RABBIT HIDE

No recipe in Java 26.2 produces it: it drops from rabbits. It also happens to be the one ingredient in this site's only real crafting recipe: 4 of these makes 1 leather at a workbench.

A Leatherworker at journeyman buys the raw hide at an emerald per 9. That same villager also buys the leather crafted from it, but at a worse rate per item, which makes the crafting table a detour rather than a shortcut if selling is the whole plan.

One buyer. A Leatherworker at journeyman takes rabbit hide at 9 per emerald, and that slot allows 12 sales before it needs a restock. No other profession lists it in either direction.

The best rate any villager offers is an emerald per 9 rabbit hides, from the Leatherworker, and 2 of the other 3 pay out faster. No villager sells rabbit hide back, so it is emeralds out and nothing in.

One slot at the Leatherworker takes 9 rabbit hides a trade, 12 trades, 12 emeralds. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

12 acacia boats against 312 potatoes for the same 12 emeralds, 26 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Butcher at 7.5 real minutes of shelf, gathering not counted. Rabbit Hide itself pays 9 an emerald, so 29 of the 72 ask less and 41 ask more.

This offer sits at journeyman, level 3 of five, one of the earlier rungs a Leatherworker climbs. Getting a villager into the job is the real work; the trade itself follows soon after.

Selling 4 raw hides straight to that Leatherworker at 9 per emerald outpays crafting them into leather first and selling that instead, at 6 leather per emerald. Turning the hide into leather before selling costs value it did not need to lose.

12 sales close the slot, and the wait for a fresh batch runs 2 real minutes, the standard clock behind every trade. A Minecraft day spans 20 real minutes and fits two of those restocks.

Camped there for a full day, that Leatherworker takes 216 rabbit hides off your hands for 24 emeralds, whether or not you watch each sale happen.

One villager, one restock: the Leatherworker pays an emerald per 9 rabbit hides and that slot runs 12 trades before it needs refilling. Sell the hide as it is rather than crafting it up first; the raw rate is the better one.

Where they go back: that Leatherworker also sells leather leggings at 3 emeralds each, his cheapest offer.

Also on the Leatherworker's list: leather horse armor, scute, saddle, leather, leather tunic, flint.

Rabbit hide is not leather, and that catches people out. Four of them craft into one leather, so a rabbit is worth a quarter of what a cow is on that front, which is why hunting rabbits for armour is rarely worth the walk.

Selling the hide directly skips the conversion entirely, and that is what makes the Leatherworker's offer interesting: he takes the raw hide off you rather than making you craft first. The hide has no other use, so nothing is lost by selling the lot.

The whole point of rabbit hide is that it exists in biomes where cows do not. Deserts, snowy plains and meadows all have rabbits, and four hides give the leather a book, a bed frame or an item frame needs.

Leather itself is the awkward ingredient in a lot of recipes: books, item frames, armour and the lead a horse follows on. Any second route to it is worth having.

Hide is also what a leatherworker buys, so a rabbit pen feeds one villager directly and every book you ever craft indirectly.