Pitch & Catch | A MLB Opening Day Tribute

Oswalt, Lee, Halladay, Blanton, Hamels

MLB Opening Day

It is finally here!  The Major League Baseball season begins today here in the United States.  Baseball is by far my favorite sport and my Phillies are looking to have the best starting pitching rotation in the history of the sport. I am expecting nothing but another World Series victory from the Phightin' Phils.  In honor of the start of the MLB Season, I present to you:

Pitch and Catch

There are a few items within the game that allow you to play catch with another character.  Some of these items are quite rare and can fetch a nice price on the auction house or by barking in the trade chat channel.  Let's go over these items together, where they are from, and then I'll add in a little bit of my own speculation.  So this is still a gold making post to guide you on this opening day of baseball season.

These are the items within World of Warcraft that you can use to play pitch and catch.

• Voodoo Skull - Comes from within the Zul'Aman raid.  This is thrown at a party member once you aggro the group of trolls playing with this Voodoo Skull.  I have sold a few of these on the auction house after I was done farming Zul'Aman for the Mojo pet and the Sealed Scroll Case.
• Haunted Memento - Can no longer be obtained.  This Haunted Memento was only available during the Scourge Invasion at the end of Vanilla WoW.  These sell for a heft price on the auction house as possessing one in your bags causes the Ethereal Black Haunting to follow you around.
• Heavy Leather Ball - Is crafted by low level leatherworkers.
• Rotund Relic - This fertility statue is obtainable only via the rogue pickpocket skill.  You can pickpocket these from Frostpaw Shamans in the Grizzly Hills.
• Happy Fun Rock - Is dropped from various humanoids within the Dire Maul Instance.
• Paper Zeppelin - Created from the Paper Zeppelin Kit sold by Jeppeto the toy maker in Dalaran.
• Paper Flying Machine - Created from the Paper Flying Machine Kit which is a TCG loot code item from the March of the Legion Set.
• Etheral Essence Sphere - An option for purchase from the Soul Trader companion which comes from the TCG Loot Code.

All of these items can be thrown to another play and if they have room in their bags, they will catch it.  The item will then appear in their bags and can be thrown back.

Tossing Around Some Thoughts

The Haunted Memento is a great item to snatch up if you find it for a few hundred gold or less.  Relisting it on the auction house can earn you a sale of 1000+ gold for this unobtainable item.  These become more and more rare as players quit the game.  

Just as the Haunted Memento is no longer available, the Voodoo Skull may see a similar fate.  The Zul'Aman Raid is being renovated into a 5 man dungeon in Patch 4.1.  Will there be more Voodoo Skulls inside the new dungeon re-vamp?  If it is removed from the game, then the value of the existing Voodoo Skulls will increase. 

So if you are farming for the Mojo pet or the Sealed Scroll Case before Zul'Aman is changed forever, hang onto any Voodoo Skulls you get and see if they will no longer be obtainable after Patch 4.1.

Play Ball!

How the MLB NLCS & ALCS Affect The Auction House

Where Is Everyone?
Have you started to notice the overall decline in players online, specifically the online player population on evenings and weekends appears to be way down.  Why?  It's Major League Baseball's playoff time.  We are down to just the Yankees, Rangers, Giants, and my life long devoted Philadelphia Phillies.  What does all this have to do with the auction house?  As I have been detailing over the life of this blog, real world major sporting events can drastically effect your server population.  This can lower your potential buyers during a major event, but also can help you make extra profits due to a lack of competition.  Some players will post their auctions just before the game starts, then may not log in until the next day due to the games running so long.

Past Sporting Events
I have made extra gold in sales during the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup finals, the Kentucky Derby, and the list goes on.  I won the Booty Bay fishing derby during the opening Sunday of NFL football too!  With these excellent 4 baseball teams playing, there are some crazy expectations for viewers counts becasue the match ups are very intriguing and will be awesome to watch.  A lot of your competition will be taking time off during the games, posting before and after the games, or not logging on that day at all.  So I have enclosed the remaining game times.  You can use this to your advantage.  I would suspect that there will be a lot of competition the hour before the games start.  Wait until the game actually starts, then post all your auctions and you should have a better chance of selling more during the 3+ hour game time window.

All Times are in Eastern

Yankees vs Rangers


Game 3 10/18 Mon 8:00 PM
Game 4 10/19 Tue  8:00 PM
Game 5 10/20 Wed 4:00 PM
Game 6 10/22 Fri 8:00 PM  (If Needed)
Game 7 10/23 Sat 8:00 PM  (If Needed)
 
Giants vs Phillies
 
Game 3 10/19 Tues 4:00 PM
Game 4 10/20 Wed 7:30 PM
Game 5 10/21 Thur 7:30 PM
Game 6 10/23 Sat  3:30 PM  (If Needed)
Game 7 10/24 Sun 7:30 PM  (If Needed)

The 19th, 20th, and 23rd are possible dates for 2 games in 1 day.

World Series Schedule

Game 1 Wednesday, October 27 @ 7:30 PM
Game 2 Thursday, October 28 @ 7:30 PM
Game 3 Saturday, October 30 @ 6:30 PM
Game 4 Sunday, October 31 @ 8:00 PM
Game 5 Monday, November 1 @ 7:30 PM (If Needed)
Game 6 Wednesday, November 3 @ 7:30 PM (If Needed)
Game 7 Thursday, November 4 @ 7:30 PM (If Needed)

TheWorld Series is another excellent time to make some extra sales with decreased competition.  Goblins tend to be highly competitive.  Thus they also have a higher chance of watching competitive sports.