Here is a short guide on how to make gold in Diablo 3. If you are looking for a professional guide, I recommend you check out
Diablo 3 Hero. You have to pay for ir, but they got a 60 days money back guarantee if your not 100% satisfied.
Any Level Strategy #1: Flipping Commodities ( Jump to strategy #2 if you are in a territory were this isn't possible)
The best part about flipping comodities is that you can cancel your auctions at any time. There's nothing like the terrible feeling of knowing you have 10 locked auctions because you're only selling gear at the moment.
This strategy works best for gems, but simiarly well for blacksmithing/jewelcrafting pages and subtle essences. I'll go over how each strategy is a little different for each, as well as how you can adapt this method for any high traded market.
Flipping Gems
Before anything else, understand the value of gems. Gems have a very simple pecking order: Ruby -> Topaz -> Emerald -> Amestyst. I expect that order to change, with Amestyst moving to the front of the pack later on when inferno is the current tier of gameplay. You could take a chance and buy those like crazy now for cheap, but that's up to you crazy speculators!
Next you need to decide which level gem you want to flip. Do not, repeat do not, try to buy 3 of a gem and then combine it with your jewelcrafter in the hopes of making a profit. Right now, each tier of gems is worth about 2.5x the previous tier. It's completely not worth your time to try forcing that strategy. Instead, look to flip within the same level of gems. To start off, let's take a look at chipped rubies, probably the highest traded gem in the game right now.
Take a look at 100x chipped rubies. Note the price and multiply it by 0.85. That is what you would have left over if you sold chipped rubies at that price after the auction house cut. Now take the original 100x price and multiply by 0.50. That's the number you want to shoot for, and your profit will be equal to the first price minus the second. Now, choose 1x chipped rubies for search and read the price. If it's at or below the 50% value you determined earlier, then buyout, confirm buyout and then... (this is important)... click buyout again. Keep doing that until you get a bid failed error. This is a bug right now, but your owed gold for the failed bid will not show up in your shared stash until you close and reopen the auction house (then open completed tab). Just remember to do that when you want the gold back.
For chipped rubies, I would recommend buying maybe 5x or even 10x in order to increase the value of your efforts. But as you're just starting out, the 1x search is best. You'll notice it's pretty hard to win the bet every time, and that's when you should move to larger quantities.
Now, what about selling your winnings? Just price them at the value you saw for 100x. If you pick up more rubies or they haven't sold in an hour of play, then cancel your auction and relist. You may find that several (but not all) sold and the game will compensate you appropriately.
Keep tryin new gem types and levels to find more profitable options!
Flipping Subtle Essences
These move FAST, so you'll want to search by 100x or greater. Otherwise you'll end up chasing and getting bid failed errors every time if you search for 1x or even 20x. Note the price of 10,000x subtle essences, calculate the price needed to make a profit, and then go to town searching at 100x looking for deals. Flipping Blacksmithing Pages and Jewelcrafting Pages
The blacksmithing ones trade faster and are worth more, so I stuck to those mostly in my own efforts. I tried jewelcrafting pages and they work; they just aren't worth as much for your time. Search for 100x (you can't search higher and this sucks!!!) at first to get a feel for the market. This isn't a very good read, since people buy these dozens at at time, so you'll want to rely on an understanding of the market over a longer period of time.
Any Level Strategy #2: Selling Amulets and Rings
You can go to merchants throughout act I and act II to buy very cheap rings/amulets that are best in slot (magic, not rare) for characters leveling through those acts. If you price them at values new players can afford, then you will easily flip them for 2-3x the investment. I would advise grabbing the ones with wounding and another core stat like intellect, dexterity, or strength. The damage increase is huge for low level characters and a real reason to buy the rings/amulets. Experience is also another great stat combined with the +damage. Look to buy these for less than 3k and then flip them for as much as 6k depending on competition.
Biggest Lesson: Learn to search appropriately. We all know how to search for an item on the ah and compare prices, or do we? You should get ultra specific with your first search, particularly with regards to item level, affix type, and affix amounts. Get a super close look at similar items (and if there are any at all) first to determine if you can even sell your item against the competition. Then price below everyone else and be done with it.
You also need to learn what players can afford. A new character isn't going to drop more than 6,000 gold on a ring. They just can't afford it! You can wear the rings at level 6, and by then the person can hopefully afford one of these and then buy another by level 8 or 9. Amulets can go for a little more, maybe 9k max. Check the competition and don't go higher than the numbers I'm giving you. That was for normal mode, nightmare is a little different (and it's much harder to get perfect rings/amulets from the vendors). I would suggest going 5x the vendor price, as a minimum.
Speaking of gear prices, normal mode rares tend to sell fast at 3,000 to 8,000 gold. Once again, it's a matter of what leveling characters can realistically afford. For nightmare, I'm finding 10,000 to 20,000 is also a pretty fast sale. But how do you know where your item falls in terms of value? Synergy. Do your stats make sense? Will hunters really want that strength bow? Will wizards want that dexterity staff? If you check d3db.com, are you towards or at the top for one or more stats? If you can roll an item with one max stat then you know that you can price pretty high. If it's lower then you need to give the player a deal to gaurantee a sale. Just remember what they can afford!
For the reason that the game is new and players don't have a lot of gold, avoid selling legendaries for the moment.
Don't forget to apply the things you just learned for higher level rings, such as nightmare, hell, and even inferno.
Best stats to sell for inferno difficulty
Act 3 (and 4) Vendor
Ring
- 71 dex, str, int
- 15% attack speed
Amulet
- 13% attack speed
- 100 dex, str, int
Any Level Strategy #3: Selling Weapons
The key to selling weapons is putting a gem in them. I have been looking at each level and buying cheap weapons that have high dps, then place a great gem in them. The gem brings the already high dps even higher and suddenly you have a weapon that will show up on people's "recommended" lists for their characters.
Ok so my strategy with selling weapons is now this:
Step 1: Search for Weapons of a certain type (2h Axe for example) and then pick a level that has those items above level 50. Don't go 50-60, but rather, use an exact level like 50, 51, 52, etc. Why the 50's? Because these are the easiest flips in the world with how much dps increases for players from level 50 to 60. They constantly have to find new weapons or else they will hit walls throughout hell and into early inferno.
Step 2: Sort the listing by dps so that the highest dps is at the top. Look at the values and note whatever the higher numbers are. Remember to factor in gems if a weapon has them, as the dps will display incorrectly on the auction house tab (but they will rank properly regardless). Take note of the first page and what constitutes top end dps at the moment.
Step 3: Add "Has Sockets" to your search criteria. Now sort again by dps and take a look at the weapons that pop up. You're looking for something with relatively high dps (not necessarily as high as the others, but close enough that an added red gem would push it up there). If you find a weapon that is close to top end dps, fairly cheap, and has an empty socket, then you have a winner!
Step 4: Take the purchased weapon and add at least a flawless square damage red gem. When you add the gem, pay attention to the weapon's dps in game as it will appear correctly (not so in the auction house). You can then use this information to compare to any non-gemmed weapons on the first page of search results.
Step 5: Search the weapon listing without "Has Sockets" and figure out where your weapon should go amongst the top dps items. Give a healthy discount, aiming for 75% or less than what the item really should
sell for. This will give you a fast flip.
Here are some examples of weapons I flipped in about a day using this strategy. I only spent 10 minutes finding these and made quite a bit from the process.
The goal is to show up on people's "recommended" lists with a high dps weapon and at a great price!"
Guide to Selling Socketed Weapons
When flipping weapons you want your item to show up on the first page so you have a bigger audience to sell to. Not just the first page with modifiers like +str/dex/int, the first page of an unmodified search.
Lets take a look at this pic. I did a search for Wizard / 2h weapons / all 2h weapons / top level of 53. Super broad search right?
What I see here is a bunch of 2h crossbows with prices ranging from 40k to 600k. I also see that the top dps is 350.5 and the bottom dps is 333.7. But wait. How is there a 327.0 dps weapon in the middle there?
What is happening is that on the AH the modified dps counts towards your spot on the page, but it isn't shown on the page.
Gems that are socketed in the weapon will raise the dps on the weapon without showing on the AH search page.
So how do you find the true dps of the weapons in the AH? Simple, use a tool I found online that some guy from armada gaming has built and put up for anyone to use. It calculates how much dps a weapon will give your character.
Go open this site in a new tab or window now.
LINK.
We will not be using the whole thing because we only care about the weapon dps not how it will effect your character. If you want to use the full calculator for your character, watch this video he made explaining both how to use it and the math going on behind the scenes. For our purposes, just skip the video I'll tell ya what to do
Ok so lets look at the dps calculator page. There are only 5 sections we care about on this page.
1. Primary weapon type – type of weapon.
Some weapon choices are giving the wrong attack speed modifier. Make sure you choose a weapon that gives you the right speed even if it is the wrong weapon. For example if you are testing a 2h Axe you need to use the Mighty Weapon choice since 2h Axes have the wrong speed attached to them.
3. Primary decimal ias – any additional attacks stated on the weapon.
4. Primary damage range – damage range stated on the weapon.
5. Primary ias bonus – additional attack speed stated on the weapon.
6. Damage range bonuses – damage range added from the gem you socket.
Now lets look at the highest dps on the front page.
Voracious Eagle shows a dps of 350.5 with a socket that is not filled and a 12% improved attack speed. Lets put in our stats in the calculator:
- Primary weapon type – crossbow.
- Primary decimal ias – none on the weapon so leave it blank.
- Primary damage range – 224 to 345.
- Primary ias bonus – 12.
- Damage range bonuses – no gem socketed so leave it blank.
Hit the calculate weapon's damage range button and we get 350.5 with 1.23 attacks per second.
If we do the same thing for the lowest item on the page we will see the least amount of dps we need to get on the front page.
Notice that there is no gem or even a socket on the Shadow Eagle so we know that 333.7 is the correct dps.
We have found our range of dps to land on the front page is between 333.7 and 350.5.
Now lets look at that pesky Barren Eagle, with its 327 dps in the middle of the page.
See, now it has a square ruby socketed in it for an extra 13 to 26 damage. Lets see its true dps.
- Primary weapon type – crossbow.
- Primary decimal ias – none on the weapon so leave it blank.
- Primary damage range – 253 to 341.
- Primary ias bonus – none so leave it blank.
- Damage range bonuses – 13 to 26.
Hit the calculate weapon's damage range button and we get 348.2 (rounded) with 1.10 attacks per second. Now it makes sense that it lands on the front page when normally it would be on page 2.
So lets find a good deal that could have been on the front page if only the original owner would have spruced it up with a nice fat ruby.
Do another search and this time add in “Has Sockets” modifier. I also like to add the “Additional Attack Speed %” modifier because the extra attack speed makes the gem stronger.
Did my search and on page 2 I found a steal of a deal at 7.5k with an un gemmed socket and a dps close to the front page as is. I know it was just put up because the time on it is 1d23h left.
Lets do the dps math on the Mentor's Mark.
- Primary weapon type – Staff.
- Primary decimal ias – none on the weapon so leave it blank.
- Primary damage range – 207 to 372.
- Primary ias bonus – 15.
- Damage range bonuses – 13 to 26 (Pretending to put a square ruby in it).
Hit the calculate weapon's damage range button and we get 355.3 (rounded) with 1.15 attacks per second. This will not only hit the front page it will be the top item.
Hurry lets get it.
Crap. It sold while I was figuring out the dps. Oh well there is another low-ish priced weapon on the page lets see if it would make it to the front page.
- Primary weapon type – Crossbow.
- Primary decimal ias – none on the weapon so leave it blank.
- Primary damage range – 213 to 318.
- Primary ias bonus – 13.
- Damage range bonuses – 13 to 26 (Pretending to put a square ruby in it).
Hit the calculate weapon's damage range button and we get 354.3 (rounded) with 1.24 attacks per second. Looks like its still gonna take the number 2 spot on the page if that Mentor's Mark gets posted.
Now that you found a weapon that you know will make the first page, you need to look at the other stats to see if its something people will want. Remember we were searching for wizard 2h weapons so we want to see stuff that a wizard will use. Next look to see what prices the weapon will land around. Since it will be at the top people will compare it with the 200k and the 250k weapons. Price your weapon to look like a steal compared with these. If I had won that Mentor's Mark I would have had to sell it for at least 8,824 to break even. Since the lowest price on the page was 40k I could have undercut that for 1g and still made 31,175 profit. Since it would land in the top slot it probably could have gone for way more.
Any Level Strategy #4 Bid Flipping
This is for anyone with a few minutes to spare on the auction house who wants to make easy, fast gold.
Sound like someone you know?
Ok, let's get started!
WARNING: Never, EVER post just weapons/armor on the auction house. This will potentially lock up your slots and render you unable to play the ah game for 48 hours. Although this strategy is easy, there are still times where you will end up with gear that really isn't worth anything. Stuff like +X resistance (like fire resist but not resist all as that's valuable) will not be attractive to leveling characters. Always look for items that have a lot of one primary stat (dex, str, int) and supportive stats like vitality, life regen, etc. If you want to, check the value of all the items you win after bidding to see if you can price a little higher than I've suggested here. Ok, warning over, now have fun bidding!
Step 1: Find Deals
I love to search for weapons and armor in the level range 50-55. I just look for each type, including offhands, one at a time in order to make searching easier. So for this example, choose gloves.
Step 2: Add 9999999999 to Max Buyout Price.
Step 3: Sort by buyout in ascending order.
Step 4: Go through each page looking at the right column for how much time is left. If you see anything below 1 hour, check the price of the auction. If the price is under 1000 gold, bid on the item. CAREFUL NOT TO BUYOUT.
Step 5: Set your max bid to 1000 gold.
Step 6: Eventually collect your winnings and sell them for at least 3000+ gold bid/buyout.
Step 7: Every few minutes, check back to see if all of your auctions sold and list the next 10. At such a great deal very few will be able to resist your offer, even if the item has garbage stats!
If you want to get creative, you can search for items with "Has Sockets" to see if there are auctions with very little time left that actually have gems in the gear already. Not only do you get a nice piece of gear for cheap, but you also get the gem! If you want, you can salvage the item and get the gem without paying the jeweler for the service.
Let's also not forget that most items are worth a lot more than 3,000 gold, so once you understand the marketplace, you can actually start winning these bids and pricing them correctly so that they sell for a lot more. Ease into this though, it takes a lot of practice to get it just right!
One final note, if an item doesn't sell with this method, just vendor or salvage it. Odds are you got it for damn near the vendor price, so if it fails in the end you can cut your losses or even make a few pennies.
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