Spellcrafters and over the top prices

Mysteriax

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
59
Let me start to tell my story on how it began.
I bought some nice 99% af 51 set for my chanter pharao.
Then I tried to find a spellcrafter, well after some searching I found someone.
I told what I needed and what it costed for him to make (no overcharge so random items). The total was 230 gold (i tried to make it as cheap as possible but still have all the stats capped, its a PVE farm solo chanter).
Then I asked him what the price would be 700 gold he said, I asked how do you calcute it , he said 100 gold per item , then I said that its cheap to make.
He still refused to lower the price, then I said oh well I'll go oof to search for another sc'er who uses different markup.
So I went off to another thinking that the guy before was Uber expensive.
I asked him what he charged, if you have any children reading this stop reading its Horrible. He asked 1 Plat I thought he made a joke so I said good joke now tell me the real price , he said 1 plat again. Then I was like omg he means it. Although I explained him that I had no overcharge and that the cost was 230 gold , he still said 1 plat.
So I tried to find another, I found a grandmaster 1 and asked him, well he would be busy for quite some time.
So my everyday ritual became /who spellcrafter and /who Vulcan (a spellcrafter which I heard of)
With this topic I try to achieve 2 things, 1 get a spellcrafter who does it for about 500 gold and second is it just me or are those prices before outrages if I compare it to the markup from other crafters
 

Bellona

Banned
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Jan 12, 2004
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1,105
Try to understand that it still takes a long time to make the gems, and if you dont like the prices, you are more than welcome to roll your own lgm sc, its the most boring tradeskill and you would discover that if you tried it yourself.

take that from one that had a lgm sc on alb, and now skilling a new on hib, im making my own because i know its waste of time/money to get others to do it.

If you sc cheap.. you better have to find a guildcrafter etc.. but gl findgin one ;)
 

Khalen

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
200
SCing takes time indeed but the SC calculator only shows 1 try and an estimate (2-3 tries I think). These prices are most of the times no where near the real price. If it's a full OC lvl 51 set then my cost max is 2 P but have been mostly around 1.5 P. And if yah very lucky with the 99ers gems it can be even below 1 P but to expect a high lvl SC gear with OC to be just 230 G is a dream easily blown away. You can only trust that price when it doesn't concern OC (OC = OverCharging if you didn't know).
 

Mishy

One of Freddy's beloved
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
194
I dont know why you get upset by what people charge, isnt that what shopping around is about, find one until you get it cheaper, which clearly you did, so what does it matter what the others were asking?

I have a lgm sc myself, and never take orders outside guild for it, because like others say, its the worst and most tedious trade skill there is. You may not have had o/c order, but a full suit + weapons is usually 32 gems to be made, and this takes time.

The gems may be cheap, but time isnt.
 

Mysteriax

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
59
Mishy said:
I dont know why you get upset by what people charge, isnt that what shopping around is about, find one until you get it cheaper, which clearly you did, so what does it matter what the others were asking?

I have a lgm sc myself, and never take orders outside guild for it, because like others say, its the worst and most tedious trade skill there is. You may not have had o/c order, but a full suit + weapons is usually 32 gems to be made, and this takes time.

The gems may be cheap, but time isnt.

I know thats why I made my suit full of low level gems :(
Although I have an Sc'er myself (only 330, nice for bg1 kits)
The problem is I am flat broke. But the thing is. my kit costs 230 gold , I can make the same kit with the same stats in total for 360 gold , but I tried to make it as cheap and good as possible. My biggest concern is that even though my kit is quite cheap and descently fast to make. That the price would be the same if I made the more expensive one. With higher level gems
 

Wyleia

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
110
the guy spends 20p and probably about 100 hours ++ to get lgm spellcrafter to be able to make those gems for you.. if the gems arent high ones try asking lower spellcrafters to make the gems for you.. but after investing all that time and money into a tradeskill, you expect him to do it for cost? :)
 

ruahtian

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 24, 2003
Messages
67
handg on the guy said there was no oc on the armour so 995 jewels where not needed if craft price is 240g it might take 20 mins to make the jewels needed so 1p is kinda high id say max 2 times cost
 

Khalen

Fledgling Freddie
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Dec 23, 2003
Messages
200
Every crafter has his own way of pricing stuff... There's not a default and never will be... That's the crafters freedom.
 

emma

Loyal Freddie
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Dec 30, 2003
Messages
755
Khalen said:
Every crafter has his own way of pricing stuff... There's not a default and never will be... That's the crafters freedom.
For non-OC armour/weapons i used to charge material price + 20% markup. It takes sod all time to make the gems and certainly doesnt warrent a price of 1p for something that takes 20 mins tops and costs next to nothing in materials.
 

Helter

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
39
Well... why whine about the prices?
As i see it, you have two choices, either search around for other crafters who'll do it cheaper for you, or level up a spellcrafter yourself...
 

Mysteriax

Fledgling Freddie
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Dec 22, 2003
Messages
59
Wyleia said:
the guy spends 20p and probably about 100 hours ++ to get lgm spellcrafter to be able to make those gems for you.. if the gems arent high ones try asking lower spellcrafters to make the gems for you.. but after investing all that time and money into a tradeskill, you expect him to do it for cost? :)

Not for cost, but 2x the cost would be nice 500 gold.
Although I dont want to make a reark with the 20 plat (its less) I know that making an lgm crafter is expensive. Plus I didnt ask for cost price. but 1 plat which is 4x the cost price is a bit over the top.
Also I know its a boring craft to do, plus there arent allot of sc'ers who take orders from others then guildies / friends.
 

Larc

Fledgling Freddie
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Jan 22, 2004
Messages
304
The usual price with all the crafters i have spoken with is 300g/item with 4-5 point oc. So count on 300x6=1.8plats for a set.
 

Denisée

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Jan 2, 2004
Messages
154
Mysteriax said:
Not for cost, but 2x the cost would be nice 500 gold.
Although I dont want to make a reark with the 20 plat
20p to get lgm SC? The truth is closer to 9-11p.


To bad you're not in mid, could've helped you then. It takes nowhere near the time to imbue none OC items than it takes to imbue 5p OC items. And when we're at it, my last three 8 item SC suits (MP with 5p OC) came on about 400-500g per suit ;)
 

Iceflower

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 31, 2003
Messages
529
Considering the benefit you will get from the stat increases on your suit I would say 1P is extremely cheap. You dont buy office supplies by the pound/kg here you know. You buy an advantage in both pvr and rvr and the price of the service provided should reflect that. Personally I have been astonished that crafters give away their time for peanuts while giving me a good gaming situation. They are very altruistic in their pricing imo. I would say a decent price should never lie below what the crafter can bring in from alternative gold farming sessions. Anything less is a waste of their time. How much time is required to make all the jewels for a full set of armour/weapons on average? One hour?

As for the cost to reach LGM level in either Spellcrafting or Alchemy. I doubt you can make it at 11P. From what I have heard from mids on Prydwen we are talking of >20P costs here. I have a faint memory that Emma, one of the first LGMers on that server, stated that it cost her somewhere in the range of 20-25P, do you remember what you wrote in your post on BW when you reached that level? It was more than I paid to become a LGM weaponcrafter, much more.

So I would say it isnt very expensive with up to 1P for a full set. Not if you consider the value you get from the items in your pve/rvr gaming.
 

Mishy

One of Freddy's beloved
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
194
Iceflower said:
How much time is required to make all the jewels for a full set of armour/weapons on average? One hour?

anywhere between 1-2 hours usually.


Iceflower said:
As for the cost to reach LGM level in either Spellcrafting or Alchemy. I doubt you can make it at 11P.

about 8-12plat is indeed about right to achieve 1k sc.
 

Mishy

One of Freddy's beloved
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
194
Denisée said:
And when we're at it, my last three 8 item SC suits (MP with 5p OC) came on about 400-500g per suit ;)


Indeed, depending on the gems the person uses, material cost is usually around that mark... but i highly doubt you then sell it for 500g, having spent 2 hours making it all.... but if you do, then hats off to ya, you are truely mad :D :p
 

xoboll

Fledgling Freddie
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Dec 25, 2003
Messages
115
cost me 11 p to get to lgm and was amongst one of the 1st to get there.. i used to charge cost of gems +tip but then gave up as the tipping was very varied and a lot of the time not worth the effort.. for guildeys now i do it at cost of gems for up to 2 point o/c and if its gonna take me some time then its done at my pace when i can be assed..

out of guild i tend to say no as i really really cant stand sitting makin gems for 2-4 hours ..

but i would say if u get a set of armour and want to s/c it wether its overcharged or not u gotta expect to pay for it.. a crafter is not gonna sit for however long 30 mins - 5/6 hours and get nothing or very little for their time..

300g is the standard price for a 5 point o/c piece and i think that is a good deal.. if u dont want o/c then u r at the mercy of the spell crafter.. if they wanna charge lots then they can.. Always ask for a quote b4 u ask them to start.. if they are unable to quote or at least give a close estimate then go somewhere else.. if u dont like the quote there is no point whining about it.. either accept it or go somewhere else.

spell crafting is one of the most tedious and non rewarding craft there is..
sat all day making gems @99 % for an infil is maad.. 6 pieces of armour 3 weapons with 4 gems on each is 36 gems.. each one might get 99% 1st try or 30th try.. low lvl gems r fine cos u dont notice u have just made 30 to get the perfect one .. high lvl gems well.. time gets longer cash gets shorter.. bill gets higher.. nuff said..

Moral of the story is :- if u dont like the prices go somewhere else or spend a month or so making your own lgm sc'er :kissit:
 

Adoctor

Fledgling Freddie
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Jan 12, 2004
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464
For non OC-2.5OC I charge fixed rates depending on gems (1g/1g/3g/5g/8g/8g/26g/40g/51g/60g )

For 3-5.5OC I charge 250g per item and usually takes about 1-1.5 hours for an 8 part order.

I've done about 30 sets or so and no-one has complained about the price.

It cost me around 14p to hit Lgm and it was boring at hell.
 

Cami

Fledgling Freddie
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Dec 23, 2003
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Adoctor said:
It cost me around 14p to hit Lgm and it was boring at hell.

Sorry about the off topic question :)

But i thought it cost alot more to hit 1k+ with a sc'er?

My own is currently at 800 (794 or so :p ) but the cost from now on wouldn't be much more than 8-10p?
 

Adoctor

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I was skilling on the lowest orange all the way through, so i don't know if this affected my total cost.
 

Cami

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Adoctor said:
I was skilling on the lowest orange all the way through, so i don't know if this affected my total cost.


That is how you should do it, right? :)

Thats what i did with my alchie anyway, and hes at 1095.

But total cost is "only" 14p? - perfect, might consider getting him lgm then, been used to just making 90% of the gems myself and then getting a lgm to do the rest, its quite easy to pursuade spellcrafters when they dont have to do the same amount of work as they are used to ;)
 

Bellona

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Im currently making my 2nd lgm sc'r and this time im only skilling on yellows... seems to work better than my first where i skilled on oranges.

used 11p on my first
 

Iceflower

Fledgling Freddie
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Dec 31, 2003
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Looking at this comment:

>anywhere between 1-2 hours usually.

and

>out of guild i tend to say no as i really really cant stand sitting makin gems for 2-4 hours ..

So the alternative income per hour would be in the range of 1P per hour then.

Think you have the reason for finding it hard to find a scer with cheap prices. Why spend 1-4 hours of your own time if the customer isnt willing to show their appreciation with their purse afterwards....? In particular as the crafter have given the customer some serious advantages in game and could have spent same time farming sevearal Ps?

It was great news about the price to reach LGM status in alchemy/spellcrafting. I expected the cost to reach water breathing potion level quite high but you have taken away my fears of that now :)
 

judas

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Dec 22, 2003
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ive done 2-3orders and ive been lgm since beginning of last summer.
its soo uber booring so no one wants to do it if they dont get paid lots.
i spend 13p~ to get lgm my self but it took ages :\
and is indeed the most booring craft skill there is :/
 

Javai

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lgm cost me 12p'ish and recently it seems much harder to get 99% gems (I have done 30+ retries on some gems) full o/c suits take me 2-3 hours, I can farm 1p an hour in the right spots but I wouldn't feel comfortable charging 2-3p + costs for SC'ing so I only take jobs in alliance and do at cost + tip :)
 

I-Scream

Fledgling Freddie
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Jan 26, 2004
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I am a LGM SC'er since a long time now and I've never liked it to craft. Imagine you have to be near a merchant and near the alch table to make stuff for other people... Wouldn't it be nicer to stroll around, do some RVR, kill some mobs, show the way around to new guildies etc.

Instead of that, you have to buy the right ingredients, count it with a lot of attention, don't take the wrong recipe, stay concentrated the whole way., and for overcrafting you have to try and try again until you get that 99 %. And for what ? To hear the whining anyway afterwards about the horrible prices you dare to ask.

Let me play, forget about crafting, good luck to find a SC'er who's willing to accept orders. I only craft for guildies. For those inside my guild, who thought to find a cheaper solution... they came back to me, because I never blew up their stuff, crafted the things they needed, and I did the job. It's easy to say you can do it for 500 G, the problem is to DO it for 500 G.

If you don't like the price, look somewhere else or craft it yourself and experience all the happiness you'll get with crafting.
 

Adoctor

Fledgling Freddie
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2-3 hours for a 8 part order ???? how?

I load up my healer with all the gems and materials i need and work away. I take some trips to the vault to deposit gems to give me room and I work from my house so the alch table and merchant are not far away.

The longest it has every taken me is 1.5 hours, but i have had some under 1 hour.

No one i've done orders for, has ever complained about the price or the time it takes.

I think ppl don't realise that you can make 5.5OC items with 3 x 99% gems and 1 x 98% gem. BUT if you get an MP gem, you can use 1 x 100%, 1 x 99%, 2 x 98% and so on.

I had a heavy SC'ing week last week bringing my total 5.5OC jobs to around 45-50 orders. I used the same gem combinations as above and not one blew up (on 99% and MP parts).
 

Raven

Happy Shopper Ray Mears
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try spending nearly 20 plat and sitting around while your guild and friends rvr or farm for probably 100 hours+ then you will know why you pay high for good crafted items.
 

Javai

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Adoctor said:
2-3 hours for a 8 part order ???? how?

By being a level 5 caster with 60 str so if I load up on ingredients too much I can't walk :)

I always go for 4 x99 gems replacing with a 98 if I get a MP, additional cost in materials for customer is small but cost if you hit that very small chance and blow up MP armour is very high.
 

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