Architect Archive
Thread: Under-priced deeds
The long thread on under-priced product got me thinking. I don't think it is hologrinders or idiots only that underprice.
I havn't been playing the architect much, so my shop isn't getting a lot of action,and the few items up for sale have cycled on the 30 day timer. Income has slowed to a crawl, though I still have a few harvesters left on the vendor. I know that if I put in a couple of 20 hour weeks, filled the vendors, and advertised a bit, then the business would come back.
Architect is a lousy profession for the casual player, the products are hard to make and hard to sell. If you are very active, you can build up your business, people look for your shop when they want what you make, and it is a pretty good profession. But under about 10 hours a week, you can't keep that going, and it gets hard to find buyers for what you do make.
I think there are casual players out there who decided they wanted to be architects and are under the mistaken impression that lower prices will increase their total sales. It has got to be frustrating to spend a good part of a week putting some buildings together and then not being able to sell them. And if you only built a batch of large planet specific houses, that is very likely to happen.
The cure? Somebody needs to buy those buildings from them and resell at reasonable prices. It has to be somebody that has a good volume and selection going so customers can know where to go. Merchants are supposed to perform this function in the economy, but because of the lack of support for consignment sales, they would need a large markup to cover the risk of speculating on such high priced items.
My merchant/architect doesn't have the play time or the working capital to do this, but it might be a profitable sideline for someone who did. If there were a decent consignment sales system supported by the game logic, he could sell the other Architect's product as well as his own and be able to have a broader selection to draw customers. A shop that could keep a full line could get much higher prices from the customers that want their item NOW and don't want to wait a week after their order to find out whether it actually got built.
I think that Dvnce should be asked to post on the correspondent boards that a functional and secure consignment sales system for Merchants is an important feature to Architects. Do you agree?
Yes I think consignment sales system built into the vendors would be a good idea.
Might be on the wish list for the Merchants already.
Reselling is a viable means of income that I aggree with 100% I aggree that many people that have substantually lower prices do it because that is what they think they need to do to get more sales.. The problem with the resales plan is there is currently not a relistic way for most people to do it.. Your merchant would have to come up with a substantial chunk of change to buy all the products first.. or the crafter would have to trust the merchant to hand over their product and expect to get paid for each item as they sold.. ( difficult and pain in the ass if you ask me..)
I am totally for a consignment system where products can be offered on a vendor with a set amount going to the crafter .. it is something that needs to happen..
I am going to do a little experiment along this lines.... hmm.... I will report back with results and details later..
Pawlin wrote:
Yes I think consignment sales system built into the vendors would be a good idea.
Might be on the wish list for the Merchants already.
Sure it is on their list and has been for a very long time. But it hasn't been responded to, and a Merchant and Bazaar/Vendor improvement is on the schedule fairly soon.
The point is that features added to Merchant can make big differences to other classes, and I think consignment is particularly important to Architect because the high price and low volume of our major products make it hard to work with Merchants who are not alts or played by intimate friends.
My Doc alt canoffer a few stims to a promising merchant's vendor at little risk, and possibly start a new relationship. But I'm not going to do that with a Fusion without an understanding first. There are too many things that could go wrong.
Similarly, a Merchant is tying up a lot of his working capital to accept that offer. He may not even have enough cash on hand at that moment to accept it. And some items, like slightly sub-max harvesters, can take a long time to sell from even a busy shop.
Other features Merchant's have asked for, like the ability to put a case up and let the buyer choose how many he wants at a per-unit price, are more important to other professions. Giving consignments priority is an Architect issue.
TheJawaJubbo wrote:
people can sell their stuff for whatever they like. just because they undervut you don't get upset (and no, i'm not an architect). its called capitilsm. people hate price fixing in real life and so in game too.
Totally agree, I sell for MY Price. Frankly I don't care who I undercut or overcut. I picked architect because I wanted to design homes, I don't give a crap about the money, thats why I have a fighter/doc alt. I sell furniture at 3cpu, harvesters at 7cpu and homes at 10cpu. People don't buy them dont really care, no skin off my chest. I will keep crafting furniture because that is my "focus" point to begin with.
I do private decorating for 40k Small house, 80K Medium house,140k Large House, 200k for PA Halls and Civic structures (hospitals, cantina's etc.). And I still get a ton of return customers and referrals.
I do my own thing because I don't want to be like everyone else. I HATE how this game is built money wise, and I hate how every person just "follows the leader" with everything they do. Nope sorry, my products are worth time and frustrations...And I charge accordingly to how I feel about the item. I'm so sick of every asking what the norm is....screw being normal, being different gets you far more attention anyways.
TheJawaJubbo wrote:
people can sell their stuff for whatever they like. just because they undervut you don't get upset (and no, i'm not an architect). its called capitilsm. people hate price fixing in real life and so in game too.
You yahoo - where in the hell in any of these posts said that you CAN'T price anyway you want. In you capitalism vision there is no free speach? By the way, they are also protections in capitalism from predatory pricing - are you suggesting that we ask the devs for minimums? Hmmmm... actually, that's not a bad idea
Sevardos wrote:
are you suggesting that we ask the devs for minimums? Hmmmm... actually, that's not a bad idea
Lol, probably not a bad idea, but even with a minimum I still would do my own thing, just for the fact of being different.
MyT_Chicken wrote:
I don't give a crap about the money, thats why I have a fighter/doc alt. I sell furniture at 3cpu, harvesters at 7cpu and homes at 10cpu.
But here's the big question... do you realize that at 3cpu for furniture, YOU ARE PAYING YOUR CUSTOMER to take the furniture? At 7cpu for the harvesters (since quality does matter and increase the value of the resources), you're probably just barely clearing the red. At 10cpu for homes, you're pretty much selling at just over wholesale prices. So, odds are, you're using that alt fighter/doc to pay for other people's stuff instead of being able to afford that +8 Wound Healing tape you ought to have. Or that +5 Rifle Speed armor segment, or whatever...
Sadlateen wrote:
I sell houses and and furniture at 3cpu (and no in not paying others to by them my cost is only 1.5cpu so im making a 1.5 cpu profit) Im a master artasin archatect merchant this is what I do and I feal very good about the profit I make. but anybody is able to come clear out my 4 vendors any time thay want to resell. Ill be happy to refill them every morning. and Im sorry 10cpu for a house? 34K for a small house? I just dont see it. not now after the devs removed any sort of need to but resorces and parts from other players.
The idea of basing the prices on the "value" of the resorses (not the cost) and increasing your profit based on that "value" is a dream that will never work in a MMO where anybody can harvest there own resorces at cost
Now if thay ever add back Miningwhere resorces harvesting took up real skill points and certs for operation are needed and anybody that wanted to make and sell there items on there own vendor HAD to buy resorces from other people then this debate would have some meaning. But I dont see it changing any time soon. This is what the masses wanted! (not me I was one of the few that fought to keep a real working economy in during beta) the mindless masses do not want a working economy thay want to have there alts make items and money easly and with no real work or interaction with other players. thay do not want to depend on other people to supply them with resorces or mass produce there items for them. thay do not want to sell "wholesale" to merchants for resale. The fact is people want to be able to go from harvesting resorces to selling on vendors all by themself and as long as thay can there will be no standerdisation of prices based around a "value" of a resorces because the "value" will be diff between the people that buy there resorces and harvest it themself.
And to the people charging as if there buying resorces but are really harvesting there own for 1/5 the cost and taking in that much more profit. dont look down on me for charging a fare and honest price. because when I say I charge 2x cost I really mean "cost" and not some rounded up perceived "value" based on the price of resorces you didnt even pay for in the first place.
I've asked this question before and never get an answer but I'll try one more time. Why bother? Just sell the resources. You can and will sell them at 3 cpu and High Quality resources for Harvesters you can easily get 5 to 7 cpu . You will actually make MORE money with LESS hassles and no need to craft one solitary thing - in fact, you'll end up getting money back faster because you'll sell the resources in bulk volumes. If its because you just like crafting, then great. But don't give me this BS or holier-than-thou crapploaits because you don't believe in 'value' pricing. It's because you believe the only way you'll make a sale is by low-balling.
The mark of good salesrep (real life that is) and business person is the ability to maximise profit margins. Any sales rep can drop their drawers and practically give product away - doesn't make them a good sales rep (and in RL, they'd lose their job / business).
However, in a game, its all monopoly money so really, it doesn't matter one bit and its why game economies don't generally follow RL patterns. You can justify your pricing all you want in a game but stop with the crappola about 'real' cost-basing pricing on the cost of buying resources in the open market IS the right way for establishing base-line retail prices.
The fact is, you're leaving credits on the table - period. Pricing should be based on what the market can and will bare and the market can easily bare more than 3 cpu but then, you'd have to compete with more than just price which is really what is driving your descision.
The biggest mistake SOE made with Architects is not having quality mean anythingfor a majority of their products. And even the ones that do, its not that difficult to hit the maximum (like Harvesters). But that topic is being touched upon on another thread so I'll leave it there.