The misconception that just because a person gathers their own materials it's free is a very rookie mistake. Your time should always have a value to it; account for that value in the retail price of the finished product. I see this mistake made in RL as well.

I just unlocked the 3rd tier of my lvl 50 Vibroknife today, it was no small feat. And was astonished to see (probably shouldn't have been) that it was weaker in both damage and tech power than the "recruit" vibroknife from the pvp vendor. So a rather large ammount of crafting materials & RE attempts < an 11k credit vendor freebie. /sadface