5.5 million WoW players

[DrSpike]

Silly question, but what am I supposed to do with all this copper ore?

I've tried skinning and mining for cash cows as suggested I'm not really making much out of it. Light leather (medium leather now) doesn't seem to make much. Nor does ore.

Am I doing it all wrong?

[Kassiopeia]

Don't sell ore, you have to fashion them into bars. Go to a mining trainer who'll teach Smelt Copper to you, and then go near a forge (usually near a trainer) and open the Smelting window, where you can make the ore into bars. Bars will sell at the AH. Smelting should show up as a skill in the Spellbook.

With leather, unless your server economy is bonkers, the ticket is in volume. Grind for exp monsters that give you leather and sell off the leather for extra.

[DrSpike]

I didn't get very much for my light leather sales so far, but I'll keep trying with the better products.

As for the smelting I thought I would need to change professions to do that. I'll check the smith now!

[Kassiopeia]

The blacksmithing trainer won't teach you mining skills, perhaps somewhat counterintuitively the mining trainer will teach you how to smelt ore.

[DrSpike]

Yes, that is counterintuitive.

[DrSpike]

Btw whats the deal with bandages - I haven't seen any yet.

Also, can you buy those heal pots and armour buffs? When they drop I find them quite useful.

[Kassiopeia]

You have to talk to a first aid trainer to learn how to create them. They are a channeled spell-sort of effect that will recover your health quickly as long as you aren't being hit by something. It's a nice way to reduce downtime between battles or as an emergency heal in a raid if you manage you shrug off aggro and the priest is low on mana and you don't want to spend a pot.

Heal pots drop off of mobs but people with the Alchemy skill can also create them out of herbs and vials. You may not see too many of the lower-end items on the AH, though. Some vendors may sell healing pots, but they probably have a limited supply.

Armour buffs, in potion form or as scrolls? Scrolls may be on AH but I don't think I'ever seen any there. Potions of Defense and such to increase your armour rating are also crafted by Alchemists. Can't get them from vendors though. The usual way to recover using stuff you get from vendors is drinks and food to recover mana and hp.

[DrSpike]

Thanks. It looks like getting a constant supply of pots and armour buffs could be tricky.

[Qilue]

The real cash cow profession is herbalism. Even the mid level herbs sell for decent sums. Kingsblood (2g) and Wild Steelbloom (4g) are both plentiful in Stonetalon which is a lvl 15-25 area. Fadeleaf (6g), Wildvine (10g), Icecap (8g), Dreamfoil (14g), Plaguebloom (10g) and Gromsblood (6g) being among the best sellers.
(prices given are per stack of 20)

Alchemy's earning potential is transmuting. For 1 minute's effort, another player will give you 4g to do arcanite and water to life transmutes. Although you can only do one transmute every few days.