Architect Archive

I love when customers haggle. I get a chance to play my char. For me its fun, they tell me how broke they are and I tell them how good my items are, how much work I put into crafting such fine items. I also tell them that my wife and kids love to vacation on Naboo and the key to her happiness is their repeat biz.

I will also give discounts on all my items, if I feel the buyer had played his or her char. in a true Starwar's role playing way.

And for everyone in my guild I give all my items to them free of charge, because I want to promote "Working Together".

I generally never haggle downward as I think architects' products are generall undervalued game-wide.

If i get a big order, and miraculously I can fill it, I try to provide value through service and information. I tell them why things are priced differently, what I can make that they might find "cool" (torches, street lights, fountains that can go in your house, etc.) and of course I will deliver everything.

Then again, because I am fairly unhappy with the cpu I get, I have been thinking of doing some mining and possibly switching over to chef; though if you read the chef forum, they are very unhappy about the impending patch.

We desperately need consumables to be comparable to the other crafters. I'm sure plenty is said about that in the other threads.

I don't haggle at all. I set my prices based on what I believe the value to the customers are and I stick to them. I'm particularly cold to "oh, but the guy down the street only charges ....". I'm also not very receptive to "I'm poor", although I will make suggestions on either alternate products that might meet their needs or ways that they could raise the cash.

Given my attitude about pricing, I'm not inclined to give discounts unless 1) the order is big (800K or above) and 2) there is enough of a single item (e.g., fusions) to motivate me to make a new schematic if I don't already have one cooked up. What that means at a practical level is that I *sometimes* give a 10% discount on something like 10 heavies.

That being said, I love to consult with people and help them figure out how to structure their harvester fleet or think about their housing needs. For people that I resonate with and want to encourage, I'll do something like give them a basic crafting station and some furniture if they bought a house or even give them 1-3 harvesters to get them to the next step in their process. (Yes, I have given heavies away for free to people I thought were honest and would benefit from them.)

So, I don't haggle. I don't discount. But I try to be as helpful as possible and I'll throw in some extras that make sense after I learn more about the customer.

I think this is much more of a personal style / relationship thing than it is strictly a "business" or "economic" thing.

I dont discount any more.. I may on a 50 harvester plus order.. but in my mind having 20-30 at least of each medium and heavy harvester in stock at all times is value in itself those who order dont have to wait.. Although starting in the profession and not having wide customer base my prices were higher because i had to and i did package discounts then .. Only timeI am involved in haggling anymore is on the buying end. Doing my best to not let the hologrinding nation raise market prices on resources

what is ur price scale im finding it hard to find a good price everywhere i go people have a different price could be higher could be lower i need to know mainly what is a good price for rate 10 medium minerals and what about a high rate fushion, factories? flora,chem,and water all rate 10 whats a good price....ps all architects need to stop undercutting each other its killing us all

-Otharr / retired master artisan/master architect/ wrkin on chef for holo..suxs.

-Naritus

I give "friend" discounts, which means more or less giving things away to in-game friends.

As for strangers, my standard response is that I feature "No Haggle, No Hassle Pricing" to ensure that all my customers receive the best possible prices. If I get the "so and so charges 1000x less than you do," I respond with "That's a great deal, you should buy it from so and so."

I used to be pretty touchy about people questioning my prices, but I've mellowed in my old age.

Right now, there are so few architects on Shadowfire who areactually making anything, that I won't even consider discounting my prices for someone I don't know or barely know. I think people are generally happy to know they can actually buy what they want at any price. A few up-and-comers see the prices and may wish for better, but the price is the price, and that's it. And it's always on my vendor, and there is always going to be a 3% city tax. (We have 10 gardens to pay for!)

For guildmates, discounts go from 10-50%, depending on what it is, and who it is.Nothing's free, except for my in-game husband. I did give a couple of miners to a guildmate, in exchange for 50% of what it pulls for 2 weeks, because this mate is an entertainer. I too started as an entertainer, and it's my way of "tipping" her for all of her great work, that goes so unrewarded otherwise.

So no, I don't haggle. I don't even want to really discuss it. I can see the fun in playing "merchant" and doing some haggling, but really that is a "merchant" thing, not an "architect" thing.

Well I also give discounts to friends and guildmates. I didn't even think of mentioning that.