Sunday, November 14, 2010

World of Warcraft Gold Challenge: Alpha Competition - Hour 5

Stormwind City, Auction House - The great excitement from this hour came when a level 80 undead mage bounced into the auction house and killed the auctioneers.  This happened during a scan, so I /frowned and logged out.  Really made me angry that the Stormwind guards weren't able to dispatch the filthy horde.  They have one job and that's to protect the citizens of Stormwind from evil-doers such as that mage.  If they weren't too busy giving directions to young alliance adventurers, this sort of economic disaster could have been avoided.  To think that Stormwind was without a marketplace for the several minutes it took to find suitable replacement auctioneers is unconscionable.

Anyway. The big decision during this hour of /played time was whether to buy a Brain Hacker for 100 gold.  At the time, I had about 200 liquid gold plus another 100-200 locked in physical assets.  The price is probably right at 100 gold to buy and hold with the expectation it would sell at 200 gold within one week, but, I decided it just wasn't worth the risk.  Reason was two-fold:  First, I don't have experience in playing melee at the mid-50's level.  Seems like it would be a great weapon, but hard to say how desirable it really is.  Second, the opportunity cost of holding that item right now could be enormous if something better comes along.  It doesn't feel like a slam dunk at 100 gold.  If it was 50, yeah, I'd snatch it and then relist at 100.

The great thing about this decision came a few hours later when I logged in for another scan and saw that a second Brain Hacker had been listed at 85 gold buyout.  So, instead of just having to sell my item, I would have had to wait for someone else to sell their Hacker first.  The other great thing about this situation is that I have a bid in on the original Brain Hacker for 24 gold with less than 12h left.  In my experience, there is a reasonable chance I'll win it, which in itself could have been the reason why I would have passed on the 100 gold buyout.  If I'd had closer to 500-600 liquid gold, I'd seriously consider buying out both Hackers, but it is just too tight right now to put that much gold into one duplicate asset.

Speaking of bids compared with buyouts, it is amazing what will slip through on a bid.  People just don't want to play old-style eBay with the Auction House.  They want their item *NOW*, and many many pairs of eyes look right past an obscenely low bid price.  I managed to score a Deviate Scale Belt for 5.50g on bid, which I've marked up to 30g.  Even with the risk of it being a player-crafted item, you can't miss on a staple twink belt for multiple classes.

Other successes during this hour include finding 3 Scarlet Ruby for 20 gold (total).  These resold quickly for 30 a piece, which netted a near 70 gold profit.  The other flip worth mentioning was a stack of Silver Ore that I got for 25g and sold for 55g.

It looks like someone else on my realm has been cleaning out the below-Vendor auctions, which is just fine given that I'm nearing the range where it is barely worth clicking the button to examine them.

Total Assets at the end of 5 hours:  About 500 gold

Go to Hour 6 of the Alpha Competition

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