Choose a WoW Forever gold-making method that fits your playtime

When do you need the gold?

If you need to buy something before tonight's dungeon, look for money you can collect before you leave. An auction asking price won't pay the trainer, even if it's much higher than the vendor offer. For a later purchase, waiting for buyers may be fine.

Then look at what you can put into earning it. A free evening doesn't give you spare cash to buy resale stock if the wallet is already needed for training. A short session with money to spare might suit a small craft, provided you can also make time to sell it later. Be willing to do that follow-up before you start making stock.

What does each method ask of you?

If you already gather while questing, selling some of those materials may be easier to start than buying stock for resale. You still have the trip and supplies to consider, but you haven't paid another seller before finding a buyer of your own.

Resale ties up purchase money from the start. Leave it until you understand the item well enough to judge the price and can afford to have it sit unsold. You don't need to move into resale because you've been gathering for a while.

If you only have a short session

Use the town visit or quest route you're already making. Sorting a few items for sale can fit into a brief login; a long trip to a distant farm may use most of the time before you begin collecting. Gathering along a planned route also gives you more chances to stop without abandoning the trip.

If you're interrupted often, leave a note about the item you meant to price or the material you meant to sell. You can pick it up on the next login without working through the bags again.

The gold while leveling guide follows that routine from leaving town to selling afterward.

For a dedicated farm, count the trip too

If you want to compare farms, start the clock when you leave to do the job and include the selling work afterward. Counting only the time spent collecting makes a remote farm look better than it is for your evening.

Keep enough detail to know whether another trip would be comparable: where you went, your character's level and relevant perks, and anything unusual about the outing or selling conditions. Try it more than once before relying on it to pay for something by a deadline. A crowded or interrupted run still matters if that's what you may face next time.

Perks are particularly worth checking when you compare with someone else. Blizzard describes character-specific Legacy choices affecting gathering, crafting and fishing; their result may depend on choices your character hasn't made. Source: Blizzard's Legacy overview.

A good hourly figure can still pay too late

Crafting and selling can take little of your attention while leaving the gold tied up for days. That makes time spent working and time spent waiting two different parts of the comparison.

Fictional comparison, not measured Forever earnings:

B works out to 2g ÷ one-third of an hour = 6g per active hour, compared with A's 3g. But B only brought in 2g, and it arrived two days later. The hourly figure doesn't mean you could make and sell three batches in an hour.

For a 3g bill that evening, A would have covered it and B wouldn't. With only 20 minutes available and a 2g purchase two days away, B would have worked in this fictional example. Both rows describe completed outcomes. A real batch still waiting for buyers hasn't earned that money, and you don't yet know when it will sell.

Keep the first attempt small

Try one trip or a small batch before spending more. For a farm, decide how much of the evening you want to give it, including the return journey. For crafting or resale, count the money for ingredients or stock and the charges to list it. Use gold left after the amounts you've already put aside for purchases and ordinary play.

After the trip or first selling attempt, see how much cash came back and what's still unsold. If the batch hasn't sold, buying more ingredients won't solve that by itself. Find out what went wrong before adding more gold to it; you can leave the remaining money available for something else.

Would you want to repeat it?

Once you've found something that fits your time and budget, ask whether you liked doing it. You may enjoy a dedicated gathering trip, or you may prefer collecting a little while questing with friends. The second choice can suit you better even if someone advertises a bigger return elsewhere.

Making supplies for yourself can also be worthwhile without producing sale income. The profession guide compares that with buying the item or selling the ingredients. If the item was what you wanted, using it may be a better result for you than making something else to sell.