At this time I'm an unskilled hunter focused on Carabok, Gallard and Halix. My top skills are at level 10 (not counting sweat gathering at lvl 17), and I am growing increasingly impatient with what I do. I have done some leather textures and a few Simple I Conductors because I had the materials. I would like to get into crafting a bit more but I don't know where to start or even what to make, or even if it is a good time to start crafting at all right now. I have a small variety of level 1 BPs for various skills (texture, component etc) but how do I pick "the right one"? Do I investigate and select what I think would be a good end item and increase the required skills to be able to make it? Or do I focus on any type of component/part I have the materials for, for a broader skill base before narrowing down my options? I'm not too fond of crafting TT food. I should add that my PED card depends on deposits from a PTC site, meaning funds are very restricted.
Honestly, I suggest you avoid crafting to start with. It's a major ped sink. With low level hunting and mining it's possible to come out ahead if you are thoughtful. It's very difficult to profit on low level crafting with low skills. Also you really need a good understanding of the EU economy when choose what to craft, what's a good price for materials, whats a realistic selling price that allows you to come out ahead. I've heard some say that most crafters choose to sell at a loss. If so I wonder why they are crafting at all. I craft for profit and I am quite successful at it but to get there I invested a lot of peds in bps and skills and shops, operated at a continual loss for six months until I got things sorted. IMO, successful crafting requires a significant ped balance and it worries me that you say your funds are very restricted. But say you really want to get into crafting. Well it can be expensive to skill up. Bps you grind for skills are probably going to produce TT food. A cheaper alternative is to get work on a space ship and skill repairing until you unlock blueprint comprehension. Once you have BPS unlocked, review your situation. Regards, KikkiJikki
Thanks for your input. When you started what did you do? Did you decide that weapons would be your thing and researched your options before even beginning? Or was it mainly the profit aspect that guided you?
to get your starting craft skills up your best cheapest bet is go mother ship repair skilling till you unlock blueprint comprehension. or crash a vehicle and repair it over and over. This is 100% costs with no ped back but very nice skills for crafting. either that or craft and TT cheep stuff. Only sometimes sellable starting craft is level 1 textures but there's only so much people who want clothes done in those textures per month.
Once upon a time there was an avatar who had played for a year on Caly as a hunter, skilling and enjoying the process. Then a new planet was discovered... I've always thought that crafting, (not land owernership) was the at the top of the economic tree and also the basis of a successful economy. When Arkadia launched, I decided to get seriously into crafting as there were no established crafters dominating the market. My goals were to stimulate the Arkadian economy by crafting, creating a demand for the looted materials minimise my crafting losses while skilling up - so no TTing of stuff if possible develop a business model that would allow me to become profitable become a recognised player in EU by becoming one of the dominant crafters on Arkadia Looking at the options it was pretty clear to me that weapons had much better turnover than amour. I decided to stay away from crafting mining gear as, not being a miner I didn't really understand that part of the market. Also, it looked like mining amp crafting was something a lot of gamblers were into and I didn't think I could compete with them as they seemed to lowball prices and depend on hofs. I wasn't looking to gamble. It quickly became apparent that there were real problems selling on local auction. Too much risk of weapons sliding right though the seven days without selling. I realised I really needed a shop to sell from if I was going to have a viable business. So I decided to back off and wait till shops became available. Over the following 6 months or so, I accumulated bps, ground low level weapons and armour for skills and bp drops, expecting to TT them. Where there was evidence of good sales of specific weapons in auction I made a few and sold them that way. I also chipped in some skills such as engineering, laser weapon tech, etc to unlock bpc. Ark PP ran a crafting competition where I won a few armour bps, which encouraged me to try and accumulate more of those. Throughout this period I was primarily a hunter, grinding Huons. Crafting was strictly a sideline. When the quarry booths came onto the market, I acquired one for the crazy exorbitant price of 5k (people laughed, I cried a little). By the time the auctions ended, it turned out I had paid less than anyone else (I laughed a little). By then I had around 20 herman bps. Owning one of only 6 shops on the planet gave me a huge competitive advantage over other crafters. It reduced my risks and allowed me to develop a brand that could be marketed. It took some time for me to get a handle on my costs and selling prices. Six months after opening my first shop I stopped losing peds. And then a year later I broke even. These days I am profiting (sales vs cost to craft) around 5 to 10% each month, though the last two months have been kind of awesome. The last time I had a monthly loss was April 2013. Over the life time of the business I am ahead around 40K which is approx 6% of cost to craft. My monthly turnover is approx 1/4 to 1/3 of the stock sitting on shelves. But to get to this point, I have had to absorb significant losses over an extended period. I have had to invest a lot of peds in bps and shops. I have a lot of peds tied up in shop inventory (130kTT), lots of peds in stockpiled crafting materials. Key to success was a good business plan that extended for at least two years, that included strategic goals that would over time transform my crafting to a profitable business. marketing significant capital to be able to invest and carry short term losses being in the right place at the right time, recognising opportunities and being in a position to leverage those opportunities In my view, successful crafting requires that you operate in a similar manner to a real life business. You need to understand the business you are in. You need a plan. You need a customer base. You need capital. I don't think you can succeed on a shoe string budget. Regards, KikkiJikki
Truly excellent post kikki, makes me want to start crafting again I don't have 100kped to tie up in inventory again though, it's insane how much ped u need to run a shop properly.
