A commision!

As strange as it may sound, I was actually approached today by a friend, Fishura, who needed a Platinum Ingot to work on his RDM JSE. Quite literally, I walked into the AH in Port Jeuno, /waved to Fishura, who happened to be there, and he basically said, "Ah, perfect timing," much to my surprise.

I told Fishura what I needed to make a Platinum Ingot, and he went ahead and bought a stack of Platinum Nuggets and a Platinum Ore, which puzzled me, since this was a whole 20k more expensive than just buying one off the AH! He said it'd take too long to buy the Nuggets off the AH one at a time, so >_<.

I didn't take the specific time into account, but I know it was in the last few hours of Earthsday, since I was kinda trying to hurry Fishura up before it turned over to Watersday, and I would have greater chance of breaking his materials.



As it turned out, the first attempt failed, and fortunately, only four Platinum Nuggets were lost. The second time went fine though, and Fishura let me keep the leftover Nuggets.

This got me wanting to skillup again, and so, while I normally wouldn't do this, bear in mind that I had been gone from the game for a month, and in addition to that, because I will be going on holiday tomorrow, I have not been able to grow any Platinum Nuggets for my consumption. And so, I decided to satisfy my impulse for skilling, and bought five stacks of Platinum Nuggets off the AH for 349k total. In combination with the extra stack of Platinum Nuggets I had from the last skillup session, I now had just enough to last exactly twelve synths- enough to quell my need to skill, and not so much so as to break my walletaru. >_<

I also incidentally, picked up one more Platinum Ore off a random mining trip to Oldton Movalpolos, but due to my philosophy behind farming materials to "save" costs, (it doesn't save you anything), I'll count it as though I bought it off the AH.

The starting conditions for this skillup session were:

Starting Goldsmithing skill: 61.0
Skillup synth: Platinum Ingot (cap 64)
Imagery Support: None
Equipment of note: Shaded Spectacles, Vulcan's Staff
Direction: North
Location: Mog House
Moghancement: Powerful Fire
Moon phase: Windsday, Waxing Crescent (17%)

61.0
06:10 Success.
06:23 Success.
06:36 Success, +0.1!

61.1
06:50 Success.
07:02 Success.
07:16 Success, +0.1!

61.2
07:39 Success.
08:00 Success, +0.1!

61.3
08:14 Success.
09:52 Failed- lost 3 Platinum Nuggets.
10:06 Success, +0.1!

61.4
10:19 Success.

And then my twelve synths was up. Too bad for the break, otherwise I would've had a very nice stack to add to my mule's collection, but since I had nine loose Ingots in Storage, I just shipped one over and the stack was complete. ^^

Over the course of today, including Fishura's synths, I used up a total of 14 Fire Crystals, 79 Platinum Nuggets, and 12 Platinum Ores. Current AH prices for these are:

Fire Crystals: 5k/stk
Platinum Ore: 50k/ea
Platinum Nuggets (12): 70k

Doing the math, that's 1,066,667 gil out to make a total of twelve Platinum Ingots, or one stack, which sells for 1.1m at the moment, leading to a 33,333 gil profit (although 20k of this would normally get taxed if I chose to sell to AH). However, of all this, I only actually spent 399k on my own ingredients.

The skillup rate seems to be fairly consistent, skilling up once every three synths. It shouldn't be too much longer before I hit 62, although I'll get around to that once I get back from my trip. ^^

Summary:
Today's accounts: +33,333 gil
Amount invested from 60.0: 4,834,240 gil.
Overall cost from 60.0: +54,044 gil.
Overall cost from 61.0: +33,333 gil.

A very rich mule...

Picked up another fifteen Platinum Ores today, bringing the total count up to 34 Platinum Ores all stored up, waiting for me to use them. If the last level was any indication, I almost have enough Platinum Ores to last me one whole level of skillups, which is something I'd very much like. ^^

One of the perks of doing this though, is that I'm in the ironic situation where my mule holds a whole lot more cash than my main character, well, assuming I were to liquidate the Platinum I've stored there.



Currently, that all amounts up to four stacks of Platinum, and thirty-four Platinum Ores, bringin my mule's value in Platinum alone to be roughly 6.1 million gil! Compare that to my main character, which has just 3.5 million, although granted, the spells and gear tip the scales back in favour of the main. Kinda scary to think that my mule's Platinum could almost buy a second set of HQ staves though...

I'm also debating whether to grow my nuggets, or just buy them off the AH and get through the Platinum Ingot stage faster. I've calculated things, and at current AH prices, I make about 60k profit per stack of Platinum Ingots, so just a straight conversion from ingredients to Ingots is certainly possible. I'm personally more worried about a definite oversupply of Platinum that's going on. I certainly don't remember Platinum Ores being this easy to collect, whereas now, I can easily walk up to the AH and come back with an armful of Ores, whereas before, I had to camp the AH for days on end to get my Ores, one by one. I wonder...

Summary:
Today's accounts: -750,000 gil.
Amount invested from 60.0: 4,485,240 gil.
Overall cost from 60.0: +54,044 gil.

Shopping for Platinum

I think I'll try to fit in one more round of Platinum Ingots. That should leave me at Goldsmithing 62, five levels below the Hydro Patas cap. From then, I can alternative between Hydro Patas and more Platinum Ingots, until 67. It also gives Sanzou (who I asked) some time to get his Bonecraft up to the point where he can make Hydro Patas for me (he's Bonecraft 54 right now). ^^

So I buckled down and bought up some Platinum Ores at their new (increased) price, and wasn'taru very happy about it! >_< I managed to scrape a few (5) for 49k, but the rest (14 of them) were all at 50k each, for a total of 945k spent. ; ; This had bettaru be worth it! >_<

Summary:
Today's accounts: -945,000 gil.
Amount invested from 60.0: 3,735,240 gil.
Overall cost from 60.0: +54,044 gil.

Economic changes.

I'm back! It took just over a month, but now my computer is (hopefully) fixed, and it's time to get on with things. ^^

Having being gone for such a time period, the prices would've almost certainly changed, and so, one of the first things I did upon logging back in was to look up the price of my materials. When I left, Platinum Ores were going for 20-22k, so I expected something around 25-30k to be the current going rate. Unfortunately...



As some would put it, "orz".

Stacks of Platinum Ingots have also risen a little bit, to just under 1.2m/stk, but there are plenty of stacks up on the AH now, which is certainly puzzling, given the sudden influx of Goldsmithers skilling up on them. What's more worrying is that these Goldsmithers are all around my level, and there aren't enough higher level Goldsmithers who could buy the Platinum Ingots, so I'm expecting a price war shortly. /sigh...

Anyway, as I'm going off on a holiday in a few days, I won't be able to grow any Platinum Nuggets. However, what I figure I will do is try to get my synths in order, and hunt around for that niche in the market where I can turn over a good profit. Mythril Ingots are starting to get rather tedious. ^^

There also needs to be some reconsideration as to what the skillup on as well. Given that Platinum Ores have now doubled in price, with 74k/stk Nuggets, you are putting 87k on the line per synth. Let's assume out of every twelve synths, ten of them succeed. That's still a 174k loss.

Now, if I were to compare that figure to Hydro Patas, the Patas might now be the more economical route to go. However, I need to first figure out where I'm going to get all the Bone Patas from, and compare prices before deciding what to do.

Summary:
Today's accounts: +0 gil.
Amount invested from 60.0: 2,790,240 gil.
Overall cost from 60.0: +54,044 gil.