Making money with companions

This is a Guide to making money through selling Companion pets (a.k.a. small pets, non-combat pets, mini-pets, or vanity pets). Due to their desirability with Achievement hunters, pet collectors, and casual players alike, companion pets can be used to make a significant amount of gold regardless of your level or faction.

This is not a guide to collecting pets, simply a guide for easy money-making by selling them.

You can sell crafted pets, pets dropped from mobs, or pets sold from vendors, on the Auction House (AH).

On most servers you should easily get for any pet. Some pets sell for hundreds, even thousands! You just need to be smart, do a bit of travelling or farming, and be patient with the AH. Be aware that generally cute or nicer-coloured pets sell for more.

Requirements
Selling pets can be done at any level! Each starting area has a nearby pet vendor, all you need is a little bit of funding to get you started. Dropped pets can also be found in areas as low-level as Deadmines. Preferably you should have flight paths to major and neutral cities, or your Hearthstone set to Dalaran or Shattrath to cut down on your traveling time.

Cross-Faction Selling
Vendor pets may fetch an even higher price on the neutral auction house, due to the difficulty opposing faction players have in acquiring them.

You may also set up cross-faction pet selling via your realm forums, allowing the other faction to know you're selling, and assuring a buyer in the process.

Vendor Pets
There may be several reasons why somebody will buy a pet at auction, instead of directly from the vendor:
 * The item is only available to one faction (see below for more details).
 * The player doesn't want to travel far to get the pet.
 * The player doesn't have the necessary expansion to be able to buy it themselves (for example, players cannot visit Dalaran without the Wrath of the Lich King expansion).
 * The player doesn't have Faction discount, so they would pay an increased cost if they bought it themselves.
 * The item may be in limited stock, or only available at certain times/events.
 * The player simply doesn't know where the item is from.

Alliance
sells Snowshoe Rabbit for. Although her location is hard to reach, the rabbits come at a very low price.

sells 4 different cats for each. The Cornish Rex and Orange Tabby generally don't sell well as they are both similar colour.

sells 2 owl for. Most players don't wish to travel to Darnassus, due to being out-of-the-way, so you're likely to find a buyer seeking convenience.

sells stunning moth pets at. Players without the Burning Crusade expansion cannot access this vendor, so these desirable pets can achieve a high AH price. Also, as with Darnassus, most players don't wish to travel to The Exodar, due to being out-of-the-way, so you're likely to find a buyer seeking convenience.

is a rare spawn vendor. He sells one item; Cat Carrier (White Kitten) for, and only ever has one in stock. Due to this kitten being 'cute' and pretty hard to find, it can fetch a profit of several hundreds, especially when sold on the neutral auction house.

Horde
sells 3 different snakes for. Due to their ease to buy directly from the vendor, and unpopular looks, they are a bad choice for resale.

is a Prairie Dog Whistle vendor. They sell for and are highly desired due to their looks.

sells cockroach for. These are not popular, and may also be bought from a neutral vendor in Outland, making this a bad choice for pet sellers.

sells stunning Dragonhawk Hatchling pets at. Players without the Burning Crusade expension cannot access this vendor, so these desirable pets can achieve a high AH price. Also, most players don't wish to travel to Silvermoon City, due to being out-of-the-way, so you're likely to find a buyer seeking convenience.

Neutral Vendors
sells a couple of parrots at the cost of. Selling these at the neutral AH is not wise, as many people access the neutral AH not far from where the vendor stands.

comes and goes with the Darkmoon Faire. He sells two frogs for each. The Tree Frog Box is unlimited, but the Wood Frog Box only comes in a limited stock of one every few hours. He also runs around the faire, and can be very hard to catch up with. Holding on to these pets and selling them when Darkmoon Faire is over can be very profitable.

sells Ancona Chicken for. This is an out-of-the-way location, especially for Alliance, so you're likely to find a buyer seeking convenience.

Argent Tournament
All races at the Argent Tournament in Icecrown have faction-specific pets available to them. Any given character must both unlock the ability to buy from each racial quartermaster for their faction, but must earn the tokens (Champion's Seal) required to buy the pet. In addition to the racial pets, the tournament factions (Sunreavers and Silver Covenant) have their own pets. Each character thus has access to 6 pets specific to their faction. Due to the rarity of these pets and the work needed to earn them, they can be sold for a sizeable amount. Whether the cost to buy them from the vendor outweighs what players will buy them for is a subjective decision.
 * ''See Argent Tournament collectibles

Crafted Pets
The only pet of note here is the Mechanical Squirrel Box, crafted by engineers. This is taught by, a world drop for low-level mobs. It is pretty likely that an engineer will have it, so he will probably not ask for a large fee. The materials are very easy to obtain, making it perfect to craft in large quantities when convenient. You can make a decent profit, from depending on your server's market. While more engineering pets are available, the materials for them are much more costly, and there's less chance the engineer will have the recipe.

Farmable Pets
Which pets to farm are entirely up to the time you're willing to devote, and the server's market. There's also the random element here, which means that you may spend many fruitless hours farming, or may get incredibly lucky and make a big profit fast. Unless you have a lot of free time on your hands, avoid seeking pets such as Hyacinth Macaw. Although they can go for upwards of to hardcore pet collectors, their high price is not unwarranted, and the drop rate is incalculably low.

Good farming choices are:
 * Parrot Cage (Green Wing Macaw) drops in Deadmines, which is accessible at low levels and soloable at mid-range levels. It has a 2% drop rate from Defias Pirate, so is likely to drop in a single run. The item Cat Carrier (Siamese) also has a chance to drop here.
 * Tiny Crimson Whelpling the most common drop of the Whelpling pets, and farmed from low-level mobs.
 * Cat Carrier (Black Tabby) as this item only drops for horde, it can net a huge profit on the neutral AH when selling to alliance.
 * Captured Firefly drops from level 62 mobs in Zangarmarsh, which will also offer a significant value of vendor loot while farming. It's worth hundreds of gold in itself.
 * Dark Iron Ale Mug while this does not directly teach a pet, it is necessary in obtaining the Jubling pet during Darkmoon Faire. If you know your way around Blackrock Depths, grab a few of these when the Faire comes around and sell them. Be particularly sure to advertise them in the trade channel. Explain what they do, and that the pet is only available once a month, and you're more likely to make a sale.