Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Guild Bank Skimming and Cash Flow Update

Cash Flow?


Cash Flow Guild Perk and Passive Income

One of the benefits of having a guild of at least guild level 10 is the free gold from the Cash Flow guild perk.  Anytime a member of your guild loots a mob or chest, or receives a split of coins in a dungeon group or party, an extra 10% goes directly into the guild bank.  Since the change in Patch 4.1, there is no longer a text display of this extra coin that is earned by the guild.  They removed the text log output that showed "An extra Xg Xs Xc was deposited into the guild bank."  This is extra gold, not a tax on the looted gold.  Guild members that loot still get the same amount of gold as if they weren't in a gold.  It is just a bonus 10% for the guild bank.

Some guild leaders use this money to pay for guild crafting materials or guild member or officer repairs.  I have previously written about my passive guild income project for the guild.  I use a random invite all guild macro to do nothing but provide a place for leveling characters and alts to benefit from guild perks.  As a side bonus, the free bonus gold from the Cash Flow perk has been earning me a passive income.

My guild of all random invitees has recently hit guild level 10 and is pushing for guild level 11 soon.  The gold from the Cash Flow perk has earned me around 3k of free gold between leveling from level 5 to level 10.  The 3000 free gold is a nice bonus so far.  I am looking forward to more easy passive gold.

The 7th Guild Bank Slot

The first 6 guild tabs are completely blocked off from being viewed by anyone but my main character and alternate characters.  I purchased the 7th guild bank tab for the guild and opened it up for guild member use.  Any character is allowed to deposit items into the 7th guild bank tab and is allowed to withdrawal up to 2 items per day.  This guild bank slot was opened up for the guild members to be able to deposit items that other guild members could use.  It is sort of like the free penny containers near cash registers in real life.  "Need a penny take one, have a penny leave one."

The biggest problem with utilizing the bank tab this way is it tends to fill up quickly as players deposit much more than they actually withdrawal.  So periodically, I have to go through the 7th guild bank slot and remove any junk items that have been deposited in there.  I often clear out full bags of garbage that goes straight to the vendor.  Players will deposit anything into this tab, not knowing what is and isn't worth passing on.

The flipside of this strategy allows me to look into the 7th guild bank slot and basically skim anything that is of actual value to be used in crafting or in auction house profiteering.  I have found full stacks of Illusion Dust and Greater Eternal Essences in this tab.  I have also found Rare Patterns and other valuables.  I very rarely skim out of this guild bank tab, unless I have to go and clean out the garbage items.  The occasional good find makes it worth the extra effort of maintaining the garbage to either vendor or send to my Enchanter for disenchanting.

So if you are finding your playtime cut short this summer or the dang school kids have raided your markets and you are looking for a new income source, give the passive income gold making guild option a try.  You may be pleasantly surprised by how much passive gold you can make.  And the nice items you can skim out of the public guild bank tabs are a great perk too.

Anyone else got a guild bank set up for a passive income stream?

10 comments:

  1. I find parts of this post fairly disturbing... First off you mention that you randomly invite players into your guild - I hope that you at least chat with them first. I find it very rude when I'm running one of my toons that I haven't put into my family guild yet and get a guild invite pop up on my screen with not so much as a "heya, how ya doin'".

    Secondly, you basically admit to using them to build up a 'passive income' via the 10% guild bonus with the only benefit to them being that you graciously allow them to share the 7th bank tab - but only to help each other out cause you admit to taking mats and other items out - and even 'rarely' taking high value items that they cluelessly put in. (I understand cleaning up the junk - but even vendering the junk should be put into something your guildies could use). You basically have admitted to randomly inviting ppl, then using them for your gain with no real benefit for them other then what some of the provide each other. wow... and you wonder why some people give you a bad name.

    Cold, I bought your MFC guide and actually praised it in the comments. I even defended it somewhat at JMTC - although I did tell you both to grow up... but this post really makes me question whether I need to just skip your blog as I read over the others linked at the PWG directory.

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  2. Interesting strategy Cold, however I wonder if the fact that your 7th guild tab is always filling up because it is GM only. As far as I know guildies are not able to withdraw anything from the 7th tab.

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  3. Mines pulling 5/6k per week from Cashflow, probably the same again from people putting stuff into my "Venus Fly Trap" tabs (ie they can deposit but not withdraw)...

    Happy times for minimal effort and we're permanantly stuck at 1000 members, with anyone offline over 7 days automatically kicked.

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  4. @Matt M

    It's no shady business at all. As I mentioned in the previous post, I am foolin no one here. Everything is written out in the guild info and as soon as someone joins the guild, they are directed to the guild info tab.

    People either love the idea of free perks for their alts or as they level, or they /gquit right then and there. Everyone knows the deal, that the guild will never be anything but a free perks guild, and everyone knows that they are free to come and go as they please.

    Everything is spelled out in the guild charter info and I still have people contacting me through the guild finder wanting to get into my guild knowing that it is just for alts or people who like peace and quite and no drama while they level. Hell, we don't even talk in guild chat. Like I say in the charter info, the guild is perfect for soloers and alts.

    Once someone joins they tend to add their other alts too, because players on my server like the idea of the guild and like being able to use guild perks and get guild reward items.

    And random spamming on guild invites periodically on my guilded characters is all the effort it takes to get the guild filling up. The guild is nearing 600 players that all know what the guild is used for and they choose to stay in.

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  5. This has been my guild forever with all 6 slots opened by me and no members except me and my alts.
    Only after Cata released and guild perks entered did I open the guild up for other players to help level the guild (more as an experiment to see if it would work).
    I had every guild bank tab locked out to everyone but me. People asked about a tab to use, so I bought the 7th slot and opened it up for guild member use per their request.
    I rarely even look into the 7th tab. I only look to see if it is full or not.
    If it is full, I will clear out the junk. People tend to throw white garbage items, bandages, stranglethorn pages and other worthless garbage in the tab.
    I clear out this junk and judge the value of the other items in there. If they are items to help leveling players I leave them. If its some stupid garbage item like a +spirit +agi plate item, I vendor or D/E it. This crap shouldnt even be in the guild bank to begin with.
    I will occasionaly take out an item and add it to my guild slots just to save space, if it is something that has a use, but is going to rot iun there, like Raptor Hides.
    I never go shopping through the 7th tab. Only when it is full, I clear junk out because it does no one any good to have garbage filled up in the 7th tab and no space to put items that others could use.
    I think I've taked a total of maybe 4 items out total. I've even left rare blue patterns in there, because I already knew the pattern.
    This guild is about as anti-social as they come. There is no guild chat, no dungeon runs, no raids, no nothing. Hell people don't even level together.
    10% perk adds money to the guild bank. That's the only way gold goes in. Others can't deposit gold.
    Everyone knows what kind of guild it is and is free to leave whenever or also free to invite others or add their alts.
    Players are leeching the guilds perks and I am leeching 10% of what they never would have seen anyways.
    Other players can withdraw from that tab as well. The 2 item/stack withdrawal per day for members is to limit the first day guild joiners who run to the gbank looking to clean it out.
    Once we unlock the 8th tab I plan to open it up as well for guild transfer.
    If someone is friendly and asks nicely, I do give free items out of MY (tabs 1-6) stock to help them out if I have it to spare.

    I don't really think I am doing anything unethical or shady at all. As I stated I'm not shopping and looking for items for my own use or gain. I simply prune the garbage and make it tidy and open more slots for the exchange of items, which actually is occurring in the 7th tab.

    They are using me for guild perks, rewards, and exchanging items in the 7th tab. For their perks, they are helping to level up the guild and the extra coins that hit the gold bank is irrelevant as they never see it and doesn't lessen what they would have received.

    3k not worth the work? It's no work, just a little bit of cleaning out of the 7th tab, which i do while barking so it isn't costing me any time investment.

    Remember anything deposited into the free for all tab is just that. Free for anyone to take out and use how they see fit. Whether someone takes something out to sell or keep doesn't matter. The person who deposited it there didn't want it and didn't want to sell it or they already would have. So anything in there is unwanted and can be sold, taken, used, or taken out and mailed to your girlfriend who is in another guild, etc. Doesn't matter to me one way or the other. It's a free for all tab.

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  6. I started recruiting to my bankalt guild about 4 months ago, and finally, I have enough people online each day to reach the XP cap. I get around 1000-1200g per week from 7 dungeon challenges and the 5% cash flow perk. I have about 15-50 people online at all times, and I was lucky enough to recruit a group of 4 friends that level together, so I get the 7 dungeon challenges done each week.

    I use an addon to do the guild invites by using different /who searches, auto whispering and ginv all in one.

    I have reached 900 members, so now I do what my guild info has always said, if you are offline more than a month, you will get kicked. So I kicked all lowlevel chars that has been offline long, while still keeping the number of members around 900. I hope, that I soon will be able to have 1000 members, with none of them being offline more than a month. The more active members you have, the more passive income you will get.

    Personally, I prefer to have all the 7 guild bank tabs locked, but thats because I deal in so many different areas that I need the space.

    So, to sum it up; guild level 8, 1000-1200g each week, 15-50 online at all times, all dungeon guild challenges gets done each week, inactive for 1 month and you get kicked.

    Thats my philosophy, and I have no second thoughts about inviting to the guild at the same time as I whisper them some relevant info.

    A pro tip; If you try to invite someone guildless, and you get a blizzard error saying "already in a guild", tell them to relog, and the bug is fixed.

    Personal opinion; Almost too much of a hassle up until 1 week ago, before that, it was not much gain, but if you are patient, you will reap the rewards eventually.

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  7. I just felt I should add this;
    -at guild level 5 you get 5% cash flow.
    -at guild level 16 you get the 10% cash flow.

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  8. i too do this and i start to worry about the ramifications.. blizzard is starting to change their stance on what a GM can do and what they can't.. they seem to be leaning towards.. "the items/gold in the gbank is the GUILDS and not just the guild leaders" so im starting to worry about getting my guild removed.. so my question is are you guys worried? do you have any links to possible punishments if caught doing this "passive income" thing?

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  9. People are getting upset about this guild method because it is everything is transparent.

    Here are some scenarios that blizz wont fix but results in the same.

    Guild master kicks all people in the guild, takes the items, gold and disbands the guild. Is bliz gonna fix it if the GM actually did it? (not hacked)

    GM takes a few items every day from the bank, nothing big but constantly. Blizz is going to put them back?

    GM takes a 100g/day everyday (36.5kg at the end of the year) Blizz is going to refund the gold?

    These events happen every day. Cold's strat is simply out there in the open.

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  10. @ Matt M:

    I have been doing this with my guild since the end of May. If you don't want to join a guild through random invite, Blizzard gives you the option to disable guild invites. Once you're ready to join your little "family guild" you can re-enable this.

    While about 1% of people do complain about the random invite, the other 99% seem to enjoy the perks and (gasp) THANK me for the invite! There is nothing shady about doing this, and Cold is following the rules as far as I can tell.

    Nowhere is it in Blizz's TOS that you must whisper someone before inviting them to a guild. I have yet to even receive a complaint about this, after inviting thousands of people to join my guild over the last few months. The key is to make sure your add-on only invites each person ONCE then makes sure not to invite them again. Ninja Invite can do this, not sure about the other scripts.

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