Guild Wars 2

What is the value of 5 obsidian shards?

Not very much since they are account bound and they are only used in crafting legendary for the most part.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Obsidian_shard

Used mostly for legendary and ascended crafting, I guess you could estimate the value based on what other currencies are used to buy them.

• 2100 karma
• 3 laurels
• 15 fractal relics

so they are not sendable via mail, for example?

Since they’re account bound, my guess would be no.

They have an internalized value, very similiar to karma. (If you look at any item that has karma items in it: Legendarys, Linen, etc. You can figure an approximate gold/silver/copper value per karma.)
The same would apply here, but in all honesty most (98%-ish) players will never know that value and will be fine without knowing that value.

The value of them is mostly derived from the ability to make legendaries and ascended items. You cannot turn them back into karma to turn them back into gold.

Rage.9723:

The value of them is mostly derived from the ability to make legendaries and ascended items. You cannot turn them back into karma to turn them back into gold.

If that was directed at me, I wasn’t saying you could. Actually quite the opposite I was saying karma has a value which you could use to determine the value of shards.

If not: you can still turn shards into legendarys which can be used to make money.

To the person who bought them, they have value as going towards making a legendary or whatever.

To anyone but that person, they’re worthless (because account bound).

You can’t spend them on anything useful can you? I keep getting them from PvP and they are annoying to delete (because of the confirmation box).

Sube Dai.8496:

You can’t spend them on anything useful can you? I keep getting them from PvP and they are annoying to delete (because of the confirmation box).

Ascended crafting, legendarys, certain tonics/ recipes (Probably where the most money is)

Obsidian Shards are good for crafting Legendary weapons, Ascended equipment, and the Exotic shield “Cragstone.” If you’re not trying to create any of those, they’re worthless to you. If you are trying to create those, they’re worth 2100 karma, 15 fractal relics, 1 laurel, etc., depending on what currency you’d prefer to buy them in.

Since you can estimate the coin value for karma, relics, etc. if you know how to convert those into coin (buy material bag, sell materials, for example,) you can estimate a rough coin value for shards…but only if you, personally, have a use for shards. You can’t sell them to other players, so it only matters if you can use them.

You could use obsidian shards to craft Cragstone or a Legendary, and then sell that, but the other components involved (250 Onyx Lodestones for Cragstone, or a precursor and more for the Legendary) are so much more expensive than the shards that the shards are practically a negligible consideration if you’re hoping to turn a profit on those items.

So, yeah. Good if you’re making Ascended or Legendary gear, or Cragstone, but no significant value otherwise.

If you have a ton of them you don’t want, like Sube Dai, just delete them 250 at a time. You can deposit up to 250 in your bank, then just clear them out whenever your bank is full. (I don’t PvP, but hopefully you’re not getting thousands of them, or that would still be a hassle.)

Edit: I forget that they added some recipes for Bloodstone Brick, which is another use for Obsidian Shards. Once again, though, the items you make are either account-bound or have bigger barriers than Obsidian Shards in selling them for a profit.

You will need them if you go down the path of Ascended crafting or Legendaries, as mentioned above. I personally burned through about 1500 Obsidian Shards as part of my Ascended crafting. (Fortunately I had loads of karma to spare as I amassed a lot of it during the early days of GW2 when karma boosts affected the drinkables.)