Hall of Fame – 500K Gold Club: Carra of Uldum-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 and250k. We have with us, Carra of Uldum-US, who will be sharing their story with us today.

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

Carra, on Uldum, here. I started playing WoW a little over two years ago, in 2009. On a summer road trip, I stopped to visit a friend I hadn’t seen in fifteen years, and found her playing Warcraft with her husband. I started playing to hang out with her, and I was hooked. Another friend from high school convinced me to transfer to Uldum to play with him, so I rolled a dk to level with his 60-somethingish toon.

I now have 4 85s – a JC/alch, an alch/enchanter, a BS/tailor, and a skinner/LW. I have a lvl 75 inscrip/eng, and two lvl 65 alchs.

I bought my kids WoW for Christmas and used it to power level three sets of toons on two accounts. They play on my original, non-main server, leaving me with ten slots for my toons on Uldum. Unfortunately, I’m only so nice; I didn’t buy them Cata, so one account can only go so far. (I, of course, have Cata – I’m the mom.)

I have three alliance bank alts – one is my “main”, one is for paper (scrolls and vendor recipes), and one is for glyphs. I have two horde bank alts – one for glyphs and one for everything else. I don’t really play on the horde side, but I intend to one of these days. I’m fairly lazy on my Horde bank alt, because of the PITA value of transferring things over.

I’ve seen people question the value of a bank alt if you play the other side; that 15% neutral AH cut is a crock. However, I use my Horde alt primarily to buy mats. I snapped up a Theck’s Emberseal for 15k Horde side, transferred it to Alliance, and resold it for 33k. I use it to buy ore like there’s no tomorrow, which I transfer to my main and prospect endlessly. When chaos orbs were too expensive Alliance side, I found a cheap BS Horde side to do some crafting for me. But as you can see, most of my gold is Alliance side.

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

The only PvP I’m good at is AH PvP. I raid on Carra, quasi-casual. When I get tired of dealing with people, I tend to focus more on the AH; when I get tired of that, I go back to raiding.

Why did you choose to collect this amount of gold?

I started out my gold career just trying to get a little something. I won a battered hilt the first week ICC was out and sold it, and felt rich to have the 17k. At least briefly – a friend convinced me to pick up the Kirin Tor ring. Still, it was nice to have the feeling of being able to do whatever I wanted with so much gold.

I’m a numbers person. I like the idea of concrete goals. I enjoy buying something cheap and reselling it for more. I like watching the numbers go up when I open my mailbox each morning. And I like knowing I have enough gold to buy whatever I want.

Anyone or resource you would like to thank?

I wish I could remember the name of the first page I googled that pointed out the best time to buy was on weekends and the best time to sell was Tues/Weds/Thurs, because that’s what really started me on my quest, I think. I follow a slew of gold blogs, all of whom have helped me on my way. I love the forums at JMTC and the Consotorium.

But really, I think my biggest shout out has to go to the Undermine Journal. I don’t use the addon, I just use their web page, but I love it for quick snapshots of costs and mats, for keeping an eye on previous prices and sales, for notifying me when someone posts something insanely cheap, and just for making me a better goblin all around.

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

Almost two years ago, a friend/guildy told me that if I really wanted gold, I should start jewelcrafting. He said he wasn’t making nearly as much as he had previously but the gold was still good. I took that advice, started googling, and ran with it. JCing remains my bread and butter, my easiest gold. I didn’t even pick up on the shuffle until Cata dropped; well, I figured out on my own to buy ore and prospect it, but in LK I was mostly buying uncut gems on weekends and cutting them for raid nights.

Probably the strangest thing to me is the fact that people vendor or cut their nightstones. I list mine for anywhere from 18-30g each, a better price than I generally get from the mats. This works even when they aren’t the daily gem, although I always list in sets of 3s. I get a decent return on jasper, as well, though not quite as high.

From jewelcrafting I began to branch out. My mage, who was my first toon, picked up herbing and alch while I was leveling her, and she kept them until a few weeks before Cata dropped. At that point, I no longer had the desire to farm, so I dropped herbing for enchanting.

With the rise of the cauldron, I haven’t really bothered to pursue the elixir market. But like most alchs, I’m neurotic about my daily transmute. (Of course I’m a transmute master.) Volatile air volatile air volatile air. I dropped mining on my dk and took up alch, as well, because I was tired of sending gems to my mage to transmute to metas or reds, and then sending them back. So while my mage is busy making air, my dk makes volatile water, which on my server are just a touch lower in price than the airs, and sometimes as high.

Making my JC a transmute-master alch has been a huge time saver/money maker. Before that, I would send things over in batches to be done, and transmute them en masse, when I felt like it. I am an admittedly lazy person, and logging over and back for a few things just didn’t seem like a good use of my time. Now, I simply prospect, then transmute, then cut; all on one toon.

After JCing, enchanting is my next big money maker, I think. I’d like to give a shout-out to Stokpile. I printed out his list and tend to run down it quickly for all my enchants, using TSM to set up the to-do list. I make most Cata enchants, some LK enchants, and a few vanilla/BC enchants in groups of 5, although I list them one at a time.

Blacksmithing is the next quick gold maker. The cata PvP sets are still selling decently. I list belt buckles fairly steadily. And of course, stormforged shoulders to DE for shards.

My leatherworker mostly makes leg armors, sometimes pvp sets. I don’t keep her as busy as I should.

My tailor makes spellthreads. And bags – all kinds of bags. You’d be amazed at the wrath bags that still sell. At the moment, I’ve given up on netherweave bags but I keep saying one of these days I’ll go back to them. I make my dreamcloth every week.

I have glyphs but the market on Uldum is cut-throat; it takes more camping than I want to put into it. I put both of my glyph sellers (Horde and Alliance) on my second account, with the theory that I can keep it open and list while playing/crafting/flying, but in reality, the profit margin isn’t enough for me to spend the time. I have a friend/guildy who says she makes good money doing it without camping, but apparently I haven’t figured it out. I could spend more time and energy figuring out how to wring gold from the glyph market, but my time is at a premium, so /shrug. I’ve learned all of the glyphs through the books and Northrend discovery. Somehow I let the lesser discovery slip past unnoticed, so I’m playing catch up.

And, while I have an engineer, I admit that I don’t do anything with him yet (he’s on my scribe, which doesn’t help his case). That market is also on my “to do” list.

What is your master list?

• Red gems – bold, brilliant, and delicate primarily
• Bags – Hyjal expedition, Frostweave, Embersilk, Pack of Endless Pockets, emerald bag
• Nightstone & Jasper
• Cut Shadowspirit gems
• Cut orange and purple gems
• Ebonsteel belt buckles
• Rods – titanium, truesilver, elementium, fel iron
• Dragonscale leg armor, twilight leg armor, scorched leg armor, charscale leg armor
• Blue rings
• Spellthread
• Bloodthirsty gear – blacksmith and jewelry

Per MySales (which I only installed about three or four months ago), I’ve made the most gold (consistently) off of brilliant, bold, and delicate inferno rubies, with nightstones at a close 5th, averaging 61g89s30c for a stack of three..

What items are in your Snatch list?

• Elementium and obsidium ore – despite people barking in trade I still tend to pick up a good amount, which I prospect en masse
• Embersilk cloth
• Heartblossom
• Savage leather
• Volatile life
• Enchanting mats when they’re under my threshold
• Frostweave cloth, bolts, and bolts of imbued frostweave
• Obsidium & Elementium bars
• Blackened dragonscale
• Chimera’s eye
• Coilfang armorments (raising rep on one toon for an alch pattern)
• Eboneweave & spellweave
• Inks
• Seafood magnifique ingredients (to supply my raids)
• Pattern: rich purple shirt (I want I want I want)
• Primals
• Truegold
• Whiptail

How did you learn to do it?

I started with Google, then moved on to TUJ. At some point, I googled “warcraft gold” and picked up a number of blogs to watch; then I just picked up their feeds to read in my spare time.

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

TSM helps me with crafting, and purchasing for my crafting needs. Auctioneer for scanning the AH, although I haven’t learned it as well as I need to.

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

I’m going for 1 million, strictly for the “I can do it” value. For me, gold (like most goblins) is about keeping score, and I want to push the cap. I’ll probably stop at one million.

However, I’m trying to ease myself off WoW; I have four kids that I homeschool, and I need to get offline more. On the one hand, the “you have to have money to make money” comes into play – I should be able to continue rolling to go faster than two years. Not to mention the knowledge. On the other hand, I’m trying to log in at night only, which means resisting the urge to list my auctions first thing in the morning; I found when I log in during the day, I spend more time playing in the day than I should, so I need to nix that. So we’ll see how it goes.

Do many people know you have this amount of gold?

Yeah, I kind of “woohoo”ed on realID when I broke 100k, lol (and 200k the next day) But it’s caused some problems. I made 100k profit when the firelands recipes came out by selling the tanking/healing weapons. I spammed trade at one point on my BS instead of my bank alt, and my guild master began to give me grief for not giving my orbs to the guild. But I told him point blank there was no one in the guild I liked enough to give 20k to, and since I was making 20k profit per weapon the first day, it was the same thing. He didn’t like that much… /shrug. But we’re not a serious raiding guild, and I didn’t think anyone needed them immediately.

I like to help people out, but I generally prefer it to be on my terms, not because someone expects it of me. My friends know I don’t loan gold – or borrow it. That’s an extension of my real life ethics; I never borrow money from friends because it screws up friendships (I just saw that happen to two friend of mine), and I don’t loan it for the same reason. I keep the gold the same.

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

Yes and no. There isn’t a lot I really want. I bought the phoenix mount when my guild got BOT and BWD down and cringed at the price. I made myself buy the BiS BOEs for my tank because I refuse to farm Firelands for epics, but I really had to force myself to do it. I went ahead and geared up my mage – I consider both her and my tank my “mains”.

I’ve been saying I would buy either the chopper or the mammoth once I hit 500k but I just picked up the horseman mount on both toons. I’m kind of bored, so I’m doing archeology; if I ever pick up the sandstone drake mount, I may use it; I also just picked up the raptor mount on one toon and so I’m still kind of enjoying all of them. I’ll probably get the mammoth for raid assist, but I’ve cut back on raiding lately (plus most raiding is in Firelands, where the repairs are done up front), so I’m not feeling it strongly. So….maybe later, when I get bored with my newest mounts. But I’m not really a mount or pet person, so I’m not sweating either.

Most likely, I’ll keep both my mains up to date on BOEs when 4.3 drops, and I may get around to eventually gearing my other two 85s…or not. If I could buy BOAs with gold, I’d so be there….

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

Opportunity cost. The whole concept of “I got the mats for free” makes me insane. People, in life and out, don’t seem to understand what they are giving up, whether it is potential gold earned or time. Every time someone in my guild says they are transmuting truegold, while the mats cost more than the bar, I want to smack my head into a wall. I posted something on OC in my guild’s forums but I have little hope.

Efficiency. I’m a big proponent of maximizing this IRL, and the same way in game. The more tasks you can gather to do at once, the better. I always prospect my ore when I have more than a thousand ore to prospect. Since I have gems stockpiled anyway, it’s rare that I’m desperate for new ones.

Stockpiling. Or, buy low, sell high. My stockpile is…probably insane. And I honestly need a better method of storing it than the mailbox method currently being used (a more EFFICIENT method, lol). At the moment, I have over a thousand volatile life bought from the AH, spread over my two alchs, my LW, my BS/tailor, and my scribe.

Educate yourself. Read gold blogs, google your heart out, make use of tools like TUJ, Wowhead, and addons. Know what it is that you need to learn, and then go about learning it. (For instance, I *know* that I need to learn more about glyphs and engineering; I’ve identified it. I just need to sit down and learn how to succeed in those markets.)

How about an advanced gold making class?

Do one thing and do it well. Then do the next.

I honestly haven’t been good at that, I get spread thin, but that’s when my goldmaking slows down. Keep your focus on one market ’til you know it well, then move on to the next. But at the same time, it doesn’t hurt to broadly dip your toes in all of them, just know you won’t maximize your profits.

Never stop learning. The day you stop (in or out of WoW or goldmaking) is the day you stagnate and regress.

Know what the value of your time is to you. But remember that it isn’t always a hard value. Factor in enjoyment. If you like farming, then do it. I hate it, but I know some people find it relaxing. If you like raiding, do it. It may not net you gold, but it isn’t always about hard numbers.

Patience. If someone is dragging the market down but you know it will go back up, and you don’t *need* the gold, then wait for it to go up. (Or aggressively go after them, one or the other.)

Have fun!

Do you have any good farming strategies or spots?

I don’t farm. But when I did, I loved Carbonite. I think it was the numbers person in me; for some reason, I get a huge kick out of following the path the addon lays out. I would say, keep a farming toon. You never know when the market will come back. I’m in the process of leveling a druid with mining/herbing. The first two hours Cata dropped, I was mining. I listed the ore for something like 75 g each. I made 15k in the first two hours. It was awesome. There have been times when I’ve looked at herb prices and wished I still had my flower picker. It’s rare. Every once in awhile, I take my leatherworker out to skin. I did the Molten Front dailies every day for the first month on her, and loved the Shadow Wardens for skinning.

What was the best deal you ever came across?

The Molten Front patterns. The first three days, I sold four pieces for 25k each; they cost me less than 5k to make.

In terms of flipping – when they stealth nerfed the epic recipe drop in Firelands, I picked several recipes up off the AH for 5k the first few hours that I flipped later for 10-15k each.

Picked up a Theck’s Emberseal for 15k – actually two of them. Sold one for 33k. Forced myself to wear the other one on my tank. It was hard.

I can’t remember any large deals further back.

Do you remember any of your worst deals?

I tried flipping living embers at one point and was lucky to get out even. Thankfully I didn’t lose any money.

At one point, I tried to control the netherweave bag market. I bought all of the cloth for a two week period of time. I think it was coming out of my ears. I was controlling it, I don’t think I lost any gold, but…it was close. And I now hate netherweave.

I don’t think I’ve had any other seriously bad deals go down.

What are your future plans with WoW?

To reach a million! To continue raiding. And to lay back and spend more time with my kids. I’m not sure how well these will all work out together though….

What are you predictions for the future WoW economy?

Since I’m a Wrath baby, it’s been interesting for me to watch how things unfold over a new expansion, and to compare it to what I knew in the past. I think epic gems will be interesting to watch, although I hate how the stacking of gems seems to have brought more sellers into the marketplace – but gems were always pretty popular.

I don’t really have any predictions. But I know that the people who keep themselves informed and are proactive tend to be the ones who come out ahead.

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?

I am debt free; I paid off my credit cards and student loans a few years back (I’m in my early early 30s) and haven’t taken out any loans since. I buy things when they are a good deal, if they have a long shelf life. In the past, when I was willing to put the time into it (pre-wow), I was an avid couponer, so I really learned how to stockpile from there (what? a four pack of tp for .75? /buys 100 packs. What? brand-name cereal for .50/box? /buys 100 boxes.) I paid cash for my car.

Unlike WoW, I don’t have a high income; I’m a single mom who works from home. But as I do when goldmaking, I think outside of the box. If I have a problem IRL, I figure out a creative solution to it, sometimes not the obvious one. I have always been an avid reader and someone who loves to learn, which has helped me when it comes to making gold.

I’ve considered starting my own business, and done ample reading on the subject. Some of that – learning concepts like opportunity cost and efficiency – have helped me in making gold.

I suggest ‘The 90 Minute Hour,’ ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad,’ ‘The Total Money Makeover,’ and ‘Guerrilla Marketing’ to anyone, when it comes to finances. Much of what they teach about real life is applicable to WoW – but the RL skills are, IMO, even more important.

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

Never stop learning. Knowledge is power.