Hall of Fame – 2 Million Gold Club: Elmenog of Bronzebeard-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 obtain 500k and 250k. We have with us, Elmenog of Bronzebeard-EU, who will be sharing their story with us today.

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

Hello all, my main character is the gnome warlock Elmenog of Bronzebeard EU.

I have been playing games for a very long time now, mainly RPG and Strategy. My first MMO was Guild Wars. After the last expansion of GW a friend convinced me to try out WoW – while waiting for GW2 to come out. So I started playing the summer before Wrath of the Lich king came out. Little did I know back then that this wait would last for so many years…

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

99.9% of my WoW time is spent in PvE. I’m in a 25man casual raiding guild and I enjoy raiding with them. I particularly like fights that have somewhat different roles for me. For example my favourite fight in ICC was tanking Prince Keleseth. Occasionally I might do achievements or level an alt.

 Why did you choose to collect this amount of gold?

I didn’t exactly choose to collect it.

When I started playing this game I collected gold in order to get the fast flying mount before WotLK came out. After that I went for the Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth. Then I decided to keep on gathering in order to be ready for the 500k mount and the guild hall that they were going to put in the game with Cataclysm – which as it turned out was just wishful thinking on my part. After that I decided to get ready for buying the embers for the legendary staff – which I was aiming to buy at around 20k each -. When the embers turned out to be BoP the only thing left for me to do was to gather 2 million and write this post…

Anyone or resource you would like to thank?

Game wise I’d like to thank the people that developed QuestHelper – which was a tremendous help when I started playing WoW.

As far as the economic part of the game Auctioneer and ZeroAuctions – and later TradeSkillMaster deserve most of my thanks for saving me a lot of time and trouble.

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

As I mentioned at the start before WoW I was playing Guild Wars. The market there was very limited in comparison, and the main part of it was pets and rare skin weapons.

When I started WoW I did take a look at the AH but it didn’t strike me as something that I could really get to play with. On those early days the quest rewards and vendoring items barely covered expenses for learning new spells and all the herbs I was gathering were going into leveling alchemy. The thing is that I wasn’t selling any of the potions and elixirs I was making because I didn’t believe that anyone would bother buying them. Instead I was giving them away to people I grouped with, for questing. Then one day a friend of mine told me that I should sell them on the AH. Although I still had my doubts I listed them and to my surprise they sold fairly quickly. From that day on I tried to always have something for sale on the AH.

A few months later I read on the patch notes that Blizzard was introducing achievements in the game. From my experience with GW I already knew that people would most certainly go for them and so I decided to try selling vendor pets on the AH. I first listed a dozen moths from Exodar for 5g. Within minutes they were sold. I listed more and then proceeded to create alts that I parked near the vendors selling cats, moths, owls and rabbits. I even run an alt to Booty Bay so I could sell to the Horde side. It was days before I started having serious competition in that market and in the meantime I had made enough gold to buy my fast flying mount and had 7-8 thousand left.

I kept this line of trade and added cooking recipes in the mix by selling Alliance and Horde specific recipes in the neutral AH. Also I started flipping items. When ICC was released I started selling leather and cloth BoE items I bought from leatherworkers and tailors.

During the last summer before Cataclysm I decided to level inscription and jewel crafting on some alts. Those proved to be the main source of income to this day, which made me regret that I hadn’t leveled those professions earlier.

Also in the period before Cata I kept buying tournament pets and recipes that were flooding the AH, at that time, for 300-400g. A few months later I got to sell those for 3-4k.

Right now I have all the available professions scattered amongst my alts although only jewelcrafting, inscription, enchanting and transmuting are really used in my trading process. Also I have two guilds for my alts (one alliance and one horde) that help a lot in storing and accessing items. Especially since I’m a pack rat and my toon’s bags are filled with various crap.

What is your master list?

My master list contains all the glyphs, all the current high level gems and enchanting materials. Also pets and recipes have been on my selling list since the beginning.

What items are in your Snatch list?

In accordance with my master list I usually buy all the herbs and ore available for a reasonable price on the AH. Also I buy elemental goods -for example volatile life- that can be transmuted and used in other recipes or resold at higher price.

How did you learn to do it?

I don’t think any of the ways I made gold was original, since all of them have been done in real life variations. I didn’t really read much in terms of gold blogs or forums. I occasionally browse through them just to see how the writers progress in terms of gold and how their plans evolve. I usually get my ideas on what should be selling from reading patch notes or browsing through wowhead.

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

I use Auctioneer to have an assessment of the price fluctuations and TradeSkillMaster for crafting and listing on the AH.  I have Postal to handle my mails and Bagnon for managing my inventory.

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

I don’t see the point in going on. I will probably convert and sell whatever stock of herbs and ores I have left in my mails – but I will keep whatever I have in my guild banks just in case I need it -.

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

At first only a couple of RL friends knew about it and a couple more in my guild learned it later.

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

I have bought a lot of mounts and pets. I usually don’t buy BoE items unless it’s going to save me time grinding dungeons and stuff (i.e. valor point bracers). As I said before Cata I was hoping for something like a 500k flying mount that could carry more than one person. They did put the Sandstone Drake but that costs nowhere near the amount I thought it would. Still I believe a flying serpent that could carry a whole raid – or even 10 people – would be worth putting into the game.

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

First of all let me start by saying that the economy in WoW is a lot different than the economy in RL. Of course some of the main ideas are the same. Personally I believe the key is to aim for a market that provides consistent sales and profits over an opportunistic one.

How about an advanced gold making class?

I think the key is flexibility. Try to keep enough stock of an item to be able to take advantage of shortages, but not too many, so you can’t get out of the market if it gets too crowded. And don’t be afraid to experiment with a new market, but don’t dive in head first. Also planning long term, if you can spare the funds, almost always pays off.

Do you have any good farming strategies or spots?

I used to farm herbs back in WotLK but I haven’t done much since then. I guess farming whatever is in shortage in the AH should be profitable and I believe that includes fishing for feasts.

What was the best deal you ever came across?

I consider that the introduction of achievements in the game, just before WotLK, was the best event for me. It allowed me – a player that had started playing a couple of months before – to gather my first thousands of gold by selling vendor pets and cooking recipes. It was a zero risk, high profit deal that was the beginning of my trading game.

Do you remember any of your worst deals?

I have on occasion accidentally posted items with less “0”s than I should have but I can remember anything specific.

What are your future plans with WoW?

Well I’m currently trying to complete the legendary caster staff and then I guess it’s Deathwing’s turn. After that I don’t know.

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

Well Blizzard has been inflating the gold in game by 300-400% for every expansion, so I guess when the next one comes you will probably have interviews with people that have 10million or something.

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?

RL economy is a lot different than WoW’s. Still my basic rule is the same: try to spend less than you make. When you are about to make a purchase think twice the reasons why you are doing it. Of course with the current world economic instability it is hard to know what will happen in next few years.

How did you go from one to two million gold?

Same way I went to one million. Same items (glyphs, gems, enchanting mats, pets, recipes and the occasional BoE crafted items). I went from 400k to 2m in one year, so there isn’t anything that has drastically changed in my methods between one million and two.

Why did you do the things you did between one and two million?

As I mentioned I didn’t do anything different between 1m and 2m. I found a steady source of income and stuck to it.

I have to point out that I never tried to corner a market, neither did I post and repost items in order to undercut competitors. I usually post once a day, maybe 2 if I’m home on the weekends. The only trick I use is overvaluing my purchases and undervaluing my sales, when I’m calculating the profit margin. That means I actually make more profit than what I’m estimating.

What are your most profitable markets that represent a large percentage of your net profits and why?

I would say that glyphs represent about 30% of the profits, jewelcrafting at about 30%, enchanting materials at 20% and the rest 20% is pets, recipes and BoE. I tried selling enchants, but I found that most of the time the enchantments were listed in the AH for less than the raw materials.

What is the best advice you can give to other players?

Do not expect to go from 100g to 1 million overnight. There might be some cases of players gaining huge amounts within a short period of time (i.e. solo farming trash in Firelands for BoE items), but maintaining a consistent source of revenue was the one that did the trick for me. Experiment until you find a market that suits your playing style and stick to it.

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

Judging from the way I gathered my gold I seriously believe there has to be a significant amount of players with this kind of gold. I mean I started inscription and jewelcrafting very late in WotLK and I still got here. Thus I’m pretty certain there are players that must have 5m or more.

Finally I would like to thank all the people that made this a fun experience for me, especially those in my old guild, Orde der Trappisten and my current one Crescent Dawn. It wouldn’t have been this enjoyable without them.