WoWGrrl's World

My DK By The Darkmoon Faire Flag

The Darkmoon Faire was recently in town, and I took solid advantage of its presence for the first time in many months.

I parked a toon by my favorite vendors and periodically checked their wares, purchasing various things as they became available.

Over the week that the Faire was up in Mulgore, I noticed there were a few other "vendor campers" that returned on a regular basis - but only three or four of us at the most. Everyone sat there quietly, some marked as AFK and some not. I waved at one guy once but didn't get a response, so I didn't wave again the next time.

It was obvious we were all doing the same thing - something else, while our characters sat there at the vendor, and every once in a while we'd come back to our computers and check to see if the vendor had any goodies up.

This is another one of those times where having two WoW accounts and two computers is hugely beneficial - you know those bits and pieces of down time during raid groups, even in the fastest-moving and most efficient? Well, they go by a lot faster when you're thinking about all the profits you're making DURING the raid, while most others are just making repair bills ;)

Profit Isn't Always About Money Coming In

Everyone wants to have a huge glut of World of Warcraft gold at their fingertips so that whenever they want to buy something or tune up a raiding character they don't have to worry about getting the gold FIRST.

Unfortunately, as is apparent with the rampant existence of gold sellers, many players haven't figured out how to hold on to enough of their gold without putting in a lot of effort, and therefore have decided it's better to spend Real Life cash to get more fake, game cash. (aka: Monopoly money)

Unfortunate for those players who spend the RL money on in-game gold, I guess, but not unfortunate for me, because I SWEAR it's the economically-challenged players that I make the bulk of my own profits off of on an every day basis. (So, instead of the gold farmers selling you the cash that you use to spend on the items they've listed for sale, thereby giving them both your RL cash + in-game cash, you buy the gold from them and I leech out a percentage of the WoW gold before it goes right back to the gold farmers and they don't get the full amount back. Works for me!)

Anyway... one of the main things that I'm doing with the uber-cheap materials I'm picking up is going to strongly affect my Private Bank's gold stocks, but not in the way many players think about: I'm getting materials that allow my leveling characters to level faster without having to purchase materials at Realm Average rates in the Auction House, and therefore are saving time AND money.

(Plus, there are left-overs that I sell for straight cash, or processed materials that I sell because I have no personal use for them on any of my own toons, but I know are valuable to someone - I'll talk about those in future entries)

But - Does It Count As Savings?

Truthfully tho, I guess I should ask your opinion, dear reader:

If I'm making savings on items I wouldn't have bought in the first place, am I truly saving money?

But wait! That's not the only consideration! What if I added in that because of the items I'm able to create at this reduced rate, my lowbies are able to advance more quickly, with less down time?

So, without the cheap access to materials, I wouldn't have turned to the expensive Auction House ones to ensure I was as stocked as I am now. I wouldn't have collected the mats by farming, either, because I only believe in "incidental farming". And the result would have been more down time, more bandaging, more sitting and drinking, more running back after death - and definitely more expense when I finally broke down to buy the materials required to make things super easy.

So, what do you think, folks - does it count as savings, or not?

Related posts:

1. The Darkmoon Faire Is Coming To Town
2. Life in the 30's, gathering money.