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.