This week sees the return of cross realm trading since it got disabled and we look at it’s impacts and opportunities. We also have a look at the economy in Classic compared to Retail and speculate on what the economy in Hardcore will be like.
My name is Samadan and I’ll be your guide through the World of Gold Making!
Cross-Realm Trading is Back!
This week saw cross realm trading re-enabled and it opens up a whole set of markets for gold makers. In it’s current state, because mailing cross realm is not available yet, this is only really viable to those who have more than one account. Many gold makers have a second account for posting while playing on their main account or in general for better efficiency, so this is not uncommon at this stage.
Looking on sites like the undermine.exchange or saddlebag exchange it’s easy to spot discrepancies accross realms and target where you want to sell your rare items.
For example, look at Teebu’s Blazing Longsword a rare transmog item that is not currently available on half the realms..
Graph courtesy of undermine.exchange
With a significant gold investment, one could buy the cheaper ones and spread them over realms where there are none in the hopes for a higher sale.
This is quite a rare item though and a slow seller. Opportunities can be found in many non-commodities such as the common Wildercloth Bag.
Graph courtesy of undermine.exchange
I was able to “save” a couple million already, but seems to be a one time thing due to people with like 8 accounts who will be eating up all this stuff daily.
The minute cross server was turned on (both times), I snagged what I wanted within 10 minutes, but I was beaten to the punch on two or three other servers before getting to the server I was able to grab the item.
For more “common” stuff the prices go down? Not sure. Guessing the price for some of this stuff will eventually go back up once people finish their wish lists.
Being able to clean out entire servers seems a bit odd to me. For things that were already down to 30 availability across all servers, seeing those items nosedive down to 5-9 availability while also doubling/tripling in price recently doesn’t really elicit good feeling.
I do like that I no longer have to level toons on each realm in order to craft stuff. I’ll keep all my crafters on my main realm and send stuff to others, only leveling toons for each profession and a couple extra for transmutes.
Thraun Gaming has a video going through how it works and what kind of things to search for…
The other side of the coin with all these opportunities, is that is it going homogenize prices like commodities did and therefore reduce opportunities?
I’m not calling “doom and gloom” here, but one of the advantages to posting x-mog, mounts, and now things like Lamented Pieces, etc…..was that you could charge higher prices even if it took a longer to sell. I’ve sold on all 3 size realms over the years and posted hundreds of thousands of items and that has been tried and true.
But with x-realm trading, why would somebody pay for something on a low-med pop when they can just trade gold to a friend to trade back to them on a high-pop realm, use a 2nd account (I know the average player doesn’t do this), or if the trial-account thing works?
I personally have millions of gold worth of stuff on low-med pop and with the AH throttling on posting, why would I even bother posting if the sale rate goes down to a fraction of what it was before x-realm trading?
Trying to get a feel for the impact this will make, looking forward to informed and civil commentary.
we still have actual gold makers who think consumables and reagents are realm specific – and these are people who actively involve themselves in this aspect of the game.
imo you should worry less about people leaving the server to buy things and worry more about people entering the server to sell things… and even then i can’t see goblins bothering with low/medium value items because it is quite a hassle to move things around. so you’ll likely see some more competition for big ticket items but more or less unchanged for the rest of your inventory.
It’s clear that in it’s current state, many players will be oblivious to it’s effects. Along with region-wide commodities, it’s another step in the trend towards a global Auction House. For the average player, this is a good thing as prices will fall and the convenience of availability makes items easier to get hold of. For the average gold maker, it’s a trend towards less unique opportunities and increased competion where those with the greatest time and resources profit more.
Classic Economy on Popular Servers
Over on the Classic side, the gold economy is in a very different state. The popular servers have a lot of movement and activity at the top which is driving prices ever higher.
Now? Transmute cool downs are 70g-80g, flasks regularly sell for 200g+, gromsblood and dream foil have doubled or tripled in price, Stonescale eels are a minimum of 3g each on most days, and firewater is like 20g each. Not to mention the fact that naxx GDKPs regularly get 500k-700k gold pots now. Thankfully Mat prices have kept up but the price of raid consumes has gotten to the point that if you’re not running GDKPs or actively pursuing gold through professions, it is way too costly to raid. But obviously the real gold is in GDKPs. I make about 100-160 flasks a week on average, which is probably more effort put into professions than 99% of era players and that might make a couple thousand gold a week in profit. Someone runs one naxx GDKP and gets 12k gold in a couple hours. I’m not sure if it’s because of bots, people reactivating the banks they cloned over, just a ton more people leading to increased demand, or all 3. All I know is that whitemane inflation has been absolutely ridiculous these past several months.
While this means at the end game, money is churning through GDKP runs and keeping the token price down, it does mean opportunities for making gold to buy game time are certainly available..
I can see it being annoying once I hit 60 and try to gear up though. I don’t see the enjoyment in Gdkps and would much rather earn my gear the old fashioned way, if that’s even possible anymore.
There are also opportunities for gold making though professions, such as the Titansteel cooldown…
Prices courtesy of Nexus Hub
Of course, if you play the GDKP game, then the profits there far outweigh what can be done with conventional means, but it does mean there are niches for everybody no matter the level of dedication.
Also, not all Classic servers are like this. There are many with a more social focus.
Having a lot of fun on the Pyrewood PvE cluster on EU. No gdkp spam, no boost spam. People playing the game and are typically more friendly/social. Get yourself into one of the levelling guilds. It’s a little bit quieter and you might not get into dungeons at 4am but it’s a lot more enjoyable.
Gold Making in Classic Hardcore?
Solheim Gaming has an interesting video out this week covering the possibilities of making gold in Classic Hardcore when it releases…
It’s going to be an interesting time in Hardcore with the emphasis on the levelling journey over the end game. That said, with trading and the Auction House available, there will be an interesting economy emerging as players trade what limited gold they have for gear and items to help keep them safe on their journey.
Further Reading
Most of this information was discussed and originally posted on the /r/woweconomy subreddit or in the accompanying Discord Server.
I hope you found this useful and If you have any suggestions or feedback, please do say so in the comments below..
Until next time, Happy Goldmaking!
Samadan
