If you’ve been following my Black Lion Underground series, you might have noticed my tip several weeks ago about Giant Eyes. These rare items didn’t yet have a known recipe and I suggested purchasing them on the basis that they one day would. Sure enough, the latest patch notes didn’t disappoint.
Giant Eye’s are now used for Immobulus and the price has sky rocketed from 1s 50c per eye to 11 silver on Buy Offers. If you did take me up on the tip, then congratulations are in order as dependent on how many you bought, will see you make a huge profit.
Stupidly of me, I only bought 150 at the time but this still turned me a clear profit of 11g and 77s. Not bad for a few minutes work.
What I’ve begun to realise is that staying ahead of the market in this fashion, with specific rare crafting materials, is the only viable way of truly playing the Trading Post without utilising a craft skill. Gathering resources (such as Ore) will obviously see production costs of most items plummet (and thus result in larger profit margins) however, as most high end items require Orichalcum (a rare commodity on agonizing cool downs), this isn’t always a viable option.
There is then the fact that most high level items (and thus those sought after) require Ectoplasms and although Ecto gambling can work, it will still see you spend considerable money, that begins to eat into your profit. Relying solely on Magic Find for rare item drops in dungeons or out in the game world is also too inconsistent.
What disappoints me so much about Guild Wars 2 crafting (and thus trade system) is that Trade Skills, for those who took the time to level them, aren’t profitable from the base line. In fact many are simply a means of supporting your own gear rather than creating any sort of business. The fact players can level multiple craft skills I feel only dilutes this further (thus removing craft specialists) and the abundance of Trading Post supply removes real sales as Buy Orders are filled so quickly (squeezing margins on Buy Now even further).
I’m going to be experimenting over the next few days with alternative methods of earning money, with the first being the crafting of Runes. As far as I’m aware, the only ways to obtain some of the Superior versions is to salvage, find as drops or take on the mystic forge. With that in mind, I’ve put aside 3 gold to see how much I can make from placing in Major’s and praying for Superiors. After already placing 25 in, it hasn't resulted in a single Superior so this could turn out to be a catastrophic waste of money.
I’ve a long way to go with my goal of 115 gold as the Tier 3 cultural armour doesn’t come cheap, but at this rate, I don’t think it will take too long…
Tip Of The Day
Large Skull's are one of the few rare crafting items that are still ridiculously cheap (as little as 33c) and on that basis alone, I'm confident ArenaNet will adjust their worth through a yet undiscovered gem of a recipe or public announcement in patch notes. Based on how cheap they are, why not pick up 250?
Comments
I've been doing a fair amount of gambling with the Mystic Forge this week, but with medallions rather than runes. Since dragon chests commonly contain a couple of medallions, they sell on the TP for their vendor value currently, while the rare version (crests) can sell for quite a bit more. In particular, Crest of the Soldier has a decent market value, but as always with the forge there is no guarantee that 4 medallions will produce a crest of any real worth. Likewise, you can often simply get another medallion back, or oddly enough, an orb or gem shard instead.
Xerin and I were also discussing the market value of crafted gear this week. Simply put, the real value of level 80 exotic gear is the rareness of the skins. Skins are why people run specific dungeons vs. farm karma vs. save gold for cultural sets. Yet the lvl 80 exotic tailored set shares a skin with a far cheaper lower level set, so essentially lacks any true value as a collectable item. At that point it's just a "quick fix" option to get an exotic set without the hassle of earning tokens, karma, or piles of gold.
I'll be picking up a few of the skulls for sure. I did okay on the Giant Eyes, but I would have done much better if I'd had Black Lion Access at the point that the eyes spiked, instead I ended up selling at about the 6s mark.
I betting on you Lewis and picked up a stack.... No whammy, No whammy... STOP!
Interesting Post. I always found the Mystic Forge to be too much of a gamble for me to try and make Gold from it.
I have made a decent amount of Gold just from flipping items at the trading post or farming materials. It is a bit of work. But it does make you Gold. Making Gold in Guild Wars 2 is more of a challenge than some of the other games I have played.
I have also started looking at crafting now since the cost of materials is starting to level out a bit. When I first tried to craft some items to sell I found it very hard to make a decent profit.
I just wanted to chime in and say that I feel the real value to crafting is as transmutation fodder. I can pick up the skins I want, craft myself the stats I need, and combine. The only reason I'm currently reconsidering levelling more crafts on alts is that I think it might be more profitable in the long run to simply TP the mats and buy the gear when I want it as opposed to going through the cost of skilling up.