Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Stormbear (Mogul) of Thaurissan-US

The Warcraft Econ Hall of Fame interviews the few elite players that have hit the World of Warcraft gold cap of 999,999 gold 99 silver 99 copper as well as ones who have obtain 500k and 250k. We have with us, Stormbear (Mogul) of Thaurissan-US, who will be sharing their story with us today.

Please tell us a little about yourself and your gaming experience.

Hi – I’m Stormbear of Thaurissan server aka Mogul of www.wowmogul.blogspot.com. I’ve been playing WoW since just before BC and really enjoy this game for the r&r it provides.  I’ve been a serious raider in the past but no longer have the time to put into that.  I’ve been a big fan of 1^st-person shooters and could well go there again – it’d need to be something online though so that I could play team.

Do you raid or PvP most? Both? How do you enjoy the game?

These days I quest and PVP.  I like daily 5-mans but in general it’s been completing Cata quest lines, leveling rep, be it faction or guild, and going after things that take my fancy – ie, pets, recipes, horde with poor situational awareness…

Why did you choose to collect this amount of gold?

I like achievements and, originally, I needed gold – I like creating systems – I get very focused once I have a goal, especially when it’s a bit interesting and unusual.  That’s the answer for the Wrath cap, the Cata cap is harder to explain.  I think this second one was more of a keeping up with my peers – a number of bloggers whom I admire had reached the 1M cap already; I was keen to get there too.

How did you go about getting to the gold cap? Any creative or original ideas?

Discipline.  Pure and simple.  Plus or course having a system and enjoying the process of posting items and then watching the gold come in.

I’m not doing this right am I?!  I understand what this question is getting at but think it’s more interesting to examine the processes you’ll need to get to cap, ie, what you need to do every day:

1)     Level as many professions to cap as you can (bear in mind you really only need two or three but the more the merrier)

2)     Post twice a day on the AH – fewer posts is too slow for most people, more is a trial.

3)     Post when people are buying – after raids.

4)     Keep a large stockpile (you never know when the AH will run dry – don’t let your sales run dry with it)

5)     Craft in bulk and bank it – daily crafting is annoying

6)     Keep this discipline everyday.

The last one is the key.  I always make time for AHing – it’s in my daily routine when I log to WoW.  I’m not chasing any gold goal at the moment so my posting is down to every 48 hours but when I was it was daily, sometimes twice a day.  I still scan visually through all the trade goods each day though and buy up what’s cheap.  Keep a disciplined approach to making your gold and there’s no one who can stop you.

What is your master list?

Alchemy

Daily transmute – flasks are ‘just’ starting to become worth crafting on server but really can still be considered to be broken.

Or Truegold transmute

Gem transmute if Elementium stocks are low on the AH or too pricey

Tailoring

All Deathsilk gear

Netherweave bags

Frostweave bags (if you can get it) – I sell these for 250g a pop

Embersilk bags (occasionally – prices are not quite there yet on our server for these to be consistently profitable.

Patches – selling well for me, I know others are having trouble with these seemingly going for below mats price.

Jewelcrafting

Stopped building my blue gems (stockpiling for epics) – currently have about 15 cuts

A couple of meta gems cuts

Plenty of ring and pendant crafting for the shuffle – I sell all the blue procs on the AH for about 350G each.  These items “do” sell – don’t DE them, try this.

Blacksmithing

Anything that requires Elementium especially weapons.  Cata weapons are good value, often outstripping anything questers will find up until level 83 or 84.  Crafted armour is the same.

I also make a good amount of gold selling the older gear, cobalt sets, normal and spiked and the later saronite gear.

Eternal buckles still sell as does most Wrath gear.

Enchanting

Honestly I’ve not been focusing on this.  Agility is a seller as are some of the upper level Wrath chants.  In general on server though this prof is in the doldrums with prices been set extremely low.

DEing for the cata shuffle.  I’m mostly stockpiling at the moment though waiting for the changes coming with the next patch.

Inscription

Ahh my workhorse.  These days it’s all a bit slow and old with few sales coming in as the current round of alts hits endgame – so primarily glyphs with offhands also making reasonable sales.

Leatherworking

Patches and craftable greens and blues.  Anything up to about level 83 sells very well on my server.  In general this is a very quiet profession on a small server though.  There are simply not enough people out there farming.  This keeps patch prices high but robs the profession of reasonably-priced leather for anything else.

Mining

Pyrite Bars

Engineering

Toolboxes, scopes, pets all sell spasmodically.  The difficulty with Eng is that people level it for the fun so the things you are earnestly trying to sell are periodically undercut through the floor as people offload what to them are leveling items.

Vendor Pets

Have at look at my post here for where to go and what to buy.  Vendor pets are very very easy money.  If you’re not doing this I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to call yourself an Auctioneer (…read the Terms and Conditions at the front of the contract)

What items are in your Snatch list?

I don’t use “snatch” as such – there are usually less than 5000 auctions up on our AH and about a quarter of those are mine.  What I do is an overall search and then check the top end products for sale.  Then I go category by category through the Trade Goods tabs.  Finally I’ll check Pets to see if anyone has posted something cheap and interesting.

• All herbs – you name it I buy it.  Price-wise I’ll buy anything up to the cost of a cata herb.  No 150g stacks of Goldclover though thank you.  At the moment about 50g on our server is a good buying price.
• Elementium and Obsidium ores – I currently have good stockpiles of all other ores
• Pyrite ore – Yes, “I believe!”
• Level 85 foods – nothing over 2g a piece (I resell half stacks at 8g a piece)
• Blue crafteds (peeps get into wars – on a small AH I can scoop up four or five at the 20% value level, sell a couple in a 24-hour period at a reasonable price and be way ahead.
• Embersilk – Frostweave – Netherweave
• Savage leather and Borean if it’s reasonable
• I also always check for inks – you’d be surprised how often people dump valuable inks for 1g per – crazy!
• Volatiles – I buy these in bulk.  I like to have at least 100 of each on each of my crafters.

How did you learn to do it? Anyone or resource you would like to thank?

Here comes the plug – check out www.wowmogul.blogspot.com to see how I learned to do it.  Basically though it’s reading the blogs – logging the knowledge and following through.  If you follow some good commercial gold blogs you’ll get more ideas then you have time to act on.  Try Altos – well written and informative.

What addons, if any, do you use to help you make gold and why are they needed?

• Auctioneer for auto buyout
• Postal
• Zero Auctions
• KTQ
• Lil’sparky’s workshop
• Bankstack
• Altoholic

Are you still going for more gold?  If so, do you have a new goal? Are you close?

I doubt I’ll try to hit another gold milestone in the near future but I still greatly enjoy making gold so I expect the balance to slowly go up.  I capped back in March but even though I’ve been on a bit of a spending spree I’m now a reasonable way over cap.

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

Not really – the gold blogosphere knows but I don’t think many folks from my quiet little server are aquiainted with its charms.  A few mates on server know but no one in my new guild does and I’m probably not going to tell them – feels a little gauche.

Did you spend your gold on fun things? What have you bought? What things would you like to buy?

I’m starting to…

“Hi, my name is Stormbear and I’m learning how to spend gold – it’s been 30 days since my last purchase” “Hello Stormbear… “

I’m buying portable holes for my active toons – BOEs where I need em and can get em.  On our server it’s not so much what I can buy as the little extravagances, for example, I’m rarely unflasked these days – it’s only about 100g an hour which I easily make so why not?

If you were the professor of a gold making 101 college class, what would be some things you would talk about?

• The importance of posting regularly
• Setting a reasonable price when you’re the sole poster for a product
• Professions and the order you should build them in (and their pairings)
• Understanding your supply chain

How about an advanced gold making class?

• Making money on small-faction servers.
• Depleting opponents supply lines
• Maintaining good leveling product (knowing the ‘age’ of your server)
• Market coverage is your friend

Do you have good farming strategies or spots?

I love farming in the south west of Twilight Highlands – I fish for guppies and also volatile fires – great fun and rarely anyone else out there.

What was the best deal you ever came across?

No best deals – slow and steady has been my process. Occasionally I get runs of cheap mats but in my opinion any ‘fantastic’ deal is usually the result of a hacked account.  Deals naturally tend to get better with size though – with the amount of capital I now have when 100 stacks of Elementium come onto the market for 30g each I buy the whole lot and don’t think about it.

Do you remember any of your worst deals?

Still remember finding a new DE pathway on JC in Wrath and thinking I’d have something amazing to tell the blogosphere.  Plentiful mats – a good DE rate… only to realize (following crafting a bag of the suckers) that the reason this wasn’t widely publicized was that the rings were BOP.

What are your future plans with WoW?

Levelling alts to cap

Crafting new gear

Refining my posting regime (I need a complete review of Zero Auctions values)

Getting more heavily involved with Rated BGs and Arena

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

When epic gems finally drop beware the Mega Guilds as they roam across the fiscal landscape stomping out mum and pop operations everywhere.  If you have the time and inclination go get yourself at the head of one of these leering hydra-headed behemoths you will likely be well-rewarded.  Many of these huge guilds have passive income and, correctly managed, the skillsets to reduce an individual JCer to naught but a greasy smear on the AH floor.  With a cabalistic profit-sharing regime and a guild vault sufficiently stocked with mat-priced booty for the troops you could easily have a cadre of transmuters producing epic gems to your JC sweatshopers who in no time flat could, between them, have every cut in the game covered.  A Mega Guild who is of a mind could easily own the epic JC market from the outset and for a considerable period of time afterwards.

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for Warcraft Econ. Do you have any last words?

Sure do.  If you’re serious about getting to one of these milestones then why not try setting yourself up a blog?  There’s a tendency with gold bloggers to believe that they have to continuously provide “tips” to people.  Not so.  Naturally people are interested in the latest goings on and you will undoubtedly report on those but your personal gold adventure in WoW is also fascinating reading for many in its own right.