The primary way you'll make gold in World of Warcraft is through selling the items you find, loot, catch, buy, or make to other players using the auction house. The auction process is pretty simple but that simplicity hides the single most effective way to make gold in World of Warcraft.

In this article you'll get some tips to help you make more gold with what you're already selling at the auction house and a couple of item flipping strategies that you can use today - even if you don't have much gold to begin with.

Rule One for Making Gold in the Auction House
Players are lazy and impatient! They don't pay attention to supply and demand for the items they put up for auction or consider that the item may be part of a quest or an ingredient in a crafting recipe that makes it worth much more than the suggested sale price that pops up in the auction tool.

They also don't take a second and "do the math" when they place stacks of items up for auction or consider that there may be a market for only two or three of that item vs. a stack of twenty. Also, unless someone is trying to get a deal or buy something to use at a higher level, they will want their item right away so always offer a buyout price. Impulse shoppers will pay more than investors (and therefore make you the most gold) so you want to make sure they can buy and get their impulse item right away.

When to Buy and Sell
You want to buy when everyone is trying to sell and sell when everyone is trying to buy. That means selling during prime time hours (Friday and Saturday afternoons/evenings) on your server. I always save up my most lucrative items to list on Friday and Saturday afternoons when I know there are going to be a lot of people preparing for their weekend adventures and much more willing to spend gold to save time than at other times during the week.

The best time to buy is late on Sunday evenings or early Monday mornings. Those same people who are your best customers on Friday and Saturday will be your best suppliers after the weekend is over. Weekend players will hit the auction house with items to sell after they're done playing for the weekend and they don't care about getting the absolute most gold for their items. They just want to dump them so they'll have some gold waiting in their mailbox for the next weekends adventuring. They'll look at similar items up for auction and try to undercut those prices to make sure their items sell thus providing incredible deals for those of us paying attention.

Simply buying when supply is low (Sunday night) and selling when demand is high (Friday and Saturday nights) can get you 50 to 100% more gold for your auctions for absolutely no additional work!

Buy Ingredients in Bulk and Relist
Although miners and skinners like to deal in stack of items, other professions don't want or need a stack of twenty copper bars or heavy leather. In many cases, their recipe calls for two light leather, one gem, or three iron bars and they're simply not going to buy a stack of items no matter how good of a deal they get.

Recognizing this you can buy gems, leather, and metal bars in bulk, break them up, and sell them in the quantities that are most desirable for other professions looking to complete a recipe. Take a look at popular crafting recipes and look for recipes that only require a small number of some ingredient. You can then repackage the items you bought in bulk in smaller quantities and mark them up significantly from the per-item cost at which you purchased them.

Gold from Armor Changes
Warriors, Hunters, Paladins, and Shaman are able to upgrade their armor at level 40. Warriors and Paladins get to wear plate while Hunters and Shaman get to wear mail. This is a big upgrade and plate and mail armor that has a minimum level of 40 will be in huge demand as characters of these class approach level 40. Buy chain and plate armor that has a minimum level of 40 and you can re-list it at auction for several times the normal value given this demand.

Twink Items
Armor and weapons at the high end of level tiers (19, 29, 39, etc.) are very in demand from players with higher level characters looking to twink their lower level characters with the best equipment possible for the maximum level of that tier's battlegrounds. You can often list items with minimum levels ending in "9" for much more than corresponding items around that level.