How much should a 3*- 4* crafter charge?

[Aenor]

Hello my fellow crafters

I come to you with some questions about selling crafting services and proper etiquette to charge for the work.

You see I've hit 4 stars on all classes and already working on my second Lucis tool and my only source of income was spiritbonding on T4 and selling the materia and selling stuffs on the market board, now I want to try crafting for other people (I like being relied upon :P) and my question is how much should one charge for the work?

Also how to handle clients that expect 100% HQ in 3-4 stars when is RNG is a heavy factor (those failed 5 hasty touches in a row or NQ at 96% HQ bar filled) and if it's not HQ they expect you to buy the mats back from your own pocket.

I understand that there are countless ways to do this, but I would like to hear to hear how my fellow crafters do it so I can get a general idea.

I thank you in advance for any tips you can give me, have a wonderful day ^_^

[Stihllodeing]

As far as charging for the work, it varies. If I am not supplying any mats not even crystals or clusters then I usually just say "tips are appreciated". You'd be surprised how generous some people can be with their tips. I imagine the going rate also varies from server to server. Not sure if you are in a crafting linkshell or not. If not, I HIGHLY recommend one. Hell, come to Mateus

...snip...Also how to handle clients that expect 100% HQ in 3-4 stars when is RNG is a heavy factor (those failed 5 hasty touches in a row or NQ at 96% HQ bar filled) and if it's not HQ they expect you to buy the mats back from your own pocket...snip...

The general rule of thumb is: You need to protect yourself in every situation like this. You can offer one price for NQ and one price for HQ, with no guarantees. You need to make absolutely sure this is vocalized and agreed upon before even trading for the mats. However, if the buyer is giving the mats and those mats were painstakingly difficult to get they might balk at your offer, although that's a risk I would be willing to take.

In turn, you should consider the risk of buying the mats. If a prospective buyer wants me to craft something I struggle HQing and they say, "I must have HQ" I will more than likely decline. If they are willing to sell me the mats in said circumstance dirt cheap and its something I could use a NQ version of, I might be inclined to consider the offer.

I say this not being a 4 star crafter, but as a well respected crafter. Yes, protecting yourself against monetary loss is important, but even more important is protecting yourself from defamation. You reputation is what will make you gil in the long run. Being honest, upfront, and reasonable is "how you would want to be treated" as the saying goes.

Hope that helps a little. And also:

I thank you in advance for any tips you can give me, have a wonderful day ^_^

Well you have a nice and wonderful day too you super nice random forum person you!

[giantslayer]

My experience is limited in this regard, but I treat clients differently from friends. Keep in mind: they can almost always buy from the market board instead and be guaranteed to get HQ. If they have mats, they can sell them on the market board and buy the finished item. Most of the time, they want you to make it cheaper for them. You are doing them a favor. If they are not willing to accept any risk, they should use the market board. The risk factor for crafting is priced into the market board.

What I would consider to be fair is if you NQ, you forfeit your commission but are not responsible for the materials. Whoever bears the cost of the mats keeps the NQ item and can sell it. Who bears the cost and keeps the item should be agreed upon beforehand.

[Mishini_Dracoto]

I do one of two things: Friend & FC Mates, I take their items, I craft em up, They know I do everything I can to HQ it. If it breaks and I have the mats, I'll often redo it just b/c they are friends.

Anbody else, I've been charging 500K/ HQ item. If I NQ, they can keep it, synth was at no charge.

By purchasing the mats off the Market Boards instead of the end result, they often think it will be cheaper. This shouldn't be the case, or else you should never craft as a service, only sell on the Market Boards. I find people tend to exploit us with some derranged notion of self entitlement.

That being said, I'm going to change my model I think. something like a flat rate of 100K/HQ 4* Synthesis. This is to prevent things like somebody looking up all of the NQ Base materials, and then coming to me demanding a full set of HQ 4* Gear.

Side note : I've spent an hour and a half crafting gear, after being ver clear about services, to have somebody not ha ve the gil to pay up. It sucks. (I kept the items until they paid)

[chidarake]

(I kept the items until they paid)

this is legit for sure.. if they agree and then cant pay they should forfeit the item to you until they can. if after a set period of time I would go sell it too.

take a screen-grab of the convo though incase they complain to SE

[Sibyll]

By purchasing the mats off the Market Boards instead of the end result, they often think it will be cheaper. This shouldn't be the case, or else you should never craft as a service, only sell on the Market Boards. I find people tend to exploit us with some derranged notion of self entitlement.

I find it funny when someone blows 1 mil or so buying materials from the board and presents them to you expecting you to craft it for free. In otherwords, they are content with giving money to every person except the one actually doing them the service.

[Nylisa]

What about Losing connection randomly while making an item for someone? is that the crafter's responsibility? happend to me few times.no lag,no bad connection,no background downloads, just random dc mostly in peak times,weekends and after patches, its funny how it just happens when im making something for someone else and its expensive, some of them demanded me to pay them back some of them didn't,

[Mishini_Dracoto]

What about Losing connection randomly while making an item for someone?

That situation really sucks. Presumably, you're talking about high cost items. There are some items, where if that happened to me, I'd do a quick mental cost anlysis, and if it was something where I could afford to go and get the mats I needed right away and synth it, (let's say, 1 mil or less) I'd probably do it. If for nothing else, than to get somebody to say good things about me. As already stated in the thread word of mouth/reputation is really your money maker, not the synths themselves. If you were 90K'd during the synth, and can't afford to replace them, do what you can do. Apologize, and tell them that you can't afford to replace the mats.

Side note, people sell guaranteed 4* Crafting on my server all the time, but there's no set 100% guarantee 4* without RNG. You could always fail your reclaim etc. I would encourage you to have the client standing beside you while you craft it. If you need to reclaim, tell them you are reclaiming. (Or if they wanna gamble on NQ, let them make the decision) Alternatively, if they see you 90K, it's not like they can call you a liar. You don't keep the mats, so there's no reason for you to 90K yourself in the future.

Maybe you could offer them free crafting services in the future if they ever came back. But to be honest, they probably wouldn't.

[Nylisa]

Yes i always ask them to be there while i make it in case i lose connection or i need to reclaim, they cant see me as bad crafter when they see that annoying "Failure" animation (that little stupid 'puff' sound it makes on failed actions ) during crafts but mostly my problem is losing connection on expensive items like kirimu gear which uses 5 leather (they cost 500K each on our market atm) i apologize yes i might be able to afford the materials too, but i mostly want to know can we crafters be blamed for that?

[RiceisNice]

As a crafting commissioner, your reputation above all else is very important, as well as integrity. Out of my entire career, I've probably botched 2 commissions (high profile ones too, they were artisan body pieces), and well, shit happens. I ended up using up my own materials to remake it, and that ended up to a loss of about 600k per craft (that was after the 800k commission fee too). In the end, they were very appreciative, and one of them even gave me a 1mil tip for a commission of augmentation pieces (which doesn't require HQ). The bottom line is that theres never a garunteed successful craft, but the chances of it botching that heavily (depending on your gear, for me example its once in a blue moon) can be mitigated with proper preparations.

The way I normally price it is that I'd take the price of the crafted item in question (typically in HQ), subtract it from the cost in materials. Whatever's left over is the "crafting fee", and I mark it down a bit. In the end, I try to aim it to where they can save money by striaght up buying stuff from the board and having me make it.

An example is with the new ilvl 110 acessories, they go for 3mil on my server.
1 allagan cataylst which is 8k
2 battlecraft III for a total of 720k (360k each)
3 platinum ingots for 420k (these run for around 140k each on my server, NQ)
The cost of the other materials run about 100k at the most, they provide me the emery/cashmere fleece and thats my fee.

In the end, they're buying about 1.1mil in materials, and I'd give them, say a 910k crafting fee. They ended up paying 2mil in total for something that costs 3mil on the market, and I ended up pocketing about 910k without using any of my own materials.

That all said though, I'm still not a nice bud when people try to cheat me out of my money, especially when they go "lol I have to pay you to craft?" or "tip not enough?" Sure buddy, lets see you make the damned things then if its so easy that it costs 0 to make it.