Some people don't expect a tip in certain circumstances. I never took a tip if I leveled my blacksmithing, for example. Absent some sort of initial conversation yes he probably should have assumed that he should tip you something for your efforts, but ideally you have that conversation in advance. In all honesty, the miscommunication between you and your customer is nearly as much your fault as his, IMO. It's not hard when you get that initial pst to say "ok, your mats plus xg tip, meet me at anvil" Then everyone is on the same page.

Awww, poor you.

You had to press a few keys on a keyboard to smelt some bars and then click create.

I don't tip for recipes that come from a trainer, only ones that you have to work for such as the SP gem from The Kirin Tor, or a Mechano-Hog, or my Deathchill cloak.

@Bob

Do you realize it takes thousands of gold and many hours to get to the level where your goods are useful?

It's like buying apples at the market. Sure, every market got them, but don't expect to see them at cost (which is actually free (or close to it) if you think about it). What are you paying for? Transport, and a lot of labor to get the product from tree to market. Same thing in WoW, you are 'paying' for the hours and gold it took to get the prof up to level 400 or whatever.

IMHO people in wow should really take the wow economy to heart, it's basically how it works in the real world (in a demand-side economy).

So instead you wasted 20 minutes waiting on a tip that you could have easily asked for before you started?

I don't mind tipping, but if you'd better not waste my time trying to prove a point. Make your terms understood up front.

Tipping is very much a grey area. How much is acceptable is always a source of contention. Why was 10g given in this instance? I probably would have put up 5. Would you have continued to sit there with the trade window open until I gave more?

You essentially held his materials ransom until he gave you more gold.

That's not a tip.

I think we need to get back to calling them "gratuities", so people remember that they are an act of good faith, not a requirement.

"something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service ; especially : tip"

If you demand it, it isn't a tip. It's payment, which you obviously failed to agree upon or even discuss. So what you were doing is extortion, holding items that weren't yours ransom until he gave you money that wasn't yours. I'd have reported you, personally(and yes, I've done so successfully in early WoW when crafters decided to pocket goods and/or crafted items rather than fulfill the deal), so count yourself lucky that he caved so easily.

Re: tips

Charge a flat fee, or just sell on the AH. On my server there are so few enchant scrolls on the AH it's pitiful. I will gladly pay 2-3x the price of mats if I can just buy and mail the enchant from my bank alt.

Re: AH

If you have the resources, set the price ceiling (50-500% the current min buy out) with a few items, buy out everything that is 70% or lower, then list the bought items or rest of your stock. Auctioneer is a must.

Rubes underpricing on the AH nets me about 1k a week out of approx 5k a week net.

If you 0 professions, you can still make a mint on buying/getting crafted mana pots and mana injector kits. RMPs go for about 7-8g a pop, and MPIs go for 10-13g a pop.

Granted, if someone already controls the MPI market on your server, it's much harder, as they have the resources to underprice or buy you out if you list below cost.