First Ashes of Al'ar drop bought for 190k gold in China
by Mike Schramm 
Dec 31st 2007 at 2:30PM
You'll have to take this with a grain of salt until we get further confirmation: the epic flying mount is obviously bind-on-pickup, and so it's not like such a thing can just be thrown on the AH for the highest bidder. But it could be that the guild the mount dropped for somehow sold a raid spot, or it could even be that one guildie paid another just so they could have it (someone in my guild did the same thing with Attumen's mount when it dropped, although it was far less than 190k gold).
But that is definitely a mind-blowing amount of gold. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether it's legit (by my calculations, it's not-- to collect that much gold, a player would probably have to be running their 10 daily quests for years), and also to decide whether or not it was worth it. Guess he just really, really wanted a mount without feet.
Update: Commenter Wisely lives up to his name and wisely contributes some insight: This is not the China-first drop of the mount-- it is the server first on China's Molten Core server. Also, Wisely says that it was an "auction" among guild members-- instead of DKP, they pay gold to the guild. He also claims that for 190k gold, she would have had to have spent about $960 USD, but I'll remind everyone that spending even $1 on gold is against Blizzard's Terms of Use. Rampant or not, that doesn't mean goldselling isn't against the ToU, in China or elsewhere.
[Via WoR]
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, Guilds, News items, Bosses, Mounts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
BaboonNL Dec 31st 2007 2:34PM
Isn't gold capped at 100k or something?
Marcus Dec 31st 2007 4:56PM
If I remember right the money cap is 2,147,483,647 copper, which is 214,748 gold. So 190k is just below the cap(again, if memory serves).
nein89 Dec 31st 2007 2:40PM
Dunno about the gold cap, but I wouldn't call it entirely impossible. There are much, much faster ways to make gold than just running dailies, if you are so inclined.
Dunwich Dec 31st 2007 2:47PM
If they acquired that entirely legitimately, I'm the Premier of Russia. Either that or they've been hoarding and farming for over a year.
wisely Dec 31st 2007 3:05PM
Mike,
some of your info is incorrect.
1. The pheonix mount is NOT the first dropped in all China server, its only the first in that server : Molten Core. There are quite a few of this mounts dropped weeks ago.
2. The girl who bought this mount with 190K of gold is NOT getting into the raid by a purchasing spot, in fact, she is a regular raid member of that guild. The reason that they use this kind of "auction" way to distribute the mount is due to its rareness and it probably is a better way for the whole guild as a whole (and for most of all other loots, this guild use a DKP system), this kind of practice is not uncommon in China.
3. On paper, 190K of gold seems a lots, however, if you play a lots (in terms of time spent) and know at least a few thing about the Wow economy, 190K is not that difficult to get in the TBC, I would say that its roughly about the same as 30K pre TBC, which is possible for some people to get that amount before the TBC. Nonetheless, if people can purchase gold in US servers, they can also do the same in Chinese servers, and in fact, the price of gold is much cheaper there, so if someone told me that girl actually spent about 5000 RMB (about 700USD) on the gold to get this mount? I will believe it also.
Mike Schramm Dec 31st 2007 3:38PM
I had gotten the impression that it was the China-first drop, but I've updated the post. Thanks.
Charlie Taylor Dec 31st 2007 3:06PM
is this the first drop of the ashes from kael anywhere or just the first in china?
Theserene Dec 31st 2007 3:18PM
Not the first drop anywhere, at least 2 people on our server have it.
wisely Dec 31st 2007 3:23PM
little correction on my side,
19K of gold is actually worth about 7000RMB (about 960USD).
This is the pic about it.
[EDIT: link deleted, see next comment]
wisely Dec 31st 2007 3:23PM
btw, sorry I posted above link to that site regarding the pic, thats not a very trust worth site, so I will not suggest you open that link without porper anti virus protection.
Dustybrown Dec 31st 2007 3:27PM
I'm guessing he meant first on the server? I know of at least one thats been on dmaw for quite sometime...
Mike Dec 31st 2007 3:26PM
I'm guessing he meant first on the server? I know of at least one thats been on dmaw for quite sometime...
Thyhammerr Dec 31st 2007 3:38PM
Hmm..
well am not stereotyping anyone, but the thing is Chinese People are way more dedicated than most of us.. (3 hours straight ? LOL) So their in game economy should be more inflated than others.. More Gold in people's hand the more they can spend..
Abitlatem8 Dec 31st 2007 3:36PM
FFS first you post an link, and in the next post you tell ppl they'd better not open it cause it's not safe? Most ppl will have clicked on the link before they read the next post. Nice way to infect computers dipshit.
SilentBob Dec 31st 2007 5:43PM
Whaddya expect him to do, not like there's an edit function here. Not to mention ANYONE playing WoW should have their A/V and AntiMalware solutions updated FREQUENTLY just because of the value of our account(s).
Dave Dec 31st 2007 3:37PM
190k seems a bit high. There must be a translation error somewhere, I don't think anyone could possibly hoard that much gold especially in china where the expansion hasn't even been out that long.
But guilds do regularly sell items that are BOP, typically a guild has you join them on a run and just tells you not to screw it up basically and when whatever you're paying for happens to drop (T5, nether vortexes, or whatever) you pay up. I've seen T5 go for 10-20k for a set, so this would be a pretty significant magnitude over that, plus you'd have to go on who knows how many runs... I guess if your guild can really do it with only 24 "real" raiders, that's a great way to pad your guild bank or buy everyone's consumeables or whatever.
wisely Dec 31st 2007 3:44PM
@10,
I knew some of these Chinese sites pretty well thats why I post a follow up immediately to avoid any further "possible damages".
If this site had an edit function, of course I will use it.
Sorry thats the best I can do.
SilentBob Dec 31st 2007 5:46PM
Personally, it seems to me that they are more keen to purchase their gold (cheaper, more available, less enforced), which makes their accomplishments fairly diminished. I could melt faces too if I'd bought most my gear. Sorry, but no honor for cheats.
toots Dec 31st 2007 8:51PM
dude? all the gold ad spammers on eu and us servers: they are there because people buy their gold. get off your high horse.
Zakk Dec 31st 2007 10:29PM
I don't think I would sell that mount. At least not before reading the comments on this article. Really, there's only a limited amount of things to buy in this game, and 190k is more than I would ever imagine needing to get everything I ever wanted. Considering this is BoP, though, and the comments saying you can use the money to get people to farm for BoP stuff for you, I guess it's not as pointless as I had originally thought.