Making Gold with Vanity Item Vending

One of the better ways to make some extra gold with Alchemy is by selling vanity items–particularly if you’re going to show off a little to draw in customers. These items can do anything from turning your into stone to making you grow to outrageous sizes, and they are pretty fun to use and abuse in towns.

There’s quite a few vanity items out there, but I’m going to be focusing on what I consider to be the three most profitable. These items are all both easy to craft and sell very quickly.

DEEPSTONE OIL

This item requires Cataclym and can be acquired through training. Once a player uses this oil, they are completely frozen in place regardless of what they were doing before.

This oil is pretty easy to make, too, as players will have a possibility of crafting 1-2 every time. In order to begin, you will need an Albino Cavefish. Unfortuantly, these can be a hassle to obtain manually as you can only grab them from Deepholm fish pools.

Unless a player is really struggling for gold, I would recommend buying them off your local Auction House for the sake of simplicity.

On my server, Deepstone Oil is going for around 18-20g while one Albino Cavefish is going for around 8-9g. Not a bad trade-off!

This oil is an awesome seller, and it works well in crowded towns during the peak hours. Curious players will come up and beg for this oil without me ever having to list it in the Auction House!

ELIXER OF GIANT GROWTH

This is definitely my favorite. Just as the name suggests, this elixer will make you grow significantly beyond your normal size for a period of time. It’s a GREAT way to attract attention, and new players are absolutely fascinated by it.

Although it used to be fairly expensive, you can find this recipe in the Auction House right now for under 10g on most servers. With the release of Cataclysm, the droprate was significantly buffed.

For one of these elixers, you will need the following mats:

• 1 Earthroot
• 1 Crystal Vial
• 1 Deviate Fish

Because this is such an attention grabber, it is very easy to sell. I can use it while I’m chilling out at the Auction House, or even while I’m running back and forth between the bank, and I will have a small crowd of buyers following me as I go. This is best paired with a rare mount for even more attention.

POTION OF ILLUSION

This is another really fun potion that can confound and amaze newer players. I like pairing this one with the Elixer of Giant Growth for added effect and lulz. The magic of this potion will turn your toon temporarily into someone else, regardless of how they appear.

This potion can work with transformations too! Although you can use the illusion potion on players using mount spells such as Sandstorm Drake, you cannot actually fly. It still looks cool, though!

To craft the Potion of Illusion, you will need the following:

• 3 Volatile Life
• 1 Azsharas Veil

This potion is also easy to make as you will have the possibility of crafting two each time. On days with little competition, I can peddle these potions for around 34-36g.

Although these three items are definitely my top sellers on my alchemy alt, there are a lot of great vanity items out there to choose from. The best thing to remember is that these types of items sell a lot better when people can actually see the effects for themselves before buying. It’s like window shopping, only with potions. A lot of auctioneers also tend to forget that their trade chat even exists, which is a big NO-NO. Although you always have the danger of having your trade chat invaded by barrens chat, most people legitimately use this channel to search for deals.

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Making Gold with Archaeology

Since the beginning of cataclysm, Archaeology has been somewhat shunned by the gold farming community. This is partially due to the nature of the profession–it can be pretty tedious at times–and then also because it has gotten a bad reputation as a gold sink.

Despite all beliefs otherwise, Archaeology can actually be a pretty decent gold farming opportunity!

Don’t get me wrong, you probably won’t be funding your main with it, but it can be a nice and easy way to make some extra gold while you’re already out and about in the world.

SO HOW DO I ACTUALLY MAKE GOLD WITH ARCHAEOLOGY

While you’re out digging, you may run accross some uncommon keystones. There is a different keystone for each race, and when combined with keystone slotted relics, it can save other players a lot of time.
Keystones

• Vrykul Rune Stick | Vrykuls (Northrend)
• Nerubian Obelisk | Nerubian (Northrend)
• Tol’vir Hieroglyphic | Tol’virs (Uldum)
• Troll Tablet | Trolls (Eastern Kingdoms)
• Dwarf Rune Stone | Dwarfs (Eastern Kingdoms)
• Highborne Scroll | Night Elves (Kalimdor)
• Orc Blood Text | Orc (Outlands)
• Draenei Tome | Draenei (Outlands)

These special keystones can be used by other players for the worth of around 12 fragments–that’s an entire digsite!
For players leveling Archaeology, these keystones can really save some frustration and time. The best relics to partner these keystones with have three slots, but they are pretty rare.
If you run across these relics while digging, I would recommend parting with them as they are not BoP and sell for rediculously high in the Auction House. I’ve easily sold Tol’vir Hieroglyphics for around 810g each.

BUFFING UP YOUR GOLD FARMING

The best profit that I’ve seen (other than peddling my rare relics, of course) is selling off keystones for the daily dungeon quests. Because the completion of the quest gives the party a special buff for the dungeon, these keystones can be pretty profitable.

Unfortuantly, only players with the Archaeology profession can actually complete these dailies, but more and more players are picking it up as a profession.



The new heroic dungeons are proving to be a little more difficult than a lot of players anticipated, and a 5% reduction in damage or a 10% damage bonus can be pretty appealing at times.

Here is a list of dungeons with Archaeology dailies and their keystone requirements:

• Highborn Scroll | Throne of the Tides | Bonus Damage +10% (vs. Naga)
• Dwarf Rune Stone | Grim Batol | Critical Chance +5%
• Dwarf Rune Stone | Blackrock Caverns | Elemental Damage -5%
• Dwarf Rune Stone | The Stonecore | Critical Chance +5%
• Tol’vir Hierolyphic | Lost City of Tol’vir | Bonus Damage +10% (vs the Neferset)
• Tol’vir Hierolyphic | The Vortex Pinnacle | Replenishes Mana Over Time
• Tol’vir Hierolyphic | Halls of Origin | Movement Speed Increase

There’s usually a pretty low amount of competition on most server’s Auction Houses. Most of the times, I can pretty much charge whatever I want (that I believe players will pay). Don’t be illusioned–selling some keystones here and there won’t make you rich by any means. However, if you’re like me and you enjoy the profession, there’s no reason to not profit from your efforts.

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The Daily Quests and You | Making Gold with Dailies

Daily Quests are one of the most overlooked gold farming methods in the game. Some players find them tedious while others just don’t realize the profit margin that they are missing out on. Regardless of the excuse, there’s no reason to put your dailies on the backburner.

Dailies aren’t just for gold, either. They can give out some pretty nice rewards that will make your life a lot easier later on. Reputation with various factions is pretty much a neccecity if you’re going to be a big player in the Auction House.

So What Type of Rewards Will Dailies Give Me?

The biggest reward that comes from dailies is reputation, which is followed by its own set of bonuses. Not all dailies are useful in terms of reputation–there are plenty of factions that are, more or less, completely irrelevent in terms of securing beneficial rewards for your toon due to its race and class. While most melee DPS classes want as much reputation with the Knights of the Ebon Blade as possible, tanks would generally prefer to do argent Crusade dailies for securing certain enchantments. If you’re not sure what quests are best for your class or you just want to earn more gold while spending less time on dailies, I’d recommend checking out Dugi’s Dailies and Events Guide.

It’s a good practice to know which dailies benefit your class and race the most–there are just too many dailies ingame to do them all every time you log in.

What Do You Do for Money, Honey?

Dailies won’t make you rich. You won’t be the next Warcraft Millionaire just because you did a few Daily Quests for a week. However, these quests are extremely useful as a supplementary income source. We have all gotten burned by the Auction House (sometimes it’s our fault, and sometime’s it’s the luck of the draw). Daily Quests are a safe and dependable method of gold farming that will never turn its back on you.

Again, I’m not advocating Daily Quests over the Auction House. Let’s not kid ourselves, the Auction House is where the gold is at–always. Extra gold is never a bad thing, however, and Daily Quests can function well as a fall back mechanism when you feel the burn of the auction hammer in a bad way.

Them Recipes and Patterns

There are a lot of benefits to doing profession dailies. For some professions, it is impossible to get high level patterns and mats without doing daily quests for reputation or tokens. Professions are another great way to supplement your gold income, but only high level recipes and patterns usually pay the bill when it comes down to peddling your items off in the Auction House.

If you’re a fan of fishing, you’ll probably be doing a lot of dailies to improve your abilities. That’s alright, though, as we fishers are generally a patient lot anyhow.

In the end, I certainly believe that Daily Quests are a valuable part of any player’s routine. Whether it’s to buy that special mount or to gain tokens for your profession, players that ignore these quests are really missing out. A player that knows which quests are useful and which can be ignored can easily do all of their dailies in just a few minutes after they log in.

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