Making money at 50.

[Urthdigger]

If you need to, shout for a crafter to repair your gear. You might be expected to provide the dark matter and a small tip, but it should still be cheaper than paying the npc.

It's no longer possible to request repairs from another player. Your only options are repairing it yourself, or having an NPC do it, with self-repairs a lot cheaper.

[Brises]

The best way to earn gil is also the most time consuming. Leveling every craft to 15 not that difficult and shouldn't cost a lot. At 15 you will get some good cross class skills for crafting HQ items. Level classes using trade leves, that will give you some steady gil income. Important point, never buy mats that you can make or gather. That is the benefit of leveling several crafts. Sell whatever surplus mats you have at a reasonable price. There is a good market for cross class mats. A lot of people don't want to have to level blacksmith just because they want to level weaver, so they will buy mats.

It's a slow process, but before long you will be surprised at how much gil you have

[Bixby]

Important point, never buy mats that you can make or gather.

Never say never. Time is money, opportunity cost, gathering is only free if your time is worthless, etc. It's better to make intelligent and informed decisions about what to buy vs. what to make/gather than to just stick with a blanket strategy. It's going to take some pretty strange circumstances for me to make cotton thread again instead of just buying it from the Alchemist's guild, or even off the market boards. Also can't bring myself to spend hours mining my own silver ore when buying it, crafting it, and selling the results nets more gil/hour and is over much faster.

[Brises]

Well I figure time spent playing any game is time where I don't have anything better to do. To me gathering and crafting is fun. I understand a lot of people feel anything outside of raiding is a waste and crafting is a labor to earn gil. To me it's all just a game so do whatever is fun. I gave my perspective on crafting and you can give yours. But you can't tell me what to say or not say.

[Naberrie]

Never say never. Time is money, opportunity cost, gathering is only free if your time is worthless, etc.

I've always thought this argument short sighted. It's short term gain vs long term gain. Long term gathering mats and leveling other crafts is more profitable. And it's an MMO. It's not a race. It's okay to do things slowly.

[Bixby]

Sorry if it came off that way (trying to tell other people what to say). Maybe shoulda used a smiley or something. Just tossing out common expressions as a lead-in to what I was saying.

Edit for moar:

Enjoyment and long-term benefits are definitely considerations. I just don't think never buying mats you can craft or gather is a good idea, financially. If enjoyment and/or leveling are factors for you, and that makes not buying the mats worth your time, cool. But if it's making money you're interested in, I don't think following any blanket rule is a good idea. Weigh the factors, make decisions.

[Lemon8or]

Never say never.

I spot a Belieber. It's not a common expression. >.<

[Urthdigger]

My view on whether to gather your own materials or buy them is rather simple: I do not view them as two parts of the same process, but as two entirely separate processes. First, I consider whether gathering the material would be worth it, mostly depending on how difficult it is to find for a decent price, and how easy it is for me to gather. After I make that decision, I decide whether it would be worthwhile to craft the item, which is pretty much deciding "Is this item worth more than the materials used to make it?"

For a lot of things, they're unprofitable if you buy the materials, but a common argument is that you can "make money if you gather the materials yourself." False. It is the act of gathering the materials that makes the money in that case, and crafting with them loses money. On the other hand, there are synths with very common materials, which in the time it took to gather you could have bought the materials AND done some things to earn the money back.

Of course, there's more than profit to consider when deciding which actions to take. The important thing is to consider each step separately and decide whether that step helps you in any way. Even if that help may be "It's more enjoyable."