Chasing the Gold Cap Update #4: Ghost Iron Bore

Greetings! So 5.2 happened, and after spending an hour crafting, mailing, and cancelling and posting auctions on that first night, it dawned on me I must be friggin' crazy. All the activities I could've been engaged with at that very moment, I chose to ensure my gems were positioned at the most attractive market price. Charming. Within each driven pursuit there is a line that, once crossed, signals unhealthy addiction.

Gold amount at last update: 640,414g
Auctioning activity between then and now: moderate
Current gold amount: 716,084g
+/- Change: 75,670g

While I didn't carve out nearly as much auctioning time as I had in the weeks prior, the additional profit came via gems: the market, which had previously crashed, experienced periodic resurgences. For a brief period it became super economical to buy up Golden Lotus and send them to my transmute alchemist. Spend a grand, make four. Not a bad return.

Not-so-surprisingly, the Ghost Iron market hasn't moved much. If you've read gold-making tips in the lead-up to patch 5.2, you probably read about buying cheap Ghost Iron to resell for a profit post-patch. And there were probably dozens of disappointed investors scanning the auction house on patch night. The prices on my server are currently hovering just above their historical average. So what gives?

For starters, the Thunder Forge wasn't available to players when the patch went live, meaning there wasn't an immediate demand for extra Ghost Iron bars. Secondly, the new engineering mount recipe, which called for Ghost Iron, got pulled from the patch at the last second, with Blizzard providing no ETA on when engineers might see it in-game. And the new method to level blacksmithing from 1-525 quickly with Ghost Iron? Chances are leveling an alt blacksmith is a low priority for most players at the moment. There's also the chance that everyone followed the advice to "buy low" and now the market is flooded.

With this reality, I've been quelling panic by prospecting stack after stack of Ghost Iron to sell as cut gems. Luckily, the market has been receptive of this practice...for now. But, so far this week, the gem market hasn't been as volatile, which worries me, as I plan to lean on it heavily during this final push towards the gold cap.


Some notes, in no particular order: 

• I received 3k more in repayment for the Vial of the Sands loan. I'm hoping to be able to call on the remaining 26,500g before this all ends, as it may be the final bump I need to hit the cap!
• Was able to put together an Ox Deck from cards I had on my scribe. It sold immediately for 6.5k. To build it using cards purchased from the AH would've cost more than double that, but we all know no one pays that much for a Relic of Niuzao.
• A couple of weeks back I mentioned how someone seemed to have purposely tanked the gem market. Turns out, I wasn't too far off the mark: she posted her gems at 50g flat or lower with absolutely no regard for the current state of the market. How do I know this? One of her toons was recently recruited into our guild! Apparently, she's received quite a bit of hate mail from other gold makers regarding her practice. She apologized profusely to me, after which I assured her I wasn't "one of those types of gold-makers." 
• I've sold more glyphs than anticipated these last two weeks. I don't know why this is, but I'll allow it.   

When it comes to spending, I've been a good man. A very good man. I did purchase an Amber Scorpion with the Main, but that was with finances he earned all on his own. I've limited spending to fail-safe investments where the worst-case scenario is breaking even. Still, maintaining this current profit rate won't yield enough gold to reach the cap by the date of the final update, scheduled for May 1.

Three more Chasing the Gold Cap updates remain before the final post. There are four days between that last update and May 1st deadline during which I will be making an insanely huge push to hit the cap if I haven't already. That should be fun and enlightening in its own right. I'm also kicking around the idea of what to do with the gold once I've reached the cap, since being able to accumulate and save that amount of money is evidence that I don't really need it. Would like to do something for the community, and at the least, something meaningful for my guildies. Thoughts?

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Read Update #1
Read Update #2
Read Update #3