What's the current state of the pottery industry?

[Cloudchaser]

I'm just curious about how useful pottery is these days. I read one of the 'learn a skill' guides and it said that pottery was not in a good way at all, but it was also fairly out of date.

So. . . what's the news out there with pottery now? Are there nice items to be made that sell well and/or could benefit my guild?

I've always intended to make tailoring my primary tradeskill and I still want to max it, but knowing tailoring, I may need to take a break and work on something else before I lose my mind . . .and pottery looked relatively tame compared to tailoring.

So, what's the word, folks? Is pottery worth it these days?

[Maevenniia]

Items you can make for guildies:

Ceramic Bands (int/wis casters only)

Opal Encrusted Steins (+25 CHA everyone should have 2 of these to get the best merchant sell/buy prices)

Crucible of Escape (druid/wizard only, can be useful when dungeon hopping)

Golden Idols of Tunare - Earring of Solstice quest piece

Golden Idol of ___________ - some guildies may want one for a range item, the stats are not bad

Faithstone / Spiritstone of ___________ - a must have for clerics and shamen at level 51 (required level), ports them to their home city

Ruby Encrusted Steins - Earring of Solstice quest piece

Planar Peridot Encrusted Steins - Beginner's Stealth Manual quest

Ceramic focus items

Black Marble Mortar & Pestle - guild rogues will want this, maybe




Mostly, all of the above trivial over 200, some over 250. There i slittle profit to be made unless you can get the PoP components (some of which are from the elemental planes) on the cheap.

[Tinile]

Faithstones and golden idols are only ok if you have the good dieties. Prices on those have gone way down, I don't bother any more. The steins have ruined their market as well. People are dumping opal steins for 5p and star ruby steins for 100pp. They are both popular skill up routes. There are a lot of potters, on my server at least, and the market for PoP items is really tough. I wouldn't bother with anything but PoP combines. So, in a word, if you are looking to make money on pottery, the answer is no.

[Tudamorf]

PoP combines can still rake in some cash if you farm your own components. Even if you aren't elemental capable you can make some good money on lesser PoP items like ceramic shield of valor and ceramic shackles of torment.

[Ixiola]

Probably depends on the server (ie. amount of competition), and whether you can devote an account to a bazaar trader 24/7. I still sell popular faith/spiritstones and golden idols of tunare at 1500p each, and star ruby steins at about 350p.

I managed to obtain some Gukta zone essence the other day, and the soulstones sold within 12 hours, which I thought was pretty decent.

I also do a fairly steady trade in artisan seals in the 4.7K range, when I have the time to rope my better half into setting the stones for me.

[Silverfish]

My Experiences with Pottery

I've found a number of items that make pottery worth doing, but be advised that it's not because of the money. It's devilishly hard to make a living doing pottery. That said, here are my notes:

Opal Encrusted Steins: On Bristlebane, you can't sell an opal stein for more than 19 pp and expect to move it. Go figure. Therefore, it's a money-loser in the Bazaar, but it's a very good item to make to order for guildmates. Everyone needs two for each of their characters, and you can usually get the money for combines (and free practice as you make them) from the guild warchest.

Ceramic Bands: These make great gifts. You'll likely do some for skillups anyway, and people remember you when you give them one of these. Give them away, since they don't sell for peanuts.

Planar Peridot Encrusted Steins: Casters will want this to get started on the Beginner Magic Manual, so you can always sell it in the Bazaar for more than cost. It's not a fast mover, but like the next item it's steady.

Artisan's Seal: They're expensive to make, but sell for enough profit to make it worth doing for pocket money. Sell for no less than 4700 pp and you won't lose your shirt on the rare failure.

Faithstones/Spiritstones: Advertise these heavily, and offer to make them at cost for your guild clerics and shamans. Everyone I've ever given one of these to comes back to tell me how useful it is (and I'm a cleric myself, so I know they're not lying), and as word gets out you'll be able to make some money on them.

Planar Items: Good stuff, but high failure rates and expensive/rare components. Do these for yourself or guildies as the parts come available, but don't rely on them for steady income.

Crucibles of Escape: I think I'm the only potter crazy enough to go fishing in Sebilis on my server, since I'm the only person I ever see selling them, and I get requests for them almost daily. I sell them for 235 pp each, which makes it affordable for people to buy when they hit level 20 (required level to use the effect) and I send /auctions out reminding people that they work from inventory slots, since the reason most people won't buy them is that they think it must be held to be used, and they don't want to give up a hand for it. I don't sell them fast, but I always sell out.

Star Ruby Encrusted Stein/Golden Idol of Tunare: I consider these together, because they require about the same level of skill, and people always want them for the same reason, and they always want one of each. They sell in bursts, but they do sell. The steins often get undercut in the Bazaar due to their use for skillups, so be prepared to lose money on them at times.

Components: Never underestimate the market for components, since you'll make a lot of money this way. If you're vigilant about getting zombie skins, you can make poison vials for 3 gp each, and sell them for 1 pp each, and sell lots since that's cheaper than merchants. Ceramic linings sell great, and now that they stack, you can sell them by the gross to skillup racers. Baking components are mostly made-to-order things, but having a few pots or skewers on your Bazaar trader will fetch you food money.


Well, I hope that helps. As someone else already said, you're not going to get rich doing pottery, but I personally love being able to offer people the unique gear and it's one of the least crowded tradeskills in the world. Happy throwing!

Silverfish

[Koru]

These days the poison vials may not be as good a profit maker. If you're tunare worshipping druid or cleric pottery has another nice use - making blessed dust to sell (or refine further into sacred silks and then selling for even higher price). Somewhat specialized market but reducing the failure rate by even a little has made a big difference over time for me. since I sell so many solstice robe supplies

I did a lot of ceramic linings after they were made stackable and they were practically ripped out - although they're hardly high price items they can have an impressive make cost to profit ratio, plus, if you don't sell them chances are you'll end up using them on something as you skill up. Are a pain to make though due to the non-stacking of unfired ones.