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FreezeBytch
Level 80 Mage, Arcane.
Human. Alliance.
Dath'Remar (Normal) - NorthAmerica
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Making Money in World of Warcraft
(Or how the heck can you afford to buy a mount and several purple items at level 50)
The most common topic I see posted in the forums is a complaint by people nearing level 40 that they can't afford to buy their mount. How do you make that much gold? Well I decided to write up a guide to give you my personal pointers on making money in WoW. It's actually very easy to make a lot of money in the game if you understand the mechanics and play at least some of the time in a way meant to maximize your income. These are in no particular order. I suggest you do as many as you can, but of course the main point of the game is to have fun, so if you find something simply not fun, skip it.
1. Play Solo. I'm not saying never play in a group, but the reality is that most money making activities are done solo in this game. Just do the math. 5 people evenly dividing the loot means you will have to kill 5 times as many mobs to make the same amount of money, and the reality is that even the best group will not come anywhere close to killing at that rate. Plus, green items drop on average once per 40 kills. Blues drop more like once per a thousand kills. Most people never see a purple drop. And on top of that, not every green is the same. Some are far more valuable than others. If you are soloing, you get every drop. In a group, you need to roll. Over all, you will make a lot more money soloing than grouping. My solution is to find a group when I know I have 4+ hours to play and to solo the rest of the time.
2. Learn how to use the AH. This is a multi-parter.
(a) If you played for several hours and end the day with only a handful of auctions, you are doing something wrong. A 3 to 4 hour play session soloing should yield you 15 to 20 items worth auctioning. Keep in mind that every item that is not gray is worth something to someone. Before clicking sell to a vendor, alt-tab out to wow.allakhazam.com and look at the AH median prices for that item. You may be surprised at how valuable some items are. Many of the best AH items in the game are not green, blue or purple, but instead are white. Sell everything you can in the AH, not to the vendors. Cloth is an especially valuable thing to sell that tends to drop in large quanities when you hunt. When in doubt, put it up for sale and see what happens.
(b) Make sure you always put a buyout for an item you put for sale. Nine times out of ten, someone interested in your item in the AH wants it now, and if he can't get it now, he's not interested. Except for particularly rare items, no buyout usually means no sale. Figuring a buyout is tricky. I generally use the rule of 3 times the recommended base price for greens. Blues and purples are pretty much sky's the limit. If nobody buys it, you can always list it again. For white items, check if any others are for sale and use that as a reference.
(c) Learn your local AH price structure. Most white items drop over and over again. This means you will be selling them almost every day. Try to remember the prices you got for the next time. Jot them down if need be. Over time, you will start to get a feel for what people will pay for certain items. This lets you start to play the buy and sell game. Whenever you log into the AH, scroll through all of the items for sale and look for bargains. If you see an item for sale for 50% or lower of the expected value, buy it and put it back up for the right price. You may go days without seeing any good bargains, but those you do catch can often yield a lot of gold. I typically spend about 15 to 20 minutes at the beginning and end of each play session just scrolling through the AH looking for anything interesting. Over time, this will generate a lot of gp for you.
(d) Never pass a vendor by without checking him first. The more remote the location of the vendor, the more this rule applies. Vendors often have rare items for sale that when bought disappear for a set time period. Many of these items sell for 5 to 10 times what you pay for them in the AH. You can tell these items because they will have a number on their icon. Learn who sells what and memorize it. Trade skill recipes in particular resell very well in the AH. For example, you can buy the recipe for the superior mana potion in The Undercity for 1.2 GP and resell it in the AH for as much as 6 GP. Many food and drink vendors have rare potions for sale. A Superior Healing Potion sells for 9 SP from a vendor and resells in the AH for 50 SP. The beauty of these items is that their vendor resale price is always very low, which means they are also cheap to list in the AH. This means you can afford to list them several times until they sell and still make quite a bit off of them.
(e) Learn what stats are valued by other classes. Items sell best that boost the target stats. All classes can use stamina. Casters look to boost intelligence most of all. Fighters want to boost strength. Hunters and rogues agility. Paladins are fighters, but also want extra intelligence. Casting classes can also use some extra spirit, though many consider it worthless. Things that boost attacks, spell damage, crits, etc. are very well liked.
3. Pick up a Trade Skill. WoW trade skills are actually very profitable. If you are playing and have skipped this aspect of the game, you are missing out of a significant source of gold. You can choose to pick one of the creation/gathering combinations like herbalism/alchemy, or to do two gathering professions and sell what you get to the other players. Each method will make you money. Skinning, mining and herbalism sold through the AH can all be very profitable. Many players do a combination of two gathering skills to make money. However, you can also do well with a creation/gathering combination. The key to playing a creation/gathering trade skill well is to learn what sells and what doesn't. Probably 90% of all items made by trades are useless and will never be able to be sold to other players. I suggest you click on each item on the site and see where it's AH prices are listed as and concentrate on those items with the highest prices. Gather the ingredients yourself. This may mean devoting a couple hours a week to just running around and finding herbs or ores, but it is worth it over buying raw ingredients from other players. Use our object maps to see which zones have the most spawn points for what you need to gather and then milk that zone in the game's off hours if possible. Then make and sell the items. Except for something like healing and mana potions, you are better off only putting one of each item up at a time. Keep in mind other crafters are putting up similar items and more items for sale generally means lower prices. It's in everyone's best interest not to flood the market (well the crafters interest any ways). If you devote several hours a week to crafting, you can make quite a nice profit off of it over time.
4. Grind, don't quest. I'm not saying don't ever do quests. Quests are fun and a huge part of the game. When playing purely for fun, by all means do all the quests you can. When you decide to try to make some money, however, you have to grind. What is grinding? It means finding a spot with a nice set of mobs that can be pulled one at a time and spawn over time faster than you can kill them. The best grinding spots also feature a recurring chest or perhaps a potential silver elite. Settle into your chosen spot and kill, kill, kill. Keep going until your bags are full and you have to return to town. If you are a premium member of our site, use our mob value chart to find the best value mobs for your level and pick your spot based upon that. If you don't have that, look for camps of humanoids, as they tend to drop money as well as items. Keep in mind that the loot difference between mobs several levels below you and several levels above you is usually not that great, so when grinding strictly for loot, go for lower level mobs, as you will kill them faster and thus get more loot more quickly. Another thing to keep in mind is that elites drop green, blues and purples at 3 to 4 times higher a rate than non-elites. Thus, grinding elites even 8 to 10 levels lower than you will get you a lot more loot over time than grinding same level non-elites. There are lots of outdoors areas full of elites that can be single pulled. You can also try instances 5 to 10 levels below you and solo there. By far my favorite instance to solo is the Scarlet Monastery. It's the only one I have found that has mostly single or double pulls throughout the dungeon.
Professions
I wrote this guide to try to help basically two sorts of players: newbies to WoW and players who raced ahead in levels without learning how to make money (and wonder why they're always broke). Once you learn the tricks, it's pretty easy to make good money in WoW. And if you're willing to work at it a little, you can become rich.
There is really only one way for players under level 20 or so to get rich in WoW, and that's through picking the right professions. Most professions are money-sinks at the lower levels. Sure, at higher levels some of these are big money-makers. But in general you have to invest a lot of gold to get there. But four professions are money-makers from the start. These are:
Fishing
Mining
Skinning
Herbalism
All players can get Fishing. It is a "secondary" skill or profession (along with Cooking and First Aid). All players can get all three of the secondary skills, so get them as soon as you can (level 5 for fishing). In a nutshell you can at level 10 fish in some fairly high level areas for certain fish that Alchemists need in their potions (possibly for Enchanters, too). Please see my HOW TO FISH guide to learn more. Mining, Skinning and Herbalism are "primaries", and you can only learn two of them.
PRIMARY SKILLS OR PROFESSIONS
You can only pick two of these. They include:
Alchemy potion making
Blacksmithing armor and weapon making
Enchanting granting magic powers to items
Engineering making bombs plus useful and wacky items
Herbalism* getting herbs for Alchemy (and maybe Enchanting)
Leatherworking make leather armor (and two small bags)
Mining * get metal and gems for Blacksm, Engi, etc.
Skinning* get skins for Leatherworking, Engi, etc.
Tailoring make cloth armor and many kinds of bags
If you've already picked yours, don't panic. You can always ditch them and train again in new ones. To lose skills hit K, select the skill, and hit Cancel. If you ever want to relearn this skill, you can. It's an inconvenience, but it's not that big a deal.
You may have read on various sites how players recommend that a Paladin go for Mining and Blacksmithing or a Hunter go for Skinning and Leatherworking, so they can make their own armor. Mages, they say, should try Enchanting and Tailoring - and so on. This sounds good in theory - "Hey, I'll make my own armor for free." But in reality, if you're in an established (i.e. not brand new) server or realm, nothing could be farther from the truth.
Using Fishing and a combination of Mining, Skinning and Herbalsim, you can make so much money that you can just pay for all the armor you need, get enchantments for it, buy bigger bags, buy a pet, and still have money to burn! All around level ten.
Why? On an established server higher level players have lots of money. They mail it to their alts to spend or spend it themselves. Even though they're high level, they still need basic trade materials: copper, light leather, herbs, oily blackmouths, firefin snappers, and so on. And they're willing to pay you good money for these things - things you can get before you're even level ten.
WHICH TWO PRIMARY MONEY-MAKERS TO PICK?
I chose Mining and Skinning, and it has worked very well for me. Herbalism and Skinning would work, too, although I don't think it makes as much money (you still do okay - and I could be wrong). I don't recommend Mining and Herbalism for the simple reason that each of these gives you a "detection" skill on your mini-map to help you find resource nodes. It would drive me crazy to have to switch between the two constantly, and if you don't constantly (and I mean every minute or so) switch you'll miss nodes. But if you think you can handle it, be my guest.
HOW TO MINE
First you need to train in the skill. If you're a newbie this means leaving your starting area and going up the road towards the next bigger town (or to your race's main city). Between the next bigger town and the city are guards (on the road), most of whom will tell you (if you right click them) how to find a trainer.
Click on the bottom option (Profession Training) and then Mining. You get a yellow arrow on your mini-map, and when you get close you get a red flag showing where the trainer is. Easy.
Just right click the trainer and buy the skill (it's really cheap). Now buy a mining pick. There is always a merchant near the trainer who sells these. You must have it in your backpack or in a bag to be able to mine (not in your bank). Now you need to find a mineral node to mine.
It helps to be at least level five or so to mine copper only because the nodes are in areas where there are lots of monsters, and you need to be able to survive. Note, Skinning is a good combo with Mining because a lot of the things that attack you while you mine are Beasts - and this is precisely what you need to do Skinning: dead beasts.
Copper nodes are scattered all over areas where level five and bigger creatures lurk, like Elwynn Forest, Dun Morogh and Mulgore. They tend to be in hilly or mountainous areas, often around the zone's edges, but some are underwater (just swim down and mine - you have plenty of air). When you buy the Mining Skill you get several new skill "buttons" in your "book" (one of the buttons in the middle bank of control buttons). Just click on the Detect Minerals button (copper hammer icon) and get that same copper hammer appearing on the corner of your mini-map. Now all copper nodes near you will show up on your mini-map as little yellow dots.
You'll have to spend some time exploring the lowbie zones to find the copper nodes. Some are impossible - there is one in Elwynn, for instance, that has literally a dozen wolves around it. Forget it. Leave it and move on. Sadly some nodes are "broken". You mine them and either get nothing or you get error messages. Leave these and move on. Note, this is not the same as a "failure" message. If you get a red "failed attempt" message as you mine, just try again until it works.
To mine all you do is run up to a copper node. They are copper-colored lumps with "crystals". Right click it, wait, and click on the copper ore, rough stones, and occasional gems that appear on the window. Each node is good for two to four clicks. Then, it vanishes. Note where the node is. It will refresh itself over time - sometimes right away, sometimes in about thirty minutes. The quarry in the southeast part of Dun Morogh is a great place for copper, as are the kobold mines in Elwynn. Sometimes you'll see a copper node on the mini-map, but it simply "isn't there". Most likely it is underground! See if there is a mine or tunnel entrance nearby. If so and if you can take on the monsters in there, go for it. Excuse me for being obvious, but mines are great places to mine!
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Member of
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FreezeBytch
Level 80 Mage, Arcane.
Human. Alliance.
Dath'Remar (Normal) - NorthAmerica
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HOW TO SMELT
Once you get 20 copper ore you may want to sell it, but first you should Smelt it into copper bars. You increase your Mining skill doing this (which is awesome), and copper bars are what other players want to buy (it's what they use to make things).
You get a smelting button with the Mining Skill (you may have to click the Next button to see it). Find a forge and stand close to it. If you ask a guard where a Blacksmithing trainer is you will almost always find a forge there. It can be a red, glowing gizmo with an anvil (some forges are small), or it can be "The Great Forge" in the center of Ironforge (just go there and stand to Smelt). Click the smelting button and then Create All. Go make a sandwich. When you come back you will have made twenty copper bars (if you started with 20 copper ore), and you will have increased your Mining skill a lot! Great. Now you can sell.
WHAT ABOUT THE ROUGH STONES AND GEMS I FOUND?
Rough stones are turned into blasting powder by Engineers. This can be turned into bombs or ammo for guns. If you plan to one day switch and become an Engineer (or if you plan to play up an "alt" or secondary character as an Engi) then save as many stacks of rough stones as you can in your bank. Otherwise sell them to other players (more on this later) or sell them to npc merchants. Gems are mostly used by Engineers for making things like scopes, goggles, telescopes and so on. Some gems are used by Enchanters. You can sell these to other players, but prices you can get vary a lot. Higher level gems are worth much more. Gems you'll see at lower levels include Malachite, Tigers Eye, and Shadowgem.
HOW TO SELL MY STACK OF COPPER BARS
Get to your side's Auction House or AH to sell these, although you can do "/2 twenty copper bars for sale" in any zone to try to sell them in person on the trade channel. I wouldn't. I'd do the AH. The Alliance AH is in Ironforge, and the Hoard AH is in Ogrimmar. Just right click a guard as you enter the city to get directions. I'll be giving more advice on selling at the AH toward the end of this guide.
ADVANCED MINING
At Mining skill 50+ and I think adventuring level 10 you can go back to the trainer and learn Journeyman Mining (I think you start as an Apprentice). When you start your Mining skill cap is 75. But when you train as a Journeyman you get the skill cap bumped up to 150.
With a higher skill you can mine and smelt tin. You can smelt copper and tin bars into bronze bars (buy these abilities from the trainer). Want to know what's crazy? On my server tin sells for about the same price as copper, as does bronze! I've never even made bronze because it's such a waste (you in essence "lose" a copper bar to combine it with tin to make bronze - the price of bronze would have to be more than the price of tin and copper together for the creation of bronze to make sense). I often don't even bother with tin because it's so much faster and easier for me to go get 60 copper ores, instead. I know where the copper is, and the monsters around the copper don't faze me now (tin is a pain to get - maybe I need to work harder to find better deposits - but why should I if the market for it is no better than copper?).
Warning, this is how it is in my server. In three weeks this could all change. I have been seeing copper prices coming down lately. So who knows? Just keep in mind that occasionally you hit skill caps and have to come back to pay the trainer to get to the next "tier" of ability. It gets costly as you level up, so save some money for this.
I've just started mining iron. I've never mined mithril or thorium, but apparently you can make really good money on those. They require higher skill and high adventuring levels (because these nodes are in some hairy places). If you keep the Mining skill into the higher levels, that's what you're going to be doing.
SKINNING
To get Skinning right-click a guard for directions to a trainer, either in your race's main city or in the village outside your main city. Right click the trainer to buy the skill. Near the trainer you'll find a merchant selling skinning knives. Buy one. Like with the mining pick, you need to keep this in your backpack or in a bag (not in the bank).
Skinning is much simpler than Mining. There are no fancy buttons that come with it. Simply kill a skinable beast (you can't skin spiders, and the very low level beasts can't be skinned), loot it completely, and then hover your pointer over it.\ You'll see the pointer change to a "hide". Right click. If you fail, right click again. Soon you'll get a window with "ruined scraps" or "light leather" in it. Save these. Even ruined scraps can be sold for decent money.
You may come across a field where some other player has left three dead boars, two dead bears and a dead snow leopard. If he's looted them, you can now skin his kills. Cool, huh? If he's there don't do it too fast - he may be a skinner, too, and it's really rude to skin other skinner's kills.
Save your stacks of scraps and light leather, and put them in the Auction House or AH when you have enough. Scraps don't always sell well on the AH (if so npc merchants pay well for them), but light leather is always in demand. Hide is a rare drop and sometimes gets more money than light leather. More on AH selling later in this guide.
HERBALISM
Just like with the other skills, right click a town guard and get directions to a trainer. Right click her and buy the skill. You get a button for "herb detection". Hit it, and you get a little "daisy" icon by your mini-map. Now all nearby herbs will show up as yellow dots on your mini-map.
You can get Peacebloom and Silverleaf right outside Ironforge and Stormwind. hey can be anywhere, although Peacebloom tends to be in the sun and ilverleaf in the shade of big trees. Earthroot is in the hills or mountains. tranglekelp is underwater.
When you find a plant, just right click it. If you fail, right click it again until a window opens. Pick up your herbs. That's it. Unlike mining, the Herb node only has one "harvest". But Herb nodes tend to be more plentiful and easier to find than mining nodes. Also fewer players tend to become Herbalists.
As you adventure, you'll see herbs all over the place. Some of the mining nodes tend to be near clusters of troggs, gnolls or kobolds (and are hard to get), but herb nodes tend to be out in the open and not so well guarded. Once you have enough herbs, get to the AH and sell. I have a sneaking suspicion that herbs sell better on PvP servers than PvE servers. I can't prove this, but PvP players aggressively look for every "edge" they can get on other players. Potions are a great way to get this edge. They can literally mean the difference between winning and losing. That said, any smart player who wants to get ahead in the game will want to learn about and use potions.
So there always is a market for potions (and for the herbs needed to make them). I don't think the market is quite as good as the metals market, but herbs can be sold for good money to other players. But I could be wrong. This isn't the only guide on the Internet telling players to Mine and Skin to make money in WoW (prices for metals and leather may come down some). It could be that most players are overlooking Herbalism and that in the future there will be a good market for it. If you try it and don't like it, it's pretty easy to ditch it and get some other skill (to lose a skill hit K, pick the skill, hit Cancel). More on how to sell at the AH later on in this guide.
BUT I DON'T WANT TO JUST HARVEST STUFF; I WANT TO MAKE THINGS!
I understand. But it's really frustrating if you're burning up all the copper you find in your Blacksmithing skill - and no one is buying the armor you make. You have no extra money for bigger bags (this is a huge pain), for potions, for that rare blue item you really want that sometimes appears in the AH, for fluff pets - even for Griffon rides!
There's always a compromise. Maybe put the Blacksmithing on the back burner a while and sell your copper for cash. If you find your Enchanting skill is eating you alive, cancel it and make some cash. Gain about twenty levels and then go back to Enchanting. At that point you can farm the "green" items you need to up the Enchanting skill like crazy, and you can catch up in a few days. Try fishing. Do what makes sense to you. All I want for you to know is that there are a lot of ways to make money, even at the very lowest levels, and no one in WoW has to be broke. There is nothing more pathetic than some clueless player whining and begging for money when it's so easy to make!
MAKE YOUR ALTS WORK FOR YOU
Most players don't just play one character. They have a "main" and an alternate or "alt" character. Most people make an Alt because they get bored being one thing too much. They see some other class having a lot of fun, and they want to try that out.
But you can also make an Alt to be a money-maker for you. Again, you can make really good money in WoW at level ten or below. And it's pretty easy to play up to level ten. My first day in WoW I got my Hunter to lvl 10 (it was a long day, yes, but I did it). You can leave your Main as a Engineer/Enchanter or whatever and occasionally play your Alt to make money. Mailing the cash to your Main costs only 30 cp.
A Hunter is a great choice for a Skinner because they get track beasts. A Warlock or Hunter is good for any harvester because these classes can use their pets to "take the heat" while running between nodes or while harvesting nodes (Hunters don't get pets until level ten; Warlocks don't get a good "tanking" pet that can taunt well and hold agro until level ten). Night Elves start far from the AH in Ironforge, so if you want to play a NE consult my travel guide for getting there fast and easy. For the Hoard it is the Tauren who start far from their side's AH in Ogrimmar (Undead are connected to Ogrimmar by a fast and easy to access zeppelin that goes to their home city). Again, check my travel guide; it's not really that bad getting a Tauren to the AH. But if you don't want to fool with this extra trip, don't make your "money maker alt" a NE or Tauren.
HOW TO SELL - UNDERSTANDING THE AUCTION HOUSE
Get to either Ironforge (Alliance) or Ogrimmar (Hoard) and find the Auction House or AH. Consult my travel guide for tips to find these cities if necessary. Remember, Stormwind is connected to Ironforge by tram. Undercity is connected to Ogrimmar by zeppelin. Both rides are fast and free. Once in the city, right click any city guard to get directions to the AH.
Press through the other players and right click an Auctioneer. Gnomes may need to use a "high angle" camera view to find the Auctioneer (I'm not kidding!). You get an auction window, and you should be in the Browse part of it. Type the name of whatever you're selling and hit Search. Make sure you spell it right. If there is lag it may either take 30 seconds to work, or it may not work at all. The AH can be buggy at times. If it is, go do other things; maybe log out and go get a burger or pizza. Just don't assume that if it tells you it can't find what you're looking for that it's telling you the truth. At the time of this writing it is often buggy.
Okay, lets say you're selling a stack of 20 copper bars. Your search for "copper bar" gives you the following information on other players' auctions (bid and buyout prices in SILVER money):
Akuzo 20 bars bid: 40 buyout: 60
Corino 20 bars bid: 48 buyout: 50
Corino 20 bars bid: 48 buyout: 50
Corino 20 bars bid: 48 buyout: 50
Corino 20 bars bid: 48 buyout: 50
Corino 20 bars bid: 48 buyout: 50
Corino 20 bars bid: 48 buyout: 50
Funkybat 20 bars bid: 45 buyout: 48
Hradakar 20 bars bid: 47 buyout: 55
Hradakar 11 bars bid: 24 buyout: 27
Joebob 10 bars bid: 29 buyout: 30
Joebob 10 bars bid: 29 buyout: 30
Kaolinda 20 bars bid: 42 buyout: 50
Kaolinda 20 bars bid: 42 buyout: 50
Margar 20 bars bid: 25 buyout: 30
Margar 20 bars bid: 25 buyout: 30
Margar 20 bars bid: 25 buyout: 30
Margar 20 bars bid: 25 buyout: 30
Gah! What does all this mean? Is this good or bad?
PLEASE, MY BRAIN IS BLEEDING - JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO
"I've been playing 16 hours straight. I can't think any more. Just tell me how to sell my dumb copper and let me get to bed!" Okay! I will. Try to find the "average price" in the above numbers. Don't literally average them. Just eyeball it. It's fifty silver, right? Or is it 30? No, Joebob is only selling half-stacks, so don't get fooled by him. Indeed the "average price" is 50 silver.
The no-brainer approach: if the "average" buyout price is 50, set your opening bid for your stack of 20 copper bars at 45 silver and set a buyout price at 49 silver. Click the "auction" tab, put your stack of copper in the little box, and then fill in the numbers. Make sure you've done it right. Then set your auction for "long term" and create the auction! If the average buyout price is 40 silver, start your auction at 35 and set your buyout for 39. And so on.
Sometimes it's literally as easy to find the "average price" as in the example above. Sometimes the "average price" is really more a "cluster," say a group of sellers with buyouts at 52, 54, 55, and 56. In that case set a buyout of 51 to be safe. You're not the cheapest guy in the AH, but he'll get bought out fast. Over the next 24 hours your price will eventually attract a buyer. You will almost certainly sell. Your money will be in the mail tomorrow. Now go get some sleep!
WAIT, I WANT TO KNOW MORE - WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON IN THE AH?
Well, it's not that hard to figure out, so don't worry. It works a lot like Ebay. The price is in silver to buy the whole stack - it's not a price per unit. So the first guy, Akuzo, will sell his stack of 20 copper bars if someone bids 40 silver and then no one else comes along and outbids him or does buyout. The winning bidder gets his stack of copper bars in the mail when the auction expires. At that point Akuzo gets the silver money minus a small fee in the mail. If Akuzo never gets a bid, he gets his copper bars back in the mail, and he can try again. Someone agreeing to pay the buyout ends an auction right there.
But what's the big deal with "buyout"; what's that all about? Let's say a player's got an Engineering skill of 145, and he really want to get that skill to 150. He's going to make five "orange" combines (each challenging or "orange colored combine" always nets a skill up). This player needs four copper bars per combine - or 20 bars. He's most likely going to want to buyout. Why? He wants that copper right now, and if he goes for the buyout option, he gets it in the mail immediately. He wants the cheapest price, so Margar the Orc sells a full stack for the 30 silver buyout price.
Most tradeskillers are going to want to "buyout" the trade supplies you sell. Again, it's because they don't want to wait two, six, ten or more hours for the auction to expire. They want it now because they want to do their combines now. Their bank and bags are already full of stuff, and they don't want to sit on it forever. It's a supply-chain world in WoW for the skills, so to speak. There will usually be no bidding wars for copper bars.
There may be a bidding war for a rare "blue" magic item. But when selling stuff like copper bars, light leather and earthroot, "buyout is your friend" (I've heard several players literally say this - I didn't make it up). Okay, looking at those prices in the table above, who is the clever Orc and who is the dumb Orc? Well, Margar has the cheapest price per 20-stack at 30 silver.
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FreezeBytch
Level 80 Mage, Arcane.
Human. Alliance.
Dath'Remar (Normal) - NorthAmerica
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He's definitely going to sell all his hard earned copper. Is he the clever Orc? Maybe, maybe not. Eye-balling it, what is the "average" buyout price? About 50 silver (don't let Joebob fool you). Are these guys selling at 50 really going to sell, too? Yes, they most likely will. Margar will sell first, then Funkybat at 48 silver. Then Corino and Kaolinda will start selling. Other players may come in with cheaper buyouts and sell before them, but as long as they picked the longest time for their auctions, Corino and Kaolinda will almost certainly sell all their copper at 50 silver a stack.
Why? It's because every once in a while a rich player will come along and buyout as much copper as he can. He either wants to get his Alt to skill up a ton, or he wants to make scads of bombs, or whatever. He'll buy six or even a dozen stacks of copper and almost wipe out the AH! He doesn't care what he pays, either, although he'll probably buy the cheapest stacks first. After he's come through, then players with higher-priced buyouts can and will sell. usually. It's a small risk. Sometimes buyouts slightly above average work, occasionally they don't. If they don't work you lose a little over silver (for the set up fee) andcan try again. It's not that big a deal. But is it really worth it to take the risk for a tad more silver? I can't say. That's up to you.
So which player is the really clever Orc in this AH scenario above? Well, it's certainly not Margar. Margar's a really dumb Orc. Why? He saw a lot of people selling copper and panicked! He said, "Oh no, too much competition! Must sell cheap!" And he panicked himself into losing close to eighty silver. His impulse to underbid was good. Underbidding helps "guarantee" a sale. But what did Margar the panicky Orc do? He way-underbid and screwed himself out of a big chunk of profit he should have made for all his hard work mining four stacks! If he'd only taken a moment to think: "who is buying from me? Rich Engineers and Blacksmiths. What do they want? The cheapest buyout" - he would have concluded he only needed to SLIGHTLY undercut the average price. People who come to the AH for copper are going to buy. To sell you don't have to be ultra-low, just lower than most other players. Had he set his price at 49 silver 75 copper it would have worked. He would have made almost 80 silver more! So please don't be a dumb Orc like Margar. If you want to undercut other sellers, do yourself a favor and do it slightly, please.
So, who is the really clever Orc? The clever Orc is the one who bought out Margar's panic-based low buyouts and resold them for a "proper" price! This Orc will make almost 80 silver off Margar - and for no work to boot! But is there another clever Orc? Yes. Take a look at Joebob and Hradakar. What's up with them? They are selling stacks not in multiples of 20. Hradakar had 11 copper bars - an odd lot - leftover, and he just tried to prorate his price down, based on what he's charging for his full stack. But Joebob is doing something altogether different, isn't he?
A FINESSE PLAY AT THE AH - SPLIT YOUR STACKS FOR MORE PROFIT
Joebob came to the AH with 20 copper bars but SPLIT them into two equal stacks of ten (hold Shift and click). Each stack is for sale for 30 silver (grand total of 60 silver). What's his deal? Joebob is trying an AH finesse move. He thinks he can get a lot more silver out of his hard-earned copper if he sells them in smaller stacks. For one thing an impulsive player whose eyes are bleeding from playing 16 hours straight may not bother to notice his stack-size is half the others'. This player may see 30 silver and just buyout, thinking he's getting a good deal. So is Joebob a criminal? Maybe not. Maybe other players come to the AH and don't need a full stack of copper. Maybe a player only needs nine copper bars - and Margar's cheap full stacks have just been bought out and re-auctioned at 49 silver. So is this player going to pay 49 or 50 silver for a full stack and merchant-dump 11 copper bars? No! He'll pay 30 silver to Joebob for 10 copper bars and only have to merchant-dump one bar. This player gets what he wants. And Joebob gets what he wants: top buyout price for his copper.
Remember, for most players bag and bank space is limited. No one wants to have to keep copper bars for this reason. They often want to buy and use on demand.
Will Joebob's stack-splitting finesse always work? I don't know. I just started it myself, and so far I've had mixed results. Once you get established in your WoW business and get some experience with the AH, give it a try. It may work for you!
AH PITFALLS
Read the auctions very carefully. Make sure you're getting a full stack. Watch out for players who "accidentally" set a stack of copper bars for sale for 40 GOLD instead of 40 silver at buyout. A rich player who actually has 40 gold can lose it fast this way, if he clicks without carefully reading.
If you're selling, don't accidentally set your buyout for gold - or you probably won't sell. If you accidentally set the buyout for copper instead of silver, you will lose a fortune. If you screw up (and notice it) just cancel the auction and reset it. Don't set your buyouts for cheaper than what NPC merchants will pay you! Check out what prices are. Write them down on paper if necessary. Just take your time and do it right every time. That way you'll be happy!
SELLING OTHER HARVESTED STUFF
Your stacks of herbs, your light leather, your Oily Blackmouth fish and so on - sell them the same way as I outlined for copper. Search the AH, get an idea of what prices are, and set a buyout that feels good to you. Maybe you have three stacks of "ruined scraps" and no one else is selling them. What price should you set? See what the non-player-character or NPC merchant will pay. Do "/1 what should I sell a stack of 20 Ruined Scraps for please?" See what other players say. Then gauge it accordingly. As long as you're getting better than what an NPC merchant would pay, you're doing okay (remember to factor in the AH's fees).
DIRECT SELLING
If you're a Miner, Skinner, Herbalist or Fisherman, buyout at the AH is your friend. It's easy and safe. You don't need to fool with trying to sell directly to other players.
Occasionally you may see someone doing "/2 want to buy stacks of light leather." What do you do? Well if you happen to have some light leather on you, and if you know what AH prices are, you can safely sell to this person directly. Try to agree on a price. If they wont pay at least AH prices, wish them a good day and move on. If you like their price, arrange to meet them. Right click their "picture" and hit "trade". You get a trade window.
Put your stack or stacks in the window on your side (look for your picture andname) and wait for them to put in the right amount of money AND to commit (or turn their side of the trade window green). When their side has the proper money and is green, then click Sell.
Don't click Sell earlier. Scumbag players like Margar the Orc can pull some of the money out and shortchange or rip you off. So if you happen to play on a server that starts with "K" and have an Orc named Margar try to trade with you, do yourself a favor and make a rude gesture at him, instead (and put him on your /ignore list) - he's a lowlife thief who will pull just this trick on you. This is a real exploit, and players like Margar really exist (on a server that starts with "K") and really do this. Make a rude gesture at him for me if you see him. And have nothing to do with him and players like him.
OTHER WAYS TO MAKE MONEY
At higher levels one of the best ways to make money is to get rare and highly desirable magic items. Some players make groups specifically to go hunt down bosses for such items. I've heard of groups of Rogues with maxed Sneak skills going on "instance raids" - they sneak to the back, kill the bosses, loot em, sneak out, get a new instance (they may have to break up and reform for this), and do it again and again (until their bags are bulging with items). I've never tried this myself, but it sounds doable.
Another way to make money is to luck into very rare and highly desirable drops, like a Tiny Crimson Whelpling. This is a little fluff pet, a baby dragon that hovers in the air by your shoulder and looks cute as all heck. Last I looked on my server, the buyout price for one of these was 105 gold! Actually there are three kinds, red, black and green. The red can be hunted starting in the low 20's in the Wetlands (Eastern Island). More on these on my Pet guide.
MAKING USE OF THE NEUTRAL AUCTION HOUSE IN GADGETZAN
Please see my travel guide on how to get to the goblin's neutral city, Gadgetzan. There you will find down some steps a "neutral" AH. This is the only place where Hoard and Alliance players can trade objects and money. If you want to start a WoW "smuggling" operation, this is where you do it.
I learned the hard way that you can't bid on "your own" auction - you can't bid on auctions set by characters in the same account. But if you can get a friend to help you (or if you own two accounts), you can trade objects (and money) from side to side. And you can make money doing this.
I've done some smuggling of Hoard-dropped and Hoard-purchasable items to Alliance side, and if you know what you're doing you can make good money at this. But it's a complex subject and requires its own guide (soon to come - look for part of this in my pet guide - and I may have to do a separate smuggling guide).
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Member of
Rank
Plays
FreezeBytch
Level 80 Mage, Arcane.
Human. Alliance.
Dath'Remar (Normal) - NorthAmerica
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Gold Guide 1
I mentioned in Money Making 101 that I was holding back a trick or two for fast gold. Well, it's time to
share. This will require fishing over 75 (100+ is better for the catch rate) and level 25 or higher. Like all
my strats they are designed for alliance but horde can do as well.
Deviate fish = LOTS OF GOLD
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=4311
Get yourself to The Barrens and into the Wailing Caverns instance. You can catch the Deviate fish outside
the instance and even in the pool outside the cave but you'd be crazy to fish there as alliance since this is
horde land and a popular low level instance. There are several safe spots in the instance but Ive found for
ease and convenience, that the stream just past the first batch of raptors works great. There is a yellow
named elite turtle that just trucks around doing laps in the pool and 1 wandering ooze you have to deal
with. Other then that, its a totally safe spot. The turtle is non aggro but after he struts by for the 25th
time you'll find yourself wanting to make turtle soup.
Catch rate:
Ive found that it actually varries from trip to trip (kinda like real fishing). Sometimes I'll be catching a
deviate at around 1 per every 2.5 fish or around 40% of the time. On slower days it breaks down to about
1 in every 4 fish or 25% of the time. Its never less then 1 in 4. Take into account the occasional no catch
and the rare "fish got away", you SHOULD be catching 1 deviate in every 5 casts on average on your
worst day. Average cast time for a catch is around 30 seconds (this is purely an estimate based on my
experience and NOT hard data). That means youre catching around 2 fish a minute or 1 deviate fish every
2 minutes. What does all that mean in simple terms......30 deviate fish an hour.
Why Deviate fish?:
Deviate fish are diffrent from any other fish in WoW because they have this wierd effect on the eater.
They do all kinds of crazy stuff from making you huge (or tiny) to shape shifting you to even putting you
to sleep. Deviate fish are also used in 2 alchemy recipes
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=7015
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=4710
These recipes are low level and can be learned by your level 5 AH whore. The trick is getting them. They
are a rare and I mean RARE drop in the barrens. I farmed for 2 weeks trying to get them and finally broke
down and ought the giant growth for 30g. Even if you dont have the recipes you can still make great
money fishing these up. People just love these just for goofing around with kinda like Nogginfogger.
Money money:
Now that we have a bunch of fish in our bags, its off to the AH. On Bleeding Hollow, I can sell a stack of
20 deviates for 12g any day of the week. You can milk it for a few more silver if you split in stacks of 10
(6.5-7g per ten) but I like the simple quick sale of 12g a stack. If you are fortunate enough to have one of
both of the recipes, you can make even more. The going rate seems to be around 1g per potion or cooked
fish. I sell the giant growth pots for 4.75g per stack of 5 and they sell well, though slightly slower then the
raw fish.
The break down:
Let's analyze the numbers. You fish for 2 hours and catch 60 deviate fish. Thats 3 full stacks of 20 fish. An
uncooked stack sells for 12g so for 2 hours work you made 36g or 18g an hour (excluding travel time).
Now if you cook or pot up the fish, your cash is significantly more. Each 5 giant growth/savory deviate
delight equal 5g. We caught 60 fish so thats 60g. That comes out to 30g an hour
Conclusion:
Do this once a week and it's a damn good supplement to your grind income and can pay for nice weapons
and enchants. It's not exactly a epic mount cash grind strat but a damn fine way to keep your gear fresh.
As a rogue Ive had both weapons blues or purples and both with firey enchant since around level 34 and
this strat is a major reason. If you have the balls to bot fish these guys, the money could be ridiculous
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