Just finally became a 3 star goldsmith, the cost in both time, mats, mateira, and shards/crystals was nuts. I cant even imagine doing a synth for someone unless they provided the crystals at this point, esp since people only seem to be putting them up in stacks of 1k on sarg, I dont want 1000 shards i want 100-200 usually and its a gil sink and they know it. People that dont craft generally have crystals and shards to spare, If its a Cluster and i know the person I might go gather them myself since i dont keep clusters on hand.