recently I looked up some people with names I wish I had nabbed first, sent them in game mail asking them how much gold would they be willing to sell their name for. Made me curious if this would be flagged and if I could get banned for “botting” or “spamming” in that regard. Recently learned you can only send a certain amount of mail in game before your locked out of a mailbox for about an hr or so lol. 
now I’m scared. Tried typing in google of complaints in this subject and I didn’t find any complaints on the matter So I think I’m safe? But just wanted to ask others opinions on the matter. One dude has the name joker. How cool is that yo!
Really depends on the person I think.
I mean if someone mailed me in game asking if I would “sell” my name I would mark it as spam.
I wouldn’t be marking it to be a jerk or anything. It’s just if I chose a name there’s a method I have behind it, if that makes sense.
My suggestion would be to try out other servers to see if wanted name is avalible.
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Hehe thank you. But don’t make me feel better cuz it was already done XD
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Honestly I wouldn’t worry too much on wether you can get nailed for it unless send repeated ones to same players.
This was my train of thought too. But ya never know.
So long as you’re not automating anything, you take “no” for an answer rather than continually pestering people, you’re not circumventing ignores with other accounts/characters, aren’t advertising a site/organization, and you’re not scamming anyone…
Guessing you’d be fine, though I suspect you’re pretty heavily into ‘unsupported transaction’ territory here.
Yeah I read a few blue posts in it. Says it’s not against TOS but if anything happens blizzard won’t step in basically. Aka If scammed
GL getting a good name on that server.
Make sure you get the name first before you hand over the gold.
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For real for real lol
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we should have surnames tbh.
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Botting, no. Spam, possibly. I think a lot of people would report such mail as spam. But it also depends on if the person even plays anymore.
A few things to note:
- If the character is level 30+, it takes 30 days for the name to become available on a first-come-first-served basis. Anyone can snag it once that time is up and it’s down to the second that it was deleted.
- If the player uses the paid name change feature, it’s 90 days that the name is held.
- Completely unsupported. If the player runs off with your gold or takes the name back, you’re out the gold.
- Names are released automatically if the player has been out of the game for 2 expansions based on the last time they logged it. So it’s pretty random and Blizz is completely hands-off with releasing names.
Hope that helps!
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This one right here has been aggravating me because I’ve been checking a name for years that doesn’t ever seem to pop up in wow armory but at the same time name never releases. It’s like the guy doesn’t exist! But you don’t show up in armory if you haven’t logged in during the latest patch. So it’s a weird issue for me.
Level 1 (or below 10) don’t show up on the Armory.
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That can happen if they’re still active on another server. Their entire account has to be inactive for the name to be released unfortunately.
And Tovi hit the other point I was going to mention 
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Not sure how asking someone a (single) question could be taken or seriously considered as spam. If you’re sending them the same mail every 30 days maybe but asking once and leaving it at that or taking the first no as an answer doesn’t seem like spam to me.
A person having no interest in giving up their names doesn’t make a single question sent in mail “spam.”
I think it should be this way. Just because I’m not active on a server that doesn’t really give anyone the right to sweep in and take names I may have a connection to and potentially intend to play some day. First come, first serve.
No, it likely wouldn’t. However, the system would not likely be looking at the mail, but the number of reports. There’s a possibility that the account could get squelched and if a GM sees a whole bunch of people reporting the mail as spam, it could still be considered that on the grander scale of things.
Do people do that? I’m not deleting my character or buying a name change for a stranger without any gold. No way 
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This is why I simply wouldn’t engage in such a transaction. Both parties have the same right to demand an up front exchange and I don’t trust anyone on WoW enough that I’d be willing to be the first to hand over the goods.
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Dude, people hand gold to a level 1 standing in Org or SW that promised to carry them in a raid or mythic+. Then act all shocked when that character logs off forever.
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If only there were some sort of escrow for these trades in WoW. For now, I think the best thing you can get is half the gold before, half after.