Item cost vs material cost

[Ashenshugra]

I dont know if this is the same will all servers. Ill just begin with a "for instance". On my server a Phantom Blade sells for 20-30 gold on a regular basis. But the breath of wind sells for 6 gold each all day long. For those of you that dont know, to make a phantom blade requires 6 breath of winds (plus many other things.)
Thorium items are even worse. One bar of thorium sells for 1 gold, but bracers that take 12 thorium bars sell for 3 gold. Why even bother with a crafting profession? YOu can make 10x more money just selling the materials.
I am just curious if its like this on other servers too. (Anitondas)

[JPaterson]

It depends on the day and the time of day.

At night, a Primal Fire may go for 30g, but a stack of ten motes will sell for 28g.

Or a stack of Mageweave Bolts may sell for 15g, but buying the stacks to make ten bolts usually only costs about 8g.

[larissa]

I dont know if this is the same will all servers. Ill just begin with a "for instance". On my server a Phantom Blade sells for 20-30 gold on a regular basis. But the breath of wind sells for 6 gold each all day long. For those of you that dont know, to make a phantom blade requires 6 breath of winds (plus many other things.)
Thorium items are even worse. One bar of thorium sells for 1 gold, but bracers that take 12 thorium bars sell for 3 gold. Why even bother with a crafting profession? YOu can make 10x more money just selling the materials.
I am just curious if its like this on other servers too. (Anitondas)

Because not everyone buys the materials off the Auction House to make the items? Perhaps the materials are used in more than just the ones you mentioned? Nobody bought the Phantom Blade or the thorium Bracers at higher prices, and this is what people are will to pay for them?

There are a lot of reasons for this. When I sold tailoring items, I just went by the average pricing of the item. I didn't go and check the pricing for all the materials that went into making it. Beyond the thread, most of what I tailor is free. I get the cloth and other materials from drops, so it's just time rather than anything. I did buy a lot of Netherweave to skill up at the end, but not to make items to sell.

People make things to skill up their skills. Unless they enchant, what should they do with their bagfull of thorium bracers, sell to to a vendor, or try to get some more money for them on the AH? It's also what's in demand. There probably isn't a high demand for thorium bracers, but thorium itself I believe is used by three professions; smithing, jewelcrafting and I would presume engineering. Broader customer base means higher demand, which translate into higher prices. Yes, the smith can make more money selling the thorium rather than using it to make things, but then they'll never skill up to get their epic crafted items.

~~~Larissa

[Twoflower]

strange, we dont have this situation. we normaly have materials price + crafting profession money ( depending on rarity of the recipy ) and a tip ( also depending on the rarity )

[murderousmic]

Yeah sometimes people craft stuff just to get their skill up and unload them in AH for less than the mats just to get something back.

I know to level up my engineering to 300 (dont laugh) I made a crapload of thorium widgets and thorium tubes, which other peopel did as well, so I had to put them on AH at a mere fraction of the expensive thorium mats just to move them.

[poopsmcgee]

on the server i play, executus, since tbc herb and mine mats have gone thru the roof. not so much the low level mats, but the higher up ones. i was a herb/alch and i recently dropped alch and took mining. now i gather herbs and mine veins and am liking it so far. i started mining last saturday and haven't even had much time to play and got my mining up to 270 last night. once i get to 300 i'll head back to outland with my lvl 60 shammy and get back to the grind grabbing all that sweet fel iron on my way WOOT.

btw this helps alot with my gathering.

/castsequence find herbs, find minerals

i bound that to v and its worked well so far.

[rgirty]

Materials typically cost more, because most individuals don't need 100% of the mats to make the item. They may need only one or two things and pick them up from the ah.

The reason they are priced this way is the market will pay it. If the demand wasn't there the item would be cheaper, or not available.

[Ashenshugra]

Thats pretty much what I thought. I know I lost a ton of gold getting my smithing up to 298 (where I stand now).
Looks though like at least someone has a server that is balaced with items vs material prices. Someone did one time tell me that newer servers will sell hard to get items for a lot more due to the fact that there are not enough high lvl players to go out and farm the items where they can be found in mass. Supply / demand. But on a much fuller server loaded with 60+s that is not the case. Anyway thanks for you replies.