There's been a number of things that (due to a bug) can't be repaired anymore. The only way to "repair" them is to add powder.
To an extent, the BOD turn-in changes (where one can turn in a BOD, and it immediately resets the timer to where you can get a new one) and the mining changes (locations change randomly - TOO randomly, currently) make it to where most iron smalls are being filled to get replacement BODs (meaning that the iron larges that give PoF are being tossed, not filled), and most of the colored BODs that give PoF cost considerably more to fill (if using ingots bought from a player vendor), or take much more time to get the ingots for (since finding veins of a specific ingot type has practically been reduced to randomly mining till you hit enough spots of that type). Add in some of the crackdowns on scripters (the randomization, Bag of Sending changes, and yesterday's exploding houses), and you get PoF being a much rarer, and in demand, property.
I'm enjoying it, to an extent - people said I was nuts filling 50 BODs for PoF 2-3 years ago, and then not selling them - but I have been trickling them out, 3-5 at a time every couple months when my funds run low, and making double to triple what they were worth back then.
There was also an event last year where the Compassion region of Britannia (both facets, on the non-SP shards, for double the payout) were invaded by ore elementals of ALL types (up to and including Valorite), among other things, and my macer Smith (legendary in both) on his fire beetle brought home THOUSANDS of ingots each of Shadow through Valorite (less DC, as those eles only have 2 large instead of 25), and as a result I've been less hurt by the mining changes than those who didn't scavenge the battlefield. In fact, I've been mining a lot recently, but for IRON ingots to fill some BODs to train another smith. I'm still being psycho and doing it in Ilshenar with a gargoyle pick, though...
