Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Doppelganger of Scarlet Crusade-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, Doppelganger of Scarlet Crusade-US, who will be sharing their story with us today.

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

My main character is Doppelganger, on Scarlet Crusade-US (Horde). I started playing in July 2005, and have always played on Scarlet Crusade, virtually always Horde. In Vanilla, my main was my Resto Shaman. The hunter was my second level 60, and the first character to 70, and has been my main since. WoW is the only MMO I have ever played, though I plan to play SW:TOR. I have left WoW a number of times, but I always come back; mainly because you can’t beat the value of $15/month for nearly limitless entertainment.

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

In Vanilla, I PvP’d heavily, mainly due to the lack of opportunity to raid. Once I got into raiding, that became my main focus. PvP lost its sparkle for me with the introduction of Arena combat; it felt like Battlegrounds took a back seat, and I didn’t like Arena. Although my main is dps, I enjoy Cataclysm healing quite a bit, to the point that I now have 3 level 85 healers.

Why did you choose to collect this amount of gold?

On April 29th, 2010, I went broke getting the achievement Mountain O’ Mounts (the Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth was my 100th mount). I decided to set a goal for myself of hitting the gold cap (the old gold cap) before the upcoming expansion. I achieved that goal on September 21st, 2010, and I stopped working at making gold. In Cataclysm, I spent a lot of my gold, including buying a Vial of the Sands and a Spectral Tiger. It was only out of boredom that I decided to try to get to the new gold cap of 1 million gold.

Anyone or resource you would like to thank?

The first gold blog that caught my attention was I Drink Your Milkshake. It’s been dead awhile now, and there are many very solid blogs out there, but for whatever reason, it was the first one I read on a regular basis.

In terms of addons, if I were limited to a single addon from now on, I would pick Lilsparky’s Workshop. I’m sure almost everyone would pick TSM, and it’s extremely valuable, but I really like that Lilsparky’s just slots right into the UI and gives you useful information when crafting.

The Undermine Journal is a fantastic resource, you can learn all you need to know about the market on your server on one site.

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

The two main sources of gold for me have been Jewelcrafting and Enchanting, though I do have every primary profession maxed.

JC – I stick mainly to cutting gems and prospecting. I have never have good success with Meta cuts, and although I cut all colors of gems, I would say well over half of my JC profits come from cutting orange and purple gems (good volume, low uncut gem cost, high margin). Red gems sell strongly, but with low margins (except right after a new patch), and blue, yellow, and green gems rarely sell in decent volume. Prospecting is the main source of my uncut gems; I only buy uncut gems if the prices are really low or if I’m feeling lazy. For whatever reason, on my server it has tended to be more profitable to sell green quality gems then to turn them into rings and DE them, although. I have participated in cartels in the gem market; the TSM whitelist function allows you groups of crafters to agree to not undercut each other to keep prices high.

Enchanting -For Enchanting, I sell mostly enchant scrolls, and Heavenly Shards (from Stormforged Shoulders). Outside of Heavenly Shards, I often get mats by buying green quality items on the AH; it is very odd how frequently you can buy large numbers of green quality items that will DE for more than the selling price. Although I sell a large variety of Cataclysm scrolls, I occasionally sell Crusader and other low level enchants, as well as Major Agility to cloak. I make most of my gold off of Mighty Stats to Chest, and Haste and Mastery to Gloves; I’m not sure why these three sell constantly and at good margin, but they do. Enchants for PvPers run hot and cold, but a lot of gold can be made after a new Season starts.

Alchemy – A single daily transmute, virtually always life to air. Depending on gem and enchant markets, I will do some ruby transmutes.

BS – Belt buckles and Stormforged Shoulders for DEing. Sometimes I make a series of low level or even high level rods, but I don’t worry about keeping a stock.

LW – Leg armors and pristine hides.

Eng – Nothing. For whatever reason, there are a number of Engineers on my server that hate profit, so it is unusual to be able to make gold Engineering.

Glyphs – Outside of glyphmas, I tend to ignore it. I do sell some high profit glyphs now and then, but not regularly. I use glyphs made from Midnight Ink that is left over from my push to the “Insane” title.

Tailoring – Just leg armor, and only three per week from the cheap Dreamcloth (life/earth/fire).

Mining – It is often profitable to make ore into bars, but I would usually prefer to prospect.

Cooking/Herbalism/Skinning/Fishing – Not for me.

What is your master list?

• -Cataclysm blue quality cut gems, 3 of each for Blue/Yellow/Green, 5 or more of each for Red/Orange/Purple.
• -Cataclysm enchant scrolls, 3 of each for enchants with a better than 30% margin selling for under 250g, 1 each of all other profitable enchants.
• -Crusader enchant scroll, and other heirloom enchant scrolls, when profitable.
• -Major Agility to Cloak enchant scroll (its the only LK enchant I sell regularly).
• -Leg enchants.
• -Belt buckles.
• -Volatile Air (from transmutes).
• -Heavenly Shards
• What items are in your Snatch list?
• -Cheap Cataclysm ore
• -Green items for DEing
• -Enchant mats
• -Savage leather
• -Embersilk cloth

How did you learn to do it?

I started with enchanting scrolls. I could see the selling prices and figure out the margins. I had no idea what the volume of sales would be, or how profitable it would actually be. Once I started making gold from scrolls, I began expanding, and initially focused on glyphs and gems. Although I have since largely left the glyph market, gems remain among my strongest sellers.

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

Lilsparky’s Workshop, TSM, and Postal. Lilsparky’s shows the value of mats and the value of the product inside the standard crafting window. TSM is very powerful, but I only use it for posting and the whitelist function. Postal helps with mail.

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

I don’t have another goal presently.

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

Sure, I’m not shy about it. Most of my guildmates and friends might not know I have this much gold, but they would certainly know I have a large amount of gold. I don’t use many alts for posting, and generally whichever character made the item, sells the item.

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

-Vial of the Sands, and a Spectral Tiger were my large purchases this expansion. I tend to be somewhat cheap, I even keep track of how much gold my wife owes me (currently 6k).

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

For 101, I would say you need to go over all of the professions and the relative strengths and weaknesses of each. When I’ve talked to other players about gold making, I usually give them the

How about an advanced gold making class?

Unlocking the potential of The Undermine Journal, AH PvP techniques, and discussions on the various therories and techniques suggested on blog sites.

Do you have any good farming strategies or spots? If you don’t farm, please suggest something to farm if you had to pick the best items and locations.

Black Dragonscales are a solid seller and an easy farm. I don’t farm.

What was the best deal you ever came across?

Two or three times in Vanilla, I was able to buy Whelplings for less than 10g. It never happens anymore, but at the time, you would occasionally find a strong deal. I got a run of very cheap (

Do you remember any of your worst deals?

Later in Cataclysm, I tried another Hyacinth Macaw, this time for 10k….it took over a month to sell, and it sold for 10k.

What are your future plans with WoW?

I may very well leave for SW:TOR. MOP doesn’t seem like it will have enough to retain me, but its hard to say, I have quit somewhat frequently in the past (Cataclysm is the first expansion I have never quit, which is odd, since I think its a low point).

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

It will be very interesting to see how the Guardian Cub changes things. Along the same lines, I expect Blizzard to continue pushing slowly real currency into WoW as much as they can, at the fastest rate they think their customers will accept.

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?

Completely dissimilar, I have massive debt IRL.