SWTOR Crafting Market Economy Player’s Guide

SWTOR Crafting Market Economy Player’s Guide by Orsian

This is a subject that I see getting ignored more often than not in the ‘Guides’ section of any game so I thought I would post an article with the rules that have worked best for me over my years in gaming. Just so you know my credentials, I have been gaming for 5+ years now and crafting for all of them, I have served as a Supply Officer in guilds and honorably acquitted myself (I didn’t steal the guild bank). I have never gone ‘broke’ on a character, nor have I failed to repay a loan from Guild or friend. I have gotten quite rich on various characters over the years, as I understand those games markets.

SWTOR has some interesting crafting professions, and let’s be honest, if you’re crafting, you’re doing it for that sense of wonder when you ‘Make’ something with your character. Success in selling the item comes a close second for most of us, but there are people who want to solely make money with their profession. At least enough for it to pay for itself.

First step, take a look at who’s buying. Go hang out at the GTN for an hour and keep a rough tally of who shows up more. Is it low level Bounty Hunters looking for armor upgrades or is it Sith Sorcerers looking for better lightsabers?

How can you tell? Pretty easy, inspect their character and compare their level with the level of their items, if you see a discrepancy of more than 2 levels (unless it’s a blue or purple) they are looking to buy a piece of equipment.

Next step, assess the market.

Now, take a look at the materials market, see what basic crafting materials are being offered for sale. Odds are that if there’s alot of say, Armormech supplies and schematics, then not many people are doing armormech, and it might be a good business to get into.

Now check out the armor/implants/upgrades/whatever you’re looking to get into/ that’s for sale, from the lowest levels to the highest, if you see a high frequency of blues, purples and the same few names over and over, then someone is taking that market very seriously. Might make it a little harder to edge into.

Either way, look and see if multiple sellers are selling for the same prices, if they are, then undercutting them might make your item sell faster, and make you some enemies in the long term. Making enemies comes with the territory, unless you want to form a trade coalition, and then it’s only a matter of time before one of you stabs the other in the back for a quick buck.

After your assessment of the market and you have decided which area to get into, it’s time to get some inventory together. In order to sell your goods you have to craft them. In order to craft you have to have materials, and one way or another you’re paying for those materials. So do a quick cost analysis on your chosen item.

We’ll call that item Widget A, and say that there’s obviously a lack of competitive pricing of these Widgets on the market. Your cost to produce one Widget is 120 credits, they are being sold at 1200, that’s 1,000% markup on the price! Now, if you just hop in and start selling at 1,000 a piece you’ll have some good short term sales. The next step your competitor will take is to undercut you. Don’t give him time to, after a day, drop your prices as well.

As soon as that price war has been waged all the way down to the bone, (less than 200% profit), just keep one or maybe two of that item in the GTN to keep his attention fixed there and then undercut another competitor on another ridiculously overpriced item. Snap up ‘idiot sales’ as soon as you see them.

Idiot sales are when someone just has an item rattling around in inv and happens to be closer to the GTN than another vendor, so instead of vendoring the item for the 500 credits the vendor will give them, they attempt to auction it for the 237 credits that the GTN reccommends. Grab it, vendor it, profit, laugh maniacally.

So in summation, assess who’s buying and who’s selling, and your operating costs. As soon as you have those three, it’s business time! (I’m going to rewrite this later and go into more comprehensive detail per profession, til then, cheers!)