I've been using this process for awhile and I'm sure plenty of others do - however I haven't seen this yet in any Gold Making guides and wanted to share my knowledge with the community.
It's a very reliable method of making gold, requires little travel, and does not require any gathering. You need to have the Enchanting skill and Tailoring (preferred) or Leatherworking. Engineering, Jewelcrafting, and Blacksmithing also works in many cases, but will depend on the cost of materials.
First, let me give you a break down of how much money you can make. Check out Thottbot, and look at the Disenchants from "Black Mageweave Shoulders".
Materials:
3x Bolt of Mageweave (75 silver each)
2x Heavy Silken Thread (18-20 silver each, depends on rep)
Disenchants:
Dream Dust 112.7% (60 silver ea)
Greater Nether Essence 29.8% (6 gold each)
Large Radiant Shard 4.6% (8 gold each)
What this means, is for every 100 Shoulders you disenchant, you will receive 113 Dream Dust, 30 GNE's, and 5 Large Radiant shards.
So roughly 261G to manufacture which disenchants & sells for 288G. That's only a profit of 27G for every 100 items you create. HOWEVER, there are some items that are _very_ efficient and depending on AH prices you have the opportunity to make large profits.
(The other benefit of putting Disenchants on the Auction House, is that there are NO DEPOSIT FEES. If your disenchants aren't selling, if won't cost you a cent to keep putting it back in the AH.)
So, what I did was collect statistics on roughly 250 items from Thottbot, and compiled into an Excel Spreadsheet to determine the most efficient profit. You should do the same:
First, create a section consisting of Dynamic Prices (ie, Mageweave cloth, Runecloth, disenchants, gems) - any materials that are used in your manufacturing process and can be bought at the AH. These prices will fluctuate depending on the economy.
Second, create a section of static prices (ie, vendor items such as Runethread, Black Dye, Salt, Coarse Thread, etc.) These prices will be based on your reputation, so I would recommend purchasing these items from the cheapest city possible (highest rep.)
Third, create a conversion matrix. You can get this information from
for any items. For example;(I'm showing this vertically, but you should make this a single horizontal row in your spreadsheet.)
Nightscape Headband (Mats: 5 Thick Leather, 2 Silken Thread)
Cost to Make 1: 84 silver
Cost to Make 100: 8400 silver
Output 1: Vision Dust 241
Output 2: LessNether 33
Output 3: SmRadiant 4
Value of DE: 18350 silver (for example, "241*B44 + 33*C45 + 4*D45")
Profit: 9950 silver
Profit (G): 99.5 G
Profit per Item: 1 G
<Note: You can even show Time Factor for each item to see how much you can make per hour.>
Here are some recipes to get you started on. I would recommend comparing these prices to your own Server's AH to see if you can make the same profit or higher.
For every 100 items disenchanted:
Black Mageweave Shoulders (Tailoring): 26.8G
Black Mageweave Vest (Tailoring): 36.5G
Nightscape Headband (Leatherworking): 99.5G
Netherweave Belt (Tailoring): 145G
Netherweave Bracers (Tailoring): 159.8G
White Bandit Mask (Tailoring): 100G
The absolute best recipe I've used is White Bandit Mask.
Presently, it makes 100G per 100 items and I sell the occasional mask to make extra profit. I also control the market (ie, buy out all Vision Dust, and set my own prices). Typically, I'll make 200-300G per hour as long as Mageweave supplies are readily available on the AH.
Stick to your Excel spreadsheet and calculations, and make sure you don't buyout items that are too expensive (I only buy stacks of Mageweave at 3G, no higher.)
Hope this helps!
(Brown Linen Robe actually makes profit too, great for beginners and it's how I made enough money to level my Enchanting from 1-300.)
