Speculating on BoE flipping in patch 8.2

BoE flipping remains the single best market to generate LARGE amounts of gold in World of Warcraft. Patch 8.2 will add a new raid with higher item levels alongside changes to crafted gear that will shake this market up, so let’s look at the changes and speculate a bit!

BoE flipping basics

The idea is very simple, buy high item level pieces that are either useful for gearing a fresh level 120 or for gearing your actual main for a “low” price and sell them for a higher price. The details will vary a lot between realms as prices tend to vary. 

The market is HUGELY profitable. If you’ve been following the podcast you will know that I have made a profit of 5.4 million gold from BoE flipping since February on a fairly casual three times a week reposting cycle. Some mailbox examples are shown below. 

BoE flipping in 8.1 and 8.1.5

For the past months I have been flipping three categories of BoEs. Uldir BoEs, Battle of Dazar’alor BoEs and world drop BoEs. For each of them I have focused on a subset as not all item levels or item bases are relevant. 8.2 will change which subsets are relevant and will add new items from the upcoming raid as well. 

Relevant changes in 8.2

So let’s look at the changes that are coming that will have an impact. We will then look at how they impact the potential markets for BoE flipping. 

New Notorious combatant crafted gear at item level 370
New BoEs from Azshara’s Eternal Palace with base item levels from 400 to 445 and a maximum item level of 455. 
New upgradeable Nazjatar gear from item level 385 to 430

Overall I think the first two will have the largest impact as the Benthic gear can not be traded between players. That being said it will offer alternative routes to fairly high item level gear and it can impact the price of item level 430ish BoEs. 

World drops

World drops will likely be hit the hardest by the changes. I focused on item level 355+ weapons and trinkets in 8.1 as this is the highest item level BoEs you could get in the weapon or trinket slots. There were also boots and belts, but Dazar’alor dropped higher item level belts and boots so I hav enot touched the world drop ones in a long time. 

With the addition of crafted item level 370 weapons I expect the market for world drop weapons to collapse unless the base item level is significantly increased. Either way the current set of drops will be worthless. Trinkets will retain more value, although the new inscription trinket together with darkmoon decks may be better or cheaper. All the other slots will be subsumed by a combination of the notorious combatant gear and better BoEs. 

Uldir drops

Uldir drops have sold surprisingly well even in 8.1, with prices holding very high. You can get bracers and gloves from Uldir. As the new Azshara drops cover the exact same item slots I expect these will collapse in value and I suggest getting out of them. 

Battle of Dazar’alor

Battle of Dazar’alor dropped belts and boots from item level 370 up to 425. I expect that the high-end will keep it’s value relatively well. The supply will go down, but the items from 410 and up will remain the best source of easy gearing in this item level range. The price may even go up. The lower item levels will be much less interesting of course, but 390-410 may be profitable with a smaller supply while still representing the best item level for your buck. 
The cloak howver will likely lose a lot of value as Azshara drops a new cloak, so try to get rid of any Dazar’alor cloaks you have lying around.

Azshara’s Eternal Palace

The new raid will drop BoE Epics that fit in the wrist and glove slots as well as a cloak. 

The base item levels will be 400 for LFR, 415 for normal, 430 for Heroic and 445 for mythic. 

My experience with the BoD epics was that only the highest item level ones were able to generate a lot of value. I will focus on item level 430 and up initially and then reassess. LFR level gear is generally flooded in terms of supply and it is generally really hard to find good deals or even to sell your stock as players race to the bottom. 

If you have a lot of capital I would keep an eye out for any max item level pieces during the first week. If you find something like that you should contact players from the top level raiding guilds in your region as they will be willing to pay HUGE amounts of gold to get geared for Mythic progression.

Summing up

I will focus primarily on the new Azshara’s palace drops alongside the high end of drops from Battle of Dazar’alor. I will most likely stay our of Uldir drops and world drops unless Blizzard makes changes to item levels. Hopefully they change the world drops as it feels kind of bad to have world rop epics drop that are much worse than easy to obtain crafted items.

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