Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Altrius of Scarshield Legion-EU

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 obtained 500k and 250k. We have with us, Altrius of Scarshield Legion-EU, who will be sharing their story with us today.

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

Hello, my name is Altrius from Scarshield Legion EU. This is my moneymaking alt, but I play a variety of characters. I have an level 85 of every class on the horde side of the server. In real life I am an student who studies economics. I have played games since I was very young, starting by playing games like super Mario on gameboy and moving to the computer when I got older. I played lots of games, shooters, strategy games, about anything I could get my hands on and seemed fun. I enjoyed playing over LAN against friends, so the logical step in my gaming progression seemed an online game like WoW.

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

When I started playing WoW my main preoccupation was PvE. But now that I have leveled every class to 85 I have slowly started to progress somewhat into PvP. I have always played the occasional battleground ofcourse, but now I also regularly play arena and have a dedicated PvP character (a restoration shaman). In TBC I used to be a classleader in a renowned raiding guild on the server. But due to personal life and time issues I gave up on hardcore raiding. However, the raiding bug is starting to itch again, so I might make an application to one of the raiding guild again soon.

Why did you choose to collect this amount of gold?

Well I never had any real cashflow issues unlike many of the friends I played with. When my friends were saving hard to get epic flying in TBC I already had it. When they had trouble affording an enchant I usually just farmed the mats and had it made. So naturally when I started leveling my alts up my gold stockpile increased, but my spending also increased.

My real interest in collecting gold started towards the end of WotLK though. I was living abroad at the time and my lag was too bad to actually play any proper dungeons, let alone raid or pvp. So besides slowly leveling my alts I started making gold. As a challenge partly, to keep myself occupied, but mostly to be able to buy things for my characters that I was no longer able to obtain through running dunegons or raiding.

Anyone or resource you would like to thank?

I have at any time read most gold making websites or blogs out there. But the websites that got me started were Greedygoblin, Justmytwocopper and the interviews with goldcapped players on this website. Nowadays I don’t read too many goldmaking websites anymore, but I still occasionally browse The Consortium website (nice forum community) and this website.

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

As mentioned I started of inWotLK with making gold. At the time I mainly used the saronite shuffle. Towards the end of the WotLK I discover the uses of inscription and I prepared well for glyphmas. I stockpiled so many glyphs that I still have a guiltab full which needs to be sold. All in all I managed to amass around 100k gold at the start of Cata.

Darkmoon cards

When Cata just hit the servers I started by leveling my alts. Because of this I had an army of alts and crafters ready for action just after the first darkmoon faire and I invested my gold into darkmooncards. While I would not recommend to anybody to invest all of their cash into a risky investment such as these, at the time I thought them worth the risk and I made a bunch of them. This gamble payed off for me and I managed to turn my 100k into about 500k just by selling the cards alone. I managed to sell the turning in a couple of times, but usually I thought the turning in was not worth the effort of selling. More recently after the 3^rd or 4^th faire I stopped making them since the cost was higher than the selling price. But this faire I made some again. The reason for this is the large stockpile of inks I have leftover from glyphmaking and the lower cost of volatile life (on my server they dropped from about 12g to 5g).

Glyphs

When Glyphmas came I was prepared. I made a stack of 20 for every glyph I knew and it payed off for me but it also left me with a large quantity (of mainly the less popular glyphs). So even though I did not enjoy the glyphselling as much as I did in WotLK and during glyphmas, I continued selling them. More recently I started crafting glyphs again too and while I don’t undercut much and post on a 48hr basis I still manage to collect atleast 10k a week from this profession.

The elementium shuffle

While undoubtedly for many goldmaker jewelcrafting is a big source of income, it is not so much for me. The jewelcrafting market is heavily camped during peak hours on my server and the posting costs high. I do not like to camp the AH or to babysit my auctions. So while I occasionally cut and post gems (mainly inferno ruby’s) they are not a big source of income for me. So why do I still mention the shuffle then? The answer is blue rings and enchanting mats. I do the shuffle mainly for the so-called green gems which in turn I turn into items for disenchanting. The blue items get thrown on the AH while the green items get disenchanted. The proceeds from the essences alone is enough for me to cover the cost of the ore and they are fairly easy to move. I do occasionally sell enchantingscrolls but do not favor selling them since the competition in this market is fierce and scrolls therefore can be slowmoving. The entire process leaves me with tons of uncommon gems (I am currently still considering my options for them, thinking of selling purple and orange on the AH and vendoring the others) and tons of dust.

Tailoring

So since I have a load of dust leftover from the shuffle I had to think of a way to get “rid” of it. Tailoring is the obvious solution. And while the selling of embersilkbags does not make any gigantic amounts of gold, for me it helps me to at least get a more appropriate price for the dust then the AH would give me should I have sold it unprocessed. I occasionally sell some spellthreads too, but not always since the margins are not too large on them and prices for volatiles tend to be quite volatile (not a pun) on my server.

Leatherworking and Blacksmithing

Two other main crafting professions. I don’t sell much items from these professions, but the items I do sell are of course the leg armors and ebonsteel belt buckles. But another tip that really can pay off quite well is the buying of leather or leather scraps, turning them into heavy leather and then trading them at the leatherworker in your main city for pristine hides. The markup this way can be around 200% to 300%. Also more recently it is quite profitable if you are a blacksmith and have access to orbs and the molten front vendor. The profit on the orbs and crating can be around 5k on my server at the time of writing.

Engineering

Not really a serious moneymaker for me, but the occasional income still arrives from this profession. The hunter scopes and pets are still made by me from time to time. Not so much for the massive profits, but any little bit helps. Furthermore the engineering pets always sell too and add a little to this professions income.

Alchemy

Probably the most underestimated goldmaking profession at the moment. While most alchemists are complaining that they are not making much money off flasks and potions, the true goldmaker will love this profession. Forget about potions, forget about elixers, forget about flasks. The only thing that will really make gold for you in alchemy at the moment is transmutes. Whether the truegold transmute or a volatile transmute is more profitable depends on your server, but either way it usually is worth the money. Also don’t forget to transmute things that do NOT have a cooldown such as shadowspirit diamonds.

The opportunity arrises

Sometimes I might be at the darkmoonfaire to hand in a deck for the trinket, or in dalaran to help a friend out, or maybe some exotic vendor passes me by selling something. Pick up those rare pets when u are there, buy that recipe that is wanted. Yes there are still people buying cakes when they are needed for some holiday achievement. Are they major moneymakers? Probably not, but the smart goldmaker will see the opportunity and take it. Also when somebody posts something very low on AH or wants to make a quick sale on trade, consider it. Maybe you are able to resell the items for large markups.

Cooking

Another underestimated goldmaking profession. Especially fortune cookies. You probably read about mysterious fortune cards. You probably know by now that these are a great way to get rid off any excess inks. But what if mysterious fortune cards are having only a small markup on your server? Try turning them into fortune cookies. I can sell tons of them on my server and they sell for about 5-6g more a piece then the fortune cards.

What is your master list?

• Glyphs
• Essences
• Embersilk bags
• Gems
• Pets
• Leg armors, spellthreads & beltbuckles
•  Fortune cards & cookies

What items are in your Snatch list?

• Volatile life (I transmute into the other kinds of volatiles if I need them)
• Elementium ore and pyrite ore
• Cinderbloom and whiptail
• Embersilk cloth
• Cata leather

Pretty much a standard list I guess, but I would like to add that it takes experience to know what to buy at what prices and what quantities. As you become more experienced you become less worried about moveing 300 stacks of herbs or about making your money back from elementium ore.

How did you learn to do it?

When I started the goldmaking process I read sites such as greedygoblin, justmytwocopper and the interviews on this site. They will tell the beginning goldmaker all they really need to know to make their fortune. But be careful, the real learning how to make gold is a personal experience. While one method works on a lot of servers it might not work on yours and you might need to adept it to your current markets. All in all I would say that learning how to make gold requires experience and to get this experience the beginning goldmaker will have to be in the market, trying it out himself.

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

When I started out I used addons such as auctioneer and others. Nowadays the only addon I still use is Tradeskillmaster and I only use it for my glyphmaking process. This is because I can post up to about 800 glyphs at a time and this addon allows me to automate the mailopening, reposting and recrafting process. The addon also allows to keep track of market prices of every item on the AH, but as experience increases the need for this function decreases. This is because you get a certain “feel” for the prices of items on your server.

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

I think it is most likely I will collect more gold, but my main collecting goal of 1 million I have achieved. Once you have set up a routine it is hard to stop selling. Even if I would just sell the stuff I have on the AH and in my guildbank I would make about 200-300k and I doubt I could resist making money off a good deal if I came across it. That being said though, I don’t actively make gold by doing chores much anymore. I only enter and participate in markets I find fun such as inscription.

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

I would say about 2-3 people I play with on my server know I have this amount of gold. For me it is an achievement and I like to let my friends know I achieved it since it required lots of hard work and they have been mental support for me while getting it.

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

While making gold I bought all my alts everything they needed. When I reached 500k I spend 150k on gearing out my paladin tank. Now that I have reached 1 million I bought my friends a gift each. Valor bracers or molten front blacksmithing weapons. But those are minor expenses. For myself I would like to get my guilbank leveled (might pay people for that) and maybe buy a walkthrough of firelands (if I find the price right).

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

A basic gold making class should simply teach the basic techniques of goldmaking such as the shuffle, glyphmaking, jewelcrafting etc. I would show how they relate and how to go from basic resources to finished products.

How about an advanced gold making class?

Advanced goldmaking classes should be about the optimizing of the goldmaking process. So learn when to buy and in what quantities. Learn what to sell when and in what quantities. Learn what can be flipped to raise pricings. All these things are server dependant though and it takes experience to know them.

Do you have any good farming strategies or spots?

Whiptail and elementium ore always sell and if you are looking to farm large quantities, I would recommend doing this. However, I myself do not farm. But some less popular things to farm that give decent amount of gold would be to go skin stuff as a leatherworker. Go somewhere were u don’t need to kill the mobs yourself (like in moltenfront, the spider area) during peak hour. Not only will this give u tons of leather (turn it into hides and leg armors before selling it), but it also gives u lots of volatiles.

What was the best deal you ever came across?

A cata darkmoondeck for 7g. I bought it and mailed it back to the seller. I don’t like profiting off other people’s mistakes.

Do you remember any of your worst deals?

Sold a darkmoontrinket and only got like 8k for it at the time they were selling for 15k. This was because I sold it over neutral AH to an ally. I didn’t realize the AH cuts for neautral AH were higher. But there is no need to dwell on your mistakes, learn from them instead.

What are your future plans with WoW?

I plan to continue playing WoW and to continue doing what I enjoy most. Whether it is leveling alts, doing dungeons or raids, completing achievements or doing pvp does not matter much to me. Whatever I enjoy doing I will do (especially now I have the funds to do all).

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

I think that blizzard will make orbs BoE after summer. Furthermore I think 4.3 will contain epic gems (my bet is still on pyrite ore).

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

I had a blast getting to 1 million gold and I hope that if any of the readers are trying the same that so will they. Don’t make the game a chore and you will benefit in the long run. Also I would like to thank the people who have been interviewed by this website before. It was a great help for me.