There Are Mules In The WoW Auction House

Do you find you spend a lot of time just going back and forth to one of the major cities to scan, flip and check mail? You'd rather be out mowing Murlocs, but your bags are full, there are bargains to be had and stuff to put into and take out of the bank. All this legwork is necessary, sure, but it's crimping your style.

The good news is that there's an answer - roll yourself a mule.

A "mule" is a new toon that is created for the sole purpose of making your life easier. They live in the city and do all your AH scanning, buying and selling for you. Kind of like a personal assistant except they won't answer phones, walk your dog or remind you that your anniversary is in two days and you need to get off your butt and get Mrs. Og something very nice for putting up with your sorry self.

/tie string around finger

All you do is create a new, level 1 toon on your realm and of the same faction as the character(s) you need this mule for. It's a good idea to create a character that has the easiest run to a big city. Get them to work fast.

One nice thing about having multiple characters of the same faction in the same realm is that they all share the Auctioneer data so you don't have to start scanning from scratch with the new toon (but you still need to scan every day).

Once you have this character created, you have one of two options. On one hand you can run them straight to the big city and get them to work right away. No quests. No mob kills. Straight to the mailbox and then the AH. And then the mailbox. And then the AH.

And so it goes.

For example, let's create one for the Alliance. Race is human because humans practically get a personal escort to Stormwind city it's so safe on the roads. I'll call him Oggrunt, make him balding and unhappy looking. After all he's going to be sitting in front of the mailbox and AH all day.



Then we run straight for Stormwind...



...and introduce ourselves to our new best friend - the mailbox.



The second option is to level the character to level 5 first and then run them to the city where they can learn a profession. That profession is Enchanting 99.9999999999% of the time. Why Enchanting? Because you can disenchant any low-level greens you get and sell the mats. Usually those mats will sell better than the greens will. Lots of folks do this.

I've done both. Though if you read my posts you know that I have little patience for the enchanting market. I'll only dip my toe in if the temperature is just right. My lack of interest is because I don't feel like managing inventory. If I've got inventory then I've got gold tied up that's not working for me. But that's just me. There's something about the swings, thrash and competition of the Enchanting market that draws people. If that's the way you roll, go for it!

Either way, once you have your mule go ahead and send them items to sell and gold to wheel and deal with. Then they can funnel gold back to you whenever you need it.

It's a great system. You don't have to worry about going out of your way too go to the AH and the bank and the mailbox and the AH and the mailbox and the...you get my drift.

OK, there is a third option. For most people do not level these alts up past 5 at the most. They've got one job to do and that's it.

I'm an altaholic. I level mine up.

My strategy is that when I'm ready to play an alt for a while I park the other one (usually only have two per realm) in the city to be my mule. I like to level mine up to a level that has a "9" at the end of it and then battleground like mad. The cool part about muling this way is that when I'm ready to take an alt out I'm usually earning 200% experience for at least half my bars.

Woot!