Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Abeni of Burning Legion-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, Abeni of Burning Legion-US , who will be sharing their story with us today.

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

My main is Abeni on Burning Legion US on the Alliance side. I’ve played World of Warcraft on and off since Vanilla release. I’ve been interested in the economy since BC and dabbled in Glyphs during Wrath. Before Cata came out I went on a spending spree and started out the new expansion with 948 gold.

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

I am usually leveling alts or on my 19 twink Paladin Kristopher doing WSG. I used to be a raider obsessed with maxing DPS. Now that I’ve hit my million goal I’ll hopefully be raiding more frequently.

Why did you choose to collect this amount of gold?

I remember very clearly seeing the same names on the AH over and over again early on in Wrath and thinking to myself, “Hey I can do that.”

How did you go about getting to this gold amount? Any creative or original ideas?

Gems and Enchanting:

Summary: About 30% of my ore goes to Meta cuts. The rest become Cata Rare cuts and a “Full shuffle,” into Enchant Scrolls. I don’t stockpile, I stock up. That said, I’m not afraid to pull the trigger on a big materials buy when the price is right. I also disenchant most of my Carnelians because enchant scrolls do really well on my server and Inferno Ruby cuts are often being camped.

-Meta Gems: I noticed early in Cataclysm that PVP metas have low competition on my server so I learned all PVP Shadowspirit cuts. Also I was the first person on alliance side with the Agile Shadowspirit Diamond pattern. It was an easy 79k over the 3 and a half days I could control that item.

-Uncut cata rares are a mug’s game on my server. I prefer to learn some cuts and earn profit.

-Inferno Ruby Cuts: I usually only list the two most profitable cuts of the usual suspects: Delicate/Bold/Brilliant.

-Bold/Brilliant/Delicate Bloodstone Cuts: I list these for around 20g each although I think they can bring 30. They are the WOTLK uncommon red gems. Levelers buy gems too and most of my competition fights for epic and rare Wrath gem sales but I am happy paying 1-4g each bloodstone for a 5-20x return.

-Infinite Dust: I’ve recently gotten back into this. I just buy the Huge Citrine/Sun Crystal/Chalcedony and Eternal Earth when they reach a decent price to disenchant the jewelry.

-Any profitable Cata Enchant Scroll…I also occasionally dip into Twink/Leveling enchants.

-Scroll of Enchant Boots – Precision: Why am I mentioning this enchant? It’s a decent mover and has low competition on most servers…but why? Spooky mats.

2x Greater Celestial Essence
2x Hypnotic Dust
1x Elixir of Impossible Accuracy

The only people selling this enchant are going to be the occasional leveler and other AH Goblins. This is important because I believe that any serious competition shouldn’t be afraid of items with oddball materials.

my server’s data for the “spooky mats” Enchant Boots – Precision http://theunderminejournal.com/item.php?realm=A-Burning%20Legion&item=52769
notice the low quantity available. We can craft it, we have the technology.

my server’s data for Enchant Boots – Earthen Vitality http://theunderminejournal.com/item.php?realm=A-Burning%20Legion&item=52743
notice the heavier competition and larger quantities available.

What the sellers are doing is exhausted. There are just too many people trying to shove Earthen Vitality onto the AH. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. If you are not afraid of “spooky mats,” you can have better sales on more items in more markets. It took me a long time to realize this and I want others to learn.

Glyphs and Ink:

-Sells Inferno Ink but I have also had success in Darkmoon cards.

-I have 4 different posting habits in the Glyph market. Normal, Deep Undercut, Reseller, and “Global Thermonuclear War.”

Normal is kind of what you would expect. Deep Undercut is designed to lower AH camper profits while keeping a decent gold per hour for myself…basically following the old Greedy Goblin model. My reseller strategy I’m keeping to myself, but I will say it involves risk and predictable copper undercuts from your competition. Nuclear war is also what you would expect…nuking the market and posting everything at one low price. Sometimes glyph competition camps hard. So instead of making no gold, I dump the market and measure my gold per hour vs the 10-15 minutes it took to nuke the market. It lets me spend more time on my other professions and scares off newcomers. Quotes from my favorite glyph master Gevlon:

“The deep undercutter doesn’t camp the AH. Crafts many glyphs of each type (I curently run with 9), posts them undercutting the currently listed ones and forgets them for 48 hours.”
Source: http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/2009/09/industry-part-2.html

“…driving the prices down you decrease the G/day available to everyone on the market, killing campers one by one.”
Source: http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/2010/06/deep-undercutting-with-qa3.html

“There is a thing called demand curve: the lower your price is, the more customers you’ll have.”
Source: http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/2010/04/auction-house-etiquette.html

Other stuff:

-Tailoring Bags: I like Embersilk and Netherweave Bags but I’ve also just gotten into Mooncloth Bags. It’s the (other) other 16 slot bag in WoW. It’s nice because you can often take sales from your Netherweave bag competition without them noticing.

You want to buy your Runecloth at about the same price you would pay for a stack of Netherweave. (4-9g per stack) You can -Hopefully- find Felcloth at around 1-2g each. This is another one of those “Spooky Mats” items. If an item has spooky mats and everyone else is afraid to sell, can it still make you gold? Yes it can.

-Cross Faction: I Sell Argent Tournament pets on the other faction’s AH. Here is the bark I used to stock up.

“Looking for gold? You might be sitting on some! Press ‘C’ and check your currency tab for Champion’s Seals. I’m buying Argent Tournament pets for 1000g each. Each pet costs you 40 Champ Seals PST.”

Using this I racked up 60 pets in a week and decided that was enough buying for now. I could have paid much less for the pets but the bark targets people that need gold and my profit is safe at 1k anyway. Each of these pets will sell on horde side for ~2.5-3k gold. I will get around 120k profit on the high end. These pets sell slowly so this is a long term play.

What is your master list?

Hot items for me lately:

-Dun Murogh Cub
-Ammen Vale Lashling
-Cata Enchant scrolls (especially Cloak enchants)
-Cata Shadowspirit Cuts
-Bloodthirsty Sapphire Necklace
-Bloodthirsty Sapphire Ring
-Jasper/Alicite/Nightstone rare jewelry
-Infinite Dust
-Delicate/Bold/Brilliant Inferno Ruby
-Netherweave Bag
-Glyphs and more glyphs

What items are in your Snatch list?

Most used shopping lists:

-Blackfallow Ink (contains all Cata herbs)
-Ethereal Ink (contains all Outlands herbs)
-Ink of the Sea (contains all Wrath herbs)
-Ore (contains all Cata ore as well as Thorium & Cobalt ore)
-Uncommon Gem (all Cata uncommon gems and the Wrath gem Bloodstone)
-Bags List (Embersilk Cloth, Felcloth, Frostweave cloth, Netherweave cloth, Runecloth)
-Infinite Dust (mats for wrath jewelry) Chalcedony, Huge Citrine, Sun Crystal, Crystallized Earth, Eternal Earth
-Volatiles (all cata Volatiles)

*I also use the rare recipes list from The Consortium but added several good twink items to it such as Shadowfang.

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

First I need to give a special thanks to Eaglescream and Oliphoth over on Burning Legion. Also thanks to Gevlon who taught us all new ways to think about the glyph market back in Wrath. Someone tell him he needs to start doing more economy posts. I also like the Power Word: Gold Podcast/Blog and I would be lost without lurking The Consortium forums.

Really there are so many great blogs and I read them all but these are the three that had the most impact on me:

Gevlon: http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/
Power Word Gold: http://powerwordgold.net
The Consortium: http://consortium.stormspire.net/

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

Bankstack: Inventory management and this is number 1 on the list for a reason. Stop reading this and get this addon…like now. It’s made my life so much easier.

Tradeskill Master: Crafting: Easily craft just the profitable items.

Auction Profit Master: I use this for posting a good 95% of my auctions. Really I should get with the times and use Tradeskill Master to post but I’m set in my ways.

Auctionator: One of the best ways to buy raw mats: Shopping lists. I also use this addon to post some of my auctions such as Hypnotic Dust, Greater Celestial Essence, Inferno Ruby cuts, JC daily gems and it’s great for those items that you don’t need the lowest price on the AH to get a sale.

Auctioneer: I use the Enchantrix part of this addon to make Milling, Prospecting, and Disenchanting easier. I like the Glyph Scan that’s hidden under Configure>Glypher. It’s a fast way to update those glyph prices. There have been many times I’ve wanted to uninstall this thing and burn it in a toilet fire but just can’t bring myself to do it. We have a love/hate thing going on…I think most gold makers would understand.

Mail Opener and Postal: Two mailbox mods and these are both massive time savers. Postal has the features the default mailbox should have and Mail Opener…opens your mail. The simplest addons can make a huge difference.

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

I like setting lots of small goals so it’s hard to say how far I will take it. I am interested in going for more just because I enjoy the Auction House PvP.

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

I would say at least 6 people on my server know.

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

I bought the 16k Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth (vendor mount) during Wrath and a fun fact is that I wanted it so badly that I got it before upgrading above 150% flight speed. Sometimes I find useless grey items listed on the AH at higher than vendor prices and I buy them for the fun of it.

I would like to buy a Magic Rooster Egg mount but someone on my server has been listing it for a lot more than I’m willing to pay. If Blizzard came out with a new flying vendor mount, I would be the first to pay up to 100k for it. Something insane like giant bat wings on my Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth and I’d still pay for it.

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

A first time gold maker thinks this requires a ton of effort to get started. I would teach them to learn the difference between a good, fair, and bad price on materials. They need to be willing to pull the trigger on buying. I remember buying 4.2k worth of mats back when my bankroll was only 6k. If you see a great price you go for it, don’t be afraid, it’s only pixel gold.

I should be able to ask my JC student “What was the price on Elementium Ore today?” And get a good answer. I would also teach them to always have SOMETHING posted on the auction house before they go to sleep or go to raid. Most normal players are not listing anything on the AH ever which is why it also takes a behavior change. Even 10 auctions listed is a start.

How about an advanced gold making class?

I would like to teach advanced gold makers how to go liquid cross faction. I think a lot of advanced gold makers only look at cross faction as a way to buy low on one side and sell high on the other. What they don’t realize is that cross faction is also excellent for dumping your losers. One example: Most people in gems know you get a lot of green gems that are slow sellers and can bring low profit or even a loss. I don’t accept that and like to cut 20 of every Dream Emerald pattern I have and sell them on both Horde and Alliance. Even loser items can bring profit you just needed to find new buyers.

Don’t be afraid to make gold on items that require “Spooky Mats.” I’m still working on this one myself. Also stop calling single Items “Markets.”

Do you have good farming strategies or spots?

I would say Goldthorn is your best bet. You can farm this herb in Scarlet Monastery: Cathedral. Run in grab all the herbs…run out and reset the instance. It takes around 8 minutes to hit the instance reset lock and you will get ~20-30 Goldthorn. This herb is required to level Alchemy and on most servers it’s low in supply so it can usually get better prices than any other herb in the game.

What was the best deal you ever came across?

I buy so much it’s hard to remember, but the most recent was a day or two before the 4.2 patch. I opened the AH and snatched up 400 stacks of Whiptail at 18-20g per stack. Also Volatile Life dropped to an all-time low 2.5g each but I think that was on the Horde side.

Do you remember any of your worst deals?

An Item in Wrath worth 10k but I posted it for 1k on accident. That was a pretty big loss for Wrath.

What are your future plans with WoW?

I’m excited to get back into raiding and meeting my next AH goals. I’m taking things one step at a time. Also I am likely to roll a few more 19 twinks.

What are your predictions for the future WoW economy?

I predict Blizzard gets it’s act together and finally implements a better default AH and crafting interface. In the long term that’s a good thing, but be careful what you wish for. Right now there isn’t a lot of tough competition on some items because of certain barriers. These include Spooky Mats, large inventory management, inefficient auction posting, no price history, and the list goes on. When those barriers are removed you are going to see a flock of new names in your server’s AH. Most of us won’t be ready for it, I know I won’t.