Making Coin in Middle-Earth

We received a very well written email from Decimma of Gladden explaining his way of making money on the Auction House in LOTRO. I thought it such a good email, I asked if I could post it on our site to share with everyone. Thank you for sharing, Decimma!

I wanted to write in to add to a former interviewee’s suggestions regarding playing the Auction House (AH) and keeping yourself in the “black ink” in Middle Earth.

My main, Decimma (65 RK) is an explorer by trade, and that toon is now up to 137 gold and growing.  I’m not writing in to brag and I realize that there are players out there with much more coin than I, but I’d like to offer up a few strategies that others may find helpful. In fact, if I were really trying to make coin, I am confident I could have double or even triple my current coin as I have been playing for nearly a year and a half now, and I find making virtual coin more of an occasional hobby than an obsession.

Know Your Craft

I mentioned I am an Explorer; simply mining and harvesting mats can be profitable, albeit time consuming, but it is not the prospecting or foresting where I’ve made coin.

Tailoring is a terrific profession, because it allows you to make both light and medium armor, which means you can provide something, in fact, 6 somethings, to all characters that can’t wear heavy armor and don’t forget cloaks, as even heavy armor wearers need those.

I’m not saying “Be a Tailor”.  I’m saying know what you, as a skilled crafter, can provide to your community.  If you can make heavy armor, cook, make weapons, furniture, jewelry, dye of various colors, whatever – just know what you can make, and it’s relative value to other players.

Be Walmart, not Ferrari

Here’s an example: my tailor can make lvl 60 armor, that requires basic mats, an item that I can only make once weekly, and a mildly expensive mithril flake. That piece of armor may sell for a couple gold.  Great, but what else are you going to try to sell until next week? How many players are willing to spend a couple of gold on a piece of lvl 60 armor with no radiance?

Now consider this – how many players have alts, and want their alts wearing the best crafted armor as they level up?  The answer is a surprising amount!

I’ve been known to buy a stack of sturdy hide or leather off the AH from a lower level character from 200-300 silver, and turn it into several pieces of armor, which will each sell for the price of the original stack of leather.  Yes, these will also require the critcal items, which I’ve stockpiled over time just by watching the AH (a terrific investment)!

I believe this principle can also be applied to jewelry, weapons, shields, etc.  You’d be amazed at how quickly 250 silver for a piece or armor accumulates when you sell a set or 2 on the AH at a time.

Know your community

Our server, Gladden, has recently had a shortage of lvl 50 hope tokens, and Khazad-copper as well, which is used to make tokens. I hopped on my jeweler, had some downtime to harvest some khazad-copper, and bam an hour later I’m selling tokens for 900s-1.1g per token!  In fact, Khazad-copper is perhaps the one mat that currently is worth the time to farm at this time.

Also, I don’t pay for these personally, but scrolls of empowerment have consistently been selling for about 10 gold a pop, and you can buy them with 1900 skirmish marks. A good payout for a couple hours of work if you are hurting for some quick coin.  Again, I tend to keep those for myself, but I know there is a market for these popular, farmable items.

From my Walmart perspective, I will do a search by level/tier to see if there is a need not being met.  If there is, and I have easy access to the mats, I’ll put up a set or two of armor, and watch it fly off the shelves in the next 48 hours.

Pay attention to how YOU play

When I level my toons, for example, I don’t purchase or make special stuff for them until they are at least level 18-20 and up.  Therefore, I really don’t try to sell stuff to toons under that level range.  Besides, a low level toon doesn’t have much money!

Also, consider that there are *many* alts out there that get to lvl 20-30, slightly fewer from 30-40, and slightly fewer from 40-64, and finally an abundance of lvl 65′s. Consider the number of potential buyers there may be for what it is you are selling.  Higher tier gear may get more money per item, but I think there is a sweet spot in terms of price and volume, keeping in mind that needs can change over time.

Price and set up your auctions appropriately

I always set a buy it now price, as I hate to wait for an auction to end.  Even if you are the only person on the server selling a certain item, if you mark it up too high it simply won’t sell.

Also, I can’t think of a good reason to do anything less than a 48 hour auction.  If something doesn’t sell, cut the price mildly and relist.  Don’t forget to drag your item to the AH text box to search and see if one or more isn’t already for sale.  You don’t want to be the most expensive seller do you?

Time is money

If you are a lvl 65 SM tailor, and you need some medium hide, don’t harvest it.  Buy it.  Contribute to the economy.  It’s cheap, and once you sell a few things it should pay for itself quite quickly.  Furthermore, the silver that you give to the player who did harvest it, may end up coming back to you when he or she buys the armor that you just made from it.

Anomalies

One current AH anomaly is the symbol of celebrimbor (item from SG’s 3rd boss and BG bosses to craft 2nd age lvl 65 Legendary Items), which I’ve seen posted for 80-100g. I am shocked people will pay for these, but apparently they do.  I’ve come across 2 of these in my adventures, and I used both of them to make weapons for my character.

With Mirkwood, these items were extremely rare at the start.  Subjectively, my kin and myself feel that they are starting to drop much more frequently, but I will leave you with this prediction: in coming weeks and months, their prices will drop as their prevalence rises.  If someone in my group won this item, and then sold it, I would be furious.  They are still considered relatively rare, but IMO they are an item you *should* want to use, not sell, in the best interest of the game and your character.  After all, there are enough other ways to make money in LOTRO

Thanks,
Decimma, 65 RK, Gladden Server