20 Days of Gold Making - Day 11 - Addons

Nev's question today is
Most of us use TSM, Auctionator and/or Auctioneer in combo with Postal - are there any other lesser known gold making addons you use?

I'm glad you ask! I love the addon Ackis Recipe List. Whenever I'm out and about, it's great to know about vendors in unexpected locations. I don't often go out 'farming' recipes, but I always like to pick a few up if I'm in the neightbourhood, and Ackis Recipe List is great for that. One caveat, though: they aren't fast at getting rid of recipes and vendors that don't exist any more.

But my favourite gold-making addon is Lil Sparky's Workshop. I like TSM Crafting and all, but I just trust the numbers I see in Lil Sparky's Workshop better, and I like the interface. In case you haven't used it, it's an addon the integrates into your crafting window, and adds the price the item costs to make, and the value of the finished item (either at auction, at the vendor, or disenchanted). I prefer it to TSM crafting because it integrates into my existing crafting window, rather than presenting a new one. This is important, because it provides a context to the recipe/pattern/blueprint. I can remember when I learnt it from seeing it in relation to the recipes around it. So it helps me determine if it's really gonna sell, or languish in my back-pack for months.

That's the thing about prices in gold-making add-ons. they usually show list prices rather than actual sales prices. Imagine I were to look at Merlin's Robe. The average buyout price on this is north of 2000g, and the mats are around a half to three-quarters of that. But nobody buys it, because it's an out-of-date WotLK item. I used to love it, but it's all over now. Here's how I imagine the auction history of that item goes:
list at 4000g; unsold.
list at 4000g; unsold
list at 3000g; unsold

list at 3000g; unsold

list at 2000g; unsold

list at 2000g; unsold

list at 2000g; unsold

list at 2000g; unsold
list at 1000g; below cost price to get rid of the damn thing. Unsold

list at 1000g; unsold
list at 1000g; unsold
list at 1000g; unsold
list at 100g; maybe bought for novelty value, or returned and finally disenchanted.
From that series of auctions, most addons will tell you the average price for the item is 1864g, but in fact it's worth sweet Fanny Adams.

Well, I wouldn't make that mistake with Merlin's Robe because I know it so well. I wore it for a long time myself. But say some random robe shows up as profitable, or some random enchantment, or some random flask or potion. You look at the AH, and there are items for sale. Now I could pop out to the Undermine Journal and log in and see who sold what recently, but the first thing I'm going to do will be to look at the recipes around it. One of the is bound to remind me of the context of the item. "Ah, yeah", I say to myself, "that's a BC enchant. I doubt anyone bothers with it now, even twinks". Or "Ah, people are making this to disenchant it for the mats". That initial context tells me whether it's worth taking a further look at the item or just ignoring it, and that's why I like Lil Sparky's Workshop.

Part of the 20 days of Gold Making series