You should check out the The Market & Inventions forum. The people there are rich and not shy at all about telling how they do it. There are plenty of 0 to billion threads there detailing exactly how they made their money.
Myself, I random roll hero merits. I make on the average, 110-130 million net per roll after crafting. Sometimes less (sometimes horribly less) but the good rolls bring the average way up. Much better profit than saving up 2 for LotG/Miracles but a bit more work. See link in my sig for the spreadsheet.
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Thanks. I'll have to look into rolling merits.
No one's going to ever get rich fast by trying to exploit one niche forever. If you want to make IO's to sell, you have to do your research.
1. look at recipe prices vs. IO's, and find something with a decent profit margin. If the profit margin is TOO extreme, realize that others will catch on soon. Make a few, okay. But have an exit strategy, as it will not last.
1a. KEEP RESEARCHING, even if you find a recipe you want to craft. Keep it in mind, as..
1b. Prices will continue to rise (and stay there awhile) and lower (and stay there, too)
2. Think of the IOs (or sets) that you use a lot. These are probably the sets others like to use often too, so that's a good place to start. Avoid the the "elite" ones. Those are the ones everyone tries first, so the profit margins are very slim because competition is high. But there are others you DO use, and probably use on all your toons. Some are kind of "bread and butter" sets. These can be very, very lucrative options, because everyone else needs them on all their toons, too.
3. check the dates on the last IO's sold - if they are very recent, then the turnover is fast enough that you can, potentially, make a decent amount of influence.
4. If the price drops (and this will happen, especially as you have not been following that item for months), then lower your prices to the current selling price. Don't wait for the market to go up again. It might. But it will likely take months. If that area is no longer profitable, move on to something else. No shame in doing that - recognize that a lot of areas are pretty volatile (20 mil. for a month or two, then 5 mill for another month or two).
Okay, that was the beginner information. Here's the big boy (girl?) tips:
5. Note the terms I used in my opening sentence. A big flaw people have is being greedy. When you're greedy, you lose. (And keep repeating that. I know I had to!) You don't need to "exploit a niche" - if you think about that statement, what you're really saying is you're exploiting your fellow players. Is that necessary? What about providing a service (buying the recipes, salvage, and crafting them) for those who dislike that aspect of the game? Then selling your crafted items at a fair and reasonable price?
3a. I got very, very rich on all my toons doing just this. When my stock of the "good stuff" in my base gets low, I do marketing for a month or two on a few toons to restock. This info continues to work, though I do not have the same depth of knowledge as when I did consistently over a long period of time, so it takes me longer now. It will take YOU less time later on, as well.
3b. I found it MORE PROFITABLE to keep my prices reasonable, than to attempt price gouging. Sure, I could plunder a niche, use it up, then dump what didn't sell - AT A LOSS - to nuke that market for everyone else. Then go and do the same thing on some new area for a few days till that tanks, then mess up that niche, and so on. Why? Why waste my time like that? Why, when I can consistently sell every single IO I had on the market (with as many as I had open spots in WW's), twice each day, simply by being reasonable with my fellow players?
6. You sure can to to the Markets and Inventions section. THere are some good folks there. Personally, I have never gotten much out of it, but I had already been marketing awhile before I thought to check in that area. The truth is, it seems you don't really need advice, as much as you need to keep plugging away at it, doing your research, and finding out what works best for you. Just hang in there, and follow what works.
How do I go about making more money for my toons?
I had a niche in the market but someone went and messed it up by selling for about 2/3rds the price i was. Just checked and prices are still in that range weeks later. Dont think prices are going to go back to where they once were. >_>
LotG are consistant but at the rate of 2 A merits for one I would end up making more just saving those A merits for Glad armor 3% def. Which is exactly what I'm doing. Problem is its a slow process and I do have the patience but I'm running out of funds atm.
I do have a ss/fire brute but lets just say after getting 2 sets of purples on him that I dont want to set foot in another AE for a good while.
Also saving incarnate merits on my main since its fully T4'd in all slots but the rate of picking those up is inconsistent since you need a league for those and can't always get one going.
Any other ways to make inf that I'm missing? Preferably something that can be done solo.