Question on possible monetary imbalances (whining about gold, stay away)

Ok, I've got a question that I'd like answered if anyone could spare the time. Now I make pretty decent gold, I think, I farm of course, I don't think you could get enough any other way really... But anyways - I make decent gold. Maybe 5k an hour. I don't really know, I don't count. Point is, it seems like... well, frankly, I'm missing something. I'm not asking how to make more money, I like what I do just fine. But when I bid 100k (my life savings) on an item on the Sell forums and someone bids right back with 300k like it's no big deal, it kind of makes me wonder if something's going on that I'm missing. I don't WANT to make heaps of money, or anything like that, I just would like to see a slightly more even playing field. I'm wondering if an hour's hard work by me is worth the same as an hour's hard work by any of these other guys. So I'm wondering, is the money in Guild Wars imbalanced due to a patch or change? Or am I just working the wrong place? Or do these guys just play all day long? Or maybe I'm paranoid? I don't know, I'm just curious, really.

I'd really appreciate any replies on the subject, and pointing me to another thread in which this is covered would be great as well. Thanks in advance, guys.

I would personally assume it's one of the newer patches. I used to be able to make what you do every hour. Now I can't make 500 gold an hour, so I assume that some of those players made their fortunes before everything went sour. I heard one guy boasting that he had 850plat! He was a nice guy and even gave some to a few players, but how the heck do you make 850plat anymore?

Some of these guys may just know where to find good drops, or know of areas where they can farm alone for better drops, or perhaps they have maxed armor and can farm almost anywhere solo. I really miss the days I could farm solo, and partially miss the ones where I got decent drops even when partied.

I used to make 25K an hour with no effort (before July 13th when the econonomy patch came out) and with effort I could push it to about 40K. One time I managed 73K in an hour. Now post patch I don't even bother to try anymore and I have nothing to spend money on.

I had posted a thread on how to play the economy but that was for pre-patch and I haven't found anyone post patch who can play it well after the patch and I haven't really tried.

I never farmed between the time I got 1K gold and had a networth over 5 million gold. (now have a networth of about 10 million gold spread over 2 accounts, and I only farmed when experimenting with new builds)

Added so as not to double post: You can still solo UW but the drops suck ATM.

5k an hour is, no offense, next to nothing. The fastest way to make money is to win tombs, and sell the sigils, if you're PvE only, my suggestion is to solo/duo smite runs in UW, I still get a few ecto per run, but, again, I made my first 1000 plat winning in Tombs, and that's the bulk of most people's money, I imagine.

because, you know, everybody just wins the HoH whenever they want

I appreciate the advice, but I really don't have much of a desire to get a whole buttload of money. I mean, I'm sure it's great and all to be able to buy whatever you want all the time, but I don't really need that. Like I said, I'm fine with what I make, I don't get much of an opportunity to play, and when I do, I want to have fun - not make money. I was honestly just wondering if there was, as was stated, some drastic change that caused some to have a lot of gold leaving others in the dust.

As for HoH, well, I don't even know where the hell that is. I've beaten the game, but all that did was drop me in Draknor's Forge with the knowledge that I had beaten some undead-looking guy. Some resolution. I've done underworld... once or twice, never got past the Grasping Darkness guys. The others were easy enough to solo, I guess you need a group for the Darknesses. In any case, I appreciate the answers, guys

HoH is in Tombs, it's the PvP tournament, and winning it isn't all that difficult, even if you're not experienced, play a lot, and at odd times, you'll get lucky some day. And for underworld, you can solo a smite run easy, or duo it a lot faster.

Oh, and, yes, the end of this game was ridiculously anti-climatic... I save the entire world from certain destruction, and the next message I see... "R/N LFG to go to Next Mission!" Wait a tic... haven't I been there, done that?

Hm, this is going in a different direction than I suspected it may, but while we're on it, where are/is the "Tombs"? I've heard it mentioned several times now, but I don't recall ever being in a town with that word in it. Also, soloing underworld is easy? I could understand two people doing it, but not one

Soloing it is cake, so far as doing the first quest, and a smite run, you certainly can't clear solo, the terrorwebs are trouble (though possible), same for coldfires, and the behemoths = gg.

Tombs is the PvP district connected to dragon's lair, the mission after you ascend, before droknor's.

Well, I'll look into tweaking my build then because, like I said, I can't even make it past those Grasping Darkness guys. Even the ones before them, the Atxes or whatever they're called are a bit difficult.

The gold items that drop are worth like 10 sigils most of the time :\.

Anyhoo who cares :\. 1000 plat w00t now what.... Now if we could buy unlocks with gold THAT would be a nice gold sink.... I'd gladly pay like 10k for each unlock.

I just give my sigils and gold to nooby guilds except for 7 and 100k I keep to toss up on a screen when someones like LOL NOOB U SUX AT EVERYTHING1!1!