When is something good enough to trade or give away rather than sell to a merchant?

As per the subject line.

Cut it at blue, purple, gold, green, or what items?

Some value? Some bonus? When is the object a worthwhile enough find to put into the player economy rather than hand back to the game?

When do you feel it is 'worth the time' to trade, or 'worth the favor' to give away?

Thats an extremely broad question. To make an educated decision you need to keep an eye on the market and see what the prices are for what you want to sell. Then you have to guage how quickly you can sell it. Many times it is better for you to sell something to a merchant and just go play more, as you can earn more by playing than by selling the item. For the most part, whenever you have an item with perfect or very near perfect stats, then you can consider selling it on the market. (Or salvaging the mods and selling them on the market)

As for giving items away... thats totally up to your sense of generosity and the percieved 'need' of the receiver. As an example, I recently tried to sell a shield (purple, max armor, req8, -2damage while enchanted, bladed skin). The person inquiring about it said they couldn't afford my asking price (800g, which is fairly negligible to me at this phase of the game). I noticed they were low level and decided to give them the shield... and a rather nice purple crenelated sword as well. I decided the items had more value in the hands of a new player than they did as a source of a little gold for me. (of course the person said 'thx' and ran away without another word, but thats a totally different story. hehehe)

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s....php?t=3049452

heres a VERY clear guide to that

Yep nice guide by the way

If its gold with perfect mods and the skin is neat ill sell it.
If its gold with rubbish mods and high req, i would give it away or merchant it
If its a rare skin like crystilline swords ill sell it

)btw: That guide is very nice, everyone should read when they get the chance)

Very rarely will I try to trade or give anything away. I'd only bother if it will sell very quickly, and for a very substantial amount of money. Otherwise, trade spamming is simply not worth it to me. If I want money I'll either run for money or sell faction. So much less of a headache than having to engage in trade spam.

The vast majority of purples and golds aren't sellable to other players. Use the guru price forum as a guideline. I only try to sell stuff that is worth at least 2 or 3K.

Unless you're selling a lot of high end stuff, several things at a time, you aren't going to earn as much as if you just played the game. And to me, playing the game is a lot more fun.

I say gifts are gold and green (well, maybe exceptionnal purples). I never sell anything to humans (as stated by previous posters, why bother, people only want perfect stuff anyway), and real nice items won't sell for much with merchants (.3-.4k max ??).

On the other hand, I don't like selling the really nice stuff that I won't use (gold bows and the like). I keep them in storage, often give them away to (nice) people after a mission (ie : week-young necro gives away stuff earned by year-old monk).