The Iron Grenade shuffle is dead. Seven days into WoW: Forever's launch, this week's reset cut the grenade's vendor sell price from 5 silver each to 3 silver 75 copper for all three — the same 5 silver of materials that used to return 15 silver now loses money on the deal. Wowhead ran the numbers in a report published November 11, 05:05 Beijing time (November 10, 15:05 US Central), and the grenade isn't alone: the report's list covers 118 items whose vendor prices changed.
How the shuffle made gold, and how it loses it now
Shuffles are the classic gold-making play: buy cheap materials from vendors, craft them into items that sell back for more, pocket the difference — effectively minting gold into the economy, which is why developers tend to shut them down fast. The most famous chain in Classic revolves around Iron Grenades: one Iron Bar, one Heavy Blasting Powder and one Silk Cloth, about 5 silver in materials when prices run low, crafted into 3 grenades that sold to vendors at 5 silver apiece — a 10 silver profit per round. After the reset, the same 3 grenades sell for 3 silver 75 copper total, or 1 silver 25 copper each. Every round now loses 1 silver 25 copper.
Not everything got nerfed — some prices went up
The 118 items come in sets: the Iron Grenade and the alchemical Minor Arcane Elixir, plus long runs of gear — Veteran's and Guard's chain chests, leggings and helms, the Officer's and Sentinel's line of gloves, belts and boots, matched leather sets like Defender's, Totemic and Stormrider's, mail sets like Stalker's and Skirmisher's, and the Filigreed and Gilded series of robes, leggings, circlets, slippers, belts and gloves. Wowhead notes the batch wasn't all nerfs: some items saw their sell prices raised. Which items moved, and by how much, is in the before/after table on the report's page — and any of it can be checked in game by opening the item's tooltip.
No official word; the anti-shuffle motive is Wowhead's inference
Blizzard has posted no blue post or patch notes for this batch; the changes surfaced when the data was compared after the reset. "Likely targeting vendor shuffles" is Wowhead's judgment, not an official verdict. The precedent it points to sits in the beta (which closed October 24): weapon shuffles and Enchanting Wand shuffles were both nerfed there, and Wowhead calls this the first such change on live servers, with more expected — especially given how many new crafting recipes Forever carries. Keep the two threads separate when you read: the price changes themselves are verifiable in game at any time; the motive has no official wording behind it at all.
Rework your vendor list before you craft anything else
Sitting on Iron Grenades? Vendor them at 1 silver 25 copper each and stop valuing the stack at the old 5 silver. Hoarding Iron Bars and Heavy Blasting Powder, skip the grenade route unless someone on the Auction House will take the bars off you. And before you mass-craft anything for skill-ups, read the sell price on the tooltip first — this batch proves vendor prices can move as a whole set with a weekly reset, and last week's math doesn't carry over. Worth re-running your list around the next reset: Wowhead expects this was not the last batch.