Sell Or Salavge?

Quick question - is it generally more profitable to sell common drops to the merchant or salvage them for the raw materials? Or should I do a mixture of the two and learn what salvages to valuable items?

Personally I do a bit of both. I identify everything first even the whites, then I sort out what's merch food and what's worth keeping/salvaging.
Everything under 100g I salvage for materials using an expert salvage kit as you're more likely to get a couple of rare mats i.e. Steel ingots instead of Iron ingots from a common axe for example.
Blues,purples, and useless gold items I sell to merchant. If there are any decent mod's on them I take them off first before I sell.
When it comes to trophy items I usually sell unless they have a decent purpose for example the Kournan pendants can be traded for gold scrolls.
You'll learn quite quickly what things salvage into which materials, ruby daggers for example have a chance to salvage into Rubies worth about 4k each +/-, then again from the same item you might get steel. Up to you whether you take the risk. Other items like Plagueborn Armor salvage into Tanned hide and Cloth, which is used in many armour sets, saving you money in the long run instead of buying them.

It's up to you in the end. Hope that helps.

Also trophies many times salvage into rare materials (ex. dredge incisors give monstrous fangs and geodes rubies or sapphires (glittering dust if unlucky).
It's always best, if you're not in a hurry, to check what salvages into what and decide what it's worth what. For example amber/jade weapons usually give if not amber/jade at least glittering dust, which is worth a bit.

I didn't know that :P Learn something everyday hehe.

Thanks guys, I'll do a bit more research into the stuff I sell from now on =)

It depends a bit upon what you do with the mats. If you are gathering mats to use for yourself, it can be cheaper to salvage for them rather than have to buy them.

But, if you are thinking of selling the materials, I think it's generally more profitable to just sell all the junk to the merchant. Even if you plan to sell stacks of materials to other players, you'd want to compare the value of the item to the merchant, versus the value of the mats.
I'd have to say that I haven't done any in-depth look at this, but my general impression is that, if there even is any profit to be made by salvaging for mats, it's not worth the time and effort.

Btw, oldschool blue "highly salvageable" drops are the exception.

SALVAGE EVERYTHING RAWR! craft rare materials sell them ^_^