There are plenty of ways to make gold in this game, including professions. Every profession has it's 'thing' though. Each has it's moneymaker that it's professors can use to recoup the costs they spent leveling. For most professions, this payoff comes only after hitting the max level, or close to it. Blacksmiths have their belt buckle, engineers their epic ammo for hunters, leatherworkers have their leg armors, etc. But there are few items that crafters can create that can make them gold while they level. Yes, yes, I know leatherworkers make armor kits from the start and enchanters obviously enchant. But seriously, how many folks fully buff their toons while they level? I mean, why shell out gold to enchant a weapon I'll just replace next LFG?
Well, tailors are the exception that proves the rule. They have their high end spellthreads, but they also make the ideal must have for any leveling toon - bags. Bags are the one thing that most any guide - regardless of focus - speed, gold, RP, etc. stress as must haves. Bags save you time by reducing the number of times you need to find a vendor to sell your junk. The less you do that, the more you kill/farm/roleplay. And while bags do drop from mobs, they don't do it consistently. So most folks look to the auction house for their bagging needs. And one bag absolutely stands out from the rest.
The humble, sturdy, not quite pink, not quite purple, Netherweave Bag.
Wait, wha? That's not the biggest bag or even the biggest crafted bag or even the biggest crafted bag not requiring tons of cooldowns to make. All that is absolutely true.
But the Netherweave bag hits the trifecta of ease when it comes to, well, anything. This bag is easy to calculate (one stack of netherweave cloth per bag) makes it incredibly simple for tailors to calculate their cost and thus determine what they'll charge to make a profit (or decide to use the cloth for something else).
Let's flashback to 3rd grade math word problems -
If a Netherweave Bag sells for 10g and you want to make a 4g profit, how much can you spend on a stack of netherweave cloth if a single stack can be turned into one bag?
Compare that to
If a frostweave bag sells for 60g and you want to make a 20g profit, how much can you spend on a stack of frostweave and a stack of infinite dust if it takes 3 stacks of frostweave and 12 dusts (plus 6g in thread) to make a single bag?
Next, the materials for the bag are easy to farm for. Again, it's just the cloth and the thread. Other than the small slot linen and woolen bags, you need to farm something other than cloth. Big deal, you say? Well, it is if you're trying to squeeze as much gold out of as little time as possible. Even better, though, the cloth it needs is netherweave cloth. That stuff seems to just fall from the sky. If you sneeze? An NPC seems gives you a couple of pieces just to blow your nose. The price of most other cloths have gone up because folks just don't spend time in those zones anymore. But Netherweave? The price increase has been negligible (on my server) since Wrath came out because folks are gathering enough cloth to meet demand even when fewer folks are spending less time in Outland! Stacks of cloth go for 5g or less (on my server). Sometimes they're posted for more, but I do not pay more than 5g a stack and I create a healthy supply of bags - selling 10-15 a day.
So what's the third part of this easy trifecta? This bag is easy to buy. And by easy, I mean cheap. On my server, I sell them for 10g each. Compare that to the 55-65g per bag for the Frostweaves and you can see what I'm talking about. If you're a level 80 decking out a new leveling alt with 10 bags (4 to carry around and 6 for the bank), 100g is much easier to fork over than 500. Those extra 40 slots definitely aren't worth the extra gold outlay (in most situations). These bags are the ideal combination of slots (16) and cost (10g) for bank alts, leveling alts, new guild members, and even random feel good giveaways. So they sell like hotcakes.
Why am I sharing this? Well, for one thing, I like to share my gold making tips. I know I'm no genius and I have no secret plan. I have learned how to make gold from others, so I'm just paying it forward, so to speak.
But last night it happened...I ran out of netherweave bags. I mean it, I sold the last of my inventory. Yes, I'll be able to make more 5-6 a day maybe, depending on the auction house.
But let me tell ya, at one point, I had my bank alts bags (all netherweave, of course) FULL of netherweave bags! I'm talking his bank and bank bags too. And there is more. I once had so many bags, I created a guild for my bank alt and bought two tabs for him - and nearly filled both with nethweave bags! (about a tab and a half).
I don't know what it was, but about 6 months ago, the cloth was just crazy cheap - 3g a stack or less. This wasn't right when Wrath launched, but several months after. After the first rush of DKs leveled through Outlands. After the last of the latecomers have moved on to Northrend. Maybe it was the folks who leveled to 80 first and then did DKs? I dunno. All I know was that for about 3 weeks, I was buying so much cloth that I stopped.
??
Yes, I stopped buying dirt cheap cloth. I was afraid I was missing something in the economy. I was looking at bag after bag filling up with bag after bag. I wasn't sure if the bags would make up for the cost of buying the guild tabs (plus more if this madness went on). I was tired of sitting there watching my tailor make 120 bags at a time - at 10 seconds a bag. And not being able to really leave the screen and let it go automatically because I'd have to mail the bags to my bank alt or else the tailor's bags would get full and he'd stop making em.
Eventually things returned to normal the cost of cloth climbed back to around 5g and the supply wasn't as overwhelming. As I sold off more and more bags, I began buying more cloth. But I noticed that I was selling more bags than I was making.
And now? I'm out. I have four stacks of cloth on my tailor toon, but that doesn't really count. I'm used to posting (and selling) 10-15 a day.
Sigh.
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