Thursday, March 3, 2011

How much to Stokpile


One of the things that I get asked fairly often is how much I recommend to stokpile of certain things. I get asked for every market out there from enchanting mats to metal bars, to raw gems. So today I'll at least attempt to answer this question for many different markets. As always keep in mind that YMMV so what works for me may not work for you.

If you're not sure if it is right for you, here's what you need to consider. How much of that particular market to you have a take in? Are you the only one seriously working in it? How often does a good supply come in? And most importantly, how much can you afford to lose if it all turned to dust?

The reason that I chose these certain amounts is because it's the best balance that I can find between rate of sales and supply on my server. By the time that I'm running out of something a new large supply generally comes in. For the things I list as stokpiling as many as I can get, that's because either the supply is terribly low or the rate of sales are incredibly high. I'll make a note of which case it happens to be.

Now that that's covered, here's how much I (try to) stokpile in the many different markets that I work with.


Gems:
I try to keep 3 stacks of each color raw with 6 of each cut that I have made. For meta gems I try to keep as many as I can xmute due to the rate of sales. The patch sort of inflated the demand for them, but once things settle back down again I'll go back to 2 stacks of raw metas and 4 of each cut.


Inks and herbs:

Simply put there is never too much. Like any scribe will tell you a full bank tab of herbs can last you all of a week and then be gone. Especially needed are outland and NR level herbs as all of the good and high demand glyphs require them. So if you want to know how many herbs you should be milling, the answer is all of them.


Enchanting mats:
This is where the numbers get really big. I am not happy and comfortable unless I have 600 infinite and hypnotic dust hanging around. Yes 600 or 30 full stacks. That's because, you guessed it, so many are needed for all of the enchants and they tend to sell rather well for me. For essences I try and have around 200 greater and 30 lesser. As for heavenly shards I typically just buy them as I need them, but dream shards and abyss crystals I buy as many as possible. This is because I only buy when people are clearing out their banks and sell 9 stacks at 4g per stack.


Black smithing:
The main thing that I stokpile here is the mats for buckles. I try to have 2 full stacks crafted along with enough pyrium bars to make another two stacks. As for the elementium bars and volt earth, I stokpile as many as possible due to the scarcity of them and ore being prospected so much. But I'm usually happy when I have two full stacks of VE and 400 elementium bars hanging around. I try to have that many around because for one, buckles do sell that often, and for two I use them a lot for hard ele bars. The hard bars take 10 normal ones so that can suck up the supply extremely quick and I like to have two stacks of those around as well.


Enggy pets:
Due to the complexity of the materials and the annoyance of figuring them out, I keep a ton of them. I like to have 10 of each crafted and at least a full stack of everything that goes into them. I also keep around 50 fused wires to use and to sell. As for the mini fel reavers, I need a ton of the materials for other professions so I basically keep 4 crafted and only craft more as I need to. So I don't technically stokpile mats specifically for them.


Tailoring:
I try and keep 250 of every volatile around so that when the cloth CD comes up I won't be scraping them together and have plenty to use on all of my other markets as well. As for the netherweave bags and cloth... everything. I keep a full bank tab loaded up with pre crafted bags and my tailor has their bank loaded with plain cloth and bolts, whichever I happen to have the time to craft while afk. As for the imbued bags and cloth, I haven't come up with a number yet but it's around a stack of the cloth and 8 of the bags.

The main concern here is that the materials overlap with mongoose scrolls which are still one of my best items. As for the spell threads, I keep around 7 of the rare quality ones and the epics just sell in two days then I have to wait until the CD is back up.


Leatherworking:
I keep 6 of each profession bag and 6 of each rare leg armor. For the epic leg armors I have 4 around along with 4 spare hides to use or sell. Then once that's suited up I pile up as much savage and borean leather as humanly possible. This is due to both rate of sales and scarcity of materials.


Miscellaneous:
Vendor pets I keep a set of 4 on me at all times so that I only have to check their respective vendors once a week or so. All of the volatiles I want to have 250 around for the many things that use them.


One last thing to keep in mind that is very important. I probably have a lot more gold than you do. This isn't me bragging at all, it is just probably the case with most readers. Because of this I can afford to buy a lot more and sit on it longer without worry than you can. Gold is exponential in that the more you have the more you are capable of making. This is partially due to the amount of markets you can branch out into and partially because of how much you can stokpile to stay in them. So please be aware that if you only have 20k it's probably not a great idea to buy up 900 infinite dust and 600 celestial essences.

I hope that gives you a good idea of how much stuff I try and keep hanging around the guild bank for when it's needed. Again try and apply this to your markets as it is absolutely paramount to stokpile things that you work with daily. And don't be afraid to raise your buying price either. Remember, some profit is better than zero profit.


Thanks for stopping by!

5 comments:

  1. The post you do on this blog , about your daily routine, What to stokpile and what you sell. The way you sell it and some strategy. That's what make this blog by far the best out there. This is really what people that makes gold are interested in reading ! Thank you for making this perfect blog

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  2. I could agree with Shagge more. The details and specifics make this blog head and shoulders above the rest.

    I also like that this blog doesn't seem as mainstream as say jtmc (unfortunately for stok I guess). Usually anything posted on those other blogs is immediately adopted and alters the market enough that it is no longer viable. Besides those tend to be specific tips. Stok posts about daily operational methods that always work. It may not work on identical items but if you take his concepts you will find success in the ah. I was a daily material buyer before stok and found myself locked out of markets for a day or more at a time until mat prices became viable again. It makes all the difference.

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  3. @ Shagge
    Well thanks a ton for the kind words. There's a lot that goes into the AH than sellign stuff so I try and share as much of it as I can pick up in my daily business.

    @ Dale
    That's the whole idea, YMMV but the theory is always sound. And I'm not a mainstream blog in that I don't charge readers by selling a book or ad space. That and I really don't advertise at all tbh. Anybody can tell you to sell buckles but nobody tells you how to do it. That's my job.

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  4. Thanks for some more sweet info!

    Could I have one request though?

    Could you make more of those 1k gold will get you X posts that you did in wrath or 5k gold will get you X I really liked those and they seemed to really help!

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  5. What do you mean when you say three stacks of each color raw... Are those common gems or uncommon gems?

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