Make Gold for Your Guild!

My main interest in playing WoW has always been raiding; farming the Auction House has always been a fun secondary diversion that helps my main interest of raiding.  Having a lot of gold when you raid is a huge advantage; you can buy gear when it firsts hits the Auction House, buy recipes for gear, buy all the materials you need, etc.  It just makes raiding that much more enjoyable and easy.

But what else can you do with these Auction House skills?  You can help your raid team or your Guild Bank.  In my case, I am also a GM for a medium sized guild of about 500 toons and over 100 unique accounts that loves to do casual raiding.  We have been around for over 3 years and have cleared all non heroic content and dabbled a little in heroic content from time to time.  Before the guild changes were introduced in Cataclysm, I would spend part of my Auction House time making gold for the Guild Bank.  I had a separate toon that handled all the gold for the guild, bought and sold items, cleaned the Guild Bank tabs of the clutter and was mostly focused on bringing in about 20k gold a month for the guild to use which then purchased herbs, fish or whatever materials were needed for flasks and feasts.

Once Cataclysm hit though, my duties were needed less because of the guild perks and the guild challenges that were introduced.  But that doesn’t mean we cannot give to our guilds and our raid teams for a worthwhile reason, after all, we still need to raid and progress.  So I look for deals that help the raid team.  Everything from buying materials, gems, recipes and even enchants to help the team above and beyond what the guild pays for already. 

I don’t just give my gold, but instead I leverage (with Officers consent) the Guild Bank to achieve our gold goals by using my knowledge and experience. 

As an example: A few days ago, I was able to purchase a Rare Spectral Tiger Mount for about 200k gold.  This is a good price, too good to pass up.  This is also where you need to make a tough decision, buy it for me to resell and make gold for me, or buy it with the Guild Bank and resell it for the Guild. 

I bought it for the guild, an easy decision based on my personal gold stockpile and the need to help my guild prepare for MoP.  Within 2 days I sold the mount for 325k, still a great deal for the buyer but a nice, fast return of gold for the Guild Bank.

Another way that you can create great amounts of gold for the Guild Bank is through crafting in the early stages on raid releases.  Even with very high costs for materials from raiding and the cost of a recipe, you can easily craft raiding gear and charge accordingly.  Why do this?  Because the gold generated buys more materials, crafts more goods and then you can sell some while retaining some items for the raid members who now get geared for free. 

Not everyone is in a position like I am, as a GM of a raiding guild, to be able to use the Guild Bank to build more wealth for the guild.  But there are still many ways to do it on your own.  Making gold is fun, but it is even more fun to be able to share it in a way that helps everyone meet their goals.  For me, that is a better feeling of accomplishment than simply giving away gold to people or buying things for people just because you have stockpiled so much gold.  It has a purpose; to help the raid team progress though content without costing them a ton of gold.

There is so much gold that can be made in the game, and it is a ton of fun to have it and spend it on things you want in the game that separate you from the common player.  But don’t forget about your guild, your raid team and others you spend time with in the game.  Figure out what and how you could help and then set that as a goal for yourself.  Trust me, it is more fun giving back than just stockpiling more gold.