Intro

OK, I seem to be one of those guys on World of Warcraft that always has money and everyone is always asking me for some of it. If they are not asking me for money other players are asking me how I get all that gold. This is a rambling response to all those people with all my secrets (if you can call them that) revealed. Take from it what you can, and do with it what you will.

The first secret to making a lot of WoW gold is simple: patience. There is no real easy way to make money without putting in time. Sure you will see some people talk about playing the Auction House relentlessly, but there are so many people doing that it is hard to find the quick turn over’s that would make it worth while, even using an addon like Auctioneer. That really leaves doing dungeons (and questing), manufacturing and farming.

Dungeon Running for Cash

Have you ever tried running chain heroics for badges? You know what I mean, you got a group together and did every dungeon in Northrend for the badges to get the armor you needed. Remember how boring that was, remember how much gold you spent on repairs? Did you make any gold at it at all? If you did make some gold you made very little and it took an awfully long time. Even with the new random dungeon tool with the badge rewards and the gold rewards, if you get killed even once then you can kiss all profit goodbye. If you are looking to earn badges, great and probably well worth it; but if your aim is to make some cash, this is not the way. And I have not even talked about the cost of buff food or battle and guardian elixirs.

However there is one option that does make sense to some extent… Level 80 daily quests. You can do 25 daily quests and each gets you about 13g or more. In addition there is the cash you make looting and some include badges or seals. If you are good you can do it all in about 2 hours. Total it up… about 325g and up 10 Crusader Champions Seals. (After you buy everything you need with the seals, you can keep buying pets and resell them for good cash on the AH. Also you can buy heirlooms that benefit your other character and this is important.) This is not bad gold per hour when all is said and done and most players if they are not greedy can easily live on this gold to play comfortably.

Manufacturing for Money

Personally I find manufacturing dull and in some cases really risky. If you are buying the materials you need to create product you have to balance the price of all materials and time against what you can actually sell the products for. That sounds easy, but when it comes right down to it unless there is a very brisk market for what you are selling you could find yourself sitting on a whole lot of product without any buyers. Oops. Here is an example: Let’s say you are an Alchemist with a specialty of Elixirs, your skill is at 450, and you have decided to make Flasks of the Frost Wyrm for resell. If you are buying the mats you are paying about 60g for a Frost Lotus, 4g for 5 Lichbloom, 8g for 5 Ice Thorn and 1g for the vial. This produces on average 2.5 elixirs (remember the Elixir Mastery proc).  So lets add it all up: Total Cost for 2.5 doses is 72g with a net cost of 28g / 80s (your mileage may vary).

As a net cost before marketing that is not bad under optimum conditions. The average sell price is about 35g. The auction house takes a cut of that of course (5%) so the price new net is 33g / 25s. Total gold made on one dose … … 4g / 45s. So if we make 100 of them we can make 445g, IF we can sell them all, IF we don’t have to repost them (loosing the initial deposit to the AH). It is not hard to see where a bad couple of days could wipe out the 445g profit just to AH costs and here is the kicker… you WILL have competition and you WILL be undercut sometimes. Can you afford to be undercut too often? Kicker number two; consider the Herbalist/Alchemist profession character that can undercut you all day (more on this later). Obviously making money directly off the AH is tricky and full of risk.

The other option in manufacturing is the JIT (Just In Time) method where you make items to suit demand and in very small quantities. This approach has the advantage of minimizing loss while retaining raw mats for other products. What does not work in this case is the “LFW Tailor” where you will get people asking and trying to undercut prices on the AH. This is an awful way to make cash unless you really are desperate, although if the tips are good you could do ok, but it is a real grind and you really have to have a complete repertoire of patterns and the most up to date one as well. In any case DO NOT TAKE ORDERS UNLESS THEY ARE PREPAID.

There are many ways of making money with manufacturing but they can become more time consuming than you think. Work your strategy out for you; this is not my idea of making money in the amounts I like.

Mining / Farming for Gold

If there is an activity in World of Warcraft that is money from nothing more than your time, mining / herbing / skinning / fishing / grinding is it. The idea here is to either provide the raw materials other people need or to provide yourself the materials you need to manufacture the stuff you find profitable. The only hard part is to know what to farm that will provide you with the kind of profit you want in the timely manner you want.

In my case I am an herbalist. I farm herbs in Sholazar Basin and resell them for a good profit. Occasionally I make all my potions and it costs me practically nothing, saving me tons of cash. The trick here is now to figure out a way to make enough money in the time you have that is to your taste.

The following will be ideas and tips on how to farm, what to think about, Auction House considerations and what gear may help.

What to farm?

This may seem like a no brainer, but really, it is not nearly as stupid as you may think. The obvious thing is to farm what you are specialized in. I am an herbalist, I farm herbs; but what herbs. The top two most difficult herbs to “pick” are technically Ice Thorn and Lichbloom. These herbs are also used in most high end potions and many inscriptions and enchantments. You would think they would be the right stuff to pick because they may be more intrinsically valuable, but you would be wrong. There are so many people picking these herbs the market is flooded and the price swings all over the place. People are desperate to sell the stuff so the undercutting is ferocious. True you may be able to use these herbs in a second profession, but we are not talking about that. Also, the area that spawn these herbs are big, really big to the distance between the herbs is bigger and therefore it takes more time. Honestly, if there were more node of these or the area where they grow was smaller (and the mobs you have to fight less difficult) I would probably farm these myself. (BTW, if you are dying while farming you are in the wrong place. Either find another place or get better gear; death is too expensive to be a consideration when farming.)

So what do I farm on a consistent basis? Adders Tongue, Tiger Lily, and Goldclover. The most consistent seller here is the Goldclover because there are fewer of these nodes to draw from and it is still used in many high end products. I also do all my herbing in Northrend which have three adds, Crystallized Life, Deadnettle, and Frost Lotus. These adds also sell really well and Frost Lotus is the undisputed king of all herbs.

When if comes down to it the only way to know what to farm is what works for you. Experiment, farm one thing for a day then try something different the next. Watch how it sells or how well it works in your manufacturing. I know there are some herbalist that pick a lot of lower level herbs and some of these sell really well (better in fact than some of the high end herbs) and they make a lot of money. Remember people have to create things at a lower level before moving up to more expensive stuff so there is always a demand for low and medium level herbs; same thing for minerals, skins, fish and mob drops.

Just remember, you can farm ANYTHING!

A Node?

A node is a spot that produces a collectable such as herbs, minerals, fish, or even mobs. I will be using the word node often to refer to a “gathering spot” for farming.

What Races / Classes make the best farmers?

It really does not matter what race or what class you are if you want to farm. All races and classes have access to gear and abilities that make it possible for them to farm pretty effectively. That being said there may be some advantages in class (and thus race restrictions) that can help them farm well.

Rogues: For whatever reason I am seeing (or not seeing as the case may be) more Rogues as farmers than ever before. I am assuming this has to do with the increased speed they can run and the fact that they can avoid conflicts (either beasts or other players) by being invisible. It is very interesting to watch the mini map with the nodes you are tracking and watch a node blink off and there is no one by the node. Whether this adds to the overall productivity of farming is beyond me, I cannot see the advantage.

Warrior Classes: Where the rogues approach by stealth the warriors (Paladins, Death Knights, etc) use force and high armor to grab their nodes. Even if there is a mob on the node they generally just walk up and take it ignoring the mob beating on them. Once the node is taken they can then hack the mob to pieces and continue. This does increase farming productivity by allowing them to take the node first then handle the environment frustrating other players who would try to ninja the node out from under them. This can be important when the area you are in is crowded and there are a lot of people to contend with.

Warlocks and Hunters: If there is one huge advantage these classes have it’s that they can have combat pets. The pets can tank mobs allowing the farmer to get to the node faster and then move on after the environment is dealt with. This can be important when the area you are in is crowded and there are a lot of people to contend with.

Druids: If there is one class that you want to be as a farmer (specifically mining and herbing) it is a Druid and for one reason only; Flight Form (at epic speed). The fact that the Druid does not have to dismount and remount is an incredible bonus in shear time. They spend least than half the time on the nodes than other classes do and that means they can visit more nodes faster. More nodes mean more money in less time… always a bonus. Also in flight form mobs are less likely to bother them. If you are considering making a character just for farming, consider making a druid.

It’s all about speed

This is about the truest statement a farmer can make. The faster the better. When farming it is highly recommended you have an epic mount moving as fast as possible. It’s a matter of numbers, the more nodes you gather and the faster you do it the better. I use a drake for most of my movement (280% movement increase) and I want in the worst way a 310% movement mount. I am working on it, the 10% speed bonus would be nice.

So why a drake? This is actually a very conscious decision. Let’s say I am racing another person to a node. The drake is fast and very large and covers the node. Ever try to pick a node you can’t see? It is very difficult. This frustrates other people and allows you the chance to grab the node. Call if offensive farming.

While it is possible to farm on foot or with a slower mount, you will have to be more aware of your “flight path”. Most farmers get into a rhythm optimizing the distance between nodes; obviously the shorter the better. Stringing nodes together will get you more nodes but be prepared to have nodes ninja’ed out from under you.

Speaking of “Flight Paths”, if you find you are following someone, turn off and go somewhere else or even double back on your path. You never know when a node will respawn, but you do know the guy in front of you will get the next node and you will be fighting over all the nodes in the area. It is just not worth it, go somewhere else.

It’s all about time

What was the number one thing to remember about getting WoW gold rich? Patience. The more time you put in the more you make. Personally I find if the area I am farming is not too crowded I can farm for about 4 hours and make about 2500g in one day. This translates to about 75 stacks of herbs BTW. After that I can do whatever I want. Heck these days I do not even farm every day since most of what I want can’t be got with gold but rather badges or in raids. I try to farm 4 days a week and if the market is good I clear 10k a week less my raiding costs.

Don’t get mad

If you get upset because someone stole your node you will waste time griping about it while the guy who snaked you just continues on. Forget about it, just move to the next node and get over it, there are always more nodes.

Now I have to admit there are times when it seems everyone in the area is out to get my node. I land there and suddenly there is someone else there taking my stuff. It can get really frustrating. If you do get frustrated just do something else or find a different area to farm. Personally if I am not farming Sholazar Basin I am farming Storm Peaks or Ice Crown. Why these areas? Because they have a lot of nodes and the secondary gather of Frost lotus is very lucrative. You may have other areas to farm. In any case when you find you are loosing your cool, do something or go somewhere else and come back later.

Be a good citizen

The one thing that really burns my blood while farming is I get on a node and am attacked by some mob and while fighting the mob some opportunistic jackass then comes in and takes the node. Personally I pass by a node if I see anyone within a reasonable distance of the node. After all I don’t like people stealing my nodes, I am not going to steal a node someone else got to first. When you think about it this really saves you time and it is all about the time. I just wish there was a way of “tagging” nodes like you can tag a mob for experience and drop credit. That would certainly put an end to the ninja farmers.

Get geared

It should go without saying that the best farmers are highly geared level 80 toons. Why? Because a well geared character can deal with whatever might happen. In this case the gear can include anything that maximizes your farming such as armor, mounts and bags. I have one toon that is both an herbalist and a miner. He is equipped with a red drake, two Mammoth Mining Bags (32 slots each), and two Emerald Bags (32 slots each). This equipment and minimal amount of other items that take bag slots, allow him to hold 140 stacks of stuff before he has to empty his bags. When he is running well I can make 5000g from straight sales or if smelted bars are selling well I can shift those over to a BS character and make even more.

There are two other luxuries that I afford my farming characters because they reduce the time I have to spending finding vendors and going into cities. The Travelers Tundra Mammoth may seem an extravagant luxury, but if you can afford it I recommend it, if for no other reason than to empty bags of junk and cash in on the odds and ends (remember we are making cash any way we can). Not only are there vendors on the Mammoth, Gnimo is also a repair bot. I can comfortably say that I have made back my 18k investment for the mammoth in vendoring junk and time savings. The other luxury is the Argent Squire pet with the pony upgrade. The upgrade not only puts the squire on a pony when you mount up but it allows the squire to do things, like visit a bank, visit a mail box, and be a vendor. Similarly if you have engineering you can get these services as well (and I think an auctioneer too) but it takes one profession that may or may not be suitable to farming.

Having a well rounded and well geared character will make the whole process easier. Obviously you don’t need to have the absolute top of the line gear, but you should have at least all blues and better all purple gear. With the new random dungeon process it is simple to get well geared and you should take advantage of it.

Ka-Ching!

OK, let’s say that you have now filled your bags and you are ready to sell your stuff. After all you have made no money until you have sold your stuff. How should you sell it? Should you make something out of it? Should you hold on to it or set the price unusually high. Let’s consider just selling the stuff and at what price.

To start off I recommend you get an addon called Auctioneer. This addon will automate posting good and give you a relative idea about how items are priced. Good use of this addon will help you make money, but more advanced use will come in time as you get familiar with the market.

NOTE: When you post a new item and before you create a new auction be sure to hit the “Refresh” button every time. If you do not you may loose money by posting auctions that will not sell. You will only have to make this mistake a couple of times before it becomes a habit of “refresh”ing.

Note: As you become acquainted with the market you should expect to make a normal return. If prices fluctuate wildly price your good at your prices and you should be able to get it. Never think you have to undercut the market all the time (although you will most of the time) or gouge people to make a profit. The rule is this: YOU HAVE MADE NO MONEY AT ALL UNTIL IT IS IN YOUR BANK. You can’t eat your mats, so to speak.

Auctions and Buyouts

Obviously there is a difference here, the auction price is the minimum you will accept for the item you are selling and people can bid up the price to whatever the market will bare. A buy out is an ideal price you would like for your item. The advantage of a buyout is the buyer gets the item they purchase immediately. People bidding in auction must wait until time expires and take the risk of other people outbidding them or buying out the item. In all honesty we are not interested at all in auctions, what we want to for people to buyout our good outright so we get paid sooner. The tactic you will notice most people taking is having the auction minimum bid being about 10% or less than the buyout price. This tactic entices the buyer to just buy it outright which is better for us and them since they know they get the item. A good example is my price for Deadnettle. I price it at 10g a stack buyout and minimum auction is 9g. I never have people bid the price, and if someone does, someone else will always come along and just buy it out.

Note: The auction prices and buyout prices are handled separately and this being the case it is very important to pay attention to them separately. There is a tactic of pricing the an auction price very low and when people automatically price auctions the can mistakenly price it too low. The person who priced the auction low will then bid on your sale at this very low price. If they win it they will turn it around and sell your item a high price and make a profit. Be careful of this and price your auction to your liking and not automatically based on the market.

One of the other things to make your prices more appealing, price your items in nice round numbers. I usually shave off any copper and usually round to the next lower 10 silver. Say if Auctioneer says a good price is 13g 47s 32c, I would price it at 13g, 40s. When you price like this it is easier for people to understand and are more likely to buy your item. Some people will say it doesn’t matter, I think it does and since I am successful I will stick to this thinking.

I am going to take this looking at some of the more common conditions you will find in the AH. Remember, this is where you will be making your money, it is important to understand what you are looking at.

You post and there are no other sales of what you are selling

This is simple to understand, if you are posting something that normally sells a lot it means there is a large demand for the item. You are now the only one to provide this on your server. So how should you price your item? Let’s take for example “Adders Tongue”. When the market is doing a brisk turnover of this item you notice the price tends to level out at about 14g a stack. Since this is the usual going price you should really expect to get 14g a stack, but we have a situation where you are the only seller and can now set the price. What will you do? Will you gouge people for it and set the price way high like 40g? Will you set the price at the normal selling price of 14g pretty much assuring sales? Will you set a premium price and take advantage of the market but selling it for about 20g a stack? Obviously you will not set a price lower than the normal selling price because there is no point in loosing money that way. Setting the price point at a gouging 40g is ridiculous, no one will buy it because everyone knows the normal price and the stack will sit in the AH until someone is absolutely desperate for it. This could be a long wait and you loose money the longer it sits there, reposting it every couple of days. (Remember that there will be other people posting their stuff and they will easily undercut a price that is too high.) Your best strategy is to set the price slightly high but not so outrageous that people will not bite at it since it is in high demand. A 20% to 40% mark up in this situation is reasonable and everyone will understand you are getting a little more because of the situation and you will sell your stuff.

You post your stack and see the market is flooded

A flooded market is not uncommon. You see the pages of auctions for the same thing you are selling and the prices have dropped through the floor. Our Adders Tongue that usually sells at 14g a stack is now selling at 5g a stack. This is disheartening, but now you have to take a real close look at the prices and the size of the stacks being sold.

If the stacks are all large and you look at unit price and they drop steady you really are not in a position to sell and make a good return. In this case you should hold on to the mats and bank it until the price comes up. If on the other hand the stack are all small, say 1 and 2 each, price your mats at the normal price or even a 10% discount and wait, it will eventually sell because there really is not all that much on the market, it just looks like there is. ADVANCED TIP: If the prices are real low but the stacks are very small you have an interesting consideration here…. You could buy everything that is lower than your normal or discount price and the resell it all at your price. Since you will have bought everything at a lower price you can make a profit off the cheap goods and sell your stuff. That’s a Ka-Ching in my dictionary.

But why would people price stuff so low in the first place? Well simple; if you then post to undercut the cheap price, the person posting the cheap price will snap your sale up and later repost them at a nice profit. If you on the other hand buy all the cheap stuff and repost it at a normal price, the guy trying to screw people into undercutting will have made very little money for their work and you will come out on top just by selling normally.

You post and you see the price listings are around the normal price

This is the condition you will normally see. This is where you undercut your competitors by a couple percent and turn your profit.

Should I sell the raw mats or should I manufacture something?

Oddly enough this is a question I get asked a lot and it depends entirely on market conditions. It is really simple to figure out: add all your unit costs up (don’t forget AH cut) and subtract that from what you are going to sell it for. Then add up the sell price for the mats you have and subtract the AH cut. If the first is greater, make something and sell it. If not just sell the raw mats and be done with it. You would be surprised how often it is more advantageous to just sell the raw mats than bother to make anything from it. In fact I don’t bother checking to see if there is a profit from manufacturing something form my farmed mats any more, I just sell it all on the AH and forget about it.

Banking Mats

There comes a time that you will bank something rather than sell it because the price is too damned low for your taste. You have to remember that until you do sell it you will not have made any money. If the AH goes through a prolonged downturn on what you are selling you could fill a bank real fast. Eventually you could run out of space all together and then you are in a fix since until you clear space you will not be able to gather any more of the profitable mats. It is then time to find a way to use it or manufacture with it and hopefully make a profit. If you can’t figure out how to move it the it is time to dump it on the market.

Dumping on the market is not a lost per say but rather a less than vigorous return on your work. You are still making some money on your work, it just isn’t up to your standard. Find the lowest price on the market, and undercut it. Do not set a buyout price so people must bid on it. Somewhere down the line a speculator will bid them all (or maybe more than one bidding up the price) and you will see your return and free up your bags and bank to get on with more work. In this I would stop farming that particular item for a few days since the market is just too cheap and you can use your time and bag space on better mats. Once the market for that item evens out again you can farm it again.

As a general rule you should never bank anything you farm or manufacture. If it is banked it is not making you money and so what is the point. I can never understand when people run out of bank space on a farming toon. There should be very little in their banks and bags because they are not really playing character. I can understand it with playing characters to an extent, but still, there should never be a time you run out of space. YOUR BANK IS THE AH.

If you are using a playing character to farm you could consider making a “Banking” alt. This is a character that does nothing but stores things for your main character. If you are still in desperate need of space you could even start your own bank guild opening up a possible 700 more slots if you have the cash (and you should).

Lots of slots

The maximum number of slots on a character is 144. If you max out your bank and use specialized bags in the bank you can add another 256 slots. This means it is possible for a character to leverage 400 slots. If the character has a guild you can add 700 more for a total of 1100 slots. If you still need space after that you can start more banking toons, but really, I cannot see using more than 200 slots since you should be selling like a madman.

Multiple Characters

When you think about it the more characters you have the better you can do. Think about this:
1) Dungeon Raider (Provides Heirlooms)
2) Herbalist and Mining
3) Skinning and Leatherworker
4) Alchemy and Enchanting
5) Inscription and Jewelcrafting
6) Tailor and Blacksmithing
Since all can do cooking, fishing, and first aid there is no need to specialize these. But if you can work up all of these toons, you can then create 5 more toons to do whatever you want and pay practically nothing for potions, food, weapons, gear and enchants. Toon 1 then provides the heirlooms to get your farmer up and running faster. Toon 2 provides raw materials and cash for all other toons. Toons 3, 4, 5 and 6 can then provide more and more items needed by all the others. Toons 7-10 are for fun and experimentation. Have fun.

Leveling up professions

Farming toons should be leveled up as they are being brought up. It is not difficult to farm here and there as you are running around questing, just remember to do it. Obviously skinning is the absolute easiest to level while questing since you are killing things left and right anyway. Manufacturing professions I would suggest not bothering to level until level 60. At that point you can power level the profession in a few hours. Sure it cost some cash, but the time you save not leveling may be worth it.

Wrapping it up

When it comes down to it all of the stuff I have written about here is common sense. If you just take the time to think things through, experiment a little bit and stick to it you will find that you are successful and making a load of cash. Let’s face it, you don’t need millions or even hundreds of thousands, just enough to make your gaming experience fun without having to go to the gold sellers and pay $5 per 1000g.