Some players attempt to purchase gold from third party gold sellers. This form of making money is against Blizzard's terms of service and may lead to a permanent ban on an account. It may also lead to real world identity theft or theft of the purchaser's WoW account depending on the reliability and intentions of the gold selling company.
There are four major money making strategies: farming, crafting, daily quests and playing the auction house. The amount of gold earned depends on the dedication of the player, the economy of the auction house on the server, the server ratios of casual, serious, and hardcore players, and time periods surrounding a major patch.
Overview 
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This guide covers many of the ins and outs of both making money, and spending it wisely. Many players have "secret" strategies for making money that they wouldn't want to put in a public info site, since it gives them their edge in the marketplace. If you can gain the trust of a successful WoW tycoon, you should ask them some of their techniques. However, this guide covers many of the more common strategies. Quick guide Edit
If you don't want to read this entire article, but you're primarily focused on how to get your mount at level 20, follow these steps. They will work for anyone, require no grinding sessions, and generally offer a high reward-to-time ratio: - If you do nothing else, do this: Learn to use the Auction House, both for buying and selling.
- Consider installing the Auctioneer addon and use it to your advantage in the Auction House.
- Bargain hunt, do not pay full price.
- Always post a buyout price on your auctions - many players will not bid on an auction with no buyout, unless the item is heavily discounted, and then it usually sells for a fraction of what it could have gotten. You will have more sales at a higher price and get your money more quickly if you post a proper buyout price.
- When you have saved around 5
(and you will quickly, due to having taken gathering professions), you can start investing. Buy cheap items on the AH and then re-list them for a profit. Only buy and sell what you know, and test your theories in small quantities. - Take one or (better yet) two of the gathering professions: Mining, Herbalism, or Skinning. All of them are surefire moneymakers.
- While you don't have to Fish (and fishing is not to everyone's taste, as it involves a lot of sitting and staring at a bobber), fishing can become a good source of income as you level.
- Wait until you are level 40, or even level 70 to take crafting professions—they can be money sinks and you can buy the items you would have purchased with the extra money from gathering. Raw materials are usually worth more than a crafted product.
- If you do craft, learn what sells.
- Generally, do not craft white items unless you know there is a demand for that item.
- Learn what stats are useful and craft items that appropriately enhance those stats.
- Do not overproduce; increased supply depresses price. You will get a better price per item if you sell fewer of an item.
- Be frugal upgrading your gear.
- Every bright, shiny new piece of gear is going to be old and shabby in a level or two.
- Learn what stats help your character, and stick to that gear - avoid having to replace gear.
- You do not need to upgrade at every opportunity, especially while leveling.
- Does the gear you are thinking of upgrading to offer a significant improvement? Think in percentage increases.
- Plan on getting gear from quest rewards, drops, or instances.
- Remember that as you level, you will be replacing your gear soon, no matter how good it looks now.
- When leveling, avoid investing a lot in high-priced gear, especially blue or purple gear. You do not need rare or epic gear to level.
- Remember that the demand for blue and purple gear is driven primarily by twinks and alts. These are players that have substantial financial resources already, and can afford to pay a premium. As a result, you will not find many bargains in such gear; they tend to be vastly overpriced.
- Participating in raid groups into instances can get you the same gear.
- If you're a first-time player, learn first. Research. Ask. Test. Try, wisely. And above all, always spend cautiously--you'll need that money later.
Cold booting your economy Edit
You've started a new character with no alts for support, and you are dealing in the coppers level. How do you get your financial engine rolling? Most of these should sell for silvers each in the auction house:
Harvest Small Eggs and sell them.
Harvest Stringy Wolf Meats and sell them.
Harvest Chunk of Boar Meats and sell them.
Harvest Linen Cloths and turn them into Bolts of Linen Cloth or sell them directly.
Train and get tools for two gathering professions. Do this even if you plan on taking different professions at higher levels - this can give you orders of magnitude more cash in just one run:
Invest in Apprentice Level Mining Profession Training, mine copper, and sell it. You may get 10-30g for a stack of 20 bars on an established server.
Invest in Apprentice Level Skinning Profession Training, skin leathers, and sell them. Low level leathers will sell for a bit of silver each, making a stack over 1g or more on some servers.
Invest in Apprentice Level Herbalist Profession Training, gather herbs, and sell t
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