I don't know if people here remember me anymore, but I made a post a while back about how you could easily make $1,000 in the first month of Diablo 3. I even boasted that it would be possible to earn $25 per hour playing the game.
It has tens of thousands of views, and eventually was removed from the site because public opinion was such that I was lying to try and make money. In actuality, I was trying to open up people's minds to what was really going to be possible.
People like this guy have blown my predictions out of the water and enjoy making money off the same people who said it would be impossible to earn this much.
Congratulations to you on your 6,000 Euros, and I hope to see you around my blog to share your ideas
!
Unfortunately, most people can't seem to get over the fact that I sell something, so they over-react and assume the worst. Welcome to the world of being one of the few honest marketers in a land full of lies and deception.
From a guy who charges people $37 a month to see a forum were he posts inane unsupported bullshit.
See the few words before that:
"So they overreact and assume the worst."
What you just said is a complete, fabricated, unsupported assumption.
I am not responding any longer as this is becoming incredibly off topic. No one is gaining any knowledge, just throwing stones and wasting everyone's time.
You won't, but blizzard is banking on the fact that many will.
A lot of what you said is just heavy speculation in order to counter speculation of the opposite opinion.
Saying "no one will buy" and "nothing will sell" are absolutes unsupported by the research and factual evidence of similar products / psychological situations.
Blizzard has been gradually increasing over time the cost of the shared stash in Diablo 3. So much so that it is a rather large gold sink for most players, especially low level ones. Here is an image of what the shared stash looks like when upgraded to full size, and I have highlighted in red/yellow the area you would see if you didn’t upgrade it below:
The highlighted four row area is entirely free and every player starts with it. This shared stash is a small chest in each major town that you visit, and basically it is storage space that all of your characters can access throughout the game (unlike in diablo 2 where every one of your characters could only see their own stash). Each character has a decent number of slots themselves, so I see no reason why you should purchase the shared stash beyond the first four rows as highlighted above. Blizzard has created some pretty heavy gold sinks for upgrading the shared stash, at the tune of 10,000 gold per 2 rows and 100,000 gold per tab (there are three tabs total)
You can have 10 character slots on your account, so why not start off using a few of the dormant ones as bank alts? A single character can hold almost as many items as an entire tab of your shared stash after all. Doing this will save you a lot of money, and early on in the game your character will need every gold piece he or she can find. You can also take the gold you saved not upgrading your shared stash and upgrade your artisans instead or craft the gear you need to progress in the game.
All in all, I think it is much wiser to save your gold, especially early on when it is a premium, and use “bank alts” to carry your excess loot. In the example image I showed you, that cost 30,000 gold to fill out the first tab. I have the gold to fill out the other two bank tabs, but what’s the point when I don’t even have enough gear/loot to fill the first one? You don’t need a lot of storage until you start playing multiple characters and at that point you will probably have plenty of gold to use expanding your storage space.
Even if you’re a crafting fiend like me who makes a hundred thousand plus gold each night on the auction house, you don’t need a lot of storage since you can only post 10 auctions per auction house.
I could easily see players using their alts and naming them things like “MYGEMS” or “WEAPONS” and just storing gear and/or loot in their bags. After all, you can sell on the auction house from any character, and you can trade gear with the shared stash to get it from your farming character to your bank alts.
Notice: These are my opinions and beliefs. I do not believe that I know everything about the rmah and I like hearing varied opinions on the subject. Please share your own estimate for how much money players will make on the rmah after reading. And if you somehow read this as negative towards force and sixen, it's quite the opposite! I respect and admire both of them.
First off, I want to thank the guys at Force Strategy Gaming for mentioning me on their most recent podcast, particularly Carlos aka "Sixen." It's funny, because I had just spoken with him a few weeks prior on skype and I think I tainted him with my grandiose RMAH ideologies. Sorry Sixen! But seriously, both hosts had a very interesting discussion about whether the RMAH will be a viable way to make consistent income. They seemed to agree that the occasional random item will drop and be worth hundreds of dollars, but that this sort of scenario will be the only way to make any real money in Diablo 3.
Besides this occasional lucky drop, Force stated very firmly that competition would make it so that people would make very little money on the auction house despite devoting hours of game time to farming. Today I'd like to respond to these ideas and emphatically explain my complete OPPOSITE position. I believe that Force has said what's on everyone's collective mind, and it is a reasonable as well as intelligent position to take on the subject. Thankfully, he is wrong.
What Force Said That Was Correct
Force stated several times that competition would drive down prices to make farming virtually slave labor. He jokingly mentioned a certain ethnicity known for gold farming and said that this group of people would drive prices into the ground. You're right Force, but they can only drive them down so much. At some point, demand and supply will meet to create a consistent trend for prices. Being ignorant of this balancing act will lead to the assumption that it's impossible to make any money playing the system. But you are correct that simply farming items and selling them is a terrible way to make money on any auction house. Unfortunately, that's as far as people usually go when thinking about this subject.
He also mentioned that the occasional super rare item would make a lucky person quite a bit of money. Of course, this is absolutely correct, and it will drive people crazy farming for such items. Time wise however, it will never be worth it to go farming for hours on end even for $100+ items. It's just not cost effective due to the insanely low drop rates.
There will be tricks and secrets that make people lots of money, only to be ruined once enough of the player base discovers them. This is absolutely true, but unfortunately Sixen made the conclusion that this will be my modus operandi. Actually, these secrets are just parlor tricks used to bring the masses to my website. There, I admitted it. I use fantastic "secrets" to increase interest in auctioneering among the masses. You know what I do next however? Instead of attempting to bottle these secrets and sell them as miracle cures, I take the person aside and explain the error of their ways. Next, I show them how to truly play the auction house and discover systems that work long term, not just as parlor tricks. In essence, I'm an educator, not just a marketer.
This is where a lot of people hit a fork in the road when it comes to approving or disproving of my methods. They either believe that I'm trying to sell snake oil to trick people or I'm actually doing a good thing educating would-be auctioneers. Usually it's buyers who side with me and skeptical non-buyers who go on with hating me.
What Force Said That Was Wrong
Force, there will be many more ways to make money with this game. I have covered tons of them on this blog already, but I will write a few methods here that put very large holes in your theory.
Force's Mentality Opens Up Doorways for Auctioneers
The way Force mentally processed the concept of making money on the RMAH is an accurate prediction of how the masses will as well. Don't get me wrong, Force is incredibly intelligent and a very solid gamer. I used to think exactly as he did, but it was only after many years of playing the auction house that I began to unthink the common sense that drives us to foolishly ignore the auction house. What you really need is uncommon sense to succeed.
Players do not change. Seriously, their spending habits, ignorance to certain aspects of the game, and unwillingness to modify play style is ingrained into most gamers. You know why? Because people play games to have fun. This concept explains 99% of player behaviors. They aren't lazy or stupid, they just want to play a game to have fun. If someone doesn't have time to play a game to reach the highest levels then they will compensate with money, quit the game, or live with their inadequate situation.
Where auctioneers can turn a profit is in identifying a few key aspects of the market place:
Where are the points in the game where players get stuck and need help gearing their characters (Ex: Going from Hell to Inferno difficulty)?
What stats do players really want on their gear at what points in the game (Ex: Resistances for certain boss fights)?
When do prices go up and down for certain items/commodities and why (Ex: During holidays when more people can log on)?
How can you get crafting materials cheaper in order to better compete in price wars (Ex: bidding on cheap items to salvage)?
What do players consider necessary while leveling their characters (Ex: Gold, +experience gear, +core stat for damage, etc)?
We have partial answers to some of these questions already, but many are still blanks since we have only played a small section of the first act of Diablo 3. Once we know the answers, however, we can focus on building long term strategies for playing the auction house. We call these strategies "shuffles" and they usually involve multiple spreadsheets and stages to track on a daily basis. The amount of work is far more complicated than what a normal person is willing to achieve on their own, so even if the strategies are revealed there are still many people who will doubt them like Force. However, once you have a system down, it's fairly easy to repeat it over and over again for huge profits. You just keep modifying and practicing with your system to maximize its potential.
These "shuffles" are the secret to being an auctioneer in any mmo's economy and they are the reason why I believe that Force's estimate of $5 per week is completely off. Shuffles rely on having a total understanding of the game in order to work properly, not just knowing how to follow directions. Reason being is that much of the shuffle involves making decisions in real time. When to buy in bulk, when to sell for the long haul, when to wait and do nothing. That's why most people cannot just play the auction house and miraculously pull consistent earnings out of their butts.
Some of you may have heard that buying low and selling high is the answer to playing the RMAH. That's actually just a small part of the equation, and it's really only going to get you some starter cash for the more serious and lucrative strategies (like shuffles). But if you thought of this then you're on the right track, don't be discouraged!
I would be most interested in seeing a reaction from both Sixen and Force to these ideas, and whether they are still skeptical about the RMAH being a money maker for those willing to put the work into learning to play the marketplace. I completely agree with them that for the common person who just farms and hopes for great drops that this game will be an excruciating exercise in futility. If ForceStrategyGaming ever wanted me to come on and debate them or share my ideas then I would be more than happy to.
What do you think? Are you in favor of Force's $5 per week or my $25 per hour? Are you somewhere in between?
In my opnion that a great way to make money but as soon as people find out that they can craft those 20.2 DPs flamberges they will do it instead of looking for it in the AH. Maybe some will just to avoid risks and don't bother with the crafting process but they will problably pay a small margin for that.
I think whenever you find out an awesome way to make money and that way evolves information assimetry (you know how to craft flamberges and how much it costs, people don't) you should exploit it as much as you can because information runs fast in trhe internet...
And a vast majority of people will say: "Looks good, what a great way to make gold." ... and do nothing!
Right now in the beta, these two handed swords are the best you can craft with a max dps of 20.2. In order to get that magic 20.2 dps, you need to get the following 2 magic properties:
+2 to 4 of any Damage Type
+5% Attack Speed
I've been selling these in 4 of my 10 auction slots every single night on both auction houses. They are absolute money making machines. I can charge 15,000 - 60,000 per weapon, depending on competition, and almost every night they sell out. It costs me approximately 6,000 to 10,000 gold to craft them (including subtle essences because who farms those when you need hundreds?) so I'm still making a very healthy profit margin even at 15,000 gold. [15,000 x .85 = 12750]
The biggest pitfall for crafting in Diablo 3 is the starting income you need to get going. If you don't have that 6,000 to 10,000 gold to begin with, then you will struggle if none of your Apprentice Flamberges turn out with perfect stats. And honestly, sometimes you just get unlucky for long streaks at a time.
This initial investment creates a thinking in players that crafting is just gambling and therefore just luck of the draw. But understand that this hurdle is exactly why crafting is so profitable!!! If it was easy, everyone would do it.
Besides the pitfalls and hurdles set by Blizzard fees, expensive crafting costs, and random statistics, you also have to be good at identifying what players actually want. Some want max magic/gold find gloves, others want perfect apprentice flamberges, and everything in between. There are just too many markets to play, even if you had more than 10 auction slots per auction house. So you need to pick and choose based on the competition and your own stockpiles of gold/materials.
Another way to play the market is to flip underpriced items. I've seen a few perfect Apprentice Flamberges with 20.2 dps going for less than 5,000 gold. Those have been easy flips, as well as many other types of highly saught after, perfect items.
To play the markets well, I've done the research and invested daily time/gold/beta bucks into supplying myself with an ample stock of Subtle Essences. I buy far more than I sell, and luckily there is no limit on how much you buy. That's key actually, because you need a huge amount of Subtle Essences for the amount of crafting you'll need to make perfect items. Right now Subtle Essences are dirt cheap, so I've had no problem collecting them. But when the beta first launched, I resorted to buying out magic items and salvaging them becuase they were often cheaper than the resulting essences.
If you take nothing else from this post, know that perfect items are what players want, and they'll pay top dollar/gold for them. Positioning yourself in such a way that you can provide these perfect items is the key to your success. Whether it's buying materials, buying salvage fodder, or outright flipping.
1-Sell a single item for the price of a stack.
2-Bid on items just before a server maintenance period.
3-Prepare for market changes from patch notes and expansions.
4-Read major blogs/news sites and take advantage of those who follow their advice.
6-Sell items for 100%-120% of their current listed value, knowing they will eventually go for that price due to demand.
7-Sell through mediums besides the auction house (forums, whispers, etc).
8-Farm with a team.
9-Min/max your gold find/magic find and runestones for the best gold per hour.
10-Understand the price of an item on both the gold and real money auction house.
11-Combine gems into higher level ones.
12-Craft items and enchant/gem them before selling.
13-Sell materials to crafters who are trying to gamble on the best stats.
14-Craft items for a fee to other players who provide the materials.
15-Purchase cheap items and salvage them with the nephalem cube.
16-Search for items posted below vendor price.
17-Understand the choke points of the game.
18-Sell gold and materials in the beginning of an expansion or major patch when they will always sell for the most money.
19-Network with and consistently pay farmers for gathering your materials.
20-Buy low, sell high based on the cycles of when players do and don't play the game.
21-Understand the value of items for all classes, not just your own.
22-When you see a deal, buy more than what you need at the moment.
23-Consistent income relies on consistent buying/selling of small profit items. That's how I plan on making $25 per hour playing Diablo 3.
24-Diversify your items that you sell to the point where even if one market fails the others can keep you in the green.
25-Diversify your buying as well as your selling.
26-Sell several different stats, not just the "best" ones that others recommend.
27-It's almost always better to invest in a pattern rather than sell it.
28-Even if you find the farming spot of your dreams, devote some time to looking for more spots each week.
29-Never stop learning and experimenting; spend 20% of your time investigating new markets.
30-Create selling "pipelines" - patterns you follow for getting materials, converting them and selling in a new form.
31-Learn the shuffles of the game - more diverse selling methods than the pipeline.
32-Max out all of your artisans asap.
33-Don't forget to sell items at all levels, not just your maxed artisan recipes.
34-Always look for ways to minimize your time and maximize your profit in your routine.
35-Invest in an authenticator (or use your smart phone for a free authenticator).
36-When you find something that works, incorporate it into your routine but keep searching for more methods.
37-For high ticket items that are super expensive, try selling in places outside of the auction house to avoid posting fees.
38-Network with other auctioneers and share ideas on making gold; the best strategies work even with a hundred people using them.
39-Your strategy shouldn't be hard to implement, but it should be difficult to learn.
40-Buy items that aren't enchanted/socketed, do both and then sell it for much more.
41-When you see a max level item with bis randomly acquired stats, look into buying it out and reselling it.
42-Always be aware of the value of gold vs your currency when purchasing items on both auction houses.
43-Play more than just the single player on normal in order to better understand the game as a whole.
44-Getting max level for your artisans and playing infernal mode is the equivalent of collecting all the blueprints for a new house; it's not built, but you have the tools now to get started for real.
45-Subscribe to this blog with your email, it's free and you'll get tons of great information about Diablo 3.
46-Join our forums and contribute to the discussion.
47-Ask questions, offer your own advice, and give feedback.
48-Buying is more important than selling; if you buy at the cheapest price than you have all the leverage.
49-Don't try to sell your whole lot in one go; start off small and build up the amount of any one item you sell.
50-Record your data, even if it's just paper and pencil.
51-Use excel to create value charts (this helps a lot with shuffles).
I've been a paypal user for quite some time. In fact, I've used it to pay writers and other outsourced activities for my various blogs. However, even with great virus software, I have been hacked before and had my entire paypal account drained in $200 increments. Within a few days the money was returned, but that's only a small scale hack. A much more worrisome hack is when your paypal account is connected to a bank account (mine was but I was lucky in that the hacker didn't access my bank funds through paypal).
You see, every time you buy something with paypal and you don't have enough in your paypal balance to afford it, paypal will transfer the funds from another source that you set up, such as your bank account or credit card.
If you are going to use the RMAH and get payments through paypal, do yourself a favor and set up a separate bank account or credit card to handle the money. You can then transfer money from your paypal to this account and keep it separate from your normal bank account or credit card.
Take care and never ever enter your paypal information into a site that doesn't have the exact paypal.com url.
1
It has tens of thousands of views, and eventually was removed from the site because public opinion was such that I was lying to try and make money. In actuality, I was trying to open up people's minds to what was really going to be possible.
People like this guy have blown my predictions out of the water and enjoy making money off the same people who said it would be impossible to earn this much.
Congratulations to you on your 6,000 Euros, and I hope to see you around my blog to share your ideas
!
1
See the few words before that:
"So they overreact and assume the worst."
What you just said is a complete, fabricated, unsupported assumption.
I am not responding any longer as this is becoming incredibly off topic. No one is gaining any knowledge, just throwing stones and wasting everyone's time.
1
You won't, but blizzard is banking on the fact that many will.
A lot of what you said is just heavy speculation in order to counter speculation of the opposite opinion.
Saying "no one will buy" and "nothing will sell" are absolutes unsupported by the research and factual evidence of similar products / psychological situations.
1
The highlighted four row area is entirely free and every player starts with it. This shared stash is a small chest in each major town that you visit, and basically it is storage space that all of your characters can access throughout the game (unlike in diablo 2 where every one of your characters could only see their own stash). Each character has a decent number of slots themselves, so I see no reason why you should purchase the shared stash beyond the first four rows as highlighted above. Blizzard has created some pretty heavy gold sinks for upgrading the shared stash, at the tune of 10,000 gold per 2 rows and 100,000 gold per tab (there are three tabs total)
You can have 10 character slots on your account, so why not start off using a few of the dormant ones as bank alts? A single character can hold almost as many items as an entire tab of your shared stash after all. Doing this will save you a lot of money, and early on in the game your character will need every gold piece he or she can find. You can also take the gold you saved not upgrading your shared stash and upgrade your artisans instead or craft the gear you need to progress in the game.
All in all, I think it is much wiser to save your gold, especially early on when it is a premium, and use “bank alts” to carry your excess loot. In the example image I showed you, that cost 30,000 gold to fill out the first tab. I have the gold to fill out the other two bank tabs, but what’s the point when I don’t even have enough gear/loot to fill the first one? You don’t need a lot of storage until you start playing multiple characters and at that point you will probably have plenty of gold to use expanding your storage space.
Even if you’re a crafting fiend like me who makes a hundred thousand plus gold each night on the auction house, you don’t need a lot of storage since you can only post 10 auctions per auction house.
I could easily see players using their alts and naming them things like “MYGEMS” or “WEAPONS” and just storing gear and/or loot in their bags. After all, you can sell on the auction house from any character, and you can trade gear with the shared stash to get it from your farming character to your bank alts.
3
First off, I want to thank the guys at Force Strategy Gaming for mentioning me on their most recent podcast, particularly Carlos aka "Sixen." It's funny, because I had just spoken with him a few weeks prior on skype and I think I tainted him with my grandiose RMAH ideologies. Sorry Sixen! But seriously, both hosts had a very interesting discussion about whether the RMAH will be a viable way to make consistent income. They seemed to agree that the occasional random item will drop and be worth hundreds of dollars, but that this sort of scenario will be the only way to make any real money in Diablo 3.
Besides this occasional lucky drop, Force stated very firmly that competition would make it so that people would make very little money on the auction house despite devoting hours of game time to farming. Today I'd like to respond to these ideas and emphatically explain my complete OPPOSITE position. I believe that Force has said what's on everyone's collective mind, and it is a reasonable as well as intelligent position to take on the subject. Thankfully, he is wrong.
What Force Said That Was Correct
Force stated several times that competition would drive down prices to make farming virtually slave labor. He jokingly mentioned a certain ethnicity known for gold farming and said that this group of people would drive prices into the ground. You're right Force, but they can only drive them down so much. At some point, demand and supply will meet to create a consistent trend for prices. Being ignorant of this balancing act will lead to the assumption that it's impossible to make any money playing the system. But you are correct that simply farming items and selling them is a terrible way to make money on any auction house. Unfortunately, that's as far as people usually go when thinking about this subject.
He also mentioned that the occasional super rare item would make a lucky person quite a bit of money. Of course, this is absolutely correct, and it will drive people crazy farming for such items. Time wise however, it will never be worth it to go farming for hours on end even for $100+ items. It's just not cost effective due to the insanely low drop rates.
There will be tricks and secrets that make people lots of money, only to be ruined once enough of the player base discovers them. This is absolutely true, but unfortunately Sixen made the conclusion that this will be my modus operandi. Actually, these secrets are just parlor tricks used to bring the masses to my website. There, I admitted it. I use fantastic "secrets" to increase interest in auctioneering among the masses. You know what I do next however? Instead of attempting to bottle these secrets and sell them as miracle cures, I take the person aside and explain the error of their ways. Next, I show them how to truly play the auction house and discover systems that work long term, not just as parlor tricks. In essence, I'm an educator, not just a marketer.
This is where a lot of people hit a fork in the road when it comes to approving or disproving of my methods. They either believe that I'm trying to sell snake oil to trick people or I'm actually doing a good thing educating would-be auctioneers. Usually it's buyers who side with me and skeptical non-buyers who go on with hating me.
What Force Said That Was Wrong
Force, there will be many more ways to make money with this game. I have covered tons of them on this blog already, but I will write a few methods here that put very large holes in your theory.
Force's Mentality Opens Up Doorways for Auctioneers
The way Force mentally processed the concept of making money on the RMAH is an accurate prediction of how the masses will as well. Don't get me wrong, Force is incredibly intelligent and a very solid gamer. I used to think exactly as he did, but it was only after many years of playing the auction house that I began to unthink the common sense that drives us to foolishly ignore the auction house. What you really need is uncommon sense to succeed.
Players do not change. Seriously, their spending habits, ignorance to certain aspects of the game, and unwillingness to modify play style is ingrained into most gamers. You know why? Because people play games to have fun. This concept explains 99% of player behaviors. They aren't lazy or stupid, they just want to play a game to have fun. If someone doesn't have time to play a game to reach the highest levels then they will compensate with money, quit the game, or live with their inadequate situation.
Where auctioneers can turn a profit is in identifying a few key aspects of the market place:
Where are the points in the game where players get stuck and need help gearing their characters (Ex: Going from Hell to Inferno difficulty)?
What stats do players really want on their gear at what points in the game (Ex: Resistances for certain boss fights)?
When do prices go up and down for certain items/commodities and why (Ex: During holidays when more people can log on)?
How can you get crafting materials cheaper in order to better compete in price wars (Ex: bidding on cheap items to salvage)?
What do players consider necessary while leveling their characters (Ex: Gold, +experience gear, +core stat for damage, etc)?
We have partial answers to some of these questions already, but many are still blanks since we have only played a small section of the first act of Diablo 3. Once we know the answers, however, we can focus on building long term strategies for playing the auction house. We call these strategies "shuffles" and they usually involve multiple spreadsheets and stages to track on a daily basis. The amount of work is far more complicated than what a normal person is willing to achieve on their own, so even if the strategies are revealed there are still many people who will doubt them like Force. However, once you have a system down, it's fairly easy to repeat it over and over again for huge profits. You just keep modifying and practicing with your system to maximize its potential.
These "shuffles" are the secret to being an auctioneer in any mmo's economy and they are the reason why I believe that Force's estimate of $5 per week is completely off. Shuffles rely on having a total understanding of the game in order to work properly, not just knowing how to follow directions. Reason being is that much of the shuffle involves making decisions in real time. When to buy in bulk, when to sell for the long haul, when to wait and do nothing. That's why most people cannot just play the auction house and miraculously pull consistent earnings out of their butts.
Some of you may have heard that buying low and selling high is the answer to playing the RMAH. That's actually just a small part of the equation, and it's really only going to get you some starter cash for the more serious and lucrative strategies (like shuffles). But if you thought of this then you're on the right track, don't be discouraged!
I would be most interested in seeing a reaction from both Sixen and Force to these ideas, and whether they are still skeptical about the RMAH being a money maker for those willing to put the work into learning to play the marketplace. I completely agree with them that for the common person who just farms and hopes for great drops that this game will be an excruciating exercise in futility. If ForceStrategyGaming ever wanted me to come on and debate them or share my ideas then I would be more than happy to.
What do you think? Are you in favor of Force's $5 per week or my $25 per hour? Are you somewhere in between?
1
And a vast majority of people will say: "Looks good, what a great way to make gold." ... and do nothing!
5
Everything!
Right now in the beta, these two handed swords are the best you can craft with a max dps of 20.2. In order to get that magic 20.2 dps, you need to get the following 2 magic properties:
+2 to 4 of any Damage Type
+5% Attack Speed
I've been selling these in 4 of my 10 auction slots every single night on both auction houses. They are absolute money making machines. I can charge 15,000 - 60,000 per weapon, depending on competition, and almost every night they sell out. It costs me approximately 6,000 to 10,000 gold to craft them (including subtle essences because who farms those when you need hundreds?) so I'm still making a very healthy profit margin even at 15,000 gold. [15,000 x .85 = 12750]
The biggest pitfall for crafting in Diablo 3 is the starting income you need to get going. If you don't have that 6,000 to 10,000 gold to begin with, then you will struggle if none of your Apprentice Flamberges turn out with perfect stats. And honestly, sometimes you just get unlucky for long streaks at a time.
This initial investment creates a thinking in players that crafting is just gambling and therefore just luck of the draw. But understand that this hurdle is exactly why crafting is so profitable!!! If it was easy, everyone would do it.
Besides the pitfalls and hurdles set by Blizzard fees, expensive crafting costs, and random statistics, you also have to be good at identifying what players actually want. Some want max magic/gold find gloves, others want perfect apprentice flamberges, and everything in between. There are just too many markets to play, even if you had more than 10 auction slots per auction house. So you need to pick and choose based on the competition and your own stockpiles of gold/materials.
Another way to play the market is to flip underpriced items. I've seen a few perfect Apprentice Flamberges with 20.2 dps going for less than 5,000 gold. Those have been easy flips, as well as many other types of highly saught after, perfect items.
To play the markets well, I've done the research and invested daily time/gold/beta bucks into supplying myself with an ample stock of Subtle Essences. I buy far more than I sell, and luckily there is no limit on how much you buy. That's key actually, because you need a huge amount of Subtle Essences for the amount of crafting you'll need to make perfect items. Right now Subtle Essences are dirt cheap, so I've had no problem collecting them. But when the beta first launched, I resorted to buying out magic items and salvaging them becuase they were often cheaper than the resulting essences.
If you take nothing else from this post, know that perfect items are what players want, and they'll pay top dollar/gold for them. Positioning yourself in such a way that you can provide these perfect items is the key to your success. Whether it's buying materials, buying salvage fodder, or outright flipping.
1
51 Diablo 3 Gold Tips:
1-Sell a single item for the price of a stack.
2-Bid on items just before a server maintenance period.
3-Prepare for market changes from patch notes and expansions.
4-Read major blogs/news sites and take advantage of those who follow their advice.
6-Sell items for 100%-120% of their current listed value, knowing they will eventually go for that price due to demand.
7-Sell through mediums besides the auction house (forums, whispers, etc).
8-Farm with a team.
9-Min/max your gold find/magic find and runestones for the best gold per hour.
10-Understand the price of an item on both the gold and real money auction house.
11-Combine gems into higher level ones.
12-Craft items and enchant/gem them before selling.
13-Sell materials to crafters who are trying to gamble on the best stats.
14-Craft items for a fee to other players who provide the materials.
15-Purchase cheap items and salvage them with the nephalem cube.
16-Search for items posted below vendor price.
17-Understand the choke points of the game.
18-Sell gold and materials in the beginning of an expansion or major patch when they will always sell for the most money.
19-Network with and consistently pay farmers for gathering your materials.
20-Buy low, sell high based on the cycles of when players do and don't play the game.
21-Understand the value of items for all classes, not just your own.
22-When you see a deal, buy more than what you need at the moment.
23-Consistent income relies on consistent buying/selling of small profit items. That's how I plan on making $25 per hour playing Diablo 3.
24-Diversify your items that you sell to the point where even if one market fails the others can keep you in the green.
25-Diversify your buying as well as your selling.
26-Sell several different stats, not just the "best" ones that others recommend.
27-It's almost always better to invest in a pattern rather than sell it.
28-Even if you find the farming spot of your dreams, devote some time to looking for more spots each week.
29-Never stop learning and experimenting; spend 20% of your time investigating new markets.
30-Create selling "pipelines" - patterns you follow for getting materials, converting them and selling in a new form.
31-Learn the shuffles of the game - more diverse selling methods than the pipeline.
32-Max out all of your artisans asap.
33-Don't forget to sell items at all levels, not just your maxed artisan recipes.
34-Always look for ways to minimize your time and maximize your profit in your routine.
35-Invest in an authenticator (or use your smart phone for a free authenticator).
36-When you find something that works, incorporate it into your routine but keep searching for more methods.
37-For high ticket items that are super expensive, try selling in places outside of the auction house to avoid posting fees.
38-Network with other auctioneers and share ideas on making gold; the best strategies work even with a hundred people using them.
39-Your strategy shouldn't be hard to implement, but it should be difficult to learn.
40-Buy items that aren't enchanted/socketed, do both and then sell it for much more.
41-When you see a max level item with bis randomly acquired stats, look into buying it out and reselling it.
42-Always be aware of the value of gold vs your currency when purchasing items on both auction houses.
43-Play more than just the single player on normal in order to better understand the game as a whole.
44-Getting max level for your artisans and playing infernal mode is the equivalent of collecting all the blueprints for a new house; it's not built, but you have the tools now to get started for real.
45-Subscribe to this blog with your email, it's free and you'll get tons of great information about Diablo 3.
46-Join our forums and contribute to the discussion.
47-Ask questions, offer your own advice, and give feedback.
48-Buying is more important than selling; if you buy at the cheapest price than you have all the leverage.
49-Don't try to sell your whole lot in one go; start off small and build up the amount of any one item you sell.
50-Record your data, even if it's just paper and pencil.
51-Use excel to create value charts (this helps a lot with shuffles).
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+1 internet lol
1
You see, every time you buy something with paypal and you don't have enough in your paypal balance to afford it, paypal will transfer the funds from another source that you set up, such as your bank account or credit card.
If you are going to use the RMAH and get payments through paypal, do yourself a favor and set up a separate bank account or credit card to handle the money. You can then transfer money from your paypal to this account and keep it separate from your normal bank account or credit card.
Take care and never ever enter your paypal information into a site that doesn't have the exact paypal.com url.