I know someone posted this a while ago and I tried to find it so I could just reply, but since 1.9 with the war effort quests it seems that the price of metal bars and leathers has skyrocketed.

The previous post however stated that you want to avoid manufacturing skills until after 40.

I've recently discovered that this is not entirely true. In the beginning you can make quite a bit more by going with skinning/leatherworking to make use of the scraps and turn them to light leather so you can sell it at the AH. Once you no longer get the scraps when you skin get rid of leatherworking and learn mining. Stick with this till 40 or above and you should rake in the gold.

Mind you, with skinning alone I got my mount in just a few levels by killing Tanaris turtles and selling their skins and scales at the AH since it's selling fast as hell I don't even go with the 24 hour choice and use the AH default of 8 hours. How fast does it sell? I've seen the message come up in chat once before I left the AH room telling me a stack sold, most of the time I see it come up flying for IF to Menethil Harbor.

Since you are gathering things, it is a good idea to invest in 16 slot bags as soon as possible.