World of Warcraft - Easy Bank Management Primer

During your adventures in Azeroth, you will undoubtedly find a lot more stuff than you can immediately use. Some of that will go to the Auction House to raise funds for your mount.... eh ... charity, and the rest you will probably want to keep, because its shiny and new, looks remotely useful, or you are a pack rat like I am.

Blizzard allows only a limited number of in-game bank slots, which can be augmented through the use of bags. Bag slots in the bank can be purchased at a price of 10s for the first one, up to 25g for the 4th one and above. Obviously that is a lot of coin just to store stuff, so careful management is required.

In its infinite Wisdom, Blizzard also allows the use of other characters on the same server as "banks", meaning they have no other purpose than to store stuff for your main characters. I personally have 4 or 5, but you should be able to manage with a single bank character per character played, or even by 2 characters played. The one I currently use is an 18th-level babe-a-licious Blood Elf Mage named Zallesta, whom I played for a while then got bored of.

Bank characters are dual-purposed. They should serve not only as a repository of assorted stuff, but as a gold depot and auctioneer-in-chief. This means that you should send everything you are not currently using to your bank. If you are a leatherworker, keep only the basics to level up your skill. All rare ingredients (Pearls and whatnots) should be sent to the bank for storage, as well as the leather you are not currently using. I know that in leather's case, you can convert lesser leathers into greater ones (6 Thicks make a Rugged) but you'll find you'll be better of financially if you ship your lesser leathers to your bank to sell. In my case it works like that: I still use Thick and Rugged, so everything less goes to the bank (Heavy, Medium and Light). It takes AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT of light leather to make a single Thick or Rugged, so just sell them. Same thing goes for cloth after you level your First Aid.

A few patches ago, Blizzard made mail between characters on the same account instantaneous (more or less) so if you find that you need something your bank is holding, it is very quick and easy to transfer back and forth, and the cost is pretty much invisible (30c per stack). Added to that the ability to send up to 12 stacks per mail (as of patch 2.3.0 I think), the usefulness of Banks has greatly increased.

Use your bank (or banks) as your primary Auctioneers. They will be able to concentrate all the cloth (for example) that your main character sends in singles into neat 20-stacks and sell them like that. They will sell better, and your bank will be left holding the cash. This will make respecting Rule Number 1 ("Thou Shalt Not Spend Thy Cash Frivolously") much easier to respect, cutting down on impulsive purchases.

If your Bank is your primary Auctioneer, you will also be able to leave your Main Character in outlying areas for questing purposes, cutting down on flight time and increasing leveling speed.

Should you find that you are a super pack rat, you may want to create several banks - one for food, one for blacksmithing or leatherworking supplies, etc., but in general it should not be necessary.

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