Selling raw materials vs. crafting ascended mats for gold

[Rickz.6230]

The math goes over my head a bit, would it be better to sell raw mats (cottons, leathers, ore etc), OR craft them into their time gated ascended counterpart, and then sell that? Curious as to general profits on either scenario

[Handsel.2891]

Check out sites likeGW2BLTCGW2 Spidy

They show the profit for every recipe and item in game, and much more. Even the wiki has direct links to the relevant pages in the infobox of every individual item (on the right side of the item's page, at the top).

[Rickz.6230]

Was hoping for a more general answer, but thanks for the sites, they are useful once you decipher the a bit. It seems that generally, it is marginally more profitable to sell the ascended material than the sum of its parts.

[Memoranda.9386]

@Rickz.6230 said:Was hoping for a more general answer, but thanks for the sites, they are useful once you decipher the a bit. It seems that generally, it is marginally more profitable to sell the ascended material than the sum of its parts.

Need to pay for the labor of crafting it, you know. Hahah

[Handsel.2891]

Sorry, yes, generally speaking, it is profitable to craft and sell the ascended materials, provided you don't need the time gated ingredients, yourself.As the market is always fluctuating, it is always worth checking before you craft, though. But in my limited experience, selling ascended mats is always more gold than selling the ingredients.

[AliamRationem.5172]

@Rickz.6230 said:Was hoping for a more general answer, but thanks for the sites, they are useful once you decipher the a bit. It seems that generally, it is marginally more profitable to sell the ascended material than the sum of its parts.

Generally speaking, if a crafted item is useful to other players and time-gated, you will make more gold crafting that item and selling it than selling the unrefined materials. Players are essentially paying for your time in that case.

But mostly it's more complicated than that because the TP is very competitive and there is a push/pull between the unrefined materials and crafted product. In other words, if I can use this pile of materials worth 1g to craft an item that easily sells for 2g, then everyone is going to do that until the difference in value approaches equilibrium. Players buy up the raw materials and sell the crafted product, reducing supply for the former and increasing supply for the latter, causing the price disparity to close.

For that reason, the sites MikeG recommended are necessary if you want to get anywhere making gold on the TP.

[Danikat.8537]

@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@Rickz.6230 said:Was hoping for a more general answer, but thanks for the sites, they are useful once you decipher the a bit. It seems that generally, it is marginally more profitable to sell the ascended material than the sum of its parts.

Generally speaking, if a crafted item is useful to other players and time-gated, you will make more gold crafting that item and selling it than selling the unrefined materials. Players are essentially paying for your time in that case.

But mostly it's more complicated than that because the TP is very competitive and there is a push/pull between the unrefined materials and crafted product. In other words, if I can use this pile of materials worth 1g to craft an item that easily sells for 2g, then everyone is going to do that until the difference in value approaches equilibrium. Players buy up the raw materials and sell the crafted product, reducing supply for the former and increasing supply for the latter, causing the price disparity to close.

For that reason, the sites MikeG recommended are necessary if you want to get anywhere making gold on the TP.

As well as the above it can also fluctuate depending on what else can be made with the same materials. If a popular new item is added which uses lots of cotton and wool for example the price of those might shoot up while the price of Bolts of Damask stays the same, and then it might be better to sell the materials directly.

One quick way to check is to go to the Wiki page for the ascended material, scroll down to the recipe and click 'show base ingredients'. That will show you not only what's used to make it but the total cost of the ingredients (at the bottom) and the current TP price at the top, so you can compare the two. For example right now it shows that a Bolt of Damask costs 2.77g to make and sells for 3.18g (and that's if you sell it instantly), meaning you would make a profit selling it.

[JusticeRetroHunter.7684]

Some of the ascended items at certain points in time made me profits. Other times, certain ascended materials yielded net losses. So ya, it's worth looking into the going exchange rates between the raw mats vs the ascended mats, because they change from time to time.

[Taylan.2187]

Micro-managing profits like this is probably not worth it. Could just go out to make more money during the time you would have researched how to make a little more profit from the TP. :-)

[Svarty.8019]

@"Rickz.6230" said:The math goes over my head a bit, would it be better to sell raw mats (cottons, leathers, ore etc), OR craft them into their time gated ascended counterpart, and then sell that? Curious as to general profits on either scenario

Word is that upgrading materials to T5s using Spirit Shards is the way to go... well, that's what the Whales want you to do, anyway. Here is a very lengthy, vague and befuddling video, enjoy!

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I would not think 'Whales' would care about crafting, and who does it. I thought 'Whales' spent large amounts of actual cash.

[Ayrilana.1396]

Before crafting ascended components to sell, make sure that they're profitable for the price that you're going to sell them at. The profit you see listed on some websites isn't necessarily the same profit you'd make when deciding between selling your mats versus crafting the ascended mat. Factor in TP taxes.

[Bassdeff.1895]

@Taylan.2187 said:Micro-managing profits like this is probably not worth it. Could just go out to make more money during the time you would have researched how to make a little more profit from the TP. :-)

It does take some effort at first, there is a learning curve to it but once you've done it for a bit it gets much easier to find what you need to know. Sites like GW2efficiency, GW2BLTC, SPIDY, GW2profits, help immensely cause all the math is done for you. Then it is just a matter of making part of your play routine. Every time I play I take 15 to 20 mins receiving orders, crafting, and placing orders. At the end of my play session I will take another 15 to 20 mins doing the same thing. That 30 to 40 mins can easily net me 20 to 30 gold. Well worth the effort.