Monday, April 23, 2012

May Topic For Monthly Gold Blogging Carnival


Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - May 2012 Topic

A big thanks to all of the participants who submitted entries for last month's blogging carnival. Hopefully you will continue to participate in the monthly shared topics. Participation from newer bloggers is also highly encouraged. Everyone is welcome to write a post for the blogging carnivals at Cold's Gold Factory. Again, thank you to all the bloggers who submitted posts for the April Carnival on MoP Stockpiling. If you missed the March carnival, be sure to check it out!  Stockpiling for Mists of Pandaria is a hot topic right now and tons of traffic continues to pour in looking for stockpiling tips on what to stockpile for Mists of Pandaria.


What If I Don't Have A Blog And I Want To Participate?

If you don't have your own site, you can still participate in the gold blogging carnivals. Sometimes a topic may tickle your fancy or you may have a unique spin on a blogging carnival topic that you would like to have read by others. Well, you are in luck. There are WoW blogging sites that will post and host your content as a guest post. Just follow the normal blogging carnival rules that the others follow and get your post hosted and live prior to the carnival. Then, just submit the link to me for inclusion in the upcoming gold blogging carnival.

The friendly sites willing to host your content are:
  1. Goldgrub's Goblin Academy - Contact: Me (Cold)
  2. Squidoo - Join up and make a lens on the topic.
  
May 2012 Gold Blogging Carnival Topic

With the Mists of Pandaria expansion on its way and many markets starting to feel the end of expansion lull, we must start to prepare for the new WoW expansion.  One way to speculate about the future is to learn from the past and try to apply some of our historical experiences to the expected markets in the new expansion.  Let's take a look back over some of the niche markets in the Cataclysm expansion and see what opportunities could arise in Mists of Pandaria.  Which brings me to the May Topic:
Looking Back Throughout The Cataclysm Expansion:
What Was A Niche Market That You Were Suprised To Find Or That You Did Better Than Expected In During Cataclysm?
Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Gold Blogger Appreciation Challenge


Have You Thanked A Gold Blogger Lately?


Gold Bloggers Come and Go

The community of gold bloggers is ever changing.  There are those of us that have been around for quite some time, but the majority of blogs that focus on how to make gold in WoW are short lived endeavors.  Hey, putting out quality original content is much harder than you think.  Just ask all of the blogs that have died over the years.  I have also went through some burned out phases where my posting schedule has sufferred.  I am glad that has been turning around lately.  Blogging consistently is hard work, so remember that when you visit the blogs around the gold making community.


Take a moment today and leave a comment on a few of your favorite gold blogs.  Let them know you appreciate their dedication and hard work.  Too many times we are quick to leave a comment to correct someone, disagree, or tell them just how wrong we think they are (I'm guilty too).  How often do we leave a comment thanking a blogger or letting them know that we appreciate their hard work?  Not often enough.  So take a moment to spread some love today.  Tell a friend about a site you love, tweet a post you like, share their content on facebook, or submit a post to your favorite bookmarking or social media site.

I guarantee you will make that blogger feel more appreciated and this will help spark their desire and interest in providing more great content for you.

So get out there and spread some love!

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold Making Combo and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.
Have you thanked a gold blogger lately for all the free information they provide to help you out?

Friday, April 20, 2012

Stockpiling For MoP: Is It Time To Start Stocking Up?


Panda Stockpiling Time?
Time To Stock Up For Mists of Pandaria?


Mists of Pandaria Stockpiling Tips


Is It Time To Start Stockpiling For Mists Of Pandaria?


Yes & No

I have already begun to start stockpiling items for Mists of Pandaria, but only a few specific items.  I have given some ideas on what to stockpile for Mists of Pandaria and so have others in the MoP Stockpiling carnival entries.  Those posts are geared to get you thinking about what you will be stockpiling, but aren't designed to be direct warnings to start stockpiling immediately.  Right now the main things I have been stockpiling are the harder to obtain and rarer items: mainly Mounts, Companion Pets, and profession chokepoint items.  Any items that are rare and hard to get should be given priority at this point in the Cata expansion.  Of course, don't pass up any dirt cheap priced items.  Those should be snatched up immediately.

Why not get started stockpiling everything right now? 

There are 2 main reasons not to start mass buying raw materials and other common items just yet.
  1. The Cataclysm expansion is far from over. 
  2. Summer is coming.
Even though the MoP Beta is progressing along and we have already hit the expansion lull that happens after the last major content patch, there is still a ways to go until the end of Cataclysm and the release of Mists of Pandaria.  Leaked reports have the next WoW expansion placed as a launch in quarter two of 2012, with many speculating a late June MoP launch.  So we still have at least a couple of months left.  The closer we get to the expansion, then more players will start to liquidate their old stock in preparation for the new expansion.  Prices will continue to drop in many markets as useage will continue to decline.  This drop in demand will also be paired with market flooding as players dump their goods, so prices should be better than they currently are.

In addition to the decline in demand and the market flooding there is another major contributor that cripples many markets.  That dreaded time of year, when many markets see a major increase in competition is the summer break.  College students should have more play time starting in late May / early June and high schools will start letting out for summer break in early to mid June.  This is the first time we have seen a new WoW expansion release during the summer break.  Even more players will be invading auction house markets and further crashing items down to cheaper levels.

So start picking up rock bottom priced goods and the harder to find items now, while waiting closer to launch for the raw materials prices to bottom out.

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold Making Combo and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Cross Faction Transferring - How To Avoid Getting Sniped


Watch out for WoW auction house snipers
He's Waiting To Snipe Your Auctions


Transferring Items Across Factions Via The Neutral AH

One of the strategies for making gold in World of Warcraft involves transferring items via the neutral auction house from one faction to the other. There can be a great difference in price when comparing the same item on both the Horde and the Alliance auction houses. This leaves an opportunity to transfer items from the cheaper side to the more expensive side to make even more gold. Sometimes you may need an item that is rarely available on your faction, but is readily available on the other. Or you could be looking for a way to transfer some nice gear from your Horde characters to your newly formed Alliance alts on the same server. There are plenty of reasons why someone would want to transfer an item across factions, but there is a major risk involved. Someone else could end up buying the item right out from under you!

Sniping - Sniping is the term we use to describe the act of snatching these items off of the neutral auction house before the intended buyer can buy them.

How Not To Transfer Items Cross Faction

In order to transfer items from one faction to the other, you must use the neutral auction house. The basic premise is this:
  1. You post an item on the neutral auction house on 1 character.
  2. You buy it out on a character on the other faction. 
The absolute worst way to attempt a cross faction transfer is to:
  1. Post the item on character 1.
  2. Log out of character 1.
  3. Log into character 2 on the opposing faction.
  4. Attempt to buy your own item off the auction house.
With this method, you run the highest risk of getting your auction sniped by another player because you are leaving a large window of opportunity for sniping during your character swapping process. This risk can be lowered if you get a friend to be waiting on the other faction waiting to buy your auctioned item for you.
  
Since the auction house fees are very expensive on the neutral auction house, many players will post their items to transfer at very low prices, which makes them easy to identify as items trying to be transferred. Posting your item for more than a few copper will make it less obvious to an inexperienced sniper, but if you are trying to do all of the work on a single account, then you are still leaving yourself at high risk for sniping. Auction House add-ons can still search for items priced too low and alert the scanner that they are posted at great deal finding prices. So what is the safest way to transfer items across the neutral auction house?

How I Transfer Items Safely Across The Neutral Auction House

I have a 100% success rate for transferring my own items across to the other faction. I have never been sniped in any of my arbitrage attempts. Here is the method that I use and that I consider the fastest, safest, and best way to transfer anything via the neutral auction house.
  
Common sense should tell you to look around at the neutral auction house auctioning area. Is there someone shopping on the neutral AH already? Wait until that person leaves the area. I've actually been impatient and used my own strategy while the neutral auction house is busy, because even with someone looking to snipe you, odds are your can get the item before they can using my tactics. Here's how I do it.
  
The safest way to transfer anything via the neutral AH is to use 2 seperate WoW accounts and the Remote Auction House application on a phone. This combination make sit damn near impossible for anyone to snipe your items, even if they are there searching for items to snatch. If done right, you'll have bought your item before their search scan even finishes.
  
How It's Done:
  1. Log into the selling WoW account on your computer.
  2. Park the seller at any of the neutral auction houses.
  3. Log into buying account on the Remote Auction House Application on your smart phone.
  4. The buyer is buying from the RAH app, so the character's in game location doesn't matter.
  5. On the buying account, pre-fill the search terms for the item you are transferring and going to buy.
  6. On the seller account, pre-fill all of the posting price data for that same item.
  7. Hit the post button on the computer.
  8. Immediately hit the search function on the phone and buyout the item you just posted.
  9. Repeat this process one item at a time.
This process minimizing that window of opportunity for a sniper to search for and find your item before you have a chance to buy it yourself. Using the RAH app also prevents you from having to park a character near the neutral auction house. If you have two accounts or a friend helping with both the buyer and seller near the same auctioneer, you are just asking for trouble. Trying to compete the transferring process all by yourself on a single account is also just screaming for someone to come snipe you. To be the safest, use two seperate accounts and a smart phone with the RAH application. This method has never got me into trouble. You can do the same thing with just 2 WoW accounts, but the RAH adds an even faster and less obvious sign that you are cross faction transferring.

Is Sniping A Reportable Offense?   

Hell no! All the sniper did was buy an item off of the auction house that you priced horribly low. By posting items on the neutral auction house, you are offering them for sale at the chosen price, which is no different than you posting items on any other auction house. If you don't get to buy them first, then you lose out on the items, but no crime has been committed. Once you get nabbed once, you will hopefully try to be smarter about how you cross faction transfer.
  
Many players frown upon the notion of someone even thinking of sniping someone's items off the auction house. Pshh! Probably the same people who jump at the chance to buy a mispriced item off of the normal auction house. It's no different really. You are just preying upon people making mistakes in their posting process. You can find some good deals on both the faction and neutral auction house system. If they are that cheap, why wouldn't you buy them?
  


Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold Making Combo and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

MFCs Will Never Die

"I Flip For Mysterious Fortune Cards!"
Hagor Flips For Mysterious Fortune Cards

Mysterious Fortune Cards Will Never Die

Mysterious Fortune Cards (MFCs) will never become obsolete.  One of the negative aspects of having a new expansion released for World of Warcraft is the fact that at least 90% of the profession craftable items will become obsolete.  These older pattern crafted items are undesireable by the majority of characters.  Sure, there are some nice leveling pieces that characters may desire as gear upgrades while leveling, but the demand quickly fades a few months into the new WoW expansion's release.

Mysterious Fortune Cards are different because they are one of the items that will continue to sell long in the Mists of Pandaria expansion and beyond.  Why?  Because there will always be a demand for players looking to gamble at a chance to win a quick 5k gold.  Even if a new MFC type card is released in Mists of Pandaria, the Mysterious Fortune Cards will still be another valid gambling option.  And as discussed in the post on Population Cycles & MFC Barking, the launch of a new expansion is a great time to sell MFCs to all of the new and returning players.  Increased player populations on servers means more players will be hearing your barks, which in turn will lead to more sales.  One of the benefits of buying my MFC Guide and learning to properly sell your Mysterious Fortune Cards is the fact that the market will never die.  The MFC sales will continue to roll in each and every expansion.

Bringing MFCs Into Mists of Pandaria


When stockpiling for Mists of Pandaria, I recommend stocking up early on your Inscription Inks.  If you are having trouble finding storage space for all of your herbs and inks, then you can also convert some of those Blackfallow Inks to MFCs, since they stack 200 cards per stack.  This can be a great space saver, if you craft a bunch ahead of time.  They will fly off the WoW auction house once the swarm of new & returning players arrives into Azeroth.  If you buy a bunch of herbs to make your MFCs now, you will make an even better profit later on into the MoP expansion once inflation and the lack of farmers in older zones starts to drive the prices up on the raw materials.  So you can use the WoW expansion inflation to your advantage and sell your MFCs for more when the herb supplies dry up.

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold Making Combo and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

What To Stockpile For Mists Of Pandaria | April Gold Blogging Carnival

How To Make Gold In WoW
Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals


Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - 2012

Welcome to another 2012 edition of Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival. These carnivals will continue to take place the 11th day of every month and will be hosted here at Cold's Gold Factory. All World of Warcraft bloggers are welcome to participate and feedback both here and on the original authors' sites is strongly encouraged. So show some support and please leave some feedback in the comments section. These bloggers put a lot of time and hard work into these blogging carnival posts so please tell them what you think.

If you would like to be included in the next month's carnival, please review the guidelines for Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals and submit your live post link via email (ssmith0911 at live dot com) before the 10th of the month. Read up on the benefits of participating in blogging carnivals at my other blog designed to help new bloggers, Blogging Vitals.  (Lots of tips for those of you starting out or interested in blogging.)  Articles for the CGF carnival are listed in the order they are received. Thank you to all the bloggers participating in this months carnival!

If you are not a blogger, you can still participate in the monthly carnivals as you can have a post hosted at Goldgrubs.com.  Now I present to you this month's participants answering the question:


What Is Your Stockpiling Plan For Profiting & Hedging Against Inflation in MoP?



Stockpiling For MoP by Jafo of The Auction House Grind


Getting Ready For Mists of Pandaria: The MoP Stockpile by Farli of The Overcut


What To Stockpile For Mists Of Pandaria by Cold of Cold's Gold Factory

Getting Ready For Mists of Pandaria: An Overlook by Alaeriel of Alaeriel's WoW Stuff


Thanks again to all of this month's participants.  Be sure to check back later for next month's carnival topic and remember to look for next month's gold blogging carnival on the 11th.  If you have a topic idea, don't be afraid to send it in.  We may use your idea, which will get you proper credit as well.  

Until next month,

Keep on keepin' on!



Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

What To Stockpile For Mists Of Pandaria | Cata to MoP Stockpiling

Time To Stockpile For Mop & Pandas!
Stockpiling For Mists of Pandaria


Stockpiling For Mists Of Pandaria


Is it too early to Stockpile for MoP?  The Cataclysm expansion has come to a lull and Diablo 3 is on the horizon, but it is definitely not too early to start thinking about stockpiling for Mists of Pandaria.  Have you thought about what you will be stocking up on?  When the new WoW expansion launches, we will see another profitable mass influx of players joining the game.  These players will be a mix of brand new players and returning players.  Many players will be wanting to try the new monk class or the new Panda race.  New players and new characters bring an increased demand for many items like those required for profession leveling or items that enhance or speed the leveling process.  There will be many markets that will return to being viable simply because of the population growths that always occur following a new expansion's release.  Remember a major patch or a previous WoW expansion launch when you ran out of something that was a goldmine at the time?  Did you wish you had stockpiled more of them?  Or maybe you hadn't even stockpiled at all and the auction house prices had gone through the roof on you.  Don't let your competition choke you out of the auction house because you forgot to stockpile!  It is time to think ahead to tank advantage of this major market cycle in WoW.

Raw Materials


With any new character population explosion there will be an increased need for all raw materials required for leveling a character's professions.  Ores, Herbs, and Leather will all see an increase in demand at the beginning of MoP as players level there professions.  As the expansion continues farther past the launch and there are less characters in the leveling zones, the lower level raw materials prices will start to climb as there are less players and bots farming those areas for raw materials.  Most players and bots will move on to the new MoP raw materials.

Anything that you will be needing to level a profession or to continue a niche market it is a good choice for your MoP stockpile.  If you are looking for good money makers to sell quickly, then you should focus on raw materials that are choke points to leveling a profession.  You can even make WoW inflation work in your favor, by stocking up on raw materials at today's prices and then selling the crafted good at the later inflated market rate.

Leather is currently hard to come by on my server and I only predict that it will get worse, unless we see a nice influx of monks, pandas, and new characters coming in as skinners.  Even then, the demand for leather and leather crafted goods will skyrocket with all of the monks in MoP.  Remember the rush on Plate when Death Knights were added?

Inks


What is the best item for any scribe to stock up on?  Inks are the main focus of a Scribe's stockpile.  Why Inks?  Versatility!  We know that the glyph system is getting another major overhaul, so crafting a bunch of glyphs ahead of time could be a flawed plan.  Every time there is a glyph overhaul, we get glyphs that don't survive any changes.  These glyphs turn into vendor trash.  Any of these you have pre-crafted that you can't get rid of will be wasted potential profits.  Saving Inks in your stockpile for MoP will keep you versatile.  The Inscription exchange vendors like Jessica Sellers should be utilized prior to the new expansion. The vendors will be changed to require the newest MoP Inks so any stockpiling of the various Inks should be done ahead of the expansion.  If you forget, you will be stuck with a bunch of Blackfallow Inks.  So remember to visit the Ink exchanging npcs prior to MoP.  These vendors can be changed in pre-expansion patches as well, so start thinking ahead.

Catering To New Characters


There are many markets that will see a spike in demand because of all the new characters entering the game.  Selling to new characters in Cataclysm, made me a massive chunk of gold.  Planning and thinking ahead to what these new characters will be wanting to buy is an important step in the process of making gold off low level and new characters that should be started soon.  If you plan on making certain gear that new players will want, you might want to be stockpiling the harder to find materials in your MoP stockpile.  Leather gear will be at a premium because of the increased demand that monks will bring to the economy.  I would highly recommend starting your leather stockpiling now.  Barbaric Bracers, Deviate Scale Belts, Toughened Leather Gloves, and other low level Leatherworking niches should be vibrant again.  Many of these take some harder to find materials that should be stockpiled now, if you are planning on hitting those markets.  Good low level green items that have the proper stat combinations will also be good items to flip to the leveling monks and other leather wearing classes.

Bags are always a huge seller when expansions bring a character population explosion.  Remember to sell the profession specific bags as well.  The bags required by the various professions have always been great investments,especially the mining bags.

The population explosion is also another great time to start or resume MFC Barking.  Barking is always more effective the more players are hearing your barks, so expansion launches are great times to bark.  You don't have to limit barking to just Mysterious Fortune Cards.  Adventurer's Journals are another great item to sell to  leveling characters.


Check out my Top 6 Items To Craft For All The Monks Coming In MoP

Hedging Against MoP Inflation


Inflation is coming in MoP.  The item most succeptable to inflation is liquid gold.  That's why building a stockpile for MoP is so important.  By choosing items to buy as inflation hedges we buy specific items now that we will hopefully be able to sell for much more into the next expansion.  Historically, good choices have been hard to obtain items like rare and hard-to-get companion pets, mounts, and expensive vanity items.  With MoP bringing us the battle pet system, I still think pets are a no brainer here.  Stocking up on the rare pets should bring a nice payout in Mists of Pandaria.  I would also keep an eye out for nicely priced rare mounts like Poseidus.  Less players will be in his zone and his price should inflate and be a nice hedge against inflation.

Now that we have more news on the Battle Pet System, don't miss my new posts on:

Have You started Your MoP Stockpile Yet?



Be Sure To Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide or the PvP and Gold Making Combo and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.