My AH Experiment

It took a few days to set up, but I’ve finally got my experiment ready and in full swing.

For a long time now I’ve wanted to make a lot of gold in WoW just because. The problem is that any time I reach about 5,000 gold my desire to continue farming and questing dies. I’m the kind of player that thinks he’s broke with less than 5,000 gold, but is perfectly content once I’ve hit it.  All I’m really interested in is gold for repairs, mats, enchants, gems, etc. for raiding. Anything beyond that is just a bonus and one more reason why I don’t have to farm.

For about a month now I’ve been wanting to craft a Mekgineer’s Chopper ever since Erdkrieg leveled Engineering high enough for that to be realistic more than being a pipe dream. The thing is I don’t necessarily want one for myself…yet. I want to sell them. Given the cost of the Titansteel, etc. I figured they must be worth something. Little did I know how much they cost to produce!!! But I started checking the AH to get a feel for how much I could sell one for. Problem was, there weren’t any. That got me thinking perhaps there’s a market for it on my server, simply because there’s no competition.

The thing I didn’t realize was the requirements to buy the mats and how expensive they are. So in order for me to ever get one I’ve got a lot of work to do on Erdkrieg to purchase the Schematic, but that shouldn’t take too long. Didn’t realize I needed to be exalted with Alliance Vanguard, but I’m already Revered so it shouldn’t be too bad. The mats are a killer though. It basically boils down to 12,500 gold in mats that you cannot farm, but must be purchased by an Engineer. Currently I’m sitting at around 4k. Well that idea’s a bust! Or is it?

How can I make some gold quick. I did the Saronite Ore farming thing once before and although that does well, the market has dropped quite a bit and it took me about a month to farm enough to purchase my Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth. I’d rather not wait quite that long this time. So I did some research and it appears that of my professions with Enchanting, Mining, Engineering, Tailoring, Inscription, Jewelcrafting, Alchemy, and Herbology my best bet for playing the AH was with Inscription. Thankfully Kyr, my DK, is level 65. So I purchased several bags and mats for milling and now have an Inscription setup. So far gold is trickling in even on my first day and I’m hopeful that I can turn this into a profitable business.

The point of my experiment isn’t necessarily to see if I can become filthy rich, but rather to see if an average player such as myself can play the AH. We all know Gevlon’s got it figured out, but for whatever reason I haven’t been able to motivate myself to do so. I intend to give weekly updates on what seems to be working, what I’m learning, and then compare it to my dailies and farming method of earning gold. I’ve been doing a lot of research from supposed experts, but let’s see if their knowledge really works for the average Joe.

I spent roughly 500 gold in getting my setup, but again I already had several inks just from leveling and farming.  Here’s a screenshot of what Kyr has goldwise right now. I won’t transfer any gold to or from him while doing this experiment. If I get in a bind, I’ll wait until week’s end screenshot what he earned, screenshot after I transfer gold, and keep a forward going tally, but I’d rather not if I can get away with it.

Wish me luck!