The best way of making gold in TBC Classic is not a simple answer. There are several approaches, and the best one for you depends on your own in-game situation and preferred playstyle. The answer I would give a new player is different from what I do myself. So instead of trying to offer one answer, I’ve written up details on several different approaches. You can then find the one that sounds like it’ll work best at making gold in TBC Classic for you.
These are the general approaches to making gold in TBC Classic. Each has its pros and cons. What may work best for you may not be the best gold per hour approach. But if your gold goals are moderate then any of these options will work with enough effort given.
Outland Quests | Daily Quests | Farming | Gathering | GDKPs
Professions | Review of RestedXP for Profession Gold Making
Advice from a Gold Goblin
I’m what is referred to as a gold goblin in WoW and TBC Classic (and once upon a time in retail WoW, too). Gold goblins are players who like to focus on the in-game economy and marketplace. Some players like to PvP, some like to level and gear up a bunch of alts, and some of us like to see how much gold we can earn.
I’m not the richest TBC Classic player, but I’m in the upper percentiles. At the end of WoW Classic, I had ~60,000 gold and a few bank alts worth of stuff prepped for my new shaman and TBC markets. As of this posting in TBC Classic I have a bit over 120,000 in gold and goods ready to sell.
My WoW Classic Gold Making History
In WoW Classic I was slower to level up my first character as I was focused on making starting capital for my eventual move into alchemy. I did shuffles, buying cheap mats flooding the auction house as players went through the same leveling zones, and selling crafted items to vendors for profit. I found limited inventory weapons players would pay double for. I even sold Alterac Swiss to players who wouldn’t look up that it was sold by a vendor just down the street from the auction house. As a result, I didn’t hit level 60 until the day before Phase 2 started. But on that same day, I also bought a cross-faction epic ground mount with plenty of gold to spare.
I invested in popular and profitable alchemy recipes, including Undead to Water transmutes which I did until the launch of TBC Classic. I sold nearly 5,000 elixirs and potions to my guildmates at cost and much more on the auction house for a significant profit. Not to mention smaller sales of various engineering goods, most notable Goblin Sapper Charges.
In TBC Classic my new main took up jewelcrafting. I spent over 15,000 gold on the new character: professional skill-ups, a fast-flying mount, and world drop recipes. I made it all back in less than a month. Since then it has been a steady climb as I’ve doubled my in-game net worth.
My TradeSkillMaster dashboard
In WotLK Classic I plan to start another new main, spend even more decking them out with all the newest toys, and then find my professional gold-making niche again.
Passing On My Experiences
This TBC Classic gold guide, as well as the companion TBC Classic Gold Professions guide, are based on my own experiences trying out different sectors of the Classic economy. What worked for me throughout Classic won’t necessarily work for others. One, the timing is quite different now than it was during the fall of 2019 or the summer of 2021. Two, not everyone likes doing the same things in the game. So I’m sharing as much as I can on as many gold-making topics possible. I hope most readers will be able to apply something here to their own game and help remove the stress of not having enough gold. And if someone starts their own trail to becoming a gold goblin, then welcome to the club… and hopefully you won’t end up undercutting all my auctions.
Complete All of Your TBC Classic Quests
Completing quests in Outland at level 70 awards more gold in exchange for the XP you no longer earn. Even if you solo quested from 58-70 you should still have 1.5 zones worth of quests waiting to be completed, many of which are soloable for a fresh 70.
While these quests will not offer a repeatable source of gold, it is something you should keep on your to-do list. The gold from them offers good starting capital if you want to get into professions. If you mostly dungeon levels then all of the Outland quests get you close to being able to afford a fast flying mount.
Daily Quests – The Hyped TBC Classic Gold Maker
Daily quests were hyped as a good way to make gold in TBC Classic, but they have been a slow burn. There were few daily quests available at the start, and it was only in Phase 3 we had enough actually do 25 a day. The gold rewards per day are limited, but they are a guaranteed reward for a relatively short amount of time played.
Pros:
- Not a big-time commitment each day, anywhere from 30 minutes to under 2 hours depending on how many you do
- Fixed gold rewards and not as dependent on selling on the auction house
- Not too much competition now that the initial rush for rep has passed
Cons:
- Must be a level 70 with a flying mount
- A quest series is required to unlock Ogri’la and Netherwing dailies
- The number of quests (and gold) is limited initially until you increase various reputation levels
Skyguard & Ogri’la Dailies
Sha’tari Skyguard landing
The Skyguard & Ogri’la reputations are separate but their dailies are intertwined. If you’re doing one you might as well do both for the gold.
- From Shattrath head to the Skettis and complete the two Skyguard dailies there (don’t forget the rescue and escort quest). Then head to Ogr’la in Blade’s Edge Mountain.
- Once in Ogr’la pick up daily quests from both the ogres and the Skyguard. As you increase in rep more quests will open up. Note the ogres also offer some group quests, those are not worth doing just for the gold.
- Once honored with both groups you’ll have access to all their daily quests. There will also be flight masters who will fly you between Skettis and Ogr’la.
6 Skyguard & Ogri’la daily quests = ~66 gold
Netherwing Dailies
Nether Drake mount in Netherstorm
The Netherwing faction opens up more daily quests with each reputation level, from neutral to revered. It’ll take about a week to get from neutral to revered doing just the daily quests.
7 Netherwing daily quests = ~90 gold
If you’re short on time then skip Disrupting the Twilight Portal due to the travel required. If you can’t consistently solo The Deadliest Trap Ever Laid then you should also skip it. Be on the lookout for LFG requests for A Slow Death, The Booterang, or any of the quests inside the mines. Grouping up for these quests can save quite a bit of time.
Fishing & Cooking Dailies
The fishing and cooking dailies in Shattrath shouldn’t be overlooked. They can complement your daily quest routine when you travel to Nagrand and Blade’s Edge Mountains. They offer less raw gold but the goodie bags offer consumables you may want and other items which will sell in the auction house.
You can expect to bag 15-30 gold from these two dailies
Shattered Sun Offensive Dailies
The Shattered Sun Offensive (SSO) will be a part of TBC Classic Phase 5 and will offer enough new daily quests that you can do a full 25 per day if you’re willing to spend the time. Not all of the SSO daily quests will be available at the start of Phase 5. They unlock in phases as event progress is made on a server-by-server basis. Once the harbor has been retaken you’ll have access to all possible daily quests.
11 Shattered Sun Offensive daily quests = ~110 gold
Completing 25 Daily Quests
If you want to complete a full 25 daily quests for gold this is my recommendation:
- Complete 12 Shattered Sun Offensive daily quests
- 8 on the isle
- 3 in Shattrath
- Complete 7 Netherwing daily quests
- Complete 6 Skyguard & Ogri’la daily quests
- For your last quest do the cooking, fishing, or one of the longer travel time dailies on the isle
Combined they’ll net you ~275 gold per day.
Farming
Gold farming is simply playing the game, killing things, and collecting their loot for the primary purpose of making gold. You can farm just about anything and make gold. But as with most things in the game, there are farms that tend to perform better than others.
Pros:
- Anyone can farm gold at any point in their character’s development
- Putting in more time = getting more gold
- Hunters, mages, rogues, and prot paladins have dungeon farm options
Cons:
- The better open-world spots are competitive, favoring DPS classes with instant range tagging abilities
- Healers will have the hardest time farming, followed by full mitigation tanks
- Comparatively lower gold per hour compared to other options
Popular Open World Farm Spots In TBC Classic
These are among the more popular open-world spots for farming gold, as they offer lots of targets and better gold per hour. But being in the open world expect competition, especially on larger populated servers.
Primals
- Elemental Plateau
- Throne of Kil’Jaden
- Shimmerscale Eels in Terokkar Forest, outside Shattrath
- Voidwalkers and more voidwalkers in Hellfire Peninsula
- Enraged Air Spirits in Shadowmoon Valley
- Mana Wraiths in Netherstorm
Keep in mind the better the spot the more competition you are likely to come across. Any elemental will offer you motes, so it may be better to find a less lucrative spot with less competition.
Old World Essences
Farming elementals in Azeroth can still net you a nice profit in TBC Classic. In most cases, the common elemental items will sell for more than the uncommon essences. Check prices for all the common items old-world elemental drop before you decide what to vendor.
- Air elementals in Silithus (especially during an elemental invasion)
- Earth elementals in Silithus
- Fire elementals in Ungoro Crater (especially during an elemental invasion)
- Water elementals in Eastern Plaguelands
If there is less competition in Silithus those elementals could get you better gold per hour than any primal spot.
Cloth
Most cloth is low value individually, but they can add up when farmed up in bulk. This may be a better farm for you if you have a tailor you can use the cloth to make items with an additional profit margin.
- Netherweave Cloth – Blood elves in Netherstorm
- Felcloth – Demons in Felwood
- Mageweave Cloth – Humanoids in Tanaris
Legion Hold
Legion Hold, Shadowmoon Valley
Legion Hold in Shadowmoon Valley is one of the best general farming locations in Outland for a level 70.
The Shadow Council Warlocks are a hyper-spawn point, meaning they respawn almost as quickly as they are killed. If you can control the tagging of warlocks around one pillar you’ll have little to no downtime between killing and looting.
If you can’t secure a spot tagging warlocks then go after the Wrathwalkers and Mo’arg Weaponsmiths around the outside. They don’t hyper-spawn, but there are plenty out there and usually have much less competition.
All of these mobs primarily drop Mark of Sargeras, Fel Armament, and Netherweave Cloth to sell.
Popular Solo Instance/Dungeon Farming
Specific classes have solo farming options in specific dungeons. The upside is there is no competition inside an instance. The downsides are you will fail more often than succeed until you learn and practice the farm. And should you get really good at it then you may be held back by the instance reset cap. I strongly recommend checking out video guides on any solo instance farm you want to try out.
Hunters – Steamvault
- Requires mining
- Engineering is also recommended for maximizing income
Hunters – Black Morass
- Requires skinning to maximize income
Mages – Black Morass
- Requires skinning to maximize income
Rogues – Mana Tombs
- Requires mining and lock picking
- Druids will not be able to replicate these results with simple stealth
Rogues – Underbog & Steamvaults
- Underbog and Steamvaults for stealth mining and chests
- Herbing is also good in Underbog
- Druids will not be able to replicate these results with simple stealth
Prot Paladins – Stratholme
- Mostly raw gold and vendor farm
- Enchanting may increase gold per hour, depending on the value of Large Brilliant Shards
Prot Paladins – Scholomance
- Dark Runes are the big prize, in demand throughout TBC Classic
- Enchanting may increase gold per hour, depending on the value of Large Brilliant Shards
Prot Paladins – Black Morass
- Requires skinning to maximize income
Gathering
Using gathering professions for gold is basically the same thing as farming mobs, just with more running around and less killing.
- Herbalism, mining, and fishing all work. Skinning is not viable.
- You cannot trach herbs and mining nodes at the same time. For this reason, many advise against having both professions for the same character.
- Need a fast flying mount to make your gold per hour decent.
- Druids have an advantage with their form, which doesn’t require them to dismount to gather.
- Nice if you enjoy flying through the world, but not fighting everything in sight.
- Still competing with other players for resources.
- Gold per hour doesn’t scale, to make more gold you need to put in more time.
Eventually, you should develop and memorize farming routes that are good for you. But to get started here are popular farming routes from WoW-Professions.com. With a fast flying mount start with the Outland farms, you can sell a larger volume. But if you only have a fast ground mount then consider some of the Azeroth farms until you get your fast wings.
Sell herbs in stacks of 20 and ore in stacks of 5 and 20. Fish and food should be sold in stacks of 20.
Outland Herbs
Outland Ore
Outland Fish
Mote of Water – Nagrand
Golden Darter – Terokkar Forest
Icefin Bluefish – Nagrand
Furious Crawdad – Terokkar Forest, flying access pools only
If you have cooking skills you may get faster sales and a bit more profit cooking what you catch. But check the going prices on both raw and cooked fish first.
Azeroth Herbs
Azeroth Ore
GDKPs
GDKPs are raid runs where the loot system is based on gold. Loot is put up for bid, with the highest bidder winning the item and handing over gold. At the end of the raid, the pot (all gold collected) is then divided up among all raiders. The system pays well-geared players to carry lesser geared players through a raid so they can get gear. And everyone walks away with something, even if only gold. GDKPs first started becoming popular during the original TBC, and continue on as a solid gold-making option in TBC Classic.
Zul’Aman is a popular GDKP raid with its 3-day resets and much wanted bear mount
Pros:
- Get paid for raiding, especially if you have raid ready alts
- No need to sell at the auction house
- No competition or outside interference once in a group and instance
- With some good RNG on loot drops, you can make good gold per hour
Cons:
- Must have good gear and be able to prove you’re a good player (usually with a link to your Warcraft Logs profile)
- Must have raid lockouts available, can’t run a GDKP in the same instance with the same toon you raid with your guild
- Initially, you’ll need to find organizers running GDKPs
- Some players hate GDKPs, blaming them for bots and gold buying
Finding a GDKP
Ideally, you want to find a regular GDKP group you can run with. That will give you a set raid schedule and you won’t need to spend extra time trying to find your next run. But until then you’ll need to do some searching to find GDKPs to apply for.
Ask Around
Ask your in-game friends and guildmates if they know of any good GDKPs looking for players. Knowing someone on the inside helps with getting that first invite.
If your guild runs any GDKPs outside of their normal raid schedule start there. You should get invite priority and will run with at least some people you already know.
Check Your Server’s Discord
Most active TBC Classic servers have an “official” Discord server. Find it and join, then see if they have channels for pugs or even GDKPs specifically. Most players advertising GDKPs with advance sign-up will direct you to their own Discord server. Join that as well, go through their vetting process, and then sign up if their schedule works for you.
Check LFG Channels In TBC Classic
Check the popular LFG chat channels on your realm for any GDKPs being advertised. Sometimes it is for a group forming to run then and there. Other times they are trying to get more people onto their Discord for an upcoming raid sign-up. Keeping an eye on any Discords dedicated toward running GDKPs on your realm is a good way to find future runs.
GDKP Expectations
When brought into a GDKP as a carrier/pumper there are expectations on your performance.
- Use full consumables
- Perform your expected class roles, ideally without prompting
- Follow the raid leader and perform your role as best you can
- If you bid on the loot you will significantly impact what gold profits you might otherwise walk away with
Likewise, there are things you should expect from a well-organized GDKP.
- Loot bidding is handled efficiently, either during trash pulls or all at once at the end
- Bidding and pot size should be transparent, either in-game or a log posted to Discord afterward
- Any special rules including reserved items (gold should be added to the pot if it drops) and organizer’s cut/scrape should be made clear before you get started
Reputations matter in TBC Classic. You want to have a good reputation as a reliable player. And the raid organizers should want a reputation for running a fast, fun, and fair raid.
Selling For Gold In the TBC Classic Auction House
For anyone choosing to make gold through farming and/or professions in TBC Classic, knowing how to use the auction house is as important as knowing what to farm and craft. You can start out simple, knowing just a few tips. And you can scale up, using more advanced addons and automating most of your decision-making.
Final products to sell for gold in TBC Classic after a lot of crafting
What Not To Sell
Some items either don’t sell well on the auction house and have too high of a deposit required to justify the cost of listing them on the auction house for a bit more potential gold.
Leather
- Most leather and hides from skinning don’t sell well or for a lot of gold but double-check anything you’re not familiar with
- Knothide Leather can sell in the auction house for twice its vendor value, but if you can’t secure sales with just a couple of listings then you’re better off selling to a vendor
Uncommon Gear (green quality)
- Disenchant uncommon armor if you can, otherwise just sell it to a vendor
- Sell all weapons to a vendor
Outland Rare Gear (blue quality, drops in Outland)
- Demand is low and supply is higher than it was in Azeroth
- Overall better off disenchanting them into shards that sell for the same amount, sell much more quickly, and require no deposit
- If you can’t get them disenchanted then just sell to a vendor
When To Sell
With a good profit margin, you can sell your items most anytime and come out on top. But if you want to get every possible gold out of your inventory then you should aim for times of peak demand to post your goods.
- Best Days: Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday (especially in the evening)
- Good Days: Saturday & Sunday (avoid Sunday evening)
If your items are used by raiders then you want to sell them during the popular raid times on your realm. Generally, that is Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings. With a second peak over the weekend at various times. If you also raid during peaks times then post your items as close to raid start time as you can. Then after your raid repost items before you log off for the night.
Understand Auction House Fees
Listing items in the auction house isn’t free. You’ll pay something whether your item sells or not. You don’t need to avoid these fees, but keep them in mind when calculating your profit or having trouble selling something in particular.
Deposit
This is money you put down at the time you post your item. It is calculated based on the merchant buy value of the item. Posting a weapon is expensive, posting enchanting mats is free. The calculation is made for a 12-hour listing. If you do a 24-hour listing the deposit is 2x as much and 4x as much for a 48-hour listing.
If the item sells then you get your deposit back when you receive your gold in the mail. If the item doesn’t sell (you cancel the listing or it expires) then the deposit is gone. Deposits costs add up when selling large quantities and regularly canceling and reposting to undercut the competition.
- I almost always post with 12-hour listings for the smaller deposit, and because I’m usually undercut in less time than that.
- Don’t post more than two of the same item (or two of the same size stacks of the same item), better to get sales slower than increase your deposit loss risk.
Auction House Cut
With any successful sale, the auction house (same faction) takes a 5% cut. So if you sell an item for 100 gold you’ll receive 95 gold (plus your deposit). You need to factor in this fee when calculating potential profit, as it is a constant cost of doing business.
- Sale price * 0.95 = Actual revenue
- Revenue wanted / 0.95 = Required price listing
The neutral AH takes a 15% cut, so you should generally avoid it altogether.
Addons
You can do anything you need to do at the auction house with the standard interface, but it takes a lot more time. If you’ll be selling the same items regularly it is worth putting in some time and effort up front to create a faster experience every time you post in the future.
Auctionator
Auctionator is the most popular auction house addon for TBC Classic, thanks to its simpler approach to features. It provides new Shopping, Selling, and Canceling tabs without overhauling the entire user interface. I would recommend it for players with less auction house experience, as well as those dealing in smaller inventories.
- Shopping – Create shopping lists and quickly repeat recent searches. Sorting is by buyout price only, so no more getting scammed by a low bid price and high buyout price.
- Selling – More intuitive for posting stacks and setting a per-unit price. See current prices so you can undercut. And can save recent postings to repeat more easily.
- Canceling – Search your posted auctions to see which ones have been undercut. Then easily cancel them so you can repost and do the undercutting yourself.
In the settings, you can set your preferred defaults for undercutting amount, post duration, quantity, etc.
Learning to use this addon won’t take much time and will handle the needs of new and moderate sellers.
TradeSkillMaster
TradeSkillMaster’s auctioning tab in TBC Classic, allows you to post mass auctions for the best gold
TradeSkillMaster (TSM) is the most powerful auction house addon for creating gold profits in TBC Classic. It can be daunting to a new user who installs it unprepared, but for the more experienced gold goblins, it is the only addon to use when shopping and buying large inventories at the auction house. I would recommend it for players who love to automate as much as possible, as well as anything who deals in large inventories of goods. Especially in the buying of mats and selling of crafted items.
- You’ll need to install both the WoW addon and the TradeSkillMaster app to get fun functionality.
- Go through the support section to find written and video guides for new users. You’ll want the help to learn how to do your initial setup and made use of the basic toolsets.
- Many more great guides are available on YouTube. Learn the basics, uses the addon for a bit, then go back and learn more. You’ll find there is a sizable user community that likes to share setups, groups, and operations.
TSM is not something you should expect to install and be making sales with immediately. After the initial setup, you’ll need to create your own sale groups and posting operations. It is a good bit of upfront effort and you’ll end up tweaking things now and then down the road. But once you have your setup running it makes using the auction house fast and easy.