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]

Re: Would you do this for a friend?

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]

Re: Would you do this for a friend?

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]

Re: Would you do this for a friend?

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]

Re: Would you do this for a friend?

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]

Re: Would you do this for a friend?

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.)

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Would you do this for a friend?

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...

[Skoal]

Re: Would you do this for a friend?

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]

Re: Would you do this for a friend?

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]

Re: Would you do this for a friend?

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]

Re: Would you do this for a friend?

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]

Re: Would you do this for a friend?

You really should. I'm awesome.

[Mhurron]

Re: Would you do this for a friend?

You really should. I'm awesome.

You'd need to bring a lot of money.

[Murphie]

Re: Would you do this for a friend?

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

[eticket109]

Re: Would you do this for a friend?

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.