Eh, it is as low WoW news week. The week after the big patches tend to be that way. All this excitment builds up and then fizzle. Guess all that is left to do is start scouring the web for Patch 3.2 notes. Anyway, as we all know Dual Spec is out and it has this great 1000 Gold price tag. Now, I don’t know about you, but at level 40, I didn’t have near that much gold. And as a new player, you probably haven’t spent that much time trying to figure out how to make gold efficiently. You’ve been learing you character. You’ve been questing, doing instances, maybe hitting some PvP, but you really have not picked up any great methods for grabbing Gold. The reality of the situation is, if you do not learn these skills early on it will delay your ability to get gold for things like your epic riding mount or flying mount. So, you want to have some good gold tricks up your sleeve.
So, I thought it would be nice to post a few links to some good sources that I trust.
WoW Insider posted an article today on their website to give new players some guidelines about how to engage the ever important source of the market on WoW… the Auction House. So, go ahead and read up a little here!
Also, way back when BRK was still up and running the hills and valleys of Azeroth, and posting on his blog, he recommended a Blog called “The Greedy Goblin”. It’s a blog devoted to methods of using the Auction House and putting your gathering professions to good use.
Finally, to pimp out the site for our guild, “The Ministry of Truth”, I would like to include a great forum post from one of our Veteran WoW players (Animality):
Just a quick little note before I get into all of this,
This is not meant to be a “Do it my way to win!” thing, but more just a few pointers and ideas to help suppliment your WoW income. I hope as time goes on, you guys will add to the thread with other ideas and feedback on things.
To loot, or not to loot..
That is the common question when dealing with mobs and their dull looking grey and white drops. Everyone gets these, theyr’e common. Most people just leave them, thinking if I can’t AH it, why bother? Well, here’s the deal, as you get bigger and tougher, your greys and whites sell to vendors for more, and more. By Outland they are worth on average 1g each! I know, 1g is nothing compared to selling a green at 10g, right? WRONG! You get goodness knows how many common items to each green, lets say 20 commons to one green. That’s around 20g in vendored junk versus the 10g green in AH, where the Auctioneer takes his cut.
Alright, so I think the Outland point is clear. But in Azeroth, why would you? I mean the commons are worth nothing, right? Nuh uh! Sure, they aren’t worth what they are else where, but they are a steady income. You might be getting a couple greens a night, selling for between 1g – 5g each. Why wouldn’t you want something a little more constant to that?
Don’t get me wrong, vendoring is not going to make you rich but it will definatley help you get there.
I am DK alt, hear me roar!
So, if you are lucky enough to have a high level toon on another server and can now roll a Death Knight, you have another huge weapon to help your fresh little lowbie toon!
Death Knights come out of the box with great gear, great spells, loads of bag space and not to mention by the time you hit Azeroth, you are level 58! This means you now have your very own farming toon!
DK’s are great for running dungeons, especially low level ones, totally solo. They are fast and their expenses are low. Like above, loot everything. BUT… Start tossing junk items once you have no room for BOE and BOP greens and blues. Do not ever leave behind something that is uncommon, even a BOP you can’t use – Vendor can be your little friend (anywhere from 15s - ?? per item).
So you have your little loot wagon in tow behind your knight, your bags are full and you need to start dumping. But what to dump? Well, I always start with food items and stackable items. They are seldom worth anything and make a great first great choice for dumpage.
This can be done with any toon, even a main. But remember your main will have more expensive gear to repair and you also have the issue of dealing with whispers etc, takes your focus of the money making. The other thing is that often mains will have items they carry in bags, or a quiver that uses a bag slot, so they can’t carry as many goodies.
What loot is good loot?
Ok, so you have done your epic run, your bags are full and your toon resembles a kleptomaniac who’s been locked in a jewellery store over night. Now what? Oh yes! Time to see Mr Vendor.
There you are standing with his enticing little window open, but now you must decide what items you want to sell him, and which you want to send off to your little lowbie toon for some Auctioning. Here is a little list (and yes I will have missed some things off, it’s been a long day and this is coming from a mind on auto-pilot!).
Trade goods – They’re usually white, unless you are in higher level areas, and if you have the Auctioneer add on (you really need to have this!) you will see from the little window when you mouse over them that they can be used for something like cooking, enchanting, blacksmithing etc. These are keepers, you should be stacking and posting them on the AH.
Cloth – People don’t consider this a trade good for some reason, it’s fantastic for making money, so stack this and AH it!
White misc items – Be very careful before vendoring these, often you will find that they can be auctioned for much more than what that stingey old vendor will offer you. An awesome example is pets, anywhere from 20g – 50g+!
Grey items – Vendor trash, sell it and take what silver you can out of it, this is pure profit, remember that!
Greens – Auction house baby – And step on it!
Blues – Well, obviously the Bind on Equip (BoE) items you will be able to send on and auction, have fun with these, make some gold!
Bind on Pickup (BoP) you are going to be forced to choose one of two options. If you are an enchanter, Disenchant and either use or stack the mats for AH, or Vendor. Enchanting mats go for a fortune on there, so even at high levels, lowbie enchanting mats are a fantastic way to make you some coin.
If you are not an enchanter, then sadly, To the vendor you must go with you pretty BoP blue. (All profit remember! Cha-Ching!)
Oh a vendor in the middle of nowhere!
As you are running along, you may notice vendors now and then around the place in the middle of no where, or far from any towns. Maybe, you should head over and take a look at what he has. Why, oh why?! I hear you ask, well here is the reason: Vendors who are “out of the way” so to speak, are usually packing some nice little white items, sometimes even pets that you can AH on, for a tidy profit. Just like before these white items can be worth a lot, even the ones you think are worthless, so be careful!
Professions!
Don’t /palmface me! So many people forget to level proffs! You can sell spare mats on AH, you can sell created items and it’s all so easy! Just try it!
Some proffs like fishing and cooking and yeild some nice payback too, so they are worth a look.
Seasonal AH Plundering Arrgh!
Here is a trick I picked up from a past guildie, who was totally insane with his AH workings.
At certain times, like Christmas, they have recipies people can make for ingame rewards or questlines. They include really basic things like milk, or flour. So how are you going to afford your toon some shiney new bits and bobs for Christmas? You are going to run from the various vendors -Often only several feet from the Auctioneers!- and sell the mats for great returns on the AH! I know! It makes me squeal with glee too!
Thing is, people are lazy, and a lot just don’t think. They run to the AH as they are programed to do (bless their little cotton socks) and will buy up large on everything. So, why not just meet the demand and supply them?
Sneaky Tatics
Sometimes when you are ok for gold, you will go to AH something and find the item you wish to sell at a horrible price (like linen cloth, it can vary some nights from 20s a stack down to 3s on other nights). You are faced with two choices, you can take the red pill or the blue pill. The blue is the pill of chill, you can say “Ok, I am going to wait this out” and bank your stacks and wait for a lift in the market value. Or you can take the red pill of hostile takeover, and buy up all your competitors auctions and then resell at your own price. (hey at least your toon will be warm in the WoW afterlife!).
Strap on those saddle bags!
So you have made some gold now, maybe you have 40 – 50g in your pocket and it’s burning a hole? What would be a good thing to buy?
Armour? No, you will only outgrow it within a day or two, and quest gear can be just fine if all you are doing is leveling.
Mats? Nein, you can farm those and we know what you have been selling them for on AH, so why would you?
Extra pets? Kao, you just do not need them.
You are going to go out, and buy some bags! Extra bag space means extra items you can carry means extra items to vendor/AH means more gold for you and finally *gasps* means this would be a long term investment!
The daily grind
So, your’e level 70+ and you are big and powerful, but quests may or may not be taking longer and the farming is getting hard to compete with every other high level out there. What can you do to assist your thirst for shiney golden coins of joy?
Daily quests. Do them all, do as many as you can, do them as your new found passion. Set the first part of your WoW time aside for them and rake in that quest gold! Anyone level 70 or over should be making 100g+ a night, so I don’t think I need explain it any further.
Mindless Auctioneering…
You know that really cool mod we have? The Auctioneer mod. the one that means you can scan the Auction House and it automatically calculates your starting bid and buyouts? You know how you can pretty much close your eyes and post auctions with it? Well, I hate to pop your little bubbles, but it’s not always correct.
Ok, Ok, Pick your jaw up off the floor and read very slowly. Sometimes, if you pay attention, when you post an auction it may post say a vanity pet at an absurd amount, or some other rare (but not that rare) item in a similar way. How is this bad? Well because someone who’s watching will manually post their own, and have a more realistic price. You will lose sales, and gold. Same goes for sometimes when you post an item when there is no other same item posted. It sometimes will put up a price way below where it should be, and so you lose possible profit.
So the moral of this little story? Auctioneer is only a guide, not a perfect science!
Check every auction you post, if it looks wrong, check. Ask a guildie, look at other auctions, ask yourself if it looks about right.
A little anecdote of this from my own experience most nights:
Linen cloth is so common I am sure most people buy it only out of sheer stupidity on AH. Often when I trott along to the AH, my Auctioneer wants me to post stacks of 20 at around 5 – 10s. I know this is wrong, and I change it to around 17 – 20s unless I am undercutting someone of a higher price and Auctioneer is setting me higher than that. Even then I’ll check it.
So, I average around 2 – 4g a night in linen cloth. Freaking LINEN CLOTH!!
Do not hit that big RED button!
So, I had a conversation with some random person last night about ways of making gold, and gold buying. I was a little surprised they didn’t know why you shouldn’t or how it affects everyone else. So here I am going to throw down a few reasons why you should never, ever do this.
- It’s against the Blizzard ToS and if caught your account will be banished for all time in the pit of banned user accounts.
- If you are in a respectable guild *looks around* you will be removed upon discovery. Is it worth throwing away all the friendships with your guildies over a few gold? Heck no!
- As you venture around the internet, many sites will pop up offering their “services”. On the face of it, they look quick simple and user friendly. What they do not tell you is that they often log your keystrokes , commonly known as “Keylogging”. This means they can see everything you type, from the romantic little flirtations in your emails to your significant other, through to your online banking logins, all your passwords, credit card information and most importantly – your World of Warcraft Username and Password.
- Once they have this they tend to leave you a few months, then move in. Usually people hit will find their toons all naked, some toons moved to new accounts and sold, and all your hard earned gear and ill gained gold gone.
- Another one that people don’t really see is that when you buy gold you support the people who provide you the coin in their constant battle to destroy server economy. This will affect every single player you see on your realm, from the humble level 10s bouncing around through to the big guns at 80, and even your own guildmates.
We call the people that do this “Farmers”, or “Gold Farmers”. Farmers will go out and grind away at items and drops for mats then AH them for insane prices, thus pushing the price of everything up through the roof. I know, and you thought they put on their wizard hat and robe to conjure the gold, right?
(This post feels like a blizzard patch) So people always argue with me that it’s not so bad, when they sell things they are going to get more in return. Well, yeah you will. But every new person, or every player who doesn’t have a big 80 tucked away to farm is not going to be able to pay your prices, you will lose sales. New players will lose the chance to gain decent gear and items at fair prices. You will be hit as soon as you want anything from the AH. And that’s just wrong, we should be looking after our cuddly little newbies because they will end up (hopefully) paying it forward and creating the best gaming atmosphere. The other thing is, those players will soon be 80, and will be with you in your groups with gear from AH and trying to help you out, they are in alot of ways, your future as well.