SE: How are we supposed to make money?

[Uriahnool]

I am a level 50 GSM. I thought a level 50 crafting class should be able to make all sorts of money. But the items I can craft either sell for a maximum of 1200 gil and are constantly undercut, or cost WAY too much to make. How can I make any Rose Gold or Astral items when I can't afford the materials?

Every time I try to sell items in the market, I get undercut. I see an item is selling for 3200 gil. Great, so I make some of them, put them up for sale for 2800 (thinking i'll get them sold) and then come back the next day to see nothing sold. Same item is now selling for 2000, and then 1800, and then 1000 and then 500 gil. I can never seem to sell more than one or two items before I am undercut again. It seems the money I make at level 50 is no different than what I was making at level 20.

Some days I am lucky. Some days I check my retainer and I see enough has sold that I made 10K or 20K gil. These are good days. Then I promptly spend that money on new materials and shards. I craft new items, put them up for sale, and repeat the whole cycle of being undercut and not making any money.

I tried gathering, but anything I pull out of the earth sells for like 10 gil each, and is not worth spending an hour mining for 1200 gil profit. I could grind dungeons and such for tomestones and get items with that to sell, but the reason I want to craft is so I can have some leisure and not always be in a dungeon fighting mobs over and over again.

How to people expect to make millions for things they want like housing if nobody is buying their retainer items and prices are so low because items are so common?

[Lafiele]

You make money by being smart. It's like getting a degree doesn't guarantee you a job, nor does it guarantee your wealth. It's how you use it.

Going to just add further: Obviously the stuff you're doing is something that is done by everyone. When everyone catches onto something, the competition will be fierce.

[Taeyee]

Since 2.2 we have enter "The Great Depression". 2.1...good times...good times.

[ROOTFayth]

just do like this dood on behemoth, run a gambling game where you're the house, you give people terrible odds on their bets (odds of successful meld) and there u go, tons of gil

[jars]

that's the catch. you're not the only level 50 gsm and they are all looking to make gil too.

your best bet really is to sell hq materials(ingots and such) to people trying to level crafts

[Uriahnool]

just do like this dood on behemoth, run a gambling game where you're the house, you give people terrible odds on their bets (odds of successful meld) and there u go, tons of gil

He's back? I love that guy - always so much fun.

[Musashidon]

20k a day says yoshi p from roulette and dailies.

[Lyrinn]

If you're thinking of making money by crafting something, putting it up on the MB, and waiting for it to sell, you're going to fail horribly. There's simply too much supply and not enough demand for that.

Like Lafiele said, you have to play smart. Either play the undercut game wisely or stalk prices on various items and cash in at the right times. Getting gil from the MB is as much of a grind as running WP 200 times. Make the effort or get nothing.

20k a day says yoshi p from roulette and dailies.

Go do treasure hunts. It's easy to get at least 20k daily with some friends; more if you get lucky and hit the 5k chests.

[Grembo]

Undercutting by 400 or so gil on an item that's relatively cheap in the first place and expecting everyone else to not do the same is a bit :/

Paying for mats/shards instead of farming them can be a really bad idea unless you know what mats/items you can actually make a profit from.

GSM was always one of the most popular DoH jobs, on our server right from the beginning the market for GSM stuff was very competitive.

[tymora]

Some suggestions.
- Sell processed materials other people use for leveling.
- The profitable items are not always the highest level ones. Look at your local stores and decide what is worth making (i.e. sell fast at a good margin).

If you don't do market research and just blindly make items, then it is your own problem, not SE's.
For me, income is slow too but I am busy making items for crafting achievements rather than profit. When you make all the items from lvl 1 to 50 for achievement, you kind of know what kind of items sells good.