yeah but the materials are not grossly overpriced like the weapons and armor that the materials are used to create. Like Peregrine said already they convert the initial 100Gil in mats (just making the numbers easy) and they make a weapon that sells for 1000Gil that is an initial profit of 900%, which in the current economy last I checked it was pretty close to that, so yeah; initial costs are really a moot point. especially since a crafter can get initial costs covered by Leve money.