Out of curiosity, how many of you look at the cost of something in the market and break down its cost to make and then decide against buying it? Is it worth it to you to pay the extra coin to “Get It Now” or do you just go and craft it?
I was figuring an item up today, and based on market prices the items would only cost me about 185c to make (not including spark), but the only shop stand I see has it for about 5x that much and now I’ve just decided to craft it myself.
Some of the current market prices are way too high.
It depends. What do I have to farm to get the mats to make the thing I want? How much do I like/dislike farming those mats? How much of the thing do I need? How much does the thing cost? How frequently am I going to need to buy the thing? Am I 98% done with a project and only need a couple of the thing to finish what I am doing? Or am I still prepping to do a project and not in a rush to get something done? How much time to does it take to make the thing? How much time do I currently have? How many other things are on my list of things to do? In the big scheme of things, how many coins is it going to cost me and what fraction of my current coin stash does that impact? How easy is it to currently make coins off of the things I like doing?
I know there used to be huge debates over whether or not people were meant to do everything in this game or trade for stuff. The small player base makes the trading more difficult, and if that was meant to be an essential part of the game its a bit dinged up at the moment. I don’t have time to do everything, so I buy stuff I don’t enjoy getting myself as long as that is feasible, even if it is a bit overpriced. At some price point, that becomes problematic, and then I get it myself, but where that price point is depends on a lot of different factors depending on the item.
If I have the materials I will always craft them myself. Depending on the individual prices of things I may buy one item I need then craft things. As @Redlotus said lots of the prices are WAY higher than what I want to spend so rarely will I buy all of the individual items or full made things.
That being said I am cheap. I also realize that with the current player base there is not enough “supply & demand” to see prices move the way they used too.
I agree the economy is whack at the moment. I even set up hidden or locked items for new players, since we have 8 brand new players in the universe that have come on in the last few weeks. That way I could sell them less expensive tools or items. I’ll make stuff for them, but they aren’t items I would generally sell… it’s an investment in their playing experience.
But I, too, don’t stock items for cheap… I want to keep it in the market range or I’ll end up having to restock just because people buy my stuff to sell to others. I also balance time, energy, accessibility to crafting mats, and coins into whether or not I’ll buy versus make or go get it myself.
have a slightly different point of view - to play the game and still enjoy it, I have to do work arounds because of my disability. That means certain things I have to buy, and would have to even if I wasn’t the game’s biggest scaredy cat, who runs away from red dots. So my check list to buying is a single question:
Can I make it without causing a three day muscular migraine.
If the answer is no, then I have to suck it up and hit enough beans to buy what I need.
Personaly, if there is an finished item i want but , cant aford it, I break it down to afordable ingridient. Buying cheapest ingriedients that i dont like to farm. If i cant afford anything, i just go and farm my self.
I’ve ran into this on numerous occasions and most of it just boils down to:
Coin on Hand
Amount of Item Needed
Time to Craft Item
I’ve blown through about 5 million coins recently and thinking on it, I probably could have easily made it all for far less, most likely for almost free as I have most of the mats. I blew through a lot of coins due to not having all my machines up. Looking at some of the items I was buying I know they cost far less to make, the only thing I can’t compete with doing it myself is the convenience.
I usually buy things I need in small amounts (a couple SS) if I have the money so I can just keep rolling, but if I need a ton of stuff, I just set up to farm and craft. So I mainly purchase purely for convenience so I don’t wait three play sessions to craft small amounts I need with no real thought to ingredient costs.
Honestly, the decade long indy focused me of the past cringes somewhere deep inside everytime I spend far more than I should for an item, but the old me had far more play time lol.
have a slightly different point of view - to play the game and still enjoy it, I have to do work arounds because of my disability. That means certain things I have to buy, and would have to even if I wasn’t the game’s biggest scaredy cat, who runs away from red dots. So my check list to buying is a single question: