Stardew Valley: Profitable Items You Shouldn't Sell

Turning a profit in Stardew Valley can be difficult at times, especially in the early years. It can be enticing to see that those diamonds are worth almost a thousand gold and then so difficult to will yourself against throwing them in the shipping bin. There are a few items that, despite how expensive they are, you shouldn't sell for various reasons.

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Many players believe in keeping a copy (or a few copies) of every item, just in case. Some items also duplicate themselves if you use them properly, so you should use the first one instead of selling it. Here are the most important items to keep or use instead of selling, despite how much money you could make.

Updated March 20, 2024 by Jacqueline Zalace: Stardew Valley has so many items, you may lose track of them all from time to time. Who knows, maybe you even accidentally sold the valuable Prismatic Shard! We've come to the rescue though, updating this list to emphasize the items that you should keep on hand.

15 Building Resources

The basic material resources in the game are Wood, Stone, Hardwood, Sap, Fiber, Coal, and Clay, and a few other things. They don't sell for a ton of money, but in the early days of the game, it's hard to look at that stack of 100 Hardwood and ignore the fact that you could get a nice 1,500 gold for it.

But, these items will always be necessary for crafting, building farm structures, and much, much more. Resist the urge to throw the extras in the bin — you'll thank yourself in the future.

14 Low-Quality Crops

Crops come in three quality levels: regular, silver, and gold. Gold- and silver-quality crops sell for more than the base sell price, so you should definitely sell them early on before you can craft them into anything better. This will likely be your main source of income in the first year of the game.

However, you should absolutely hang on to base-quality crops. These can be used for making wine, jelly, juice, pickles, and other artisan goods that sell for a much higher profit. Since these artisan goods sell for a multiplier of the base quality price, it isn't as profitable to process the higher-quality crops. Also, many crops are used in recipes, so you'll want a stocked fridge.

13 Community Center Bundle Items

Should you decide to pursue the Community Center restoration rather than purchase a Joja membership, you'll be tasked with providing the correct items for a couple dozen bundles. Some of these items are much harder to get your hands on than others.

Regardless, you should try to focus on giving the first of an item to the bundles before selling it. Sure, you can usually find another of that item, but the rewards for the Community Center are so good that they should be prioritized over the handfuls of gold you'll earn for just selling the item instead. Once you've finished the Community Center (and the secret Missing bundle), sell away.

12 Unprocessed Animal Products

Almost every animal product can be processed into something better — and more profitable. Eggs, milk, wool, truffles, and all the rest should always be turned into these artisan goods before you toss them into the shipping bin.

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The cost to build the right machinery, whether it's a mayonnaise maker or cheese press, is usually pretty low. It's always better to process the raw animal goods into their respective artisan goods before selling them. A regular egg sells for 50 gold, while the base price for a jar of mayonnaise is almost quadruple ― 190 gold.

11 Grange Fair Display Winners

It's difficult to win the Grange Display contest in the first couple of years. Once you do find a combination of items that will nab first place, you should keep them in a chest tucked away somewhere. This way, you can use the same nine items to win every year following that, should you so desire.

Don't sell these items! You can win the Grange Display contest with nine items that come to a pretty low sales total. It's much better to use them to win those precious star tokens — the Stardrop is 2,000 tokens.

10 Iridium Bars

Iridium Barssell for a beautiful 1,000 gold (or 1,500 if you have the Blacksmith Profession). It can be pretty hard to look at that total and not toss them in the shipping bin. Resist that urge though!

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Iridium bars are always in short supply, and they are used for a ton of different purposes, including the crafting of a lot of machinery. Dedicate a handful of them to making some Crystalariums, toss a couple diamonds into them, and you'll have an endless supply of money. That's much better than just selling the iridium bars (or any metal bars, for that matter) on their own.

9 Winter Roots

Many players write off the Winter season as a time to move away from farming and focus on mining, fishing, or other endeavors. However, Winter farming can actually be very lucrative if you do it right. The Winter Seeds available to you can be used to grow Crystal Fruit, Crocus, Winter Root, and Snow Yam, which sell for a decent price.

Winter Roots, which are probably the most common of the Winter forageables, can be thrown into a seed maker to produce a few bags of Winter Seeds. Ignore the sell price of Winter Roots and focus on using them to make seeds.

8 Regular Wine

Wine and other alcoholic beverages are one of the most profitable endeavors you can undertake as a farmer. Choosing the most expensive fruits to become wines will help bring in the big bucks, so many players grow Ancient Fruit and Starfruit specifically to turn into wine.

There's no point in selling that expensive Starfruit wine, though, if you have empty Casks in the basement of your house. Letting wine sit until it becomes Iridium quality will double its value, meaning a bottle of Iridium-quality Starfruit wine will fetch you 6,300 gold if you have the Artisan Profession.

7 Slime

Slime is a product that can be found by killing Slime monsters or harvesting Slime Balls produced by Slimes raised within a Slime Hutch. It can be used in several handy recipes, such as the Oil Maker, Slime Incubator, and Wild Bait, but monetarily it doesn't fare well, only pulling 5 gold each.

In order to make any substantial money from raising Slimes, it's better to save up Slime in order to convert it into Slime Eggs via the Slime Egg-Press. It takes 20 in-game hours to convert 100 Slime into an egg, which will randomly result in a Green, Blue, Red, or Purple Slime Egg.

Green Slime Eggs sell for 1,000 gold, but Purple Slime Eggs go for 5,000 gold, making Slime Eggs a much more profitable use of Slime.

6 Cloth

Thanks to the introduction of Clothing in one of the game's many updates, Cloth is no longer just an expensive item that you'll use here and there but otherwise chuck into the shipping bin. Now, instead of just hats, dozens of unique clothing items can be worn and swapped out easily by using furniture such as wardrobes to store clothes.

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Once you gain access to Sheep (or Rabbits), you should save all their wool for the many fashionable and ridiculous outfits that can be made with Cloth, such as an Iridium Breastplate or a Jester Shirt. Being fashionable is just another job for a hardworking farmer.