Sometimes it's that simple, but not usually. If a woolen robe sells for 10k to NPC (I don't know what a woolen robe NPC's for offhand, so let's just assume this is accurate for the sake of simplicity), than you could mark it up and sell it at 13k. And you would be making more gil back than if you NPC'd. But if you're buying your materials (or the materials to make your materials) you usually want to aim for something that will exceed the cost of that. Factoring in the cost of woolen yarn and the other stuff, and shards/crystals, you might find yourself spending 15 or 20k (or more!) just in materials to make the thing, so you would certainly want to sell it for at least that much, otherwise you are just breaking even or losing gil (which a lot of folks will do while spam-skilling certain items).
You might find that two people have woolen robes bazaared at 50k and they're selling fairly regularly. You kind of want to maximize that profit range. You want to benefit as much from your work as you possibly can, I would imagine. You might also find that dyeing it purple makes for a robe that sells for 70k, but there could be eight up for sale, so you might have a harder time selling that. In an instance like this I might make two undyed robes and one purple one and try selling the undyed ones for 50k (if they're moving quickly, 45k otherwise) and the single purple one for 60k - and just hope it doesn't get undercut again. I kind of play this by ear. It definitely helps to look at the sale history of an item you're considering making. And keep an eye on the prices of the materials you'd need in order to make that. Things fluctuate. There are two or three items I'm constantly watching and will sometimes buy up when I know it's low and there's a massive surplus, and then sell back when it's high and in demand without ever using it for synthesis. I did this a lot in FFXI too. It just requires some patience usually, and an element of luck. What I don't do - nor condone - is buying out an entire supply of an item just to jack up the price. I've known some people that do this but feel it's underhanded and I think they were warning/banning people in FFXI for it for awhile. At a certain point, anyway, it becomes more realistic to farm certain items rather than buy them. I try to farm some of my own rather than just synthing all of the time. Especially when things on my retainers aren't selling very quickly.
For raw items farmed up, ores and food ingredients and such, it's usually beneficial to check out the NPC price. There are times where it makes a great deal more sense to just NPC an item like that, but it always pays to check to see what folks are buying it for, first. It sometimes surprises me how much more certain ingredients and such sell for than I would have guessed.
Yay economics! :cheer:
You might find that two people have woolen robes bazaared at 50k and they're selling fairly regularly. You kind of want to maximize that profit range. You want to benefit as much from your work as you possibly can, I would imagine. You might also find that dyeing it purple makes for a robe that sells for 70k, but there could be eight up for sale, so you might have a harder time selling that. In an instance like this I might make two undyed robes and one purple one and try selling the undyed ones for 50k (if they're moving quickly, 45k otherwise) and the single purple one for 60k - and just hope it doesn't get undercut again. I kind of play this by ear. It definitely helps to look at the sale history of an item you're considering making. And keep an eye on the prices of the materials you'd need in order to make that. Things fluctuate. There are two or three items I'm constantly watching and will sometimes buy up when I know it's low and there's a massive surplus, and then sell back when it's high and in demand without ever using it for synthesis. I did this a lot in FFXI too. It just requires some patience usually, and an element of luck. What I don't do - nor condone - is buying out an entire supply of an item just to jack up the price. I've known some people that do this but feel it's underhanded and I think they were warning/banning people in FFXI for it for awhile. At a certain point, anyway, it becomes more realistic to farm certain items rather than buy them. I try to farm some of my own rather than just synthing all of the time. Especially when things on my retainers aren't selling very quickly.
For raw items farmed up, ores and food ingredients and such, it's usually beneficial to check out the NPC price. There are times where it makes a great deal more sense to just NPC an item like that, but it always pays to check to see what folks are buying it for, first. It sometimes surprises me how much more certain ingredients and such sell for than I would have guessed.
Yay economics! :cheer:
"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others." Â ~ Lewis Carol
Eva's Journals  |  Eva's Wiki Page (coming soon)  |  RP Handbook
Eva's Journals  |  Eva's Wiki Page (coming soon)  |  RP Handbook
