This may be a wee bit of a hijack but, I'm interested, how many of you traders actually are making profits?

Taking into account all the expenses you have to really get a business started, such as

- 300 credits to trans a skill
- a shop
- work time
- production costs
- possibly an artifact...

How long does it take to reach a point where you actually get more money than what you would've had had you not spent all those sums on starting your trade?

Granted, it's different for me because I have a cartel, so I probably will never get to that point, but I'm still curious...

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more on topic, I don't see much issues with the idea. You can already acquire as many trans items as you want by transing all trades that offer them in turn, you can make a contract with another trader who provides whatever you need to produce your goods as cheap as you want, thus jeopardizing the market prices...

I agree with Ialie's estimation that likely few people will buy such a licence. Using that as an argument against this idea does not work though, because the original point was not that it'd be a big earner or all-time-favourite, but a cool option for those who want it

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Finally, remember that Achaea DOES have licences, granted their system is quite different than ours, but Achaeans CAN be both a tailor and a what, jeweler I think, and it doesn't seem to crash the market. Or both a blacksmith and a tailor, or blacksmith, tailor and jeweler

but keep in mind that Achaea kinda sucks. No offense to the Iron Realm peoples, but Lusternia is way better

I have thought about selling my shop to buy more credits and the more I think about it the more I realize I shouldn't.

I've gained much more from having my tradeskill than if I had not invested in it.

every time I decide to log on I have a few more thousand gold waiting for me to get what I need, if I need anything.

Plus there will be the profit I gain from eventually selling my shop.

Alchemy has gone from being able to keep me in supplies, to making me absolutely NO money, since kegs went in. Tradeskills pretty much require a shop to make you a profit, unless you really want to spend every moment you're in the realms advertising and trying to lure customers away from the convenience.

I like the idea of a second tradeskill

Unless you have Herbs.

In my endeavor to get 2000 of every herb, I constantly have people literally begging to buy herbs for kegs. And how can I turn down selling sparkleberry at 40 gold per?

No. Just...no. Half the fun of Lusternia is that ANYONE can have a tradeskill, and be a part of the economics of the game in some fashion. This would lead to uber-merchants dominating the market.

I don't think this would ruin Lusternia's economy at all. People already can get everything free from having friends with a certain trade willing to do things for comms or very cheaply..this would just mean you'd have one extra tradeskill

Having those friends is exactly the point. One tradeskill forces you to branch out and network like that. Storekeepers can't just completely stock a general store - they need to work with others. It's what I like about Lusternian economics.

I agree. One tradeskill, and we all can have a tradeskill naturally which is nice. Besides, if I could have a second trade I'd want tailoring ... which isn't even an option there?

For David:

I keep very good records. Those records do not go back to the beginning. I had probably sold 20k worth of refills when I started keeping track.

PROFITS

Selling refills
Reselling items through shop
Reselling credits bought in game

COSTS (ooc credits calculated at 4k each)

Transing Alchemy
Buying a manse
Buying a store for manse
Buying kegs
Herbs in rift
Buying Items to sell in shop
Buying credits in game

BALANCE: -5,714,635