
Tales from a non-Chinese Gold Seller - shikind
Posting this on behalf of a friend who's too busy gold farming to make an account of her own:<p>As many of you know, I endured the banhammer on my main WoW account. I'm as bitter as anyone would be, but not because of all the time I lost. I can get mounts, titles, pets, gear and all of my 80s back within time. I think what I'm the most bitter about is how Blizzard went about this and how I have to basically bend over and take it in the rear constantly from this company.<p>I know gold selling is a bannable offense. It's stated in the ToS, it's stated (sometimes) when you log in. I knew it would happen eventually- but not like this.<p>After over 10 emails exchanged with the account admins, I was replied consistently with the same copy/paste format each time until I guess I annoyed them enough and it was taken up by a supervisor. I am still awaiting a reply.<p>After reading hundreds of forum posts, threads, and the like- people are getting banned for the dumbest stuff when it comes to gold. A guild breaking up and the GM splitting the guild bank between the 3 officers? Perma ban. Someone buying a crimson deathcharger from someone face to face instead of the auction house? Perma ban. Sending 140k to a brand new alt on the same account? Perma ban.<p>Most of these aren't even getting unbanned, let alone replied to. These people were doing normal things in the game yet were put on the same page of wrecking the economy, goldselling, etc. as me? It makes no sense. I in no way defend what I do/did. I sold gold. I made loads of cash. Call me a bad person, but it was good money. These people on the other hand? Did nothing wrong. From what I read, Blizz has a way of tracking large amounts of gold being moved. I get it- it makes sense. But do they not realize 100k is not a lot of gold anymore? You can make that in one day with proper farming, watching prices, and especially when a new expansion is released OR during Darkmoon week. If they're going to track gold and ban people for it- at least up the amount to track.<p>What really grinds my gears out of all of this is how quick they were to reply about the incident. Over the past 2 years I have contacted NUMEROUS GMs for harassment and threats made in and outside of the game WITH PROOF. I got blown off completely, and sent the same copy/pasted email format as to what action was taken. On what level is harassment and threatening a player put below selling currency? I don't understand.<p>REGARDLESS<p>I will not stop selling gold. It's almost like a bad drug addiction. The income was nice and I got to do things I would not have been able to had it not been for selling gold.<p>Game Stop is an okay job but pays for absolute shit. There's no way in hell I can make a living from that job but with it + gold I was making a pretty decent income.<p>I get sick a lot. I have a very weak immune system that treats a common cold as the flu. If I ever catch the actual flu, or even pneumonia- I will die, no questions asked. During December I had to call in multiple times because I was sick nonstop. Of course in December is Christmas- so every white trash child and his mother was trading in their nasty, dusty, smoke plagued items for minimal amounts of cash. Even with using hand sanitizer in between transactions, washing my hands to the point of where they were red and raw, you just can't get away from it. Long story short- I was out of work for a very very long time trying to recover.<p>With that said, I remembered I had sold gold here and there over the course of 2 years. I'd say maybe done it 6 or 7 times. I figured since I was going to be at home a lot, and there's no going back to work for a while as I am basically a biohazard- I'd start making some money on the side until I fully recovered.<p>It started off as just farming herbs occasionally on my mage, 1-2 maybe 3 hours at a time. I wasn't raiding and had loads of free time. This was a bit after Cataclysm was released so they were still decently priced. I did this for a few days and made well over 300k. I pawned off all of it to guildmates and ni hao sites via Paypal and transferred that money to my bank. After some time I realized how much quicker I could be making gold if I had instant flight form and could shadowmeld mobs off of me. Spent a few days leveling druid from 80-85. Max herbalism.<p>Hundreds and thousands of gold, time, herbs sold, volatile life sold, and many happy guildmates and customers later- I was sitting on well over 2,000$+ over the course of a month.<p>It almost became sort of a high for me, like a Colombian drug lord/trafficker. If you think about it- it is almost like the exact same thing, take away the prison time and health deterioration inflicted on others.<p>People want gold. Gold buys people what they want, which in return makes them happy and makes the game fun for them. Not all people have time to farm gold.<p>I wanted money. Money bought me Xbox games, my first Angelic Pretty dress set, a kickass birthday for my mom, a Valentine's day present for my boyfriend, and multiple breakfast/lunch/dinner outings my mom and I were never able to have- which in return made all of us happy. I have all the time in the world to farm gold, with very few hours I was working and an addiction to the exchange of currency to cash.<p>The argument is there I could just go get a better job. And you're right- I can. I have offers I can take any day, and probably will sooner now that I lost one of my accounts. Will it stop me from selling gold? No. Will it give me the same sense of fulfillment and the rush that gold selling does? No.<p>PROS OF GOLD SELLING<p><i>No real life human interaction.  no sickness, no stress, no bashing of the head against the counter. Most transactions were done with very little communication, communication via Facebook, or were done with people I already know.<p></i>Making money from the comfort of my own home. I can get up at any point and go play Xbox if I get bored. I can eat when I want, where I want. I can play with my dogs and screw around while I wait on a transaction to finish, or just because I can.<p><i>Happiness. There is the saying "money can't buy happiness"- but I disagree. Money pays for doctor bills which in return give you medicine for your severe depression. I actually was taken off of my anti depressants because I had such a rapid change in my attitude towards life, and was more motivated and excited about things.<p></i>Fulfillment. I had a daily responsibility that fulfilled me in ways my job was unable to. Instead of secretly hating everyone that walked in the store, I was now excited to talk to people and help them get gold without spending a fortune. I am also able to pay off my student loans without stressing to get it done on time. With this, I have been able to look at potential other schools for later on in life.<p><i>Relationships. I've met loads of people through selling gold. Most of them turn out to be really awesome people that I still play with. Just like my job- I had repeat customers for having excellent communication, prices,  and overall customer service. Like I told one of my regulars- you're helping me help you, vice versa.<p></i>My mom. My mom and I have always been very close. As I was struggling looking for work before I was hired at GS, we were having a rough time making ends meet. We never got to go out for dinner, we had to watch every penny, struggled with phone bills, dealing with my constant streams of sickness and doctor visits was depleting our money, and it was not a fun way to live. Now that I have my job combined with the gold income, we are able to finally go out, have fun, and do things together we originally were not able to do. It sounds superficial, but it's true. She has been less stressed knowing we have extra money to fall back on if something happens.<p>CONS OF SELLING GOLD<p><i>Time. I have to put forth lots of time in order to keep up to date on current auction house prices, dual box farming herbs, checking mail, doing transactions, waiting on paypal, and waiting on paypal money to transfer to my bank account, keeping up with constantly changing gold prices and adjusting my prices to always be lower. It's almost a full time job as I'm constantly at the computer doing one of the above. I also have to stay up very late into the night/early in the morning as that's when the ni hao sites have their live support up.<p></i>Sleep. Tied in with the above, I lose lots of sleep from waking up constantly to check auctions, put up more auctions, receiving mail, talking to china, responding to facebook mail, responding to emails, farming and the like.<p><i>WoW fun. The game has lost its luster 100% after making it a job. I did raid here and there, and that was fun. But overall? It's not a source of enjoyment for me. I can stop at any time, yes. But it's also a source of income and brings me again that sense of fulfillment.<p></i>Addiction. When I am outside of the house or away from my computer, I think of it as what sometimes goblin NPCs will say- "time is money, friend." The thought is correct and it sucks. Time I'm not farming is potential money lost- even in miniscule amounts. Even hanging out with my mom, boyfriend, friends- the thought lingers. It's not enough to make me rush home and tak tak tak on the keyboard, but it's enough to be a bit of an annoyance.<p>*Job. Although I spend hours upon hours doing this, have taught myself some simple Chinese greetings, and make a living for myself- it's not something I can put on a resume and claim as a previous job. I can't just walk into a business and say oh hey I farmed and sold gold on World of Warcraft for 2 years, hire me plz.<p>Overall, it's been a fun, rewarding experience. I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. All transactions will be done on a third account once I get it opened up. I will stop someday, maybe once WoW dies. Even when I end up at Best Buy (the offer is on the table already) I will still carry on with selling gold on the side. I'm giving them their 15$ a month on top of extra accounts, and I'm making money that in return gives me the things I want. Everyone's happy.<p>Don't bother flaming- I got banned for a bannable offense. It's not a real job. Etc. you're telling me what I already know. I just wanted to share my experience  =)
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bmelton
Me and a buddy (him being the brains of the operation) made quite a profitable
trade hacking EQ and WOW, for a time. He's the name behind a number of (now
illegal) tools for WoW and EQ, and what we were doing was in very clear
violation of the terms of service.

We did well for ourselves -- I won't speak to my numbers (except to say that
my buddy did better), but I know he cleared well over $200k just on EverQuest
hacking.

When WOW was in closed beta, we paid a few hundred for beta invites. We would
get banned all the time, and have to spend another few hundred for a beta
invite. When WOW was released, in the few short months before Blizzard
exhausted all the hacks we'd found, we were buying, on average, a new copy of
the game per day, for each of us.

The challenge was awesome. Some of the hacks were brilliant, some, pedestrian.
Generally, the more mundane hacks were the easiest to exploit -- for example,
by intercepting the 'sendMail()' function, we were able to substitute the
value of gold we actually sent with an arbitrary one -- as Blizz wasn't
checking signed vs unsigned ints on their data types, sending -1 copper to a
cohort meant they would receive 65,535 copper on their end. When the game was
new, this was ridiculous, as there probably wasn't 1,000 gold in the entire
economy at that point that was legitimately gotten.

This was difficult, it was challenging, and yeah, every now and again we'd get
a little paranoid at a noise outside, imagining it was a SWAT team ready to
breach our house for having violated Blizzard's terms of service. The highs
were high, and the lows weren't that bad, since we were making tons of dough.

I cannot imagine the amount of time and energy it takes to farm $2000 worth of
gold without these hacks, but I can only guess that it is insane.

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rick888
At most, how much were you making per month selling gold on Wow?

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shikind
"I was sitting on well over 2,000$+ over the course of a month."

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rick888
nice! I didn't even know this was possible.

There are a lot of skills you can use in other online businesses that you can
take from this:

1) watching auctions. Find something else to buy/sell besides WoW gold. There
are tons of other online opportunities out there outside of the WoW universe
that can make just as much money, you just need to find it. If you have some
Chinese contacts, you might be able to get in touch with some
wholesalers/dropshippers (if you want to go that route).

2) answering emails/customer support. Another good skill to have.

You could also reword your resume to say that you ran an online business and
you have experience with customer support and sales. I think many business
owners would be impressed that you were able to make a living on it, even if
it is WoW gold.

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thegoleffect
Thanks for sharing. I know a lot of people who are burnt out by WoW and it
hasn't been fun for them in a long time.

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zach
It's like Weeds meets The Guild!

