Quote Originally Posted by Urthdigger View Post
I know folks can say "Well yeah you'll lose money buying off the boards, but if you gather the items yourself..." problem with that is a little thing called opportunity cost. You're not "making money crafting" that way. You're making money by farming mobs and using DoL, and then losing some of that potential money by crafting it.
There are other benefits from farming your own materials. I don't look at it only partly saving gil; rather, I primarily think of it as a long-term investment. I'm constantly leveling by gathering my materials. I'm leveling other crafts by crafting items I need for other recipes. Sometimes it's minor exp, sometimes it's substantial. I'm also crafting my own gear, including sometimes HQ versions, and tools. There is a very real benefit from doing as much as possible yourself.

If I see there's an item I need for a recipe, first I'll look to see if it's something I can craft. If so, what are the materials? I'll break out BTN or MNR and go gather. Then switch to WVR, BSM, GSM, etc to craft the items I need for the main recipe I'm making. Then, once I have all my ingredients together, I'll make the item I was targeting to begin with. Is it slow? Yes. But I just got exp on multiple classes just to make 1 item. It all helps in the end. All it cost me was time. And, personally, I'm not in such a hurry that I can't take some time to get things done. One day I'll be glad I got all these classes leveled up.

The more crafts you have leveled, the more they benefit one another. Even getting CUL to 15 can be beneficial for other classes. Am I making gil right now? Not a lot, but I'm not losing gil, either. My gil is at a very comfortable level and it has never dropped below that level. It just goes up.