I originally had the mentality of the OP. However, I sank about 95% of all of my gil into making the artisan OH tools for myself, melding them, remelding my body pieces, working on the books, etc. Around the time of your post (Nov 11), was when I was pretty much broke. I wound up earning back all the gil I spent ten-fold.

Great risk. Great reward. Things don't sell that fast, but when they do, its an easy profit.