Architect Archive

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Pawlin wrote:

/sigh

Here we go again.

You might as well sit down with a manager for a Kmart in Kansas and a manager for a Nordstroms in Huntington beach and ask "what do you charge for stuff"?

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Perfect analogy!

BOTH of those businesses are thriving businesses. Both provide good value to their customers and their owners.

*Price* is only ONE factor in your business. You need to think about a lot of things to be successful. The guy right next to you might have different *prices* than you do and yet you can BOTH be sucessful - by focusing on different marketplaces, different types of customers, different service models.

To be successful, you need to understand:
- your *cost* structure - what does it *really* cost you to produce an item? If you need to buy wooly for 6 cpu to make furniture, or if you need to buy reactive gas for 3 cpu to make generator turbines, then some broad statement like "oh, I mine everything I use for 0.50 credits per unit" is utter crap.
- the *value* of your product to the customer - as someone pointed out, high-end harvesters are money-making machines to your customers and *completely* pay for themselves in a matter of *days*. Some characters really *need* a house (to run a shop, for example) whereas for others its just a fun thing to do. Still, people spend money on their "wants" as well as their "needs".
- the *value* of your *service* to your customer - you might stock your vendor and have no customer intereaction or you might spend lots of time consulting with the customer and advising them and making special orders - those are *both* viable business models but in general people are willing to pay more in *product* prices for the second model (Nordstroms) but it *does* take additional time on your part
- the *opportunity cost* - if you can sell your resources for 3 cpu, then if you sell an architect product for less than 3 cpu of the resources it takes, you are effectively making less money as an architect than you would as a miner. Note that there is nothing inherently wrong with that at all. If what you *want* to do is build architect things and see them in people's hands and you have fun doing it, then go ahead. Perhaps this is like someone becoming a doctor in a rural area - it is more important to them than money. However, just *understand* it and choose that course with your eyes wide open, rather than selling a house for 6K just because the guy next to you is doing it.
- volume - how big do you want to be? Do you want to sell 100s of harvesters each week or have everyone on the server know that you are *the* guy to go to for crafting stations? There are pros and cons on "bigness" - the biggest thing you have to deal with is your resource supplies. If you aren't willing to cultivate a network of miners and/or work out arrangements with guildmates/friends/lot swappers to get more than your 10 lots at work pulling resources, then you *can't* be "big". So think about it and decide.
- marketing - how are you going to market? word of mouth? multiple vendors on the planetary map? Posts in the SOE forum?

I'm sure that there are many others. But go back to the Walmart / Nordstroms example. Look at their prices. Then look at how utterly different *every* other aspect of their businesses are. The same is true in the game. Only *you* can make all of those other decisions about how you want your business to be. *Then* you set your prices to match the other factors.

Otherwise you set your prices based on some random advice from one of us, and you find that *you* don't operate your business exactly like I do, and you aren't having fun and/or making money. If you set your prices very low and *you* sell out in a day and can't refill your vendor for a week, then you realize that the low-price leader on your server has 50 harvesters out there to support that volume. So don't back yourself into a business model that you won't enjoy by blindly setting your prices.

The above is an example of what not to charge... at least if you're a Master Architect or anywhere close to it.

I charge generally 1k-5k per furniture piece, and as much as 10k for the master furniture (which works, because it all goes together, so a lot of people want it). Houses... well, I don't make smalls because there's no difference between my small house and one made by a novice artisan who sells it on the bazaar for 3k to make just enough to cover his grinding expenses. Mediums I charge around 80k. Larges I charge 150k. Keep in mind... no matter what anyone tells you, this is still cheap. Mediums take ~21k resources to make, and Larges take ~26k. So in both cases, you're paying under 6 credits per resource. Considering you could sell the raw resources for 7 credits each on most servers, or 10 if they're good quality, it's almost not worth bothering with. Guild Halls I sell for 450k. Some people say that's too much, but I don't think so. Why?

1. It requires more factory work than the other houses.

2. Since I don't use multiple accounts to feed myself resources, it can take up to 4 days to get enough to make one.

3. Name another item in the game that requires 183 total components.

4.If people want to play rich and buy them for personal use, that's fine with me, but they're still going to pay a price that I would expect a new guild to pool together and pay.

As a profession, we need to be selling our stuff for more. Houses shouldn't be something that someone can afford after doing faction missions for a few hours. It takes us longer to retrieve enough resources to make one item than it does for most other professions, droid engineer being the only exception, and even then, our higher level items blow them out of the water. Because our items require so many resources and so much time investment to make, we should be asking for more money, not less. Our items are seen as "not required'... but you know what? Most people would call expensive items that aren't necessary "luxury" items. Thus, we should be charging appropriately luxurious prices. Unfortunately, that'll never happen until SOE implements a way for me to track down all the low-selling architects in the game, strap them into a chair, and force them to sit through several hundred hours of Economics lectures.

hmm,

keep in mind the silly Kmart compare is wrong, since Kmart is just a seller and buyer and not a producer!

some here are more then right and i am happy there are some real businessmen with the architect profession.

the thing is NOT what it costs u to get the resources when u self mine. u need to see that u get resources first.

so lets say u get 100k of steel medium quality, then u ask yourself what u will do with it.

u got raw resources and can sell them in the bazaar and medium steel sells alot for between 6 to10cpu with easy. so ask yourself when u put that into a furniture item or structure including fail risk and worktime for what u shpould sell that? well to make a real profit u need to charge at least same value as what u get in bezaar for the raw resource. if u do then u work for free with risk even.

so normally u should sell higher, thats what a businessman would do. if u sell for 3cpu then u make money yes but under the value. and since somehow long ago alot PA Architects who got plenty resources ruined the prices somehow every one thinks u get nothing for all architect stuff. tas simply wrong.

the stuff is worth more and people pay more either. dont make the mistake and work for nothing.

the cash isnt worth anymore what it was month ago also, ppl pay millions for a skill take or a holocron.

they pay like 100cup or way more even for weapons.

i sell pretty well and got a neat shop, i cant produce always all as fast as they buy it and i am NOT hte cheap jerk architect. dunno what u gfuys worried about that u sell undeer the real value /shrug

i sell for mostly structures for only 5cpu, thats very low actually but higher i cant go even when ppl would buy, but for more there to many cheap cut architects around the area sadly

small house 15k

medium 100k

large 180k

PA halls 500k

medium Harvesters rate 4 =18k plus 10k per extra rate=rate10 for 78k

heavies i refuse to produce, cause they not worth it

personal harvesters rate 2 for 1k,rate 3 for 5k and rate 4 for 10k

factories 50k

harvesters and such are moneymakers for the miners and they know it, lately none complained about prices, and they happy when i can make them asap after order, what they wat it get it NOW and not wait a week.

all sells like hotcakes, so why the heck u dump prices to nothing?

On Chimera, my prices are as follows:

Small Houses: 9k

Medium Houses: 45K

Large Houses: 125K

Rate 9 Minerals: 23K

Factories: 42500

Furniture is 3.5cpu (unless it uses Wooley Hides, then it is 4cpu)

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Sten_II wrote:

On Chimera, my prices are as follows:

Small Houses: 9k

Medium Houses: 45K

Large Houses: 125K

Rate 9 Minerals: 23K

Factories: 42500

Furniture is 3.5cpu (unless it uses Wooley Hides, then it is 4cpu)

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Sten I'm on chemaera aswell and I belive you could raise you medium house price and still sell.. atm I stock 2 mediums .. 1 large and about 5-10 smalls

Small 9k
Medium 65k
Large 125k

And they sell either the same day or within 2 days of them being on the vendor.

I've had ppl PM me for large houses and I'll say 125k and some say no problem and some say NO WAY!

I was asked last night house much I'd sell a city hall for and quoted them 420k and I think his eyes poped out as he told me he's had a price of 270k which altho would still bring a profit (I think) it's not the issue it's the BASE building for a city and imo 400-420k is reasonable.

But like everyone else each persons prices I tend not to haggle much unless it's a BIG order.

and server econemy (sp?)

This is my price structure.

Open your wallet, then give me all the money.

my price structure for harvesters is based on the following formula:

25K + 5cpu for basic resources + 10 cpu for high UT/SR/HR resources, rounded to the nearest 5K

This makes Heavy Minerals 175K, Heavy Gas 185K, and all other heavies (except Fusions, which I haven't calculated) 160K. I waive the 25K for guild mates, and give even better deals to close friends.

That seems like a reasonable kind of formula to use. I'm surprised how few people take into consideration all the extra high quality materials that the heavy gas takes.

Pawlin, you are totally dead on with regards to heavy gases.

Heavy Gases require 8x the amount of high quality materials that other harvesters take. As a rule, I won't make them, because the opportunity cost to me is too high to justify.

Few people will even pay 250k for these, when I could use almost the same amount of high quality materials and sell 7-8 180k heavy minerals