These aren't the only ways of making gold however. Here are some other ways of making gold that take a bit more effort, or may not be suitable for all member's for various reasons.
1. Buy Monthly Collectibles
If you have 2.50$ American, and are allowed to buy items online (make sure to ask your parents if you're not old enough to do it on your own!) you can make 10K easily! Sealed Letters have been going for 10K on the marketplace recently, sometimes even higher. Or, you can save your item and keep it for the future - there's a high chance it will be worth even more.
First Dawn also points out a few useful things. Usually, but not always, the letters increase in price to about 15K instead of 10K. So it's best to buy them in the beginning and sell them mid-month for 15K
Keep an eye on the prices though, since sometimes this number will be less or even more than 15K. Also, since they are more expensive in the middle of the month, and usually drop down in the end, you can sell your letters early on and re-buy them cheaper. Note that this might not always work, and in some cases they may get more expensive, so it's a risk.
Kyrillos
Just thought I'd throw in my two cents from experience on exchanging. Use at your own discretion:
Generally, Letters and MC's are easier to exchange than Casino/Game items. Also, the higher in value you go, the more likely the person will want substantial amounts of pure [gold only] or will be more willing to want to do things in ONE trade. Also, exchanging requires patience. Usually you can buy items cheaper in the Exchange, as it's a bartering system, rather than a store/booth system like the Market Place.
You can make a substantial amount of money by buying Sealed Envelopes at the beginning of the month, and SELLING them ON the 15th. You can keep a few for yourself, but usually the items will deflate by the first of next month. Buy letters for cheaper [11-13k] and sell them on the 15th for whatever the going price is at the time, after the item is released.
Another, slower, way to exchange is to take an item, and save it, hoping it goes up. This is similar to a stock market. The item can rise or fall in price. This is just another way of doing it.
The exchange is as big of a risk as any other part of the Gaian economy, it's all about having luck. I bought a Demonic Pitchfork in March for 190k, and all it's done is decrease to 170k. It's all luck.
Different from the Item Exchange, as I mentioned. Basically, you scour the marketplace and exchange, looking for under priced goods and selling them for a higher price. It's the basic buy low, sell high principle at work. To do this properly, you need a nice bit of gold to start off (10-20K), but once you do, you can make thousands of gold in weeks. Check out "
How to Make Your First 100K Without Begging or Bumping" for more info.
3. Make a Quest.
An easy way to make gold is if you make a quest. Is there a specific item you want? Well go to the Quest and Charity forum, set up a nice thread, and there's a chance people will help. The more you bump your thread, the more chances of people noticing and donating. And, by bumping, you're making gold towards your quest as well. But please, be serious! Don't lie about your quest to get money.
Note: This type of questing is different from the official Quest System. The term questing was invented before the official system was implemented, and the name stuck. Don't confused user run quests with official quests.
Short Guide to Setting Up a Quest Thread
4. Get a job!
Do you have a talent for something? Can you draw? Code profiles? Absolutely adore bumping for other people's threads? Head on over to the Minishop forum and set up a thread. There's all sorts of things you can do, as long as you have the imagination for it. Set up, and keep at it, and you're bound to find someone who will pay you for your time and talents.
Quote:
Could you tell me more about the mini stores?
How do you know if people are looking, how do you 'advertise' and is there a way to look at other peoples?
.
Extended answer here.
5. Enter contests, lotteries, lotto's, etc.
There's all sorts of contests out there. Bump contests, art contests, coloring contests, random draws. It never hurts to try, and at the very least, you're posting and being active which gets you gold. At the most, you win the jackpot and become instant-rich.
Occasionally, Gaia hosts its own official contests as well, with various prizes, to keep an eye out for this as well.
5.2. Make your own contests. Specifically avatar contests. If you charge 2 people 600 gold to enter, and give the winner 1000 gold, you can keep 200 gold as profit. A lot of Avatar contests are run like this.
6. Holiday Events!
Gaia has a lot of events, depending on the season. Participate in them, collect the items. They may not sell for much now, but in the future they'll inflate and you'll get a nice bit of gold from it.
7. Random Events
The random events you can get are as followed:
Magical
Brown Giftbox - Contains Uncommon Items
Magical
Blue Giftbox - Contains Uncommon & Rare Items
Magical
Pink Giftbox - Contains Rare Items
Enchanted
Wooden Trunk - Contains Uncommon House Items
Enchanted
Golden Trunk - Contains Rare House Items
Lucky Chest - In order to open it you need a Luck Key which you can pay 99 Gaia Cash for. The item you get will always be worth more than 99 Gaia Cash, making a good deal for those who spend cash on the website.
Pink Link - A link in the forums that has been colored pink. If you click on it, you 1,000g. Lanzer implied in the March 18th, 2008 Ask the Admin Thread that Pink Links were removed as they were incompatible with the new layout and easy to bot.
You're normally able to find any of these surfing around the site, and any of the gift boxes and trunks minus the Lucky Chest while wandering about Towns. Lucky Chest is found on the website and in Aquariums.
8. Enter the Avatar Arena and Contest Arena
Only the avatar arena actually give you prizes. Now, this is risky risky. First, for most you have to pay gold to enter. On top of that, if you don't make the top 10, you don't get any gold at all. However, if you do win, you get a nice sum of money, and fame to go along with it.
With the new arena coming out, a Contest section has been added. This provides other opportunities to win via the Arena's that aren't solely based on avatars alone.
9. Join A Guild
If you're having difficulties settling in at the forums for various reasons - you don't like the trolls and spam, you're shy and don't like such a large audience, you're looking for something a but more focused; try finding a guild and joining it. There's all sorts, from role-playing to poll-whoring, so you're sure to find something you're comfortable with.
BlueK250
I'll tell you what really helped me was finding a good guild to join.
Try and find a more experienced guild with older members, who seem to be more charitable than others.
For example, on the third day of joining my guild, I headed over to the quest and charity section and asked for the Elemental Hair item. And wouldn't you know it, that same day, a nice member of my guild traded her Elemental Hair for just 100G!
But remember, If you're joining a guild, don't do it just for the free stuff.
10. Invite Friends
If you have friends who you think would like to join Gaia, by all means invite them. If they sign up, they'll get an extra 200 gold and you'll get an extra 100 gold per person you get to sign up. You can gain up to 5,000g doing this.
I'm pretty sure the random bonus increases such as wooden trunks have been removed, but correct me if I'm wrong.
Please note however, that making mules for the sole purpose of getting the bonus is frowned upon by Gaia, and can get you and the mules banned.
11. Purchase Gaia Cash
Previously known as Gift Credits, the system was later changed to Gaia Cash and the entire system was reworked. Now, in stores, items have two prices. Gold, and Gaia Cash. Gaia Cash, like the previous Gift Credits, is bought with real money, and can be used in NPC stores and buying MC's.
The prices to purchase Gaia Cash are as follows:
500 Cash = 5$
1000 Cash = 10$
2500 Cash = 25$
5000 Cash = 50$
This may seem more expensive now, but the system has changed. For instance, Fairy Wings at 40K are only 667 Cash. In the old system, you'd have to pay 20$ for a pair of wings, now it's less than 10$.
12. Ghost Sheets
Since a few people have mentioned this, I'm going to add this. If you're feeling lucky, pick up a Refurbished Sheet from Barton's Boutique. You can take it and turn it into a ghost sheet. You can do this under your main inventory. (Shortcuts > My Inventory, under the Special tab btw.) There are several different styles (like the Howling Ghost and Angel Ghost.) Which ghost sheet you get is random and depends completely on luck however.
If you're unlucky you'll get a sheet under 100g and lose money. If you're lucky however, the ghost sheet maybe be one of the styles over 100g and you can sell it on the marketplace for profit.
13. Cash Shop
The newest shop in Gaia, the Cash Shop items can be purchased using only Gaia Cash, which was mentioned just a bit above. You can make gold easily if you buy these and then sell them on the marketplace. Also, as in the future, some of the items in the Cash Shop will not be permanent, you can save some of the items for when they inflate in price at a later date, as many people do with MCs.
14. Gaia Quests
Occasionally Gaia announces various quests, which users can participate in. These quests can be anything from sponsored/promotional quests to quests that involve the story plot. While occasionally, a quest requires you to spend gold, more often then not it is a way for you get get free quest items that you can keep, or sell later on. The quests are usually made available through announcements, though on rare occasions other means are used.
15. Gaia Store and Real Life Promotions
Some things to look out for, occasionally Gaia will release gift cards at various stores that come with bonus items. Sometimes at their merchandise store, when you buy items they'll come with a free item or will award gold to your account. Be on the look out for such deal, especially if you're were considering purchasing something to begin with, as the extra bonus is always fun.
Also, if you can go to an official Gaia convention, sometimes they have the Gaia Wheel you can spin to win an item, you could win anything, including something really really expensive if you're super lucky.
16. Gaia Alerts
For those who want to keep tabs on Gaia all the time you can sign up for alerts. They will alert you of pm's, comments, friend requests, announcements and such directly to your e-mail. Additionally, if you're in the US and your provider supports it you can receive these alerts via cellphone.
Signing up for these services also gets you gold. You get 1000g for the first time signing up for phone alerts, 250g for e-mail, and 50g for every month you stay subscribed. Just be aware that while free, cell-phones may have a standard charge for receiving text messages. Make sure to check with your phone carrier provider before deciding, so you don't get any surprise bills.
16. Gaia Toolbar
Downloading the toolbar and using it gives you a 400g bonus for downloading it. You also get gold just for using it. Available for Internet Explorer and Firefox.
17. Gaia IM
Gaia IM is an instant message program that allows you to chat with your Gaia friends directly. You can ear up to 200 g a day, or 6000 gold a month simply by using the program and talking with friends.
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