Fill one bundle, not the whole list

A Waylaid Crate lists several possible material bundles, but it only takes one of them to fill it. You do not need every herb, ore, cloth or bar on the label.

Check which option you can actually finish, including anything you would craft along the way, and buy whichever one costs the least. Leave the rest on the shelf.

Dee kneeling at a Redridge Mountains trade camp, placing one herb bundle into an open crate while folded cloth and ore bars sit untouched beside it.
One bundle goes in the crate. The cloth and ore stay on the ground.

What is a Waylaid Crate in WoW: Forever?

Waylaid Crates carry the idea of Season of Discovery's Waylaid Supplies into WoW: Forever. They are random world drops picked up while you adventure, with no fixed spawn point, and they are tradable, so you can also buy one on the auction house.

The crate list sorts into seven families: herbs, ore, textiles, curiosities, fabrics, ingots and parts. Within a family, crates rank Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert and Artisan, unlocking at character level 10, 10, 20 and 35. Herb crates split further into earthly and flowering versions once they reach Expert, and that split continues at Artisan too.

A few examples of what a bundle actually asks for: an Apprentice Ore crate takes 20 Copper Ore or 20 Tin Ore; an Apprentice Textiles crate takes 40 Linen Cloth or 20 Light Leather; an Artisan Ingots crate takes 2 Dark Iron Bars, 10 Truesilver Bars or 20 Thorium Bars. Fill the chosen bundle and the crate becomes a Sealed Crate of that same rank.

Where to turn in a sealed crate

Alliance players hand a sealed crate to Marcy Baker, with the Azeroth Commerce Authority at the Three Corners camp where Elwynn Forest meets Redridge Mountains, roughly (9.7, 70.9) on the Redridge map. Horde players hand theirs to Dokimi, with Durotar Supply and Logistics just west of the Crossroads in the Barrens, roughly (50.1, 29.3).

How much Merchant's Favor a crate pays

The first crate you ever fill hands you a Shipping Label. Turning that in at your faction's camp starts a one-time quest worth 50 Merchant's Favor and 2,000 reputation with the Azeroth Commerce Authority or Durotar Supply and Logistics. That bonus fires once; do not count it into your usual crate math.

Regular turn-ins pay less and do not grant reputation. That corrects a 25 September guide that said every turn-in grants reputation; two newer write-ups, from 29 September and 5 October, agree only the Shipping Label quest does.

A common, white-quality sealed Apprentice Crate pays 5 Favor and an uncommon, green-quality one pays 10; a common sealed Journeyman Crate pays 10 and an uncommon one pays 20. Favor for Expert and Artisan crates is not published yet. The Performance Bonus Legacy Perk can double a single turn-in's Favor: a 5 percent chance at rank 1, 10 percent at rank 2, 15 percent at rank 3.

Favor buys profession certifications at 1,000 each, a toy at 1,200, faction tabards at 200 and the Reins of the Pack Kodo mount at 6,000, plus recipes priced per item rather than a flat rate; one early Enchanting formula runs 45 Favor. The toy needs Honored reputation with your faction's trade organization and the tabard needs Exalted; crate turn-ins alone will not get you there, since they do not grant reputation. It is character-specific, not shared across your account.

Was the 40 Linen Cloth bug fixed?

Likely yes. Blizzard's own known-issues list says Waylaid Crates were failing to register items whose stack size was smaller than the quantity a crate asked for. That matches the Linen Cloth complaint: Linen Cloth stacks in smaller counts than the 40 an Apprentice Textiles crate wants.

Blizzard marked that stack-size bug fixed for the next beta build, and it has not reappeared in known-issues updates since, including the one posted 1 October. If a crate still refuses 40 Linen Cloth for you, fall back to the Light Leather option instead.

How to choose the cheapest bundle at the auction house

Comparing bundles takes the same five steps every time.

The Wowdee add-on will check this list against materials already sitting on your other characters, so you are not buying herbs an alt has banked.

  1. Read the bundle options on the crate you are holding; rank and family change the list.
  2. Cross off anything you cannot finish, including a bundle that needs more of an item than its own stack allows.
  3. Price what remains, counting a bolt or bar at the cost to make it, not just the raw stack.
  4. Subtract materials your characters already hold.
  5. Buy whichever option leaves the smallest gold total, then repeat per crate: a Journeyman Herbs list and an Apprentice Ingots list are different.

Still to come

Not yet settled by our sources or tested in game:

  • Merchant's Favor payouts for sealed Expert and Artisan crates (only Apprentice and Journeyman amounts are published).
  • A full Favor price list for every profession recipe; only scattered examples (45 Favor for one Enchanting formula, up to 120-240 for higher-skill ones) are public so far.
  • Whether regular turn-ins staying reputation-free holds once official patch notes confirm it, rather than third-party guides.
  • Official confirmation that the Linen Cloth stack-size fix actually shipped, beyond its absence from known-issues updates through 5 October.

Sources

Beta notes are dated because Forever is still changing.