300k Gold in 30 Days, from Scratch

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Nov 132011
 

Insane?

It’s the Gold Speed Run.

Check it out here

Apart from being a killer game concept, Jon Kenins (creator of the Massive WoW Gold Blueprint) tells me that the Gold Speed Run is also the fastest way to make extreme amounts of gold. And he’s got the proof to back it up.

What’s a Gold Speed Run? Hop onto a brand new server. No friends, no guilds, no gold buying, no transfers, start from zero. Create as many alts as you like. Amass as much gold as you can in 30 days.

He organized a Gold Speed Run for his exclusive insiders’ gold-making club in March this year, and the results were amazing:

  • 2.8 Million Gold earned in 30 days, starting from zero
  • top gold earner alone brought in 359,313 gold
  • average gold earned by all challengers: 63,901 gold – this needs more explanation: 11 people broke 100k gold, 40 broke 1k. How do you think you would do?

Keep in mind that he’s talking about doing all this with level 1 toons, and starting on a new server with no other help of any kind… not even start-up cash. Want more proof? I did my own run, not as a part of his contest, just to see if anyone could do this.

Using his techniques it’s almost trivial to break 1k gold. (300k is a bit harder… 😉 .) I wrote it up on GotWarcraft: 30 Days to (over) 1k Gold

So maybe you’re asking…

“How can I get some?!”

Well now’s your chance!

Jon is running a new Gold Speed Run Challenge starting next week. And he’s inviting newbie speed runners to sign up for a preview video series that shows you exactly how to get the same kind of results in your own gold game. Get the videos here!

Speed Run FTW!

One more thing:  Jon is limiting the entries in this Speed Run to avoid overwhelming the auction house economy on any one Realm. Sign up for the preview video series, and you’ll be on the early bird list for first shot at a spot when the challenge opens up next week!

 

Tycoon Gold Addon Review

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Jun 012011
 

The Tycoon Gold Addon is a pretty sweet little tool. It’s intended to automate a lot of the gold making process and works well. It won’t post auctions or buy anything for you, but it will show you what to buy/gather/farm/make.  How much can you make?  The 30k per day, on the banner to the right, is… welllll… maybe if you’re really good and your server’s market is really good and all the stars align, just so

I’m using it four different servers and I can say that it’s a pretty nifty. I don’t know how you go about acquiring massive gold, but I think this is a tool that I’ll be using a lot. Check out my Tycoon gold addon review and see what you think.

 

How To Make Gold In WOW – What To Do If You Are Brand New To The Game!

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Mar 222011
 

This is a guest post from Chris

If you have been playing WOW since Vanilla you will know that there have been a ton of changes to the game and the most recent is, of course, WOW Cataclysm.

Well, I have decided to write a post for those of you that are looking for ways to make gold and are either too low a level to take part in the heroics or so new to the game that you are not sure where to begin.

So here we go – even if you are more experienced with WOW and making gold you might want to have a read through as I am sure you will pick up some tips!

My first tip for anyone new to the game and wondering what professions they should pick:

Focus on Gathering

These are by far the easiest professions to get started with if you want to make gold. Of course they are not the most exciting and as you start making gold you might want to try something a bit more exciting, like Engineering.

However when you are starting out I swear by picking the gathering professions like Mining and Herbalism. The benefits of these are that you will be able to collect your herbs and ore as you are leveling up so you can do it in conjunction with your quests.

Of course when you are starting out in Elwynn Forest or Tirsfal Glades you will just be collecting Copper up to skill level 65 for mining,  and the same for Herbalism when you are collecting Silverleaf, Peacebloom, Earthroot and Mageroyal. Very quickly as you level up you will be able to sell ore and herbs for solid profits at the Auction House.

You should download Auctioneer, which is an awesome addon, if you don’t already have it, because it will tell you how much your items are worth and also allow you to undercut the competition!

Of course this is a very basic way of making gold, but it is also really effective and before you start getting the other professions, such as Engineering and Blacksmithing. These can cost a lot to level,  but are well worth doing.

Now you know how to start lining your pockets in WOW as a new player.

If you choose to get started with Mining be sure to check out this WOW Mining Guide, as it will show you where to find the nodes faster!

 Posted by at 1:41 pm

The Farmer’s Class (Gold) Guide

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Nov 162010
 

For those of you needing a short(ish) guide to racking up some more gold on your characters you should take a look at this post. It needs some editing, but, as he says, it’s kindof a “talking to himself” guide. There’s some good stuff there, well worth reading:

This is a Meta-game guide for the World of Warcraft. If you want the complete guide to making money, gain control of the Auction House, and/or compete in a true PvP test of skill and cunning, then look no further. I will take you to a new server that you know nothing about, with only one character, and show you how to build a finical empire at the cost of at least 1 hour a day. If you are further along than that, I will show you how to stabilize your market that you are in and build upon skills that you already know.

Let’s start at the very beginning. If you are farther than this, don’t worry, I’ll get to you soon. At the beginning, I am going to assume a few things about you. Firstly, you have no characters on the server. Perfect! Nothing like starting at nothing, where there are few restraints and the sky is the limit. Secondly, I assume that you have all the expansions. Thirdly, I am going to assume you have great knowledge of the lay out of the lands and have Dugi’s Leveling Guide Addons. And last, but not least, I am going to assume that all that you want to do now is to see how much money you can make and quickly.

the rest: The Farmer’s Class Guide: The Short Version

I did a related set of posts, with new characters, starting from scratch, on a new server. The goal was 1k gold on 30 days and I hit 6,500. The current total is about 10k since I slacked off, a lot, since making those posts. In them I list everything that I bought and sold and added a few notes. Here it is, if you’re interested: 30 Days to (over) 1k Gold

 Posted by at 1:35 pm

The Gold Run and a 4.0 Rogue Guide

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Sep 252010
 

A few weeks ago I made about starting from scratch and trying to hit 1k gold in 30 days. I’ve been documenting this on GotWarcraft.

  • Broke 1k gold on day 7, 2k on day 13, and 3k on day 18

This is on a new server, no 80s, no rich friends, no gold buying, no transfers, and the highest character so far is a 31 Rogue. Stop scoffing, I’m slow, Ok?

So when people are yammering about their money woes in trade or guild chat, I’m scratching my head and says, “WTF???” I used to offer suggestions, but no one is interested, so I just read the stuff and smile (or sigh.) Someone’s buying those three man mounts and nice raid purples (for 6-10k) on the AH and it ain’t them (don’t have the mount, but I’ve bought some of those purples.)

In the off chance that you are interested, I’ve been doing a day by day accounting of what I’m doing, here: 1k Gold in 30 Says, from Scratch

I’ve been reading the blueprint forums where people logged their speed run results. This little pocket change stuff I’m doing is silly low. No wonder no one’s interested. Ah well, it’s fun for me.

Cataclysm

The 4.0 patch, as you all know, is bringing major changes to the talent system and a few other areas, as well. That patch will be released before Cataclysm hits. I don’t have an exact date, but I’m sure everyone’s seen the “…downloading data…” note on the launcher.

You can see the test realm patch notes here.

I’ve put up a 4.0 Rogue guide and will have the others up as soon as I can get my act in gear. The rogue guide includes remarks on Mastery, leveling builds, and a few other things. Let me know what you think.

 Posted by at 9:02 am
Sep 092010
 

Just for the hell of it I started a set of characters on a brand new server (Emerald Dream, Horde side.) Why? I was tired of being on a low pop server and wanted to see some people running around who were on the same side. Try being Alliance on Detheroc and you’ll know what I mean. The only people you see there are the NPCs in the city, right before the Horde player(s) kills them.

Anyway…

In addition to that, I need gold to buy stuff for the toons, so I’m taking an idea from a gold guide seller and am doing a 1k gold run in 30 days. For the one or two of you who might read this and be interested, the index page to all the days is here: 1k Gold Run.

Why? It’s sort of my response to those “can I have X gold to by a (something??????) Pretty Plz????” remarks in game. Gold’s easy to make (and easier to buy, just say bye bye to your account…)

At this point my mains are a mighty level 18 Rogue and a devastating 17 mage.

 Posted by at 11:50 am

Gold Opportunity With Glyphs & Inscription

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Apr 152009
 

Update, June 2011: In the even that you’re reading this ancient post you might be interested in knowing that I’ve written a more up to date inscription guide and there’s a new widget, the Tycoon gold addon, which can help you make more money from that skill.

The orginal post:

Ok, so the 3.1 patch went up and I was finally able to log on about 6pm or so.

By 1 am I had made almost 10,000 gold, all in glyphs. Sold about 350 of the things (math test: the average price per glyph is…?)  I’ll be hitting the gold cap in a day or two and will be dumping some on various alts. Maybe then I’ll power level something like Blacksmithing.

There’s a hint there, if you want it. Zuggy is a good one for market timing and the introduction of the dual spec in the 3.1 patch was a perfect example. Those of us who had large numbers of glyphs stocked up are cashing in. All of a sudden a lot of players need glyphs to fill out their second spec. And they have the money to buy your glyphs.

How do I know they have the money? Besides the obvious? Because it costs 1,000 gold to get the 2 spec capability (from your class trainer.) After that, what’s 30 gold for a glyph?

Prices are rather high on some pre-3.1 glyphs and I expect they’ll be really high for the new 3.1 glyphs.

By the way, for you Herbalists out there, what do you think the increased glyph demand is going to do to herb prices?Herbs being a necessary component for the Inscription inks.

If you need a quick and dirty guide to either profession, go to:

It’s going to take some time for this demand to cool down, so if you’re a scribe and/or herbalist, get to work!

Buying and Selling and Making WoW Gold

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Nov 292008
 

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.

Nov 152008
 

Wrath of the Lich king has landed and the World of Warcraft has changed. There are new talents, new builds, new gear, new areas to explore, and so on, but one of the areas that hasn’t changed much is in the gold making techniques.

Gathering is unchanged, except for discovering the new things to gather. Demand for green drops from mobs will probably be strong for awhile since much of it is better than the epic stuff people had at level 70. Certain crafted items (especially glyphs) will sell very well and the materials to make the popular enchants and crafted items will sell very well. The only real difference here will be in exactly which crafts and enchants are popular.

So here are my guesses for gold earning in Wrath. Keep in mind that prices will drop as more and more people start farming Northrend.

Skinning – As always, skin everything you can. Sell the scraps, too. Keep an eye on the Auction House for which skins sell best and which hot crafting recipes require those skins. Find areas where people are just grinding away for XP and skin everything they kill.

Mining – Cobalt and Titanium await you. Engineering, Blacksmithing, and Jewelcrafting will create a demand for these ores and that demand should stay strong for a long time. Cobalt look like it’s going for almost 50g for a 5 stack at the moment, on Bloodscalp. Mining should be interesting on the PvP servers…

Herbalism – Now that Wrath of the Lich King is here people will get back to raiding, which will require the usual collection of potions, created from the various herbs that you will be picking. Plus there’s Inscription, which has driven the price of herbs way up, since the inscription ink come from herbs.

Right now the prices for Northred herbs are truly grim, 20-40 gold per herb. With much of the playerbase arriving in Northrend, gathering away, I don’t think Northrend herbs will stay at that price for long, which is great for scribes, but less great for herbalists. With herbs at 20 gold a stack it costs about 4 or 8 gold to make one glyph. With herbs at 300 gold a stack…

Outland herbs, which have been cheap for some time now, might go up as the gatherers head to Northrend. If Northrend herbs are selling at 100 gold a stack, right now, how many stacks can you farm? As always, check prices on the Auction House first.

Fishing and cooking – Some fish will likely be needed for Alchemy, as well as for cooking, and some might turn out to do interesting things (such as Savory Deviate Delight.) Of course, certain foods are in demand for the buffs they provide and those foods should sell well.

Looting – As usual, keep a close eye on any white or better items you loot in your day to day monster mashing. Some of these items will be valuable. Send them to your banker to sell, don’t vendor them.

Limited items – I have no doubt that there will be a number of new “limited items” appearing on various vendors. Keep an eye on these as several might sell for a very nice profit on the Auction House. Make your own list of “limited item” vendors as you travel the new lands.

Speaking of the Auction House… This really is the area where people can make some serious gold. There are two basic ideas here, both of which require a good understanding of the market on your server.

  1. buy low and sell high is a tried and true one. Herbs for example. If an herb (or ore, or…) normally goes for 30gold a stack and you see that someone has dumped a bunch of stacks for 5 gold, buy them up and resell them (or send them to your favorite scribe.) If prices are starting to look depressed then just hold those items for a few days and keep a close eye on the AH. Post them at a higher price when the market allows.
  2. Find holes in the market and fill them. If a certain glyph is rare and selling for a high price then see if you can make a few of that glyph and sell them for that high price. Same with herbs. If the market needs a few more of a certain herb, because prices are so high, go out and farm a few.

Your banker: Lastly, consider using a low level alt to do all of your buying and selling. It’s less distracting than if you use your main character, plus you’ll be able to focus on making gold and not spending it on better stuff.

Just make a level 1 character to be your “Banker” and run to the nearest big city and park in the Auction House. Next have your main character mail your banker some starting money (for auction fees.) Then as your other characters collect sellable loot and limited items they mail all of those items to the banker for resale.

There are a lot of ways to make gold in the World of Warcraft and the above suggestions are only a few of them. To learn many more gold making techniques you should consider taking the advice of someone who has made enough WoW gold to hit the gold cap (over 230,000 gold) on each of four separate characters. He’s the Warcraft Millionaire and, as you can see, he knows what he’s talking about.

Oct 212008
 

Update 5/26/11: The WM product hasn’t been updated in awhile, so while it has some pretty useful stuff it has nothing for Cataclysm. The product that I’m currently using is the Tycoon gold addon. It does the farming/gathering/crafting stuff, like the other guide, but does it all in-game in the form of an addon. Wrap that around your Gnomish brain. The creators have also released an Auction House module, which looks pretty slick and will make some of us a pile of gold. If that seems like it’s for you then hit that banner to the right or see my Tycoon Gold Guide Review.

By the war, the Massive WoW Gold product mentioned in the comments is very good and is regularly updated for new Cata content. Tycoon is my toy of choice for the moment, though.

Warcraft Millionaire

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. I’d say he know his stuff and I’d say it took some time.

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.

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 gold making.

The truth of the matter

is that it’s not some special secret, as you might think. The “secret”  is entirely in his understanding of how the WoW market works.  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, someone’s putting up all that stuff for sale, but none of us would have guessed that there was quite that much gold in it.

Want to learn how to do that, too?  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. I’ve accumulated a nice little stash since Wrath went live:

A nice gold stash

A nice gold stash, taken on 3/18/09

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. All of the daily quest from Wrath of the Lich King, including the PvP quests, are also part of the list.
  • 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.) Locations and infor are provided for all levels, 1-80. Brad hates the grind, I hate the grind, 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 and Northrend listings list vendors by zone, plus the items they 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,  60-70, and 71-80 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.

All Up to Date, Including WotLK

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. It’s also updated for Wrath.

Note: There’s no mention, yet, on his homepage whether the guide will be updated for Cataclysm. I don’t think the techniques will change much, though the “places to find stuff” lists will probably change, big time. As of this writing there’s a lot of time for you to build your stash before the expansion hits.

You don’t have to have level 80 characters, either. 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.

If you like to make all your gold by some form of farming, then having the high level characters certainly helps.

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.

Whether you are just starting or have conquered Northrend you’ll find something in here that fits what you want to do.

Just One Thing…

There is one section lacking:

While Brad includes a ton of stuff that will do wonderful things for your gold stash, he basically skips Inscription. That profession is what I used to make the bulk of the stash in the image above. Not a major oversight, though. Scan glyph prices (especially with the new dual talent builds) and use what you learn from the AH section of the guide and you’ll figure it out quickly.

You can snag your copy of Warcraft Millionaire here.

Update 8/8/2010:

I tweaked some of the info above, but my opinions haven’t changed, and I hit almost 250k on the above account (over a couple of characters. ) WM is a good guide that covers a lot of areas for making a lot more gold. I assume that the author will keep updating it, otherwise a lot of info will become dated with the Cataclysm release. It has been updated since the above review was written.

Also, keep in mind that hitting the cap is going to take some work. It’s one thing if you want to have 10-20k gold in your pouch, it’s another to have 200k+ (and it’s really nice being able to drop 10k on an item without even blinking.)

So this guide is really good for the person who wants to play the gold game, though the casual player will also make a lot more than otherwise.

Take a look at Warcraft Millionaire here.