Pro Tip: Philosopher's Stone

Today I wanted to bring you guys a bread and butter Pro Tip. This is one I've been using since I leveled my first alchemist just close to a year ago. Since then, I have had tons of success flipping Recipe: Philosopher's Stone

Why is it Important?
An alchemist needs to have a Philosopher's stone to complete transmutes. The one that is most important and relative to today's market is Transmuting Truegold. You may have noticed many people jumping into the alchemy profession solely for this skill. You can't blame them really. I personally have three alchemists transmuting truegold on a daily basis. With that being said, every alchemist has to have this recipe and it doesn't come from a city vendor.

Where to Obtain the Recipe?
Unfortunately, you're going to have make the trek to Tanaris. You know, the place where alts use to go to die. But now, just the place where you go to train ZF. But I digress. There are two options for getting to Tanaris. (At least that I use.) Your first is to take flight. This is quite long, and is usually what makes people want to just buy the item off the Auction House. Your second option is to head to Dalarn, port to the Caverns of Time and run the rest of the way.

Which ever way to choose to get there, be sure to stock up on recipes. They can be purchased from Alchemist Pestlezugg. I usually buy a bag or two full and throw them in one of my guild tabs. At 80 silver each, I think I can have a few stocked up. While your there, you may want to buy a few Transmute Arcanite Recipes as well. Don't be surprised to see a spike in demand for Arcanite Bars, especially if Transmogrification ever hits legendaries.

How To Post
Now that you're all stocked up, lets talk about how you need to actually go about posting these. DO NOT mass post. If you mass post these, you're going to fail. Plain and simple. The best way to post these are usually in singles with no more then three listed at one time. Depending on server size. If you're on a smaller server, I would shoot for two.

I then list the patterns on 48 hours usually anywhere from 100-200 gold. With the economy slowing down and players looking for new ways to make gold I've been posting closer to the 200 gold mark. The reasoning behind this is simple. I own the market. No on else is posting these on my server, which means I can set my own pricing. 200 gold seems reasonable to pay to not have to take a flight to Tanaris. It makes posting them worth my time, and falls just below what people would consider unreasonable in regards to price. The sweet spot, sort-of-speak. You're not going to sell 20 of these a week. However, on a good week you may sell 5. That' an extra 1,000 gold in your pocket for very little effort. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it's just another source of income to add to your limitless revenue streams.

This same method can be implemented with several different rare recipes. What recipes are selling? Do you have ideas that have worked well for you? I want to know about them. Feel free to leave them in the comments section.

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And the Winner is....!

Another contest has come and gone here at Capped By Cata. This one to celebrate the one year anniversary of our run blogging. Thanks to all of those who participated.

Are winner was selected at random from the list of those who entered. I would like to congratulate Chuck S. for winning! I've sent out an e-mail to Chuck letting him know that he won. Hopefully I'll hear back from him soon and post a blurb for you guys to read.

Thanks again for making my one year blogging birthday very special. I appreciate all of the readers here. More content coming soon!

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Final Day to Enter 60 Day Time Card Giveaway!

Today is your last chance to have a chance to win a 60 Day Timecard / Or your choice of a mount or pet combination from the Blizzard store.

To enter, all you have to do is take full advantage of your Birthday present from Capped By Cata. Cold of Cold's Gold Factory has given all of my readers a code to us where they can save $4 off of their order. That means you can own Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery for $7 bucks! It just doesn't get better then that!

Use Coupon Code: birthdaycake and be entered to win courtesy of Capped By Cata. We currently have 5 entries, making your chances to win pretty good!

Thanks again to all of our readers for making this possible. We really appreciate it!

Contest ends August 28th at 9pm Eastern 6pm Pacific. Winner announced tomorrow!

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Is Posting at a Higher Buyout Price Successful?

A quick tip for today. This is something I've been having a lot of success with all week. It's often times commonplace thinking to post your items for less then the items already listed on the Auction House in World Of Warcraft. However, with some items, it can often be more beneficial to post them at a higher price then those already listed. This is kind of the opposite of setting a trap for an undercutter.

Over the past few days the price of truegold has dropped back down to it's average of around 500-550 gold. It's also moving much slower then it was when new blacksmithing weapons were released. To combat this and earn the most gold for my daily routine I've been listing my truegold for a longer duration and higher price. Here is an example:

Last night I had 9 truegold that needed to be listed. The auction house had several listings under 500 gold, which is the absolute lowest I will take for the commodity. With that in mind, I went ahead and made all 9 of my listings for 525 gold on a 48 hour post schedule. This cost me an extra 12 gold for the lot roughly. However, after fees I'll be making back close to 20 extra gold per bar. That's an extra 180 gold total per bar for a little bit of patients.

While this strategy isn't going to work for an undercut heavy market like Glyphs, for things you know will eventually sell, it's a no brainer. When the economy is slower then usual the best thing you can do is be proactive rather then reactive. Try and stretch your gold the farthest. This will put you in the best position when things pick back up closer to fall and patch 4.3

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5 Ways to Make Gold During the Lull

I don't know if anyone else is feeling it, but I sure am. I've seen a major slow down in the economy over the past few weeks. Not enough to completely deplete my income streams, but it is enough to make me bow out of certain markets all together. I've got a few e-mails expressing that same sentiment, so I wanted to talk about a few ways that should be able to make you some easy gold during this down time.

1. Make An Alt
This is really a no brainer. If the economy is slow on your server, and you find yourself with a good bit of free time then there is no better time to make yourself another alt. With heirlooms and the added benefits of recruit a friend for the hardcore, adding 2 more profession slots is the best investment anyone could ever make in Gold making. This is the number one way to make gold during slow times. With more professions, even if they are duplicate professions, you open yourself up to new markets.

2. Farm Low Level Herbs
This is one of my best gold making tips. With the number of alchemists I've leveled, you can never get enough of the low level herbs. They are always out of stock on my auction house. I wrote Pro Tip: Sungrass awhile back, that should give you a great place to start.

3. Make Professions Kits
This goes hand in hand with the other two. If you're a savvy gold maker with a little more liquid capital to spend, this is a great way to increase your earning potential. It will require a little leg work on your part in regards to gathering materials, but many people are willing to purchase a full profession at once to simply save themselves the trouble. They will oft times pay a premium as well. If you can tie these in with a guild bank, all the better as it gives the customer easy access to the items and it also gives you an easy way to make a smooth transaction.

4. Secondary Professions
When was the last time you fished or cooked? I bet it wasn't yesterday. I bet it wasn't last week. I bet it wasn't last month. Some of you are on the right track, but the majority of players over look these secondaries. By ignoring them you're also ignoring exponential money making opportunities. Do some quick research on your server and find what's selling for the most in terms of buff food. Go fish some of it! You'll be seeing more of this subject very soon.

5. Archeology
Archeology is by far the very best money maker in the game. If you want to make serious gold, you make it with archeology.......OK, so that was a joke for Auction House Junkies listeners. I have no idea what to do with archeology. So that's your new homework assignment. Go make gold with archeology and tell me how you did it!

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Transmogrification: The Real Profit Will Be In GDKP

This post is in response to Cold Of Cold's Gold Factory post on the profitability of transmogrification in patch 4.3. Be sure to check it out!

The Best Profit from Transmogrification will be GDKP
This is my prediction. To preface this, I have to say that this is all speculative. That being that none of us have any real idea exactly how transmogrification will work. From reading blue notes, what I've gathered is that some items will work while some items will not. The reasoning behind that seems somewhat vague at this point in the juncture. I spoke with Cold this morning and we were discussing how for the majority of players transmogrification is not going to be all that profitable. Then it hit me. GDKP runs.

What are GDKP runs?
Gold Dragon Kill Points. DKP is the form of currency that a lot of guilds use to assign gear when loot drops in a raid. These points are accumulated over time from various things such as raid attendance and performance. In a Gold DKP run, your gold is your currency and items go to the highest bidder.

How will transmogrification enhance GDKP?
With transmogrification, GDKP runs are no longer limited to well geared players and uber elite guilds. These runs can now be put together by a few people to go back and clear old content. A quality healer and tank could put together a GDKP marathon of old world instances and allow DPS to buy their way in. At the end, people have spent gold on items, and that gold is then split with the group. It's a win win for everyone.

Transmogrification as a whole
For the most part, this is how I see transmogrification being a gold making tool rather then a gold sink. Sure, some BoE pieces may be profitable, but putting together groups to face-roll content and get some cool looking items is going to be where the real money is. Because so many of these items are locked behind walls that a player cannot solo, help will be encouraged and most likely paid for.

What do you think?

Do you have plans to start your own transmogrification GDKP runs? Is there a certain piece of gear you think looks awesome that you've never been able to wear? I wanna know about it!

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Birthday Contest Reminder

Just a quick secondary message today. I wanted to remind everyone about the birthday contest I'm running this week for a 60 Day World Of Warcraft timecard or Vanity Mount / Pet Combination of your choice from the Blizzard pet store.

This contest is to celebrate Capped By Cata's One Year Birthday of blogging!

To enter, all you need to do is purchase Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery using the promocode: birthdaycake
Not only will you receive 4 dollars off your order and snag the most in depth fortune card guide on the planet for only 7 bucks, but you'll also be entered into a chance to win a 60 Day World Of Warcraft Timecard courtesy of Capped By Cata

Contest End and Odds Countdown
Contest will end Sunday, August 28th at 9PM Eastern Time, 6PM Pacific Time. You can view the current odds of winning on the right hand side of the main page. As more entries come in the odds will go up, but as you can see currently, the odds are very much in your favor!

Thanks again for everything you guys do, and here's to another year of Capped By Cata!

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Auction House Junkies Episode 15 is live!

So a week after it was recording the episode is live. Sorry for the delay. Have been sick this week :(


Auction House Junkies Episode #15

Brought to you by Cold of www.ColdsGoldFactory.Blogspot.com and Wes of www.CappedByCata.com

The World Of Warcraft Gold Making Podcast!

This Episode Features

• R9sid9nt9vil Of Rep Grind Radio and Eviscerated.net


• Tons of other things that we failed to make show notes for. Be sure to check out Res and Twiz at Rep Grind Radio. It's awesome!

Find it at AuctionHouseJunkies.Podbean.com or AuctionHouseJunkies.com

Enjoy!

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Reader Q&A: How to Overcome a Slow Economy

Reader Question

What do I do to make gold when I have nothing to do to make gold? When I run out of things to mill/prospect/DE etc. When I'm waiting for things to sell on the AH when there is nothing else. Do you have any ideas? BS/JC/enchanting/alchemy/herb/mining. Running into this problem more and more as I run out of 4.2 stock, and its not efficient to buy raw mats off the AH.

Take care!

@DarkFriend337 via Twitter

This is a great question to address at this current point in the games economy. We are now experiencing the lull after patch 4.2. Patch 4.2 made a drastic shift in how we interact with raw materials. Most notably, the difference in pricing for Obsidium and Elementium Ore. Coupling this with the dramatic shift in the player base with the summer influx can makes things difficult for a lot of gold makers.

Farming
I hate to say it, but if you have nothing to do based on Auction House prices, this is probably you're best bet unfortunately. If Ore prices are outrageous, herb prices leave you no room for profit and there is not glaring opportunity for profit you're going to have to go out and find some. This may be a good time to think outside the box. Try and sell tanking services? Farm low level herbs? Level up another alt to take advantage of more professions? All of these things will allow you to pick up the slack in a slow economy. As always, diversify. When was the last time you went out and bought some vanity pets to flip on the Auction House? We as entrepreneurs often get complacent in our markets and when they slow down we have no idea what to do. This is the perfect time to break into a new market.

Prepare for Fall
I'm usually not one to buy into the seasonal gold making theory, however this year it seems to be pretty true. Mid-summer was probably not the most optimal time to release Firelands for a gold maker. This is because many people are on vacation, enjoying summer, grilling out and generally playing less. This makes it more and more difficult to get a raid team together. When people aren't raiding item enhancements aren't selling. I personally have noticed a huge slump in gem and enchanting sells. The prices are still OK, but the volume is down by 50 percent or more. So much so, I've decided to forgo listing certain items on certain days. Just to save the Auction Fees.

Once summer fades out and we get into a fall season expect things to pick back up. Kids are back in school, vacation time is over and people are back to spending their time away from work with their guilds. This should bring back the volume piece we became so fond of in the beginning of Patch 4.2

Tend Your Markets
This is super important to being successful in the long term. No matter how slow your economy has become, make sure you are tending your markets. Keeping your same listing prices, even if you're just listing less items less often. If you want gems to be at 150 gold when things pick up again, you need to keep battling for that price at this slow time. Same goes for any other item enhancement market. Don't throw in the towel now and expect to be the top dog when things turn back around. Even when things are slow you still need to work hard at making sure you're markets are keeping a certain price point.

I hope that helps, friend. Those are the strategies I'm currently implementing and at this point it's just a waiting game. Don't get frustrated though, the economy, at least in the World Of Warcraft always turns around.

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Auction House Junkies Episode 15 Records Today!

Hey guys! Just wanted to check in you today and let everyone know that Auction House Junkies will be recording Episode Number 15 today. We're going to have a jam packed episode for you today. So instead of just letting my twitter followers know that we're recording today (You follow me on twitter, right? @CappedByCata) I wanted to put this up and see if there are any last minute questions or concerns any of the wonderful readers here may have. Please leave them in the comments area and will do our very best to go them answered on the show!

Also, if you hadn't taken the opportunity to sign up for The Capped By Cata Birthday Giveaway there is no better time then now. Thanks again for celebrating with us!

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Happy Birthday Capped By Cata!

Happy Birthday! That's right everyone. Today marks one year of Capped By Cata bringing you all of the World Of Warcraft Gold Making information you could ever need. Over the course of the past year I have learned a lot of things about making gold in the World Of Warcraft, writing, blogging, podcasting, drama and more. I feel privileged to have been able to provide content for this long and I look forward to much more in the future. I never thought this site would have turned into what it has in such little time, so I want to thank each and everyone of you for everything.

Special thanks to the entire World Of Warcraft gold blogging community. It's been an entertaining year in the blogosphere to say the least. So big or small, thank you for contributing to what is very much an awesome community. I have worked and collaborated with many of you, and I thank you all for that opportunity.

We Can't Have a Birthday Without Presents!
One of my favorite things I have done here at Capped By Cata is provide awesome contests to the readership. We've given away several different things including timecards and flying lion mounts. The giving has even spilled over the Auction House Junkies Podcast and twitter. With that in mind, I wanted to come full circle with my first contest and give away another 60 Day World Of Warcraft Time Card. The best part about it, is that everyone who enters will be receiving a special gift from me!

Auction House Junkies Podcast
The Auction House Junkies Podcast has been one of my favorite projects thus far. My Co-Host Cold from Cold's Gold Factory keeps things entertaining both inside and outside of the podcast. On the show, you've heard us numerous times go over and talk about his Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Guide. I'll start by saying, this is not in anyway a sales pitch. I have used the guide and seen personal success with it. If you've e-mailed me, used my consulting services, or just listened to the show you know that Inscription is not my thing. With that in mind, even I was was able to make insane amounts of gold over a relatively short period of time. So to celebrate our first Birthday here, I want to give everyone of you guys the best opportunity to try the guide out for yourself.

Birthday Promo-code:
Enter Code birthdaycake to receive $4 off your purchase of Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery. That means you'll be owning the very best guide to becoming a fortune card millionaire for only $7 bucks. That's less then the price of a number 2 combo at Wendy's. I know, I've eaten a few. So Happy Birthday to you!

The Best Part About It All?
When you place your order for Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery and enter promo-code birthdaycake you'll be entered to win a 60 Day World Of Warcraft Timecard (I can substitute this for a Mount or multiple pets from the Blizzard store if the winner chooses.) from CappedByCata. The contest will only run for around 2 weeks. Don't miss your opportunity!

Again, many thanks to everyone who has made this blog possible. You are all outstanding, and I am very humbled to be a part of this. Thank you and Happy Birthday!

All the Best,
Wes

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Capped By Cata Stays Warcraft Focused!

The big news of the month is that release of information in regards to Diablo 3. With a real money Auction House just a few months a way, plenty of Gold Making bloggers and wealthy players will soon be jumping ship to cover the RMT medium that is Diablo 3. The fact that players could finally profit in real life for their efforts in gold making is just too tempting for some to keep the focus on World Of Warcraft. Can you blame them?

Capped By Cata stays World Of Warcraft Focused!
With many writers making their new focus Diablo 3, I feel like a few players who are still looking for serious World Of Warcraft content may be getting a little nervous. I want to let everyone know that this site will stay completely World Of Warcraft focused and be my top priority going forward. With the first birthday of the site right around the corner, I want to continue to celebrate the success with all of you by providing quality content.

What will Wes do?
Great question! I'm glad you asked. Ok, so you probably didn't ask, but I want to let all of my readers know my intentions going forward. Capped By Cata and the Auction House Junkies Podcast are still my two main focuses. I will also remain a staff writer at Goldgrub's Goblin Academy and Warcraft Econ. With those projects in mind, I will also be jumping in to help my AHJ co-host, Cold from Cold's Gold Factory with Diablo3GoldTips.com.

A Final Word
This will hopefully be my last post dealing with Diablo 3 on the site unless there is a really a demand with it, but I just wanted to give a piece of advice to players who are looking for information about RMT in Diablo 3. No one is an expert right now on the game, or making money in Diablo 3. Certainly not me, as I've never played a minute of the Diablo series. This is because no one has actually sat down and mastered it. While there are many quality WoW gold bloggers who will have no problem becoming pros at the economy, don't buy into the hype of instant success. If you're looking for information about being successful with Diablo 3, I recommend players who are World Of Warcraft auction house professionals and also players who have serious Diablo experience. Cold of Cold's Gold Factory, Flux of Power Word: Gold and Oligopoly of Warcraft Econ. I can personally vouch for each one of these writers that they have a good working concept of the World Of Warcraft economy and enough Diablo experience to make the transition over to Diablo 3 and be successful. While I'm sure there are others who will be successful from this community that I've missed, these guys will not lead you down the wrong path.

Birthday!
That's right Capped By Cata will celebrate it's first Birthday in just 2 days! On August 12th Capped By Cata will celebrate delivering 1 year of quality World Of Warcraft gold making content to your door! I'm working on obtaining a birthday present for each and everyone of you! More soon!

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When is the Right Time to Spend?

Crazy week this week! You may have noticed the lack of updates over the past couple days. Things have gotten a little hectic and I haven't had time to keep up. However, do not fear my friends. I have fresh new content to bring to you once again. With today's post I wanted to talk about something I think a lot of us look over, and that is spending.

What is spending?
I want to be clear with this aspect. Spending is just that. Spending. Spending is not investing. By investing I mean purchasing items to which you can make profit off, or hold as part of your liquid capital that could perhaps grow in value. This isn't buying mats to craft with. No my version of spending is both frivolous and rewarding. It's frivolous in the fact that it doesn't usually go to the betterment of your earning potential. However, on the other hand it's rewarding in the fact that you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. There is a fine line between the two that I feel must be walked delicatly.

When to Spend?
The term "Retail Therapy" comes to mind. I'll go ahead and lay it out there for everyone. I've been spending a lot recently. So much, that my liquid gold is now hovering around 400k. Does this bother me? Of course not. I can make plenty more whenever I like. However, right now I like spending a little bit more then making gold. I wrote a lot about Gem Walling with Inferno Rubies over the past few months. You'll be happy to know that I finally ran out of the guild tab full of gems I had stockpiled. I looked at this as an opportunity to reward myself with gearing up my warrior to do DPS. You've heard my stories on Auction House Junkies about "AH Tanking" so I decided to go whole-hog with DPS too.

I choose to spend this time because I had a need to feel for my character, but also because I wanted to remind myself why I put so much time into making gold. It's easy to become lax. Go about your routine and then look at your character one day and wonder what the hell is going on. That's kind of what happened to me. I have tons of gold and my main character was still mostly in dungeon blues. I had to fix that.

With that said, I encourage everyone to spend. It helps remind you to be creative and reward yourself for a job well done. You'll be surprised how much more the game has to offer if you spend a little of your hard earned gold. You don't have to have tons of gold. By a vanity item or buy an alt a piece of gear. Do something to remind yourself why you're investing so much time in your gold making abilities.

Be Smart
I wouldn't be a good gold blogger if I didn't encourage you to be smart with your spending. Don't go crazy and blow everything you have so that you can't make anymore gold. Do think of the potential consequences, but at the same time don't over think them. Make sure that no matter what you're doing, you're having fun doing it!

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Auction House Junkies Episode 14: The One the Storm Didn't Eat!

Auction House Junkies Episode #12

Brought to you by Cold of www.ColdsGoldFactory.Blogspot.com and Wes of www.CappedByCata.com

The World Of Warcraft Gold Making Podcast!

In This Episode We Talk About:

• Molten Front Dailys
• True Gold and BoE Patterns
• The Boom in Enchanting Sales
• Whether or Not to get into the Glyph Market
• What's the prize of Chaos Orbs again?
• Fall in Volatile Fire Prices

And much more. Find it all at Auction House Junkies.com or on the Auction House Junkies Podbean

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