Can Blizzard Do Something to Help the Economy?

Making gold has never been easier in the game.  I have alts with over 100K when I have done nothing to make gold.  It just, happens.  Sell the extra junk you get at the current prices and out of nowhere, you have tons of gold.

One character, an herbalist and alchemist, leveled up and then used all those herbs he got while leveling to make flasks.  I list them on tuesdays - thursdays, once in a while.  Not every week because I always forget.  But that character has 170K on him now when he started the expansion with only 50K or so on him.

See, it is not hard to make gold.  However, I do believe it is the fact I know what to do that makes it easy for me.  I could just as easily list things whenever and make money but when I do get in the mood to list things, I do it when I know I can profit a lot from them.  Meta gems routinely sell for 1500 during the week but are in the 800 range on weekend so guess when I list them?

And guess what someone in my guild does when I pointed that out to him?  Yes, he buys them on the weekend and sells them during the week.  I did warn him that the market will fall as time goes on for the cut ones, but the raw ones, and needing 5 of them for the legendary gem each time you change it, will keep going up and up.

But all this talk about how easy it is to make gold means nothing.  I could make a post with 101 ways to get gold capped in a month the way the game is now.  Sounds good right?  No, it is not.  It means nothing.

The reason it is so easy to make gold now is because the economy is out of hand.  People, 100K gold is not what it used to be.  It is not a lot any more.

I wonder if there is anything blizzard can do about it.  For the majority of players willing to put in the effort it is no big deal.  We make it as fast as we can spend it and it is a lot on both ends, but for the others, the lazy players as some call them, these prices are just insane and look to be impossible from the outside looking in.

Even if I am capable of making money, I am still cheap when it comes to spending it.  I refuse to buy things at the prices they are on the market thanks to inflation.

Just taking a quick scan the other day when my monk hit 90 to see if there was anything worth buying I said screw it and crafted a few pieces for myself.  9K for 476 items?  What the hell are people smoking if they are paying that.  9K for a disposable item?  900 maybe but not 9000, I think there is one 0 too many there.  496 gear?  Forget about it.  Would you pay 27K for a 496 piece?  I could have 2.7 billion gold and I would still not pay 27K for it.  It is a matter of principle.  It is disposable gear.  Sure, probably the least disposable you will find on the market.  Most of my characters are still sporting a few 496 pieces, so they still have life.  But 27K is out of line.

Even the low level PvP gear which is nice to fill in that super weak spot left over from leveling at 3K a pop just do not seem worth it in my opinion.  Some slots you might be lucky enough to pay 1.5K for but lets get real for a second.  It will be replaced by the first piece of PvE gear you run across.  463, 476, 483, 489, 496, 502, or 522 and lets not forget heroic mode options.  So many places along your journey that you will have a chance to replace that piece of gear.  Why pay 3K for something?

Call me cheap, I call me a realist.  It just does not make sense to pay that much for someone so insignificant.

It is not only gear, it is everything.  250 gold for flasks.  50 gold for food, and I am not talking feasts.  I can sell the 300 agility or strength food all day long every day for 50 gold each.  Nice to make money, but telling that the economy has gone to crap.

I decided to craft some of the boots for my hunter when the patch came out.  50K for a haunting spirit.  Crap that is insane.  I would be better off spending 20 dollars each from one of the gold selling sites that sell them.  It would actually be cheaper that way.  And that is where I am going with this post.

The economy has gone so insane that the idea of paying real money to one of those sites is more attractive than the alternative of buying the items in game.

I eventually got my boots, I paid 5K per spirit for the spirits.  They were duped.  I know they were duped.  100% absolutely positive.  My server has only 3 guilds that have finished ToT and only 6 guilds that have more than 1 boss on farm.  Nope, not kidding.  So there is no way in hell that there is some level 1 in stormwind with 100s of them for sale selling them for 5K each when you buy a stack of 20 unless they are duped.  When they are still in the 30K range on the AH selling for 5K each screams at you as loud as can be saying "I am duped".

Blizzard does nothing about it, they don't care.  So I bought a stack and made my boots and the leather helm and sold the extra on the auction house for 25K each.  I made my money back and basically got the boots and helm for free, thanks to the dupers.

It is almost as if blizzard wants us to go that route.  I am making those new bags for myself, once in a while as I keep forgetting to do the daily cloth on the character that has the pattern and my other tailor does not have the required reputation yet to make it and most likely never will until I get some AC tokens to drop from some warbringers or scouts.  Buying them on the AH is out of the question.  5K for a bag is just not something I would ever consider.  Not in a million years and not even if I had endless pockets with unlimited gold.  Again, on principle.

But looking at those websites and seeing them selling the bags for 11 dollars each does seem like a really attractive option.  Those 9K 476 items?  12 dollars on those sites.  Those 27K 496s, 19 dollars on those sites.  I am being tempted.  They are so cheap on those sites and the economy is really screwed up that it makes it seem as if the only reasonable price on these items is to buy them with real money.

I have not gone that route yet and not sure I would.  But what if I get to 90 on another server with an alt that I want to play and would like to have a quick catch up.  I would not have the amount of gold I have on my main server or the fleet of alts to make things for me.  Buying them from one of those sites really seems like the only reasonable option.

So between there being no quick catch up mechanic in game for gear, and the economy being so out of control it is crazy I just have to ask.

Is there anything blizzard can do about it?
or
Do they just want us to buy the items from one of those sites?

I hate to say it, but more and more, I am tempted to spend 11 dollars a bag instead of having to wait days and days and days to make one or grind AC reputation on another character so I can wait days and days and days on that one too.  And even if I can make money hand over fist easy enough, I would be more willing to spend 12 dollars on a 476 than I would spend 9K gold on it.

If only the in game prices were more reasonable I would buy them there.  But now I look at things one of two ways.  I either craft it for myself or I don't get it.  The third option of buying it seems more attractive all the time.  Blizzard needs to do something to control things or more people will be buying their next set of gear off a website instead of the AH.

PS:  Based on comments I would like to amend something.  Inflation might not be the appropriate word I was looking for.   Balance would be better.  Because, as mentioned, basic materials like herbs and ore are actually selling lower than they ever have before while crafted items and BoEs are selling for higher, often insane amounts that seem out of line.