500k Gold Milestone and General Thoughts

Woot!

I hit 500,000g on April 15 after flirting with it for a week. I could have banked 500k a lot sooner but kept getting distracted.

I got to 490k then decided to train Engineering for my Shaman. That took a few thousand gold. I crept back up to 490k-ish and began playing Rift more and more, leaving my AH toon with hundreds of expired auctions mid-week. Soon thereafter I got to 495k but spent a few thousand to get all the Blacksmithing recipes. Finally, on when my Warlock hit 85 and I needed to upgrade his gear to do heroics so there went another few thousand for Dreamcloth and other gear.

Eventually, I just said "screw it" and pushed on through. 

 
Reflection
When Cataclysm launched my total gold was in the 65k range. On December 15 I reached 100k. Then I got to 250k around Valentine's Day. Now, time to pay taxes and I'm at 500k. Since this post was originally written (I've procrastinated for over a week in posting it) I'm up to 515k.

There is no doubt that I could reach the 1,000,000 mark in the next couple of months. In fact, my goal was 1M by July 4th.

I'm just not sure I want to push for it that hard anymore.

This isn't a knee-jerk reaction to anything and it isn't burnout. This decision is really based on pursuing some non-gold milestones.

Over the past 5 months I have spent the majority of my time in the AH and crafting stuff to sell in the AH. The little bit of actual playing I have done has been to level an alt to get his skill high enough to use in earning gold. I don't feel like I really have anything else to prove to myself about earning gold.

On the other hand, I haven't done any raids. I have done a grand total of 5 Cataclysm dungeons. Not on every character, mind you. That's in total--5 runs: one on my DK, one on my Pally and 3 on my Warlock. Not a single one was a heroic.

Very soon 4.1 will launch and I'm still dicking around with the original Cataclysm content. I just feel like I'm missing out on some of the fun parts of the game.

I can afford to buy what I want. My AH skills will always be there if I need to jump back in, but I don't want to be in the third tier of players still running Cat basic dungeons when the tier one players are doing the newest raids. 

What I Enjoy Most About Being A Goblin

From a gold making perspective I really like working with new-ish players who don't have any idea how or why to make gold. Yeah, I said players who don't know WHY to make gold. It is very surprising to me that many players have hit very high levels and have virtually no gold to their names. I talk to players every week who have hit L70, L75, L80 and have less than 1,000g in the bank. Hell, some have less than 50g. 

No Epic Flying, no new gear--running dailies just to make repair money.

These are the players I enjoy helping.

I'm interested in transitioning my website to more of a 'get help now' resource than a report of what I've done to earn gold. I think this is where I will end up taking the site.

Why Diversification Isn't A Panacea

As goblins we preach diversity. Being active in many markets helps us remain in the green when one market tanks. If we are able to shift priority to a different market, we can ride out the dip and return to the depressed market when times are better. This is the smart posture to take in the WoW economy.

However, the unanticipated consequence of being diversified is that one must do battle in various markets against players who are not similarly well-balanced. There are many players who live in only a market or two. Because I'm active in 8 different markets I encounter 8-12 players who will fight tooth and nail to keep their position well-staked.

I have a player who camps my Cataclysm rings and necklaces and will cancel/post as soon as I log off. There is a totally different player who does the same with my gem auctions. Same for leather and cloth, same for bags, same for armor, same for bars and ore, etc. So instead of fighting a player in a market I'm fighting several players, each of whom has a very strong interest in keeping me out of that market.

I'm spending more time canceling and re-posting than I am actually crafting and listing new auctions. Sure, I have my 25,000g days here and there but I'm seeing many more days of 3,000g to 5,000g profits. It is just too time consuming to continue with any zeal.

I'm running my current auctions but now I'm only interested in break even to cover my daily expenses. I'm not really worried about gold growth. Treading water will be good enough for now.

The Old Ways Still Work

Maybe my market frustrations are a function of teaching other players, but I doubt it. I can name my main competitors in each market--they have not changed in months. In fact, I look at MS data and see my 'students' buying my auctions quite a bit--I tend to focus on low, medium and high tier crafting goods so when new goblins are making bags, they are usually buying my cloth. When they are making mid level armor, they will buy my ore and bars.

Because new players will always need certain staple goods there is almost always a way to earn a little gold selling Wool Cloth, Netherweave Cloth and Bags, Medium and Rugged Leather, and Adamantite Ore. Because so few new players are actually Goblins there are hundreds of auctions every day that I can buy and flip for profit. This is my foundation in gold earning. It is where I started, and most likely, where I will return now.

So, I hope I am able to contribute more by gearing my site to the new players and those who need some basic help. There are so many great blogs with super daily content that if I'm able to help provide some fundamentals, I'm sure readers will benefit even more from other sites out there.