Also, the more you play, the better chance you have of catching that great item on barter or of finding something nice on the mob off a reset. Talk to people. This goes along with the making friends part, but even if you don't like them and they don't like you, there can be a mutual respect between you. And that means they may be willing to help you out when the chips are down. Do a lot of trading.
Many people make the mistake of selling eq right away.
If you can spare the rent, and have a space to rent a piece of nice eq, go ahead and rent it. Also, if you play a lot, you may be able to find somebody who has something that somebody else wants, and vice versa. Then you can act as the middleman, and get something for nothing. You'd be surprised how lazy people can be when it comes to power trading. This is a very vague tip.