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Is crafting good for making cash? If so, what ones?


SoSickMinded

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I'm fairly new to the game (I've only been playing for a week or so) and I'm curious as to what crafting skills are good for making money and how.

I've tried asking in fleet and everyone gives me the same response of "skills are useless now"... is this true or are they just trying to keep the new players out of the loop? I'm not wanting to make millions, but I'd like to be able and make enough to keep my toons in good gear.

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I'm fairly new to the game (I've only been playing for a week or so) and I'm curious as to what crafting skills are good for making money and how.

I've tried asking in fleet and everyone gives me the same response of "skills are useless now"... is this true or are they just trying to keep the new players out of the loop? I'm not wanting to make millions, but I'd like to be able and make enough to keep my toons in good gear.

 

I have made great money sending my companions out for crafting materials. Mandalorian Iron (Grade 6 Underworld material), Zal Alloy (Grade 6 Scavaged Material), and Terenthium (Grade 1 Underworld Material) sell very fast.

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I have made great money sending my companions out for crafting materials. Mandalorian Iron (Grade 6 Underworld material), Zal Alloy (Grade 6 Scavaged Material), and Terenthium (Grade 1 Underworld Material) sell very fast.

 

I didn't expect the gathering skills to be good cash :o I figured they'd be nearly worthless and that one of the actual crafting skills would be needed for a good profit, thanks for the tip.

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you are going to get several different answers to this question and it will depend on how you play the game.

 

if your intentions are to play only one toon or two and not have any alts then slicing with two gathering skills can be ok. but remember this. most of the players who have all the crew skills like myself with several alts dont buy mats from the gtn. we can easily get our own. however i am sure someone out there will buy your stuff in a few days or so if priced reasonably

 

you can make credits with any of the crew skills but it takes some trial and error especially if one is new to it. one must keep a eye on what is selling, when it is selling and for how much. also you need to know your competition. it is a mini game in and of itself.

 

also remember to take into account the ability to make stuff for yourself and your alts as it can be done cheaper than buying it from the gtn. so you will save credits (or earn them back) if you are going to have several alts. you can still sell items on the gtn for credits too.

 

hopefully i gave you some information to aid you in your decision and not confuse you more.

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I've levelled 4 toons now with cyber/armourmech/bio and one other with all gathering skills.

 

Although for me those 3 are very usefull at gearing my toons up until they hit 50,they don't make me much money with the finished product(considering the extra time to make the products that sell)if i'm not making anything to wear myself,i find it easier,quicker,less of a hassel and more profitable to just sell my materials.

 

Bugs me that most items materials equal up to the price of the finished product,really does make the end action of crafting worthless.

 

In saying that,i do make a minor profit from selling lower level purples and augmentations(when i can be bothered to craft them)

 

I don't raid(cause of the fps issues i have) so i have no chance of aquiring those schematics or items that can allow me to learn the top items of each profession,so i can't say if that's profitable

Edited by biguydeadd
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It wasn't until about 3-4 days ago that I really started concentrating on crafting. I've got 6 characters, with every crafting skill covered except Synthweaving (I did have Synthweaving on one, but dropped it to pick up Biochem, since he's a tank and the reusable stims and med packs are very nice to have.)

 

To add (and probably repeat some of) what others have said, here's some things that I've learned along the way this past week:

 

- For blue, and especially purple crafted items, make sure the cost of mats is not greater than the cost of the made item.

 

I have some purple recipes with my Cybertech, but a lot of them I can make more money selling the individual Underworld purple mats than I would if I used them to craft something.

 

- Unless you're not going to be logging in for a couple of days, set all of your sales to 1d.

 

I say this because the market changes very quickly, and you can't make any credits if you have items that are overpriced, but not set to expire for another day. I was making a really good amount of credits from selling some low-level blue enhancements with my Artifice one day. So I went ahead and made a bunch more and listed them before going to bed (also checking the prices to make sure that I was still the lowest priced, while still not losing any money on materials). I dreamed I would have riches in my inbox the next day.

 

Well, other crafters saw that I was selling them for more than what the next level higher was going for and they got the same idea I did. I logged in the next day and I had only sold one or two. I go look on GTN, and the price had dropped 3k credits from what I had mine listed as, and it was now saturated with them.

 

Since I had listed them for 2d, my choices were that I could either pull them (and lose my deposit), or wait until they expired (which is what I did). If I had listed them for 1d, I could have re-listed them the next day at the lower price (which still would have netted me a profit, though clearly not as much as what I had made with them.)

 

- Diversify. Don't just make one thing.

 

Unless you're making 26/27 hilts, barrels, and relics, don't just rely on making one thing. With my example above, I now have a cargo hold of enhancements of the same level because the market for them is really oversaturated.....for now. So look through and see what levels of items don't have many listed and go craft. Of course, other crafters will probably be doing the same, but you'll hopefully get a few sales before everyone else catches on.

 

- Don't try to ALWAYS be the lowest priced.

 

When I see a list of items where there are 3-4 items going for 2-3k, and then the rest going for 8+k, I'll price mine more towards the 8+k price range. Those 3-4 items will be gone pretty quickly, only leaving the 8+k left to choose from.

 

- Green items do sell.

 

When I was gearing up my alts (before I could make everything for each other), I always looked for blue and purple items. But people do buy green. Case in point - My Cybertech was able to sell green lvl 9 and 11 armorings for 800-1000 a piece. The cost of desh and silica is cheap (especially if you just send your crew out on missions to get them).

 

- Don't expect too much until you can start deploying more than three crew members at a time.

 

I think some people don't give crafting too much of a chance because until you get some other crew members, crafting while trying to level your character up can be slow going. But once you've got four companions and you can send three of them out on missions, things definitely begin to pick up.

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Dont bother with a crafting profession. That might have worked when there were more servers and less competition. But now that everyone is on like 5 servers theres too many people crafting and sometimes items hardly sell for the price of mats. Take up Bioanlysis for sure. Can farm Mutegenic paste in Section X or whatever its called as all the animals near the daily area can be harvested and that stuff goes for 1k-1500 a piece. Id also take scavenging or archaeology as your second and then slicing as your 3rd. Only do rich yield rank 5 missions. Theres 2 of them and they crit quite often and give you 340 missions. Or you could take Diplomacy and sell Radioactive paste. Goes for 8k a piece of my server. Can also get purple rank 5 companion gifts, which again go for sometimes 12-15k a piece or more.

 

I have tried making credits with cybertech selling armorings,mods, and earpieces and also artifice selling hilts and enhancements but it just wasnt worth the time and effort. Its easier to just send 5 companions out to gather stuff while you do WZs or dailies.

Edited by Dabrixmgp
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If your goal is to be the wealthiest player on your server, ignore this post.

 

If your goal is to have more credits than you need with minimal effort and without running those godsforsaken dailies, this post is for you. I've done over 70 million credits using a slightly modified version of this scheme.

 

The crew skills you will want are Slicing, Scavenging, Diplomacy, Underworld Trading. You should do your research and take the skills on the characters with companions that have +Crit in the skill. +Efficiency is worthless for this exercise.

 

The next thing you're going to want to do is get your companions' affection to 10k. I normally do this by using gifts up to about 7,500, then doing the conversations, then alternating gifts and conversations until at 10k. Companions with maximum affection seem (or seemed, last time I did the research) to crit more often than those with less than maximum affection.

 

Then you run missions:

 

Slicing: Run the Rich Lockbox Grade 5 missions, the Grade 6 Abundant missions for tech parts (preferably on +Crit pets), and the Grade 6 Abundant Lockbox mission. Sell Archaeology and Treasure Hunting missions for the going rate on GTN. Transfer other missions to your characters with the right +Crit pet and run them there.

 

Scavenging: Run the Abundant Yield Grade 6 missions.

 

Diplomacy: Run the Abundant Grade 6 missions.

 

Underworld Trading: I only ever run Slicing discovered missions on this skill now, but it might be worth it to run the Abundant Grade 6 Metals for crits for Mandalorian Iron.

 

Then, you sell.

 

When selling, sell in quantities that crafters use. You'll need to do some research to figure this out. For example though, Advanced Neural Augments are used 4 at a time. Sell them in multiples of 4: 4, 8, 12, 20, etc.

 

When pricing, think about what you're doing. Undercutting the next lowest price will guarantee your item is the next one purchased... until someone undercuts you. Undercutting by more than 1 credit is a waste because whomever buys will buy the lowest price whether it's lower by 1 or 1,000 or 10,000 credits. Why would you want to give up 999 or 9,999 credits just to undercut more?

 

You might also consider not undercutting the lowest price. Say you're selling an Archaeology mission discovery. You see one listed at 6,750 and the next 3 are at 12,000. Are you going to post for 6,749 or 11,999? It does take some time to get used to the market prices, but you know that 6,750 is going to fly away quickly so why give up the extra 5k by undercutting that when you could instead undercut the 12k and get 5k more?

 

As others have said, post for no more than 1 day as a default. You're going to get undercut within that timeframe so you might as well have the GTN return your items for reposting instead of eating the fee to pull them down early to repost.

 

You might also want to watch the GTN dynamics over the weekend. In the past, the weekend always seemed to have the lowest pricing for raw materials; however, now, some materials seem to increase on the weekends. Be careful when you post! You should post on a day that maximizes your value - a day when your items are rare on the GTN is better for you.

 

Have fun!

Edited by DarthTHC
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Underworld Trading: I only ever run Slicing discovered missions on this skill now, but it might be worth it to run the Abundant Grade 6 Metals for crits for Mandalorian Iron.

Have fun!

 

I dropped UWT for this very reason. Even on a character with +crit to UWT I hardly ever crit grade 6 missions. I picked up Diplomacy instead. Rank 5 companion gifts can go for 15-25k for purples and you get tons of rich yield missions. Enough to send all 5 companions out just getting companion gifts. But normally I send out 2 guys on the rich rank 5 slicing missions and then rotate the other 3 either doing rich companion gifts or medical supplies. Also dont neglect lower level materials. Search the AH and see if they are selling. People need them to make low level purple implants so they can sell for quite a bit. So much so that all my characters now have Diplomacy and on one of them I reset it to 0 every time I hit 400 just to level it up again for low level purple mats. Making way more credits than I ever did with UWT.

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4 slicing alts supply me with advanced neural augmentator materials. I maxed affection with Tano Vik on my trooper: this companion has the highest +crit for armormech. He uses the augmentators to churns out purple augments which sell at a brisk rate and yield more profit than simply selling the augmentators in bulk. Edited by Projawa
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I've been playing MMOs for more than a decade and two things have helped me make tons of money in all of them...

 

Diversity and Patience.

 

There are three factors to patience:

 

1) starting from scratch you will not make millions over night. Yes, someone will post here that they made two million credits in their first 24 hours and/or by selling one item. They are the exception not the rule. Initially, chances are the items you craft will generate modest profit margins. But if you make them consistently and persistently your coffers will grow.

 

2) Just because something you have crafted does not sell in the first ten minutes (exaggeration) does not mean it will never sell. You have to accept the fact that you have competition who will undercut you and therefore your item(s) will not sell right away. Don't panic, everything you craft sells eventually.

 

3) There will be times when the pricing of a given item tanks. You need to be willing to hold on to what you have crafted until the value rebounds. And it always does.

 

#3 of patience leads into diversity. Crafting many different items gives you the opportunity to sell one thing while another remains in storage. This allows you to consistently increase your credits total.

 

As to what sells. I have an armormech and synthweaver that I use to make and sell blue quality level 49 augments. They cost at most 5k to make and I sell them for 10k to 15k. I will typically craft five each of the four primary stat varieties (usually getting a couple of crits in the process) every day. that's at least 20 augments at minimum 5k net profit each or 100k daily. In reality it is more like 200k daily.

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I've been playing MMOs for more than a decade and two things have helped me make tons of money in all of them...

 

Diversity and Patience.

 

There are three factors to patience:

 

1) starting from scratch you will not make millions over night. Yes, someone will post here that they made two million credits in their first 24 hours and/or by selling one item. They are the exception not the rule. Initially, chances are the items you craft will generate modest profit margins. But if you make them consistently and persistently your coffers will grow.

 

Agree with this wholeheartedly. Some fool might find an item underpriced by millions, but that takes a lot of luck.

 

2) Just because something you have crafted does not sell in the first ten minutes (exaggeration) does not mean it will never sell. You have to accept the fact that you have competition who will undercut you and therefore your item(s) will not sell right away. Don't panic, everything you craft sells eventually.

 

Well, not everything. you do need to ensure you're making things that are valuable to other players. There are plenty of craftable items that have no real value.

 

3) There will be times when the pricing of a given item tanks. You need to be willing to hold on to what you have crafted until the value rebounds. And it always does.

 

Oi. Still waiting for the value of the grade 22 augments and Exotech stims to rebound... You actually need to know when to be in a market and when to get out of it.

 

#3 of patience leads into diversity. Crafting many different items gives you the opportunity to sell one thing while another remains in storage. This allows you to consistently increase your credits total.

 

As to what sells. I have an armormech and synthweaver that I use to make and sell blue quality level 49 augments. They cost at most 5k to make and I sell them for 10k to 15k. I will typically craft five each of the four primary stat varieties (usually getting a couple of crits in the process) every day. that's at least 20 augments at minimum 5k net profit each or 100k daily. In reality it is more like 200k daily.

 

 

Some good, some bad there.

Edited by DarthTHC
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I'm fairly new to the game (I've only been playing for a week or so) and I'm curious as to what crafting skills are good for making money and how.

I've tried asking in fleet and everyone gives me the same response of "skills are useless now"... is this true or are they just trying to keep the new players out of the loop? I'm not wanting to make millions, but I'd like to be able and make enough to keep my toons in good gear.

 

Easiest method is go with slicing plus 2 other gather skills. If you stick with slicing and just farm money boxes you will pretty much not have to worry about cash in regular play.

 

As for the others, gathering materials is a bit more work and chancy. Plus with the server singularity events I mean mergers there is a lot more competition in the auction house (GTN) but if you do ypur research you can make a bit extra.

 

Crafting for profit is a great deal more work and the consensus by many is that it is not worth it. I craft as a hobby and to outfit new alts or guildies but don't usually sell what I craft. But there are niches you can fill. YMMV.

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I make all my money crafting and I believe it's much more lucrative but much more volatile.

 

But I can also tell you what mats I need the most if you want to farm for money. Apart from purple level mats which I usually gather myself its all mid level materials I spend the most on.

Level 3 and 4 stuff is usually where I have to bite the bullet and pay whatever the market has for UT and scavenging materials. Bioharvested stuff is expensive too; alot less farmers in that market so the GTN may only have one page of overpriced goods.

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