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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsGold Capped: Why Mysterious Fortune Cards will always be stupidly profitable
by Fox Van Allen 
Nov 21st 2011 at 2:00PM
Last week on Gold Capped, I discussed how to make money playing the glyph market. It's hands down the most popular way that scribes try to make money. Problem is, it's probably the hardest route to riches I know. Glyphs tend to fester on the Auction House, and most go unsold. And yet despite this, no single profession has made me more money over my WoW lifetime than inscription has.
Confused? Don't be -- I'm about the blow the lid clear off the most profitable aspect of inscription: Mysterious Fortune Cards. Yes, seriously. They're still making people boatloads of money.
My first-ever article covering the Auction House dealt with my quest to reach the Cataclysm-era gold cap of 999,999 gold. I utilized a large number of professions to reach the finish line, but nothing proved a better or more reliable seller than the stuff my scribe was making. But I wasn't making glyphs. I was making Darkmoon Cards and Mysterious Fortune Cards (MFCs).
I abandoned those markets a while back -- not because they stopped being profitable, but because I got tired of milling thousands of herbs and AFK crafting. Fast forward to this past week, when I revisited my poor neglected scribe. He still had a few MFCs sitting around in his inventory, so I crafted a few more and listed them on the AH.
I was pretty surprised at what I saw -- the Mysterious Fortune Card market is still ridiculously profitable. And better yet, competition for the market seems to be weaker than ever. Don't believe me? Let's look at the specifics.
Mysterious Fortune Card market at a glance
I try to be pretty cautious with blanket statements around here. After all, what sells well on one server might not sell well on another. And if competition is unusually heavy on a given server, trying to break into a new market can be a gold-losing proposition. So before I sat down to write this column, I did my research.
I stopped by my new favorite site (and The Undermine Journal competitor) AHSpy.com to take a quick look at the MFC market across every single US and EU server. Here's what I learned:
- The average server (as of Nov. 20) has about 700 MFCs available; the median server has only 271.
- The average server (as of Nov. 20) prices an MFC at about 12 gold Alliance, or 14 gold Horde.
What contributes to the always-present demand? Well, it's simple: Mysterious Fortune Cards represent the easiest and most affordable route to the Cataclysm-era Well Fed buff. That's because there's no such thing as a Deepsea Sagefish pool, the fish required for the Severed Sagefish Head +90 intellect buff. You can only fish them up at random. It's almost always going to be quicker, easier, and often cheaper to craft MFCs into Fortune Cookies, which offer the same great +90 intellect buff ... or any other top-level buff you could possibly desire. They're magic.
And yes, Mysterious Fortune Cards still hold up well as WoW's answer to a lottery ticket. Each one you turn over (or obtain via eating a Fortune Cookie) has a chance to give you a Fortune Card worth 5,000 gold, a Fortune Card worth 1,000 gold, or more commonly, lesser amounts down to 10 silver. Wowhead doesn't have data on a player's expected return from just flipping over cards and vendoring the result, but anecdotally, they're worth about 2.5 or 3 gold per flip on average. That fact alone helps prop up their value.
And then there's the elephant in the room: Mysterious Fortune Cards can be somewhat tedious to make. You have to put in a lot of effort to craft the couple of thousand cards that buyers can consume in a single day. As a result, it's hard for one person to corner this market unless they have a lot of time on their hands.
High demand and weak supply -- it doesn't take a genius to smell profits in that mix. There will always be a high demand for these cards right up through the launch of Mists of Pandaria because they're a rare nexus between usefulness and fun. And judging from the data above, the market is woefully (and chronically) underserved. But will they always be profitable? Let's do the math.
Is the MFC market right for you?
If you're going to be making Mysterious Fortune Cards, you're going to need a lot of Blackfallow Ink. And if you need a lot of Blackfallow Ink, you're likely going to need to be buying (or picking) a lot of herbs.
Cinderbloom and Whiptail are almost universally the cheapest of the Cataclysm-era herbs. And as such, they're the best herbs to go buying for the purposes of milling. Again, Wowhead doesn't offer any exacting data with regard to how many Ashen Pigments (and thus, Blackfallow Inks) you get from each stack on average, but anecdotally, we know this:
- One Cinderbloom mills to ~0.25 Blackfallow Ink and ~0.025 Inferno Ink.
- One Whiptail mills to ~0.3 Blackfallow Ink and ~0.05 Inferno Ink.
You'll want to do the math with your own server's specific herb prices. Just multiply the price of Cinderbloom by four or the price of Whiptail by 3.33. If the result of either is a few gold less than you server's current market price for Mysterious Fortune Cards, you've found a lucrative market, my friend.
Selling the cards
Obviously, the best way to sell the cards you make is going to be on the Auction House. Mysterious Fortune Cards are desirable enough to sell on their own -- people know what they are, and they're regularly prowling the AH trying to find them.
If you want to boost sales a little bit, barking in trade might dredge up a few extra sales. This is especially true on the weekends, when there are more casual players online who are unfamiliar with the product (and the possibility of a 5,000 gold score). Be careful not to go overboard, though. Advertising too heavily can be counterproductive -- it can irritate possible buyers and clue others in that you found a lucrative market. And if your cards are selling for 15 gold each ... why can't they list a few thousand units for 14.50 gold and undercut you?
Mysterious Fortune Cards tend to sell best when you list them in varying large quantities. Stacks of one card almost never sell, even if they're the cheapest auction listed. Stacks of 20 seem to be the "sweet spot" where sales are strongest. Stacks of 50 sell well, too, and you'd probably be surprised at how many people out there are willing to buy stacks of 200. Listing in different but useful quantities (10, 20, 50, 100, 200) is a great way to stand out from other sellers.
Dealing with your "waste"
Back in the day, I never really set out to make Mysterious Fortune Cards. I was trying to make Darkmoon Cards, and MFCs were my waste product -- the most efficient and lucrative way for unloading my Blackfallow Inks. My, how the tables have turned.
So what do you do with all these Inferno Inks you craft? The easy answer is to sell them on the Auction House. They're still needed to level inscription to 525. Right now, they're worth about 22 gold each on average. That's a pretty nice bonus: You get 2 or 3 gold worth of Inferno Ink for each MFC you craft.
Or, alternatively, you could put in the extra work and do what I used to do -- make Darkmoon Decks. Prices for the trinkets have held up remarkably well, at least so far. The DMC: Tsunami trinket can still fetch as much as 10,000 gold; DMC: Volcano can fetch 7,500. Prices are sure to go down in patch 4.3, but for those who prefer to stay out of raids, they'll continue to hold solid value.
No matter what you do with those Inferno Inks, though, it's hard to go wrong. After all, if you're already making a profit on Mysterious Fortune Cards, it's just found money.
Maximize your profits with more advice from Gold Capped. Do you have questions about selling, reselling, and building your financial empire on the Auction House? Fox and Basil are taking your questions at fox@wowinsider.com and basil@wowinsider.com.
Filed under: Economy, Gold Capped
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Jon Nov 21st 2011 3:41PM
"Stacks of one card almost never sell, even if they're the cheapest auction listed."
Stacks of one are the ONLY size that sell for me. Strange, huh?
chipthamac Nov 21st 2011 3:50PM
I made 20k in the last two weeks selling MFC's. Not joking at all.
Steve Nov 21st 2011 3:53PM
I have a love-hate relationship with these damn cards. I have no problem milling & crafting them, but my problem is that I just can't resist flipping a couple before selling them. Than a couple more, and then a few more, then.......well you get the idea.
It's odd, because IRL i'm not the compulsive gambler at all.
Moravec Nov 21st 2011 4:24PM
I think I can hear Cold crying from here
emberdione Nov 21st 2011 4:53PM
Man every time you guys do this article, my market tanks for about a month.
Then it dies back down and I get back to making 15-20k a week.
It's awesome. Mysterious Fortune Cards... Mysteriously making me money.
exogenesis. Nov 21st 2011 5:29PM
I crafted about 200 cards a while back with the intention of making a bucketful of gold off them.
Then I flipped them all over because I couldn't help myself.
Chance Nov 21st 2011 5:46PM
I make batches of 600 at a time, save 100 for myself to flip then sell a stack of 200 a stack of 100 two stacks of 50 and 5 stacks of 20. Its so hard to resist flipping them when you plan on selling them all, but once you get used to setting aside only 100 for yourself it gets much easier to resist wasting your entire payload. I do suggest not flipping any if you're buying herbs as that will cut into your profit margin, but if you're just farming all the herbs for yourself its just a matter of deciding if all that time farming is worth the few minutes of fun you get flipping the cards. I've also made some gold from flipping them as well. I got 2 500 gold cards in one stack once and a few random 1k cards every few stacks. I've still yet to see the elusive 5k card (still wondering what the fortune on it will say) but hopefully someday it will be in my deck. :)
Pyromelter Nov 21st 2011 5:58PM
Spoiler alert..
.
.
.
5k gold card:
"You're going to be rich!"
demodus Nov 21st 2011 6:29PM
I made 100 Fortune Cookies one night before our umpteenth attempt on Rags one night to boost moral, since we've wiped sooo many times before on him. Our Rogue managed to flip the 5k card that night! So many gratz went out, and spirits soared. Mission accomplished. The raid got their hearts back into the fight, and the next week we downed the bugger! Bought the card from him for 5.5k, just to have to show other buyers that it does indeed exist.
Evelinda Nov 21st 2011 6:34PM
I'm by no means rich; I'm too easily distracted to be a serious auction house pvper. Having said that though, I do like finding easy ways to make a bit if spare cash, so i regularly read gold capped. When I read the first article about MFCs, i thought I'd give it a whirl, and i have to say, they've been an incredibly consistent source of profit for me. Every so often I'll whip up a couple of hundred on my scribe, and they'll sell for 15g a pop without fail. Without question, i've made tens of thousands of gold on these, with a bare minimum of effort.
Shrikesnest Nov 21st 2011 7:03PM
MFC's are regularly listed on my realm's AH for 4.5 gold each, while Cinderbloom and Whiptail cost a comparable fortune. It's really too bad... at least JC is still making me money.
Pyromelter Nov 21st 2011 7:21PM
Gold capped columns come with an automatic, unspoken disclaimer:
Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV)
splodesondeath Nov 21st 2011 7:20PM
Hurray for humans not understanding probability.
Matt Nov 21st 2011 7:21PM
On my server, MFC cards are a 1g LOSS....
Mats are rather expensive :(
Cambro Nov 22nd 2011 1:26AM
I'm not familiar with ahspy.com. I'm not sure how to read this. For example, http://www.ahspy.com/global/item/61981/inferno-ink
First one listed, US - Aegwynn. Alliance pct is +6%, horde pct is +104%...in relation to what? The alliance market price is 12.55 gold for that server. Average market price for all US alliance servers is 23.84g. That's about a 50%/200% difference, depending on how you're looking at it.
lynnora Nov 22nd 2011 3:23AM
Since this article was posted yesterday, someone has been spamming the AH with these cards for 5 gold. I am usually on this market (pretty much with a monopoly), selling them at 12,50g each.
What should I do? Buy this person out completely and let the cards sit in my bags for a while?
chumsz28 Nov 22nd 2011 9:30AM
I hate you! I wasted over a thousand gold purchasing Mysterious Fortune Cards. They are worse than crack.
tamed.lionheart Nov 22nd 2011 11:33AM
I haven't been playing in awhile, but on the server I was playing I was initially about the only person selling Fortune Cookies then I started to have more competition, one sorta underhanded trick I used to keep the market to myself was I started to fined a margin that was lower then the competition was willing to go. Materials would cost me somewhere around say five gold a card, I would then would make cookies and sell those for say seven gold at a twenty five percent margin, now two gold profit per cookie doesn't sound like much but when your posting 1000 or so a day and they all sell that is two thousand gold a day. fourteen thousand gold a week, just from cookies. Not to mention my enchanting and other crafts i was making gold at.
Derrick Nov 22nd 2011 12:10PM
I hate you! I've used the above technique for over a year and it's like printing money. Now everyone's going to think they can do it :)
What I typically do is mill about 500 cards in two sessions of milling/inking/card creation and send them to my banking toon who then sells a few stacks of cards and a few stacks of fortune cookies (cover both markets at once) with almost no competition. Once I burn through those 500 I go and make another set. Sometimes they sell so fast I get saddened knowing I'll be doing another 1-hour milling session.
I use TradeSkillMaster to buy all herbs under 6.5g and sell the cards for 11g-17g, so the profit is at least 5g PER card. Since cookies usually sell in stacks of 5 and 20, that's 25g per sale minimum in profit (minus the cost of a resilient parchment).
I use this as filler on my normal JC profits. But, since I'm already gold capped, I just keep doing it because it's too darn easy not to.