Merchanting?

In Guild Wars, is merchanting a good way to make money?

i.e. Buying unidentified items and selling their mods for a profit.

or finding items priced cheap, buying them, and selling for a profit.

Not really for the first one, definitely for the second one. For the first one - not only do you have to take the time to sell the mods in town, almost everybody will "cheat" with the unidentified golds they sell and see if they have +30 mods or something like that. Even if it's unidentified, you can equip it and watch your health to see if the mod is on the weapon, then you keep that one and sell the rest of the unids to another player.

As for the second one, it's probably the fastest way to make money, but the problem is you generally have to have the beginnings of resources (~250k or so) to start making respectable money. Learn how much Bone Dragon Staves, Voltaic Spears, Eternal Blades, etc. go for, buy them cheap, sell them high.

Buying unidentified items is a slow way of making money. You have to find someone selling them, then ID them (which you have to buy the ID kits), then salvage the mods people will buy (which you have to buy the salvage kits), then sell the mods. Outside of mods like +30 health, +20% enchants, and runes like Superior Vigor, Death, Shadow Arts, etc. they won't get you more than 1k each, if that. But since you have to find people to buy them, it doesn't happen fast.

For the second part, you hint at what is called Power Trading. You buy expensive items for less than their normal value, and then sell them at the normal value, or higher if lucky. This can be done with anything, including items for collectors that have values as low as 8g each, but usually it is done with HIGH end items that cost 100K+ecto each. To do this, you have to know the current market value of the items, as well as the demand. More importantly, you have to have the money to purchase the items so you can resell them.

As the other people said. Chances are anyone selling un-id golds has already tested for most sellable mods, so you're only buying the privelage of iding them for your title.

Power trading, on the other hand, is apparently the way to amass large amounts of money. But you have to start with a decent amount of money, either build your way up or get lucky on a zchest drop or something, then you can make even more. 'it takes money to make money'. And it takes a while as you have to learn the best places/times to sell, learn your market, and spend a lot of time selling. Frankly, I like playing the game, and just let the money come. I've got over 400k in my bank, and I've bought a couple elite armor sets recently, just by playing. Although I don't buy fancy weapon skins, I'm sure I'd be broke if I did that.

selling mods can be hard, and most dont sell for much. the second method is a widely used method that has made a lot of players broke and a lot of players stinking rich. the trick is to know the prices, buy low from player and then sell high. this is usually done with high end items.

Read the stickies and check the Farming section regarding ways to make money.