip down memory lane.

After watching Faid's great video about her current glyph process (Fadian Slip #12) I thought I'd share the process I use for quickly and efficiently researching, making and listing glyphs on the auction house using the addon TradeSkillMaster.

There once was a Death Knight who wanted to get the most our of her professions. She had leveled so fast she hadn't taken the time to level professions. Now she had time and was going to correct that.

When the day came to finally choose her professions. A skinner was something she was born to do so that was her first choice. As for her second she read all the best theorycrafting and decided that the best DPS increase possible was Leatherworking. Wait. Leatherworking?

This didn't make logical sense. She wore plate. She smashed things with big swords and hammers. Why in the world would she choose Leatherworking?

The answer might surprise you. What might surprise you even more is the series of events that would lead to me losing 18,000 gold because of Leatherworking.

Alto's Gold"ish" Advice

"Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size."  -John of Salisbury

Today I was contacted by a fellow gold-making blog about having Power Word: Gold featured on their site. I was very honored. It made me realize that PW:G may just turn out to be positive addition gold-making community after all.

We are one of the newer blogs in the community and we wouldn't be here without the community members and bloggers who showed us the way. Those of us who come after owe them a debt of gratitude.

Time is money, Friend!

The achievement system includes a 'Wealth' section in the "Statistics" tab. I decided to add up all the gold my main characters have ever made as well as looking at any other data I could glean from it.

If you weren't aware, you can find the gold statistics for your character by going to Achievement panel (Press Y) -> Statistics (tab on bottom) -> Character (on left) -> Wealth.

It is a bit staggering when you start to add up the numbers but can they tell us anything about ourselves as auctioneers?