Guide Analysis On Identifying/selling Legendaries Profit Margins

tl;dr: There is a net loss of -13.32% when identifying and selling legendaries.

Introduction
Prior to the 1.18 update, it has been a known that identifying and later selling any identifiable item to the blacksmith would net a profit gain. This profit gain has never been quantified, but it was always helpful to lootrunners. After the 1.18 update, there has been anecdotal evidence that this profit margin is no longer there, at least for rares and legendaries [1]. In this thread, I will go into detail the profit margin of legendaries, specifically Morrowind, on whether anecdotal evidence is true or not.

Methodology
43 Morrowinds were identified. Of the 43 Morrowinds, 42 were sold to the blacksmith. The Morrowinds are sold one-by-one to the blacksmith, and data is recorded on the price given by the blacksmith. It is assumed that these Morrowinds represent the entire population of identifiable legendaries.

Results
The datasheet can be found here. The price of identifying a Morrowind is 540 emeralds, or 8EB, 28E. 22,680 emeralds (~5.5LE) was spent on identifying the Morrowinds. 19,660 emeralds (~4.8LE) were gained selling them to the Blacksmith, yielding a net loss of -3020 emeralds (-47EB, 12E). This yields to about a -13.32% net loss of emeralds. The average selling price is 468E, which is close to the average range of the price the Blacksmith shows, at 466E. It is unclear whether the price sold follows a normal Gaussian distribution, as not enough data has been gathered. However, the distribution is more of a reverse Gaussian distribution, where the extreme parts of the price range are more likely to occur than at the average price range.

Conclusion
There is a net loss of -13.32% when identifying and selling legendaries. Future research can include using the same methodology for unique and rare items. When lootrunning for money, make sure to avoid picking up any legendary identifiable item unless you know you can make a sale out of it through other players. If you end up having extra space in your inventory before going back to a city, pick up the legendary identifiable items and rather sell them un-ided to the blacksmith rather than identifying them.

References
[1] https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/identifiables-sale-price-please-contribute.247196/#post-3035167

Please thank Basteyal for having 43 unidentified Morrowinds.

p.s. This was so cursed... Can anyone refund me 1LE please? :P

Spoiler: Best Morrowind I got (Selling, hmu)

 

Yeah, matches what I've observed. Rares and uniques generally break even at endgame (although that's still a net loss vs. just taking a stack of emeralds).

 

Is this done on purpose? Do the game devs intentionally do it so you don't profit from the blacksmith?
If so why? To force us to use the marketplace? Because then the market would be flooded with legendaries...

 

i cringe looking at garbage like 1/4 third eyes going for double-digits le.

I would think that the abundancy of legendaries on the market tends not to be a result of this, but more of the fact that non-legendaries are generally obtainable without the need to consult other players. If there's a unique item that you happen to want, it's almost always more convenient to do the lootrunning yourself than to trawl through the market.

unless you're me. welcome to somehow not finding that one unique you're desperately lootrunning for in over a month of daily lootruns. the game literally threw me a spring instead of that caesura i was looking for.

 

Probably the biggest reason uniques and less-popular rares aren't available on the market is that it's basically always better to take a stack of emeralds over a unique, and over all but the most valuable rares. And actually finding the one unique you want while lootrunning is quite challenging.

Of course, perhaps if uniques and rares were actually worth taking over a stack of emeralds, people might decide to pick them up...