Portals and Tips

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

Portals are an interesting way to make gold in world of warcraft. Many players will pay upwards of 10 gold for a main or alt to get a hearthstone set in dalaran, just as shattrath was popular in the Burning Crusade. Being a mage has its uses, that's for sure!

My mage is one of my favorite bankers (blinking around corners and through mail boxes to the bank in org is fun!) and so I usually keep an eye out for people in need of portals between my auction house activities and quite often it's a free 5g+ to port them to dalaran.

If you have a mage and haven't started responding to "LF Port to Dalaran, tipping well," then you are missing out on free money!

For the comments, how much do you expect someone to pay for a portal to dalaran?

You can also join the discussion on the forums.

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM
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18 comments: on "Portals and Tips"

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  1. Anonymous said... July 20, 2009 at 8:41 AM

    I am usually one that looks for ports all the time and the least I am willing to pay for this service is 5g. Sometimes I'll pay up to 10-20g if a mage is not easily available.

  2. Seth said... July 20, 2009 at 9:43 AM

    Free money?
    I can see your point...
    Though its still 10seconds of no AHing!....
    Altoholic is catching up...
    /roll mage

    *sorry for the stupid comment*

  3. Anonymous said... July 20, 2009 at 10:06 AM

    Oh i miss the first week of Wrath...


    100g + for a portal to Dalaran.

    So good for money making.

  4. Anonymous said... July 20, 2009 at 10:14 AM

    This morning I spent half an hour asking in trade for a port to Dalaran and offering 5g. No takers. It seems some people just don't want free money.

  5. Anonymous said... July 20, 2009 at 10:50 AM

    or may be some people don't really want your 5g.. try offering something better like 15 - 20g or so..

  6. Markco said... July 20, 2009 at 10:55 AM

    The idea is that unless someone is looking to port you already then they have to be pulled away from auctioneering or crafting or w/e they are doing. Unless you offer a sizeable amount of gold they won't bother.

  7. Kohaku said... July 20, 2009 at 11:46 AM

    I am never in hurry, so I'll wait out till a mage shows up. But on my high pop server, a mage usually invite me when I offer to pay 5g for a port. Lately, I've been feeling stingy and been paying 4g O_o tehe.

    Kohaku

  8. Peggy said... July 20, 2009 at 2:44 PM

    I find that many people on my server have trade chat blocked because of all the spamming going on so I always do a /who in my area and whisper the mages for my ports. Works most every time. And, yes, I'm one that puts all my alts hearthstone in Dalaran from about level 16+ because it makes popping back and forth between continents so much easier.

  9. Anonymous said... July 20, 2009 at 4:42 PM

    As a Mage nothing bothers me more than someone asking for a port while in a group. If am in town I'm either crafting, on the AH or trying to fill a pug raid. If I can do a quick invite and throw up a port I'll do it. If I have to join your group and wait for your buddies to be ready you can keep the 5g and find someone else.

  10. Wiggin said... July 20, 2009 at 5:01 PM

    I always find it interesting to see how old service charges evolve with the game. Mage porting is a great example.

    I remember in vanilla wow, 1g tip was the standard. Mages didnt seem to ever mind, and 1g meant more back then.

    In TBC, with shattrath as a hub to portals, mage porting became a bit more expensive, usually a 2-5g tip. Today, 5-10 isnt uncommon. More people have gold, and tipping less than 5, to me, just seems cheap (and I'm the one doing the tipping!)

  11. Unknown said... July 20, 2009 at 5:21 PM

    I usually only need a portal when I have no other options. When that happens I am willing to pay for convenience. Last time I needed a port I needed to go from Silvermoon to Orgrimar. I always auction in Silvermoon, low use means people are not in my way and the bank/AH/mail run is short. But for some reason I can no longer remember I needed to be in Orgrimar, about five minutes ago. So I offered 25g in trade for a port, the mage invited me, ported to silvermoon, and opened the port in about 30 seconds. No work or begging on my part. I will pay 25g each because it is about convenience, and nothing is more convenient than a mage running to you to throw the port up.

  12. Tom said... July 20, 2009 at 7:16 PM

    I find that the time spent responding to someone asking for a port is often worth more to me than the 5g (or sometimes less) that I make during that time. Unless they're standing right next to you whispering you, you have to group, then track each other down, make the transaction, and open the port. Easily a couple minutes' lost time, and as we all know "time is money, friend" ;) Even on a bad day, those 2 minutes are worth 10g.

    That said, I do usually respond to reasonable requests from people standing right next to me (e.g. "5g for a port to Dal?"). Although if they don't offer a price up-front I won't usually bother. Those are the sorts that'll trade you 1g >.<

  13. Unknown said... July 20, 2009 at 10:27 PM

    If the person come to me (the mage), I expect a 5g tip. But if they need me to come to them, I tell them it is 10g. Ex: a person is in Ironforge and their hearth is down, but they need to get to Dalaran. I'll port myself to IF, telling them to meet me in the Mystic area.

    I also tell people up front that I have fees for porting. Otherwise you have that stupidly awkward moment where you are wanting a tip and the person is deciding if they should tip you. Let's call it what it is - a fee.

    But one bit of advice: if you are whispering a mage for a port, be polite. It always rankles me when I get these kind of whispers: "need port to dal, come to SW" or some variation. I don't respond to those. At least start with "sorry to bother you" or something. And I completely agree with the anonymous who wrote about the portal person being in a group. That drives me bonkers.

    Wow...I didn't realize I had that much to say about ports.

  14. Anonymous said... July 20, 2009 at 10:35 PM

    i almost always take whatever ammount is offered in a whisper asking for a portal as long as its semi reasonable (2G+ usually) however EVERY time someone sends me a "port me to dalaran." whisper they get the same reply without fail..."portals cost 10g each, 15g if i have to come to you"... the responses i get range from silence, to insults, to "xxx is now ignoring you" and everything in between. i get more joy out of explaining just WHY i asked for so much than i would get from the money i lost on the time i took to educate the wowtards of the world.

  15. Rob Dejournett said... July 21, 2009 at 10:17 AM

    Same thinking for enchanting, regarding tips. My rule: If they've been spamming trade for 5 min or more, are level 80 (or high level), and i have the enchant, i'll switch over to my enchanter. I got really tired of 'can you come to org', 'what, you don't have mats', 'what you mean you expect a tip after wasting 15 min of your time?' Its not like I don't like helping people, but I have stuff i could be doing instead of dealing with idiots.

  16. Anonymous said... July 21, 2009 at 12:22 PM

    I tend to make a good amount of gold from portals also. A gripe I have is when somebody who asks for a port and says tipping very well. All they pop in the amount is the amount of the rune,I simply say no thanks and unjoin group. Another thing to really watch out for is don't ever pop portal until you receive your tip or gold, to many times have I heard a mage QQ because they got ripped off.

    Usually i am in a good mood and will occasionally give a portal for free,but on weekends when traffic is high nothing is free,either pay what I want for the service or go on your merry little way.

  17. sherretz said... July 22, 2009 at 4:25 PM

    I'd just like to add something. You can also be PROactive when doling out portals. I suggested this in the JMTC forums, but it's a nice tip to give to "the public."

    Each side has 5 factions that you can do cloth turn-in quests with. The idea is to stock up on wool, silk, mageweave, runecloth and make a little Trade macro.

    Basically offer ports to major cities plus cloth for quest turnings for X gold. A lot of people with alts don't know about the cloth quests and the XP is INSANE (10k XP for the first Runecloth turn-in). Tweak your offer and fee as you see fit.

  18. Anonymous said... July 9, 2010 at 12:38 AM

    When i need a port and i am curteous, saying excuse me, sorry to bother you, but are you able to port me to ... with tip, usually mages don't ask for a tip :)

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