I thought you guys might enjoy this. I started the month with 10k from the standard Draenor questing and am now at goldcap (500k in cash, about 600k in active auctions) with 3 days left. No bullshit like laundering duped mounts. No bullshit farming, just chilling setting auctions once in the morning and being in the AH while in queue for BG's/Arena/LFR in the evening. I'm playing on EU - High pop server if you want some context.
Cliffnotes
- Built my starting capital with high volume/low margin sales.
- Stopped clearing my garrison at around 300k net worth.
- Bought out markets with a low market cap.
- Only sold things in AH that sold quickly.
- Transmogs are trash
- Flipping AH parts can be lucrative.
- Savage essences baby!
The Setup: Pre-10k
I have 2 level 100 characters. Leatherworking/Skinning and Alchemy/Blacksmithing. One had 3 or 4 Treasure Hunters, the other had one. My total net worth was 10k. I knew the general price of Raw Beast hide due to buying it every now and then for the leatherworking hut.
Building Capital: 10k-100k
This phase was the hardest for me, mostly due to a lack of experience. Since there are more than enough opportunities for resale in the AH fast sales are priority #1 (Going through your cash 3x at 33% profit is equal to going through it once at 137% profit, guess which is easier). There are roughly 4 things that I did in this phase.
Raw material resale: I started buying Raw Beast Hide that was listed at 2g a piece or lower. Resold for 2.4g a piece. This later expanded to ores as well.
Darkmoon trinkets: The prices of the cards fluctuate fairly randomly. Buying the cheap ones in bulk lets you complete the trinkets in a few days at a hefty profit (60%-80%).
Upgrades for 640 items: You'll be able to make a few of these. The profit per crafted raw material isn't near what you'll get for the Mighty/Savage essences. But fast transactions are the most important while in this phase.
Potions: I made the Greater flasks and sold them. They are a pain in the ass to make, sold for slim margins, but allowed me to utilize 2 herb gardens as income generators.
This phase was accelerated by finding a BoE that sold for 15k.
Market manipulation: 100k-400k This is definitely the easiest phase. There are enough markets for you to flip, and you have enough cash to manipulate the price of said markets. I made multiple costly mistakes during this phase but still maintained fast growth. The extra capital let me start to buy out markets, repost items at 3x, wait for other sellers to assume that was the correct price, and then undercut them at 2x. Any small market is prime plucking for this strategy. I chose the following.
Raw goods: I did not buy them out, but upped my max buy price by about 20%. This increased my throughput by about 50%.
Darkmoon trinkets: These are easy to buy out, instead of reposting the cards you keep them in your bank. The shortage of cards will thoroughly inflate the price of the trinkets (Skull of War was selling for 2x market price for a week).
Auction House parts: The AH parts are mostly being bought by people with a lot of cash that aren't thinking about what they cost too much. I recommend buying out parts of the Cooling and Power modules. I made the mistake of over investing in Arcane Crystal Modules, they didn't move fast enough and a lot of my capital was sitting their not making more money.
Universal Language AH parts: These are big investments. Don't fuck them up. Watch the prices for a few days. Know the resale price you can get. 5k a in resale profit is very feasable (never timed out an auction in this group).
Mighty/Savage essences: Now you have enough cash to make these without your whole budget being invested in one item. These have stupid profit margins (your crafted resources sell for 80g a pop).
Transmogs: Move slowly. Not worth it. Slowed down this phase a lot.
The endgame: 400k-Goldcap+
By this time you have "fuck you money", small to intermediate sized markets are your bitch, fuck them. At this time I stopped clearing out my garrison, just not worth it time wise. I installed TSM at this point. I haven't figured out groups or sniping. I just use it to easily buy out large amounts of items at once (All of X at under my max buy price). Here you just want to find any place to invest your cash. These are the choices I made.
Raw Goods: I'll buy anything now that I can resell at my sale price for a profit. My max buy price for Raw Beast Hide is 2.45g, my sale price is 2.6g.
Universal Language AH parts: Everything else is too much trouble to do.
Medallion of the Legion: Every now and then it swings down to 10k. Buy that shit out, hell buy to 12k. Resell at 15k. They wont sell fast, but at this point you should be struggling to have all your gold in the AH so it doesn't matter.
Savage essences: These are dirt cheap to make. You'll have these huge stockpiles of raw goods. Exchange them for Primal Spirits with the trader. Use the spiritual crafting to make fuckloads of crafted resources (Truesteel ingots etc.). This means an ingot should cost you about 15g. A Savage Steelforged Essence nets you a 15k profit. That is stupid for a crafted item.
But anything you have a general sense for the price of is a good market to buyout and monopolise at this point.
Mistakes to avoid
Locking into items that do not sell fast, even if they have high profit margins. For me that was transmogs and Arcane Crystal modules. Do not be tempted by high profit margins per sale.
Each of these phases took me about 10 days. Questions/comments encouraged.
TL;DR: Look at the cliffnotes homes.
I have 2 level 100 characters. Leatherworking/Skinning and Alchemy/Blacksmithing. One had 3 or 4 Treasure Hunters, the other had one. My total net worth was 10k. I knew the general price of Raw Beast hide due to buying it every now and then for the leatherworking hut.
Building Capital: 10k-100k
This phase was the hardest for me, mostly due to a lack of experience. Since there are more than enough opportunities for resale in the AH fast sales are priority #1 (Going through your cash 3x at 33% profit is equal to going through it once at 137% profit, guess which is easier). There are roughly 4 things that I did in this phase.
Raw material resale: I started buying Raw Beast Hide that was listed at 2g a piece or lower. Resold for 2.4g a piece. This later expanded to ores as well.
Darkmoon trinkets: The prices of the cards fluctuate fairly randomly. Buying the cheap ones in bulk lets you complete the trinkets in a few days at a hefty profit (60%-80%).
Upgrades for 640 items: You'll be able to make a few of these. The profit per crafted raw material isn't near what you'll get for the Mighty/Savage essences. But fast transactions are the most important while in this phase.
Potions: I made the Greater flasks and sold them. They are a pain in the ass to make, sold for slim margins, but allowed me to utilize 2 herb gardens as income generators.
This phase was accelerated by finding a BoE that sold for 15k.
Market manipulation: 100k-400k This is definitely the easiest phase. There are enough markets for you to flip, and you have enough cash to manipulate the price of said markets. I made multiple costly mistakes during this phase but still maintained fast growth. The extra capital let me start to buy out markets, repost items at 3x, wait for other sellers to assume that was the correct price, and then undercut them at 2x. Any small market is prime plucking for this strategy. I chose the following.
Raw goods: I did not buy them out, but upped my max buy price by about 20%. This increased my throughput by about 50%.
Darkmoon trinkets: These are easy to buy out, instead of reposting the cards you keep them in your bank. The shortage of cards will thoroughly inflate the price of the trinkets (Skull of War was selling for 2x market price for a week).
Auction House parts: The AH parts are mostly being bought by people with a lot of cash that aren't thinking about what they cost too much. I recommend buying out parts of the Cooling and Power modules. I made the mistake of over investing in Arcane Crystal Modules, they didn't move fast enough and a lot of my capital was sitting their not making more money.
Universal Language AH parts: These are big investments. Don't fuck them up. Watch the prices for a few days. Know the resale price you can get. 5k a in resale profit is very feasable (never timed out an auction in this group).
Mighty/Savage essences: Now you have enough cash to make these without your whole budget being invested in one item. These have stupid profit margins (your crafted resources sell for 80g a pop).
Transmogs: Move slowly. Not worth it. Slowed down this phase a lot.
The endgame: 400k-Goldcap+
By this time you have "fuck you money", small to intermediate sized markets are your bitch, fuck them. At this time I stopped clearing out my garrison, just not worth it time wise. I installed TSM at this point. I haven't figured out groups or sniping. I just use it to easily buy out large amounts of items at once (All of X at under my max buy price). Here you just want to find any place to invest your cash. These are the choices I made.
Raw Goods: I'll buy anything now that I can resell at my sale price for a profit. My max buy price for Raw Beast Hide is 2.45g, my sale price is 2.6g.
Universal Language AH parts: Everything else is too much trouble to do.
Medallion of the Legion: Every now and then it swings down to 10k. Buy that shit out, hell buy to 12k. Resell at 15k. They wont sell fast, but at this point you should be struggling to have all your gold in the AH so it doesn't matter.
Savage essences: These are dirt cheap to make. You'll have these huge stockpiles of raw goods. Exchange them for Primal Spirits with the trader. Use the spiritual crafting to make fuckloads of crafted resources (Truesteel ingots etc.). This means an ingot should cost you about 15g. A Savage Steelforged Essence nets you a 15k profit. That is stupid for a crafted item.
But anything you have a general sense for the price of is a good market to buyout and monopolise at this point.
Mistakes to avoid
Locking into items that do not sell fast, even if they have high profit margins. For me that was transmogs and Arcane Crystal modules. Do not be tempted by high profit margins per sale.
Each of these phases took me about 10 days. Questions/comments encouraged.
TL;DR: Look at the cliffnotes homes.
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