Patch Day Stockpiling

    One of the most exciting times for any gold maker is patch day.  My first really big patch day was with the release of Ulduar.  Before that point, I really only focused on making sure I had enough materials before a given patch.
    I had been selling flasks during Naxx and making a good profit doing it.  Raid leaders on my server, required people to use flasks to raid, thus, people were required to do so.  After awhile, I couldn’t farm enough myself anymore and simplify bought materials from the Auction House to meet demand.  With less time spent farming, I really started to make great profit.  The week before Ulduar, I made a decision to go all in..
    I had about 60k at the time and I bought all the lichbloom, frost lotus, gold clover, ice thorn, and premade flasks (both attack power and spell power) out of the auction house.  I dropped to 20k, then a mere 6k after buying a second surge of materials.  Then I doubled the price.  There was hate tells.  Why was I charging 80 gold for a 40 gold item?  They wouldn’t pay it--they’d farm it themselves--I was a bad person.  But at the end of the day, most people did pay it.
    After wiping the market out for a full ten days, it recovered faster than I could keep up.  The damage was done though.  The price had skyrocketed on these items and for the most part it never recovered.  Throughout most of Wrath, the price was 60.  It took until the end of the year of ICC for the price to really decline.
    Flasks aren’t profitable anymore because of the guild cauldron perk.  The market has shifted to gems and enchanting materials these days.  I’ve noticed Elementium ore on my server went from as low as 30 gold a stack to now 150+.  Red gems have gone from 50 to well over 300.  The demand is much higher than it was for Firelands and 4.2.  Why though?
    The new 5 mans are easier than the troll dungeons, so there’s some pick up there.  But the real reason, clearly is the Raid Finder.  LFR has brought a larger casual player base into raiding.  This extra content for really casual players has enticed them to by the best gems and enchants.  I’d imagine those that stockpiled pyrite for epic gems and didn’t panic sell it, are making a fortune
    What about future patch days?
    I‘ve mentioned this before, but during Wrath I stockpiled 16,000 glyphs.  The reason was because I was making them from 1-2 gold each.  I decided the value of the glyphs would appreciate more than gold would.  With my market manipulation, I’d assume that probably got over 200,000 gold for that small investment. 
    This tier of raids is over, thus the materials have a shelf life.  The thing to stockpile are materials on the leveling path for trade skills.  After all, all the new pandas and monks are going to need to level professions.  It is doubtful many will want to do it while they level.  Outland materials are already a royal pain to gather and prices will doubtless be high for those and wrath materials.  There’s a huge opportunity to pick up materials during “the dumping” as the people get rid of this expansion’s materials as well.

Finally, I sold some more glyphs and have turned a small profit on my investment.  I still have a large amount of inventory as well.  My overall value has plummeted as the invisible hand has begun to thwart the strings I pulled.