So you’re sitting in Orgrimmar, or it’s perhaps Stormwind City. You may be at the auction house or organizing the items in your bank. Eventually, as trade chat keeps scrolling on by, you see someone offering in-game gold in return for real-world cash.
If you’re a busy player, it might seem like a great idea. Let’s face it, you need gold if you’re going to amount to anything in WoW. That mount that is selling in the auction house for 24,000 gold suddenly doesn’t seem so impossible to acquire.
Or perhaps you think, “Hey, I should sell gold and make a profit. I can actually get paid to play WoW.” Your friends and relatives who have laughed at the massive amount of time you spend in Azeroth will not be laughing much longer!
Well, before you go paying hard-earned cash for in-game gold or trying to accumulate massive amounts of gold to sell online, there are some things you need to know.
First and foremost, you need to understand that farming gold for profit or buying gold from the gold farmers who sell in-game gold for real money is not okay. Not only is it looked down upon by other players, but it can actually get you banned from WoW – forever.
Yes, the simple task of buying gold from a gold farmer can result in the permanent loss of that 85 Warrior that you worked so hard to level.
So how can you accumulate the gold that you need to survive in Azeroth without breaking any of the rules? There are a few tips and tricks that the inside players know.
What Profession Did You Choose?
Depending on the server you “live” on, you may want to take a look at the auction house. Sometimes the materials (or “mats”) that are needed to create an item sell for more than the item itself.
What does this tell you? That sometimes being a crafter, such as an alchemist or tailor, won’t make you as much money as you could make if you had chosen two “gathering” professions, such as herbalism and mining.
If you want to make some serious gold in the AH on a regular basis, simply choose to “gathering” crafts. Then sell all of the herbs and ore or bars of steel that you accumulate and sell them at the auction house. Trust me, you’ll have enough gold to pay for whatever it was that you were hoping to craft in what would have been your chosen trade.
Browse the Auction House
Take some time to browse the auction house. If you notice some items are selling for ridiculously high amounts of money, find out where those items can be gathered from and go “farm” them. Then hurry back to the AH to put them up for sale.
For example, certain mobs drop certain types of cloth. Sometimes there may be a shortage of that cloth on the AH and people will be willing to pay some serious gold for it. Spend about an hour killing mobs for cloth and put the cloth up for sale. Before you know it, you’ll have some serious gold coming to you from the AH.
Do Not Assume White Items are Worthless
I’ve spent many a year on WoW selling all of the white “trash” loot that I picked up along the way on my journeys. Big mistake. Sometimes people actually need those white items (for cooking, tailoring, etc.), and because no one bothers to put the items up on the auction house, there is a serious shortage of supply with a rather high demand.
For example, those “bird” looking things outside of Silvermoon? I’ve sold the eggs they drop for about 4 gold a piece in the past. Why would someone pay 4 gold for such a low-level white drop? Because they probably have an alt that they are leveling and they need the eggs to level that alt in cooking. Just remember, if you flood the AH with the items you gather, you won’t get as much gold as you could if you were to sell just a few at a time.
Keep in mind, whatever you come across in the game, if it ends up in your bags, check out what the item is going for at the AH before you just sell the item to a vendor. Many players do not realize just how much gold they are losing by vendoring items that are actually in demand.
