Guild Wars 2

I searched but didn’t find this specific question.

I have only tried a handful of dyes, but it seems like they are worth more in the unidentified state than the expected average of identifying them. Unidentified, they seem to be worth 16 – 18s. Several of the colors are worth less than 1s when identified.

I haven’t done a lot of experimenting, so I was curious to see what the prevailing wisdom was.

I sell my unidentified dyes. I used to identify them but with such a large price difference you are better off selling them and then buying the ones you want. The chance of getting lucky and finding a high value dye is too low.

Rng hates me but I still keep opening them, I know its stupid but…

At this price? Hell no

I have all the colors I want. Selling selling selling.

Not yet. Have 42+ unid dyes in storage :P

I still identify them, I like seeing something special appear. The problem is, I find so few dyes… Two or three a week if I’m lucky, so I’m not really missing out on much by not selling them unidentified…

I hadn’t for months, and I missed seeing what came up. So i identified 40. I could have bought what I received 7 times over with what it cost.

For fun. It’s not financially sound, but it’s like an in game lottery ticket where you always ‘win’ something. They don’t drop enough for me to really feel the lost income over the excitement of getting one myself.

I should note that I’ve also had a rule so far where I don’t buy any dyes off the TP for myself, which makes it more entertaining.

Nope, not with the price they’re at. Back when Unidentified Dyes were only a couple of silver I would on occasion. Short of Abyss/Celestial, it’s generally bet to sell your unidentifieds and use that money to buy whatever dyes you want. (And even then, you have to be crazy lucky to get any kind of rare dye, let alone Abyss or Celestial).

I guess I’ve never had enough luck in this game to see it worth my gamble.

I have enough money not to miss the 18s or so per dye so I take a chance – its definitely the wrong thing to do financially but its fun.

I identify them. Found my celestial and black this way so i guess i still have to find a lot of cheaper colors to even that out ^^

I just identify them. I have about 300 colours unlocked on my main. Any duplicates I either give to alts/guildies or sell.

I do identify them. I like to have the colors though i am only using mostly black and white combinations and there’s a chance for a completely overpriced Abyss Dye to gain around 20G. The other day i gathered winter vegetables and got an unid dye. Turned out to be a black dye what i have sold for 9G.

I used too upto 2 months ago but they are too valuble atm, instant sell via the TP now.

I still identify them. The ones that are worth more than a silver I sell, the others I toss in the forge. I have gotten lucky and found two black dyes. I haven’t been keeping track, but I’m fairly sure the 20G I made off of them and the dyes I actually ended up using on my character offset the loss of not selling them unidentified. Besides the fun of opening them up and getting something cool is worth something to me.

I’m at the point where the gap between what I can currently afford and the next step up is so great that I just have given up trying to earn it and I just gamble and hope to hit the jackpot. I don’t salvage my rares for ectos any more – I match them up and toss them in the forge. The prices for precursors are so high, my goal is to save enough cash to post on on the TP if I ever catch Zommoros on a good day. There’s no way I could earn enough money to buy one outright and still have fun playing.

I’m probably in the minority though, because someone has to have the cash to buy the things that are expensive or they wouldn’t be so expensive.

I had about 60 in the bank and I clicked them all.
I got 1g80s from selling the rares ones, everything else I threw in the Mystic Toilet in hopes of getting more rares.

Then I checked the price of the unindentified ones… and felt dumb as hell. I could’ve easily got 10g+ if I just sold them all.

Of course! With 9 characters to unlock dyes on I have a long way to go. I think the only one I’ve sold is the duplicate Midnight Ice.

The collector in me deems I identify each and every dye I find. They’re about a 1/3 the price of a rare right now (or glob of ecto), and as those drop more often than dye for me now since pretty much all I’m doing is fractals, the $ loss doesn’t feel like a huge deal.

I mean, even if I get a rare or exotic dye, I’ll use it instead of selling it, unless I already have it.

I used to open them till they got above 16s each. I am too poor to lose that much money now :-(

It is tough though and sometimes I open one just to satisfy my need to gamble it lol

I’ll throw out there that the expected sell value of opening a dye is about 17 silver, 50 copper, assuming 60/30/10 fine/masterwork/rare.

You’re gambling, but not losing all that much with each roll of the dice at current prices.

Not sure where you got that 17 silver number. I been selling them 19 + all day for the last week.

Maybe I am misunderstanding what you are stating there but I also am fairly sure if you averaged out what I have been able to get for my opened ones compared to selling them all at 19s/each the uniden is WAY more profitable

Back a month or two ago when and there was a drop rate problem on them (I was finding them seemingly daily in carrots), I would identify them and then sell them. Then they fixed the drop rate problem and I noticed how much they were going for I immediately stop identifying them and just sell them.

I still open them. Unid dye is one of the most exciting drops for me. I almost always get <1s dyes but I can’t help myself.

4 months into the game opening every single dye I ever came across, and I haven never received a color that sold for over 6 silver. Screw that, now I just sell every single dye, more out of frustration than anything else admittedly.

Awesome.6120:

I still open them. Unid dye is one of the most exciting drops for me. I almost always get <1s dyes but I can’t help myself.

Same here. It’s the only drop I find interesting.

Direwulff.2396:

Maybe I am misunderstanding what you are stating there but I also am fairly sure if you averaged out what I have been able to get for my opened ones compared to selling them all at 19s/each the uniden is WAY more profitable

Basically, if you average out the sale price of all the different dyes you can get weighted for their rarity, the average sale price of an ‘open’ dye is ~17.5 silver. So you are better off selling your dyes unopened than opening them and selling the contents, in the long run.

The 17.5 silver price also means that if you want to use the dyes yourself, you will get them slightly cheaper by opening them yourself, compared to selling them unidentified and buying individual dyes.

The main point though is that the sale price of an unidentified dye is not wildly out of proportion with the value of individual dyes; they’re within ~10% of each other, so it’s not like opening your dyes is setting a bunch of money on fire, on average.

ahhh gotcha. so basically I get a ton of dye is <1s but then i get one for 2G that pushes the average way up eventually. ahh man now you have me wanting to open them up again

Actually, it’ll be really interesting to calculate the expected value you get out of identifying a die. The results may even surprise you, since there is a LOT of common dyes that sell for 20s+.

Of course, as no one knows what the exact droprates are, we will never know. Still be interesting though.

I pulled data off spidy a couple hours ago and did just that Ursan, and got 17.52 silver (lowest sell price).

The assumptions were that all dyes of the same rarity were equally likely to drop, and that the ratio of fine to masterwork to rare was 60/30/10 – which is in line with the rough drop rate research I’ve done and is in line with other research I’ve seen.

Ping me with a PM if you want the spreadsheet.

Ensign.2189:

I pulled data off spidy a couple hours ago and did just that Ursan, and got 17.52 silver (lowest sell price).

The assumptions were that all dyes of the same rarity were equally likely to drop, and that the ratio of fine to masterwork to rare was 60/30/10 – which is in line with the rough drop rate research I’ve done and is in line with other research I’ve seen.

Ping me with a PM if you want the spreadsheet.

That’s fascinating. Thank you so much.

when dye price dropped to 3s I bought like 100, opened them all and got some profit (2 or 3 valueable dyes) but at these prices I like to keep them closed. Originally started collecting them for bifrost but that staff isn’t doing that great on AH :P so probably not make that one

So … on the subject of unid dyes, does it seem like they drop more often for low level characters/in lower level zones to anyone else? It has felt that way on 3 different characters now.

I don’t think I could ever sell an unidentified dye. I’m addicted to opening them!

Sold one, once. I’ll forever lose sleep over not knowing what it was.

Nope, because I’m crafting The Bifrost. Every dye I loot means my legendary will cost 20 silver less.

On my main acct I just been stock-piling them in the event I am ever able to make Bifrost for my 80 Ele alt. On my second account I been selling them, even turn in my laurels to get 10 to sell as the current market price kinda makes you.

I’m curious about who is buying all these unidentified dyes.

Strzalka.9451:

I’m curious about who is buying all these unidentified dyes.

I can kinda see it. Some people like gambling. I can certainly imagine there are people who don’t mind the sunk costs because they’re paying for the thrill of “Gambling.”

Like Vegas. I go into Vegas expecting to lose money, but it’s the excitement and thrill that matters in the end, not how much money I earn back.

I open my dyes. It’s financially unsound, but I don’t mind building a “stockpile” of unlocked dyes on my characters. When it gets to the stage when I’ve unlocked most of the Common dyes and I’m getting more duplicates than not, that’s when I’ll start selling the Unid’ed dyes.

Kinglette.4906:

Rng hates me but I still keep opening them, I know its stupid but…

Same here. I can’t help myself, curiosity trumps virtual currency in my case.

I get more utility out of opening them than I do from seeing the few silvers I get from selling them.

Plus it is really hard to find the right dye on the auction house because without actually putting them on your armor you don’t know what they are going to look like on your character with all the lighting effects and what not.

And I once got 2 black and then 2 white in a row. So that was pretty nice.

I always identify them, because it’s fun. If I get a dye I have, I use the dye. If I have it, I offer it to the first guildie that wants it. Many people in our guild do it if they get a dye they have.
If it’s rare and I can get over 1g from it, I sell it in the TP.

I identify them. I could sell a few and buy all of the common ones but I would rather open up for the rare ones than buy them of the TP.

Currently I have about 10 rares – some of them are: arctic, burgundy, midnight ice and white gold.

It is definitely RNG – I had friends who kept playing the game of buying dyes, opening, and making profit. My roommate has went through hundreds of dyes, keeping all the ones he didn’t have (even abyss), and STILL pulled profit. Myself, I’ve tried several times, and out of 20G spent on dyes, the most valuable was 7s… 99% were less than a silver, and most repeated (bought in batches of 20, and had one time where I only got 3 different colors out of 20 unids). So when your luck is like mine, and want dyes for money, opening them is kitten If you’re a lucky SOB – open away.

I’m just terrified to start my RNG game for clovers and precursors….

You’re better off selling every single unidentified dye you find and then buying the colors you know you want for each hero.

RNG is not your friend.

In the first weeks or month i identified them and all i got was kitten. so i started to sell them and buy the dyes i wanted instead.

dont regret it. RNG usually hates me

I usually either sell them, or wait until I have a pile of them (last time was 40) and quietly mail them to the wife for a nice surprise the next time she logs in. Once in a while I’ll ID one or two though.

Strzalka.9451:

I’m curious about who is buying all these unidentified dyes.

Bifrost makers

Walrus.6390:

Strzalka.9451:

I’m curious about who is buying all these unidentified dyes.

Bifrost makers

Not all. Abyss/Black/Celestial dye chasers for example.

I Bought a ton of u.dyes until i got the abyss dye which i did, and they cost me around the price of the abyss dye. So it was a win situation, because i got a lot of colors including the abyss for the abyss price.