500g + 48 days = 1 Million Gold? (Guide)

How did you get here?

From Gaia Guides & Resources	26.9%	[ 172 ]
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Total Votes:			[ 640 ]

[Jace Quin]

500g + 48 Days = 1 Million Gold?


Drawn in by the title, weren't you? I was hoping so. No, it's not a scam or (I have to add) a
guarantee. It's a guide to teach you the skills to make that equation possible. Because, as you
learn in algebra, there are invisible portions in any equation. x + y = z is the same as 1x + y = z.
My equation's more proper form is 500g + knowledge + 48 days = 1 Million gold. So I'm here
to fill in the missing part of your equation and give you the knowledge you need to attain your goals.

This Guide was inspired and prompted by a stunt I pulled in the fall of 2008 wherein I gave all but
500g to a mule account and through Exchanging and Vending earned 1 Million gold from that 500g
in just forty-eight days. I repeated this little endeavor later and in just sixteen days (one-third of the
original time) I turned 500g into a million gold. I suspect if I tried it again now I'd be able to do it
even faster. Many people wanted to know how I did it both times I went through with it and the first
time I promised them a Guide into which I would pour my knowledge. The Guide was long in
coming as it was months between my promise and it's posting and took weeks of writing, but it's
finally here for your benefit. If you like it, drop me a line or ask me a question. I'm subscribed so I
should see your comment quickly. I'm shooting for keeping the Guide well-maintained. If you'd like
to contribute to the Guide with information, banners, sig links, whatever, it would be greatly
appreciated. Bumping however, is not necessary and actually against the forum rules,
please keep all posts on-topic and polite and note that thank-you posts are both allowed and
appreciated. *bows mockingly* Bon apetite.

[Jace Quin]

Navigation




I thought that along with the standard navigation person-specific navigation would be useful. For
example, what to read first or where to go if you think it's all too long or where to go if you're
new to Gaia, and so on. So, look below the standard navigation for the program to your own
guided tour.


Page One: 500g + 48 Days = 1 Million Gold
Introduction
Navigation
Updates
Avoiding Hacks, Scams & Phishing Pheinds
Banners
Affiliates
--
Page Two: Exchange/Vend Dictionary, Item Types Explained
Exchange/Vend Dictionary
Item Types Explained (What to buy; what not to buy)
--
Page Three: New User Guide
New User Tips
Non-Vending/Exchanging Gold Earning
More Non-Vending/Exchanging Gold Earning
--
Page Four: What Not to Do When Questing
Questing Tips
--
Page Five: Exchanging vs Vending (But don't forget Hoarding)
Exchanging vs Vending Mythbusted
Exchanging
Vending
Hoarding
--
Page Six: Level by Level
Level by Level Introduction
100g - 10k
10k - 100k
100k - 500k
500k - 2000k (Beginning Hoards)
2000k & Beyond (Higher-level Hoards)
--
Page Seven: TL;DR Fire Storm Guide & FAQ
TL;DR Firestorm Guide
FAQ



New Users

New Users will want to head to the New User Guide first. Then learn how not to get scammed at the Avoiding Hacks, Scams & Phishing Pheinds post. They can stop off at the Exchanging vs Vending page next to learn how to make gold (with a trip or two back to the Exchange/Vend Dictionary as necessary.) After that it's off to the Questing Tips page. The Level by Level page should be your penultimate stop with your last stop at the FAQ.


Impatient?

If you're impatient you need only make two stops here (although your edification will be significantly less). First go to the TL;DR Firestorm Guide and then jump back to Level by Level to get a little more specific.


Just new to Vending/Exchanging?

Trot off to Exchanging vs Vending first (you can always go back to the Exchange/Vend Dictionary if you need to.) Then I suggest Level by Level, the FAQ and hopefully the Avoiding Hacks, Scams & Phishing Pheinds post.


Questing?

You'll want to learn how to earn gold for that quest first by going to the Exchanging vs Vending page. You'll have to stop by the Questing Tips page. Then motor over to Level by Level to better learn what to buy and sell. Then, if you want to know how to avoid loosing your hard-earned dream you should hurry back to the Avoiding Hacks, Scams & Phishing Pheinds post.


Already know how to Vend/Exchange?

Then you should learn how to do the other at theExchanging vs Vending page or just head there to learn how to Hoard. Then you have to mosey over to Level by Level to see what I like to Vend/Exchange with. Then perhaps you'd like to learn how to Avoid Hacks, Scams & Phishing Pheinds so as to keep that hard-earned gold?


OMG there isn't one for me!

Click here to ask me where you should go.


Choose your own adventure.

Read the Guide in whatever order you feel like.

[Jace Quin]

Updates
This is where you come to find out when the latest updates were made.


01/18/12- Updated the forecast.
12/14/11- Updated 'what to buy' section with a portion about reading graphs. Updated third page with a portion regarding the cash tree.
12/09/11- Updated levels one through four. Also updated forecast.
11/10/11- Updated forecast.
10/10/11- Updated forecast.
09/08/11- Updated forecast.
09/06/11- A bunch of minor edits including some more coding edits, some spelling and grammar stuff, making the text more uniform, and a new poll in honor of the third version of this guide opening in NSTG today.
09/02/11- Finished all coding/aesthetic changes and planned updates/overhauls.
09/02/11- Fixed coding and other minor updates for TL;DR and added many new questions to the FAQ after employing a nice user to go through all the pages of posts and find every question I've been asked here.
09/01/11- Updated "level three" and "level four" and fixed the coding for "level five".
08/31/11- Finished updating "level one" and also updated "level two".
08/26/11- Finished editing page five exchanging/vending/hoarding posts.
08/24/11- Finished editing "questing: what not to do" and wrote a new "questing: what you should do" post.
08/21/11- Finished updating the new user guide, adding new information to the page three posts, and added some links to other guides on page three.
08/16/11- Updated "item types" list and cross-referenced with similar list in my Solution guide.
08/16/11- Changed "affiliates" post to "links out".
08/16/11- Began changing the coding for all the guide posts to make the code more guild-safe and aesthetically more like my Solution to a Problem thread.
08/16/11- Updated hoarding forecast.
07/19/11- Updated hoarding forecast.
06/26/11- Updated hoarding forecast.
03/17/11- Updated hoarding forecast.
02/16/11- Updated hoarding forecast.
01/18/11- Updated hoarding forecast.
01/06/11- Updated hoarding forecast. Other minor updates.
09/22/10- Updated hoarding forecast.
08/08/10- Updated hoarding forecast. Added terms to the Exchanger/Vender dictionary.
06/22/10- Updated hoarding forecast.
05/21/10- Updated hoarding forecast.
04/25/10- Updated hoarding forecast.
03/23/10- Updated hoarding forecast.
02/04/10- Updated hoarding forecast.
12/28/09- Updated levels three and four in Level-by-Level.
12/28/09- Updated hoarding forecast in Level-by-Level.
12/02/09- Updated levels one and two of Level-by-Level.
11/25/09- Forecast updated.
10/22/09- Forecast updated.
10/03/09- Updated the Hoarding forecast in the Level-by-Level section.
09/22/09- Went through and edited/changed a few sections. Actually added questions to the FAQ. Changed the hoarding and level-by-level sections.
07/31/09- Added examples to a couple of the Phishing/Scamming schemes.
07/27/09- Added an explanation of the Exchange to the Exchange guide. Edited the level-by-level section. Decommissioned level five pending user feedback.
05/24/09- Updates Level-by-level section. Edited some other sections. Added a Booty Grab explanation in the Beginner's Guide.
02/24/09- Added Banner & Affiliates posts. Deleted all excess posts.
02/20/09- Guide opens.
02/20/09- All content and coding is complete. Introduction is complete.
02/20/09- All content has been written and/or pasted in.
02/12/09- All posts have been reserved.

[Jace Quin]

Avoiding Hacks, Scams, & Phishing Phiends


A huge part of getting rich is staying rich. Granted, the knowledge you gain by getting there will
still be with you if you get hacked. But the Ninjaband you worked so hard for won't be. So I have
listed here some do’s don’ts and common phishing scams to look out for. Be aware that the
only way for someone to hack into your Gaia account is a) through your e-mail or b) because
you fell for a phishing scam. Gaia made the log-in system uncrackable and the website itself
has never been hacked.

• Do have a password several characters long, with upper and lowercase and at least one
  number. For something really random I personally like to use the codes from under coke caps
  but taking a regular word and phase-shifting each letter one space left or right on the keyboard
  is good, too but you can have your own system, obviously.
  
  
• Do not have a weak password like *winces* “password” or your pet’s name. That goes for
  everywhere, not just Gaia.
  
  
• Do not use the same password for Gaia as you do for every other site.
  
  
• Do change your password regularly.
  
  
• Do not have your e-mail for Gaia be a “dead” e-mail account.
  
  
• Do use a good (but still free) e-mail provider such as Live (Hotmail/MSN) or gmail which
  make it very difficult for a hacker to “crack” your e-mail account.
  
  
• Do not use a “bad” e-mail provider such as Yahoo.
  
  
• Do have your account settings set so Gaia will tell you if you click a link that takes you
  away from the website. (Note that this will only show up if you click an external link from Gaia,
  never any other time.)
  
  
• Do have your account settings set so Gaia warns you of any possible scams. Such as
  if someone mentions the word “password” in a private message rock puppy will be in a banner
  at the top of the page warning you not to give out your password.

Common phishing scams:

One of the most common phishing scams is a link in forums or a pm
(often supposed to take you to a give-away or a cheap Market-place listing)
that is supposed to take you to another part of Gaia but, instead, take you
away from the site to a Gaia-lookalike where it appears as though you have
to log back in. You put in your username and password and they log in and
clean you out. Easiest way to prevent this from happening is to have your
account settings set so that when you click an external link you get a warning
saying you are leaving Gaia. If this is too much of a hassle you can simply
check links before you click them by hovering your mouse over them. If the
url isn’t where you want to go then don’t click it.

Another common phishing scam is Moderator impersonation. You get a pm
from a user pretending to be a moderator or an administrator saying that you
did something wrong and blah blah blah we don’t usually ask but you must pm
back your password so they can get things straightened out. Gaia will never
ask for your password. Why would they? They can do whatever the heck they
want to your account without it. Administrators and Moderators also have
colored usernames and username tags. If the username is black, they’re just
a regular user trying to scam you. Don’t be fooled.
For an example of Moderator Impersonation, click on this sentence.

Another one is a pop-up phishing scam. The code for the pop-up can be
embedded in a thread, pm, or even a shop in the Market Place. The messages
claim that "This is a temporary measure for the weekend to prevent bots. Please
enter your username and password." OR "We have reasons to believe that you
are a bot. To prove that you are not a bot please enter your username and
password now. Failure to do so may result in the temporary suspension of your
account or-". But the url at the top of the message (which will show up in any
message) will be a url for a website that is NOT Gaiaonline.com even if the URL
is similar. Gaia uses the safe and effective CAPTCHA to help prevent botting.
They would never institute a safety measure of that sort. To see an example
of a phishing pop-up click on this sentence.

Another phishing scam I have heard about, but never seen personally, is a
quiz in the chatterbox. Like most quizzes it asks you a zillion questions and
among those questions are some questions that give them the answer to your
secret information. For example, and I’ll just give a few from the hotmail
password retrieval system, your first pet’s name, your best childhood friend,
your grandfather’s occupation. I suspect that if you follow my Guide you wont
need to be tempted into doing the long quizzes at all because you’ll have
enough gold without them, but if you are you should be able to recognize
that it’s a scam.

Trade scams. This is something you may run into if you are an Exchanger.
Never accept a gift-wrapped item. Never believe someone if they say: “The
trade isn’t working right, I’ll gift you the item after you complete the trade with
my gold.” Always hover your mouse over the items you are receiving. If it looks
like a Nitemare Scarf but you hover your mouse over it and the little tag says:
“Warm Starter Fridge” it is not a Nitemare Scarf. Another thing to be aware of is
that all the generations of all but the very earliest EIs look exactly the same.
Hover your mouse to be sure that you are getting the correct generation.


If you have any screenies of these kinds of scams, or a new (or maybe just a
different one I don’t have) scam I would love it you would send it to me.

[Jace Quin]

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[Jace Quin]

Links Out



The following are some wonderful resources related to earning gold on Gaia. I will affiliate with other Guilds and Guides that help people to make or keep gold. If you would like to be affiliated pm or post a polite request here.

[Jace Quin]