20 Days of Gold Making - Day 1

The Auction House Addict blog had a fantastic idea.  A set of 20 topics, meant to span 20 days:  20 Days of Gold Making.  While most bloggers are just finishing up, I've just now been inspired enough to start.

So.  Day 1 question: When did you start making gold & what triggered it?

Day 1 Answer: Around the middle of vanilla, and being an efficient farmer.

I started playing about a year after release, December 2005.  Early on, I was hooked.  I played most of the day, nearly every day.  My personal situation was such where this was feasible, and somewhat sustainable.  I raided, but not as seriously as I'd like.  The farming requirement for raiding was fairly high for some, but I found I had a knack for it.  I could easily farm far more than I could use, and quickly found I could make quite a bit on my extras.  

My earliest farming memories were in Un'Goro crater, at Fire Plume Ridge.  Despite being a Paladin (and raiding Vanilla Paladins were Holy Paladins; that's just the way it was), I was pretty effective at farming those fire elementals.  Occasionally, I'd get the odd Chinese farmer competing with me, and I'd have to quit, as they were far more effective than I (Hunter versus Holy Pally, who'd have thunk?).

Eventually though, I'd strike deals with them, buying their extra Heart of Flames and Elemental Fire.  They were more interested in the super valuable Essence of Fire; running off to sell or mail anything else wasn't efficient enough.  Travel time was a big deal back then.  No flying mounts.  Flight points didn't connect automatically.  If you wanted to fly from Tanaris to Felwood, you had to stop and talk to the Flight Master at every point in between.  No portable mailboxes.  No vendor mounts.  But I digress.

So I could transmute the Hearts into more Elemental Fires.  I picked up Un'Goro soil.  I mined.  I dropped blacksmithing for herbalism.  I picked flowers.  I sold everything, destroyed nothing.  Soon I had built myself up a nice little stash of gold, and picked up the niceties.  Epic mount.  The occasional BoE. Soon I wasn't ever worrying about repairs, and if something I wanted popped up on the AH, I always had the money for it.  I loaned mount money, and sometimes gave it out.

And then, Burning Crusade hit.  Things changed, and fast, and mostly for the better, at least from my perspective.  But that's a story for another time.

Tomorrow.  Or sometime.  Day 2: If you set yourself a goal, what was your goal & at what point did you set it?