Who's buying all that gold, anyway?
by Elizabeth Harper 
Jun 11th 2007 at 2:47PM
Really, I'm curious. Who's buying this stuff? I've seen goldsellers advertising gold in amounts of up to 11,000 -- for over $1600. Perhaps you're doing a double-take at that number, but it's not a typo -- I do mean sixteen hundred dollars. Now, I paid $50 for the game itself, another $50 for the expansion, $15 a month to play, and the occasional $25 to move characters around, which means I've spent over $500 on this game in the two years I've played it. That already seems like a huge amount of money to me -- but if gold sellers are out advertising $1600 worth of gold, that must mean that at least a few people are interested in spending that much.All I can think of are the cries of agony that surely follow when the buyer is inevitably banned from the game. Blizzard does keep track of gold transfers, and I imagine that transfers in such high amounts set off red flags in their system. So what happens when you've just spent $1600 on virtual property that Blizzard has politely reminded you belongs to them? (Yes, Blizzard does hold on to the idea that all in game items are their property, and thus cannot be bought or traded for real money.) I can think of less risky ways to invest!
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Economy
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jormundgard Jun 11th 2007 3:48PM
Nihilium.
TonyMotorola Jun 11th 2007 2:56PM
42,000g as of this morning. Haven't spent a cent on gold and earned every last copper myself.
It's not hard to earn gold in WoW. /boggle at people that buy it.
ApolloIV Jun 11th 2007 2:58PM
@1
Damn that's a good bit of money. And yeah i really don't see why people need to buy gold? Making flying mount money is pretty easy if you have a profession. Spending 1,600 US dollars on a game is pretty crazy considering the fact that you are already paying a mounthly fee just to play the game.
FatherOrly Jun 11th 2007 3:02PM
Maybe there are resellers that are interested in buying that much gold. Or lazy billionaires who don't want to farm it themselves. :)
Tridus Jun 11th 2007 3:11PM
The same people who buy $6000 computers with dual $800 video cards: people with more money then sense.
Scott Andrews Jun 11th 2007 3:11PM
Engineers?
John Jun 11th 2007 3:13PM
buying gold is like a cheat code, i guess....you know, at some point you cheat then get sick of the game. that's my guess as to who's buying the gold - there's gotta be a big chunk of people who just buy the gold, get whatever they want, then get bored of that and move on to something else.
or, it's people in guilds who want to keep up with the joneses, so to speak. who knows.
Hank Jun 11th 2007 3:16PM
This gives me a great idea to fix engineering....
Pingmeister Jun 11th 2007 3:17PM
When you HAVE that money to spare why not spend it?
If it's a substantial percentage of your monthly income then I agree it's not very well-thought out.
But there are those folks where $1600 doesn't have much meaning.
I hate those people!
-j Jun 11th 2007 3:57PM
Members of Nihilum? ;-)
HungryHippo Jun 11th 2007 3:22PM
Someone please tell me how you make 42,000g, I woke up and was so proud of my 312g. Now I just feel broken...
So if anyone has a good link to a guide please post.
/cry
Slarti Jun 11th 2007 3:22PM
A very interesting fact: here in germany, 5k gold is advertised for around 80-200$ (depending on the actual realm of course). So 11k would be around $400 - extraordinarily "cheap" compared to the US prices.
I am really wondering where this huge difference comes from. Either the demand for gold is way lower here than in the US (which I don't really believe), or it is substantially harder and therefore more expensive to farm the gold in the US. There just has to be a reason for that difference...
knulpm Jun 11th 2007 3:30PM
I dunno, every once in a while you run into somebody who screams "Gold-buyer".
I remember pre BC I was in Stormwind when another warrior asked me where I got a piece of equpiment. I noticed he was standing next to me. I inspected him and EVERY SINGLE PIECE of his equipment was an AH BoE.
A couple of them were decent if overpriced (think he was dual wielding a Krol Blade and a Assassination Blade. But some of his amor choices made ZERO sense. He had a Lionheart helm, but he also had a purple CLOTH Flarecore mantle. He had caster stats item. Made me sad.
The Cannabis Connoisseur Jun 11th 2007 3:41PM
@1 you sad philistine
Swimnurd Jun 11th 2007 3:51PM
Fearwarden of Bloodhoof.
TonyMotorola Jun 11th 2007 4:00PM
@10
Start off playing vanilla WoW way way back in the day. Roll a character with mining and herbalism. Save up your coin as you level, don't blow it on BoE crap. Take what you have saved up at 60, invest it into scanning & reselling twink items on the AH for profit. Do this until the first x-pac, along with gathering to the tune of about 9000g. Use your mining to start saving up about 6 bank alts packed with JC leveling mats.
When the x-pac hits, use the mats to level up JC to 350 ASAP and invest that 9000g into every rare gem cut design you can find until you have them all, in addition to rep recipes.
With what gold you have left, start buying as many stacks of adamantite ore you can get your hands on, at least 50-70 stacks a day at peak. Prospect that ore. Scan AH, cut and list profitable rare cuts 2-3 at a time on 8 hours timers. Move on to the uncommon gems,cut and list usually 4-5 of each uncommon cut selling for 1g25s or more. Do this as well on an 8h timer.
Pricing is subject to change by server, but I have picked up ore usually around 18-25g a stack. Look for individuals that list a LOT of ore every day and talk to them. Offer to buy in huge volume directly from them and set up pricing deals so that you save a little on their AH, and they still come out ahead versus paying the AH deposit and fee. Everybody wins, and you hopefully end up with a steady stream of ore without being at the mercy of AH ore. Although, even if you have a steady supply, you are going to want to pick the AH clean if the price is right. The rule to live by is, you can never have too much adamantite to break. The more you have, the more profit you're going to make. And the more ore you take off the AH, the less your competitors have to cut into gems to compete against you.
Gem list pricing will change from to gem but if nothing is listed that I have cut, I shoot for 59g95s for most rare cuts, 49g95s for the lesser sellers. If somebody is already listed when you go to list, undercut them by as little as necessary. Here's where a lot of people short change themselves on the AH. If somebody is selling a gem for 58g00s on the AH, don't drastically undercut them! List your gem for 57g95s. You're only undercutting their price by 5s, but yours will be noticeably cheaper while maximizing your return. Repeat the same thing with uncommon gems, starting at 4g99s if nothing is listed, and undercut them by 1s rather than the 1g you're using on rares. Example, uncommon listed for 3g88s, you list yours for 3g87s.
I'm a big fan of the 8h timers versus 24h timers. You won't always have time to get your product up for sale, but you will have significantly more opportunity to relist and undercut the market, and if you time your listings right, you won't be paying big coin to have your gems listed during the poor-selling, off-peak hours of 2am-2pm.
More and more uncommon gems, what to do with them? Over time you'll find your bank and even bank alts bursting at the seams with uncommon gems. Breaking 50-70 stacks and selling 4-5 of each uncommon cut every 8-16h hours is going leave you with more uncommons then you know what to do with. As of 2.1.1, every uncut green gem is vendor fodder for a lowly 25s a pop. But, if you take the time to cut them into a few specific cuts, they'll vendor for a respectable 1g a pop. Take the time, cut and vendor your excess uncommons. I only usually keep 2 stacks of each uncommon in my gem bags. Everything else ends up cut and vendored.
Adamantite powder. Vendor it. The listing fee is too high and it sells like crap. Consider it a little static return on your investment every time you prospect.
That's how I've done it anyway. Clearly there's more to it.. knowing when to list in those 8h cycles to minimize the chance of being undercut but taking advantage of as much prime AH time as possible... Knowing that some days gems sell in higher volumes and how you can safely up the number of your listings without eating the AH deposit... Knowing when to buy ore but not list your gems to pull market prices out of long price declines.. but you figure this stuff out as you go.
Author X Jun 11th 2007 4:05PM
I don't play WoW (I noticed the title of this link from another blog), but I thought you'd like to know about my experience with this sort of thing.
See, I was on the site Gaia Online for a number of years. I just played on and off, but early on I went to a small event at a local con, and won the door prize, which was a super-ultra rare limited item from 2003 (this happened in 2005). So, despite being a casual player I got involved in very high-end trading and deals, etc. Then, shortly before the Wii was out, I found out that people were selling their gaia gold and items. I compared the prices of various items on eBay, added up my accumulated inventory, and rounded up ever so slightly to get $1500. Yeah, $1500 from all that crap that didn't even have a functional purpose, just to make your character look good. I also noticed that people were actually willing to pay more for large lots than individual items (that is, more than if you combined the average selling price for the items in the lot). So, I took the rounded-up value, took a few screenshots of my inventory (minus the items I was wearing in case I did want to go on the site again later) and said "Buy it now or best offer" figuring I would reject a few offers for $50 (which I did) and see what people would actually give me.
Much to my surprise, after a couple days, someone outright bought it. One person, one purchase for $1500.
If you're wondering why I turned that into a huge, long-winded story instead of just saying I sold some gold for a lot of money, it's because I'm gloating about it. Which I do at every opportunity :)
Birthmark Jun 11th 2007 4:07PM
It's pathetic. And a sign of the sick addiction so many people have for this game. I would NEVER spend real life money on WoW gold. The idea baffles me. And the crazy thing is, I know people that have done it. They were only buying like a 100 gold to level but still. I really don't like how adults with jobs take this game way too seriously. I don't understand how you can have a family and still play WoW. I simply don't undersatnd it. I can't imagine growing up in a house hold where my parents were addicted to WoW. And the idea of people spending $1,600 on WoW gold almost makes me want to puke.
I think my new quote in my WoW forums sig sums up my feelings perfectly:
!*#! this game and it's addictive bull*!#!
Quoi Jun 12th 2007 8:44AM
@18
And you're here why?
I bought gold once. It was 300g for 5 bucks. I used it to powerlevel tailoring when I was a level 35. Looking back on it, I'm not proud of it, nor was it a good idea.
Coherent Jun 11th 2007 4:32PM
How do you make a lot of money in WoW? Never spend any money. Religiously farm every day. Buy low, sell high.
If you play WoW as an economic game where "winning" is "making money" then you'll be able to accumulate gobs of cash very quickly. But since your habits are set, you'll never be able to enjoy spending it ever again.
Also, you'll never find anything worthwhile to spend it on. WoW is not a game where huge piles of gold will elevate you to meta-amazing-super-godliness. If you want that, play the "make money in real life" game, you'll have more luck. Perhaps you'll find life satisfaction when you join Paris Hilton in useless mega-stardom from raw wealth.
Unfortunately in WoW you can't spend huge piles in-game cash and build a fabulous empire of sycophants. If you want that, you might try EvE Online, I hear it's quite possible to do exactly that.
WoW is a game where there's many ways to play, but the only victory is the one you find in your own heart.