You really wouldn’t. Gold buying was rampant and discussed pretty openly in game. Maybe some guilds didn’t, I was too poor and could barely afford my subscription, but a big part of the playerbase did.

We know they did because it was a hugely lucrative business.

And what’s more: it was much harder to make gold back then bc we didn’t know what was coming, we didn’t have nearly as many detailed guides, we farmed whatever we thought would sell best or what we needed. The ultra rich back there were almost always gold buyers and many people in Glad were buying carries.

Every time someone brings out the rose tinted glasses for vanilla/tbc/wrath, I just laugh and laugh at how people have short memories