Breakfast Topic: Enchanting Prices
by Jennie Lees 
Mar 30th 2006 at 7:00AM
We've all seen the trade channel peppered with advertisements for various enchanting services, and perhaps some of us
have even dabbled in the skill ourselves. Having played on multiple servers, the disparity in prices is often
surprising, with some glowing enchants going for 7g on one server and over 20g on another.As an enchanter with a fairly low skill, I don't get too caught up in the price wars, but what are your experiences? Are you annoyed that identical enchants go for more on other servers? Or do you think it is a healthy sign of the individual economies? What sort of prices do you see or set?
[Thanks, Mark]
Filed under: Enchanting, Economy, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kang Mar 30th 2006 9:32AM
I've got my enchanting on my main to 196 and I've NEVER sold an enchant. This is probably going to kill me in four more levels when I'm trying to stock up for my mount, but the prices on enchants have always been so weird and the number of mats in my posession too low to really advertise much.
Proletarian Mar 30th 2006 10:10AM
Generally I find prices fluctuate very, very widely - depending on a number of factors including the age of the server (e.g. how long it has been up and running).
For example, I recently returned to an old server (Kilrogg) on which I had been inactive for over six months. Now as I said this is an old realm which is basically populated by level 60's and alts. The AH prices had completely changed when I logged back on after a half-year absence. All of the lower level twink items were crazy expensive. I assume this is because the sellers know that any low level toons are alts, which means they have a financially loaded 'sugar daddy' level 60 funding their equipment. Ironically, some of the level 40 or 50+ items are actually cheaper than the lower level stuff. I assume this is because 95% of the server is at level 60, and so the items being drop generated are all higher-level items, hence the market is flooded with those items, hence prices drop.
I've commented on the AH, but this applies to enchanting as well. The older the realm, the more enchants will cost, because the population will generally be high-level and wealthy. If you are a newbie soloist who somehow selected one of the old realms to start out on, well then you are screwed. Soloists depend on the AH for gear, and the AH on an old realm has prices adjusted for a wealthy client base.
Check out prices on a new server. VAST difference (and not just because of the newbs there who don't know what a good price-point is).
jason Mar 30th 2006 11:00AM
After having two enchanters (on seperate servers), I have some advice for you:
1> Check the AH for the mat prices, and price accordingly.
This way, even if you "farmed" the mats yourself, you'll make a nice profit and won't really be undercutting anyone by a huge amount.
2> Write down what others are selling for, and undercut them slightly.
SLIGHTLY being the main word here... don't go selling something for 10s when they're doing it for 50s...
3> *Never* ask for tips or charge when they provide the mats. *
Seriously... don't be that guy... "oh, but I had to work hard to get this enchant!"... I call bullshit on that... if they provide the mats for ANYTHING (leatherworking, tailoring, etc) then its free dammit... they did the work, all you're doing is pressing the damn button.
4> Don't work for free (unless mats are provided).
This not only ruins the economy of that particular enchant (well, over time it does), but people will eventually expect free enchants from you if you do it long enough "but you didn't charge me for that +3 spi last week!"
* on a personal note, I also don't charge for lockpicking on my rogue... even though I had to go to all that trouble to get to 16 and get my free tools, then stop for 3 seconds to unlock any boxes I see in the wild...
shelley Mar 31st 2006 1:35PM
Never ask for tips or charge when they provide the mats. Are you kidding me?? It's called a profession, why is it wrong to profit from it exactly? "They did all the work, all you're doing is pressing the damn button." Now, I call BS on that!! When the moron who is trying to get me to enchant his crap for free was selling all his uncommon drops, I was DEing mine, mostly for crap dust. When he was getting rich off of mining and herbalism, I was making jack off my measley worthless enchants, and doing them for free to level up. Now I'm 300, I've got some enchants that are worth a LOT, some that I farmed a month to get. So fine, you don't want to pay, screw you and get it elsewhere. Because forever and always, the only people getting free enchants from me are guildies...period.