I did the math, twice even. I’m just really confused about this. My server cluster has 6 Vial of sands on the AH at 60k each. Fair enough, until you do the crafting cost, the vendor mats alone are about half of that, then each flask and the truegold needed to make it combined on my server go for well over what the Vial would cost to make if I did the math right. They are making maybe 5-10k at best in profit IF they farmed the mats themselves, but the time investment seems not worthwhile. It, not personal gathering, they are actually making -5k to -10k gold. I can’t make the Vial ATM, so it’s whatever to me, I’m just trying to look out for whoever is spending all that on them, be it time or gold.
People price according to whatever pricing strategy they choose, and someone else’s comprehension and agreement isn’t required.
I’m not sure what you expect to happen with your post. No one is going to save them from themselves, although I’m tempted to swoop in, buy up some of those, and repost at a profit.
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He may be implying that they got those Vials for… below cost. Vials were heavily duped during Cata and MoP, Blizz cracked down several times but no doubt there are still some stockpiles of duped Vials around and the smarter culprits may be trickling them out slowly at cheap enough to sell but not so cheap as to raise suspicion.
Or as you say, people don’t math good.
This is normal. This happens every day, in every profession. It is extremely common for the “AH sale price” to be lower than the “price of materials to craft it”.
This doesn’t have to involve cheating. If you look at all the thousands of crafting recipes in the game, MOST of them end up losing money. USUALLY the price of mats is more than the item will sell for…if it sells at all.
But remember that both prices change, every day. Your goal is to buy the mats when they are cheapest, and sell the finished product when it is worth the most. You might have to check AH prices for several days to make a profit…if you ever do.
I use the TSM addon for this. If I open my crafting window and select TSM, it will show me the profit/loss for each item I can craft.
Not sure about you, but as a vial seller I make mine for 42-46k per so that’s a nice profit for 60-70k. I buy up bulk at the end of expansions and make all the mats for 100’s of vials. I scan the AH for the mats at least three times a week, deals can be had all the time. You’ll be surprised how cheap you can get items. Just make a TSM shopping list. On a high pop server I can expect 1-3 sold a week so the 15-20k profit per is perfect.
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On smaller servers, the makers tend to buy all the mats for Vial of the Sands and then post excess mats for prices comparable to the profits they’d make on the finished product.
I have like half a mil worth of Trugold that im trying to unload, and no one is buying 
Possibly a lower-level character that switched realms and needed a way to carry extra gold.