what can your really realistically spend your gold on

I know I have talked about what motivates me to accumulate gold in this game, as that the question i get asked the most, but what I have not discussed is really how little there is to spend gold on in the game.  

Of course I can and do buy my wife’s characters nice things.  It just comes with the territory, I am her World of Warcraft sugar daddy.   (did I really just type that?!?)  While there are a lot of mounts, and pets that can be purchased there is not a great deal that she says “has to have” and none of these vanity items have any real impact on playing the game.

For items that help you progress in the game the list is fairly short.  All of the best gear in the game is only available via bind on pickup in Raids.  Which from a game balance standpoint is exactly the stand that should be taken.  But from a gold accumulator looking for cool things to spend your wealth on it is a bit of challenge.

At the start of every tier I tend to buy the bind on pickup valor gear.  This lets me spend my valor on other gear slots and puts some gold in the pocket of a raider who may not have time to dedicate to making gold on their own.  I also pick up any bind on equip  items that show up in the auction house that come from drops in current raid tier.  This again speeds up gearing my characters.

Unlike many I try to keep my gear enchanted and gemmed at all times to help me play at my best.  This is not really all that hard to accomplish as I can typically make whatever I am needing amongst my various alts.  Even though I am a casual raider, I take it seriously.  I refer to this approach as casually hardcore.  

And all of this preparation just helps me hold my own in my weekly Looking for Raid run in the pursuit of a better tier of gear.