General Gold Strategies
From WorldofWikicraft
Any specific strategy isn’t going to help if you’re not familiar with the general ideas of gold making. Much of this may seem like common sense, but many players reach level 40 using 8 slot bags, and others still sell full stacks of silk and wool to merchants. If you are not one of these people, skip this page.
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[edit] Bags
An empty bag slot should be seen as potential profit. If you have few bag slots, you will also have little gold.
For a normal hunting trip, a level 5 should be making 30 copper per slot, while a level 30 should be making 30 silver per slot, and a level 60 should be making just under a gold per slot. If you upgrade from a set of 6 slot bags to a set of 14 slot bags, you’re gaining 32 empty slots. After a good hunting trip in an instance, a level 30 character would gain 9 gold from such an upgrade. Before you buy spells, armor, or anything else, you should be buying bags. Here is our recommendation for bags based on level:
- Level 1 – Too poor to buy bags, scavenge four slots where you can.
- Level 9 – Don’t worry about 6 slot bags. Save up for 8 slot bags instead, roughly 10 silver each.
- Level 18 – A full set of 10 slot bags should be available to you by this point, costing roughly 30 silver each.
- Level 30 – Skip 12 slot bags, and save up for 14 Slot bags instead, which go for about 4 gold each. It’s an investment that will make getting a mount much easier.
- Level 45 – Assuming you now have a mount, start saving up for 16 slot bags, which run between 8 and 15 gold each.
- Level 70 - 18 slot bags as of the last time this line was edited, so you should wait until 70 for them.
Never buy bags from merchants! They’re cheaper from players in the Auction House (located in Ironforge, Orgrimmar, and Gadgetzan)
[edit] Manage What’s in Your Bag
If you run out of room and are too occupied to run to a merchant, remember that certain items sell better than others. For example, food and drink you pick up off of mobs doesn’t sell very well, so you should trash them to make room for something better. Pay attention to the things you sell and try to remember what sells well and what doesn’t. Better yet, grab Auctioneer from our tools section below, and it will tell you what things are worth.
Also, learn what to put up at the Auction House and what to sell to merchants. For example, any profession items (various herbs, minerals, linen, wool, and so on) should go to the auction house or an alt character. For other items, hover the mouse over them. If the item name is grey, you should sell it to a vendor. If the item name is green, blue, or better, sell it at the auction house. Remember to set a buyout price. If you’re in a rush and don’t want to study the market, just set the buyout at three times the suggested price.
[edit] Play the Auction House Game
One caveat before reading the rest of this: don’t get too caught up in the auction house. It’s addictive and you can end up spending valuable leveling time there. The higher level you are the more gold you can make, so be sure to get your priorities straight before spending full days here.
First off you need an alternate character, or a “mule” for selling things to the auction house. The idea is you mail your mule things from wherever you are in the world, and then log him on later to put them up for auction. It saves you a trip.
Generally you want to keep an eye out for things that sell well in the auction house, and find a way to make them or farm them. This is how most players become rich – they find easy to make or camp items that have a high demand and then sell them. We’ll outline specific items that are good for this on the Redguides.com forums and later in this guide, but keep in mind that each realm has different demands and those demands can change very quickly. It is likely that the best items for this are the ones you find yourself, and after you’ve had your fill, we’d appreciate if you shared.
Always set your auctions for 24 hours, and always put a buyout unless it’s a unique or incredibly rare item. If you aren’t sure what the item is worth, just the set the buyout ludicrously high – it costs you nothing and at least gives the impatient buyers an option.
When selling an item, check and see if other people are selling it. Always set your buyout price a little bit lower than everyone else. And if you see a good item priced exceptionally low – buy it and re-sell it for the real market price.
[edit] Professions
You can train two professions for each character you make, and they can be very lucrative. Pick your two professions and start collecting. Mining, disenchanting, flower picking, whatever it is you do – though mining is the most lucrative at low levels. You can make money fairly quickly at low levels by doing one of two things:
1) Sell what you collect rather than using it for skill-ups. For example, stacks of light leather earned through skinning the monster you kill will sell to a vendor for 1.5 silver, but at the auction house you can get up to 5 silver. Stacks of tin and stacks of silverleaves are some of the most valuable things you can sell at low levels.
2) Mail what you collect to another one of your characters. You have enough character slots per server to have all of the professions covered. For example, say you get a stack of linen. Instead of selling it, mail it in stacks of 20 to your tailor / enchanter who can craft a few green-named items out of it, disenchant those green items, and then either sell the magic or enchant something else and sell it for a profit. It’s an amazing life cycle from one stack of linen. Do this with every trade good you collect, and you can cover low-level trade items with ease.
[edit] Secondary Professions
Remember you’re not just stuck to the two professions you choose at first. Fishing and cooking are secondary professions that can be lucrative things to do during downtime. If you’re at a dock waiting for a ship, just logging on for a few minutes to chat, or waiting on group-mates, and so on. Then make a trip to the auction house at the end of the day and you’re set. For example oily blackmouths are needed by alchemists, so they sell fantastically well in the auction house. Another example are deviate fish. They can be cooked and turned into savory deviate delights – a fun item that can turn the user into a pirate, ninja, or give various other benefits. It is one item that will probably never lose its value in the auction house.
[edit] Don't waste money
There are always going to be recipes, spells and skills that you’re going to have no use for. If the merchant or trainer wants you to pay a lot of money for something you don’t need, here’s a revolutionary idea, don’t buy it. For example: track giants for hunters, rebirth rank 2 for druids, hex of weakness for priests, and so on. While these can definitely come in handy during certain situations, they’re probably not something you need right away. Buy them when you’re feeling richer. The same goes for buying equipment at the auction house. If it’s a small upgrade, or you’re about to complete a quest that gives a similar item, don’t waste your money on it.
[edit] General Links
There's only one you really need, Auctinoeer
[edit] See Also
Be sure to familarize yourself with our links page, as well as our addons page.
