Salvaging for gold through trading post purchases.

When Guild Wars 2 first launches the inevitable wave of people wanting to level their disciplines is going to begin at an incredible rate.  It is just the nature of the beast when we are talking about MMO's.  Everyone thinks they are going to get the jump on other people by powerleveling their disciplines.  Due to the wave of people doing this there is also a really great opportunity to make some gold early on.  You see--powerleving disciplines early on will do two things.  The first, people will end up paying more for crafting materials.  Their main concern is getting to level 400 before everyone else so price is less of an issue.  These are the same people who are likely going to buy gems and trade them for gold just to get this jump on everyone else.  The second thing powerleveling disciplines does is it temporarily devalues crafted items.  Since so many people all at once are crafting many of the same thing and trying to sell them they will lose value to the point where people are almost giving them away.  This is where you stand to make a lot of money!

The first thing you want to do is just track the prices of a few items.  Remember--this will be globally so the entire world will be driving the price down.  It is because of this that the prices of crafted items will actually be so low that buying them to salvage will become viable for profits.  This is done using a Salvage Kit.

A point I want to make is that you skip buying a crude salvaging kit.  Crude salvaging kits cost 32 copper.  They are cheap, but you get what you pay for.  With a crude kit you get 15 uses out of it.  That is 10 less than the next one.  In addition to that the crude salvage kit has a 0% chance to get you rare materials and a very small chance to get upgrades.  This is compared to the basic salvaging kit which costs 88 copper, give you a 10% chance to obtain rare materials and a 20% chance of getting upgrades.  While it may cost a bit more it is much better if you spend a little extra since your only concern is what you are getting out of your salvages.

During the beta weekends I was a part of I was using the fine salvaging kit.  They sell at a 2 silver, 88 copper.  At that price my rewards were boosted to 15% rare material find and 40% upgrade finding.  This was a bit more, but still gave me a chance to make some serious gold so the extra cost was worth it.  When I was salvaging items it seemed like I was getting a much better return on upgrades than the 40%.  On one salvage kit I believe I got about 11-12 upgrades.  (Statistically I should have gotten 10.)  Some were much better than others of course, but all of them sold quite well and it quick time.

The key for this to work is that the prices of gear need to be very low.  It also helps if the price of rare materials and upgrades is a bit higher than normal as well. It's not mandatory, but it just makes it that much easier to turn a profit.  I don't have any hard numbers for you right now, unfortunately I didn't document all of the numbers during the beta.  I can however give you the outline of what I did specifically which is the next best thing.

1. Check the prices of upgrades and document them.
2. Check the prices of crafted gear on the Guild Wars 2 Trading Post.
3. Compare the two.  If gear is selling lower than upgrades and rare materials your eyes should bulge out with money signs on them like a cartoon.
4. Now determine what you need to make as an average profit on each salvage to break even.  At 2 Silver, 88 Copper I know that I need to make at least 12 copper each salvage to stay in the black.  Now just to be safe, remember trading post fees get deducted too, you want to add 15% onto that.  So your 12 copper should actually be 14 copper.  At 14 copper you will make money, but you've also go the costs of what you spent on your gear to make up as well.
5. When you buy gear you can hover over it and it will tell you what you can reasonably expect to get from it.  A wise choice would be to purchase gear that will give you the most valuable upgrades.  As you get more savvy you will find ways to turn a profit on the lower gear as well, but this is too dependent on the market prices for me to comfortably tell you to do this.
6. You have bought your gear and salvaged it.  Keep track of your returns early on this will help you find the most efficient gear and you can begin to maximize your profits.

That is really the basics of the strategy.  It is a bit tough when you've not got numbers to work off of specifically.  I may revisit this when the game launches to clear any questions.  You will always make back the cost of your salvaging kits, but some will forget to incorporate the trading post fees or even their costs spent on buying gear.  Remember to include all the numbers or you could lose serious gold rather than turn a profit.

Tomorrow I will piggy back off of this post and cover the Black Lion Salvage Kit.  That is the one that is purchased with gems and give you a whopping 100% chance to obtain an upgrade!  Is it worth it?  Check back tomorrow and find out!   

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