Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Spending the Gold Cap #9: The day I spent over 300,000g on battle pets

What else to do once you hit gold cap, other than spend your fortune? In the Spending the Gold Cap series, I account for the money I earned as I spend it on Unclaimed Black Market Containers, and the occasional pet or mount from the auction house. There will be tears.

Yesterday, I freed myself of any lingering attachment I held to the half-million remaining on my banker's server and spent over 300,000g in a matter of minutes. Didn't even bat an eye, didn't feel even a slight tinge of regret. 

Earlier that morning, I was tooling around on my main server when I saw a player selling a Magic Rooster Egg and the Reins of the Swift Spectral Tiger in trade chat. My auctioning activity on Emerald Dream has been mostly light until recently, my liquid gold hovering right around 150,000g. I asked the player if they'd take that sum, fully well knowing what the response would be. But if I could come up with another 100,000g, the Rooster Egg was mine, they said.

That triggered something in my brain, my thoughts settling upon the remaining sum stranded on my banker's server. I wondered to myself how I could realistically spend that money. Sure, it would be nice to win a rare mount through the BMAH. However, as the appearance of Mimiron's Head taught me last week, that's a hell of a lot easier said than done. While I would've gladly dumped the entire half-million in that single transaction, I couldn't even stay alive long enough to place a bid. I guess a level 85 in a black tuxedo makes an easy target.

At auction's end, the thing sold for 10,000g more than I had. That experience, coupled with the inability to purchase the Rooster on my main server pushed me to decide that it's time be a bit more spendy and much less discerning when it comes to the money that's left on Bonechewer. 

On a whim, I sauntered over to the Auction House in Dalaran to search for tradeable pets I'm missing, a list I compiled easily at Warcraft Pets. Shockingly, the most expensive pet, going for a 135,000g buyout, was the Ethereal Soul-Trader. There was also a level 25 Spectral Tiger Cub going for much less. I knew that both of the prices were well under the U.S. market average. Hell, the Soul-Trader sells on Ebay for anywhere between $100 and $300 real dollars.

I polled Twitter, and with a wise suggestion by a fellow goldmaker, I nabbed the Soul-Trader for 129,000g and the Spectral Cub for much less. Of course, that doesn't account for the more than 300,000g spent. No, the remaining sum went towards additional pets---11 of them in all---each accessible via in-game channels, but ones most players will not organically acquire because of RNG. When a Blackfuse Bombling drops, some people see a cute little pet, and other people hear the cha-ching! of gold being made. 

I am, and have always been, a patron of both.

So while I won't bother listing which pets I acquired beyond the two above out of respect for my pet-collecting purist friends, let's just say I'm probably farther than most when it comes to Liopleurodon's handy little Warlord's checklist. The accounting:

543,414g
- 129,000g¹
-177,282²
Total Remaining Gold: 237,132g

                                                 
¹Etheral Soul-Trader.
²Spectral Tiger Cub all 11 mystery pets.



1 comment:

  1. Oh, fantastic! If had that kind of money, I'd've probably done the same thing! I was gifted a Spectral Tiger Cub, and he's probably my mostest favoritist pet of all. Never mind the purists! There are enough pets to be ground out that buying a few if you have the means is the way to go!

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