Economy issues? Alchemy specific

I'm not sure exactly what is going on with the economy. In the past I have had minimal interactions with the AH, obtaining most of my gold through natural play and skinning. This changed when I leveled alchemy and herbalism. Originally, my intent was to level herbalism so that I could save some money leveling my alchemy, this worked out quite well for the most part. When I got to max alchemy, I decided to sell flasks. The mats on the AH for flasks come to a total of roughly 150g per craft of flask (150g for 2 flasks, with a small chance for more than that since I have the specialty). I checked AH prices on flasks in passing multiple times, and it seemed like they were going for between 115-160g per flask- a decent profit margin if that's what they sold for. I placed some up for about 114g a flask, and waited. Nothing. I then scrolled through the many pages of flasks until finally, at page like 10 or so, I saw flasks listed for 74g, and some in pairs for 68g an item! Great if you're a buyer, but here's the thing- assuming no procs (you are only guaranteed 2 per craft) the mats cost 150g, so 75g a flask to break even- oh and I forgot to mention that cost is actually more for endless rage flasks by about 22g a flask. So to break even on frost wyrm flasks it has to sell for 75g and for rage about 97g- yet I see rage flasks for as little as 68g per unit if bought in pairs, and 74g per flask as a single. So I think that maybe the only way to make up the difference it to farm herbs- but with a 12k capacity on a expansion that was built for 6k capacity (and probably more than 12k with the bypassed queue for premium members) farming is quite out of the question. How many people here are honestly spending 2 hours to farm one stack of lichbloom? And anyways, if the mats cost more than the flask itself, why bother farming the mats to make flasks and just sell the mats at the end of the day? Are people just getting the specialization, eating losses on individual flasks and praying for extra flask procs to make up the difference? I am sincerely confused and frustrated right now.

TL:DR mats for flasks cost more than the flasks sell for, farming isn't an option due to high population. Are flask specialized alchemists just counting on the extra procs for their profits entirely?

People stocked on flasks before squish and after squish prices dropped really low - even 40g per flask. So I and lots of other people stocked few hundred stacks. And 70g is almost double profit.

Also Elixir mastery will give you approx 15% bonus flasks, so even if you sell them for same as reagents cost you profit 15%, which is pretty great.

I never had any problems making gold with flasks, its actually one of the most profitable things out there. Stop undercutting maybe? Post them for 85 instead of 75g each. Maybe post staccks because people who buy stacks don't much care if its 75 or 85g per flask.

If it were not profitable - no one would do it, so very foundation of your argument is coming from just not understanding how it works I guess.

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Originally Posted by angrylol

People stocked on flasks before squish and after squish prices dropped really low - even 40g per flask. So I and lots of other people stocked few hundred stacks. And 70g is almost double profit.

Also Elixir mastery will give you approx 15% bonus flasks, so even if you sell them for same as reagents cost you profit 15%, which is pretty great.

I never had any problems making gold with flasks, its actually one of the most profitable things out there. Stop undercutting maybe? Post them for 85 instead of 75g each. Maybe post staccks because people who buy stacks don't much care if its 75 or 85g per flask.

If it were not profitable - no one would do it, so very foundation of your argument is coming from just not understanding how it works I guess.

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Yeah, no I understand how it works, I'm just surprised that the entire profit margin is in the extra procs from elixir mastery, because that suggests you can't make any money unless you have that specialization, which would kind of suck. However, if people still have stock of flasks left over from squish 2 months ago, then I guess that would account for the rest.

actually there is also the 5% ah cut and deposit costs to factor into.

given that there are at least 12k online, undercutting isnt wise cause there is a lot of people posting.
which means selling at higher prices and hoping your item sells?
if it doesnt you lose your deposit, if it does them how much profit do you really make?

i buy mats wholesale of someone and craft and resell so i get my margins from there, but idk about buying mats off the ah and crafting for a profit.
hopefully when frostmourne opens

You need elixir mastery, on high population servers you cant go without it. And why would you want to miss out on 15% profits even if you could?? It's even profitable to go and swap mastery for 150g.

Flasks have one of the mildest deposits, so you can just keep posting them.

12k online people posting lots, that also means people buying lots. I posted 2 tabs of endless rage flasks(184 stacks) few days ago, I think it was 79 per flask. Disappeared in few hours, should have posted for 89g or even more, would sell all in a week or so.