Art of Stockpiling
It’s been about a week or so, who’s really keeping count; from the last time I’ve put out any content. In fact its been about a week and half now since I’ve even login to my computer. Most of my interaction has been from Twitter on my phone and while some that has been pointless drama, I think its best to just not even care about ALL that crap anymore.
So here we are, it’s August 25th, just three days away from the new patch 5.0 Pre-Mist Launch and I’ll be the first one to say that so much has happened in the last week it’s crazy. I’m rather sorry to everyone for not being around and putting out content for you all. As a result of my new schedule which includes more than one could dream of, or list; my time to login, play, figure out something new, and then of all things write it.. has become limited. Likely down to the weekend at most.
The question now is, Have you done all you can to Prepare? The burning questing I think that will linger on anyone’s mind who’s been busy stockpiling the last year will always ask this. Was it enough? Did you get all the profit out of everything that you wanted to get once Mist goes live?
It’s Never Enough
The hard truth is, no matter how hard you work, how much gold you have, how many guild banks you have or how full of whatever X item, let it be cloth, Truegold, bars, whatever.. it’ll never be enough. Even if you are one of the few who has like 10 accounts and each account on your server has 10 characters each holding a guild bank plus full tabs (including the guild perk ones), your bags and bank pack 100% full, chances are you may have enough.. but in the end.. you’ll to wonder could you do more?
One of the ideals I’ve come across this time around, was a simple truth that stockpiling doesn’t really matter. I could stockpile all the Truegold for a year on my server and have a million bars, BUT if no one wants it come Mist.. I’m stuck dead in the water.
This is where the ideal of not just what to stockpile, but why. Why should you? There are some clear answers and some not so hard. For example; the two most common items people have stated to stockpile has been Truegold and Netherweave Cloth.
Common Stockpiles
Both Truegold and Netherweave Cloth are the top two items people stockpile generally. Granted there are others, like pets inks for glyphs and older mats for chock points in leveling professions. However, Truegold being the new hot item this time around, given you need a bunch of them for the new Sands of Time Mount, which players may be more willing to speak 50k for after Mist.
Why so much? Well simply now that mounts will be account wide, less will sell as a player with a whole lot of gold wont be buying them for every character now. Players who normally wouldn’t might now, there are a number of reasons why they may buy after the patch and wont now.
One reasons are they may not want to put all their gold into one item for one character then a week down the road change their main. Many players do this, they play one character for a while then stop and play another.So if you think about it, if you’re the kind of player, buying a mount worth 30k every time you change mains just to have that mount on your main can be way too costly.
This is why they don’t buy them, but now that they can buy it once and never again opens the doors for more sales that you wouldn’t have had other wise. The question is now will this new demand outweigh the loss of some players buying it more than once?
Another little thing everyone gets into are bags, bags and more bags. While each expansion brings us new bigger and better bags, the go-to bag has always been Neatherweave Bags. This is likely due to the fact they only need a stack of cloth to make one bag vs all the other bags that have come after. They all need some sort of dust, which are more steps than generally one will want to do.
What are you’re two go-to stockpile items? Everyone has their items they stockpile and believe is the item to stockpile as it’ll make them millions of gold come Mist. Please leave me a comment below and also don’t be shy about leaving your opinions and questions as well.
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8 Comments on Art of Stockpiling
August 25, 2012 8:04 PM
I have never been a big stockpiler despite generating several million in gold sales over the years. I have made my gold through processing into the newer items each expansion. Sure I would stockpile ink for glyphs or make lots of glyphs as they carry over from expansion to expansion. Other items will change with a number of them going up but the frequency of their sales comes into question….how long does it take you to get rid of it….how much in posting fees did it cost you.
The other item to note is the growth in gold itself. Vanilla wow was generally people with little gold. Gold that took a lot to accumulate over say a month is easily achieved in a day now by pretty well anyone. Each expansion gold became easier. The gold cap at 213k …the current cap of 1mil per toon….What you have today will in all likelyhood be small by the end of the MOP expansion.
Do I think its worth the time spent and the gamble on stockpiling….not really. Sure some items can likely only go up ie cloth but there will be easier ways to make gold once MOP arrives with the new mats, recipes and gear.
August 28, 2012 9:00 AM
The idea of stockpiling isn’t for say I’m going to buy X and then sell it at X right away. Some items will take a long time to sell, months even a year after MoP has been out. 90% of players will focus on all the new content. So once MoP is out you want to put your current gold and time into the new items and farm because that is where the gold will be. I would say once most players are well into raiding, players have their main professions leveled up, when the general player base decided to start leveling alts, their professions or new characters that is the time to sell off stock. You can also use your stock to level new professions for your own alts or new monks or pandas.
August 26, 2012 5:13 PM
I agree with Brent. I think there’s a point to be made that transitioning your gold into commodities that will shift with inflation on value is a good idea in principle, but the question remains on WHAT you specifically drop your gold into to ‘protect’ it and for that, it’s all a matter of heresay and guessing at best.
I’d daresay no matter what your gold position today, the new opportunities that will arise in the first few months of MoP (with gated profession and gearing) will provide gold making opportunities that will positively bury what we have today.
Certainly a liquid gold position will take a hit from the inflation that’s bound to come in, but by the same token, you’re not going to be stuck trying to shift old content along with 99% of the rest of the player base looking to transition that gold from commodities into raw gold for use in the Xpac environment.
All things considered, you actually might do well to remain as liquid as possible (even with the hit) to give you the edge over those who will no doubt have the bulk of their wealth tied up in commodities, pets and mounts etc who require willing buyers to transition back into spendable gold.
Put another way… in the first 3 months of MoP can you see yourself dropping significant amounts of gold into older content items at all?
I predict a real glut in pre-MoP commodities as stockpilers all seek to ‘cash in’ on the inflation brought about by MoP and potentially crashing the short term market for pre-MoP gear.
When the requirements of new content demand your gold here and now, you might very well be stuck trying to offload ‘last years’ items just to break even and quite frankly, I highly doubt these calls that say ‘this item will explode in price’ when pretty much everything will simply realign with the simple fundamentals of supply and demand.
Your Sandstone drake may very well be ‘worth’ 50k in MoP.
But 50k in MoP might be today’s 20k in Gold due to unrealised inflation.
Something worth considering anyway, but for me, I’ll actually be going into MoP with as close to a 100% GOLD position (ie NO stockpiling) and take the hit in inflation on the chin, but not be stuck trying to liquidate old stock when the new content demands my gold immediately.
August 28, 2012 9:04 AM
In the past it’s never been a good idea to stockpile gold for the very reason you stated, that gold will drop in value and become easier to get. For example, sure you may get 50K like I said in MoP but might only be worth 20K now. That is true, but even if the value of gold drops, you are still making profit. When you stockpile you want to stockpile items that will be worth more then they are now. Items that players wont be farming, items used for leveling, transmog are all going to be great items to stockpile.
August 27, 2012 4:34 AM
i’ve been a big fan of stockpiling but there is no point burning liquid gold if you cant find solid things to invest into. I’ll be heading into mop wiht around 3m liquid and 3-4mill stockpile (most of that is glyphs/ink and transmog). if i could pick up some more tcg mounts i would do but they really rare on my realm all we got are fishy deathchargers lol.
August 28, 2012 9:06 AM
My guess is about 25% drop in value to gold this time around, I know in Cata from wrath it was something like 45%-55% drop in value if I remember right. I can’t remember the match to be totally honest with you.
August 27, 2012 6:36 AM
Farli, 7 million in gold and mats? Why even play anymore. Thats ridiculous.
August 27, 2012 8:21 AM
Question @Farli; how the hell did you get so much?