BitterSweetea
tbh, I still have no ideas what are caches and philosepher stuff xD I went straight to level 10 in a day just by buying the requirement components from other players.
cat_gonk
Read this:
http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.81982631/
Start with the general guide and then follow the links of those topics that interest you.
I will say that when I craft an item, I double-check the price of the component on the MP with that of the cache it came from. For example, someone was selling the Baroque Pearl for 80,000g. The Garnet cache at the time was holding steady at around 18,000g. Obviously, I was going to open a cache. Or another time when I needed a Lava Jelly (again from the Garnet) and it was priced at 1,000g. In this case, it was cheaper to pick up the component from the MP than to open up a cache.
There's a saying among alchemists that there are two ways to advance: fast and expensive or slow and cheap. I was a Level 4 for a year, so "slow and cheap" is the way I level.
You made your money back, so no harm, no foul, but going forward, I think it would help you to read up, especially if you decide perhaps to tackle something as involved as backwings.