Architect Archive

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JediArchon wrote:

There's a difference between charging a higher price to keep up with the market, and charging a higher price to take advantage of a customer's ignorance of the market. I've had a lot of horror stories come my way of people selling small houses to new players for 20k. THAT's gouging. I don't feel that any architects with higher prices than me are gouging by any means, some people price on different scales and use various resources. But when I see someone charging two times what every other respectable architect is selling for... where's the honor in that?

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1. The *marketplace* sets a price on what it values. In general, players value their gametime more than credits.

2. I've never seen a pricing discussion where terms like "under-cutter" and "price gouger" are introduced provide any enlightenment at all. Those are loaded judgements whose very purpose is not to provide information but to attack someone.

3. People keep focusing on *price* as if it were the ONLY factor that matters. It isn't. In fact I maintain that for most players *price* is NOT their top buying criteria at all. Location, convenience, consulting, etc play a HUGE part in people's buying decisions. If someone decides to buy a small house then if they find one on a vendor for 20K and they have the credits, they will quite likely buy it. They will buy it rather than looking for another vendor because they don't know if it will take them 5 minutes or an hour to find another one. They want to buy it NOW and get on with the game (setting it up, putting things in it, etc). Any player can make 20K+ an hour so unless they KNOW that the next vendor has a house for 10K and they will be able to buy one in stock in the next 5 minutes, they *are* making the right choice for themselves by just buying the 20K house and moving on.

4. The same logic applies to harvesters in spades. If you have a 70% spot for a resource that will sell for 3 cpu, every hour that you shop for a "better" price on a harvester will cost you about 3K in profits from running that harvester, not to mention the fact that that spot may be filled if you take to long. So buying a harvester RIGHT NOW for 10K over what the next vendor *might* be charging if they have it is probably a sound business decision.

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JediArchon wrote:

There's a difference between charging a higher price to keep up with the market, and charginga higher price to take advantage of a customer's ignorance of the market. I've had a lot of horror stories come my way of people selling small houses to new players for 20k. THAT's gouging. I don't feel that any architects with higher prices than me are gouging by any means, some people price on different scales and use various resources. But when I see someone charging two times what every other respectable architect is selling for... where's the honor in that?

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20K for a house is gouging? By who's standard?

Charging 2 times over what other respectable architects are selling for? Who are you to say what is the standard. If some of the these so-called 'respectable' architects were to drop their prices by 50%,would everyone be forcedto follow suit so that they can remain 'respectable'? ... please.

Have you ever bought a Krayt weapon? Or an Ackley weapon? Or an Anniversary Painting? Or an AV-21 Schematic? Or an AV-21 Powerplant? Maybe one of the adhesives or compenents from the new furniture drops? Or anything else that everyone trips over themselves to pay millions of credits for? ..... are these people selling it respectable? Are they gouging?

.... the answer is no. They are offering products at prices people are willing to pay for it. If know one gave a hoot about Ackley bones, they would sell for a song instead of millions.

You are not the ombudsman of what is so-called "respectable" and you've got a lot of nerve passing judgement.However, if I accussed you of being a dirty rotten under-cutter, I'm a bad bad person.

Pffft. Gotta love hypocrits and double standards.

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JediArchon wrote:

Okay you all are really going overboard with flaming me, saying that I'm judgmental or labeling my competitors as either undercutters or gougers. You're taking things way out of proportion. And trying to draw a parallel between rare weapons and loots and run-of-the-mill architect goods is like trying to compare a Chevy to a an F-15 fighter. People charge ridiculous loot prices because the loot is rare and they can ask any amount they want and people are willing to pay it. Goods that even novice architects can make are a very different situation.

I know a LOT of people that prefer to shop around rather than take any old price out of convenience, especially new players that don't have a lot of money. And what you charge for small houses on your server is your business, but they regularly go for 7-10k on my server, and I rarely see them over that amount. So stop jumping to conclusions before you judge me for "judging" others.

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Imagine this scene: some managers from WalMart and some from Nordstroms are having a meeting to compare and contrast their different business models so that they can *both* learn something from the other guy. And in the middle of a nice discussion about volumn purchasing and customer service and location etc a Walmart guy says "well, the real reason you guys do well is that you rip people off by charging them an arm and a leg for stuff they could buy elsewhere for cheaper". I think it's pretty fair to say that any honest dialog between them is now thrown out the window. That kind of remark either kills a dialog or else turns it into a flamefest ("oh yeah, well you guys sell crappy merchandise and pay your employees slave wages!").

The point of the game is to have fun and interact with people. If someone wants to put in the work to sell hundreds of harvesters a day and has a blast doing it - that's fine with me. If someone else wants to sell a couple of houses each week to new folks for low prices, I'm not going to call them names. If someone wants to offer custom decorating services at a premium price, I tell them "have fun doing it".

Have fun out there doing whatever it is you enjoy doing. One of the strengths of the game is that there is room for all kinds. As soon as I judge someone based on MY idea of what is fun, then I end up taking away some of my - and their - fun. What's the point in that?

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JediArchon wrote:

How is saying that I've heard horror stories of paying 20k for a house (it's only happened a few times but I'm using it as an example) considering inflammatory on my part if the person who bought the house came to me and said it was bad? I am not the one passing the judgment in that situation, I am merely relaying what the consumer's feeling was.

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JediArchon wrote:

.... Anyway, there's no point in arguing this anymore,...

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Imagine this scene: some managers from WalMart and some from Nordstroms are having a meeting to compare and contrast their different business models so that they can *both* learn something from the other guy. And in the middle of a nice discussion about volumn purchasing and customer service and location etc a Walmart guy says "well, the real reason you guys do well is that you rip people off by charging them an arm and a leg for stuff they could buy elsewhere for cheaper". I think it's pretty fair to say that any honest dialog between them is now thrown out the window. That kind of remark either kills a dialog or else turns it into a flamefest ("oh yeah, well you guys sell crappy merchandise and pay your employees slave wages!").

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Let's This is a fun example. Say this would happen, and anyone would hear about it, they both would get enormous fines for doing something that's illegal in most countries

So how do you explain that away *grin*

Mad.

ps. I couldn't resist

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Splutty wrote:

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Let's This is a fun example. Say this would happen, and anyone would hear about it, they both would get enormous fines for doing something that's illegal in most countries

So how do you explain that away *grin*

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