A Genuine Guide To Making Gil

THIS GUIDE IS STILL A WORK IN PROCESS, IT SHOULD BE FINISHED LATER THIS WEEK. THIS GUIDE IS STILL A WORK IN PROCESS, IT SHOULD BE FINISHED LATER THIS WEEK.

This is a personal guide, if you disagree with anything feel free to leave comments on the talk page, but please don't remove, change, or add anything. All the information provided here has been tested 1st hand by the author: IconicIdea.

=A Quick Q&A Session=


 * Q: Everyone knows that crafting just isn't that profitable any more, no one can really 'get rich,' so what's the point?
 * A: This jaded belief exists because many players (innocently) believe ANYTHING they craft, (regardless if it's in demand or not) will explosively sell. This creates discouragement & a false impression that the system is against them.
 * For Example: If you flood the market with Bone Subligars and Wax Swords you will be heart-broken. You will make little - to no money, feel like a failure, and likely never try an AH sell again. If this sounds like you, don't despair. Patience and a bit of homework (30 minutes should be enough to start) will get you profits within a couple sales.


 * Q: Every time I've tried to sell something... Every Time! Everyone undercuts me, and it doesn't matter if the product is selling like crazy, I never make a sell!
 * A: At most, this make the process slightly more challenging. It doesn't matter if "they" can undercut you, you can still make money by the truck-load. Undercutting other sellers is a very valuable tactic to make sales. This tactic is used in Real Life constantly. You can use under-cutting to your advantage, without destroying the market value of the product (read more on how to do this below).


 * Q: Other people with 100+ craft skill can get HQ3 for almost pure profit. I can't compete with that!
 * A: Then become 100+ skilled and make the HQ3 profits yourself. If you're dedicated, and have saved up a "Nest Egg" of "Crafting Capital," (read more on how to do this below) you can level a craft from 0-110 in a weekend. There is nothing difficult in becoming 100+ skilled in any craft, and making money while doing it. To be a skilled Crafter... all it takes - is patience.


 * Q: My friends "Cooking" skill is 110 and they rarely make any money... If they're not successful, why would I be?
 * A: Let me be Blunt, you may not like the answer... The failures of others are often far from Truth. You like your friend, so you assume they know how to sale at the Auction House. They don't, & that's why they're not successful. Follow the stratagems below, then decide for yourself if they don't work.

=Tapping the Records of Eminence Keg=

Records of Eminence: the gateway to gil in the Hundreds of Thousands.


 * Every 1,000 Sparks you earn can be converted, roughly, to 10,000 Gil by selling items purchased with Sparks, to NPC Merchants (this won't work with Rare/Ex items). Whether you're a High or Low level player, gaining Sparks isn't difficult. Running through "Repeat" quests can be very profitable: “Kill 200 enemies,” “Crystal acquisition” etc... You can typically make 5-10 thousand Sparks per hour, which equals 50,000-100,000 gil. High level players can get even better results.
 * You may find this method alone - to be enough for your needs, and not bother with the Auction House. It's certainly an easy method, but it feels a lot like grinding and can get old. However! This is a phenomenal way to save up a "Nest Egg" of "Crafting Capital." Then skill-up to 110 on your favorite craft in a couple of days.
 * NOTE: ''I'd recommend you follow any Crafting Guide by Ctownwoody. His guides have fairly solid advice for advancing to 100+, and you should only skill-up a single craft to 110! ALSO - Understand any sub-crafts you train shouldn't max past 70! Otherwise your 110 craft will start losing points. On a final sub-note: post 60 skill-ups come slower, if you use Kitron Macarons, they help skill-up faster (but they're not really useful until after 60).
 * NOTE: Some crafts require more money to level than others, so the size of your "Nest-Egg" should reflect that.
 * For Example: Cooking will be very cheap until you hit 80-110. On the other hand Goldsmithing (my favorite craft) will be four times more expensive from the start.''

=Be An Auction House Boss (or AH "Bawse")= The Auction House: Making gil in the Millions, stacked with Millions, padded with Millions, swimming within Millions...


 * 1rst You Must Choose a Craft: Browse through each, and pick the one(s) destined for you.


 * How To Research Your Target Product(s) - Open any of the aforementioned crafts in another window (such as this one: Alchemy). Now, scroll down until you see Alchemy/All Recipes (It will be towards the bottom). Click it! & you will be rewarded with a list of Alchemical Recipes, from basic, to the most advanced. Now open www.ffxiah.com in another window - in the upper left hand corner make sure your server is selected. Then take at least a half hour and start looking up items according to your skill level. You will be looking for the following trends: How Quickly the items sells, & How Much they sell for.
 * For Example stacks of Holy Water tend to sell 'Very Fast' for 10,000 while single Quake Grenades sell at an 'Average' rate for 20,000-30,000. Both of these sell quickly enough, and would both be profitable enough, to synth & sell. Find at least 5-10 items like this, you can do this in half an hour or less (it's advisable to have a pool of 14-21 items, [more on this below] but this is enough to start on for the moment). Doing your homework pays off.
 * Note: Holy Water is an Alchemy level 51 synth and Quake Grenades are an Alchemy level 58 synth with a requisite level 29 Smithing skill attached. If you're not at this level of crafting yet, shoot for lower synths, there are many that are easily as profitable, if not more so.
 * Note: Part of doing your Homework is paying attention to the cost and number of materials. The product may be selling like Hot-Cakes... but can you afford to make it? If not, or not yet, move on to another product.


 * Don't Specialize - You may be tempted to only choose 3-4 highly profitable items ranging from 40,000 to 200,000. There is a danger in doing this. If you specialize in such a limited pool of products... It's only a matter of time before someone crashes your market (more on how to deal with this below). Dun! Dun! Duuuuun! And what was making you money Hand-Over-Fist, is now bringing in nothing...! Leaving you in a financial famine, mentally distraught and foaming at the mouth with impotent rage! You are unable to feel powerful at all! Nor are you able to complete your taxing fiduciaries! Oh! The Feels!! Bottom line - Don't Specialize It's what the dumb people do.


 * Why You Should Diversify - The 1rst, and foremost reason you want to have a diverse product line is this: YOU CAN MAKE MILLIONS of gil, consistently, every week. Now, there's nothing wrong with having 3-4 highly profitable items in your pool of products, as long as you have a diverse range of products selling. Meaning a handful of "Quick Small Sales" tempered with your "Slow Big Sales." You need at least 14 different items (preferably 21) on the market at the same time. This will give you consistent small sales (3,000 - 6,000 - 10,000 selling a couple times a day) tempered with the slower "Big Sales" (50,000 - 100,000 - 250,000 that can sell once per day, or once every 2nd-3rd day). If you don't have a -solid- product line pool, it's very easy for "Vapid Seller's" to crash your market (Vapid Sellers are those who give nary a 2nd thought to the market, they attack the Auction House with the single minded mentality of a Suicidal Lemming... Just -SPAMMING- the market with quick [filthy dirty, stupidly cheap] sales). I pray to all the Holy Pagan Gods Of Science(!) - after you read this guide, if you've been a Vapid Seller? That you'll stop! Now, and -never- Vapidly sell again; but that you will be filled with beneficence! And sell intelligently! With grace... and goodwill to all.


 * How To Keep 14-21 Items On The Market At All Times: I sell 21 DIFFERENT products at a time with my main character: Grumpysorbish (Cooking level 110) and his two mules: Hezeplamp (Alchemy level 110) and Conquestry (Goldsmithing level 110) (Yes... idiotic names appeal to me, they make me giggle, one of the joys of life really). I research the products I want to sell per Character/Crafting Skill; and I have each character place 7 items on the market at a time. Selling thusly - is very tidy, isolated to different mules with different skills, and separate storage. To invest further clairvoyance on the usefulness of Mules - I would suggest reading The Theory of Mules: Guide by Ctownwoody. There is a lot of good advice there.


 * How To Undercut (Without Upsetting Other Sellers or Destroying Product Market Value): This is the whole point of diversifying your product pool - why you would want to sell 14-21 different items in the first place. Pick any ten products that sell "Fast" or "Very Fast" - it's likely there is a queue of 15-100 of them for sale at any given time (typically, theses are small items selling for 2,000-10,000). They sell quickly, it's fast money, and people want to cash in. This is a good thing! Undercut them. You only have 1-2 of these to sell today, they probably have 7 or more on another mule. You're item will sell before anyone else, and get a tidy profit. Selling limited, -daily- amounts of "Best-sellers" guarantees you quick, consistent sales across the spectrum of your product pool. This will keep the market (for each product) from crashing.


 * When NOT To Undercut (Because it will upset other sellers AND DESTROY Product Market Value) You can Undercut (once, maybe twice a day per product) ONLY when it's a "small," quick selling, product that has a queue of 15-100 selling at any given time. If the product has a high price tag (50,000 - 100,000 - 250,000) and only sales "Average," or "Slow," don't undercut. If you repeatedly undercut these "Slow Big Sales," buyers will catch on quick and the market will crash. You'll make sellers swear at you. I'm not kidding. It's not a fun experience to have 4 random people sending you /tells, trying to convince you that you're an idiot. It makes for a bad day. Don't Crash Markets.


 * What To Do If Someone Crashes Your Market - Storing your product and restoring market confidence.


 * Farming vs. An Outright Purchase - Time is money.

=Gardening - The Smart Way=
 * Arcane Flowerpots - & How To Obtain Them.
 * Tree Cuttings & Tree Saplings - They're like globs of sticky money! :)
 * Reishi Mushrooms - & Why They Are Filled With Golden Tartar Sauce.

=Chocobo Digging - It's Like Falling In Love (Very Slowly)=
 * Chocobo Digging Can Be Very Profitable - but mostly I do it for fun.
 * How To Train a Digger - Not that difficult or expensive.
 * The Chocobo Digging Guide - Read this thingy.
 * The Chocobo Hot and Cold Game
 * Why Chocobos Taste Like Chicken.

THIS GUIDE IS STILL A WORK IN PROCESS, IT SHOULD BE FINISHED LATER THIS WEEK. THIS GUIDE IS STILL A WORK IN PROCESS, IT SHOULD BE FINISHED LATER THIS WEEK.