On the payroll

Still stockpiling mats for Winterveil and Cataclysm release, many of my normal selling items are down: Netherweave bags are down to 8g from 11, Mammoth Mining Sacks are down to under 100 where I've sold several at near 300, Lesser Invisibility are selling for under 4 down from 6... The market seems to be slimming down as we get nearer the expansion, but there are a few success stories namely in the form of Potions.  Swiftness potions are still selling for between 6 and 8 each, especially on the weekends.  Also, I posted Free Action potions for 20g just to see if the sold, and they VANISHED within a few hours!  There are one or two guys online who make Swiftness potions, not as aggressively as I do, so i just wait for them to go through their cycle of undercuts before i post 20.  (Never post your entire inventory, set up a few to keep demand high, people are willing to pay more if the item is rare!)  There is apparently no one posting Freedom potions, and I have a theory behind that as well. 

Free Action potions take 2 Blackmouth Oils and a Stranglekelp to make.  Stranglekelp is a pain in the butt to farm because it is underwater, but it is the ONLY underwater herb on Azeroth so it can be found in a lot of different places.  Blackmouth oil takes 2 oily Blackmouths to create, which require fishing in certain spots to get, then you need to get 4 of them to make enough for the potion.  usually costs me about 4-5g to get the oil, while Stranglekelp sells for about 3g each.  At max, its an 8g crafting price.  I've sold them for 14g before which is still a nice profit, and every one of them sells every time i post them.  Swiftness pots I've taken to posting stacks of 4 for 20-24g and sometimes I have to collect them when they don't sell. 

Herb prices have been very strange... Briarthorn is pretty common, but has been at over 3g each for a long time, where Swiftthistle is less common, and is dirt cheap.  I saw a guy asking if anyone needed low level herbs on Trade Chat, so I hit him up.  He's an 80 mage leveling Herbalism for Cata and wants to offload the herbs quickly, so i bought out all of his Swiftthistle, Briarthorn and Stranglekelp for 1.5g each, and told him to send me anything else he gets COD for the same price.  He thought it was a great idea as he didn't want to mess with the AH.  That's a pretty good price for both of us, hopefully he'll send me more today.  My cash is a bit low, down to like 40g on my Bank, I'll have to move somethings around to make sure I can pay his salary but it looks like it may turn into a good deal for as long as it lasts...