Bibliophilia and You

It means "love of books." Really. But why should we love books? There's actually some good money to be made in becoming a book dealer of sorts. Many books (and other bits of paper in the form of recipes, plans, schematics, patterns, etc.) are sold in the game by NPCs in remote or little-known locations. For those seriously focused on power-leveling a profession, it's often more convenient to visit an auction house and pay a premium for a needed book or recipe.

I've done both the slog through the wilderness to acquire the needed book and bought it at exorbitant prices on the auction house. It's really been a call of whether I want to trek all the way out to Arathi Highlands, the depths of Ashenvale, or Feathermoon Stronghold right now or not.

So what are these books that can make you some spare cash? It depends on the trade or secondary skill you're targeting. Let it be said that each trade has some valuable recipes hidden on vendors scattered across the world. Knowing where the people who sell the things that people want is the key to making gold. But, I'm not going to focus on the disparate trades. Instead, I'll look today at the books that are available to anyone because they are for the secondary skills and not a particular trade. Before you buy any of the following books,though, check the profits to be made by looking at the going AH price on your server.

First aid requires three books pre-Outland. At 150, you need the "Expert First Aid - Under Wraps" to advance up to 225 skill. This book, and two other volumes "Manual: Heavy Silk Bandage" and "Manual: Mageweave Bandage," are all available from the same vendor. For Alliance, they are in Stromgarde Keep in the human portion (from entrance keep making rights until you're at the vendor). For the Horde, all three books are available in Breckenwall Village in Dustwallow Marsh.

Cooking requires the "Expert Cookbook." The Alliance has it decidedly easier as their book is in a 20-30 zone. The Horde equivalent is in a 30-35 zone. If the books were actually obtained by the character needing them, the Horde must wait longer before being able to safely travel to the location. However, in some form of equity, the Horde book is located in a village (Raventusk Village in Desolace, to be exact) with a flight path. The Alliance book is buried in the bowels of Ashenvale, quite a trek from the nearest flightpoint of Astranar.

Finally, fishing requires a book from Booty Bay. In general, this book seems to sell less well than either the cooking or first aid books. Perhaps this is because fishing is the secondary skill least likely to be pursued; perhaps it's because the book is easily found.

All of the above books sell; some sell better than others. If there already seems to be a market for the books on your server, it can be dangerous to attempt to break into it. You do run the risk of undercutting to the point where the market is destroyed. You also run the risk of not being able to be competitive. Some research will be needed on your server before I recommend venturing into either market.

If this is an interesting topic, I would be willing to expand into vendor-purchased patterns for various trades. Many of these can be sold for very high mark-ups, however to write the article would take some time for fairly in-depth research. Leave a comment if this is something you'd like to see covered.