Farming gold

I have made a breakthrough in earning gold.

I used to not even concentrate on making gold in World of Warcraft. If I needed some gold, I would auction a bunch of green or better items that I pick up. I also auctioned some materials when I needed to buy a flying mount on Thorium Brotherhood for my 70 character. But I didn't want to farm for gold. It almost seemed like cheating to sell too much in the Auction House.

In fact, I didn't even dedicate one alt to earning gold. It seemed too complicated to bother sending junk to one character, then auctioning with that character. At first, I devised my own system for auctioning by marking up all items by 200 percent. Then I got Auctioneer and Auctioneer Advanced, which marks up all items by 300 percent anyway, and marks items for their sales potential in the market. It makes recommendations like "undercutting by 5%," which means it is offering a discount on the price, hoping to undercut the current sellers, or "cannot match lowest price," meaning some prices are way too low, or "market is overpriced," meaning there are many sellers with inflated prices. I was cautious then, and dared not sell when Auctioneer said it could not match the lowest price. I only sold when undercutting or when prices were inflated.

When I got on Hydraxis, I started a Paladin. Soon, I realized I was shooting myself in the foot because I could not even buy the simplest skills at low levels. I needed gold. I also began thinking that I would never have enough gold to buy a mount at level 30. It was hard enough to get a mount at 40. What am I going to do when I need a mount at 30? Paladins don't need to buy mounts, but still, what about the characters that do need to buy mounts?

So, I decided to do what many others recommend: I made a character that would be a gold farmer. Well, not exactly. This character is a Shaman that is dedicated to earning gold for himself and my other alts. He has two gathering professions: Skinning and Mining. He sells everything he picks up. I mean everything except for a few consumables to give him a food buff and replenish his mana. And his hearthstone. Don't ever sell your hearthstone. Don't worry, you can't anyway.

And this method works! It works like a charm. Duh! I am sitting now with a level 18 Shaman and around 50 gold! More than enough for a first mount and riding training, which adds up to only 40 gold. Plus, he is fully trained in all his skills and professions, including a bit of First Aid, even though he doesn't really need First Aid, being a Shaman. I like to get First Aid just in case I am out of mana and I need to heal someone, including myself. I also sent a few gold to my Paladin for his skills.

I run Auctioneer only on the Shaman, meaning that I save data space, and I run Auctioneer about once a day when he visits the Auction House to update prices before auctioning. I also send him all the greens I pick up with my Paladin or my Druid.

One interesting fact is that ore actually sells for more than smelted bars. I heard that, but never actually experienced it. The price is almost doubled for copper ore versus bars. That is a price difference that can only be explained by the Prospecting skill that Jewelcrafting gives. Players must be Prospecting to try to get gems and skillups. Or they are buying them for smelting when there are no bars.

I even sell leather scraps. I cannot process the scraps because I do not have Leathercrafting, but leathercrafters must want them to process for skillups or to make leather.

All this gold comes by taking advantage of the laziness of other players. Really. No one wants to go out and collect minerals and leather. Instead, they want to buy it. Where they get the gold to buy it, I don't know, and I don't care. It may be they need minerals for various purposes, like giving them to a blacksmith or engineer to make something for them, and they can't gather minerals, so they have to buy them.

I also have thrown caution to the wind. I auction everything, no matter what Auctioneer recommends. And it sells. One reason why it sells is that many players just put up an opening bid, not a buyout, and buyers are impatient. They want the item now. Most sales are done on buyouts. I even auction little bits of herbs that drop from the tree monsters, instead of vending them. I put up a wand that did not sell the first and second tries, and now it is on its third try. Who cares? I have enough gold.

It all comes down to the idea that if you concentrate on farming for gold, you can earn more gold than you can even use.

The only unanswered question is when do I switch to a crafting profession? I am thinking it would be good to wait until I have earned enough to get all the mounts I need. That is one factor. It may not be until level 60 or so that I will be able to switch. I am thinking of Jewelcrafting for my Shaman. It also depends on whether I want to create more alts or stick to a limit of 3 characters on this server. The Druid won't need mounts. My Shaman may end up being a gold farmer forever if I want more alts.