Since I’ve been camping the World of Warcraft Auction House lately for the enchanting materials to pimp some new weapons, I found this discussion on the WoW Forums both interesting and amusing: Why people are so CHEAP with Enchanters ?
The original post:
I mean, people buy mats that cost around 150-200 gold, and they said they are screwed up when the Enhanter ask for a five gold tip…
I don’t know about the enchanting racket on other realms, but on my realm it’s like organized crime.
The mats alone off the AH are 436 gold, average, x 2 (thx rogue) = 872 gold.
They want to know why we’re not more generous with tips? Because they’re already into me for 800+ gold from the materials I just bought via their auctions.
P.S. Yes, I know enchanting is expensive to level.
Yes, my guild’s enchanters do our enchants for free, no tipping allowed.
Yes, I do tip non-guild enchanters, but I grumble to myself and dream of the day when I can pickpocket player characters. Wouldn’t that be a great bug? I’d never log off.
Yes, my server is outrageous with pricing.
No, none of that makes me feel better.
I’m a 375 enchanter and I would like you to explain to me what exactly I am supposed to get out of enchanting items for other people, if not a tip?
LW can sell their profession on the AH. BS can sell their profession on the AH. Alchemists, herbalist, skinners, miners can sell their profession on the AH.
I cannot, unless it’s as a result of d/eing a random drop or quest reward.
So, again, stop whining and tell me what, exactly is wrong with an enchanter asking a small fee to provide an enchant?
The ONLY reason I sell my mats on AH is because its the ONLY way I’d make money from enchanting. Enchanting is a money pit and if it wasn’t for the fact that I worked so hard on it I’d drop it like a bad habit.
I’m of the belief that, if the person who wants the enchant provides the materials for the enchant, a tip should not be necessary. Now, I don’t play an enchanter as my main, but for me, it’s simple economics. It’d be the same with LW (which I do play), or alchemy, or any other profession, for that matter.
If someone comes to you and says they want you to provide “this” service (make something, enchant something, etc.) and they will provide all necessary materials for you to fulfill such a request, what reason do they have to give you a tip? They’ve taken the time (and money) to acquire all necessary materials for what they want. You are inconvenienced (of about 1-5 min. max) by being made to stand there while your character creates/enchants said item. You’ve done little to nothing deserving of monetary compensation, in my eyes. Certainly not for 10-25g that some people ask for in the way of tips for the high level enchants.
Now, if you were to provide the mats, that would be a different story all together. In that instance, a tip would be more than warranted (plus cost of mats), because that person has done nothing to satiate their desire for whatever it is they want, other than beg and plead. On the other hand, you’ve taken the time to collect and stockpile all of these materials, and have been generous enough to allow another player to use them for their own satisfaction. In that case, I’d say a “reasonable” fee for materials, plus reasonable tip, is asking just the right amount for the time you’ve spent.
whoa whoa whoa, put away those runed rods before someone gets hurt. I tip, I tip! Didn’t I say I tip? Think I did.
@Quzor, pffft, 25g! My server’s up to 50g for mongoose or executioner .. plus mats, of course. (I should point out that 50g is the requested fee. I think most people wait around for a more reasonable enchanter rather than “tip” 50g.)
All I’ve gotta say to enchanters that feel hard done by this is: be glad you didn’t level jewelcrafting. It’s everything enchanting is but worse. Worse personal perks, more expensive to level/train (thank you BoE world drop patterns for everything useful), and paper thin margins on cut and uncut gems. (And don’t get me started on the idiots who continue to ruin the economy for the rest of us by offering free cuts/cuts less than uncut prices/etc)
Heck, not only do I rarely get tipped for cutting gems, I regularly have people who want prospects for free.
I’ve long ago given up on custom cuts for people as a way to make money. It’s not even worth the time away from raiding/farming/daily quests to travel across shatt to do a cut these days.
And yeah Foton, enchanting mats are similarly criminal on my server (except for void crystals, which you almost can’t give away at this point due to all the yahoos farming Kara).
@Quzor,
Speaking only for myself, I have better things to do than wait around on some tard who couldn’t find his ass with both hands, much less find me in the middle of Shattrath. And you’re going to complain about 5g? Lol, barely recovers my repair costs on one death. 5g for 1 – 5 mins is eminently reasonable for random enchant. I generally tip 10g for those few enchants I never aquired, and of course I supply the mats.
My friends supply me with all the unwanted Blues and Purples, and greens upon demand (sometimes run low on planar essences), I supply them with free enchants. I often shake my head at AH prices on mats, but almost never need to go there. Would prefer to be able to supply enchants upon demand. Only issue is shards; just don’t run as many heroics as we used to, harder to keep up with shards.
Be nice if we could sell our enchants on the AH.
Quzor wrote:
“I’m of the belief that, if the person who wants the enchant provides the materials for the enchant, a tip should not be necessary. Now, I don’t play an enchanter as my main, but for me, it’s simple economics.”
Hmm… Neat, I need some work doing on my car, I think i’ll pop to the store and buy the bits then take them to the garage and get them to fit them all for free. No, Wait, that won’t work.
Hmm… Tommorow when you get to work you might want to tell your boss you don’t want paying, after all chances are that they supply all the materials you need to do your job.
You pay for the skills and time that the supplier has, they mastered the skills and are giving up their time and so they deserve compensation.
I agree with ninjadwarf. As a 375 Enchanter, I don’t push around for tips. I say they are appreciated, but not necessary. That usually opens people up to give me a nice tip (whatever they feel like giving me). Then they want to come back to me for enchants because they know I’m not gonna ram a price down their throat. However, there have been a few times where people wouldn’t tip me. Honestly, I felt used but I didn’t complain. If your economy sucks like on Foton’s realm then yeah, I would be a grinch about tips too. But remember when mats are concerned, if you feel the price is too high you can always find the guy who put them on the AH and try to talk the price down. Usually they comply because it’s a certain sale as opposed to maybe it’ll sell if he leaves it up.
The problem? You don’t tip your mechanic. Your boss doesn’t tip you. Both cases they agreed ahead of time X service for Y compensation. Maybe it’s semantics, but if you don’t value your time enough to set a price upfront, why would you complain that nobody else values your time enough to tip? You’re expecting politeness and generosity from the same crop of retards that AFKs, Arena smurfs, and generates all the drama this blog loves to report? Good luck there. =p
On the other hand, it could be said that enchanting is the only profession that you can’t go farm the mats for. There’s droves of skinner/miners that exert considerable downwards pressure on the price of ore and leather, and the AH prices keep draining cash while they sell their goods. However only an enchanter can disenchant, and further, only a high-level enchanted can disenchant Outlands goods. It occurs to me to ask where I’m buying all these overpriced AH enchanting materials from, if not from the very same enchanters that then want to be tipped for doing the enchant as well?
I don’t know. I haven’t looked that closely at it. But I’d be willing to bet that the only poor enchanters are the ones that actually expect to make money /doing/ the enchants, instead of making all their black in materials and just skimming the tips off the top as well.
Who knows, I’m just a poor leatherworker, time to farm more motes.
What Ashtaar said is pretty much what I was trying to say. I guess I just didn’t do a good job of iterating my point. I’m already paying upwards of 50g for some enchants (hell, some are in the range of 600-1000g on my server now). Isn’t that enough compensation for “the time” you spend enchanting my goods? You really want another 50-100g on top of the 300-600g you already charged me for the enchant in the first place? Don’t get me wrong, I’ll throw an extra 5-10g in there if I’m in a giving mood (which is most of the time), but it’s ludicrous to think that a TIP is a mandatory part of payment for your services. If you want more money that badly, charge more for the enchant. Then when people ask why your prices are higher, you can tell them you’ve factored the tip into the price, and they can decide whether or not to use your services.
“I’m already paying upwards of 50g for some enchants (hell, some are in the range of 600-1000g on my server now).”
Sorry, 50g was a bad number to use to make my point. Let’s say…300. Yeah, 300 sounds better.
Looks like you hit a nerve there, Foton, and on both sides. When both sides in a deal feel like they’re getting screwed, something is seriously messed up about the system.
I think the problem lies in the understanding of what a ‘tip’ is. Or rather, Quzor’s misunderstanding.
i’m a 375 LW and i can’t sell my crafted stuff (even the purps) for more than the cost of the mats. if i were a 375 enchanter, then all those useless bop quest rewards would at least amount to some nice de’d mats.
i don’t complain about enchanters that demand a tip even after i buy their overpriced mats on the AH. to each his own. i just avoid them and wait until a guildie logs on. no big deal.
Enachanting materials on the AH are just as likely to be sold by anyone, not just those who take the profession. I’ve often been asked to de items that have dropped in instances. As well as the blue “bind on pickup” items that drop in instances that no one wants. It goes to a random roll, and I get nothing for my time. Those LPS go for at 35g on my server atm. The numbers say I’d only win them about 20% of the time.
I never ask for anything to enchant an item. But I never pay for enchants either. (Yes, I can’t enchant alts gear).
I just think we ignore the fact that when we buy our materials, the money isn’t neccessarily going into an enchanters pocket.
The tip or payment is for the service.
If your purchasing an enchantment from an enchanter and he/she is providing the mats thats one thing as they usually work the “tip” into the price of the mats.
Usually however when you purchase the materials off the AH your not getting the enchant from the same enchanter who’s mats you purchased.
Once again your paying for the service.
Though Enchanting offers its own problem, because you can’t very well simply purchase them off the AH, almost any “crafting” tradeskill is like this. If I have the mats or purchase the mats for something I want made I still try to tip whatever I can at the time for the service. I didn’t take blacksmithing and am paying for the “convienence” of getting that itme now instead of having to take and level that skill myself. Yes I have various friends and we all try to help eachother when items or enchants are needed but seriously if your asking for something to me made crafted or enchanted you obviously didn’t do the work required to do it yourself. So why should the crafter take the fall for your lack of effort?
Don’t like it? Find more friends to help you (which requires your help as well) or level the skill on your own character!
Tip? TIP?!? It’s a fucking service charge. I’ve put in the time, money and effort to level the skill and you want me to wave the magic wand for free? Yeah, right. Do I give a fuck how much you’ve paid for your mats? Nope. Do I give a fuck that you don’t wanna pay the service charge? Nope. You have two choices – pay up or move along.
I appologize for the ending of my previous post and Ask Foton if he will strike the third choice on the end of my last sentence. (No Edit Ability)
Yes its a hot topic sometimes but to clarify I am not talkign about “tipping” 200-800g 1-10g is fine. Sure if the recipie is rare or was hard for the enchanter to get perhaps a “small” bit more than that would greatly be appriciated.
Like the many posters above mentioned, its not nessisarily the same enchanter your buying your mats from in the AH. I rarely if ever get something I can DE out of an instance when 4 other people are rolling for it, and none if its with my guild. (those go to the Guild Enchanter but thats another story) Like I mentioned before I do tip whenever I have something made or enchanted for my toons. Its not always a great tip but something is better than nothing and it really gets me hot under the collar when others “expect believe and demand” that youonly played the game or leveled your trade skill to support thier greed habits without any compensation.
Someone mentioned JC and I believe it and Transmuting spec are 2 more of those very heated topics.
Anyway, sorry for losing my cool and typing skills (spelling) in the previous post.
~Aes
@blachawk
A tip is an incentive payment that one would receive for providing goods and services rendered.
From Random House Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary: Gratuity –
1.)a gift of money over and above payment due for service; tip 2.) something given without claim or demand.
Basically, it’s money that someone would give you if they felt you provided good service at a fair price. You certainly can’t say ” I’m charging ‘x’ amount for ‘y’ enchant, plus tip!” and expect people to not be pissed about it. If you’re charging me 600g for an enchant, fine. If you provide materials, I’ll be more than happy to pay whatever price you lay down for those mats, the enchant itself, and a tip. However, when all you’re doing is “waving the magic wand” for 600g, I don’t think a tip should be demanded, nor is it necessarily warranted. Sorry that you feel like you’re getting ripped off, but lots of people in-game provide goods and services, and enchanters are the only people I can think of asking for, or demanding, tips for what they do. You’re already making exorbitant amounts of money for just doing the enchant itself…will taking another 50g from someone bring you that much more happiness?
I might add, that all of this argument excludes the fact that I, myself, tip. I do it because it’s part of the game; because I’d have a hard time finding anyone to enchant my stuff if I didn’t. Does that mean I have to agree with it? Hell no!
wow, i just don’t understand this mentality of “i leveled my skill, so YOU have to pay,” as if the only reason you leveled 375 crafting was so you could collect a few gold every time you clicked a button.
like i said previously, i’m a 375 LW, and also a rogue. i never ever ask for a tip or a service charge when someone brings me mats or a locked box. sometimes ppl stick a few gold in the trade window and sometimes i’ll take it with a thanks. it’s NEVER expected and certainly never demanded though.
again, i don’t complain about ppl demanding a service charge, i just don’t use their services.
If I can’t get it from a guild member, I wait for a friend. Have to network those connections guys! Wouldn’t want your mats ninja’d.
I am not saying people should be forced to pay anything but I am however saying they shouldn’t come to “expect” an enchanter to enchant stuff for free as if its a written law someplace. That is the type of treatment that I am getting really sick of. If the Enchanter wants you to pay him and set the price up front then by all means pay the chanter or move on but if that is his/her chosen method then don’t expect them to change just because you need something “now”.
Another suggestion might be to wait for the enchanter you purchased the mats from through the AH to log in and get your enchant then. See what they say.
I leveled up enchanting to 375 and have several rare recipes but I never enchant for anyone but my friends. The abuse and cheapness of enchanting customers was so ridiculous that I stopped back when BWL was the new raid zone. Now I just make money by charging 30gp for large prismatic shards in the auction house. Muwhahahaha you kicked enchanters for far too long and now with almost no one running dungeons we rule the auction house. And all because you didn’t think tipping was important. On a side note when you get diagnosed with Hepatitis its probably because your waiters spit in your hamburger.
P.S. Exaggerated for humour
And I really don’t understand the mentality of “That guy is able to enchant, therefore any time I want something enchanted, he should immediately drop everything he is doing, run over and cast the spell for me. And he should like it! He should be thankful that I’m letting him be useful to me, and not get anything for the hassle of dealing with it.”
Of course, I may be a bit more bitter, since I’m a jewelcrafter, not an enchanter. So the same people that are expecting me to drop everything and run cut their gems for free, are the ones that think nothing of throwing thier blue jewelcrafting recepies that they got as drops on the AH with 400-500 gold buyouts, each. So I have to pay them to be able to cut their gems… which they then expect me to do for free. No thank you, I have a bit more self respect than that.
(Keeping in mind that we’re talking about reasonable tips here. 5 – 10 gold. Yes, charging 20 or 50 is unreasonable and should not be done. And for the guy above who is talking about demands of 600 gold “tips” when materials are provided… I think I’ll call bullshit on that one. Screenshot or it didn’t happen. I can’t even imagine someone attempting such a thing.)
Oh, and Celerie, if you want to make money from Leatherworking… salvation, thy name is Clefthide Leg Armor. If you were to buy all the mats on the AH at market price, you’d be looking at 50 – 60 gold cost on my server. The completed products sell quickly at 75 gold, and still move at 85 gold (again, on my server.)
I think a lot of people are missing the point here. There’s two way to see the economy in WoW :
A- We’re all helping out each other here so we can all get better
B- Capitalism in one of it’s purest form. I’ll do anything I can to make the most money I can make.
If your on A side then sure tipping seems like a rip-off. If your on the B side however it’s perfectly normal. And even then, if you could you’d charge even more. After all you’re in it to make the most money.
And before you answer take a good look about how you make your own money. Nearly everyone in this game picks up a profession to make money. Some are easier than other. Enchanting the only one where you can’t sell to the AH the actual enchant. Sure someone has bought the mats but they haven’t bought YOUR mats… so in the end your left with 3 or 4 gold for a skill you spent thousands leveling up.
And please remember everyone that a lot of the main high level enchants requires materials like Primals that everyone can farm. The actual enchanting only mats represent often a very small percentage of the materials costs.
In the end I think a lot of this is hypocrisy, people want to make money with their professions but when it comes to enchanting they expect it for free.
Let’s be honest, yes it’s only pushing a button. But if we could charge a 1000gold to push that button we would do it in an instant.
i couldn’t disagree more.
Ashtaar Wrote:
“The problem? You don’t tip your mechanic. Your boss doesn’t tip you. Both cases they agreed ahead of time X service for Y compensation.”
The original post made no mention of payment, just the cost of materials and tips, until your post no one was talking about fees in addition to tips.
So my comment was assuming that everyone was considering a tip to be a fee.
A more sensible approach would be to just set a fee for the enchant and leave tipping out of it.
You want to level the playing field with other professions? Make it so enchanting is separate from the disenchanting. Then more alts will pick it up as a gathering skill and the cost of mats will go down for everyone.
“Basically, it’s money that someone would give you if they felt you provided good service at a fair price. You certainly can’t say “I’m charging ‘x’ amount for ‘y’ enchant, plus tip!” and expect people to not be pissed about it.”
I thought that’s what you meant. I’ve played WoW for years now and have never encountered someone who demanded both a service charge and a tip on top of it. Not to say someone like that isn’t out there, but a few random oddballs scattered across servers don’t merit multiple, long posts. Most people either tip or charge a flat fee. You’re ranting about a very small minority of the crafting community who presumably learn very quickly that demanding a fee plus a tip doesn’t fly.
I’m not an enchanter, I’m an engineer, and I can’t afford enchantments, but this is how I see it:
– Enchanters deserve repayment for taking the time out to enchant your gear
– Once you require a tip, it’s not a tip, it’s a charge.
– Never expect a tip
Basically, enchanters, if you’re expecting to be paid, be honest with everyone and don’t call it a tip.
Add to that enchanters can put their enchants on the AH and you have my vote for WoW President.
More often than not if you don’t ask for a tip you’ll get one anyway – at least on my server it’s like that 🙂
I have a couple enchanters, but I don’t “sell” my services. I do enchants for guildmates and if I happen to see someone in one of the chats looking for a chant I have and I have time, I’ll send a /w and offer to do it for them. But I don’t charge anything. If they tip, that’s fine, but I don’t expect or ask for it.
On my server, I have never had an enchanter actually ask for a specific amount as a tip. In fact, I would not deal with an enchanter who made such a request.
I am more than happy to tip, and I tip generously. I feel that a tip (or payment if you prefer) is a reward for all of the work put into leveling the profession, and all of the runs necessary to farm the recipes. The argument that you don’t need to tip because they are just pressing a button is ludicrous. Everything in the game is just pressing a button. Should everything be free?
Its a competitive market. If an enchanter asks for a certain tip, wait and find someone else. There is always another player with the recipe. You may have to wait and ask in the trade channel for a few days. People are too impatient.
Actually, I don’t see why they couldn’t do this. They already have the mechanism, with the purchasable head and shoulder enchants from NPC’s. Just change enchanting so it produces a right click item that applies the enchant, and can be listed on the AH.
And actually, if they did that, they wouldn’t need to separate enchanting and disenchanting. Being able to purchase the finished product would eliminate the “double charging” from having to purchase all of the materials from enchanter A, then pay enchanter B to click the combine button on them.
Enchanters: You can’t expect any amount from a tip. If you seriously expect money, then state the amount up front before you even start moving towards their character. Tip to me is 5g at the most for ANY enchant.
Oooh, touched a nerve? I guess it isn’t any coincidence that the richest people I know on my server are enchanters, then.
You want me to pay you to wave your magic wand? Tell me upfront, and don’t waste my time. I’ll decide if your services are worth what you charge. I’m ONLY talking to you because my guildmate isn’t online at the moment, and paying 5-10g might well be worth the 6 hours until guildy gets back online.
If you don’t tell me you charge, don’t expect any tips from me. Maybe I will, maybe I won’t, and I certainly won’t if I get any whining. Your fault for not setting the expectations ahead of time.
Same goes with prospecting or disenchanting. Random player A wants you to disenchant a bunch of crap? Put a price on your time. Charge for your service. Chances are he’ll call you a nasty name or three, but you certainly aren’t any poorer.
—
Basically, what I’m saying is that people ‘expect’ enchanters to hit Accept for free because enchanters have created that expectation. If you value your time, charge for it. Don’t tell people you’ll do it for free, then whine and cry and bawl when they take you up on your offer.
Personally, I don’t care. I’ve got good guildies (whom I tip!) and I’ve got a little 60 alt tucked away with enough enchanting to burn 70 greens. I chuckle at enchanter’s tears, cause I’m making bank on the bankend selling mats.
TLDR? – Charge a fair price for your time. You won’t lose a sale, if you weren’t making any to begin with.
What a completely moronic thing to say… you’re already into “them” for $800 gold. First of all, did you purchase the materials from the individual you are getting to do your enchant? No? Then why even say something so patently idiotic in the first place?
Don’t be a chump. TIP or do it your damn self.
Anthony, it’s called reading for comprehension. If you got past the line that apparently infuriated you so much that you rushed to click the reply button so that you could unleash your outrage, you’d see him admit that yes, he does tip non-guild enchanters.
Calm. Down. =P
I’ve leveled enchanting on two toons because they are different servers. I never offered service cost as tip. I always stated the price for any enchant. Enchanters offering free enchants while they level up is what set the expectation of free enchants. I never didn’t that as I saw it as a problem that would cheapen my profession.
What I did instead was to offer them at a fee that included the mats when I was a lowbie. Even if it was at a loss, getting something was better than doing for free and contributing to the misconception that performing the service had no value. When that didn’t move along fast enough I’d enchant my own crap over and over rather than give it away.
Let enchanters sell their enchants packaged in some manner on the AH like the other professions. AC2 used a totems which were enchants prepackage for sale on the AH once the AH was implemented into the game. Before that it was enchanter must do like WOW.
Problem with assuming the fee was absorbed with the mat costs is that that’s not likely to be the same person. I’m not willing to get nothing for my service just because you paid sambo 300g for mats. In that case, let Sambo enchant your stuff. Last point as been mentioned, not only enchanters post enchanting mats on the AH.
I believe one of the reasons they added the requirements of skill to DE was to stop thieves from retraining skills on hacked accounts to enchanting and then sharding people’s gear. Having your bank and gold emptied is one thing. Having a 300 skill reset and your gear sharded is a whole other story.
I’ve noticed post TBC that alchemists are offering free combines if people bring mats. They’ll be sorry in the long haul that they started doing that, but I guess it’s hard leveling below 300 now on mature servers. That plus their glut got busted with the addition of the potion and elixir types which reduced the amount of potions people need for raiding. Oh well.
Just hold on there for a second. Enchanters are sure as hell not the only ones selling enchanting materials on the auction house. Personally I get asked a lot to disenchant stuff for people to sell there and the BOE greens are sold at the same price as the mats they yield anyway so no profit there for enchanters.
What’s more, even in instances disenchant always benefits the whole group and not the enchanter itself, the shards are always rolled for.
@Shutter: I could not disagree more about Jewelcrafting, it is by far the most lucrative profession in WoW at the moment(certainly on my server). I have made over 20,000 gold to date pretty much just from JewelCrafting.
The method’s i use for doing this are quite simple:
1) Buy stacks of adamantite ore off the AH
2) Prospect into gems.
3) Vend all the green-quality gems and powder
4) Cut the blue-quality gems into the current best seller of that colour
5) Profit.
For an example i bought 1000g of ore on Sunday morning. Today i have 1500g worth of completed auctions in my mailbox. Obvisouly it varies depending on your servers market. I also made 3500g in a week just by saving up gems to sell when the season 3 gear hit.
Clearly, blizzard is biased towards their own NPCs. They allow them to sell prepackaged head enchants for 100g, but players are left to fight about tips like rabid dogs.
As many have stated, the fact that the WoW crafting system involves zero skill (read: dude, you’re just pushing a button) is the actual problem here. It leads people who don’t have that profession to believe that the service itself is of no value.
My approach to making money with enchanting is to sell enchants by advertising that I have the mats, and my profit (tip, fee, w/e) is built into my price. I just pass the cost on the consumer like a true capitalist. Savagery is a gold mine when sold this way.
@slux
I see your point, but you missed mine. Do you charge for disenchanting a bag-full of green BoEs? If not, why not? I mean, you’re just pushing a button, right? You still had to grind that skill to 300. Disenchanting a bunch of stuff is no different than enchanting something. Takes high level of skill and your time, and you really should be charging for both.
Also, be aware that you’re deflating your own selling market by producing raw materials for other people. With that in mind, why wouldn’t you charge?
As for the instancing, sharding and rolling is accepted, yes, but certainly not required. If it’s a service that you don’t want to perform, feel free to fail to mention that you disenchant, and Greed the BoPs with everybody else. You still get a fair shot at the drops, and reap all the profits of being able to turn your drop into a more valuable resource. Just… wait until you’ve dropped group.
I see your point, though, and I do understand. You want compensation for working your skill up like every other profession. When you set expectations of payment, and stop giving away your biggest money-making skills, profits will rise. Just treat it like a buisness, and your customers will too. Well, maybe that’s optimistic. But they will become paying customers, and you chuckle all the way to the bank when they call you names.
A tip is voluntary and cannot be expected to be any amount. It’s a courtesy and expected in modern life, but not required.
When I ask in /trade for a particular enchant, I always say I’ll tip. That takes the uncertainty out of the equation for the one who has to meet with me and take time out of their day to do it. And I’ll always tip a minimum of 5g for any trainable enchant above level 300. If it’s a drop recipe, then I’ll tip 10g.
If you don’t like the idea of tipping, then tell enchanters you’ll pay for the enchant using your mats and then ask them for a price when they whisper back to you. This is all a matter of consideration and communication.
High level enchanters need some compensation. You figure out how you are going to do it.
I treat it like a business. It’s just that none of the other enchanters do so there’s really no profit to be made unless you possess a super-rare recipe, then you can make some small amounts.
You did not address what I said about the greens being sold on the AH for what the disenchanted mats are worth anyway. I haven’t really tried selling a disenchant service but when you can just sell the greens and get the same gold I doubt many would pay for such a service or pay more than a coupe of g.
About the sharding, I don’t win anything by refusing to do the service (ok I guess if all enchanters did it, there would be less shards around) because I still have the exact same chance of winning the shards. Would be better if shards were BoP like nethers so I could get them because I’m the only one who really has a use for them. 😛
But as you said, the main point is that I have seen very little gold returned from choosing enchanting and believe me I’ve tried. Disenchanting quest rewards is probably the best but most of those I’ve done already during my journey to 70 and after.
But there is a big difference, greens can cost upwards of 1g-4g a day to post on the AH, where your enchanting mats cost nothing to repost day after day. Also, most of those greens are barely making any money after AH fees, compared to vendors!
I fully agree, most people won’t pay for disenchanting service, and you won’t make money by trying to charge for it… But, giving in to expectations and freely giving away your potential moneymakers isn’t helping your cause any. =/
At the end of the day though, my enchanting alt still makes more money than my leatherworker. And I think that’s the base of why enchanters don’t get much sympathy. Very few production tradeskills really make money (glares at JC) and even the ones that do generally take a pretty massive front-load investment. It’s all in the gathering side – my mining comes close to making cash as fast as dailies do.
I mean, go back to the original post for a sec? Foton said he dropped 800+g in mats almost as an aside, then questioned the additional 10g tip? Focus on your mats, and that’s where the cash is.
“It occurs to me to ask where I’m buying all these overpriced AH enchanting materials from, if not from the very same enchanters that then want to be tipped for doing the enchant as well?”
From farmers and AH players who buy out the items and repost them. Don’t you notice the names of the people posting those mats are never the names of enchanters?
I always tip people, even though it’s just “pushing a button”. After all, that person could be out adventuring and having fun, instead they’re spending those few minutes meeting me somewhere and helping me out.
At the same time I don’t ask for tips for alchemy or whatever, though I appreciate them and think people should give them.