Where do y'all get your money?

[elderlygamer]

Back in the day I used to think selling a stack of 50 copper ore for 250 silver was great. Selling one black dye for 500 silver (I think?) was amazing. Now those prices would be ridiculously cheap. Where the heck are y'all getting your money? I'm happy when I get 20-some silver for killing a mob, but based on prices I see in the AH, a lot of you are millionaires relatively speaking. Do people just gather gold over time due to not having anything they want to buy?

[paintpixie]

...Do people just gather gold over time due to not having anything they want to buy?

This, mostly. There are things that I would buy but either they are not currently being sold in the auction house, or people are asking for too much so I don't buy it. I end up buying very little with gold.

[TesalionLortus]

When I have something nice to sell, I offer reasonable price and it always sells, crafting or other stuff I don't need, accumulated some gold over time, around 1K+ and I tend to float around such values if I'm actively selling and don't buy anything very expensive. But a purchase of 100+ is viable as well.

However, there is an issue, yeah. There is precedent at AH to sell things at ridiculously inflated prices waiting for a "sucker" to buy or a millionaire. Nearly half of offers if not more are like that, which is a bit annoying to scroll though, it's almost like they're not real players - I think they might be gold sellers' operations or something... if there is one whale or sucker who buys something for 1k gold... and maybe there are... then you can resell that amount of gold, I guess. But by having such huge prices dominate the AH regular players might be convinced this is the actual value of the thing and they will be holding on to their stuff rather than choose to sell it for less. I fell the victim of this preconception too, sometimes, but once I decided to drop the price there was always a buyer (though... there is always the question whether they didn't try to resell my item for 1k+ ... lol)

[cdq1958]

I sell frequently and buy rarely. The gold savings slowly grow that way. I post what I want to sell at a price that typically sells quickly. If someone else buys it and resells it for more, more power to him. Economic values are personal opinions, which will vary from person to person, place to place and from time to time.

[Pontin_Finnberry]

I sell everything to a Vendor, all the junk from mob drops, I only really keep what what my character uses for their craft, everything else is sold and adds up over time. I sometimes sell other crafting mats for good price If i want too, but generally all sold to vendor along with everything else, I recently sold a Tracery recipe from the reward track I didn't need for huge amount of gold I was offered.

[WeirdJedi]

This is a story about a series of events:

(1) There was a change made in Update 25.4: https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Upd..._March_3,_2020
Ithilharn Shards are now awarded for completing the following weekly quests: Imlad Morgul: The Reclamation, Imlad Morgul: Vale of Sorcery, and Imlad Morgul: Continued Threats

While many people were exhausted from running the weekly quests since the release, I actually waited until Minas Morgul was released for lotro points two days after this patch hit live. I ran the quests plenty of times with a series of regular kinships not only to convert Ember into Figments but to receive enough reputation to experience the story.

(2) Of course, I didn't need to use any of the shards for the recipes as Langflood released in Update 26 with a whole new set of gear about a couple months later and offered to be played for free during their special event - https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Upd...April_23,_2020

So week after week I supported the groups and accumulated shards one after another without a real reason to use them.

(3) Then about a year later Update 29 hit - https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Upd...March_17,_2021

Not only did they now offer a way to craft Ember-worthy items with the shards but also established a new craftable gold chest plate that required a whole lot of them. Let me tell you: the price on those shards were ridiculous. I put one shard on the Auction House at a time and incremented 25g from 200 to 350. When 350g didn't sell within a couple minutes, I started throwing them on for around 300g to 350g. I sold 60 of them within a week.

[Pharone]

So far, I haven't seen much to spend gold on in game other than to purchase stuff in the AH. Pretty much everything I need ends up being part of some barter system based on a token of one kind or another. The game just doesn't seem designed around any kind of importance for money.

Don't get me wrong. I like the idea of not making gold/silver/etc important.

I do wish that we could put our wares up for sale in the AH with much longer time frames though. I always go with the longest I can choose (3 days I think it is), but ultimately it makes it so that I only sell on the AH on the weekend for the most part. It would be nice if we could put up a shop to sell from in our homes like in Starwars Galaxies. That way we could stock it with stuff we harvest/create, and just check back to see if we made anything from it and restock.

[grallonsphere]

It annoys me to see some of the price gouging going on on the AH - but then again if someone is willing to pay 4-5000G for a model ship - who am I to judge? Personally, my main is a prospector so he gathers ores, which are the his main source of revenues (with skins at a 2nd best). I check the averages for any given item and price my own offerings accordingly. I do not 'play' the AH with the help of mods / addons like some people do, but I do get a decent weekly return. And of course, after a while, all your 'needs' are met and you just accumulate. As for my expenses, the largest budget item is for housing decorations. There are things I am unwilling to do in the game so I get the unbound items that come from those (instances, raids, festivals) from sales on the AH.

Now if only we could get more hooks in those houses!

[Flaxie]

I always run with my ore tracker on, and grab almost every ore and wood node I see. I sell them in stacks of 100, for usually
15 to 25 gold less than the next stack on the AH. (Unless the prices are way crazy, then I'll drop my price even further.) I have
noticed that there is almost nothing to spend gold on once a char is level 100 or higher, which most of the ones I'm currently
playing are, so I've started a practice of finding chars who are level 20 or less and gifting them 500 gold. I'll find 2 or 3 of them
in an evening, then return to my regular play until I've built up 1000 to 2000 extra gold on that char again. Between the 6 chars
and bags in shared storage on the account I'm using mostly, I have over 25k gold, so I'll have plenty to hand out! lol

[Vilan]

Ithilharn and dwarrowgleam shards still command a premium because you can craft them into embers and you can't buy them in the skirm camp. Pick the crafting box from your weekly mission wrappers and drop one of these shards on the AH for easy cash money.

Cosmetic pets are also mostly unbound, and some people will pay well to fill up their collections. Ill Omens pets are still selling for a few hundred gold each. Running through the Bingo quests can yield bags full of these cosmetic pets.

Crafting material is another good one. Some folks are levelling up crafters, especially on bonus crafting xp weekends like we just had, and would rather spend 100 gold on a stack of material than spend an hour or two collecting it themselves. Take advantage.

All this stuff makes me money, and there's not a whole lot I spend big coin on. For a few years I was spending it on stat tomes, then they canned MC mailing of store items so that's gone. Sometimes I'll pick up a rare cosmetic pet or housing item. Oh yes, I forgot hobnanigans tokens! I've spent a few thousand gold picking up those and I think I finally have enough of them to buy everything I want.

[baddwarf]

Any crafting ore always sells for a good price. Most veteran players are rich because over the years SSG has made sure there is nothing to spend it on in the AH.

[Arabani]

I get money from other players. I mean I sell stuff on AH. And yes, there is nothing to spend them on in the game.

[hagermanj]

When I post to the AH I check prices to find out what other players post for. Then I post for less.

As long as I can sell items for more than I can sell at a vendor ( after taking out posting $$ and the cut after it sells ) I am happy with that.

Like someone else posted, if someone buys my listing and resells it for more, more power to them. I made my money I'm happy.

[DavidmeetHal]

I've been broke since I started playing on April 26th, 2007 lol! I never did a good job at gaining wealth.

[Bakenellan]

Just playing 130-140 level landscape and selling trash to vendors gives enough to pay for anything in-game except AH. Unless you have a dozen premium houses not being a vip. Maybe.

Before the new LI I used to sell farmed Empowerment scrolls to get something from AH.
Then I sold about 10 unbound Tomes of Defence and had no need to get more gold yet.
I do sell mats which I gather and create but don't need on discount but still more then vendored. Like said above - is someone resell it - good for them.

[Lambtron]

Cosmetic pets can often be sold for a pretty penny, especially those that take forever to grind for in events.
Having said that, you'll get those who will sell them sometimes for ludicrous prices, so it helps to look through the AH carefully to get an idea of 'actual' value.

[elderlygamer]

imo it's good that there isn't a strong dependency on gold. The gold farming spam was bad long ago, especially in Bree, although it was always funny when a chat bot's script was broken after someone adopted the character doing the spamming.

I guess this is one of those few games where it doesn't matter too much whether you have a ton of gold or only a little.

[DoRonRon]

Various:

Filling a need that others can't make the effort for themselves - Fish Fillets.
Making the most out of the "new" thing before using yourself - Craft Heraldries and Power Traceries.
The Shards that return Embers if you can take the grind better than others - Ember-worthy.
Cheesy vendor or barter items offered up to those who don't know where they are sourced - for the usual suspects.

Craft Heraldries after all my toons were endowed was enough for me.

Biggest issue is those who can afford, have them already those who don't have them, haven't the gold for them = not a good economy. "Bound" to happen though.
Drastically cutting solvent needs with dropping craft requirements and embers sourced essence effected the LP to gold laundering returns that drove the older economy.