That Old Grind…
Grinding elementals is a tried and true method of earning gold. They are all over the game world and come in a variety of types. They all drop some form of elemental parts appropriate to their types, such as air elementals dropping “Breath of Air” or Crystallized Air. In Outlands these will be motes of whatever, in Northrend they will be crystallized whatever.
All of these bits can be used by players in certain crafting recipes, so there’s always a market for them and that won’t change with Cataclysm. Motes and crystallized stuff can also be combined, 10 at a time, into primals/eternals. These combined elements are used in a lot of recipes.So what to farm? Check the Action House to see what’s keeping the high prices, then go farm that item.
The same will be the case with the new Cataclysm areas. Gather the bits from the various elementals and then sell them “as is” or combine them and then sell. (Keep in mind that if you’re in a PvP area, such as Wintergrasp, your farming might be more entertaining than otherwise.)
How do you find the Elementals that you’re looking for? Well, if you’re pretty high level you probably can already think of a few places, otherwise go tto Thottbot.com, seach for Elementals, then click “creatures.” You will be able to sort the list by level, maps, and so on. (Cataclysm isn’t yet far enough along for Thottbot to have listings.) By the way, you can do the same with other stuff. Is Wool (or some other) Cloth selling for an arm and a leg on your server? Use Thottbot to look up what drops the stuff then put your DK to work and go farm a ton.
As with any gathering run, take large bags, stock up on sodas, rations, and tunes, and go farm some elementals.Take a buddy and make it a contest to see who gets the most, the fastest. Or kill everything, sit down and swap lies while waiting for the respawn, and then see if you can kill everything faster than before. Next, come up with a plan to sell your loot.
Me? I hate to farm stuff, except on rare occasions, and I’ll never be able to fill bags with the stuff. But if it works for you, then cool.
Some tips on posting stuff to the Auction House
Ok, you have your elemental bits, or whatever you’ve gathered, here’s how to get rid of your stuff.
Basically there are two types of items on the Auction House (AH.) The first group consists of items that people will only buy one of; such as glyphs, weapons, armor, enchants, etc. Unless someone is buying for resale, or supplying his buddies, no one will buy several glyphs or weapons of any one type. The next group is stuff the people will buy a lot of and may well buy repeatedly. A Scribe will buy tons of herbs for her glyph making, a leatherworker will buy tons of skins, and so on. And they will all want your bits at some point in their work. While people usually won’t buy tons of primals/eternals at the same time, as they might with leather or ore, chances are they will be repeat buyers.
Understanding these two groups of items (and people) is important since it determines how you pick your prices. If you’re selling one-off items, such as glyphs, those green/blue weapons you found, etc., you want to have the lowest price. You don’t have to undercut by a lot, but the lowest price says that your stuff will go first.
You don’t need to have the lowest prices
With the other group you don’t have to be the lowest price. You do not need to undercut everyone else. If my scribe is buying a ton of herbs for Inscription then she’ll buy the lowest price stuff, then the next higher, then the next… and so on until she has enough. The same is true with skins, ores, and your elemental bits.
Ok, you understnad that. Now you’re off to the AH with your load of motes/crystallized whatever. Check the prices on motes/crystals and do the same with primals/eternals. Post yours in the form that will get you the best prices. For example – motes of life are selling for 1g each, but primal life is selling for 15g each (and rapidly climbs to 23.) Makes your motes into primals (10 motes to a primal) and post the primals somewhat above the lowest price. Let’s not get silly with this, though. If the low price is 400g per bit, then I’d suggest undercutting. By a lot. 
By the way, if some other seller (call him “Igntaz, the farmer”) has posted a pile of bits at well under everone elses prices, feel free to buy all of hjis underpriced stuff and resell it at a better price. If he’s selling Eternal bits for 3 gold, and you know they’ll fly off the shelves at 15, then buy all the low priced bits. Do not post them all at once. Post them over time, some will sell and then you post a few more.
In summary, all the elemental bits sell well and you don’t need to sell them at the lowest price. If you do sell them way under market that’s fine, someone will by them, and chances are it will be me, or someone of a simarly greedy mind. You sell yours for 3g each, while doing all the work, and I’ll buy you out and sell yours for 15g each. That’s fair, right? 
You could also just hand the lot to your guild crafter, but that’s hardly the point of this article. Now get to work!
You can find more gold stuff in our GotWarcraft Gold Guide.
