Scared of buying gold

[HHR LostProphet]

Heyho guys,

like 2 1/2 years ago i bought some gold (i believe it was ~200g) and anet took that gold away from me, so they actually noticed me buying that one.
Now, with a little break, i started playing GW2 again and i want to buy quite some gold again (lets say 500g).
Is it better for me to just farm the gold up, as i got a strike the first time i bought gold, or can i buy gold as items?

What do people do these days, and which way is the safest one?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[dacx]

Buying items is usually more secure than buying gold. Other than that, not buying gold is always more secure than not buying at all and playing the game the way it's meant to be played.

[Fragaria]

Buying gold directly definitely is a no-go. Buying items on the other hand is way more secure.

[thedoge3]

Originally Posted by Fragaria

Buying gold directly definitely is a no-go. Buying items on the other hand is way more secure.

Exactly how much more secure would you consider it to be?

[Subway ツ]

Originally Posted by thedoge3

Exactly how much more secure would you consider it to be?

Buying an item? What do you expect us to answer? We cant tell you the "exact" percentage of how secure it is.

But according to my experience I've never been banned for buying and selling items for real money. I mean, they actually can't proof anything.

[Sakus]

I was banned for one day because I bought a shield skin from a famous Gold Seller. I mean, it was a 6 hour ban and they couldn't take away my item so it wasnt that bad.
You can buy 250g BUT don't buy from a big seller because they are flagged and you will get banned for that. Just have a look for a private seller in this forum who mails you the gold or some ectos with a text like:
"Congratz you are the winner of my lottery" or something like that. Thats almost the safest way.
If you can decide between ectos and gold, just take ectos, its more safe and even if you get banned (got banned 3 time for buying stuff with real money) they can't take the items away, but the gold!
If you get banned your account will get flagged (for a while), so just don't buy anything or not much for a while (like 6 months should be safe) and your flag will be deleted (depending on what you've done and how often).
So feel free to take a look at the black market.

[Fragaria]

Originally Posted by thedoge3

Exactly how much more secure would you consider it to be?

As long as you buy with small scale, individual sellers the chance of getting banned is incredibly slim. Like another person said, giving a percentage isn't possible, can only say that I haven't had any bans nor did any of my customers as far as I know.

[Sentrax]

I just bought a few stacks of ectos and other items from Fragaria. Really friendly and recommended seller btw!

And i bought a bifrost @ mmogoldbay by talking to the owner (chris curie) at skype.
Also recommended. Good prices and usually can take every special order.
Delivery for special orders can take up to 2 days. Bifrost took exactly 11 hours to deliver.

This is now more then a week ago and i think they didn't realize i bought something.


2 Years ago i bought a small amount of gold. Around 70-80. And anet sent me a mail in which they told me to not buy gold again. In a friendly way and without removing the gold. But in this case i bought from a famous gold seller.


My experience in buying items/gold in GW2 so far.