Making money - how are you all so rich!?

SmellyUnlimited · January 3

I regularly see people with millions of gold, and I’m wondering, do I simply not have a head for business? I make what scratch I can by selling any motifs I come across, or crafting writs, and maybe the odd weapon or jewelry I’m lucky enough to come by. But what really is the key to success here?

I’ve got about $400k to my name, but that’s because I really only ever buy mats to improve stuff, which is even then is pretty cost prohibitive. I’m not asking for you all to pierce the corporate veil on ALL your money making knowhow, but what are some things I can do to get richer? My only motivation is being able to buy gear occasionally without having to farm for everything constantly. I’m in a trading guild, but it’s only $2k a week and I don’t think we even have a location. Otherwise the ones that are in prime spots are like $25k a week from what I understand; which I doubt I could sell enough to even make that worth my while.

JavaRen · January 3

On PCNA there are plenty of trade guilds between the extremes you mention.

I probably make most of my gold from selling alchemy supplies and furniture mats. I have an amount of reserve stock for each that I like to maintain (translation: hoard) and when I go.over that reserve amount I sell a stack. The same with upgrade mats.

geonsocal · January 3

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day...

time...spend enough time playing, you'll have a bunch of coin...even with just primarily pvping - after a few years it's possible to save up a couple of million...

having multiple characters helps, playing 20 hours or so a week, for years - helps...

i have an account on both servers...the first server i started on i did trading and crafting, second server none of that...still accumulated plenty of coin...

and, that's with pvping as a primary thing, pvping can get expensive in terms of needing to upgrade gear frequently...

i will say, leveling up you scrying/excavating skills to level 9 will net you about 250,000 coins...i got tired of trading and doing crafting writs years ago...leveling the undaunted skill line by dungeon crawling is decent bank...

so, the secret is - play a lot, make multiple toons...and, play a lot...

what you do not want to do - waste your time purposefully trying to accumulate gold in this game...just go kill stuff, other players, monsters, whatever...

KS_Amt38 · January 3

Crafting daily writs.

Soarora · January 3

Dungeon motifs, style pages, and whatever mats I feel I have too much of.

Billium813 · January 3

There are two economies in ESO: 1) ZOS economy, 2) Guild Trader economy

"ZOS economy" is the in-game economy. It includes buy/selling to Merchants, gold dropped in game, selling Treasures/stolen goods, ect. No one is going to make substantial money from this in-game economy. "Guild Trader economy" is where you really make money. Personally, I recommend being in multiple Trade Guilds. Prioritize the Guilds with nice locations, or even some sub-prime locations are ok... depending on what you sell.

For me, I make money off of the laziness of the average player. I sell common pots and purple quality crafted gear. I'm in 4 Trading Guilds and the turnover is nuts. For example, I think it would surprise people just how many players are too lazy to craft Order's Wrath (yes, ik it's a dlc set but eso+ has it and the trait requirement is low)... In 2023, I sold over 1000 complete sets of Order's Wrath. That's just one thing I sold, made me over 50m in 2023, and took me 10 minutes a day to keep on top of.

Making money in ESO is insanely easy...

KlauthWarthog · January 3

Crafting writs. As a bonus, you end up with a massive stockpile of gold tempers as well.

merpins · January 3

I was like that once. Then one day, I had millions of gold and was like "wait, how?"

Daily writs, jumping on the new furnishings each major update, and selling crafting mats (and alchemy mats, and furnishing mats) will get you there.

loosej · January 3

Daily writs/crafting materials.

I have 20 chars, and do daily writs on all of them. Most sets on most characters get upgraded to purple quality, only sets that are used a lot by characters I actually play are upgraded to gold quality. Selling the most valuable mats i get as quest rewards, from hirelings, and from surveys earns me a couple million gold a week.

If you rather don't go this route, there's plenty of resource nodes to be found in the world, all you have to do is stop and pick them up when you see them. Unlike surveys, these random nodes can drop additional materials used for making furnishings. If I'm heading to a delve/wb/whatever, I'll often tp to the nearest wayshrine and not even mount up at all, instead running there and picking every node I see on the way. Overland content is dead easy, so no need to have a strong build. Use Ring of the Wild Hunt, Adept Rider, Jailbreaker and/or swift jewelry to reach the speed cap, you'll be about as fast as you would be dismounting, gathering, mounting, repeat.

Sakiri · January 3

My trading guild doesn't have dues that I'm aware of, but they do have raffles and auctions. The raffle tickets I tend to buy about 100k worth a week, and the auctions are usually out of my price range lol. We have a really good trader spot as well.

I don't sell a whole lot but when I do it's more mid to bigger ticket items. Rare patterns and the like. I loot everything, pulled up a few mil+ archive patterns that way.

SmellyUnlimited · January 3

Sounds like I need to up my guild trader game. I’ll have to hunt down some that are in decent locales, but not at $25k a pop. I do have a lot of alchemy mats and what not that I could probably be using. Also I realized the armory station I could just make an extra slot for a “crafter” in addition to my normal load out, which would probably help.

SmellyUnlimited · January 3

Hey if anyone has a good trading guild on PS NA, I’m your man!

But I’ll also take your recommendations on furnishing mats. I honestly had completely forgotten about these and probably have a ton of them (because I never craft furnishings). I didn’t even know what half the stuff I’d find with a resource node even was (“rogue soot”??).

SeaGtGruff · January 3

I have a few million in gold on each server, but not as much as I used to; I spent most of it on buying houses with gold during the Zeal of Zenithar event, and have also spent some of it on the Golden's weekend offerings.

I made most of my money doing daily crafting writs. I did them on just my main characters, then started doing them on all of my characters, then went back to just my main characters plus my two newest characters due to it taking up too much of my playtime, then went back to doing writs on all characters to fund my expenditures at the Golden. But lately I've gone back to doing writs on just my main characters due to how much time it takes to do them and then sort through everything afterward. I've also been skipping the Golden on some weeks so I don't go broke.

SmellyUnlimited · January 3

Sakiri wrote: »

My trading guild doesn't have dues that I'm aware of, but they do have raffles and auctions. The raffle tickets I tend to buy about 100k worth a week, and the auctions are usually out of my price range lol. We have a really good trader spot as well.

I don't sell a whole lot but when I do it's more mid to bigger ticket items. Rare patterns and the like. I loot everything, pulled up a few mil+ archive patterns that way.

If you’re buying 100k worth of tickets a week, how often are you winning? I wonder if I’m just throwing my money away spending 10k on tickets when others are likely doing exactly what you’re doing and buying a lot of them.

AcadianPaladin · January 3

My elf has about 7.5M gold. She's an adventuress (not a merchant) so her income is from questing, looting and 1 set of writs per day. The income is actually not very high but her secret is time + low expenses. She doesn't spend much at all on housing (or anything else) and makes her own gear, farms her own mats. The time comes into play in that she's been diligently doing this a long time - started in 2016 and has ~2400 CP.

SmellyUnlimited · January 3

Billium813 wrote: »

There are two economies in ESO: 1) ZOS economy, 2) Guild Trader economy

"ZOS economy" is the in-game economy. It includes buy/selling to Merchants, gold dropped in game, selling Treasures/stolen goods, ect. No one is going to make substantial money from this in-game economy. "Guild Trader economy" is where you really make money. Personally, I recommend being in multiple Trade Guilds. Prioritize the Guilds with nice locations, or even some sub-prime locations are ok... depending on what you sell.

For me, I make money off of the laziness of the average player. I sell common pots and purple quality crafted gear. I'm in 4 Trading Guilds and the turnover is nuts. For example, I think it would surprise people just how many players are too lazy to craft Order's Wrath (yes, ik it's a dlc set but eso+ has it and the trait requirement is low)... In 2023, I sold over 1000 complete sets of Order's Wrath. That's just one thing I sold, made me over 50m in 2023, and took me 10 minutes a day to keep on top of.

Making money in ESO is insanely easy...

This might be a silly question, but when I first started the game it seemed like you could get pretty valuable things by stealing/pickpocketing (motifs occasionally, things to fence at the outlaw refuge). Is this still a thing? Or does this fall into the ZoS economy realm where it’s not worth it?

Araneae6537 · January 3

You shouldn’t be buying regular or upgrade crafting materials — that’s a money drain right there. Gather and do your dailies writs so that you at least have what you need. If you accumulate extra, or aren’t into housing (mundane rune, heartwood, decorative wax), that’s a potential source of income for you.

freespirit · January 3

Stealing/pickpocketing etc is still very viable just do a bit of research as different NPC's drop different items and in some zones the safeboxes can hold really valuable items, others not so much.

If you are holding on to a fair amount of furnishing mats and style mats used in crafting furniture you potentially have a very good chance of hitting your first million selling those, make sure you try to price them properly though, your guildies should be able to advise on prices!

Billium813 · January 3

SmellyUnlimited wrote: »

Billium813 wrote: »

There are two economies in ESO: 1) ZOS economy, 2) Guild Trader economy

"ZOS economy" is the in-game economy. It includes buy/selling to Merchants, gold dropped in game, selling Treasures/stolen goods, ect. No one is going to make substantial money from this in-game economy. "Guild Trader economy" is where you really make money. Personally, I recommend being in multiple Trade Guilds. Prioritize the Guilds with nice locations, or even some sub-prime locations are ok... depending on what you sell.

For me, I make money off of the laziness of the average player. I sell common pots and purple quality crafted gear. I'm in 4 Trading Guilds and the turnover is nuts. For example, I think it would surprise people just how many players are too lazy to craft Order's Wrath (yes, ik it's a dlc set but eso+ has it and the trait requirement is low)... In 2023, I sold over 1000 complete sets of Order's Wrath. That's just one thing I sold, made me over 50m in 2023, and took me 10 minutes a day to keep on top of.

Making money in ESO is insanely easy...

This might be a silly question, but when I first started the game it seemed like you could get pretty valuable things by stealing/pickpocketing (motifs occasionally, things to fence at the outlaw refuge). Is this still a thing? Or does this fall into the ZoS economy realm where it’s not worth it?

IMO, stealing/pickpocketing are not efficient for making Gold. They fall into what I call the "ZOS economy"; where 1.5k Gold for an Epic Treasure item is ALOT and 1k Gold to fix all your armor is EXPENSIVE! I only sell stolen items for the Magnanimous achievements (not Gold related).

Selling motif pages in Guild Traders is profitable, but only for some motif pages and isn't an activity you focus on, just do it when you get pages you already know. Most dungeon motif pages only get you 15k-25k in Guild Traders. Many are less then that too if they are really common; like zone motif pages and most event motif pages. Some are worth more though, the latest DLC zone motif pages are expensive, but thats because Treasure Maps are expensive. Some dungeon motif pages are expensive, like Chest pages, it varies. Always check tamrieltradecentre.

Personally, I'd NEVER sell raw mats too, UNLESS you have like over 1k of that specific mat I guess. I'v been burned on that too much. Prices go up, never down. You sell mats for quick gold today, then 2 months later you're gonna want to make a potion and find that the mat price has gone way up. I don't sell Gold tempers either for the same reason. There are sooo many other ways to make money that you really shouldnt sell items you may need yourself later cause you'll waste money buying them back. Dragon Rheum maybe the one exception... depends on your needs, i just never use them in anything.

Daily Writs don't make that much money IMO. People saying that are doing 20+ characters every day and selling mats (gold/pot mats), which I said I try to not do. I also only have 4 characters total. I do all the writs cause it's nice mats, but I don't sell what I get and the Gold you get is mediocre at best (ZOS economy).

ghastley · January 3

There are two sides to being rich. One is more income, and the other is lower expenditure. Don’t buy things you can gather for free, and that includes doing dailies of all varieties to get motif pages, tempers, et al. Make a habit of picking up resources as you pass on the way to anything else. Do your surveys.

I’m not in any trade guilds, and only sell ornate items and junk to merchants, but I generally have millions of gold on hand. I do buy from guild traders, mainly the last one or two pages of a motif once diminishing returns set in, and I’m just collecting duplicates. The complete motifs increase the chances of master writs, and writ vouchers, the real measure of wealth.

Billium813 · January 3

Also, I STRONGLY suggest using an addon to help with Guild Traders. I use AwesomeGuildStore and it really helps. It saves listing prices, has a robust filter feature for fine grained searching, and saves search queries so you can find the same items quickly over and over. Couldn't do it without this addon!

Jadeazu · January 3

Don't just loot chest when you see them. Next time you see that bedside table, loot it. That wardrobe? Loot it. You'll get some very valuable recipes sometimes. I found some furniture recipe the other night going for 700k.

freespirit · January 3

I stand by my assertion that stealing/pickpocketing is still viable BUT it is important to research where you can land the expensive items.....

I am not talking the basic green, blue, purple drops, I am talking about rare furniture plans, things that look uninteresting but sell for large amounts, items such as the "Elsweyr brush, body" and the "Elsweyr comb, grooming" which are rare drops, I think one is actually a white item and the other is green but otherwise are crown store only, they sell for a pretty penny too!!

Lumsdenml · January 3

SmellyUnlimited wrote: »

I regularly see people with millions of gold, and I’m wondering, do I simply not have a head for business? I make what scratch I can by selling any motifs I come across, or crafting writs, and maybe the odd weapon or jewelry I’m lucky enough to come by. But what really is the key to success here?

I’ve got about $400k to my name, but that’s because I really only ever buy mats to improve stuff, which is even then is pretty cost prohibitive. I’m not asking for you all to pierce the corporate veil on ALL your money making knowhow, but what are some things I can do to get richer? My only motivation is being able to buy gear occasionally without having to farm for everything constantly. I’m in a trading guild, but it’s only $2k a week and I don’t think we even have a location. Otherwise the ones that are in prime spots are like $25k a week from what I understand; which I doubt I could sell enough to even make that worth my while.

Several people have mentioned this, but the daily crafting writs are the key to financial freedom. I do a bit of everything, and am not as consistent at doing them as I could be, but even sporadically, I am earning more than I need. I started with my main and began lvling up all the crafting lines until they were full up. Along the way, I would research everything I got from drops and decon everything. I mean, everything! Once I got all of the lines leveled, I moved on to my first alt. On my main, I'd move all gear to my bank, then log into my alt and research traits and decon. I'd do the crafting dailies on my main and my alt. Once my alt leveled all crafting traits, I'd move to my 2nd alt, and do it all over again. I currently have 14 characters, 11 of them maxed out in the crafting lines. Just in gold alone (you get about 4500 gold from one character doing all of them each day), if I did crafting dailies on all 11 maxed out characters, I'd make 361,900 gold a week. That's not even counting the extra gold matts I could sell.

TybaltKaine · January 3

Daily crafting writs, not buying anything I can make or harvest myself, selling green quality and lower items to NPC's, the soul gem dance (do a few delves, end up with tons of empty soul gems, fill them with the Soul Magic passive while doing other delves, sell to NPC's for profit).

The big one is just not buying things. Everything is income when you have no expenses.

EDIT: Left out Guild dailies. Fighters, Mages, Thieves and DB dailies add up quickly as well.

emilyhyoyeon · January 3

I'd lose the will to live if I did crafting dailies on more than 2 characters per day

Hapexamendios · January 3

The only reason I have a few million is because I've played since 2016. It accumulates over time.

Lumsdenml · January 3

emilyhyoyeon wrote: »

I'd lose the will to live if I did crafting dailies on more than 2 characters per day

Ha ha... it only takes about 3min per character to do...

Billium813 · January 3

freespirit wrote: »

I stand by my assertion that stealing/pickpocketing is still viable BUT it is important to research where you can land the expensive items.....

I am not talking the basic green, blue, purple drops, I am talking about rare furniture plans, things that look uninteresting but sell for large amounts, items such as the "Elsweyr brush, body" and the "Elsweyr comb, grooming" which are rare drops, I think one is actually a white item and the other is green but otherwise are crown store only, they sell for a pretty penny too!!

IMO, looting furnishing plans and stealing/pickpocketing are two different things. Stealing/pickpocketing are usually focused on the Treasures and not furnishing plans. That's what I reference when I say that I don't find Stealing/pickpocketing efficiently profitable.

Also, I think it's worth noting that there are "confirmed" cooldowns on looting furnishing plans. They are definitely worth selling as many are expensive, but know there are cooldowns to help you save time and farm efficiently. From my memory, it's like 10 minutes per Green, 1hr per Blue, 8hrs?? per Purple? So, I would say this isn't a focused activity to farm, like motif pages. I sell them when i get them, but I just let it happen and not farm for money.

freespirit · January 3

Billium813 wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

I stand by my assertion that stealing/pickpocketing is still viable BUT it is important to research where you can land the expensive items.....

I am not talking the basic green, blue, purple drops, I am talking about rare furniture plans, things that look uninteresting but sell for large amounts, items such as the "Elsweyr brush, body" and the "Elsweyr comb, grooming" which are rare drops, I think one is actually a white item and the other is green but otherwise are crown store only, they sell for a pretty penny too!!

IMO, looting furnishing plans and stealing/pickpocketing are two different things. Stealing/pickpocketing are usually focused on the Treasures and not furnishing plans. That's what I reference when I say that I don't find Stealing/pickpocketing efficiently profitable.

Also, I think it's worth noting that there are "confirmed" cooldowns on looting furnishing plans. They are definitely worth selling as many are expensive, but know there are cooldowns to help you save time and farm efficiently. From my memory, it's like 10 minutes per Green, 1hr per Blue, 8hrs?? per Purple? So, I would say this isn't a focused activity to farm, like motif pages. I sell them when i get them, but I just let it happen and not farm for money.

You are aware you can pickpocket many furnishing plans?? So not looting ..... pickpocketing. 🙂

Hugie · January 3

OP you may want to check out Arttea's fabulous website, "Tamriel Trade Secrets". She produces content explaining how to leverage various in-game activities to accumulate wealth, with a special focus on events and guild trader market trends (e.g. what stuff might gain a lot of value overnight due to a change or new set of furnishings, etc.).

Personally, I make my gold mostly from selling motifs from DLC dungeons. The harder the dungeon's HM, the more expensive its motif chapters tend to be.

There are also some items that sell very reliably in guild traders: basic furnishing materials have already been mentioned, but it's also worth figuring out what mats are used to make the newest, shiniest furnishings. People spend a ton of gold on housing, so feeding their addiction is lucrative. As an example, "Glass Eye of Mora" (the style material from Scrivener's Hall dungeon) sells for a pretty penny right now, since it's used to make some very fancy furnishings from Infinite Archive / Necrom. Simply deconstructing gear you loot in Scrivener's = $$$.

Another reliable material to sell that's a little off the beaten path is Slaughterstone (bloodthirsty jewelry trait material) -- both for people crafting Bloodthirsty jewels for content, as well as for people blitzing jewelcrafting writs to afford/feed the new Grandmaster crafting stations. If you run trials regularly, you probably have a ton of Slaughterstone just hanging around. That's worth a lot!