She Works Hard For Her Money

I remember buying those bags–they were Quite A Big Deal back in vanilla.

Back in my halcyon days of WoW, I remember how difficult I found it to make money. Having one gold was something for me to brag about, an achievement that felt like a milestone. That said, I still needed help buying my first mount at level 40, a beautiful plain brown horse for my human mage; my guildies were very generous, and knowing I was new to the game, loaned me the difference so I could finally ride with the big kids. I still remember how bloody excited I was after I got it, so much so that I just ran back and forth between Eastvale Logging Camp and Stormwind. I didn’t need end-game raiding or shiny armor to make me happy then. That brown horsey was enough.

I digress.

Back in the days of Vanilla WoW, making gold could be considered quite difficult–at least it was for me. Dailies hadn’t been implemented yet, and flying mounts were an expansion away still. Options were limited once you hit level 60, and since I didn’t really raid or PvP much, my mage found herself desperately grinding elemental mobs in Silithus for common quality items to try and flog on the AH. I traipsed across the Burning Steppes and Eastern Plaguelands scavenging for items I thought had value. Every scrap I could get my grubby mittens on got sold, no matter how little I got for it (like the Tesco advert says, every little bit helps!). It was in a desperate bid to get my epic mount skill at level 60, which back in that day was nigh on impossible unless you were either 100% super dedicated to making money, or lucky. I never did get that mount–I kept my level 40 horsey all the way through the Dark Portal until I stopped playing at 68 and switched to my EU account.

Nowadays it’s a million times easier to make money, and I don’t blink an eye when my new alts manage to come up with several gold without having to exert any effort. Dailies are a HUGE boon in this respect, giving us another option besides mindless mat farming in order to generate gold. I admit I get super burned out on dailies, and haven’t touched any of the MoP ones in weeks (besides the 20 elites on the Timeless Isle for my mage, and the dailies to get my Tillers rep to exalted on new 90 alts so they can get a proper farm). That said, having the choice between money-making options is brilliant, and has made my WoW life infinitely easier.

Basically, kids these days. You don’t know how easy you have it blah blah fart blah ;D

Last night I noticed my ‘bank alt’, Spindlelegs reached 50k gold on her. That was never an official number. I never set out to get X amount on her, it was just a number that popped out at me when I was sorting through my affairs. I didn’t have a celebration or anything (well I was drinking a beer so that might count), but it was a pleasant surprise. Alyzabeth has a cool 38k on her at the moment–it was 40k yesterday, but I found a pet on the AH I wanted and 2.5k wasn’t a bad price. See, I don’t hardly blink at spending a couple grand, as where my old self would probably die at the thought of shelling out that kind of gold for a bloody pet (but then again, my old self existed in a world that didn’t have pet battles, soooooooo). I find that for certain things, if the price is right, I don’t mind parting with the gold–my time and sanity are more valuable, and therefore if I can spare the effort grinding a pet or glyph recipe or cut gem, I’ll do it.

I’m always fascinated learning more about how my fellow Azerothians make gold. I’m intrigued by the notion of playing the AH almost like you would in the real world, how the concepts of supply and demand work in a virtual space. Filling the gaps where a market hasn’t been cornered, be they glyphs or gems or enchants, timing your auctions just perfectly to maximize profits, knowing just the right price to put stuff up for–not shooting yourself in the foot and losing profit unnecessarily whilst keeping your product competitive. I stand in awe of the players who reach gold cap via those means, making smart choices on their server, where the gold making business becomes a game all in of itself (a game within a game? O.o).

I ain’t those people though. And I will never claim I am.

I’ve spoken before about how utterly disorganized I can be in this game, despite my desire to be otherwise. I see my husband making spreadsheets, and being very deliberate in the things he does. In comparison to him (and some others), I’m a hot mess, flying somewhat by the seat of my pants in pretty much every respect. Making my money isn’t any different. I utilize about zero strategy when I approach money making. The most ‘organized’ part of the affair (a tip I picked up from my husband) is to designate one toon who I guess could be considered a bank alt of sorts–my warrior, Spindlelegs.

Spindlelegs is unique in that she used to be a level 85 orc warrior in Cata. Whilst I love female orcs, I wasn’t in love with her, and I got the itch to play another forsaken on Hellscream. So, in a spur of the moment decision, I deleted the 85 and rerolled a forsaken warrior, and I don’t particularly regret the decision (in this case, my time and effort isn’t worth as much as the real life money I’d pay for a race change). I have every intention of leveling her, but for the time being she serves my purposes fairly well, parking herself in front of the Undercity AH. Everything gets funneled through her, and she collects all the gold which she distributes when my other characters want/need some money. It keeps things reasonably neat and tidy, my focus directed in one place, which my poor muddled brain needs.

Another thing I use is the Remote AH via the Mobile Armory, which has been a complete lifesaver for yours truly. Even though I’m at home and have access to the proper game, I’ll use the mobile app right before I go to bed and set up all my auctions (except on certain days when I know my husband will be selling, since I don’t want to undercut him–keeps our marriage solid ;D). I can easily switch between things I have on Spindlelegs, her bank, and her mailbox so I don’t even have to fuss with picking up my mail THEN posting it. I set the app so it takes a flat 5% off the lowest price so I can undercut people without even having to do the math. I don’t even LOOK at the prices; I just set my stacks and make sure those are good, and then press sell. I even collect all my gold from the app since it’s a one-click affair. I hardly use the in-game AH anymore except when I’m browsing for stuff to buy.

But what do I sell? It’s easy to find stuff when you have 7 farms that produce mats on a daily basis–and yes, I’m pretty religious about logging in and collecting my stuff and replanting my crops, even if I don’t feel like doing much else in WoW on that particular day. Most of it ends up being herbs and leather which I end selling at (what could probably be described as) dirt cheap prices, but I have SO MUCH of it that the profits add up after a while. I’m also starting to sell off some of my cloth and dust, and sometimes I’ll sell cut gems if I think they might turn a bit of gold. It’s a bit tricky on my server, since oftentimes I’ll have to repost the gems a few times before someone picks them up, but eh. No real skin off my nose. Golden Lotus is always a good money-maker, even if it’s only 50-60g per piece–I usually put 20 of those up at a time. Again, every little bit helps. I find I focus more on selling raw mats than crafted items for the time being, just because I’m not entirely sure of what will sell–selling crafted items feels like a much bigger gamble to me than just throwing up mats. I may try to break into that part of the AH at some point, but for now I’m comfortable with my methods, and they’re reasonably successful.

There’s a pattern here. It’s basically I’m lazy. I’m also not in any particular rush, nor do I have any set goals in mind which I guess has made it feel fairly…easy I guess.

And do I have anything particular in mind to spend it on? Not really. I’ve been tempted to try and pick up a Unclaimed Black Market Container but I’m not entirely sure what the end price for it is on my server. I see it a lot up for 10k, but with a long time left on the auction, and I have yet to hover around to see what the top bid is–it’s one of those things I may just have to do spur of the moment and see what happens (protip: I’m not a wild and spontaneous person by any means, especially with spending money, so it’s scary). I’d only really do it for the chance to get a fecking awesome mount, like Ashes of A’lar, which means I can die a happy mage whilst flying around on a glowy phoenix.*

Maybe someday I’ll be gold capped. I’m more likely to become the Queen of England but if it happens, it happens. I just reckon my wee warrior’s pockets are a bit heavy this morning, but at least I know I’ll never have to beg a friend or guildie for my riding skill money again.**

This was my entire WoW Vanilla experience.

*My heart might literally explode if I ever get the Ashes. It’s all I’ve ever wanted since BC, and my attempts at farming it myself have been poopy.

**I apologize to my guildies way back when, since I can’t remember if I ever managed to pay off that debt. I feel bad now D: