Greedy Goblin

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Forgotten goldmines

Once these items were great, everyone wanted them, farmed for them, used them. In the WotLK better item arrived and the old ones were soon forgotten. Often without reason.

While it's true that collecting all the mats for Frozen Shadowweave Robe is waste, since you can get better from quest or reputation rewards, other items, like the 16-slot bag are still useful. Granted, you can buy 20 slot bag for 60G, but the 16 slot bag is just 10G. 12G for a single slot? Most people would say "no thanks"! Yet you can't just go to the AH to buy the old 16 slot bags since no one craft them anymore.

Luckily Koltas is tailor, so all I have to do is buy lot of Netherweave cloth, (usually less than 4G/stack) and from every stack I can craft a bag. 6-7G safe profit while supplying a useful item. Not bad, especially if you consider quantity:


There are other lvl 70 items that may worth crafting, I'm selling most of them (some are unprofitable on my server):
  • Mycah's botanical bag, 28 slot herbalism bag, materials cost 70G, sells around 300G. Recipe needs Sporeggar revered.
  • Spellfire bag, 28 slot enchanting bag, materials cost 190G, sells for 350G
  • Reinforced mining bag, 28 slot mining bag, materials cost 40G, sells around 80G. Leatherworker recipe, needs Maghar/Kurenai honored.
  • Ebon shadowbag, 28 slot soul bag, materials cost 140G, sells for 300G
  • Enchant boots - Surefooted. Recipe drops in Karazhan, materials cost 20G, sells for 100
  • Enchant weapon - Mongoose: still a good enchant, materials cost 290G, sells for 500
  • Enchant bracer - Greater stamina: sells cheap, but crafted even cheaper
Of course the list is far from being complete. Feel free to mention such good items. Remember that prices differ among servers. The tailoring prices assumed that you are specialized to make mooncloth, shadowcloth, spellcloth. Since there is no CD, you should be. I mean, gather mats for 5 stacks of cloth, respecialize, craft 5*2 stacks, specialize back.

The "rule" that not all old items are useless, not in WoW, not in RL. While new is always better, sometimes the gain is smaller than the price jump. In lot of cases having an old but still working item saves us from a big purchase. In other cases we can craft an old item from leftover or scrap old materials for cheap. Don't miss these opportunities just because these are not shiny and new items. They serve their purpose well.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

True, the older tailoring bags are useful to people who are leveling (or outright cheap). Still, I wouldn't look with disdain on the Frostweave bags. 20 slots is quite a lot, and 12 extra slots (or 16 if you don't use a profession bag) is WELL worth the 200g it would take on average to procure the bags.

...though Glacial Bags, I draw the line at. Spellweave is expensive and in top demand by raiders. Why throw massive amounts of it into a bag?

N said...

I definitely still buy Netherweave Bags for my alts. They're more like 6-7g on my server, but I'm sure someone's making a profit on them.

Marc said...

I'm amazed that you can still sell Surefooted. It has a Wotlk version (Icewalker) that's really cheap compared to the high price of BC enchant mats.

Anonymous said...

I'm used to get my money from fiery weapon enchant mats costs 16-20g sells easily for 35-45g. Also enchant weapon spellpower is best enchant for BOA caster weapon this is tricky because price of golden pearl vary a lot.

Leeho said...

You forgot (or purposelly skipped) Bag of Jewels - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=24270. As for enchants, Cat's Swiftness is still good, if not better than Tuskarr's Vitality.
The secret for me is how you get primals for Mycah's bag, on both my servers you'll had to empty AH for months in order to gather them for 5 stacks of cloth.

Unknown said...

You can't really forget the classic enchants:
-Crusader
-15 agility on 1h
-25 agility on 2h
-29 and 30 spellpower
These are the ones most people will put on BoA weapon without much thinking.

Apart from tailoring and enchanting, it is often profitable to buy thorium ore and prospect it and then sell the gems.

Fierydemise said...

I'd definitely include Cat's Swiftness on the list, the mats may not be cheap (in fact primal airs are more then three times as expensive as eternal fires or lives) however so few people have the enchant that you can pretty easily command a hefty price for it.

In terms of low level enchants the already mentioned BoA weapon enchants command a nice premium. Another fun one is the vendor taught minor run speed to boots, mats are 10-20g and you can easily sell them for up to 50 since that extra run speed really adds up while leveling.

I've also had decent success with BC era flasks, this may be unique to my server where flask prices are through the roof but I can sell the flasks with limited (non-existent) competition at 50-65% of wrath flasks at 10-20g profit. If you make them cheap enough they also sell well to general levelers because while leveling 120AP is a very nice boost, for only a few gold.

Anonymous said...

I agree that old world goldmines still have gold in them.

I still make Netherweave bags with my tailor and the cloth is dirt cheap and the bags sell from 12-14g on my server.

Thorium ores are available at a lower price than the bars in my server so my miner can turn them to bars and sell them.

I found out that Inscription inks sell well. Apparently some people didn't meet Jessica so they buy the old world ink from the AH. I make stacks of ink of the sea and get the outland and old world inks from Jessica and sell them for 60-70g a stack.

Eddo said...

I still sell NWV bags for a living, it still works gr8

Unknown said...

I feel like a bit of a moron for having bought x4 gigantique bags when they came out. Though in my defense, as a paladin, I was running about with three sets of gear on me most of the time during BC (Prot/Ret/Holy) plus some miscellaneous tanking pieces for resistances or pieces I swapped for trash/bosses. I think at any given time I had around 37 - 45 pieces of gear in my bags.

In retrospec, I think I may have made some unnecessary purchases back in the day when I raided, but then again I sold everything, had two gathering professions, and bought almost nothing on the AH.

Gold NoScripts said...

I ran my buddy's DK through the hellfire dungeons. Spent atleast a few hours boosting him from level 58-62. In that time I gathered a ton of neatherweave. I was able to make around 10 or neatherweave bags, which sold for 14g each, slightly below the server low price of 18g. My IRL friend didn't pay me for the run, but selling the bags and making around 180g wasn't bad.

I've been making Frostweave bags like crazy with all the extra cloth and enchanting materials that drop from dungeons. They are still selling high at 89g per bag. Personally I'd much rather pay 14g for 16 slots.

ZachPruckowski said...

I suspect that these "forgotten goldmines" will be limited to tailoring, since every alt that runs through Outlands kills a pile and a half of humanoids for their Netherweave, but many fewer mine/herb there. Maybe Leatherworking, if people level through Nagrand and take skinning, but I wouldn't expect it to be in as much abundance as Netherweave.

Good call on the specializing for like 5 stacks - that should make the 250g to respecialize well worth it.

Unknown said...

My personal one is simply that enchanting materials never stop being worth it. People go in expecting to pay an arm and a leg to level enchanting, thus keeping the prices high even though there is a constant stream of materials flowing through.

the obvious way to cash in on this is to simply park an enchanter with at least 350 skill and send him all BoEs you pick up leveling alts. Obviously this is only really useful for people like me who enjoy leveling alts, or people like Gevlon who are trying to solo/duo dungeons, thoguh there it probably isn't as much of a profit due to higher repair costs.

cmill said...

A good way to get netherweave for cheap is to actually go to outlands and bug the toons leveling up. Most of 'em just vendor the cloth anyways and are happy to take 3g50s or 4g for a stack.

My server the cloth is 8g a stack on the AH.

S.B. said...

The weapon enchants from Thorium Brotherhood also sell well. +22int, +20spirit or +15str is a great boost and can be put on a level one weapon. You only need to be revered to buy the formulas and you can buy everything to turn in off of the AH. It cost me about 500g for the rep items and I've made 1000's since.

Anti said...

i've just done some math trying to vertically dis-integrate the glyph buisness.

assumptions:
my time is worth 1000g an hour (27s / second)
afk time = active time (else milling step is significantly worse)
10 Ink of the Sea = 1 Snowfall therfore 10 Azure = 1 Icy

Milling
takes 2 seconds
converts 4g herbs into 8 Azure (3az + .5 Icy)
converts 2.5g herbs into 5 Azure (2.5az + .25 Icy)

1 Azure pigment = (4g + 2*27s) / 8
= 57s (or 61s for low level NR herbs)
1 icy pigment = 10x Azure = 5g70

Inks
Azure x 2 + time cost = 1 Ink
57 * 2 + 54 = 1g68

Icy * 2 + time cost = snowfall
5g70 * 2 + 54 = 11g94s

Glyphs

ink + parchment + time = glyph
1g68 + 50 + 81 = 2g99

ink*2 + parchment + time = glyph
2x 1g68 + 50 + 81 = 4g67


Now....this ignores profit margins at each step....though i guess the 1000g per hour is enough for most. I like to add 200% markups as a rule. If we add 200% margin at each step of the process and facter the increased costs into the following steps we get the following.

Stack of herbs - 16g
Azure pigment - 1g14
Icy Pigment - 11g94
Ink of the Sea - 5g64
Snowfall Ink - 24g42
Glyph - 13g90
Glyph (2 ink) - 25g18

just some random thoughts as i empty the mailbox.

Anti

Anonymous said...

AHH noooooo my trix are out of the hat! Last night I was just resupplied my bank seller with netherweave bags. These things sell like mad. I buy all my netherweave cloth at 3g a stack so each bag usually costs 3.8g to make. I sell them 10-12g each and they still sell wonderfully. I can go through 50+ bags a week and at 8g profit its a nice income.

Lee Quillen said...

@Anti:
I'm not sure what you were coming up with, but using prices for my server and similar assumptions I'll show what I came up with. Inks per glyph are just off the top of my head as I do not recall the exact ratio.

27 silver per second for 1000 gold/hour is my minimum acceptable profit. I do not add a margin on top of that as my minimum is what is important to me.

So my minimum sell price for a 1 Ink glyph would be Cost of Ink of the Sea + time = parchment cost. As the best value for Snowfall Ink I can expect on my server is 5 gold, I must make 1 gold each per Ink of the Sea to cover costs. Inks sell for 1.5 gold on my server, so I use that price since I am not buying Inks outright. Since I could sell the inks at 1.5 gold, I use the 1.5 gold as my cost for ensuring glyohs themseleves earn me 1000/hour.

So, assuming most expensive parchment...
Min sell price for a 1 Ink Glyph = 1g + .5g + .54g = 2.04 gold
Figure in Auction House cut and that's the min I can sell a glyph at to make 1000g/hour assuming snowfalls sell at at least 5 gold.

I think the time spent may be off as I am not sure you took into consideration all 3 steps for making a glyps as time is also involved in making both the Ink and the Glyphs. Or did 2 secons count the combination of all 3 processes?

Anonymous said...

I agree, Glacial Bags are ridiculous. The material cost isn't worth the two extra slots.

Mycah's Botanical Bags are always in demand on my server, and people prefer to buy Frostweave Bags over anything else, it seems. Though since the price of the Frostweave Bags has gone from 70g to 40g, I'm selling the components for the bags at higher prices than I'd get for the finished bags (which is easier, anyway, considering I have an overflowing amount of materials since the new dungeon system).

Mongoose scrolls sell for considerably less on my server... easier just to advertise that you can enchant that and have people tip you. Less overhead.

ZachPruckowski said...

Yeah, the issue with Frostweave bags is that it's popular just to power your way to 450 Tailoring with them even if they turn green early, so you wind up with people with piles of them who made them to level and will dump them at just about any price.

Zamboni said...

@ Talderas

Don't feel bad. I just moved my Gigantiques to the bank after replacing them with Bottomless Holes. You can never have enough bag space.

Anonymous said...

Netherweave bags is the most consistent scource of income I have. I buy stacks of netherweave for a max of 3,5G plus thread (50s). There are 3-4 big sellers of these babies, that certainly have farmers that sell directly to them. Still market prices on the bags fluctate from 6 to 15 gold. I won't sell for less than 9 and usually only put mine up for sale when they're around 10,5.

The downside of bags is the space they take up. I find it's a challenge to balance the cost of a bank slot and the convenience of having the bags ready made.

Joe Lindsey said...

My main is a Leatherworker, and I just made some decent gold selling Glove Reinforcements. They need 4 Heavy Knothide leather and 3 Primal Earth. Total cost each was roughly 20g. They sold for 40g each. I found that since they aren't really an "in-demand" item I had to advertise in trade chat. I recently started selling Netherweave bags as well. It's amazing how fast they sell.

Anti said...

"As the best value for Snowfall Ink I can expect on my server is 5 gold"

i'm trying to completely de-integrate the processes. find the profitable steps and perhaps in the long run avoid the least profitable steps completely.

part of this is to remove the co-dependance the glyph industry has traditionally assumed between Snowfall and Ink of the sea. if 10 ink of the sea = 1 snowfall then milling can be said to prduce either 8 Azure or .8 Icy and a definitive price for either can be calculated.

once you have a definitive price you can decide the milling of Azure Pigment is profitable or not. I mean as Gevlon likes to point out if you buy something cheap and craft something and sell normal you arent making profit from the crafting but from the buying.

so just cos you get Icy and Azure from the milling step you cant say "the Azure is basically free cos i can sell the Icy (snowfall) for profit". no....you are profiting from the Icy and losing money on the Azure.

Anti said...

WTB 100 morons to mill and sell me Azure pigments at a resonable price.

then i can AFK craft ink of the Sea and sell at a decent price to all the glyph makers of my server.

they can have their glyph profits and i'll take the AFK ink creation part of the buisness.

or i might just keyclone dualbox a miller with a milling macro keybound to every key.

Anonymous said...

1.Buy cheap frostweave and/or netherweave.
2.Craft bags, or greens with low material requirements.
3.Sell bag/disenchant
4.Profit

The Seeker said...

Just sold a stack of 14 sanguine hibiscus for about 90g, dont know exactly what or who uses them but its easy money for an 80 and a few runs of underbog.

Anonymous said...

A couple of months ago i found a Krol Blade (remember that old "first epic 1h sword?) I told everyone that i'd try and sell it for 500gold and they all laughed at me. So put it up and it doesnt sell at first, but i didn't give up, and after a little back and forth on the AH, i one day open the mail: and there was 500gold waiting for me!

Goratrix said...

The greatest thing, at least on my server, about NWB is that no matter how many ppl are selling them, you can always make a profit.

I started selling them about 3 months ago and there were like 3 of us doing it, now there are probably 8-10 regular sellers and I rarely get a bag back, most sell within 15 minutes of posting.

I could probably sell 50 bags a day if I could find that much cloth. Good idea to spam Outland channels for cloth, I will have to try that !

My server is about 5-8g/stack of cloth on AH and bags flux between 9 and 18 gold, I try to never sell a bag for less than twice my material costs.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to this tip I have been churning out Netherweave Bags for the past 2 days. As my main is a tailor I can simply buy out 20+ stacks of Netherweave for 3g on my server, AFK for the bolt making and then create into bags which sell at a constant rate of 12g.

In 2 days I have already made at least 350g profit on these for 5 mins work.