Hey there, goldmakers.
This is Reckles with WTB Gold.
And today we're going to be taking a look at TradeSkillMaster vs Tycoon, two of the
most popular gold making addons out there on YouTube.
Now, TradeSkillMaster is far-and-away the most popular goldmaking addon among serious
goldmakers right now, but because of some creative marketing by Dynasty, the company
that owns Tycoon, if you're just looking at YouTube, it may seem more popular than it
actually is.
Now I have two reasons for doing this comparison in the first place.
First, it's hard to find legitimate information out there on Tycoon.
Mainly because all the videos you see are either sponsored videos or they're put up
by people who are using the affiliate system that Tycoon has set up.
So, they're just trying to get you to click on a link or buy Tycoon through their affiliate
system so they can make money.
So, just to get that out there, I'm not affiliated with Tycoon.
I'm not trying to sell you anything.
I just want you to have good information so you can make the most gold possible.
Secondly, a lot of gold makers out there bash Tycoon without ever giving it its fair shot,
and I believe in testing everything first before you make up your mind, so let's give
it a whirl.
Ok, so let's get going.
You may be asking yourself why we aren't looking at Auctioneer or Auctionator in this comparison
too.
In a sense, we are, because Tycoon is actually a mod for Auctioneer.
It requires it to run, it can't operate solo.
It's not a standalone addon.
So, you login, you open up Auctioneer, and you click a little button, and your auction
house window transforms into the Tycoon window.
On the other hand, TradeSkillMaster is a stand alone addon.
You can use it with Auctioneer or Auctionator.
You can use it with any other addon you want, but really, it's developed so much that you
don't really need anything else to make gold.
Also, before I continue at all, the most important difference between these two is that TradeSkillMaster
is free and Tycoon costs $50.
So, that is a HUGE difference.
And for anyone wondering how they can charge for an addon, because isn't that against the
terms of service?
You aren't technically paying Tycoon for the addon.
The addon is free, but you're, like, paying for the support, or you're paying for the
subscription to the website.
It's been brought up.
Its been dealt with.
Blizzard knows.
They aren't cheating.
Ehhh, it's still shady.
Alright, enough of that.
Let's get into the meat and potatoes.
What does Tycoon actually do?
Can you make gold with it?
You open up the first tab of Tycoon and you see a bunch of percentages and a trend line
a bunch of profit percentages.
This is telling you things that can flip, buy now and sell later for more gold.
I have two main problems with this.
First, since it's based on Auctioneer, these numbers are based on your local data only.
Furthermore you have to scan your auction house manually to build up your database in
order to get reliable, even semireliable data.
Local sources like this, and by local I mean your server only, are only good for markets
where there's not a lot of variability in price.
The price isn't depreciating over time, like with crafted items.
And it's not high value items.
It's a very limited value source.
But this is the only thing that you can use.
Furthermore you can't adjust the percentages.
So, with TradeSkillMaster, if you wanted to say, I think transmog will be profitable if
I buy it at 40% of the global median price, that's great.
But ore, I think I could flip it if I bought it at 70% of my market posting price.
So, this difference in customizability and different use of sources leads me to my next
pro and con and actually, pro and con for both of these addons.
TradeSkillMaster is absolutely fantastic because it's so customizable.
You can say how much you want to post things at.
You can use different sources.
You can say how much you want to craft things at.
All that good stuff.
But it does take a little while to set all that up.
Of course, you do have an import function, so if someone like myself or PhatLewts, or
Elvine already has a TradeSkillMaster import list set up, you can just import those groups
and operations and you're good to go.
However it can be pretty intimidating for new users.
On the other hand, Tycoon has absolutely zero customization except for, like, a little button
that you can't even remove off your UI.
But that lack of customization does make it really easy to set up.
Along the same lines, Tycoon is prettier because it's so simple.
TradeSkillMaster is just kindof a plain jane.
It's kindof like Tycoon is the Apple and TradeSkillMaster is the PC.
One is prettier looking and one is boring, but you can get a lot more functionality for
a better price.
So, my second problem with flipping with Tycoon is that, when you go to buy something, it
doesn't even purchase the item.
It just puts it into a shopping list that you then have to go back into your main auctioning
program and purchase the item with.
This is kindof a minor thing but on fast moving servers, the big servers like Darkspear or
Stormrage or Kazzak EU, that item may be gone by the time you're done setting up your shopping
list and you go back in to purchase it.
There can be a couple minutes in between saying, "Hey, this is a good flip."
And actually purchasing it, and that time is important when you're sniping items.
You might as well just use the sniping function in TradeSkillMaster which there are a plethora
of video guides out there for.
One of the most important things to gold making is crafting items.
Tycoon does this pretty well.
It has a really neat list that shows the profit and the trend and which day it sold a lot
and which day it didn't sell, and that's all neat.
It's pretty.
It's good.
It's user friendly.
It has a user friendly interface.
But, like I said, you don't know if that data is reliable, first off, but secondly, when
you put it in your crafting queue, you have to be at the auction house in order to do
that.
And then you can only queue up one item at a time.
And then you have to go and craft that item in your profession before you can go back
and queue up another profitable item.
This doesn't work.
With tradeskillmaster, you just open up your profession tab where ever you are and viola!
A huge list of all the glyphs you can craft, and you just go through them one-by-one, and
craft away.
It's as easy as that.
For people like blacksmiths, where you actually have to be at an anvil, it would really suck
to go back and forth from the Auction House to the anvil, Auction House to the anvil.
Not worth it at all.
So, I'll be honest.
I have tried using this addon, and it pisses me off that they're charging $50 dollars for
something that was a mediocre addon four years ago, five years ago.
But you know what?
There is one positive thing I will say about it.
If you go to the gathering tab, it can show you all the profitable gathering things like
the ore and herbs and cloth.
If it says, Saronite ore is profitable right now and you click on the Saronite ore, it
will actually fill your map with a route of how to farm Saronite ore.
That's cool!
That's unique.
TradeSkillMaster should implement something like this.
Other addons should implement this.
You listening Sapu?
Sapu!
Do this!
So, should you pay $50 just for this benefit?
Well, if you download routes and Gathermate, you can do the same thing with more customization,
because all of these routes include every ore in the zone, and as you farmers know,
those aren't always the best routes.
But honestly, it's a cool feature, and I might test out some of these routes later.
But hey, you know, if you have $50 buck to blow, and you want to buy it, go for it, I'm
not going to stop you.
But download TradeSkillMaster.
Use TradeSkillMaster first, because like I said, Tycoon has been outdated for four years.
It's not a good addon.
It's not worthwhile, and even when you go to craft items, you can't.
And if you're a purist, and you think, "hey I'm paying for Service, and that's what I
value" then why don't you do what I do and you log into the TradeSkillMaster IRC chat
at 4 in the morning.
The developers of tradeskillmaster are there 24/7 to answer your questions.
I have logged in at 4 in the morning and immediately gotten an answer to my questions by 3 of the
developers who are online willing to answer my question at any time of the day or night.
It's an amazing app, fully supported, great community.
Just...I don't know.
I'm done.
I'm done, ranting...It's a shit program.
They pay to promote it.
They buy 100,000 views on all these independent videos that are supposed to be guides but
aren't actually guides on it, are just affiliate links.
And I've had 750 dislikes purchased against my videos.
I know of other people who have had hundreds and thousands of dislikes purchased against
their videos.
I don't know if it was them.
But someone who would buy 100,000 likes would also be inclined to buy a couple thousand
dislikes against a competitor, so I don't know man.
I'm done.
I'm done talking about this.
I'm done ranting.
So just, you know, buy it if you want.
It's a shit addon.
Just use TradeSkillMaster, guys.