I am thrilled to announce the grand prize winners of Gold Speed Run III, which ran for 30 days from November 20th through December 19th 2009.

I have decided to award two grand prizes. Naturally, one prize is to recognize the overall top gold-earner in open “no-holds-barred” competition, including cross-faction trading on two accounts. The additional prize I am adding is to recognize the top earner in single-faction, single-account competition, without the advantage of cross-faction trading.

Each of the grand prize winners will receive a…

• Murloc Costume

This is a very rare in-game item that transforms your characters into a big, goofy Murloc. Great for victory shots after Boss kills! It’s an account bound item, so you can use it on any character on a single faction and realm. I’ll be in touch with our winners, Yaweh and Trop, to arrange for delivery of their prizes.

The overall winner, with the most Total Gold Acquired over the 30 days:

• YAWEH, playing on Caelestrasz U.S. realm. Her final total was an amazing 60,849 Gold, which includes 20,770 total gold acquired on the Alliance side, and 40,079 total gold acquired on the Horde side.

The special prize winner, with the most Total Gold Acquired playing a single faction over the 30 days:

• TROP, playing on Bloodfeather E.U. realm. His final total was an even more remarkable 55,639 Gold, earned entirely on the Horde side alone. Trop’s final week was an extreme success, as he moved up from 6th place in the challenge at the end of week 3, to finish 2nd overall.

The average earnings of all challengers over the 30 days of Gold Speed Run III were well over 10,000 Gold each, as the more than 40 speed runners who played actively acquired a grand total of more than 465,000 Gold.

Congratulations to everyone!

- Jon

Day Twenty-Six of Gold Speed Run III, December 15, 2009

Feast of Winter Veil has begun, and with it come the special gold-making opportunities of the season: Small Eggs, Gingerbread Cookies, Deeprock Salt, and even Ice Cold Milk!

Unfortunately, this also happens to coincide with a my own heavy involvement in family and holiday activities and committments… meaning virtually no time at all to log in to WoW.

I literally haven’t logged in for a couple of days, and it looks like I’ll have trouble keeping up with the leaders in the Speed Run challenge over this last few days. But I’ll do what I can.

Off to a good Winter Veil start today with the Small Eggs selling well on both Horde and Alliance when I had time to keep an eye on things. Wool Cloth also very strong on the Horde side, with a big increase in demand and price.

Gold Tally at the end of day:

• Gold Earned from Auctions, Alliance: 11,295g (daily average 434g)
• Gold Earned from Auctions, Horde: 13,303g (daily average 532g)
• Total Gold Acquired, Both Sides: 24,598g

Read the rest…

I’ve posted a new video in the MGB 3.0 Members’ area: “Buying at Auction: The “Sucker” Method”.

• Module 6: Buying in the Auction House

When a market or an item you have been following heats up, demand increases, and prices rise sharply, it’s frustrating if you weren’t able to acquire some inventory at pre-inflation prices.

In some situations, you may be able to fool your competitors into posting some of their stock at “old” prices. Especially if they are slaves to Auctioneer pricing data

This quick video (7:46 running time) shows you how.

Patch 3.3 “Icecrown Citadel” is live, and we are starting to see the gold-making results in the Auction House. I’ve just posted a first quick video report (members only) on how things are developing.

• Patch 3.3 Gold-Making Outlook and Update, Dec. 9

If you want to know what’s going on with the new Calico Cat and Albino Snake pets, Arctic Fur and Heavy Borean Leather, Enchanting materials and scrolls, Flasks and Potions for raiders, and the new rare drops from the Icecrown Citadel instances (ICC), watch the video now!

- Jon

Patch 3.3, the “Icecrown Citadel” (ICC) patch, is almost certainly going live tomorrow, December 8 (or December 9 for EU realms). It’s a major patch, with quite a few new additions and twists on existing items, all of which will lead to some significant gold-making opportunities.

My preview/update video (30 minutes long) is now up for Members in the MGB3 Module 12 “Updates and Patch Notes” area. I give detailed info and recommendations for market niches and items that will be movers and shakers on account of 3.3, including:

• Arctic Fur
• Heavy Borean Leather
• Primordial Saronite
• Enchanting Materials
• Enchant Scrolls
• Leg Armors
• Flasks
• Potions
• Elementals
• Calico Cat
• Portable Hole

Make sure you check out this video and download package right away, the time to make Gold is right now!

- Jon

Week Two of Gold Speed Run III ended on Saturday December 5th at midnight. We have a new leader: Yaweh, playing on Caelestrasz US, jumping into first from 4th position at the end of Week 1, with a superb Week 2 effort. His Week Two total is 24,379 Gold Acquired… for 2 weeks of auction house play starting from zero on a new server, this is a remarkable accomplishment!

Our grand total of earnings from all reporting challengers combined is 162,244 Gold. With 45 players reporting, the overall average for all participants is well over 3,605 Gold earned for the first two weeks of the Speed Run, using the Massive Gold Blueprint method.

The top five Speed Runners have all managed to acquire more than 10,000 Gold in the first two weeks of the challenge!

Here’s the Top 10, see the complete Gold Speed Run Leaderboard for the full story:

1. Yaweh, Caelestrasz US: Alliance 7984, Horde 16395, Total 24379
2. taskman, Frostmane EU: Alliance 10592, Horde 8470, Total 19062
3. Mahdi, Earthen Ring US: Alliance 5821, Horde 7950, Total 13771
4. Jonathan Kenins, Auchindoun US: Alliance 6079, Horde 6328, Total 12407
5. m00, Shadowsong EU: Alliance 5241, Horde 5367, Total 10608
6. Trop, Bloodfeather EU: Alliance 0, Horde 8183, Total 8183
7. truscorpio82, Undermine US: Alliance 3079, Horde 4148, Total 7227
8. nrsratchett, Winterhoof US: Alliance 2183, Horde 3693, Total 5876
9. Wisdomone, Gnomeregan US: Alliance 2988, Horde 2658, Total 5646
10. Captain, Kilrogg US: Alliance 2043, Horde 3265, Total 5308

The Massive Gold Call-in Show is set to go on Thursday, and it’s time to register if you qualify!

This bonus event is for all Massive Gold Blueprint 3.0 members who joined during the “launch” week in November 2009 or before.

I’ll be on live for 90 minutes, audio and video, answering as many questions as possible, including on-screen / in-game demos when it makes sense.

I will be recording the show, and posting it in your Members’ area within 48 hours of the event. But you should try to be online live if possible… not only so you can ask your own questions, but because I’m planning a couple of special surprises for those of you who are at the event.

Register here:

• Massive Gold Call-in Show, Dec. 3 2009

The first week of Gold Speed Run III is history, and the results are in. As usual, yours truly is in the Top 10… but not in the lead by any means. Apparently I’m better at showing how to do it, than actually doing it

The totals are very impressive, remembering that everyone is starting from scratch, with absolutely nothing and no help, on a new server. Just for fun… the TOTAL gold earned by the 41 challengers who have reported in so far amounts to 64,888 Gold. So the average is well over 1,000 Gold for the first week of the challenge!

Here’s the Top 10, see the complete Gold Speed Run Leaderboard for the full story:

1. taskman, Frostmane EU: Alliance 4132, Horde 2888, Total 7020
2. truscorpio82, Undermine US: Alliance 2041, Horde 2798, Total 4839
3. Mahdi, Earthen Ring US: Alliance 1531, Horde 3285, Total 4816
4. Yaweh, Caelestrasz US: Alliance 182, Horde 4435, Total 4617
5. m00, Shadowsong EU: Alliance 2361, Horde 1338, Total 3699
6. Jonathan Kenins, Auchindoun US: Alliance 1975, Horde 1107, Total 3082
7. Captain, Kilrogg US: Alliance 1468, Horde 1390, Total 2858
8. Trop, Bloodfeather EU: Alliance 0, Horde 2810, Total 2810
9. nrsratchett, Winterhoof US: Alliance 881, Horde 1743, Total 2624
10. Tordormore, Sen’jin US: Alliance 576, Horde 1936, Total 2512

As you’re getting into the thick of Gold Speed Run III, here’s a look back at GSR2.

We ran Gold Speed Run II with the Massive Gold Blueprint membership in June 2008 (June 7 through July 8), not long after I first opened up the original MGB.

During that earlier event, I kept a detailed log of my transactions throughout the challenge. I’ve never released this log book before, but here goes… the complete record of my own Gold Speed Run II challenge, in PDF format for download.

If you’re taking part in this year’s event, you may find some useful ideas in this record of my transactions.

- Jon

I’ve just added a new, unannounced Bonus for members: “30 Days to 1,000 Gold,” the daily journal from my original Gold Speed Run in February 2008. This has never been published or seen anywhere else before!

This journal includes all of my transactions – every single purchase, posting and sale – on both Horde and Alliance sides, as I completed the challenge. It also includes commentary and notes that explain some of my moves and decisions.

For those of you gearing up to participate in Gold Speed Run III (starts November 20th, have you entered yet?), this document will help you get off to a flying start. It should also be useful (lots of ideas about items to work on) for anyone starting up the Blueprint Method on any new server.

Enjoy!