World of Warcraft Gold Challenge: Alpha Competition - Hour 17

Ironforge, Auction House - To find a stack of 7 Golden Pearl for 15g was something I wasn't expecting this evening.  Given that one of them goes for almost 100 gold on this realm, that's probably my biggest (and safest) score so far.

This is what I like to see

I was thinking earlier about what the ideal length this challenge ought to be.  Should it be a race to 10k?  It feels like that might be a little bit far.  I want something that players can complete within 24 hours of /played time and within 2 weeks of real time.  Perhaps I ought to create two brackets:  A 5k challenge and a 20k challenge.  But the Golden Pearl find brings up a good concern:  how much do we want "luck" to impact the challenge?  I just lucked into 500 gold profit.  What if I'd found a Parrot Cage (Hyacinth Macaw) for 10g at hour 2?  Do I win when it resells for 10k in hour 3?  Given that this isn't the Olympics or the Super Bowl, I'm not going to get paranoid about things like that.  No money will be paid to the winners, so, if they beat the challenge in Hour 3, good for them.

My main concern is the tedious feeling I've had with looking up toward the 10k goal.  Though, when you shorten the length of the challenge, you increase the impact that "lucky" purchases can have on your success and it becomes less about Auction House acumen and more about landing on the lucky square in the wheel of fortune.  But, to impugn myself, I feel like the majority of my success during this challenge has been the simple luck of finding the stuff listed, usually using Auctioneer as my lighthouse.

I've decided that reputation-grind items are a gold-mine for a reseller.  The 150 Sunfury Signets I purchased at 50s a piece sold for 1g a piece a little earlier.  That's five different reputation-grind markets I've tried, and each has had quick sales.  People want their reputation at exalted and they don't want to spend the time to farm the reputation.  Which makes perfect sense:  In a functioning economy, you do what you do best and trade what you can do for what others can do.

I've also found that Recipes are nice to pick up when they are under 10 gold.  Doesn't even matter whether they are the highly sought-after ones.  There is a contingent of players who like to have as many Recipes scribed as possible and it seems like they will pay well for the privilege.  Remember, for a level 80 player who has been around for a while, putting 30 gold down on the table is like tossing a nickel in a fountain.  And I'm clawing my way to 10k by providing the nickel tossers a nice fountain.

Total Assets at the end of 17 hours: About 6000 gold

Go to Hour 18 of the Alpha Competition