This is my first stab at writing a guide for some aspect of World of Warcraft.
A lot of conversations among my friends and guildmates have revolved around earning gold in Classic; specifically, the difficulty of affording things.
I was bad about this in Vanilla. I never took the economy seriously and spent most of my time broke. The grind when I hit 60 was long and painful, and I didn’t have the knowledge of the economy to help it along.
This time I haven’t struggled in this way. The conversations with my friends have been happening because I’m one of the folks who is actually doing well in the Classic economy – and as a casual player, at that.
For a couple of weeks I’ve batted around the idea of writing a guide for earning gold in Classic. My friends encouraged me a bit, so today I did it.
I realize that this forum doesn’t represent the target audience, as many players here are quite experienced in the Classic economy. The places where I can share this are limited. I decided to post it here because I want to share it but I’m gun-shy to go post it on Reddit or something.
Feedback welcome; hope someone finds this useful. At least the people I really wrote it for – my friends who are struggling – will hopefully be helped.
Hey this is really nice work. I found it more relevant than the other guides you see and it even touches upon the current economic surplus situation of the server slightly.
I appreciate the kind words guys. I’ve continued to edit and update the guide as recently as in the past half hour to improve clarity and readability.
It’s also occurred to me to add a section on effective use of alts, as banks, as disenchanters, and to preplan item needs in order to avoid unneccesary future purchases at inflated costs.
Edit: The quote feature hates my phone browser today. Why? I don’t know!
Grats Orc, very good guide to getting into the economy. I also liked that you put a bit of history by mentioning the playerbase was not happy at launch’s economy compared to other mmos, I didn’t know that, I wonder what were they expecting?
Also it is very important something you mentioned about organic discovery. Sometimes players want to 100% mimic a guide or formula, but the thing with economy, probably more so than any other aspect of the game, is that it is chaotic and living. I’ve had a great time discovering which are the profitable items that my profession can yield, and keeping that knowledge or sharing it with my friends. Trying to auction everything you loot is good at the start so you discover what things sell really good and are not that hard to farm.
I’m in the category of people that dont find fun in AH dealings. So, I’m level 40 with 13g.
I hope this isnt a derail, and if it is let me know so I can delete, but is auctionator pretty simple to use? Do i need a pdf file to figure it out ? Lol
Thanks again, and I’ll be looking for those niches to fill in.
It’s gratifying that people are finding this helpful, and that it’s well received. Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I have had a lot of fun putting it together.
First, I welcome the question! No worries.
I think Auctionator is fairly straightforward. I covered essential usage in the sections Tools Of The Trade and Pricing On The Auction House And Durations. What is written there will probably make more sense if you install the addons and begin to use them. It really is a case of learning about wetness by jumping in the water. I’m glad that you and a couple of others have been inspired enough to be curious!
You definitely don’t need a PDF, but a relatively quick guide does help!
Really good stuff and much appreciated. Downloaded the add-ons and read thru it a few times. I’m an idiot when it comes to economy in WoW. Never had the patience for it, but I’m going to give it a good go this time around.
This is a great question. A lot of it comes down to crafting and professions and less structure. The economies were more organic and the things people did and made had a greater impact. You could be straight up robbed very easily. Skill and reputation were important. The major crafters and players in the economy were renowned across the entire realm, ‘household names’.
In some of those games being a master craftsman meant that you could make things that no one else could make, and which were the best in slot available.
Those players were often some of the wealthiest around, next to the sort of players I now like to refer to as World of Wall Streeters.
I’m not saying I need any changes to classic, but wow that sounds awesome.
Thanks for the updates to the guide by the way! I’m looking forward to layering being turned off and how that will affect those mats you advised we hold onto in the guide.
On that note, I have to say, securing the will to not immediately sell everything, especially at level 40, is trying, but I’m glad I listened to you!
Hello everyone. Just now I published the latest update to the guide. At this point I consider it complete and won’t be updating it except to fix typographical errors and perhaps clarify things on re-reads.
I have added two completely new sections: Quest Rewards, and Purchasing Decisions And Economic Impact. I also rewrote the Conclusion.
Thanks to EVERYONE who has taken the time to read this. I’m glad some folks have found it helpful. I feel inspired to write more guides in the future. This has been a very good experience for me.
GOOD LUCK out there everyone. Do your best and if it works out that you start earning more gold, remember to give back. Generosity is its own reward. To me it’s the best part of not being broke.
