World of Warcraft Gold Tip for The Poor Leatherworker

So you wanna be a leatherworker in World of Warcraft? This isn't the guide for you then, the leatherworker power-leveling guide is located here along with all the other professions. This quick tip is for those poor leatherworkers who finally got the nice shiny Epic leather gear. Now the only problem is once you made your gear what else can I do with the skill? I know, I can sell various armor kits to make money like that expensive Nethercobra Leg Armor! I'm sorry to say it'll be a slow going process for you unless your running heroics day in and out for those Primal Nethers.

Well this quick tip won't make you rich fast, but it can put an extra 50-100g a day for a few minutes work.

Here is what you'll need:
Minimum LW Skill: 325 (yep fund your 300-375 training with this)
About 100g to start off if you have no materials.
Skinning - Not required, but useful
Auctioneer - Not required, but makes things go a lot faster. Check my post on Auctioneer Guide.

First thing first - check for your competition

Go to the Auction House, and search for Knothide Armor Kit and Heavy Knothide Leather. As of Patch 2.3 there is also a Heavy Knothide Armor Kit(LW Skill 350) available as well. Write down the prices of those items, and also check which increments are selling. Are there stacks of 20? Or are there stacks of 1s and 2s. Figure out the unit price of Knothide Armor Kit, and Heavy Knothide leather. (ie: if a stack of heavy knothide leather is 40g each piece is 2g. [40g / 20pc = 2g])

Step two: Next based on this unit price figure out how much you need to buy your materials for to make a profit. For the purpose of this tip we will use Heavy Knothide Leather at 3 gold sell price, and Knothide Armor Kit at 2 gold 50 silver sell price.

Heavy Knothide Leather
Materials: 5 Knothide Leather OR 25 Knothide Leather Scraps

Unit price of Materials for Heavy Knothide Leather:
Knothide Leather: 60 Silver [3g / 5pc] or 12 gold per stack
or
Knothide Leather Scraps: 1 silver 20 copper [3g / 25pc] or 2 gold 40 silver per stack

Knothide Armor Kit
Materials: 4 Knothide Leather OR 20 Knothide Leather Scraps

Unit price of Materials for Knothide Leather Armor:
Knothide Leather: 63 Silver [2.5g / 4pc]or 12.6 gold per stack
or
Knothide Leather Scraps: 1 silver 25 copper [2.5g / 20pc]or 2 gold 50 silver per stack

These listed prices are your unit costs. You want to get your cost down to around 1/2 to 3/4 this to make a worthwhile profit. So your target prices are 30 silver [6 gold per stack] for Knothide Leather, and 60 copper [1gold 20 silver] per Knothide Leather Scrap

Step Three: Check the Auction house for materials at this amount.
Due to each server having its own economy, you will have to adjust according based on the above formulas.

If there are materials (knothide leather or knothide leather scraps) with a buyout with the target prices listed above. Buy those materials outright. On my server Leather Scraps can be found for less than 1g a stack(knothide leather for around 7g), and I can sell it for 3g making me 2 gold per piece. If material costs are high, but there is no finished products (Heavy Knothide Leather/Knothide Armor Kits) you might be able to start making a little extra money. Just figure the cost of the finished product, and sell for a profit.

Step Four: Put your goods on the Auction House

Now that you bought your materials start making those armor kits, and heavy leathers. Then put them up on the auction house in increments of 1 or 2. I would maybe start with 5 stacks of 2 heavy knothide leather to feel where the demand is. Then check back the next day to see if it all sold or not. Adjust this accordingly so that you don't lose your deposit if an item doesn't sell. Do the same for your knothide armor kits. Put them up in increments of 1 or 2. I usually sell out if I place 10 auctions of 1 pc, but it never sells when I put up 1 stack of 10. Remember this!

Step Five: Restock your materials

Now you've started to sell some goods, but don't stop buying materials. Your next goal is to buy out all the materials at below your unit price. Also place bids on the other items if the bid price is lower than your unit price. This does two things for you:

1. You have a ready supply of product to sell if the market suddenly dries out.
2. By buying out everything cheaper than your material unit price you are setting the price in the market for your goods. If someone tries to undercut you they will have to do so at a loss or at the expense of time farming their own goods. Neither is something most people will do for an extended period of time.

Notes:

I say look for scraps for one main reason. Skinners who never took leatherworking.
They cannot convert their scraps into regular leather, so they end up with bags filled of scraps to list on the auction house. Use this to your advantage. Buy the scraps, and convert it into these two goods, and rake in the money.

Why do these two items make more money than selling an expensive armor kit like Nethercobra leg armor?

Answer #1: Volume - You can sell 20-30 pieces of heavy knothide leather in the auction house overnight, but will probably only sell 1 Nethercobra Amor kit a day IF you have the nether for it.

Answer #2: Quest - People wanting to complete the quest chain Quenching the Blade need 4 heavy knothide leather.

Answer #3: Other Trade Skills - Both Tailoring and Engineering require Knothide Leather, and Heavy Knothide Leather for some of their goods. However since they only use 2-4 pieces at a time the big stacks aren't very profitable for them. If your the nice leatherworker that puts up stacks of 1s and 2s of Heavy Knothide Leather these people will love you.

This tip is part of a series of tips I will share on my site so stop by every now, and then. Also check the Auction House Day tip while you're here.