AhTrader podcast #9

Notes on what i plan to podcast for my guild on the next segment.

Why you might not be making as much gold as you think.

Almost everyone here has been in economics 101, so you should remember the story about two men. Man A can produce 4 pizzas or 2 sodas in a day; man B can produce 1 pizza or 4 sodas a day. If each man spent half their time producing pizza and soda, man A would have 2 pizzas and 1 soda each day, and man B would have half a pizza and 2 sodas each day. But if they specialized and traded, each man could have 2 pizzas and 2 sodas each day.

The point is that specialization and trade is beneficial. In WOW there are players who have a gathering and an armor profession. These players are not specialized. In the burning crusade, armor professions were almost required, as the crafted epic set produced was equivalent to tier 4.5 gear. So having one armor profession and one gold making profession was expected. This however is no longer the case as armor professions are pretty ho hum at the moment.

Many players are thinking hmm, I should use both of my professions to make gold, so when they mine ore, they then create an epic piece of armor. Then than sell this armor on the auction house for 700g and think wow, I made a lot of gold my professions are great! Actually you only have half a pizza and one soda. Here is why, the time it took you to gather ore, use your skills (CDs), post on the AH, comes out to three hours or so of played time. This breaks down your gold per hour to 230. Since I know that questing dallies can produce 400g per hour, and gathering herbs and ore simultaneously can net 800-1000g per hour, I feel pretty confident in saying you are not using your time effectively.

The next thing to consider is the price of the materials themselves, if you had sold the raw materials, ore and titansteel etc, what was the market value? Often I see these pieces of armor selling for less than the price of the mats to create them.

So here is my advice, I recommend specialization for maximum profit, hence if you herb or mine, do so together. By dipping into multiple fields you are making it more complicated when it comes to accounting for your gold per hour time. Remember to keep it simple, and account for you time.