Everyone being everything means no market at all

[Sakasa]

To be honest once people hit 50 they are very very unlikely to want to go out and get for sake of argument aldgoat skin. Its just a waste of time so they will buy it instead. Laryndra is a 50 miner but if needs...black alumen Laryndra will use the markets if they are less of a hit in time as long as the price is not stupidly high (which for certain things it is some not, its like they are giving away cobalt on balmung!). People seem to forget that economy today is different then historically people today assume they can't go get their own so they need someone elses. That is not true you could infact go get a cow right now, or begin building a elevated forge to blow glass. People just do not because it is inconvenient or beneath them to do so which is the very principal of earlier commerce. Growing spices in a different climate requires alot of work its just easier to buy it in bulk and take it back to sale at a huge mark up to fund the next trip back.

[Laryndra]

Sakasa, you hit the nail right on the head. I don't go out and gather low level materials because I can simply sell an HQ Darksteel nugget and buy what i need in a tenth of the time. Similarily i'm now leveling up GSM (and did level up ARM). I conscripted already leveled ARM/GSM to craft me HQ mats so that I can turn in the highest quality leves to level the fastest, while still mining up HQ Darksteel. It only makes SENSE to do it this way unless you're a masochist.

[RamzaBehoulve]

Some people don't seem familiar with the concept of item market value.

It does not matter if you buy or gather the item yourself. Its market value is what's currently on market (unless it is available from a NPC). If you buy it, you lose X gils, but if you gather it and use it, you also "lose" the same potential X gils because you did not sell it.

Any crafter worth his salt will never go gather anything and simply buy on the market UNLESS there is, for some reason, almost nothing available at the normal market price. But then, if market average rose very high for a few, it would be best to sell those gathered items to make a profit then buy them when the price is back to the normal average. Or what I do is switch to crafting something else for a while.

Also remember : the base worth of a crafted item is the sum of of the market price (or NPC) of all its parts. If it costs 500 gils to craft an item buying all parts from market (or NPC), then that is the minimum price you must sell as not to lose potential money... EVEN IF YOU GATHERED EVERYTHING YOURSELF! (which includes the crystals)

In fact, some people are completely unaware of this and sell a lot of things at a loss for them, but the idiocy of some can make you rich. Simply buy the cheap crafted materials like ingots, rivets from the fools and use those to make a HQ version of something.

TLDR : you are wasting your time if you are leveling gathering professions to fuel your crafting ones. Instead, use the market to your benefit.

[Hawklaser]

Also remember : the base worth of a crafted item is the sum of of the market price (or NPC) of all its parts. If it costs 500 gils to craft an item buying all parts from market (or NPC), then that is the minimum price you must sell as not to lose potential money... EVEN IF YOU GATHERED EVERYTHING YOURSELF! (which includes the crystals)

There is another cost you have to keep in mind when say things like this, and that is time. Just because X item costs 500 gil to make, that does not take into account the difference in time to earn the gil, or get the item yourself. (500 gil is very bad number to use as an example though, consider something more along the lines of 10,000 to get a better picture.)

[Vinter]

The ingame economy is busted. There is no reason to even be a crafter when you get the best gear through dungeons and quests. Sure you can argue about Lvl50 HQ items but until you get there you're essentially fucked.
There has to be some sort of incentive to put money and time into crafting. Why, for instance, do people get the next tier of weapon from their class quests? What's the point of that? It's not a unique weapon it's just a regular weapon, so make them go buy it from a crafter. Materials cost a ton of money, and because you get all of the armour and weapons you need from your main quests, the items you craft from these materials are worth nothing. Which in turn means crafting as it is now is just a giant money sink. There has to be some sort of balancing done to make sure crafters are important instead of keeping them relegated to the role of professional materia melders.

[Vyniea]

There has to be some sort of balancing done to make sure crafters are important instead of keeping them relegated to the role of professional materia melders.

I think housing is gonna fix some problems by making a lot of furnitures obtainable only by crafting.

That said there's still lots of demand for.. crafting gear! I know it's kinda ridiculous that crafters craft for other crafters but that's where the money is atm.