Time is Money: Selling your quest rewards
Kebina Trudough here, offering you the best gold making secrets they don't want you to know about! I was like you once, poor and homely, before I discovered my patented system. Now you too can fill your pockets with the good stuff without ever breaking a sweat! Why spend all your time toiling when you could be vacationing in the Hot Springs? I'm not offering these tips for 100 gold, or 90 gold, or even 50 gold! No, not even 20 gold! My system is yours for FREE! Satisfaction guaranteed or I'll give you a full refund (handling charges may apply).Today, I'm going to help you make the most out of your questing experience. The most gold, that is! Quests often reward hard-working Azerothians with items that are useless to them.
The items are usually peddled off to a vendor at a price of their choosing.
When given a choice of rewards, how do you decide which item to select? Some players pick at random, or because the item has an interesting name or looks cool. Some think that they have figured out the rules, and always pick plate over mail and weaponry over armor.
What the average citizen doesn't know is that there's a complex, hidden system. It's practically a Goblin-Vendor cover-up, but I'm here to end all that.
Goblin Rules of Acquisition, subsection K4, under the heading, Quest Rewards.
The first rule is very simple. It is so simple, that it sounds a bit dim-witted.
The heavier the armor, the more it is worth. Plate is heavier than mail, then leather and cloth follow. Some plate items are heavier than other plate items, and so on. This is important to note because heavy mail items might actually be heavier than a light plate item.
To make this easier to understand, I will arrange items in tiers, from lowest to highest. For our purposes, I am only comparing plate and mail. Lower tiered items are lighter in weight than higher tiered items.
- Tier 1: Cloaks, necklaces and rings.
- TIer 1.5: Bracers, belts and gloves.
- Tier 2: Boots, helms and shoulder armor.
- Tier 3: Chests and pants.
A mail T2 item will be slightly better than a plate T1.5 item.
To memorize this rule, you could also try picturing the size of the items. As long as you crumple up the cloak, the weight rule could also become the size rule.
This tier system is not known to many people, who always choose plate over mail, and so forth. If you're looking to make more gold with no extra effort, then this rule is for you.
Weaponry also has a hierarchy. Generally, the more DPS a weapon has, the more it is worth. Knowing this rule will help you choose between, for example, three two-handed weapons.
Usually, items follow this pattern, from most expensive to least:
Two-handed > One-handed > Wands, guns, bows and crossbows > Shields (a shield is used as armor and as weaponry by some classes) > Trinkets > Thrown and off-hand.
Sometimes you will be given a choice between some weapons and some gear. Weapons are generally worth more than gear, but it does depend on the weapon and how "heavy" the armor item is.
Here is the complete cheat sheet, from items that sell for the most, to items that sell for the least. These rules will not hold true in every situation, but offer a solid guideline.
- Two-handed weaponry.
- One-handed weaponry.
- Wands, guns, bows and crossbows.
- Plate chestpieces and pants.
- Shields.
- Mail chestpieces and pants.
- Trinkets.
- Plate boots, helms, and shoulder armor.
- Leather chestpieces and pants.
- Mail boots, helms and shoulder armor.
- Thrown weapons and cloth chestpieces and pants.
- Leather shoulders, boots and helm.
- Off-hands, necklaces and rings.
- Plate bracers, gloves and belts.
- Cloaks, cloth shoulders, helm and boots.
- Mail bracers, gloves and belts.
- Leather bracers, gloves and belts.
- Cloth bracers, gloves and belts.
Cheat Sheet Rules:
- Chestpieces and pants are very heavy items, and are worth more than other items that are made of a substance that is one "notch" heavier. Plate is one notch above mail, which is one notch above leather, with cloth at the bottom.
- Accessory items are not worth much.
- Two-handed weapons are worth more than anything, with one-handers coming in second.
- The higher the DPS on an item, the more gold it is worth.
- Cloaks are generally a poor choice if you can choose mail or plate items instead.
Filed under: Economy, Features, Time Is Money, Items, Tips, Tricks, Quests, Making money






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Opposite Mar 5th 2009 9:07AM
Interesting but pick enchanting.
lightningjynx Mar 5th 2009 9:24AM
Because that's the smart way of making money, especially at low levels. LOL
Discrete Mar 5th 2009 10:08AM
Not to be a big fat cheater, but grab the mod SellFish from curse.com. It's a lightweight addon, and all it does is put the vendor price of an item in the tool tip. I use it for selecting which quest reward to take from the very beginning.
AlexW573 Mar 5th 2009 11:12AM
@Discrete
So does auctioneer, which is handy if you have it anyway :)
nerdyshinobi Mar 5th 2009 12:01PM
Even better, combine SellFish with Vendor Bait. Then you get a big flashing border on the best item to vendor based on the SellFish info. So easy, even a murloc could do it!
George Mar 5th 2009 12:30PM
There is a much simpler way:
1. Install VendorBait
2. There is no step 2.
3. Profit!!!
Seriously though, this addon puts a (quite subtle) highlight on the most valuable quest reward on the Quest Complete dialog.
corné Mar 5th 2009 9:07AM
I always play in windowed mode and wowhead is only a few seconds work ;)
Easier for myself because they give the gold reward away for you without breaking your head on this (A)
Dightkuz Mar 5th 2009 10:14AM
Nice waste of time having to do that every time. But whatever makes you happy...
NovaDeez Mar 5th 2009 11:01AM
because referencing this system every time you go to pick something is so much easier
Tumleren Mar 5th 2009 12:25PM
Well... Yes
Instead of looking up the quest on Wowhead, you just remember to choose plate or two-handers.
Not that hard
agnoster Mar 5th 2009 3:12PM
Just install the addons SellFish (which shows you every items vendor price on the tooltip) and VendorBait (hilights the quest reward with the highest vendor price). No more switching out to wowhead or thinking or... anything. Now if I could just couple it with Pawn and ItemRack in such a way that it would hilight any gear upgrades in a separate color, I could really stop thinking about which quest reward to pick...
TxAg Mar 5th 2009 9:08AM
Or get an addon which shows you the vendor sell price in the tooltip and take the guesswork out. But, I agree that vendoring the highest value quest gear is a great way to make a ton of gold while leveling.
Mister K Mar 5th 2009 9:40AM
Itempricetooltip
Arilyyn Mar 5th 2009 10:32AM
Wowecon ftw!!!
Mognet T Mar 5th 2009 10:03AM
I was going to mention this. If someone is serious about this, addomns are the way to go. I also believe one of the parts of Auctioneer tells you the vendoring price/disenchant value.
Shionia Mar 5th 2009 10:24AM
I second ItemPriceTooltip.
Za Mar 5th 2009 12:31PM
As mentioned, get:
SellFish: http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info7035-SellFish.html
which puts vendor prices in itemtips. other mods to this, but this one works in conjunction with...
VendorBait: http://www.tekkub.net/addons/VendorBait
Which highlights the best value in the "complete quest" text, by putting sprklies around it.
Just make sure that when you're playing an alt, you actually look at the gear for improvements.... I've picked a plate chest over a leather helm on my hunter before, without thinking about it.
faradhim Mar 5th 2009 9:09AM
Consider an addon like ItemPriceTooltip which give you the price of each item in the reward pool. Just pick the one that sells for most gold.
snowleopard233 Mar 5th 2009 9:08AM
Or you could download the auctioneer addon which automatically tells you how much an item you scroll over will cost you. Saves me a lot of time.
Matt Mar 5th 2009 9:22AM
I was just about to say the same thing :)