HC economy isn't that great, not on EU it isn't anyway. Sure you don't have the RMAH and way less bots but the good items are scarce because so many items leave the system (and less people play HC so less items are found). It only gets bad when you need to start gearing up for inferno/MPs though, sub 60 it's great.
Also; an item that would be considered trash on SC will go in the millions on HC. Like a "simple" 150mainstat/150vit/60AR pair of pants will cost you an arm and a leg.
lol, just searched on 150int/150vit/60AR pants, results below...
Yep...
Just entered the same query on SC, 25 pages, lowest buy-out 800k and some ending without buy-out for around 200k. That's a pretty good illustration of what's not so great about the HC economy right there.
However, if you do manage to gear up and get that dmg up and feel you're trashing MP1, it's pretty rewarding! :lol