For a long time, I've made gold from disenchanting greens I buy from the AH. I've always wondered, though: Why are people buying so much of this? What's driving demand for these low-level enchanting mats? Who's buying all that strange dust, and why?
Am I really to believe that many people are starting to powerlevel enchanting, but are doing it by just buying stacks of dust and essence? I wonder the same about every mat between strange dust and illusion dust.... and the essences, too.
New twinks would need these mats.... so now that's 2 types of characters that are buyers. I'd be shocked if there were that many twinks, though...
Arcane dust is used for tailor's cloth. I can understand the regular consumption of this stuff, but what about those other dusts? Why do people buy them so regularly?
I'd be interested in hearing your theories.
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I have thought about this before and it does strike me as odd as well. Most of the low level enchants don't use a lot of Strange Dust, so it's kind of hard to see where the steady demand comes from. Once you level enchanting beyond Strange Dust, you're probably not going to use many of those enchants, even for alts.
So, I think it just boils down to people wanting to power level. Rather than buy and DE greens for mats, they just buy up the Strange Dust. There must be a steady flow of people leveling alts (enchanting gear or leveling them as enchanters), or power leveling to sustain this.
High end mats (Arcane Dust, etc.) make total sense because there's a constant stream of 70s getting new gear that they want to get enchanted. Arcane Dust, in particular, is probably the most common enchanting mat for the high level enchants. I never buy these, because my DE alt has constant supplies, but I can see many players not having a DE alt.
Personally, I will buy up some of the middle-range mats like Greater/Lesser Nether essences for enchanting alt gear, but even this doesn't require a lot of mats. And, I only do this as a second option if greens to DE are too pricey. It's easier to see there would be a demand for the middle-range mats...middle-range enchants are relatively cheap, as oppposed to the high end ones, and work just fine for a leveling alt.
But yeah, the low end mats like Strange Dust, in particular, are kind of a mystery. I think it must be power levelers that are buying them up.
So, I think it just boils down to people wanting to power level. Rather than buy and DE greens for mats, they just buy up the Strange Dust. There must be a steady flow of people leveling alts (enchanting gear or leveling them as enchanters), or power leveling to sustain this.
High end mats (Arcane Dust, etc.) make total sense because there's a constant stream of 70s getting new gear that they want to get enchanted. Arcane Dust, in particular, is probably the most common enchanting mat for the high level enchants. I never buy these, because my DE alt has constant supplies, but I can see many players not having a DE alt.
Personally, I will buy up some of the middle-range mats like Greater/Lesser Nether essences for enchanting alt gear, but even this doesn't require a lot of mats. And, I only do this as a second option if greens to DE are too pricey. It's easier to see there would be a demand for the middle-range mats...middle-range enchants are relatively cheap, as oppposed to the high end ones, and work just fine for a leveling alt.
But yeah, the low end mats like Strange Dust, in particular, are kind of a mystery. I think it must be power levelers that are buying them up.
Lets not overthink this shall we? Lest those buying consider their actions and stop buying. That would be bad for the nice business we have going for us.
Just calm down and don't rock the boat. When the boat gets rocked it creates waves, and waves create instability. We don't want instability.
Just calm down and don't rock the boat. When the boat gets rocked it creates waves, and waves create instability. We don't want instability.
Personally I've been in a city leveling my Enchanting and realized I needed say 50 more points to get to Level X and not had the mats so gone and purchased in AH more than enough to level it. Its because I am lazy. So the answer is probably: Lazy people like me.
When I did enchanting the first time, I used many shards. I did it as I leveled up my char, so enchants would match at the appropriate level. I thought to myself, thank goodness I’ve been saving up some shards from various disenchants.
The second time I did enchanting, it was because I changed professions. Now I wanted to get to 275-300 range asap. Shards costed too much, but dusts were plenty and cheap(er). From this, I learned that you can totally reach 300 just by using dusts.
On my server, the price fluctuates, but let’s say 20 strange dust is 1g. For me, having been to Outlands, 10g to buy 10 stacks of strange dust (200 dust) is chump change. It lets me get my enchant skill up higher, faster, without spending time to run through something like VC or WC. Throw in 100g to buy various dusts and it’s still cheaper per time spent for me to get those mats from AH.
Let’s say I’m now level 70 doing this. 200-300g in one weekend of powerlevelling enchanting to a useful range can easily be recovered in about 2-3 days of doing daily quests. Make it 400-600g and it just means a few more days of doing the same to recover the costs, not including all the various vendor trash that adds up very nicely as I do daily quests.
So who are the customers then? Every one of the people you guys mentioned, as well as people who know that they make more money just doing things at 60-70 than they would if they ran themselves through some instance 10-50, repeating for the right number of items to get mats from. Or if they aren’t mailing the items to the newbie enchanter char, then they are having someone run them through an instance to get all the loot. All of it not as efficient as simply buying 500g worth of mats from AH, give or take since in some cases, other people just need 1-2 stacks, not their entire enchanting supply.
I cannot see any other reasons for people buying stacks of strange dust than power leveling the enchanting skill. I sold lots and lots of strange dust by the singles when I started (dis)enchanting. lately I have only bothered selling stacks as it takes too much time to sell the singles. The profit is fine, but once you start making a bit of money, you can't be bothered any more. My stacks are often listed for days at a time, before all of a sudden some character buys 2-5 stacks of the stuff. And trust me, I don't sell it for 1G a stack. With patience, your mats will sell.
I have tried to experience a bit with the best times to sell your mats, and have reach the conclusion that on my server it's not all that important when you list. The important factor is the actual supply. And as you have to log on to check the supply at any given time, you may as well list your mats. As I have fixed prices on all mats, I can't really find a time of the day/week my mats are more likely to be sold.
I usually list a fair bit of mats, so I have noticed that the Auctioneer valuation is more and more synchronizing itself with my price. This opens up the possibilities to play the market. If I list enough mats at a higher price for a long time, I can artificially boost the prices of mats. Of course this is a lot easier for enchanting mats, as they have no listing fee.
To reply the OP, I have to say the only thing making people buy low level mats is that people are raising their skill. Most often in the form of power leveling.
I have tried to experience a bit with the best times to sell your mats, and have reach the conclusion that on my server it's not all that important when you list. The important factor is the actual supply. And as you have to log on to check the supply at any given time, you may as well list your mats. As I have fixed prices on all mats, I can't really find a time of the day/week my mats are more likely to be sold.
I usually list a fair bit of mats, so I have noticed that the Auctioneer valuation is more and more synchronizing itself with my price. This opens up the possibilities to play the market. If I list enough mats at a higher price for a long time, I can artificially boost the prices of mats. Of course this is a lot easier for enchanting mats, as they have no listing fee.
To reply the OP, I have to say the only thing making people buy low level mats is that people are raising their skill. Most often in the form of power leveling.
11 posts
Probably powereleveling enchanting, but also dusts are used to make the various mana and wizard oils. Their use in consumables proabably helps keep the market from getting flooded.
Quote:
Probably powereleveling enchanting, but also dusts are used to make the various mana and wizard oils. Their use in consumables proabably helps keep the market from getting flooded.
agree - the lowest level oil uses 2 strange dust as part of the mats. With 5 charges of +8 spell damage, its a really cheap way to give yourself a slight boost that survives through death. As an enchanter I usually run VC once and have enough low level greens to keep my Strange Dust on hand for a few months - but I can imagine that people aren't quite as crazy about doing that.
The junk enchants actually do have use even later on - take http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?wspell=7786&source=live for example - yeah, it's only +2 vs critters, but it does give a nice glow to a weapon, so I toss it onto my alt's weapons (and sometimes even my own weapon if I don't have mats or don't intend to keep it long enough to make a real chant worth while) just for fun.
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?wspell=25124&source=live is another great cheap item to make to hand out to alts and alts of friends.
Toss in folks wanting to PL thier enchanting and the occassional tailor and you've got a steady flow of purchasers.
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?wspell=25124&source=live is another great cheap item to make to hand out to alts and alts of friends.
Toss in folks wanting to PL thier enchanting and the occassional tailor and you've got a steady flow of purchasers.
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