Making money with Alchemy?Follow

I can usually sell Super Health Pots, Super Mana Pots, and Elixirs of Major Agility for profit. Most potions/elixirs just don't seem to sell well, though. Transmutes can also bring in some dough. You can charge for Primal xmutes, and I often fish up lots of Primal Waters, transmute to Air, and sell for more than water goes for.

Generally, though, I make money selling excess herbs. Alchemy is more of a personal tradeskill for my and my guild's benefit.

Research your tradeskill. Then research all the other production tradeskills. Study up on the variety of quests available around the world. Keep an eye on the Trade Channel when in city. Make lists and keep them handy. Grind your own herbs. Don't carve yourself a niche.

As pointed out by Thermalnoise, certain potions sell well no matter what server you're on. Swiftness Potion, Super Pots, agility and stam buff pots. But don't forget Frost Oil. Its needed for a chain quest in the Badlands, and sells to low-40s toons very quickly (at 1-2G each on Llane). If you're on a pvp server, find out how much the various Protection potions sell for. (not much on mine)

Research the other tradeskills to find out which potions they use in their crafting. Find out how viable their recipes are before wasting time and resources preparing potions (as a for instance, my tailor uses Shadow Protection Potion x2 to make Hands of Darkness. Or would, if tailoring wasn't so overdone on my server. It costs more to buy the two potions than you can sell the gloves for and so I skipped that recipe entirely. I did, however, buy a few stacks of Elixirs of Wisdom for lower end recipes).

Watch the Trade Channel. People will spam their needs. People will tell you what they want made, or what they're selling. with a bit of initiative you can discover which of those items most often traded require potions to make. And supply them.

Supply: Don't make a stack of five Frost Oil and toss em on the AH. You may sell them, but they sell much more quickly in stacks of 1. Keep this in mind when you're listing your wares. The same can be said of any potion (except for those used solely from pvp - why not buy whole stacks?); if my tailor only needs 2, why would I buy 3 or 5?

The same can be said of herbs. Until you get up into your 200s with herbalism, you won't really find any valuable herbs. Except for two. Swiftthistle seems to be abundant in both Darkshore and Loch Modan. Mageroyal and Briarthorn are everywhere and with a little effort you can likely pull down a few stacks of the Thistle in one go. You should already know the value of Swiftthistle, so let me point out the herb most people overlook. Earthroot.

Especially in Kalimdor, you want to farm as much earthroot as you can. Then you want to break it into stacks of 5 and sell these on the AH. 50-75s a stack (varies by server, of course), easy money. Why? At level 14 Druids have a quest that require 5 Earthroot. If they aren't spamming heck outta Darkshore begging for it, they're checking the AH for that perfect pile of 5. Try it out and you'll see what I mean. There are either alot of Druids in the world, or there are more uses for stacks of 5 Earthroot than I'm aware of.

Transmutes are a steady source of income, but I don't really like them myself. Global CD is a hater, and because of it you won't make fast cash with Mutes. Consider them as little more than extra gold in the pocket, but don't rely heavily on them. Frost Oil will still continue to outsell mutes. Even midgrade mana and healing potions can be a steady source of income. the real money is in the high end stuff, sure, but who doesn't need a stack of pots as backup?

Sorry I couldn't be any more specific. Research is key to any crafting profession, I think. Determine the demand and become the supply. Just don't forget to look past the obvious; alot of different professions need you weedpicking hoochbrewers to help US level. Find out what we need and give it to us. Little extra work could mean a lot of extra money.

Good luck, and bloody adventuring

It probably depends on prices on primals too. I only had one proc so far and I sold that might for 100g offered by the same person I did transmute for.
But considering that primal earth goes for 10g on my server and primal mana cant even be found....

Well, since I want battlecast I will be doing all transmutes I can for next few months for myself and friends. Actually it went all the way with my alchemy, I never sold a single potion.
Therefore I am not counting on making any money, I am glad I can afford not to spend it on buying potions and stuff.

Maybe some day I will make cash out of mights or bags, after I gear myself up, but right now I consider my professions just something that I can use myself and help friends with.

Gathering professions are totally different thing of course.

I believe you forgot that the AH takes a cut of your profits (10% I think). Once that is taken out, the profits are much less impressive. You have to ensure you sell on the first or second post or else you will lose money. For those that say, farm your own mats, I say why not sell the mats instead? Money can be made with transmute but you must be patient about pricing and wait for low prices on your mats.

Laroche

I insert my reply in the quote in italics.



And I sell stacks only on buffs or healing/mana pots, I think ppl don't buy stacks of "utility" pots (demonslaying, waterbreathing...)

A good Outland elixir is elixir of major strength (or major agi, etc), they sell well on my server.

Swiftness Potion is a great moneymaker, even on non-pvp servers like mine. And from what I know, it seems to be one of the few Potions that remain a steady seller regardless of your server. Play around with the price abit, if your server allows you to do so. Willing to bet you can get more than 50s each. ;)

As to the other recipes you ask about, alot depends on which server you're on, I would think.

Any sort of Water Breathing pot is of dubious saleability (is that even a word?). There are very few quests requiring underwater travel, and parties in those instances with water tend to try to bring a Lock. These pots might be something you want to advertise being able to craft, and see if you get bites, rather than waste coin listing it and hoping someone needs to do a water quest soon

Arcanes: Better seller than the water breathers, but probably sells more easily(as with any sort of heavy buff potion)on weekends, due to guild raids, pvp parties.

Rage Potions of any sort: Don't sell on my server. You end up eating them and hoping you got a skill up out of it. Again, maybe try to sell them on Weekends. Your server *is* different. :)

Swim Speed Potion: No sale. These are the sort of potions you almost never see listed, because, frankly, who needs them? How many quests involve swimming, really? And, lets face it, with only one kind of aquatic herb and vast expanses of nothing but aggroing mobs and the ocassional clam, who bothers swimming around anyway?

Shadow Protection(s). I know the standard potion to be used in a tailoring recipe (Hands of Darkness). As well, Shadow Protection items are heavily sought for PVP. IMO, second only to Frost Protection items. These sell semi-steadily.

Stoneshield Potion: I actually did the quest to earn this recipe with a retired alchy toon. I never sold one. I certainly tried. I ended up using them in a guild raid of ZG.

Demonslaying: I would think - and here I'm speculating ~completely~ - that there's a market for these now. Thanks to BC and the Demon-heavy HP.

Rocket Fuel: a non-seller. This is another one with limited use. Rather than make them, advertise that you are able to do so and see what happens.

Ghost Dye: I've heard of it. even seen the recipe once. Never met anyone who was looking for it. Advertise it and see what happens.

I apologize that I can't give you more solid information. Too many variables, not the least of which is server differences.

If you aren't sure about a recipe, and if you can't find the product on the AH to compare to, I'd suggest the Trade Channel route. It can't hurt, and you never know what that one individual may be looking for.


Edit:

Stacking Elixirs and Potions

I think this is a bit tricky. Alot of things to consider.

Mana/Health Potions sell by the stack, for the most part. Protection Potions *can* be sold by the stack, but if I only need 2 for Recipe A, or 3 for my next BG run, I may not be looking for a whole stack.

Every potion is different, depending on what the consumer intends to use it for. And you just can't know. Hedge your bets. Make as many as you intend to and
play with them a bit. List a complete stack, a half stack, a single, a pair. See which sells faster and which provides the best profit. Oftentimes, 1-2 potions will sell faster than a stack, and for more coin individually.

Two potions I can speak on directly.

Swiftness: IMO, stacks of these will always sell steadily.
Frost Oil: ALWAYS sell singly. You won't be disappointed.

Herbs (for when you start offloading your excess)

Swiftthistle sells, for me, in any size stack I list. (My current main is not an Alchemist, but he is a weedpicker. :) )

Earthroot: As I mentioned before, try to sell at least half of what you pick in stacks of 5. The druids will love you, and maybe stop spamming your Auberdine.

Wintersbite: Sell in stacks of 2. Unless someone specifically requests more.

Good luck. Hope this longish rant both makes sense, and helps a little

Edited, May 24th 2007 2:27pm by pipedream

Pipedream & Anathor - Thank you for the information. It was all taken to heart.

Anathor - Gromsblood is easy. You can farm it really easy in "Demon Fall Canyon" in Ashenvale. I spent about a 1/2 hour - 40 min farming and walked away with 35 Gromsblood.

My warrior bud told me that the rage pots suck because the cool down your healing pots as well. If that is the case, then yes, they do suck.