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

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

I’m a 35-year old gamer with two kids, my son is age six and my daughter is age eight. In March my son was diagnosed with leukemia, so life has been busy for us battling his cancer but he’s working on making a full recovery. During the time we spent in the hospital (approximately fifty days), I had a lot of time on my hands, some of which was playing WoW while my son slept in his bed. Recently, Blizzard put their old realm servers up for auction for St. Jude’s Childhood Cancer Research so I put in an eBay bid (or five) and won Perenolde-US realm blade, the first realm I ever played on back in “vanilla.”

My first level 85, now retired, Auction character is Ermorden from Scarlet Crusade-US.  I started playing World of Warcraft when a few of my Guild Wars guildies talked me into a trial account. Unlike World of Warcraft, Guildwars really did end at level cap and I grew bored after leveling one of everything.

I’ve been playing WoW since Vanilla but struggled with money from day-1, when getting 10g was a monumental task. I really got the itch for end-game during Wrath of the Lich King… I never had a level capped toon until the third Expansion, I just didn’t give the game enough attention. Now, I’ve got five level 85′s in which I mainly play tanks and secondary as healers for most of my classes. I have a warlock I leveled for fun but don’t use him. I have one geared DPS assassination rogue that I have fun with when I’m given a chance to not have to tank a raid.

All my toons are named in German and they all represent something about their class. Ermorden, “to murder” – seemed fitting for a Death Knight.

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

I am the guild master for a casual raiding guild of roughly twenty casual yet dedicated gamers. We have a small group of PvP folks that got me into PvP for a short bit, but raiding was more my style. I respect the PvP folks because I believe the “on the fly” nature of having to learn an enemy play style is a huge challenge, maybe more so than a 10-man raid boss.

Why did you choose to collect this amount of gold?

My original goal was to collect roughly 10,000 gold as a nest egg for upgrades, alts and such. But, once I realized how easy it was for me to make gold, it became a secondary game for me. I always worked with small goals: obtain 15k, obtain 20k, obtain 40k, hit a 50k, 100k, etc. Once I hit 600,000 gold I made a stretch goal, hit the gold cap.

Some folks play the game for achievements, others to explore all the lore and then there are people like me, that play the auction house (AH). It’s like a third style of play: PvP, PvE, AH.

Anyone or resource you would like to thank?

I have read a bit of Wow Insider and I’ve tried a few gold making podcasts but they couldn’t hold my attention. For the most part, I learn as I go using the best addons I can find.

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

–Professions–

Jewelcrafting:

I started with a small nest egg of 500 gold. I then picked a profession, which required me never to really farm—Jewelcrafting. I despise farming for materials; I have only done it in moments of sheer desperation. In most cases, if the materials are not on the Auction House, I just wait until they are or ask trade chat.

About 80% of my wealth was obtained through Jewelcrafting. I took my 500g and bought raw cuts of the most popular gems at the time, Cardinal Rubys (I started my gold conquest in WoTLK when I was finally level capped). The concept is very straightforward: buy raw gems for less than I can cut and sell the good cuts. For example, I’d buy a gem for 50g to sell it for 80g. If I could make 10% profit then I was happy (keep in mind the AH takes a 5% piece.)

In wrath I did every daily and eventually owned every WoTLK gem recipe (I also bought the titanium dust off AH to buy tokens). Once Cataclysm arrived, I started doing those dailies and obtained all cuts, starting with the most popular and the most unusual (hey, bear tanks need cuts too) and exploit those markets. Remember, though, posting 30 Brilliant Inferno ruby’s isn’t cost effective, you’ll be undercut in 5-minutes anyway so post no more than five (remember, some people buy two to three to gem out their new gear). I pick unusual cuts as well, with lower competition because wanna-be gold cappers think they can do it with the three main inferno cuts in cataclysm… and there are a LOT of wanna-be gold makers.

My main JC approach is a shotgun method, I have every single cut the game offers and I have three gems of each posted on the AH at all times. I may cancel/repost a lot but my audience for a sale is much larger than the niche JC cutter. You can sell two delicate inferno’s (before being undercut to hell) or one delicate, brilliant, potent, veiled, fractured and puissant. So, if I tell you, “you can sell two gems in five minutes or six” which sounds better? Broaden your audience.

Alchemy:

I’m a transmuter as my secondary profession to synergize with my JC. It allows me to make my own gems and open more avenues for buying material. I need a lot of avenues because I may sell 100+ gems a day, I consume all materials on the AH (if the price is right). Also isn’t bad for Living Elements transmutes and True Gold (when it’s hot).

Enchanting:

I use enchanting To disenchant my rings and such, when I need materials. I sell a few enchantments and a few spell materials but mainly I use this as a cost-saver. I make money with enchanting by not spending money on the AH on materials and enchantments for my main characters.

Blacksmithing/Engineering:

Another internal cost saver, making my own weapons saves me from spending on the AH. Saving money is another way to gold cap, because you’re not wasting your profits on the actual game. I also found some success selling belt buckles and, at one point, the Kickback 5000. Overall, the up-front cost to invest in making armor to sell on AH (slowly) isn’t the best way to start building a gold nest egg. Your audience is often limited to plate-wearing characters and that’s too limiting for me when my gems sell to all classes.

Inscription:

Cost saver for my glyphs and moneymaker in terms of fortune cookies and mysterious fortune cards. I sell about 900 fortune cookies a week on AH with my inscription alt. I buy materials to make blackfallow ink at 3-6g per ink and sell a fortune cookie for 11-16g each. Little dedicated competition means you can own this market and frustrate any newcomers out quickly. Could I gold cap with inscription? Most definitely but then I enter a completely new realm of competition and I only have time to be aggressive in one market so I stuck with what I knew: JC.

— How To Really Make Money in WoW —

This is it, this is how I pulled it off. I will list the key elements in what I deem the highest priority (based on what I’ve learned and had to start again). Here is the magic 14 keys to success…

#1: Addons

You’ll want some good addons to make life easier. . I use auctionator, auctioneer and tradeskillmaster (with all its subcomponents). My goal is to build money fast with very little effort, I want to login and cancel/post/cut all my stuff in under 10-minutes so I can raid or log out.

#2: You Must Be #1 on AH

I realized that I could move more gems if I was at the top of the auction list, obviously. So cancel and reposting is a big part of my gold growing lifestyle. I will cancel and repost all my auctions 15-20 times a day or more.  You won’t sell gems if you’re gem is #4 in the AH. It’s not unusual for a player to buy 3 cuts for their new stuff.

#3: Aggression

I don’t care what they say, I do not believe you’ll ever meet a gold cap if you undercut your competitors deeply and hope to sell faster than everyone else while setting your auctions to 48h.  I see people who say, “I can sell all my gems at a 60% discount and still make money. You don’t like me undercutting you by 50g, just buy mine out.” No. In those cases, I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of buying them out, I have more money than they do… I’ll sell for 80% loss if it means they can’t sell anything! Either play by my rules or get out. The fact of the matter is, if you post an item for 20g that typically goes for 140g you will indeed sell it in 5-minutes. But you know what? Had you sold it at 140g you’d have sold it in…5-minutes. Why do you want to lose money? It makes no sense to me.

I post 12h auctions and take any opportunity to undercut the competition by 1 copper. Why 1c? Because that means after we’re done with our 10-time undercut war we’re not losing money from our sales. If some new guy comes to try to be an AH gold miner, I will undercut and lose money if it means frustrating them out of the market. Once you’ve got some money to toss around, say 8k, losing 500g to keep competition away means making more money in the end. Consider it your marketing budget, the price of doing business.

#4: Keep Your Enemies Close

Believe it or not, one technique I’ve never read about is one of my most profitable and usable. Once you’re in the AH and playing “the game” of undercut, watch who you’re fighting against—don’t do it blindly until you know your environment.

Who are you undercutting? The usual suspects, those that I stuff on my friends list and watch come online over and over.  You’ll probably build a list of 10 offenders, those that cause you the most harm… you logout and they undercut you the second you’re offline. Find them, reach out to them in a whisper and say something nice and let them know you’re a human. You’ll find people are less aggressive to undercut you when they realize you’re a dad with two kids, working a 9-5 and love minecraft. Find a bond, say hi to them when they login and get to know them. Do they have kids? What do they do for a living? Do they know anyone else that plays the AH like you guys?

Once they find out you’re not just an avatar, life gets easier. Seal the deal with an alliance—no more undercutting. Matching prices is easy if you use TradeSkillMaster and its whitelist. My top AH competition all whitelist me, so when I post they match! That means I spend almost 50% less time logging in to undercut them and, as an added bonus, the prices on the AH never fall.

Use this technique, open a line of communication with your new “friends” and build a common enemy (everyone else). Follow up with “wow, sam1233 think he’s going to dump the inferno market today, hope this doesn’t last long” etc.

#5: Stalking, it’s good for everyone. Okay, just you.

Yes, stalking. You want to learn everything you can about your competition. Once you’ve contacted them and learned a bit about them, you may find out key information like, “I work nights at a club” or “I’m a stay at home mom” or “I work from my home office.” This information, along with Undermine Journal, gives you post frequency information (post high volume at night for the Club worker for instance).

Secondly, watch their guild tags. Many of these people will be in a small guild, when you see them logout, watch their guild list—find their alts (sometimes they’re the only ones online or in the guild!) Keep track of everyone and their alts, because those alts may be their “mains.” I will post more aggressively when I see my competition on his other toon in a 5-man instance like DeadMines. That means I’ve got at least 30-minutes to own the market. Watch which alts login first, and get an idea of when they’re toon that will compete against you will login. Hold off posting your auctions until you know they’re coming online to do the same. Go login with an alt and watch them on your friends list. When you see them login (they’ll probably look for you and see you offline), let them do their business and when they alt-hop, jump on and be top poster.

My biggest competition is on my friends list on all the toons I regularly play.

#6: Build Partner Channels

I made at least 700k building relationships with people that sell materials. See someone constantly posting ember topaz? Write down their name and whisper them when they’re online, or send an in-game mail to them saying, “look, I see you’re selling ember topaz on the AH for 35g each? How about you sell them directly to me for 28g and avoid competition/AH fees?” You’ll find most are much more willing to C.O.D items to you directly than go through the AH nightmare. I was buying about 100k a month in items off my “channels” and saving a good deal of money on the quantity. I would still be halfway to gold cap if it wasn’t for my channel partners.

Would you turn down a guy like me if I was to say “I’ll give you 100,000 gold right now for all that stuff”? In many cases, if you see someone posting a specific raw gem the chances are they’ve got more gems of different colors sitting in their bank. You may struggle to get them to sell you inferno ruby’s and carnelians (if they’re too smart), but it’s about volume of gems not just one niche. Take what you can get if you can get it for a great deal.

#7: Audience Expansion

Don’t stick with your niche, expand slowly into new categories and see what moves and how much you can make on an item. For instance, I realized I could make a good deal of money on Fortune Cookies so I expanded into that audience. A person must have maxed cooking skill plus maxed inscription to truly benefit in terms of cost savings on cookies, not a lot of people level cooking high enough.

Besides every JC cut, I try to sell cookies, severed sagefish, delicious sagefish and lavascale minestrone because those four food recipes cover every class of player.  I also sell darkmoon cards and decks once a month when my milling for blackfallow (for mysterious fortune cards) procs burning embers. After a month of making thousands of cookies you end up with a good deal of burning embers which can then be turned into darkmoon cards. But the darkmoon card era may be coming to a close, so it’s really just useful as a semi-free byproduct of cookies.

I also sell some belt buckles, and flip any epic weapons/armor I see for cheap by buying and reposting for more.

#8: Buy Low, Sell High

If you’re working on your gold cap, you’re camping the auction house a lot. While you’re there look at high moving items and costly items and watch trends. When I see ebonsteel belt buckles selling for 150g, heavenly shards for 20g, living embers for 3000g, I buy them all (remember, you gotta spend money to make money). I will then hold them for days or weeks until I see prices rise up (usually Tuesdays when everyones auctions expired) and I repost for 100%+ more than I bought them for and let them sell. If you make double your money, you only have to sell half the crap you bought to call it even. When I see rare drop gem recipes, blacksmith recipes or other epic items way below price, buy them and repost.

Some people have a hard time wrapping their mind around this, even if I buy 20 belt buckles and sell 10 of them before the competition gets hot (or drops the price back down again), I still sold all I need to break even–that means, the ones I put in my bank or keep on my person are “free money” when I sell them. Yet, I still will sell them at the highest price I can get.

#9: Variable Stacking

Don’t forget your audience within your audience! You’ll make more money selling Fortune cookies in stacks of 5, 10 and 20 than just in stacks of 20. Most people will buy four stacks of 5 fortune cookies because they think it’s “cheaper” than buying a stack of 20.

You can’t seem to sell pyrite ore because John Q posted 30 stacks of 20 for half the going price? Sell quantities of 1, 2 and 5 for double (or triple) the price John Q posted his stacks of 20. Many people will buy a single item for 20g if they only need one or two than 200g [10g each] for a full stack. Why? Because then they have to somehow sell the rest! You’ll find a larger audience buying smaller quantities for more actual money than vice versa and, if you’re lucky, the dumb player that will buy all 20 of your single-posted items for 100% more money than if they bought the 20-stack (because it looked cheaper item-by-item).

Even if you own a market completely, sell in varying quantities to expand the possibilities of a buyer. Severed Sagefish is not different, sell in stacks of 5, 10 and 20 and you’ll see a variety of buying patterns from different people (and repeat sales). Selling metal? Sell 1, 5, 10 and 20 stacks of obsidium ore AND 1, 5, 10, 20 stacks of obsidium bars. You’ll sell more and risk being undercut less if you vary your quantity. People will most often undercut one quantity size, not all. Let them undercut your 20-stack and sell singles out from under them.

#10: Trade Chat, Hate It But Make It

Everyone hates trade chat, right? Not me. I have a separate tab in my chat frame just for trade chat. Some of the best deals come out of trade chat. When you see valor bracers (patch 4.2) selling for 3.5k in trade and I know I can sell for 8k on the auction house I will whisper them and ask them to buy me DPS plate or DPS cloth bracers (biggest audience). Why not tank bracers? You see tank queues? If we’re waiting that long for a tank, how long are you going to wait to sell a tank an item? Let someone else try.

When I talk in trade I keep it intelligent, to the point and try to help people out when they have pricing questions. Believe it or not, some people back me up when I give advice because I’m known to own a large segment of the auction house (this can be a blessing but also a curse). Heck, I have also been called out as a “bot” in trade by a few people (because I login, undercut and logout). I whisper them and say “hi” and let them know what I’m doing, and if they have deals, come to me. I’ve made some great friends from those that used to hate me; some even asked to join my guild.

#11: Selling Price vs. Posted Price

Just because it is on the AH for a price doesn’t mean it’s SELLING for that price. You may find people that won’t sell you materials cheaper because “they’re selling on AH for ___ price.” So I say, “no, they’re listing on AH for that price, but I’ve seen that guy posting those for five days, you wanna wait five days or have your money now?” People selling in trade chat want money NOW and they’ll sell cheaper if it means money now. Make sure you stress the fact that “I’ll give you _____g right now, why do you want to compete on AH for it?”

#12: Be Nice.

This goes back to alliances a bit, but be friendly. Nobody wants to buy or sell with a douchebag. That means, sometimes you give deals, 10% discount for them being a buddy, or “look, I’ll buy these off you right now for the same price as the ones on AH because I like you.” And, “I typically buy these for 15g less, but you’ve been nice.” Don’t lie, be honest and give them the deal, don’t just pretend you’d buy it for less as lying can catch up to you and burn you later. I know I have more gold than most people on the realm, but being nice goes a long way to making more off those people. Even the goldfather was nice to the people he know would help him out, right? You’re rolling deep hommie, but that doesn’t mean you have to go full gansta.

I once gave a player 3,000g because I felt I had done him wrong on the AH by aggressively undercutting him and frustrated him. Sure, I had 980k but I didn’t have to give him 3k to make it right, but it builds respect, and that may pay off later when they’ve got something to sell and need it sold fast. Share the wealth and you’ll find building connections and channels happens naturally.

#13: You’re Not Butter, Don’t Spread Too Thin

Doing too many markets means you’re basically online to be an AH gamer. You’ll have many aggressive competitors in each market and many of them only focus on their core market. Which means you’ll logout to post your glyphs and the JC competition will undercut your gems. Then you login to repost your gems and the glyph guy will undercut your glyphs. Repeat for potions and the like.

That doesn’t mean you can’t tap into those markets for some areas, like my Fortune Cookie segment, that is probably ripe for inscriptionists but they don’t “see it.” They see glyphs and inks and undercutting… but what about mysterious fortune cards and cookies? Nobody seems to care, but people seem to want to buy them. Even if it only contributes to 10% of your wealth, if you get 10% of your wealth from one channel, 10% from another and the rest from your main craft, you just increased your wealth by 20% without entering into the blood bath of the core professions sweet spot. Also consider Greater Celestial Essences, Heavenly Shards and buying cheap maelstroms to post for double later.

#14: Play Lean.

There are farmers and there is us. We’re not farmers, we need to play it lean. I don’t have a guild bank alt, I don’t have a traditional bank toon setup nor do I use my guilds bank to hold my materials. I keep it all in the space provided by my bank (all slots and biggest bags) and my toon. If it doesn’t fit there, then it needs to be sold or turned into something else.

Why? I know everything I sell, what the going price is and what my bare minimum sell price is going for at any given time. I know what sells fast, what sells slow (but for good gold) and what only sells on a specific day. I can’t do this with a vast inventory, nor can I remember what I originally purchased all this inventory for when I laid out gold. I run a lean house, my bank consists of (besides my armor and actual game items): spare elementium ore (that I got dirt cheap), stacks of uncut gems, darkmoon decks, darkmoon cards, volatiles, lavascale catfish, sagefish and a few odds and ends metals (truegold, hardened elementium) that I may need to trade up to make epic items to flip.

What is your master list?

I sell anything I get my hands on for cheap money. People start to learn your name in trade and private channels. They start to turn to you for rare items, stacks of items and such. If I have hardened elementium in my inventory, it’s viable for a sale if the price is right. I sell all gems, and use TradeSkillMaster to manager them, the rest of the stuff I keep in my head. When it comes to selling volatiles and other misc. items, I pick a mental number in my head, say 33g per item, and only sell if it hits that number. For example, I will only sell volatile water if it is going to sell for 22g+ because I know a) I’ll find a buyer and b) it will hit 22g+ by Wednesday morning. I’ll sit on my volatiles until I get my number.

Remember, I still play lean. If I come upon some cheap stuff that I can sell, I try to sell it to keep my inventory from getting too large. If I’m low on space, I rent space on AH. I’ll post items for well above market value just so I can use the 48-hours to clean up my inventory. Hell, sometimes people will buy it for high prices and I don’t have to take it back.

What items are in your Snatch list?

I buy all cataclysm herbs I can find cheap and send to my inscriptionist for when I feel like going over and milling for mysterious fortune cards. I buy all blue quality gems that I believe are going to make me money—all of them. If there is a good deal of ember topaz I will leave none for my competition to take. Great deal on ore? Fine, I’ll prospect it (but, usually I pay people gold to prospect it for me as I have better things to do).

How did you learn to do it?

Trial and error. Much of it was common sense to me, if I buy a raw gem for 10g and see that they’re selling for 20g, then that’s money in my pocket for me hitting a create button. Take that theory and expand it out 25 recipe cuts and it’s all the same, more money for me.

I watch the competition and see how they post, what quantity, what timing, etc. Learn from others.

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

TradeSkillMaster:

* Working queue for cutting gems. This works for the most part, but when someone is selling gems for way above value on AH TradeSkillMaster refuses to cut any because it believes I’m losing money. But, I bought my gems through my channels of friends for a big discount so these high prices don’t apply to me. Sometimes I have to force it to cut gems.

* Minimum Pricing: I use the addon to only post when my prices are met, and I have different prices for each quality of gem. That way I never lose money.

* Mass Destroy (for milling) to mill all cata herbs for ink on my fortune cards.

* Cancel/Repost: Big time needed so I can enjoy playing wow for more than AH.

 Auctionator:

I deal mainly in gems, I use auctionator for everything else. For mass posting cookies, sagefish, etc. I use this for varying quantities on items for biggest audience. I also use this to quickly buy items that have great deals or all gems I can find for my price points.

Auctioneer (for trending %)

I am not 100% sure why I still like this addon, perhaps because it gives me a percent near the item to let me quickly know how overpriced or underpriced it is. I only use this as a signal to do further investigation; especially on items I’m not 100% familiar with yet.

iSold:

This addon plays a “Cha Ching” sound when something sells. This addon is clutch when I’m sitting in orgrammir watching TV or on a conference call/working. I only need to restock the auction house when I hear something sell.

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

I am trying to wean myself off of intense AH activity, but I also can’t sit idle knowing more patches are coming out. Every time a patch lands I make 30,000g to 50,000g in a two day span. A JC’s favorite day is the day they convert valor to justice points and people go on a buying spree for armor. They need new gems ready quick.

While I’ve lowered my attendance at the AH doorway, I also want to say relevant to the market. Some people still depend on me for items and my contacts. Also, it’s still fun (more so than troll heroics.)

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

The people that know I have this amount of gold are the ones I tell. If I’ve told you there are only two reasons: You asked (because you see me a lot) or I want you to know I have a lot of power over the AH. Once you know I’ve got this much money you know a) I am a great source for you to move items b) I can find you good deals on stuff c) I am a threat if you try to get in my way on the auction house.

Of course, many of my guild mates know my money. I try not to tell too many strangers if I find no value in it or to younger players because then they begin to beg or ask for a loan. I’ve given out loans but only to those I respect and know will pay me back (with interest of course).

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

Oddly, I don’t even own the mounts that can be purchased for 18k. Nor do I own a motorcycle even though I’ve made them for guildies as door prizes for guild sponsored events. I just can’t justify spending 13k on a bike when I can ride my basic lion mount. When I spend gold it’s to make items as prizes for the guild such as darkmoon decks, bikes and purple items I find cheap on AH.

If you want to find a way to sink money, buy cheap living embers or whatever the current “hot item” is for crafting materials. Or, buy companion pets that are rare and hard to get as they will survive through inflation.

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

Three key focus areas: 1. Economics and Buying Low/Sellingi high.  2. Establishing Relationships with others and making contacts. 3. How to bully people out of your market so you can own it—the godfather effect.

How about an advanced gold making class?

Explaining how elementium ore pricing correlates directly to the cost of greater celestial essences and such advanced ideas. How people convert from one item (ore) into another item (carnelian spikes) down to the new product (greater celestial essence).

A secondary course on making friends with bribes and paying people off with discounts or direct gold to “thank them.” People hang around the rich guy if it means they make something out of it.

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.

To enter into a market of making money, if you farm Wrath of the Lich King materials you’ll find lots of buyers but only moderate profits. If you want to make real money, farm obsidium and elementium, prospect it and transmute them into gems for the Auction House.

But, if you don’t have enough toons with those professions, take that ore and smelt 50% of it. Sell ore in varying stacks, sell bars in varying stacks and work around the gold farmers selling it in mass for cheap. Chinese gold farmers never seem to smelt, just sell raw ore so make sure you can smelt.

What was the best deal you ever came across?

I bought a reverberating shadowspirit diamond recipe for 300g. Flipped it for 8,000g. Then, used 3k of that to re-buy it and learn it myself (see my priorities).

Do you remember any of your worst deals?

I recently bought the Claw of Agony off a contact of mine for 3.5k, thinking I was getting it super cheap (knowing a strength based weapon that required its pair was a hard sell). Turns out, nobody wanted it for 2k either… I don’t know what I sold it for, maybe 900g.

What are your future plans with WoW?

Take my own DPS toon (assassination rogue) and obtain legendaries with the 4.3 patch.

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

I believe we’re about to see the end of making money on Darkmoon Cards. The materials are used in many costly (and profitable) items but the cards themselves will continue to be less and less useful. This pattern has existed beyond the current cards and will always be an issue. Watch patterns to see lifecycles of specific wow items, it’s all cyclical.

The price of a gold will continue to decrease as uncontrolled inflation continues to be a common theme. Wow’s economy prints money every second without any care of the amount in the market. This means that the 4,000g you have today is worth about 2,000g within two major patches and 500g by the next expansion. You either continue to make more or find companion pets or non-volatile (pun intended) products to put your material worth. Or, like me, just accept it as reality.

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?

Thanks to my job in technical sales, I’m very financially stable. I’ve worked for two startup companies that were bought for a significant amount of money. So, I don’t really watch my monthly budget very closely, I just know that I make more than I spend and that’s good enough (I have a finance manager that handles my major assets).

I run my real life account much like I run my wow account, I keep track of general pricing in my head and make determinations by estimate. This only works if you’re not watching every penny that comes in and out in order to pay your bills.

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

I sit in orgrammir and watch Netflix at night, waiting for iSold addon to go CHA CHING saying I sold something. I’ve gone through all the old school sci-fi action shows from Buck Rogers to Battle Star up to the new Star Trek: Enterprise and Battle Star. If I’m not on Netflix I’m watching Pawn Stars (irony?) or The Colbert Report/Daily Show.

For music, I’d be listening to Disturbed or something like that, but music interferes with my ability to hear Cha-Ching.

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 not really sure I can afford to play yet another auction game. I usually grow tired of Diablo within two months of play. If I grow bored too quick, I won’t really have time to take advantage of the new auction system. We’ll see, if I can make real money and it’s actually worthwhile, I’ll give it a try.

As for my thoughts? I think Blizzard is one of the most intelligent gaming companies of our generation. They play it lean like me, they’ve got only three major intellectual properties and they release the games when they feel like it and never earlier. They make major bank on each title. I trust that they know what they’re doing and can become the next iTunes of video game auctions. If they take their share and people can see real money being made, life is all good.

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

1. By the gods, use an authenticator. No point in amassing cash if you cannot protect your assets.

2. You can always apply some of your experiences in games to real life friends and relationships. Remember, nobody likes a douchebag so be friendly and courteous to people in game and in life and the rewards you’ll receive will be endless.