Making WOW Gold Through Mining and Skinning While Leveling

We have talked about how to make wow gold through Herbalism last time, today we will go on talking how to make gold with mining and skinning while leveling.

Making money through mining

What are the basics? Mining is just like herbalism, but with ore instead of herbs. Miners actually can sell the ore they mine in two different ways: either as the raw ore or as bars of metal that they smelt. There are different buyers for each.

Who buys ore and bars? Well, the ore goes to jewelcrafters, who will buy them in multiples of five to prospect (consume) them in search for gems. The smelted bars are bought by both blacksmiths and engineers, who need the metal to make their wares.

How much money can you make? Like with the herbalism market, the ore that you find early in the leveling process sells for the least amount of money — Copper Ore is maybe worth 25 to 50 silver apiece on an established server. As you level, the ore you find gets more valuable; Mithril Ore, which you often start seeing around level 40, often goes for 1 or 2 gold apiece; Outland and Cataclysm ore often goes for double that. Typically, the smelted bars sell for more than the raw ore, but you may want to list some of each to play to each potential customer.

Ore tends to be found in mountainous areas, which to be quite honest means it’s typically located in more awkward spots than the herbs which pop up everywhere. Competition for these lower-level nodes is typically low, but if they’re twice as hard to get at, then you’re really looking at the same kind of wow gold from mining as from herbalism for the same amount of effort.

Making money through skinning

What are the basics? Skinners make their wow gold by removing the pelts and scales of their animal-type kills. Skinners can also skin other peoples’ kills, so long as the corpses have been looted. There’s not much else to it.

Who buys leather? Leatherworkers. Period.

How much money can you make? Well, this varies based on server, but there’s no secret in the fact that leatherworking is an awful profession. Leveling it requires tons of leather — simply mind-blowing quantities. That keeps low-level leatherworkers in business, though it means that demand (and often pricing) is highly erratic. The lowest-level of leathers, Light Leather, can swing wildly between 10 silver and 1 gold a piece on a mature market; prices go up from there, with Rugged Leather (~level 50) selling between 2.5 and 5 gold a piece.

Truth is, skinning is one of my favorite ways to make wow gold while leveling. Granted, you need to plan your leveling such that your travels take you through areas with lots of skinnable animals. But when you’re in the Western Plaguelands or Un’Goro Crater, you’re literally surrounded by “skinning nodes” that respawn faster than you can harvest them all.

The process of gathering leather is so seemlessly integrated into the leveling process that it really does prove to be a terrific profession on the way to 85. Just be sure to have room in your bags to fit all that leather.