Odd market trend for sky pirate's gear

So I've noticed an odd trend in the market for Sky Pirate gear on Famfrit, and I'm curious to hear if others have noticed similar trends on other servers.

Basically, the Sky Pirate gear is selling far better than I thought it would. After discovering it was only i185 with no materia slots, I assumed that people would only buy it for 1 of 2 reasons:

1) Glamour, especially since many pieces look pretty good.
2) Spiritbonding grade V materia in the diadem. (I had thought this was mostly an insignificant factor, given how easy it is to get grade Vs just from zerging diadem mobs and buying grade Vs with spoils)

So I saw how much these things sold for on Famfrit and decided to give it a shot. I noticed that almost all the listings on the market were NQ, and this was unsurprising, since I assumed most people wanted them for glamour. But I was really curious to see how well HQ versions would sell; after all, they'd spiritbond faster, and I imagine there are some unusually wealthy players who'd be too lazy to farm law/alex gear. So I made a bunch of HQ pieces, expecting NQs to sell much better.

And here's the weird part: HQs are selling like hotcakes! I only started selling this gear two days ago, and it feels like I can't keep enough of them on the boards. This honestly shocked me, bc I've been selling HQs at around 2 mil when NQs are sitting around 800k-1 mil on average.

So this got me thinking about what people are really using Sky Pirates gear for. Obviously, if people are paying twice as much for HQ when NQ is readily available, then they must not be buying it for glamour (or at least not just for glamour), but either for spiritbonding (since HQ spiritbonds faster) or they're actually buying it to, you know, use.

I can't imagine paying 2 mil for a piece just so it'll spiritbond faster, so maybe more people are buying it to use as battle gear than I originally predicted. It seems like farming Alex NM would be an easier, cheaper, and better option, but I've heard that the removal of the loot lockout has made NM a nightmare to get the loot you want, since you're fighting 7 other people on pretty much every roll.

I'll continue to monitor the market trends on Famfrit to see if this pattern persists; I have a feeling it won't, but who knows? The markets have surprised me before!

You have said everything in my mind. Zalera is a less populated server, so those i185 HQ gear here DON'T sell like hot cakes. But they still do sell after a few days to a week. It boggles my mind.

500-900k for hq here. If it is weaver or leather craft. 1mil plus for gsm.

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Originally Posted by Rath

500-900k for hq here. If it is weaver or leather craft. 1mil plus for gsm.

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Thanks for the info. How often do HQs sell compared to NQS on Coeurl?

They don't seem to give tier 5 materia very often. I think I've converted like 10 pieces or so, but haven't seen a single one. I had better luck with the i160. :(

Same is happening on Moogle, and sell for 900k/1,2m in average. I think it's mostly for spiritbonding. Even the pants and hands are selling quite high, that generally wouldn't be the case if it were only for glamour. I did get a few requests for glamour, but they alway ask for the chest.

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Originally Posted by Valesti_Peleiades

Thanks for the info. How often do HQs sell compared to NQS on Coeurl?

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I don't really pay attention to NQs. I attribute those to being mistakes, as usually they are the same people that list NQ 2 star gear. They don't sell though, as the HQs are just as cheap.

Whatever requires Fisher mats will sell for millions. No one likes fishing... Well I know one person that loves it lol

I'm jealous of your worlds. On Siren, most of the Sky Pirate stuff doesn't even have a full page of sale history and the pieces that do still have entries from like the 11th. ...Then again, the listed prices far outstrip the cost of mats, so I could cut into the price a little to get more buyers. Hmm...capitalism, ho!

Seconding cgb on Moogle
Most piece are around 400k or 600k NQ and 1M HQ
The more the leather the more the price GP high XD

Personnally i just made 2 piece healer torso and pants (have to wait my leatherworker slave for the remaining pieces)
Not for glamour but spiritbonding

You get almost 2% for rank IV and V in diadem for HQ piece
And it give Tier V materia
It's faster than farming pink loot and waiting for 48 token
=> and combining both allow you to get tons of materia

Plus my miqote is so pretty with this stuff :D

One of the interesting points of skypirate set is that is "cheap" to make, and it will help greatly any "fresh" player that already get lvl 60 and doesnt meet the requeriments of ilvl170/180 of latest quests (included diadem), without the need of spent lots of weeks to farm enough esos .

Look at me I have some on, I just like the way it looks. ;)

They selling much higher on your worlds, on Balmung they only selling for like 200k even HQ only selling for like 300k.

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Originally Posted by Zorlinta

One of the interesting points of skypirate set is that is "cheap" to make, and it will help greatly any "fresh" player that already get lvl 60 and doesnt meet the requeriments of ilvl170/180 of latest quests (included diadem), without the need of spent lots of weeks to farm enough esos .

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This definitely crossed my mind, and on servers where each piece i going for 600k or so, I could see that. But when you're talking 2 mil per piece, it's a bit more puzzling. That being said, no matter how many times I review the facts, the most logical conclusion is that there are people buying this stuff to use in battle, and your explanation seems most reasonable.

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Originally Posted by Rath

I don't really pay attention to NQs. I attribute those to being mistakes, as usually they are the same people that list NQ 2 star gear. They don't sell though, as the HQs are just as cheap.

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Ah I see. So crafters aren't trying to sell the HQs at a higher price, and understandably so, because none of us predicted that people might want to use these things in combat.

Part of the reason this trend is exciting to me (beyond the fact that I'm profiting) is that this market trend has really shaken up my assumptions about what people are wiling to spend gil on. I think I had been operating under the assumption that when people buy combat gear, as a general rule, they aren't willing to spend more than a few hundred thousand per piece if an equivalent or slightly better piece can be farmed for free (in this case, Alex NM). But maybe buying culture has shifted a bit, at least on Famfrit, where people are becoming lazier about gearing up to prepare for endgame, so cost is becoming less of a concern.

I'll keep you guys posted. I'm mostly just speculating here, but it's fun for me to think about the in-game economy and how crafters' interaction with the economy can/should change.

-VP

I made a full set of sky pirates for my alt to be able to skip into void ark and diadem. Alex nm is rough on the loot rolls. :/

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Originally Posted by Rath

500-900k for hq here. If it is weaver or leather craft. 1mil plus for gsm.

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Same on Ultros, though some of the listings are a bit crowded. Prices will either drop quickly on our server or less serious crafters/sellers will drop out. NQ are selling more frequently in the 300k range and there is some pressure from other crafters to keep the HQ prices stable. With this said I just don't think the prices will last on our server.

Also I think many of the sales are glamours and slot fill ins to reach Alex, Diadem and Void Ark iLev requirements. Initially I frowned at the higher level Diadem and Void ark requirements, but now I'm seeing they were really nice choices for crafters. It makes picking up a piece of sky pirate gear logical for many players leveling other classes.

On thing I DO NOT understand is why any HQ are selling when NQ are available. (HQ isn't needed for glamours OR iLev). My only thought on this is people have too much extra money and nothing else to spend it on right now.

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Originally Posted by Katlyna

On thing I DO NOT understand is why any HQ are selling when NQ are available. (HQ isn't needed for glamours OR iLev). My only thought on this is people have too much extra money and nothing else to spend it on right now.

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It seems to me that most of the buyers on Coeurl don't care whether the item is HQ or NQ, while a small percentage is selectively purchasing HQs. Some buyers even bought NQs first and then later bought an HQ version. For this reason, I've sold my HQs at the same prices as NQs. It wouldn't be rational for me to pigeonhole myself into selling only to the 20% (or less) of the market that is after HQs. So I simply craft a single product to sell to both types of buyers.

There generally aren't too many NQs up on my server anymore since those crafting them seem to have left after the initial rush of sales. I suspect that very few crafters actually have the stats for 2* crafting here.

However, as an experiment, I've been lately keeping my HQ prices higher than NQs in order to observe what happens. Sales are really slow now so neither have been selling well recently.

It is soulbind gear. Hq binds faster and doesn't make you feel like you are gimping your FC farm. Nq sells to people that bought when hq was millions or not listed, but when the mats are cheap and the synthesis is easy, hq should be the norm.

Crafters just like to keep a huge price gap between them even though it costs them sales. Some Coeurl crafters, such as Mn, have just a better business sense.

Sales are pretty low here on Ragnarok, less than 10 units sold for every piece of gear. Prices are still relatively high, but that shouldn't be a problem since it's a legacy server with a lot of wealthy players.

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Originally Posted by Rath

Crafters just like to keep a huge price gap between them even though it costs them sales. Some Coeurl crafters, such as Mn, have just a better business sense.

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Ahh now that's interesting. On Ultros our HQ vs NQ sales have always been relatively even for most items (glamor or otherwise). Usually the rate only varies notably when there is a shortage of one quality or the other. For glamors the price difference becomes non existent. While for battle gear the HQ price is usually double. So on Ultros its usually ideal to hit HQ, and wait for a HQ sale. Now with this said on Ultros if you are super business savvy, slightly crazy, and have lots of retainers you can make out best by selling a HQ and NQ version. I've done this from time to time when I'm spending WAY too much time selling crap.

For materials and sub materials are server often has HQ prices only 30-50% higher with NQ vastly outselling HQ parts in quantity. This is one place you have to be careful with HQ on Ultros.

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Originally Posted by Katlyna

Ahh now that's interesting. On Ultros our HQ vs NQ sales have always been relatively even for most items (glamor or otherwise). Usually the rate only varies notably when there is a shortage of one quality or the other. For glamors the price difference becomes non existent. While for battle gear the HQ price is usually double. So on Ultros its usually ideal to hit HQ, and wait for a HQ sale. Now with this said on Ultros if you are super business savvy, slightly crazy, and have lots of retainers you can make out best by selling a HQ and NQ version. I've done this from time to time when I'm spending WAY too much time selling crap.

For materials and sub materials are server often has HQ prices only 30-50% higher with NQ vastly outselling HQ parts in quantity. This is one place you have to be careful with HQ on Ultros.

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Generally battle gear does sell double for HQ. But this gear NQ isn't useful for battle gear and SB is slow. The price people were listing NQ gear for was just because it was new. Since it is cheap and easy to make, and the NQ is junk for battle, the HQ is pretty much the same price. NQ only really sells if there is no HQ in stock and the person needs it to enter diadem or something with an alt.

I have recently started to actively try and make gil from HQ sky pirate gear. I am selling 1-2 pieces a day now. I do make 6~ different items though. It is about 700k profit on them atm >.<. I make them with 1900~ starting quality from the crafted mats I can cheaply make. The MB prices seem to be stupidly high again on most of the items. Word of mouth sells quite a bit of this stuff it seems. Been getting quite a few tells lately. The MB does seem like only a few people are selling, and most are listing at about 900k-1900k above cost. I assume this is what is driving a lot of my requests.

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Originally Posted by Lastelli

Sales are pretty low here on Ragnarok, less than 10 units sold for every piece of gear. Prices are still relatively high, but that shouldn't be a problem since it's a legacy server with a lot of wealthy players.

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As a legacy player, that means squat. A lot of legacy players started after the leve gil nerf. The leve payout was extremely high early on and by 1.2 it was not a good source of gil anymore. They then took a 0 off the end of every person on a legacy servers gil when they started up 2.0. So those players that had started after the leve nerf had 1-10 mil at the start of 2.0 usually. When I started over on Couerl the prices were higher here for a lot of items.

I started making pieces to sell on Siren since my last post. Before I dove in, they were selling for 1m+ and moving a snail's pace because Siren crafters don't understand reasonable profit margins. Since I can make them using NQ materials/cheap HQ materials, and can automate the creation of 1* mats at an 83% HQ chance, I decided to leverage my ability to accept a lower price point and list them for a lot less than the established rate. They're selling faster now, sold four yesterday, but they still don't seem all that popular. Doesn't seem like anything but the chest pieces see any demand, which says to me that they're glamor sales more than anything. Maybe it just needs more time.

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Originally Posted by XLauncher

I started making pieces to sell on Siren since my last post. Before I dove in, they were selling for 1m+ and moving a snail's pace because Siren crafters don't understand reasonable profit margins. Since I can make them using NQ materials/cheap HQ materials, and can automate the creation of 1* mats at an 83% HQ chance, I decided to leverage my ability to accept a lower price point and list them for a lot less than the established rate. They're selling faster now, sold four yesterday, but they still don't seem all that popular. Doesn't seem like anything but the chest pieces see any demand, which says to me that they're glamor sales more than anything. Maybe it just needs more time.

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These items were most popular the first week they were released. At that time, production costs were 400-500k per item and I noticed an appreciable difference in the volume of sales when I priced my items at 800k-1 million gil vs the 1.5-2 million+ asking price from some other listings. Recently, I haven't noticed a big difference in sales when an item is priced at 1.3 million vs 800k (judging from listings and sales histories) so I believe that the market on my server might now be supplying mostly buyers that don't really care whether the item is 800k or 1.5 million. Prices would probably have to fall considerably lower to target a larger demographic, but that could be challenging in some cases as the price of pterodactyls are still around 30k here....

Around 90k for HQ, 80k for NQ in Bahamut and they move fairly quick
Our server has a healthy market board PVP community

To answer the actual question:
At least all the people I know bought it solely for glamour. And yes, they bought the HQ versions.
No special reason to it, they just like it that their outfits are made of HQ parts.
I generally do the same if the difference between NQ and HQ doesn't go beyond 300k difference.

I've been somewhat surprised at how well they're selling, too, though there's decent competition in my chosen specialties (LTW and WVR), so that's keeping them from having extremely high profit margins.

Some of the pieces sell slower than others, so I still suspect a lot of the interest is for glamour (and with good reason; several of the bodies in particular are rather nice/unique).