How much and how far can I get doing that? I don't have a mission skill yet so I can't mission out for companion gifts but I'd like to raise affection in the meantime. I see there are 200 dollar ones vs 600 dollar ones, I know which my companions like as in technology vs. military gear... but is there a breakdown on how many of the 200 dollar ones I'd have to get vs the 600 to get the optimal gain? And is there a running order, or should I just keep dumping the "most" favorite / aka Loved, gifts and not worry about the liked ones etc.?

if you're going to buy them, i would just focus with the "loved" gifts as you get the most affection out of them for your money. though, i never actually bought gifts from the companion gift vendor as those tend to only be level 1 gifts, if i remember correctly. with mission skills, you get get higher leveled gifts, as well as ones blue and purple grade. they will give you much more affection, however the type of gift you get is random. still worth it for the most part since all your companions like different things.

 

also keep in mind some companions are super easy to get max affection with just by having them out when you're in quest convos, so you really may not need to give them gifts as you level.

You can sort of tell how useful a companion gift is going to be by looking at their affection bar. If you click on their tab from your Character sheet, you can see how much affection you have with them. Tier one is from 0-2000 affection; the 200 credit companion gifts are really only useful if you have less than 2000 affection with that companion. The Tier 2 gifts (600 credits) are only really useful if your affection level is 2000-4000, etc. And by "useful" I mean "gives you a decent affection gain for your points", as you still will gain affection with lower-tier gifts, but the points will be minimal.

 

And I would concentrate only on their most-loved gifts - you're better off selling anything else on the GTN.

 

Lastly, don't worry about affection too much. It doesn't help that much with crafting, and just by playing with each companion you'll have most or all of them maxed out by the time you get to level 50.