As many of you have noticed the launch period is over in TBC and profits are falling.
Mega servers means mega competition
Generally speaking the size of the servers means that profit margin on many markets will be lower than they were in the last round of TBC. There’s more players competing with you so profits will be lower. That being said even on the extremely competitive region wide AH on retail there are good profit opportunities, so this does not mean goldmaking is dead.
Prospecting is dead?
I’ve gotten a lot of comments about prospecting profits going down to almost zero. This will generally not stay for too long, but it can take a little while for material prices to stabilize. Prospecting is too time consuming to remain completely unprofitable, but margins will be thin and you will need to do LARGE volumes to actually be sure you profit. A batch of 500 ore has quite a bit of variability for how many red gems you get, which is the main determining factor.
Material flipping time
One market that is rising up now is material flipping. With the launch turbulence behind us TBC materials will stabilize in price which means material flipping is going to be very good. This is an extremely nice market long term and you can do a lot of gold here.
Higher end crafts
If you have a max level crafter and can get some Nethers now is a good time for selling higher end crafts on the AH. Material prices are lower and the recipes are also more attainable. This still requires a good chunk of gold, but if you can actually maintain 2 or 3 epics on the AH at all times that will be a very nice chunk of profit.
Pre-bis markets often stay good
My experience from TBC the first time around is that entry level gearing markets stay good forever. There are ALWAYS more characters coming through. In every expansion I have played where you can craft and sell catch up gear I have done so with great success, even far into the expansion.
People move around
Staying flexible is important. GOldmakers will prioritize whatever is most profitable right now which will drive down profits on that item and they will neglect something else. My personal approach has generally been to craft everything that I know is useful and post it as long as I’m making a profit. Then I am ALWAYS in a position to sell more of whatever someone else resets or the AH runs out of. If you have more time you can be more hands on, but staying wide is great. Getting an extra crafter ready for the next phase will help immensely with that for instance.