*** Trade skill FAQ can now be found at http://wow.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=69;mid=1131559767260411772;num=4 ***
After seeing several posts all asking similar questions, and noticing there wasn't a post of Frequently Asked Questions, I decided to make one.
The information in this post has been gathered from posts on Allakhazam. I can not verify that all the information in here is correct at this time, so if you notice any mistakes please let me know and I'll change it.
This is also far from complete. If you have a Q/A to add, please post below and I'll add it to the orginal post so all the information is in one place.
General Trade Questions
Q. How can I make money in WoW?
A. The best way is to take two gathering proffessions (mining, skinning and/or herbalism) and sell the items you get in the auction house to crafters. Some people learn enchanting, then disenchant items they no longer want (as well as soulbound items from quests), and sell the dust, essence and shards to enchanters. Shards sell for alot more than dusts and essnces.
Q. How do I unlearn a skill?
A. Open your list of skills ('k') and click on the tradeskill you wish to unlearn. At the bottom will be a description of the skill. Next to that is an icon that you can click to unlearn the skill. Be warned, this will completely remove any knowledge you have of that skill, and therefore if you wish to relearn it in the future, you will have to start from the very beginning.
Alchemy
Q. Which potions sell best?
A. Typically, the potions used by other crafters to create their items. Learn how many potions are needed to create specific items and sell them in the auction house in stacks of that number (typically stacks of two). Check the auctions regularly and see when there's a gap in the market. Stick your potions in in limited numbers, set a high buy out price, and announce over the trade channel that they're available. Most people will buy the potions for future use and may snap them up in fear they won't be available when they need them.
Also, 'comedy' potions seem to sell well, swiftness and elixir of growth being two examples.
Blacksmithing
Q. I'm stuck between learning weaponsmithing and armoursmithing. Which is the more profitable.
A. Generally speaking, weaponsmithing, as all classes can use weapons, where as only a select few can wear mail/plate armour. By making weapons, you can sell to nearly all classes. The choice of axesmith, swordsmith or hammersmith is personal preferrence though.
Cooking
Enchanting
Q. Where do I get materials to enchant items?
A. Armour, rings, necklaces and weapons can be disenchanted to give you essences, dust and shards, so long as they are of uncommon quality ('green') or higher. The best way to get materials is to learn tailoring aswell as enchanting and create cloth armour to disenchant, as you can get cloth from human mobs.
Q. How much do I sell enchants for?
A. The best way is to simply make note of the prices of the materials in the auction house, then work out the price of the enchant from there. For example, if you have an enchants that uses 3 vision dust, which sells for 40 - 50s each, then you could charge 1g 50 for the enchant.
Q. I recently took up enchanting but nobody wants to buy my low level enchants. How can I level up my skill?
A. The best way to level up is to just disenchant items until you reach the first level cap and save your materials. When you reach the cap, visit an enchanting trainer and buy the next skill level. These enchants will be better than the beginner ones and people may be more interested in buying these. Alternatively, offer them to people in low level areas for free, or simply enchant your own items over and over. When you reach skill level 90 you can learn the beastslaying +2 enchant, which gives a weapon a red glow and sells very well on most servers.
Engineering
First Aid
Fishing
Leatherworking
Q. What are the specialist schools of leatherworking that I can choose to learn when my skill is high enough?
A. Dragonscale - mail armour, suitable for shamans mainly (int, spirit and resistances).
Tribal - leather and is more for druid (int and spirit, aswell as a druid only helm).
Elemental - leather and is mainly rogue.
Tailoring
Edited, Fri Nov 11 08:33:02 2005 by Torux