Category: Gaming

After my last post here on Nomadic Gamers an incredibly kind person reached out offering to trade me some duplicate pets in order to help ease the issue I was having of trying to replenish those pets in my collection that I had foolishly sold off in order to acquire more liquid gold. I was stunned, not only because I was not expecting the offer, but because of the immense generosity the player displayed. In the end I think I ended up with close to 50 battle pets that I didn’t already own. They happen to play on my server, so I vowed to look over their own collection and try to figure out if I could help fill in any gaps and of course I said I would pass on the kindness should the situation arise. Paying it forward is a theme that I am only too familiar with, and one I fully embrace.

This kindness set the tone for my entire day, and it came at a time that I really needed it.

Later on that same day I managed to find a guardian cub for sale for 75,000 gold. These pets used to be sold in the blizzard store but have been removed for 4+ years now and can no longer be obtained. They normally go for 150,000-500,000 gold, and I decided that there was no better time to splurge, so I picked it up and eagerly added it to my collection. I’m still looking for deals on most of the trading card game pets but I’m hoping that over time I can get my battle pet collection back to the gloriousness it once was. I’m very glad that I’ve learned my lesson regarding selling off my own items / supplies (don’t do it!) and I am eternally grateful for the kindness of (virtual) strangers who can sometimes take a very poor week and turn it into something I won’t forget any time soon. Something so simple can leave a lasting impression and create waves that spread to other players, too.

Be kind to one another, folks. You just never know.

When I talk about my adventures into making gold in World of Warcraft, it’s only too easy for me to highlight the good sale days, or days when I managed to catch a fantastic item priced for cheap that I flip for a large profit. If I only talked about those sorts of days, that would be pretty misleading.

This week, as an example, I’ve barely made 50k total. Compared to the previous week where I easily pulled in 600k, this one has been a bit of a downer. That’s OK though, patience is key. You just keep hoping and waiting it out and maybe expand your markets and try a few new things and see if you can get those numbers rising again.

One of the biggest mistakes I made happened early on when I was first learning how TSM worked and how to make gold on my specific server. I had a pretty hefty pet collection, almost 700 pets, including four TCG (trading card game) pets. I had very little liquid (remember, money in gold form on hand) to invest in anything, and I had no idea how sales worked or what I was doing. In order to make some liquid so I could begin my empire I decided I would sell off my own pets.

This was a HUGE mistake. Not only because I sold them all for well below their value, but because I LOVE pet battles! I leveled them up, completed quests, hunted for ones I didn’t own, and invested money over time into my collection that I absolutely loved. Now, a few months later, I regret it deeply. ESPECIALLY selling off my TCG pets. I’ve been trying to recoup my losses by making smarter decisions and buying pets I don’t currently own when they are 50% lower than market value, but since I play on a low population server, pets are always quite pricey. If you want to buy pets, the best places are high population servers because there is more competition and in MOST cases the pets will be cheaper. Pets are account bound, so it doesn’t matter WHERE you buy them from, you can use them on y0ur server.

My collection isn’t nearly as impressive as it used to be, and I still debate with myself every day if I want to drop the 300-400k (each pet) gold to pick up the TCG pets that I so foolishly sold. I have been slowly working the collection back up and giving some much needed love to my pet battles, but it is a slow painful process.

At least I learned something.

Do NOT sell off your personal belongings (this goes for transmog, pets, crafting materials, recipes, whatever) just to boost your gold count. You need to take some enjoyment in playing the game, too, however you find it.

In Battle for Azeroth it was announced that there would be a mount (pictured above in that fancy bar graph) that cost 5 million gold. Currently 4 million if you faction first. I am not sure if I actually want to purchase it (it has a mobile auction house, which is awesome if you use the AH a lot and don’t want to get phased) because my servers have been pretty low population and I don’t really need a mobile auction house – not to mention 5 million (or even 4 million) gold is a LOT of cash.

Still, I do enjoy challenges. I enjoy working towards goals. I decided to set my goal to 4 million earned by the start of BfA, and so far I’m actually on track (I had a few fantastic sale days). Lately I haven’t been making that much, and I expect that as we get closer to the expansion and I get closer to my due date that the amount of coin I pull in will drop quite significantly.

I do have over 1 million gold and I’m pretty close to hitting 2 million. It’s the most gold I’ve ever had in WoW, but it didn’t happen instantly. I’ve been learning how TradeSkillMaster works since December, learning my market and figuring out what sells and what doesn’t. It has been a trial in patience, and honestly it has been a really good trial. I still make bad purchases from time to time but I feel like I have a fairly good understanding on what is going to sell and what I’ll be sitting on for quite some time.

If I don’t get the mount I imagine I’ll just try to keep my liquid gold (the actual amount of gold I have on hand) over 1 million, just because. It’s a pretty number to see.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!