Do any crafting professions earn good gold?

Hi guys

I'm lvl 61, currently have 2 gathering professions, skinning and mining.

Skinning is at 316/375, but I'm a bit behind in the mining 184/225, and wondering if I should drop it and get a crafting profession or take some time and level it up (I quest in Outland now, and can't mine anything there, so I'd have to go find Mithril to mine to lvl up my mining)

This is my first toon, so I'm wondering if maybe first I should keep both gathering professions and save up for my epic flying mount (how much is that by the way?) and only after that choose a profession (?)

Or, do any professions earn good money? From what I've seen in many professions most don't really make much. Many items sell at or below the cost of the mats.

I'd be interested in Swordsmithing for example (even though I'd drop mining I would just get mats on AH when they are cheap), but that apparently is a losing profession too,

I'm thinking about Leatherworking, since I want to keep skinning. But I'd want to make Elemental gear, and just one Recipe for one piece is selling at AH right now on my server for like 300g so that would not make sense either.



Do any crafting profession earn a decent amount of gold?

Or are they just for fun?|||Flying mounts are 900G for training and mount, epic Flying mounts are 5200G for training and mount.

You can make some money with most any profession, but unless you find a market that few other people on your server are working on, you won't get sure money with any of them. Once you're lvl 70, it's easy enough to knock out a few daily quests in under an hour for about 60-70G a day. Not the fastest way to make money, but good enough for most people, I've paid for 5 epic fliers that way.|||Thanks

I guess what I'll do for now, is keep mining and skinning and save for my epic flying mount, and once I have enough gold I'll drop mining for Leatherworking

In the meantime, I'm keeping my eye on the auction house for any good deals on rare leatherworking recipes so I'll have them for when I do switch over.|||Pretty much all professions can you make you money if yer smart about it.

I've made money through leatherworking, engineering, enchanting, tailoring (though I haven't hit the gold mine there yet) and alchemy. Jewelcrafting would've made me money if my li'l priest had been a higher level so she could get over the 300 bump. I even found a few interesting recipes in Blacksmithing that do well.

Every single profession can earn you good, solid money.|||Is the smart way getting your hands on rare recipes? (so that you aren't competing with all the other people in your profession)|||For the average player gathering professions will always make more than crafting.

For the more hardcore player who has access to the more rare expensive patterns and low % drop patterns a crafting profession can be more profitable.

I would only advise things like tailoring or leatherworking that you can produce great gear for yourself that you'll actually use.

At 61 you need a lot of gold for the future, keep your gathering professions at least until your flying... my 2cp anyway.|||Thanks

Yes exactly what I was thinking. Save for epic flying first.

Just have to lvl up my mining now as I can't mine anything in Outland yet :(|||Quote:








Is the smart way getting your hands on rare recipes? (so that you aren't competing with all the other people in your profession)




No. It's selling stuff that people need (e.g. leg enchants, enchanting rods, quest items), combining mats for profit (e.g. transmutes/flasks) or making cheap stuff that disenchants into something more valuable than its original materials.

Most of my money comes from quite simply being handy with a calculator and comparing prices.

I'll give you an example. If Clefthide Leg Armour sells for 50g, and the combined mats cost 40g to purchase on the AH... there's a profit to be had.

There's nothing more to it really - just what will sell well or disenchant well is highly variable from server to server.|||Quote:




I'll give you an example. If Clefthide Leg Armour sells for 50g, and the combined mats cost 40g to purchase on the AH... there's a profit to be had.




And if you can gather some of those mats you will be even further ahead...

Supplement that with buying and reselling things off of the AH (anything that is cheaper than it should be) and you will be ahead of the game.|||Quote:








And if you can gather some of those mats you will be even further ahead....




No.

That's a common misconception.

Buying things off the AH takes about 2 minutes. Taking the time to farm it might be about half an hour. In half an hour I can make far more killing something profitable than the mats for a single leg armour (or whatever) would cost.

Grinding for mats costs you money. If you happen to run into them whilst doing other stuff - that's all good. E.g. - yer killing thousands of clefthoofs for Nesingwary in Nagrand and get leather that way ? Sure.

But killing those cows for a low drop rate on skinning thingy ? No.

As the goblins are apt to remind one: "Time is money, friend."

//edit: to put a bit more nuance in my previous reply:

Rare patterns *can* be worth it, but most times they're quite simply not all that rare. And while there's money to be had in being able to craft something fancy that not everyone can... those are generally once-off big shots. You might make 100g with one of those patterns once a week. But, if you can make 25g/day with the more common patterns, it's still a higher profit overall.