OK, I gotta vent. Are people stupid or... Stupid?

[Asmeret]

I'm a GSM and it is my only trade skill. I have no level in any DoL. I make profit and I'll give you a few tips.

First: I have a spread sheet of mats I use and know the high, low, and average. I also have a spread sheet of the items I sell. My spread sheet tells me what I have to sell, at current market value, and I quickly know if it is worth my time to sell it.

Second: NEVER EVER EVER EVER fill you vendor with one item. You put 3 or more of the same item on you vendor, you are asking to be undercut. If you put 3 or less and update your vendor regularly, the competition doesn't panic then. They see your few items and feel no need to undercut you; they think you'll be sold out soon.

Third: Rotate stock. Electrum rings not selling? Either turn them into materia and sell that or save for when your competition runs out of stock. Put something else up that has few people selling it.

Forth: Sell materia bind gear. People are too afraid of loss to make it, so little competition.

Fifth: Custom orders. You can put in your search you are a GSM for hire. When I'm crafting to refill my retainer, I always put I'm for hire in my search. I get hired every now and then... and people generally tip well.

I've made tons of profit as a GSM and I'm not even 50 GSM yet. I've only leveled on selling things that make me profit. It can be done.

That, or become a Carpenter. You would have to be brain dead to lose money on CRP.

[Klive]

That, or become a Carpenter. You would have to be brain dead to lose money on CRP.

Arrows alone will keep you rich as a Carpenter. Leather worker or Carpenter were my next choices for tradeskills.

[ChiefCurrahee]

We've known for a long time, and I mean a long long time that HQ crafting was gonna be revamped and center around +1 items. I saved every single +1 mat I got for months and then upon patch day just unloaded them onto the market. If i did this I'm sure a lot of other people did this as well. When there is a surplus of supply, expect price to drop drop drop. Then once that market is depleted and people have to start working for their +1 mats expect prices to go up up up.

So if you feel you should make more money from your crafts stand your ground and sell at a higher price either people will follow suit, or you'll continue to get undercut until the market evens out, then you can set your price accordingly.

[NefarioCall]

I'm a GSM50 and have about 40mil gil.

[Irzibe]

I thank everyone for participating in the thread.

Logically thinking, crafting should help me make money regardless if I had DoL leveled or not. Here's the deal; the whole point of this thread was the undercutting:

Why do the GOLDSMITHS (or crafters in general), who get materials +1 or buy them, make HQ jewelry, and sell them for less than they're worth? When you take something that costs 150k to make (regardless if you mined them yourself or not, guess what, IT STILL COSTS 150K), with a pretty GOOD chance of failing the synth and losing that money, makes no sense to sell the end product for... 150k.

That was my main concern, yet all of you started arguing about something COMPLETELY different and missed my point. I did see the few people who agreed with me by giving their own opinions and saying that selling materials is better than crafting the item then selling it, yet I don't see why the majority argue against me.

[Peptaru]

You missed the counterpoint, so don't act indignant. Your items that you paid 200k to make, but can only sell for 150k are sold for 150k cuz most people get their own stuff or get it through networking and connections so it only costs them ZERO or maybe 50k gil, they're still makin tons of gil, even if you feel like you're gettin shafted..... surprise you aren't. They're just playing within more aspects of the game than you.

[NefarioCall]

Well, i do find the undercutting often very silly.
If an item is 100k, and to make up for taxes you could sell it for 90-95k and be the cheaper buy,
why put it up for an undercut of 50... 60... 70k?
In some cases because you want to sell lower because you're awesome,
but in many cases it just seems like a case of over undercutting annoyingness.
So on that, i agree.

[Platinumstorm]

There's a ton of crazy market fluctuation and the people who get impatience cause these fluctuations.

One item I sell was going for 100,000 about 5 days ago. Today it goes for 47,000 because two people over saturated and kept undercutting each other instead of matching. Price matching works terrific in this game, so I have no idea why they undercut so aggressively.

[SirOleas]

Undercutting does not matter if you level the gathering class to support your crafting class; AKA: Go mining.

There's no cost in any of the materials you obtain on your own; Other than time.

If you want 100% profit this is the only way to go.

Hell, I am a miner and I make tons of money because people are too lazy to go mining for their own mats.

[Zezlar]

Wait until the merger, when everything is cheap due to all the undercutting.