Architect Archive
Thread: Profits?
There is money to be made from crafting, otherwise we wouldn't all be doing it. Sure you can sell the resources instead, but then you're not an architect are you. It's a roleplaying game, if you want to sell resources then you choose the role of a resource seller so you go Merchant, if you want to make something then you choose the role of a crafter, so you go Architect, or one of the other crafting professions, or if you want to kill mobs you go for a combat class. If all you are interested in is making the credits without any effort then get a gun, go to Bogle Caves and camp out for the skill tapes, or better still go to eBay and buy the credits, that's got to be the easiest way.
I am pretty sure though that the reason you posted here is because you DO want to be an Architect, so get stuck in to it, start making the best quality items you can, you may find it useful to begin by making simple items from the furniture side, the new lamps and candles are pretty easy, there will be a market for them for a while I suspect. You can build up from there, it won't be easy, but nothing that is worth it in the end should be. Eventually you will find that you can make a tidy profit once you are organised and established. Structures take a lot of resources, but they ought to, the money may not seem much, but to be honest they are not difficult to make, so you get a good return for your effort.
I always maintain that there is only2 rules in this game that you MUST adhere to if you are going to stick around:
Rule # 1. Have FUN
Rule # 2. Always follow Rule #1
Now go and enjoy yourself, and don't worry about the credits, it's only a game ! 
Heh, I use the same Rule Book lol. As far as the credits thing is concerned, I'm far from worried about it. But I'm also not about to sell something for cheap for the sake of roleplay. Just that given the two options of selling the resources or the factory where both yield the same return, didn't make much sense to me and I wondered if this was the case with the other items.
Bandola wrote:
There is money to be made from crafting, otherwise we wouldn't all be doing it. Sure you can sell the resources instead, but then you're not an architect are you. It's a roleplaying game, if you want to sell resources then you choose the role of a resource seller so you go Merchant, if you want to make something then you choose the role of a crafter, so you go Architect, or one of the other crafting professions, or if you want to kill mobs you go for a combat class. If all you are interested in is making the credits without any effort then get a gun, go to Bogle Caves and camp out for the skill tapes, or better still go to eBay and buy the credits, that's got to be the easiest way.
I am pretty sure though that the reason you posted here is because you DO want to be an Architect, so get stuck in to it, start making the best quality items you can, you may find it useful to begin by making simple items from the furniture side, the new lamps and candles are pretty easy, there will be a market for them for a while I suspect. You can build up from there, it won't be easy, but nothing that is worth it in the end should be. Eventually you will find that you can make a tidy profit once you are organised and established. Structures take a lot of resources, but they ought to, the money may not seem much, but to be honest they are not difficult to make, so you get a good return for your effort.
I always maintain that there is only2 rules in this game that you MUST adhere to if you are going to stick around:
Rule # 1. Have FUN
Rule # 2. Always follow Rule #1
Now go and enjoy yourself, and don't worry about the credits, it's only a game !
Factories are often a low margin item. Novices can make them so they are often priced cheap while people grind up XP. Plus the quality does not vary and they don't require good resources. I've seen them sell for 20 to 60k or more on my server and I sell them easily for 40-50k with no complaints on prices. A lot of people don't care if its 10-20k more as long as they get it now.
You'll find that the high end harvesters usually have better profits. For those it takes some good material to make them and since they are experimented you have to be higher level skills or preferablly master to get max ratings.
A heavy mineral harvester takes around 26k resources and about 2k of that has to be high quality stuff. So your resource costs are in the 75-85k range (give or take). Most folks charge 1.5 to 3 times that for max BER13's. So theres a pretty good profit margin and good net profit for them. Other harvesters are similar as far as profit rates go. However if you don't get max BER then the margins aren't nearly as good as for max BER.
If you can make an item with grinding materials, that has a 35 sp cost, then of course, the margins on that item are going to be low. There's an ability for almost every player in the game to be able to make their own factory. Now it's true, most don't realize it, but in a day, you could grind up to nov architect, and make your own factory. I bet there are even some Master Crafters that do this exact thing at times, just because they are cheap.
So given that, getting a significant premium of grinding material cost is hard. My secret, like other's note: Have it in stock. Time is credits, and being able to sell it right now, does mean that you can charge a premium. What is that premium? Only your server economy will know.
That said, as you move up the architect tree, you should not only be charging a "now" premium, but you can begin to charge an SP usage premium. The harder it is for the casual crafter to dabble, the more you should charge.
Finally, of course, any item that gets experimented should carry an even steeper premium. If a harv isn't max BER, it essentially is junk. I give these away to guild mates, because they never sell off the vendor. That is another factor in your "cost" and "profit" equation. Wasting 25k resources on a BER 12 heavy harv will have you scratching your head for a week, wondering how anyone gives away their heavies for 4 cpu (boggle!).