Making Plat so you can tradeskill?

[Grants]

What lvl are you? Got a magelo?

If you are high enough. I would recommend pharming CT. Either use the Bloodvials yourself or sell in bazaar. Setup in the room where the Shield of Striding drops and just kill as much as possible. Shield of striding goes for 250k+ or so on AB.

If you are not high enough to be able to kill there, you could consider doing Othmirs in CS. They all drop 50pp gems and Crust armor that sells nicely. And the Othmir pelts are good for tailoring.

[Twistagain]

* Certain items are used a lot like Celestial Essence. But anyone can go to Abysamal Sea and make all they want, all day long. With a trivial of 15 -- why buy from other players? LOL

I agree with most of your points...and I am in a similar situation. I usually hover around 10-20K and have, at most, had around 150K. The statement above, however, I completely disagree with. Here's why: a few months ago, I cleared off one of my mules and stocked him with 1600 CEs. I priced them at 5p each and sold ALL of them overnight.

For those keeping tabs, that's an initial investment of about 2720pp and an end result of 8000pp. I did this for about a week. I only DIDN'T sell out completely one night...and I sold those the next day.

Is it a fortune? No, but I made around 5K a night. There was very little "risk" and not a lot of time invested. Took me a little over an hour to crank out 1600 CEs.

Was it boring? Oh, most difinitely. But my 70 Bst can't farm 5K in an hour without getting lucky on rare drops.

So, the point is that people WILL pay to circumvent that hour of pre-combining. If it's worth the money to you...then do it. I needed some cash (had borrowed some to buy an aug) and did it the easiest way I knew how.

Note that your mileage will vary...and the prices on my server have dropped considerably for CEs...but they are still nearly a 100% profit. Also, I hit it around the time the cap was raised...so people were skilling up quickly at that time. But people will still pay to cut corners.

[Luvimt]

Well I have made very little money off anything but tradeskilling for the past ?3 years. I was guilded up until about 6 months ago and nearly all my non-raid time was spent on farming for skill-ups or skilling-up. I made enough money to raise all TS's over 250 on my main (all but tailoring and fletching to 300) and to raise 1 TS over 220 on 5 other characters. Each of those characters has a nice set of exp gear and a set of TS gear yet I never rolled on dropped items unless I needed them. Why take money from a non-tradeskiller when I earn more than I need through trade skills?
The trouble with me is I love spending it as much as I love earning it. Even so I have 300k in the bank atm and I havent sold 1 exp drop in at least a year (bar vendor mined items).
The trick is to find a few niches, adapt, recognise an opportunity (which also means a lot of bazaar searching) and vendor mine like crazy.
You may scoff at small profits from bulk sells but let me give you an example: tormentor stir fry - 10 tormentor parts bought at 50p each, all other ingredients are free, each part yields 3 stir fry, if succeed all get 30. They sell at 250p each so that 500p investment has made 7k profit for say 5 mins of gathering ingredients and clicking.
Anyway I am drunk so I wont bore you with more ranting but I am sure you could make 1 million plat from trade skilling alone in 6 months if you set your mind on it.

[Master Ruphus]

Well, not to brag, or gloat or anything, but I have made millions of plat on a regular basis in EQ. Best week I have ever had was a little over 1.2 million, just from selling GM cultural augs/armor.

But, to get there you need a large amount of capital, patience and a very high skill.

My biggest thing lately has been playing around on other servers and seeing just how fast I can build up a fair chunk of coin.

I know it's been said here before, but spiderling silks and quality skins. It's a consumable resource that people DO buy in LARGE quantities quite regularly, and is something a level 5 character can farm with nothing but leather armor and a rusty weapon. The Barbarian (Everfrost) newbie area is my personal favorite spot for silks/skins. As a newbie, you have 3-4 quests that all result in a few gold and sometimes an item of sorts (wooly fungus/polar bear skins).

Once you have anywhere from 20-200 quality skins, and 100-1000 spiderling silks built up, set up a trader one night and there will be a solid chance they will be sold. Spiderling silks generally run from 5-12pp per server, and quality pelts seem to run about 10pp per Low/Medium and 15-35pp per High Quality.

You can very easily make 5k+ a night of farming doing this alone, but chances are you will get very bored, very quickly, with killing level 1-3 mobs.

If your 65+ there are many places full of level 40ish mobs that are very good for farming. The Vampire castle in Tenebrous Mountains will yield about 2-15k per clearing (with about 1 nearly guaranteed in vendor sellable gems). The names respawn every 30ish minutes or so, and 9 outta 10 times drop a gem worth 100-300pp and 1 item. Between spawns you can kill the grimlings (maybe even a runner for a Rallic Pack pattern) and collect some acrylia as well.

Regardless.... The biggest thing I can tell you for making money, is to have money and spend as little as you can while leveling up or skilling up tradeskills. Once you have 100K+ built up, sit on it.

Here's a few things I can think of that might help you, or someone on the money making tip.

1. Watch for those amazing deals. Keep an eye out for that person in bazaar late one night selling a Metallic Drake Scale for 12k when you know there are barters buying them for 15k. You don't have to be a regular reseller, but be that person that is in the right place at the right time.

2. Farm what you can when you can to skill up on. Only got a hour or 2 to play? Head over to Twilight Sea and clear the Shadow island a couple times and get some shadows for smithing.

3. Never get frustrated with a lack of stuff to skill up on and lots of money. Having a lot of plat banked is like having an ace in your sleeve. When you have plat, things come easier, when you don't have plat you regret not having it and missing those truly one in a lifetime opportunities. I used to set myself a budget, I used to always keep 1k in the bank, then 10k, then 100k. Eventually you'll get to where you won't let yourself go below a certain amount and you'll get used to it.

5. Always be aware of what is selling, what is needed and what people are buying. Things like Nodding Blue Lillys, Velium, Acrylia, Swirling Shadows, Celestial Essence, etc etc etc are always in pretty high demand and people will always be looking for it, especially on the consumable items.

6. Keep everything you loot unless you know it's junk. Sure you can make a lot of money with CE's just by buying all the components in PoK, but you make even more if you keep a mixing bowl (or collapsable bowl) on you when you farm and are getting the higher end research drops. Doing this negates having to buy the more expensive component in PoK.

7. Don't be afraid to go to old zones. Velks, Seb, Cobalt Scar, Sirens Grotto, Acrylia Caverns, are all great places to get some good coin, maybe even a tad bit of exp, and random/rare items that actually do still sell.

8. Get to know your economy. Is there ever any Journeyman/Expert/Master level DoN cultural armor for your race in the bazaar for sale? Is there a distinct lack of non level restricted items for sale in bazaar?

9. Try to hunt in places where your "knocking out 2 birds with one stone". Do you need OoW faction still? Draniks Scar is not a bad little spot for cash and you can get faction while doing some farming. Slugs can and do drop in DS, along with any of the +4 stat augs which usually sell for 1-5k a piece, plus the coin isn't really that bad either.

10. Learn your class inside and out. While it may be tough for you to solo in say, RCoD or WoS like the kiting classes can, if your a pally you can probably handle anything undead with little to no problems. Veksar comes to mind here.

11. Be persistant and patient. Good things do come to all in the end. Cover your bases, make sure you always have the plat to make an investment or 2, and be ready to do whatever it takes to reach your goal. Don't be ashamed of killing in the lowliest of lowly zones if it will save you some coin or make you some coin.

I could go on and on, but I think what everyone has posted should be of help

[Veril]

A million, pfft. I've made more millions than I can count from tradeskills. I've spent 2-3 million on each of my 2 main twinks, and I have a few million in the bank.

I made my first 15K to buy a Jaundiced Bone Bracer from SoW potions. I would make and carry 10-20, selling them in adventure zones (hill giant farmers used to love them).

The next 100K for Malo, Torpor, Fungi Tunic came form more potions that I can remember, from Buying and re-selling stuff at a profit in GFay (before Luclin and the bazaar), hunting rare items, camping them and selling them. Making armour and then selling it was the next step - so much plate, chain and leather acrylia based armour passed through my hands it was unreal.

Blue diamond cultural, and masses of it. Lots and lots of it. Work out what are the good pieces and sell those.

I was fortunate to be a good smith when Tae Ew armour was released, I made a fortune from that armour, a fortune the likes of which will never likley be repeated. I was selling tunics and legs for 25-35K, 4-5 a day for weeks, I went to farm the components every day, made stuff and sold it. Always match the lowest price anyone else is selling at, but don't undercut others, sell it in quantity, as much as you can.

From there it was pop-elemental stuff, again, I didn't undercut others, I simply matched the price. I sold anything and everything I could make. Let others make a big profit on single items, I sold 10 times as much stuff at only half the profit - and made five times the money.

Always buy components that you will use in the future that are cheep now. Always. Every time. You will sell out or use your current stock up, and having future stock ready means you will be able to continue. The price of components almost never falls.

Just before a new expansion is released, don't take any silly risks, don't stockpile stuff, don't make vast quantities of anything. There will be newer recipies that will outdate what you sold before, if you have a load of outdated items, sell them off cheep to get your money back.

Move on. Make whatever is new and hot and sells.
Sell in quantity, take a small and steady profit.
Don't sweat it if something doesn't sell for a month.
Don't be undersold. Everyone uses find and buys from the cheepest person every time. Unless you think they will sell out, price match.
Look for empty market slots of decent items and make those.

[Abazagaroth]

I think I figured out once that I made about 7 million plat from blue diamond cultural (human). I was the first one making human cultural on my server though, and for a long time was the only one that was making it regularly. I never gouged, which I wonder if it helped me in the long run by reducing the number of people that just skilled up to make their own.

To make plat in EQ via making items through tradeskills is really simple. Find an item that sells well (quickly, not necessarily the highest ticket item) and start making it. Don't be unwilling to buy parts in the bazaar at inflated prices if you are still going to make a profit. Always do a combine run with at least ~10 combines so that you don't end up not making anything (i.e. have a margin for unlucky failure rates).

And then keep at it. Day in, day out. If you can buy all the main components in the bazaar, you're going to be better off even if you make less plat per piece, then you can make stuff, go into trader mode, and live your life.

[Voltai Ausra]

I'm going to have to second that Veksar suggestion. There are alot of good drops from there that will sell well. Gomdurig is a rogue dagger that's worth between 5-10K depending on server. Tends to move well


Also while this will require a cash investment. Once you've built a small bank roll and assuming you are 240+ Smithing. Turning Meldstones into Muramite armor pieces for Qvic+ armor is a good seller

[KyrosKrane]

Heh. This thread might be worth a sticky. It's rare to see so many focused, concentrated posts with detailed advice and stories on how to make plat. I've seen some suggestions here that I haven't heard before, and it's always fun to read "success stories" from people who've lived it. Advice based on experience is always a good starting point for the up-and-coming tradeskiller, and the thread's topic is a FAQ anyway.

[Elyssanda]

Vendor mine with eqtraders open in another window. Seriously, until you KNOW what you are looking at and what it's for, that's the best way to do it.
I still will often open a window while I'm mining and I've been doing it for 3 years, normally I know what I'm looking at, but there are occasions where I think to myself, now is THAT REALLY what I THINK it IS? OMG....

in the past 2 days I have litterally made 15kp on 2 items I vendor mined for less than 2gold total.
one day last month, I mined 4 glossy drake hides AND a metallic scale..that was a gooooooooood day OHH yeah.

Also CE's.. I will do them on consignment only. 2 friends recently we both working smithing up using sickles. 5000 CE's in 1 week, I made 25k PLUS 2 level 68 runes (one from each of them).
Am expert brewer/baker/fletcher...
Arrows! while skilling up I was making so many I had 5 alts stuffed to the gils and as a bard I don't use them... trader chick selling every night at 5p each (still makes pp for me) Hawking in POK while making them, & in guild.. rangers aren't the only ones who use arrows, my best customers to this day are 4 Sk's IN my guild. for guildees I normally ask that they only cover cost to make, but I always end up getting more than just that from them.

If you are NOT a forager, make a list of items you would LIKE that are foraged and post it on your guild's website. Heck even if you are a forager make the list and post it. most people would be willing to set aside stuff for you to use for your tradeskilling.

While working on my baking skill (started when I was level 5) I simply asked my guild for anything that was baking related, meats etc that they might pick up while in normal XP groups. I was quickly filled to capacity with all sorts of things.. so much so that I took a MONTH off from the XP work myself just to bake everything up and make room on all my alts. as I made things from the donated items I offered them up in guild chat free back to the guild since 90% of the things had been given to me. I still got PAID ALOT.. I think at level 30 or so, 3 years ago .. after about a month of play I had close to 10k just from baking.

[Qaladar Bragollach]

Its been my experience that the key to making really horrendous amounts of plat is to have the high skill and the capital when a new recipe is released and people are paying premium prices.

Blue diamond cultural and Tae Ew armor are examples from above posters.
There is virtually no market for those items anymore.

In effect, its about being in the right place at the right time.
That's not to say you can't make money on established markets, but you're not going to make 7 million from CE's.

[Ysall]

Probably made about 7 million from tradeskills, and my advice echoes much of that given above. The trick is to find the right niche at the right time, and exploit it fully. Having your tradeskills, or even one particular tradeskill, maxed, with max supporting AA and Salvage3 is how you maximise your profits.

For years, I made a fortune from Jeweling. Starting with platinum ruby veils, and fire opal rings, progressing through vellium when Velious came out, then onto elemental jewelry when PoP came out.

Tailoring was probably the next most lucrative skill. I was the first GM DoN smith on my server, and for about 6 weeks, I had a total monopoly. I made money hands over fist. When the OoW augs came out, same story, I did the research, found the recipies fast, bought up ingrediants at the point where people still didn't know what they were for (discordant scoria for 2kp, ah, those were the days). When augs were fetching up to 750kp, it was sheer heaven.

If you want to make plat now, then get your pottery up, and wait for the new cultural augs to arrive. Or how about going to Plane of Innovation and pharming Saltpeter for me (or crystallised sulfur if you can tell me where the heck I can pharm it) for the newly released research recipies. If you are on my server, I'll pay you 500pp each, and you can get about 6 an hour in Plane of Innovation. Or do the Bellfast quest, so when they finally fix the recipies, you can service all those ubers with lovely augs dropped from raids that only YOU can help them get made up, at a price of course.

And celestial essences. To all you lovely, lovely people who made the 10,000 celestial essenses I used to skill up over the years, you deserve a special place in heavan, even if you do charge up to 7pp each.

[Bumkus]

C'mon, this thread started as a request for "helpful information" but has gotten a bit tacky. Grats to all the uber rich tradeskillers, but perhaps some of this info would be better placed in a "million-plat club" thread.

[Zaltak]

Makeing money for Tradeskills

Gonna be some rich gnomes out there when one finally makes an AAAA:-)

[Hurk]

What I did to make plat (over 5 million total) was to get a steady group and farm places that drop items in the 10-15k price range.

in my day that was umbral plains and later ldon hard missions. Both dropped tradable loot (specially off the mini boss named) that was worth it to resell.

more recently we farmed ornate patterns and pop spells, etc.

By working together to progress (rather than randoming everything) we each made our own goals (aquiring spells, specific gear, etc) and stockpiled money for oppertunity purchases as well.... we did indeed do a lot of "buy low sell high" as well, since once you have about 300k, you can buy just about anything, and resell it. This is useful when you see something rather rare come up, like say, a mana stone, at 40k, you can immediatly resell it at 100k+.

[Ishwar]

Actually the statement is very true. Making money in tradeskills is not hard. It just requires time, and market awareness.

You can indeed make 7M plat off CEs. You simply need to make 2M CEs. It all comes down to identifying the market where you can make a profit, and supplying that market.

It is possible both to make money farming desired raw materials, and by refining available matarials into something else.

You can read the board and find great suggestions where there might be a market, but you have to find out if it has already been filled on your server. But the key is finding out where there is a need that is not being filled by someone else. The is no magic book, the can tell you where the unfilled needs are.

Currently im gussing the best need to tap into is the desire for ebon crystals. At least on AB they seem to go in th 150-300 range, so if you can do an evil level 70 creator per hour thats an income of 6k+. On the tradeskill front im currently working the master level DoN segment, with the september upgrade there is a decend ufilled need there.