VENDORS AND FLIPS

The Black Market at Powderfuse Port

Riverglades, Powderfuse Port / level 25 to 30 / prices to know first / alone

Nixie Brassbottom has been to Powderfuse Port and I haven't. She tells me about it in Booty Bay over a plate of fried fish that I pay for. Everything this page says about the port comes from her and from the travellers in the rumours below.

Where it is

Riverglades is new land on Forever, east of Burning Steppes and Redridge Mountains. The flight map lists Powderfuse Port there, and the zone has a Horde flight point at Rog'mar and an Alliance one at Farholde Keep. Nixie says the port is a goblin town where anybody may trade.

What they sell

Two goblins. One runs the black market auction, where the highest bid takes rare goods; the auction chapter has its rules. The other, Mister Graphed, sells materials at fixed prices and never runs out: Black Lotus and Arcane Crystal at 50g, Fel Crystal, Stranglevine and Pyrite at 5g. He also has the Gift of Galloping for 150g, which the travellers say needs level 60.

Why it matters

While Mister Graphed sells without limit, nobody pays much more than 50g on the auction house for Black Lotus or Arcane Crystal. At the level 30 cap nobody can use them either. Every recipe in our data that takes them and has a known skill asks for 255 or more, and a level 30 character stops at 225.

Pyrite is the other way round. Tailors use it from skill 60 for the new Shining pieces, engineers from 125 and enchanters from 140, and on the beta it changed hands by the hundred every day. Today it sells for price unknown, far under his 5g, so his price makes no difference to it. Fel Crystal and Stranglevine never showed up on the beta auction houses we read.

The discount flip

One traveller plans to stack two discounts of ten percent, from the Bartering legacy talent and from being Honored with Gadgetzan, buy at 40g and sell at 45g. The water quest he names for the reputation needs level 40, and below level 29 our data has no Gadgetzan reputation except a winter holiday quest. With the talent alone a crystal costs 45g, and a sale at 45g leaves you 2g 25s short after the cut. The busiest beta markets sold about one Arcane Crystal a day.

What to bring

Gold and nothing else. Our data has no levels for the Riverglades creatures yet, so I can't tell you how safe the road is.

How

1. Don't buy Black Lotus or Arcane Crystal to sell on while the cap is 30.
2. If you keep some for later, never pay more on the auction house than Mister Graphed asks.
3. Sell your Pyrite on the auction house.
4. Leave the Gift of Galloping until you can use it.

What can go wrong

Blizzard can change his prices or his stock in any patch. When the cap rises and the recipes at skill 255 come within reach, crafters start to want Black Lotus and Arcane Crystal, and his 50g becomes the price the auction house has to beat. I'll rewrite this page then.

BASTIAN'S VERDICT Worth knowing before you spend gold on Black Lotus. I'll go and look once somebody pays for my flight.