Crafting seem to no longer be a viable solution for making Gil...

...unless you really treat it like a damn job.

Because, hear me out. Crafting has undergone significant changes, and it’s no longer as profitable as it once was for earning Gil. One of the reasons for this shift is the sheer number of crafters on each server, even in those with lower populations. It seems like, since how easy it became to level up all your crafters (and gear them up too), even on low-populated servers, everyone is a damn crafter.

With so many players engaging in crafting, the market has become saturated. The ease of leveling and gearing up crafting classes means that even high-tier, expert recipes are no longer a challenge for many players. Remember 2.0/3.0 times, for comparison? There were only a handful of pentamelded, high-tier omnicrafters, leveling crafters was a long, arduous process, rotations were somewhat luck dependant because of Steady Hands, so, there weren't that much of a competition on the field. Now, with the dumbing down of crafting and invention of Firmament, leveling is astonishingly easy, which leads to oversaturation of crafters.

But these all aren't even the main issues. Undercutting is. Yeah, those pesky creatures that undercut you by 1 gil all the time. And now, it's an automated process even, with the help of black magic addons. To successfully sell items on the Marketboard in this environment, you need to treat it like a second full-time job. You must CONSTANTLY monitor prices, adjust their listings, and be ready to act quickly to stay competitive.

Like, yeah, you can still make good profits when you sell new crafted gear day 1 of the patch but again, for that you need to log in before others, DO NOTHING ELSE except speedrunning new master books, gearing yourself up, gathering new mats as fast as possible, come up with a new crafting rotation before others (since it usually takes half a day for a crafting rotation for a new tier of items to appear on the web), etc. etc. etc. Again, it's a damn freaking full-time job, just to earn yourself some Gil.

So, yeah, looks like crafting is no longer good for making money. Sure, you CAN still sell things, if you don't care about how long its going to take it or for how big of an amount you sell it. You can still sell old mats, old leveling gear, glamours, housing furniture. Crafting can still be a rewarding activity for those who enjoy the process, but, it’s clear that the days of easy profits are long gone.

P. S. Not really a post to whine or cry but to rather vent out about my thoughts on that.

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Originally Posted by Antoine_Lenheim

...unless you really treat it like a damn job.

Because, hear me out. Crafting has undergone significant changes, and it’s no longer as profitable as it once was for earning Gil.

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Unless your world is vastly different from mine, I don't see how crafting being no longer profitable at all. In fact, it has become even more profitable than ever. Back in the old days in ARR and HW, the most gil I ever owned was around 200 million. Nowadays, in a single patch of either Endwalker or Dawntrail, I was able to earn over 100 million, and my total gil count is over 2 billion. Both gil and materia has depreciated much though, and everybody is kind of rich these days, so my 2 billion is probably similar to having 200 million in the old days anyway.

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Originally Posted by Antoine_Lenheim

One of the reasons for this shift is the sheer number of crafters on each server, even in those with lower populations. It seems like, since how easy it became to level up all your crafters (and gear them up too), even on low-populated servers, everyone is a damn crafter.

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Yes, everyone is a damn crafter, but there is only a handful of truly competent crafters. I don't deny that competition is getting harsher, but I dare say at least 60% of omnicrafters don't really craft anything, especially not endgame stuff.

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Originally Posted by Antoine_Lenheim

With so many players engaging in crafting, the market has become saturated. The ease of leveling and gearing up crafting classes means that even high-tier, expert recipes are no longer a challenge for many players. Remember 2.0/3.0 times, for comparison? There were only a handful of pentamelded, high-tier omnicrafters, leveling crafters was a long, arduous process, rotations were somewhat luck dependant because of Steady Hands, so, there weren't that much of a competition on the field. Now, with the dumbing down of crafting and invention of Firmament, leveling is astonishingly easy, which leads to oversaturation of crafters.

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You have confused Master Recipes with Expert Recipes. Back in the old days, Master Recipes were for "experts". They were tough. These days, they have become easy, and are not longer for "experts". Right... Master Recipes are all macro-able nowadays. So ANYONE with pentamelds can obtain the Master Books and craft them.

Expert Recipes, on the other hand, are still for "experts". From what I see, over 90% of players are still having trouble with Expert Recipes from Endwalker even when they're at level 100. If you haven't done so yet, I strongly recommend you to try them out. The previously released Island Sanctuary items, including the "Aetherial Arbor Hardware", "Aetherial Arbor Lumber" and "Aetherial Arbor Resin" were not for the squeamish. They were actually quite challenging and fun to craft. Similarly, their predecessors, such as the "Uncharted Course" items and "Smaller Water Otter Fountain" items were all quite challenging when they were just released. And for a long time, these items were very profitable, because the mats were hard to obtain, and only a handful of crafters dared and were able to successfully craft these items for sale. I remember myself making about 200 million that patch, and I heard of stories of how some crafters made over 800 million in that patch.

Here's a screenshot of what I sold 2 years ago in 2023:
https://i.imgur.com/aKXofrr.jpeg

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Originally Posted by Antoine_Lenheim

But these all aren't even the main issues. Undercutting is. Yeah, those pesky creatures that undercut you by 1 gil all the time. And now, it's an automated process even, with the help of black magic addons. To successfully sell items on the Marketboard in this environment, you need to treat it like a second full-time job. You must CONSTANTLY monitor prices, adjust their listings, and be ready to act quickly to stay competitive.

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I do agree that some people have nothing better to do than undercutting others, and it does kill the market of those items. But, I don't think those people are capable of selling EVERYTHING. There are so many items to craft and sell. I think you just need to find the right items.

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Originally Posted by Antoine_Lenheim

Like, yeah, you can still make good profits when you sell new crafted gear day 1 of the patch but again,

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Well, maybe not Day 1, but at least for a week. It's still profitable. The recent Patch 7.2 came on 26/3/2025. And up until 3/4/2025 last week, I was still making pretty good gil.

Here's a screenshot of what I sold lately in Patch 7.2:
https://i.imgur.com/K6RqYdX.jpeg

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Originally Posted by Antoine_Lenheim

for that you need to log in before others, DO NOTHING ELSE except speedrunning new master books, gearing yourself up,

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These are NOT things to be done when a new patch arrives. These are things to be done BEFORE a new patch arrive though. We all knew which patch in an expansion would give the new master books, so all you needed was max out your Purple Scrips, stock up about 30 Collectables for more Purple Scrips, and then you can immediately have the new master books within the first 5 min of Patch 7.2. As for gearing up, we had months for that before Patch 7.2 came. In fact, most of us would even maxed all Allagan Tomestones before the patch. It's just something we always do before a new patch.

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Originally Posted by Antoine_Lenheim

gathering new mats as fast as possible, come up with a new crafting rotation before others (since it usually takes half a day for a crafting rotation for a new tier of items to appear on the web), etc. etc. etc. Again, it's a damn freaking full-time job, just to earn yourself some Gil.

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Yes, you do need to gather mats as fast as possible. But you don't need to come up with a new crafting rotation.... I have already provided that for you on this forum... The rotation there worked in 7.0, worked in 7.1 and now it still works in 7.2... I mean, a little bit of modifying is needed, but it's so minor that I didn't even bother "updating" the thread... I was actually a bit surprised and disappointed that my old rotations STILL works right now ever since Dawntrail launch!!!

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Originally Posted by Antoine_Lenheim

So, yeah, looks like crafting is no longer good for making money. Sure, you CAN still sell things, if you don't care about how long its going to take it or for how big of an amount you sell it. You can still sell old mats, old leveling gear, glamours, housing furniture. Crafting can still be a rewarding activity for those who enjoy the process, but, it’s clear that the days of easy profits are long gone.

P. S. Not really a post to whine or cry but to rather vent out about my thoughts on that.

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Well, to be fair, if it's "easy profit", then everybody will rush to it, right? Then you run into the problem of saturation. To earn big bucks these days, you can either "get gud" and sell things that most others cannot craft, or "get FAST" so you sell things before others. I think it's a fair game. If you think harder, you will likely remember that even back in the old days, gil didn't come easy anyway. Time has probably blurred your memories... there had never been any "days of easy profits". If there was, it probably was just for a very short time. And guess what, we are STILL having those times right now. You just need to be well-prepared, and sell the right things at the right time.

Btw, this is a screenshot of mine today:
https://i.imgur.com/2PEvSvZ.png

Red arrows showed some items which I randomly crafted, and they were profitable... The originally quicksyn those Sarcenet Cloth as a stock for myself, so I listed them at high prices on the market. But then people just bought them... If they were not "easy money", I don't know what is...

@Caimie_Tsukino

I mean, I full well understand that there are some enlightened and zen-conscious crafters out there, who know some secrets and gimmicks, or who simply are too hardcore, and they make millions even now. Like, of course, I specifically outlined that in the end of my post, that sure, you can still make money and have fun, if you know your thing. But I was talking about my own experience with crafting, why I personally think it's no longer as profitable as it was. And my own experience, I imagine, can be the experience of any other, let's say, casual crafter out there.

Because, again, let us go back in time. Maybe in my original post i phrased myself a bit too crudely. Those weren't days of easy profits as crafter, those were days of "high risk/high investment - high gain/reward". It was not easy by any means to level up your crafters, you didn't get as much exp doing regular crafts, you only had GC, Rowena and levequest turn-ins as a stable means of levelling. Then, once you hit max level, you needed endgame gear and that was a pain in the ass to get, mats were expensive/hard to obtain, your crafting rotations were luck dependant and also, if you didn't level up all your crafters at once, you're screwed because you needed those cross-class skills for your rotations. Oh, and good luck getting all the materia you need for your gear too. But, once you do all that, once you go through arduous process of leveling and gearing your crafters, you were ready to start raking in millions. There were only a handful of endgame omnicrafters on servers, you didn't have as much competition, during HW times, you could sell crafted items needed for Anima Relic for hundreds of thousands of gil per item and it was almost an insta-sell, because, again, only a select few were able to craft them. And I'm not even talking about crafted battle gear, pots and other stuff. Endgame crafters had that "elitism" factor.

And what do we have right now? SE have made crafting so accessible that demand is no longer greater than supply. Crafting hell lost its elitism factor. Dumbed down crafting, you can learn all the needed skills on one crafter without much need to level others (ofc you still need to but I'm talking about skills here). Leveling them all is a matter of a week maybe, you have increased exp for crafting items, just spam Firmament, custom deliveries, leves, other turn-ins. Cosmic exploration will probably make leveling your crafters and gatherers even easier again. All recipes now, even master recipes, are easily macroed because of how dumbed down crafting is, you just sit back and relax while your macro (or even crafting plugin) does all the job for you. With all that, with how accessible and easy crafting become, it's no big wonder why everyone is a crafter now and why market is so over-saturated. This is what basically was my point.

And if we go back to my personal experience, during this patch, I've tried to sell some of the new items myself. I wasn't trying to race others, I had a casual approach, I came from work, got my master books, started gathering new mats, then sat for a while to craft some new crafted green sets. Then have put them all on marketboard, and went to sleep. On the other day, when I woke up, I only sold ONE item, while the rest were way down under all the undercutters. Okay, I adjusted my prices, went to work, came back, sold NOTHING. Again, a wave of crafters and undercutters got me. I adjusted my price again, played a bit, sold one item, went to sleep. Do I need to tell you what happened on the other day? Yeah, undercutters. From all the sets I've putted on mb, I only sold like, three items. And these are the brand new, freshly out of patch, i740 gear pieces. Imagine such a thing during ARR or HW, where day 1-2 of the patch, market is already full with these things, and people are undercutting one another in order to just secure a sale. I actually found out that it was much easier to sell intermediate mats, like Cronopio Leather, instead of a finished gear piece. It sold much better for some reason. But yeah, I guess you can see my point a bit clearer now?

I can't sit in front of my screen of all day, monitoring and adjusting prices when I see someone undercutted me by 1 gil. I also can't (and don't want to) race other crafters and sell new stuff ASAP, before others even put much on the marketboard. It's okay if you do and I understand crafting is still a viable thing for earning gil if you're into that. Sure. But for me, in my personal opinion, this is why crafting isn't as good as it was for making gil now. Not to the point of not being worth it, just not as good as it was.



EDIT: By the way, is there any use for these expert things that you can craft? Why do people buy them, I never saw them being used in any crafting recipe. Do you turn them in somewhere?

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Originally Posted by Antoine_Lenheim

EDIT: By the way, is there any use for these expert things that you can craft? Why do people buy them, I never saw them being used in any crafting recipe. Do you turn them in somewhere?

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Which expert "things" are you referring to?

The level 80 Expert recipes were for items that can be traded for Skybuilder Scrip at the Firmament in Ishgard.

The level 90 Expert recipes were primarily for turning into a vendor at Island Sanctuary to unlock new Landmark buildings though one set was to create an outdoor furnishing for normal housing.

The final stage of the level 80 and level 90 relic tools along with all stages of the Resplendent tools are also Expert recipes, though easier in difficulty than the standard recipes.

We don't have any level 100 Expert recipes to the best of my knowledge (unless they were added with the 7.2 Master books). I was expecting the level 100 recipes to appear when Cosmic Exploration gets released.

I'm not sure what you call not profiting, if you work a few hours during the week to gather your items, have fun between just research what's selling - Right now i'm struggling to sell tisanes again, but that's because the fight for the week 1s is over for savage - there's PLENTY of stuff selling for 4k plus on goblin, it's not all moving that fast.. But thats' the way markets roll.

And yea we don't have level 100 experts, I am soooo gunning for Cosmic Exploration in a couple weeks though.

Honestly? Crafting isn't always about making money, i've got the "EBAY/WALMART CROWN" because i'm proud of working my butt off.

I know that there's plenty of ways to make more gil, and i'm not usually worried ifi 'm making millions just enough to get back what i put into it or having fun doing it.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Which expert "things" are you referring to?

The level 80 Expert recipes were for items that can be traded for Skybuilder Scrip at the Firmament in Ishgard.

The level 90 Expert recipes were primarily for turning into a vendor at Island Sanctuary to unlock new Landmark buildings though one set was to create an outdoor furnishing for normal housing.

The final stage of the level 80 and level 90 relic tools along with all stages of the Resplendent tools are also Expert recipes, though easier in difficulty than the standard recipes.

We don't have any level 100 Expert recipes to the best of my knowledge (unless they were added with the 7.2 Master books). I was expecting the level 100 recipes to appear when Cosmic Exploration gets released.

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Ah, okay, that's why I never bothered to make them it seems. Never engaged with either Firmament or Island Sanctuary. But good to know still, thanks for clarifying.

from my experience its more rewarding to craft and sell low lvl items, especially lower lvl crafting gear or things that are needed for levequests

Selling the current raidgear is a pain because of people undercutting you with forbidden plugins. You have to find items that are somewhat valuable but that noone else crafts because they are too outdated

If you truly want to make money, get yourself a solo fc on an alt and run submarines. You'll make 300m per year by basically doing nothing. Its also more money than you could ever spend in a year in this game