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Moneymaking 101 - A Newbie Guide (WoW)  

by OzoneSSX

While levelling, money is often scarce though very required. In reading other posts, gathering some info from guildies and experimenting a bit, I put together (pieced together) this guide for new WoW players on how to get some dosh. I'm sure there's a lot of addendums which can be made to this, as well as a lot of advice from seasoned moneymakers, it is in no way concise and complete, but, you can make a CONSIDERABLE amount of cash this way, and in some form or another it is utilized by many a WoW player.

KK, lets get moving, here's 'Moneymaking 101':

Make an secondary character and immediately run the nearby quests to get to level 5. One he/she is at level 5 don't bother with any more quests, your main objective now is to get him/her to the nearest big city with an auction house (e.g. Stormwind, Exodar, Ironforge, etc...). Auction houses are not located in all towns/cities, so if you need to, simply ask in the chat channel where the nearest location of one is. When you find out, run for it. You may die along the way, but don't worry, respawn and keep running. Don't stop to kill anything as you will no longer level with this character - he/she is going to be a go-between for you your main character and your money. When your secondary gets to the city, go find a friendly guard and ask where to get enchanting training, then go get it (thats why you need level 5 as it is the the minimum level requirement to train professions), as per why you need it, you'll see later. Now, go find the auction house (ask a guard if needed), then go find the mailbox closest to it. Your alt will spend his existence (at least, for the time being) running between the them. For now, position him near the mailbox.

Now go back to your main character. Take up two collection skills, make sure 1 is skinning (As skins are everywhere) and the second either mining or herbalism (remember to buy a skinning knife and a mining pick (if mining chosen)). As your main runs about, skin everything, and mine and/or gather everything you can. When you get to an area with a forge, use your smelting skill (comes with mining) to convert your ore into bars (if you chose mining instead of herbalism). Hold onto everything, do not sell them to any vendors (aside from the gray items, which are common and worthless - these you can sell to a vendor). When your main eventually gets to a mailbox, mail all your collected items to your alt.

Now this becomes your Donald Trump part of the game. Sign in your alt, get your mail, then run with all his/her goodies to the auction house. Browse the auction house for the goods you are about to sell and note the prices, then create auctions for your items undercutting the competition by 5-10%. If an item you are selling is not on the auction house (for example a certain weapon or piece of armor), search out something similar for reference and undercut that price by 5-10%. When you put up any green items for sale, give them a 48 hour auction, most items like skins and ore you can put up for 12 hours (as they tend to sell very quickly, sometimes within seconds of the posting). When all of your auctions are created, run back to the mailbox and wait for either the money from your successful auctions or the next mail from your main. Note: There is an add on program out there called 'auctioneer' you may eventually want to look into which helps with auction prices, but it does have a tendency once in a while to give you a price way off current market value. The best method is to scan current auctions to get a current value idea.

Now, onto the reason for taking the enchantment skill. Every once in a while you will find you have a green item which just doesn't seem to be selling. If it doesn't sell after two postings, it probably isn't going to sell at all. As an enchanter, you also have the ability to disenchant the item, which breaks the item down into its original magical components, which have just about a 100% sell rate.

Lastly, two bits of valuable advice if running this scheme: Most skins, leathers, ores and bars will sell irregardless of when you start the auction, but for green items, put your sale up over the weekends. Try to put your greens up for sale on a Friday with a 48 hour limit on the auction. There are many more casual players online who tend to shop the auction houses on Saturdays and Sundays. If your limited on bag space, you also have a great warehouse nearby to store any items for future sale, the bank.

As you start pulling in cash, consider investing in larger bags for your alt. This allows you to store more items for weekend sales and cuts back on running back and forth between the auction house, the bank and the mailbox, which can get a bit frustrating.

Playing this way is a blast as well, after a few hours running amok and killing on your main, you get to play an economics game for a while. It also builds up some anticipation for your next log in to see what's sold and how much you've earned (which is well worthwhile). Hoping this guide might be of help to someone. Good hunting!

Ozone

Now, heres a couple of 'advanced tips' for once you have you moneymaking scheme going and are comfortable with it:

While scanning the auction house for item prices, keep your eyes open and buy anything which is underpriced. For example, if you are looking to sell 'item x', lets say you scan the auction house to get an idea on price and find 8 'item x's' at 500s each and 1 'item x' listed at 100s, immediately buy it for 100s. Then post both of your 'item x's' at 400s each. Theres some good money to be made this way. Your expenditure is 100s, you profit is 700s. I've sat once or twice and played this game for an hour, with a considerable profit made at the end.

If you visit a vendor and he/she has an item in limited stock (shown by a number in parenthesis, e.g. 'Potion: Major Rage (1)'), BUY IT! These are the equivalent of 'rare spawns' for vendors. My auction house alt character, alone, can make quite a bit of money in just under an hour by running about town, buying every rare vendor spawn, then immediately putting them in the Auction House. For example, whenever you stop in a town, go visit the local enchanting guild and buy out enchanting mats such as 'strange dust' and 'lesser magic essence' as well as any rare recipes they may have. These periodically renew at the vendor and sell for a few silver each for the dust and essence, and a few gold each for recipes, BUT, at the AH stacks of dust/essence may sell for 1g+ and some recipes go for up to 15-20g.

If in Ashenvale area, run south to the building just north of the lake. There you can buy cooking training books for 70s each, I've been selling these with 100% buyout at 2g50s.

This page last modified 2008-06-08 10:21:20.