How do you make money on the market boards?

[The_Distinguished_Anarchist]

Seriously. I hit omnicrafter a couple of months back and materia-melded to the point that I can do the 3star crafts without needing any high-quality materials. I've never recovered the gil I sank into it.

It's wildly unprofitable on my server to purchase composite materials and try to sell finished products, and even the composite materials themselves will sit on my retainers for days, requiring continuous markdowns before they finally sell-- most often for 2/3 of my original list price or lower.

I have roughly 48 various items spread across several retainers that have gone unsold for close to a month now. Every piece of advice I've read and received for crafting and selling has failed to yield any significant returns. I routinely go to bed with the only postings of certain items on the market board, then wake up to dozens of others reaching as low as 40% of my original list price or lower.

The only real profit I have ever made on the market board is with pieces made from materials that drop in the group treasure maps, the acquisition of which is pure RNG. I'm not interested in a lottery. I'm looking for a sustainable methodology for generating money from crafting. What should I be doing differently?

[Yshtola]

You don't use the marketboard to make money. You use the marketboard to prevent others from making money.

[LolitaBansheeMeru]

tbh I made most my 9mill from doing maps with some friends ... sadly they are not getting on lately they been playing other games So i got no one to map with

[Avatre]

Most of my gil comes from just selling whatever my retainers bring back, selling some of the furniture that is new-ish, and whatever else I can get for tomestones that sells relatively decent.

[KageTokage]

Trying to make significant income from crafting mainstream items like consumables or crafted gear this late into a patch is largely a lost cause.

Most people who want the stuff already have it, plus the obligatory bot farmers will usually have tanked the prices on everything too low for it to be very profitable when it does actually sell.

I make most of my money from selling niche furniture/glam items that aren't totally overstocked but still sell reasonably often.

[Miminming]

Leveling crafter become a joke in this patch, with how many crafter out there now it's kinda hard to make profit from MB.

Last patch i make over 90 mil just making potion in my free time which is not that much, this patch? Barely 9 mil...

[Cyreil]

Look at the purchase history and determine how often the item is bought. We just got out of the rankings for Ishgard Restoration so the main items that were going fast were the Diadem materials. But now that it has ended, everything is in the pre-patch lul.

When 5.3 hits, I believe we should get a new set of gear for people to craft, crafting set this time since we just got the Neo-Ishgard sets for the battle classes and we've been sitting on the Facet crafting sets for awhile now. People will pay for the mats to make it as well as paying for the completed craft. Treasure maps may get updated with a new craftable glamor to obtain as well.

[Enla]

I re-sell items mostly. Most people are lazy and don't care to find the NPC's that are selling the items they need even with SE's intervention on the matter, so it's a fairly simple affair to buy a stack of 99 of a particular item and just parse it out to 3 stacks of 33 to sell for a profit. Likewise housing items are generally a good, if slow source of money if you're on a big enough server. That goes doubly so for any two step crafted items that might go into them or items that require you to run dungeons to get. If you're willing to play the long game with small profits over a long period of time it does eventually add up.

[Moonlite]

Your on Balmung look at Glamour items or items that have zero things to do with progression. It doesn't mean you won't get stuck with stuff. But always feels like older pets, housing and glamours have bigger returns. Sometimes you can find a mat on another server for a few k since its a quick venture item and sell it for 100s.


The only people who seem to get return on current gear sales are first week sales. They are overmelded and seem to have time to work on gathering mats and crafting for patch day.

[AduroT]

Send my retainers on back to back to back quick expeditions. Sell the occasional tradable item for a few k less than the current lowest price. Profit.