Money making and general efficiency - any interest in a guide?

RyanB

RyanB

Legacy of Elijah Guild Leader
I've been considering putting together a guide for some decent ways to make money in GW2, including saving money, as that is just as good as earning it. I certainly don't have perfect knowledge in every area, but I was thinking I could get something started. The more I thought about getting started, the more I thought: "holy cow there's a lot to this game; no wonder people are inefficient with their money". I still learn new things often I couldn't believe I didn't think of.

Basically comes down to this: I'm not a robot; I like to play and have fun. I also like virtual stuff that has flames, small bunny antlers, or goes NNNGGHH NGHHHH NNNNNNGGGGNNGNGN. But for me to be happy about that stuff, I have to be able to get it efficiently without GW2 feeling like a full time job.

I'd like to do a one subject at a time type thing and hopefully we can really put our heads together to get better at making that sweet, sweet gold without doing stupid amounts of work. Every little bit adds up to make the difference.

Subjects I'm looking at: gearing up while leveling, gearing (max level), general farming, dungeons4cash, crafting4gold, trade post flipping, karma, longer term investing, using the Mystic Forge, and best use of drops (salvage? forge? sell? TP?).

Thoughts? Any particular area of interest?
 
I'd like to see something on efficiency - especially in the gearing up while leveling or the trading post areas.

I'm about to have my second level 80 and neither one was done efficiently. I did take advantage of crafting to get 20 levels on my Ranger (38 to 58). I'd like to do better on the next characters I roll.
 
Trading Post!! From the Tales of Tyria podcast and my own discoveries, I think I've figured out ways to make my gold go the extra mile, but the TP is still an enigma to me. I have a feeling I'm still one of those people that makes other people rich on the TP.
 
I would love to hear more about all of those, but push leveling, gearing, and best use of drops to the top of the list... Those are the things that ALL of us are doing (whether we're doing it well or poorly) all the time.

I'm looking forward to it.
 
I'm a very slow accumulator of gold so any tips for speed up would be appreciated.
 
Definitely interested.

I amassed what was, back then, a comfortable sum in WoW and used it to help fund my quest for companion pets (though I still would have been incapable of amassing my collection without the help of other Redeemed guild members) and other activities. Having a bank character with a fat bankroll also made character leveling and tradeskill leveling much more convenient.

I don't see my playstyle changing much in GW2. I lean toward socializing and exploring on gaming personality tests and my <3 of tiny cute things is well-documented. I also have some collector tendencies as well. A tidy sum in the bank would definitely help, especially since you can buy gems with in-game currency and use those gems to unlock a second bank slot and an additional bag slot.
 
Tek7@Work said:
A tidy sum in the bank would definitely help, especially since you can buy gems with in-game currency and use those gems to unlock a second bank slot and an additional bag slot.
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This is a super key thing, and something I wanted to talk about on a long-term investing post. Just as an example:
  1. It currently costs ~13.66g to buy an extra character slot.
  2. Filling that toon with 15 slot bags bumps the price up to about 16g.
  3. Extra bag slots do not yield as much storage, let's ignore those for now and assume 80 slots on this toon.
  4. Let's say ugly wool socks hit 5c (strongly considering putting orders in now anto get ahead of others for when they crash post-vendor removal)
  5. Fill above toon with 20,000 socks for 10g.
  6. Sell socks Next december (or maybe even Wintersday in July!) for 18c (30.6g after TP fees).
  7. I've made all my gold back, and gotten a free character slot in the process, but next year is all profit due to not needing to re-buy the slot
  8. Speaking of next year, this puppy will keep on giving. 5 slots would give even more.
  9. If you roll 50c items instead of 5c ones, you'll be making 200g profit instead of 20.
  10. If GW2 is like GW1, extra slot = extra birthday presents, which should be valuable.

My current investment strategy is buying up piles of putrid essence.
http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/24335

I usually pay about 55c, and the vendor value is 48c so there's not a huge risk here, though price has been steadily increasing due to less people farming in Orr. This is a T6 rare mat that drops in Orr that is essentially useless...whereas it's counterparts (lodestones) go for anywhere from 60s to 4g due to their use in super exotics and legendary items.

@64c it's 1.6g per stack, 1.2g vendor worth (low risk!), and a possibility of 100-fold return...but it might be a long time till it's useful and you've gotta store this stuff somewhere!
 
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The real issue there is that Anet has hinted about finding a use for some of the trash stuff that currently gets sold for cheap. The problem being that there is no way to guess which will be worth what when uses do pop up. Kinda like sparklers in GW, when they first came out the Party title was not there, hence the early nickname "moron beacons", later when Party title became desired the price went up. When you have little cash to start with buying something that cost 54c on speculation is difficult.
 
ursen said:
When you have little cash to start with buying something that cost 54c on speculation is difficult.
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Spot on! This is really what allows speculators to do what they do - the idea that not everyone can tap into things. It's hard to stomach picking up items for investment if you aren't even fully geared. I don't really expect putrids to go up 100fold, but I will say, though, that if the *did* go up tenfold or more, having even half a stack on hand would be nice!

I think I'm going to target the cheapest ways of gearing up first so that people can start saving money, focus second on how you can earn more quickly, and then get into the ideas of taking that savings and turning it into more.
 
Sounds like some basic financial planning...

Thanks, Ryan.

I'm wondering if we shouldn't have a sticky thread for these guides you are going to create - that people do not comment on - to keep them clean and easy to navigate. We can keep this thread going for all our comments and questions.
 
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