Saturday Celebrations - Goldmansax

This week we have a tale of big money from Goldmansax - very appropriate name there! He doesn't say which server or whether he is USA or EU but that doesn't really matter - all gold stories are different depending on server as so many of us gold bloggers regularly point out!

If you'd like to submit your own gold making Milestone Interview, instructions & more details are on my Milestone Interviews page. Any milestone is suitable - whether it be 100k or 10 million, we want to hear about YOUR story. Don't be shy! You've seen what others are sending in over the last few months so come on - tell us how you've been doing it!

I'm running low on submissions so if you'd like to see this weekly story continue, I'm going to need more stories!

I try to reply to each submission quickly so if I don't reply - poke me again as I may have missed it or leave a comment on a post - those I definitely see more easily. Now that AH Addict is getting more popular, the email address is busy with spammers coming out of the woodwork so I do sometimes miss things :(

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What is your milestone amount?
I originally started with a milestone amount of 1million gold; however, as I approached that, it switched to “I want enough to buy a Swift Spectral Tiger and have at least 400k leftover to rebuild.”

What got you started making gold and when?
I’ve played WoW for quite a long time and, for whatever reason, never gave goldmaking much thought. I was chronically poor and struggled to keep gear gemmed and enchanted, let alone my altoholic/twinking problem (before heirlooms). I stumbled across a youtube video about the shuffle during Cataclysm and dabbled in that for a short while, turning ~2k into 30k in a short time.

What really got me started, though, was finding the Consortium forum and, particularly, a post entitled “March to a Million” written by Faxmonkey and posted on April 9, 2012. I think I read that post the day it came out and it essentially “clicked” for me. I decided to re-roll on a high pop server and try to replicate what Faxmonkey wrote about – start with nothing and turn it into big bucks by flipping high volume materials and eventually moving into flipping higher value items.

Through this method, I was able to turn a few silver and some linen cloth into 100k within about a month and half. Not a huge amount, but I was keeping my pally’s weapon enchanted with Crusader throughout leveling (no heirlooms) and buying other, slightly, frivolous items. The new server became my main server where I built up an army of alts, covering all professions, and began to branch out into profession-based gold making.

Which markets have you concentrated on, if any?
I primarily stick to flipping still. My favorite has been the 77-79 Cataclysm green gear. They still sell incredibly well (we’ll see after the squish :/ ) and have been a huge part of my income, of late.

Favorite niche market?
Despite a large portion of my income generated from a niche market, my favorite is actually Enchanted Elementium bars. They don’t sell often, but when they do it’s an amazing day to open the mailbox J

Biggest yay?
When I started on the new server and flipped an Axe of the Legion from 100g to 10k within 12 hours and then did it again within a few days.

Did you reward yourself for reaching your goal?
I actually got very bored with WoW last spring and decided to hang it up at around 900k. I came back after about 4 months and decided now was the time to buy that Spectral Tiger. I found one for 420k or so and didn’t even think about it, just bought it. I’ve since moved servers, again, and begun rebuilding on my new server and am up to about 500k, after leveling some new alts (only transferred a couple).

Shout outs for any blogs, podcasts, or streams that helped you along the way.
Several – first off is the Consortium forums. Can’t even begin to describe how much insight I have gained from the people over there. Also, Faxmonkey for their post that got me started, Nev, Phatlewts, Sapu and the TSM team and Manthius. Thanks!

What’s your new goal, if any?
Mostly my goal, now, is to continue generating income to support my playing the game. I really want to ensure that I enjoy actually playing and don’t spend hours staring at the AH or my TSM crafting windows. I would like to hit 1M before Warlords of Draenor, but it’s not a priority. Thank you all for reading!

-Goldmansax

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Thank you for sending in your story, Goldmansax - I am terrible for not reading forums but I should really, there's so much useful information to be found there. Congratulations on your Spectral Tiger and I hope you get back to your 1 million again soon!

Happy goldmaking peeps!

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Saturday Celebrations - Vorkenlys, Earthen Ring-US

This week we have a slightly different format interview with  Vorkenlys, A friend & follower of mine from Twitter. After a random conversation, I persuaded her to submit her story so here it is!

If you'd like to submit your own gold making Milestone Interview, instructions & more details are on my Milestone Interviews page. Any milestone is suitable - whether it be 100k or 10 million, we want to hear about YOUR story. Don't be shy! You've seen what others are sending in over the last 9 weeks so come on - tell us how you've been doing it! Don't make me persuade you too! lol

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Recently, I reached two hundred thousand gold. For me, this was a significant milestone as before I never had more than five or ten thousand at a time. Then I hear of WowProfitz! He had recently achieved his goal of reaching a million and when I read his blog , the whole process seemed pretty straightforward and very possible. No camping the Auction House for hours a day, nothing very complicated at all in fact. And so I wondered, could I do it?

The easiest place to get started seemed to be flipping greens. My timing was excellent as he had just posted his Lighthouse Project and walked someone through the process of starting up with very little capital, using Tradeskill Master. Now, TSM is one of the hardest World of Warcraft add-ons to learn. It's been worth it but until I encountered Profitz, I'd failed at it. His step-by-step process, while admittedly pedantic, was perfect for me. And so the green flipping began.

At that point, I started doing research - blogs, videos, podcasts. I'd try something new every time but most of the time, I dropped the attempt after a few days as I came to realize, I want to make a million gold - I don't want to spend all my gaming time doing it. Flipping MoP greens and transmog gear can easily take me an hour or more a day all by themselves as 1400 auctions or more do not repost by themselves.

And that's the best advice I can give newcomers to the idea of being rich in World of Warcraft - don't let making gold suck out the enjoyment from the rest of the game. In addition to having over two hundred thousand right now, I run dungeons with guildmates, help people level, fish for raid food, gather herbs for flasks and am an assistant officer (we call the rank "Mentor") in my guild on the subject of roleplaying.

I belong to an awesome group on Earthen Ring called the Tamarack Order and since ER is an RP server, that activity actually chews up a considerable amount of time each week. I'm the dwarven Captain Vorkenlys Seacrafter, in charge of the Theramore Sailing Ship Sunspring, an ocean-going cargo ship - which is perfect for my lust for gold! I cannot stress often enough - if gold-making feels like a job, you are doing it wrong and don't let anyone tell you differently.

I'm fairly casual bout it, I only average about five to seven thousand gold a day but compared to the average player, that's a huge bank balance injection each day! It's slow but very steady and since I set this goal in June of 2013, I've progressed every day. I estimate I'll finally arrive in Spring of 2014 which won't be the fastest millionaire run but unlike most people I play the game with, it will still be a million in my greedy little dwarf hands!

Other than WowProfitz, three of the best people I've learned from on this journey are our host, Nev and the creator of the best Tradeskill Master 2 tutorials out there, Phat Lewt. The last is Evline's forums. While Elvine herself seems to have moved on to Final Fantasy Online, the posters on the forums are an amazing resource for ideas.

Links:

http://ahaddict.blogspot.com/http://www.phatlewtsgold.net/http://wowprofitz.com/http://www.elvinelol.com/forums

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A great big Gratz to Vorkenlys for reaching her 200k Milestone although I expect it's nearer 300k by now! I'm always really happy to hear that my random writings here have helped someone achieve their own measure of success and Phat & Profitz are both great gold makers I am proud to call friends.

You are 100% correct when you say that goldmaking shouldn't feel like a job, Vorkenlys - I think that's a trap I've fallen into a bit along with isolating myself in game but I actually enjoy my job so it's not as bad as it sounds! Thank you again for submitting your story - keep us updated with how it goes won't you?

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Saturday Celebrations - Exalios, Netherlands-EU

This week we have a wonderful tale of goldmaking from Exalios. He didn't say which server he plays but he's from The Netherlands which is just a couple of hours across the sea from me. His story strikes fear in to me - the thought of re-starting everything makes my skin crawl but I'll let him tell you the story!

If you'd like to submit your own gold making Milestone Interview, instructions & more details are on my Milestone Interviews page. Any milestone is suitable - whether it be 100k or 10 million, we want to hear about YOUR story. Don't be shy! You've seen what others are sending in over the last 8 weeks so come on - tell us how you've been doing it!

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When did you start?
Since WotLK I always enjoyed farming and back then I said to some of my best mates in game that I would become a WoW millionaire. That unfortunately did not happen back then. I stopped playing and restarted in Cataclysm - I deleted the characters I had from Wrath, just wanted to start over again and again started farming, but that didn't go well either. 

I stopped playing again because I had to do an internship in America (I'm from the Netherlands). When I came back this year (2013), I deleted all my characters again except my main, which I transferred to a new server, since my old server was deserted and all my old guildies/friends were gone. But this time I was dedicated. I leveled the professions I thought would make the most gold - jewelcrafting & mining. So I started with about +20k on March 26 2013. 

Did you set a goal?
My goal was to reach a million gold and buy myself the Swift Spectral Tiger! 

First tips & tricks?
A mate of mine was always very good at flipping items at the Auction House, when he told stories about it, I always thought that's way to much work, learning what is valuable and what is not. So I was just farming alot at first. But then he mentioned Jim Younkin, he said; he might seem a bit crazy but he knows what he is doing. So I started checking some things out about him. And he thought like me so much, just like the other great gold makers like Goblinraset, Erogroth, Phat Lewts or you Nev! 

When did you start a banker alt?
Had one since I started, but I only used him to store some items that would not sell or anything. So I never had like a bank alt that did all my selling/buying or anything. 

Do you keep the same banker alt?
Nope deleted, I now just used multiple characters to sell different things. Just to keep track of what is making profit and what is not.

Best market over the years?
Well it has not been a year yet, but my best market was definitely jewelcrafting hands down!

Starting over - how?
Hmmm dont know if I understand this right. But if you mean if I would start over, how would I go about this. Luckily for me I already did this three times! :P But no, if I would have to start over again, then I would first make a druid herbalist/miner. Then another character with Alchemy and Jewelcrafting. So first make some gold with farming and then farm mats to level my professions and use the gold to invest.

Did you reach your goal? Set a new one
Well my goal was to reach a million gold and then buy a Swift Spectral Tiger. So it took me about 5-6 months and there I was one million gold richer! And not that much later some guy was selling a Spectral Tiger so I bought that, and then I saw an X-51 Nether Rocket Extreme for 130k so bought that too and lastly a Corrupted Hippogryph for 120k. 

Also I leveled some other characters to level 90 and thought what the heck, I'll just buy all my gear... So was left with about 300k, and that was like a week ago. But I didn't have the Swift Spectral Tiger yet, and so started with farming some gold again, slowly (very slow because a LOT of people are selling gems now all of the sudden so most prices are below mat price now >.<) but steadily. 

For over a year, our server had not seen a Swift Spectral Tiger, so I thought I probably have some time to get to gold cap again, and BAM! there it was... 780k buy out... and I did not have it. So I start freaking out because that is the mount I wanted, the Spectral Tiger is cool but the Swift has always seem cooler to me (very silly to be true, only difference is some extra armor, but it more the rarity of the mount). So I did everything I could to start getting gold, got to 400k in a few days, with selling everything I saved up for a long time. 

Classic, BC, WotLK, Cata, MoP materials, everything... even my two recently obtained TCG mounts, the Nether Rocket Extreme and the Corrupted Hippogryph (did get a 30-50k profit on them). And so on 12 October 2013 I found myself with 680k again, and the bid on the mount was 660k with 30 minutes left. Those were some nerve wrecking minutes, because in my head it went like; I'm going to bid, but then someone who wants it is going to bid as well and then I'm screwed. And 30 minutes later.... I was a Swift Spectral Tiger richer! Goal completed!

Now my new goal is; making one million gold again and with it buy every possible TCG mount available (gonna need more than one million, but I'll get there). I'm a mount collector, first of all I want El Pollo Grande!

Favorite niche market?
Well strange enough I was just selling MoP rare gems. When I started I was one of the only gem sellers on my realm. There were a few people randomly putting on gems and some were dedicated like me, for hours we underbid each other with 1 copper. But gems were selling left and right for a minimum of 150g up to 375g each sometimes! And the materials cost me 50g for ghost iron or kyparite and 50g for a golden lotus. So I was making gold like a train. Most gold I made in one day was 124k I believe. Just from selling gems. But those days are gone, don't have a niche market anymore.

Do you farm materials?
I do some mining, not that much. I think for the greater part I just bought all mats I needed.

Lesser known gold making addons
I just use the big addons like TSM, auctioneer and auctionator

Biggest oops!
Was some time ago, I bought a Spectral Porcupette or something. I knew it was a new pet and (relatively) hard to obtain. Bought it for 5k or something, and thought 'oh im gonna flip that and sell it for 22k atleast!' And then I forgot a 0. Sold it for 2.200 gold >.<. So not a very big oops but then I was not that rich yet :P

Biggest yay!
My biggest gold making yay was probably starting in transmog and just being so amazed. Buying a Jade Plate chest for 15g and selling it for 5k the next day. That was just amazing to see. 

Funny yay was when I just started making gold and was leveling a hunter and obtained some small eggs - the things that drop from low lvl birds. I remembered that these things were used during a certain festival or something. So I thought I'll just post 3 small eggs for 300g and omg! next day they actually sold. Back then I was poor so 300g was nice to get from that but that was funny too in my opinion.

How much playtime devoted to gold making?
Pretty much all my time at first, just came online and started selling stuff right away until I logged out. Now not so much, maybe 1/3 of my time? So thats like 1/2 to 1 hour a day?

Professions?
Jewelcrafting / mining / alchemy / blacksmithing / tailor / enchanting

Flipping?
Green Cata, MoP leveling items, almost all transmog BoE gear, recipes and anything I can grab for a low price, even TCG mounts if I can

Vendor pets & pet battles?
No I started this once but did not see a big return of my invested gold so quit this pretty fast

Advice for a new gold maker?
First step, inform yourself, you need to listen to experienced gold makers. Listen podcasts and read blogs etc. After that the next step is usually getting some farming profs like mining and herbalism. Then find out what a good market is and start leveling a profession in that market. But you need to invest in research first of all and determine the time you can spend on gold making. If you have 30min a day or even one hour, a profession like jewelcrafting is not going to make you rich fast.

Reward yourself for reaching goal?
Yeah Swift Spectral Tiger, even though it was crazy expensive. That was what I wanted, would not know what to do with that gold besides that:)

Share the blog love - my 'must read' suggestions?
Love blogs, but I would recommend, Getrichwow, from Erogroth. He has some really nice info on that blog. And this one of course but I'm guessing if people get advice from you their already reading it:)

Well hope this is not to much info! I wish you good luck in your gold hunting quest! And keep up the good work, love the podcast and love the blog:)

Sorry for some bad spelling...

Greetings
Exalios

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Exalios - I think you're crazy deleting all your alts severals times but a huge Congratulations to you for hitting your million! It always surprises me how varied the road to one million gold is & I'm sure there are many folks out there with equally interesting stories!

I have a couple of the TCG mounts myself but I'm just sitting on my gold - maybe I should let go of the purse strings a little bit & get myself some shiny new mounts too - seems silly not to really!

Until next time - happy goldmaking peeps! mwah!

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Saturday Celebrations - Wareitout, Stormreaver-US

This week's Celebration is from Wareitout on Stormreaver-US - a fellow Wrath baby who picked Skinning & Leatherworking as his first professions - just like I did! Great minds obviously think alike huh?

If you'd like to submit your own gold making Milestone Interview, instructions & more details are on my Milestone Interviews page. Any milestone is suitable - whether it be 100k or 10 million, we want to hear about YOUR story. Don't be shy! You've seen what others are sending in over the last 7 weeks so come on - tell us how you've been doing it!

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What is your Milestone amount?100,000 gold 

What got you started making gold and when?When I first started to play WoW, in WoTLK, the only gold I made was what I looted off corpses and got from selling junk to vendors. My friend, who recruited me to the game and was leveling with me, heard me say over Vent that I was selling Wool Cloth to the vendor and told me about how I could make a lot more off it by selling on the Auction House. I posted my cloth up and sure enough it sold rather quickly for much more than the vendor wanted to give me for it.  

Selling items on the Auction House pretty rapidly became a necessity as a new player due to the cost of mount, epic mount, flying mount, flying training and so forth. I found myself having to wait for epic flying and began to wonder how I could fully remedy the situation (and any further ones) using the Auction House. It was then that I really started trying to make a surplus of gold. 

I had picked up skinning and leatherworking on my first toon and tried to utilize those as well as scanning the Auction House for good deals on items I could resell for a higher price. I tried to get a feel of what was working on my server by observing what was going on in the market and exploit what I could. I eventually had enough gold to be comfortable and was able to afford my now 4 toons necessities. Making gold really captivated me and I just continued on after that. It has become just about as big a part of the game for me as PVE or PVP, and equally as enjoyable. 

Which markets have you concentrated on, if any?Leatherworking. In Wrath, all Cataclysm, and beginning of MoP I concentrated on Leatherworking above all others. I knew how to exploit the profession the best and it had a special place in my heart because it was my first profession that got me going. 

Biggest successes or biggest failures?The biggest success of gold making, if you are a person who enjoys it, is each and every sale. People get enjoyment out of getting end game gear and watching their dps or healing go up, goldmakers get enjoyment out of watching that number in their bank climb. Whether you crafted an item and sold it, disenchanted for mats, bought and resold, or farmed raw materials and sold them straight up, there is a satisfaction that is associated with everything you do everyday. Although, if I were forced to make a decision on a specific moment I would say watching my gold hit 6 figures for the first time felt more than nice. 

My biggest failure as far as gold loss is concerned was hands down the last time I took a break from the game. I've been playing since WoTLK but I've taken a few extended breaks along the way. Last time I took a break I was playing the AH hard. MoP had just been released and I had made 4 bank alts with their own guild tabs and full banks of stuff. I stopped playing pretty suddenly leaving my items that were on AH to expire in the mail, including what I had in transit between characters as well. This included probably around 120k worth of items including a rocket mount from my Engineer. 

Advice for new gold makers?Step back and decide what it is that you are wanting to do. Do you want to live comfortably in WoW, not worrying about repair bills, raid meals, flasks, etc? Or do you truly want to become filthy stinking rich? Once you've decided, you can then assess how much time and effort you're going to need to pour into the hustle and bustle of the AH.  

Starting from scratch typically is going to get off to a slower start, but don't fret. Stay with it, deal with markets that you are comfortable with and expand as you learn the others. Take some risks on reselling, if you feel compelled, but calculated risks so you don't bust yourself - you're going to get demoralized if you go all in on an item and then can't sell it for a while. 

Get some addons as you get more involved, they will make your life SO much easier and more enjoyable (Auctioneer, Auctionator, Tradeskillmaster to name a few). Utilize your professions and, if you have more than one toon, use them all together! Mine some ore, prospect it, craft some gems then make jewelry for your enchanter to disenchant and so on! 

But most importantly, HAVE FUN. If you feel like all the time your spending on the AH is a 2nd job, you're doing it wrong :).

Shoutouts for any blogs, podcasts or streams that helped you out along the way:Jim Younkin is a pretty cool guy I've checked out a few times. He's a very successful gold maker that really puts himself out there to help people with the market. I know he has tutorials out on how to run Tradeskillmaster and stuff but I haven't checked it out myself. Tarou WoW guides on youtube. When I first started gold making what little help I sought out was from this guy right here. Undermine Journal - Such a good website for ideas, information, and tools to help you out on your server specifically. 

What's your new goal, if any?I've slowed down a bit but I'm back at it now that I've returned to the game about three weeks ago. I churned out 24k in sales today and it felt so good I think I might start putting more time into it. I'm comfortable with the amount that I have but for giggles I am going to make the push for 250k. Although, if I decide to sell the Sky Golem I'm going to be making shortly, I might need to raise the bar to 350k. I thought that I'd be content with the 100k but what can I say except... "Can't stop, addicted to the shin dig" lol

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A big 'Thank You' to Wareitout for sending in his Interview - I love reading all the different stories & how people get to their Milestones. As this was submitted about a month ago, I'm sure he's made his Sky Golem by now - let us know if you sold it or decided to keep it Wareitout!

Getting caught by the mailbox autodelete is something I think many goldmakers are familiar with - I did the same last year - stopped playing abruptly & lost a shedload of stuff! Now I'm more careful and only send stuff via my banker - that way, if I don't log an alt for a long while, the mail bounces back to my banker who I log everyday & I see the stuff coming back! When I went off on my travels a few weeks ago, I specifically logged every alt & sent everything back to my banker or took it out of the mail & into the alts bags. It left me with messy bags now but at least I didn't lose anything!

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Saturday Celebrations - Mario, Ragnaros-US

This week we have a lovely interview with Mario from Argentina. He's been playing a long time but is pretty new to serious gold making. Well Done Mario - you'll be at gold cap in no time I reckon :)

If you'd like to submit your own gold making Milestone Interview, instructions & more details are on my Milestone Interviews page. Any milestone is suitable - whether it be 100k or 10 million, we want to hear about YOUR story. Don't be shy! You've seen what others are sending in over the last 6 weeks so come on - tell us how you've been doing it!

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My name is Mario, 33, from Argentina. I started playing in April 2005 (wow!, time has gone by) on US Servers, moved to Ragnaros US some time after it went live because most of my friends had a hard time raiding with people from english speaking community, I started playing a resto shaman back in Vanilla (raided Onyxia and Molten Core 40m), and have since then played/maxed and raided every class at some point (unless for a Monk which is sitting there at lvl 5 still) 

My array is as follows:
2x Tailor
1x Blacksmith
1x Leatherworker
1x Scribe
2x Alchemist (both transmutation)
2x Engineer (1 of each type)
1x Jewelcrafter
2x Enchanter (no real use here, just silly redundancy, kept up my enchanting on my first character, the shaman (non-90); and made a second one on a lvl 90 alt to get the end game enchants)

What is your milestone amount? 

My aim was milestone 300k for the first week at launch, and see from there. I figured I could take advantage of the price boom and then just be cool for the rest of this xpac. That way I would have enough to start the next one without having to worry about gold. Made it in a few days! (update: I'm at 550k now) and got the bug =) 

What got you started making gold and when?

I guess aside from raiding there aren't many things that attract me a lot at the moment (PvP, Pet Battles, etc are not my thing) and I had the desire to be “rich” in WoW for a long time but I couldn’t really make it. I had lots and lots of gold in WotLK, but spent all of it playing Cataclysm (I didn’t have a lot of time at that point and keeping up with my characters without generating gold meant bankruptcy for me). 

I played MoP only for a few months (the old group disbanded and I decided it was time for a little break and left my 40k as fund for the guild bank which was almost broke at that point). When I got back at the end of 5.2 I said to myself: this time I’m going for the big one. I started reading forums and listening to podcasts and in 5.3, I started stockpiling (buying and crafting like crazy).

Which markets have you concentrated on, if any?

• Jewelcrafting (via shuffling) has been my main and most profitable market (those vermilion onyx, nom nom), also:
• Inscription cards and decks, glyphs (which have somewhat slow down on my server)
• Tailoring (spellthreads, crafted pvp/epics)
• Leatherworking (crafted pvp/epics, skins)
• Engineering (Sky Golem and Pets)
• Blacksmith (crafted pvp/epics, belt bucklets)

Biggest successes or biggest failures? 

Managing my stockpile has been both a success and a failure I think. I did cover all the markets and items, but I burned all my stuff on the first month! Demand and profit was just too good to ignore on most markets. Should have gotten a lot more materials and less random stuff. Example: Tried to reset the market on the Warlock green fire books (spent like 25k on that) and it really didn’t work. That 25k would have been worth a lot more in raw mats. Oh well.. “Experience is a cone that life gives you when don’t have any hair left” goes the saying =) 

Advice for new goldmakers

• Do NOT be afraid to buy stuff cheap when you see it. It will sell for more later or you will use it to craft stuff later on the patch, or you can always reset markets. 

• Look info up on official and non-official communities, read a lot. 

• Watch for trends (on TUJ and Wowuction), it helps understand what’s going on and take advantage of it

shout outs for any blogs, podcasts or streams that helped you along the way 

Yours of course, Marcus Ty, Phat Lewtz among others 

What's your new goal, if any? 

One million!. This was really my goal but it seemed kind of far away and unrealistic, so I decided for something more real when I started, hence my 300k initial goal. Now being at 550k and with more knowledge of the market, etc it seems closer to reach =)

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Thank you for sending in your story Mario - I wish you good speed towards your goal & I'm pretty sure you're almost there by now!

I see a definite trend towards Jewelcrafting as the most lucrative market in these interviews but I don't think that surprises anyone! Now that we have some news on the next expansion, it will be interesting to see how things develop but I'm still waiting for Connected Realms to have their impact on the Auction House before I worry too much about the new Warlords of Draenor expansion!

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Saturday Celebrations - Vodmos of Twisting Nether

It's Saturday already and that means it's time for another Celebration! This week we have Vodmos's tale of glory - fighting evil foes at the Auction House & conquering the Gold mountain that is goldcap! I love reading all these interviews and I hope you do too.

If you'd like to submit your own gold making Milestone Interview, instructions & more details are on my Milestone Interviews page. Any milestone is suitable - whether it be 100k or 10 million, we want to hear about YOUR story. Don't be shy! You've seen what others are sending in over the last 5 weeks so come on - tell us how you've been doing it!

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What is your milestone amount? 

My first milestone amount was 100K. It took me almost 6 month's to get there. During that time it was a lot of trial and error to learn my server and find all the helpful blog's out there. My new milestone amount is to cap out and I am half way there.

What got you started making gold and when? 

What started me was another player. I was still leveling my first toon and while flying around questing there was a request for help taking down a quest NPC in chat. I responded and helped the guy out. In return he gave me 500 gold for my time. At first I wouldn't take it explaining that he didn't need to pay me for helping. He insisted because he was capped out on his main and didn't need the gold. 

This intrigued me and after a long conversation he agreed to help me out learning the JC market. This was during Cataclysm and Inferno Ruby's were the hot ticket item. He taught me about posting, when and when not to undercut and when to reset the market. That was the beginning of my AH addiction.

Which markets have you concentrated on, if any? 

The markets are always shifting around with what people are looking for. At first it was just the JC market for me. Then that kind of tapered off and I took what I learned from that market and leveled another toon with Enchanting. I started making decent gold again and used that gold to level more toons to bring up Blacksmithing, Mining,Tailoring and Alchemy (transmute master). 

Now I craft for all of those markets and as a result have a steady flow of income averaging about 10K to 50K per week. If I ever stop being lazy I will finish leveling a toon that has been idle at level 72 for a long time and learn engineering and leather working. Engineering I hear is hard to make gold with but I like some of the items that you can craft personally. 

Leatherworking because I think on my server it seems to be an untapped market. I see people barking in trade looking for a Leatherworker often and cannot seem to find gear for my hunter on the AH. No gear on AH = untapped market!

Biggest successes or biggest failures? 

My biggest success would be learning how to make gold in the first place. It has kept my interest in a game that I may very well have moved on from after the first year or so. One of my two biggest failures would have to be purchasing high end Blacksmith and Tailoring patterns towards the end of Cataclysm with the intent on crafting those items for raking in millions and millions of gold. In reality I over paid for the patterns and didn't break even on any of them. 

LEARN your market before investing anything more than 500 gold. My second biggest failure was purchasing some mounts for resale and mis-posting one of them because I wasn't paying attention. That led to a very disappointing visit to my mailbox.

Advice for new goldmakers? 

1) AH add-on's of course to help with posting and crafting. It is too much to keep track of with paper and a pen. 

2) Get a mentor. Just as in real life, a mentor can really help further your success. Unlike real life that mentor can be any number of the blogs posted weekly by the people that have been working the AH long before you started. I learned a lot from the blogs. I am new to the Auction House Addict but have already learned new things that I overlooked previously (thank you very much by the way). 

3) It is not really needed at first but eventually start or purchase your own guild for the extra storage. Before the last patch for Mists of Pandaria, I invested heavy in raw materials for crafting and resale. I had 5 tabs of one Guild bank and 4 tabs of my main Guild bank completely full of ore, cloth and leather. I have moved almost all of that inventory since the release through crafting or resale but saved tons of gold by buying before the prices almost doubled. It also helps me when I need to reset all my postings by giving me the room to sort them all out and re-post them grouped by category. This helps with the timing for when I go back to re-post after I have been undercut.

Shout outs for any blogs, podcasts or streams that helped you along the way?

Auction House Addict, Tauro WOW guides and the Consortium website that contains blogs, add on tutorials and just general tips that are invaluable.

What's your new goal, if any? 

My main new goal is as previously mentioned cap out. This will take a while as I am not a penny pincher. If there is something I wish to purchase I do so. I spend a lot of time making this gold and really why if I cant use it to purchase the things I want. 

My other goal is not in the game. I have been batting around the idea of starting a blog myself. There are already a lot of blogs out there but this has been enjoyable to write and some of the veteran players seem to be moving on to bigger and better things. Maybe now is the time to do my research and attempt to fill the voids that are left behind by the others such as The Gold Queen. Maybe I will get lucky and have an opportunity to collaborate with someone like you and Marcus Ty do. I have yet to experience any podcast. I think I will change that and make yours the first.

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Congratulations Vodmos - that first 100k seems to take forever doesn't it? Half way to gold cap now though so I guess you've speeded up a bit! It really does depend so much on the server and the phase at which the game is in - I started seriously making gold at the beginning of Cataclysm when everything was moving fast & for pretty good prices. If I was starting out now, I wouldn't expect such a quick accumulation of gold - with more & more servers slowly dying and populations falling everywhere it seems, markets are slowing down too.

A new expansion will sort that out but brings it's own challenges too - once we have more details, I'm pretty sure there will be a flurry of new articles from me & others too so stay tuned to make the most of your gold making when the time comes.

Have a great weekend everyone! mwah!

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Saturday Celebrations - Noopras, Drak'thul US

Saturday Celebrations!

This week we have a short but sweet interview with Noopras of Drak'thul server who has just reached his 500,000 gold mark. Congratulations Noopras! that is a really nice milestone to reach! He has some really great advice for new gold makers too - one that I've often said myself so I hope you enjoy this weeks interview.

If you'd like to submit your own gold making Milestone Interview, instructions & more details are on my Milestone Interviews page. Any milestone is suitable - whether it be 100k or 10 million, we want to hear about YOUR story.

I've been a bit quiet round here the last week or so and it's likely to stay quiet for the next 2 weeks as well as I'm currently Stateside with no WoW access. I do have Hearthstone access though so I won't be bored! If I think of a post topic then of course I'll write it up but if you've been reading a while, you know I tend to write about what I'm doing which makes it a little tougher when I have no access!

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You can call me Noopras. I play on Drak'thul alliance. 

When did I start? 

I started about 6 months ago to try and make gold. I kept reading different blogs and guides about it and decided to see how I could do.

Did I set goals? 

Initially it was just lets see how much I can make. That actually got old pretty fast. I was making a modest amount, but with no clear direction. So at 300k I decided that I really wanted all the JC mounts. At 500k, I am short the jeweled onyx panther, but only cause I am making myself wait to hit 520k before I drop the gold on the orb. 

1st tips and tricks? 

READ A GUIDE. READ A BLOG. JUST PLAIN READ. It isn't rocket science. Lots of people have gone before you. Learn from them. Learn from your mistakes. 

When did I start a banker alt? 

Had this alt for I think 2 years. I was using him for storage and a few AH things before I got serious. I have 2 now. Both with LvL 1 guilds. 

Keep the same bank alt? 

Yep. 

Best market over time? 

I have been mostly in JC and enchanting. JC was my 1st crafting profession. It has been the driver for my gold making. I have not been deep enough in any others to really have much say on them. 

Reach your goal, set a new one? 

I will shortly. As for the next goal? I need a lot more achievements for items, so I may turn that into my next goal. 1 item every 20 k or so. 

Favorite niche market?

If you consider belt buckles niche. 

Do you farm mats? 

Ore, heck no. Herbs, 3 16 plot farms. 

Lesser known add-on? 

TSM addict.

Biggest oops? 

Not sure, really. Nothing huge springs to mind. My markets are low gold higher volume. 

Biggest yeah? 

Hitting 500k has been the biggest. The most memorable is the other AH dealer I have met. Started chatting with him and we have continued to chat. Learned some from him, also 1 less person to fight. 

Playtime to gold making? 

Well over 1/2 my time is devoted to it. Ore doesn't prospect itself, and I click ever single time I do it. 

Professions? 

Miner/herbalist 600/600, JC/BS 600/600, Alchemist(transmute)/enchanter 600/600, tailor/scribe 400ish/400ish

Flipping? 

Nope, keep falling on my face when I try. 

Vendor pets & battle pets? 

A few vendor, a few battle pets. Not really into pet battles, and I have yet to develop the patience for vendor pets. 

Advice for new gold makers? 

Read, when you have read all of one place, find another one. So many people already make gold hand over fist. Let them guide you. By all means, if you have an idea, try it. But there is so much good information out about how to make gold you are silly to not use it. 

Reward for reaching goal? 

Yep, and I cant wait to finish it off. 

Must reads? 

Undermine Journal front page. Its how I found AH Addict. Consortium WoW gold forums. SO much valuable info in guides and posts. And they are friendly too. I used to read JMTC, but I noticed the forums where getting out of date. Haven't been by in awhile, but it was one of the 1st places I visited.

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I remember clearly hitting my 500k goal - the excitement of that half way mark was almost more than the final goal to be honest! I know I was lucky in that I was making gold during early cataclysm and I think it was definitely a bit easier then. I don't know whether it was because my realm was busier or I was just so much more into it, but it certainly felt more rewarding to see all those 'sold' notifications in my mailbox!

Having said that, it's still fun to pit your wits against the server population - using your brain never gets old and apparently, it's good for you too!

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Saturday Celebrations - Sjögren, Windrunner

This week, we have a short but sweet story of success from  Sjögren of Windrunner server. She's fast approaching her gold cap and has been busy driving friends crazy with goldmaking! She also said she feels a bit dorky sending in an interview but that's what this idea is for! Send me your stories so we can all enjoy them & know that there are others out there just as dorky as we are!

 If you'd like to submit your own gold making Milestone Interview, instructions & more details are on my Milestone Interviews page. Any milestone is suitable - whether it be 100k or 10 million, we want to hear about YOUR story.

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What is your milestone amount? 

500,000 gold

What got you started making gold and when? 

I didn't start playing around with the auction house or even seriously considering making gold until a couple of months before the release of 5.4. Originally, back in Cataclysm, my husband had a few characters on my account with which he made a small fortune through various professions. Unfortunately, he no longer plays, although I still have his characters to use. Back then I was more into gearing up fresh 90's and found no joy in sitting in town trying to figure out how to make gold, and, with a comparison to real life, I was living "check by check" with the meagre gold I could scrape up from daily activities.  

Eventually I became extremely tired of being broke, especially when I saw a cool new pet or something, so I went with my husband's methods of goldmaking and earned a couple hundred thousand in a few months' time - nothing serious. I stopped making gold a few weeks pre-5.4 so I once again was broke, which made me all the more determined once the patch came. With the surge of activity from new content, I earned approximately 650,000+ in 23 days after starting from a measly 5k.

Which markets have you concentrated on, if any? 

I've mostly concentrated on the gem market, although in the past couple of weeks I've began expanding into everything I can get my grubby paws on. Our economy is slowly dying, so a girl has to adapt and expand, sooner than later. 

Biggest successes or biggest failures? 

My biggest success with goldmaking was definitely everything I do concerning gems. Although I do profit off other items/professions, the large bulk of my gold comes from gems and I'm sure this will be the case for the foreseeable future. My failures usually come from when I don't take the time to check the math with my auctions... there have been times I've lost money selling something. 

Advice for new goldmakers?

Find the market that works for you, based on what you find enjoyable (I can't farm, I just can't, so I spend money on buying raw mats). Don't be discouraged if it seems like you aren't making much. Take some risks but don't go crazy - you never know, it may pay off big time in the end. 

Shout outs for any blogs, podcasts, or streams that helped you along the way? 

Nope! Truthfully I've never used a gold-making guide. But... could I give a shout out to my husband? He got me started after all... :) 

What's your new goal, if any? 

Hitting gold-cap of course! I promised friends (and enemies), both of which have come with complaints about how many times they've been undercut, I would calm down once I got my dream mount - a Swift Spectral Tiger. 

- Eden, Sjögren - Windrunner

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Wow! All I can say is well done Eden! I don't think I've ever made that much gold so quickly even at the height of my gold making efforts. My server is almost dead in many respects too but the AH keeps plodding on! I'm really looking forward to Connected Realms in the hope of them revitalising Auction Houses everywhere!

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Saturday Celebrations - Just Mark

Celebrate!

This is the 2nd Milestone Interview and I'd like to thank everyone who's sent them in so far. We have a few really interesting posts to look forward to and this week, we have Mark's story. He didn't include character or server details so it's just Mark :)

If you'd like to submit your own gold making Milestone Interview, instructions & more details are on my Milestone Interviews page. Any milestone is suitable - whether it be 100k or 10 million, we want to hear about YOUR story.

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Milestone amount?

250,000 

What got you started on making gold and when?

I got started making gold a couple of years ago. I’d been playing WoW for a few years and was starting to get bored with the game. I like questing and doing a lot of things solo. I tried doing some LFD but found most of the groups either were in a race to get it finished or very selfish. That’s why I don’t do raids or dungeons except in guild groups or with some guildies. I was noticing however that there were people barking in trade for items for a lot of gold. I mean who would spend 20k on a mount? My level 85 only had 15k and I was very careful with my gold. 

So that peaked my interest and I was starting to follow (lurk) the Gold Queen and she announced on her blog about a gold run that Jonathan was doing and it was going to cost some real money to get involved but I figured that for 30 days getting that much instruction (30 days of videos) and concentrating on doing nothing but making gold would be worth it. That is where I really learned how to make gold I didn’t win of course but I did respectfully well. 21,000 gold in 30 days starting on a new server with a level 1 toon and not being part of any guild. 

Which markets have you concentrated on, if any?

I haven’t really concentrated on any specific ones, but I craft and my goldmaker that reached 250k is a blacksmith. So I’ve been concentrating lately on the PvP gear (which I don’t PvP so I’m not sure if I’m getting the right gear out there but I make everything) and what pushed me over the 250k mark was one of the Reborn weapons. Otherwise I put up everything that I get in questing that I can’t use on the AH and I’m very patient. 

Biggest successes or biggest failures?

My biggest success is just the change in mental attitude toward what an item is worth. I learned that an item that can be purchased from a vendor for silver can be flipped on the AH for 50g. 

My biggest failure I think came when Chaos Orbs began to be able to be traded. They were going for around 400-500g each on my server and I saw a stack being sold for 100g each. That’s a good deal! I bought it and then the market price went down to about 50g each. I lost about 1 or 2k and I know there are others out there with bigger losses but for me, only having around 30k that was a big loss. 

Advice for new goldmakers?

Check The Undermine Journal for items and on their front page is a blog roll. Read those blogs they will have nuggets of advice that you can learn from. 

Don’t sell things straight to vendor unless it’s grey and even then there are some grey items that people will buy because of transmog those are mainly armor pieces. If you’re not sure check The Undermine Journal and see if it’s been sold on the AH on your server if so then you might be safe to sell it on the AH. 

Find a market and then fill it’s need. Be patient sometimes things don’t sell in a couple of days. 

Shout outs to any blogs, podcasts or streams that helped along the way?

Auction House Addict, the Gold Queen (now retired), Just My Two Copper, Hayden Hawk, The Goldrun (which really got me started), all the fine blogs that come across The Undermine Journal. 

What’s my new goal, if any?

I was thinking that 500k should be my next goal but that seems so far away at this point that I’ll make my next goal 300k. My ultimate goal is to reach gold cap, but I need smaller goals to reach my bigger goals.

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So there you go - another gold making Milestone Interview for your reading pleasure! The thing I like most about these kinds of interviews is just how different we all are. There are the basic methods for making gold, sure but what we do with that knowledge & how we adapt it for our own servers or playstyle is what makes every story different.

I have 2 more Interviews submitted but I know there are more of you out there - come on, tell us a little bit about your methods, your style & most important of all - your successes! We want to read about them & buy you a beer too! 

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