Podcasts

Last night after work I went to a birthday party for a friend who lives about two hours away.  Instead of cruising down the highway rocking out to Call Me Maybe, I hopped on my iPhone and listened to several podcasts that Markco from Diablo3GoldSecrets.com put out since the Real Money Auction House went live. 

Markco puts out some great content and helps his readers/listeners/subscribers understand what it takes to make money playing Diablo 3.  I listened to seven or eight podcasts - which are between 5 and 20 minutes each - and found myself driving faster so I could get home and try out some of the strategies that I had just learned.

Now, because its in the morning on a Saturday, there aren't a ton of people playing Diablo 3.  I basically invested a lot of my current gold stash in bidding on items and buying out some under priced items to flip and sell for a decent return.  I started the day with 1.4 million gold and plan on letting my auctions sit for a few hours and checking back later.  I'll make an update post either before I head out tonight (for another birthday party) or tomorrow afternoon and let you know how my auctions did. 

Ok... I lied a bit.  I may have turned on Call Me Maybe and blasted it with the windows down once...

Or twice.

1,00,000 Gold

In my quest to make money playing Diablo 3 (while still maintaining my "real life"), I have finally hit a memorable milestone.  

My gold holdings ran over into seven digits yesterday! 

 I logged in and found that every single one of my auctions sold - most of which were mid level legendaries that I have been flipping for decent profits.  With my limited amount of time in game, it's been difficult to keep up on the markets and find good deals to flip and make any sort of steady income.  The Diablo 3 market changes on a daily basis and there are soooooo many niches and markets out there that by the time any of them are "revealed" online through blogs or forums, all of the profitability has dried up.

For my last four or five sessions, instead of focusing on leveling my barbarian (who is now starting Hell and level 51), I spent about half of my session playing around in the Gold Auction House.  I decided that because I will be selling to mostly casual players, I would make an effort to truly learn the market for the one character class that I know - Barbarians.

Through some trial and error, I've found a few markets for legendary items that are popular for leveling barbarians.  One item in particular has been my bread and butter niche for the last week.  This item sells for around 130,000 to 150,000 gold quite quickly and will sometimes drop in price to around 100,000.  Each time I log in, I search for this legendary item specifically and see where the market is.  If the lowest buy out is high (140,000+),  I will put bids in on any listed items at 70,000.  If the buy out price is low, I'll buy up the few that are low enough for me to flip and make a decent profit re-selling them at 140,000+ each.  Pretty simple.

Now, I won't get rich just by using this little niche market.  I can only make so much gold from one item.  But the idea is that if I can continue to make gold each time I log in by quickly checking several markets like this one, I'll be able to maximize the short sessions that I have and make a decent amount of gold (which will eventually mean a decent amount of real money) each and every time I log in to the game.  Remember, the goal of this blog is show a profit from playing Diablo 3.  I know that many players out there are already making good money playing this game and that my progress bar on the side has yet to quiver - but trust me, I'll get there.

One resource that keeps me going is reading Markco's private forums.  There are dozens of players who post there every day who are making hundreds and thousands of dollars playing Diablo 3.  I highly recommend buying Markco's gold guide, which contains several strategies to help you get started making money playing Diablo 3, and the forums are a fantastic resource.

Post weekend

I'm moving at a much slower rate in Diablo 3 than originally planned...but I'm perfectly ok with it.  The entire concept of this blog was to be an extremely casual Diablo 3 player and attempt to make a little side cash from selling gold, items, and possibly characters in game.  I've stuck to my guns since the game came out and have only played the game when I've had extra free time or in my allotted time in the mornings before work.  I'm fairly proud of myself for not getting caught up in the game and not obsessing over it like I have done for pretty much any other project that I've undertaken.

I'm slowly learning where I can make money flipping items on the Gold Auction House.  I've used some tips and tricks that I've learned through forums and Markco's Gold Guide and I can now log in and spend about 5-10 minutes scanning the AH for deals.  I've amassed a decent chunk of gold through this and the level process (just under 1 million now) and also experimented with combining gems to make a decent income (with some success and some not so much).  If I were playing this game for 4-5 hours every day, I would have achieved this level of AH knowledge long ago - but then I wouldn't be a casual noob and this blog would be fairly pointless.

I've invested a lot of gold into my character as I'm leveling (currently level 49 and almost done with Nightmare) and also into my Jeweler, who is maxed out but still needs to get designs for the high level gems.  The real money on the GAH can be made from flipping items that sell for millions of gold - which requires millions of gold to invest.  Once I ding 60, I'll really have a chance to get after it and start seeing my account grow.

I still have yet to make a sale on the Real Money Auction House, but I haven't dabbled a ton there yet.  My guess is that not a lot of mid level items are selling on the RMAH and most of the money is to be made on level 60 items...but I'll dive deeper into that soon.   I'm going to do some research this week and find out when and if we will be able to sell gems on the RMAH, which I think will be an easy market to break into and make some serious cash.  Now that I've got a little capital, I'll be keeping an eye out for cheap designs that show up so that when gems are selling for RMAH, I won't be far behind.

Auction House Strategies

Over the last couple days I went back and re-read Markco's Gold Guide, which has been significantly updated since the last time I went through it.  I've been touting the Gold Forum, which you can get along with purchasing his guide, but the actual guide itself has grown to be a very valuable resource.  I've been applying some of the strategies to my time playing the Gold Auction House and have made some significant gold flipping items, combining gems, and finding items to salvage without spending too much time combing through pages upon pages of items in the AH.

With my play sessions being so short, I want to learn as many strategies that I can quickly utilize when I log in to the game.  The whole goal of treating Diablo 3 as a business is to make it a viable part time income where I spend my allotted hour to an hour and a half a day in the game making real money and then move on to the rest of my day.  Markco's Gold Guide has helped me discover a few potential strategies while still allowing me to get some leveling time in.

Yesterday I dinged level 41 on my Barbarian and am working my way through Nightmare.  I've got around 200K gold and have been investing in gems whenever I see a deal in preparation for the next patch where combining costs drops significantly.  I had a few auctions up that I didn't get a chance to check last night before the servers went down for maintenance, so I hope that when I log back in I'll have a nice pile of gold waiting for me.

Legendary Items

I still have yet to make a penny playing Diablo 3, but I am taking some steps toward investing my small amount of gold into items that I think will be able to sell on the Real Money Auction House.  As of right now, the only items that can be sold on the RMAH are equipment items.  Given my "industry opposite" schedule of playing the game in the mornings before work (a few hours after the normal gamer has gone to bed), I am trying out an Auction House strategy that I hope will pay some solid dividends and help me achieve my goal of making money playing Diablo 3.

The massive amount of players that are on each "server" allows for a huge amount of drops in the game.  There are thousands of Legendary level items showing up on the GAH and RMAH, meaning that some players are willing to let go of their once in a month drops for redonkulously low prices.  My strategy is to check the AH for Legendary items (right now I'm just checking for Barbarian items because that is the class that I know the best) and find auctions that have high buy outs but extremely low bids.  I've found several items that have buyouts upwards of 500,000 and bids as low as 1,000.  Because most players do not play in the mornings, if these auctions are ending in a short amount of time, I will put a bid on them and try to scoop a Legendary item for cheap.

I just started trying out this strategy yesterday and have already won several auctions.  I've put a couple items up on the RMAH for low prices (around $5), so we we will see if any of them sell over the next few days.  If this strategy works, I will continue to use it for Barbarian legendary items and eventually branch out into other markets as I have time to get to know and play other characters.

Update:  I'm slowly climbing the level ladder and dinged 37 last night.  I can't wait to get to 60 and start building my MF and GF sets, but I still have a ton of grinding to do.  Better get back to it!

Diablo Down!

I feel like I'm going at a snail's pace.  I finally dropped Diablo last night and finished my first play through of Normal mode.  It's not that the game has been difficult, it has just been difficult to find the time to play.  Now that the Real Money Auction House is live, there is a lot more motivation for me to get off my butt and grind out some levels.  I'm currently level 34 on my Barbarian and just purchased some new equipment to help me move a bit faster including a legendary weapon that allows me to run around swinging it like a baseball bat and blasting demons out of the park.

I've been keeping an eye on forums and articles about people making money selling items on the RMAH, which so far only supports gear sales, and Inferno level items are selling like hot cakes.  It looks like a lot of players are farming Inferno Act 1 and hoping for legendary set drops and perfect roll items.  I've invested a bit of money into my Jeweler to level him up, so I'm still hoping that high level gems will be valuable on the RMAH when they are supported...but we will see how that works out.  Its still looking like JC is going to just be a big gold sink, but with the value of gold dropping each day the gems might be a good investment.

One of my forum mates over at Marcko's forums recently sold a legendary item for over $200...if you're interested in seeing how he did it and where he got it, you can join the Gold Guide and Forum here.

Now, back to the grind!

New Look

As you might have noticed, I just put up a new logo for Diablo 3 Profits.  Props to my buddy Kyle for putting together a great look for me!  You can check out his design work at his website here.

I'm now back at home and starting to figure out my new routine with my new job, which means that I'll be able to get back into a routine of writing and playing Diablo 3.  The goal to make some extra cash while playing the game is always going to be in the background and I've been keeping up on Marcko's gold forums and blog to try and stay in the game.  Check out the link to the right if you are interested in tapping into Marcko's vast knowledge of the game and his predictions/experiments with the Real Money Auction House.  The guide and forum are worth the price!

For now, I'm at level 32 with my Barbarian and have almost completed Normal.  I may have some time to play tonight and if I do, I may give Nightmare a shot.  Until then, I'm going to do a little investing in level 8+ gems for when the RMAH goes live. 

Slowly But Shirley

Making money is Diablo 3 is at a bit of a stand still, both for me personally and for the rest of the players out there who intended to turn virtual goods and gold into cash.  The Real Money Auction House was delayed again, so only those who have sold items on third party sites or through other avenues like forums, trade channels, or to friends have actually made any money on their virtual investments. 

My "real life" has been crazy busy, and even though I'll be sitting in a hotel room for the next four nights, I won't be able to log in as my company laptop doesn't have the guts to run Diablo 3.  I was hoping to at least be able to log in to the game and do some playing on the gold auction house, but after spending all day downloading the client, I got the error message saying that my video card was not supported.

To give you an update on my progress, currently my barbarian is level 31 and in the middle of Act IV on normal.  He'll be staying there until next week when I will get back into a routine of doing some writing and getting in some game time in the mornings before work.  I think that having a max level character is the best strategy for me and my modest goals at this time, so whatever time that I have in the game will be spent on that until I am level 60.  

Commodities haven't been on the auction house for at least a week if not longer, so my original strategy of investing in gems hasn't really been an option  After I get back from "real life" I'll reevaluate the situation and see if that market is still something worth going after and spending a little time on. 

Current gold:  100,000