[July 31, 2019] Salvage or Sell? Legendary Upgrades Edition

[Ojimaru.8970]

A common question I see pop up now and again is whether to sell or salvage unidentified gear, and if so, what's the best kit to use. These questions are likely more of an interest with the official release of legendary upgrades, and the upcoming reveal of the recipe for Mystic Motes and Mystic Aspects. In an attempt to answer these questions using the Trading Post API and research from the wiki, I present a compiled list of possible profits. Note that Basic, Journeyman, Fine, and Master Salvage Kits are considered bought with karma due to the ease of access to the vendor in Dragonfall. Lastly, the "best" method presented is based solely on maximum possible profits, and does not take into consideration of the convenience and inventory management challenges of using conventional salvage kits.

TLDR

• Piece of Common Unidentified Gear: Identify, then salvage Fine (blue) with Basic Salvage Kits, and Master Salvage Kits for Masterwork (green) and Rare (yellow).
• Piece of Unidentified Gear: Salvage with either Master or Mystic Salvage Kit.
• Piece of Rare Unidentified Gear: Salvage with either Master or Mystic Salvage Kit.

Piece of Common Unidentified Gear

• Note: Prices are based on Trading Post sell prices, factoring in the 15% tax.

• Note: When identifying, Masterworks were salvaged with Runecrafter's Salvage-o-Matic, Rares were salvaged with Master Salvage Kit, while Exotics were not salvaged.

• Note: Due to the ease of access of salvage kits bought with karma (i.e. Dragonfall), Basic and Master Salvage Kits are assumed to have no coin cost.

• Note: Mystic Salvage Kits were crafted using salvage kits bought with karma, and Mystic Forge Stones obtained from daily login rewards. These kits are assumed to have no coin cost.

• Sell: 99c

• Direct salvage (Basic): 1s 01c

• Direct salvage (Copper-Fed): 98c

• Direct salvage (Master/Mystic): 1s 04c

• Direct salvage (Silver-Fed): 74c

• Direct salvage (Runecrafter's): 44c

• Identify then salvage 1s 32c

Piece of Unidentified Gear

• Note: Prices are based on Trading Post sell prices, factoring in the 15% tax.

• Note: When identifying, Rares were salvaged with Silver-Fed Salvage-o-Matic, while Exotics were not salvaged.

• Note: Due to the ease of access of salvage kits bought with karma (i.e. Dragonfall), Basic and Master Salvage Kits are assumed to have no coin cost.

• Note: Mystic Salvage Kits were crafted using salvage kits bought with karma, and Mystic Forge Stones obtained from daily login rewards. These kits are assumed to have no coin cost.

• Sell: 2s 02c

• Direct salvage (Basic): 1s 31c

• Direct salvage (Copper-Fed): 1s 28c

• Direct salvage (Master/Mystic): 1s 35c

• Direct salvage (Silver-Fed): 75c

• Direct salvage (Runecrafter's): 99c

• Identify then salvage (Basic): 1s 79c

• Identify then salvage (Copper-Fed): 1s 82c

• Identify then salvage (Master/Mystic): 2s 77c

• Identify then salvage (Silver-Fed): 2s 17c

• Identify then salvage (Runecrafter's): 2s 73c

Piece of Rare Unidentified Gear

• Note: Prices are based on Trading Post sell prices, factoring in the 15% tax.

• Note: When identifying, Exotics were not salvaged.

• Note: Due to the ease of access of salvage kits bought with karma (i.e. Dragonfall), Basic and Master Salvage Kits are assumed to have no coin cost.

• Note: Mystic Salvage Kits were crafted using salvage kits bought with karma, and Mystic Forge Stones obtained from daily login rewards. These kits are assumed to have no coin cost.

• Sell: 16s 56c

• Direct salvage (Basic): 13s 90c

• Direct salvage (Copper-Fed): 13s 87c

• Direct salvage (Master/Mystic): 17s 67c

• Direct salvage (Silver-Fed): 17s 07c

• Direct salvage (Runecrafter's): 16s 18c

• Identify then salvage (Master/Mystic): 19s 36c

• Identify then salvage (Silver-Fed): 18s 76c

• Identify then salvage (Runecrafter's): 18s 12c

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

For those looking to decide whether increased income is worth the inconvenience of ID/salvage, here's the same numbers presented on a per stack basis. For example, IDing blues first only adds 83 silver in value every 250 common unIDs. Some people might find that too little for the effort.

Common/Blue

• Sell: 0.99s = 2.48g/stack
• Salvage (mystic/master): 1.04 = 2.6g/stack, or +13s better than selling
• ID first (basic): 1.32 = 3.3/g/stack or +83s better than selling

Uncommon/Green

• Sell: 2.02s = 5.05g/stack
• Salvage (mystic/master): 1.35 = 3.4g/stack, or 1.7g worse than selling
• ID first (see notes): 2.77 = 3.3/g/stack or +1.9g better than selling

Rare

• Sell: 16.56s = 41.40g/stack
• Salvage (master/mystic): 17.7s = 44.2g/stack, or 2.8g better than selling
• ID first (see notes): 19.4 = 48.4/g/stack or +7g better than selling

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@Ojimaru.8970 wroteBasic, Journeyman, Fine, and Master Salvage Kits are ... bought with karma due to the ease of access to the vendor in Dragonfall.

This is an excellent point that I don't want anyone to miss. (Including myself: I usually forget to consider this at all.)If you have karma to spare, I strongly encourage you to make use of the Dragonfall vendor: once unlocked, they are always available.

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Speaking for myself, I don't have enough karma to afford to use it for the amount of salvaging that I do. Each person needs to evaluate this on their own. For some people, 500,000 karma is a lot; for those making multiple legendaries, 4 million karma is too little.