A Month of Money Making: Week One

(warning: this is long…and wordy…and…numbery?)

I talked last week about sharing how to play for free. Specifically, how to make at least 25 thousand gold a month. That gets you pretty close to the cost of a token, depending on the market at the time. What I have started doing, is charting everything I’m making over the course of one month, day by day. What I’m enjoying most about it is the opportunity to see for myself just exactly where the gold comes from, what I might be doing well, and what I could improve on. I won’t be capped or anything like that, but I’m happy doing enough to get by and can build on that. As I said before, my goal is simply to be able to continue playing the game for free. So let’s see how we’re doing, shall we?

Before we look at the first week, let me provide just a little info on where I’m at in terms of just what I bring to the gold collecting table. You’ll see quickly you don’t need high end professions or any crazy ilevel (though realistically these things will help you even more).

I have a single level 100 character, a Troll Druid with capped mining and Tailoring that’s somewhere around the “Wool” level. Her Garrison is level 3, and the inn grants me the ability to recruit Followers with the Treasure Hunter ability. On that same server is a level 8 Blood Elf Hunter who’s sole job at this point is to sit at the mailbox and auction house in Thunder Bluff.

I have a level 91 Tauren Paladin who is pulling in gold from a basic level two Garrison, some questing and some disenchanting.

The last server is where all my Alliance toons are. I have a 94 Draenei Hunter, 93 Dwarf Priest, and 91 Night Elf Rogue. After that things drop off. The Hunter does have Leatherworking and Skinning (both at low level WoD numbers), the Priest is Mining and Jewelcrafting (same numbers), and the Elf is Enchanting and Herbalism but the numbers are Pandaria capped. This server also has a Northrend level Tailor, 250 Alchemist, Northrend level Blacksmith, Engineer, and Scribe.

That gives you a snapshot of the toons I’m working with here. The Druid has an ilevel less than 650. The higher it is, the quick “some” things will be, as I said earlier. But a level 100 toon should have a relatively easy time with anything I talk about.

So now that we got that out of the way there are two other things I need to recommend before I start talking results. The first is The Undermine Journal. TUJ pulls data from the auction houses pretty much every hour. At least once a day when I log on to my Alliance bank alt I check the “deals” page for my realm. The saying is that you have to spend money to make money, but I stick to sure things and most of those are 150g or less. Unless I know that it’s a fantastic deal. The other recommendation is an auction house addon of some kind or another. There are several out there that will do the job for you. If for no other reason, most of them grant a better UI than what the standard auction house does. It makes it easier to see deals and post the stuff you’re selling. You can see unit price, which can be easy money.

Ok, enough yapping. Let’s look at the first week. For starters, I didn’t even login on September 1st. September 2nd saw a better day as I brought in a few silver shy of 2k. Let’s break down how.

Server 1:
-Sold 3 Eternal Fires at 14g04s each
-Sold 16 Exotic Leather 6g22s total
-Druid Vendored Three Munificent Items from Garrison Missions 54g26s
-Druid earned 681g and then some from one hour Northern Barrens Farming: 141g outright, 175g in greys, 305 in greens, 38 mote of harmony, 105 Windwool Cloth, 21 Plundered Treasures (60g, 7 Mote of harmony, 8 windwool cloth, 14 Ghost Iron ore, 9 Black Trillium Ore, 4 White Trillium Ore, 15 Exotic Leather)

Server 2:
-Hunter earned 70g from two Garrison Missions
-Priest vendored two post-upgrade items 66g73s
-Priest vendored greys from questing 33g10s
-Priest earned 60g from Garrison Mission
-Tailor sold Mooncloth Robe 785g
-Tailor sold Tuxedo Shirt 9g56s
-Tailor sold Admiral’s Hat 25g96s
-Tailor sold 5 Netherweave Bags at 7g90s each
-Rogue earned 52g50s from 2 Garrison Missions
-Sold Primal Water for 3g92s
-Sold 3 Alchemical Catalyst at 1g53s each

Total: 1999g 39s

I had another quiet day on the 3rd, basically popping on long enough to check my Garrisons and a couple of auctions.

Server 1:
-Sold Mageroyal 72s
-Sold Linen Cloth (x20) x2 for 1g72s each

Server 2:
-Priest vendored post gear upgrades 59g60s
-Sold Enchant Weapon-Fiery Weapon 17g79s
-Sold Mithril Ore (x20) 27g51s
-Tailor sold 4 Netherweave Bags at 7g15s each

Total: 137g 66s

Friday night, the fourth, was much kinder in terms of getting some time in. Even did some deliberate farming. The results show.

Server 1:
-Druid earned 637g from 5 Garrison Missions
-Druid earned 240g and then some from 5 Pit of Saron Hilt runs (including Pattern: Blue Workman’s Shirt and a single Battered Hilt)
-Druid earned 191g05s from 5 Stonecore Slabhide farm runs
-Sold White Trillium Ore (x20) 209g21s
-Sold 4 Eternal Fire at 21g08s each
-Sold 4 Spirit of Harmony at 37g34s each

Server 2:
-Sold Darkmoon Vest 12g36s
-Sold Eternal Earth 2g91s
-Sold 2 Golden Draenite at 152g07s each
-Sold Grizzly Jerkin of the Owl 232g76s
-Priest earned 330g from 3 Garrison Missions
-Hunter earned 35g from Garrison Mission
-Death Knight earned 147g08s questing in Zul’Drak level 76-77

Total: 2574g98s

Made the most of some free time on Saturday as well. The fifth brought in close to 2k again.

Server 1:
-Sold Liferoot 3g81s
-Sold Jade 2g87s
-Sold Exotic Leather (15) 10g04s
-Sold Gahz’rooki 706g81s
-Sold Blackrock Ore (20) four stacks at 17g14s each
-Vendored Coldwraith Robe 7g61s
-Druid earned 25g from Garrison Mission

Server 2:
-Sold Eternal Earth x2 at 6g83s each
-Sold White Wedding Dress 5g79s
-Sold Alabaster Plate Gauntlets 172g23s
-Sold Cat Carrier (White Kitten) 180g54s
-Sold Red Helper Box 2g43s
-Sold 5 Netherweave Bags at 6g30s each
-Death Knight vendored greens from questing 58g21s
-Hunter vendored greens and post-upgrade gear 111g51s
-Hunter earned 523g10s from level 94 questing (gear, drops, quests)

Total: 1956g 17s

I was gone most of the day Sunday, so there was just a quick hop on in the morning but I can’t complain too much:

Server 1:
-Druid earned 155g from 2 Garrison Missions
-Sold Jade 6g
-Sold Dreamfoil 96s
-Sold Purple Lotus 1g91s
-Sold Blackrock Ore (20) 3 stacks 23g81s each

Server 2:
-Sold 2 Enchant Weapon-Crusader 180g53s each
-Sold Pattern: Spiked Deathdealers 26g87s
-Sold Truesilver Bar (20) 38g57s
-Sold Humbert’s Helm 84g26s

Total: 670g 60s

Finally came yesterday, which wrapped up the week alright with another thousand gold.

Server 1:
-Sold Peacebloom 91s
-Sold 4 Eternal Fire 18g42s each
-Druid earned 60g from Garrison Mission
-Druid earned 207g from “Juke Box Questing” (Gear and Greys…including killing three rares)

Server 2:
-Priest earned 27g50s from Garrison Mission
-Hunter earned 60g from Garrison Mission
-Sold 4 Primal Life 25g89s each
-Sold 5 Spirit of Harmony 61g76s each
-Sold Six of Nobles 166g55s
-Sold Enchant Weapon-Crusader 180g53s

Total: 1188g 53s

So a quick tally comes up with 8,527g and that’s after any auction house cuts and such.  Realistically I spent less than four days actually working on generating some gold. I also don’t want this to be misleading. I don’t sit there all day every day trying to generate gold. I make a point of cycling through my follower missions once or twice a day to try and increase the gold missions that show up.

As you can see there are random items that I sold, and while a couple of those things were in my banks…a good portion I pulled off the auction house for significantly cheaper. The White Kitten I bought for 20g and the Primals I sell tend to be as a result of buying the Motes for dirt cheap and simply converting them. Two things I mentioned that you are probably wondering about is the Pit of Saron Hilt Run and the Northern Barrens Farming. I recommending taking a few minutes to watch both videos as they’re so much quicker than me explaining it…just don’t take the numbers mentioned as concrete. I like doing both just for a change of pace and scenery if I’m just looking to faff about. I haven’t even touched on Firelands trash runs, or several other methods that work well. I’m just sharing exactly what I’m doing and selling and you can draw your own conclusions.

With less running around to do this week, as well as my day hours a bit more freed up with school resuming, I expect to see a significant number increase from what came in last week. But, just from the things I did above and sold, I’m on pace for between 32k-36k for the month. I’ll take it as a solid start and hope you didn’t go blind from all the numbers.