With Black Friday having just passed the US by

You've saved for weeks. You've farmed for mats; you've farmed for gold. You've scoured the Auction House and nabbed every last, hard-to-find component. You have everything you need for that Big Cool Crafted Item. The final question remains: How do you know the crafter to whom you've just handed your precious trove of materials won't simply turn around and log off?

The best insurance against hit-and-run crafting is an ounce or two of prevention. The safest methods, of course, are to make your item yourself or to use a crafter who's able to provide all the necessary materials. If those options aren't on the table, however, you'll need to track down a reputable maker. We'll show you how to cover your bases.

Select a known crafter. Ask friends and guildmates for recommendations - heck, don't forget to check and see if your friends and guildies can get the job done for you first! If not, choose a crafter you've seen doing business over Trade over an extended period of time. Membership in a respected guild can also be a good sign. If you're still unsure, take a peek at (/inspect) their own gear; if you don't see any signs of their specialty on their own gear, use caution. 

Invite your crafter to a group. Grouping makes it easier to meet up and see what actions he or she is performing with your mats.

Verify that the crafter can make the item you need. Whisper, "I want to make sure I have all the correct mats. Can you link me your profession, please?" They'll respond by sending you a gold link referring to the appropriate profession. Clicking that will open a window showing all the recipes that player knows. Make sure the item you want is listed.

How much would you spend?

, the season of consumption is upon us. Presents will be bought, sales will be visited, money will be spent. But let's take a step away from the real world into Azeroth for a moment, as is our wont here at WoW Insider.

The Black Market Auction House can hardly have escaped the WoW player's attention, with all the controversy surrounding it and the Brawler's Guild. It's a really interesting feature, I'm a little disappointed with it on my main realms, because it's usually pretty darn empty, but it occasionally has interesting items crop up, particularly mounts and heroic-level raiding gear. And that's what brings me around to today's topic. How much would you spend?

Of course, this is partly influenced by in-game wealth. If you have 900,000 gold, then spending 22,000 isn't such a big deal as it is if you have 23,000. But how much would you spend, then, as a percentage of your wealth? How much is too much for heroic raid gear? I'm less inclined to spend a lot on that, simply because it will be replaced. It won't be that long, in the grand scheme of things, before you're switching out that piece you spend 40k on for something you got for "free" in your raid.

Mounts, on the other hand, mounts are forever. And with mounts being cross-character now, they're even better. The bid cap in the Black Market Auction House is 1 million gold. How much would you pay for that mount, the one you're waiting for, the one you always wanted but that the guy would never drop?

Source: http://www.crazyraid.com