Tips for making gil as a crafter

==Intro==

Hi there. Jet Chan here from the Fabul server. I'm a casual player (2-3 hour a day), was 8th to r50 BSM on the server (albeit it's a small server), and I go through a lot of gil. I roughly estimate I've spent 50mil or so on mats in the last several months, and so I've needed to find ways to fund my extravagant non-mat-farming habits. Here's what I've learned about making gil as a crafter:


==Some theory (you can skip this if you want)==

There are some stagnant areas of the game's current economy. It doesn't mean you can't make money, it just means you have to use this information to your advantage. There aren't *very many* new players entering the game, and so the demand for weapons, armor, and tools has flattened out quite a bit. The demand for materials, however, is strong. Though I'm not a DoH, I assume that this is where the true money exists. That being said, there's some demand for gear/tools, but you need to find out where the demand is. I'll give you a hint: it's not solely in end-game gear. Much of the middle-ranked gear sells for 200-300k for NQ pieces, while the r47 tools, for instance, are selling for 40-50k each. This is because crafters are trying to make HQ end-game pieces, and so they have an excess of NQ pieces that they're throwing away in the wards.

The short message is: do some research to find out what is in demand on your server (that is relevant to your craft, of course), and then craft away.


==Some Examples==

You'll need to spread out the items you make since the demand is limited. You don't want to over saturate the entire market single-handedly. But you CAN pick and choose the best ROI or gil/hour recipes (ROI or gil/hour are important depending on your needs and play style).

Example 1: Buy 100 Crystals in the wards (~90k gil), 100 Fine Sands from Jemimi (~36k), <Hasty Hand> them (~35 mins), and sell them for ~180 each. That's 274k gil gross (5% to your retainer, since the crystal ward is full), and 148k net. The ROI is 17%. The gil/hr is ~250k.

Example 2: Buy a Gold Dust in the wards (~600k) and use fry it in your ALC oven (with a few other immaterial ingredients) to make 4 Red Glass Lenses, and use ~80k in silver and iron to make 4 Silver Alembics. Five 3-minute synths, and about 9 mins worth of Hastily Handed synths. Sell them for 400k each in the wards. 1.52mil gross (assuming your ARM doesn't HQ one and make a killing), 840k net. 24% ROI, 2.1mil/hr.


==Some Tools==

I made a table of all the in-game items for which yg lists a average selling price. You can sort it, filter it, mark rows, etc. So, if your only crafting class is leatherworker, then filter the "Obtained By" column by typing in "Leatherworker" into the white input box at the column heading. Now you will only see the items which a leatherworker can make.

This tool is for seeing how potentially lucritive it is to make specific items to sell. It's not a failproof way, but it's a good start (see the disclaimer below). And it's useful no matter what rank crafter you are, since there are recipes of all ranks available.

http://mooglebox.com/misc/pricecompare.php



==A Freebee==

Take a look at what NPCs sell items for versus what players buy them for in the wards. Sometimes making gil is as easy as buying some stacks from an NPC, and then reselling them in the wards with the price marked up. I imagine this will always be a promising way to make money, since not all players are as resourceful as us. For instance, I'm usually able to mark up Fine Sand by 300% and make 200k or so every night in the wards, with about 5 minutes worth of walking to the ALC guild and back.


==Some disclaimer==

The past couple of weeks, it has been really tough to sell anything at all on our server (including my Fine Sand *cry*). Idk what the deal is, but if you try out some of my strategies and they don't work... don't, um, hurt me... too much.

Secondly, the impending materia system has the potential to drastically effect the economy, especially where my strategies are concerned. Perhaps I'll write a guide after the materia system comes out ;)

Lastly, the market prices I pulled from yg are two weeks old, and I'm not going scrape them again (I don't think it would be very cool to yg). And since only a few select players register their sales on yg, it's a very small market sample. The accuracy of the values is tenuous at best. The numbers I've provided for you are meant to be used as a ball park, or even simply an indicator of what recipes you should be making note of. Go down the list, mark the rows that interest you (click on the row to turn it pink), and then alt-tab to your game and use the item-search feature in the wards to verify if you've found some good matches.


==End==

Thanks for reading. I'm sorry I even have to mention this, but, please refrain from trolling comments such as "gil is worthless in this game because there's nothing to spend it on yet". However, I do want you to chime in. How do you make your gil? Where can my strategies be improved and what other methods can you teach me/us about making gil?

Things certainly do change over time. I found that Iron Nuggets used to be rather lucrative, but with supply/demand going out of balance recently, prices have dropped by up to 50% as the markets are saturated. Now, I'm trying to smelt them in to Iron Ingots since there is more of a gap in that area on Figaro.

Use the item search feature before putting something up for sale. Check the current lowest price. You want to be within the top three on the list or your gear won't sell until everyone above you has sold their stuff and anyone else who comes along after you've put up for sale and undercut you. It's a cut-throat economy and you MUST undercut your competitors to move your stock.

Also, have a variety of things in your retainer's bazaar - the market system contains the possibility for impulse buying, which means you want to show off a variety of goods. Let people pick up a pair of canvas slops to go with their doublet while they're there for convenience's sake.

Don't bother trying to use your own bazaar to sell stuff unless you have a guaranteed sale. Too many players use their bazaar simply as an extra ten inventory slots by putting their selling-prices at an unaffordable maximum. This has meant that passers-by have stopped looking.
There is an exception - have something available for repair and you can have a chance of window-shoppers actually paying you attention (until said repair icon disappears).

Even a low-level crafter can make money. Higher level crafters will often not bother making lower-ranked things because there is no SP in it and they have enough money ongoing from other endeavors. Earlier in the game, I was making Tin Alembics because no one else was. If you can find a gap in the market, you may even get yourself a temporary monopoly.

Raw Materials (full stop) - Look for all those skill-up recipes. (Iron, Walnut Logs, Scalebugs, Fish, Shards...)

Nothing else sells quite as well, even if the margin is better. Equipment sell slow now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tymora

Raw Materials (full stop) - Look for all those skill-up recipes. (Iron, Walnut Logs, Scalebugs, Fish, Shards...)

Nothing else sells quite as well, even if the margin is better. Equipment sell slow now.

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Materia will no doubt shake this up. Also with dark matter coming in, now may be the time to invest in some gathering skills.

It's difficult to say where I make my gil since I don't want to lose my market, but I guess my little bit of advice I would add is this:

Perhaps it's better to farm mats that can only be found in areas of the world that players tend to go less. For example, everyone loves uldah. Goods that are farmed in La'nasca or w.e might be a bit more rare, and sell better :)

Thats my advice, and honestly i don't know if it's true, but it works for me!

Shy Freedance