globs of dark matter
First up, Black Lion Salvage kits are pretty much mandatory. Otherwise, any exotic will do, and please quit chasing the prices up on the trading post.
Buy exotics with valuable runes in them. Use a Black Lion Salvage Kit and you will always get the rune back in addition to the crafting materials. Because you can always sell the rune and crafting materials, it’s not only possible to break even, but sometimes even make a profit. Be aware the TP tax will more often than not cause you to slightly lose money.
Still, it’s far better than buying cheap exotics with worthless runes and losing lots of money.
If you’re willing to burn some dungeon tokens, you can also salvage exotic armor pieces from them. That’s how I normally get mine … but like all things RNG, your mileage may vary.
I am Fleeting Flash, in-game dungeon cosplayer of Reddit Refugees [RR] .