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Making Gold In WoW: Looking Back For Improvement

March 7, 2012 Leave a Comment

This gold making blog post is being written as an entry into the March WoW Gold Blogging Carnival over at Cold’s Gold Factory.  Each month at Cold’s Gold Factory, a variety of WoW gold bloggers contribute articles all written on a specific topic chosen by the gold blogging carnivals host.  Be sure head over and check out all of the other great entries in this month’s carnival.  This month’s carnival topic asks us:

Using your knowledge that you have gained from auction house experience:  If you were starting over as a gold maker, what is one thing you would do differently than the first time, and why?

How Would I Change The Ways I Made Gold In WoW?

The biggest and most obvious change that I would make is that I would have started using auction house add-ons much much earlier. 

Back when I first started blogging, I often would talk about how I used hardly any add-ons at all.  The main reason I was so adamant against using auction house add-ons was because I wanted to feel like I had a sense of accomplishing the gold making aspects of World of Warcraft completely on my own.  I did not need add-ons to do it for me.  I was doing all of the math, the cross references, the comparisons, the spreadsheets, and every single thing that an add-on does for you.  I have a brain and could think on my own.  I didn’t need some stupid add-on to tell me what to do.

I also felt that a heavy dependance on auction house add-ons was a crutch that players leaned on too heavily.  By not using add-ons, I was unhampered on patch days, when others were stuck scrambling to find work arounds for their add-ons.  While those players were lost, I was still able to plug away on my auction house routine.

My other fear was that a reliance on add-ons would lead to a weaker understanding of the auction house markets.  I still believe that to this day, but since I made it to the Wrath gold cap without any add-ons I had a pretty good understanding of how all of the markets rise & fall and interact with each other.  I still don’t think a player should jump right into ways to make gold on the auction house by using add-ons.  You should learn how the markets interact and how the ebb and flow prior to installing the auction house add-ons. 

Today I wish I would have started using the basic WoW auction house add-ons much earlier.  Not immediately, but once I had a good understanding of how the WoW auction house and WoW gold making systems worked together.  Auctioneer was a great tool that helped save me a lot of time once I finally started using it.  Then when I finally made the switch to the Auctionator / TradeSkillMaster combination I really started to save a ton of time.  Less time in the auction house, meant more time for actually playing the rest of the game.  Add-ons can decrease your time relisting, posting, crafting, researching, purchasing, comparing, farming, and barking. 

So don’t be afraid of using add-ons to help you make gold in WoW.  I do recommend getting a basic understanding of the auction house before installing auction house add-ons.  If you do, your overall gold making process will flow more smoothly, you will understand what the add-on is actually doing, and you will be able to go back to the old fashioned approach when your add-ons get broken after patches.

 

 

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Banned: The Most Redonkulus Ways To Easily Make Crazy Gold On The World of Warcraft Auction House

December 21, 2011 Leave a Comment

hearthcast logo 300x300 Banned: The Most Redonkulus Ways To Easily Make Crazy Gold On The World of Warcraft Auction HouseWe hear the goblins say it all the time… “time is money, friend!”… but do we ever stop to think of what that really means?

It’s not just a cliché from an NPC telling us to hurry up with whatever business we’re conducting with them, but rather it is a secret formula that leads to unheard of profits within the game.

Let’s look at some basic auction house secrets explained by some simple clichés.

Keep Your Nose To The Grindstone!

Over on Hearthcast, Carnage gives a weekly tip with a grind that results in pretty good returns. That grind usually involes going somewhere, killing someone, and looting something… over and over again, then taking that something you got frome someone somewhere and selling it on the auction house for crazy gold.

Location, Location, Location!

Patterns, recipes, limited quantity items, and tradeskill ingredients are bought from vendors for mere silver and sold on the auction house for easy profits every day.

One Mans Trash is Another Mans Treasure!

BOE items you can’t use for any of your toons, items you bought with extra Justice Points, raw materials from gathering skills, things from random chests or lockboxes… even some trivial grey items that you fished up… all of them hold a value to someone else on the Auction House

Another Day Another Dollar!

When I was conducting the “Phatwallet Experiment”, (where i took a level 1 toon, ported to a major city, was given 100 gold, and could only make gold by way of reselling vendor items or relisting auction house items) I practically lived at the AH. I spent hours each day scanning the auctions, looking for deals. I made a ton of gold, the key being the consistency in which I was performing my actions.

Measure Up To The Business At Hand

Here’s a secret for you: whenever I leave the game to look up information, and I have to actually “work” for that information, I make a mental note of it. Case in point, Winter Veil and ginger bread cookies. I had a slightly difficult time locating the vendor in Orgrimar who sells the recipe. The information online wasn’t all in one place. It took effort to find out who sold it, their general area, and their name. Once I found them (10 steps away from the quest giver),I bought 21 recipes. One for me, 20 to list on the Auction House…. at 10 to 15 gold each. I sold out within minutes, and went back to buy more.

Laughing All The Way To The Bank

When I make a big sale on the Auction House that fits into the clichés above, it makes me giddy! I smile, and sometimes laugh, at how easy it is sometimes to make gold on the AH in WOW.

So remember, when you’re wandering about Azeroth, pay attention to the very things around you – they could be untapped piles of gold!

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Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player

December 7, 2011 9 Comments

I was an avid Auctioneer user, up to patch 4.3, which left me with a broken addon making the Auction House rather useless to me. By Auctioneer not being up to speed with their add on, they gave me no choice but to seek another solution.

Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player

4.3 left me with a broken Auctioneer, but gave me the opportunity to expand my horizons by allowing me the opportunity to install Auctionator.

Within just a few moments after installing Auctionator, I was incredibly impressed – and slightly confused.

I visited the Auction House, and, logically, scanned the AH. Instead of the 20+ minutes Auctioneer took, I was done with the scan within seconds. What had I done wrong? Nothing. It’s simply a better system. (Time is money, friend!)

Auctionator Basic Setup

auctionator basic options Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
Enable alt-key shortcut allows me to alt-click an item in my bag and have it automatically post to the AH.
The other options are pretty straight forward, but you can easily see they’re designed to save the user time.

Auctionator Tool Tips

auctionator tooltips Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
Again, pretty straight forward tool tips. These will give you very good pricing information on the items you loot. I like to get the individual price first, and then the stack price when I hold down the shift key.

Auctionator Undercutting

auctionator undercutting Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
FINALLY, a semi-decent way to logically undercut someone! These are the defaults it comes with. You’ll most likely want to tweak those settings out a bit for your server. I am so happy to have options in an undercut market place!

Sellling With Auctionator

In Auctionators Basic Options, my default tab is set to SELL, and my bags automatically open up. That means as soon as I interact with the Auction House NPC, I’m ready to go. Then I just Alt-Click on the item in my bag, and it’s posted up for me.
auctionator create multiple auctions Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
I will point out that you need to tell Auctionator how many stacks of how many you’re going to sell. 2 stacks of 20, 4 of 10… your choice. It does tell you the max, but it can be hard to see, as it’s kind of greyed out under the option box. As soon as you make your choice, it will create the auctions you set.
auctionator creating 1 of 2 Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player

Buying With Auctionator

Sometimes, you gotta buy.. ok, a lot of the time… and, Auctionator makes it super easy. Shopping lists? Remembering what I searched for? REALLY? AWESOME
auctionator shopping list Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
Small Eggs are a wonderful investment (and even better if you farm them!). People will toss a stack of 20 up for 20 gold, but when a seasonal even that requires Small Eggs comes up, they’ll easily sell for 40-50 gold… And, of course, Auctionator makes it easy to buy multiples!
auctionator multiple buys Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player

Auctionator Checks For Undercutters

While there are some other addons that do this for you, I like that this one is inside Auctionator. You scan, it tells you if you’re being undercut, and then lets you start cancelling your auctions.
auctionator undercut check Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
Click the start cancelling button, and it does the work for you…
auctionator cancelled Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
Then simply relist the items to undercut the person undercutting you – let the wars begin!
Coincidently, when I was screen shotting this stuff for this article…
auctionator a buyer has been found Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player
I managed to make a quick couple hundred gold! icon wink Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player

I also mentioned on Twitter that Auctionator pulled in an accidental 2K for me. It’s true. While I was toying around with the features to decide if I wanted to stay with Auctionator or wait around for the other guys to figure things out, I found over 2K gold worth of stuff I had lying around, over priced, or poorly listed. With just the help of the tool tips and the scans, I was able to turn 2K in less than 30 minutes, all by accident.

Why Auctionator Proves To Be Better Than Auctioneer For This World Of Warcraft Auction House Player

    Speed Of Auction House Scanning
    More Fluid Options For Selling
    Better Undercutting Scanning
    Tool Tips With Options!
    Shopping Lists!
    Designed To Sell And Make You Gold!

It’s my honest opinion that Auctionator was extremely well thought out, and that with just a few moments of tinkering, the average player could be easily on their way to making gold in the Auction House.

I installed Auctionator using the Curse Addon Manager. It was painless, and I highly recommend it as the tool for the World of Warcraft Auction House
~Rewt

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Here Fishy Fishy…

August 26, 2011 2 Comments

fishing 300x167 Here Fishy Fishy...

Every time I see a yellow dot indicating a fishing pool, I fish.  I do enjoy fishing even though most dread it.  The one thing I have noticed on my realm is the lack of fish available for sale in the auction house. I decided to farm for any fish I could find in the areas I was questing. You must obtain a Weather-Beaten Journal to track these pools in your map. The Weather-Beaten Journal can be obtained in: daily fishing bags or any crate/box you pull up from fishing pools. This journal can only be learned when you have obtained a fishing skill of 100.

My Fishing Trip

I was out leveling up my mining skill on one of my toons when I decided to level up her fishing as well.  Anytime I saw a specific pool on my map, I would plop down, turn on my music and fish in serenity.  I probably did about 30 minutes of fishing in an area that was abundant with Oily Blackmouth and Firefin Snapper fishing pools.  I obtained close to 30 Oily Blackmouth and about 20 Firefin Snapper.  Since I had no use for the fish at that time, I decided to check the auction house and see what they were going for.  One person had 1 Oily Blackmouth up for 10 gold.  I ended up putting the Oily Blackmouth up for 30-35 gold buyout per stack of 5.  Oily Blackmouth are used to make Blackmouth Oil for Alchemists. I checked the Firefin Snapper and saw that there were none for sale.  I put the Firefin Snapper up for 45-50gold  per stack of 5 just to see if they sold.  Firefin Snapper is used to make Fire Oil which is also used for Alchemists.  Within the day, all of my fish had sold.  I checked my realm for different fish that I could fish for and ended up reaping in nice benefits.  I farmed for fish for the next week and even had a guild mate make me a Lure Master Tackle Box to hold all my fish.

My Results

I gathered many stacks of different fishes for various professions.  I sold 80-85% of all the fish I farmed for within 3 days totaling almost 1000 gold!  Please note that every realm is different but nevertheless, a little research on which fish are selling great on your realm’s auction house is encouraged.  You can check out The Undermine Journal for what fish are selling well on your realm.  Even though fishing can be boring and tedious to some, don’t underestimate the profit you can get from farming these fish.  I will also add that the Deepsea Sagefish sells for close to 175 per stack of 20 on my realm. This fish is used to create a delicacy which most healers and casters hunger for in 85 dungeons and raids.  Even the two created foods:  Delicious Sagefish Tail and Severed Sagefish Head sell for a nice profit on my realm.  All you need to do is check out what is selling, grab your strong fishing pole and turn up the music.  Oh, one more thing…it doesn’t hurt to say “Here Fishy, Fishy” as the pupils in your eyes turn into gold coins.

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WoW Beginner Tips & Tricks For Farming

August 8, 2011 1 Comment
WOWFARMINGROY WoW Beginner Tips & Tricks For Farming

WoW Beginner Farming Tips & Tricks

Farming For Beginners

In World of Warcraft, there are many options for making gold.  You can choose to sell items on the auctions house.  You can choose to craft items to sell or craft and enchant for tips.  One of the easiest markets to get into is farming in WoW for raw materials to post on the auction house.  Why is farming an easy option for beginning players?  Farming requires only a time investment; no gold investment is required to profit from farming in World of Warcraft.  So a brand new player can train for skinning, mining, or herbalism profession and farm materials while playing the game and leveling.  Another option is to dedicate some time to strictly farming the raw materials.  Both options require just the profession skill and either a skinning knife for Skinning or a Mining pick for Mining.  Herbalists just use their bare hands or paws to farm herbs in WoW.

Beginner Tips and Tricks For Farming

Here is a handful of tips and tricks that you should consider when getting started as a beginning farmer in World of Warcraft.

  1. When farming keep your bags as empty as possible when you get started farming.  More bag space means you can carry more raw materials before having to return to either town or a mailbox.
  2. WoW Beginner Tips: Bigger bags are better.  For the same reason, more space means longer possible WoW farming sessions.
  3. Try to keep your gathering skill leveled before moving onto new questing areas.  You don’t want to have to go back to lower level zones or go back to kill grey mobs that award no experience.
  4. Set your hearth close by if sending items via the mailbox or set your hearth in a major city with an auction house, if selling the items directly from your farming character.  Time is money friend.
  5. If you are a dual-gatherer Skinner-Miner, save bag space with a combo gathering tool like a Bladed Pickaxe, which functions as a mining pick and a skinning knife.
  6. Farming during off-hours means less competition for resource nodes and skinable mobs.
  7. When selling your raw materials, you don’t always have to post them for the lowest price.  Many items like raw materials sell in great numbers and selling them as the cheapest isn’t required for your items to sell.
  8. If you are out farming for skins and hides with the Skinning profession, target creatures that can drop extra valuable items in addition to your targetted skins and hides.  Examples:  Yetis drop coins in addition to skins and hides.  Dragon Whelplings can be found on some Dragon Whelp type creatures, but they also are skinable.  Why not try for a rare drop as a possible extra bonus to farming the skinning materials?
  9. Research your targeted farming materials on a site like Wowhead.com.  Know where you are headed and find the best spot with the best creatures to farm.  If you are farming for a specific rare item drop, then be sure to farm in an area where the item has the best chance of dropping.
  10. Vendor all of your garbage you find.  In the span of a farming essions you will collect a lot of grey items that are only good for 1 thing – selling to a vendor.  These items add up and can bring in a nice amount of gold, especially if farming in some of the higher level zones in World of Warcraft.
  11. Don’t forget to bring along some food and mana for less down time.  A nice buff food can help speed up your farming session, if you are farming creatures or humanoids, since it will increase your damage and decrease your time on each kill.
  12. If there is another player farming in your area, it may be more efficient to find a new area instead of competing with them for the same resources.

Now get out there and farm up some materials to sell on the auction house to get you started learning how farming influences the markets in the World of Warcraft auction houses of Azeroth.

 

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Timing on The World Of Warcraft Auction House

July 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

Timing on The World Of Warcraft Auction House

Ah, the joys of weekend warriors, and what they mean to the World of Warcraft Gold Maker. They show up Friday evening, buy a bunch of materials, toss up a bunch of Greens, cloth, and other nick-nacks, and are gone by late Sunday night.

The three things that make a difference for physical stores is “location, location, location”. The same could be said for the World of Warcraft Auction House, just make it “timing, timing, timing”.

We all know the Weekend Warriors will be invading the servers, and if we neglect to take advantage of that, we’re losing out on a shedload of gold. Timing on The World Of Warcraft Auction House

What do you do right after you log in?

When I talk to other WoW Players (BTW, BRK told me he’s Raiding up to 3 nights a week now!), I make a point to ask them about their routines. For the most part, people tell me they log in, press I, queue up for a Random, and then go about their business. Be it Questing, doing Daily’s, some Farming. After a couple Dungeons, they head to the Auction House to unload their loot.

The WoW Gold Maker has a different Schedule: Log in, maybe press I, head to the World of Warcraft Auction House to check on things, run a Scan, see how prices are, see if they can pick up anything on the cheap, etc. Then they work on their professions, and maybe go do some farming. It’s all about Timing on The World Of Warcraft Auction House.

It’s not all about us, you know!

As Gold Makers, we need to know how the other half lives so we can meet their demands – the old “See a need, fill a need” scenario. Find out Raid Schedules from the bigger guilds on your server, find out what positions they’re advertising for. At one time on my server, there was a big demand for Enchanters. That translates into higher prices for Enchants on the Auction House. I bought a bunch of the high end Enchants, and relisted them at a higher price – easily turning them for a profit. Now, my server is quite Enchanter happy, and prices have become quite stable. Consequently, I’m not in the Enchant Reselling business anymore. Timing on The World Of Warcraft Auction House.

Right now, Patterns seem to be in high demand, and as was pointed out in last weeks entry, there are some wonderful addons to help locate patterns to resell on the Auction House. Since the demand is there, right now, I’m in the Pattern Reselling Business. Once the timing on that niche has gone away, I’ll move on to the next big thing.

Knowing how your server ebbs and flows is important, and of course, will vary slightly from server to server. It doesn’t take much to figure out either. I like to use Bitflarelabs.com’s Realm Status Tracker (http://rst.bitflarelabs.com) to check Queue Times on my server, which gives me a pretty good idea of at least what’s going on. Combine that knowledge with Trade and General Chat, and I pretty much feel like I have my hand on the pulse of my server.

So what’s all this nonsense about timing mean, anyhow?

I’ve recently found Highland Spring Water is selling quite well. I buy it in Stormwind, for just over 1 Gold, and sell a stack of 20 for 40-50 gold easily on Friday afternoons. My guess is that Raiders are using the Remote Auction House to prep for raids later that night. Like I said, it’s all about Timing on The World Of Warcraft Auction House.

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Where Is The World of Warcraft Auction House?

July 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

Where is the World of Warcraft Auction House?

Auction houses are usually large buildings, located near to the bank,
in the following cities.

ALLIANCE
1. Stormwind
2. Ironforge
3. Darnassus
4. Exodar
5. Shattrath
6. Dalaran

HORDE
1. Orgrimmar
2. Undercity
3. Thunderbluff
4. Silvermoon
5. Shattrath
6. Dalaran

NEUTRAL
1. Booty Bay
2. Gadgetzan
3. Everlook

If you have trouble finding an auction house, speak to a guard by left
clicking and choose the option that asks for directions to the AH. As
well as a directional arrow on your minimap, you will see a dot that
directs you to the nearest Auction House.

Inside the Auction House you will find the Auctioneers, and you can
start to buy and sell by clicking them.

All the Alliance Auction Houses are linked as one single auction house
with multiple access points and can only be used by members of the
alliance.  All the Horde AHs are also linked as one AH that Horde
players can access from the horde capital cities.

Shattrath and Dalaran both have auctioneer NPCs (non playing
characters) that link to your home faction AH.

Alliance cannot post auctions on the Horde auction houses, and vice versa.

The neutral auction houses are run by neutral Goblin auctioneer NPCcs
in Stranglethorn Vale, Tanaris, and Winterspring.  The neutral AHs are
different because they can be simultaneously accessed by both Horde
and Alliance characters. This unique ability enables items to be
traded cross faction in a process known as arbitrage.  Horde players
can buy auctions posted by Alliance characters, and vice versa.
Unfortunately, the greedy Goblins charge a large auction house fee for
this privilege

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WoW Scams 101: Auction House Scam #3 – “NPC” COD Scam

July 12, 2011 2 Comments

mailfraud 300x198 WoW Scams 101: Auction House Scam #3 NPC COD ScamWoW Scams 101: Auction House Scam #3 – “NPC” COD Scam

In “WoW Scams 101″, I’m going to take a pretty good look at how some ongoing “scams” work in WoW. Most of them can be easily spotted and avoided by following the simple mantra of “if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is”, however, these grifts still warrant some light shedding.

Auction House Scam #3 – “NPC” COD Scam

“The best things in life are free, but you can save them for the birds and bees…” ~The Beatles

Blizzard Doesn’t Randomly Give Anything Away – Much Less Charge You For It.

The “NPC” COD Scam has been around a while, and while Blizzard has cracked down on it, it still persists today.

Here’s the basics:

“The Mark” finds themselves hanging out in General Chat or Trade Chat asking questions or making comments that would generally label them as a new or inexperienced player. All the Grifter has to do is watch and wait. Once they’ve identified their Mark, they go to work.

The Grifter will write a very well crafted (well, sometimes anyhow) letter that sounds like it’s from an NPC in the game. They’ll use a crafty character name that could pass off as something Blizzard would actually have in the game. The message can be welcoming them to the game, congratulating them on an achievment, or even claiming to resolve an issue the player might have been having with a quest. Anything that will not raise too much concern. The letter will also contain a wrapped gift, and a COD amount… usually not too high, because, remember, the marks are usually new players to the game.

The mark reads the letter, sees the package, and pays the COD rate. Then they open the wrapped gift and usually get a piece of trash not worth anything near the amount of gold they just paid.

Blizzard Doesn’t Randomly Give Anything Away – Much Less Charge You For It.

Usually this scam goes by unreported, because the mark doesn’t even know they got scammed. They think that what they got was somehow part of the game. They’ll keep the item in their bags or bank and wait until they’re supposed to use it.

I’ve spoken with a couple of people who have fallen victim to this scam, but only realized they’d been scammed quite some time later – I’m talking months or years later. By then, it doesn’t really matter. 10 gold at level cap isn’t a big deal. 10 gold when you’re starting out is, but now that so much time has passed, people don’t worry about it.

How To Avoid The Trade Chat Shuffle Scam

I’ve gotten items in the mail from NPC’s before. I’ve gotten quest rewards, pets, mounts, beer of the month, and a whole lof of other things – it’s a common occourance. COD is also commonplace in the World of Warcraft. It’s the unrequested COD that has a very inticing letter that should raise flags for you. Did you ask for it? Was it part of something you were doign in the game, or is it related to something you were complaining or talking about in chat?

Why The Trade Chat Shuffle Scam Won’t Go Away

Since this scam goes largely unreported, and since Blizzard can’t go around banning names that resemble their own NPC names, and since there are still new people joining the game each day… this scam will be around a while.

What To Do If You See The Trade Chat Shuffle Scam

If you ever get a suspicious email (in or out of the game, for that matter), let a GM know. If you get the NPC COD scam, before you pay any gold, let a GM it out. You may wait a bit, but the evidince will be there for the GM to look at, live. It’s much easier for them to just cancel the email than it is to get your gold back to you.

Auction House Scam #3 – “NPC” COD Scam

“The best things in life are free, but you can save them for the birds and bees…” ~The Beatles

Don’t forget to check out Hearthcast over at http://www.hearthcast.com . Hearthcast – it’s about World of Warcraft.

wow warcraft alliance horde achivement profession leveling guide
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WoW Scams 101: Auction House Scam #2 – The Trade Chat Shuffle

July 5, 2011 6 Comments

scam 300x225 WoW Scams 101: Auction House Scam #2 The Trade Chat Shuffle

WoW Scams 101: Auction House Scam #2 – The Trade Chat Shuffle

In “WoW Scams 101″, I’m going to take a pretty good look at how some ongoing “scams” work in WoW. Most of them can be easily spotted and avoided by following the simple mantra of “if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is”, however, these grifts still warrant some light shedding.

Auction House Scam #2 – The Trade Chat Shuffle

Another preface before I get into this: This does not happen all the time. There are legitimate deals made in Trade Chat quite often.

The Trade Chat Shuffle is all about timing, convenience, savings, and service.

This Auction House Scam can happen various ways, but the jist of it is the same:

Player A has an item that Player B is looking for. One of them advertises in Trade Chat that they want to buy or sell said item, and the other messages them indicating they want to buy or sell that item. Bottom line, this is a player to player transaction that is happening off the auction house.

Price negotiation starts. The buyer, of course, wants a price significantly lower than the AH. The seller wants something close to the going rate. The buyer throws out terms like, “guaranteed sale”, “no auction house fees”, “no competition”, “no waiting” as they try to bring the selling price back down. The buyer may even play the sympathy card: “I have no gold”, “I’m a lowbie”, “I’m just starting out” .The seller agrees. A deal is made. The item is sold to the buyer.

The buyer then turns around, runs over to the AH, and puts that item up for market value, thus making a profit on the deal.

Remember, The Trade Chat Shuffle is all about timing, convenience, savings, and service.

Timing

Knowing what items are selling well on the Auction House is important. Monitor the Auction House for trending items, and watch for Trade Trolls as they try to pull this scam off.

Convenience

The buyer was partially right. With Trade Chat, you don’t have Auction House fees. However, the rest of what they said was garbage. There is competition with other people in Trade Chat, it’s not a guaranteed sale (you could both disagree on price), there is time loss (waiting) as you’re getting to the persons location (or they yours) and negiotiating. However, the buyer will push the convenience factor quite heavily.

Savings

The “No Auction House Fees” term is tossed around like yesterdays fruit salad. It’s total hogwash, too. What the Auction House doesn’t charge you, the buyer will try to by inflating the price. Often times, sellers come out worse that if they sold the item on the Auction House.

Service

Really, there was no service provided. Only a 3 card monty game of service. “I saved you from having to put the item on the Auction House” is not a service – it’s a scam.

How To Avoid The Trade Chat Shuffle Scam

Avoiding the Trade Chat Shuffle Scam is, again, fairly simple: Know your market, and excercise patience. If you have a high supply item, hang on to it. Wait for the supply to drop, then list it. If you’ve got a high demand item, knowing the real worth and value of the item is curcial.

Why The Trade Chat Shuffle Scam Won’t Go Away

There are too many impatient and greedy people in WoW who don’t take the time to install simple addons that will let them know the value of the items they’re trying to sell.

What To Do If You See The Trade Chat Shuffle Scam

Usually, when I see it, I call the person out in Trade Chat. Not the best practice, I know – but it’s one that gets temporary results. People love to jump on the hate-wagon, and usually the Scammer will log off for a couple of hours.

The Trade Chat Shuffle is all about timing, convenience, savings, and service. All of which, the Auction House readily supplies, by default, in the World of Warcraft.

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I Wanna Be A Blood Elf: Farming The Blood Elf Bandit Mask

July 1, 2011 9 Comments

belfmask 300x238 I Wanna Be A Blood Elf: Farming The Blood Elf Bandit MaskI made a gnome rogue and decided I was going to use him specifically for PVP Battlegrounds. I got his Bind On Account Sharpening Kris Daggers and had a guildmate make him some nice leather gear. I even picked up a couple of twink pieces. Nevertheless, I felt he needed something to make him more vicious and feared in the battlegrounds. When I ran through the Deadmines he picked up a red bandit mask which was soulbound. It sufficed but I still felt there was something better out there for him.

A fellow guildmate told me about the Blood Elf Bandit Mask which was a cool looking head-piece but was also a very rare drop.  I decided to go farm for this mask.  I was told that the Blood Elf Bandit was located in and around Azuremyst Isle which is located just outside of Exodar. The Blood Elf Bandit is a level 7 and can be killed by both Alliance and Horde.  The mask itself has a 3% to 14% drop rate. I took my high level Death Knight and went to go searching for this elusive bandit.  I don’t have an add-on to give me the coordinates as to where this guy spawns so I had to just run around the island and find him on my own.

How To Make A Macro For The Blood Elf Bandit

One helpful tip that worked for me while farming him was to make a macro that I could use without having to do too much searching.  Here are the steps to make this macro:

  1. Hit escape to go to your game options and then click on macros
  2. Click on new then
  3. Enter a name for your macro and choose an icon then click  Ok
  4. Type: /target Blood Elf Bandit
  5. Click save
  6. Left click on the macro icon and carry it over to any box in your user interface

My Blood Elf Bandit Trip Blood Elf Bandit2 232x300 I Wanna Be A Blood Elf: Farming The Blood Elf Bandit Mask

I made myself a specific route to go farm the bandit.  I started from Exodar and headed north up the roadside.  Near of each spawn point, I clicked on my BELF macro.  I past the first spawn point with no luck.  I reached the second spawn point and saw his character box pop up to the right of mine at the top of the screen.  On my mini map I saw exactly where he was.  I death gripped him and killed him instantly.  I observed his lifeless body laying next to me and laughed as only a Worgen can.  I clicked on him to loot him and found only 5 copper and an Alliance quest to turn in.  I proceeded to go up and around the road which curved to the right and then back down south.  As I came over the bridge, I clicked on my macro and found him again at the next spawn point.  I killed him and quickly looted his body.  I received 7 copper and my first Blood Elf Bandit Mask!  I kept going down the road south which would eventually go right through Azure Watch.  I passed two spawn points but no blood elf appeared.  After I passed through Azure Watch, I proceeded south and halfway to Odyseus Landing, I took a small road that veered me west.  I passed another spawn point but still the bandit was eluding me.  As I came to a “Y” in the road, I clicked on my macro and found the bandit behind a lamppost.  I killed him with one hit and looted him.  What luck!  I received another blood elf bandit mask.  I went south down the first small road and checked his next spawn point but no luck.  I went back north on the road until I got back to the “Y” and made a left to go west.  I clicked the macro but he was not at his next spawn point.  I made a beeline north from that point to go back to the main road between the boat and Exodar.  When I reached the road, I turned east and proceeded to take the road which curved back north to my original starting point.  The last spawn point was coming up and I clicked on my macro.  There he was!  I killed him again but no mask, just 5 copper.  I sat there for maybe 10 seconds and was about to leave when I heard that all too familiar “stealth” sound.  The Blood Elf Bandit had respawned in the same place I just killed him at.  I whacked him and looted his body.  6 copper is all he had on him (what a cheap skate).  I was just about to mount up and head back to Exodar when I heard that “stealth” sound again!  He respawned.  I killed him and to my luck, he dropped the mask again!  I waited for another 30 seconds to see if I was really lucky to catch him a fourth time.  He didn’t respawn.  I headed back to Exodar with 3 Blood Elf Bandit Masks in my possession.

Map For Farming The Blood Elf Bandit

I have included a map of Azuremyst Isle with the spawn points for the bandit.  I have also included the route.  I went in a clockwise motion but one can go either way if they choose.  This bandit spawns right near of the main road you are following so you don’t have to stray off the road to find him.  Use your macro to spot him easier and faster.

azmapbelfmask1 300x199 I Wanna Be A Blood Elf: Farming The Blood Elf Bandit Mask

How To Get To Azuremyst Isle

Alliance: You may either take the boat or flight path from Rut’theran Village, Teldrassil.

Horde: You may take the boat from Rut’theran Village but be forewarned you will have to sneak on and may get flagged PVP.

Blood Elf Bandit Mask = Nice Profit At The AH

I ended up returning to Azuremyst Isle later that week and farmed 4 more masks within 2 hours.  I kept some of the masks for my guildmates and myself but put the extra masks up on the Auction House for 1000 gold buyout.  They sold.  This is a great twink/vanity mask for any of the classes but it looks much better on a rogue.  Who wants to be a blood elf? I do. [Read more...]

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