i cheated. i was tempted, and it was easy, and i feel a little cowardly. i'm ripping around in droks druid with a drago sunder flatbow flints fleshcleaver and elsywryth and i have absolutley no idea what i'm doing.

...dont tell me you visited that little site called ebay.

It may not be intentional, but you seem to be implying that you can't have a lot of gold AND buy stuff or give stuff away. But, oh contraire, the two are not mutually exclusive. Three of my toons have 15k armor, the fourth has FoW armor. They all have at least one green weapon and several max or near max gold/collector weapons. Two have superior vigor. Etc., etc. Just last week I gave 2 necro greens to a Guildmate - can't remember what they were, but one was worth 60k or so, the other 10-20k.
In other words, I've bought vanity armors and whatever else I've wanted - and given away gold, weapons, etc. - but I still managed to accumulate a lot of gold - without going to eBay. But, like I say, I probably play waaaaay too much. (And I wish I had kept one of those Victo's Bulwarks I sold)

I too, btw, like to be charitable to newer players, but I don't very often give stuff away. I've had experiences with people reselling stuff I gave them, so now I just sell some stuff real cheap.

Please don't be offended as I meant it from the context of how much I play.

I should also mention that I too have been the recipient of quite a bit of generosity from Guildies ranging from keys and candy canes to Green items - thanks to all!