Architect Archive
Thread: Furniture Prices
Sorry if this post is long, but I have to get something off my chest...
Furniture is my primary source of income. I do have a boutique but I sell most of my wares at the bazaar. However I've noticed that the prices are getting lower by the day (at least they are on the Kettemor server where I reside).
I find this very aggravating since I've never had a problem selling my items at my asking price. Until now.
I typically base my prices on skill level and resources. Here is an example:
- Level I: 900-1500 (I tack on an extra 500 for items that require hides since I have to buy them)
- Level II: 2000-2500
- Level III: 2500-3000
- Level IV: 3000
- Small plants 1000, large plants 2000. (I used to sell torches for 1000 but have had to lower the price to 800.)
And while my prices may be expensive compared to the newbie furniture designer, they ALWAYS sell!
I used to sell a level I armoire for 1000, but people are now selling them as low as 300 cr. I've even seen a loveseat which requires 150 hides sell for 900! So now in order to compete we have to lower our prices even more!
Maybe it's just me, but I find that this underbidding seriously hurts the profession. It really shouldn't be a competition. We should work together to maintain the value of our skill. If everyone prices their items the same, the consumer will HAVE to pay what we are asking. I'm not saying we should rip anyone off, but I feel that considering the cost of resources, crits, time, and skill involved, we should get what we are worth. Build it and they will come. Am I right?
And if you arecurrently selling your items for super low prices, even just to get rid of them, please consider how it is affecting our business as a whole.You can still gain skill and make a very nice profit. Why undersell yourself?
Flame me if you will, but I would like to hear your input. What do you sell your items for and what do you base your pricing on?
Thanks for letting me vent,
Burgundy
Burgundy Wyne Design - Where furniture is a work of ART!
I sell at 8 credits per unit and it all used to go faster then I could put it on my vendor..
Bad thing is, sales have slowed to a trickle. Ive even tried lowering prices..
The fact is.. most people have what they want.. Until they release a few more schematics
to us. The profession is pretty much dead..... for now.....
I was selling furniture like crazy on my vendor and then we got patched one day and it slowed down to a trickle. The two things that happened in that patch were the new cap on in-house items (everyone used to be able to have 250 I believe, now it's based on lots) and mission payouts were seriously gimped. Both those factors combined add up to a decrease in the demand for 'luxury' items like furniture.
I've noticed sales, in general, have dropped dramatically since that day. I think we may have also had a mass exodus of players around that time as well (about half the folks in my guild all quit around that time).
Now I'm sure someone else will pop in and tell us how they're selling like crazy, but this is my experience and conclusions. 
Oh, and price fixing will never happen. There will always be people who'll undercut. I'm betting even some of the old undercutters are getting undercut these days as there's been an influx of new players into the architect profession.
... feels like we're being neglected.
There was once a business man that would go into a town and into the local stores and watch what people were buying, when he saw waht items were attractive to them he then opened a store and actually sold those items at a loss. He made up for the loss by selling LOTS of other stuff a low prices but still a profit.
People would come into the store to buy those few things and do the rest of thier shopping there too.
There was a lawsuit of course.
The old sotre owners complained they had to use this new store to stock thier own shelves because he was selling for less than they could buy from the wholeseller. The Businessman replied " Well, you cant make a profit on EVERYTHING!"
The businessman won the lawsuit.
I bet just about everyone here can name him.
The bottom line is, people that compete with you for business dont care about you sucueeding in business. Business is war, it is a battle ground. You cannot tell another person how to set thier prices.
Answer me this, is the fool the one that sells for less profit but stays in business long term? Or the one that is run out of business because he refuses to make less than his over-fat profit margins?
{A lot of people swell for more than I do, and some sell for less.
But if I am making a profit of sales and gaining customers that repeat at my business. I am not about to listen to others telling me how to set my prices. WEhy listen to the enemy on how to fight, they would have you loose. I am not here to loose.
You sell for 8/credits a piece.. LOLOLOL..
I sell for 3 - 5 credits a piece.. and i make a killing.. no wonder you arent selling anymore.
When an item takes 40 steel to make.. thats 2 mins work surveying... Ill sell for 300 credits maximum.. I can collect 25k of steel a day off my harvs... You sell the same item for 1000..
Try lowering your prices.. that might help.
p.s. If you think arhcitect is the only master you have to have to survive on market.. your wrong.
Furniture takes absolutely no experimentation... so why charge a tier 1 item for 100 times its worth.
Yes i charge like 4000 for a large table or large bed or something, because it takes tier 4.. and special materials.. but you cant say a chair that uses 35 steel.. is something you need to sell for over 1000 credits..
If the item is something that needs experimentation or uses special materials.. fine charge high.. but items that can be made in 1 combine, take only 1 resource.. and the resource can be sampled in less then 2 minutes.. give me a break.
If you have to buy materials from bazaar.. i factor that into my cost.. but i mean get real.. thats like saying, Opps i critical failed a large house.. ill sell my next one for 200k to make up for it. Prices reflect who you are.. if someone is stuck, and you force them to buy it for 100 times the price.. wait till you need that special material.. and hes the guy selling it.. hell turn around and sell it for 1000 times the price.
Karnlv0r
That is true, resrouces costless than 1 cr per unit.
If you cant compete, maybe you shouldnt be an archetect.
Im not flaming you, Just reminding you that resources do not cost 3 cr per unit.
I just don't see the point in worrying about what others sell their products for. When people say that crafters should incorporate their time into their prices are not thinking about what others may think about their time. Many crafters may not be concerned about the time it takes them to create items. They may be thinking that the time it takes is just time they are having fun playing SWG. We can't make anyone be serious about being in business in SWG. Everyone is going to view the time they spend in it differently.
My low grade ore costs are going up because of the low concentrations that I find it on Naboo. Can I now raise my house prices and other installations because of it? No. Why because the buyer doesn't care about that. The buyer wants the best price he/she can get for a house or a factory.Sellingitems at a high profit as anArchitector a Merchant in SWG does not constitute real survival for anyone in SWG. In the real world if a businessman did not price his goods to a level that the public would buy them, he would soon be out of business. If pricing the goods at a price the public would buy them left him with no profit, he would soon be out of business. The ones that survive in business are the ones that are able to get their goods in quantities which usually means at a cheaper rate. Here the ones that are able to extract resources or have help in gathering resources will survive in the crafting professions. This is something that I have finally accepted. Being upset with PAs for helping Architects outwith resources or the small businessman who puts out goods at a 4:1 cost of resources is pointless.
I do sell alot of furniture. I usually sell them at a 6:1 cost of resources. If I decided that others playing SWG should pay forthe time that I play SWG I wouldn't sell for less than 8-10:1, but I don't. I recently lost a good friend on the Kettemoor server. He dropped his Master Architect character and started over again on a new server and new profession. I know that he was very disheartened by the price lowering of Architect goods in the past few weeks. I tried to explain to him that he got to experience glory days of 95k medium house prices, but with the influx of Architects as it was bound to happen, the prices were going to have to come down and probably would never go back up there again. Its just the way it is. I now sell mine for 55-60k and do alright. I knew one whosold them at30k and medium mineral harvests at 5k. Instead of railing at that person, I just buy them up and resell them in my vendors at my prices. Why should I be concerned about buying a house for 30k and reselling it for 60k. Now that is what business is all about. When my public will no longer pay 55k for houses I will lower them still.
I go to the Market Bazaar and check on product prices. If everyone is selling high, I will sell just under them. When I go to another planet and find the prices are low I will sell just under those prices. As long as I am still making a profit on the resources, I could care less about my time, because my time is unrealistic in SWG. I can't take it seriously where crafting is concerned. Now the result of my philosophy is that I get so many orders that I have had to change my title from Novice Architect to Novice Merchant. Thats because I hate to havecustomers wait a long time to get their goods from me.
I am telling this only because when I used to feel that my time had to be paid for when I crafted I would get frustrated, stressed and would start to wonder why I was still playing this game. When I decided that whatever I was doing in SWG was supposed to be time having fun, it became fun again and I stopped worrying about what everyone else were selling their goods for. I watch them so I stay competitive, but I now keep in mind that it is only a game. Noplayer has to pay for the time that I spend playing SWG. I choose to do that every month with my credit card.