World of Warcraft: Making Gold with Blacksmithing

There are a lot of options for making gold with Blacksmithing in World of Warcraft. The challenge is finding the specific things to craft on your realm and find buyers for them. The most lucrative item to craft is the Eternal Belt Buckle and ought to be the staple of every Blacksmith’s income (see table below). With high cost items like Titansteel gear*, try to find a buyer before you craft the items. This isn’t necessary but it can save you a lot of hassle. You can find a piece, like a Titansteel Destroyer on the Auction House for 1500g and try selling it in trade for 1400g and when you find a buyer craft it up right quick and sell it for the discounted price. You can utilize the high price as testimony for why your customer should pay 1400g. To help determine the value of each item accurate to the Auction House prices, I’ve included the below tables for all of the best Blacksmithing items. You can print these off and write in the prices of each material and add them up to calculate how much you’ll need to sell the product for to make a profit. Most of the work with these high end items is in finding a buyer.

*Titansteel no longer sells this high. Each patch there is a new set of gear that can be crafted using the epic materials that drop from instances & raids.

* Patch 3.0 iLvl 200 epics crafted from Frozen Orbs (list)
* Patch 3.1 iLvl 226 items crafted from Runed Orbs (list)
* Patch 3.2 iLvl 245 items crafted from Crusader Orbs (list)
* Patch 3.3 iLvl 265 items crafted from Primordial Saronite (list)

Eternal Belt Buckles and Enchanting Rods

Eternal Belt Buckles are a new “mandatory” enchant used on belt equipment. It adds a new gem slot to the belt, so every level 80 is going to be buying one of these with each new belt they equip. These are a must for posting in the late afternoon and watching them sell when everyone gets their evening upgrades.

Rods also have the potential to sell very well. Their volume is much lower but some of them support very strong profit margins like the Arcanite and Eternium Rods. Don’t flood the market with these, craft 5-10 of each and release them over several weeks for a steady stream of profit.

Item
Eternal Belt Buckle
Titanium Rod
Adamantite Rod
Arcanite Rod
Eternium Rod
Fel Iron Rod
Golden Rod
Silver Rod
Truesilver Rod

Ulduar Gear (Patch 3.1)
The following recipes drop from inside Ulduar, and therefore can be valuable if you are lucky enough to get one. They require a combination of 6 Rune Orbs, Saronite Bars, Eternal Fires, Eternal Airs, Eternal Shadows and 10 Titansteel Bars. You can sell this gear straight up in trade chat before you craft it. This is a good idea to do if you’re not sure which items are worth and none are on the Auction House for comparison. A lot of players won’t know that these items exist since several patches have come out since. For other characters they will have already gotten much better gear from doing the end-game raids so it won’t be of much interest.

Item
Battlelord’s Plate Boots
Belt of the Titans
Indestructible Plate Girdle
Plate Girdle of Righteousness
Spiked Deathdealers
Treads of Destiny

Crusader’s Gear (Patch 3.2)
Crusader’s gear is iLvl 245 and during Patch 3.2 was some of the best gear in the game. The recipes drop in Trial of the Crusader, so you will need a little bit of luck to obtain the recipes. Check the prices of the gear before you craft it, and if you can’t do that then advertise the gear in trade chat before you craft it. Even after patch 3.2 people still like this gear because the prices of Crusader Orbs dropped accordingly.

Item
Breastplate of the White Knight
Saronite Swordbreakers
Sunforged Bracers
Sunforged Breastplate
Titanium Razorplate
Titanium Spikeguards

Primordial Saronite Gear (Patch 3.3)
Primordial Saronite drops inside Icecrown Citadel Raids and can be purchased from Emblem of Frost vendors for 23 emblems. The recipes for the gear also drop in Icecrown Raid.. The more mature your realm and the longer it’s been since Patch 3.3 was released will determine the prices. Just like with any other high level item it might not be a good idea to craft these without a buyer. Instead look for a buyer first via trade channel.

Item
Boots of Kingly Upheaval
Hellfrozen Bonegrinders
Legplates of Painful Death
Pillars of Might
Protectors of Life
Puresteel Legplates

Cobalt Tanking Gear
The Cobalt tanking gear is an amazing way to make gold with Blacksmithing. Some realm Auction Houses don’t have any of this stuff posted, and I guarantee you every level 68-72 wanna-be plate-wearing tank will load up the AH and search for this type of stuff. It is extremely useful for entry level Northrend dungeons. Advertise this stuff as a set in /2, it’s total cost is 37 Cobalt so you can sell it for, say, 100-150 or even 300g to a customer! Imagine, the best level 70 tanking 7 piece set right at level 70 for only a few hundred gold!

Item
Cobalt Belt
Cobalt Boots
Cobalt Bracers
Cobalt Chestpiece
Cobalt Gauntlets
Cobalt Helm
Cobalt Legplates
Cobalt Shoulders
Titansteel Weapons
A lot of new level 80s want to get the appropriate Titansteel weapon for their class. I’ve found several buyers while flying through Storm Peak and Icecrown mining, I’ve even found a buyer while helping them with Icecrown dailies. Some level 79s don’t realize that they can get such awesome items right at level 80 for such a low price.

If scouting for buyers while mining isn’t your style, trade channel can work as well. Even if an existing item is selling on the Auction House you can undercut it without actually making it yet (just make sure you have the mats). You can advertise the uncut price in trade and when people claim the price isn’t fair, refer to the Auction House price (you can also use an alt to post items at inflated prices to help sell items on other characters)

Item
Titansteel Bonecrusher
Titansteel Destroyer
Titansteel Guardian
Titansteel Shanker
Titansteel Shield Wall
Titansteel Spellblade

Spiked Titansteel (hit and crit)
The Spiked Titansteel set is geared for Death Knights, Warriors, etc. Notice the average prices for these items are much higher than other products which require the same materials. This is because there is much higher demand so it’s been easier to make a profit on these items.

Item
Spiked Titansteel Helm
Spiked Titansteel Treads

Tempered Titansteel (defense)
Tempered Titansteel is amazing for new tanks reaching level 80. It’s somewhat mandatory gear to enter heroics or entry level raids. Some may argue the Treads aren’t worth their epic status (and this is why the average price is so low).

Item
Tempered Titansteel Helm
Tempered Titansteel Treads

Brilliant Titansteel (crit, mp5 & spellpower)
The Brilliant Titansteel set is geared for Paladins. As you can tell by the average price these items don’t sell for a whole lot compared to the other Titansteel gear. I would definitely try to line up a buyer before trying to make a profit on this gear.

Item
Brilliant Titansteel Helm
Brilliant Titansteel Treads

Tempered Saronite Tanking Gear
The Tempered Saronite tanking set is a mid 70s set for tanking, it can be used into the 80s and provides solid stats to your customer.

Item
Tempered Saronite Belt
Tempered Saronite Boots
Tempered Saronite Bracers
Tempered Saronite Breastplate
Tempered Saronite Gauntlets
Tempered Saronite Helm
Tempered Saronite Legplates
Tempered Saronite Shoulders