This post will be aimed at either newbies at moneymaking, or people who are looking for good/easy ways to make a lot of money with barely any effort in Cataclysm. If you want the highest possible profit in Cataclysm, don't follow this guide (But use it for tips!). If you want low effort and very high profit, use this guide.
Table of Contents
I. Table of Contents
II. General
III. Preperation
IV. Arrival of Cataclysm
V. 'Bonus items'
II. General
Cataclysm is an expansion. TBC and WotLK are expansions as well. The fact that this the 3rd expansion has given us a great knowledge of what, how and when things happen during the launch of a new expansion.
Some examples:
1. A lot of people will rush to 85.
2. Most of the others will start a new race (mostly goblins/worgen, but also other new combinations).
3. Some others will stay at 80, yet, play all day. I'll get back to this later.
4. The new races will level new professions.
5. The people using their 80 to rush to 85 will be the first to get the new materials.
Now, ask yourself this: will you start a new character, or will you rush to 85? Both are great to make money, but there are more options. Like; staying at 80! These people will stay at 80, and use their preperation to make a whole load of money, giving them 2 advantages: first, they'll have a lot of profit. Second, they won't level with a vazillion others at the same time making leveling more fun.
III. Preperation
So, now we got to the conclusion the major groups will level, either from level 1, or 80. Some won't, and stay at 80 for some days.
Group 1: the rerollers
Obviously, the preperation here can consist of knowing the quests, locations and having some quest items. However, this guide is about making money, so I'll focus on that.
- Decide now which profession you will want, look which items you want, and buy them. Prices will skyrocket in Cataclysm in the first few days. Yes, there will be a great supply of mats due the new levelers. However, the need will be higher than the supply, promised.
Example: If I go to my Auction House now, a stack of Netherweave cloth will cost me 5gold. It would truely surprise me if the price will be under 10-15g in Cata.
- As an elaboration of #1; don't buy items you need for professions from the auction house. At all. When everyone starts their character 99% of their gathered/farmed mats will be used by theirselves. However, after 2 days people will start selling their leftovers of mats they no longer need, and the need of others will be lower as well. Result? Lower prices.
- Reconsider it if you decided to get a gathering profession if you plan on leveling your professions quickly. Due the new wave of characters, nodes will be very rare unless you go to an impopular zone.
- If you got some money and want a strong alt all the way, still don't buy green gear now unless you know 1. it will last long and 2. its very cheap. As I said, a whole new wave of characters will come and find greenies. The flooding of these on the AH will make the price drop quickly. (However, due leveling speed I don't recommend buying items at all unless you're behind very much).
Group 2: the 85-rushers
These people will start with their 80 main and level as quick as they can. They won't learn a new profession at this time (it won't be a rush anymore, either they stick with their current or max one before Cata hits).
- Gathering professions (including stuff like disenchanting), are holy. Frozen orbs went for 3000 on my server the first day and sold quickly. Within hours they were <500g, after some days 100g. Now, a Frozen Orb ain't gathered, but I assume you understand what I mean: the items are new, rare and people love having stuff that others don't have. If you're not going for a realmfirst 85, I suggest you mail stuff likes ores and herbs to your alt, and every once in a while you relog and sell them.
- Dropped cloth will be insanely high the first day. If you're not rushing, relog each stack you get. The price will drop per second (well.. very quick at least)
- In contradiction of what most people think, BoE greens/not-84+ blues won't sell well. The levelers mostly get their gear from dungeons/quests and barely return to town. The prices on AH for these items will be high, but will rarely get sold. I suggest you keep your BoEs and either get them disenchanted or wait some days. (I highly recommend option #1).
- If you're a mean bitch on a PvP server, sell yourself. I've seen people earning thousands just protecting people going for Realmfirst 80. Perhaps due to the addition of random dungeons this will be less popular now, but I've seen several realms having people advertising theirselves as guardians from the opposite faction. Ofcourse, you can also help them with group quests.
Group 3: the ones that stay at 80
If you want major profit, choose for this. However, I recommend you start immediatly and have at least 10-15k to start off.
I highely recommend you use (if you're guildless) a new guild as personal bank, and otherwise a bankalt. Get some tabs (Depending on how much you will buy) and put your items in there. Having everything in mailbox and spread over alts won't help your business.
I'll make this a step-by-step guide for easy profit. This won't be the maximum profit you can get. This guide is aimed at people who want easy gold and not hours of research.
1. Download Auctioneer with all it's extras (informant etc).
2. Launch wow, type /auc config, and set it so that you have to doubleclick to bid, and shift+rightclick (or alt, ctrl) to buyout. Make sure you put some protection limit on it before you missclick on a 100k item, like some poor guy happened .
2a. Make sure you build up a database of items by scanning items for at least 4 or so days straight before starting.
3. Buy the items I list below, but make sure you always Bid if there's a big difference between BO and bid, and don't buy items above ~70% (differs per item, though. I'll just recommend 70% for the lazy people).
4. Log in at Cata after the new wave has gotten some levels, and start making major profit! I assume you know how the AH works so I'm not going to explain how to sell your items. Just remember; trade chat is god for some items.
5. Buy the items listed below, and resell in Cataclysm!
The Big List Of Items You Want To Buy:
-Mithril
-Thorium
-Netherweave
-Frostweave
-Large Brilliant Shard
-Righteous Orb (use this and above shards to make Crusader scrolls if you're enchanter)
-Eternal Essences
-Infinite Dust
-Greater Planar Essences
-Abyss Crystals
-Void Crystals
-Arcane dust
-Illusion dust
-Enchanting Rods
-Saronite
-Cobalt
-Copper
-Iron
-Gold
-Fel Iron
-Adamantite
-Titanium
-Green gems that are popular (use common sense to see which ones..)
-Elementals
-Primals
-Eternals
-Silk
-Runecloth
-Mageweave
-Linen
-Wool
-Cosmic Essences
I could explain of each one why, but I assume you all understand they're made for professions and thus in high demand.
IV. Arrival of Cataclysm
This will be a short chapter, because most is common sense. If you decided to reroll, you just mind your leveling and go to town once in a while to get skills and sell things.
If you rush to 85, sending your items to alts will be very important if you want money, because you can relog and quickly sell them. Make sure to loot EVERYTHING, DE BoE greens, sell grays, choose the highest vendoring quest rewards if there's no upgrade etc.
For the people sticking at 80, it will all be a bit more strict. Try to see when people that rerolled start going to towns, learning profession etc. Keep an eye on the auctionhouse, post every material you have 1copper under your competition (but wait with ex. mithril till the rerollers are a higher level), but never post if you think the price is too low. Instead, buy those and relist. Dominate the market!.
V. Bonus items
This recipe will very likely be unobtainable in Cataclysm, and thus very rare. If you got a nice chunk of money and willing to take the risk, buy these and save them up. A rare, epic and unobtainable recipe can vendor for LOADS. I wouldn't be surprised if they can get sold for 30k+ later on.
The Black Tabby might be unobtainable in Cataclysm. The mobs that drop him are no longer there, and no one has seen another mob drop it yet in Cataclysm, but noone knows for sure yet. I at least bought a few.