Wrath of the Gold Gathering

Wrath of the Lich King and Northrend are bringing some interesting changes to the WoW economy. Quests pay at least 4 gold each and there are hundreds of them. Alchemists and Scribes are buying up tons of herbs and crafters are getting their tools into new leathers and ores. Not to mention the new gear, food items, and so on.

So there’s a pretty fair quantity of new items for the gold grind and a pretty fair amount of new cash coming into the game. Prices, of course, will vary from server to server and Horde side to Ally.

Do you like to farm for your gold?

Northrend herbs start at 30-40 gold a stack and go up from there. More and more farming will tend to push prices down some, but Glyphs, that require inks made from those herbs, will help to keep herb prices up. If you want to take up herbalism I have a quickie guide to leveling herbalism from scratch.

Cobalt and Saronite ore look like they’re running 40-50 gold a stack and Titanium is just grim right now. Mining is always a good money maker and all the ores sell well.

Borean leather is somewhere around 20g a stack and you’re going to be killing lots of critters, so the shear quantity of skins should keep those prices relatively low. Rarer skins, though… Artic Fur is looking pretty grim, too.

Hungry? Chunk o’ Mammoth is going for 10g per piece right now. Just avoid the D.E.H.T.A. druids when you’re covered in Mammoth pieces.

Auction House Pricing

When you puts your loots up for sale on the AH check the existing prices first. I use Auctioneer (advanced,) but it’s not essential for price checking. Some people seem to skip this step. For example, let’s say prices for an ore are going at 45g a stack. BobBank comes buy and throws his up there for 200g a stack. Lol wut? Why? I think sometimes its to screw the Auctioneer data, other times people just aren’t looking. It’s a waste of effort since it’ll never sell.

Next comes NotAfarmer, who posts a pile of stacks at 5g each (when the market is 45.) Sigh… what do you do with these people? First, he’s hurting himself since he could get a lot more for each stack, next he’s hurting the market. Actually this is great for buyers, but we greedy types would like to see things a bit higher, which makes it worth our while to farm or make the item. What some of us will then do is buy out all of NotAfarmer’s stuff and resell it at market price.

Then there’s ZogMuffin, who puts up 20 stacks of something at market price or lower. The issue here isn’t necessarily the pricing, but that Zog is locking up 20 stacks of his inventory, which won’t sell, because BobBank gets a clue and undercuts him. So the first few items the buyer sees are Bob’s and Zog gets all his items back in the mail when his auctions expire.

Unless you have a monopoly on an item I don’t suggest putting up a lot of that item. Store the surplus in your bank if it’s selling and prices seem reasonably stable. Post one item at a time if it’s a slow seller, just a few if it sells faster. You’ll sell just as much and you’ll have fewer returns to deal with.

It’s funny sometimes… You see a game where one person posts his items and then he and three or four others will alternately undercut each other by pennies. Then NotAfarmer comes along and dumps a pile of that item, undercutting everyone by 60%. So one of two things happens: his stuff gets bought out by another seller (for resale) or the price creep game starts again at the new, lower, price.

Need More Bank Space?

Make a private guild, just for your banker/mule. Start it up like any other guild, then kick everyone out when its ready to go. It’s probably a good idea if you let them know your plans ahead of time. Bribery (2-5 gold per signature) will get sign-ups a lot faster.

Once done you have access to that nice, large, guild bank. All to yourself. Every once in a great while someone sells their guild and that’s the one I have. Didn’t have to bother with the signup fuss and only paid 70 gold. Then I bought another pair of tabs and now bank space is no longer an issue.

Storing stuff in the mailbox is a good idea for smaller quantities, but doesn’t work so well for larger quantities due to bugs in the system. You won’t lose stuff (as long as you don’t store it for more than 30 days,) but you might not  see it either, until the mailbox is emptied.

Summing Up

Mining and Herbalism for the (gathering) Gold.

Dedicated bankers are a good idea, for all of your buying and selling, and private guilds allow lots of storage space.

Watch the current prices so you can make a good choice about pricing your stuff and try to avoid posting a ton of stuff at one time.

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Here’s the usual gold drill: Grind a few primals (or other items,) sell them off, and make upwards of a couple hundred gold an hour if you’re really good at it and there’s no competition. It’s about the same for the daily quests, plus you get the rep items. If you’re good at playing Auction House games you can double that.

Now consider for a moment what it takes to hit the gold cap: that limit being currently set at 214,748 gold, 36 silver, 48 copper, and once reached will prevent you from receiving any more cash. At 300 gold an hour that’s a measly 716 hours of pure gold making activity.

Brad, of Warcraft Millionaire, has hit that cap on four separate characters.

How was it that this guy had managed to do what is seemingly impossible when millions of other players have been at it for just as long and are nowhere close? You can see the video proof on his home page, which really drives the point home.

When you watch it you will see Brad clicking between several characters he has on the same server, each of which had reached that gold cap of 214,748 gold, 36 silver, 48 copper. It’s rare enough to see one character at the cap, much less several characters.

So how did he do it? What has Brad done that very few, if any, have done before? What did see in the game that others had missed? His strategy must surely be superior, right?

It seems that Brad’s friends and fellow players have been asking the same question of him for some time and so, instead of constantly answering questions, he has put together a collection of resources at his website that promises to guide the casual or even hardcore player through the same process he used to reach the upper echelons of gaming.

The truth of the matter is that it’s not some special secret, as you might think. The difference is entirely in his understanding of how the WoW market works. His secret? It’s all in the Auction House (AH.) We all know that; we’ve been to the Auction House and we’ve seen what kind of gold it can provide, but none of us would have guessed that there was quite that much gold in it.

Suffice it to say, that Brad provides concise, well written advice on how to use the Auction House to make a lot of gold. I think that hitting the gold cap, four times, provides some serious credibility, don’t you?

While I won’t reach a million gold anytime soon, I definitely feel much more confident in my ability to make hundreds of gold on demand and pretty much all of it it with my low level bank alts.

Not Just the AH

Now, while the real gold is made at the auction house, and Brad emphasizes learning to use the AH, there are people who would, for whatever reason, rather do something else to earn their WoW cash. So, I’ll open up my copy of Warcraft Millionaire and note that, in addition to the Auction House domination guide, Brad includes the following:

• All of the Daily Quests - listed, rated (1 to 5 stars,) with notes on the gold and the rep that you will earn, and linked to WoWdb.com for more info. Of course, you do need to be level 70 to do these.

• The Grinding Guide - Want to just mindlessly kill hordes of mobs and fill your bags with goodies? This is the guide for you. It includes where to find certain special items, grinding instances, various locations, and recommended addons to make you grinding easier (besides plugging a case of Mountain Dew into your brain.) Brad hates the grind, I hate grinding, but if you’re Ok with it then this guide is for you.

• A limited items listing - This is a big list of vendors who sell all sorts of limited items. General locations of the vendors are provided, but it would have been nice to see exact locations.For items found in Azeroth the list is sorted by specific item, who sells it, and how much you’ll pay. How much you can sell it for will depend on the economy of your particular server. The Outlands listing lists vendors by zone, plus the items thy sell and the cost. Make a loop of these vendors, grab the items that are available as you hit them, ship them to your banker, and sell for a very nice profit.

• 1-60 and 60-70 gold guides - As you level you should keep an eye peeled for certain items and these two guides cover those items. You can make a lot of gold in the leveling process (beyond taking Herbalism and/or Mining) and these guides will show you what to look for. Naturally the best stuff requires higher level characters.

• A special bonus, is the Warcraft Basics Guide, which covers the basics of the WoW economy, principles, gold making, questing, professions, etc. New players will find this guide to be very useful, experienced players can skim much of it, but will find some useful tips as well.

Since Millionaire is one of the newest gold guides it neatly cuts out one of the problems of the older guides, none of the info is out of date. You won’t find references to the level 60 cap or to items and mobs that are no longer in game or of value.

You don’t have to have level 70 characters. In the video on the home page Brad notes that his level 1 bank alt does most of his trading, buying, and selling. Yes, it’s at the gold cap. You will also get an idea of what he buys and sells.

You won’t just be given a set of grinding locations either, though you do get those in addition to everything else. What you will get and learn is a set of techniques that will massively boost your gold stash.

Even better is that Brad has a Wrath of the Lich King update in the works and that update should be live very soon now. It will be free to members of Warcraft Millionaire.

Just One Thing…

There is one section lacking: With the addition of Inscription into the game, and what it’s doing to herb prices, I expect there will be an update soon that will cover Inscription and that will do more with making gold from Herbalism. The guide was released before much was known about Wrath or anything was known about Inscription.

I’ll bug him until I get the exact word on the Inscription/WotLK/3.0+ update. If you’re not interested in those two professions then the rest of the guide is golden (pun intended.)

You can snag your copy of Warcraft Millionaire here.

Zug, at ZugGaming.com, was kind enough to send me a copy of his World of Warcraft Gold Mastery Guide for review and I’ve been reading it over for the last few days.

I’m even using his “Tuesday Techniques” which I think will turn a tidy profit.

All in all I’m quite pleased with the guide and have no problems recommending it. I would like to see videos of some of the Auction House stuff, but it’s easy to read, well laid out, well written, and full of good tips and useful info.

You can snag your copy here, or read on to see more detail on what’s included in Zug’s guide.

Zuggy’s Gold Mastery Guide is actually six guides in one. You get guides for grinding, cashing in on professions, limited items, daily quests, auction house mastery, and a tools and tips guide.

The Grinding Guide - Grinding is the most common way to make WoW gold and Zug included plently of recommendations here, including maps marked to show specific locations. Also included are a number of tips for more efficient grinding, including beverage recommendations (Mountain Dew, of course.)

While grinding is a tad on the dull side (Ok, a LOT on the dull side) it’s a proven method for making gold and is the method of choice for a lot of players.

The Limited Items - If you’ve read any of my previous gold posts you’ll know that I’m a fan of limited items. Buy ‘em cheap and sell ‘em high. Zuggy’s Limited Items Guide is a pretty complete listing of vendors, their general location, and which item(s) you want to look for. While it’s easy enough to look up locations on Thottbot, exact locations would have been a nice addition to the guide.

Still, this list makes it easy to get on your epic mount and make the rounds of the vendors, then mail all your goodies to your banker for resale at large markups.

This works because many people aren’t interested in wasting time looking for vendors and checking to see if they maybe have that item in stock, this time. So you provide the convenience of easy availability and they pay you more than retail for the favor.

The Professions Guide - Yes, they can be used for making gold, some of them anyway, rather than burnng through your existing cash stash. Enchanting, blacksmithing, leatherworking, and others (in addition to the gathering professions) are covered here. Note - this isn’t a profession leveling guide. You’ll have a chance to grab one of those when you grab his guide.

The Dailies Guide - All 70s know to do their dailies for easy gold, rep, and loots. Which ones are the best though? (yeah, I know. Quel’Danas.) Zuggy lists all the dailies by area, notes which ones are worth doing and how much you earn from each. He also includes links to WoWhead for each quest if you need info on who, what, and where. Very nice.

The Auction House System - This is where the real gold is made in WoW, through mastering the Auction House. Zug covers which addons you need (Auctioneer, Gatherer, and others.) as well as how to install and use them to best effect.

He does a great job of covering how to use Auctioneer and uses screenshots to good effect. Videos would have been a nice addition here and I asked him about that. He agrees that it’s a good idea so I think current buyers of Zuggy’s guide will see some nice updates and stuff coming up, rather than having a forgotten product.

Tips, Tools, and Tricks - this one’s a catch-all for stuff not mentioned elsewhere, including the right way to make a bank alt, as well as leveling and more profession notes.

So why not just BUY gold? Ever read that Terms of Service agreement that you automatically click “agree” to when WoW is updated? Buying gold, items, accounts, etc is prohibited, so Bliz will ban your booty if they find you’re buying stuff you shouldn’t. Still, it’s your account…

With a guide you’ll end up making far more gold for far less money than a seller will charge you. Grab a copy of Zug’s guide here, follow the tips, and you’ll forget about ever wanting to buy gold again. Your account will breathe a sigh of relief and you’ll enjoy flying around on that epic flying mount (or riding that 15k, 3 person mount when Wrath comes out.)

I’m going to start a series of gold making tips. I keep seeing chat comments along the lines of “I’m broke…” or “gold making is (hard)…” etc.

Did you know that Bliz is bringing in a new multi-person mount for something like 15,000 gold? I guess there are a few who don’t find it hard to get that much cash.

Some people buy their gold, of course, which is kinda mostly safe. While buying gold is 100% against the Blizzard terms of service, well, there seems to be a big market for it. I guess that not toooo many people are being banned for buying.

While I’m not the hard charging gold making machine, I’ve made enough to buy my epic flyer a few times over, on a couple of servers, so buying gold just isn’t interesting to me.

I’ll offer tips here in no particular order. Some will be for the low levels, some for the high levels, some will require cash and some won’t. Hit the Get the Gold category for all the tips as time goes on.

For all of these tips I’m assuming that you are using an alternate character (alt) as your main Auction House banker. The Auctioneer Addon is invaluable and you’ll make a lot more gold with it than without it.

Buy it Out:

I’m going to use Copper ore as an example here, but this applies to any number of items for sale on the Auction House (AH.) This one will require a bit of cash.

You’ve mined a couple of stacks of copper ore for sale. You send it off to your banker and log that character in to post your ore. Checking prices you see that some fool has posted several stacks of ore at 75 silvers a stack.

Don’t get mad. Buy them out. Buy out all the copper ore that’s under a target price. For example, of your target sell price is 3gold a stack then buy out everything that’s under 2 gold a stack. Skip the lots that have just a bid with no buyout price, unless the time remaining is short (30 min.)

Resell those stacks at 3 gold each (or a bit more.) I wouldn’t recommend putting putting up tons of ore at one time, but several stacks is ok.

Copper sells to people wanting to work up their mining, blacksmithing, and other skills and many people will buy lots of the stuff at any one time. Put yours up at a reasonable price and it will go fast enough. All those stacks you bought at 2 gold or less will sell at a profit.

If you see someone in the trade chat selling copper (or anything) at a price that you can buyout and then resell at a profit, then buy it.

As you learn the market prices of other items you will see similar opportunities here and there. Farmers dump a load on the market at a too low price, you buy it up and resell it at market price.

Don’t overprice it or you’ll be left with a lot of inventory which just doesn’t sell.

Now, if the market price on your server is, for example, 5 gold a stack, then adjust your prices accordingly.

Good luck.

By the way, if you don’t feel comfortable buying and reselling (and some people don’t) then just hold your ore/items until someone else buys out the low priced stuff, then post yours at the higher price.

If you want to add tips of your own, other comments, or want something explained further, then just hit the comment box (gently, it’s fragile.)