Most likely, no. I have shop 96 and i have only made 20k in two weeks. The only reason being i have 64,000 exp making a total of 83k profit. So unless you have thousands of exp somewhere, i would recommend not buying one. (Unless you have 15 million and you buy shop#1 :p)

 

Making money on a Spawn shop is a variance of many factors, and can either be a great source of profits, or a great source of losses. Back in the old User Market, I turned a profit monthly on what many users would have called one of the worse shops in the market, and I did it all by buying and selling items, nothing that I added besides the initial capital.

Some factors that need to be considered are:

How much time do you want to put into it?

Is this going to be a large focus where you will spend part of your time each day comparing prices with other shops / trade chat and adjusting accordingly, or are you looking for a more of a "Set it and forget it" type of approach.While you can run a profitable shop by "Setting and forgetting it" you could always turn more by keeping prices up to date.

How are you going to get your stock?

Are you a user that has a stockpile of items and wants to have a way to clear it, but are unable to find a buyer for it?
If so, you may see some great profits early on, however, they will slowly taper off without having a method of restocking. In short, it may be a good method to start a shop, it is not sustainable method.

Are you someone that gather resources and wants a place to sell items while offline, or while gathering more materials?
While this many not be my approach to handling a shop, it is a very valid method and most likely a profitable one if you can gather the resources that users have a high demand for. I have seen a decent amount of Spawn shops use this method, and it has worked out for them.

Do you like to be a trader, by buying items low and then selling at a mark-up?
I personally use this method as it fits into a market that I am easily able to keep track of. There are users that want to sell what they gathered, but don't have the time, or will to look for someone that will pay a premium. Then with that inventory, you can make bulk deals or find consistent buyers. For an even larger margin on what you sell, you can also combine this with the second method, and gather the resources yourself.

Seeing as you said you did not have much stored up, this would most likely be the best model for you to follow, and it can be very profitable, however you need to spend some time each day checking prices of other stalls.​

The location

While having a shop in a good location means more foot traffic, it doesn't mean a shop in a bad location can't turn a profit. If you buy a shop outside of the prime locations, then you will most likely have to spend more time advertising the shop (which I will cover in a second), and may need to spend more time giving directions to people. Also, having access to tpa, or having someone to tpa users to your shop will be valuable.

Advertising

This is key to all shops, and even more important to new shops as they need to build a customer base. Once you get a shop, you need to let people know what is there and the prices, and the most important of that is the prices. Now, while there are many ways to advertise, the two most important methods are the in-game trade chat, and having an updated thread on the forum for your Spawn shop.

In addition to advertising what you are selling, make sure to watch what other people are selling, as you may find someone looking to buy something that you have a stock on. To have the most effective advertising, you will need a mix of constant advertising, like a forum thread, where people can go to find a place to sell, and more active advertising where you approach them with a deal.

Conclusion

So if you put in all the work that each step requires it can be worth it, but you also need to remember that there will be other Spawn shops and users fighting over the same market share you are. So you not only need to do each step correctly, but need to stand out of the crowd.

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask ^_^

Tl;dr Yes it can be.

Note, this post is based purely on my experiences from running my spawn shop.

 

http://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/station34-profits.90639/
There are is my revenue. My shop is on the Yellow Side, fourth shop on the left from Warp 1

 

Noonono. Scratch that. I just made 170k from my shop in 5 days. I have shop 96 on yellow, and my main sells are exp, nstars, and emeralds. If you work hard, you will make a profit.

 

Thats because I bought like 75k in emerald from you :p

 

Minus 170k is still 95k :p

And you still bought them xD it doesnt make a difference

 

I paid 1.2mil for mine, and decided to keep track of weekly profits to see how much I was making, and if I would be able to make around 200-300k a week which is what I was hoping for. If you are interested, here is the link:

http://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/station23-sales-thread.92624/

Final verdict: Yes, if you can work hard, advertise, and keep it stocked.

 

I made 200k in 4 days by mining. So while it might be worth it to own a shop, It becomes much less worth it when considering the other things you could do with your time/money. Investing in something and making less money with that investment than if you had invested in something different is known as "Opportunity Cost". Shops seem to me like more effort than they are worth.
(I admit they are probably more fun for most people than something like mining)

 

While this is true, shops can bring in even more profit. I put all my mining supplies into the shop, and sell them for a lot more profit. Also, 50k/day takes about 3 hours or so with an eff 7. If just for one day, you stack up on blocks and other non gems you want to sell in the shop, you will get even more profit.

I don't see why not to own a shop, you make more profit on top of you mining.

 

Although that is true, you can make a lot more from a shop, you just have to wait a bit.

 

A spawnshop will get you a lot more business, if you do what @generaljoecool did and advertise.

If I were you, try a 4 week rental. Come up with an attractive design, and keep it stocked. Log your total sales on a thread, or on a personal spreadsheet, and see how it's going. You can always rent it longer.

One thing to keep in mind, you can't expect the same business that the prime shops get. Also, most of your gem sales will be in bulk rather than finding money every time you log in. Just stay patient, and you will notice huge profits.

 

If you design your shop to be low maintenance, you can do the mining and still have the shop making profit for you while you are mining or offline. Proper shop design to maximize profit margin and minimize maintenance time has a huge effect on your shop experience.

It took me over 9 million to reach EcoLegend and the majority of it came from my shops I ran. Usernameofdeath is even better at it and probably close to 100% of his money to reach EcoLegend came from his shop.

 

Don't forget to calculate profit correctly. Sales do not equal profits. For example, if you can sell diamonds to the server for $25, and your shop sells them for $30, you make $5 profit when you sell a diamond. Not $30.

With your big sale of emeralds, you have to take into account how much you could have gotten just selling them to another shop's sign (like usernameofdeath's). The extra that you were able to sell it for is the profit, not the total money in your sign.

 

That's not entirely true, profit is what you sold the item for-what you bought it for, not what you could have sold it for.

If you bought 10 emeralds at $30 each and sold them at $40 each, you made $100 profit. You lost potential profit though if you sold those emeralds at $40 each when username was buying them for $45 though.

 

You are right, assuming that you are buying from customers at your shop. Then it could be considered profit created by your shop.