How I got started? 1Mil in sight! How did I get here?

I was once that guy that was "okay" w/ normal speed flight because 5K was so far out of reach.  Then wrath hit and my first maxed toon was a BS/Engi... what a horible combo to try to level up professions early in an expansion.  I remember... So, I found a way to make a good amount of gold on my time investment.  Zap clouds for crystalized fire in sholozar.. it got me over 5K and got me the first epic flight toon..

Some where along the way, I shifted away from farming/dailies for gold... Fast forward to the end of Wrath.  I still have those 6 level 80 ally toons on another server and have not touched them in a long time.  A complete hard reset on my part occured and I started from scratch on a new server, with a new faction and a new toon and NO assist.. that first toon did not even have heirlooms.  I leveled up w/ herbalism/inscription because I wanted to play at the DMC game.. and what a game, less than 6 months to 400K and less than one month back to only 100... leveled a second toon enchanting/LW droped herbalism and went alchy on the first. Got out of the scribe market (did very little with glyphs)  I caught the 'wave' in those 346 relics and the 359 DMCs... and made piles and piles... That was the first really addon use and learning experience.  I now still focus on enchanting and LW leg armors, and a few other easy markets.  Its coming on a year of learning and study to be able to look potentially at 1M + gold.

In some ways because it was raiding ambition to get back with some old friend on a new server, that I did a hard reset to the way I play.  I quit chasing mounts, I quit chasing pets and achieves... but in the end and looking back I had little choice but to "BREAK the CYCLE"

"If you always do what you always did... You will always get what you always got!!!" 

That cliche sums it up... It was a Hard reset, it was starting over and looking at things in a new way.  As I leveled I was seeing information in addons in a new way and was making limited entry into markets based on what I could obtain at the level of the toon and professions.  Having done a little PVP, and a fair bit of raiding, as well as twinking lowbies and pimping out bank alts, chasing achieves and playing tanks, healers DPS, I knew a lot about the potential influences in markets.  I would regularly scan the AH and evaluate things like the price of herbs that would mill for the same result, but put em on the AH and the results were NOT going to be the same.  So as I was herbing for a lot of xp and gold and inscription leveling mats, I was also watching for what to sell and what to mill, what to buy w/ the gold and what glyphs were potential money makers and what ones were solid losses and which were break even types...  That was the only glyphs I really played with.  The ones I used to level inscription, but it taught me my first lessons in patience to offload slowly the piles of glyphs I crafted to level over weeks.  I also learned the value of "Lil Sparky's Workshop" (LSW) and market evaluation, and learning it will LIE to you, or at least miss lead you...  The same with LW, and enchanting.  LW does have modestly to low profits in the lower end, the level 10-15 gear can be turned over for profit.  But not it its in an heirloom slot, and not if it does not have Str/Int/Agi and stam... go for the twiker leveling guys or the twinker PVP crowds... start as soon as possible crafting only for profitable sales, and if you can not level profitably, start crafting for minimum loss.  This was easily done w/ LSW.  As I started into this I played w/ vendor pet flips, and niche markets like Primal Might xmutes, and low level twinker items... as I focused my eforts on enchanting... In the end it has become a process of guessing markets and never selling at loss...  If it does not sell, Prolly not going to play at it.  My focus now has moved away from most non-raid low volume itmes to Higher volume and low deposit cost items. 

Belt buckles is the one item I am playing with that does have a deposit cost, but volume and profit margins make it negligable.  Posting 5 at a time and no canceling when reposting on them I think i sold over 70 in 3 days...  I made a guess here on the market, as with every item, but its a good example of the process in a "case study" of how I evalute each item for sales.  1.  Suspect it will sell  2. Prove it will sell 3. Identify time invested per sale 4. evalutate potential for sales volume 5. calculate deposit costs into profit margins 6. Start snatching mats at low prices 7. Work precrafting goods into routines 8. Re-evaluate sales and posting schedules, volume and markets for current turnover.  

Overall on Ebonsteel Belt Buckles (EBBs) I found I regularly and quickly was undercut.  The server pop is large and trying to wall in the competition was not under consideration.  Deposit cost are more than negligible, but not opressive.  I found posting 5 would often sell 2-3 quickly before getting undercut, but leaving the other 2-3 on the Ah would lead to eventual sales.  So they go up for 48 hours and I dont draw massive attention to my posting paterns at 5/posting.  I may end up with 20+ on the AH, but I have already commited the deposit cost, and when the other guys sell out that undercut me, mine will sell.  This is also influenced but the auctionator dispay to manually post item.  I noticed few regular posters posting over 10 per posting... I am also posting 5/ on my main posting toon and then manually posting 5 at a time on the crafting toon...  Posting paterns for me now are most mornings, early evening (after work), later evening (before raid) and and late night (after raid).  The later ones are often done multiple times too, since I will cancel post, snatch mats, craft piles of stuff, and then cancel post again right after work before dinner.  So, in a day I can easily end up posting 30 EBBs/day.  Another thing I will often do is just Post.  I have items to post in piles in my bags, of the higher volume items, and I will skip the cancel -> collect mail -> restock -> post and just post again from what is in my bags.  This slows down the next cancel/post routine since I will be canceling much higher volume of items with the undercuts, but ehh its a quick way to get more sales.

If your new the markets, I hope this help, but at the end of the day, patience and persistencs proves that time is money.