An encouragement:
Started with nothing and basically crawled through levels 1-20 feeling like the server might be too established for me. The first time I went to EC I figured I would quit. Then I saw greengrocer (rip) asking for pixie dust and started farming them.
If you're a new player, there are high levels that pay a stupid amount of money for things that take little or no time to farm while leveling. You just have to be smart about where you hunt. Kill animals for HQ pelts, get bone chips, and always group with twinks (they make things go faster and pass on all the loot
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]. The server sucks to start on, I agree... but once you pass that initial learning curve, it's so stinking easy to make money. There are also tons of awesome people on the server that will help you out.
As far as the economy goes, with Velious just released the economy is more insane than ever. I've sold armor gems for over 1k to people that HAD TO HAVE THEM and then had other players offer to pay 250 for the same gem on the same day. Things are crazy now because the server just unleashed new content that's drastically changed the game. Give it a few months and things will even out.