Making Gold with Alchemy

I have seen several Making Gold posts on the Yet Another Warlock Nerf blog and it made me think of how I make gold. I don't have a huge need of gold because I am not one of those players respecs every two minutes and can get all the raw materials for the consumables I need. So, I am not a big farmer of gold, but I have stumbled upon a what I think is a good method.

I have never thought of Alchemy as a big money maker. Most of the time, if I priced the mats on the AH they were just as expensive as the pots and elixirs on the AH. So whats the point. I might as well sell the mats, since they will have more buyers. However, in an effort to make my final discovery I thought of an obvious way to make money. As someone who graduated with a degree in Econ and has an MBA I am kicking myself for not thinking of it sooner. Here are the key points.

Making Money with Alchemy tips.
1. Only sell 2 herb pots. The average consumer doesn't know the difference between a 2 herb pot and a 3 herb pot. Therefore, 3 herb pots make 2 herb pots look cheap. For example, a 5 stack of [Elixir of Major Agility] will sell for 15g - 20g but it requires 1 Terocone and 2 Felweed. [Elixir of Draenic Wisdom] on the other hand will sell for 13g-15g, but requires 1 Terocone and 1 Felweed. You will generally make less gold per stack but you will get more gold per herb. I only sell [Elixir of Draenic Wisdom], [Adept's Elixir], and [Elixir of Healing Power] and do quite well.

2. Know your Customers. Casual players don't use that many consumables. Raiders use a ton of consumables. Casual players tend to play on the weekends and put their craftables on the AH on weekends. Raiders on the other had play more during the week when fewer people are putting stuff up on the AH. The main raiding nights are Monday - Thursday. I only put elixirs up on the AH in those nights. There is to much competition Friday - Sunday with not enough demand.

3. Procrastinate when you sell. Your buyers would be smart to buy their pots and elixirs over the weekend when they are cheaper but they tend to procrastinate. So, you should do the same. I generally put them on the AH between 5pm and 6pm server. Doing it early give you a greater chance of being under cut. If you post them later you could miss out on customers because most raids start between 6 and 8pm.

4. Don't Procrastinate when you buy. Raiders are not stupid. They would rather buy the mats to get procs from the Alchemy masteries. As a result the mats on sale just before raid times are few and expensive. I find that the best time to buy mats is in the morning between 6 and 8 am, after the late night farmers go to bed. Weekends can be good also, but the real key is to periodically look at the AH multiple times per day. Not everyone knows what their mats are worth.

5. Masteries. This is obvious I know, but stay with in your mastery if you can. I think Elixirs is the best mastery for money, but pots can be good to. Transmute mastery can make you a lot of money but it is very feast and famine due to the 23 hour cooldown. I recommend against it.

6. Be Patient. My strategy won't work everyday, or for every pot or elixir. Check the AH before you put stuff up for auction. What are the pots currently selling for? What are the mats selling for? If it isn't a good market that night don't post them. If their are a couple stacks posted below their market value then buy them and repost them. If their are a lot posted below their value then ignore that market for the day. The prices will go back up. I have seen it many times where their are over a hundred Draenic Wisdom Elixirs on the AH but no Healing Power elixirs. Don't sell the Draenic Wisdom for a discount when you could sell the Healing Power for a premium. As a side note, holidays are a bad time also. There are a lot more casuals on and raiders will play less. However, it is a good time to stock up on mats.

Using this strategy you should make a decent amount of cash with little work or farming. It will also help you get more discoveries since you will me making hundreds of pots per week.

P.S. The most obvious way to make money with Alchemy is to transmute Earth to Water, since earth generally goes for 3 to 5 gold and Water goes for 15 to 20 gold. Get your Sporggar rep up to Revered and start doing this transmute daily. It is the easies 10 to 15 gold you will ever make.

Toon Update:
Graylo - He has been raiding all over the place. The guild downed 4 bosses again on Tuesday. Wednesday we got down Leo, but didn't have enough time for Vashj. Thursday, we didn't have the right type of people for Vashj again so we did Gruul's, Mag, and Kazzik. I also got into ZA a little bit, but didn't get any drops. I finally got into some good attempts on Hex Lord, but we didn't get him down. We didn't have an optimal group for it and he kept healing himself despite us getting him down to 3%. It is really frustrating since he has several awesome drops that I want. I as also a little bummed that the Dagger didn't drop off of Dragonhawk because I realized that I was the only one in raid that wanted it. Its not that great of weapon for a Warlock since it has no stam but does have Mp5. The Mage in the group really wanted the Haste sword off of Zul'jin, and there wasn't a shadow priest in the group. If it had dropped I would have gotten it without competition.
Graypal - He isn't 63 yet but he is about two bars away. I hope I can get some time on him tonight to use up is rested XP before I go see my parents for a week, but it will probably be tough.
Grayfel - Still 15. He doesn't have much rested xp right now but I will try and burn through it also. It shouldn't be hard.