Guide to making money

From WoWWiki

Money is used in World of Warcraft for a variety of purposes. You need it to upgrade your class and profession skills, you can use it to buy consumables, equipment, ingredients and recipes from vendors and at the Auction House (sometimes abbreviated AH in this guide), and it comes in handy when you need to get from place to place on the animal airlines (Flight Paths).

The number one thing that most players want money for is to get a mount at level 30. This guide is dedicated to getting you that first 35 for your riding skill and first mount (factoring in the discount for being honored with your faction). Likewise, characters reaching level 70 will want to considering acquiring their first flying mount as well, which represents another substantial cost. (Note, though, that with introduction of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, and the inability of characters to fly in Northrend before level 77, a player truly focused on economizing could just as well forego getting a flying mount until level 77.)

Overview

This guide covers many of the ins and outs of both making money, and spending it wisely. Many players have "secret" strategies for making money that they wouldn't want to put in a public info site, since it gives them their edge in the marketplace. If you can gain the trust of a successful WoW tycoon, you should ask them some of their techniques. However, this guide covers many of the more common strategies.

Quick Guide

If you don't want to read this entire article, but you're primarily focused on how to get your mount at level 30, follow these steps. They will work for anyone, require no grinding sessions, and generally offer a high reward-to-time ratio:

• If you do nothing else, do this: Learn to use the Auction House, both for buying and selling.
• Consider installing the Auctioneer addon and use it to your advantage in the Auction House.
• Bargain hunt, do not pay full price.
• Do not bother bargain hunting at early levels without the Auctioneer addon. You will spend large amounts of time learning the price of items by heart, while the addon could do that for you automatically.
• Always post a buyout price on your auctions - many players will not bid on an auction with no buyout, unless the item is heavily discounted, and then it usually sells for a fraction of what it could have gotten. You will have more sales at a higher price and get your money more quickly if you post a proper buyout price.
• When you have saved around 5 (and you will quickly, due to having taken gathering professions), you can start investing. Buy cheap items on the AH and then re-list them for a profit. Only buy and sell what you know, and test your theories in small quantities.
• Take one or (better yet) two of the gathering professions: Mining, Herbalism, or Skinning. All of them are surefire moneymakers.
• While you don't have to Fish (and fishing is not to everyone's taste, as it involves a lot of sitting and staring at a bobber), fishing can become a good source of income as you level.
• "Do not take crafting professions until you are over level 40, or better yet level 70+. They are money sinks. Also, at higher levels you can harvest many of the materials for yourself, rather than buying them on the AH.
• None of the crafting professions offers profit margins at low levels that exceeds the profit from selling the raw materials (ore, herbs, and skins). In fact, raw materials are almost always worth more than the final product.
• If you do craft, learn what sells.
• Generally, do not craft white items unless you know there is a demand for that item.
• Learn what stats are useful and craft items that appropriately enhance those stats.
• Do not overproduce; increased supply depresses price. You will get a better price per item if you sell fewer of an item.
• Be frugal upgrading your gear.
• Every bright, shiny new piece of gear is going to be old and shabby in a level or two.
• Learn what stats help your character, and stick to that gear - avoid having to replace gear.
• You do not need to upgrade at every opportunity, especially while leveling. Not even every nth opportunity.
• Does the gear you are thinking of upgrading to offer a significant improvement? Think in per cent increase.
• Plan on getting gear from quest rewards, drops, or instances.
• Remember that as you level, you will be replacing your gear soon, no matter how good it looks now.
• Avoid investing a lot in high priced, well stat'ed gear, especially blue or purple gear. Most characters absolutely do not need rare or epic gear to level.
• Remember that the demand for blue and purple gear is driven primarily by twinks and alts. These are players that have substantial financial resources already, and can afford to pay a premium. As a result, you will not find many bargains in such gear; they tend to be vastly overpriced.
• Participating in raid groups into instances can get you the same gear.
• When training, only buy spells and abilities that you expect to use often. For example, if you're a warlock and you specialize in destruction, you're much less likely to use Haunt than if you had chosen Affliction.
• If you're a first-time player, learn first. Research. Ask. Test. Try, wisely. And above all, always spend cautiously--you'll need that money later.

If you follow this basic advice you should have no problem at paying for the mount at level 30, and you will always be able to afford skill training, food and potions along the way.

Cold Booting your Economy

You've started a new character with no alts for support, and you are dealing in the coppers level. How do you get your financial engine rolling?

Most of these should sell for silvers each in the auction house:

Harvest Small Eggs and sell them.

Harvest Stringy Wolf Meats and sell them.

Harvest Chunk of Boar Meats and sell them.

Train and get tools for two gathering professions. Do this even if you plan on taking different professions at higher levels - this can give you orders of magnitude more cash in just one run:

Invest in Apprentice Level Mining Profession Training, mine copper, and sell it.

Invest in Apprentice Level Skinning Profession Training, skin leathers, and sell them. Leather scraps will typically be in the multi-copper range.

Invest in Apprentice Level Herbalist Profession Training, gather herbs, and sell them. Low level herbs may only sell for multi-coppers.

Detailed Guide

For those interested in more details on spending wisely, and generating good cashflow, we cover a number of topics in more detail. Please note that this guide represents the accumulated wisdom of many people. You don't necessarily have to do all of these things--there is no one "right" way to make and manage money. However, these pointers will give you ideas on how to establish a firm financial foundation for your character.

Saving Your Money

The most important step in being able to buy a mount and make other large purchases should be self-evident: saving. Economize as often as you can, and don't buy anything unless you absolutely have to. You can burn through hundreds of gold even before level 30 by visiting the auction house for new equipment at every opportunity. If you do so, over the long haul you will be left with very little to show for it. Before level 30, keep your eyes on the prize: getting that mount. The mount helps you move faster. Faster movement means faster killing, faster questing, faster quest turn-ins, and faster leveling. It is the most important tool to fast leveling you can get at level 30, and infinitely more important than getting your hands on that Left-Handed Vorpal Cleaver of the Zipswitch that you could have purchased at level 23. Stay focused.

The same goes for the level 60 mount. An elite ground mount means still-faster leveling. Not only that, but you'll get knocked off considerably less often by mobs while getting around inside zones, meaning you'll die less often as well. Remember, as the goblins are so fond of saying, "Time is money, friend!" So it behooves you to get an elite ground mount as rapidly as possible.

Once your character makes it to Outland and beyond, cashflow frees up considerably. The quest rewards are much better than in Azeroth. In fact, a typical character will earn from 1000-1200 in quest rewards and vendor trash while leveling 60-70 in Outland, and perhaps 1400-1600 from 70-80 in Northrend. The tendency is, therefore, to spend more freely after one hits 60. However, it is important for players not to go crazy on their spending once they make it to Hellfire. For one thing, training costs, repair costs, and consumable costs are also higher. More important, there is a large purchase that you are going to want to make at some point after level 70, and that's your first flying mount. That "bird" costs 900 . Not only that, but if you want to fly it in Northrend at level 77, you'll have to shell out another 1000 for Cold Weather Flying. And for those characters who will be 'farming' herbs or ore in either Outland or Northrend, an elite flying mount is almost essential, as it helps you gather three times as quickly. That's another 5000 you'll be looking at. Therefore, budgeting carefully during the 60-80 leveling process is essential to ensuring you have sufficient cash on hand for making those purchases. Saving your pennies early makes that bird appear that much sooner.

Here are some things to consider when budgeting your money:

Bank Alt

A level 1 alt in a capital city is an effective way to not only cheaply increase your available bank space, but to be a simple savings and auctioneer account. This character can serve as your bank, an auctioneer, bag-space creator and a time saver. Get one.

To use it as a bank, figure out how much you want to have on-hand on your character based on how much you normally spend on repairs, food, ammo, etc. and send the rest to the bank alt. The principle here is "Out of sight, out of mind.". Money "you don't have" cannot be spent, requiring you to log out of your character, and then to log into the alt.

To use it as an auctioneer, send all your auctionable items from your alts to your bank alt, and organize all your auctions from this character. This saves your time spent on auction house management, focuses all your income to one character and allows for easier overview of your cash flow. Consider using an alt management addon to be able to access all information about your alts from your bank character. One such addon is Altoholic

To use it as a bag-space creator, simply send excess items to the bank alt whenever you're near a mailbox for a low price of only 30 a slot. Even if you accidentally send the wrong item to the bank alt, it can be returned-to-sender for free. It's very quick, due to the fact that sending mail between characters on the same account is always instant.

Altogether, focusing all these activities on one character saves large amounts of time. Do consider leveling it above level 1, though, because a number of player use addons that block messages from level 1 characters. Usually level 5-10 is fine, and that only takes a couple of hours to reach.

Economizing on Professions

Improper leveling of your production profession skills can cost a small fortune. Heck, even proper leveling of some production skills can cost a small fortune. And keep in mind that equipment you produce using your profession will typically be slightly worse than equipment otherwise obtainable at your level via the Auction House and/or instances. It is therefore strongly recommended not to take on a production trade skill until you hit at least level 30, or better yet, level 70+. However, if you are determined to take on such a profession (particularly under level 30), read a suitable leveling guide in order to gain whatever skill level you desire for the least amount of money.

Getting Good Equipment Without Breaking the Bank

The most important part of saving is to never buy equipment unless you're positive that it will increase your earning potential, or significantly speed your character's leveling progress. While it is true that gear is important (particularly for melee combat characters), it is also true that an overemphasis on having great gear before level 80 is dumb. Who cares if you're wearing a green sword at level 43? If you're advancing well, you aren't going to be level 43 for very long anyway. The only gear that currently "counts" is level 80 gear.

The two best ways to get good equipment are:

• Finding quests with rewards that will be useful to you. If you can get yourself in a good guild, or team up with some higher level players in group quests, you can often get higher level quest equipment that you couldn't get on your own.
• Using the Looking for Group interface, or joining a good guild, and doing instances that are around your level. You'll learn valuable grouping skills, and the level of loot in an instance is typically much better than what you could find on your own. If possible, concentrate on instances with humanoid mobs, since selling the cloth that they drop is a good way to make money.

A common mistake of new players is to upgrade their gear at every opportunity, paying for a new piece even if it will only add one or two new stat points over an existing item. Likewise, investing in headgear, neckwear, trinkets, and rings at the earliest available levels can also consume valuable cash. While it might seem foolish to leave an available slot empty, you will eventually find something to fill it. Blizzard will see to it via the quest rewards you'll get along the way. In the mean time, the 1 or more you save will serve you well if you invest it wisely. The bottom line is that one can easily level all the way to 80 relying on just quest/drop greens. Instance blues help a fair bit, too, but aren't essential.

This is not to say that you should never buy gear. Having equipment that is reasonably current while leveling allows you to kill enemies faster, and die less often in the process. Faster leveling = sooner to higher levels (where the real money is to be made). Likewise, death = loss of time. And, as we all know, "Time is money, friend!" So, players should not hesitate to make well-considered equipment acquisitions during their leveling up, but only if they represent a substantial improvement over their existing equipment and if the price is right. Try to find good deals. It should go without saying that you should never purchase any equipment from vendors; always use the Auction House. Look several levels above and below your own for bargains. Don't buy items that you won't hold onto for at least 4-5 levels. And don't always use the buyout option at the AH. Some of the best deals come from bidding and being patient. If you know there's an item that would be great for you, say, five levels from now, keep your eye out for it and bid on it, several times if need be. When you get it, stuff it away for later. That's why you have a bank alt.

Note that these general principles do not apply to blue or purple items. If you are a first-time player, there is absolutely no reason to purchase these items. None. Sub-80 rare and epic items are only for the alts or twinks of established players that have money to waste (because that's what it is) by showing off their Staff of Jordan (or whatever). Blues and purples are completely cost-ineffective for first-time characters. Within a few levels, you will find green gear that is roughly comparable, or you'll get better blues from instance runs at the same level. So, do not buy these items, under any circumstances, if you are a first-time character (no matter how cool they look). And even if you're reasonably well-off financially, think twice. This is especially true as your character gets closer to levels 58 and 68. Even the most basic quest-reward gear in Outland will have substantially better stats than anything you can buy off the AH for a level 56 character. The same is true of Northrend gear at level 68 vis-a-vis the stuff you'll get in Outland at level 68. As such, smart players stop making AH gear purchases by about level 54 or so, and then just gut it out until level 58. The same is true at levels 64-68. Within the first several quests in Hellfire and/or Northrend you'll have replaced half of your gear in any case, guaranteed.

Buying Items on the Auction House

The Auction House is always the best option for getting good equipment at a good price. The only items you should be buying from Vendors are basic consumables: food, drinks, arrows, bullets, vials, dyes, etc. Everything else should come from the Auction House, because it's better and cheaper. Keep these tips in mind when buying items off the Auction House:

• Always check each of the prices of the item, and look over a spread of several days. This is not so important on small items, but anything that you are spending hundreds of gold on you need to check prices carefully. It is also a good idea to check a website such as Allakhazam, Goblin Workshop, or Wowhead to see what an item normally sells for.
• Make sure you have an idea of how much you should be spending on an item. Don't be afraid to ask for a price check on the Trade channel, or from members of your guild. Other players may have the item, or may have seen it on the AH before. This can prevent you getting ripped off.
• Be warned that players will occasionally list items in the Auction House that are sold by vendors. This typically applies to limited sale quantity items or items in remote, harder to reach locations. Items from Outland that advance certain skills (such as books for training Cooking or First Aid past a skill of 300) are typical. These items are notoriously listed for 2, 3, or even 10 times their vendor purchase-able price. Using an add-on such as Auctioneer Advanced can forewarn you of such a tactic. You should ONLY buy such items if your server is so full and busy that you simply are unable to acquire the item on your own. Otherwise, wait for the vendor to re-stock (usually takes about 20 minutes to 1 hour depending upon the vendor). You'll save yourself a considerable amount of money. See Buying Items from Vendors for Resale below for more on this.

Anyone who is serious about using the Auction House should consider getting the Auctioneer addon. Auctioneer assists players in the auction house by automatically gathering price information for your server. Among other things, Auctioneer offers the following useful features:

• The normal auction house window is augmented with additional functionality to search current auctions for cheap deals and buyouts
• By using the BottomScanner module of Auctioneer, it is possible to have an alert displayed when an unusually cheap item is listed in the AH -- the item can then be bought for resale or disenchanting
• Several convenience functions for searching, listing items and displaying past transactions have been added
• Auctioneer displays statistical data on the rarity, historical and recent pricing for your item, as well as vendor prices, the stack size for the item, and what trade skills it is used in
• Note, however, that recent versions of Auctioneer have become increasingly complex. Some would say too complex, in that the addon now has a myriad of options for searching for and/or auctioning items. Be prepared to spend some time with the tool to become acquainted with options.

Maximizing Training Bang for the Buck

There are a lot of skills and spells you can train as you progress. However, not all of them are useful. As a mage, do you really think you need to invest 88 20 into the first two ranks of Amplify Magic? Are you still using Heroic Strike at level 32 as a warrior? As a feral Druid do you really need to learn Starfire? Think long and hard about how valuable each skill is before splurging on them.

This goes doubly for trade skills. If you are dead set on leveling a production trade skill instead of taking two of the gathering skills, remember that not everything your trainer offers is worth buying. While it might be nice to have a long list of colorful shirts and dresses to produce as a tailor, for instance, the truth is they offer very little in the way of potential revenue. Also keep in mind that, generally, whatever items you craft at lower levels will not likely sell for more money than you could have made by simply selling the raw materials used to make them. For this reason, two gathering skills are highly recommended until you get closer to 80 (60 if you don't have the TBC expansion).

• EXCEPTION: If you are leveling trade skills while advancing, review the materials requirements of every recipe, pattern, plan, or formula that are planning on purchasing from a trainer. For example, some of the shirt patterns for tailors use very few materials and thus yield a more efficient manner of leveling the trade skill. Check profession leveling guides here on the wiki, ask a guild-mate or friend, or check out information on other web sites to help in this area. A little pre-planning and fore-thought can save you huge inventment costs in the long run.

Making Money

World of Warcraft offers a lot of ways to make money. And much like the game in general, there is no one "right" way to make money, although there are some definite wrong ways! Among legitimate approaches, some people like to play the Auction House, some people do their daily quests, some people tend to farm, etc. Many characters do a combination of all three of these along with other activities. Below is a compendium of money-making methods, starting with some of the less conventional/profitable methods first. We begin with an old "favorite" of some n00bs...

Begging

Nothing says "Loser" like begging. Everyone (and I mean everyone) hates beggars. Don't do it. If you don't care about etiquette, you can make a small amount of money this way, but it isn't as efficient as the regular (and respectable) ways of making money. It will also get you on ignore lists, fast. Not only that, but it can hurt your reputation forever, not to mention your later chances of getting into a good guild. If one of their members remembers you as that obnoxious level 5 gnome beggar in Ironforge, you may as well kiss your application goodbye. Many players have surprisingly long memories when it comes to beggars they've hated. So just don't do it.

Be aware that promising to pay strangers back if they give you the money is a nice gesture, but is likely to be met with scepticism and cynicism. Better to try this with a friend or a guildmate than with strangers, and always, always keep your word.

Also bear in mind that the success of begging attempts is also highly server dependent. On more populated servers, or servers with a higher concentration of high-end (level 80) players, you're less likely to get a sympathetic response. Players who are lower level and/or new to the game themselves, on the other hand, are more likely to be sympathetic towards poor newbies. Of course, it's easier to be sympathetic in giving money when you have more of it, and some people may actually mature in their social interactions rather than becoming snobbish as they get used to the game, so the reverse may apply. The bottom line is that you can never tell how an unknown player is going to react, but if you do any amount of begging you will probably earn some dislike.

Note that begging is not limited to lower level characters, however. Even players in their 30's and above can be heard begging for cash for large purchases like mounts. These are probably still "newbies", working with their first character; with experience, players hopefully learn how to plan better as they level. If you find yourself coveting your first mount, and with no money to purchase it, try to swallow your frustration and work at earning and saving up so you can buy it honestly. Nothing is more annoying to other players who are working hard to earn their own money than hearing someone begging for gold so that they can buy a mount or fancy piece of gear.

[As side note, there are occasions when a little kindness is not unwarranted. A typical example is a new player who just dinged level 20. S/he is suddenly confronted with a whole set of relatively expensive skills at his or her class trainer, and needs a small amount of money to learn those new skills. Likewise, sometimes one sees a player who, just by the way s/he walks, is clearly a new player. Kindness to non-whiny, well-intentioned, legitimately inquisitive n00bs is karmically rewarding, and one should not worry about shelling out an occasional boon to such players. Remember, at that level, a few gold can go a long way. Heck, even a few older bags (Runecloth, Mooncloth) that you have lying around collecting dust in your vault will often be much appreciated.]

Dueling

This is a harder way to make money but it might work in Ironforge, Orgrimmar, etc. Start by telling a lvl 30-35 that if he beats you in a duel you will give him 30 gold, but if you beat him he has to give you 4 gold. This is a slow way of making money (and often the other player won't cough up the money anyway) but I've heard of people getting upwards of 50g over several days in Ironforge. Be warned that if you happen to lose the duel and don't cough-up the promised money, your reputation will get around as fast as if you were begging. Players that swindle other players out of money get bad reputations FAST. Many players have multiple 'toons on a server and are not opposed to telling everyone in their guild that you just cheated them. Getting black-listed for this type of behavior on a well-established server can have profound consequences on your ability to make money from the Auction House and trade channels. So if you use this method to make money.. you had better have the gear, ability, and gold to back it up.

(A comment on this method; if you offered this to me, that would be the last thing I'd ever hear from you. There's an ignore list for a reason, and I have little patience with other folks scheming drama. Do I have any reason to trust you and to expect you to deliver? You are just annoying me. (You know that out of all the folks that read this method and actually try it, some of those are going to go the 'stiff the customer' route, it's a given, right? Well, there you go ...)

Lockpicking

Rogues can make fast money from pickpocketing mobs, opening lockboxes and selling items that drop from those on the AH. If you don't have a rogue make one and get him to at least level 16. Rogues can also make some money by picking locks for people and getting tips. Not a great revenue source, but a decent one to supplement multiple strategies for making money. Generally, the usual lockpicking tip is between 50s to 1 gold, the most common being 50 silver. Sometimes, you can get lucky and have someone tip up to 5 gold for lockpicking several (or even just one) boxes. It's always beneficial for a rogue spending time doing repairing, training, etc. in a city to put up a lockpicking advertisement on the trade channel. Just make sure you let the buyers decide the price and that your lockpicking level is high enough.

Summoning or portal opening

These are Warlock- and Mage-only skills which can net you some money. It's not much, but a few gold is worth it. Note that Mages have an easier time with this than Warlocks as Warlocks need to be at the location for the summoning and need an additional person (a 3rd) for the group to help out with the summons. Mages only need the reagent to open the portal. While the Warlock doesn't incur a cost (except the loss of a soul shard), the Mage will typically be more successful at finding employment using this method.

Selling Vendor Trash

Any item with a grey name is considered Vendor Trash or Poor quality. White items are used in Tradeskills or as spell reagents, so you may want to check some web sites (as listed above in the AH section) to see if they're worth more than the vendor price. Keep your eyes out for regular quality weapons, as even the worst of these tend to sell for several silver. Also, white (or even grey) shoulder armor under level 20 sells regularly on the auction house, mainly because there is nothing better available at that level.

Unless low quality items have some known quest use or are coveted by other players, you should try to sell it as soon as possible to create bag space. Always (or almost always, see above exceptions) keep things like cloth, leather, herbs, or large stacks of white/gray items over other loot when you have to decide what to keep when your bags get full. It might be worth your while to invest in larger bags (8-10 slot), especially if you know a tailor.

Auctioneer, mentioned above, is useful for maximising profit gained from vendor trash - it augments the tooltip for each item with details on that item's vendor sell price (as well as auction value, if it has been seen at auction), thus allowing you to decide what to vendor and what to keep to sell on the AH.

AutoProfit is a particularly handy addon if you regularly bring home several bags' worth of trash all mixed in with the rest of your inventory - it allows you to sell all gray items to the vendor with a single click.

In general, if you have bag space, you should always pick up whatever vendor trash you can, particularly weapons, even if they are grey. Don't be too proud. This stuff may not sell for much, but vendor trash can easily pay for your repair bills, and as you level past your 60s that's not an inconsiderable amount of money.

And now, on to the more conventional (and higher reward) methods...

Selling Items on the Auction House

The Auction House (AH) is a brilliant way of making money if you know the tricks on how to do it. The basic strategy with the AH is to buy things cheap, re-list them on the AH, and then sell them for a profit. Even better, of course, is to get good items from drops and then sell them on the Auction House for pure profit. Many players generate most or all of their cashflow simply by speculating on the AH. So a good understanding of the it, as well as some time to invest, is essential to turning it into a money-making proposition for you. It is also highly recommended that you get the Auctioneer addon (as mentioned above), although recent changes in Auctioneer have degraded its ability to judge whether or not a given item will sell or not.

One piece of advice that players should follow before starting new WoW characters is to choose the proper server. Lower population servers generally have lower prices in the AH, and less demand for items. This is good news if you already have enough money, as things are cheaper, but for poorer players (with gathering skills), a more populated server will garner you more money for what you gather and sell.

Tips on using the AH:

• Know the price of your items and how much they are worth; make sure you check this as the more accurate the price, the more sales you will get. Auctioneer can help with this. (Auctioneer can also get a very wrong ballpark price on some occasions, so you are going to have to use your own savvy for a reality check.)
• Always post a buyout price on your auctions. Don't think that "They'll just bid it up anyway." Many players will not bid on an auction with no buyout price unless the item's bid price is heavily discounted to begin with. This can lead to bidding wars, but in many cases the item will sell for a fraction of what you could have gotten if you had posted a buyout price in the first place. You will have more sales at a higher price and get your money more quickly if you post a proper buyout price.
• When selling, make sure that you are not pricing way above the others; the best bet is to aim higher if you know it will sell before it expires, or at the same price or lower if there is lots of competition.
• Don't gouge your customers. You can make plenty of money on the AH without charging exorbitant prices. Demand is price sensitive, and people tend to have a good feel for what an item is really worth. If your items don't sell, you are probably charging too much.
• A tactic for guaranteeing the sale of your auction is to "underbid" the current auctions. Auctioneer by default suggests prices that are 10% under what it believes the item will sell for. Consider undercutting by only 1% for materials. The resulting auction will still be the least expensive and most attractive to buyers while maintaining a higher and more stable market price for your future auctions of the same material.
• Demand may be price-sensitive, but for some items players still need those materials and will pay the lowest available price regardless of how close it is to the next highest price. A good example of this is cut gems, particularly on weekends. After getting a new item that requires a gem, most players will want to get that gem right now, meaning that gems will sell well.
• Be aware of the seasonality of items. When the Darkmoon Faire is in season, Darkmoon cards and decks (Furies, Elementals, Lunacy, etc.) tend to sell well, but prices also tend to get depressed. When the Faire leaves, prices return to normal, but sales volume decreases. The same is true of things like Snowman kits, Red Holiday wear, etc. Holding onto that Snowman kit for a few months, and then listing it in July, can net you a significant profit.
• Be patient. If you are trying to sell an item for a large amount of money you might have to post it for several days in a row, or post it then wait a week and post it again.
• Be aware that the listing costs of items are very important. For instance, Armor and (especially) Weapons have high listing costs, meaning that if you're going to buy them on speculation, you had better be darned sure they will sell within a few listings, or the listing cost will destroy your profit margin.
• Recipes, plans, etc. have lower listing costs, making listing them over and over again less painful.
• Be cold-blooded about admitting that you've taken a bath on an item. If you bought that sword for 5g, listed it for 10g, and the listing cost is 2g50s each time, after two times it had better sell just to break even. Once you hit that point, don't keep listing it over and over in desperation trying to make something off the AH. D/E it, or vendor it, and move on. Lesson learned. Don't get trapped in the fallacy of sunk costs.
• Some of the best things that can be sold in the auction house are special items or "Pets" that can only be found in certain areas. For example, the Savory Deviate Delight recipe can only be found in Horde areas, and for this reason sells really really well on the Alliance AHs.
• If you have Auctioneer, run it for several weeks before beginning to speculate. That will give you a well-populated database to work with, which will have enough historical data to make reasonable purchasing decisions.
• Keep track of the median disenchant value of the items you are selling. In some cases, if an item doesn't sell after a listing or two, simply D/E'ing may be more profitable than trying to sell the item at fire-sale prices just to get rid of it.
• Speaking of disenchanting, check the market situation on your server. If it is a long-running server, enchanting materials such as Strange Dust and Magic Essences may well be very expensive (for example, a typical price of 50 or more for one Lesser Magic Essence is a strong sign that your realm has a healthy enchanting market. Likewise, be suspicious of players asking for high level enchants on the public chat channels, as usually this means the server has a high demand for enchanting materials). If this is true, consider getting Enchanting as your second profession in this case -- mainly to disenchant anything you find and sell the materials you get from it. This has the second major advantage of being able to turn useless quests rewards (which are soulbound) into a lot of gold right from the beginning. You can also disenchant any old gear you're not using anymore, instead of having to vendor it.
• Likewise, if you use a dedicated character (such as a bank 'toon) that does nothing but work the Auction House, have him/her pick up enchanting, so this character can disenchant low-level items.
• Don't put all your eggs in one basket. It's a lot better to spend your working capital on buying forty items for auction, each with the potential for profit, than to take all your working capital and invest it in that one purple leatherworking recipe that you hope will make you several hundred gold. If that puppy doesn't sell, or doesn't sell for what you want, you've just wasted all your working money, and deprived yourself of a lot of flexibility. Leave speculating on purple items until you have a few thousand gold squirreled away.

Buying items for Speculation

Buying items for speculation means buying item cheap in hopes of reselling for more. This works, this works well, but this works only if you know your market. Stick to what you know. Make cautious forays into unknown areas to test the waters. [Note: Auctioneer used to be a very useful tool for speculation, but recent changes have made it distinctly less so. Auctioneer no longer tracks Bid % (a rough quantification of demand) for a given item, meaning that the player has no empirical data to judge whether or not an item will actually sell on the AH or not. Thus, players must trust to their instincts and knowledge of the market as to whether a given item has a good chance of selling.]

Items to speculate on are not merely cheap; there must also be a demand or you will end up with a lot of cheap items sitting in your inventory. Items that are always in demand are:

Quality gear. These can be greens, rares, whatever. However, always think, "Who needs this?" Items that have stats like Stamina are typically useful to all players. Items with stats like Agility are only useful to a subset. Items that combine two highly sought-after stats, like Stamina and Intelligence (which all casters need) will sell for more than items that combine two stats like Agility and Wisdom (which practically no class needs).

Materials ('mats') - items that get used in professions. This is driven more by use than by source; for example, copper is very easy to mine, but it is widely in demand, and you can often find bargains in copper, bargains you can profit from. Contrarily, some very scarce mats may have low demand, may only be used in one mediocre recipe, and may not sell.

Recipes - provide in-game capability to create more kinds of items, and so are always in demand, BUT be careful; if the ingredients are obscure, and the benefits marginal, or the recipe is too common, this is not a good option. Some otherwise very good recipes drop far to often to hold value - Copper Chain Vest comes to mind. This produces an excellent entry-level item, but the recipe is available for low silver at the auction house.

Pets - Reasonably good for speculation, but track demand a bit before you invest. Cute pets seem to do much better than creepy pets.

If you make a mistake in speculating, admit that you made a mistake and move on. Sell the item for what you can to recover as much as you can.

Twink items

Many players who already have higher level characters create alts that they level to a certain point and then stop. Often, these twinks are level 18-19, 28-29, 38-39, etc. for the purpose of going to battlegrounds at the top of their tiers and kicking butt. Since these twinked characters are owned by higher level players with lots of cash, they usually outfit them with the best gear available at their level. Thus, items that require level 17-19, level 27-29, or any other items around this level, with good stats or dps, often sell for much higher prices than they normally would. This is especially true on an older server, and also especially true of blue (rare) items. In general, "good stats" include Cloth "of the Eagle" (for mages, warlocks), Leather "of the Monkey" (for hunters and rogues), and Mail "of the Bear" (for warriors/paladins)as well as weapons with these suffixes that can be used by the right class.

Neutral Auction House

The goblins of the Steamweedle cartel have set up several neutral auction houses about Azeroth. Gadgetzan, Booty Bay, and Everlook all house neutral auction houses. The neutral is useful for making money, as commodities that Alliance players can get easily can be sold at a cheap price to Horde players (or vice versa), and then sold at a higher price at a major city.

Buying Items from Vendors for Resale

Although you usually don't want to buy items to sell from vendor, some items can be sold for much more than you pay for them from the vendor. Keep an eye out for these types of items. A key example of this is the Gnomish Lighthouse vendor in Azshara, who sells the [Schematic: Deepdive Helmet] for 36s. Only one may be purchased at a time, but many Engineers will pay upwards of 1g for this schematic.

Some players even turn this into their profession by systematically "plundering" vendors in the game world and then selling the items on the auction house at a significant markup. The reason why this works (even for items which are on unlimited supply at vendors) is, that many players don't want to spend time traveling to specific vendors to get hold of a recipe or skill book. They would rather pay a slightly higher price at their local auction house. In some sense, they use the auction house as a "super market" or "convenience store". So it is completely reasonable and legitimate to be the supplier for this convenience store and make money out of it.

This scheme works particularly well with items such as

• Skill books to gain access to higher levels of professions
• All kinds of recipes (cooking, alchemy, tailoring, etc.)
• More or less rare items that can only be found at certain vendors (eg. Strong Fishing Pole, Aquadynamic Fish Reactor)

Players wishing to avoid spending vastly over the odds on a vendor pattern should consider using Adspace, which will add information to tooltips for patterns, books and similar items detailing their vendor cost and location

Using Your Guild

Guilds are perhaps one the most effective ways of progressing your character, and in turn, making money. Most 'high-end' guilds have a guild bank where members donate items for other members. This may range from potions, reagents, and craftable plans. Usually you will have to donate to a guild bank in order to receive items as well as stay active in your guild, but receiving potions that will aid your progression and craftable plans allowing you to profit off selling the products will benefit you in the long run. Also, donating to your guild bank may mean donating something you cannot use in turn receiving something you can use. Sometimes, additional services such as VoIP servers are provided and play a key role especially in end-game content; communication is paramount to a the success of an efficient group. Efficiency results in receiving gear faster, running more frequently in a shorter amount of time, and in turn making more money from runs. In a well put together guild, members become a close knit community including financial and questing support, which are among the most profitable benefits. If you have not considered joining a guild as part of your strategy moving through the game, you may wish to strongly reconsider.

Enchanting Items

Selling enchants can make some money, but usually only when you have very high level (over 400) enchants and only the most sought after ones (weapon enchants and large attribute bonus enchants). Thus, enchanting is isn't really recommended as a good early money making source, particularly because its leveling costs are quite high.

Disenchanting Items

If you farm lots of magical items you can't sell, you can convert them to valuable ingredients that other enchanters will buy (usually at the Auction House). Likewise, it can often be lucrative to check the auction house for green items with unpopular suffixes, such as "of the Gorilla," with low starting bids. If you can pick these items up on the cheap, they can usually be disenchanted into the same ingredients as equal items with more desirable attributes. The ingredients obtained from disenchanting these items are often worth more than you'll pay for the item itself in the auction house. Auctioneer, conveniently, has a subsidiary module called Enchantrix that lists the median disenchant values of most items, which can help you gauge whether an item is worth bidding for or not.

Depending on the market situation on your server, you can turn disenchanting into an important method of earning gold. Especially on developed, "end-game" realms, the demand for enchanting materials is very high, as many players tend to have a lot of money they want to put into improving their gear by getting expensive enchants. Also, typically there are many high level enchanters on these realms, so the materials sell quickly. It is not unlikely that almost any green item in this case will sell for a lot less than the materials it disenchants into. If you find this is the case for your realm, either get Enchanting as a profession or make a dedicated character to work as your disenchanter.

Soloing Instances

If you can Solo an instance,, you have two options. The first is to take the place apart yourself and sell all the drops on the Auction House. For level 80 characters, Scarlet Monastery, Uldaman, and other mid-level instances are easily soloable, and are a very popular source of cloth and marketable blue and green items. If you're reasonably well-geared, and feeling more adventurous, Scholomance and Stratholme are also soloable, and can be extremely lucrative as a source of auctionable items.

Alternately, you can offer to run people through the instance for a price. Some people get so desperate to run a certain instance for whatever reason, be it rep, or specific loot, that they're willing to pay a pretty penny to go through it. Whatever the reason, you can turn that desperation into a tidy profit.

Completing Normal Quests

Nearly all quests offer cash or items as a reward, and often both. While completing quests shouldn't be your main form of wealth generation, it is something you are going to do anyway. The key to making the most of quests is picking your reward items wisely. Don't always pick the item that most fits your class - if it isn't demonstrably better than your current item, instead go for whatever reward sells for the greatest amount to the vendor. You can use Thottbot to check each item's value individually, download a UI mod such as Auctioneer to display it in the tooltip, or you can follow the general guidelines for equipment value laid out later in this guide. In general, if you can't use a quest reward for your character, pick either a plate-armor or melee weapon as your reward--these tend to sell to vendors for more than other items.

Completing Daily Quests

With the introduction of Daily Quests in Burning Crusade, repetitive daily quests have become a legitimate method of generating significant cashflow. In WotLK, they are even more profitable. Players who spend several hours a day doing daily quests can often generate 100 per hour. Many players have funded the purchase of their elite flying mounts solely through doing daily quests. Another trick for higher level players is to do level 70 dailies as a level 75-77. If you have a hankering to get a Netherdrake, for instance, and you already have a fast flying mount (which is a pre-requisite for the drake), you will find your mid-70s an ideal time to go get that drake. Not only will the quests be a lot easier to do at level 75+, but the dailies will pay about 1200 as you level rep, and you'll get XP along the way to boot (albeit not as much as quests in Northrend.) So if you're looking for a break from the grind of leveling to 80, and want to kick back, spank some level 69s, and make some decent money along the way, doing lower level dailies can be a fun way to make some extra cash.

Elemental Items

Elemental items (Primals, Eternals, etc.) can be a good source of money, because they are always in demand on the AH. See which mobs you will most benefit from farming, then set out for a few hours. In the process you will also most likely collect significant vendor trash, and may get other profitable item drops as well. Note, however, that older elemental drops usually lose profitability compared to newer ones, i.e. Primal Water sold well to level 70 players in BC, but sells far less well to level 80 players in WotLK, because level 80 gear requires Eternal this'n'that.

Using your Trade skills (Professions)

Gathering Skills

As you're no doubt aware by now, Mining, Skinning, and Herbalism are all good money-making professions, particularly at higher levels. With Mining, from the moment you can smelt copper, you can make good money selling stacks of the bars in the Auction House - although you should make sure to check the relative prices of ore versus bars before smelting, since depending on the server economy and the time of week, low level ores may sell for up to double the price of the equivalent bars. As your skill increases, so does your earning potential.

Skinning is both highly profitable and convenient, in that you will be skinning the monsters that you're already killing as you level in any case. A skinner starts by collecting relatively worthless ruined leather scraps (though, do check Auctioneer before selling to a vendor, as even ruined leather scraps can sell for several times the vendor price in the auction house on some servers), but soon moves on to light leather, which can be sold for a good profit. An excellent way to farm leather is to skin the kills of other players, especially if you are following along in the wake of a group. However, do wait to start skinning until it's clear that the other player has abandoned the kill. Don't assume that the other player doesn't skin just because they are not a leather-wearer, for example. Note that your chances of getting a better grade of leather increases with your experience; it is possible, though rare, to get light leather from rabbits. Higher grades of leather yield higher profits, just as higher grades of metal are more valuable. A skinner/miner has potent earning power through the auction house, but often runs out of inventory space.

Herbalism is also a good source of money. Unlike ore which is found only in rocky areas, herbs can be found in many places, depending on the exact plant. The more you gather, the better you can predict where to look for it. Be sure to check on the auction house for what herbs are in demand for a high value; often a lower level one is very valuable, so you can farm an area you already know for quick money.

For both Mining and Herbalism, consider getting the Gatherer addon, which maps nodes and herbs on your minimap, allowing you to visit these places again and again if you are farming.

Production/Crafting Skills

Usually, you'll want to produce Uncommon or better quality items to sell. Look in the Auction House for items that sell for good prices, but don't have many of people selling them, which usually drives down the price.

Sometimes you can make money by making items with ingredients supplied by other players who give you a tip to make the item for them. This is not necessarily a reliable source at low levels, but it can be a good supplemental income source at higher levels, particularly if you have good recipes. This is doubly true for those recipes that require a Primal Nether to craft. If you raid a lot, and have access to Primal Nethers, and can also craft upper-end items, you can often charge around 100 as a "tip" for the cost of using your PNether. And if you can charge for the customer using your materials (as opposed to materials supplied by him/her), you can mark those up as well.

Blacksmiths

Common item recipes to look for include:

• • Plans: Iron Shield Spike (drop)
  • Plans: Steel Weapon Chain (drop)
  • Plans: Iron Counterweight (drop)

These items sell well for decent money, even though they are common quality items. Beware, these recipes can be pricey if you buy them, so try to get a bargain and ask around to see if you are getting a good price.

Blacksmiths should also watch the prices for "Needed by" items such as the metal rods used by enchanters, and compare the price for the raw materials. For example, a Golden Rod requires

• 1 Gold Bar
• 4 Coarse Stone

There's a good chance you can buy the raw materials for 25% - 75% of the going rate of the finished item, or mine them for free. The fee for an 8 hour auction is only 1 silver, so you can afford to re-auction rods that don't sell the first time. Be careful of making too many rods or other parts of a kind at once, though, as you may get stuck with them for a long time when others produce the same item and set a cheaper price to it.

Engineering

Main article: Making money with engineering

A good money maker for Engineers are Scopes, which are all crafted by engineers.

Certain quests require items that can be crafted. A couple of examples:

• Alliance only:Bronze Tube (for The Touch of Zanzil (Rogue only) and Look to the Stars)
• Horde only: Deadly Blunderbuss (for Warsong Saw Blades)

Tailors

There is usually good money to be made selling bags, particularly the upper-level bags. This is particularly profitable if you are able to farm the majority of the materials.

Alchemists

There is a constant market for transmutations on most markets. If you are capable of doing these, you can charge an upcharge on each of those transmutes. A player who logs on his/her character each day, and sticks to it, can generate a significant subsidiary revenue scheme through transmutes. Likewise, if you have a transmute that allows you to transmute a lower value element (such as Earth) into a high-priced one (like Water or Fire), you can make a cool 15-20 profit every day by simply doing your transmutes.

Unique among transmutes, Transmute: Arcanite had its cooldown removed in Patch 2.4.0 due to the high demand for this material for a large variety of crafted items and for the mount quests of Paladins and Warlocks. This caused increased the supply of the material massively and caused the once very high price for it to drop. However, after the release of both BC and WotLK, Arcanite Bars still remain a great source of income for Alchemists due to its continuous demand.

Jewelcrafters

Jewelcrafting offers players the Prospecting ability; players can break down most Mining ores to find gems used in Jewelcrafting. The Enchantrix addon can calculate the prospecting value of an ore, and when combined with the Auctioneer addon, you can compare the prospect value to the ore's value and determine whether it has a fair chance of producing a profit. For example, on most servers Tin Ore has a significantly higher prospect value than the ore itself, and players can make a tidy profit by prospecting tin from the AH; the low skill needed to prospect tin ore makes this a great profession choice for bank alts!

Inscription

Glyphs are pretty cheap to produce and some of them are highly sought after, especially those learned at high levels. Learn which glyphs are demanded most and you can get a good amount of coin for your scribblings.

You should also further develop your inscription skill through minor and Northrend Inscription Research. If you're lucky, you may get a glyph that people want and not every inscriber can make, which will give you an even better source of profit. Research every day to get those high yield recipes faster.

Additionally, you can make tomes held in the off-hand and Darkmoon cards. These take more materials to make, but the tomes are classified as rare items and can fetch a good price, and even the lower level decks of cards can get you a BoE rare to sell.

Treat Your Profession Like A Business

Perhaps the best and most secure way to make money within the game is to apply some basic business practice to your Professions. While some of these tips are common sense and common knowledge, it can't hurt to be reminded of basic principles of trade.

As previously stated, people will only buy your wares if they want it. Do not waste time gathering or producing items that people do not need. Focus on items that will most likely be wanted and bought.

• Understand what kind of players need what kind of items. For example, Leatherworkers making Leather armor should focus on items with stats that only druids, hunters, rogues and shamans would want. Demand is mostly built on the need of players.
• Some recipes produce items with random attributes. While random, it is not necessarily too risky to craft these items in hopes of getting something good.
• Many players, even the experienced ones, will base the power and worth of an item on its rarity. As such, Rare items are more likely to sell than Uncommons. Focus on trying to put these items together where possible and profitable.
• Similarly, item sets also quickly attract the eyes of buyers. Even some of the older pre-BC and pre-WotLK items whose bonuses are outclassed by newer items from BC will still find demand simply because most people are natural collectors. Try it when you can.

Profit is only created if you make sure your costs are less than your earnings. This is not so much an issue for gatherers who simply trade in some time and effort to gain their wares, but for production professions, this must be kept in mind. Many high-end items that sell well require materials that cannot be provided by the gathering profession normally paired with your production profession. To craft these items, purchasing the raw material from the AH or another player becomes necessary. You must keep record of how much you spent to obtain these materials, or else you may price the finished product inaccurately, either too low that you sell it at a loss, or too high that you can't sell it all.

Record keeping is thus necessary to ensure profit. Listing expenditures in a notebook or the like will help make sure you sell your items at the right price. This may seem excessive and time consuming, but it will save you a lot of time and effort in your endeavors to earn cash.

For items that you can gather directly, you have the choice of either going out to gather them yourself or to buy them from the AH. The former adds no cost to your item but requires time and effort, while the latter can be quick and hassle-free. Even should you choose to get the materials yourself, don't forget to add them to your cost- your labor and time should be compensated for, even if just a little.

When buying raw materials from the AH, keep an eye out for bargains. Choose only the cheapest items available to keep costs down. Try scanning the whole section of item listings in the AH to check prices; often the prices for stacks of items in the AH are much cheaper than individual pieces (for example, a single Thorium Bar may be priced at 3 , but a stack of 10 may actually be priced at only 2 per Thorium Bar)- you may spend more to acquire your materials, but you also save more and ensure larger profit in the long run. You can find a lot of terrific bargains this way.

Once you have assembled all the materials required to make the item, you can then refer to your records for how much you spent to acquire those goods in order to come up with your total cost- the price at which you would break even if you sell the item. From there, you can assign a higher selling price that gives your profit.

When assigning a selling price, do not aim for too low a price that would give you too little profit, but certainly do not assign too high a price. Too much greed is never a good thing, and the AH is filled with items that do not sell due to excessive inflation. A very common tactic in the AH is to sell for lower than what another player is offering, and many players make a lot of money that way. Similarly, losing sales thanks to being undercut is never fun. Aim for as low a price you can that will still make you a good profit. If you can keep producing the same item over and over, sell cheaply yet make a good amount of the item, you will reliably make a lot of money by volume. Moving inventory is the best kind of inventory.

Similarly, when earning by volume, do not overload the AH with your items. Basic supply and demand: too much supply will make your wares too common and unwanted. Furthermore, with great demand and a cheaper price, you may end up starting a price war with your competitors, with them actively trying to undercut and outdo you. Moderate the amount of items you're selling on the AH to small batches, refilling them only when sold out.

Once you have your finished product and have a price for it, keep in mind that using either your faction AH or the neutral AH also costs money: if the item does not sell, its deposit is taken by the AH; if it does sell, the deposit is returned, but a cut from the payment it taken by the AH as a commission. You must factor this into your selling price: your faction's AH will take 5% from your sale, while the neutral ones will take 15%. You can factor this into your cost to determine the minimum price at which you need to sell to at least break even:

In factioned houses:

Break Even price = Cost / 0.95

In the neutral house:

Break Even price = Cost / 0.85

In the event your item does not sell but you still wish to try selling it again in the AH, factor in the deposit you paid for the previous auction.

In factioned houses:

New price = Item's original price + (deposit / 0.95)

In the neutral house:

New price = Item's original price + (deposit / 0.85)

This is cumulative, as you take into account each failed sale as a loss. In the event too many deposits accumulate, you must decide whether to continue selling the item inflated by too many sales, or finding of another way to dispose of it. One final tip: when you find that an item fails to sell in one AH, selling it on the other may finally dispose of it and get you your earnings.

Conclusion

Whatever your approach, if you use some common sense and apply yourself, you can make significant quantities of money in the game. By managing your cashflow, conserving and budgeting where you can, and investing wisely in those activities that make you money, you can become financially solvent relatively early in your career, and remain comfortably well-off (while still buying good gear) at level 80. Good luck!

See also

• Making money with enchanting
• Making money with Alchemy
• Making money with engineering

External links

• WoW Forums -> Making Money: A Guide

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