Cash is one of those things on games that at low levels, nobody has enough. Certainly, if you have an "abundance" of money, that's because you've been saving to buy something expensive, and soon you won't have the cash anymore - you'll have the object.
So, I thought it would be a good idea to post this suggestion for new players who may not know this quick way to cash on World of Warcraft:
The Auction House
On any MMORPG, there's the NPC Market and the Player Market. Meaning, there are NPC's that will buy your odds and ends that you collect from monster drops, and there are likely players who will buy that same thing from you.
The big difference is that only the Player Market has a sense of "value" in a standard supply-and-demand economic sense, and this sense can earn you a lot of money!
In World of Warcraft, there's actually something set up to help facilitate the player market trading of goods (read also my player blog entry about the Auction House), whereas on other games like RuneScape, you'll see players gathering in common spots, yelling out their wares, and trading is more like pandemonium there.
How It Works
There are Auction Houses in the various capital cities in Azeroth. Since I'm a Horde player, Origrimmar and Thunder Bluff are my two main auction cities.
Simply put, I talk to an Auctioneer and auction off anything that is a "raw material" for a profession. Ores, linen, wool, silk, luminous pearls, medium leather, etc. I specify a "buy out" price based on the minimum bid which the Auction House sets itself.
Once the auction is put into place, players who are searching the Auctions can put bids on your auction, or they can "buy out" the auction and close it immediately. Meaning, you get your cash and they get their auction goodies before the auction itself expires in terms of time.
Do I Have To Be Around For The Auction?
Nope, one of the best things about the Auction House is that you don't even have to be online for the Auction to take place! The results are mailed to you on the game, is the cash! The items also get mailed to you if they are returned because they didn't sell.
How Should I Set My Buyout Price?
Supply and demand is what determines the buyout price.
If what you're looking to auction is freely available to purchase in shops, you're not going to get much, if anything for it.
However, if something special is going on in the game that makes, say, bandages a hot commodity, then the raw materials used to produce bandages will also be a hot commodity, and you can generally set your buyout price much higher than the minimum bid price.
Personally, I started with buyout equalling 10x the min bid, and I've adjusted from there. I've sold a few lots of 20 linen for 1g each lot, same with wool.
Did I Miss Anything?
Post here if you know of any auctionable items in high demand, but easy to get for low levels who may not otherwise realize they've got valuable stuff on their hands!