So in the same vein as my last post I thought it would be the perfect time to go into a quick overview of goldmaking in TBC and the best professions and markets.
Phase 1 steady state
We are in the steady state portion of phase 1 currently, with most players done with leveling and initial gearing and now they are playing for parses, speedruns and finishing their gear sets or goals. Many will of course also level and gear alts and overall demand will be spread out over many markets, but anything that get’s used up by mains regularly will sell better than other items.
Consumables and item enhancements are the volume kings
If you are looking for volume markets alchemy and jewelcrafting are your main bets. Both can generate tremendous amounts of gold, but they do both require capital and time commitment. Prospecting is slow, as is crafting hundreds of potions. You also need recipes that require effort or gold on the AH (jewelcrafting is particularly expensive with a lot of world drop recipes). These two are the kings however and if you have the gold and time they give by far the best potential.
Gear crafting is always good
Gear crafting is always profitable as players are always making new characters and there are new players coming in. Crafted gear plays a large role in initial gearing in TBCC and you can make a good bit of gold. Items that are P1 BiS are particularly good like the Bracers of Havok for casters or the Vengeance Wrap for physical DPS.
Pre-raid BiS options will also continue to sell well, just as they did all throughout classic WoW’s lifetime. Tailoring is the strongest gear profession by a significant margin as there are multiple BiS BoE crafts, alongside leg armor for casters and the daily cooldown cloth.
The less obvious ones
Leatherworking, Blacksmithing and Engineering all have significantly less direct goldmaking benefits than Alchemy, jewelcrafting and tailoring. That also means that competition will be lower. Do not overlook them if you have them, there are likely good opportunities, both with TBC and classic era recipes. Test out anything that has a decent sale rate and profit. Reading up on class guides will be key to make sure you identify any holes in gearing or opportunities.
Classic era material flipping
Classic era materials are still highly in demand, particularly for the top PvE professions like enchanting, jewelcrafting and tailoring. I’ve made a lot of gold flipping vision dust and you can too. These materials are not target farmed much and demand is very streaky causing consistent price spikes you can and should take advantage of. Since we are on the old AH you can utilize stack sizing very effectively to get sales even if you are not the currently cheapest auction.
Personal approach
I would personally suggest aiming for at least one of alchemy or jewelcrafting and leveling it and then gradually unlocking recipes. Doing both at the same time will likely be slow, and may leave you spending too much time. Adding alts for other professions when you can will help you out, but most profession alts need to be level 70 for maximum value, although there are recipes that you can get at 60 that represent good value, so keep an eye out for those and utilize them when you can (some examples include JC gems, Bracers of Havok, most alchemy recipes).