I couldn’t resist and spent my $10 on one of Blizzard’s newest non-combat pets, the Pandaren Monk.

Possessing the diplomatic humbleness common to his reclusive race, the Pandaren Monk accompanies you on your journeys throughout Azeroth, returning any /bows he receives from other players…further demonstrating his benevolent nature (though, in idle moments, he may still practice his Kung Fu moves).

I’ve been a pet collector since Vanilla WoW and this one by far is my favorite. Do I mind paying $10 for a NCP? Nope. Why? For every Panderan Monk purchased before December 31, 2009 half of the purchase price will be donated to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

What’s awesome is that once you purchase the pet and bind it to your account (or gift it to someone), every character on that account gets a pet. Pretty cool.

For more information on getting your own Panderan Monk visit: http://us.blizzard.com/store/details.xml?id=1100000763

Even the Horde are looking for the best deals at the Auction House, even the Alliances’ Auction House. Photo by hamilton.lima

If you’ve spent any time at all with your economics teacher you know that supply and demand plays a huge role in any economy, the Auction House in World of Warcraft is no different.First off, I’ll start by saying don’t worry. You’re not doing anything against the games Terms of Use. You’re just being smarter than the other players in your faction and knowing when to buy and sell in the Auction House can mean the difference between turning a decent profit, or just wasting your time farming.

Most players use the Auctioneer add-on (or another similar add-on) with little thought what prices they set their goods at or how the price is trending (going up or down over time). Here’s where the tricky part comes in, buy from the Auction house on Sunday and Monday – sell on Tuesday and Wednesday – don’t post any Auctions on Friday or Saturday.

Let’s elaborate now. Why buy on Sunday and Monday? Sunday and Monday the prices of the items in the AH have been driven down by weekend sellers looking to sell goods. Often they undercut other auctions just to move their stuff. This is no bueno for anyone. Unless you’re not looking for a large profit definitely don’t post auctions these days yourself but feel free to buy goods when the 24-48 hour auctions are running out.

Sell on Tuesday and Wednesday. The idea here is to sell after the underpriced auctions have disappeared and haven’t people haven’t started undercutting each other during the weekend. Selling during this time also catches players with little time to play during the week looking to level a skill up and who are willing to pay for the time they don’t have to spend farming. Tuesday and Wednesday are not good times to buy. Posting short, 24 hour auctions gives you more chance to profit without being undercut.

Unless you enjoy losing gold in the Auction House posting on Friday and Saturday is never a good idea. Most of the players start playing Friday night. Friday night and Saturday they’re looking to move whatever drops they’ve picked up or items they’ve farmed. To move their goods they have no qualms about undercutting the next guy significantly. This is an OK time to buy but if you wait later in the weekend prices will be much lower.

Notice I didn’t mention Thursday? Being in the middle of the week Thursday definitely isn’t the best time to buy and being so close to the weekend long auctions are definitely a bad idea. If you want to auction on Thursday set your auction time for 24 hours to avoid the weekend undercutting.

After days of login issues I’m finally experiencing the “Login Server Down” screen. So what happened? Prior to Blizzcon the servers were fine. Did Blizzcon bring that many people back with the news of their upcoming release WoW: Cataclysm? Are Worgen and Goblins as playable races that enticing? Is the impending destruction of the old world that alluring? I don’t know but I just wish they’d get that server back up. I’ve got farming to do!

If you missed all the big announcements at Blizzcon because you were doing something silly like say, working, like I was then you can check out the announcement video here. Still not sure how I feel about the whole sundering of Azeroth thing but I’m glad to see Blizzard working to revitalize some of the old content and bring new life to zones people love to hate (e.g. Desolace, Azshara).