Quote Originally Posted by Sibyll View Post
Two crafters don't necessarily have the same profit margins for an item at a given price. You don't know what your competition invested into that item. If you bought your battlecraft 3s and he desynth'd all of his from dungeon loot then that's about 500k-1mil of wiggle room he has. It's possible for him to sell his product at a price you simply can't compete with and still make a solid profit.
Your example is still a net loss because you simply could have sold the battlecrafts instead and made more gil that way. I farm most of my mats but still include their market value in profit calculations. Again, why? Because the end product better sell for more than the mats were worth. If it's not, sell the mats instead.