Please let me know if my #'s are wrong…
T8 Hordes = 100 Million gold per 500 Aether spent
So it takes 100 (500 Aether T8 Horde runs) to amass 10B?
This is for those of us that wish not to trade gouge or buy gold to perpetuate bots, Real Money sites, etc.
i mean, if you are interested in buying an item, you are already into the trading game, so the obvious answer is, knowing rough values of items and selling them yourself.
I sell items, I buy boss material, I make bosses, I get more items. I sell them. I do this cycle.
How much time do you say you spend on this cycle as opposed to actually playing? Do you sell via Trade channel or third party site?
Sell something first. The economey is what it is because people RMT to get gold.
You can check the trade site to figure out prices.
Boss Mats sell pretty well and quickly and if you play the game you should be able to get those and stack them up.
Just the other day I sold some stacks and made about 3.8 billion. I would never buy gold for Real Money in any video game.
As for buying I have not actually bought anything from anyone else, I play mostly solo, I like to find my stuff. But right now I would consider buying Stygian Stones as these do not drop as often if you are still leveling and not up to IH7 or 8.
I ran out of the ones I had so my boss mats pile up 
I don’t actively look for these they just pile up as you level and play.
There was a guy in trade chat earlier buying stacks of blood for 1b, so just farm boss mats and start selling them. Otherwise the only way to get that amount of money would be to trade decent items yourself.
you sell ~20 items worth ~500million.
You need to engage in trade sim. Sell a few items for billions of gold.
I agree with your sentiment about not wanting to “Trade Gouge” but if you are not buying gold or items for real money, then you are not creating the problem. I run a lot of horde and Hell tide and whispers so 2-3GA come up somewhat often. Since I also don’t want to feel like a scammer when selling items, I tend to take any unneeded 2-3 GA that drops and throw it on diablo.trade as “taking an offers”. sometimes I get 50M sometimes I get 2-3B or even more just for legendries and I don’t feel too bad about the price since the buyer set it.
For GA unique (should you happen to get one you don’t need) I find it best to look at what that item is going for and price it about the same as the cheapest comparable one. otherwise you are just robbing yourself of value by selling too cheap, and if you sell really cheap it is likely to get bought and resold for profit, so no point giving someone doing that the gold instead of the person it dropped for 
Selling in /trade can work but it’s a crap shoot, the audience is limited to the server instance “World” you are logged into whereas Dtrade has a large audience specifically looking to buy/sell.
I want a 2GA winterglass with high if not perfect leg bonus for my LS sorc so farming horde for the gold is not an option since I don’t have time to farm literally hundreds of billions of gold from horde.
Well, many OTHERS are strongly inclined towards swiping their credit cards.
For casuals, you have to literally farm T8 hordes 24/7. You can get both items and gold there, but the best choice would probably be items since you will find high-selling items every 3-4 runs (guestimate), which will net more profit than the steady gold reward would. Shhettt, you probably wouldn’t even be choosing the gold reward at all during the early season.
Anyway, that’s currently the non-RMT strat, I imagine… But unless you’re a streamer or RMTer, you will seldom ever acquire that GG 999bil 2-3 GA ammy with the triple passives. If you’re okay with having less than others, playing legit is the right path for you, boo.
I wish Blizzard cared enough to implement more countermeasures against RMT within D4.
Here’s everyone else’s advice: I’ll save you them the trouble (they’re so annoying, bro…).
Why do you care what everyone else is doing? How does that affect you?
F’ing eyeroll
I only sell items to earn gold for rerolling. In S4, it costs me 7 billion to reroll on the three skills amulet alone.
In Season 5, my main character is a Rogue, and I play a Sorc as an alt to sell gear because everyone is playing it.
Once you have maxed out your char(s) with reasonable to get items this is essentially the end game to get the not reasonable to get items lol. So for some of us there is no distinction between this cycle and actually playing
In the beginning, the first 2 weeks I need to sell a lot of items. Now I only sell valuable items, 2 GA and some amulets and rings 1 GA. I don’t spend much time on sales. 1 hour a week maybe.I sell third party sites.
Sell something valuable like GA Unique gear to exchange for billion golds.
If you want to trade (buy gg items) you have to trade (sell gg items). It really is that simple. I hit gold cap several times a season by just playing the game and selling gg items that I don’t need. No Mastercard required, despite the many people who claim that it’s all RMT.
I find it faster to farm nmds, rather than hordes. Hordes can take at least 10 min, if you’re fast. NMD 100s can be done in a min or 2 and you get 3 fear plus another 1 or 2 boss mats that drop from elites.
I sold a 3 GA Offhand for 99B. And that was probably under-valued. Before the Goblin event, too.
Pretty much a gg offhand.
Replying to OP:
Don’t fall for the trap or think you need to farm any gold in the game. D4 isn’t meant for players to farm gold and become sellers and traders in the game. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with trading amongst players when needed, but the ridiculous amount for some gear and mats is simply not worth wasting time over.
Diablo IV is for us to enjoy the game experience, do your thing, explore, do the runs and farm for the ideal gear you want and enjoy your game play. Don’t waste your precious time farming gold only to get an item that goes to your Eternal Realm, which may end up getting nerfed or becomes useless later.
My simple advise: Just enjoy your game play and if you haven’t already, try out other classes in D4. You don’t need to get the “best gear” to enjoy playing Diablo IV, just enjoy the game your way, and don’t be fooled or fall for the BS of having to farm gold to buy the so-called “best gear” because it wont be the best gear for long after the season ends.
Since the season ends every 3 months, there is no reason to waste your time farming gold to buy gear that may become less powerful or useless after the season ends. However, if the weapons and gear retain their power and stats in the Eternal Realm after the season ends, then sure, but so far the past 2 seasons in D4 gear and weapons got nerfed and some become completely useless.
This is my advise, opinion and suggestion to all D4 players. Just enjoy the game and have fun, and play your own way.
PS - Don’t forget, the new D4 expansion (Vessel of Hatred) is coming with Mercenary Companions that will definitely make the game experience a lot more fun and epic! I can’t wait! 
Cheers! - JJ -
Fixed it for you. They are always the minority, but they can easily ruin the economy for everyone in a trading game.
Casuals can sell items on diablo.trade as easily as anyone else.