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Friday, November 20, 2009

Flippin' Lichbloom

My latest business venture has been flipping Lichbloom. This is really an ongoing thing with several items that I watch throughout the week. I've been flipping Lichbloom before but only a couple of stacks here and there.

What changed recently, I don't know, but I started seeing stacks of Lichbloom on the AH for much less than the usual rate. Prices oscillate, of course, according to the day of the week. Lichbloom on my server sells normally for upwards of 20 gold a stack. Well, for a couple of weeks I've seen it for 16 gold or less.

I normally pick up everything that's around 17-17.5 gold a stack and re-sell when the price goes back up to > 20 gold a stack. It's a small profit but it only costs me a few seconds of "work" and it's yet another strategy in my gold-making portfolio. Usually I don't see more than 2-3 stacks at this price.

During the past few weeks I kept buying these low-priced stacks of Lichbloom for not more than 16 gold and sometimes 15 gold a stack. I waited a few days for the price to swing back up but it would do that only momentarily, for a day or less, before more cheap stacks appeared on the AH. During this short window I would sell 2-3 stacks and then I would buy back the cheap ones.

Eventually I found myself with around 100 stacks and I kept buying. I didn't stop because from past experience the price eventually goes up. This might be just a fluke where a new farmer or someone who's clearing their bank decided to get rid of stock. However, what I'm betting on is patch 3.3.

The beauty of these major patches is that they usually re-invigorate raiding and many players return to the game and start raiding massively. Lichbloom is the highest-level herb and is used for some very important flasks and potions that are required in raids. As a consequence, I'm positive that the price will spike massively during the first few weeks of patch 3.3.

As is the case in real life, this is not 100% guaranteed but it is very probable. In the worst case scenario I will still be able to sell these stacks for zero profit. Thing is, when you have lots of gold at your disposal, you can take more and higher risks with no worries. New ventures are an experiment to me. For those wondering what the hell is the purpose of having so much gold, here's my take on it: it allows you to experiment with, and discover new ways in which to make yet more gold. It provides a fallback buffer for those failed ventures. And it gets easier to make more money the more money you have, just like in real life.

4 comments:

Gyldenfeax said...

Logging into your wow account today will give you a 5th anniversary Onyxia Whelp and Pilgrim's Bounty also starts today so if you need it for your world event achievement and the 310% mount you might have to renew :\.

Darth Solo said...

Oh mother f...!
I want that pet but I didn't want to get back into the game for 2 weeks. How long is the anniversary? A week maybe?

Gyldenfeax said...

Warcraft pets says it's available between November 22nd and approximately December 7th so hopefully you won't have to cut your break too much if at all.

Darth Solo said...

I actually did lol. That damned Pilgrim's Bounty meta pulled me back.