Why do people prefer farming over crafting?

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
41

i will sit with my iphone calculator and scraps of paper with scrabbled notes on them

i dont use ah addons as they really seem to slow down my performance so it is just cave man tech

one thing i really recommend is an addon that will show the vendor price on everything- that way you dont show up to uc ah and wonder “wth does this even vendor for?” and then have to race away to find price then run back

it isnt complicated; in fact, it is very logical but you have to take it step by step; very methodiacal to wrap your head around it

for example, if i have a stack of light leather (20 and this stack will sell for 3 silver to vendor) i need to first figure out what my crafted item will sell to vendor (embossed leather boots sell for like 2silver 50 copper)

great- if i can craft 2 boots per stack i will profit 2 silver per stack (2.50 x 2= 5 vs 3 silver just for vendoring)

next you need to account for the coarse thread or any other crafting reagents in a recipe (this is where all the scrap paper comes in)

eventually when you get bogged down with all this you do what i did yesterday

make a note of current gold
buy crafting mats and reagents
craft all the items
sell all the items to vendor
look at total gold now

is it more than what you started with? hurray

is it the same? not bad at least you learned and didnt lose gold

is it worse? oh well, knowledge is power, use it as learning experience

2 Likes
42

And I disagree with your opinion that crafting ISNT volatile. On my server, currently one of the highest population servers, the AH is FLOODED with crafting materials. So much so that demand is not even close to keeping up with supply. It is literally cheaper to buy bags on my server than it is to buy the materials and craft them.

1 Like
43

I leveled my Alchemy to 300 a couple days ago. Used TSM to check the profitability of all my recipes. Literally all of them were a heavy loss compared to just selling the mats.

If you’re just crafting and selling blindly, assuming that the crafted item must be worth more than the mats, then you may be losing money.

1 Like
44

Give Skillet a try. It really helps with all the items required to make complex items. There are also addons that will help with pricing each item that goes into making something.

45

The answer to the OP’s question is simple.

Crafting in MMO’s is almost never profitable. This is true of almost every MMO ever made, and is a strange quirk of their economies.

You see, raw materials typically have greater value than crafted goods. This is because the act of crafting does two major things - it turns a resource usable by many into a niche item usable only by a select group, and it also removes some of the value by “using up” some of the potential use for the items… leveling a crafting profession. When you add in that crafting takes essentially no effort (unlike in the real world), the natural result of crafting an item is to reduce its overall value.

The only time this isn’t the case is when you have a rare yet highly demanded recipe. Take the frostweave set for example - it is highly demanded by frost mages starting around level 46, yet the recipe drops in level 55+ dungeons and the mats required drop from level 51+ mobs. With the number of leveling frost mages, one could make a killing on this recipe… but that will wane as more people get the recipes and fewer people are leveling.

46

Depends.
Gear items before lvl 60 : No one cares about them. Usually matts cost more than end-result gear.
Maybe you found a niche, but don’t worry people with addons will catch up fast and adjust matts price.

47

The millions of gold I’ve made from crafting on retail says this is false. In classic I’m already making 50g a day profit on average and am still ramping up, most of that comes from crafting.

1 Like
48

I do both farming and crafing, in both retail and Classic.

The problem with crafting is simple: nobody buys it. If nobody buys it, you make no gold. If you vendor it, you lose gold. It’s very hard to find anything that makes a profit by vendoring.

At the start of Classic, people bought some things I crafted. Soon after, prices dropped to vendor prices. The same happened in BFA: the first 2 weeks crafted armor sold. Not after that. Didn’t even break even on skilling up the professions.

Gathering? You can sell anything on the AH, and if it doesn’t sell you can vendor it. Your mats cost is zero (it’s just your time) so you can’t lose money.

Some “gold-making gurus” say you should simply vendor everything, and that’s the best way to make gold in Classic. They say by the time you hit 40 you’ll have the 100 gold for your mount.

49

I made millions from crafting in retail too. What crafting profession(s) are you using to make gold in Classic?

I’m sure you do a lot better at level 55 than I do (my highest is 22) but I’d like to plan ahead: what crafting is good at high levels?

50

Everyone is saving gold for mounts. Since things aren’t selling for a lot over vendor a lot of ppl found it’s just easier to farm and vendor. After mounts are bought things will pick up

51

i have found leatherworking recipes that make gold when compared to vendoring gathered mats

it works for light, medium, heavy, and thick

and it involves no ah selling (only a tiny bit of buying if applicable)

i can craft an item and sell to vendor for a profit

some profits are very humble - maybe 2 silver per stack but 20 stacks is a gold

others are better
most involve gathering my own mats (which i would have done anyways as a gatherer)

some involve my mats and a couple of ah buyouts (for a few gathered reagents)

i have found the price that makes a profit and if ah has it at that price i buy

all the profits are based on selling to the vendor

so i can squeeze gold out of the game

i can squeeze more with help from gatherers

based on what i have experienced in playing the last month tailors are everywhere and peeps not knowing price points, not knowing how to use addons, or whatever, has totally saturated that market with goods below the cost to craft - not great for making gold

but is there not a lowbie tailoring recipe that makes some gold - even a 50 copper profit- vs the raw gathered mats?

i am not in the current cloth markets but leather is so abundant that ah prices vs vendored were almost equal; i see cloth probably sells for more as it is harder to gather

anyways
that is what i do
i craft to vendor

the market will sort itself out but i dont need it

i can bring in the mats from the world (as i play and grind- what i like to do) and then turnover a bit more gold with my prof vs just gathering

1 Like
52

As long as I’ve been playing this game, even in classic, crafted goods rarely sell for more than the sum of their mats.

1 Like
53

You’ll never proc a regular recipe that generates a BOE epic. I mean, world drops only happen…out in the world. So farming for gold has the chance for rare drops.

Plus it’s fun to pay your character too. But don’t get me wrong, I love crafting too, but I also like to farm.

54

Thanks. Its very insightful. Will try that.

55

i am seeing this but is this not the most fundamental, the foundational factor in crafting for profit?

if you can craft a raw mat into something that sells for more and makes an overall profit that is the “i win” button

you have found a way to take gold from the game without relying on other players

it is hard

i was losing my marbles having to determine if the cost of that “coarse thread” - a cost i have never had to consider in my wow history- will break a profit

but it is a start

1 Like
56

It’s worth pointing out that materials are very cheap right now and they will become less so in the future. That will make crafting less profitable later on.

That said, I think the simplest answer is that leveling gathering professions and selling the stuff you pick up takes less effort than leveling a crafting profession. Lots of people follow the path of least resistance.

57

OP, it sounds to me like you’re following the rules of acquisition.

“Free advice is seldom cheap.” — Rule of Acquisition #59

“Opportunity plus instinct equals profit.” — Rule of Acquisition #9

“Expand or die.” — Rules of Acquisition #45 and #95

“The riskier the road, the greater the profit.” — Rule of Acquisition #62

“Knowledge equals profit.” — Rule of Acquisition #74

“Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to.” — Rule of Acquisition #3

“Hear all, trust nothing.” — Rule of Acquisition #190

1 Like
58

The one and only time I ever made a profit “crafting” was back in Cata. There was an odd interaction between JC, alch, and enchanting.

You could buy ore at a normal market value, then prospect it. The uncommon gems of certain colors could then be transmuted to rare gems, and those could be sold after cutting (for valuable cuts). Some of the uncommon/rare gems were simply vendored, and others turned into jewelry that could be disenchanted.

The crazy thing was, the vendored stuff alone basically paid for the ore. The rest was pure profit, and you could double or triple your original investment in a matter of hours as often as not.

In a couple of weeks I made enough money to make motorcycles for myself and my gf at the time.

Those sorts of weird situations don’t tend to pop up often however, and word tends to get out quick. Ore prices go up, gem prices down, and it stops being profitable.

1 Like