Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Debeers of Perenolde-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 obtained 500k and 250k. We have with us, Debeers of Perenolde-US, who will be sharing their story with us today.

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

Howdy, I’m Debeers.  I’ve been playing on Perenolde (US) since just after release.  I played rather too much during vanilla, and now I’m just about as casual a gamer as they come.  Nowadays I’ll play the AH, maybe run an instance or two every week, and be done with it.

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

Neither?  PvP was fun for me back in the days when I could farm cloth and coin from the troggs in the mines of Alterac Valley, but since that was taken out I have no desire to queue.  I play on a mountain-time server, but I’m in the eastern time zone IRL.  On top of that I work early in the morning, so finding a raid group with a schedule that I can stay awake for is quite difficult.   On the plus-side, I’m awake before much of my competitors, so I normally get first dibs on cheap raw materials first thing in the morning.

Why did you choose to collect this amount of gold?

The one million gold mark seemed a formidable task when they originally raised the cap from 214k, so I set my sights on it then.  Also, I fell just a hair short of 214k just before they raised it, so I was determined to finally hit this cap before they bumped it up again.  I suppose I did it because it’s been on my to-do list for a while.

Anyone or resource you would like to thank?

I’d like to thank the great community of WoW gold, bloggers, of course.  Granted, it was rather seldom that they gave me a tip which I put into regular use, but they more convinced me I wasn’t insane for focusing on this aspect of the game so heavily.  In particular I have to thank Power Word: Gold for writing the TSM guide…  I’ve no doubt I’d still be posting auctions manually were it not for that resource.

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

Originally (well, starting maybe halfway through Wrath of the Lich King, anyway) I focused on developing an army of alts with Alchemy for daily transmutes.  My philosophy was if I could make a great income with an investment of only 5 minutes or so a day, that’d be perfection.  It worked (almost!) well enough to help me hit the 214k cap before they changed it, and left me with almost 300k going into Cata.  Now that Cata is here, my 9 xmute alchemists are producing volatile air as fast as I can sell it, with profits averaging 15-20k a week.  As nice as that is for something that takes 5 minutes a day, it just wasn’t enough to hit the gold cap in an acceptable timeframe.

Since before 4.2, I’ve been getting heavily into the obsidium/elementium shuffle.  I loathe how much of a time sink this method is, but profit margins on my server are 60-70% once everything is sold, so it was a means to an end.

What is your master list?

No surprises here for anybody who read the previous paragraph, but here we go:  Volatile Air, Bold/Brilliant/Delicate Inferno Rubies, raw enchanting mats, various cut gems of all colors

What items are in your Snatch list?

Obsidium/Elementium ore (until today anyway, I’ve sworn off the stuff until it’s time to stockpile for 4.3) Heartblossom, Volatile Life.  Looking at that list I’m kind of gobsmacked thinking I’ve earned the vast majority of my fortune with just these 4 raw materials, but that’s pretty much it.  I guess I could add Jeweler’s Settings to the list.  Even though they’re from a vendor, I’ve likely gone through over ten thousand of the little buggers.

How did you learn to do it?

For me I suppose experience was the best teacher.  I discovered shuffling ores during Wrath because I was in constant need of gems to transmute.  Crafting and disenchanting greens with the leftover mats seemed the only way to get rid of all the excess uncommon gems without simply vendoring them.  Everything after that was just ramping up the volume of mats I bought and processed.

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

I use Auctionator to search for/buy mats and to check for specific undercuts.  I use TradeSkillMaster for posting and mailing (the first time I saw how easy TSM could make the mailing phase of shuffling ore, my jaw literally dropped).  I also use Postal to help with the mailbox, BankStack to make things neat and tidy, and Panda to disenchant.

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

After climbing this mountain, it seems like it would be unfair to drop down below the million-gold mark, so I guess my new goal is to have a comfortable amount of capital above the cap, which I will spend very freely.

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

One person has an idea, some guildies have an inkling, but that’s about it.  Anybody with their eyes open knows I’m one to spend money freely, but I don’t really get into specifics of my finances.

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

I have a sandstone drake, 3 motorcycles, 3 traveller’s tundra mammoths, and every BOE pet i can get my hands on.  When Cata hit, I spent over 100k on Tol’vir Hieroglyphics (177 solves and still no GD sandstone drake recipe!).  Next on my list is a full set of BoE gear for my DK, and Illusionary Bags for as many of my toons as I think I might eventually play.  One gold sink I would LOVE to see is more convenience items for low-level bankers.  I’d gladly pay 10-20k for a portable mailbox or portable guild bank access on my banker.

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

For the 101 level students, I would explain opportunity cost over and over until they finally understand, yelling as often as not.  As somebody who abstains from farming out of principle, I’m constantly frustrated with crafting markets oversaturated with goods priced below the cost of mats.  I don’t care if you see the mats as “free” because you farmed them.  There’d be money to be made everywhere if people could just grasp this concept.

How about an advanced gold making class?

For the advanced students I’d get into speculation (a la pre-patch stockpiling), repricing markets, and profitability of markets.  I’d feel sorry for my students a little, but all their homework would save me the trouble of making another few spreadsheets to calculate this stuff on my own.

Do you have any good farming strategies or spots?

This question is a bit of a toughie for me.  The last time I farmed anything I was farming small eggs in preparation for Children’s Week this year.  There’s a spot south of the lake in Loch Modan where the vultures respawn very quickly, yielding several thousand eggs an hour.  Granted, with numbers like that it was only necessary to farm for an hour or so to get all the eggs I wanted.

What was the best deal you ever came across?

Early on in Wrath I found a Parrot Cage – Hyacinth Macaw on the AH for 250g.  Sometimes it’s a good thing to be waking up at 3:15am server time.

Do you remember any of your worst deals?

Before the start of Burning Crusade, I had stockpiled approx. 5,000 stacks of thorium ore, expecting jewelcrafting to cause gigantic shortages in the market right after release.  While I doubled what I spent on it, I realized after my stockpile was sold that I had been over saturating the market, and keeping the price artificially low.  Had I waited until a month or two after release, I could have sold my stockpile for 5 times what I received.  Yeah, that one still burns.

What are your future plans with WoW?

At the moment I have only 1 toon which has raid-level gear, and 5 of my alts aren’t at the level cap.  I’ll be working to improve that situation after I take a much-deserved break from the game.

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

The one big premonition I have at the moment is Volatile Fire.  It’s dirt cheap at the moment because of Firelands dailys, and it would make sense for blizz to make it a reagent in transmuting the new red epic gems in 4.3.  Should that be the case, it’s an investment that could easily pay off 600% or more.

Please tell us a little bit about how you handle your real life finances. What are the differences and similarities with how you do things in WoW?

WoW and IRL are night and day for me, financially anyway.  In WoW I have 9 slaves which give me all the fruits of their labor, a personal banker, and enough capital to get into any market from which I might glean a profit.  In real life, sadly, I’m a blue-collar worker in a country whose unions have been busted, and where corporate profit takes priority over a workers’ quality of life.

What your favorite artists, songs, movies, shows, or streams to watch while you are making gold?

Most recently, I watched seasons 1-7 of Dr. Who while on my marathon prospecting/disenchanting sessions.  Fun stuff.  Before that it was The Twilight Zone.  Ahh, what did people do before BitTorrents?

What are your thoughts on the real money auction house that will be implemented in Diablo 3? How will you take advantage of this new change?

I’m very excited about the real money auction house in D3.  Although I very much doubt I’ll be able to make a living playing the D3 AH, I hope to at least supplement my income a bit when the opportunity arises.  What remains to be seen is how much the D3 economy will rely on drops vs. Professions/crafting.  If the system is similar to WoW, I’m golden.  I rather expect the opposite to be the case, however, making the only way to possibly find something worth a good chunk of cash running dungeons endlessly and praying to RNGesus.

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

Nope, thanks for asking though.  Y’all are just super.  Every one of you.