Elder Jen’s tips for funding your leveling experience

I don’t care much about the Lunar Festival (visited all the elders once, never again!), but Khi had a good idea: we bloggers can act like elders for a few days and bestow our knowledge on the noobs. (I use noob as an endearing term, not as in “OMFG u noob GTFO”).

My first brilliant idea was to write about general stuff for new players, but that’s been done already and I don’t think I have anything particularly interesting to say. I died a lot in my low levels, so I’m probably not the best example.

Then I wanted to write about acronyms… but it was pointed out to me that it’s been done, and much better than I could ever manage. See wowwiki and this WoW forums thread for a long, long list.

So I settled for a specific topic of the starter experience: money. Unless you’ve got a friend to help you out, you’ll soon realize that money is important, especially when you don’t have it.

Making money from drops/quest rewards
A few basics about item quality or color:
- grey items (poor quality) are mostly useless and can/should be sold to vendors. If you’re low-level (under level 10, let’s say), equip any grey item that’s better than what you’re currently wearing.
- white (common quality) items are either used in professions or can be worn/equipped at low levels. If you’re low level, use white items, they’ll generally be better than greys. Don’t buy white items from armor vendors, they’re not worth it.
- green items (uncommon quality) are usually useful for something; green armor has stats, for example. You’ll find them as mob drops or quest rewards.
- blue items (rare quality) are better than greens and they’re generally your best option gear-wise until you get high in level.
- purple items (epic quality) are rare and very good; most of them drop in level 60, 70 or 80 heroics and raids, and a select few are world drops (they can drop from any mob, anywhere).

You can read all about it in way, way more detail here.

Anyway, we’re not talking about gear, we’re talking about money. The golden rule is: Never throw anything away. Ever. Seriously. Sell everything you get, even grey items, every spider leg and bear bone.

In order to do that… you need to use golden rule 2: Get bigger bags.

Sadly, this won’t be very easy as a low-level, because even the cheapest vendor-sold bags have a quite steep price. I would suggest to gather the cloth that drops (linen, wool, silk etc) then find a tailor to craft bags for you. They won’t be very big to start with, but any addition to the 16-slot backpack is good. Also check quests: some of them reward bags – Digging Through the Ooze for example.

Tips:
* If your bags fill up, go back to a vendor and sell everything before you continue with your quest.
* If you’re one of us lazies, use an addon to automatically sell all your grey items. I have Reagent Restocker which (in addition to restocking reagents, obviously) makes it easy to get rid of all the junk in my bags.

* Before entering a dungeon, make sure your bags are as empty as possible.
* Whenever you change a piece of gear, sell the one that’s being replaced, don’t destroy it.

Making money on the Auction House
The Auction House or AH is, like the name says, a virtual marketplace where players buy and sell items they have or they need. There are many, many sites dedicated to playing the AH, but my advice stays basic: search for your item on the AH; if someone else is selling the same thing, post yours a little bit cheaper. If no one is… deciding how much to ask can be tricky. I sell low-level armor (up to level 30-40) for 1-2.5 gold or just wait until someone posts the same items, then undercut him.

Things you can easily sell and make a nice profit:
* Cloth – sells almost instantly regardless of type; depending on your server economy, a stack (=20 pieces) of Linen Cloth will go from 50 silver to 1 gold, with other types of cloth selling even better. Cloth drops from all humanoids in the game.

* Bind on Equip drops – up to a level (40 or so), green armor sells very well on the AH. People buy it to disenchant it or for their alts. Blue armor sells well (a couple of dozen gold), but might take more time until someone buys it. If you get one of the rare low-level epics, you’ll be rich, they sell for hundred(s) of gold.
* Cooking materials – this is more vague, but some types of meat sell pretty well. You won’t make a big profit, but if you have time check the AH for the prices on the cooking mats you have and try to sell them.

Making money from professions
If all you’re interested in is making money as fast as possible, get skinning/herbalism or skinning/mining (but not herbalism/mining, as you can’t track both types of nodes at the same time on the minimap). To track nodes/herbs, click on the magnifier icon to the left of the minimap and select the corresponding tracking type.

If you want to get professions that directly benefit your character, pick a different combination, but matching them up the right way can save you money. The way to go is pairing up a crafting profession with a gathering profession that provides the materials needed for crafting. Good choices are: a. skinning and leatherworking; b. mining and blacksmithing, jewelcrafting or engineering; c. herbalism and alchemy or inscription; d. tailoring and enchanting (you can disenchant the gear you make).

Things you can sell on the AH:
* Leather – sells instantly and for good prices. You can get it by skinning mobs or (not as common) from drops. Hides, however, don’t sell very well.
* Herbs – sell instantly and for good prices. You get them from, obviously, herbalism.
* Ores – sell instantly and for good prices. From mining, obviously. Make sure to also check the price of smelted ore – more often than not, bars sell better than ores.
* Low-level crafted green armor – probably any item you craft before reaching 150 skill in your professions will sell on the AH. Rings and necklaces are popular because they don’t drop from quests or bosses in the beginner levels, but robes, cloaks, shoes and everything in between will also sell.

* Enchanting materials – the low-level ones don’t sell that well, but at some point in the game (around level 40) disenchanting greens and selling the mats becomes more profitable than selling the items themselves on the AH. Enchanting materials don’t have a listing cost, while green items do, and it gets quite high. My theory is that if listing the green item costs more than 1 gold, it’s not worth it.

* Vanity items – this works better on RP realms, but even on PvE/PvP realms people want to dress up their bank alts. Winter clothes, tuxedos, dresses, the Indiana Jones hat… they will all sell for a fair price.

I’m sure there’s many, many more ways of making money, but the ones I’ve listed don’t require a lot of time or effort. My baby cow’s already got 60 gold she made by herself, and the effort was minimal. These strategies won’t help you buy a vendor mammoth at level 40, but even selling just one stack of linen cloth can ensure you’ll afford to train all your abilities for a few levels.

P.S. If you’ve got anything to add, don’t be shy! My x-realmed baby priest needs to make money for her epic flying :)