WoW Update and Making Money off Leveling Mats

Just wanted to give a shoutout to my guild for finally killing Heroic Rag 25 (US 53rd, World 196th). We finally killed him this Wednesday after a 2 month progression on him, spanning over 250 wipes. For those just starting work on him, don't get discouraged. It will take a lot of experimenting and "strategery" to find a way to get to phase four, and then ultimately a ton of practice and failing in p4 itself before you get a kill.

Firelord Theodos

                                                                     
In other news, I have continued selling gems and scrolls (not so much scrolls since the prices have been dropping) as I would post-patch. I've made some serious gold off morons who have tried to reset the red gem market repeatedly, with one person buying up two gem walls of 25 gems each to move the price. I've also been trying to monopolize the server's ore market, buying up all the AH ore at low prices and PMing the botters to sell to me permanently. So far, I've gotten 3 new suppliers after only a day of work with it. Ultimately my goal is to cut the AH supply of ore so that gem prices will continue to rise. I see it as a win-win because it inundates me with cheap supply for stockpiling as well as supply to continue cutting gems for higher profit on the AH.

One thing I did want to talk specifically about in this post though, is making a profit off leveling mats for various professions.

Pre-patch is a time where people choose to level alts' professions for several reasons, among them being:

• People are likely leveling and gearing up their alts already to catch the end of nerfed Firelands content and potentially make main changes going into 4.3. The PvP community will likely be refocusing their attention back to their mains to make late season pushes, but for the majority of the PvE community, this is the best time to get an alt geared up. BoEs are cheaper than ever, raids and dungeons have been nerfed to the ground, and there is an abundance of people bored with current content on their main character. 
• Typically, most people who gear their characters at max level tend to level their professions at the same time. A level 85 without professions feels somewhat bare and incomplete without professions to accompany it. 
• Mats are generally cheap now, especially mats for leveling 450-525. There's no reason to pay a premium for ore, herbs, leather and cloth post-patch when you can do it now for cheap. 
• Now is the time when people are preparing to make GOLD post-patch. Some people are deciding to finally pony up and pay the costs of leveling a crafting profession with the knowledge that they can use that profession to not only cover their leveling costs, but also make good profits off it. 

So, with so many people deciding to level professions, there's only one thing to do: take advantage of the situation. The best method I have found to make money off leveling mats is to take a trip to http://www.wow-professions.com/. This handy site provides hands-down the best leveling guides on the internet. It not only gives step-by-step directions for leveling 1-525 in each profession, it also gives options for players if they reach a chokepoint in their leveling process. A chokepoint is basically a spot where there are no available resources for you to continue leveling on the AH. Since most players are lazy and refuse to actually look for alternatives, it's extremely easy to manipulate prices on these mats. Typically, the materials that most players have problems with are rare spawn ores and herbs (e.g. Goldthorn, Silver Ore). However, old world ores possess very volatile markets, which make them oftentimes difficult to find as well. Old world herbs are still farmed by some people because they are still valuable for inks. 

One way to manipulate the market for these materials is make an alert on http://theunderminejournal.com/ and add them to your snatch lists in-game. The best thing about these markets is that they are usually not camped, which makes them much easier to manage. They are also very easy to reset. A good strategy as well to employ when doing this, is to check out the shopping lists on wow-professions to see exactly how much of one material is needed to get past a chokepoint. Selling your items in stacks of the appropriate number will generate more sales. Selling in singles is also very profitable because people are often only required to gather 1-2 more of an item to get the single point they need to move to the next step in leveling. Logically, they will overpay for singles rather than buy a stack that will largely go to waste. 

In my experience, there are several items that have been very profitable:

• Goldthorn: rare spawn herb that is needed to level alchemy
• Cobalt Ore: needed by the truckload to level blacksmithing; the problem with Cobalt Ore is that people typically don't farm Howling Fjord or Dragonblight anymore, opting instead to farm Icecrown or Wintergrasp instead for Titanium and Saronite Ore. However, I have found on several occasions that people leveling mining will throw up a ton of stacks and dirt cheap prices just to unload them quickly. This is a great item to set alerts for because the volatility is extremely high. 
• Runecloth/Mageweave: Tailors need TONS of runecloth to level. Runecloth is relatively easy to farm, but because of the quantity needed by tailors and it being used for turn-ins for city rep, it is snapped up quickly off the AH. Like Cobalt Ore, you can get it at dirt cheap prices though from levelers who pick them up from mobs and throw them on the AH to clear bag space. 

Depending on your server's economy, there are likely many other lucrative "chokepoint items" that you can make a profit from consistently. Become familiar with leveling mats and their markets, and you can stand to make a killing pre-patch with minimal effort.