The Wastrels Gold Compendium

[Wastrel]

So, with all the little gold guide threads out there I thought I'd put together a comprehensive A-to-Z listing of all the best gold tips. I invite others to post their tips in here too so they can be added to the informational pool.

So, without further ado:

The Wastrel's big guide to making Gold.

Some of these tips are repost, some are common sense, but I'm hoping to get enough information in here to make this guide worth something for everyone. This guide will be put out in multiple parts because I'm easily bored and quickly tire of typing.



Act 1: A penny saved...

Making gold is the easy part, any noob can pull in a hundred gold a night from simple questing. The problem for some of us is how to save that gold for the bigger purchases we need and not spend on the little things we want.

Tip: Make a bank alt and use it.
And I'm not just talking about holding crafting mats or items you're saving for later. Make a bank alt for your gold and auction house needs.
Every day before logging off send your bank alt all but 100G from the toons you played that day. You would be amazed at how quickly all those little deposits add up.


Tip: Never go to the Auction house with your main.
Do you ever go to the grocery store? you know how the checkout lane has candy, magazines, lighters, playing cards, pez dispensers, flashing lights and bright colors? That lane is there to get you to impulse buy. Those are things you never thought about buying and wouldn't go looking for, but suddenly find yourself putting in your cart. Impulse buying also happens at the auction house. We go in for Mana pots and come out with an 800G recipe for some gem cut we might never use, but we saved 250G from it's normal price and it's a bargain.

Instead, always use a bank alt to do your shopping. It's not too inconvenient to buy and ship your items with a second toon and it severely cuts down your impulse buying.


Tip: Your broker does all your business
That bank alt is also your Auction alt. Always send him your sale-ables and make him the undercutting (or price gouging) bastard everyone hates. The savings in time and travel gained by simply mailing your wares to your alt will add up quickly, both in convenience and gold. For those saying "30 copper per item to mail!" compare that to 20+ silver in flight paths.
As a side benefit, if your alt happens to put in some fishing items (Silk for 99G instead of 99s) and someone falls for it (still happens!) your main's hands are clean and your alt is only online for minutes a day for him to try to harass you.




Act 2: A penny earned...

Dailies, questing, primal farming. These are the days of our lives, unless we're smart.
I don't know about you, but I detest doing the same quest every day. It gets boring, so boring I'd rather stick my wedding tackle in a rusty bear trap than continue killing nagas for keys.

By technicality, Dailies are a guaranteed source of decent income, so I cannot ignore them or recommend against them. sooo...

Tip: Do your dailies.
I had to put the tip here, but I don't have to comment.


Tip: Farming for profit
Farming is good money, but sometimes knowing what to farm is more important than how long or how well you farm. here are some of my favorite farming spots. In these cases I'm NOT going to list rare drop or special drop farming, these are common drops only that you don't ghave to depend on the RNG to get.

Terrokar Forest
Why are we here: Arakkoa Feathers
Who drops it: Level 62-63 Shienor Sorcerers, talonites, and wing guards.
Why are we faming these: These feathers are used for a repeatable lower city quest, and these mobs have a 50% chance of dropping 1-2 feathers per kill.
Where to farm: Mobs found in and around coords 59, 24
What else is in it for me: Green and blue drops as normal, plus these mobs drop Light feathers, a reagent used by mages. Light feathers can sell as high as 20G per stack on some servers.
notes: These mobs are lightweights. the casters die near instantly, and the melee ones hit like creampuffs. They spawn quickly and you can farm the area constantly with no breaks for repops.

Azshara
Why are we here: Mageweave Cloth
Who drops it: Highborn Lichling and Highborne Apparitions
Why are we faming these: Mageweave sells for 10G a stack on most servers, sometimes much more.
Where to farm: Azshara, at or near coords 16,68
What else is in it for me: there are a couple wandering rare mobs and a couple chest spawns in this area, but really you're in it for the mageweave and occasional green drop.
notes: These things are like popcorn, one-shot kills for most DPS classes and they just keep coming. one full circuit of the relatively small area will net you 1-2 stacks of mageweave in just a few minutes. these mobs pose no threat to a level 70, so it's like free money.

Western Plaguelands
Why are we here: We're here for the greens, level 52-56 greens, to be exact.
Who drops it: Everyone, but in general, Scarlet mobs in Hearthglen
Why are we faming these: For disenchanting or resale. 52+ old world items disenchant into Greater eternal essences. these sell for up to 20G on my server, yours may vary.
Where to farm: Hearthglen. Coords 42,15
What else is in it for me: Runecloth, herb and ore deposits, and rare patterns drop from the named rare-elites.
notes: the mobs are now non-elite but still have elite loot tables! this means they drop more silver per kill than most mobs and have a large droprate for green items and above. This area is also home to 5 or more level 62 rare-elite mobs.

Shadowmoon Valley
Why are we here: Instant respawn cloth wearing warlocks.
Who drops it: Shadow Council Warlocks
Why are we faming these: They respawn almost instantly and drop fel armaments, Mark of sergeras, and a small ton of netherweave, all in addition to normal mob drops.
Where to farm: coords 23,38
What else is in it for me: you need more? fel armaments and marks not enough? OK, how about they also drop Fel Strength Elixir and Major Shadow Protection Potion recipes!
notes: By instant respawn I mean the number in the area has a set minimum. this means that if enough die there will be more spawned instantly. the upshoot of that is, if you're sharing farming space with someone else they actually speed up your kills. I farmed for 3 hours without moving one night.
Watch out for the roaming elite, he's a pain.



Thus ends part 1 because I'm tired of typing. Part two is found below!

[Morphih]

Yeah, i like it! +rep

[ilimocromafia]

Mate, dont know why, but i actually read the wall o' text. And it was worth it. +rep for the guide and keep going

[Edmutt]

I will prolly use the tip with the alt and 100 gold . Thanks +rep

[monkey11111]

ahh very nice guideee

[anthonyninja1]

Awesome guide man! +rep

[manowarlock]

ncie guild man +rep when i can

[laren]

Nice guide, nice style, nice grammar, nice structure, nice colors, nice tips.

Awesome
+2 rep

[gareer]

altho im aware of these tips. You still made a great post, which should surely help some people.

[Raith]

yeah i have to agree with everyone else, very nicely laid out and properly punctuated.
+ rep

[jegelskerkage]

Very nice indeed. +rep

One thing tho.

Eastern Plaguelands
Why are we here: We're here for the greens, level 52-56 greens, to be exact.
Who drops it: Everyone, but in general, Scarlet mobs in Hearthglen

That is WP, not EP.

[Wastrel]

Very nice indeed. +rep

One thing tho.

That is WP, not EP.

E-Gods you're right.

FIXT

[Wastrel]

Wastrels Gold Guide part 2:

Act 3: The Auction House

We've got our alt parked right next to it, it's where our money comes from, it's filled with Chiltons and Epitwees. It's the AH and we love it. Here are some of my favorite activities.

Tip: Know what your items are worth.
Many players play naked. Not "oh god the 300 pound fat man playing naked" naked, but without mods. This means they don't always know the vendor value of the items they auction.

People auction items for less than vendor value. I start each day with a quick check of weapons and armor above level 55. Use a vendor price mod or Auctioneer to see the absolute value of each item, then buy anything that can be immediately vendored.

Netherweave has an absolute value of 3 Gold per stack. Because 40 netherweave cloth can be turned into heavy netherweave bandages and vendored for 6G per stack, each stack of cloth is worth 3G. the AH undercutting often leaves netherweave at prices well below this absolute value, and that's when the profit starts. Even if you're only making 40s per stack, it's money for nothing.

Tip: Always look for the golden ticket.
Every day I look for certain types of items, usually those loved by twinks. I always look for blue items in the 19 bracket, Shadowfang is selling for 6000 gold on my server. Yes, you heard right, SIX THOUSAND. I recently found one for 90G buyout, bought it with Zero hesitation, and then had my 4th epic flier. Since twinking in the 19 bracket has fewer great choices in BoE items the most profitable are often low level.

Items to look for:

Shadowfang - The Holy grail of Twink items.
Assassin's Blade - Almost as rare.
Meadow Ring of Eluding
Sentry Cloak
Gloves of the Fang
Feet of the Lynx

Tip: Play the Future, not the present
The number one rule of Wall Street is, always know what's happening next week. Information is key to long term success. I always watch the upcoming patches and look out for what will change the auction house.
Watch the informational WOW sites and always stay informed.
The 3.0 patch, for example, brings us a new tradeskill that depends heavily on Herbalism. BC taught us that when there's a new profession the value of crafting mats for that profession will increase 300% in the long term and can increase 500-1000% in the short term after launch.

When 2.3 came the drop rate for Fel Lotus was greatly increased, and in the weeks that followed the price of Lotus and Flasks made from lotus dropped by half.

Knowing what's coming will allow you to buy and sell effectively.

Wastrel's 3.0 picks:

BUY: Herbs of all stripes. The greatest % profit will be in the lowest level herbs, but the greatest gold amounts will come from mid-level herbs like Golden Sansam, Blindweed, and Sungrass.

SELL: Rare and Epic quality gems. Uncommon quality gems will still be useful for leveling Jewelcrafting to 350, but Northrend gem cuts become available at 350, the same level rare BC gem cuts come out. Since Northrend gem cuts are superior in every way to BC Epics nobody will want BC gems anymore. Expect prices to drop by 90% or more after November 13th.

BUY and HOLD: Flasks, Elixirs, and Consumables. You want to sell these after 3.0 but before November 13th. Why? Herb prices will skyrocket and so will potions that are made with those materials. There's going to be a big bubble before the new wrath potions come available, but as soon as alchemists get a hold of the new versions your stockpile value will fall fast.

Apply logic to future investments and always plan for the future.



OK, tired again. Still Ahead: Professions, Dirty tricks, and more.