Can JCing turn a net profit?

[TheFishyOne]

I'm an ENC, so I can enchant my own bars, but it seems you have to drop a ton of plat into the skill before you can make stuff that other players will buy. I'm a Gnome, and have resigned myself to the fact that my beloved Tinkering isn't really worth leveling in terms of turning a profit, but JCing seems to have potential.

My current skill in JCing is 0, so to all you experienced JCers, will I one day earn a return on my investment if I stick with it long enough?

[Splorf22]

IIRC if you enchant the bars you are 'practicing' with (and just sell the back to the merchant you will roughly break even. Of course this is a lo tof mana so it makes the whole process much slower. I think I dumped about 5k into Loraen's JC because I was lazy.

I know Lighthawk (the original Lighthawk) spent like 2 weeks in the tunnel and made a decent amount of money; part of it of course is that as a regular tunnel dweller you can start to make good trades.

All in all it's probably faster to just level up to 50 and farm the frenzy (if you can get there before Catherin!)

[TheFishyOne]

Thanks for the advice. What is "the frenzy" of which you speak? I'm still an EQnoob, and am unfamiliar with some of the terminology.

Right now, I am 29 and PO', so this isn't something I plan on doing quite yet. I'm just looking for something I can one day turn into a reliable income stream. Speaking of which, I see in your sig that you have written a guide on faming. I recently posted a thread asking for good farming locations as a 29 ENC, so I will give it a read. Thanks again.

EDIT: D'oh! I thought Farmers Market was a guide. =S Oh well, I'm sure one exists somewhere in the wiki.

[Alendria]

I've lost maybe 6 or 7k getting my JC from 0 to 197 (where it is today).

If you buy mats for 20 combines (a stack of metal bars and a stack of gems), enchant each bar, are successful on all 20 combines, and resell the 20 combines to the vendor you'll make a very small profit. If you only get 18 or 19 successes (depending on what you're making) though you'll have a small loss. If you don't enchant each bar you will always sell the combine for a loss afaik (at least that's the case on the things I skilled up on).

Ex. I'm making the Fire Emerald Golden Bracelet, it costs about 95pp per attempt and the combine sells for about 103pp. So about 1900pp or so for 20 combines and about 2060pp selling all 20 combines back. I usually only get 16-19 bracelets made per 20 attempts though so I take a small hit on those 20 attempts (hence the 6 or 7k I've lost so far getting to 197).

You need to be well into the 200's though before anything involving platinum bars becomes trivial, and probably 75%+ from what I can tell of jewelry people want involves platinum. I've sold some stuff that uses gold (+7 mr wrists, PR or DR earrings whichever, couple of the electrum+diamond resists masks, +4str +2int earrings) but you're not going to get rich with just gold jewelry.

[TheFishyOne]

Yeah, but when you get to 200+ and start making platinum jewelry, will you eventually turn a net profit?

[Alendria]

I'm sure you could. I can't stand EC so I probably will never see a profit as I don't ever plan to sit there and sell JC stuff, but if you don't mind tunnel-ratting I'm sure you could make some significant plat.

[-Catherin-]

I have definitely turned a decent profit with a maxed JC skill. once you build a rep people start coming to you for combines, you don't have to look for them. during my downtime in EC while im selling loot I can usually make a couple k from the orders that just trickle in.

You make your big money when you start doing diamonds, blue diamonds, and black sapphires

[-Catherin-]

All in all it's probably faster to just level up to 50 and farm the frenzy (if you can get there before Catherin!)

http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad114/dking1171/crying-baby_zpse37c9e2f.jpg

[TheFishyOne]

Ah, him. He drops the FBSS, right?

Thanks to all for the feedback!