Why buy 10 of some piece of level 46 armor Honed Reinforced Scale Helm - what can you do with these that's useful or lucrative?

[Edgecliff.4195]

It's all in the title.  Looking for motivation since I end up with a lot of duplicate pieces

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Salvage for higher-value mats.

[Danikat.8537]

Here's what I do with any equipment I don't want:
1) Sell it on the Trading Post
2) If I can't sell it I salvage it for materials
3) If I can' salvage it I sell it to an NPC merchant
4) If I can't sell to an NPC I put it in the Mystic Forge (you need 4 items of the same rarity)
5) If I can't do any of that I delete it

Since you bought it selling it back will probably lose money, so I'd start from 2 and try salvaging it.

[Edgecliff.4195]

That's not quite what I had in mind... I understand salvage.  But what I see because I put a lot of stuff up on the trading post, is that someone will buy 8 units of the same armor and I am wondering what do those people do with them.  Does Mystic forge produce higher level gear from it or do certain pieces salvage specific things that someone might use elsewhere.  My best guess is something to do with overcoming the randomness of the Mystic Forge but that's only a guess. 

[costepj.5120]

Crafted items can be also salvaged for research notes.

[Danikat.8537]

1 hour ago, Edgecliff.4195 said:

That's not quite what I had in mind... I understand salvage.  But what I see because I put a lot of stuff up on the trading post, is that someone will buy 8 units of the same armor and I am wondering what do those people do with them.  Does Mystic forge produce higher level gear from it or do certain pieces salvage specific things that someone might use elsewhere.  My best guess is something to do with overcoming the randomness of the Mystic Forge but that's only a guess. 

Ah ok, the way you worded your question made it sound like you had bought them and were looking for a use.

Assuming it is one person buying all of them and not different people placing offers at the same price or buying ones you've listed in quick succession there's a few possibilities. Firstly yes the Mystic Forge can spit out higher level items than you put in, and using 4 items of the same type can narrow down the results. If you put 4 masterwork armour peices in you'll get 1 masterwork or better armour piece back, if you put 4 helms in you know you'll get a helm back, and it could be a higher rarity.

But there's also a good chance they're salvaging it. They may just want the materials, or as @costepj.5120 said you can get research notes from salvaging crafted equipment, and it can be cheaper to buy it than craft your own. There's often Wizard's Vault dailies or weeklies for salvaging items and buying them can be a quick way of doing that. I often buy equipment to salvage on my second account because I don't play it much but I do like to do the quick WV achievements.

Finally a lot of people have been buying armour with runes in it recently (even low level ones with minor runes) because Anet announced that anyone who has a legendary rune by the time the next release comes out will get a free legendary relic, and to make a legendary rune you need a lot of the charms which come from salvaging runes so the price for all of them has gone up. They've got a low drop chance, but it means a lot of people have been salvaging anything with runes in to try their luck.