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It's All About the Gil

So you've finally found that perfect weapon or rare Astral Ring at the auction house but you lack the gil to get it. Fear not! I'm going to list the ways I like to make gil because they are quick, easy, and don't interrupt my normal gaming schedule.

Crystal Farming
This is still very profitable. You will probably have Signet cast on you for the conquest points, but every monster you kill may drop crystals. The easiest crystals to obtain are fire, water, earth, and wind. With the exception of earth the other three sell rather quickly. Fire is the best seller currently at 1,000-1,500 per stack. Thunder, Dark, Light, and Ice crystals are much harder to find and sell for better prices because of this. Dark crystals drop from undead easily. Light crystals can be found on machinery like Cardians. Some goblins will drop Thunder crystals.

Buy Low, Sell High
This idea is an integral part of making gil quickly. If you've been playing for a while you should have a good idea of what items sell for at vendors. You can often find items at the auction house for less then what a vendor will sell them for. Here's a couple examples. Shell Shields drop from Quadavs and will sell to a vendor for 108+ gil. Most often the auction house prices are less then 100 gil each. This is a small profit, but profit nonetheless. Lower level spells are a very good investment also. Blind, Bind, and Paralyze are overstocked and can usually be picked up for under 50 gil then sold to a vendor for profit.
Remember that all good ideas work in reverse. This is no exception. Copper ore sells from the Smithing and Goldsmithing guilds for as low as 9 gil each. The auction house generally sells them for 50. Be sure to check the weapon vendor also. Usually the low level weapons sell from NPCs for about 100 gil but you can get up to 500 on the auction house.

Monster Slaughter
Okay so this isn't the fastest way to make gil but it sure is fun. Now that you're in the mid levels (25-45) and you're looking for something to do, why not get revenge on those gobs and quads that beat you down as a lowbie? Monsters that are too weak to give you experience won't drop crystals but they will still drop gil and items. Head to your favorite area such as Palborough Mines, Dangruf Wadi, or even the hill in South Gustaberg. Anywhere that monsters spawn quickly and in small packs will work. If you are a caster with an area of effect spell, round up the monsters with a low damage spell. When you have 5-8 of them, AoE them to death and watch the loot fly in.
This works a bit fasters if you are a caster, but hey tanks can join in the fun. Basically follow a similar pattern with one exception. Instead of rounding up a bunch of monsters just go on a hack-and-slash fest. Generally one or two hits will kill and you'll be getting quadav backplates or stacks of synthesis items very quickly.

Crafting
Here is a topic worthy of heated discussion. The lowest level crafting, assuming you've collected the crystals yourself, can be profitable. The mid levels (10-40) are where you'll find a large money sink until you start producing items of high quality (40-60). Great examples are copper and bronze ingots. These are trivial at skill level 4. Obviously high level crafters don't want to waste their time making dozens of ingots so they will buy them from the auction house. Take advantage of this. While you are raising your skill level you can sell the stacks of ingots for up to 3,500 each. At current prices if you buy the ore and crystals you'll still profit around 1,300.
If you don't live in Bastok or San d'Oria you probably don't have quick access to ore. Well the only culinarian guild is in Windurst. Making food is very profitable. Mages need juice to keep their mana pool ready for use. Tanks want the meaty meals for strength and defense. Get some recepies, make some food, and sell cartloads of your products. You'll be making not only money but also stronger groups. And of course stronger groups live longer, get more items, sell them for more money, and then buy more of your miracle food.
Now the high level crafting. When you are making normal items you can sometimes get a lottery roll and make a nice +1 item. These sell on the auction house for significantly more then their normal counterpart. Again, the auction house is your friend. Sell that item! Also you'll be able to craft the very best weapons and armor, many with magical properties. The items that sell the best have stat boosts (+5 str, +2 int..) rather then resist boosts (thunder +2, fire -1). Keep this in mind when creating items for profit.

Item Grabbing
Okay I could have titled this "mining" or something like that because here is another important way to make cash. Make or buy a stack of pickaxes and head for your favorite cave. A good place to learn would be Zeruhn Mines just off Bastok Mines. The monsters are non-aggro so you can run around half naked. Keep mashing the tab key (or 0 on the number pad) until you find a mining point and use a pickaxe. They will break so you'll need more, but you can get high quality ore this way. Mythril, gold, and darksteel are all rare but sell for a very nice profit. While you are collecting the copper, tin, and zinc you could also raise your gold/smithing skills and sell off the extra ingots.
Akin to mining are its counterparts logging and harvesting. Logging will get wood needed to craft arrows, furniture, and some weapons. Any self respecting smith needs wood to get to high levels of crafting. Logging is easier to do while you are out adventuring rather then making a special trip since trees to cut down are harder to find then mining points.

Gardening
Gardening, the fine art of mixing seeds and a crystal in your pot for some random item. There are many speculations as to the formula used to determine what will result from any planting. As far as I can see there are at least two results for every combination. For example, Brass pot + vegetable seeds + water crystal will grow either fire crystals or la theine cabbages. The only thing you really have to loose is the seed itself since you can always harvest items from the plant. It is not necessary to nurish it with a crystal either, but that will only give you food. Once you get 4 or 5 pots in your mog house you can produce different types of crystals from each planting, thereby eliminating the need to gather more crystals for gardening. While your at it, sell off the extra crystals and food for a nice profit.

Famous People Make Money
It's no lie. The better you are know, the more you will sell. Get a good reputation for yourself by running quests in town. Repeatable quests are best since you can carry stacks of the item needed then simply zone out, come back, turn in, repeat. Get your fame level as high as you can and you will be buying items for less then anyone else and also selling higher. This will work very well with the buy low sell high method by increasing your profit. Also while you are doing quests you will receive gil and sometimes items. Once again the auction house is your friend. The Purple Belt that monks want so much is quests. So are the spells Warp, Drain, and Blaze Spikes. Get the items and sell them.
Fame with NPCs is easy to get. Fame with actual players is harder to maintain but works. If you can, gather up all those items crowding your mog safe and put yourself in bazaar mode. Sit your character near a high traffic area (around the active auction house) over night while you are asleep. When you wake up in the morning see how much you have sold. Remember that Japan is about 12 hours ahead of the US so you can have your items at competitive prices and make a good profit. If you consistently sell good items at good prices people will actually seek you out before they spend their money anywhere else. While this takes some time to build a reputation, once it is established you'll be making the fast cash.

Situation is Everything
How many times have you been stuck in a zone that is 30 minutes from the nearest vendor? Well everyone else has as well. Switch to a low level job, strip naked, and stock up on food, juice, arrows, and potions. Head out to one of those areas like Dunes or La Theine and park yourself near a zone where people can see you. As the night wears on, groups getting good exp won't want to break up or take time to run all the way to town just to restock a few arrows or food stuffs. Instead they'll come buy from you. You'll have a corner on the market so you can sell for *slightly* higher prices then normal. If you are using the sleep-through-bazaar method be sure you are parked on a wall or hill where monsters won't aggro you. Another good place is just on the other side of the zone so you won't catch a train.
Travelling vendors can also make money by purchasing items from groups who have been fighting for quite a while. After about 2 hours, everyone in the group will start to have full inventories. Offer to buy items from them for slightly lower then what they could get at town. Once your inventory is full, you can head back and sell like crazy. This is obviously best to do if you are headed through a highly populated zone on your way back to town. Head to the high exp zones such as Highlands, Dunes, Qufim, or Korro Tunnel and announce your intent to play the travelling salesman. Note: making a special trip can often loose an hour round trip just from running between zones and town.

These are the techniques I have employed to make cash. If you are comfortable with it run several at the same time. Find a quest you haven't done yet. Head to the zone to kill monsters for the quest item(s) you need. Kill a few extras for loot. While there, be a travelling vendor. Take all that stuff back to town and craft. Maximizing your time will maximize your profit margin.
See you in the game!

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