Raking in the gold

I don't know what it is, but I must be doing something right this time around. My hunter has been making great money off of the Auction House. I thought I would write a little post about what I've been doing to help anyone else that is leveling a new character.

The first thing I noticed when I starting making money off the AH is that on a mature server with lots of level 80s people have a ton of extra cash to spend on leveling their other characters and their professions.

Preparation

There are a few addons I would recommend getting (hit up Curse for your addon needs):
Auctioneer
SellJunk
Gatherer

Apart from this you will need the ability to disenchant. As I am a Skinner / Leatherworker and have no other characters on this server I have just been asking my guild mates to DE for me. I try to spread the work around so I don't spam anyone's mail boxes too bad ;)


Step 1 - Get the biggest bags you can afford
Step 2 - Take at least 1 gathering skill (2 if you don't feel like crafting, although I have found Leatherworking to be quite lucrative in a roundabout way, more on that later)
Step 3 - Never sell greens to the vendor. Always put them on the Auction House. If they do not sell the first time around I just DE them and post the resulting enchanting mats for sale on the AH
Step 4 - Buy Low & Sell High. I know it sounds dumb because everyone says it... But how many people do you know actually do it? I see incredible deals on the AH all the time. Stuff priced WAY below what it should be. So I just buy them up and repost at a more lucrative price point.

Now I haven't even been working hard at this at all, just doing it every time I pass through a major city and leveling like crazy. I had made my first 1000g by the time I was level 50 and that was at like 2.5 days /played. I power leveled my way through to 300 LW rather quickly by using the cash I had made to buy the materials I needed. This seemed like a big investment at the time but by selling what I made back on the AH I ended up making money in the end. If you work hard at it I think you could do far better than I have.

Good items to make money off of are good gear for twinking out for low level Battlegrounds, namely the Level 29 BGs. Any of the Eagle leather for druids or Monkey leather for Rogues seem to sell especially well for this bracket. You can usually pull in 15-30g at a minimum for these types of items.

Also good are any materials for professions. Level 80s working on new professions or starting alts for new professions would rather just buy the materials than go out and farm them. Cloth, Leather, and Ore all sell extremely well.

Conclusion

Level up and make plenty of cash while doing it! There is no reason why leveling a new character needs to be a drain on your main characters resources. Or why your new character shouldn't be able to afford everything they need on their own. Be creative, I have found the oddest things sell really well. If you are short on cash, browse the AH and see what is selling high and get to farming!