Friday, April 24, 2009

Making Money as a Lowbie

I'm once again working on speed testing one of Jame's guides, and as such I have handicapped myself by starting on a brand new server with a brand new character. I wanted to share some thoughts about how I've already made over 100 gold without doing a damn thing, and Mokrana is only level 21.

How? Well, first off I picked up skinning as a profession. This gets gold from nothing, basically. It takes pretty much zero extra time, and generates leather which can be sold. I also picked up herbalism, but I'm allowing it to fall behind and not going out of my way to pick up herbs. But I still got a bit of a boost from it.

I also am NOT doing first aid, because frankly as a class with a heal I see no point. Some people still level it, but never will on classes that can heal themselves. But this does mean I have a bit more cloth lying around.

Most importantly, I have an auctioneer alt. Some of you might think, well that's cheating, she spends time on that toon that isn't showing up on her main toon. But the reallity is that while my auctioneer may have a significant time clocked on her /played, I actually waste very little time on her. Here is how it usually goes:
  1. Mokrana mails all her crap that could possibly make money to the auctioneer, including: Cloth, leather, herbs, other trade goods, food materials, and greens or other BoE gear. It helps if you have an idea of what makes good money (such as [Spider Silk])
  2. I log into the auctioneer something like once a week, check the mail. My addon "Postal" opens everything automatically and puts it in my inventory.
  3. I go to the auction house and hit my addon "Auctioneer"'s scan button, and leave the computer to go do something else for the 10-20 minutes the scan takes.
  4. I come back and use the very very simple "Simple Auction" function of Auctioneer to quickly post any sellable items I may have. I check as I go briefly to make sure I'm not selling something for less than the vendor price. I could probably make more money if I spent some more time fiddling with prices, but honestly the point is to make the most money in the least possible time spent - we want to spend time on leveling, not making money!
  5. I log out, then come back on in a few days and open the auctioneer's mailbox. Postal automatically transfers around 50 gold to my bags. If there are any unsold auctions, I either repost them (if I think they will sell) or just vendor the crap.
It's simple, fast, and most importantly, easy! With this, Mokrana already has 16 slot bags and enough money to get her mount at level 30. Remember, if you want to use this strategy, you'll need the addons Auctioneer and Postal. Both can be found at Curse.com.

6 comments:

  1. This is what I do as well. I'd never heard of the "Postal" addon though, I'll have to grab that. Thanks!

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  2. I'm not sure what version of auctioneer you're using, but I know that they have a quick scan feature that takes 1-2 minutes. Can you not do that or do you like how the slow scan picks up the names of the sellers of every single item in the auction house? :P

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  3. Ooooo that sounds wonderful! I've decided to NOT feel stupid for not knowing this, and instead be glad that I posted so that you could give me this great tip ;)

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  4. PS Where exactly can this quick scan option be found?

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  5. Assuming you are using the latest version of Auctioneer Advanced, you'll see a fast forward button that looks like double arrows right to the right of the search box on the first tab. Also, if I remember correctly, it's blue if you've never used it before. :P If you can't find it, there's always the chat command, which is "/auc getall". Happy moneymaking!

    On a side note, the quick scan feature can sometimes D/C your client if you are in a busy place, have a slow internet connection, or have a slow computer. Of course, it has never happened to me before, but I feel that a warning to the possible dangers is always welcomed.

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  6. PS Sorry for the late reply. I try to reply to any messages directed at me as soon as possible. Albeit sometimes I have no way of knowing someone gave me a message.

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