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I only have 500g to play with, as this is my main in this realm (45 priest).
500 gold is plenty to get started with, in fact you can use much less than that if you want. If I remember correctly (it's been a while) I started off my DE alt career with less than 10 gold. It took a little while to get going, but I just worked my way up the ladder selling Strange Dust and up. Slow and steady gets the job done. Of course, if you start with more, you can start on the higher level mats right away.
The big key to the whole process is learning your server's market. Once you have a handle on the normal prices and the fluctuations that it undergoes, you're all set. It may take some time to really learn it, but it is well worth the effort. You also have to watch the market for greens/blues and know the price point for buying or not buying to disenchant.
The other key is not being afraid to invest big chunks of money at a time. Once you get rolling, you can easily have a couple hundred gold worth of mats on the AH and be purchasing a couple hundred gold worth of greens/blues at a time to disenchant. Other times, you may have to sit on stock while the undercutters do their thing. Don't be impatient and look for the quick buck. If you know your server prices and the current price is massively undercutting the normal price, then just wait it out. Don't get into the undercutting game with the idiots.
Also, keep in mind that things vary quite a bit server to server. For example, I just transferred servers. On the old server, Arcane Dust (AD) would regularly sell for 1.5-2.0 gold per unit and most times there would be about 50-75 total auctions of AD up. On the new server, AD is going for 1.05-1.2 gold and there are 150-175 AD auctions up most times. It's a bit of a pain in the behind. I can't rely on AD for the easy sell it always was on my old server.
Anyway, good luck.