Architect Archive
Thread: Why are Architects Undermining our Profession?
the thing is that all of this has a chain reaction....
the next time this buyer needs a harvetsor he will expect to pay 80K (heavy mineral is 27K res @ 3 cpu = 81K! --- but lets not forget that most of the resources i use are all 950 and above and would easily fetch 4 or more on the open market)
he will tell his friends he got it for 80K so then his buddy will try and fanagle one for 75K.....if the friend gets that price then it just gets lower
i really think the problem is that combat types where forced into crafting....they can easily make millions just doing missions and selling loot...so they dont really look at crafting as a business....they just see another couple of million rolling in...i mean people are getting 2.5 million for the new speeders...
its just that if this trend keeps up my ROI is going to be too low...there are other things i could do that will take less time, aggrevation and cash outlay to make money....
People easily spend 50-75K on buying furniture for their houses but dont wont to spend 10k on th house itself...
I really think the effects of hologrinding are really being felt now....many crafters have had their markets corrupted...prices have fallen to all time lows and world is saturated in items....to top it all off the devs have really driven so many people away the past 3 months....
all the indicators tell me that there are substancially fewer people in game ---- bazaar is not as loaded with items....good resource patches are not covered in harvetsors...fewer harvetsors around in general...player cities emptying and going down in levels or simply vanishing ---- there are just fewer customers and newer ones are not joining the game
I think more and more crafters will be leaving over the next few months --- there is just no long term maket aside from being a good WS or AS.
The vendor changes coming in 9 or 10 is going to be the nail in the coffin for many --- item limits and strictor vendor certs
i really wanted to stick around for the space expansion but i just see no reason to really stick around for 6 more months
Oh wait i could get 4 more painting schematics --- what fun
When you see someone selling for that low, buy it yourself and sell it in your shop. If they keep doing it, hire them on as staff. You don't have to hunt for materials, and they don't have to sink any points into merchant, if they don't want to. I've raised two apprentices to master, one quit SWG, and the other eventually left Tatooine for Dantooine (I think he still plays).
...and if you're doing a "I MUST HAVE IT NOOOOOW!" order, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for a non-refundable partial deposit. Sometimes you get it, sometimes they balk. I figure if they balk, they have no problem shafting me at the last minute, and I shouldn't bother anyway.
In any case, I'm sorry that happened to you. I hate em too.
I don't know of any other profession where we can LOWER the value of our materials by putting labor into them.
Just take the materials and sell them on the bazaar, you'll get your money.
We are starting to see a few of the newer architects on Valcyn selling at 3cpu and even as low as 2.5cpu on the resources. But when you look at it, with the end of the hologrind now within sight, most resource guys are struggling to even sell resources at 3cpu (we have resource vendors hawking high quality resources in the 100k units at 2cpu....OR LESS...just to clear stock and make some money).
I don't blame the new ones (or even some of the older architects) from doing this as really, we are all seeing a shrinkage of the market as less and less hologrinders go on their merry grinding way. But more to the point, with very little to differentiate one Architect from another Architect, pricing is the only way to make your mark on your server.
And if you are running lots of miners and self-supplying your own resources, blowing your opposition away by pricing at 3cpu (or even 2.5cpu) still leaves you with a tidy sum and near empty vendors.
We don't do this to ourselves, the game forced it on to us thanks to the hologrind, no product differentiation and no decay.
Some of us have been saying that this has been coming, its a wonder then that so many out there are now acting all surprised that its happening at all. 
So they're just a tool. And they're not making me any money stacked in a storage. I recon others have this view as well.
Mouli wrote:
Of course it is possible to sell for low prices... but on other hand, low price = low benefits & high demand.
You won't be able to satisfy all demand and you would end up either :
- buying ressources to satisfy demand (why is quite dumb and would end into bankrupty since cost will be>sale price)
- stoppingproduction and prices will go up again
In the end selling for too low could not be "permanent" imho.
I have never had to stop production due to low demand or lack of money.
I havenever had to buy resources to satisfy demand
What is too low? less than the cost to craft is my answer. At 1cr/unit I wouldnt do very well but I could sustaina few sales at this level if it meant that I was helping a friend or potential future customer. At 2-2.5cr/unit I break even and occasionally eek out some profit. At 3-3.5cr/unit I make a tidy profit. Heck, I occasionally sell for higher but only if I am in a nasty mood.