How to buy or sell a World of Warcraft account

Buying and Selling a World of Warcraft account​

In this guide you will find tips on buying and selling World of Warcraft accounts.

Buyer's guide - Checking a retail account​

The steps for securing the account are identical for all WoW games, but checking the account is different.

Checking a retail account is very simple and having the game installed is not required. You can instead use the online armory which shows most information about the account.

For North America region, log in on this link: https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/
For European region, log in on https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-gb/

At the top right you'll see a picture and name of one of the characters on the account. Click on it and you'll see a "View all your WoW characters" link.

From there you can access the armory of any of the characters on the account. The armory shows most information about the character apart from the inventory, bank and gold. If this information is important to you, you'll need to check in-game. Since most characters are bought because of past achievements or strong gear, logging in to the game can usually be skipped.

Checking a WoW Classic or TBC account​

Unfortunately, the armory only shows retail characters. As of writing, there is no way to check a Classic or TBC character online, not even a list of characters.
You will have to log in to the game to check everything yourself.

Securing a World of Warcraft Account​

All WoW Games are part of a Blizzard account. When buying a WoW account, you need to secure the provided Blizzard (Battle.net) account.
Refer to this guide in order to properly secure a purchase WoW account: https://www.epicnpc.com/threads/how-to-secure-a-battle-net-blizzard-account.2124824/

Argentinian Accounts Warning​

WoW accounts in Argentina cannot use any payment methods outside of the country. If you do not live in Argentina, you will not be able to make purchases.

Selling a World of Warcraft account​

Tips for sellers:​

- Make sure not to reveal information that could identify your character, such as the character name or guild. If the character is particularly rare, you can consider hiding the server too.
- You can use https://safe-armory.com/ to create a masked armory of your character which hides all the identifiable information, while still showing most of the information that the regular amory would show.
- I'd recommend against providing account access to a buyer before the payment is made, but if you have to do so, make sure to have SMS protect on and do not provide any codes that you receive on your phone. Having SMS protect on would allow you to revert most changes made to the account.
- If the buyer doesn't wish to go first and you don't trust them, consider using an official EpicNPC Trade Guardian to help you conduct a safe trade.
- A buyer might request a photo of your ID for extra security. This is common practice when buying World of Warcraft accounts. If you do not feel comfortable releasing your full ID, you are free to censor critical information such as ID card number or citizenship number. The only information that Blizzard needs is the full name and country.

Preparing your account for sale:​

- Make sure that you have access to the associated email account so that you can receive a code when buyers request it. If possible, provide this email account to the buyer.
- Delete your friends list before selling your World of Warcraft account. Also consider leaving your guild.
- Make sure to remember the secret answer that you used on the account. If you cannot remember or do not wish to reveal it, consider changing it before the trade.
- Take your phone of the account. You'll need to have access to the linked number in order to remove it.
- Remove the blizzard authenticator. To remove it, you need to have access to the authenticator app so that you can approve the removal request.
- Remove your personal information off the account, under Account Details -> Addresses
- Remove linked credit cards and Paypal accounts
- Remove links to external accounts.
- Disable parental controls if they are enabled.


Frequently asked questions regarding WoW Account trading

Is the original email important?
- If the account is registered on a real name, the original email is not important. If it's on a fake name, it's important and it's better that you get it from the seller.

Is the secret answer important?
- The secret answer is used to skip email verification and when contacting support. It can be changed without any additional verification.
Few years ago it was mandatory for email changes and could only be changed through support, but over time it has lost it's value. It's always better to know the original secret answer, but it's not mandatory.

What additional info should the seller provide?
- To recover a bnet account, blizzard asks for identity confirmation by asking the user to provide an uncensored photo of a government issued document, such as a passport or and ID card. If the account that you're buying is registered on the seller's real name, you should ask the seller to provide that photo to you. Keep in mind though that this is very sensitive personal information and many people will not feel comfortable with providing that to you.

- If the game was activated using a CD key and not purchased, the CD key should also be provided to the buyer.

What does a "fake name" mean?

User's real name is one of the mandatory information that blizzard asks for during account creation. This is the information that they use to verify the identity of the user in case of account recovery requests.

Accounts registered on a "fake name" are accounts that do not have the owner's real name on them and instead use an obviously fake name ( eg. "Spider Man" or "asdf asdfg"). These accounts are very hard to recover as blizzard cannot use the name to verify ownership when the owner submits their ID. Another advantage of having a fake name is that it can be changed by contacting support.

When you are looking for an account to buy, you should prioritize accounts that use a fake name.

Can I get banned for buying a World of Warcraft account?

Selling and buying accounts is against Blizzard's terms of service. If they find out that an account has been traded, it will be banned. However, Blizzard does not actively track account trading at the moment and the big majority of trades go without problems. When an account gets banned for trading, it's usually because the buyers themselves had attracted unnecessary attention to the account.

If you'd like to be 100% safe and make sure that your bought account never gets banned, you should "lay low" for the first few months after buying the account:
- Avoid contacting support unless necessary
- Don't try to change the country or account holder's name.
- Avoid getting reported in game which might cause a GM to review your account.
- Don't tell other players that you bought the account.
- When making purchases, instead of using credit cards, try using CD keys or balance cards which you can buy from sites like g2a. There's a CD key for pretty much every blizzard service and it's usually even slightly cheaper than buying from blizzard directly.

You are free to make security related changes right away, such as changing the email, password, secret answer, adding a phone or authenticator etc.

Would my main account get banned if I buy an account?

No, Blizzard is not known for linking and chain banning accounts. Only the account that breaks the ToS gets banned. You should be able to freely use the bought account alongside your main.

Can I change the country?

Yes, you can use the automated country change feature ( https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/7656 ). I'd suggest to not use it for at least 2-3 months after buying the account, to avoid potentially getting the account flagged.

Can I merge the bought account with my main?
No.
Although merging accounts is possible, it is required that all the information on both accounts matches, which is not the case when buying accounts.
It would only be possible if you order a custom made account.

Can I change the first and last name on the account?

If the account is registered on a fake name, yes, you can contact support and get it changed.
If it's registered on the seller's real name, no, you'll be stuck with whatever last name was on the account when you bought it.

Under "fake name", I'm only counting things that are obviously fake, such as superhero names or gibberish. A name that looks real is not considered a fake name, even if it's not the owner's real name.