Using Gathering to make gil on MB

I started this thread to read everyone's experience using the gathering jobs to sell mats on the MB mostly early game 1 - 50 level. Any suggestions would help also I know the Market fluctuates with supply and demand, however, I m interested in how:

1. Do you stack your items a certain way?
2. How much Quantity to put on each stack?
3. Should I sell in all cities or just one?
4. What is a reasonable amount or average to make per day on MB? (subjective)
5. When selling multiple same mats, should you spread out stacks among retainers or all on one? ex...90 maple log, 90 maple log, etc all on one retainer or just one?

So really looking for different strategies to take advantage and make the most out of selling mats.

It always helps when you know what the mats are used for, so you can stack them in quantities wich fit the craft. When you need 5 logs to make 1 lumber then it makes sense to sell the logs in stacks of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25... for example. This way the crafter has not to buy something extra wich he has no use for, when there are only stacks with 6 for example. On the other hand you can make him buy that one more than he needs...

In general I sell stuff in smaller stacks of 5 or 10 items or one by one. I have to refill the retainers more often, but I have the impression that stuff sells quicker.

I would avoid Ishgard, all the other markets are fine. Limsa is maybe the best option to sell stuff, but it depends on the server how active every city is. Ishgard is not that active, there is also only 1 market board in and no housing districts, wich means there are not many people who will buy from Ishgard. Ul'dah is maybe a bad choice too, not many people like the housing district so a lot of houses are maybe only placeholders for relocation and not many people actually hang out there.

But overall people seem to have no idea how the taxes work. They will rather buy the item on top of the list to safe 10 gil and pay 1000 gil taxes than buying for 10 gil more without taxes...

Making 1 mio gil per day should be possible with not too much work.

Biggest tip I wish I had known when first starting out gathering was to learn to investigate what to gather to make it worth your time. Target things used in end game crafts which the end game crafter may be too lazy to go gather for themselves. For example Silver Ore(lvl 25 node) and Electrum Ore(lvl 45 node) are used in a number of end game crafts currently. There are other things besides these too you can gather that may be more profitable and I'd highly suggest checking out something like Garland Tools pick a few things and then consult your MB to see if its worth your time to gather as prices are going to fluctuate from moment to moment and server to server.

To answer the other questions directly...

1 & 2) 99 per stack is what I did. Would gather 5 stacks worth to list as well.
3)I don't really think it matters tbh. I'd just pick one city. Someone else correct me if I'm wrong.
4) Completely subjective. I used to make a million gil a day just from gathering, but I don't think that is realistic right now because the markets are on the low side because its right before the next expansion. Prices will go up again once ShB is released and the new materials to gather will be sky high for a little while before becoming stable.
5) I keep them all on one retainer to make it easier to keep track of everything.

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Originally Posted by Jimmymagic

I started this thread to read everyone's experience using the gathering jobs to sell mats on the MB mostly early game 1 - 50 level. Any suggestions would help also I know the Market fluctuates with supply and demand, however, I m interested in how:

1. Do you stack your items a certain way?
2. How much Quantity to put on each stack?
3. Should I sell in all cities or just one?
4. What is a reasonable amount or average to make per day on MB? (subjective)
5. When selling multiple same mats, should you spread out stacks among retainers or all on one? ex...90 maple log, 90 maple log, etc all on one retainer or just one?

So really looking for different strategies to take advantage and make the most out of selling mats.

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1/2. Depends what it is. Basic logs and ore? Usually 99. More rare mats, such as unspoiled and/or purchased mats, usually at a number to coincides with the number needed for a craft, or in blocks of 5-10 if it something only required 1 per.
3. Sell in the one with the cheapest tax rate.
4. Completely subjective as it relies almost entirely on what you are selling.
5. I fill my retainers in order so it is easier to see at a glance when I have sold something.

I would sell stuff in stacks of 99 as well as smaller stacks (sort of retired at the moment) but i've made quite a bit of gil from botany and mining. I find the big crafters prefer to buy full stacks where others don't. Key is maintaining a low price and that requires constant effort with monitoring prices and undercuts. Weekends are usually big for sales so be sure to have stuff ready for those sales.

O would say it all depends on the item, some items you can sell in large stacks (like ores, logs and water) others are better to flip in smaller volume. (things used in CUL for example)

Don't expect to make tons of money instantly, gathering is less money but it's more consistent than crafting/materia can be. And always go HQ whenever possible.

1 & 2) It depends on the items and quality.

For general purpose stuff, such as raw lumber/ores and whatnot that are only really useful for crafters to turn into items, big ol' stacks of 99.

However, for things such as items that are relevant for say, Company turn ins for leveling gatherers, putting up HQ things in stacks that are relevant for that works well. So that's 10 Lumber/Ore and 3 Fish (Unless it's a Mooched fish then it's single item)

3) Either sell in the one with the cheapest tax rate, or sell in the one that is most populated on your server (Which means no taxes for people buying from there). For example, Limsa Lominsa and Kugane are quite popular on my server.

4) Depends on what you're farming and if you're getting a lot of HQ or not. Not to mention, your servers economy.

5) Personally, I tend to put like items on the same retainer. Just for ease of my own reference. So I don't accidentally start like undercutting myself >.>

As an omnicrafter myself, I'll offer some tips that would make your wares marketable to me, and likely other omnicrafters as well.

If a gatherable item has a shop selling price, take it off of your list. Trust me, we know what these are and where to go. Examples: Iron ore, Cinnabar, Ash log

Take advantage of our laziness: What this means is to sell gatherables that require high quantity, are hidden, or on timed nodes. You could gather and sell things like silver ore and electrum ore, but honestly we can send our retainers after those and they'll bring back more than plenty in a couple of trips, or we can gather them ourselves if we don't want to wait. Not to say they are not still marketable, but high quantity stacks will take longer to sell. Items like Birch logs (hidden), Titanium ore (hidden), Zelkova logs (timed node), Adamantite ore (timed node), Molybdenum ore (high qty per synth), Persimmon logs (high qty per synth) are examples of items we go through quite quickly. Retainers can't keep up, and are time consuming to gather. These require more effort/time, but will sell at a higher rate, and bigger stacks.

Forget about HQ and take advantage of our OCD: Unless it's endgame gatherables that we actually need HQ due to difficulty of crafting the recipe such as Silvergrace ore, don't waste your time with these. I honestly don't care if its NQ as I can easily craft HQ items from NQ materials if need be. Sell the HQs you acquire in low quantity and typically not the quantity of the multiples we're after. If lumber requires x3 or x4, don't sell HQ in these quantities. Sell them in in quantities that are prime numbers and are/or not multiples of a recipe (1,7,11) as I will often need these to make my stacks divisible. You can also sell these at high prices. You'll be surprised what OCD omnicrafters will pay to make their stacks divisible. Within reason of course. I'm not going to buy a single HQ log for 10k.

Don't undercut and dispatch your retainers to multiple cities: Take a look at the sale history on the MB. Does your wares sell multiple times per day, and everyday? If they do there isn't much reason to undercut it. Your competitors are already going to take care of this for you, so don't sell yourself short. Many buyers and sellers are not aware of tax, and if the cost of tax is greater than the cost of a port, I will port to the city it is being sold from to buy it. If you undercut by a huge margin, I may very well not buy your wares out of spite.

Send out those retainers and make sure they are geared up. The more you send them out, the more they bring back. The better they are geared, the more they will bring back per venture, up to a cap. Get them capped asap. This also helps with the HQ advice I told you about earlier.

I can offer more advice, but this is getting rather long. Try some of these out and see how they work for you. It's not too difficult to make a mil per day through gathering if you apply yourself correctly.