Making money at the low levels?

[Mtal]

I have a few characters in there teens, pretty much have all the professions down. I was thinking using some of them just to make me some money (also don't think I will be leveling all my toons, but using some just to go out to mine or skin and call it a day). So at the levels my characters, what are good ways to make money?

Ok, now on my server, the best thing that is making me any money, is copper bars, I can get between a gold or two for a stack of 20. I was getting a gold for leather, but the market seemed to have dropped. Also herbs don't seem to be selling well either (but I been looking at silver leaf and peacebloom, maybe some of the other herbs at my level).

Oh, is there any other good ways to make some money other than what I listed above that I should be exploring?

Thanks all.

[Khab]

At lower levels that's really the best way to make money. Depending on your server economy you just may not make a lot with low level ore, leather or herbs. When you get higher up, the money comes much faster with gathering professions.

If you're a gambler you can try your luck at playing the auction house. Basically buying low priced items and selling them for more. I started on a new server with 0 gold and I now have 1000G just playing the AH. I'm level 49 for reference.

[Kojima]

It's absolutely possible to turn even the smallest amount of copper into large amounts of gold, with or without the professions.
The two fastest ways being:

- Beg (get enough gold to start buying low, selling high ( Always did dislike this one))
- Professions (exactly like you said. Gather profs should make you a few, but not as fast as begging, sadly....)

Personally, I turned 1 C into 40 G in no time. I got lucky with the market, so I ended up fairly rich for a level 2.
There's still a few tricks that you can do, but for me to reveal all my little secrets on a public board would just be idiotic :D.

... Wait... I just repeated what you just said yourself... Only I mentioned begging.... I'm a bad poster =.=!

[elsegundo]

make sure you know the prices of bars vs. the prices of ores. sometimes the ores costs more because of all the prospecting. you cant prospect bars. so depending on market fluctuations on your server, some days its good to sell bars, other days its good to sell ores. you also get tigerseye, malichite, and shadowgems at your level, so sell those. mining can be very dull and its great to level while you quest.

if skinning isnt that profitable, then check out cloth. linen or wool would do best. check for linen, if its up, farm the keep off the barrens coast. northwatch i think, and kill pirates just north of it. if its wool, kill the bristleback tribes in southern barrens all around camp tj. level 21 druid can do this easy.

[tabstercat]

there is ANOTHER way!

get your fishing up 2 like 150 in the orgrimmar pool if your alliance screw you *shakes fist!* then go to the wailing caverns and next to the cave there is a pool. keep fishing for ages until you have many deviate fish then sell them on the AH. on my server they sell very well. they are used in recipes and Savoury deviae delight. go 4 it!


Horde FTW!

[jinja]

there is ANOTHER way!

get your fishing up 2 like 150 in the orgrimmar pool if your alliance screw you *shakes fist!* then go to the wailing caverns and next to the cave there is a pool. keep fishing for ages until you have many deviate fish then sell them on the AH. on my server they sell very well. they are used in recipes and Savoury deviae delight. go 4 it!


Horde FTW!

Or buy the recipie and cook them! Thats what I do.

[TPMdm]

Or go to the neutral AH and sell them there for at least 2x the horde price

[caldepen]

- Beg (get enough gold to start buying low, selling high ( Always did dislike this one))

Do not BEG!!! Nothing more pathetic in the game then someone asking me for money. Sell the copper bars and start getting an idea how much things are going for and keep an eye out on the AH for deals and buy them and resell them. Between gathering and playing the AH you should have no problem making coin.

[Renata]

I agree -- don't beg. Fastest way onto people's ignore lists.

My Draenei hunter, off on her own server with no support from my 70s, had nearly 400g at level 40 from selling leather, ore, and ore's go-alongs (rocks and gems). I agree that you should also compare prices of ore to prices of bars. Also check the prices of bronze. On my hunter's server, you could buy copper bars and tin bars (not ore), combine them into bronze, and make a LOT of money due to the inflated price of bronze.

...Ren

[zynka]

Hi there! here's my 2 cents on early money making, pre level 15. In my experience, it's much easier to get rich alliance side than horde. I think certain raw materials are just more plentiful horde side, and market gets flooded.

First, you can pick up skinning at level three, all my characters are skinners until level 15 or so. You can skin rabbits, sheep, deer, cows, etc. immediately. Don't let one get away. One of my toons somewhere is a lw for just long enough to convert stacks of ruined leather into light leather, until another profession becomes more attractive. Plus a few armor kits makes a nice hp boost.
I like disposable professions, that you can drop after you have bootstrapped yourself with them.

Mining is definitely the early profession of money makers, but herbing can be profitable with enough earthroot and briarthorn. Not as quickly though.

Become a meat miner.
I sell all raw boar meat, stringy wolf meat, bear meat, etc. on AH.
Also clams. You can sell stacks of raw meat for a surprising amount. I have auctioneer, and the addon doesn't always believe me, but I list the stuff anyway, and it sells. 50s-1G for raw meat per stack, or clams, or small eggs, depending on server and market. I learn to fish for cooking, or just use the fish I get beating up murlocs for clams to sell. Save and sell those light feathers and long tail feathers too.
Some people skill up cooking with the spice bread recipe, I don't, because I hate buying anything that isn't super cheap, or that I didn't get for free. I look for slitherskin mackerel in ah to skill up, for less than 3-5 silvers/stack. Never buy food. I store food from mobs, and look for drinks, food crates everywhere.

My banker is also an enchanter, for disenchanting purposes only. That lets me disintegrate some clunkers. Usually a tailor also, up to skill 150. I don't work to develop that skill, I just let it happen while crafting things like shirts and brown linen robes to disenchant into strange dust if I have too much linen cloth. Also I like casters and hate paying for wands, if pricy.

Sell lots of cloth.

The faster you upgrade your bags, the faster you will get ahead. You need space to collect stuff to sell. Vendor every last gray item, and AH the white ones past level 4. People don't seem to buy white items for under 4, usually because they're not shopping that early. I can sell low white items for somewhere between 3-9 silvers each, not much admittedly, but it quadruples the money I had invested in them. I often buy white items for 2 silvers or less and mark up. Very much a believer in building wealth a silver at a time.

Make a banker character to mail to and a storage toon for cloth/leather.

Auctioneer is sure helpful, but I have made buckets of cash just looking stuff up on thottbot or allakhazam. I keep my browser running in the back, behind my game window.

Look for early gear, 6-20, with good stats, to buy and resell in AH. Buy commodities like cloth and leather, when plentiful during the weekends, and sell later during week. List for 48 hrs.

My record is to 750 G in 3 days in a good server economy. That's about double the usual, though.

[mesonm]

My record is to 750 G in 3 days in a good server economy. That's about double the usual, though.

Though you spent 90% of your post on skinning, tailoring, disenchanting, my guess is that 700 of the 750g came from reselling, which you only spent two lines on....

But, your info is solid.

I resell almost exclusively, and only use gathering and other things for entertainment.

[zynka]

You are probably right that the bulk of money came from reselling. But the set up money came from mining, meat, leather, cloth, and disenchanting ^_^
Had to have some money to buy stuff.

[mesonm]

You are probably right that the bulk of money came from reselling. But the set up money came from mining, meat, leather, cloth, and disenchanting ^_^
Had to have some money to buy stuff.

your point is well taken, but.....Not as much as you might think. I started with 20s, and have 200g now...at level 18.

[elsegundo]

i know that playing the market and finding a good deal will get you some quick cash. i recently found a mistake, and a guy was selling 9 silver bars for 10s. picked it up right away and relisted them for 1 gold each. if someone had that opportunity, then sure, i see them making a ton of gold and then having enough gold to buy up a lot of little things and relist them for higher. but i got lucky.

for those who arent as lucky, or arent willing to browse everything the AH has to offer, i think picking a target commodity (or a few) and sticking to it is the best way to go. its also part of the fun of the game.

[zynka]

Sure thing. But I prefer playing to the AH. So I spend about ten minutes bidding on stuff for resale every now and then, and go out and grind up my critters and quests while my money is working for me. Just a style preference I guess... not disputing your success.

[Ntrails]

Low level?

Deviate fish + copper.

Before I made a 'main' I made a twink rogue. To pay for gear/runs I had to make gold, so I levelled a priets to about 17-20 and mined like a crazy man and spent a few hours fishing in the barrens.

I needed the mining for engi levlling on tiwnk - but discovered its value. So sold extra for profit. Then using monies from fish and ore I bought and sold items that I was used to. So enchanting mats and blues that I was personally needing, I watched values, then learnt highs and lows, buy and resell.

Also - one notable occasion. I bought out all the malachite on a friday night for 10-20silver and relisted all at 1g a piece. about 15 sold for that 1g. Beware, trying this can result in expensive results. Especially if you try on a more expensive level (i.e. primals).

[ViciousViceroy]

Also - one notable occasion. I bought out all the malachite on a friday night for 10-20silver and relisted all at 1g a piece. about 15 sold for that 1g. Beware, trying this can result in expensive results. Especially if you try on a more expensive level (i.e. primals).

Here is the trink that worked wonders for me on my second server. Build up 50g or so by mining and reselling ore. Once you have a bit of change to work with, pick a market to controll like Ntrails said. The best I have found are mid level enchanting mats. Greater Nether essences and Greater eternal essence seem to be the best on my server/since they are harder to farm then the dusts. Start buying out the once on the AH and reposting them for 3g more or so.

On madaron Perfect Deviate Scales are selling for upwards of two gold a peice, they arent too hard to farm yourself. While in the enterence to WC keep your eyes open for a rare spawn that drops a blue axe that will sell for 15-20g on the AH too.

[elsegundo]

Low level?

Deviate fish + copper.


its a little more difficult on a pvp server though. i find that for alliance, there's no lowbie fish that they can catch that will sell like deviate fish. so until you can solo the instance to the pool (which isnt too far from the entrance at all) you'll have to find something else besides deviate fish at level 20. but only in a pvp server-alliance. otherwise, this tactic works well.

[Vandir]

Hmm... after reading this thread, I think I should level my fishing. I could just stealth through the instance, I guess. (I am Balance spec, I don't have a choice.) I'm at level 2 Fishing, so... any suggestions of where to fish?

[elsegundo]

lol start in cities if you're level 2. (leveling up fishing is different from other skills, as there's no "gray" fish to catch, you can level up all the way to 375 inside a city.) im guessing you're a night elf and you want to try the deviate fish route for early easy gold.

at around fishing level 100 you should be able to catch fish in WC. bring lures just in case. hehe. inside the instance i think i get a 20% rate on deviate fish. you'll get a lot of other fish in there as well. my fav spot is inside the cave opposite the entrance of WC, where the final boss would appear. its empty so you wont have mob troubles.

actually let me correct myself. you can start fishing in WC a whole lot earlier. start at 50 skill and bring at +25 lure. once you get to about fishing level 80, you should be able to catch all the fish there without a lure. so you really dont need that many lures. and catching fish at your level will require about 1-3 catches per 1 fishing skill level. lures last 10 minutes. so bring two or three lures and you're all set.

[Mtal]

lol start in cities if you're level 2. (leveling up fishing is different from other skills, as there's no "gray" fish to catch, you can level up all the way to 375 inside a city.) im guessing you're a night elf and you want to try the deviate fish route for early easy gold.

at around fishing level 100 you should be able to catch fish in WC. bring lures just in case. hehe. inside the instance i think i get a 20% rate on deviate fish. you'll get a lot of other fish in there as well. my fav spot is inside the cave opposite the entrance of WC, where the final boss would appear. its empty so you wont have mob troubles.

actually let me correct myself. you can start fishing in WC a whole lot earlier. start at 50 skill and bring at +25 lure. once you get to about fishing level 80, you should be able to catch all the fish there without a lure. so you really dont need that many lures. and catching fish at your level will require about 1-3 catches per 1 fishing skill level. lures last 10 minutes. so bring two or three lures and you're all set.

Thanks guys for all the advice. I have been using the copper and fishing route actually, and is working well. Oh I been also doing for deviate fish too. Where I usually fish for them are the different oasis in the Barrons (though not too many pools seem to spawn that much). Quick question, is there a better chance to catch them inside the instance at WC, or the water before you get into the Instance, in the cave? And if in the Instance, were (yeah I do know that room with the last boss, there is a nice sise pool of water in there, but if I recall there other pools of water in WC, like a river, etc....)? Oh in the instance, do I look for a school of fish, or just fish away?

Actually cooking is helping too. I got the recipie for cooking deviate fish in a drop and those sell really well too.

I hear you all about the action house, I just have to study it more and see what would work for me.

Thanks again.

[elsegundo]

Mtal, you can only fish where you can cast a line. the river's water is not deep enough, but if you walk into the main cave with the raptors and crocs, and go down and make a right turn, you'll pass by some crocs. to the left (before the next main room) there will be a pool. you can fish there too. watch out for one or two crocs that will wander by, but that pool has deviate fish too. i'd rather fish inside the instance because its quiet and the drop rate is about 20-30% deviate fish, and i think 15% firefin snappers. the rest are mudsnappers and something else (slitherskin makerals? maybe). there are no "pools" of deviate fish inside the instance. but then again, i'd rather just sit there and fish instead of running back and forth looking for pools of deviate fish.