Weekend (25 Jul) - Cousins

Weekend (25 Jul) - Cousins

Wild's cousins on the alliance side are small in number and still learning. While some help has been provided to them, and they have at least gotten to the point where they have a guild, for the most part they will have to make their own way. Their numbers may grow, too, when Cataclysm arrives. To support that, one of the youngest cousins came up with an idea.

The Wild family's banking business, with Happy at the helm, has done well and continues to prosper, bringing in the resources needed to support the family. So, says the young cousin, why not establish a similar venture on the alliance side? It would have to start out small, and grow over time, which means it needs to be established soon if it is to grow enough to support the new adventures coming in Cataclysm. Someone would need to volunteer, and be willing to put in the kind of hours Happy does to keep the business solvent.

That young cousin and volunteer is Alwayslost, a young lass just learning her paladin trade. Taken under the wing of her brother Java, who loaned her his heirloom shoulders, Lost completed her initial paladin training at her home village of Ammen Vale on Azuremyst Isle and then moved up to the marginally larger town of Azure Watch. Lost then made her way to the major city of Exodar on the shoreline of the island as a level 10, where the nearest Alliance Auction House was located. Lost did not come completely out of nowhere, however. While living with her birth family at Ammen Vale she became a local scholar, writing correspondence which got her notice, particularly at the major knowledge center of Wowhead. Finances had always fascinated her as well, and she was eager to try her hand at the Auction House business.

Lost picked Happy's brains, getting him to teach her how to work the AH and, more importantly, how to get started. Happy started from scratch, and so must she, Happy told her. Start small, and grow from there. Wild noted that Happy's advice was a bit vague (Happy hates to divulge his secrets). So Wild offered his own advice. Things are not the same as when Happy started up his business, Wild told her. Back then, low level green items sold for a small amount of silver, and the disenchanted materials could then be sold for a profit. Today, those same green items could sell for many gold each, and the mats made by disenchanting them would be worth almost nothing. That approach simply won't work on the kind of scale Happy used to handle every day. Today, it's a matter of learning the prices and the ebb and flow of posted items throughout the week. Look for materials that go up and down in pricing, the bigger the difference the better, and do the obvious - buy when it's low, and sell when it's high. Good research, good monitoring, and a good eye for a bargain are what's important.

Based on her new knowledge, Lost, with a small stake from Wild, made her first moves on the Alliance Auction House. First, she did a complete scan of all items and all prices. That took 15 minutes to build up the database of over 30,000 items being auctioned. Lost then worked through all of the enchanting dusts, essences, and shards for sale, looking for bargains. She found two, which was pretty good for her first attempt. She bid on 2 greater magic essences and six greater mystic essences selling very low and with only 30 minutes left on the auction timer. Lost was outbid on both once, but she rebid, and her bids held. She'd won her first items. Lost then broke down the greaters into lessers (one greater = three lessers) and then posted the lessers for sale. If they sold Lost would make double back what they cost her. We're talking small numbers here - ie, a few silver. Ya gotta start somewhere.

Lost then took a bigger risk when she bought 5 large brilliant shards at 3 gold each. They were well underpriced as all of the other shards were selling for over 4 gold each. Lost reposted the 5 shards at 3g 98s, which became the lowest price posted. Should they sell, she'll make a profit of close to 5g. She also could have gotten a bargain on some illusion dust, but Happy was quick to let her know that illusion dust was one of those mats where demand fluctuated quite a bit. It might be a bargain, but if demand was low it simply wouldn't sell regardless of price. If that was the case, it was better to wait and see how low impatient bidders would go and then consider buying.

Philly had a busy saturday morning, getting her daily JC quest done and getting in her first Wintergrasp pvp battle of the day - which she lost, but still earned some WG shards needed for heirloom purchases. Philly also got herself invited to the weekly frost raid against Noth in Naxxramas. Philly had heard what happened to Wild, who forgot to collect the quest and may have lost his chance to get his badges this week. Philly made sure she had the quest. Noth is crazy easy. The fight normally has several phases when Noth teleports out of range while mobs flood the chamber. But Noth died before he ever got off his first teleport. Philly was 6th (out of 7) in DPS (she went as a shadow priest) but still did respectable (for her) damage on the boss at 3906 DPS. Philly now has 37 frost badges and will eventually have to start thinking about what her first purchase of gear should be.

Late Saturday night, after Happy had made his final AH check and gone to bed, Lost also hit the AH to see how her new business was doing. She was a bit disappointed. Her mailbox was empty. No sales. Lost bit her lip and bounced on her toes a couple of times, drawing attention from a couple of alliance males nearby, but oblivious to that. It hasn't even been 24 hours yet, she told herself. Give it time.

Sunday morning, Lost was up early but had to wait for Happy to get done with his business. It took awhile, making Lost antsy. Happy had a very good morning and even smiled when he passed the baton to Lost. Lost couldn't wait to open her mailbox. She could see before she even got to it that there was mail waiting. Sales! Lost had sold all of the goods she'd placed on the AH - except for the large brilliant shards. Lost learned her first two lessons. (1) it takes time for things to sell, so don't be in a hurry; and (2) sometimes you lose. Lost figured she'd make a killing buying those brilliant shards for 3g and selling them for 3g98s. After all, she was posting at the lowest price. But that price didn't hold up. When she checked the AH there were more than 20 bids posted for less than her 3g98s, several as low 3g25s. The silver lining is that those shards, once reposted at a lower price, should still make Lost a small profit - at least she hopes so.

Lesson (3) - Remind yourself to learn the market before taking too big a risk. Happy wasn't sure Lost has learned that lesson yet. She made a few more savvy purchases, and then mulled over the list of arcane dust for sale. There was more than a 50s difference between the lowest priced stack and the next lowest. Here was an opportunity. Lost seemed to forget, however, what Happy had told her about learning the ebb and flow of the market. Was Lost sure this was the bargain she thought it was? Lost bought the "cheap" dust and reposted at a higher price. Both Happy and Lost will be interested to see how that pans out.

For her first day on the job, however, Lost did pretty well, recording sales of just over 22 gold. Not bad at all.

On Monday morning Lost checked her mail and nearly swooned. She had 25 sales, including all of the arcane dust. She made 46 gold. Happy reminded Lost that this was weekend sales, and that she should be cautious during the early part of the week as pricing tends to rise and demand falls. So it may look like a good time to sell high as well, but most of those high prices will find no buyer. However, keep a eye out for real bargains, because sometimes sellers dump their stock to very low prices when sales slow in order to get at least something for their farming trouble. Come around Thursday, things will start to settle out with more expected pricing levels.

There was even more action over the weekend as Wild joined his new guild in running ICC25 on Saturday afternoon. More on that to follow.