Money money money by the pound
by Amanda Rivera 
Oct 29th 2007 at 8:14PM
Knowing that I have a marvelous resource out there in you readers, I figured it was time to ask the experts. How do I make mad cash? Some suggest doing daily quests, and valiantly I tried that, getting about 800g before alts claimed a good chunk of it for gear and training. I know I should ignore alts if I want to raise cash, but at least one of them is a pet project that I can't give up simply because of money. I have also been told that working the AH is a great way to make cash, and when I tried to manipulate the market I ended up losing 200g to AH fees and barely any sales were made. That just doesn't seem to be a good use of resources to me.
I ask this question of everyone I know that has managed to get an epic mount, and the answers are so varied I know not what path to take. It appears that within this game as in the real world, in order to make money you have to already have some. Unfortunately, all my previous rainy day funds were spent on building my gear and enchanting it for raiding. Where does that leave me? Not broke, but so far from epic flight training I wonder if I will be ready for the next riding tier when WotLK is released. What do you suggest? What are the best ways to rake in the dough?
Filed under: Making money
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Krick Oct 29th 2007 8:20PM
I was excited when I finally hit 70 on my rogue because I could start doing the daily quests and raking in the cash.... then I found out that you need a flying mount to do them. Oh well, back to the drawing board. I'm currently leveling a protection pally, hoping to do some serious multi-mob farming, possibly in old-school instances for lower level crafting mats and BoE twink blues.
Krick
...
http://www.tankadin.com
Willstream Oct 29th 2007 8:32PM
Get Auctioneer...
It takes a bit of use to really understand it's benefits but I got it right after 2.2 went live and my main was at 62. I have since reached 70 and been able to buy gear for all my toons, epic ground mount, regular flying mount, and am currently saving for a netherdrake. I also have a bank full of mats for various professions for my guild and will likely pay for one of their level 40 mounts.
Scadam Oct 29th 2007 8:32PM
Pick up mining and do your dailies.
There are 4 in ogri'la and 2 in skettis, which was 78g direct cash when i was doing them. So add in the random drops (fire elementals in ogri'la, cloth etc.., a green or three) and it's 100g a day. These can be done in an hour (I had ogri'la down to 30 minutes for all 4 over lunch break)
So that's balpark 700g a week from ONLY the dailies. Assuming you do any other questing or farming you can easily bump that up to 1000g a week. That's 5 weeks for an epic mount doing an hour of dailies and maybe an extra hour or two a week of farming.
Mining is just gravy, but it comes into play mainly after your epic mount. Once you're in netherwing the gold flows like water. There are more dailies in a more concentrated area. Do mining as you do your booterang (and ore) quest and it's just free money. I was back over 2000g in what felt like a matter of days.
The ore nodes that drop the special turn-in only ore for netherwing also drop the usual node goodies, expect lots of primal earth and primal fire, with a bonus blue gem every day or two (there's another 50g windfall). Because they are quest ore nodes they respawn quickly and are plentiful. It was so easy to make money I found myself doing so many circuits of netherwing island that I was afraid I had OCD, I just couldn't stop making free cash. Stack upon stack of adamantite and even the turn-in ore vendors for 3g a stack.
Say hello to epiced out lowbie alts, because money is no object. Hell I bought 11 50g-ish gems with +spell hit for my mage simply because I wanted him to have more +hit rolling into Kara. And there's another moneymaker, a 2nd 70 doing his 100g of dailies :) I simply don't have the time to collect all that cash...
bajang Oct 29th 2007 8:43PM
mining,mining,minging. It took me a while to find a route that really worked for me...secret! ;)Since it appeals to 3 different proffessions it almost always sells. And also, I found that it sells much easier smelted as opposed to left in ore, since Engineers/JC/Blacksmiths w/o smelting rarely have use for ore. That and i do dailies. Usually only takes an hour-ish to do skettis and blade's edg mountain quests, all very easy and fast.
Aldazor Oct 30th 2007 6:53PM
I'm trying to make the 5200g needed for the epic flying mount, and so far i've only made 150g :S
So now i've taken up herbalism, as i've heard that you could make a lot of money selling herbs. And so far it looks like it's true. I currently have 50g waiting in the mailbox for 2-3 hours of farming lvl 220-250 herbs.
Some of my guild mates got the money for their Epic mount by leveling an alt and using all the money they made on that character to buy it.
sirotrax Oct 29th 2007 8:41PM
You may not have to give up your pet alt. My husband and I made money for our epic mounts by leveling alts. He was a mage, and I was a priest. He went frost and I went discipline and we aoe grinded our way from about 63-70. (You can grind your way up on any character, but the classes we had made it go very quickly.) Once we hit 70, we went back and did all the quests. This nets about 1500g a person for Netherstorm and SMV, ~800-1000g a person for Nagrand and Blades Edge. We had to take a chunk out of it to get flying mounts for our two new seventies, so we did come up a bit short. However, we now have 4 characters to take through dailies - one of which can do the Netherwing dailies - which is enough to make up the rest of the money needed for the second epic mount.
Scadam Oct 29th 2007 8:47PM
Another tip to get you over that dry spell - between 1000 and 2000g it seems that 5000g is just unattainable, that you'll run out of energy getting there. What I did (and so did a co-worker I suggested it to):
Have a fire sale. Everything must go. All those random obects you've been saving, all those enchanting mats, all that incredibly useful stuff you've packratted away. Sell it. Sell that extra spellcloth or mooncloth or whatever. Dump those primals onto the market.
You make a sick amount of money, and the beauty of it is, you can BUY IT BACK. When you need any of those fantastic items, you can find one on the AH and at worst you're paying a tiny markup over what yours sold for. But if you have your epic flyer earning gold is now very very easy, so who cares.
Sell your crap, sell your valuables. Get your epic flyer. Make crazy cash and buy wtf-ever you want. This got me from 2000g to about 3500g mainly from hoarded primal shadows (cleverly bought before the drop rate got nerfed), spellcloth/mooncloth, and enchanting mats, yes ALL of them except 1 stack of each outland one.
If you ahve trouble selling anything just use the current AH prices. Don't go by auctioneer, just look at current market value, undercut it, sell. I perpetually had 3 stacks of 2 greater planars on the AH, and various sizes of arcane dust, replacing them whenever they sold. Same for spellcloth, 2 singles at a time, and they kept on selling until that 10-stack had transformed into 500g. And guess what, my mage dutifully kept cranking out spellcloth and only had to wait an extra week or two for his spellcloth set. Also once the cash was flowing (epic mount) it was easier to just buy the required primal fires than to grind them out.
grumblenuts Oct 29th 2007 8:53PM
It took me four weeks to come up with the 5200 gold needed for my epic flying mount. Most od this was done collecting herbs. I know every spot in Netherstorm where an herb has ever even thought of spawning.
It can be boring, But I just put on a movie and watch it between herbing. it just takes some dedication.
The good news is that it is even easier with a fast flying mount.
P.s. Install Gatherer
badb Oct 29th 2007 8:51PM
Same thought as me today. Farming Raw materials is usually the answer for money. Doesn't work as well on a low population server though.
strife Oct 29th 2007 9:08PM
mineing and alchemy. master transmute. made my cash off selling primal mights. farmed elemental plat and area 52. bingo bango. now i own 3 epic flying mounts and i have switched to engineering cuase i make enough cash now off daily quest and primal might procs that i will have new epic engineer mount and CE mount. just stay away from shopping the AH. gear will come thru raiding and questing just be patient. and good luck.
Junzim Oct 29th 2007 9:05PM
1) Do all the quests you've left open in other zones (typically a character will have either Shadowmoon Valley or Netherstorm left having chosen one or the other to hit 70 in)
once you've done 1, just do DAILIES
As a healing class I still had damage gear from my Leveling gear. If you still don't think you have what it takes to kill mobs at least do the simple quests like the 2 Bombing Runs and the Simon Says crystal attunement.
Dailies equate to over 100g every day guaranteed if you have the patience.
Icepuck Oct 29th 2007 9:06PM
Kill & Loot, Gather, Fishing, Trade, Transmute, Quest... plenty of ways to make the gold.
Supply and Demand, simple economics but its surprising... the person that buys food on the AH is probably too busy making his own gold to waste fishing/cooking.
Most importantly... Find the gold maker that best suits you. Plenty of ways to make gold, but if you suck at it or you get bored DONT. In the end, its work and if you dont enjoy and prosper in it, its detrimental.
Gathering trades benefit from Epic Flying mounts. If you cant afford on, as other people advise, fire sale and the mount makes the money back for you in short order (gathering or daily quests)
NEVER SIT STILL, idle hands are seldom filled with gold... sounds silly, but I used to laugh at the 120+ people sitting outside Onyxia when I was clearing out whole swamp lands of dragons while waiting for my raid to zone in... pre-BC made 1000's from waiting for Ony. Dont wait for people to turn up, go farm while they move thier arses. I also laugh at the people that sit all day spamming the AH looking for crafting work, the whole time they are sitting still and not killing/looting/gathering/questing... so the gold they make in Trade channel has to be offset by the gold they didnt make elsewhere.
I have found that the people with the least amount of gold are the people that log on, raid, log off... They are so busy raiding that they can barely afford to do it, so dedicate the time to your own pursuits. If your not gagging for raid loot and there are others to take your place, sit out a night on occasion and grind, grind, grind.
jtgamble Oct 29th 2007 9:07PM
I'm also having a problem with money. I can't seem to break the 1000g barrier. Every time I get up there, I end up blowing most of it on new enchants or gems, or a gear upgrade that I need for tanking. Money doesn't exactly roll in for me - I'm averaging about 300g a week. I've got skinning/LW and am not really willing to drop either of them for mining or herbalism.
I had this same problem at 60, and it took a loan from a rich friend to get my epic mount. I have a feeling I'll be falling back on a loan to get my epic flyer as well - though as a druid its easier to bum cash for that since people in my guild want the summon to farm for the epic mount drop. I NEED IDEAS!!!
Zhalseran Oct 29th 2007 9:10PM
gathering professions + the AH
the most important things though, are diligence, patience, and restraint. Never buy something you can farm, if you must buy, wait for a good price or buy from a friend of guildy. I'm decent enough at making money when I want to, I'm just really lazy and therefore don't have the patience or diligence to amass large sums. When I'm motivated though....
hpavc Oct 29th 2007 9:12PM
I guess #1 stop buying stuff, a lotta people buy way too much stuff.
Sell consumables, gathering items, CLOTH!, and/or disenchant junk sell that mats.
Often you have the junk to sell imbued netherweave or something but your neither a tailor or a enchanter. But its so obvious the materials needed to make it. Sometimes people feel its such a bother.
Justus Oct 29th 2007 9:16PM
1. Speculate on the AH
2. Farm your mats
3. Have alts with many professions (saves money)
4. Daily quests
5. vendor all grey trash.
Michael Oct 29th 2007 9:19PM
I did a couple things; and I'm proud to report that I earned the needed 5200G in a few weeks. I'll try and rank the things I did in order of importance.
1. Make a stance on not giving money to your ALTS. Just don't do it. In fact, try not playing with an alt for 2-4 weeks and focus on your Epic Mount.
2. Drop a crafting profession and go with two gathering professions. Granted, I had to start back at beginner zones to start leveling mining but a couple days hard work got me back to the outlands. I chose mining and herbalism because they both seem to make good money, and they both randomly drop motes which also help the gold cause. There are also various mobs in Outlands that allow you to mine/herb them after you have looted them. Double bonus.
3. Do the Daily Quests in Skettis and Ogrila every day. Party up in Ogrila to speed up Bomb, Banishing and Wrangle Nether Rays. I've met plenty of people who didn't realize that party members wrangles count towards your needed 5.
4. Decide on half a dozen grinding spots. Simply spending all your time on the Elemental Plateau will drive you to boredom. Try to grind in a party of 2 to take down mobs faster, with limited damage (repair needed) and to fight off the pesky opposition with better gear than you. My grinding spots are:
- The lake just north east of Shattrath City. Eels drop motes of water and only have around 3k health.
- Legion Hold in Shadowmoon Valley. The warlocks at the top seem to drop Fel Armaments at the rate of 3-4 an hour which sell for 15-20G each. Cloth, Silver and Marks also drop.
- The Dead Mire & The Spawning Glen in Zangamarsh have Bog Lords and other similar nasties who often drop Motes of Life on loot, as well as being herbed after loot. Random herbs also drop at a good rate.
- Skald in north east Blades Edge Mountains have weaker Fire Elementals than found on the Elemental Plateau. You'll have to deal with additional mobs but the drop rate is pretty good. Is often over farmed though.
5. Quests. Go back and find all the quests you skipped because you got to 70 faster than it took to fully explore all new Outland zones.
6. Ring of Blood quest in Laughing Skull Ruins in northern Nagrand. Grab a party of 5 as there is a chain quest that starts an event there in the Ring of Blood where you have to kill a big baddie for a bunch of gold. Once complete, turn in and get the follow up for the next baddie. After about 10 minutes effort of completed quests right there I guarantee you more than 100G. It's the single fastest way I have found to make gold in WOW. One time only.
And... good luck!
uncaringbear Oct 29th 2007 9:19PM
There is no quick and easy way to earn gold as a solo player, and there has to be some effort required, otherwise Blizzard would just send you 5000g every month. The challenge is to earn gold with the least amount of time and effort. My advice is to do the dailies, and keep doing them. Not only do you earn gold, but you also get rep at the same time.
My tips are:
1. Do the dailies. Do them EVERYDAY. They only only take a short time to do, and the rate of gold that you earn per hour is higher than most other farming activities. More gold for less time spent.
2. Use your other high level characters to do the dailies. Having multiple 70 characters helped me greatly in earning the gold for my first epic flyer. By diligently using my three 70s to do the 6 daily quests (4 in ogri'la, 2 in Skettis), I was able to earn the gold I needed.The more dailies you can do, the more gold you earn. If you have a character class that excels at farming (Hunter, warlock), focus on speccing and gearing them up for more efficient farming.
3. Use your gathering professions while you do your dailies. It seems like an obvious thing to say, but it's true. In the course of doing your dailies, you will come across many mineral nodes and corpses of beasts waiting to be skinned. However, completing the daily quests is your focus, and any gathering activities is strictly secondary. If you have a character suited for farming, give them at least one gathering profession, if not two. Mining and skinning is a good combination that allows both gathering activites to run at the same time.
If you follow the above, you'll have your first epic flyer in a short amount of time. On a side note, when it came time to purchase my first epic flying training, I decided to give it to my hunter, as opposed to my main, as I knew my hunter-farmer would earn more money with the new flyer.
After you get your fancy new flyer, the amount of gold you can earn daily increased even further, because of the available Netherwing dailies. I could do 10 dailies on one character and 6 each on the other two. I was also picking up large volumes of ore and leather, not to mention green items which could be DE'ed for more items to sell on the AH. It wasn't hard to earn 300g a day, and I'm now working on getting gold for my third epic flying training.
It takes a certain amount of discipline to do the dailies each and every day. It's the mundane, repetitive and sometimes tedious work of the dailies versus the large amount of gold that you earn from doing them. If you're the type of person who is easily bored by doing the same quests over and over again, you will stuggle with this. I will admit that there are days when I feel like Blizzard has turned me into a gold farmer! However, the amount of time and effort required to earn gold from the dailies is superior to almost all other gold-earning activities, and that's the only thing that really counts.
Ghen Oct 29th 2007 9:22PM
just read the article you just wrote. Every answer is in there. Do your dailies, do other quests, stop twinking your lowbies.. they don't level much faster twinked anyway (except the weapon, up to you if you make that exception) and play the AH.
I mean seriously, its not like there's some secret answer. All the answers are already out there and are common knowledge its just whether you can get it into your skull that they ARE the answers.
uncaringbear Oct 29th 2007 9:23PM
#15 is absolutely correct. You need to avoid buying stuff from the AH unless you really have to. It makes it tougher to earn that 5000g if you're constantly spending your gold on items that you can live without.
As far as speculating on the AH, I find it's only the hardcore people that can make a steady income from buying and selling on the AH. They are experts at doing it, have the knowledge, and are willing to invest the large amounts of time to do it. This is why the daily quests are there for the rest of us!