Specifically, I bought something for myself that I had no intention of trying to get a return out of it, e.g. for pleasure. *shudder*
The price tag was 28,500g bid with 30,000g buyout, and I assuaged some of my trepidation by winning it via bid. My main is Azuriel, a Prot paladin that I spec as Ret when I want to punish myself in PvP, so it was not even for my main. Who was it for? My level 83 (at the time) Warrior, or potentially my level 84 Death Knight. In other words, a total twink item for an alt I am not even 100% sure will get 30,000g worth of enjoyment out of it.
I do not bat an eye at investing 13,000g in, say, Chelley's Staff of Dark Mending and reselling for 21,000g. I am still bullish on the Strength version of Hurricane and Tsunami decks. I will (and indeed have) poured thousands of gold into power-leveling professions on my alts, including the now level 84 Blacksmith, buying all the Chaos Orb patterns even though the BS cannot acquire any just yet. To me, these are business expenses to be written off at tax time, so to speak. The cost of doing business, just like gold for repairs or the buying of mats for flasks and such.
Fury of Angerforge though? It was not particularly cheap. Even if I did resell it, the margin would probably not be that great. You do not see very many BoE trinkets on Auchindoun though, which is a point in its favor. And my mortal weakness in WoW are things that change your character model and/or debris you can set up in the game world, as opposed to pets or mounts that other people fawn over.
Dartol's Rod of Transformation, Arcanite Ripper, Ectoplasmic Distiller, Romantic Picnic Basket, Time-Lost Figurine, Piccolo of the Flaming Fire, Orb of Deception, Hook of the Master Angler, Bones of Transformation, Wisp Amulet, Brazier of Dancing Flames, Brewfest Pony Keg, Direbrew's Remote, Gnomeregan Pride, Standard of Unity, Crashin'Thrashin' Racer Controller, Alliance Battle Standard, Stormwind Banner, Crashin' Thrashin' Robot, Iron Boot Flask, Orb of the Sin'dorei, MiniZep Controller, Highborne Soul Mirror, Savory Deviate Delight (not pictured)
Why bring this up at all? Tell me... is it easy for you to spend gold in WoW?
One of the hooks of gold blogs is getting you enough gold so that "you never have to worry about gold ever again!" While it is true that I never really glance at how much repairs are after a night of wipes, I feel every individual gold piece evaporate any time I spend it on buying flasks instead of making them, or essentially anytime I am trading money for time. Do you have any expectation that your accumulated gold meter will reach 0g by the time you hang up your WoW hat? Or is gold really what it objectively is: play money in a finite, virtual game? Am I alone in feeling miserly despite not needing to be? Is there not some point at which a person cannot rationally justify making more gold without gold becoming its own game (e.g. you have to spend a significant effort to even give it all away)?
Let me know in the comments below. I'm especially curious to hear from other gold bloggers and/or people with 250k+ about this one.
No, you're not alone in feeling miserly - I'm one of the biggest Scrooges I know! I promised myself a chopper when I hit 50k but I just hit 300k+ & I still don't have a chopper! I took a look at how big a chunk it would be & decided I could wait! My goal is 1million and until then, I'll scrimp & save most of the way, wherever I can.
ReplyDeleteI wince at 30g for a healing potion so I go make my own (saving maybe 5g) or I'll use up bits from inventory even if I have to log alts to get them rather than pay 5g over the top for something. But my Grandma used to say, the rich didn't get rich by wasting pennies so I guess it's genetic for me :)
I had high hopes for raiding soon after the xpac went live, so I was spending huge sums of gold on BoE epics to help get raid ready. I hovered around 100k for weeks simply because I was spending all I earned (well over 200k on BoEs by now). Once I basically decked myself out in everything available (and it became apparent that my guild was still quite a way away from being raid ready / I wouldn't have the time), I just let the gold roll in. I definitely take the "always have gold for whatever I want" approach, the thing is, there's not a lot I want and if there is, I wait until I can get a good deal on it. I did get a Vial of Sands for a friend when he server transfered, but that was probably my last big purchase.
ReplyDeleteI do feel to some degree that I have more gold than I know what to do with, but at the same time, I am being miserly. It's hard not to want to reach the next 100k milestone, all the way up to 1mil, even though by that point I certainly will not know what to do. It's also getting hard to find frivolous things to spend gold on, short of just giving it away. The vast majority of my purchases are spent with getting a return in mind. Even my latest vanity item, Haunted Memento, I picked up for 4k (and another at that price) specifically so I could flip it once it got boring.
The thing is, we didn't get all this gold by throwing our money around, so the spendthrift miserly ways that got us where we are is a tough habit to break.
Holly crap you from auchinfoun Eu server? Horde or Ally?
ReplyDeleteThere's an old saying, basically that rich people didn't get that way by spending money on foolish luxuries. I know a guy IRL who is worth hundreds of millions but won't buy a Starbucks coffee because he can make his own at home cheaper.
ReplyDeleteThat's sort of my WoW philosophy. I'm not interested in spending money on things I can do myself cheaper.
If I NEED it, I buy it--Artisan Flying and Cold Weather Flying on my new L70 Shaman. But for my Chopper? I'm willing to wait until said Shaman levels Eng and earns the rep to buy the pattern--and make my own.
That said, as a business expense I don't blink to spend gold. I bought 22k gold worth of ore the last two days to shuffle and stockpile. I'm estimating my profit to be around 150% of that, 30k gold or so.
I lol'd a bit at Nev's comment on flinching before buying a 30g potion. I needed some tank food the other day. Blackened Dragonfin was selling at about 95g/stack. Instinctively, I checked the price of Dragonfin Angelfish--and it was 55g/stack.
I bought 3 stacks of Angelfish, cooked them up, listed two stacks on the AH and kept the third for myself. I invested 165g, made my tank food, and sold the surplus for 180g--net profit of 15g. But the profit wasn't the point. It took me less than 5 minutes AFK to make the food--no way am I going to spend that 90g if I don't have to.
I bought the Dalaran Mammoth yesterday. I don't regret it at all, but it was extremely hard. I blew 600 justice points to get my Kirin Tor rep from neutral to revered just to bring the price down from 20,000 to 17,000.
ReplyDeleteGlad I did it, though - not having to find a repair or reagent vendor anymore will probably save me hours over the long haul. Mounts are always more difficult for me to justify than gear upgrades.
What?!? I bought the Dal Mammoth on Tuesday! Was in BwD wiping with the new group on Magmaw, and somebody needed a repair, so I had our mage port me to Dal and I grabbed it and setup shop outside BwD.
ReplyDeleteOh the jokes in vent, "So you've got 19k just sitting around, eh?"
No, scrub - I'm Exalted with Kirin Tor. Seriously I just said, "Eh, it was 16k, but I've been wanting to get it for awhile now."
I will not hesitate to buy something I want, no matter the price. I'll also buy stuff out of laziness sometimes.
ReplyDeleteBut given that I can craft it myself (which I usually can) and that I have the materials at hand or a cheap way to get them (which I usually have), I certainly do not spend tremendous amounts of money if it isn't absolutely necessary to get that particular item (e.g., overpriced AH goods that I can craft myself).
Holly crap you from auchinfoun Eu server? Horde or Ally?
ReplyDeleteAuchindoun-US, to be more precise.
Fair enough mate ,but still worth to try it.
ReplyDeleteI don't hesitate for a second to drop gold on gear. They way I look at it I could spend 3 hours in an instance hoping for something to drop and then hoping I out roll my competition or I could just buy it. The fewer slots I have to depend on RNG the better.
ReplyDeleteWhile im not the AH guru like most of you are, I generally maintain about 30kish gold. However, on the topic I will spend it and re-build it quite fast.
ReplyDeleteI recently bought a recruit-a-friend from a player. He posted in trade wanting to sell recruit-a-friend for 10k gold. I jumped on it as I wanted the x-53 rocket and one moth paid subsciption. 10k gold sounded like a good deal to me as it paid 15.99 for a month subscrition, and gave me a two seater mount along with the achievement.
Do you think this was a good deal? Would you pay 10k gold for that?
Also, for perspective, I was at 32k gold at the time. I am already back up to 28k after 3 days and that is with very mild AH trading. I post only twice a day. Sometimes skipping days here and there.
Now think if I acually tryed playing the AH regularly. I think I could definitly be a goblin one day. :)
well isnt spending that gold one of the true perks of being wealthy.
ReplyDeleteBack in WTLK I spend maybe 50k gearing alts in gold dkp runs!
Here in cata I have spend nearly 100k on BOE items for my main, new large bags and Im probably going to buy a vial of sand mount at some point.
When you arent interested in hitting that 1 million mark you might as well enjoy having the perks of the wealthy, right?
//tiroq - EU Bloodhoof