^ This x1000
All too often I see folks complaining about the price of something. I don’t think I’ve ever ONCE seen someone say “Well, I made a counter offer of 4K versus their 5K asking price and they refused!”
I’ve got to ask: is the mere act of talking and interacting with people a lost art? In ANY price negotiation, the seller typically starts high. The buyer then makes a counter offer at a lower price, usually lower than the absolute highest they would be willing to pay (ie: seller wants 5K, you’d be willing to pay 4K, but you ask if they’d take 3K)
Eventually the two of you meet somewhere in the middle and both sides typically leave happy. One of you might have to eventually bend a little bit (ie: the buyer pays 4.3K, or the seller had to dip slightly below their 3.5K floor), but that’s generally how you build a rapport with a crafter and potentially reach a point where you go to them exclusively. Sure, that crafter will certainly try to get as much as they can from others, but I doubt anyone would turn down guaranteed money from a repeat customer, especially if both parties were already happy with previous prices.
And while we’re on the subject of 1K versus 5K gold (or any other price in between or far above depending on that particular server economy): keep in mind just how much gold has inflated since 2004. 5K is generally a low price nowadays for crafted gear, especially considering that jewels/enchants can regularly go for 2K-3K on the AH. I hate to be that guy, but if you find 5K to be pricey, they you are doing something severely wrong in the game. When Tuesday rolls around, I log into this character and knock out some of my easier weeklies in about an hour to an hour and a half. It’ll fluctuate, but I’ll typically come away with 3K-6K in that timeframe. If I do that on alts, then that number starts to multiply in a significant manner.
I’m not saying everyone in the game NEEDS to be a millionaire, but even someone only playing one or two characters at max level should have about 50K-100K gold at their disposal. I feel like that’s the absolute minimum if you’re serious about playing the game in any capacity past normal dungeons or LFR raids. Anyone trying to argue and lowball at 1K that refuses to budge on that price is the 2025 equivalent of the guy that wanted a blacksmith to make a Dark Iron item, expected the smith to run into BRD with a group, and then they want to argue on the price and see if you’d do it for a measly five gold.