The Easiest Way to Make More Gold
The things that make a big difference, overall, to a character’s wealth, are the small habits that earn you gold almost automatically while you play. As I already discussed, the right professions are a very prominent example.
This (shorter) article discusses a much simpler, but equally important aspect: your bag space. Everyone fills their bags, frequently. When this happens, a lot of the trash (and other!) loot which make up a large portion of the gold you make on dungeon runs and such gets left behind. Not just that, but deciding which loot to leave behind slows you down. More space means you will loot more and sell more. Simple.
Dungeon runs have a built in cost (repair bills) and a built in profit (random loots) which can offset this. Once repair bills have been deducted, everything left is profit. So a seemingly small thing like 25% extra money on all dungeon runs (a few extra bag spots = a lot more money, as we all have a lot of stuff we carry around permanently) makes a big difference. And it’s cumulative. Set it up well and you never need worry about it.
How to get Bag Space
Well, here’s the obvious one — buy bigger bags! Ok, so I don’t expect a Nobel Prize for this revelation — but you really should weigh up the benefits of going for 18 or 20 slot bags. (I’m assuming everyone has at least full 16 slot bags).
Whether it’s worth it or not is different for everyone, but generally — especially if you do a lot of dungeon runs or farming — it is going to be a worthwhile investment.
Spring Clearance
Upgrading your bags is not the only way to get at more bag space. To stand a chance at succeeding, you need to remove all the clutter from your character. You need to completely clear (stringently!) both char and your bank (and by the way, paying for bank bag slots is also generally a good idea). Possibly, you need to set up a mule alt.
Dealing with space issues slows you down. That’s bad. Not being able to pick stuff up costs you gold. That’s also bad. You need to make this efficient.
Step 1: AutoProfit: There is a WoW Mod called AutoProfit. This is pretty handy, and well worth installing. This mod will basically automatically sell all the vendor-trash loot in all your bags, with just one click. Go get it. Do it now!
Step 2: Anything You Don’t NEED! — Anything you don’t need, and I mean in the immediate future, needs to go into the bank, or even just get rid of it. Be realistic about what you need. People generally hate to waste something, so we end up with stuff like very situational use consumables, 1 piece of old, low-level food that gives a small stat increase, etc. We think oh, I won’t throw it away — I’ll just use it up quickly. If you are harboring useless consumables, ditch them. The time it will take you to use them is just too epic.
Step 3: Get Everything in Order: When you pick something up, it goes into the furthest bag to the right. It’s much easier to quickly empty your bags then it is to separate useful and useless items, one by one. Take everything in your bags, decide if you can possibly leave it out, and put the things you really do need to keep on your person in the furthest bag(s) to the left. That way you know everything in the right bags can (generally) be sold.
Apply the same process to your bank. If you saved it for situational use, think about if you ever will use it. If not, sell it or find someone to dust it. Bank space means you can offload stuff easily from your main character. We’re aiming for an efficient pitstop in cities here! If you have a lot of tradeskill relevant stuff, consider getting tradeskill bags.
Don’t save useless stuff you’re never going to use for ’sentimental’ reasons. Just don’t. It’s stupid, and you’re not genuinely attached. Get rid of it.
It’s often a good idea to have a mule for selling. I do, and I recommend it. Some people have multiple mules. Set these up, give them some gold to start with, buy them a load of bags (bank and normal), and find a decent mail mod — one that lets you easily mail 20 things at once to your alt. Again, just get it done.
If you get this right then you can come into town, immediately post almost everything from your right bags to your AH mule, put anything BoP that you want to keep immediately into your bank (WITHOUT spending 20 minutes deciding what to replace) and you’re good to go again. Using your AH mule is also a lot easier than your existing char, as you know that everything on him wants to go on sale. Again, look at good AH mods — these make your life a lot easier. (I might do an article just on this subject in the future).