Time Is Money: Felwood's wildlife

Today, I'm going to talk to you about a way to make money skinning in Felwood, although similarly leveled zones work as well. This can be done with higher level characters or those who are at-level (50-60), although it moves more quickly if you have a character capable of chain pulling without having to stop to eat or drink or run back to your corpse all the time.
If you don't have a skinner that is a high enough level, you really should get one. Leather sells consistently well, and is very easily gathered. In fact, you could get one today! Create a Death Knight, train skinning, and go on a rampage, starting with a low level starter zone and working your way up.
Now that we've settled that, let's get down to the particulars.
Where: I like Felwood, but Northern Winterspring is great too. There are cats and bears there, as well as the occasional chimaera that have plenty of leather. Their loot should be similarly lucrative; however, today's article will be detailing the bears and wolves of Felwood. It has unusually packed pockets of desirable mobs. Go to either side of the main path and move up and down the province killing wolves and bears. Bears are more lucrative, but in some areas they share a spawn point, so if you avoid the wolves, you'll be stuck with nothing but wolves! As always, come prepared with near empty bags!
Primary Goal: Your main goal here will be to pick up as much Rugged Leather as possible. You will also end up with Thick Leather, and occasionally, hides. I don't recommend keeping the hides, as they do not sell well in my experience. However, if you have the space, keep them for the vendor. Let's take a look at your potential profit, shall we?
Rugged Leather: This sells anywhere from about 20g (Wowhead) to 28g (high point on my server) per stack. That's a minimum of 1g per 1 piece of leather!
Thick Leather: This also sells easily, but not for as much. Wowhead cites the average price as 5g per stack, making it only 25s per 1 piece. However, on my server, I frequently get away with selling it for 8-12g per stack.
Secondary Goals: You will pick up a lot of junk while looting the animals, but not all of it is worth keeping. The lists are in descending order, from most lucrative to least.
Bears (Angerclaw Bear/Grizzly/Mauler)
- Bear Flank - *Auctionable!* While this may appear to be junk, this particular item is one of the best ways in which to level Cooking from 250-285/295! The recipes for Charred Bear Kabobs and Juicy Bear Burgers can be purchased by both factions from their respective vendors in Felwood. Because of its usefulness, I've been able to auction it for about 1g-5g per 1 flank. Wowhead estimates a price of about 1g per 1 flank. These will stack to 20 in your bag, so definitely do not discard them! Don't bother vendoring them either; even if you sell them for cheap on the AH, the vendor price is only 37c per flank!
- Bear Jaw - Stacks to 10. They vendor for 8s98c per, and will net you 89s80c for a full stack.
- Savage Bear Claw - Stacks to 10. Each one vendors for 5s78c, granting you 57s80c per stack.
- Bear Organ - Stacks to 10. They vendor for 5s3c each, giving you 50s30c per stack.
- Large Bear Bone - These do not stack. Each one vendors for 14s84c. Because of the bag space that these take up, they are relatively worthless. If you don't mind heading to a vendor relatively often, of course, then don't destroy them!
- Wicked Claw - These are relatively worthless, but again, if you have space, keep them to sell to a vendor. They only stack to 5, and sell for 5s each, or 25s per stack.
- Tender Wolf Meat - *Auctionable!* Wowhead estimates this at about 1g each at auction, making them worth about 20g per stack. However, I find that wolf meats do not sell as readily as many other products; but it is up to you. A vendor will purchase it for only 1s50c each, or 30s per stack.
- Red Wolf Meat - *Auctionable!* Wowhead estimates that this sells at auction for 5s each and stacks to 20, making it worth about 1g per stack. It vendors for 87c, or 17s4c per stack.
- Large Trophy Paw - Stacks to 5. Each sells for 9s37c, so each stack goes for 46s85c.
- Thick Furry Mane - Stacks to 5. Each sells for 8s12c; each stack, for 40s60c.
- Wicked Claw (see above)
- Leather can be listed at higher prices if there is not much on the auction house. Don't go crazy; stick to the recommended maximums I've laid out here until you get a feel for what it can sell for on your server at such times.Often, you will see less than one full AH page of leather, which is an excellent time to list.
- Be prepared to make several trips to the nearby outposts to sell junk to vendors and to mail auctionables to a banking alt, or at least to an alt currently parked in a city with an auction house.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Time Is Money






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Radioted Feb 22nd 2010 5:09PM
Pro tip: Alliance skinners should do this in Winterspring while grinding Wintersaber rep. You get crazy amounts of leather from the shardtooth bears and chimeras.
Susinko Feb 22nd 2010 5:54PM
Skinning and mining in Winterspring while grinding the Wintersaber rep is how I got enough money to get my epic flying on my Alliance hunter. The bear flanks sold for a ton as well as the greens (used for low level enchanting mats). I even had enough to buy that fast white gryphen in Dalaran!
Edge Feb 22nd 2010 8:33PM
That was the first thing I thought of when he mentioned Winterspring. I really want that mount so this is a great idea for farming.
Delerius Feb 22nd 2010 5:13PM
Instead of taking a trip to a vendor, bring one with you! A Traveler's Tundra Mammoth will save you loads of time and make you loads of gold.
lidstrom Feb 22nd 2010 5:42PM
yep.
or, if you don't have the mammoth, the squire pet (with pony) also comes in handy for selling off trash when grinding.
since i haven't been able to get the mammoth, the squire is a nice option for me. and as an added bonus, he proudly displays the colors of Ironforge while i grind away!
Oriflame Feb 22nd 2010 9:51PM
I have to protest: grinding leather for gold and an 17k mount is really only for those with lots of time on their hands. Can you imagine how many *years* you'd have to spend grinding bears and wolves for the time saved running to the vendor to add up to 17k worth of time skinning?
Not that I don't think you shouldn't get a mamoth, just saying, getting it to make money is not the plan I would adopt
Squire or Jeeves you might also have (or engineering portable mailbox) and these work well to like the guy above said.
Lemons Feb 23rd 2010 12:24AM
Too bad the squire has an epic cooldown like no other! 4 hours of being tired after one errand? Why did they give me the fat kid?
Josh Brennan Feb 22nd 2010 5:15PM
Seconding Winterspring. The yeti caves east of Everlook might as well be a gold mine. By the time you clear the cave, the yetis in front have respawned.
cui_h_1999 Feb 22nd 2010 5:16PM
Yeti cave in Winterspring is much better, imo. You get silver per kill, the occasional green, and most of the drops are Rugged Leather. Good place to AOE 4-5 at a time too.
brammage Feb 22nd 2010 5:18PM
Before you go, check the prices on your server's Auction House. Last time I looked, leather wasn't worth the bag space to carry it in on my server.
Zalathar Feb 22nd 2010 5:24PM
Why go after rugged leather and not borean? Is there really a market for rugged?
Vogie Feb 22nd 2010 5:32PM
Because we're swimming in Borean leather. Everyone had it while grinding up to and past 80. However, midlevel leather is gold for powerlevelers and people who work on their professions in chunks rather than as they level. Most of the time, that stuff is *never* on the auction house.
An aside to the Red Wolf meat - This will not sell... unless you also pick up the recipe for Hot wolf ribs, and sell that too. Since everyone cooks, you'll very seldom find this is something other than high demand. So before hitting felwood, go to Feralas and pick up that recipe for the AH
VioletArrows Feb 22nd 2010 5:34PM
People leveling LW and don't already have skinning usually don't have a problem getting borean (borean was worth very little on my server, dunno about now), it's the materials that everyone's moved on from (end of old world, outland) that's harder to get, and therefore more expensive.
Couple that with the fact that most folks wouldn't touch Felwood with a 10ft polearm, you've got easy pickings of plentiful resources.
Babaloo Feb 22nd 2010 6:11PM
Supply and demand my friend.
mark Feb 22nd 2010 6:59PM
275-300 was origionally supposed to be hard to level with big rewards
herbalism and reliants - 275-300 herbs drop in outlands starter zones
tailoring runecloth drops in outlands starter zones
ench/mining/skin and reliants - 275-300 are either a mass farm or bought
blizzard learnt from this so its 300-375 OL 350-450 NR
that means outlands is leveled through gathering/crafting by the time your 68
then northrend ones are picked up all the time (how much cloth do you get? well thats how much leather skinners get and sell)
this is why end 60 ones are still high price
Khanmora Feb 23rd 2010 10:27AM
Powerlevelers are one crowd to cater to and it can be done in multiple ways. If you notice that Rugged Leather doesn't sell well on your server, check on Illusion dust and Eternal Essences. That Rugged Leather can be turned into Rugged Leather headbands for disenchanting.
WoWie Zowie Feb 22nd 2010 5:30PM
ugh the last thing i want to do is go skinning in felwood.
i can make more thousands selling primordial saronite and gems
FINFIN Feb 23rd 2010 9:23AM
Rugged leather on my server is a prime market because of its use in leveling leather working. Few people actually farm it so it makes for a nice profit.
Sky Feb 22nd 2010 5:39PM
Thanks for the comment that contributed nothing to the discussion
Duulket Feb 22nd 2010 6:52PM
First off no one cares about the last thing you would do. Second, if we all had the ability to cut epic gems and acquire Primordial Saronite in huge quantities to "make thousands more" then articles like this one would not have to be written. So since this article was written that must mean that a lot of us don't have that ability.
Yes everyone has the right to their own opinion but if we wanted your opinion, WoWie Zowie, we would have given it to you. Yes everyone has freedom of speech but just because that is true does not mean everyone can speak intelligently (which includes you WoWie).