Vendor Pet Roundup

While not the biggest gold maker in my arsenal, there is one market that actually seems to be improving as we get closer and closer to Mists of Pandaria:  pets.  With the announcement of MoP's pet battle system, plenty of people are getting their pet collection in order now.  They're still not the fastest sellers, but they're steady, and better sellers now than they've probably ever been.

Pets can come from a variety of sources, but for the purposes of this post, we're going to focus on those available from vendors.  What I love about these pets is that the supply is generally limitless, the initial investment is low, and the profit margin is often ridiculously high.  A hundred gold or more for something I bought for 50 silver?  Yes, please.

I collect and sell all of these pets on one alt, my mage.  For me, having these auctions separate from the hundreds my druid posts and re-posts with TSM is important, because it makes it much easier to tell which pets have sold and which haven't.  Given the relatively "slow and steady" nature of these sales, I prefer to only keep one of each up at a time, and simply restock when they sell.  As for why I use my mage specifically...well, "Time is money, friend", and the more you can save by teleporting, the easier things are.

To start off with, I'll check the AH on my mage and see what I currently have listed, re-list anything that's expired, etc.  I play WoW in windowed mode, and on my desktop, I have a handy dandy little Notepad document with all the vendor pets in my route listed, in the order I obtain them, with a little X next to each.  My first step is to go through and remove the X next to each pet that's still on the AH.  If you're feeling a little more industrious, this can also be done with a dry erase board or something similar.  For the purposes of this post, we're going to assume every pet has sold out.

If you have an Alliance alt on another account for cross-faction arbitrage, this would be the time to check that as well.  One of the things you should decide very early on is what pets you'll sell to just the opposite faction, which you'll sell to just the same, and which you'll sell to both.  For example, on my server, the snakes in Orgrimmar actually sell fairly well even to other Horde members, while on the Alliance side, the cats from outside Stormwind are likely to sell for less than 5 gold.  Anything I need one of for the opposite faction will get an O next to it.

Once the list has been sorted out, the traveling begins.  I start out in Orgrimmar, so of course my first stop is to see Xan'tish in the troll section and grab some snakes.  After that, I take a quick teleport to Thunder Bluff and see Halpa for a prairie dog.  For those without a mage, Thunder Bluff can also be reached by zeppelin or by flight path from Orgrimmar.  Halpa can sometimes be difficult to find if you're not familiar, so here's how I always locate him:  First I look for Baine Bloodhoof, the tauren leader, in the big longhouse, top level of the main (central) rise.  Halpa is in a little hut to the right of this, facing the outside of the rise.

Halpa, vendor of mighty prairie dogs

Next, it's a teleport to Silvermoon.  This one's a bit trickier if you don't have a mage.  Take the zeppelin to Undercity, then take the Orb of Translocation, found on the surface level, on the right side of the courtyard as you enter.  Once in Silvermoon, the place we're looking for is Fairbreeze Village.  It's easy to spot on your map, and there's a flight path right outside Silvermoon if you don't have a mount.  Once there, you're looking for a female blood elf named Jilanne, in a little building all by herself to the left of the other big building in town.  She'll sell you three little dragonhawks that are quite striking.

Jilanne, the...crazy dragonhawk lady?

Next up, we're off to Outlands, specifically the Stormspire.  You can either port to Shattrath, or you can take the portal from any capital city to the Dark Portal.  Either way, at this point, you are stuck with a bit of travel time.  Once at the Stormspire, you're looking for Dealer Rashaad, a neutral vendor who sells a variety of pets, some unique to him, some shared with others.  Be careful before you buy from him, particularly with the Mana Wyrmling.  The vendor cost on this is much higher than most vendor pets, so check prices on your server first, and keep in mind that the vendor price also determines the deposit for the AH.

Finally, our last group of pets come from Dalaran.  If you don't have a mage, it may be worth setting your hearthstone there or investing in one of the Dalaran rings.  Your target is Breanni, in a little building behind all the exotic mounts.  The same cautions as the Mana Wyrmling apply to these pets.  Their vendor cost is much higher than typical pets, so check your server to make sure it's profitable.

Most of these steps can be done in any order, but there's a reason I save Dalaran for last.  In the Violet Citadel, there's a portal to the Caverns of Time in Tanaris.  Why is this important?  It's very close to Gadgetzan, which hosts a neutral AH for easy transferring of your cross-faction pets.

That's all for today, but in my next post, I hope to cover the Alliance side of this trip, and possibly give special mention to the few pets I avoid altogether.  Until then, good night and good gold.