How do you make money in WoW?

[Triforcer]

The jewelcrafting thread got me to thinking about the various money-making schemes outside of straight farming that people can use.  I am personally one of those peoples who LOVE playing the AH.

I would write a big long piece on how I've turned 100 gold into 700+ inventory, but nothing I say is relevant anymore because of BC.  DO NOT PLAY THE AH UNTIL BC IF YOU ARE ON A RELEASE SERVER.  Since everyone knows that green items there are as good as T1-T2 stuff now, the market for high end current purples is severely depressed.  I picked up a Cenarion belt for 65 weeks ago and was very fortunate to sell it for 80 today.  Allakhazam's AH tracking simply isn't reliable to gauge release server market conditions.  My only piece of high value inventory currently (Portals Deck) is a stinker that I will have to sell at a big loss because I didn't realize this when I bought it a couple months ago.

So I'll share my other consistent moneymaker, one I expect to still be relevant in the coming months:  vendor schematic auctioning.  I make 5-7g a day off selling obscure, relatively low-level schematics that drop from hard to reach vendors on the AH.  Every week I make 30-50g off of this.  In two months of consistently doing this I have over 200g.

I expect the market to completely change after BC, and I am a druid with enough money for my epic mount (and I fly myself! Whee!) so I don't mind revealing this.  Spend a few hours with your character logged in in Ravenholdt Manor (logging in every 10 min to buy the Gnomish Cloaking Device Schematic) and then spend a few hours logged in in the most hard to reach corner of the Hinterlands (buying Schematics for Mithril Mechanical Dragonlings).  Buy 10 of each and enjoy a steady income for the next week that you'll get even if you never play except to check the AH.  These two schematics, even on a release server, ALWAYS sell.  Gyrofreeze Ice Reflectors and things like THorium Widgets are more expensive initially and are hit and miss as most high level engineers know they exist in Org and Winterspring.  Stick with the Big Two. 

What do you guys do (if you wish to reveal?)

[Rasix]

I clear Scarlet Monastery with my rogue (I DE the BOPs). I'd guess I make around 10g (sometimes more, sometimes less) per Cathedral clear.. which I can do before my poison timers are up.  I used to do Jadefire run with my rogue, but that fucking place is perma-camped.  All of the high level areas I like to run for cash are perma-camped.  Pisses me off at times.  Then I just go back to SM.

I'm usually pretty poor, since I can never commit to actually making money.  I've been away from the game too long to play the AH, and yah.. due to BC I'm scared to start.  Pre-quitting I made most of my cash prospecting the AH, but I never had a system.  I'd just look for underpriced stuff and then resell it.

[Lt.Dan]

1. Create a DE mule and park at mail box
2. Post mule money
3. Have mule bid on every level 46-50 armor item on the AH paying no more than 1.5g
4. Park mule at mail box
5. Come back next day and DE items.  Most DE into 1-4 dream dust (at 40-50s each), 1-2 greater nether (at 1.5-2g each), or Large brilliant shards (at 4g ea).  Sell components on AH (checking local component pricing).
6. Goto 3.

Generally a 20g float is sufficient to make 5-10g per day (depending on shards) in about 15 mins of dickering around with the AH.  Sometimes you'll need to bid so that only getting shards is profitable but this is still worth it on a short-term basis (one shard DE will make up for any losses).  You can also do the same with 51-55 and 59-59 items but your average margin is much narrower. 

[Xanthippe]

I buy herbs on the AH and sell potions.  I buy thorium bars and dense stone on the AH and sell ammo (although some stinker has stolen my business).  I buy stacks of trade goods like wildvine or iron bars or whatever I can find cheap and resell them single-y.  I don't usually buy greens or blues or purples to resell, because that's just too volatile.  I buy cloth cheap and make crap that sells (bags, cindercloth cloaks, etc.).  I'm not above buying out a competitor and reselling his stuff, either (if he tries to undercut me too low - like Greater Fire Protection Potions for 8g - I'll buy and resell for 10g - might be the next day that I sell them but sell them I will).  I'll stock up on dreamfoil or whatever is the price is good and then resell it when the supply has fallen. 

I'll trade at the neutral AH also for recipes or pets or other things not available to one side or the other, and auction those.  I'll buy the fishing book and the cookbook and the bandage books to resell also.  Whatever I can move.

Whatever it is that other people are doing, I do something different.  The markets for each thing ebbs and flows; it depends upon who else is doing what I'm doing.  The key is to be flexible.

If people are competing in everything I can make, I go out and fish or farm humanoids or sell herbs or whatever.  (Helps to have a couple of 60s plus a 45).  Either the market for crafted consumables is good, or the market for raw materials is good.

[Scadente]

I used to do two-man DM East runs. Me and a priest, I'm a warrior, so I'd mix up some Tank and DPS gear. We both had t1 and some t2, so it usually took 1hr. I also had the summon-thing for the extra boss there. I'd usually end up with about 2-5 Living Essences, and several dusts and Large Brills, also mine the veins in the cave, nettet me many an Arcane Crystal. If we were lucky, about 50g each in 1.5hrs. Plus always the chance of Foror's Dropping (or another class-book). And the rarespawn showing up.

We also started doing Strat Scarlet with a mage. Two hours, almost always an orb each (= 50-70g). About 2 shards each. 2hrs for about 80g is nice. Also had the t0.5 summon there, one extra shard ;)

DME can be quite hard with just two people, good gear and some paying attention is a requirement. The priest should be Holy specced, and the Warrior with Sweeping strikes. Strat Scarlet is just about focused fire and some good sheeping, mind controlling helps, if the warrior has some good tank gear.

[Phred]

I usually look for things no one is making. The last few months it was cenarian herb bags. I had one alt camped in darnassus that just made morrowgrain. I sold all the other herbs I created and mailed the morrowgrain to my tailor who churned out bags. Bought the purple lotus on the ah. A couple of weeks ago competition started dropping the price on bags so I stopped bothering. I noticed wicked leather headbands weren't in the ah and sell those occasionally. I also pick up all the cheap spider silk I can find and sell Robes of Arcana for the warlock quest.

My goal was to have 5k for the expansion and I'm about 500g away from it.

[caladein]

I noticed wicked leather headbands weren't in the ah and sell those occasionally.

I find it's a lot more profitable to DE the Wicked Leather Headbands then sell them, unless they command an insane price on your AH. When I last played my Alliance characters, Wicked Leather Headbands wouldn't sell for a shade over materials on the AH (~2g) but the Enchanting mats would sell for a few times that.

At best, I made around 10g/ea., and rarely would I lose 50s/ea. That, and I could simply farm the Rugged Leather for the Headbands instead of trying to AH the mats for enchants. Overall, it served me rather well. If I had the drive to snag an Epic mount before I left, it wouldn't have been too tough.

[Jayce]

I'm terrible at making money, always have been.  I tried to play the AH for a while, but I lost all my gains on a few bad investments and lost my stomach for it.  I have leveled a character to 60 and one to 50 and have yet to see a purple world drop.  I do have some decent value tied up in items (libram, chromatic scales, core leather etc) but that is essentially farming income, and some of the items I may yet need one day.

I do have a friend who always has loads of cash simply by taking gathering professions and mining/herbing/skinning and just AHing it as he goes.  It really does add up to real money.  That was another problem I had - I took blacksmithing on my first character and this latest one I have tailoring and enchanting, two major money sinks that I hope will turn around as I get to 300.

In the meantime, I think the value of buying stuff from remote vendors and reselling can't be underestimated.  Even the bandage books from Stromgarde (and wherever the Horde have them) sell for decent money vis a vis their vendor price because it's out of the way and people are lazy.

[Fabricated]

All I've been doing to make money is finishing the plethora of level 60 quests I never got done before I dinged 60. You get like 4-6G per quest usually and they're easy enough to do. Or I just do plain old instance runs and make sure I have room for every single trash drop I get. Level 55+ greys go for like 1.5-3.5G per. I've walked out of spur-of-the-moment Scholo/Strat/BRD/etc pugs with 30G+ in grey/white drops.

[hal]

Its stupid, its so easy. Make an anything on the server you will play on, get it to lvl 5. Now you need enough coin to train enchanting. Mail all greens or betterr to it and let it auction the dusts and essences in full stacks. Laugh

[Xanthippe]

Its stupid, its so easy. Make an anything on the server you will play on, get it to lvl 5. Now you need enough coin to train enchanting. Mail all greens or betterr to it and let it auction the dusts and essences in full stacks. Laugh

This will change with Burning Crusade, I've heard.

[Threash]

Its stupid, its so easy. Make an anything on the server you will play on, get it to lvl 5. Now you need enough coin to train enchanting. Mail all greens or betterr to it and let it auction the dusts and essences in full stacks. Laugh

This will change with Burning Crusade, I've heard.

Yeah you can only DE items you are big enough to wear i think.

[caladein]

Its stupid, its so easy. Make an anything on the server you will play on, get it to lvl 5. Now you need enough coin to train enchanting. Mail all greens or betterr to it and let it auction the dusts and essences in full stacks. Laugh

This will change with Burning Crusade, I've heard.

Yeah you can only DE items you are big enough to wear i think.

Nope, my 22 Lock DE'd everything I shot at him.

[Azazel]

I read that it was based on your Enchanter's skill, not level?

[caladein]

I read that it was based on your Enchanter's skill, not level?

You can always disenchant something, even at 1 Enchanting. Hell, there's a video I remember of a guy dropping 300 Alchemy, picking up Enchanting, and sharding some of his stuff to get Nexus Crystals.

[Zane0]

1) Raid.  BWL in particular.  Use itemrack to unequip your weapons before you die; saves a zillion.
2) Sell the garbage spider parts, bug gunk, runecloth that no one picks up during raids.  An entire run of AQ bug gunk usually at least covered my repairs.
3) Make strong virtual friendships with people who farm a lot.  When they burn out on the game, they give you their stuff!

I combined these three steps with a bit of speculation in the potion market during that obscene spate of DM farming, and came out a.. multiple thousandaire!

[angry.bob]

I just buy it from the Chinese. The Ebay cost of 1000 last time I bought some was about equivalent of 2 and a half hours salary. Since there's no fucking way I could make that much doing anything fun, it's well worth the cost. I just looked at the price right now and It's gone up quite a bit - as well as almost all the companies gone. There must have just been a bust or something. Ah well, If I want 1000 gold, it's still a good deal to throw down $180 bucks to get it.

Before that, I sold stacks of ore, cloth, and enchanting components to impatient AH retards.

[SurfD]

Its stupid, its so easy. Make an anything on the server you will play on, get it to lvl 5. Now you need enough coin to train enchanting. Mail all greens or betterr to it and let it auction the dusts and essences in full stacks. Laugh

This will change with Burning Crusade, I've heard.

Yeah you can only DE items you are big enough to wear i think.

Nope, my 22 Lock DE'd everything I shot at him.

Now maybe, but NOT in BC.  In burning crusade, disenchanting will be tied to your characters skill.  from what i understand, you will HAVE to be 300 Enchanting do DE any level 61 or higher item.  Not sure what the breakdown is between the other ranks, but probably related in some way to the minimum level required to train that rank.

[lamaros]

Thank golly I was stupid enough to level my alts enchanting to 300.

[Simond]

If anyone wants to start playing the AH game, the Auctioneer mod (no link, I'm at work) will make your life an order of magnitude easier.

[SurfD]

Thank golly I was stupid enough to level my alts enchanting to 300.

Well, i think the big question will be if you just need 300 enchanting, or if you will need to get the new rank to de higher level stuff.  If so, that will REALLY suck for all those level 35 skill 300 enchanters who need to grind up to 60 (or whatever the minimum level is) to get the new sklll rank.

[lamaros]

Thank golly I was stupid enough to level my alts enchanting to 300.

Well, i think the big question will be if you just need 300 enchanting, or if you will need to get the new rank to de higher level stuff.  If so, that will REALLY suck for all those level 35 skill 300 enchanters who need to grind up to 60 (or whatever the minimum level is) to get the new sklll rank.

Make it level 60. Hehe. My alt is level 60 too.

[Dren]

Thank golly I was stupid enough to level my alts enchanting to 300.

Well, i think the big question will be if you just need 300 enchanting, or if you will need to get the new rank to de higher level stuff.  If so, that will REALLY suck for all those level 35 skill 300 enchanters who need to grind up to 60 (or whatever the minimum level is) to get the new sklll rank.

Make it level 60. Hehe. My alt is level 60 too.

Me too, but I did it for fun, not profit.  Actually, that means for a loss with enchanting.  I really should start selling my enchanting materials...

Hrm, did I say fun?  I really meant for a chance at fun.  It turned out to be /meh.

[Jayce]

Thank golly I was stupid enough to level my alts enchanting to 300.

Well, i think the big question will be if you just need 300 enchanting, or if you will need to get the new rank to de higher level stuff.  If so, that will REALLY suck for all those level 35 skill 300 enchanters who need to grind up to 60 (or whatever the minimum level is) to get the new sklll rank.

Make it level 60. Hehe. My alt is level 60 too.

Me too, but I did it for fun, not profit.  Actually, that means for a loss with enchanting.  I really should start selling my enchanting materials...

Hrm, did I say fun?  I really meant for a chance at fun.  It turned out to be /meh.

My friend pointed out, and I have found it to be true, that you just build up enchanting mats over the course of adventuring, then once in a while sell the excess and cash in.  It's not super lucrative but it's a nice bonus 5-10g here and there.

[Numtini]

If you put a massive reduction in the number of people who can DE items, isn't that going to really affect the viability of enchanting as a whole? Presumably someone's buying all those.

[Ironwood]

Er, How so ?

Because DE is part of Enchanting.

[Jayce]

Er, How so ?

Because DE is part of Enchanting.

I think I know what she means, and yes it will have an impact, but the impact will be that high-end enchanting mats will go through the roof.

If you can't send stuff to your bank alt to disenchant (because he's level 1) then you have to either take enchanting on your main or sell it on the AH.  That means that high-level greens/blues will see additional supply, and the supply of high level enchanting mats will be constrained.  Hence, for those 300 enchanters, profit.

[Ironwood]

Right, right, right.  Totally see what you're saying now.

And Yes, that sounds about right.

[Merusk]

Er, How so ?

Because DE is part of Enchanting.

I think I know what she means, and yes it will have an impact, but the impact will be that high-end enchanting mats will go through the roof.

If you can't send stuff to your bank alt to disenchant (because he's level 1) then you have to either take enchanting on your main or sell it on the AH.  That means that high-level greens/blues will see additional supply, and the supply of high level enchanting mats will be constrained.  Hence, for those 300 enchanters, profit.

I was thinking along the same lines, but the 300 enchanters in my guild all offered to de any BOEs someone needs done.  I still think it'll limit the number of mats out there, just because not every instance group will have a 300 enchanter, so more blues and bop greens will be going to the vendors instead of winding up as mats on the AH.

[Reg]

I think perhaps we'll see more of those greens and blues that normally get disenchanted by people with good equipment turning up on the AH at around the price of what they'd disenchant into too. As the owner of a very badly equipped 60 druid I think this is probably going to be a good thing for me.

[Merusk]

I think perhaps we'll see more of those greens and blues that normally get disenchanted by people with good equipment turning up on the AH at around the price of what they'd disenchant into too. As the owner of a very badly equipped 60 druid I think this is probably going to be a good thing for me.

As one of those 'good equipment' people, the blues you're speaking of already make it to the AH, because they typically sell for more than just a shard.  It's only BOP blues (boss drops) that get DE'd to turn up as mats.  With the enchanting change, they'll simply become vendor fodder in groups lacking an enchanter rather than ever making it into the economy in some state.

[pxib]

Back when I was playing I made money by buying undervalued greens that people didn't realize were important to 10-19 and 20-29 twinks. Things like Forest Leather Bracers and Sanguine Sandals, buyable for under 25sp can often be sold for 5g and 3g respectively as there are no better blues for those particular armor types and classes at those levels.

[Xanthippe]

Is Crusader going to be worth having for an enchanter after BC?  I have the formula or whatever it's called but I'm trying to sell it.  Should I learn it on my tailor/priest instead?

[Tale]

Haven't played since July, but my druid's source of WoW gold was running a fishing/mining circuit in Azshara (Bay of Storms). Aquatic form, 300 mining, 420 fishing (300 skill, +20 pole +100 lure) = Essences of Water, Arcane Crystals.

Coincidentally, I had a habit of banking every gem I ever looted (apart from the Arcane Crystals), thinking they would be valuable someday. My bank is full of stacks of low-high level gems. If I go back, selling to aspiring jewelcrafters may be the best money I ever make.

[Trouble]

I was looking for something interesting to do and I came up with an interesting challenge. Made a new alt and gave it 1g to play the AH. Set your goal for whatever you want to hit, mine was 100g. I had turned around the 1g into 5g by the end of the first day and 20g by the second day, I actually did a hell of a lot better than I expected. I didn't get to finish because other things distracted me by day 4, but the idea is solid.

I used auctioneer and I had a pretty hefty database going in Day 1, so I didn't go in blind. I did an auction scan with auctioneer from 1 to 5 times a day to look for amazing deals and that's how I built up on the first couple days with such limited funds. There's a ton of gold to be made from turning around very very small cap items, like mid level gems such as jade and citrine. It just takes patience.