Maintaining Stock in a Volatile Market

Today's post is a little less straight forward and a bit more of a public ramble. In a stable market it is relatively simple to maintain stock levels. You know the prices of the raw mats, the relative demand for the crafted goods, and what levels to buy and sell at. But what do you do when everything is in flux? Read on...

Sticking with it

Bit of a down week posting and gold wise week. I've simply been too distracted with real life activities to commit to updating or even playing that much. Today's post focuses on battling just this idea - and gives an example of how I'm fighting the brief downturn with a diverse approach.

Cataclysm: Week One Goals

It's been important for me lately to have a realistic set of expectations and plans. Whether I'm playing every day or twice a week, it helps me feel accomplished and make sure I'm accomplishing what I want. Let's take a look at my plans and goals for the fist week of cataclysm. Will be fun to look back at this in a week and see how I did.

Cataclysm: Aim High

For the player with less time to make gold, it's important to capitalize on your opportunities when they arrive. A player with limited time ultimately means limited opportunities. This is a simple, undeniable fact. You'll have less chances to make sales than players with more time to invest.

However, the smart player can make the most out of their time by aiming high with their sales and capitalizing on their opportunities. Let's take a look at what I mean with a current example and see how it can be applied to cataclysm.

Cataclysm: Start with what you know

As we head into the final days of wrath and look towards (re)starting our business in cata - I want to take a look at ways to make gold with knowledge you already have. Originally I was going to discuss this within the confines of Inscription my last post, but it's worth taking a more broad look.

Abbreviated Inscription: Lich King Edition

Inscription is currently my main gold making mechanism. I'm not sure of its long term usefulness - cata will surely change how scribes make their money, either for better or worse, and I'm honestly not sure of my personal interest/investment level in it staying consistent. Right now it takes up the bulk of my time - but again, bulk is relative. Right now I'm investing probably between 2 and 5 hours a week to inscription. Let's take a look at some of the key points of what I've been doing these past few months in lich king, and then I'll speculate a bit on what this means come cata.

Cataclysm Essentials [3/3]: Leftovers

As Cataclysm draws near, I've been recapping my focus points for expansion preparation. In today's last installment, I'll talk about all the other "little things" that I've been making sure I have covered so I'm all ready to go.

Cataclysm Essentials [2/3]: Stockpiling

Yesterday we talked about stockpiling quests to get you ready for Cataclysm. Today I want to talk very briefly about 4 key things that I'll personally be stockpiling, that I think everyone should be doing, regardless of their other strategies.

Cataclysm Essentials [1/3]: Quests

This seems to be a pretty big topic lately. There's already some very excellent blog posts on the matter. Some are extremely comprehensive, to say the least.

I will be spending much of this week in game prepping my new raiding toon for the expansion, so I'm here to offer my own series of insights into what I'm doing to get ready for Cataclysm.

Daily Routine

For me having a daily routine is very important. It means that I start out every session with a game plan, and on days where I can't devote more than a few minutes of quick time, I still come out with a tidy profit.

There's 2 big things that my daily routine offers me:
(1) Sets realistic expectations
(2) Ensures I'm not "lost" making gold

Diversity

Diversity is important in WoW, in gold making, and in what you do in game. Without diversity a player becomes bored with the game. Run Violet Hold 20 times in a row and tell me that you're thrilled at the end (or start) of each one.

In the same token buyers will become "bored" with markets. They might be dying for 4 netherweave bags today, but you can't expect them to need another 4 day in and day out. And obviously the auction house in particular has tens if not more competitors in every market trying to lure your potential buyers away for something more interesting (see: cheaper).