Leatherworking Profits

Each day of playing leave me with a colder chill when I open up my crafting professions screen. It takes so much effort and work to first find the pattern and then the mats and before I know it, someone else is crafting ten and dumbing it on the AH and profits plummet. I enjoy crafting and will not want to give it completely, but I do think it's time to seriously evaluate how much money it can make me, or more likely, how much money it is costing me.

• First rule of crafting - never buy patterns off the auction house for anything other than personal use.
• Second rule of crafting - never buy patterns off the auction house that is available at a vendor
• Third rule of crafting - never craft if the mats will sell for more unless profit is not the number one goal
• Fourth rule of crafting - never pay market price or higher for any mats
• Fifth rule of crafting - never join the undercutting madness, either hold back your item or place it up for the usual price. Once the undercutting frenzy subsides, customers will return to your goods that are always there.
  

To that effect, I have come to the conclusion that I can craft for a small profit, if I craft carefully. Green items are generally not worth crafting for anything other than personal use. The mats sell for more than the item in the Auction House over the weekend. At level 290 I can currently craft 14 items. On my server, only 5 make a profit. The profit ranges from 5 to 10 gold on average. I can increase those profits by farming for most of the mats whilst I quest (I am a skinner too after all) and only buying those that are on the AH for a large discount. That usually doubles my profit, landing me in a 10 - 20 gold profit per item range. Now that is worth my while.