Hello there, here's my problem:

I might not be alone in this, but at some point or another, when we get 5,000g, we think "Should I use it to buy the Epic Mount? or use it to make more money?"

I would like to know if someone have ideas on how to use the 5000g to generate more gold. I understand that by having the mount, we can perform our gathering professions quicker and travel from one farm spot to another faster, etc. The thing is, has anyone uses their 5000g to make more gold, not quickly, but let say in the allowed time of one week.

I asked because it has took me a long time, approximately a month to get the gold, from farming motes and buying and reselling in the AH, etc. And I want to invest in it, but invest in what is what I truly don't know. Please offer suggestion. Thank you.

Money begets money. It's a hell of a lot easier to get from 5k to 10k then from scratch to 5k, even considering what you have learned trading with Auctioneer so far. Hang in there just a little longer.

personally what i am doing (only lv 69 right now) is going to buy my standard flyer then after a few runs in BT and or after Linch King then i will think about getting my epic. i already have an epic mount for the regular world (not outland). All i need a flyer for is to do the TK instances

And if you're looking for something to invest in, how about JCing and some of those expensive gem designs. Takes quite a while to claw that investment back though, and you need to pick designs carefully - some of the cut gems don't sell for significantly more than uncut.

I got up to 3000g from 500g fairly quickly, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting higher than that at the moment.

epic flying:
I think I waited until I got to about > 1K on all my main (three 70's and another mailbox/AH) characters and > 7K on the character getting the mount so that character would still have > 1K after buying the skill and mount - of the three 70's I picked the one that had progressed the furthest in the daily quests... it makes them easier :P (just Skettis - egg bombing, and cage ... makes reaching the cage easier.. evil random respawn location - and Blades Edge - ammo bombing (avoiding the cannon flak is much easier), rays, & demons. - I am guessing it would help with the Netherdragon ones also .. once I get organized to finish getting attuned) - anyway as mentioned it helps with gathering in general. At the moment I am would be able to get my 2nd epic.. but still waiting until I have sufficient reserves post-purchase... ^^' still I don't think my 2nd character is ready to do the epic druid flight form quest yet ... well not the heroic instance end part... (if I read the quest info properly it gives a trinket that buffs the druid and also functions as a flight form riding crop.)

Epic flier ain't worth it unless you are making a large chunk of your cash through gathering. Otherwise, you're spending most of your time on the ground or hovering over a small area and it buys you nothing except bragging rights.

Inventory is dead money. To make money you need to concentrate on throughput.

I'd have to agree. Since my main is a paladin, that extra 20% speed boost from Crusader Aura + epic flyer means I fly as fast as the taxi birds do. I couldn't stand to go the speed the non-epic flyers go anymore, but that's just me.

Now that I've been using the epic flyer(s) for a while they do help.. and its needed for getting Netherwing Daily attuned (after you do Zuluhed)
As Deckard has mentioned.. they are much faster .. you can pretty much ignore the standard flightpaths unless you are using them to do stuff afk (like a snack break or fridge visit, etc)

I you want bragging rights.. you are probably thinking of the rare BOP that drops from Kael'thas (http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=19622) Ashes of Al'ar (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32458) 1.7% drop rate :( and big K is pretty nasty (so I have read/heard)

Ashes of Al'ar
Binds when picked up
Unique
Requires Level 70
Requires Riding (300)
Use: Summons and dismisses a rideable phoenix. This is a very fast mount. This mount can only be summoned in Outland.
"And from the ashes it was reborn..."

and no I don't have one. nor have I seen any while in game.

anyway I recommend you get at least one of your characters with the rank 4 riding skill. after that you can then decide if you want the others to get one.

side note.. getting rep with skyguard and buying their mount instead of the regular alliance/horde respective swift flyer can save you 40g :P

- I've now got 3 alts _*1 with them .. and the druid's got the flightform trinket (which you get after the 3 shrines mini bosses and before the river swim chase ( & before the heroic instance end quest for the swift form))

_*1 skinner, herbalist and miner respectively :P the miner and herbalist seem the most profitable especially with the netherwing stuff.

Posted By: meridunThere is actually a point of diminishing returns for starting capital in most of the servers' AHs.

In my case, I start having trouble finding good deals to invest in beyond about 3k of bids. This value is dependent on your faction and server, of course, but I find it a lot easier to double 50g than 5,000g. Therefore, at a certain point, you'll want to start spending the money that you're not able to actually reinvest efficiently.

Personally, I bought my epic flyer at about 8k.

Just browsing a bit today, saw this and thought it summed it up perfectly. Ive got about 15k on my bank alt and I mainly make my money through DEing stuff. It seems that this method costs me at most bout 1k gold a day so Ive got easily 10k gold sitting around doing nothing. I only have one toon I play so I've started to dump tons of cash on things like offspec gear, enchants, gems, etc. Making 3-400 gold per day means that I can spend 2k on stuff I may never use and after a week I've got my money back since I am not sacrificing my market investment for personal use.

To answer the original question, I would echo what a few others have said. Get a few thousand more than the cost of the epic and then buy the mount since having a few thousand gold is plenty to play the AH for most. If you make money by gathering, get the epic right away and it will help you get back the gold faster.

Having a lot of gold on your character does not "attract" piracy unless you're in the habit of telling players far and wide how much gold you have. Even then it's unlikely unless you also share your password around. You get hacked by having inadequate protection from viruses and keyloggers, not because you have a lot of gold.

If you're susceptible to getting hacked, then it's going to happen regardless of whether you have 100,000g or 1g. They'll shard all your gear, sell everything possible and even possibly use your character to spam gold seller ads until Blizzard puts a hold on the account. Or you'll just be left standing naked at a mailbox.