Summary
- Save building materials like wood and stone for crafting rather than selling for quick cash in Stardew Valley.
- Cooked meals may not be profitable, but they make great gifts and health items for mining in the game.
- Keep ore, geodes, raw ingredients, and monster loot for crafting valuable items rather than selling them off.
Stardew Valley is one of the most successful indie games of the last decade, often regarded as the ultimate cozy farming sim. It has a plethora of activities to keep players engaged, from farming to foraging to mining and more. With so much to do, players will quickly find their pockets filled with more stuff than they know what to do with.
So, what should players do with all their hard-earned spoils? Plopping them all in the Shipping Bin at the end of a long day seems like the obvious solution. However, an item’s worth in Stardew Valley is not always measured in gold. Here are some that should never be sold, and can be put to better use.
Updated February 19, 2025, by Usama Ali: The temptation to sell everything one has in their inventory and quickly get extra gold is always strong, but a more strategic approach to resource management is key to long-term success in Stardew Valley. While immediate cash is appealing, many items are far more valuable when used for crafting, cooking, or completing bundles. As such, players should resist the urge to sell everything and hold onto some items for the long run. We've updated this list with additional items players should think twice about selling in Stardew Valley.
14 Building Materials
The Early-Game Cash Grab Just Isn’t Worth It
In that first Spring, players will spend a good deal of time clearing their farmland while waiting for their first batch of crops to grow. In that time, they’ll collect plenty of Wood, Stone, and Fibres. It can be very tempting to immediately sell off those materials for some quick cash, but it’s best to craft a Chest and store them.
The need for building materials ramps up very quickly. Wood and Stone are expensive, and things like Fibres and 
Hardwood can’t be bought at all. So keep those materials around, and stick to foraging for easy money.
13 Cooked Meals
Great For Gifts Or Energy Refills, But Terrible For Profits
In Stardew Valley, cooking is not a profitable pastime. The fixed selling price of each meal is always less than the sum of its parts (i.e. Ingredients). Most players only use their kitchens for purposes of cooking one of every recipe, or to load up on health items for mining.
Cooked meals also make for some of the best gifts for the local townsfolk. Everyone’s got a favorite dish, after all. Giving food away may not be a sound way to recoup the money lost on procuring ingredients, but leveling up a friendship is its own reward.
12 Ore
Made For The Forge, Not For The Shipping Bin
After a long hard day’s work in The Mines, the last thing players want is to waste all their efforts on meager profits. Mining is one of the most lucrative practices in the game, and turning ore into bars is a huge part of that.
Unlike with cooking, smelted items are always worth more than their base components. Even if players don’t have the five ore or coal necessary to put in the furnace right away, it’s best to keep them in a chest for later.
11 Geodes
The Real Money-Makers Are Hidden Within
Geodes are super valuable, just not in and of themselves. Each one contains a little goodie, be it a rare mineral, gems, or other resources. Clint the Blacksmith can open each one for 25g, so taking a bunch over on a lucky day is a great way to make some money or fill up the local library.
Stardew Valley: How to Get Geodes
Unearth various kinds of geodes in Stardew Valley to collect rare treasures and valuable resources.
Keep in mind, though, not everything that comes out of a 
Geode is worth a lot. Some items don’t even cover Clint’s fee, but overall, the gamble is always worth more than selling the Geodes straight out.
10 Raw Ingredients
If It Ain’t Artisanal, It Ain’t Profitable
As players level up their farming, they’ll learn how to craft several maker items that turn regular items into artisanal goods that they can sell for a fortune. Preserves jars, kegs, casks, and the newly-added dehydrator from the 1.6 update all take profits from crops to the next level.
The name of the game here is star quality. Artisanal goods don’t have star qualities (except for wine aged via casks), so any crops that are silver or gold-star quality can go straight in the Shipping Bin. The run-of-the-mill low-quality stuff is another story.
9 Winter Root
There’s More To This Starchy Root
While many players tend to neglect farming during Winter in Stardew Valley, it can actually be a profitable time to focus on it, especially if you use Winter Roots. Winter Roots are common forageables during Winter. It may be tempting to sell Winter Root for quick bucks, but there’s a better way to maximize your Winter profits.
Instead of selling Winter Roots directly, consider using them in a 
Seed Maker to craft Winter Seeds. Players can plant Winter Seeds to get special Winter crops, namely Crocus, Crystal Fruit, Snow Yam, and Winter Root. These crops can then be sold for decent prices to generate income from the farm even during the typically slower Winter season.
8 Bone Fragments And Bone Items
Their Only Worth Is As Mulch
It's unclear who goes around buying bones anyway, which might be why they don’t sell for much. Artifacts as a whole sell for way less than gems and minerals, but after they’re donated, there’s not much else to do with them, but bones are different.
After completing Gunther’s “Fragments of the Past” special order, players unlock the ability to craft the Bone Mill. Simply load in some Bone Fragments (or other bone-related items), wait a bit, and get some fertilizer! It's way more cost-efficient than buying it from Pierre’s.
7 Iridium Bar
Resist The Urge To Sell These Bars of Pure Iridium
Those shiny 
Iridium Bar are worth a lot of money, easily fetching a cool 1,000 gold. In fact, players with the Blacksmith Profession can sell them for 1,500 gold – making it hard to resist the temptation to sell them. While they're certainly valuable, there's a much better way to use Iridium Bars.
Stardew Valley: Best Feast Of The Winter Star Gifts To Receive
These are the best gifts to receive based on how much they sell for and how useful they are to players.
Iridium Bars are a rare and precious resource, essential for crafting advanced machinery and tools. However, they're also a key ingredient for creating Crystalariums in Stardew Valley. Crystalariums are magical machines that can replicate any gem inserted in them an infinite number of times until removed. Diamonds are the most profitable gem to replicate, yielding a profit of 150 gold per day. So, instead of immediately selling your Iridium Bars, consider investing in a few 
Crystalarium. This long-term strategy will yield far greater rewards than a one-time sale.
6 Monster Loot
There’s Just No Market For Adventurers Anymore
Similar to artifacts, monster loot just doesn’t sell for very much. After all, the real profit in mining is the ore and minerals; monsters are just an obstacle. They’re not worthless, per se. They can help pay for that shiny new sword in the Adventurer’s Guild, but there’s a smarter way to put that loot to good use.
Monster loot is used a lot in higher-level crafting, so it’s good to stock up on them instead of selling them off. Slime makes Oil Makers. Void and Solar Essences create powerful bombs. 
Bug Meat is essential for bait, and Bat Wings create Lightning Rods to create Battery Packs.
5 Dwarf Gadget
A Useful Tool In The Long Run
The Dwarf Gadget is a rare Artifact that players can find by digging in the Mines (floors 40-79), or by opening 
Magma Geode, Omni Geodes, and Artifact Troves. Like most Artifacts, players should never sell the 
Dwarf Gadget and simply donate it to the Museum. Donating the Dwarf Gadget to the Museum rewards players with a “Burnt Offering” wall decoration.
Apart from this, the Dwarf Gadget is a key component of the Farm Computer in Stardew Valley. The 
Farm Computer is a handy tool that provides a centralized overview of the farm's status. It displays which crops are ready for harvest, which need watering, and which are still growing. This way, players can plan out what needs immediate attention and avoid wasting time checking each individual crop.