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We are:
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We’ve been asked how to support the website.
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How To Support The Gold Queen
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TSM4 Sniping Guide Part 2 of 3 – Sniper Baiting
This is part 2 of a series.
Part 1: What is sniping, and how to do the basics.
Part 2: How to sniper-bait and make gold from the snipers.
Part 3: How to Snipe Better
Sniper Baiting
What if I told you there was a group of items that you can buy from the vendor, that they were epic, and worth endless amounts of gold, and that players with their sniper set up incorrectly, mostly Auction House bots, will buy them for 2-300% of the buy price, regularly, daily, hourly.
Pay 200, get 500g.
Over and over.
All you need to do is
Go to the Vendor
Click the vendor. Hit the TSM_vendoring tab at the bottom. Select the group. Hit Buy Selected Groups. Everything that needs to be bought, will be bought!
If you already own one of these items, even if it’s on the Auction House, then you won’t buy it.
(occasionally, TSM gets confused if the item has expired but is in your mailbox hidden under a lot of other expired auctions)
I’ll tell you the vendor items after the warning!
Run Straight to the Auction House
Click Auctioning then, making sure the sniper bait group is selected, click Run Post Scan.
Post them up even faster if you have your TSM4 posting button keybound to your mouse scroll wheel.
I’ll give you the group auctioning operation after the warning!
If you ignore these warnings, this guide will not work!
If you cut n paste these strings into your youtube video and show it as a good way to make gold, this guide will not work!
You must read this!
Important
Why you should sell them at only 2-300%
1: Your aim is to give bait to the snipers. At 500g, rather than 2,000g or 5,000g, you are posting an item for 10-30% of the perceived market value. This looks like a genuine mistake. It doesn’t look like a bait. It doesn’t look like a vendor item. It looks like someone picked it up from an old raid and didn’t know what they were doing and posted it for (what they thought was) a decent price on the AH. Nub snipers are going to see your item and think haha this is an idiot I’m going to take advantage of him. You don’t want to do anything that will divert him from this opinion.
DO NOT POST AT 2000g
Do not post at 2,000g One (eventual) sale at 2,000g is less than ten sales at 500g each (5,000g) and your 500g items are going to get less notice than your item perpetually available. Your aim is to sneak in, get the gold quick, and sneak out again.
DO NOT POST MORE THAN ONE
Do not post more than one. You are telegraphing (faking!) a player who has been to an old raid and got some loot. Post more than one item at a time, and people are going to ask “where are you getting these from” and then they’re going to look them up on wowhead and then, my friend, the game is up on the entire server! Post too many and you will affect the perceived true value of the item.
If you ignore these warnings you will mess up the prices on your server forever
Ok warning out the way, I’ll now give you the Group, the Operations and you will be ready to go!
Import Sniper Bait Items with TSM4
TSM4 has an amazing new function where you can import my entire group, plus the vendor buy operation, plus the Auction House posting / auctioning operation!
^1^T^Soperations^T^SMailing^T^t^SAuctioning^T^Ssell_valor_boots^T^SaboveMax^SnormalPrice^SnormalPrice^S499g^Sduration^N12^SkeepQuantity^N0^SkeepQtySources^T^t^SbidPercent^N1^SmaxPrice^Smax~`(499g,~`10%~`DBMarket,~`120%~`VendorBuy)^SpostCap^N1^SignoreLowDuration^N0^Sblacklist^S^SresetResolution^N100^SstackSize^N1^SkeepPosted^N0^SresetMaxItemCost^N1000000^ScancelUndercut^B^SresetMinProfit^N500000^ScancelRepost^B^SmaxExpires^N0^SresetMaxInventory^N10^SresetMaxQuantity^N5^SpriceReset^Snone^SresetMaxCost^N500000^ScancelRepostThreshold^N10000^Sundercut^N1^SminPrice^S120%~`VendorBuy^t^t^SCrafting^T^t^SWarehousing^T^t^SVendoring^T^Sbuy_boots^T^SvsMarketValue^Sdbmarket^SvsDestroyValue^SDestroy^SenableBuy^B^SqsPreference^N1^SsellAfterExpired^N20^SvsMaxMarketValue^S0c^SrestockSources^T^Salts_ah^B^Sah^B^Sguild^B^Salts^B^Smail^B^Sbank^B^t^SrestockQty^N1^SkeepQty^N0^SvsMaxDestroyValue^S0c^SsellSoulbound^b^SenableSell^b^t^t^SSniper^T^t^SShopping^T^t^t^SgroupOperations^T^SSniperbait^T^SMailing^T^N1^S^Soverride^B^t^SAuctioning^T^N1^Ssell_valor_boots^Soverride^B^t^SCrafting^T^N1^S^Soverride^B^t^SWarehousing^T^N1^S^Soverride^B^t^SVendoring^T^N1^Sbuy_boots^Soverride^B^t^SShopping^T^N1^S^Soverride^B^t^SSniper^T^N1^S^Soverride^B^t^t^t^SgroupExport^Sgroup:Sniperbait,i:40733,i:40734,i:40736,i:40740,i:58484,i:77173,i:77174,i:58485,i:77175,i:77176,i:40741,i:58486,i:77177,i:77316,i:70937,i:77317,i:77318,i:40737,i:58195,i:71130,i:77319,i:77320,i:71260,i:77321,i:77322,i:58197,i:71261,i:77323,i:77324,i:71262,i:40735,i:40738,i:58198,i:71263,i:71264,i:58199,i:71265,i:71266,i:40739,i:58481,i:77169,i:77170,i:58482,i:77171,i:77172^t^^
Woah you probably can’t cut and paste all that.
I’ve put it on pastebin for you instead.
Open up TSM with /tsm
Click Import/Export
Cut n paste the whole string in.
Make sure to
- Move already grouped items
and
- Include operations
Using TSM3 for Sniper Bait Items?
Sniperbait Group
Here’s your TSM3 Sniperbait group! Just cut n paste it into your newly made group
i:77169,i:77171,i:77170,i:77176,i:77177,i:77172,i:77173,i:77174,i:77175,i:58486,i:58485,i:58484,i:58482,i:58481,i:58199,i:58198,i:58197,i:58195,i:77319,i:77321,i:77320,i:77322,i:77318,i:77317,i:77316,i:77323,i:77324,i:70937,i:71130,i:71260,i:71261,i:71262,i:71263,i:71264,i:71265,i:71266,i:40741,i:40740,i:40739,i:40738,i:40737,i:40736,i:40735,i:40734,i:40733
Make sure your group has the two operations connection: Buying from the vendor, and Auctioning / posting on the Auction House
Here’s your TSM3 Vendoring operation
Here’s your TSM3 Auctioning operation
details
posting
cancelling
When is the best time to Sniper Bait?
When you have posted all your other items
At the weekend, if you are trying to catch nubs
After 11pm, if you are trying to catch bots
In part 3 I’ll show you a string that gets around this, helps you snipe better, and take your sniping to the top.
About the Author
Warcraft’s longest running Gold Making blog, The Gold Queen is written by Alyzande since 2010. Working on her 14th level 110, she has 9 years expertise in making gold, 19,000+ achievements, 1593 days played, over 39 million gold earned, and now playing World of Warcraft Legion live on www.twitch.tv/thegoldqueen The Gold Queen blog teaches you how to make gold playing Warcraft using ethical trading, auction house flipping, crafting, reselling, snatch lists, and farming gold making. Want more updates on Warcraft Battle for Azeroth? Support my Patreon for exclusive pre-release Gold Guides.
Gold Making Ethics
The Long Read
Ethics, they’re something that players either hold with great pride, or feel they’re being beaten over the head with by losers.
When I started The Gold Queen website, even using an addon in World of Warcraft was considered cheating, because it gave that player an edge over other players. We’ve come a long way since then. Farmers are no longer considered to be inethical botters. Auctioneer has been downloaded 22 million times. Sniping has gone from being a sneaky occasional method to a point where people buy second accounts specifically to stand at the auction house all day long in order to take advantage of other players.
We all know the rules – no abuse of the warcraft economy. We wouldn’t dream of going against the rules, and endangering our precious accounts, but I would go even further, and take great pride that my work is
- ethical
- “fair trade”
- honorable.
What the hell does that mean?
Can gold making ever be ethical?
Surely you’re trying to take gold from other people. How can that be a positive thing?
Fair Trade
Fair trade: I pay fair prices for items. I pay farmers either by the hour, a salary for their work. More often, I pay by the amount that they bring me, giving them slightly less or equal to the auction house price, which is usually agreed before hand. I benefit, by gaining the item in my mailbox in an easy to store manner (no click click click to buy), the farmer benefits, by gaining gold, and we’ve made a transaction that keeps my reputation good on the server. A golden reputation. Your reputation means that your farmer will want to return again. It means that they may tell their friends, and point to you as a source of gold. A source of work. Having a good reputation with raw material farmers in particular can be a great benefit if you ever find yourself in an Auction House PvP situation where you need to stop damage being done by a competitor, and cut off his supplies. Because who would they prefer to farm for? The player with the golden reputation for paying well, promptly and reliably.
Why not crush your competitors utterly?
So many new gold makers start by thinking their job is to crush their competition, and to win all the gold on the server. But Gold Making is not a zero-sum game. Even if you were to magically gather every gold coin on the server, from every player, the next day more gold will be generated. Blizzard has made a world that is abundant.
Blizzard has made a world that is abundant.
So don’t fight your competitors, don’t crush them and get rid of them. There is no fun when they are all gone. Trust me, I’ve been there. I played on a small RP server, and took over pretty much every profession, one by one, until the big guilds no longer even went to the Auction House, they went straight to me, bypassing the little guys. And I watched the wind being knocked out their sails (sales, geddit? geddit?) and their will to fight crumble as they reposted and reposted and got frustrated and gave up. When you have no one to fight with, to tussle with, to play with, then what do you do? Buy everything. Ok. And then what? What’s the fun of standing there with everything when others don’t have it, and don’t even bother playing for it? The joy is in the fight, in the ‘war’, in the ‘craft’.
This type of thinking is exactly the same as Blizzard had themselves when they designed the world of Pandaria and the regular wars between Mantid and Pandaren. The mantid regularly swarm and attack the Pandaren, and both Pandaren and Mantid die in the battles, but after the battles, when they retreat and regather their energy, both sides discover that they have been made stronger by the fight.
A rich competitor is one step away from being a rich buyer.
How does Gold Making benefit the whole server?
Revisit old zones
Gold making is one of the main reasons that players visit old zones in Warcraft. The other reasons are archaeology, pet battles, leveling a new character, and doing the lore master achievement. PvPers rarely take an hour’s trip around Stranglethorn Vale. PvE players fly all the way to the Stormspire in Outland. And that’s a shame, and a waste, because those zones have great stories, lovely scenery, funny animals, silly easter eggs, and lots of things to do there.
Provide services
Boosting services in pve and pvp. Tanking or healing. Taxi services. We help out, a lot.
Craft items
The amount of crafted items that we pump into the economy together is phenomenal. Without gold makers, everyone would need to focus much harder on creating their own army of alts, to create their armor, upgrades, their own jewelcrafter, their own alchemist, their own enchanter, their own cooking character and then go out and farm for all the materials needed to craft those items.
End game raiders and especially high end raiders, you can forget doing a cheeky Mythic+ dungeon or arena during the day to hone your reactions and relax with your friends. No, you’ll need to go get some ore, to send to your jewelcrafter, to make a gem to put in the socket of the gear you won last night. Then you’ll need to go and gather some herbs and send them to your alchemist to make your own flasks.
Promote inter-player communication
Trade means exchanging goods. Gold is just a token of that exchange. Warcraft is a MMORPG. We work together, exchange help, exchange ideas, exchange items, exchange gold, sometimes exchange insults. Gold makers are an essential part of that exchange. That trade.
Pumping gold into the economy
Wait, what, you thought gold makers took gold out of the economy, by storing it in their bags, accumulating more and more? Gold makers prop up their whole server economy. They try to increase the worth of items. They encourage purchases. They cater to as many needs as possible. Sometimes literally if they are crafting all the food for your raid. When you prop up an economy, you keep the whole gathering, creating, using, improving system working and alive.
Gold makers keep the server alive.
And after gold makers have finished keeping your server alive, we start spending gold. We spend on consumables for ourselves. We spend on materials for crafting. We spend on items to resell. We spend on vanity items. And when we buy from other players, rather than buying from a vendor, we pump gold back into the economy.
Buying from players pumps gold back into the economy
Gold is a currency.
The clue is in the name. Current. In order to work, currency needs to flow. And in world of warcraft, currency is abundant. You have only to reach out a hand and pluck a valuable herb, gather an armful of valuable ore, turn a dead beast into a nice new pair of leather boots. And they endlessly respawn.
Back in 2010, Basil from Gold Capped said this:
Conceptual image – success of teamwork. Objects isolated over white
Botting and Duping
They stink. Don’t even talk to me about these. Just go away. There are some of these on my server and I just want to, argh forget I mentioned it, I don’t even want to talk about this. Steam is coming from my ears. Change the subject quick.
Be the Light in the Darkness
I’m laying on you, as the reader, to be the “Light in the Darkness”. To see and to know about the inethical, immoral, and frankly unfair ways of making gold. Scamming, duping, botting, AFKing, bait and switch, anything that gives you an advantage that other players cannot get. And to pass by that darkness and be the light instead.
We all have a different line between fair and unfair, but I’m asking you as a reader of TGQ, that when you are looking at that line and considering which side to step on, to step on the side of fairness and honesty.
For your sake, other players’ sake, for my sake as a researcher into gold, and if nothing else, for the fact that gold is just pixels at the end of the day. Lose some gold, you can get some more. Hurt a person, and you can’t replace with another person.
About the Author
Warcraft’s longest running Gold Making blog, The Gold Queen is written by Alyzande since 2010. Working on her 14th level 110, she has 9 years expertise in making gold, 19,000+ achievements, 1593 days played, over 39 million gold earned, and now playing World of Warcraft Legion live on www.twitch.tv/thegoldqueen The Gold Queen blog teaches you how to make gold playing Warcraft using ethical trading, auction house flipping, crafting, reselling, snatch lists, and farming gold making. Want more updates on Warcraft Battle for Azeroth? Support my Patreon for exclusive pre-release Gold Guides
TSM4 Sniping Guide Part 1 of 3
This is part 1 of a series.
Part 1: What is sniping, and how to do the basics.
Part 2: How to sniper-bait and make gold from the snipers.
Part 3: How to Snipe Better
What is TSM4 Sniping?
At least half of readers will have already heard about TSM Sniping.
A quarter will already be sniping.
One tenth will be making millions from sniping already.
This guide isn’t for them, it’s for the curious, new to sniping Auction House gold maker.
History of Sniping
Sniping was first done during the old days of Auctioneer.
It was possible to scan the last page of the Auction House by eye, and gobble up anything that seemed to be worth a lot of gold.
It was tedious. It took a lot of time. And it took a lot of understanding of the gold market value of every item.
That’s why most sniping was done in Booty Bay, home of the sneaky sneaky cross-faction Horde<>Alliance traders.
Horde/Alliance traders made gold by moving cheap items from one faction to the other faction using the neutral Auction House.
Here’s a screenshot of Auctioneer Sniping by my old friend and guildmate Sinshroud, lifted from the Consortium webpage he wrote.
Want to know more about the history of sniping? Fascinating article here.
TSM3 Sniping
TSM3 sniping was hidden away under AH >>Start Shopping >>Sniper.
You were faced with the amazing, but intimidating, Sniping String by BilisOnyxia.
Setting up TSM3 Sniping
- Type /tsm and go to TSM3 features at the top and then go to “Custom Price Sources”. Make a custom price name exactly “minprice” without the quotations, then in the box, paste this string in: max(min(DBHistorical, DBGlobalMarketAvg, DBGlobalHistorical, DBRegionMarketAvg, DBRegionHistorical), VendorSell). This means when you call “minprice” in the future, it will use that long string instead.
- Open up TSM3 Options. Under module options, click on shopping and go look at the Sniper Options section. In the box called “Below Custom Price (‘Oc’ to disable)”, paste in this string in that box: check(minprice – 100000g, 90% minprice, check(minprice – 50000g, 80% minprice, check(minprice – 10000g, 60% minprice, check(minprice – 5000g, 50% minprice, check(minprice – 1000g, 30% minprice, check(minprice – 500g, 20% minprice, check(minprice – 50g, 10% minprice)))))))
What this string means is this:
- If an item’s value is greater than 100k gold, use 90%.
- If an item’s value is greater than 50k gold, use 80%.
- If an item’s value is greater than 10k gold, use 60%.
- If an item’s value is greater than 5k gold, use 50%.
- If an item’s value is greater than 1k gold, use 30%.
- If an item’s value is greater than 500g gold, use 20%.
- If an item’s value is equal to or less than 500g, will ignore.
Here’s the minprice string again
max(min(DBHistorical, DBGlobalMarketAvg, DBGlobalHistorical, DBRegionMarketAvg, DBRegionHistorical), VendorSell)
Here’s BilisOnyxia’s Sniper Options string again
check(minprice – 100000g, 90% minprice, check(minprice – 50000g, 80% minprice, check(minprice – 10000g, 60% minprice, check(minprice – 5000g, 50% minprice, check(minprice – 1000g, 30% minprice, check(minprice – 500g, 20% minprice, check(minprice – 50g, 10% minprice)))))))
TSM3 Sniping in Action
- Head to the Auction house. Open the TSM3 Shopping tab. Look for Custom Filter/Other Searches and click Start Sniper.
- TSM will check the last page of AH for all item with a buyout price that matches your settings.
- Remember: for every Realm/Server the price are different so sometimes its better to think before you buy any sniper items!
Here comes the tweetable!
[bctt tweet=”My Body Is Ready for TSM4 Sniping!” username=”thegoldqueen”]
How to do TSM4 Sniping?
- You need TSM4
- You need TSM Desktop App
- You need to know how to click a button.
- TSM4 comes with Sniper set up ready to go! Just click the “sniper” button and go.
Step 1
Head to the Auction House. Here is your new default TSM4 window. Click “sniper”
Step 2
Choose a type of sniper. Yes there is now a Bid Sniper! But choose Buyout for now. We’ll cover Bid Sniper in part 3!
Step 3
TSM does its thing
Here’s what you’ll notice
1 Good thing: On the left you can now remove items from the list so you don’t keep seeing them over and over. yay
2. Another good thing: Results are now sorted by how recently they were posted so the newest results will always be on the top, ready for you to buy as quickly as possible
3. Bad thing: With these settings, you’ll see a list absolutely FULL of things that you really don’t want to buy.
Improve TSM4 Sniping
Lets put in some of those strings we used in TSM3
Step 1
Add the minprice into your custom sources
Step 2
Add BilisOnyxia’s excellent string
check(minprice – 100000g, 90% minprice, check(minprice – 50000g, 80% minprice, check(minprice – 10000g, 60% minprice, check(minprice – 5000g, 50% minprice, check(minprice – 1000g, 30% minprice, check(minprice – 500g, 20% minprice, check(minprice – 50g, 10% minprice)))))))
Step 3
Add the operation to a group/multiple groups.
Step 4
Run Sniper as before and check the results
You’re going to see a lot less rubbish on the sniper results.
TSM4 has found some possible snipes
The (!) mark shows that it’s a new item found since the last last-page search. Mouseover the (!) to find an (X). Click the X to make the item go away.
No thank you Sirenia, I love you but I don’t want your Slayer’s Cuffs.
I think I’ll take those Gloves though. Click the gloves.
It takes TSM a moment
Click BUYOUT as soon as it’s available
BAM
Side note: these are the usual prices for those gloves on my server. Thank you TSM!
How to sell the items you find?
Super easy with TSM4. Any items you find that aren’t in a group, go in the “Base Group” until they have their own group home. When you’re posting your TSM4 groups up on the Auction House, make sure you have Base Group highlighted / yellow.
Click Run Post Scan.
They’re posted.
Of course, if you think your item needs to go in one of your groups, or you want to make a new group, you can do that too.
Want a bonus? Here are my RECOMMENDED TSM3 sniping guides from YouTube
TSM3 Sniping Video Guides
How to Snipe Warcraft Gold with TSM3
Sheyrah and Xionic’s TSM3 Sniping Guide
Bregvid’s Guide
Hazelnutty’s Games Shopping Sniping Flipping Guide
Lazy Goldmakers TSM Sniping Guide
About the Author
Warcraft’s longest running Gold Making blog, The Gold Queen is written by Alyzande since 2010. Working on her 14th level 110, she’s a gold making expert with 9 years experience, 19,000+ achievements, 1593 days played, over 39 million gold earned, and now playing World of Warcraft Legion live on www.twitch.tv/thegoldqueen The Gold Queen blog teaches you how to make gold playing Warcraft using ethical trading, auction house flipping, crafting, reselling, snatch lists, and farming gold making. Want more updates on Warcraft Battle for Azeroth? Support my Patreon for exclusive pre-release Gold Guides.
Goldmaking Ethics – Responsibility to the Economy
The GoldMaking Ethics is a series of Warcraft Opinion Articles documenting responses to ethical questions posed on Twitter on 8 May 2018.
Tweets are presented out of context, and you can click them to read the rest of the conversation. You are always welcome to chat with me on twitter where my name is @thegoldqueen and you can find Gold Dragon here also @Dragonbearjoe
We have 9 articles for you to read, culminating in a TGQ Long Read with my own opinions. Today, we’re looking at our responsibility to the server economy and market. Do we need to be careful about our prices on the Auction House? Why? And what about advertising on trade chat? Or is that just silly?
All stories were gathered in a judgement-free atmosphere. I understand if you disagree with other people or get upset by it, but during the Ethics Questions, we are examining responses in a detached scientific manner.
What Does A Stronger Economy Mean?
Our Gold Dragon says it’s more players, and stable prices.
Stronger means more active players using the AH to obtain materials, gold and items.
Also that they are crafting and not just farming. A healthy AH means that prices aren't bottomed out or Inflated.— The Gold Dragon (@Dragonbearjoe) May 9, 2018
Its Under Control
Starwolf agrees with Reckles WTBGold that we help the economy by controlling it.
@ryanaeckles answered this in a Youtube video and I agree. If you spend a lot of time focusing on making gold, you can only help the economy in the long run. Wow inflation happens as a result of people playing the game, so we need people focused on controlling the economy.
— 🌠StarWolf🐺 (@Wolfhound7919) May 9, 2018
Deep Dive
Gold Dragon and Brunold both talk about when prices fall hard, purposeful destruction of value and keeping prices steady.
There is a technique to 'drop the market' to drive sellers out. Happened a lot when Inscription had their must have glyphs (before they were just cosmetic items etc).
Between them and the good Samaritan sellers that were bombing the market so everyone could 'afford' glyphs.
— The Gold Dragon (@Dragonbearjoe) May 8, 2018
Most importantly, I don't sell some items under a certain price that allows me to relist them. I try to keep prices stable by buying low and selling at average market price, above that, if demand is high. Ore demand seems to have sudden highs.
— Brunold, a gnome mage pondering real life (@TobiasTegge) May 8, 2018
Golden Reputation
Brunold points out something very important to me: that your reputation is crucial.
Do I check people before buying from them? No. But! I remember people I met in the game and that can play a role in deciding where to buy from.
— Brunold, a gnome mage pondering real life (@TobiasTegge) May 8, 2018
All’s fair in love and warcraft
If I took a risk, so did you.
If it's new and I couldn't find any data? I'd keep the gold. It's unusual behaviour, anyway, so I assume they took the same risk I did.
— Brunold, a gnome mage pondering real life (@TobiasTegge) May 8, 2018
There’s Good and Bad
Remember its an MMORPG not the stock market, people
They infuse the world with life and economy is part of RPGs, so that gets better, too. I think they harm the game if they get too mechanical, too distant from the game.
— Brunold, a gnome mage pondering real life (@TobiasTegge) May 8, 2018
Too High is Bad
Purposeful inflation is bad too, says Gypsyheart
i think it's the intent. If you have a group of gold makers who collaborate to intentionally constantly raising gold prices without any intent to help the community, so that only they can profit, i don't see how that's positive.
— Gypsyheart72 (@gypsyheart72) May 8, 2018
We Need Gold Makers
Ross relies on other AH players for his materials but remembers to value his own time.
I rely on other AH players as part of my supply chain for crafting old blacksmithing recipes. I could do it myself but I don't want to farm truesilver as an example. So it may cost me 100 gold to craft a item that sells for anywhere from 5-10k , I value my own time a bit more
— Ross Sigworth (@hunterprime) May 8, 2018
Too High? Too Low? Balance is just right
Ashwind thinks we keep things just right
That said, a healthy amount of gold making activity on a server seems to keep it balanced, keep things to some level of value and provide made goods for people where they might not be available if gold making crafters weren't around.
— Optimistic Ashwind, the Curious One (@AshwindGamer) May 8, 2018
Its All Good
Chris reminds us about all the ways to get gold
Imho (In my humble opinion) there is no negative effect , atm the game right now if we are talking about WoW is stable enough that the players can get gold in any form of source Auction, farming mats, transmog ( sometimes depends on server) , pets, mounts etc
— 🐱🐑Chris the Naab🐱 (@Chris_Naabie) May 8, 2018
Or is it?
Ashwind reminds us that greed can hurt smaller players
It really can, if a handful of aggressive gold makers are trying to corner multiple markets to force prices up. To be honest, I'd hate to be part of a small server with too many gold makers, because only those who are gold makers would have any chance of acquiring goods.
— Optimistic Ashwind, the Curious One (@AshwindGamer) May 8, 2018
It’s an Individual Choice
Danielle says we all have to decide our own way
I don’t think we have responsibility to do much. Technically we don’t have to worry about health of markets or ripping people off. Whether that’s the correct thing to do or not is up to the individual. We could be unscrupulous, or look out for folks. Depends on play style.
— Danielle Brown (@GoddessSuicune) May 8, 2018
But Bots? Hell no
At least they don’t wipe out all the opportunities.
Ugh no. It crashes the markets, and though they changed things to be more difficult for botters, like making fake trap nodes they get stuck on, or adding mobs nearby that aggro, it’s still crappy and annoying. Glad they made shared nodes though so they don’t wipe all stock out.
— Danielle Brown (@GoddessSuicune) May 8, 2018
Look Out for Each Other
Obelouix will treat you right.
I only cut them if there are a lot of competitors on the market, otherwise I put the same price they put
— obelouix (@obelouix) May 8, 2018
Bonus Video
Darkshore Cap talks about the warcraft economy, inspired by our gold making ethic questions.
Darkshore Cap talks about some of my favourite subjects:
- How gold works (see my patreon!)
- Gold is not Zero Sum
- Adding Value
In pvp, in order to win, someone else has to lose. In the warcraft economy, everyone can win. Gold is abundant. You can take an item, do work to it, and it increases in value. Nobody loses when you do that. You do not need to TAKE money from other players or from the economy, in order to win. You can both win!
These are such basic truths, yet I rarely see them talked about in Warcraft content creation. (Everyone else is talking about “how to farm 50,000g in an hour, using this one amazing trick. Number 9 will shock you!”.) If you like this sort of truthful facts, you will love my videos in the members-only patreon website.
About the Author
Warcraft’s longest running Gold Making blog, The Gold Queen is written by Alyzande since 2010. Working on her 14th level 110, she has 9 years expertise in making gold, 19,000+ achievements, 1593 days played, over 39 million gold earned, and now playing World of Warcraft Legion live on www.twitch.tv/thegoldqueen The Gold Queen blog teaches you how to make gold playing Warcraft using ethical trading, auction house flipping, crafting, reselling, snatch lists, and farming gold making. Want more updates on Warcraft Battle for Azeroth? Support my Patreon for exclusive pre-release Gold Guides
GoldMaking Ethics – Copper Rod Squad
The GoldMaking Ethics is a series of Warcraft Opinion Articles documenting responses to ethical questions posed on Twitter on 8 May 2018.
Tweets are presented out of context, and you can click them to read the rest of the conversation. You are always welcome to chat with me on twitter where my name is @thegoldqueen and you can find Gold Dragon here also @Dragonbearjoe
We have 9 articles for you to read, culminating in a TGQ Long Read with my own opinions. Today we talk about selling vendor items. I posed a question about selling a copper rod, bought from a vendor for a very low price, for 500g.
I was interested in hearing about stories, experiences, and the reason why people choose to help and how they do it.
All stories were gathered in a judgement-free atmosphere. I understand if you disagree with other people or get upset by it, but during the Ethics Questions, we are examining responses in a detached scientific manner.
Ethics
You sold a copper rod on AH for 500g. The buyer just found out it comes from a vendor. They are upset and threaten to report you. Do you take pity on them? Why? Why not?— The Gold Queen 💛 (@thegoldqueen) May 8, 2018
Copper Rod can be bought at a vendor
Starwolf is bemused.
It says on the tool tip "Sold at a vendor in Dalaran".
— 🌠StarWolf🐺 (@Wolfhound7919) May 9, 2018
Making Gold from Vendor Items
Shono makes so much gold, and Dean once sold enchanting vellum for 1000g
Once put 200 enchanting vellum on AH by accident, mod priced it over 1000g, it sold (they're 8s each at vendor).
— Cubs2016WSChampions (@DeanMiller1978) May 9, 2018
Confusion: Why not get it from the vendor instead of the AH?
Our own Gold Dragon says there is no excuse not to google the price.
It takes literally 5 minutes on the slowest connection to type in 'copper rod wowhead' and see everything you want to know about in game copper rods.
I made a lot of money selling all the level of rods that could be sold before it ended up only needing one rod to enchant them all— The Gold Dragon (@Dragonbearjoe) May 9, 2018
Shono agrees, why not research first?
LOL so why didn’t the buyer do the research in the first place ? i make so much gold reselling stuff i buy from vendors lol
— shohno (@shohno721) May 9, 2018
Noobtastic agrees, at first, but then dives in to help them out with a little education
always hate that convo, had it a lot over the years… at first I want to laugh at them but I usually give them a good gold tip on how to make the gold they spent back fast….
— Noobtastic (@Nooobtastic) May 9, 2018
Are you selling a service of easy-provision?
RHWDad thjinks so. He used to camp the vendor that sells the [Recipe: Free Action Potion] and likens it to farming a boss for a BoE epic.
I used to make some nice coin selling the recipient for Free Action Potions in Vanilla. It was on a moderate respawn (6-8hr) and was highly sought for PvP. It’s almost like farming a boss to sell the BOEs. Only this is PvE(conomy).
— KaltonEly (@KaltonEly) May 8, 2018
Are the Copper Rod Squad just interested in gold and not in buyers?
Mike Branch thinks players selling vendor items on the AH don’t want to hear about justice
Of you put a copper rod on the AH for 500 gold, you're not interested in hearing a buyer's plea for justice.
— Mike Branch (Cohumulone) (@TheMikeBranch) May 8, 2018
It’s a service, and buyers know it’s a service
Heather thinks the service of gathering vendor items and putting them on the AH helps lazy players who could have googled where to buy it cheaper.
I feel like the point of the AH is a lot of the time for lazy people like me who assume you could fly somewhere and buy it from a vendor but don’t want to put forth the effort so you spend gold on the AH to avoid it. They should have known better. I wouldn’t worry about it.
— ˗ˏˋheather, whateverˊˎ˗ (@sylveonas_) May 8, 2018
Also I understand there are new players but I mean, I was a new player five years ago and I googled literally everything. Even if the person was a new player, if they’re crafting or whatever you need the rod for, they probably know to look online if they’re crafting at all.
— ˗ˏˋheather, whateverˊˎ˗ (@sylveonas_) May 8, 2018
Can you Google it?
Runesael reminds us that we are making assumptions about ability to research.
We assume players can easily research or google, because we find it easy, but there are young players, players with learning disabilities, and players who need a hand in the world. Starwolf thinks that it’s clear enough for everyone and doesn’t see an issue.
The npc vendor who sells the copper rod in this example is right next to the npc who taught enchanting. When you learn enchanting, it's clear you need a copper rod for the profession. While 500g is a rediculous 40k% mark up, I dont see why someone would not check the vendor
— 🌠StarWolf🐺 (@Wolfhound7919) May 8, 2018
Be Smart
Ali thinks we should all be smart
Even if people don't know about wowhead, a simple google search teaches a lot. Almost everyone knows about the google. Yeah, it's a little low to be putting that on the AH for 500g. But people have to be smart sellers and a smart buyers. In any auction, no matter WoW or RL.
— Ali (@AliandrasK) May 8, 2018
Overpriced can be ok
Scriffino reminds us that there can be multiple price points for the same item and all exist together
Nobody bitches at Five Guys for not telling their customers that McDonald's has burgers for less than 1/3the price.
— Signore Scruffino (@AppelJuice) May 8, 2018
Over to you
What’s your opinion on dealing with a vendor items available on the Auction House?
About the Author
Warcraft’s longest running Gold Making blog, The Gold Queen is written by Alyzande since 2010. Working on her 14th level 110, she has 9 years expertise in making gold, 19,000+ achievements, 1593 days played, over 39 million gold earned, and now playing World of Warcraft Legion live on www.twitch.tv/thegoldqueen The Gold Queen blog teaches you how to make gold playing Warcraft using ethical trading, auction house flipping, crafting, reselling, snatch lists, and farming gold making. Want more updates on Warcraft Battle for Azeroth? Support my Patreon for exclusive pre-release Gold Guides