Making money and the Auction House

How copper, silver and gold work, where your first money comes from at levels 1–20, and how to use WoW Forever’s Auction Houses: the deposit and the cut, listing step by step, pricing, what sells, gathering professions and staying safe.

WoW Forever isn’t out yet, so there are no real Auction House prices to quote, and this guide doesn’t quote any. Every price here is a vendor price (what an NPC merchant pays you for an item) from the Forever beta client. Auction rules marked as Classic come from WoW Classic and may work differently in Forever.

How money works

WoW Forever uses three coins: copper, silver and gold. 100 copper make 1 silver, and 100 silver make 1 gold, so 1 gold is 10,000 copper. The game shows amounts as coin icons. This guide writes them as 1g 25s 40c (1 gold, 25 silver, 40 copper).

At levels 1–20 you’ll mostly deal in copper and silver. Early on, money pays for four things: new abilities from your class trainer, profession training, bags and repairs. You don’t need a lot of it, but running short means skipping training, and that makes leveling slower.

Your first money

Three sources carry you through the first 20 levels:

• Quest rewards. Most quests pay coins when you hand them in, and many let you pick one item. If no item is an upgrade for you, take the one with the highest sell price and sell it to a vendor. Hover over each choice to compare. Item tooltips on this site show the Sell Price too.
• Selling loot to vendors. Gray items (Poor quality) are there to be sold to a vendor. They look like junk, but a full bag of them adds up. White items (Common) include trade goods such as cloth, leather, herbs, ore and meat. Crafters buy those, so they often earn more on the Auction House.
• Coins from enemies. Humanoid enemies such as bandits and cultists often carry coins. Animals usually drop meat, hides and gray items instead.

That’s why you should loot everything. It’s free money, it gives you goods to sell on the Auction House, and in Forever it also builds your appearance collection: Blizzard says Poor and Common items add their appearance to your transmog collection as soon as you loot them (transmog and camping recap).

Tip: With a vendor’s window open, right-click items in your bags to sell them. In Classic, the vendor’s Buyback tab lets you buy back something you sold by mistake, for a while after the sale.

You won’t always need to run back to town. Blizzard says placing a Basic Campfire (a Cooking feature) creates a campsite with access to vendors and repairs, among other things. Exactly which vendors a camp gives you isn’t clear yet.

Speculation: In Classic, quests you complete at the level cap pay extra money instead of experience. With the beta capped at level 20, quests you finish at 20 would be worth more coin. Forever hasn’t confirmed that it works the same way.

Where the Auction Houses are

An Auction House is where players sell items to each other. You talk to an NPC called an auctioneer, list what you want to sell, and browse what other players have listed. The Forever client has two kinds of auction house, with different fees:

Names and rates from the Forever client’s auction house table. The deposit rate applies to the item’s vendor price, the cut to the sale price. Who uses each house follows Classic’s rules.

Faction houses

Faction houses are in the capital cities. In Classic, the Alliance has one in Stormwind, Ironforge and Darnassus, and the Horde has one in Orgrimmar, Undercity and Thunder Bluff. The client ties the plain “Alliance” and “Horde” houses to the Dwarf and Orc factions, which points to Ironforge and Orgrimmar. Also in Classic, all the houses of one faction share the same listings, so it doesn’t matter which city you use. If you can’t find the building, ask a city guard for directions.

Neutral Blackwater houses

The Blackwater houses belong to the goblins: the client ties them to the Gadgetzan faction. In Classic they’re in three goblin towns: Booty Bay in Stranglethorn Vale, Gadgetzan in Tanaris and Everlook in Winterspring. Under Classic’s rules, Alliance and Horde players share the same neutral listings, which is how you trade with the other faction.

There are two catches. The fees are much higher (a 15% cut instead of 5%), and the towns are far from the starting zones: by Classic’s quest levels, Stranglethorn Vale’s quests start around level 34. At levels 1–20 you’ll use your own faction’s house. On the PvP ruleset you can only have characters of one faction, so you won’t have a character on the other side to pass items to anyway.

Speculation: The client has more auction house entries than the names above: extra Alliance, Horde and Blackwater houses, plus two called just “Auction House” (one with the faction rates, one with the neutral rates). They may be new or extra auctioneers somewhere in the world, but nothing in the data says where yet.

The deposit and the cut

Every auction has two fees. The Forever client sets both for each house.

• The cut comes out of the sale price when your item sells: 5% at a faction house, 15% at a Blackwater house. For example, if something sells for 1 gold (a round number for the example, not a real price), a faction house keeps 5 silver and you get 95 silver. A Blackwater house keeps 15 silver and you get 85 silver.
• The deposit is paid when you list the item. Its rate is 5% at a faction house and 25% at a Blackwater house, so listing at a neutral house costs five times as much up front.

Speculation: How the deposit works under Classic’s rules: it’s a share of the item’s vendor price (times the number of items you list), and it grows with the length of the auction. If the item sells, you get the deposit back along with your money. If it doesn’t sell, or you cancel the auction, you lose the deposit. Forever hasn’t published its own formula; the client only gives the rates.

Tip: Because the deposit follows the vendor price, it’s tiny for cheap trade goods like Linen Cloth (vendor price 13c) and bigger for gear with a high vendor price. The auction window shows the exact deposit before you confirm, so check it every time.

Watch out: A lost deposit is real money. If you list the same item again and again at a price nobody pays, the deposits can add up to more than a vendor would have paid for it.

How to list an item

These are the steps in Classic’s auction window. Forever’s window may look a little different, but the idea is the same.

1. Go to an auctioneer and right-click them. The window has three tabs: Browse (search everyone’s listings), Bids (auctions you’ve bid on) and Auctions (your own listings).
2. In Browse, search for the exact name of what you’re selling. Look at the cheapest few listings and work out the price per item, not per stack.
3. Open Auctions and drag the item from your bags into the item slot. If it stacks, choose how many go in each stack and how many stacks to post.
4. Enter a starting price (the lowest bid you’ll accept) and a buyout price (what someone pays to take it right away). Before you type, check whether the price boxes are per item or per stack.
5. Choose a duration: short, medium or long. Longer auctions stay up for more buyers to see, but cost a bigger deposit.
6. Check the deposit shown, then click Create Auction.
7. Wait. When it sells, the money arrives in your mailbox, minus the cut (in Classic, with your deposit back). If it doesn’t sell, the item comes back by mail when the time runs out.

Watch out: Soulbound items can’t go on the Auction House. That includes anything that says Soulbound in its tooltip, such as gear that binds when you pick it up or equip it. Sell those to a vendor instead.

Bids and buyouts

A bid is an offer. Other players can bid higher until the auction ends, and the highest bid wins. If someone outbids you, your money comes back by mail. A buyout skips the wait: pay it and the item is yours at once.

• When buying: bid when you can wait and the buyout looks high. Buy out when you need the item now, for example a weapon upgrade before a dungeon.
• When selling: always set a buyout, because many buyers only look at buyouts. Put the starting price a little below the buyout, and never below the item’s vendor price.
• Cancelling: your listings are in the Auctions tab, where you can cancel one. You get the item back but lose the deposit.

Selling smart

Check the price first

Search before every listing, not just the first time. Prices move as players gather and sell. Look at several listings: one very cheap stack may be a mistake or someone clearing their bags, and it doesn’t set the price by itself.

Undercut, but only a little

Undercutting means listing slightly below the cheapest similar listing, so buyers pick yours first. Go a little lower, not half price. Deep cuts drag the price down for everyone, including your own next listing. If the cheapest listing is far below the rest, it’s often better to wait for it to sell than to chase it down.

Don’t flood the market

Posting your whole bag at once buries the market under your listings and pushes the price down. Post a few stacks, see how quickly they sell, then post more.

Pick your stack sizes

Crafters leveling a profession often want a lot of one material, so full stacks suit them. Players who need only a handful to finish a recipe prefer small stacks, and will often pay a bit more per item for them. Try both and see which sells.

Timing

More players are online in the evening and at weekends, so make sure your auctions run through those hours. In any fresh start, lots of players level their professions at the same time, so low-level materials tend to be wanted most in the first weeks.

Keep bag space free

Sales, expired auctions and anything you win all come by mail, and you need free bag slots to take items out of your mailbox. You also need space to loot and gather. Keep a few slots empty before you head out.

Reposting

When an auction expires, the item comes back by mail. Check the price again and relist. Each repost costs a new deposit, so if something fails to sell twice, lower the price, try a different stack size, or sell it to a vendor.

When to sell to a vendor instead

Compare what the Auction House would really pay you with what a vendor pays:

• From an auction you get the sale price minus the cut (5% or 15%), and you lose the deposit if it doesn’t sell.
• A vendor pays a fixed amount: the Sell Price in the item’s tooltip, the same number this guide quotes from the client.
• If the auction would pay about the same as the vendor, or only a little more, sell to the vendor. It’s instant, costs nothing and frees bag space.
• Never list below the vendor price. Someone will buy it and sell it to a vendor for a profit.

Tip: Some goods are worth almost nothing to a vendor, so the Auction House is the only place they earn anything: Copper Ore sells to a vendor for 5c and Rough Stone for 2c. Others have a solid floor, like Silver Ore at 75c or Medium Hide at 1s 25c.

What sells at levels 1–20

Crafters need raw materials to level their professions and to make gear, bags, bandages, food and potions. You can gather or loot everything below at levels 1–20. The vendor price is your floor: it’s what you get if nobody on the Auction House wants the item. Blizzard says Forever adds over 600 new recipes across professions, so crafters will have plenty to use these on.

Cloth

Vendor prices and recipes from the Forever client. The client doesn’t list recipe ingredients, so where each item comes from and which recipes use it follow Classic.

Cloth is the one trade good every character collects without a profession, so there’s always a lot of it for sale. Sell some and keep some: a friend or alt who takes Tailoring or First Aid will need it.

Leather (Skinning)

Vendor prices and recipes from the Forever client. The client doesn’t list recipe ingredients, so where each item comes from and which recipes use it follow Classic.

Ore, stone and gems (Mining)

Vendor prices, recipes and smelting tooltips from the Forever client. The client doesn’t list recipe ingredients, so where each item comes from and which recipes use it follow Classic.

The client’s smelting tooltips say smelting needs a forge, so miners who sell bars instead of ore need to visit a town with one. Check the Auction House for both ore and bars: sometimes one sells better than the other.

Herbs (Herbalism)

Zones with the most spawns first, from Classic’s spawn data; Forever may have moved some. Vendor prices from the Forever client.

The client’s Herbalism tooltip says herbs are gathered “for use in Alchemy”. Forever adds a twist: the client lists the recipes for Minor Healing Potion and Lesser Healing Potion under First Aid (Minor Healing Potion, Lesser Healing Potion), not Alchemy. In Classic those potions are made from Peacebloom, Silverleaf and Briarthorn. The client doesn’t show Forever’s ingredients, but if they’re the same, herbs have more buyers than they did in Classic.

Also new in Forever: Commonplace Herb Seeds (vendor price 10c). Its tooltip says to grow it in a Greenhouse or combine it at a Seed Hybridizer at a camp, and both are Herbalism camp features in the client. How you get seeds, and how much players will want them, isn’t known yet.

Meat (for Cooking)

Recipes and vendor prices from the Forever client. The client doesn’t list recipe ingredients; which meat each recipe uses follows Classic.

Meat sells to a vendor for only a few copper, so it’s worth far more to a cook. Blizzard says crafted food in Forever can give a small experience bonus as well as stat boosts, which should keep cooks buying.

Supply crates

Blizzard says two new factions, the Azeroth Commerce Authority (Alliance) and Durotar Supply and Logistics (Horde), are a major source of new tradeskill activities. A Legacy perk in the client, Performance Bonus, mentions turning in crates to them.

Speculation: The client also has items called Waylaid Supplies that ask for trade goods, for example Waylaid Supplies: Light Leather (“Add 14 Light Leather to complete the shipment.”) and Waylaid Supplies: Peacebloom (“Add 20 Peacebloom to complete the shipment.”). In Season of Discovery, crates like these were filled with the goods named and handed in to these same two factions. If Forever works the same way, they add steady demand for exactly the goods in the tables above. This site treats these items as possible Season of Discovery leftovers until Forever shows how its crates work.

Professions that make money

In Classic you can learn two primary professions, plus the secondary ones (the client lists Cooking, First Aid and Fishing). For money at low level, gathering is the easy win: you collect materials while you quest and sell them to crafters. The client’s tooltips say who each gathering skill feeds:

• Herbalism: herbs “for use in Alchemy”. In Classic it needs no tool.
• Mining: ore and stone “for use in Engineering and Blacksmithing”. Requires a Mining Pick.
• Skinning: pelts and furs “for use in Leatherworking”. Requires a Skinning Knife.

Good pairs for money

• Herbalism and Mining: both show nodes on your minimap (Find Herbs, Find Minerals), but the client’s tooltips say only one type of thing can be tracked at a time, so you’ll switch between them.
• Skinning with Herbalism or Mining: Skinning needs no tracking. You skin the beasts you kill while questing anyway, and track herbs or ore the rest of the time. This is the smoothest pair while leveling.
• Two gathering skills first, crafting later: crafting professions usually cost money while you level them, because you use up materials to gain skill. A common plan is to gather now and swap one gathering skill for a crafting one once you have some gold.

Crafting has long-term value in Forever: Blizzard’s Legacy System gives Legacy Points for reaching 150, 225 and 300 skill in each non-gathering primary profession (how Legacy works). Cooking and First Aid don’t make much money on their own, but they save it: your own food and bandages mean fewer vendor trips and fewer deaths. The professions guide covers trainers, ranks and leveling each one.

Spending wisely

• Training comes first. Your class trainer charges for each new ability and rank. Keep enough money for your next visit before buying anything else. The getting started guide explains when to visit your trainer.
• Bags are the best early buy. More slots mean more loot per trip and fewer runs to town. The client has 6-slot bags such as Small Brown Pouch and Linen Bag, and 8-slot bags such as Brown Leather Satchel. In Classic, general goods vendors sell small pouches and satchels, and Tailors make cloth bags.
• Don’t buy every upgrade. At levels 1–20 your gear changes quickly through quest rewards and dungeon drops. Buy only a big upgrade, such as a better weapon. Your class’s PvE tab (for example Mage PvE) lists the best item for each slot at level 20 and where to get it, and the gear planner helps you compare.
• Die less, repair less. Fighting and dying wear down your gear’s durability, and repairs cost money. The Legacy perk Reinforce reduces durability damage from dying.
• Save a little for riding. Riding comes well after level 20 (at level 40 in Classic). Blizzard says Forever follows the Burning Crusade approach: the mount’s cost moves into riding training, and you get a mount when you learn it.
• Perks that save money later. Once you have Legacy Points (for most players, when their first character reaches level 25), perks can help: Bartering lowers vendor prices, Frequent Flier makes flights cheaper, and Reagent Economy means class abilities no longer need reagents you’d buy.

Rulesets and Hardcore

Each ruleset is its own large player community, and a character you create on another ruleset starts with empty pockets like any new character. Hardcore arrives after launch. Blizzard calls it a fully enclosed ecosystem where progress from other rulesets doesn’t flow in, so a Hardcore character builds its money from nothing, and you should expect a market of its own. Death there has lasting consequences, so never farm enemies near or above your level just for gold, and think twice before a long trip through high-level zones to a Blackwater house. See rulesets explained.

Staying safe

• Check every trade window. Before you click Trade, read both sides: the item, the stack size and the amount of money. Scammers swap items or change the amount at the last second.
• Don’t pay first. If someone offers to craft something for you, use the trade window so the item and the payment change hands at the same moment. Don’t send money by mail on a promise.
• Read prices twice when buying. On the Auction House, check gold against silver, and per item against per stack. A listing at many times the normal price is sometimes there to catch people who don’t look.
• Ignore gold sellers and “free gold” whispers. Buying gold breaks Blizzard’s rules and is a common way accounts get stolen. Report and ignore them, and never follow links from strangers.
• Check your mail. Auction sales, expired auctions and outbid refunds all arrive by mail from the Auction House. Be careful with COD (cash on delivery) mail: taking the item charges you the amount shown, so only accept COD you agreed to.
• Never share account details. No one from Blizzard will ask for your password or authenticator code in a whisper, and no real giveaway needs them. Add an authenticator to your Battle.net account.

Checklist

• Loot every enemy, and sell your gray items every time you pass a vendor.
• Keep cloth, leather, herbs, ore and meat for the Auction House or a crafter friend.
• Search the price before you list, and never list below the vendor price.
• Always set a buyout, and check per item against per stack.
• Use your faction’s house (5% cut) rather than a Blackwater one (15% cut) unless you’re trading with the other faction.
• Post a few stacks at a time, not your whole bag.
• Keep a few bag slots free and empty your mailbox.
• Pay for training first, then bags, then only big gear upgrades.
• For money, pick two gathering professions, such as Skinning with Herbalism or Mining.
• Read every trade window, and never share your account details.

Checked against WoW Forever beta build 1.60.1.70009.