Every day in the World of Warcraft Dungeon Finder I see hundreds of potential gold disappear in the click of a mouse button. The choice to Greed or Disenchant an item you can't use is a very valuable decision – and choosing the wrong option could cost you anywhere from 1 gold to 100 gold each time! Read on to find out how to avoid making this costly mistake every time you queue up for a random dungeon in WoW.
What Is Disenchanting, Anyway?
If there's an enchanter in your group with high enough skill, you will be given the option to disenchant an item anytime you can greed the item in a dungeon. Disenchanting a green item turns it into dust and essence used for enchanting, with the small chance of a shard. Disenchanting a blue item will yield a shard, and disenchanting a purple item will give you a crystal. For a complete list of dusts, essences, shards, and crystals, see our Cataclysm Disenchanting Item Level Table.
Why Should I Care? I'm Not An Enchanter!
Even if you aren't trained in the enchanting profession, these enchanting materials can be sold on the auction house for lots of gold. The deposit cost is also only a tiny fraction of listing the items themselves. Selling enchanting materials on the AH is a low-risk, high-reward gold making opportunity. Depending on your server, Heavenly Shards can fetch anywhere from 75 to 125 gold or more. When no one needs a blue item from a random high level Cataclysm dungeon, will you greed it or disenchant it? Selling a Heavenly Shard on the AH for 100 gold is a lot smarter than vendoring an item for 10 gold!
Green BOE Items – Greed or Disenchant?
Bind-on-equip green items can be sold on the auction house. Knowing which ones will sell the most takes some trial and error. Low level Cataclysm greens can sell well, as there is a lot of demand for them among level 80s looking to raise their item level for dungeons. Any greens with useful stats on them can usually be sold for a nice profit. Knowing what dusts/essences sell for on your server is a factor, too. If you use an auction add-on you can compare the estimated Disenchant value of an item to the AH and vendor price. This should always be the first thing you look at. If an item has bad stats (Agility with Spirit, Strength with Spirit, Agility with Intellect, etc.) then it should probably be disenchanted. Similarly, if an item can be sold for 100g on the auction house but only yields 10g of enchanting materials, then don't disenchant it. Knowing your server's market is the key.
Blue BOE Items – Greed or Disenchant?
Almost any blue bind-on-equip item you receive should be sold on the auction house. The common exceptions to this rule are low-demand or high-supply blue items that disenchant into a very valuable shard (i.e. Large Brilliant Shard, Heavenly Shard). Always compare the value of the shard with the value of the item on your auction house.
Blue BOP Items – Greed or Disenchant?
Depending on the shard market on your server, you're probably going to make more gold by rolling greed and vendoring any blue item that isn't Cataclysm level (Heavenly Shard) or high-level vanilla (Large Brilliant Shard). Since most of the other shards do not sell for much, you can simply sell these blues to a vendor for easy gold. (Always check your server's market, I can't stress this enough!)
Purple BOE Items – Greed or Disenchant?
Almost any purple BOE item in the game should not be disenchanted. The only exception might be a high level Cataclysm BOE if there is an unusually high demand for Maelstrom Crystals on your server, but this is unlikely.
Purple BOP Items – Greed or Disenchant?
Vanilla purples should almost always be sold to a vendor instead of being disenchanted. Outland purples can usually be vendored too, but this will depend on your server's Void Crystal and Large Prismatic Shard prices. Northrend and Cataclysm purples should always be disenchanted.
