Architect Archive
Thread: Architect Poll Anyone Making Money?
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No-Ni
Tue Oct 05, 2004 10:13 am
#1
I've been an architect for several months now so I wouldn't consider myself an expert but is it just me or does it seem like Architects are sadly undercompensated?
I've done the math for several other artisan professions and it seems like architects indeed come out the lowest CPU for a crafted item than any other profession. On average, (bloodfin economy), I can sell heavy(BER13) harvestors for about 100,000. Based on the materials it takes to make a harvestor(27770 resources for a heavy mineral), I'm getting paid about 4 CPU.
Grated, some of the materials for the components do not have to be the best stuff but upon final assembly the steel, ore, and chemical need to be excellent quality not to mention the OMU.
I guess what I'm asking is, wouldn't it be better to take the uber materials we use and sell them for 5CPU, not have to have 5 structure factories churning out sub-components rolling through millions of units of resources to only get paid less than what we could sell the raw materials for?
Now, mind you, I'm not into creating furniture only structures like factories, harvestors, and buildings. Maybe the money is in the furniture?
Just trying to get a consensus from the community. Perhaps I'm missing out on an opportunity. (BTW, before you come up with the obvious "raise your prices", there are people on this server selling Heavy BER13's for 55k. If I put my prices up to 150k or even 125k my sales effectively stop.)
I've done the math for several other artisan professions and it seems like architects indeed come out the lowest CPU for a crafted item than any other profession. On average, (bloodfin economy), I can sell heavy(BER13) harvestors for about 100,000. Based on the materials it takes to make a harvestor(27770 resources for a heavy mineral), I'm getting paid about 4 CPU.
Grated, some of the materials for the components do not have to be the best stuff but upon final assembly the steel, ore, and chemical need to be excellent quality not to mention the OMU.
I guess what I'm asking is, wouldn't it be better to take the uber materials we use and sell them for 5CPU, not have to have 5 structure factories churning out sub-components rolling through millions of units of resources to only get paid less than what we could sell the raw materials for?
Now, mind you, I'm not into creating furniture only structures like factories, harvestors, and buildings. Maybe the money is in the furniture?
Just trying to get a consensus from the community. Perhaps I'm missing out on an opportunity. (BTW, before you come up with the obvious "raise your prices", there are people on this server selling Heavy BER13's for 55k. If I put my prices up to 150k or even 125k my sales effectively stop.)
durothil
Tue Oct 05, 2004 11:35 am
#2
It's one reason I quit this stupid game entirely....the economy is borked. Combat is borked. Architects selling ber 13's for under 95k on Intrepid. Housing for like 1.5 cpu. /shrug. I suppose if players want to do all that work and harvesting to sell for nothing there is nothing stopping them except they will eventually get tired of it and quit the profession. The problem is that there is always some other idiot like Dar...... who will take their place for awhile.
If I were to sell a medium house for half what a weaponsmith uses for his markup they would cost about a million credits... The house will never degrade if maintained. The weapon will be gone in a few weeks...even with repairs...go figure.
Time to move on after a year and a half...
Farradin,
FORMER Master Architect, Master Artisan, Master Merchant
If I were to sell a medium house for half what a weaponsmith uses for his markup they would cost about a million credits... The house will never degrade if maintained. The weapon will be gone in a few weeks...even with repairs...go figure.
Time to move on after a year and a half...
Farradin,
FORMER Master Architect, Master Artisan, Master Merchant
Elyssa
Tue Oct 05, 2004 11:35 am
#3
Personally, I don't bother selling structures. While I dabble in several things, I specialize in furniture and vehicles. Every now and then I'll get a bad assembly on a harvester and sell it at a discount or I'll find a great deal on a structure for resale, but I really don't specifically craft them to sell.
I don't sell any of my furniture for less than 6cpu. I've got a primo location outside of Coronet (took me almost a year to buy up enough property to pull it off), and I net about 1M cr/week. I know that if I branched out into bigger things I could make more, but that would require putting more effort into the game than I currently do.
I'm very comfortable with my current level and I have more than enough money to buy anything I want to own.
Bandola
Tue Oct 05, 2004 11:49 am
#4
I only make structures, until recently I made nothing except for Harvesters, for 6 months I concentrated on mediums, and pretty much had the market covered, then I switched to heavies and did very well there as well. The only reason I branched out to other structures was because I had the opportunity to buy a retiring Architects stock at a good price, I found factories sold like hot cakes, although not much else moved (probably because of my prices, lol). Am I making money? No way! But I am making credits, not so much lately, but I could afford to cash in everything, buy the best weapons and armour in the game and go kill dralls without having to bother about credits ever again. Or alternatively, if I were so inclined, I could make easily over a thousand bucks selling my credits to one of those disreputable companies out there.
Tempus_Blackthorn
Tue Oct 05, 2004 4:39 pm
#5
I'd be bloody rich if I charged all my friends and guild members for all I gave them!!! 
I made about 16 factories for one, 4 heavy havesters (BER12 and 13), about 50 or more small houses, a few large, city structures - bank/garage/shuttleport - and furniture. And I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting things. I'm not gonna tally how much money I've could've made, else I'll cry...
One thing is for sure: If I ever make a steady amount of money, I'm gonna hire someone to mine all that bloody ore and cheap materials!!!
Glad to annouce that I sold 4 BER13 HMI today for 75k a pop - except the 1st, sold it at 50k, then the client said it was too low. I didn't complain!
My prices are low, because I didn't know what was the normal market price. The prices are slowly but surely going up.
Pawlin
Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:28 pm
#6
Tempus_Blackthorn wrote:
...Glad to annouce that I sold 4 BER13 HMI today for 75k a pop - except the 1st, sold it at 50k, then the client said it was too low. I didn't complain!
My prices are low, because I didn't know what was the normal market price. The prices are slowly but surely going up.
I'm glad you're getting sales. But 50k-75k is much too low. You say so yourself that your prices are low. Your customer even told you so and when they do that its a definite, cusotmers don't often go out of their way to tell you if your prices are low.
So whats keeping you from raising your prices?
Ripchi
Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:02 am
#7
I don't make much besides furniture, but then again, I took up architect mainly so I could make my own furniture for Interior Decorating reasons.
I certainly don't get rich selling furniture off my vendor. I do make decent credits for the Interior Design I do though. I sold one design for 800k.
But I don't really care about the credits. I just have fun creating new things. So maybe I'm a bad example, since I'm not a typical archy.
Pawlin
Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:14 am
#8
If all we were doing was taking material worth 5 CPU and making deeds we sold at 4 CPU then yes it wouldn't make much sense. But thats not exactly what we do. The large majority of our material requirements are grind quality. We take 23k of ore, metal and other low quality materials worth 1-3 cpu, plus 1-2k of steel worth 5 cpu and then turn that into a deed worth 100-150k. (numbers are examples, it will vary of course)
No-Ni wrote:
...I guess what I'm asking is, wouldn't it be better to take the uber materials we use and sell them for 5CPU, not have to have 5 structure factories churning out sub-components rolling through millions of units of resources to only get paid less than what we could sell the raw materials for?...
On a CPU basis, yes we are lower than most elite crafting professions. But other professions have difficulties. WS and AS need the best materials to make the best product and have to worry about dozens of different specific materials. Chef needs to get sub parts for BE and tailor. BE and Doc (plus chef a bit too) are dependent on meats and AS depends on hides which are very high CPU to obtain. Tailors have limited demand. BEs have to deal with their peers selling schematics or Chefs just going BE as an alt.
A well ran WS, AS or Chef business can probably make more profit than an Architect business over time. But its not like you can jump into one of those professions and make millions instantly. It takes time to establish a good business.
I do make money. Last time I figured it I was making 5-10M per week in sales and over 50% of that is profits. About 75% or so of my sales are harvesters with the other 25% mostly crafting stations and a few paintings. But it took me several months to get to that point and business goes up and down.
In the past month or so, sales feel like they are down a little bit though. I think there are a few reasons. People are spending time in JTL beta, lots of players went back to school and have less playing time and people are spending time grinding XP for FS conversion.
No-Ni
Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:34 am
#9
Pawlin wrote:If all we were doing was taking material worth 5 CPU and making deeds we sold at 4 CPU then yes it wouldn't make much sense. But thats not exactly what we do. The large majority of our material requirements are grind quality. We take 23k of ore, metal and other low quality materials worth 1-3 cpu, plus 1-2k of steel worth 5 cpu and then turn that into a deed worth 100-150k. (numbers are examples, it will vary of course)
No-Ni wrote:
...I guess what I'm asking is, wouldn't it be better to take the uber materials we use and sell them for 5CPU, not have to have 5 structure factories churning out sub-components rolling through millions of units of resources to only get paid less than what we could sell the raw materials for?...On a CPU basis, yes we are lower than most elite crafting professions. But other professions have difficulties. WS and AS need the best materials to make the best product and have to worry about dozens of different specific materials. Chef needs to get sub parts for BE and tailor. BE and Doc (plus chef a bit too) are dependent on meats and AS depends on hides which are very high CPU to obtain. Tailors have limited demand. BEs have to deal with their peers selling schematics or Chefs just going BE as an alt.A well ran WS, AS or Chef business can probably make more profit than an Architect business over time. But its not like you can jump into one of those professions and make millions instantly. It takes time to establish a good business.I do make money. Last time I figured it I was making 5-10M per week in sales and over 50% of that is profits. About 75% or so of my sales are harvesters with the other 25% mostly crafting stations and a few paintings. But it took me several months to get to that point and business goes up and down.In the past month or so, sales feel like they are down a little bit though. I think there are a few reasons. People are spending time in JTL beta, lots of players went back to school and have less playing time and people are spending time grinding XP for FS conversion.
Yeah, all great points. I understand about the whole, using sub-standard materials for most of what we make and the fact that other smiths have to get meat, hide etc... I guess I was saying that maybe, if you're an architect that does it to make money, it would be better to sell the high quality minerals/chemicals at 5cpu rather than selling a crafted item for 4cpu.
I wish I could say I make 5-10m a week. It also could be that there are a lot of architects on my server. All outdoing each other on price. Spammers in the starport constantly advertising BER13 heavies for 55k. I think the last time I looked at the Harvestor calculator it costs about .45 cpu (on average depending on the concentration), to harvest. That's cost and assumes around an 80 or so concentration and the fact that you get your own fusion(which we all do).
Oh, well, I'll stick around for a while. Maybe the other architects will get sick of not making money and quit and I'll be left with hundreds of harvestors in waiting for JTL. I'm thinking that will boost the harvestor economy big time and those architects that are still around will reap the rewards...
Sevardos
Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:37 am
#10
Am I making money... er credits? Yes - no complaints. Although I echo some of the comments that the last month has been a tad slow. I'm blaming the Jedi Trials craze for that.
(Stands on his tired old soap box and repeats the same response he has typed countless times ...)
Pricing is what you make of it. I price all my harvesters at ~6cpu (higher for Gas) and factories for 60K. Do I sell them? Yes. Is there a huge volume? Not sure how I can answer that. I can go days and days not selling one structure (other than factories) and then someone will come and buy 20 of them. And then more get sold. Seems to come in cycles.
Am I worried that someone is selling more than I am? Hell no. Volume doesn't necessarily translate into profitability. For all I know, my competition needs to sell 5 harvesters for everyone 1 I sell to make the same profit ... and that's fine with me.
In my opinion, 2 mistakes are made by a lot of Architects:
1. Too much focus on what the other guy is doing. There is a difference between keeping yourself aware of what is happening and being obsessed on what the other guy is doing. Ingore them. Let me repeat this ... IGNORE THEM and price at what you feel is fair and reasonable for yourself. I have 3 Architects with vendors very near my shop who sell the same Harvesters for 80K to120K. And I still sell lots of harvesters.
2. Believing the myth that price is the ONLY factor in the customer's buying decision. It's not. The more players that recognize this simple little fact,the less we'll see of thesekind of posts.
Customers know they can enter my place and I'll be in stock. They know that they won't waste a trip. They know that they don't have to visit 20 vendors to find what they need. And for that convenience, they'll gladly pay more. I just filled an order for 15 small houses at 15K each (which was a discount price for me). I know that this customer knew they could buy it cheaper /shrug
My recommendation; raise your prices to the level you're happy with. Trust me when I say - you won't regret it.
(... steps off soap box, lights a match and set it on fire ... and does a soft-shoe out the door)
Message Edited by Sevardos on 10-05-2004 03:51 PM
Pawlin
Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:46 am
#11
No-Ni wrote:
....Spammers in the starport constantly advertising BER13 heavies for 55k.
....Oh, well, I'll stick around for a while. Maybe the other architects will get sick of not making money and quit and I'll be left with hundreds of harvestors in waiting for JTL. I'm thinking that will boost the harvestor economy big time and those architects that are still around will reap the rewards...
It would be tough to compete with 55k for heavies. I thought the 70-85k prices I've been dealing with are low, but 55k is about the lowest I've heard for heavies. I can't see how that could be profitable than just selling raw materials.
Usually undercutters fade away after a while. They gradually realize they aren't making any money then go off to try something else or just increase their prices.
Pawlin
Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:51 am
#12
/agree with Sevardos in general.
Sevardos wrote:
...Am I worried that someone is selling more than I am? Hell no. Volume doesn't necessarily translate into profitability. For all I know, my competition needs to sell 5 harvesters for everyone 1 I sell to make the same profit ... and that's fine with me..,..
Reminds me of the experiment I ran comparing low pricing to high pricing. Result was that I made a lot more in sales and profits with the higher prices. Not really scientific experiment but it proved the point in my mind.
GummiShooter
Wed Oct 06, 2004 2:05 am
#13
I havea question about raising prices. I have 8 vendors filled with everything an Architect can make, as well as other (mostly expensive) decorative stuff andI am (almost) always stocked. But I'm still charging the same prices as when I started, when I had just one vendor with some furniture and houses (only most furniture prices have been raised).
So I'm inclined to raise my prices, just because I think it's fair. It's very rare that an item is sold out, even with the current difficulty to obtain cheap grinding resources (and this is with an weekly sale of800-1400 items).
The only thing that is stopping me, is the opinion of my customers. After all, I'm doing this not only because I like crafting and selling, but also for the customers.How would they feel if, after having the same prices for 6 months, they suddenly would have to pay 170K for a Heavy Mineral instead of 145K? Or 65K for a Medium House instead of 55K?
What is your opinion on this?
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