Enchanting Conversions - It's like printing money.

The status quo for enchanting has been pretty constant for many years. There's dust. There's essence, usually three lessers equating to one greater. There are rare shards which may or may not have a lesser version and there is an epic crystal. That's what we've had for a very long time. Dust is dust, essence are essence, shards are shards, right?

Not anymore.  Mists of Pandaria brought a fundamental change to the way enchanting materials work. Dust is no longer just dust, that dust can be traded up the chain all the way to a Sha Crystal if you have the desire. Likewise a Sha Crystal can be traded down the line all the way into dust.

This change hasn't sunk in with many enchanters, though, and my server's rife with gold-making opportunities because of it.

If I buy Spirit Dust right now it will cost me 5g90s to craft one Mysterious Essence which I can turn around and sell for 21g, essentially quadrupling my gold with a single craft.

Remember!

When trading up:

   5 Spirit Dust = 1 Mysterious Essence

   5 Mysterious Essence = 1 Ethereal Shard

   5 Ethereal Shard = 1 Sha Crystal (1 Day CD)

When trading down:

   1 Sha Crystal = 2 Ethereal Shards

   1 Ethereal Shard = 3 Mysterious Essence

   1 Mysterious Essence = 3 Spirit Dust

Keep this in mind for selling mats at their most valuable stage and to be sure you pay the least for your crafting materials!

Auction House Sorting: A Whole New Game

Now that people have driven Warbot Ignition Keys into the ground all for their sweet, sweet, 25g profit I've turned my attention to the more interesting thing that came up from the patch.

Some sellers, particularly in glyphs, may have noticed they were getting some strange sales. Even if there were countless glyphs cheaper than yours people would sometimes buy your higher priced one. Why?

Blizzard messed up their Auction House sorting with the patch and right now, contrary to what players have known for their entire WoW-lives, the auction house is sorting the most expensive items first. Now, this all goes out the window if you use Auctioneer or another AH addon but for those using the default UI they are seeing the most expensive items first.

Most players will then see an expensive item and shop around, go to the next page, and find the cheaper auctions. But not all of them.

After I noticed this strange sorting bug I changed the way I posted my glyphs. Currently on each faction I have a wall ten deep of each glyph for 500g. This ensures that my glyphs are at the top of the list and that 500g is all they see if they don't go scrolling or page-flipping.

In the meantime on another character I'm moving in with two of each glyph at my normal threshold/fallback. This way I'm selling to both the lazy buyers who buy the top of the list and to those who shop around and buy the cheaper selection.

I don't sell many at the high prices, I've probably sold about 45 glyphs this way. But 45 glyphs at 500g/glyph is a pretty substantial thing when you think about it and by selling at my normal settings on another character there's no missed revenue.

I'm sure eventually the masses will catch on to the sorting bug but until then I'll be happy to sell them 30g glyphs for 500g.

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.

From the Vault: Undermine Journal Notifications

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From the Vault:  Every Tuesday and Friday we'll be shining a spotlight on some of the most popular and timeless posts from Nerf Faids here on ClockworkRiot. Folks who missed them the first time around can enjoy some of the best pieces and folks who have seen them can maybe be reminded of a trick or two that they'd forgotten.

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Isn't that just the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? This enchant has sold on my server in the past for upwards of 30k.  I'm not yet sure if I'll flip it or learn it, since it's also the highest +Stats enchant that can be put on BoA chestpieces.  Regardless, it's an amazing deal.

With an incredibly active AH (3 AM on a Wednesday? Over 900 pages of auctions!) however did I snag such a great deal before someone else grabbed it up? The answer to that is the greatest thing since sliced bread, if sliced bread sent you e-mail notifications to tell you it had recently been sliced.

The Undermine Journal has a feature which allows you to set parameters for notifications.  Basically anything that can be posted on the AH can have a notification set up for it. You can have one just to let you know if one's even available, if one's available under a certain price, or even if there's none available so you know when you can jack up prices.

I get these notifications sent to my e-mail which I'm constantly able to view throughout the day. I believe they're now also doing twitter and Facebook stuff though, so you can probably even have it, either directly or roundabout, sent to your phone!  (Don't quote me on that though, you kids and your newfangled facetwitterbookspace confuse the heck out of me.)

The best bit is that if, like me, you're too lazy to make your own notifications you can now import other people's lists. Granted, this may cause you more headache than help; on my server most of the "rare" items are posted in vast quantities so I often get mostly useless notifications, but I deal with them for the time saving and for these great 45g deals.

A great guide to setting up notifications as well as a list of notifications you can just copy and paste (the same list I'm using!) is available over at The Consortium, check it out!

From the Vault: 1c Undercuts

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From the Vault:  Every Tuesday and Friday we'll be shining a spotlight on some of the most popular and timeless posts from Nerf Faids here on ClockworkRiot. Folks who missed them the first time around can enjoy some of the best pieces and folks who have seen them can maybe be reminded of a trick or two that they'd forgotten.

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I'm not sure what's caused this to come up so often all of a sudden but I've heard about 1c undercuts one way or another nearly every day for the past week or so. 

On the one hand I hear competitors yelling at me about  my 1c undercuts or guild members saying that 1c undercuts piss them off.  On the other I've got people complaining about how stupid it is for people to undercut by 10g+ and just cut everyone's profits down.

I don't pretend to know what's "right" in the realm of economic theory. I always just sort of assumed that this was a personal preference and everyone thinks that their way is right.  Well, let me tell you what my way is and why I think it's right.

The Supposed Case for >1c Undercuts

I've heard a few reasons for undercutting by more than 1c, or to put it another way, why undercutting by only 1c is not a smart decision.  Usually it's one of these beliefs:

● My item will sell faster if I undercut more because people will see that they're getting a better deal.
If there is an item that is usually 20,000g and I see it for 10,000g I have to admit I would be getting a deal and I may buy this item to flip it.  However, that is usually not the case.  Usually the 1c undercutting is happening in markets like gems or glyphs when the price tag is often under 100g.  When I look at discounts I look at them as a part of the entire cost of the item. Getting 10g knocked off a 20,000g item is a lot less of an appealing discount than getting 10g knocked off a 20g item, you see?

I will dare to say that most buyers are similar to me: We don't care if you're cheaper by 1g or 1c, if your item is at the top of my list (aka cheapest per unit) I'll buy yours.  Why? Because it's at the top.  Hell, with TSM_Shopping I don't even usually see a price comparison on many commodities, the items are just queued up by cheapest automatically.

● My item will sell faster if I undercut by a larger number.
Yes, I just rehashed the previous belief so I can discuss it from a different angle.  I want to discuss more from the speed angle here.  I am not a patient person.  Most people I know aren't particularly patient when it comes to buying things off the AH.

Understand that in WoW there really isn't a lot of window shopping and impulse buys, particularly for trade goods and consumables. Rarely are people going to stumble upon your great deal on flasks just on accident.  If people are looking at your item on the AH they probably went to the AH and typed in that item in particular.

I just powerleveled Jewlcrafting today.  There's this hellish area in JC when you need Large Opals, Azerothian Diamonds, and Blue Sapphires.  There were about 20 Large Opals on the AH, some were at 3g and the others were at 15g.  You know what? I bought all of them.  I didn't care that the 15g Opals were five times the rate of Mr. Undercut. I wanted opals so I bought opals.  Don't get me wrong, I love cheaper goods, but Mr. Undercut could have easily recieved 15g for his Opals as well had he not undercut so aggressively.

Remember that if your item is popping up in a search most people are specifically searching for that item. They already want it, you don't need to sell them on it by kicking sand in your competitor's face.

● Undercutting by 1c is a dick move.
This one's certainly opinion based so difficult to argue against.  To those who hold this belief I merely must ask you to look at it like this:  I can undercut you by 1c. You can then choose to undercut me by 1c. You've lost, at most, 2c of value off your original sale price and will still be selling it for Original Asking Price Minus 2c.  Or I can instead undercut you by 50g.  You can then undercut me if you want, and given your opinions on 1c undercut you'll probably undercut me by at least 1g.  So now you can, at most, sell your item for Original Asking Price Minus 51g just because you didn't like 1c undercuts. Who's the dick now?

The Upstanding Individual Who Fights 1c Undercuts
A phenomenon in all of this is the buyer who will buy a more expensive item if they see someone's been undercut by 1c.  For example, if you're selling a Glyph of Innervate for 50g and I post mine for 49.99.99 this "Upstanding Individual" will buy your glyph just because they don't like 1c undercuts. I know a few of these people.

But you know what?  For every one of these people I know I know about ten people who don't even look at the others on the AH, they buy the top if it's within their price range.  If you want to "fight the man and his 1c undercuts" by buying more expensive items that's fine; I'm sure the sellers appreciate it.  However, decreeing your moral strength in Trade is rarely a deterrent for us 1c undercutters. The 1c Undercutters are still swimming in gold without needing yours. No skin off my back!

At  the end of the day there are multiple stances you can take on the issue. I don't particularly mind if someone takes one over the other. As you can see here I clearly am in support of 1c undercuts but I don't mind if my competition wants to rob themselves of potential profit. 

From the Vault: Three Tips for New Auctioneers

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From the Vault:  Every Tuesday and Friday we'll be shining a spotlight on some of the most popular and timeless posts from Nerf Faids here on ClockworkRiot. Folks who missed them the first time around can enjoy some of the best pieces and folks who have seen them can maybe be reminded of a trick or two that they'd forgotten.

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Check Out => Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival!

Last month Cold's inaugural blogging carnival topic was about farming. I pouted around since I don't really farm as a regular gold making tactic and chose to sit that one out. This month, however, I feel I can at least ramble on and maybe make some sense!

What 3 Pieces Of Advice Would You Give A Little Goblin? (3 Top Tips For New Auctioneers?)

Because this is apparently aimed at Auctioneers and not just "gold-makers" (though many of us will often use the terms interchangeably) I'm going to try to focus on tips that deal with the auction house specifically.

Many players reach max level, clear raid content, achieve awesome PvP ratings, and do all of this oblivious to the real power of the Auction House. Many people will say the most powerful tool in a gold maker's arsenal is a transmute specced alchemist. Some will say it's knowing certain addons like Auctioneer inside and out. Others will say it's consistent and dedicated farming. But at the end of the day the single most important tool you have is the AH.

It can be frightening at first, and possibly overwhelming. Sure you can buy and sell now, but against the big dogs of your server you may feel overwhelmed with how many addons they use, how they always seem to undercut you. How can that guy sell something that cost you 50g to make for 25g? There's a lot to learn and a lot to practice with, but here's three of the biggest tips I can give you:

What 3 Pieces Of Advice Would You Give A Little Goblin? (3 Top Tips For New Auctioneers?)

Know how to use addons. Know how to function without them.

There are some amazing addons for using the AH. There are behemoths with many features like Auctioneer or Trade SkillMaster or there are less extreme ones like Auctionator. All of them have great uses and you can research each of them yourselves and find out which ones work best for you.

My advice here is to know how to function without them. If TSM breaks, like it's predecessor Quick Auctions 3 did on possibly the biggest day in the history of auctions, will you be able to make a profit or will you be stuck in the mud?

Do you know how to configure that addon you're using? I can't count the number of auctions I've bought up at <1% of their value because someone's addon malfunctioned and posted that Truegold for 7g instead of 700g. If you're not comfortable letting an addon post for you or buy for you don't. Things can go terribly wrong. Learn to buy and sell without addons, then use addons for ease. Don't rely on them completely. 

Don't be hasty. 

It's tempting to want to jump right in when you've found a good deal but take a step back if you're not knowledgable in the market. Personal anecdote time. It was BC, I was a level 68 Blood Elf mage. I was so excited because I'd just installed Auctioneer and was going to take on the world. I'd done two auction house scans and noticed that this particular market looked great! It was Fel Iron Bars and according to Auctioneer there were only 4 stacks up, all of them at 60% of normal price! I bought them all at 400g a stack! Yay, I'm going to make so much! Well, turns out of course, that they aren't worth nearly that much and Auctioneer, with such a small amount of data to go off of, was comparing an inflated price against an even more inflated price, making my deal look great when in fact it was just terrible. 

Learn about what you're buying. Watch the markets you're interested in for a while to notice trends, average prices, etc. And never ever ever buy something just because your addon tells you it's a good deal. Your brain > Addon brain!

Don't tie up all your assets in one market.

Many brand new auctioneers probably only have professions to hit one or two markets, or at least they may feel that way. Knowing one market inside and out is great, but if suddenly something happens to that market that makes it less lucrative you can be out in the cold with a bunch of inventory you can't move.

Diversify! Are you a miner/blacksmith? Don't just make Bloodied Pyrium! Sell belt buckles, enchanting rods, and open lockboxes with your keys. If your server prices are great for it buy Elementium and Volatile Earth, smelt it, and sell Hardened Elementium Bars at a markup. Just because you only have 2 professions doesn't mean you can only sell two things!

From the Vault: I'm Faid's Bank Toon

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From the Vault:  Every Tuesday and Friday we'll be shining a spotlight on some of the most popular and timeless posts from Nerf Faids here on ClockworkRiot. Folks who missed them the first time around can enjoy some of the best pieces and folks who have seen them can maybe be reminded of a trick or two that they'd forgotten.

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So I just glanced over The Gold Queen's post over at her blog and it's basically a great list of ways to remain "unseen" when posting your auctions. There's some great benefits in remaining "unknown." I bet a lot of us have competitors on our friends lists and track them to easily keep them undercut and such things.

But being known isn't necessarily a bad thing.  I use an AH alt but I make no secret of who it is; I've listed Liquidate's name many times here and if anyone on my server asks who my main is I will tell them.  This can definitely have some drawbacks, but I don't really mind all that much.  You see, there are benefits to being known as well.

It's the closest you can get to "branding" in WoW.

Before the Apple cult was formed one of Apple's biggest marketing ventures was that they would offer discounts to schools. I believe they still do this. This is why almost all schools have Macs in their computer labs instead of PCs.  The concept behind this was that if kids grew up and learned to use computers while using a Mac that child would then go on to buy a Mac when they had grown up and were shopping for a PC. It was familiar to them and they had the name Mac in their brain associated with computers. (Granted, our Macs broke down about 90% of the time so it just made me not ever want my own!)

You can copy this a bit by having a character known for selling a certain item. It doesn't have to be your main, as long as it's a constant character selling the same item.  If I know that Cardmaster sells Mysterious Fortune Cards at 10g a piece and all that's up on the AH are for 12g a piece I will probably wait for Cardmaster to log on and ask if I can buy his stuff directly.

This has happened to me a lot with rare items, craftables, etc.  People have seen Liquidate posting +4 Stats to Chest scrolls and if they all sell out they will come to me because they know I can do the enchant. (I, of course, charge them the same profit I'd make off a scroll on the AH!)  I've had people whisper me requesting glyphs, fortune cards, and crafted PvP pieces before.  Had that item been constantly posted on different throwaway toons I would never have received that business.

By posting on the same character you will, in some players' minds, cause them to associate you with that item and this can pay off in your favor.

Loyalty

I've been making bank on the cut gem market the past few days, I intend to make a post about this in the near future.  But from this comes a story. I've been controlling the Inferno Ruby prices since the patch hit and have been able to keep the prices stable and high.

I offer cuts free to my guild members but often they're not patient enough to wait for me to cut it, which is cool.  I was on Vent with a guild member last night who warned me that I'd been undercut by a ridiculous amount.  While I went off on a huge spiel about how that person was stupid since demand was so high they were just harming their own profits while not hurting mine at all apparently my guild member purchased a gem. Did he buy the undercutters? Nope, he bought mine. He paid more for the exact same item because it was mine and he wanted to benefit me and not some random undercutter.

If your AH posting alt is not associated with your main this may not crop up much, but if you have a reputation on your server, either as your bank alt or as your main, you can capitalize on that in the AH if you post on known characters.

So which  is better? Transparency or Anonymity?

Both of them have their pros and cons.  You will probably see more of a benefit of anonymity, especially in markets like glyphs and cut gems. But one glance at The Gold Queen's list in the post I posted above and all I can say is . . . that's a lot of work.  Even with addons that auto mail or a shared guild bank that's a lot of toon swapping, character slots taken up, white lists and black lists . . . just a lot of work!  I think this is a beneficial practice if you go through all the motions.

I just wanted to post this and say to those who, like me, aren't going to go through all these motions to remain secretive: There're benefits for us lazy people too!

From the Vault: Using the Neutral Auction House

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From the Vault:  Every Tuesday and Friday we'll be shining a spotlight on some of the most popular and timeless posts from Nerf Faids here on ClockworkRiot. Folks who missed them the first time around can enjoy some of the best pieces and folks who have seen them can maybe be reminded of a trick or two that they'd forgotten.

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The Neutral AH is an amazing tool in a gold maker's arsenal.  When one has learned to use it effectively it is a gold mine.  However, it's easy to get burned when learning the ropes and many people are so worried about the risks they never even give it a fighting chance.

I've been growing my Horde business by leaps and bounds lately.  My problem is I don't have as much infrastructure set up on the Hordeside.   Here's where the Neutral AH comes in.  Today I bought about 80 stacks of Elementium on the Horde and prospected it all there.  The problem was that I ended up with a lot of rare gems and very very few patterns.  Rather than burden a guildie to cut them or tip a JC, I decided I would send them to my Alliance DK to cut then send them back to sell.  This meant moving rather large amounts of rare gems across the AH, something that I'm never happy to do, but I've become more and more comfortable with over time.

Basically the way the Neutral AH itself works is both factions can buy and sell on it. However, unlike your faction's AH, the Neutral AH (Blackwater Auction House) will deduct a 15% cut of the take instead of 5%.  In order to avoid losing out on large amounts of gold because of this cut many players like to post their items for very very cheap, such as 1c-1g for an item often worth 50-10000g!

Herein lies the risk.  Other players, or often even bots, will watch the Neutral AH for someone attempting to move items like this and will "snipe" the item when it's up.  Some may see a moral problem with this practice, but as far as Blizzard is concerned, they are not breaking the rules and have every right to snipe your auctions.  (I agree with this. I don't like snipers and would not do it myself, but if you lose an item on the Neutral AH it is your own fault in the end.)

The most foolproof way to avoid having your auctions sniped (besides never posting them, of course!) is to post them at a value you'd be willing to sell it for. Then, if someone does buy it, you didn't really lose out all that much.  However, most people don't want to take that 15% cut and so it becomes a game of managing risk.

Some have probably heard me say I take a lot of precautions to avoid sniping on the neutral AH and have been mostly successful.  I wanted to share these with you so that, hopefully, you guys can lower the risk associated with cross faction trading as well!

• Have instant communication with your accomplice.  - Ideally you would be buying and selling your own auctions with a second account.  However, if you cannot do that, you will likely be using another person to help you.  Make sure that this person is in Vent/Mumble/Teamspeak with you, or better, in the same room! Communicate often. "I'm about to post up 14 Resplendent Ember Topaz. Posting in 5, 4, 3, 2, Posting!"   This will make sure they're always searching for the right item quickly and can buy it before anyone else gets the chance to.

• Minimize clicks. - Using addons is great for this.  With Auctioneer you can enable Easy Buyout so that you can Shift+Click (Or whatever you set it to) to buy out auctions quickly.  With Auctionator you can buy large amounts of items by spam-clicking the Buy button.  If you use the default UI frame you will find your self having to click on the item, click buyout, click accept, click next item, etc.  All this clicking can mean a few extra seconds a bot is able to scan and snipe your auctions.  Be sure your accomplice knows how to use these addons for this purpose too!

• Mix it up. - Do not schedule times to meet your accomplice to do this.  If someone is watching you and sees these same two characters go to the Neutral AH every Wednesday at 4 AM they'll start connecting the dots.  Make the transfers at different times and different days each time.  When possible, use different characters at different Neutral AHs.

• /who the Zone.  -  Before posting you can /who Winterspring  /who Tanaris  /who Cape of.  This will give you lists of the toons in the areas.  Now, people may just be questing, but if you see my level 1 Mage Neutrality in Winterspring, a place a level 1 has no business being, you can probably bet that toon is made with the Neutral AH in mind and you may wish to be wary.

• Cover as many Auctioneers as possible. - Rather than meeting your accomplice in Booty Bay have him go to Everlook while you chill in Booty Bay or Tanaris.  This way you can visually watch multiple auction houses for anyone slinking up to take a peek at what you're doing.

• Talk to the others. - If you see other pairs of people who appear to be flipping items extend a friendly tell.  Not everyone is necessarily out to get you and they may be just as afraid that you're going to steal their auctions.  Often I've found that politely approaching others has created a rapport and I've even found people who are willing to do gold trades (I give you gold on Alliance, you give me the same amount on Horde) to avoid the hassle of moving gold straight across.  If the person gives you a bad vibe then don't risk it, log off and transfer your items tomorrow.

• Slow and steady transferring is key. - Twenty different gem cuts you say? Don't post them all at once.  It's easy to create a TSM list and post up everything you want to transfer but it takes a large amount of control out of your hands.  Which cuts will appear on the AH first?  While you're frantically spam clicking to buy out all the Bold Inferno Rubies is someone else taking that time to snipe your Etched Demonseyes? Post one type of item at a time to reduce the amount of time your inventory is sitting on the AH.

• Off-Peak hours are best. - Many times when an item is sniped it wasn't by a "professional sniper" but by someone who just happened to be in the zone, saw you run up to the Auctioneer, and figured they'd do a search and see if anything interesting was happening.  By transferring your auctions at, say, 3 - 5 AM you can often limit the amount of exposure your habits receive and lower the risk of sniping.  This also allows the /who of zones to be more "accurate," as you're less likely to see large amounts of people out questing at these times.

• Don't be obvious. - Many people may end up making characters just to transfer via the neutral AH.  Don't follow my lead.  Neutrality was a funny and fitting name, but not very secretive.  One look at a level 1 named Neutrality in Gadgetzan and you know what she's up to.  If you make a Neutral AH banker give it a "normal" name, not a funny bank name or anything to do with transferring.

EXTREME AH TRANSFERRING

It's worth mentioning there are a few other things you can do when transferring that I do not do; either because my server is not built for it, it doesn't interest me, or I don't want to pay for it.  They should probably be mentioned though.

• If you play on a PvP server you can watch the neutral AHs.  If you see anyone nearby that you think may snipe your auctions get on a character of the opposite faction and continuously gank them to keep them from meddling in your AH affairs.

• Regardless of your server type, if you're willing to take a beating from the guards you can attack and kill Neutral Auctioneers.  This would allow you to limit the "auction kiosks" available to only the ones you are using, allowing you to have far greater control on who can hurt your business in-game.

• Many of the sniping programs work by doing constant scans of the AH.  If you post up tons of junk (20 pages of Skinning Knives, for example) the bot must scan all of those 20 pages, giving you more time to post/buy what you're actually transferring.

• I'm under the impression that you can flip items using the Remote Auction house without ever having to visit an in-game Neutral AH or mailbox.  I cannot talk much about this since I do not use the Remote AH, but it's something to remember.  Also, keep in mind, if competitors use the Remote Auction house there's not much you can do to "watch out" for them.  Just be sure you limit the amount of time your items spend in their reach; make sure the item's bought within a few seconds of posting and you should do okay.

There may be other tactics to avoid having your auctions sniped.  These are the tactics that I personally use or have heard a lot of other gold maker's talk about, I hope they help take some of the weight off when you're deciding if flipping across the Neutral AH is too dangerous to risk or too lucrative to pass up!

This video is hosted on my old YouTube account; don't forget to subscribe to the new Youtube account for up to the minute gold making tips!