Architect Archive
Thread: I'm a cranky little Architect!!
Pawlin wrote:
Daggs_BEG wrote:
Pawlin wrote:
Daggs_BEG wrote:
...Meds are a flat 40k and Larges a flat 80k....
Thats less than 2 cpu for the mediums and barely over 2 cpu for large.
Whats the going rate for ore on your server?
You can get any ore or grinding metal for 2.5-3 cpu... But like I said, I harvest all my own resources so all I pay is harvestor maintenence and travel expenses.
I just lowered my housing prices yesterday because 1. I had a vendor full of houses that werent selling, and 2. our City Sales Tax pushes my prices over what I think is a fair price. They were at Small- 10k, Med- 50k, Large- 100K.
...
So are you intentionally selling the houses as a loss leader? i.e. selling them real cheap to get business into your shop?
Cause if grind resources fetch 2.5-3 cpu then selling finished deeds at 2 cpu is selling for below the market of the raw materials. It doesn't matter if you mine your own stuff or not.
You have 2 options :
A) mine ore and sell it on the open market for 2.5 cpu
B) mine ore and turn it into houses and sell them for 2 cpu
Option B is more work and lower income.
Let see if this makes sence to you.
I dont sell many houses anyway. The bulk of my income comes from furniture sales and Interior Decorating. I'm listed in the planetary map. Someone sees that there are 5 "housing" vendors at the same spot (Houses, Lighting, Decorations, Furniture, Master Furniture). They buy a small house for 8k.. then they look in the other vendors, and since the prices ares so 'cheap', they end up spending 100k in furniture.
Most of my resources go into furniture which I sell at 3cpu (5 cpu for Master stuff). So I dont mind selling a few houses cheap if its gonna get more of my furniture sold (higer cpu), and get my name out there with good word-of-mouth advertising.
Also, since I know my harvestors sold out when I lowered my prices, I'm hoping the same will come from the houses. I know its a low CPU, but I'd much rather build houses than try to sell grinding resources at a vendor or on the bazzar. And as I'm sure they will sell at that price, I'd much rather do more work and get the cash, than do less work and have a vendor full of houses that arent selling.
Daggs_BEG wrote:
...I may not be as rich as most Architects on my server, and I may not get paid well for the time and effort I put into my craft... but I'm having fun.. my customers love me...
If this is your goalas an architect and you're happy with your business model then fine.
I changed my model about 3 weeks ago. It goes like this. Price the harvestors at some price that isn't the lowest on the server and isn't the highest but is something you consider fair. I actually created a spreadsheet that listed all of the harvestors, the sub-components and the amount of resources required for each. I then listed each resource as either HQ or LQ and associated a price for each that I wanted to get paid for that resource and a price for which I may have to pay, if I couldn't harvest it myself. The spreadsheet does all the work. A simple price change for ore, changes the price for all of my listed harvestors and sub-components depending on which uses it. Additionally, I can enter the number of harvestors I would like to create and the spreadsheet creates an ingredient list for me with check boxes next to each sub-component and resource when I've added it to the ingredient hopper I check off that it's done. Oh, and it's color coded for ease of use.
This spreadsheet showed me some things and made me realize that I was undercharging and allowed me to move my prices to a fair level. I have a lot more fun knowing that I'm getting paid for all the work I do as an architect. Everyone has a different idea of what fair is and it doesn't bother me a bit to see Architects who sell at 55k for a BER 13. In the end, if you like what you do and you feel you're getting compensated fairly, that's what it's all about. BTW business is actually better now. I can't explain it... it isn't all about price it seems...
Cheers
SmarticusIOaG wrote:
Unlike the person selling at 8k per, I move probably 50-60 per week in small houses. Worse than that, I move probably 100BER 13 harvesters a week.
I HAVE to buy my resources... I dont have the time or the lots to do it myself. Ore on Bloodfin goes for 2-2.5 CPU.
Do the math - Even at 10k per i'm not making much. They're more there as a convenience for my regulars who come to my vendors for other stuff, or to noobs who stumble onto my vendors and could really use a reasonably priced house.
Truthfully, if Bloatfin's economy gets much sillier, I'll have to move up to 12k per.
I'd rather not, but JTL looks to be ready to push the resources I use to ridiculous prices. Yay SOE.
If I sold that much stuff, I would also buy my resources. Actually, I would hire people to harvest as much as possible for me.
SmarticusIOaG wrote:
Unlike the person selling at 8k per, I move probably 50-60 per week in small houses. Worse than that, I move probably 100BER 13 harvesters a week.