I've done too much trading myself, and so will share my opinions...
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1. Should I Try to sell the Axe as is BEFORE using the Salvage kit.
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Probably, yes. A Gold (or rare) anything is going to get at least 500g, and usually upwards of 1k if you're really patient. Meanwhile, most weapon upgrades will be lucky to get 450g, and more likely 150 to 250g... and that's if you're again really patient.
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2. What does an EBON AXE SHAFT Do? meaning, what are the qualities
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It converts the physical slashing damage of an Axe into Earth Damage instead. On any weapon there is a listing of what type of damage it does next to the amount it does, whether slashing, cold, dark, holy, lightning, etc. Ebon means earth damage, and is actually pretty effective against most creatures. It's a good one-weapon-does-all type of elemental damage.
Notes... any skills that required physical damage, such as Mark of Pain, will no longer work if the weapon has some type of elememental damage instead. The inherent properties of certain spell based attacks, like the armor penetration of Lightning and the armor ignoring of Holy Damage, do not translate to weapons that are upgraded with those types of damage.
Different creatures have unique weaknesses and resistances to certain types of elemental damage, so there's no one type that gets everybody all the time. Some players will carry several weapons, each with a different type of damage modifier, that can be pulled out in certain situations... ie. fire damge will do better against Ice Golems than Fire Imps, etc.
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3. How much do they sell for.
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In my experience, an Ebon Axe Haft will go between 150g and 500g depending on when you sell it and to whom you're selling it to. If someone really wants it or is looking for one, it's safe to ask for 400g. My rule of thumb is that if a lvl 20 comes along looking for one, they get it for 250g just because they're lvl 20... but hey, that's just me.
Anybody who suggests 1k or more for something like that, which I have seen before, either is gouging the customer or has way too much time on their hands, or just an amazing amount of patience. Imho, 800g is the top of what you could ever expect to get, and then only on like Fri or Sat night prime time from a new lvl 10 or 12 who doesn't know any better.
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4. On Gold Drops, do most of you all salvage them or keep as is.
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It depends... if there's a really unique or valuable upgrade on it, like a superior rune or a 5:1 vampiric bow string, then I'll use an expert kit to salvage it out. Otherwise it's probably more cost effective to just sell it as is and let the buyer salvage it if they want to. There's a weird thing in the economy where nowadays if an item isn't Gold (or rare) then people don't want it, or think it sucks... which is a shame really. I can be selling a clean max damage scimitar with a low requirement, and be lucky to get 1k for it... a max damage weapon for less than 1k, <sigh>. However, if the exact same item were Gold, I would probably get offers of 3k for it. It's kinda silly.
The other time it's worth it to not salvage is if there is more than one mod on the item, like a prefix and a suffix (Sundering Great Axe of Fortitude), and you don't want to take a chance of losing one of the upgrades... let the buyer take the risk. However, the pricing should likely reflect this risk a bit.
And then if it's just a normal, everyday, not-that-great item which just happens to be Gold as well, it's sometimes more effective to just sell it to the merchant and get the 100+ gold from them, or to use an expert kit on and possibly salvage some rare crafting materials from it.
Selling anything other than the most desired and elite items and expecting to make a considerable profit from them can take an enormous amount of patience and requires using good timing as to when one choooses to sell.
Hope that helps.
