Great Gobs of Gold from the Get Go

Making money in your first levels!

So as I mentioned in the previous post, I am going to writing a bit about the things I learn while I level my new character on a new server. I'm guessing for the most part they might just be little things I notice so I'll probably just include them with updates on my leveling. Some of the things, however, I think will be a bit bigger and deserve their own post! So here we go!

So like I said, I would very much like to be able to buy Dual Specs for my new Druid as soon as he hits level 40. One of the things that draws me to Druids, as I'm sure it does many people, is the fact that they can be, well, literally every role in the game. So, 1000g by level 40? Or what I would prefer is to have multiple thousands of gold by that point so I can not only afford the Dual Spec cost, but I can spend it without leaving myself to poor to buy a second set of gear and glyphs! Before I even started leveling I had thought about this and I quickly realized I had no idea how to make money with a very very small start up. The more I thought about it the more I realized I didn't really even know how I was making all the money I have on Bury. At the time I had over 12k gold and I realized I didn't have a clue how I got it. I keep up with Markco's wonderful blog and it's forums and I use Auctioneer, but I had never really used it. Aside from the wonders of being able to break up stacks with a couple clicks, and occasionally using the Disenchant search feature, I never really delved into the things Auctioneer can do.

So the first thing I did was head over to afore mentioned Just My Two Copper forums and write up a little post stating my new realization and asking for some input. I even put it in the aptly named 'OMG I can't make gold!' section of the forums, because although I considered myself comfortably wealthy, that's exactly what I was thinking! As you can see if you read the thread there, I was given some pretty good information that at least got the gears in my head turning. A couple weeks later I found a new post someone had made which was perfect! They were just starting the game and looking for help making money too. Now that I think about it, it's pretty interesting that I, a player who although I have only been playing for 8 months now considers himself pretty well versed in the game, was looking for the same help this guy was looking for, and he hadn't even made his trial account at the time. (God if I knew now what I knew when I made my trial account...well....let's just say I wouldn't have thought it was so cool Copper Bars were worth 2s a stack instead of 1s a stack when you smelted them...) Anyways, over the course of this thread I learned a few more interesting things, and near the end, started to chime in with some of my own info.

Well, after doing my little research and overcoming my fear of the Resale search feature on Auctioneer, I accrued myself a couple silver for deposit costs, (literally, I sent my bank alt 2 silver from my new Druid) a stack of Linen Cloth, a Small Egg, and 7 Stringy Wolf Meat. So that was Friday. I made a bank alt real quick (decided on a Blood Elf because I have heard Silvermoon is a very bank alt friendly city, and I wanted to see it) and sent him the goods. The next day I logged on and found that the Linen Cloth, Egg, and I think a couple of the Wolf Meat had sold, netting me somewhere around 2 gold. I took about 15-20 minutes and using the Vendor searcher followed by the Resale searcher, I found a bunch of nice things to buy and sell or repost. Now, before I go on I should mention that I think I got pretty lucky this first day, I managed to find like 3 or 4 stacks of Linen Cloth and a bunch of Glyphs that were priced stupid low, and also it seems most things, especially glyphs, on this new server have pretty high prices. Anyways, I spent most of my two gold buying cloth and cheap glyphs, and reposted all of it. If it had all sold, I would have made over 100g. That's right, in about 30 minutes of play time I turned 2 Silver, a Small Egg, a stack of Linen Cloth and 7 Stringy Wolf Meat into 100g. In the end, not all the glyphs sold right away, but I did come back the next day to find like 70g in my mail box. Seeing as the average level 7 druid doesn't need nearly that much I bought some cheap but decent sized bags and sent them along with 2 gold back to my new main. Leaving 60 or so gold on my bank alt to play with.

So 2 silver and some crap I picked up questing turned into 100g. Not bad at all. Now, like I said I think I got lucky on some of the low priced glyphs and what not, but still, it's extremely easy to take starting area items and turn them into good amounts of money. Keep in mind I didn't even use and professions yet. Most of the people on those posts said, and rightly so I might add, that the best way to make money in early levels is pick up two gathering professions as soon as you hit level 5. And that couldn't be more true. As I leveled the rest of the way to 8 yesterday I filled out a stack of light leather which sold for almost 5 gold. With the changes in 3.2 that one stack of light leather is enough to pay for my mount at level 20! Personally I think I'm going to go with a gathering profession and enchanting, simply because I love enchanting, and in my mind it can very well be it's own gathering profession if use correctly. (Like with the aforementioned Disenchant searcher.)

I think the best way to summarize what I have learned so far from having a new low level alt is by doing just that: Summarizing it!

1) Everything Counts! It's amazing how different it is to come from a level 80 with well over 10k gold and plenty of well supported alts, to a character that is scraping to pay to train his new skills. I immediately realized how important it is to remember that any bit of profit I make is profit. While on my level 80 I scoff at anything that isn't 50g or more profit, just making 50s was amazing, at least for those first few resales! On a larger scale, I think something most players forget is to take into account the percent profit you make. A lot of the things I do on Bury involve selling old world enchant scrolls. While I may only make 15-20g on some of the cheaper ones, that usually comes from 1g or sometimes even less of initial investment! 2000% profit? Ok!

2) Everything is worth something! Ok, so not everything will sell on the Auction House, and as I mentioned before, some things are better off disenchanted, but everything is worth something one way or another, and as I said above, everything counts! One of the best things I think anyone can do, new character or old, is go under Interface->Controls and check the Auto Loot button. That way you automatically take everything from a body when you loot it, because no matter what you should always loot everything, even to just sell the grays for a few copper or silver. Once you get to 80 and even before there are gray items that go for 1-2g or even more! Also, it should be noted, especially for low level characters, that low level items can be worth a lot. Namely, low level meats. Plenty of people (myself included) don't level cooking as they level their character, and at some point they decide they want to but are too lazy to go farm the meat, so they will buy it. That means those boar ribs, or that wolf meat (in my case) can be a gold mine! Markco mentions it all the time on his blog how on his server the Boar Ribs that can be farmed right outside Orgrimmar and sold for almost a gold a piece!

3) Auctioneer is a must have! Or at least something like it. This is a wonderful add-on to have, and in most people opinion a must, especially if you intend to make a lot of gold from the auction house. If nothing else get it because then when you have a bunch of things to post, you don't have to click and drag them all, you just do it once, select your stack size, and click a button! Easy as that! You can even do that to take a whole stack and split it into smaller ones! (Which you should be doing for many things, but that's a different story.) After you get comfortable with it, and more importantly, have scanned your market for something close to a week if not more, get started trying out some of the search options. Disenchant is my favorite, it finds items that you can disenchant, and sell the mats for profit. There's also one that finds things you can buy and sell to a vendor for easy money, as well as the resale one, which buys items that are priced to low, and can simply be reposted to sell at a higher price!

4) Enchanting Rocks! This is something I didn't really mention above, and only gets a slight mention in the end of the second post I linked, but it's something that I don't think can be left out. Having an alt that can disenchant items can be an amazing way to make money. You know just as well as I do that no one wants that stupid 'of the Whale' crap and some items, though they might sell, can be disenchanted for more money. The only problem here is that if you are starting a new character and you make an alt to disenchant, you will have to level the alt too so they can get their enchanting skill high enough to keep up with you. If you don't mind leveling alts, then this isn't a problem. If you just want to get your main to 80 quickly and don't have time to be leveling an alt to disenchant, I have a simple solution. Once you reach level 55 (assuming you have the Wrath of the Lich King expansion) you can create a Death Knight. After about 30 minutes you'll be out of the starting zone and have a level 58 character sitting in a major city waiting to do your bidding! Although a character must be level 65 to train beyond level 375 in a profession, a level 375 enchanter can disenchant every item currently in the game! As a matter of fact, every green item in the game and I think most if not all the blue items can be disenchanted with only level 325 enchanting! Something that can be easily reached by a Death Knight! Keep in mind it will cost money to level an alts enchanting (unless you just use the mats you get from disenchanting stuff) but in the end it will be well worth it!

5) People are Stupid and Lazy I know, I know, I didn't believe it either. Heck, even to this day I find myself making sales on the Auction House that make me go 'Really? That worked? God people are stupid...' In my opinion this is one of the most important things to keep in mind when looking for ways to make money, especially at the early levels. Sure, sometimes people make mistakes and post things at low prices accidentally, but plenty more time people just don't care or don't know and will sell things at a very low price. So how is it your fault that you are well informed and know you can buy their stuff and sell it for more money? I think the best example of this is the fact that the Vendor search works. While Resale can be somewhat risky, vendor search only requires you to buy the item and wander over to a vendor, click, click, money. And you want an example for how you can make money of lazy people? Well, lazy rich people that is? Go buy a companion pet from a vendor, seriously, any pet. Now go look at the Auction House price for that pet...it's higher isn't it? Yea, I know what you're thinking, but believe it or not, it will actually sell for that price. Case and point, after 3.2 dropped I sold multiple Obsidian Hatchlings for somewhere between 200 and 300g a piece...they can be bought in unlimited supply from a vendor in Dalaran for 40g.

6) Make sure you don't become a stupid person. I only add this because I think people need to remember that just because they have Auctioneer and have done a bunch of scans, doesn't mean they are ready to start raking it in. You need to be smart about your purchases. Today, on my new bank alt I saw something that sold for less than a gold and could make me 25 gold for resale. Woah! Oh wait...it's a skinning knife. As stupid as people are they won't, well I really really hope they won't, buy a skinning knife off the Auction House for 26g. So just make sure you check things before you buy them. And on that note, keep in mind that Auctioneer is wrong on some of it's vendor prices, but with the new addition to the in game UI showing the vendor price, you should be good to go. (Assuming that doesn't kill the usefulness of the vendor search...)

So there ya go! Get out there and start cashing in! Because the world is full of stupid people! And I think I just found the way I'm going to end every one of my posts...

Good Luck!