I got kinda bored, so I wrote up this guide for beginners (some pretty basic tricks in here, advanced players probably won't find anything they don't already know) to learn how to work the AH.

This guide is mainly used for 1-60, since I have no experience with professions after 60 (check my Armory, I have literally no professions and that's the way I want it because I told some old guildies that I could get my Swift Epic without them)

I've made several alts in my day, and I usually try to see how much gold I can get before level 40 (+60% speed mount). My highest so far is 200g at 40 on a pretty decently populated server (Gilneas).

Anyways, on with the show.

Professions: How to Handle a Knife

The basic rule of getting gold is get two professions that focus on nothing but getting materials to sell on the AH (Auction House). The three professions in the game that focus on this are Skinning, Mining, and Herbalism. In this guide I will talk about Skinning and Mining since I am most familiar with those, but if anyone wishes to add an Herbalism portion I will be more than glad to add it.

Also, keep in mind to purchase a profession it will cost 10 copper, which isn't much. Exceptions to this are First Aid, Jewelcrafting, and probably something else (feel free to correct me here), which cost 1 silver. All professions require level 5.

Skinning

Skinning is the art of slaying beasts and skinning them for leather. Leather sells decently (not as much as bars and ores), but considering how easy it is to level up and collect materials it balances out. Most, if not all, beasts and Yetis/Worgen/etc. will be skinnable. One exception that shines to me are some of the scorpions in the Field of Giants of Southern Barrens (the Swarmers are skinnable, the other ones [Creepers, I think] are not). Keep in mind that Yetis (Humanoid mobs that are big and, well, Yeti-like) are skinnable, as are Worgens (werewolf-esque mobs). There might be some other but I can't think of them right now.

Mining

Mining is the art of taking a pick to a vein and collecting ores, stones, and gems. Gems are rare in veins and can be in any vein. When purchasing the profession, you get the ability to "track" veins. This means that little yellow dots will appear on your minimap that tell you where veins are. In addition to normal veins (Copper, Tin, etc.) there is a chance to have a "rare" vein spawn instead (Silver veins can spawn instead of Tin). Rare spawn ores are usually "green" in color rarity (their name will be green to note that they are rarer than others)

The Auction House: Tricks of the Trade

So you're level 5 and you bought your knife and pick from the General Goods vendor. Now what?

Before you begin slaughtering mobs and ripping off their very skin, I strongly recommend you creation an "auction alt". An auction alt is simply another character on the same server that sits by the mailbox in a major city and sells your materials for you. With the release of Blood Elves, they are the best choice as auction alts because their main city is very close to their starting zone and the mailbox is literally about 30 yards away from the house. The next best choice would be Undead, but their mailbox is considerably further away.

An auction alt isn't required, more of a convenience. Without having to walk from your leveling zone and your major city you can A) Level faster and B) Get more items to sell. Yes, it does take an hour to send items to your alt but it's well worth it. Whenever you log on or log off, check your auction alt first to make sure there aren't any auctions that have sold or items that have come in the mail, and then put them up for the next time you log on/log off. Keep in mind gold is sent instantly so you won't have to wait if you need the money now. Another thing to note is that if you use UI addons that you configure it so none of them are on when you log onto your alt, that way you will only take a couple of seconds to log in.

To configure it, click the 'Addons' button in the bottom left corner of your Character Selection screen, go up to the top-left corner and there should be a little pull down menu that says Configure or something. Click your alt's name, and then click disable all. Also, make sure you add your main's name onto your alt's friend list and vice versa so when you send gold or items you can just press the first letter of their name and it fills it in. One last thing, I'd suggest keeping one to two gold on your alt for selling auctions.

Now that you have a couple of Light Leather and Copper Ores/Bars to sell, let's start auctioning. On younger servers, the prices will seem drastically low, usually 5-10s for Leather and 10-20s for Copper; don't be discouraged. Keep in mind that your spells only cost one or two silver at a low level so you won't be spending too much, and you'll have your first gold in no time. I can't guarantee that on younger servers you'll have your mount money by 30-35, but you most likely will at 40 (I say most likely because you may be a naturally fast leveler or people just don't buy things). On older servers, it's MUCH easier, because most people are either power-leveling professions or twinking characters.

It's time you learn about the best thing to do during an auction: Undercutting. Undercutting is when you look at the highest stacked item with the lowest price and place your item with an even lower price (use your own judgement, if it's like 40s I usually do 5s undercutting; if it's 2g I usually do 25-50s). You only need to worry about the buyout price, but that's not to say you should make your bid price extremely low.

Materials: Bars or Ores?

You may be wondering whether you should sell bars or ores, or scraps or pure leather. For skinning, I'd suggest you vendor scraps or send them to a LWer friend and just sell the leather. As for bars and ores, when you're first starting out with Mining you want to smelt to get your skill up. You should keep smelting and selling the bars until your 'Smelt <mineral>' ability is grey. At this point, sell what bars you have and just work on selling ores.

You may be asking, "What's the difference?". With the introduction of Jewelcrafting, ores are the higher selling item because of Prospecting (an ability that allows you to destroy ores to find gems, similar to Enchanting's Disenchant, which allows you to destroy good quality items for "essences" and "shards" which are used in Enchanting).

Greens, Blues, and Epics, oh my!

While adventuring through the World of Warcraft you're guaranteed to find a BoE (Bind on Equip) green (not really guaranteed to find a blue or epics, though D: [an epic is an item with a purple name that has epic quality stats, usually found in raids but there are some BoEs.). You may be wondering what to do with these amazing items. With greens, I would vendor them and AH blues and purples because you will upgrade them sooner or later and the gold will take you a lot further than they will. Some older players at this point are probably saying, "Wtf? Vendor them? fxxing nubz lr2nzplay omgz!!!11two"

Vendoring is a term used for selling items to a shop NPC. Greens give good silver, and vendoring is usually the best choice when you get a green that isn't an upgrade to you. When you get an item that you're curious whether you should vendor or not, look into these:

- Does it have unwanted stats? Usually this consists of one stat and Spirit; of the Whale, of the Wolf, of the Boar gear all have Spirit, which is usually unwanted. One exception to this is of the Owl gear, which has Intellect and Spirit - a good combo for a healing player. Usually Spirit gear will not sell on the AH because no one wants it, and you certainly don't want it, so you should just vendor it.

- Does it have a low level? Items with a required level of 10-15 are usually unwanted because they are upgraded very easily and serve no real purpose except for a substitute. Items with a required level of 17-19, 27-29, etc. are usually very wanted especially if they have stats with Stamina (of the Monkey, of the Eagle, etc.) for people who wish to "twink" (twinking is a term used for people who stay in one bracket of battlegrounds at the highest level with the best gear so they can destroy other people easily).

Cloth: Wtf do I do with it?

If you're someone with First Aid, and you most likely are, you should keep all the cloth and use it towards that until you can make better bandages. If you're not a First Aid, it's simple when deciding what to do with it:

Linen - Vendor
Wool+ - AH

The reasoning for this is because Wool, Silk, Mageweave and Runecloth are all used in gaining reputation with major cities, which is what people who want mounts do, or people who want to power level First Aid. Linen is not used in reputation, thus it's safe to vendor.

[ Last edited by  rosehebe at 25-5-2007 08:59 ]