How to make money with Engineering (Without Farming)

[Kysimir]

So, this isn't a guide - but a few pointers that I felt like sharing. Mostly, because I get asked this question a lot on my server, and I'm going to just macro a link to this thread. This may not work on your server, dependent on your servers' economy. So no, "On my server, this doesn't work" please. This is meant to be an over-generalized starting point for beginners.

10 Techniques to strike it big with Engineering in 10 minutes or less a day.


(1) Download Auctioneer.
(2) Never list for 48 hours. Only list for 12 hours. Always. 90% of the time, you will be undercut within 12 hours, making >12h auctions useless.
(3) Shatter Rounds > Icefall Arrows

• (a) Dwarves have + crit % to using guns, so long-term bullets will win.
  
  (b) All the really good ranged weapons seem to be (x)bows, not guns. So demand is significantly lower. However, most engineers are hunters (to supply their own arrows), or intuitively went for arrows due to the slant of (x)bows Vs. guns. This means that competition in arrows is excessively high. (Example: Cenarian Circle :: Arrows (<5g /s) Bullets (9-12g /s)

(4) It's not about controlling, or manipulating the market on Bullets. It's about riding it. Always look at Saronite/Eternal Earth/Thorium* (Re: Pets), even if you have plenty. If you see it cheaper than normal, stock up. You'll be able to keep your business going when during the inflation phase(s) of raw materials because of this.

• Too many people try to control, or excessively manipulate, the market. You'll lose your ass if you have any sort of competition against you with more free time than you. Don't try to control it, or else buckle down for a lot of work. Simply post a few copper lower than the lowest price every time you list.

(5) Do not merely buy up your competition, ride it out. However, to avoid the market bottoming out; let the value of the ammo reach ~40% of it's normal, then buy the competition, and re-list it. You may not sell them all @ 100% Market Value, but you'll make your money back from the investment, and your (personally made) rounds will sell for more.
(6) Never list more than 30,000 Shatter Rounds, and never retain more than 50,000 Shatter Rounds on your person.
(7) When you exceed 50,000 Shatter Rounds in reserve, open up Auctioneer and see who your most frequent buyers are. Send them an in-game mail, containing 10,000 free Shatter Rounds. The investment may be wasted or it may have excellent returns. However, 10,000 Shatter Rounds isn't excessively expensive - so the risk is low, and gain is potentially high.

• (a) Contain in that e-mail some excuse -- I made too many; or I got lucky on selling a few choppers and felt like being generous.
  
  (b) Also contain in that e-mail a friendly, but not pushy, offer of bypassing the Auction House, and have them mail you a REQUEST (NOT MATERIALS) for XX,XXX Shatter Rounds whenever they're needed at 80% AH price. (This will bypass Auction House fees, and cut for you, resulting in only about 5% loss. This will also, should they take you up on your offer, bypass any potential loss of income due to competition undercutting you at inopportune times) -- TL;DR = -5% income for you +20% income for them.

(8 ) Be honest, always. Never attempt to sell Shatter Rounds for more than 30g/s - never less than 6g/s. Never try to deceive, or rip off, the people who work with you via mail.
(9) Choppers: Come up with a catchy jingle to help sell it. Become an icon in your community. If they think of choppers, they had better think of you. Never, under any circumstance, AH your salvaged chopper parts. Retain them for personal use, or commercial use. When individuals buy a chopper for 12.5k + mats, sell them a salvaged part in lieu of vendor part. This will cause you to receive the full fiscal benefit of the part; rather than selling it on the AH for ~80%.

• (a) In addition, search the AH for vendor parts before making a chopper for the same reasoning.

(10) Pets: Pets are tricky. They're only worth what people pay for them, and people will only pay so much. Periodically check (especially during the weekend) on materials such as "Globe of water" and "Thorium", and keep a keen eye on trade chat for lowbies "LF places to farm Thorium". Swipe them up when they're cheap, and convince the lowbies to sell to you for wholesale prices what they don't need. Only make pets when the mats are at or under 30-50g each.

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For those wondering: while using Saronite/Thermal charges every GCD on a 28 hour raid schedule, as well as speed pots per boss, flasks, elixirs, and BiS food for tanking and DPS; leveling an alts' riding skill/professions; I maintain 8 to 25kg without dailies/farming, and spending only about 7 - 12 minutes a day on the AH. So, while it may not work on your server, it seems to work on mine.

Anyhow, take it, hate it, whatever!

[Xeparate]

So I recently decided on picking up Enginering, mostly because my guild lacks one! is there any universal tips too get some gold outta this? I may not know alot about Enginering, but I have always looked at it as a PvP profession. Any help would be appreciated!

And I'm sorry if my english aint the best, it's not my native language, and i might have some alcohol in my body while writing this!

[starvethedead]

So I recently decided on picking up Enginering...is there any universal tips too get some gold outta this?

[Kysimir]

LOL...

I guffawed at the JPEG. Thanks

[Haruk]

Yeah, I laughed at the pic too.

Basically, you don't make any money with engineering. Farming eternals with the mote extractor is your best bet, but it's more of a gathering than crafting activity.

Engineering needs an item enhancement that can be sold to everyone (not just other engineers). Maybe this was the intention with scopes, but ranged weapons are used by so few classes (Hunters and Rogues) that they don't sell in quantity (compared to armor enhancements like leg armors from skinning or belt buckles or what have you that everybody can use).

Blizz should introduce a scaled down version of flexweave underlay that could be sold to non-engineers or something like that. Maybe an epic armor/weapon piece to go along with the guns (which again, are too class restricted to sell in any sort of numbers) to level the playing field with other professions a bit as far as "items which sell".

[Deleted]

AH costs for making 1k Mammoth Cutters on my realm are 2.9g right now, and it sells for 4.5g
Considering the AH cut, that's 4.3g
So i'm making 1.4g/1k bullets, and that's supposed to be productive ?
Even selling 100.000 (ffs that's alot of bullets) per day won't bring me more than 150g, so i'd rather go make my dailies/solo old content
I think the only good way to make money out of Engineering is selling choppers, and only if you are able to get your own materials instead of buying them (i'm speaking of the Titansteel Bars). The only bad part is that you actually need those 12.5k gold to start making them.

I check the AH quite often and i once noticed that a chopper has been sold for 17 or 18k gold (either that or the seller took the item back for some strange reason)
I didn't sell any chopper yet, i'm close to getting those 12.5k tho... did any of sell any ? for how much ?

[Niah]

Best way I found to make gold with engi is to combine it with mining and gather motes and ore at the same time, silly what u can get in sholzalar basin etc when u can get crystalized fire^^

[Kysimir]

AH costs for making 1k Mammoth Cutters on my realm are 2.9g right now, and it sells for 4.5g
Considering the AH cut, that's 4.3g
So i'm making 1.4g/1k bullets, and that's supposed to be productive ?
Even selling 100.000 (ffs that's alot of bullets) per day won't bring me more than 150g, so i'd rather go make my dailies/solo old content
I think the only good way to make money out of Engineering is selling choppers, and only if you are able to get your own materials instead of buying them (i'm speaking of the Titansteel Bars). The only bad part is that you actually need those 12.5k gold to start making them.

I check the AH quite often and i once noticed that a chopper has been sold for 17 or 18k gold (either that or the seller took the item back for some strange reason)
I didn't sell any chopper yet, i'm close to getting those 12.5k tho... did any of sell any ? for how much ?

Like I said, at the very beginning, it might not work on your server, depending on your server's economy.

For my server, the cost to make is about 4.5g and they sell for 7 to 15g per 1000. So, for me, to sell 20,000 bullets I can make about 200g.

Choppers sell pretty easily for 15,000 on my server.

[Aswed]

Haven't seen a chopper on AH for quite a while, like 5 months, they use to be around 15k gold.

[Takedown]

15-19k on my server last i checked(while ago)...Sounds like a niec way of making chash....and guys,this isn't just for cutters(w/e) it's for every other item,such as dusts,leathers,ores,,gems etc...

Coodoes to u Kysi,i guess ill give that a go
(ty)

[Tarou]

I've found that Engineering can make gold with a few different things and I have some videos and guides (free ofcourse) on my website. Ultimately though, you are taking up Engineering for the perks like:

[Jeeves]
[Turbo-Charged Flying Machine Control]
[Wormhole Generator: Northrend]
[MOLL-E]
Nitro Boosts
Parachute
Reginald Arcfire - Auctioneer in Dalaran
Brassbolt Mechawrench - Auctioneer in Dalaran

and many others... which are well worth it in my opinion. Such a fun profession.

[heartledger]

funny ...on my server..no one is selling the mammoth cutters..idk why but ima start selling those il do alot of adds about those bullets il make a couple of gold since in gbank have 4000 volatile blasting powde...from engineering ulduar's first boss's

[gotrek]

Scholo. Basin is best for farm. fires (u get fires from EVERY cloud there) + tons of saronite/titanium if u r miner.

[Kysimir]

Zomg Bump to include 3.3 changes.

[Deleted]

on the chopper: on my server, you sometimes see one in the AH (15-17k) but you almost never get them sold.

my way used to be farming sholazar, then afkfarming zuldrak for cobalt, then selling ammo.
razorheads go for 4g, cutters for 6 to 12g on my server. if it was >10g, i sometimes bought mats off the AH. I almost never sold saronite or cobalt in ores or bars, just a better profit selling them as ammo. the only thing i sell uncrafted is eternal fire.

what i do now: sell both kinds of epic ammo :P no more. easy money once you have the reputation, I got back the money for the prim saronite in like 3 days (x15 minutes). No farming anymore.

everything else than selling ammo never got me loads of money. I mean you can sell e.g. mech yetis for like 4x the price of the mats, but i never sold more than 2 or 3 in one day, and it's the MASSES of ammo you sell if you undercut well that make the money.

[Tablemaker]

funny ...on my server..no one is selling the mammoth cutters..idk why but ima start selling those il do alot of adds about those bullets il make a couple of gold since in gbank have 4000 volatile blasting powde...from engineering ulduar's first boss's

That's because they are obsolete.

my way used to be farming sholazar, then afkfarming zuldrak for cobalt, then selling ammo.

You're making gold from Mining there... not Engineering. Hell, on most servers... the cobalt itself can provide a bigger profit than the bullets.

Engineering is not meant to be a massive gold making profession.

[Kysimir]

That's because they are obsolete.

You're making gold from Mining there... not Engineering. Hell, on most servers... the cobalt itself can provide a bigger profit than the bullets.

Also, more importantly, "Without farming" -- he was farming. >.>

[Deleted]

You're making gold from Mining there... not Engineering. Hell, on most servers... the cobalt itself can provide a bigger profit than the bullets.

Engineering is not meant to be a massive gold making profession.

my point was that I mined the ores which I could've sold for profit (that's as far as mining goes), but I increased that profit by about 100% (up to 200 sometimes) by crafting ammo out of the mined metal.
and if the momentary AH price was high enough, I also bought the mats off the ah (also mentioned if you cared to read on), making engineering the only profit profession in the calculation.

also, the way i am making money now is a) farming-less b) purely engineering. And i dont consider it "massive" in money-making, as i couldnt double my profit doubling the time selling ammo, but 15-20g profit per stack (i know that that will decrease by more and more ppl getting the recipes) times 20-50 stacks a day to me is nice, say what you will .

PS

Hell, on most servers... the cobalt itself can provide a bigger profit than the bullets.

pls elaborate. you mean farming the ore then selling it? then why not increase the profit by crafting bullets?
or do you mean buying the ore, then reselling it for more profit than you could have made crafting bullets? that would never work, considering the price structures i've encountered.

[Deleted]

I've only ever sold Two choppers in my time.

And I didnt AH. They will never sell on there.

I spoke to the two wanting choppers and I said "Have the mats and the money in two weeks" and sure enough they both came back. Then they came with me and exchanged me gold so i could buy the special mats and I made em.

Any excess gold they told me to keep as a tip. I made just over 1K.

[Kysimir]

@ the "choppers don't sell" bit.

They very rarely sell for 15k. Mostly because not many people have 15k.

However, they do sell. I've sold about ~20 for 15k and made about 8 for materials. It all comes down to marketing, and how inflated your economy is.