Making Gold Off Names - 6.2 Edition

[Smitten]

This is an updated version/reminder of my thread from 6.0.2, before WoD was released.

With 6.2 coming out tomorrow-ish, any character that hasn't logged on since the launch since the end of WotLK - 7th of December 2010 will have their name made available, and this means there are some very rare, lucrative and profitable names floating around.

When they originally did this in 6.0.2, I collected a whole lot of names and made close to one million gold among a number of realms, and many other people in the thread made some nice gold too. So it's time to get collecting and selling once again!

With the upcoming Warlords of Draenor patch (6.2), we will be releasing sidelined characters’ names back into the wild. Any characters that have not logged into the game since December 7, 2010 will have their names freed up, making them available to anyone creating a new character or using the paid Character Name Change service.

How Do I Preserve My Names?
You will need to log in to World of Warcraft and enter the game using each character whose name you wish to retain before patch 6.2 goes live. While it is possible no one will claim your recently released name and you might be able to snag it again, it is probably not worth the risk if you want to keep your names intact long-term.

Our goal with this great name liberation is to make sure new and returning players have a large and varied pool of names available to choose from—so log in now if you wish to preserve your unused characters’ names for your ongoing journey through Draenor.

The Name I wanted wasn’t freed!
Going forward, we expect to free inactive names around the release of new expansions. Prior to the reclamation process, we’ll post more information on the timeframe this will occur to allow you the opportunity to preserve your name.

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 people having more gold than they know what to do with - rerolling a new alt for 6.2 to raid/PvP with being whatever is FotM, 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:

Question about ToS and selling names - Forums - World of Warcraft
Is it allowed to sell character names for gold? - Forums - World of Warcraft

However, in the previous thread, eloivanelst has stated that he received mail from Blizzard saying this is against the EULA.

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 knowledgeable on the topic, I'm providing this in the main thread so everyone is aware of possible risks.


Good luck, have fun and make some gold!

[nopenopenope]

You 100% cannot do this with ONLY a trial/starter account. You MUST also have a current, active Retail accounts with game time added to it!

Trial/starter accounts do NOT have access to mail, trade or the auction house and have a gold limit of 10 gold per character.

OP: PLEASE stress to people that they will have to collect any gold on their current, active Retail accounts ONLY and to not just ignorantly reserve names via trial accounts as they will soon discover that they cannot do anything with them for profit, resulting in all of those names being reserved for nothing and, once again, abandoned so that no one else can use them.

reference: https://us.battle.net/support/en/art...tarter-edition

[gippy]

You 100% cannot do this with ONLY a trial/starter account. You MUST also have a current, active Retail accounts with game time added to it!

Trial/starter accounts do NOT have access to mail, trade or the auction house and have a gold limit of 10 gold per character.

OP: PLEASE stress to people that they will have to collect any gold on their current, active Retail accounts ONLY and to not just ignorantly reserve names via trial accounts as they will soon discover that they cannot do anything with them for profit, resulting in all of those names being reserved for nothing and, once again, abandoned so that no one else can use them.

reference: https://us.battle.net/support/en/art...tarter-edition

I think the point of trial accounts went over your head, you're reserving them on the trial account and selling them off your main account.Using trial accounts gives you another 50 slots to reserve with, nothing more.

Good guide, i was going to do this anyway but +rep for it.

[allhenyia]

Thank you share....

[Kaizuken]

Useless guide.