Ultimate Recipe Collections get more Ultimate!

Today I'm releasing the first update for the Ultimate Vendor Recipe Collections.  I'm really happy with how the update's turned out and I think you all will be too.

What are the Ultimate Vendor Recipe Collections?

They're two guides, one for Horde folks and one for Alliance. They will lay out for you every vendor recipe in the game that is available to your faction. They highlight faction-specific recipes (great arbitrage candidates!) and everything is arranged geographically so it is easy to move from vendor to vendor, something I've yet to see with any other guide or resource out there.

But wait, there's more!

What's new in the updated versions?

Thanks to suggestions from purchasers of the first versions I've added in a few more useful features. 

• I've rearranged the list; instead of a strict North-to-South I've outlined an actual route for you to follow which should cut down on massive amounts of zigzagging.
• I've included maps with the routes I use outlined on them to help you get an idea of where to go next.
• I've included TomTom waypoints for every single vendor as well as a guide for how to use TomTom with these collections.
• I've included information on whether or not any recipe is Limited Quantity.

Sidenote: In my update announcement I stated that there would be TSM Auctioning lists. When I went to add them I found out it's not possible to make Auctioning groups just with Item IDs. Sapu has stated he's working on it and I will add them in as soon as I am able.

Holy crap, where do I get my hands on these awesome works of art and support Faid in the process?

Click here to purchase an Alliance collection. ($3)

Click here to purchase a Horde collection. ($3)

Click here to purchase an Alliance+Horde combo collection. ($5.75)

I already purchased a previous version. Where's my free update?

If you've purchased a previous version simply send me an e-mail from the same address you'd used to purchase your collection and I will send out an updated version shortly.

I really want to get into vendor recipes but can't/won't spend the money on a guide.

I get that. For what it's worth it's only three bucks and it helps me out a lot, but I totally feel ya on this one.  If you're just interested in getting a bare-bones sort of set up you can try the RecipeProfit plugin for GatherMate2. It's free and highlights many profitable recipes.

But Faid, if it's free why would I buy a guide? Well, you get what you pay for. RecipeProfit is decent for getting started but the dozens and dozens of incorrect, misplaced, or altogether missing vendors that I ran into were startling. It'll be alright for picking up a recipe here or there but if you want a more complete experience (and if you want to sell the recipes your competitors using RecipeProfit know nothing about!) I urge you to check your couch cushions for a few bucks in change.

If you have any questions check out the Store FAQ. If you still have questions feel free to ask!

Recipe Collections Update Coming

A while back I created the Ultimate Recipe Collections to assist people who were interested in selling vendor recipes. I don't often to go out of my way to mention or bark it unless it's incredibly relevant to the conversation so I imagine some folks don't know it exists.

Basically, quite a while back I felt there was no good resource for vendor recipes. Sure, there's wowhead searches with the appropriate filters but every time I wanted to get recipes I would end up missing a few and wasting tons of time since it wasn't properly sorted.

So I made a massive list of every vendor recipe sorted by geographic location, highlighting important faction-specific recipes and adding notes where necessary. Once it became cleaned and polished I felt I had something that was really valuable. As money was (and is) tight and I was also interested in learning to sell things online I put them up for purchase at two bucks per faction.

The response has been very positive, significantly moreso than I ever imagined. I knew that the list was a valuable tool but I admit I didn't know how it would be received by people who aren't as hooked on vendor items as I am; I am very happy to have received many words of praise from purchasers.

So thank you for everyone who bought a recipe collection, I know two bucks doesn't seem like much but you guys really helped me out a lot.

So what's this about updates?  Well, along with all the good reviews I also received a lot of recommendations for future updates, recommendations I've taken to heart.  I'm working on updating the collections with some of these requested features and a new version of each faction's collection should be out before the month ends.

Planned Additions:

• There will be TomTom waypoint macros for every vendor on the list.
• There will be maps outlining the route I follow when stocking up on these items.
• There will be information on Limited Quantity numbers, as well as information about the spawn times/details where available.
• There will be importable TSM Auctioning groups to sell the items in the collections.

Anyone who purchased a collection already will be entitled to upgrade to the newer version for free once it's been released.  Because of the increased amount of time invested and value in the collections, as well as money continuing to be far too tight around here, I will likely be raising the price to three dollars per faction when the updates are released. (Hint: That means you can get it for 2 dollars before they're released and get the free upgrade once the new version's out, saving a buck per faction!)

I guess that's about it. If you have any questions please feel free to ask!

Want to purchase a collection before the price rises with the new update? Check out the store!

Want to hear what others thought about the collections? Check out the reviews from Farli at The Overcut and Focushot at Hunter Mastery.

Glyph Competition: A Primer

One of the most common things people ask me about is competition and the glyph market. For most servers glyphs will be the most competitive and challenging market to get a strong foothold in. Those of us who love glyphs really love glyphs and it will take an iron will to unseat some of the more stubborn glyph sellers.

Every situation is different and your course of action should be decided based on your specific situation. How much time to you have to spend? Do you need profit now or can you put profit on the backburner if it means more profit further down the line? How much patience do you have for AH camping? What types of players are keeping you from being a kingpin in your glyph market? What kind of competition will they respond to?  All of these questions are important to consider when planning to enter the glyph market as a serious competitor.

So you want to beat your competitors out of the glyph market.  How do you do it? Essentially if you want to drive vast amounts of people out of the market you have a single goal: Make it not worth their time to stay in.

There are two main ways to do this and it comes down to what you have more of: time or stubbornness.

Method 1: AH Camping
The first method requires a lot of time and that's essentially to camp the AH. You can keep prices high this way because you will always be the lowest on the list. This method discourages competitors because they can't get a sale in edgewise as you exercise complete presence on the auction house.

TSM Settings for this Method:

• Ignore stacks over 1
• Post Time: 12 Hours
• Post Cap: 1
• Per Auction: 1
• Undercut by 1c
• Bid Percent 100%
• Price Threshold 110% of Crafting Cost
• Fallback (Your preference, I choose 325g)
• Reset Method: Post at Fallback

Method 2: Walling
If you don't have as much time the other method is stubbornness. If you can't stop them from getting sales you can instead make sure that those sales net so little profit that they begin to look at other ways to make gold.

This is usually done through walls. Some people do large low walls (Say, 5-10 of each glyph at 105% of crafting cost) while others do staggered walls (2 glyphs at 20g, 2 glyphs at 25g, 2 glyphs at 30g.) I like huge low walls since I feel it gives an impression that you are uncompromising and are willing to take everyone down with you. (Critical Goblin preferred staggered walls and makes some excellent points at his blog.)

If you intend to wall understand you're in for the long haul. Some people may disappear in a few days, others might take several months. The point is to never budge, never falter in the wall. If you stop before you drain them of hope you've just wasted your time and stock. Just keep your prices just above crafting costs so you are breaking even or slightly profiting so you don't go under during the wall event. See a glyph that you could sell for 300g? Don't. Sell it for 25. The point of the wall isn't to make gold, it's to make sure no one else is making decent gold. The profit will come later, right now it's about crushing the hopes and dreams of your competitors.

TSM Settings for this Method will vary depending on if you do single walls or staggered walls. Just remember to have enough glyphs up that they can't easily reset the price (that will give them hope) and you will be able to maintain the low prices even if you can't be online for a while.

For my large low wall I posted 10x of each glyph at 30g with a threshold of 18g and a larger undercut, up to a 10g undercut to make people think twice about undercutting me.

If you can be online most hours of the day I like the first method but if you can't your best bet is more than likely walls.

Most people who have been in the glyph markets competitively for quite some time have their own style of driving competitors out or defending themselves against people using these strategies.  For those interested in the topic here are some of my favorite posts from other bloggers about glyph strategies and market control:


Foo's WoW Musings -
   Foo has always been the first blogger I think of when I think glyphs.  I've always found his information insightful and his thoughts on glyph selling practices to be very thought-provoking and educational.

• Foo on Glyphs

Caffeine, Smokes and Auction House Fees -

   You can't talk about Foo's work with glyphs without also talking about Breevok, another gold blogger who was in direct competition with Foo on the same server.  Breevok is very missed in the blogging community but his chronicling of his glyph experiences is still a great read.

• Breevok's Glyph Experiment

Critical Goblin -

   Critical didn't stick around very long but his posts were fascinating to read. He was one of the more aggressive glyph sellers I've seen and walked readers through every concept. While he has many other glyph posts on his blog the best bet is to check out:

• Critical's War

There are countless great posts out there about glyphs but the above bloggers I feel give a great view of glyph competition from multiple angles and do a great job showing  off the differing mindsets and varying strategies different sellers use when approaching glyphs.

Glyphs: A Collection of MoP Resources

One of the most common questions I get lately is about glyphs and what will become of them in Mists of Pandaria.  There are a lot of rumors and uncertainty in the air right now and it's got a lot of scribes feeling a bit lost when they determine what they should be doing now.  So let's take a real look at the different routes to take while we gear up for Mists of Pandaria.

Stocking Glyphs

A lot of the speculation I've seen has stemmed from what we saw in the Wrath of the Lich King => Cataclysm change over. Most of the players who are worried about pre-crafting glyphs are worried because a large portion of glyphs in Cataclysm became charred and worthless. Fearing their entire stock might be rendered valueless some scribes are hesitant to craft glyphs.

Worry not, friends. I'd been privy to a few rudimentary lists colleagues had made early on but nothing that I felt comfortable sharing as it was neither public nor my work. However a very useful (and easy on the eyes) list has been created by Ravanys and posted at the Consortium.

Inscriptionist (I didn't choose the name!) showcases the side-by-side comparisons of Cataclysm glyphs and their Mists of Pandaria counterparts.  It's important to remember that Mists of Pandaria is still in beta and anything is subject to change. However I feel that this listing goes a long way towards realizing just how little stock will likely be impacted by the glyph changes in the upcoming expansion.

Armed with great resources like the above link I think it is not a bad idea to pre-craft most of your glyphs; I know I will be. The last thing I want to spend the first week of a brand new expansion doing is crafting a huge mountain of glyphs!

Stocking Inks

I plan on having a moderate stock of inks but most of my glyphs will be pre-crafted. But what inks to stockpile? Once again the Consortium and the wonderful folks who frequent the forums shine out. Meyer's done the math for us, giving a great breakdown of the ink distribution that a player stocking inks will want to follow.

Once again, beta's subject to change yadda yadda yadda. However this is a good general ratio to follow when stockpiling ink.

What will Faid do?

As I've stated previously I intend to have most of my glyphs pre-crafted long before the expansion arrives. Regardless of anything else the amount of time I save in the first weeks of the patch will be invaluable; working on new professions and new content will be a far more valuable use of that time than crafting a bunch of glyphs I could have had taken care of beforehand.

Odds are Mists of Pandaria herbs will stay fairly high for quite a while. This fact, combined with the fact that we will no longer be able to trade Blackfallow ink, means that I'll need enough stock on hand to keep from needing to restock from the AH for some time. Because of this I will likely have a few tabs of ink backed up as well to cover any hot selling glyphs that I may need to recraft before prices level out.

What should you do?

Your situation is probably different than mine. I've tailored my battle plan to how I know I will act both before and after the expansion is released. Unsure what plan will work for you? Check out Kathroman's excellent post. I believe he hit on most of the main points for scribes to keep in mind and laid out a simple, profitable plan for anyone unsure of what to do going forward.  Good luck in glyphs!