Salvage or merchant?

So, I've been reading the fourms and it is now the general consensus that you should identify your whites. But some threads talk about salvaging for mats. Should I merchant or salvage? And if I salvage should I identify them first? Thanks.

Depends. Get a sense for what salvages into how much of what. Browse the material trader to get a sense of which materials are worth how much. From there it's a simple mathematical decision: Is the merch value higher than the likely trader value of what I could get through salvage?

Do not identify whites before salvaging. You should be able to guess the post-identitfy merch value without identifying. Identifying does not get you any more or better materials when salvaging; it just wastes money.

salvaging things that are used for cons is good(i.e. iron, dust, etc.). use em to make and sell cons. other than that, salvage until u have a stack of common material in ur storage and then just merch ur whites.

Untrue. I've gone through and picked up all the whites in DoA too many times and I can say for a fact that identifying before salvaging gives you a lot more materials than just salvaging.

Do Not believe what this person wrote.

If you are going to get familiar with what is good for salvaging into worthwhile mats then ALWAYS ID before salvaging as the salvage rate is determined by the value of the item {an IDed item will be worth more=more salvage mats}

You will make more $$$ from salvaging for worthwhile mats iron/feathers/dust/etc than you will get from just selling whites to the merch and you can make even more crafting cons and rare mats that have a good return at the trader {don't waste time selling rare mats to players imo} but it's up to you if it's worth your time and effort doing it.


Peace

So if this statement is correct, then salvaging blue items with "improved sale value" basically are the same as "highly salvageable?"

no from my experience the "improved sale value" mod is ignored when salvaging. Other than that mod, I believe identifying before salvaging does get you more mats.

Before you go all whole-hog on salvaging, note the actual value of the items you salvage versus the value of the materials you get from them. (And don't forget to include the cost of the salvage kits.) It's great to get 4k for a stack of some material, but not if you salvaged 6k worth of items to get it. Even if you only salvaged 3k worth of items for that 4k stack, is it worth the time and effort for only 1k? (You can earn 1k faster by just picking up drops while playing, than you can by sitting in a town trying to sell stuff.)
If you want to sell stacks of materials, it's best to farm the materials in their "natural" state, instead of salvaging for them. For example, there are areas where feathers, dust, etc., drop "as is" without needing any salvaging.

Also, concerning identifying whites - an ID kit costs 100g for 25 id's. That's 4g per ID. (Even more, if you use a Superior ID kit) Many low-level whites that only sell for 5-10 gold will not even add 4g to the value. So, it's best to do that in higher level areas where the whites are worth 50g or so.
Personally, if you figure time vs money, it's probably not worth the time to id whites. You could probably get gold faster by spending the time playing and picking up more drops.

Thanks all, and should I use normal salvage or expert salvage? Thanks again.

Wikis on salvaging: Official - Unofficial

An expert/superior salvage kit gives you the opportunity to salvage a rare material from an item (if it's capable), whereas a regular salvage kit will only ever salvage common materials. e.g., You have a 50g white sage blade. Use a regular salvage kit on it, and you will get iron. Use an expert salvage kit, and you will either get iron or steel. Typically, unless you're after a specific rare material, you're better off using normal salvage kits, especially on whites. And definitely don't waste an expert salvage charge on low value stuff from newbie areas. They'll almost always give you the common mat.

(This, of course, only applies to materials. If you want the mod(s), you need to use an expert kit.)

If you search the wiki for a drop, it usually lists its possible rare/common salvages.

ID'ing an item will NOT give you more materials. I've done this hundreds of times with white skins from Minister Cho's Estate in Hard Mode, ID'd or not, the salvage is always 5-6 iron ingots.

The only items I salvage are blues and purples that I've ID'd as Highly Salvagable, everything else I just merch or sell to others if it's half decent.