@evilengineer I thought about that as well, but maybe its not that profitable? Like, he can make a cheap dagger/sword/armor that will always be better than an item sold by NPCs or other blacksmiths, but the power difference is exponential (was it 15%? 20%?), which would give a small bonus on weaker items while the price would be higher, which could make so it doesnt sells well.
It only really becomes a good deal when the base value is somewhat high and he rolls for something that will catch people's attention (like epic or legendary), which means that anything of lower quality would be materials spent for no guaranteed profit; for example if he makes 10 but only one is epic and only that one sells, its price would have to outweight the production of all 10 items. On the long run sure, if you put on the shop the 'failures' they might sell someday, but he needs lots of money ASAP to pay his and his family's debts.
I just think that he should try start making items on demand and the buyer giving the materials, so the quality would be higher than if they bought the ready-made items (and materials in general cost less than the finished product), the cost would be reduced and his work itself would be the selling service. Materials + service should be cheaper for the buyer than if they only got the final product, specially if they hunt the materials themselves.