I expect that either your server or mine (or both) is the exception here, since cards are going for 2k+ right now. Spending 16k for something that may or may not sell is not a risk I'm willing to take.

Weird hearing that those gems are actually selling for that much on your server seeing as those gem cuts are basically available right away to all JCers via a trainer/guaranteed drop (obviously ever server is different and I don't mean the Exalted cuts). I'd suggest picking up the +16 Hit and +16 Agility. Those sell much better and much faster. I guess I'd assume that uncut gems on your server are (too) expensive and that's why the trainer cuts are selling that high (I'm a medium pop server with not too many JCers and those gems sell for 40g cut because they're initial skill ups). Also Meta gems are selling like mad on my server, I log on and get asked for Insightful Earthsiege cuts right away.

With the Feast of Winter Veil starting, exploit the inherent lazyness of the people. The Egg Nog - Spell - World of Warcraft and Gingerbread Cookie - Spell - World of Warcraft are a neat, low risk way of generating some neat cash.
Head out to Silvermoon, kill lvl 5 Dragonhawks which drop 1-2 [Small Egg] each. List these eggs for some freakish high amount like 10g and watch them sell. Or try and list the product itself.
Heck, you can even try walking the 10 yards over to the inn in OG, buy 2-3 stacks of ice cold milk and list it. Some people will buy it for either just not knowing or caring.

Those small eggs are being sold and bought on our AH for 75g each. That's a pretty good return for flying to Loch Modan and farming for a few minutes.

Stoneguard bands (and the other green ring shadowmight ring I believe) both give a minimum of 2 infinite dust with a pretty decent (anecdotally 15-20%) chance of 1-2 GCEs. You will see 3 and 4 dust drop from the rings on occasion but normally 2 dust is the norm. That being said, a ratio of 1:1 is your break even (MC=MP) point for prices.

2 dust is the absolute minimum, 3-4 is much more likely. You can use both eternal earth/shadow or 2 x eternal earth to make those rings. On my server they're about 8g for the eternal and 6.5g for the dust. Good profit still.

Alternatively the dragonhawks in Eversong Forest also seem to always drop 1 or 2 eggs for each kill you do. They're more spread out than the Fleshrippers are, but that's both a good and a bad things in such a case.

I'm almost positive that they fixed the respawn rate at that location.

That location was already fixed last year.
A good spot is just east of westfall, however the spawn is shared with some boars.

Better yet would be near silvermoon, as each of the dragonhawks there has a "guaranteed" drop of 1-2 eggs.

Also, owlkin in Darkshore drop the eggs as well. There was no one in the area and even so it can support multiple people as the area is large.

Differences between servers never stop amazing me. On my main server there are hundreds of eggs up for around 3-5g and people seem to be undercutting eachother mercilessly. I could probably make a fair buck off farming a few of em and selling, but this would net me a few hundred gold at best, which is honestly too little profit for the hassle of obtaining the eggs and getting them sold.

On my DK I leveled up his cooking to ~430. I then did some dailies and bought the Rhinolicious Wyrmsteak recipe. Spent a few more days gathering up northern spice, and, now I sell a stack of 10 for around 150-160 gold. Its a descent recipe to level up with. It does require two kinds of meat and 20 of each of the meats runs around 35g total. The northern spice won't sell for less than 15g so its a moot point to buy that off the AH. I have to rely on getting some from the daily and spending my award on 10 of them to make any kind of money early. I know, the gold is not much, but it does work and only takes around 15m a day to do this.

In total

Daily is ussally 4-12 chilled meat and about 5 minutes of running around in Dalaran.
Use badges to get the Rhinolicious Wyrmsteak (40 expertise and Stamina).
Use the rest of the badges to get as much northern spice as possible. One badge is 10 spice.
Buy the two meats needed, around 35g for a stack of each.
Sell the stack for 300G.

I ussually make, in the end, around 260g per stack, factoring in the cost of the chilled meat for the daily. The only limit is the ammount of Northern Spice I can get, which is 11-13 a day. I've been thinking it might make some sense to level up my Warrior's cooking to 350 so that he can do the daily.

You're ignoring the opportunity cost of not selling the spices yourself. If they sell for 15g each, and you're using a stack of 20 to make a 260g valued stack of food, you're losing 40g on just the spices, let alone the value of the raw meat and your time. Just because you're working for the spices rather than paying for them doesn't mean cooking the food is a profit.

Now, if you're cooking for the skillups, and are selling the wyrmsteak to partially recoup your losses, that's another story. But even then, you may be able to find a cheaper way to raise your skill.

While I do agree with the loss of 40g (75G factoring meat) in profit from selling the spice, I need to raise my cooking to 450 eventually. (I'm an Achievement whore) Every recipe that will give a skill up past 415 requires northern spice. All of those recipes turn green at 425, with the exception of two turning green at 437. All recipe's grey at 450. The two that go green at 437 each require around 90g in mats per combine, without factoring in spice, and the product is Bind on Pickup.

If there would be a better way to skill up cooking, I'm all ears. Honestly I've looked and this is about the easiest way I could see.

Speaking of Achievement whores, since the Merrymaker Achievement requires 325 cooking, now is a prime time to sell lower-level cooking mats at a high profit margin, as people who didn't level cooking are going to have to get at least 325 if they want their Violet Proto.

Of special note: the mats for the Tanaris cooking quest.

2g per chance at a skillup is pretty good. Even if there is a more economical way of doing it, the cost is so low that taking the time to figuring it out ans setting it up would offset any benefits.

The one catch is that (I believe) not all green recipes have the same chance of granting a skillup. I am relatively certain that the probability of a skillup decreases with each point your skill increases, and that the various colors indicate different ranges (green being something like 50%-0% or 25%-0%). I am sure someone here knows all the details and can correct me if I am wrong.

A different note, does anyone have any idea what the reduction in costs for highend enchants in 3.0.8 is going to do both the scroll and enchanting mats markets? I have been selling thousands of gold in dust, essences, and scrolls. The enchanting mats consistently move much faster than the scrolls, but I am not sure if that is because they are more generic items, people are still not used to looking for scrolls at the AH, or that people are buying enchanting mats to level enchanting (taking a loss) and artificially inflating them.

I know people who are holding off enchanting gear because the mats are so expensive, so this will bring them into the market, but will that be enough to offset the reduction in mats the enchants take?

Other mats of importance, the three easiest to obtain
Tender Wolf Meat, 225+ Level 40+ wolves
Bear Flank for 245+ skill, recipe is in Felwood. There are two recipes using the bear flank. Source EPL and Felwood
Sandworm Meat, 285+? skill, recipe is by quest in Silithus but they still need the raw supplies afterward

Large Eggs and Zesty Clam meat, both part of the cooking quest are also part of 225+ skill cooking.

If you have fishing then then you can rake it in as well off these cooking fanatics, numbers are cooking skill
Winter Squid 240+
Raw Summer Bass 240+
Raw Nightfin Snapper 250+
Raw Sunscale Salmon 250+
Darkclaw Lobster 275+
Raw Whitescale Salmon 275+

Going over 300, Ravager Flesh and Buzzard Meat are both 300 starting point skills that can carry them to 325

You're probably more likely to make money on the achievements at the moment, in particular the one for creating winter clothing. I noted that 3 hours into Winter Veil that the only Rugged Leather and Bolt of Wool Cloth on the AH were parcelled into Winter Boots sized stacks for exorbitant prices. Main problem with this is when people realise that the chest and boots are BoE and buy one set and pass it around a whole guild/group of friends for the achievement.

Very true. This achievement can not be completed as two recipes are not found in game yet. It will be in at a later patch date.

Blue Response to Northrend Gourmet


Bear Flank was rare before the achievement was noticed. I really expect the prices to soar for these mats.

A side note, if you have excess wand charges from the Hallow's Wand event, I've seen some people paying 150+g per for their DK's to get the achievement. Which to me is stupid because it will be impossible to complete What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been untill October of 2010 for DK's. Unless they remove the Brew of the month club from the Brewmaster achievement, then of course it will be possible October of 1009.

Please delete - I need to test something more thoroughly before I post this.

No need to test, 45 is the number required for the final achievement which is required for the Chef title.
Now i am unsure if you can get 45 even with the Fish Feast and Kongaloosh being available next patch, as I think that only adds up to 44.


What might be a nice way to make money related to the chef title, is farming the Fish required for [Fish Feast]. Altough at least on my server [Nettlefish] already sell rather nice (60g/stack cooked easily).

The Achievment gets changed to require only 44, so it's possible in 3.08.
The Northrend Gourmet made possible in patch 3.0.8 - WoW Insider