Architect Archive
Thread: Underpricing Archs
LonelyGhost wrote:
I firmly believe a new infrastructure is needed in the game, adding a fluctuating cost to operate harvesters (power), maintain structures, travel between planets, Repair vehicles, etc... A fluctuation based on the state of the economy, and based on the flow of credits in the game. If more is coming in than going out, the cost to operate stuff goes up to compensate, and the price of goods goes up in response. Some random things can be coded that effect the game in general, in a similar fashion as the Bestine voting system. Remove the need to place power into things, and hook those structures to the global "power network" to whom you will have to pay for the power needed to operate things. This "Company" would raise or lower the cost of electricity in response to the economy. Homes need electricity, water, sewage, etc...which could be another "Company" who you pay for access to thier services.
The big problem with this paragraph is that there is NO "global power network". The great thing about the Star Wars environment is the invention of micro-fusion power sources. Power is readily available. Perhaps it isn't that cheap to get, but EVERYONE can get it.The single best example in the game is Luke stepping off his X-Wing onto Dagobah and firing up his portablemicro-fusion generator and hooking it into R2.
However, I also agree with the need for "utility" services. The only real need for player-owned power sources is out in the wilder areas of a planet. While paying "maintenance" costs can be a way to consider powering a house, it doesn't explain why harvesters need power but houses and guild halls do not? Theutility aspect of structures was definitely not "architected" very well for this game.
To expand your ideas a little further:
(1)Make generators produce a variable amount of power rated on their production quality. Right now, a poor quality generator is as good as an astounding one. Give them an efficiency rating along with quality so that they burn power at variable rates.
(2) Create a new unit---the power grid. These would come in small, medium, and large sizes, and part of the construction process would include a variable number of generators (say 1-3 for a small, 4-6 for a medium, 7-9 fora large). This would give a variable power output based on the number AND the quality of generators, as well as a variable requirement for power based on their efficiency.
(3) Allow the creation of structures and homes with variable power capabilities---without self-power or with it (i.e. generators). One type would be for the do-it-yourselfer we have today. The ones without it would be for hooking into the power grid. They would be cheaper to make (hopefully) without the power generation requirements.
(4) Along with the power grid, create other units: (a) the waste treatment facility (b) water supply (c) data communications network and (d) food delivery andsupply.(Note that no structure we have right now has a frigging BATHROOM! Is this Star Trek or what? Also, all communications is apparently done by radio transmission??) Each of these units would involve some spectacularly useful skill traits and resources that we don't have currently---The Bio-Engineers could supply elements for use in the waste treatment facility that have to be replenished constantly, resource suppliers could harvest and supply the vast amount of water required, chefs could supply crates of basic items for the "kitchen" that could be purchased for the food supply/pantry. The data network is something we currently don't have a major use for, but one is possibly giving homes/halls equipped with such a structure the ability to tap into all the mission terminals?
We don't need that much more in the way of production units in the game. What we need is FUNCTIONALITY. Most of the items we craft really don't DO ANYTHING once we craft them. Make them useful in game and the money flow will follow that usefulness.
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Kalimir Krud, Master Architect, Tarquinas/Bestine area
I actually have to disagree here. My biggest seller to date has been houses and I charge quite a bit more than everyone else. I do however keep at least one of each type of house on the vendor (multiples of generic and Naboo smalls, since I'm on Naboo, I even stock Tatooine and Corellian houses).Don't underestimate what people will pay to stop looking for what they want. Sure, I don't sell huge quantities, but the profit margin makes up for it. (I mine all my resources too)
Zanholo wrote:
Simplest answer is don't make houses or items that others are way underselling you consistently.
I'm not sure if the original poster was advocating that we try and sell houses for 15 cpu or not. However that argument seemed to be based on retail price models that apparently come from the real world. Well in the real world you can mark up a CD or a pair of jeans by 500% at a retail outlet but you dont' find cars and houses for sale in retail with that kind of markup. The larger the cost of the item for sale, the lower the profit margin. This is the case in the real world and is also the case in SWG.
Another topic that a few people have touched on is that availability has value. If you have a well stocked vendor then you can charge more. On the other hand if you are cheap then you'll sell out quicker. I've done both. First I was fairly cheap and couldn't keep up with demand. So I raised prices about 10% and sales cooled off enough that I could keep on top of things. Then the competition dropped their prices even lower and now I'm a bit higher priced than some. But I can keep a full vendor and I make more profit selling 5 harversters then they do selling 10.
wow.... talk about over priced.... dude I can't help to think your out to lunch on a get rich fast track... I woul rather sell 4 good houses with small profits then 1 house for a LARGE profit... WHY because people shop around and they want OQ for a good price.
the prices you sell your stuff for IS laughable, bc I would never in my life pay for that much. everything I build is based off a 2 cpu price so what ever my cost is to build it is covered, then I add on a resaonable fee. (around 3-4k on ave).
I want a large customer base... not a large account....
duh... double post srry...
Message Edited by Korlan on 06-03-2004 12:34 PM
Korlan wrote:
wow.... talk about over priced.... dude I can't help to think your out to lunch on a get rich fast track... I woul rather sell 4 good houses with small profits then 1 house for a LARGE profit... WHY because people shop around and they want OQ for a good price.
the prices you sell your stuff for IS laughable, bc I would never in my life pay for that much. everything I build is based off a 2 cpu price so what ever my cost is to build it is covered, then I add on a resaonable fee. (around 3-4k on ave).
I want a large customer base... not a large account....
I'm usually a quiet reader through the forums, but every time I come across a thread that talks of pricing and profit I am compelled to respond.
People have to economically look at their business to determine whether it is a worthwhile investment. The theory of the firm is the make profit, be it 100,000 or 1 credit more than total cost. You can't say with a blunt statment "If you don't buy resources for under X cpu, you can't be an architect", every person has different costs and only by weighing those costs can you determine the minium sales price to make profit. But who wants to make 10 credits of profit every sale... it's easy to determine your explicit costs, it is your implicit costs that few take account for "How much do you pay yourself?", "How much are those resources worth?", etc. Personally I take into account my Normal Profit (opportunity cost of your entrepreneurial abilities) added to my costs to determine my profit margin. This doesn't mean that you deduct the money that you could be making were you an armorsmith, it is more applicable to view it as the profit you would make doing something given the same set of skills, i.e. Selling Resources. Since anyone can do this it is a good base for comparison, and since I don't have all the time in the world to break everything down resouce by resouce, I split them into 2 categories, Non-quality (aka grinding) and Quality resources. On average I sell grinding resources at 2.5cpu while I can sell on average quality resources at 4cpu. Look at the amount of resources you use to make a Heavy Mineral Mining Installation, it requires approx. 27,770 Non-Quality resources, and 3,090 quality resources (less when using lubricating oil as a chem). Consider the amount of profit you would make selling these resources and you have your Normal Profit. If you add your Normal Profit to your costs and your price for goods lower, than you are better off selling resources than producing architectural goods. The inclusion of implicit costs (not actual money spent, but opportunity costs) will yield economic profit when subtracted from your total revenue. As long as your economic profit stays in the black, it is a good choice to continue your arcitechtural venture. Increasing price beyond this point will determine how much profit you make, and while there are ways to determine your profit maximization point I think I already spent too much time writing this 
So I'll leave that for another thread...
This is some basic economic theory that can be applied to your pricing decisions rather than blindly judging based on what others do. Of course some people will operate in the red, which is an acceptable sales tactic to either draw in customers for other products or to prevent easy entry into the industry and possibly force some out.
I feel like I have ranted enough 
DBAC Phoenix
I'm paying special attention to this thread because I'm slowly going broke as a new Architect. When I started, I zipped around to the different crafting cities on my server to get an idea of what things were selling for - I was still kinda in the dark because there was a large skew in price ranges. What helped me was that calculator thingy on the other thread. But after reading this post, I'm wondering if I'm STILL charging too little.
I try to purchase what resources I don't make myself on the bazaar or from Vendors are 2cpu, but there are times I simply can't find that and am forced to buy them for 3cpu...I rarely buy for more than that unless I"m desperate. I sell my small houses from 10500 to 11k a pop and thought that was a good price... /ponder At that price I am seeing some return on my investment, but not a ton. Now, on occassion I'll post a small house on the bazaar starting at 4k on AUCTION with an 'advertisement' for my shop in the description of it. I do this to drum up traffic since I'm SW of Keren instead of next to Theed. It hasn't worked really..at least not yet. The sad thing is none of those auctioned small houses reached the 6k mark. One sold for 5800 and the other is currently resting at 4900. 
I'm right inbetween a casual player and hardcore-do-nothing-for-the-entire-day-but-play-SWG gamer. However, I hate sitting in front of a space port yelling the location of my store for hours on end. When I'm in a town and I see a large group of players around I;ll shout it out a few times as I go on about my business. (I thought about setting a barker droid out, but it turns out you have to have some high lvl skill in the Merchant tree to use it. Ah well.)
So, my question to you all is what the heck can I do to turn a profit and actually SELL things as an architect. My lil' tricks aren't working. I can't see charging what the original poster said, it just would never sell at that price. I think players would boycot buying houses until all the arch's dropped back to affordable prices! 
I think I'm about 25% markup currently on most of my items at 3cpu for resources...small houses less than that of course. What do you all THINK I should be at?
I'm paying special attention to this thread because I'm slowly going broke as a new Architect. When I started, I zipped around to the different crafting cities on my server to get an idea of what things were selling for - I was still kinda in the dark because there was a large skew in price ranges. What helped me was that calculator thingy on the other thread. But after reading this post, I'm wondering if I'm STILL charging too little.
I try to purchase what resources I don't make myself on the bazaar or from Vendors are 2cpu, but there are times I simply can't find that and am forced to buy them for 3cpu...I rarely buy for more than that unless I"m desperate. I sell my small houses from 10500 to 11k a pop and thought that was a good price... /ponder At that price I am seeing some return on my investment, but not a ton. Now, on occassion I'll post a small house on the bazaar starting at 4k on AUCTION with an 'advertisement' for my shop in the description of it. I do this to drum up traffic since I'm SW of Keren instead of next to Theed. It hasn't worked really..at least not yet. The sad thing is none of those auctioned small houses reached the 6k mark. One sold for 5800 and the other is currently resting at 4900.
I'm right inbetween a casual player and hardcore-do-nothing-for-the-entire-day-but-play-SWG gamer. However, I hate sitting in front of a space port yelling the location of my store for hours on end. When I'm in a town and I see a large group of players around I;ll shout it out a few times as I go on about my business. (I thought about setting a barker droid out, but it turns out you have to have some high lvl skill in the Merchant tree to use it. Ah well.)
So, my question to you all is what the heck can I do to turn a profit and actually SELL things as an architect. My lil' tricks aren't working. I can't see charging what the original poster said, it just would never sell at that price. I think players would boycot buying houses until all the arch's dropped back to affordable prices! I think I'm about 25% markup currently on most of my items at 3cpu for resources...small houses less than that of course. What do you all THINK I should be at?
lmicheles wrote:
I'm paying special attention to this thread because I'm slowly going broke as a new Architect. When I started, I zipped around to the different crafting cities on my server to get an idea of what things were selling for - I was still kinda in the dark because there was a large skew in price ranges. What helped me was that calculator thingy on the other thread. But after reading this post, I'm wondering if I'm STILL charging too little.
I try to purchase what resources I don't make myself on the bazaar or from Vendors are 2cpu, but there are times I simply can't find that and am forced to buy them for 3cpu...I rarely buy for more than that unless I"m desperate. I sell my small houses from 10500 to 11k a pop and thought that was a good price... /ponder At that price I am seeing some return on my investment, but not a ton. Now, on occassion I'll post a small house on the bazaar starting at 4k on AUCTION with an 'advertisement' for my shop in the description of it. I do this to drum up traffic since I'm SW of Keren instead of next to Theed. It hasn't worked really..at least not yet. The sad thing is none of those auctioned small houses reached the 6k mark. One sold for 5800 and the other is currently resting at 4900.
I'm right inbetween a casual player and hardcore-do-nothing-for-the-entire-day-but-play-SWG gamer. However, I hate sitting in front of a space port yelling the location of my store for hours on end. When I'm in a town and I see a large group of players around I;ll shout it out a few times as I go on about my business. (I thought about setting a barker droid out, but it turns out you have to have some high lvl skill in the Merchant tree to use it. Ah well.)
So, my question to you all is what the heck can I do to turn a profit and actually SELL things as an architect. My lil' tricks aren't working. I can't see charging what the original poster said, it just would never sell at that price. I think players would boycot buying houses until all the arch's dropped back to affordable prices!
There are many more qualified Architects than I who can (and I hope do) respond but I'll just tell you what I've done. Basically, I diversified and didn't put all my eggs in one basket.
I started with PowerUps and Furniture and found a close location near a starport - Theed or Coronet are both good options (I'll assume you're not in a large guild or city). I built up a good business selling that plus Factories and then moved to Harvesters. Each time someone purchased from me, I gmail'd them a Thank You note with my waypoint attached.
Eventually, I moved to harvesters (just recently) and will be doing houses this week for the first time. I have been purposely avoiding low margin products up to now. Reason I did this is that I developed a steady stream of regular repeat customers; especially from PowerUps. Now, I'm leveraging that traffic to sell Harvesters and it seems to be working with one difference, I'm probably not selling as much as other lower priced Architects because my prices are very much on the high end and they are going to stay there. I sell Harvesters at 6.5 cpu (give or take) and have been seeing steady, growing sales. I make sure that my vendors are always stocked.
The first 3 days, I sold over 35 harvesters, most of them heavy. That initial lift has slowed down to about 2 to 3 a day and I'm very happy with that because of the margin I'm getting. If it continues to stay at that level, I will consider myself to have a successful experiment and a healthy business as an Architect. Keep in mind, I'm also selling furniture at 10 to 40 cpu - again, I make sure my Vendors are always full. I've also turned down large order requests for cities because I'm not willing to do the price points they wanted. Just the other night I had someone wanting me to do 3 guild halls for 150K each - I said no but appreciate the offer. I'm sure they'll find a sucker ... er I mean ... willing Architect to make them at that price. However, thats not my business model - I'm not a high volume, low price merchant. Pick a business model and stick with it would be my biggest advice.
My shop is also decorated to fit the various themes. I've gotten a lot of comments on that. I made myself a Medium Style 2 Floorplan 2 house (for the floorplan) and decorated it as a Furniture Showroom.
There are more successful Architects than I here on the boards so I'm sure you'll get more ideas. Trust me when I say, you can be successful other than just the lowest price.