Another Day, Consistency pays, we need the idiots and impatient

Consistency

Slow and steady

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast

Few would argue that that JC and Enchanting are the single best markets for max profits.  Steady sales come from multiple sources.  Early content, the elitist crowd will pay for the best of the best and many others will pay for the less expensive versions.  Still other have no idea just how much optimizing gear realy contributes.  Food and Flasks are in the same category.  For instance, food and flasks are 390 primary stats for each of 5 DPS in a 10 man raid... thats 1950 str/agi/int on just the dps... Is it worth it? how many wipes have you been in where that kind of boost would have made a 2% or 8% attempt at kill... Food, flasks, BiS enchants and gems... Its consistency of 9 or 24 other players bringing that that makes the difference.  Consitently showing up consistently being optimized and produces better results when you have a team that has the same mentality.

FORTUNATELY the AH game demands so much less of "the other players" they get to be idiots and we get to profit.  There are still only 2 gold generators... (3 if you count the guild perk "cash flow")   1.  Dead bodies cash, and 2. NPCs (vendor and quest rewards)  ALL other sources of changing your personal gold total is from trading...   So the point is that questing is arguably the highest GPH activity... Maybe farming old raids where the gold drops off the bosses is largerish...  This on the premise of CREATING GOLD, not CREATING WEALTH.  We, the goblins need the idiots that spend their money in the AH to "give" us the gold they create, and we create wealth..  they are happy being idiots and who am I to judge, in fact calling them idiot is ONLY my PERSONAL perspective on it... they, pay again and again with the gold they have from dailies for our goods... it is it's own digital ecosystem...

If I/we consistenly post goods on the AH they will consistently buy them if the price is right.  They worked hard for the gold they have in many cases and attempt to horde the 10K that they have.  Slowly enter markets and test the waters to see what sells.  Reevalute sales speed/volume/profit margin and determine if its worth getting into the market.  Then consistently sell those goods at a fair price, and slow and steady increase your markets.  More markets, slow exploration/entry, slow growth is the idea that you are reinvesting much of your gold into new markets untill you hit that happy place where your maintenance of the markets you have entered is to the point where you do not want to invest more time daily into that activity...  I certainly do NOT just play on the AH..  My threshold is about where I am at.  Pets, LW item enhancements, and enchanting scrolls.  To maintain those take nearly 45 min/day, minimum.  Frequently more as prices and thresholds shift and need management/assessment for profitablility.  I may often go on a buying spree for mats when prices are good.  3000 Hypnotic dust, 1000 GCEssences 100 heavenly shards 100 Maelstrom crystals... no problem... but getting to those levels of stockpiling and organizing it takes time beyond the 45 min/day.  A weekly trip to the pet vendors is about another 45 minutes or so.  And then a crafting session for the LW goods also can take a bit of time once a week or so. 

So for myself the threshold of time to invest is this.  about 45 min/day for one cancel post (can do in about 10-15 or 30 depending on how much crafting stocking I do.  thats just for my Enchanting.  Usually only one cancel/post per day for the bank alt with the pets and LW enhancements.

30-45 min/day enchanting (I do not do any significant crafting ahead with enchanting, mostly craft as needed for posting)
5-10 min/day pets/LW goods
45 min/week pet stocking
45 min/week LW stocking (crafted goods)
and probably 2-3 hours/week in ZA managing thresholds.
about 2-3 hours various times of the week stocking enchanting mats

The more consistent I am about doing these things the more gold I bring in weekly.
Balancing these activities is to some level an art.  The balance is to be able to review failed autions and turn them into profitable auctions.  or just let them fail as the market heaves and moves.  And also haveing a sufficient stock of chant mats ready to craft durring that 45 min/per day.

Example: Maestrom crystals continue to fall in price, my sales were noticably diminishing.  I reviewed every Enchant that uses MCs and reset most of the thresholds to start making sales again...

Overall, each day is much like the last in my AH game.  Consistency...  I keep making thing they want and they keep giving me their gold... Though I dont have enough gold to buy EVERYTHING in the game, I think I have enough to buy about ANYTHING.. but, for now I am hanging on to it.  I kinda like having the mountain of gold in my coffers...