Benfrew, Kirin Tor US

This topic is for results and comments posted by Gold Speed Run IV participant...

Benfrew
Kirin Tor US
Solo, Single Faction

Benfrew started out as a Tauren, ran to TB to get the flight path, and took the zepplin to Orgrimmar to get that flight path as well.

Within minutes somebody was looking for guild signatures (but not offering gold).  Benfrew whispered, "any tips for little people?"  The reply was, "Sure!" and after signing Benfrew got a tip of 20 gold!  Total time: 37 minutes.

Two more toons are in place to help out - a troll in Booty Bay (only took eight minutes -- didn't die when using the hidden path and swimming for Ratchet) and a blood elf in Silvermoon (dragonhawks are the main attraction but lots of other limited items are there, too).

Next up: off to the AH for a scan, and some quick dashes around to pick up pets and recipes that are limited items!

Benfrew spent about another half hour getting items into the AH; where prices seemed unusually high, items were listed at about half the going rate, otherwise the Auctionator default price was used).  Biggest warning to everybody early on: don't forget to save money for listing fees, and use 12 hour listings at first.

    dragonhawks, prairie dog whistles, and snakes into horde and neutral AHs
    limited supply enchanting mats and recipes, an alchemy recipe, the leather ball recipe, several tailoring recipes
    a strong fishing pole
    several of the cooking recipes from Booty Bay (but only ones that were already listed in the AH)
    one of the limited supply leather recipes in BB
    a parrot from BB

Benfrew also bought some briarthorn for 2.5 gold and relisted it, and most of it sold for 5.5 gold before Benfrew finished listing everything else!
   

Ouch!  Lots of people are trying to sell the same pets and recipes as Benfrew, making it difficult to make much money...but the limited BB recipes helped bring the first day's gold total to about 40 gold (plus over 40 auctions).  Most consistent seller so far: the parrots from Booty Bay!  One of them only sells for about 2 gold (with lots of competition), but the other sells for about 8 gold and nobody else is listing them.

Best find so far: the tailoring limited supply recipes in Booty Bay - nobody else seems to know they exist.

Benfrew risked most of the gold buying wool cloth at 50 silver per, and relisted it at almost a gold...and most of it sold by lunchtime.

Frozen orbs are expensive on the server (about 30 gold), but eternal fires are even more expensive, so Benfrew has several orbs and is preparing to get to Dalaran to trade them.

Sunday morning was a good one - lots of items sold, and Benfrew had over 300 gold. 

Not sure what is wrong with people on Kirin Tor - while frozen orbs run between 21 gold and 35 gold, eternal fires sell for 30-40 gold...Benfrew bought orbs, made the trip to Dalaran to trade them, and fires in the AH where most of them sold.

Wool has been a surprise - lots of times Benfrew finds some for 4 to 25 silver per item (twice Benfrew got stacks for under 50 silver for the entire stack!) and buys them to sell later in the day when the price is back between 1 and 2 gold per piece of cloth (up to 40 gold per stack!)

Pets and limited supply items are not selling too well, so Benfrew has started looking for other things to buy and resell.  Best find so far: Northern Shortswords (and similar low level green weapons).  Most weapons for people under level 10 are listed for 25 gold each, so Benfrew has been buying any that are listed for 2 gold or less and relisting them for 9 gold 95 silver...so far five or six have sold.

Since Benfrew is trying to stay at about an hour a day for AH games, Benfrew is leveling a paladin using Dugi's dungeon guide.  Just trying to do an instance as DPS at level 15 was enough to put an end to that: wait time was at least 30 minutes.

Benfrew respeced (ouch!  A gold lost!) and swapped out gear and entered as a Tank and waited for about six seconds.  It looks like it will take about four instance runs per level right now, so that will keep up for now.

Benfrew is keeping gold from the paladin separate and started another banker to keep that gold...but after seeing somebody with two factions post close to 2000 gold already Benfrew is pretty discouraged.

About 600 gold this morning...and a bag completely full of unsold items.

The best sales opportunity still is buying frozen orbs to use to get eternal fire.

Benfrew also cleaned out low cost medium and thick leather to repost, and found some very cheap ores and bars in the neutral auction house.  NO opportunities are available in herbs other than buying them cheaply from vendors and reposting them.

Benfrew bought some more wool (but not as cheaply today) and will check in after lunch to see if any better opportunities have shown up...so much gold, so little to buy and repost 

Benfrew probably has over 700 gold on hand and lots and lots of auctions outstanding (and over 50 unopened expired auctions filling the mailbox), but without the ability to get kabob recipes for free Benfrew will never catch up to players with Alliance characters (although the server seems to matter a lot - Benfrew can buy kabob recipes in the neutral AH for 180 gold, but Benfrew is uncertain they will sell at all above that price in the horde AH).

The biggest problem is finding a place to spend the money and make profits.  Benfrew cleared out low-priced arcane dust and greater astral essences and reposted them, and most of them sold by the end of the day.

Still not enough money to play with Northrend enchanting mats or herbs.

One potential Benfrew is watching - Flasks are scarce at times (and non-existant at other times), so Benfrew will watch for cheap ones to repost later.

Up next: annoying maintenance day!

First, lol i seriously love the way you write about "Benfrew"

Wow, it's looking great. Benfrew is progressing!

Most important rule for RP servers (at least servers that still have RP): never break character.

Benfrew speaks fluent tauren, but when green orcs came to teach icky "common" orc language to taurens, Benfrew was out in the woods practicing to be a sneaky kitty.  Benfrew never did master funny orc "pronouns", but is extra sneaky.

Meanwhile, Benfrew is spending a few days parked next to Lhara at the Darkmoon Faire, buying useful things like Arctic fur for 12 gold each and lots and lots of herbs at giveaway prices.  A few mad dashes up to TB every now and then to unload bags and Benfrew is set to pick up some extra gold to make up for not having kabobs to sell for really easy money.

Benfrew has worked hard.  Benfrew saved money, bought things, sold them for more, and Benfrew has lots and lots of gold, but one thing Benfrew doesn't have: large enough bags.

BENFREW WANTS BIGGER BAGS!

Of course, spending 8 gold for a 16 slot bag is pretty wasteful for speed runners, so Benfrew hopped over to Dalaran, ported to the Undercity, and ran past Brill to buy some herb pouches...12 slot herb bags for 2 silver 50 copper.  Equiping two of herb pouches made Benfrew much happier (there are lots of herbs coming in from DMF).

Of course, time is money, so to pay for the trip Benfrew picked up some extra herb pouches to put in the AH at 2 gold each.

Benfrew is set to pick up some extra gold to make up for not having kabobs to sell for really easy money.

We (speaking of DrZap's family of toons collectively - including the late Kaybob1 thru Kaybob6) are very sad for poor Benfrew.  Did we have a mount to run between Ratchet and the DMF, we would actually feel sorry for him.  However, until one of us reaches 20, to make that long distance smuggle possible, we will simply suggest that Benfrew might find a NElf friend (perhaps a Kaybob of his very own) to post "The Recipe" on the BB auction house for a lite version of "The Great Kabob Kaper".

Benfrew has about 1200 gold...plus 24 elemental fires and frozen orbs, and literally hundreds of stacks of herbs and spices, but prices are not useful.  It appears prices change not only daily but during the day because of the small number of buyers and sellers.

So Benfrew got an idea.

Most items can be farmed or crafted after farming, but there is one choke point hidden in leveling enchanting: runed truesilver rod.  Other professions offer several different ways to level at every point, but enchanters MUST make rods to keep leveling.  And the runed truesilver rod requires a black pearl.

Hee hee.

Farming requires about two hours of killing naga to get big mouth clams...and most people don't even know about that.

So Benfrew bought all the black pearls for about 1-6 gold, and started posting them one at a time for 20 gold.  Benfrew didn't hear the enchanters yelling and screaming, but Benfrew did sell several black pearls a day. 

And somebody else noticed Benfre doing that and started posting them for 100 gold.

And then 200 gold.

Benfrew now sells them for 30 gold every few hours....Benfrew is only a little bit sorry

Benfrew that is an AWSOMESAUCE idea!

Opened up a whole new avenue for me to approach in looking for pipelines,  Thanks?

/Salute

Benfrew fell asleep, so the number are from Sunday morning.  Benfrew has only been listing gold in hand before, so Benfrew was surprised at the numbers:

Total gold acquired by bankers: 5320    time spent banking: 22 hours (Benfrew's been too long at the faire or the number would be lower)  Benfrew is still 100% spreadsheet free since that sounds like work.

Total gold acquired by the paladin: 309 (but the paladin is now level 32  - pretty good for one week without BOA gear!)  The paladin spent a small amount of time mining copper at the start, but after Benfrew got paid for joining a guild the paladin has been able to concentrate on learning to tank instead of gold.  The paladin still can't mine anything but copper, and has leveled enchanting up by simply disenchanting drops (although that has stopped...there seems to be a max level for disenchating leveling).

Still no sign of a good guild on the server, but at the very least Benfrew will end the speed run with a level 70-80 paladin and a ton of gold to transfer back to one of Benfrew's main servers...and after all, Benfrew enjoys leveling more than the auction house and only needs gold to buy fun things or train professions.

Biggest problem: other people manipulating the auction house; Benfrew just has to post smaller amounts more often to avoid massive undercutting and find pipelines nobody else is using.

Black pearl update: the same people that plague Benfrew in the AH started listing bladk pearls, and the price seems to have settled at 30 gold each for now...Benfrew is getting revenge by selling pets for 3 gold each (and will even drop to 50 silver if need be to stab mean people who keep undercutting Benfrew).