Money

What is it?

Peon coins were minted in the Second War.

Some amount of copper pieces (cp, Template:C), silver pieces (sp, ), gold pieces (gp, '), or combination of any those types of coins. Your current total is shown at the bottom right of your open backpack window.

How do you use it?

You can spend it at a vendor NPC, trade or mail it to other Player characters, bid with it for an item at the Auction House, use it as a deposit to auction at the Auction House, or just save it. Additional uses are to buy additional bag slots at the Bank or Hunters can buy stable slots for their pets from a Stable Master

Where do you get it?

You can get money by looting dead mobs, completing quests, selling items to vendor NPCs, via trade or mail from other player characters, or by selling an item at the Auction House. If you use money to put a deposit down for auctioning an item, you lose the deposit whether it sells or not, but any failed bids are returned via mail.

Types of Coins

• Template:C Also known as copper pieces or cp.
• Silver coins – Also known as silver pieces or sp.
• Gold coins – Also known as gold pieces or gp.

Conversion Rates

• Template:C = 1
• 100 = 1
• Template:C = 1

NOTE: You can never have more than Template:C - if you get to Template:C, it will automatically change to 1 in the silver column. The same is true when you get to 99 Template:C, if you add another copper then it will automatically change to 1

Technical Considerations

The amount of money on a server is not constant. From a technical point of view, money can be "created" (ie, added to the player economy) and "destroyed" (removed from the player economy).

Money is "created" when:

• A player sells an item to a vendor.
• A player loots money from a mob or chest.
• A player completes a quest with a monetary reward.
• A player joins that realm or moves to that realm via transfer.

Money is "destroyed" when:

• A player buys an item from a vendor or a skill from a trainer.
• A player pays a deposit / cut to the Auction House.
• A player pays for repairs.
• A player completes a quest that has a monetary requirement (a rarity).
• A player deletes his character (or otherwise stops using it).
• A player moves his character to another realm.

Money is also traded between players in exchange for items and services, but this does not itself affect the amount of money in circulation.

While leveling a character from 1 to 60, a player naturally "creates" hundreds of gold, though much of it is "destroyed" by repair costs and training costs.

Since a character starts with no money, it is clear that a perfectly new server has no money in circulation. As the server ages, the difference between the rate at which money is being "created" and "destroyed" by the in-game mechanics means that, for a time at least, the average wealth of the characters increases.

Inflation

In all probability, this is a cause of the inflation that many players complain about. Prices tend to go up as the average wealth tends to increase. One counterbalance to this inflationary tendency is the increasing repair costs that players pay when their gear starts to improve. Level 60 characters in full epics can pay several gold after each raid. Because of this fact, as a server ages, the rate at which money is "destroyed" is increased, and average wealth does not increase as quickly as it otherwise would - indeed, perhaps it stabilizes at some point (only Blizzard can answer this).

Deflation

There is also economic deflation on many realms since Gold Farmers and Bots have a dramatic effect on the local realm economy by selling items at reduced price on the Auction House. This is equally annoying to players as it means their own item value decreases over time. The launch of the new Burning Crusade patch had a predictable effect on the economy, as many level 70 players now have gold reserves in excess of 10,000 where before few players would have seen more than 1 or 2 thousand after quite some time at level 60. Auction house prices have soared as a result, and Twink items are even higher in price than usual. Another effect of the patch was that the market got flooded with "high"-level (level 60) items such as  [Brilliant Chromatic Scale] which was already declining in price on certain realms pre-TBC (reportedly decreasing from 100g per scale to 5g per scale on some of the economically more manic realms ^{[citation needed]} ). These items are now worth much less than they were pre-TBC which has meant players who weren't able to sell them before the expansion have missed out on quite a lot of gold. Of course, the average wealth isn't affected by auction-house transactions, but a lot of players have been put out by the fluctuating prices.

Economy summary

The WoW economy will always fluctuate, and large events such as the Burning Crusade launch will have a knock-on effect. My advice to any player worried about an economic decline on their realm is not to buy any gold from gold sellers, as this will have a worse effect on the economy. Also, make sure you price your auctions based on market-value and not just stab-in-the-dark wishwork. Although it is technically against the ToS to affect other's gameplay in a negative way (including the economy), it's generally accepted that under-pricing doesn't count as it doesn't affect the average wealth of players on your realm. It's also generally accepted that underpricing is very annoying, since other players will find it difficult to sell items at the correct price, and it may even lower the value of the item you're selling. Slight underpricing (up to around 10% of market value off) is acceptable, however. Although little is known about the actual average WoW player's wealth, there is much speculation about it and wherever you look you'll find a different figure. Blizzard have yet to publish anything regarding the economic status of any of the servers in any country.