Tip 1: Know your limitations. There are certain limits placed on every possible way to make money. If you farm, you're limited by your inventory space and the rarity of the drops you're farming for. If you craft, you're limited by the availability of the materials you need (and often this changes every week with the Conquest tally, so you can never count on ingredient availability). If you NM-camp, other players will limit the number of times you can claim the spawn. If you fish, demand for your fish and the number of competing fishermen will be your limits. If you mine, it's going to be ore availability and demand. No matter WHAT you do, there is no such thing as a free ride. For example, if I find an awesome item to farm that I know sells for a couple thousand gil each on the auction, I've got it made, right? Not necessarily. Does my item stack? If not, I can only sell seven of my item at any one time. Does it sell quickly? If not, I'm going to have auction house slots tied up on that item that might better be served with cheaper but faster-moving items. Is my item over-farmed? If so, I'm going to be fighting for spawns with other farmers, meaning I'm not going to be bringing home too many of my item in a given night. So, find out what your limitations are. Don't just look at the sell price of something and think it's worthwhile. Often, cheap items will make you MUCH more money than high-ticket items. EVERYONE has pocket change, but not everyone has 8 million gil to throw down on one item.
Tip 2: Check the price information, everywhere! If you have an item to sell, you need to know how much it sells for in every location you can sell it. Meaning, you need to know how much your item sells for at the Windurst/Bastok/San d'Oria/Jeuno auction houses. You need to know how much it sells to NPCs for in the town you have the most fame. You need to know how much the relevant guild (if there is one) will buy it for. You should even have an idea how much it goes for in bazaars in town. This way, you know where you should be selling your item to get the most profit. I cannot tell you how many items I've found on auction that sold for less on auction than they do to an NPC shop right next door. If those sellers took the time to check the NPC first, they would've made even more money and (more importantly) not wasted an AH slot. However, just because you know where it sells for the most gil at, that doesn't mean you know where to sell it. Because....
Tip 3: Find out what the demand is for your item. Your item may sell for 10k in Windurst and 8k in Jeuno. But that doesn't mean you should necessarily sell it in Windurst. Check the dates on the last 10 sales in the AH history, and find out how quickly the item sells there. If it sells three times a month in Windurst and six times a day in Jeuno, even if you won't get as much money for it you'll probably want to sell it in Jeuno. Every day that it's sitting on auction, you're losing money. Because that auction slot could be selling something else and it's tied up selling this one item. Fast sales are usually better than big sales. Also, if you're selling a crafting ingredient, you can bet the demand is going to be higher in the town with the relevant craft. If you have cockatrice meat, you'd be hard pressed to find a better place to sell it than Windurst since the cooking guild is there. So, knowing how much demand there is for your item is critical.
Tip 4: Find out what the supply situation is for your item. Just because you know how many are selling, that doesn't mean you're ready to sell off your item yet! You need to consider how many are on sale. If there are just a handful of your item on auction and it sells quickly, you've found a golden ticket. That means the demand is there but the supply is low. You've found a market niche to fill. If there are 208 of your item on sale, REGARDLESS how quickly it moves you'll probably want to consider selling it somewhere else. Again, you don't want to waste AH slots that could be selling more merchandise.
Tip 5: Find out where your item can be obtained. You need to know EVERY SOURCE of that item in the entire game. You need to know where and what mobs drop it, or what tradeskill it belongs to, or what NM has it, what items can be desynthed for it, or what NPC merchants sell it. You need this info for two reasons: First, you need to know where your potential competition is getting their supply from. Second, if you have several options on where to get that item from, you can find the one that's the most cost effective. Sure, farming Paralyze scrolls off beastmen is a free way to get the scroll, but there are a number of NPC merchants who sell the scroll for cheap. You could mine darksteel, or you could desynth quadav backplates for much, much cheaper. Rather than waste time (your #1 asset) farming them, you can pay the minimal price to buy them and mark them up at the auction house. This leads to...
Tip 2: Check the price information, everywhere! If you have an item to sell, you need to know how much it sells for in every location you can sell it. Meaning, you need to know how much your item sells for at the Windurst/Bastok/San d'Oria/Jeuno auction houses. You need to know how much it sells to NPCs for in the town you have the most fame. You need to know how much the relevant guild (if there is one) will buy it for. You should even have an idea how much it goes for in bazaars in town. This way, you know where you should be selling your item to get the most profit. I cannot tell you how many items I've found on auction that sold for less on auction than they do to an NPC shop right next door. If those sellers took the time to check the NPC first, they would've made even more money and (more importantly) not wasted an AH slot. However, just because you know where it sells for the most gil at, that doesn't mean you know where to sell it. Because....
Tip 3: Find out what the demand is for your item. Your item may sell for 10k in Windurst and 8k in Jeuno. But that doesn't mean you should necessarily sell it in Windurst. Check the dates on the last 10 sales in the AH history, and find out how quickly the item sells there. If it sells three times a month in Windurst and six times a day in Jeuno, even if you won't get as much money for it you'll probably want to sell it in Jeuno. Every day that it's sitting on auction, you're losing money. Because that auction slot could be selling something else and it's tied up selling this one item. Fast sales are usually better than big sales. Also, if you're selling a crafting ingredient, you can bet the demand is going to be higher in the town with the relevant craft. If you have cockatrice meat, you'd be hard pressed to find a better place to sell it than Windurst since the cooking guild is there. So, knowing how much demand there is for your item is critical.
Tip 4: Find out what the supply situation is for your item. Just because you know how many are selling, that doesn't mean you're ready to sell off your item yet! You need to consider how many are on sale. If there are just a handful of your item on auction and it sells quickly, you've found a golden ticket. That means the demand is there but the supply is low. You've found a market niche to fill. If there are 208 of your item on sale, REGARDLESS how quickly it moves you'll probably want to consider selling it somewhere else. Again, you don't want to waste AH slots that could be selling more merchandise.
Tip 5: Find out where your item can be obtained. You need to know EVERY SOURCE of that item in the entire game. You need to know where and what mobs drop it, or what tradeskill it belongs to, or what NM has it, what items can be desynthed for it, or what NPC merchants sell it. You need this info for two reasons: First, you need to know where your potential competition is getting their supply from. Second, if you have several options on where to get that item from, you can find the one that's the most cost effective. Sure, farming Paralyze scrolls off beastmen is a free way to get the scroll, but there are a number of NPC merchants who sell the scroll for cheap. You could mine darksteel, or you could desynth quadav backplates for much, much cheaper. Rather than waste time (your #1 asset) farming them, you can pay the minimal price to buy them and mark them up at the auction house. This leads to...
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