General Discussion

MMORPG.com World of Warcraft Correspondent Robert Rutherford writes this article giving players advice on making money in Blizzard's colossal hit game.

The Gatherer

There are many things to be gathered in the game. This includes leather, herbs, ore, fish, linen, wool, mageweave, stones, gems, and so on. Moreover, there is much gold to be made here.

There is something to be said for those that gather - they spend a lot of time making their money. Many players begin to make their money by gathering - and I encourage it. And, later on, finding a rare vein or herb can bring in several gold alone.

The benefit of being a gatherer is that you don't ever have to buy supplies. Moreover, you may just find the things to mine/gather while leveling. This is especially true with leather (tradeskill is skinning).

Read the article here.

Decent article.

Crafting in Wow is a pretty much a hit or miss proposition.  Some professions like enchanting or jewelcrafting are always sought after while most of the others rarely produce anything noteworthy. 

ok little guide, but way out of date really and the last couple of segments were a little useless as it tells you how to control the market (virtually impossible) and then goes on to tell you that you will more than likely not succeed at doing it anyway, so why bother.

There are quite a few more detailed and up to date guides around, although some of the basics are covered here.

EXCELLENT article.  I especially liked the "Controlling the Market" section, and the wise admonision to not do this with your main toon.  heh

This is, indeed, how game economy works.  If you have enough "cash" (read "gold") to initially invest, you can make a lot of gold this way.   And it's very true, that other market savvy people who see what you're doing, will get pretty ticked off about it.  So you have to be up for the challenge of a financial "war", so to speak.  LOL  You can always ignore the PSTs you'll likely sometimes get, but you can't ignore their attempts to derail the market by playing your game WITH you. :D

The thing about this way of making gold is....the people who do it to just have "rich" toons (because, like me and MY reasoning for doing it...having a lot of  alts is profitable, yes, BUT...it can also be very expensive while you're leveling them, if like me...they're all spoiled alts with the best enchants, gear, etc. LOL).  The players who play this "AH Game" within a game just to supply their own accounts and maybe their wife or husband's, etc......THAT is legal within a game to do that.  Yes, it's not legal to run a monopoly in real life, but....this isn't real life. :)   HOWEVER....there ARE those who do this that are gold sellers.  SELLING gold by making it this way......is illegal.  And when I see someone doing it, sadly, I usually SUSPECT they're a gold farmer and SELLING the gold.

I really hate that people make that assumption, but I do too, so it's not like I can fault them for it.

I think your article shows that there is more to do in MMOs (particularly WoW) than what some people consider.  I have, for a long time, thought of the AH as an entirely separate "game within the game."  It's fun, it's challenging.  I have a maxed level crafter of EVERY profession except for a blacksmith, and my engineer is maxed for her level, but that isn't maxed crafting yet, because she's not high enough character level, and well really....I'm not worried about the engineer, because that isn't the most profitable profession.

You wouldn't believe how much gold I make selling crafting mats though.  My enchanter, skinner, miner, jewelcrafter combination of maxed level professions across three of my lvl 70s....makes CRAZY gold. 

And THIS is why people should NOT ever ever NEED to BUY gold.  You can make tons of gold in MMOs, you just have to know how to DO it.  Do NOT support gold farmers that sell their gold.  This article alone, should go a long way in proving....you don't need to buy your gold.  Make it "honestly" and enjoy the making OF it, through gathering and crafting skills, or AH play....as a "game within the game." 

Edit:  Oh yeah...@ jason_webb

It IS possible to take control (for short periods of time) over PARTS of the market, just as he basically said here.  How EASY or how EXPENSIVE it is to initially DO so, has partially to do with your server population and even the server progression.  If you are on a lower pop or medium pop server with slow guild progression through game content (VERY few guilds advance to BT and Hyjal)......then this "AH Game" is a LOT easier to play.

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Originally posted by Ozmodan
Crafting in Wow is a pretty much a hit or miss proposition.  Some professions like enchanting or jewelcrafting are always sought after while most of the others rarely produce anything noteworthy. 

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I disagree. Certainly some professions are easier to cash in on than others, but every profession has at least a half dozen items or so that you can easily profit from. Even Engineering, which the author plainly states has almost no profit value, can make a good bit of money off of scopes, guns and potion injectors.

We see a lot of people taking double gathering professions, which makes sense on paper, but in reality you can make money doing just about anything if you really try.

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Originally posted by girlgeek

Edit:  Oh yeah...@ jason_webb
It IS possible to take control (for short periods of time) over PARTS of the market, just as he basically said here.  How EASY or how EXPENSIVE it is to initially DO so, has partially to do with your server population and even the server progression.  If you are on a lower pop or medium pop server with slow guild progression through game content (VERY few guilds advance to BT and Hyjal)......then this "AH Game" is a LOT easier to play.

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I think what i actually said was "virtually impossible". If someone or a group of people had enough gold they could probably corner a section of the auctions for a minimal amount of time, but that isn't the same as "controlling" the market. Sooner or later you will burn all of your gold trying to buy out everyone that is undercutting you in order to try and maintain that control.

I make a good 70-80% of my money from auctions and i sell a good 75%+ of all the items i put onto auction first time around (i made the 5200g for my fast flying mount in 10 days this way). This is simply done by keeping a close eye on the averages and making sure that you are undercutting the competition by at least 5-10% on average. Always start a character with Skinning and Mining as you will always make money from those and they are easily levelled while you quest and then at L50-60 diversify with a crafting skill.

Controlling the market is an illusion as you will only ever be able to do it with small niche sections/items and there just isn't enough money in it for the amount of time you would have to invest in doing it.

Always a good seller is mats. selling the various clothes  and minerials at "decent " prices still nets a a good profit. and while adventuring you gather ALOT of those clothes.  people need that for tailoring, quests, and First aid.  Mining would be the next one as three profs relay on it.  This would be something I would not gouge the customer on, nor would it be something I'd sell  for pennies.  Decent prices.  Reason for this is is it's so readiily gathered.

pick pocketting for rogues is always good ( allows for pocket change).

Originally posted by Aethios

 

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Originally posted by Ozmodan
Crafting in Wow is a pretty much a hit or miss proposition.  Some professions like enchanting or jewelcrafting are always sought after while most of the others rarely produce anything noteworthy. 

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I disagree. Certainly some professions are easier to cash in on than others, but every profession has at least a half dozen items or so that you can easily profit from. Even Engineering, which the author plainly states has almost no profit value, can make a good bit of money off of scopes, guns and potion injectors.

We see a lot of people taking double gathering professions, which makes sense on paper, but in reality you can make money doing just about anything if you really try.

I did not mean to imply you can't make money from any of the crafting professions, just that compared to other MMO's crafting is an afterthought in Wow.  There are few good patterns and those are usually difficult to get.   Most of what you craft in this game is pretty useless junk, unwanted by anyone.  High skill does not change that either.   The only thing high skill gives you is access to high level patterns, it does not improve anything.
 

Blaargh, almost useless guide at least for a money-making veteran before the sunwell patch.
I used to make 600-700g a day, and not taking a lot of time either, things might have changed now, but that is all WoW is about, you either farm or raid with retards.