Server Transferring One Toon

This post is in response to my June Topic for Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival.  This post should have been live a while ago, but with the bombardment of computer issues (which have been fixed) I haven't been able to write much of anything.  However, this does give some other bloggers a wee bit more time today as I will have the Carnival Post up at 10 PM PDT. 

The Why
 
I've done one server transfer before and I wish I had figured some things out before I did it the first time around.  When it came time to transfer my alts, it was a little too late.  If I were to transfer servers again and could only take one toon, It would be an easy choice.  I would take my hunter since he's my main and I've had him ever since I started playing WoW at the end of Vanila.  Those of you that have read my previous posts may recall that he's an herbalist and transmute specialized alchemist.  I can always change professions before or after a server transfer, depending on which is cheaper, it's expensive either way.  Also, I really enjoy my hunter, I've come to know various changes to the class inside and out, I have more fun soloing things with my hunter than I do with any other class.  Honestly, I think my days of soloing old raids and dungeons are what got me thinking about EVERY single way I can use different materials to make more gold from my runs.

Some Thoughts Before I Begin

Okay, now that I've decided which toon to transfer, I give him 50,000 gold and start planning my move, including how to take ALL of my gold with me.  I just hit 871,000 gold tonight, and I think that's the first time I've publicly shared how much gold I have.  Hmmm... I could be wrong about that though.  So, 821k, how am I going to move it?  I could easily transfer a guild over, meaning I can take 1 million gold and more stock with me, but in this scenario, I can't afford it :(  So I have to get creative.  I haven't bought any of the newer mounts from this expansion, so I would go ahead and buy them. Regardless of which server I transfer to, the vendor purchased mounts will be the same price.  I might even buy up a TCG mount if it's avaliable, I may learn it or try to flip it on the new server.  I don't however, want to tie up all of my gold into some TCG mounts that sometimes take weeks or even MONTHS to sell.  Now that I've discussed some tips, it's time to get into what I would do if faced this transfer situation.

My wife on her lovely Grand Expedition Yak, courtesy of my Cata gold!

Getting My Gold Converted

Step One: Grand Expedition Yak . I've been saving this purchase for when I hit gold cap for the first time.  With this purchase eating 108k from my bankroll, I'm down to 713k to turn into goods to fit in my bags.

Step Two: Orb of Mystery.  I'll probably go ahead and use these, along with a bit of extra gold or mats I have lying around to craft all of the mounts that use these, bringing me down a small chunk to about 413k.

Step Three:  Feel overwhelmed.

Step Four:  Get over it and continue

Step Five:  Clean out my bank to make room for some goods, insert heirlooms for the new alt army I'll need.

Step Six:  Assuming I've already done market research, I will pick either raw mats or crafted goods to stick in my bags to lighten my pockets on the way over to that new server.  In this case, i want a healthy stock of  Living Steel Belt Buckle. They stack to 20 and I can craft some of my stock and leave some of it as raw materials.  I'll also empty out the AH so that I'm actually lowering my gold total.  Right now there are only 13 on the AH at 616g55s each only bringing me down to just under 405k.

Step Seven:  Make sure my alts have some cash for stock, just in case I decide to play them again, 20k each brings me down to 325k.

Step Eight:  Orb of Mystery ... Search TUJ on the new realm for sellers of the mounts that require them.  Work out a deal, maybe let them pay 17k per vice the normal 18k (with guild perk) vendor cost.  It might take a while to offload more than one set and since it only takes 14 to make all of the mounts that's what I'll buy, bringing me down to 73k  But I lose a total of 10k gold to this process.

Step Nine:  Buy my wife the Vial of the Sands.  Averaging around 35-40k for the mount, this brings me down to 33k assuming I'm paying the top price since none are avaliable at the moment but I do know someone who can craft it for me on a whim.  That mount will be much more useful to me if she has it, assuming she were transferring along with me, which would most likely be the case.

Step Ten: Battle Pets!!!  Thanks to Residentevil, Host of the Eviscerated Gaming Podcast and Jojo of Admiring Azeroth, I've become engrossed in this hobby (addiction).  I don't have many 25s and I would like to diversify my pet collection.  I'll buy as many pets as I can with the remaining  33k.  Only buying what I don't have of course, and preferably some that are level 25.   Load up my hunter with my remaining battle stones and other account bound items, and prepare to level some pets on the new realm.  I could spend this 33k on crafting mats or crafted items instead.  But I'm coming from a medium population server and would most likely be making a move to a higher populated server.  Putting my gold into pets seems like a better investment to me.

This might not be the best way to move my gold over given that I'm only transferring one toon.  But it's what I want, and that's what's most important when it comes to transferring servers.  If I'm going to pay real money for a service, I better get as much satisfaction out of it as possible.

How would you transfer your gold to a new server if faced with the choice to move one toon?  Comments welcome below!!