Would you do this for a friend?

[LyonheartLakshmi]

I had a long time FFXI friend ask me for a favor today. A really big favor. He knew that my Bonecrafting mule crafts Scorpion Harnesses from time to time. So he asked me if I would sell him an NQ or HQ Harness... at a discount.

Just how much of a discount? Well, SH +1 has been a decent profit for me as of late, so I offered to sell him an HQ at 100k under the current market price. He wasn't too happy with that level of a discount. He was hoping I would sell him an HQ at the price of an NQ. I got rather lucky with the synth tonight, so I finally caved under the condition that he not sell the HQ.

As a veteran crafter (and this question is really for established crafters who make their living off of their craft), what would you have done? And I'm not talking about situations where a friend brings you materials that he's collected. I bought all the materials, and took all the risk.

[Timian]

I'd do it.

Personally I do goldsmithing, but I imagine your profits aren't
noticeably lower than mine, so yeah...
Veteran crafters should have enough "spare change" to actually
do favors like this for their friends, every now and then...

[Caspian]

I'd PROBABLY do it. Its really a tough spot though. One time only? Yeah. Have to try and let them know that it can't become a habit though. Tricky part is doing it in a way that isn't rude or somehow sound like you're stuckup. I try to be generous with friends ingame, especially good friends, but they also know not to ask too much or too often.
Maybe put a qualifier on it, that you'll do it just the once, and after that they have supply the mats.

[Murphie]

I'd do it. It's just virtual currency, after all. Heck, I'm forever squandering my RL money on friends all the time, so why not transfer that to the virtual realm?

[Alshandra]

if hes a good friend i say yes, if you dont know him so well, id take care... he could very well sell the HQ, buy a NQ and walk away with all your profit and hard work...

i know theres no law against this, but its common courtesy not to do that. I have a NQ corsage crafted for me by a friend, i somehow stumbled across a HQ, but i still keep my friends one, for courtesy reasons. But he DID sign it, so its different i guess.

im an optimist so i would hope that such people that would rip you off dont really exist. although this is a game, real people play it, so the real world does come into play here.

go with your instinct, and weigh up if hes a good friend or not. because if you do that for him and he shafts you, im guessing you wont be wanting his friendship for long.

but at the end of the day, my craft levels are less than 20 combined, so my opinion really doesnt count for much here :(

[Murphie]

It might help to redefine your definition of an in-game "friend." I know a lot of people in the game, but only a handful of them are what I'd call friends (meaning I would trust them to borrow my gear and actually give it back, or that I would buy gifts for, etc.)

[IfritnoItazura]

Don't have a high level craft, but if a friend needs something to use, I don't think I'd mind.

If a friend is looking to profit, I'd think s/he would tell me and ask me how I'd want to split the work and the profit. At least, that's what I did when I asked a friend to synth things for me for profit. (I farmed the ingredients, bought the crystals, he synth'ed, I took care of sales, and absorbed AH fee, etc.)

If someone is looking to turn profit from your crafting without discussing with you how to split the risk and reward, that someone isn't a friend... :P

[Skoal]

I wouldn't ask my high level crafting friends to sell me an HQ at NQ price. I would ask how much they wanted for them and if I didn't like the price then find some other way to obtain it. On my server crafting an NQ is a 169k loss and HQ is a 890k profit. My friends craft stuff all the time for our ls and don't charge. Sometimes they will just buy all the materials and give it to us for free.

[Haggai]

Heck, I'm forever squandering my RL money on friends all the time, so why not transfer that to the virtual realm?
Murphie... we should hang out.

[Necropolis]

It would depend entirely on the friend for me. I have people that put me on thier friends list just so they have someone that will tele them when they want or help with quest/missions. So if he's like that it would be a no.

Minimum, I'd charge cost. Usually I'd set a profit margin, or set crafting fee. While you arn't losing anything if he pays cost, you did spend your time and gil to level you craft. So if it were me, I'd charge cost plus like 10% just to have something for my time and reinvest in my craft. I'd sign it too so that people the /check him knows who made it, and perhaps build some business for you.

I do make exceptions of course. Being a whm main, theres some things I can't accomplish on my own (like killing certain NMs for quest and such). I have a friend that helps me quite a bit from time to time, and I help him with things when he needs a whm around. So when he asked me for some Adman gear, I was more than eager to help him out. He provided the more expensive ingredients, and I provided the rest and just gave them to him. But in all, there might be 3 people on my server that I would consider doing that for.

I don't mean for that to sound like I only help people that help me, but I've been shafted by too many "friends" to just go around and offer discounts to just anyone that knows me from somewhere.

[Mhurron]

Murphie... we should hang out.
lol

Anyway, personally I would craft stuff for friends. If they want a discount, the discount I would give is they provide the materials, I make it. If it comes out NQ they get the NQ if it comes out HQ, congratulations to them, they got a HQ whatever.

[Murphie]

You really should. I'm awesome.

[Mhurron]

You really should. I'm awesome.
You'd need to bring a lot of money.

[Murphie]

That's cool. I have a lot of money.

[eticket109]

If you bought all the materials then sell it at whatever rate you want to. In that situation I would have told him to take the money he was using to buy the NQ harness and buy a v-claw instead. If it NQed he could sell it and try again. If it Hqed he could have it. If it broke then he could farm some gil up and get another one.

[Hilde]

I craft at cost.
So what ever the materials, that's all I ask for. so if I HQ, then they get an HQ, if NQ they get NQ either way it is typically cheaper than AH prices.

[zagex]

For one of my good friends in game, he's been my friend irl, and because he fishes, I signed an HQ fishing tunic/legs and sent it to him. I didn't ask him for anything, I didn't expect him to give me anything, and he knew that without us having to say anything.
For other people, it's about how long I know them and how good of a friend they are.

[Nakti]

On synths that I make in bulk, I factor in HQs and offer discounts to friends and LS members.

Or I synth for free if friends and LS members provide the materials.

But...on a special synth like the one the OP mentions...I wouldn't do it that way. Especially if they want an HQ for an NQ price when the NQ is actually a gil loss.

I would just say "Give me the materials and I'll synth for free. I'll even spend GP to sign it. But be warned I could critically fail the synth." That way, both the reward and the risk is with them. You're still giving your friends the benefit of your craft skill and time.

[Feba]

it depends. If it were a good friend, it would depend on my financial situation, if it wasn't a good friend, or if it was someone nice who I barely know, i'd offer to synth the materials for them, and let them do what they want with the results, unless I was very busy.

[Tirrock]

It would depend for me too. My thoughts are pretty much the same as Necropolis'.

It'd depend a bit on the price of the item to me. If I'm losing 15k...meh. If I'm losing 750k, I'm going to care. I don't think I'd ever sell an expensive HQ item for less money than the materials cost. If they're people I trust, they could probably just borrow the item from me though.

Fortunately, I've never had to deal with questions like that though. The most expensive thing I can make are elemental staves, and I have something around 1% chance of HQing... This reminds me that I need to work on woodworking again. ._.

[Sabaron]

Crafting for friends:

Friend must provide and gather all materials. Friend assumes all risk and receives any product of the synthesis regardless of HQ level. Friend pays nothing. I rarely sell anything that I make for profit to LS members. Occasionally, if I have a lot or someone asks really nice, I'll sell it at a "good price", but if you get upset with the price I set (which is generally below market), then I'll just put it up on AH and you can buy for full price.

With respect to some products, asking for HQ at NQ price is not generally how it should be done. A great number of NQ durables sell at below cost and the only way to make up for the NQ losses is to make an HQ. Therefore, selling an HQ at NQ price means you're buying your friend's item for them. I'm a big proponent of fairness and self-reliance. I give gifts on occasion. You do not ask me for gifts. I would find that incredibly insulting (in game or IRL).

I have been known to sell batches of overstock for cost (copious amounts of X-Potions for instance).

I will craft for (almost) everyone on my LS. My friends list, on the other hand, contains some clients and contemporaries who have an occasional need to contact me.

[Effedup]

My crafting levels suck, so my opinion might not count for a whole lot, but I would do it if said friend paid for materials. I'm friendly and try to help peeps out in game as much as possible, but asking someone to make a high dollar item like that for nothing seems a little rude to me. I would never even ask, but then again, I'd never ask for a lot of things that people do all the time, even from friends. When I first started playing a rl friend gave me some gil to get started with, and even though it was a gift, I paid him back anyways...it's just how I am.

Now, if said person does favors for you then that's a totally different situation, but if it's just someone you play with or is in a social ls with you and they just ask out of the blue I'd tell them okay provided they pick up the mats. If I asked someone, even a really good friend, I'd expect to have to provide them.

[Taskmage]

I would only ever do this for an extremely close friend. Asking for someone to sell you an HQ harness for the price of an NQ is functionally the same as asking you to give them a million gil. I'll help you with whatever you want, but I'm not in the business of giving out handouts.

Now, doing a synth for someone is completely different. Someone can send me materials for whatever I can make, and I'll happily send back whatever the result is. If it's an HQ you get an HQ. If it's a break you get a "sorry, it happens." But if I buy the materials and I'm incurring the risk, whatever comes from that synth is mine. I wouldn't ask any different of any of my crafter friends.

[Susurrus]

Maybe if I had an assload of gil laying around....but I don't.

I'll always craft for friends/ls members for free if they bring me mats though.

[Satori]

I personally haven't got myself into crafting,

But I'm glad to say I'm in a really good linkshell on Remora called CosmicEnigma, When we find ourselves getting an abundance of items that are used in crafting we ask the shell who needs them and pass them on. every little helps.

I was collecting beehive chips for myself and everytime a Tremor Ram spawned i killed it for ram skins, rinse and repeat till full then sent them on.
Most people im my Ls will make me whatever I want provided I bring the items to them. and sometimes they do it for free cuz we help each other out.

I"m not sure if other Ls are like this I've been with mine since 2 mins after logging in and I wouldnt go elsewhere.
the only proble i find with my shell is that i spend too much time just chatting instead of lvling my character.

I've seen how much things cost on the Ah through crafting like the barons set when i was lvling whm, thankfully I was given pieces because my friend was ditching the job she was using it for.

personally I think it was nice at the price you settled on cant believe your friend wasnt happy with it.

[Nuriko]

I'm not really into crafting yet (just supplying others thus far, started synthing iron ingots within the past day), but I couldn't see giving more than a moderate discount. I'll give advice for free, I might even do research, but as a rule I help people to do for themselves, not do for them. It's sort of like that proverb about giving a man a fish vs. teaching a man to fish (and I'm a Mithra in-game, so fish proverbs just sort of fit!)