Making Gold off Names - 6.0.2 Edition

[Smitten]

So quite a few people know the old "take good names and sell them" trick.

With the release of 6.0.2, any character that hasn't logged on since the launch of WotLK had their name made available, and this means there are some very rare, lucrative and profitable names floating around.

I personally play on a few very high population realms and I've managed to snag well over 150 names across them - selling them for anywhere from 2k to 25k a name simply advertising in trade chat, making over 200k spread over 4 realms in the past few days (admittedly sitting in trade chat a lot).

So here's the basic method:

Step 1) Trial accounts (you can skip this step if you have access to a number of accounts as is)

Make a new Battle.net account with whatever details you want, it doesn't really matter. I just use my real details, and then add a trial account.

You'll want a seperate account to the account you're selling on so you can collect your gold and sell names without having to log in and out of your main.

Step 2) Names

I've prepared a somewhat decent list of possible names which is by no means complete, so of course you're encouraged to try anything else you think of. In addition to these names, you can try common Name and Female names from real life, as well as random combinations of 2 letters.

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Spring
Summer
Winter
Autumn
Fall

Second
Minute
Hour
Day
Month
Year
Decade
Century
Millennium

Mother
Father
Sister
Brother
Dad
Mum
Mom
Aunt
Uncle
Papa
Mama

Affliction
Arcane
Arms
Assassinate
Balance
Beastmaster
Blood
Boomkin
Combat
Demo
Demonology
Destro
Destruction
Disc
Discipline
Ele
Elemental
Enhance
Enhancement
Feral
Fire
Frost
Frost
Fury
Guardian
Holy
Marks
Marksman
Moonkin
Prot
Protection
Resto
Restoration
Ret
Retribution
Shadow
Sub
Subtlety
Surv
Survival
Unholy

Thunderfury
Atiesh
Sulfuras
Azzinoth
Warglaive
Warglaives
Thoridal
Valanyr
Shadowmourne

Alch
Alchemy
Arch
Archaeology
Bandage
Blacksmith
Disenchant
Enchant
Enchanting
Engineer
Engineering
Fish
Fisher
Fisherman
Fishing
Herb
Herbal
Herbalism
Herbalist
Inscribe
Inscription
Jewel
Jewelcraft
Jeweler
Leatherwork
Mine
Miner
Mining
Scribe
Skin
Skinner
Skinning
Smelt
Smelter
Tailor
Tailoring
Tanner
Tinker

Act
All
And
Any
Are
Bar
Boy
But
Can
Car
Dew
Did
Eat
Far
For
Get
Gym
has
Her
Her
Hey
Him
His
How
Ink
Its
Jet
Key
Log
Mad
Man
Nap
New
Not
Now
Odd
Old
One
Our
Out
Pal
Put
Ram
Saw
Say
See
She
Tan
The
Too
Urn
Use
Vet
Was
Way
Wed
Who
Yap
You
Zoo

Accept
Allow
Ask
Believe
Borrow
Break
BRing
Buy
Can
Cancel
Change
Clean
Comb
Complain
Complaint
Cough
Count
Cut
Dance
Draw
Drink
Drive
Eat
Explain
Fall
Fill
Find
Finish
Fit
Fix
Fly
Forget
Give
Go
Have
Hear
Hurt
Know
Learn
Leave
Listen
Live
Look
Lose
Make
Need
Open
Close
Organise
Pay
Play
Put
Rain
Read
Reply
Run
Say
See
Sell
Send
Sign
Sing
Sit
Sleep
Smoke
Speak
Spell
Spend
Stand
Start
Study
Succeed
Swim
Take
Talk
Teach
Tell
Think
Travel
Try
Type
Understand
Use
Wait
Wake
Want
Watch
Work
Worry

Auctioneer
Auction
Auctions
Awesome
Bank
Banker
Banking
Bargain
Beautiful
Beauty
Belief
Blush
Bookcase
Bookshelf
Chair
Computer
Crush
Dark
Desk
Disagree
Dry
Flirt
Giggle
Heart
Heartbreak
Heartbroken
Heaven
Home
Hot
House
Keyboard
Laugh
Light
Light
Love
Lovely
Monitor
Mouse
Seat
Sly
Smile
Table
Wet
Wink

Simply create level 1 characters on the realm you wish to sell them on on your trial account. If you run out of room, add another trial account.

I find it useful to keep a list of what names are on which account.

Step 3) Finding Buyers

Go to trade chat (preferably on a high level so people don't dismiss you as a scammer) and make an advertisement similar to the following

{square}{square} Interested in a rare name? {square}{square} I have (X) number of names for sale, including - (list some of the better ones here) - PST for more information and pricing! {square}{square}

Step 4) Selling

How you want to sell it is really between you and your buyer. I personally do the following:

Accept half the price up-front on my main account. Ask the buyer to hop on Vent if they don't have a second account, or to also log on their second account if they do.

Ask them to create a level one and type in the name they're buying but don't create it. Once they've told you they're ready, you delete the character and tell them to take it.

Collect your gold and GG.

Why does this work?

WoW is essentially ten years old now, and some of the servers have been out just as long. Getting a good or unusual name is becoming harder and harder as time goes on, and with a new expansion coming up and people sitting on gold - possibly thinking about rerolling a new alt for the next expansion, people are willing to fork out decent sums for a good name.

I can't guarantee you'll make any gold, but if you find yourself AFKing in Trade a lot on your main or alt account, you're essentially getting free money for nearly no effort.

Bonus Resources for additional names:

Popular names for girls - Top girls names - Female names - 2014 - RandomNames.com
Popular names for boys - Top boys names - Male names - 2014 - RandomNames.com

Major characters - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft

Spell names work well:

Warrior - Class - World of Warcraft
Paladin - Class - World of Warcraft
Hunter - Class - World of Warcraft
Rogue - Class - World of Warcraft
Priest - Class - World of Warcraft
Death Knight - Class - World of Warcraft
Shaman - Class - World of Warcraft
Mage - Class - World of Warcraft
Warlock - Class - World of Warcraft
Monk - Class - World of Warcraft

Full Disclosure:

GM's have stated multiple times that this is not a bannable offense:

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/12439695084#10
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1849926636#8

However eloivanelst has stated that he received mail from Blizzard saying this is against the EULA. (Making Gold off Names - 6.0.2 Edition)

While I'm of the firm belief that this is perfectly acceptable given the public GM stances on this not being against the rules, my personal experiences with a GM on this topic, and that the GM handling eloivanelst's case was inexperienced or not knowledgable on the topic, I'm providing this in the main thread so everyone is aware of possible risks.

[Miksu]

Thank you for this!

E: Got some really epic names, cheers <3

[Darkoscholo]

Only save one Name - Worgina

[Laroz]

Need some nice Roleplay Names...

Got some Really nice ones: Raven, Asmodian, Azael

Pls share your Roleplay names, i think u can sell them for high amount of gold

[Analtorpedo]

Valanyr, DQ, Sulfuras are the best ones on. I got them on Outland

[FireFrostArcane]

Doesnt work for me, people keep calling me crazy

[Aeryane]

Wouldn't this be against the ToS?

[rr2109]

I am under the impression that now when you delete a character the name becomes unusable for 30 days which would make this useless as once you found a buyer and deleted your character to free the name up it would be 30 days. I could be wrong here as I just read it somewhere can anyone clarify if this is always the case or if you're under a certain level if it's free right away or what?

[Smitten]

Wouldn't this be against the ToS?

Is it allowed to sell character names for gold? - Forums - World of Warcraft

Technically, there isn’t anything to say that you can’t make an in-game agreement to ‘sell’ the use of a character name for in-game gold, as the others have suggested.

I am under the impression that now when you delete a character the name becomes unusable for 30 days which would make this useless as once you found a buyer and deleted your character to free the name up it would be 30 days.

Not on low level characters, hence the reason chars at kept at level one. I've been doing this all week without issue.

[timebandit1]

Quintus Arrius voice: "Go back to your oar, number 4096. Row well, and live"

actually think this is a really good way to make gold. some guy 3 years back on Draenor/Garrosh was doing this on a daily basis and making bank.
not a bad idea at all, just takes a special sort of salesman to pull off.

[CuT]

Thanks for this! I went in and got "See" "Was" "Ex" "Op" "Za" and a whole bunch more two letter ones.

[Smitten]

Thanks for this! I went in and got "See" "Was" "Ex" "Op" "Za" and a whole bunch more two letter ones.

Awesome! Glad you got some good names.

[Sinnex Shoaib]

i saved some names on kazzak but i cant post got some error dont know how to fix

solved

[Sinnex Shoaib]

i saved some names on kazzak i hope u guys like it and please if possible give me best names from my list so i can sell them for more gold

retstyle
deathless
attackpower
goodgirl
goodboy
return
jazz
bottle
poisner
broken
vine
okay
boost
badboy
manager
im
rename
id
icefrog
charger
booster
beautifull
deathmoves
awsome
football
cricket
free
class
miss
inn
away
darkshadow
johncena
angle
sequrity
inc
friend
team
darkface
blackface
poisonist
roflchopa
sister
success
imortal
hitman
next
finish
loin
stock
update
abc
little
iroi

[jimmyamd]

i just got the name

Garroshh
Thraall
Illidann
murrlock


sweeettttttttttt