Gold Farmers Allow You To Buy Gold & Are Everywhere!

Do Not Buy WoW Gold, Buy A Gold Guide Instead

By no means am I a supporter of selling or buying gold in World of Warcraft.  For starters, buying and selling in-game gold are both offenses that can get your WoW account banned forever.  Secondly, it is too easy to learn to make gold on your own, especially if you are a reader of gold blogs and or a listener of gold making podcasts. 

If you really want to spend real world cash on gold, I would strongly encourage purchasing a quality gold guide instead.  If you buy a gold guide and learn the tactics for making gold yourself, you will not put your account in jeopardy and you will be able to make gold forever.  If you buy wow gold, then you will eventually run out of the gold you bought.  Then you will be forced to buy even more gold, since you learned nothing for sustaining your gold stream because you bought the gold instead of learning how to make gold from a gold guide or gold blogs.

Check out some of these great gold making guides instead of buying WoW gold.

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Gold Farmers Who Sell WoW Gold - Eye Witness Report

Last weekend I was taking my girlfriend to get her pedicure at a local nail salon and spa, when I ran across something I had never seen before in person.  This nail salon was ran by a Chinese family, as is common for nail shops in the US.  While waiting and observing the store, I noticed a younger Chinese man playing a game on his laptop.  Then I noticed that he had 4 more laptop computers scattered around the couches and counters around the waiting area.  I quickly realized he wasn't playing on the laptop in front of him, as he would constantly get up and attend to each of the various 5 laptops. 

I inched closer and got a peek at the computer screen closest to me.  Yep, exactly what I had pondered.  Each laptop was running 3-4 smaller windows of World of Warcraft and other games.  Each laptop had 3-4 bots farming gold and materials and this guy had a 5 laptop set-up.  That totals up to 15-25 bots working together to gather game gold and items to sell for real life cash.  I was sitting and waiting in the center of a full fledged multi-gaming gold farming operation, set up in the front of a St. Louis nail salon!  Who would have thought that my trip to get my girlfriend a pedicure would lead me to cross paths with a gold farming set-up?

Did I think to myself, "Oh, what an ingenious idea!"?  Nope.  I thought about what a scumbag this guy is contributing to ruining in-game economies across multiple games.  It was my first real look at the insights of an actual gold farmer and his gold farming operation and while it was interesting to me, it was also appalling at the same time.  Hell, maybe we will cross paths again inside Diablo III and their RMT auction house.

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide To Get You Started. This Guide Can Be Applied To Multiple Markets Not Just Barking MFCs.

Ideal Alts Series | The Herder AoE Farmer

Ideal Alts Series - The Herder

Ideal Alts Series

We've already discussed The Dungeon Farmer and The Collector, which are both excellent options for your factory of alts.  If I were a new player looking to make my first alt new character today, The Collector would be the type of character I would make.  It is an excellent choice for expanding into both the pet and recipe flipping markets as well as the Inscription market selling glyphs and Mysterious Fortune Cards.  Both can be excellent income sources for any gold making player.  Today's Ideal Alt is focusing on The Ideal AoE Farmer Alt - The Herder.

Ideal Alt - The Herder

This was once a very fun alt character for me.  It was a lot of fun during Burning Crusade when this type of character was my main, before I switched to my current Deathknight main character. 

Role:  The Herder - is a farming character, but is a farming specialist.  The Herder can round up large numbers of mobs and survive the onslaught while killing wave after wave of humanids, dragonkin, beasts and more with the AoE abilities and the healing skills that Herders possess.  The Herder is the farmer that doesn't kill things one at a time.  They kill things 5, 10, 20 at a time.  Herders looking for locations with mobs that are closely packed together or in groups.  This allows for maximum benefit for the AoE abilities they posses.

Class:  Paladin is in my opinion the best AoE farmer for an Ideal Alt.  Many players may choose a Mage as the best AoE farming alt, but I disagree.  You can overcome one of the major drawbacks of using the Paladin, it's short range, with one of the profession selections.  A Paladin has some excellent AoE abilities as well as some stacking-DoTs and has the survivability to endure the major damage received as a Herder Alt.  You will be Protection specced similar to a tank, but with talents focusing on mobility as well as AoE damage and survivability.  Something similar to a 0/31/10 Paladin Herder Build would be what you are aiming for.

Race:  Horde - Tauren  / Alliance - Dwarf 
The Tauren is the ideal choce for the extra 5% base health and the AoE stun Warstomp.  Dwarfs are another good option for Stoneform.

Professions:  Goblin Engineering and Skinning
By giving this Ideal AoE Farming Alt Goblin Engineering, we can both further increase the AoE damage and stunning options and also greatly increase the pulling distance with the Engineer Only Rockets.  The Engineer only extra shield belt attachment as well as the rocket speed boost are also excellent additions to the increased survivability and mobility that The Herder Ideal Alt is centered on. 

Skinning because you are a farming character and the sheer numbers of mobs you can kill in quick order make skinning a much better farming option then mining or herbalism.  Then again, you could choose Tailoring over Skinning if your main purpose was cloth farming off of humanoids.  As a Tailor you would get extra cloth from your Cloth Scavenging ability once you hit Northrend.

This is really a fun Ideal Alt to play as you can herd up massive numbers of creatures, zap ones that are far away with your rocket, speed boost for faster herdings of even larger herds of mobs, and tons of other fun tricks.  Creating massive trains of mobs that all stack around you is a lot of fun, especially once you start to take those massive numbers of attacks all at once.  Better burn em down quick!

As an Engineer you have plenty of ways to empty your bags without leaving your farming spot either.  Toss in a Traveler's Tundra Mammoth and you may never need to even go to town.  If you decide to go with this Herder Alt build, you can really do some amazing things with an item like a Demon-Forged Breastplate and a Skullflame Shield.  I would try to collect those 2 items for the alt before I started leveling it.  Trust me, you can do some amazing pulls with built in drains.  You have so many mobs pounding on you at once, that there are soo many RNG rolls for the proc that a lot of times you will visually see them procc multiple times each pull.  Once you get the correct level and reputation, upgrade your shield to the Petrified Lichen Guard with a Shield Spike and it gets even nastier.  Those poison DoTs stack up and inflict the many attackers that are already on your Consecration, while you Hammer them down.  This build is all about letting the mobs kill themselves in addition to the AoE damage.  It is possible to lose you connection and log back in to all dead mobs surrounding you.

Ideal Alt - The Herder AoE Farmer

• Tauren
• Protection Paladin (0/31/10)
• Engineer
• Skinner
• Survival Specialist
• AoE Specialist
• Ground and Mounted Mobility Specialist
• Massive Kills per Hour
• Independent - Engineering Services
• Engineering Portals to Northrend Farming Zones
• Loot-a-Rang - Ranged Looting and Engineering Utility
• Engineering Pet Seller
• Can Farm Anything Mob Related
• Also great option for Profitng From GlowCaps since you want the Sporeggar reputation shield anyways.

Be sure to check out the other entries in the Ideal Alts Series and catch Wes and I discussing them on The Auction House Junkies | WoW Gold Makers Podcast.

Who has a different option for an Ideal Alt that is a Herder AoE Farmer?

Ideal Alt - Tank AoE Herder

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Ideal Alts Series

• Ideal Alts Series Intro | Wes’s Building A Better Bank Alt
• The Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Heroic Farming Alt
• The Collector – An Ideal Vendor Flipping and Pet Selling Alt
• The Herder – An Ideal AoE Farmer Alt
• The Low Level Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Alt For Farming Low Level Instances
• The Solo Raider and World Boss Killer

Hiring Low Level Farming Mules

Hiring Farmers

Have an item you need for crafting, but can't find the time to go farm it yourself?  Try hiring a lower level character to farm it for you. 

We all were noobies in World of Warcraft at some point.  Some of you haven't been playing very long.  Others, like myself, have been around since Vanilla WoW.  While swimming in hundreds of thousands of gold, we easily forget where we came from.  Remember the first time you had to save for your very first mount and how hard it was to make gold back then as a low level character?

Well you can help someone out by contracting them to farm for you.  You can get your materials delivered to you while spreading some gold to the low level character you hire.  Often times these low level players will turn into longer term farmers for you.  They know you have plenty of gold to pay them and some will continue to farm for you well into their leveling process.

Tips For Finding and Keeping Lowbie Farmers

These low level characters willing to farm for gold won't just come knocking at your door.  You have to seek them out.  Once you find them, you have to nurture your relationship.  You need to be supportive, helpful, and you need to be prompt when paying.  Keep your farmers happy and you will be more productive and more profitable with your auction house crafting business.

1. Bark In Trade Chat "Looking For Level XX Player Who Needs Help Making Gold." - Pick a level around the same level as the mobs you need them to farm.  Ex:  If you need Spider's Silk, find a character around the same level as the spider's that drop the Spider's Silk.  Why?  Characters that are getting XP while earning gold for you tend to farm for longer.
2. Offer A Fair Wage - Don't try to underpay your lowbie farmers.  Although they may not understand the true value of the items they are farming for you, make sure your pay is fair, above the average sale price, if you can fit it into your profit scheme. 
3. Send An In Game Email Follow Up - Make sure you follow up your verbal agreement with a written contract through the in-game email system.  Why?  This helps them remember who you are and where to send the items when finished.  Teach them how to send items COD to you, if the don't understand the process.  If they are mailing the items to a different character, be sure to include that information in this follo-up email.
4. Make a Friend | Don't Hire A Slave - Treat your new farmer as a friend or business partner.  Don't boss him around like he's your slave.  Remember your farmer is free to leave at any time.  If you treat him poorly, he may be working for your competition next week!
5. If You Choose To Re-List, Do It On An Alt - So you have extra materials left over or the price has spiked and you want to unload a few for quick profits.  Don't relist them on your same character!  Change to an alternate character before relisting your farmers items.  You don't want him selling you Spider's Silks for 3g each and then have him see you selling them for 10 gold each on the Auction House.
6. Show You Care - To keep your farmers extra happy to be working with you, send them some gifts occasionally.  All lowbies can use some nice enchants, gear upgrades, or vanity pets.  Remember a lot of these players are close to broke and will appreciate any assistance or freebies you can reward them with.  Setting up an incentive plan for bonuses at certain levels.  I like to give a bonus if they send me a full 12 stack email.  Let them know the incentive plan and they will work harder for you so they can reach these free bonuses.

I have employed lowbie farmers at certain times when the supply of certain materials isn't keeping up with the demand for my crafted products.  I have used lowbie farmers to assist me with various resources such as:

• Small Eggs
• Spider's Silk
• Large Fangs
• Pearls
• Arcane Crystals
• Heavy Hides
• Glowcaps
• Rugged Leather

So if you just can't find what you are looking for on the auction house, next time consider hiring a lowbie to farm it for you.

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Follow Up From the Exploring Your Farmers

This is a follow-up to my last post Exploring Your Trade Chat Dealers.

So I had hoped to log in, jump on my skinner, and run straight to the mailbox to see how many stacks of Borean Leather I had COD to me.  Lo and Behold there wasn't a single Stack in the mail.  *sigh*

I hope that our offer still stands and that he is just gathering more before he bulk mails them out.  All in all, at least I tried to set something up.  Dealing with potential suppliers is such a wavering relationship because at any time, they can find someone else who will pay more.  Or they wise up to the prices they are setting.  Or they decide to use the items themselves to make even more profit.  Man I love it when I have cheap goods coming in daily.  It makes crafting for profit so much easier.

Oh well, at least I tried.  Maybe I will be surprised tonight when I log in.

Exploring Your Trade Chat Dealers

Always be on the lookout for people selling materials in trade chat.  You can get some really good deals because usually the people advertising in trade are wanting a quick sale.  Try to feel them out and get an idea, if they will let you.  Maybe you can set up something where they will continue to sell to you.  For example, this was the basics of a player I met this morning in trade chat.

Him:  /2 WTS 4x Frozen Orb.
   I usually buy these out 20g and under and flip to Eternal Fire and sell for 30-35g per.  AH had the Orbs at 26g at the time.  So instead of offering him an amount...
Me:  How much would you take for all 4?
Him:  80g
Me:  I will give you 75g for all 4.
Him:  Ok
  Score.  I just got 4 for less than I usually buy them out.  Big deal, right?  Now I continued to explore him.
Me:  Do have any other good deals?
Him:  I have stacks of Borean Leather and 1 Arctic Fur.
Me:  How much for your stacks of Borean Leather?
Him:  5g per stack.  50g for the Fur.
    5 per stack is super low, these stay over 12-14g per stack, almost always on the AH.
Me:  I'll take all your stacks of Borean for 5g each.
   So he sold me 9 stacks of Borean for 5g each and tossed in a stack of 18 Borean Leathers as a "bonus" as he called it.
  So thinking ahead, I explored it a little further.
Me:  So are you a skinner?
Him:  Sure am!
Me:  Nice, are you going to be selling anymore skins?  If so I will continue to pay for 5g per stack, and you can COD them too me anytime, any amount and I will buy same day or next.
Him:  Sweet!  Sounds good.  I'm going to go farm some more right now.  I can probably get you 50 or so stacks today and I will Send them to you tonight.
Me:  Sounds great.
Him:  Added you to friends and will send them tonight.  Thank you Very Much!
Me:  Thank you too!


Can't wait to see if he becomes a reliable source.
Lesson Learned?  Don't just get your good deal and move on.  With a little exploration, you just might find even better deals or, better yet, you may find yourself a low priced supplier.  Just remember to be courteous, polite, and fair.

Farmers = Friends

One of the ways that allows me to continue to make a good profit, is be befriending farmers. Farmer used to be a nasty word, but learn to take advantage of random farmers. This is a lot easier since the addition of Note tags for your friends list.

Next time you are at the auction house and notice the same person selling a lot of stacks of the items you are buying, try to contact them to set up a steady flow of incoming materials. After you buy them all out off the AH, send then a quick email in game, asking to skip the AH and COD the items directly to you for a price clsoe to their buyout price. You can create a win-win situation here. Not only do you save the farmer time and money, you also can get a lower price, thanks to the removal of AH fees. I usually send a quick email that says, "I will buy X item for X gold per stack. COD them to me any amount anytime." Some farmers supplying me daily. Others supply me sporadically. Either way it a big bonus for any crafter / shuffler.

This allows a smart farmer to maximize time and profits. Avoiding the AH fee, avoiding the time it takes to post on the AH, and allowing the ability to MAIL COD to remove items from bag slots. So when the farmer fills his bags he can just visit the closest mailbox, instead of a major city with an AH. Depending on the farming location, this can be a HUGE advantage.

As a bonus, sometimes you will continue to get items COD to you at pre-patch prices after the value has gone up. :)

This process is most easily done with the farmers of raw materials, such as: Ore, Bars, Cloth, Food, etc.