Not having enough money is one of the most common refrains heard in Warcraft. It's a fact of life that some players are just constantly broke. But you don't have to be. We've put together this list of simple steps you can take to maximize your money-making prowess so you'll never have to worry about having enough gold again.
7 MONEY-MAKING RULES TO LIVE BY
Rule 1: Establish a goal
Rule 2: Choose your path
Rule 3: Bags
Rule 4: Save, don't spend
Rule 5: Drops, not purchases*
Rule 6: Sell at the Auction House
Rule 7: Get a mount
RULE 1: ESTABLISH A GOAL
The most essential part of your game-play experience in the free market economy of WoW is to establish what it is you want to do with your gold. Are you into spending it on ingredients to make powerful weapons and armors? Do you want to pursue a profession that is costly and expensive? Or would you rather just save it as a cushion or for rainy day spending? Whatever it is, questions like these will help frame the kind of player you will become.
Establishing a goal is important, but you must always be conscious of this goal. Opportunities to buy shiny new items, weapons, trinkets, and whatever else will always come along. But keep your goal in mind. The more you stay focused, the easier it will be to get there.
RULE 2: CHOOSE YOUR PATH
There are lots of ways to make money in WoW. The players who are most successful at making money (no matter what their level) usually do so by perfecting a skill or profession. They don't just chase any mob that comes along their path, they set out only after the mobs that make them money. Some players skin animals and sell the leather, others kill humanoids and make items from the cloths, etc.
The point is this: no matter what profession or skills you choose to pursue, you must focus on these to get the most value from them. Changing your strategy at some point along the road may be prudent, but constantly changing strategies for no reason is going to end up in frustration.
Keep your eye on the goal, master your chosen path, and you will make money much more quickly.
RULE 3: BAGS
While you might be wondering why a section on bagging made its way into the guide, one of the most common complaints sung again and again in the gaming environment is this: "I'm out of space in my inventory!"
As a low level gamer, you will not be able to afford the bags you need immediately. Beginning characters start with five inventory slots they can put bags in. Each slot can hold a bag with a maximum of 18 slots, which means you can hold 18 items per bag. (Note: Hunters lose one or two slots depending on whether or not they wish to carry a quiver and ammo pouch.) Each player starts with a backpack with 16 item slots. Without help, a low level player might be lucky to afford a 6 slot bag at most aside from their backpacks. It is imperative to use your next best resource: the bank.
Each player has a separate inventory cache. The bank at each major city allows player to inventory items they might not yet want to carry on them. As a low level player, utilizing the bank will be essential until you can afford to buy higher capacity bags. You should focus any initial spending effort in the game on purchasing high capacity bags. As when you are out in the wilderness, it can be infinitely frustrating to find yourself out of room, and having to "leave the farm" in search of a vendor or auction house with which to dump your goods.
You can also use the mail system as a temporary storage facility. You can mail items to other players (and even yourself.) Whatever item you attach to the mail message will stay in the mailbox for 30 days. Though there is a small fee for mailing items, and it's important to not forget about them, using the mail as a temporary storage facility is always an option.
RULE 4: SAVE, DON'T SPEND
Building up your gold reserve is like any other venture in WoW; you need to be pennywise. While that shiny aura of a blue quality weapon in the AH looks, chances are that buying it will, in the long run, turn out to be a waste of time and money.
Granted, you are going to need to spend money as you level up. You'll need to buy ammunition, or repair armor or fly a griffon from one place to another, but these are necessary expenses. The unnecessary ones, the ones that you don't really need, those are the ones that eat up your money and set you back. You need to avoid these at all costs.
The first criteria for building a successful gold reserve is this: You need to be clear about your financial objectives. If you are saving up money for an 800 gold mount, spending 30 g there and 40 g here only makes the realization of your goals that much harder. I know this sounds like the advice your parents might give you, but what holds true outside of Azero holds true inside as well. Granted you're not poking people for money, but saving is a crucially important virtue, one which requires a lot of patience and perseverance.
RULE 5: DROPS, NOT PURCHASES*
So how do you offset the itch to buy high quality blue or green items with respectable stats? Consider the following: you can get good items for free, and good items that are below level 60 are usually a waste of money.
There is an exception to this rule, however. You can often find items sold by NPC vendors that can be purchased and resold for profit. This is an effective strategy you can use to make money, but keep in mind that is the only reason to do it. You don't want to waste money on items for yourself if you can help it. If you want those high-value items, you'll need to get groups together to go on instance runs. This way, you can still get a chance at those super-duper items without having to pay super-duper prices.
RULE 6: SELL AT THE AUCTION HOUSE
If you want to make gold, you need to put in the time and do the research. Rather than browse countless forums and websites in search of that key money making formula, most successful moneymakers are experts at auction house dynamics.
The auction house is the place where players go to acquire gear, weapons, trinkets, potions and any sort of resource imaginable in the game. There are also regular vendors, but since these are operated by NPCs, there is little chance of finding something extremely valuable. The auction house is where players go to determine supply and demand and buy and hawk their wares. Knowing what is selling, and at what price, is extremely helpful in becoming a high volume seller.
Now, while other strategies and guides might tell you to download an auction house add-on to cross reference selling data, the simply fact of the matter is, you don't need this add-on to determine market value. A simple scan of the going price will help you efficiently set your own price before you post your item(s) for sale. All you need to do is type in the item and see what it's going for.
The auction house add-on lets you scan larger amounts of information. However, it requires you to remain stationary (usually for upwards of 10 or more minutes) while the scanner runs the data.
Even with this add-on in place, you still have to do the detective work. A scan each day will certainly help if you need massive cross sections of information. Instead, what we suggest is whenever you have a resource in your possession, don't be anxious to shed it immediately. Go visit the auction house. Type in the item. See what the going rate is. Wait a day or two. Rinse and repeat. Then make an educated decision about setting the value of your items and materials.
If you are trying to sell an item that does not have a predecessor on the auction house blocks, there is a rather simple method for acquiring an answer: call for a price check. Just like the cashier at your local supermarket, don't be afraid to use the general chat channel in any major city to find out what the going price is for an item. Gather the information you receive in return to generate a reasonable price. If you still insist on using an add-on to get a much grander picture, then try http://www.auctioneeraddon.com and follow the instructions to download the software.
Another method is to make a first offering of your items through the general chat or trade channels. This is a method utilized time and again by players. If you like the real-time "feel" of negotiating, this is where you will have the most success.
RULE 7: GET A MOUNT
For most players however, the most essential spending necessity comes in the form of a mount. This is not optional. You will need one. A mount is a race-specific animal that transports you throughout Azeroth. It increases your movement speed by 60% (epic mounts increase it by 100%) and with new epic mounts increasing speeds up to 280%, you'll likely not want to walk everywhere. After hoofing it for the first forty levels, this added benefit will no doubt come as a major relief. Mounts are quiet helpful when your quest is at the far corner of a gaming zone and there are no flight points nearby. Depending on how you build your reputation with the major cities in the game, you will find yourself with more mount options, but all players have access to at least one mount once they hit level 40.
Unless you're a warlock or paladin who has specific quests to achieve their riding mounts, you'll have to make the capital yourself. Since mounts are not in the least bit inexpensive, you'll need to start saving immediately. But since a mount isn't available until level 40, you do have some time to make the most of your money. The other expense of considerable size is your riding skill. Actually more expensive than the mount itself, this can costs upwards of 800g. While the bottom line price for a mount (and riding lessons) is a little less than 100g. You can actually defer some of the cost and receive a price reduction if you move up the reputation rungs from neutral to exalted by running quests for your city. To do this, pick up on zones that are level appropriate (if you are a level 15 you want to be in a zone that is amenable to level 15 players). Further, do quests in level-appropriate zones that hold cities, towns, or settlements that are the same race. If I am a human who wants to get my horse mount and reduce the cost, I will focus my time on doing quests from Stormwind and surrounding human towns like Goldshire, Darkshire, and Southshore. I would not want to focus my time in places like Astranaar or Auberdine, which consist of elf populations and quests that give reputation points toward Darnassus. After level 40, I can always go back and complete those quests. This will boost your reputation with your home city and put you that much closer to a four-legged friend.
And that's it. Keep these simple goals in mind, and we guarantee you'll be making more money than you did before.
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