My personal guess? Because you level so fast from quests that most gear becomes obsolete too fast. Added to this is the fact that quests and FPs drop/reward gear. Then there are the planetary commendations where you can purchase either gear or the custom parts you want. Failware didn't think things through again.

For the big crafters its a lack of GTN space plan and simple. And when i say big crafters its not someone who simply crafters a purple item and sell that one item, or makes the biggest thing available and simply sells that over and over just trying to under cut the next person.

 

Big crafters are people who enjoy crafting all the different things just becuase they can, then working out prices fair prices and then listing them.

 

The GTN Limits limit that massivly. Im restricted to listing one tier at a time, and even then its for one type of craft like a lot of blues from artifice enough to fill 3 characters, then some blues from one tier of cyber tech.

 

The Current GTN limit means that for the most part youve got people just focusing on certain things. Which is why youll get a flooded market of the high end stuff and very little of the low end.

 

Maybe its there design choice becuase they dont want the occasion hard core crafter, crafting 1 of everything..

 

I say that if that crafter has gathered enough resources to actually RE everything from one tier and or profession in all blue and even further all purple and then acutally manages enough rosources to make 1 of each then why not let him list what he wants.. fair play..

 

No the GTN limit i suspect has nothing to do with economy etc and more to stop people abusing it as extra storage or simply that they havent throught that far ahead, simply having a gtn was probably as far as bw thought ahead.

 

We are stuck with the current system, i know on our server i list high end items but i try and focus on low level gear for decent profits, as most people leveling are leveling an alt and have money to waste on making there leveling as fast as possible. Gearing your alt in all purple might seem like a waste but it makes the next 5 levels very quick and easy... some might say well worth 100k every 5 levels. IF the items are available.

 

Its all about people doing items at fair prices verse, unfair prices..

 

Me listing lvl 14 at 30k is unfair, me listing lvl 50 at 30k could also be consider unfair but to the crafter. High end gear becuase of everyone listing items and flodding the market with looted items is worthless now.. You need at least 40k for a high end purple to break even. And people are listing looted purples at 15k - 30k its destroying high end crafting,, so crafters need to think outside the box and craft in different areas... IMO

I think the problem is two-fold:

1) Low-level players don't have a lot of money. My lvl 16 Shadow has about 12,000 credits on hand while running through quests on Coruscant. I can't justify spending 5,000 to get on purple-grade material.

and

2) Low-level players burn through levels so quickly, it's not worth the investment for many to buy those items at such high cost.

 

In other words, it's expensive and time consuming for the crafter and for the buyer. Especially as the lower-level content is significantly easier as well, better gear isn't really necessary for players to get by.

 

When I needed to make money for my Lvl 2 speeder skill, I actually made about 200k in two days by selling blue-grade crystals. But that was before the market totally took a dump and before a lot of players were 50s. But right now, for my alt, I don't buy, I just mail new items to her.

 

My lvl 16 Shadow alt now has purple-grade hilts, crystals and shields waiting for her up to lvl 50, because I spent my time crafting all of it while I was running Rakghoul dailies on Tatooine this past week. I'm working on enhancements and will have to fill in with mods and armoring, but the stats from having four pieces of purple-grade will more than make up for some that I lose having to rely on commendation armoring and mods.

 

I can put tons of blue-grade items up on GTN for low-level players just to get the satisfaction of helping someone out. But even under those circumstances with pretty fair prices they're not guaranteed to sell.

I have a 20 lvl alt and I try to sell my greens and even some blues at the end of the day after questing. Usually I'll have 7 items or so. Most of the time they don't sell and I get them back in the mail, even the blues. I've tried selling biochem medpac purples with no success so far, but I haven't started implant schematics yet.

I"ve read through the posts and I agree with a lot of what's being said; the two day limit, the limited space to sell, the fact that the game is still new. One thing I think that was missed and i personally think it's the biggest reason people aren't doing more crafting to sell on the GTN is this. The autoprice feature it's absolutely ridiculous! The prices it comes up with are horrible, and because a lot of people are either lazy or don't know the actual prices of items better they just go with it.

 

Now I know the reason why it wasn't mentioned here and I beg forgiveness to all of you who have clued in. I like many of you probably have made an absolute killing on people who auto price items that are worth 10x, 20x or even 100x what the autopost gives you. I've seen people selling huge stacks of lvl 1 or 2 purple crafting mats for 3k for a 10 or 15 stack! In those situation i just buy all that i can of it and turn around and resell it at the "correct" value. profit ensues.

 

If you got rid of the autoprice feature you'd get people actually doing more research on what the item is worth. Right now I've been trying to sell mid - high lvl synthweave gear on GTN (37- 47) mostly crited blues and some purples. The GTN usually auto prices these items between 4k and 8k at this lvl, meanwhile if you were to go to a planet lvl vendor and try to buy a blue item of the same lvl it'll cost you between 30k and 80k + each. To my mind there's no way i'm going to sell my crafted same lvl items for that autoprice, they just cost to much to make. So i try to price my items around what you'd pay for a similar item from the vendor (even though the crafted item is much better). With People just going with the autoprice it's not worth the material and time cost to try to sell an item that should be woth 50 or 70k for 4 or 5k.

That's another issue with the current crafitng... the RE system strongly incentivises you to only learn (and thus sell) schematics you yourself will use. You barely have time to learn THOSE schematics, much less other ones. And since all of the crewskill bonuses come from your companions, and the companions you get come from the class, there is a strong correspondance between class and crewskill. Most armstech are smugglers, most armormech are troopers, most synthweavers are knights, most artifices are sages etc. So you end up with a lot of cunning weapons, aim & str armor, and will hilts.

 

Just be glad most knights run around with Kira, (so you get more than a few making will armor) and smugglers with Corso (so you get more than a few aim weapons)

 

Good points GnatB.

Since I'm a multi-character type of guy, I usually end up making at least the blue level of all the hilts and the shields, since I know those are usually pretty scarce in the GTN.

I am finally starting to get annoyed at the 50 item limit, that could easily be doubled. It is true the more I think about it, what would you put up on the GTN- 30 items for low levels that people might need but will net you 30-50k or 30 high level mats and crafted items that will net you 300-750k?

 

I'm just fortunate that right now the excess I have are of the former, not the latter.

I've been seeing multiple people spamming trade with level 12-20 oranges going for 80K and up.

???

 

Are these realistic prices? Yeah I know you can spent the money to mod them up to use until 50 < I guess> but seriously, ***?

 

The sellers are banking on the idea that the vanity driven 50s will scoop these up because it offers an alternate look.

Lots of good points. The fast leveling makes it not really worth it to really gear up along the way (although I play alot of alts and actually avoid killing to try and slow my leveling down) Limited GTN space so people naturally post only the best sellers/most profitable items. My biggest isue with low/mid lvl crafting to sell is its just a royal PITA for at best iffy returns. Learn the schematics, farm the common mats, run missions for the blue and purple mats, RE the blue schematic, RE the purple schematic (and hope that doesnt take you 30 trys) maybe have to go farm more mats and run more missions, FINALLY craft a bunch of stuff and hope it sells. Theres LOTS easier ways to make credits.

I've been seeing multiple people spamming trade with level 12-20 oranges going for 80K and up.

???

 

Are these realistic prices? Yeah I know you can spent the money to mod them up to use until 50 < I guess> but seriously, ***?

 

Other poster touched on this, but I'd asume those lvl 12-20 oranges advertised for 80k+ are crit crafted "augmented" stuff.

 

Currently those items are the only means of obtaining "BiS" for most slots, and as such are in fairly good demand, and not just for the esthetics. That being said, the parts to make them are cheap, the chance of making them isn't all THAT low, so 80k+ is (IMO) way excessive. Prices that high will just encourage people to make a quick crafting alt, do it themselves, then try to get their share of the inflated prices, thus crashing your market FAST.

at the moment i'm making quite a few low level orange chest pieces, i'm looking for the qugment slotted ones to sell. however i normally put 3-4 non augmented pieces on for about 3k

 

other than that i put any augment slot blue or purple i create that i don't use while i'm leveling. atm i'm level 30, however i imagine when i reach level 50 i also will only be making high end gear looking for best profit. they need to do something to encourage us to make low end gear maybe make the mats easier to obtain for low level quests

Im cybertech on my main and only lvl 50, do not put anything on GTN....

I have crafted a ton of stuff for my alts, and a friend free of charge with a lot of my mats, he often return mats he don't need anymore for his synthweaving so i can use it on my main (Underworld metal) or artifice alt (crystals, fragments and gemstones....)

I have crafted for guildies, using my materials, looking at GTN, and then looking at what i use for the crafting giving them a good price....

People ask for cybertechs in general, i can craft for them....

It will take 5-60 minutes to get it all if they have a big order, but that is not my problem.

We come to a deal, and i meet them or COD in mail.

So ask in general for cybertech (Armorings and mods) or Artifice for other upgrades you could need....

i agree with many of you that this games gtn has too many limitations. these really are not needed if other mmo's out there can NOT have them and they work just fine. the problem is the industry is fixated on copying certain mmos down to the tee without knowing that not everytthing was a good idea in the first place.

 

there is no need for a time limit, upfront auction fee, nor number of items for sale limit. this in itself makes it a minigame to keep posting items and having enough coin on alts to keep doing so.

 

i, like many of you, have tried to put items up on the gtn only to have them mailed back to me. then i have to make a decision to keep posting tying up credits or re for mats. after a few times of this you just stop posting. sure some stuff sells and some doesnt but it really is a crap shoot as to what and when this happens. server volume plays a important part too. sadly i just dont post anything anymore. i have a 400 cybertech, 400 armortech and also a 400 synthweaver on another server too. i just craft for alts now.