Architect Archive

Well, well...

Its been a while since my last posting, and due to something i saw today, my curiosity has gotten the better of me.

Let me explain some, & perhaps you will see where I'm coming from, and possible solutions to some of those Big Questions we architects have.

Today I was standing in Theed, (Bloodfin server) doing my normal shout for business. (knowing your first question i "why dont you just put your stuff in a shop?" I answer "yes, I have a shop. unfortunately, its so overpopulated by redred mobs i cant get there for days on end...") So here I am, shouting my sale of Fusion Generators, for 150k each. What doI get but some yob shouting how I'm ripping everyone off, that I shout be selling at 90K or less for these puppies. Now, interesting thing is, is this yob claims to be a MA from teh Scylla server, and that is the going rate there.

Really, thats what piqued my courosity in the first place; but on with the story, right?

Earlier on, I get a tell from another MA saying bravo for having such a (apparently) high price. Most this MA has seen them for is between 110-120k. Anyways, this particular MA is so pleased by MY price that he begins getting his friends to shout orders to me, solely for the purpose of driving UP the prices on this equipment. End result of this is that I sold 11 fusion gens, in 1 day for 150k each. Not a bad day's work, eh? So, looping back to the yob complaining about my price, all I can say is "how does what I sold TODAY compare with your sales over the last week?" Something tells me that it took a lot longer for this guy to make in a week what I did in a day. What did this yob reply? Nothing... nada, yes folks, silence.

Seems like an undercuter got schooled.

So, whats my take on the whole situation? It isn't that we need to keep trying to shout the undercutters down, nor that we need to ourselves go lower in order to compete. On the contrary, show them what we can do and make, by sticking to our prices, & letting them see where profit may be had.

For those who are wondering, btw... yes, I harvest my own resources (mostly) No, I'm not guild backed. The vast amounts of resources I need that I cannot harvest I get where everyone else does: I buy em, for the best prices I can manage, wherever I can find em.

Zawash' iriBetsua,

Master

Master Architect, even, Bloodfin Server

Corellia-Naboo-Rori

Odd... I dont remember hitting anythingthat would post my thingy before I finished it

People that shout a lower price have no class ( my opinion ).

I sell for less, in fact I sell those for 100k myself currently, but I would never shout over someone that had just quoted another price. I would move to another town first.

I suppose I want to establish that there is a difference between some people that sell for less, and those that stand and shout over you to try and steal the same customers.

No class.

For the record NICE JOB TELLIN THAT JERK OFF! Bring back the true architect prices!

Raged Mind Master Artisan/Master Architect/Sniper/Future Master Urban Planner

Hehe I had someone the other day telling me he was buying a medium house from an architect and asked me if I could quote him a price. I told him I couldn't do so, because there's too many variables in the market to keep a set price. Now that wasn't entirely untrue, but I do not give away comparisson prices since it only drives the average market down further by people having to sell for less to get sales.

He then tells me he was buying a medium correllian for 15k and asked if I could match or beat that. I told him "If you can get a medium house for 15k Cr then do so. I won't even pretend my time and resources are worth so little"

He persisted trying to get me to tell him my prices and after a while finally gave up when I told him the location of my shop and he could check all the prices he wanted to there.

Funny thing was, that 3 hours later, he bought a medium house off my vendor

You cannot compare server to server prices. Supply and demand dictate prices, and depending on how many Masters are on your server (or even your planet), you can charge alot more often. Sometimes you have to charge less.

I have an alt now who is working on architect...and I see a gap in the market for Rebel Architects in my area....

He persisted trying to get me to tell him my prices and after a while finally gave up when I told him the location of my shop and he could check all the prices he wanted to there.

Funny thing was, that 3 hours later, he bought a medium house off my vendor."

I am starting to think there are fewer undercutters and the REAL average price are not as low as some would have us believe.

What I am starting to notice is things like you mention.

Customer A wants a structure... so they ask you your price. Whatever you tell them it is too much and you get something like...

a) My friend sells for such and such

b) You are way overpriced the average price is blah blah blah

c) That is way too much, I bought that structure last week for X

Only to have them persist in trying to drive you down. When they do not sucseed they buy for what you want. That leads me to believe that the things Customer A is telling you, are just outright lies, because when you use about 4 brain cells, you understand what is being said does not make any sense.

a) Then why are you buying from me and not your friend?

b) Then why have I been hearing day after day that "whatever structure is so hard to find". Ifa certian structure is hard to find at X price, then I guess X price is not the average anymore.

c) I have heard this for multiple products. Someone wants something you are selling. When they cannot lower your price, they already had the whatever, and they paid X for it. Now... in the case of a medium or large house or especially a guild hall, if you already bought one, odds are you would not be asking me for another.

Moral of the story. Allot of potential customers will stoop to new lows in the form of stories and outright dishonesty. Allot of people will say anything, true or not, to save themselves money.

My guess is that these people go around and bs and badger any architect that has the tag up, until they trick one into giving them the price they want.

The only ones that really start to anoy me are the ones that want to trade this house( of aplanet I rarely do business on ) for that other larger house with a few materials thrown in and a few other items ( that i dont want or need ).

After 5 min of that kind of stuff I tend to end the conversation.

Ugh.. hit submit too soon...

Anyway, in an environment such as this, it is quite dificult to compare prices and come up with a real average price. Its not like you can pick up a newspaper and see at a glance all the retail prices for whatever product like you can in RL.

Average prices for the large part I think, are what ever a person wants to believe, or more acurately, have YOU believe, and since there is no way to truely verify this, you get a perception of a price.

In RL you can open up a newspaper, turn on the TV, read a magazine or log onto the internet and compare hundreds of prices in minutes. You get a true "average" price.

In SWG, you knowledge of the average price is far more restricted. You are mostly limited to what you may see in a shop or three, and the rest of it is handed to you by a biased source, the customer. Since it is in the customers best interest to spread the low "average" price, you are not going to get a true average price.

It would be like going down to the local car dealership and telling the salesman that the Hummer he was selling is overpriced and is only worth $5000, and then the dealer would sell it to you for that.

There are two "average" prices floating around.

One is the real average price, which is allot higher than what you would guess.

The second one is the "negotiation stick" average price. This is the one that has absolutely grounds in reality and is something that is made up to make whatever architect bend to the customer demanded price.

"The only ones that really start to anoy me are the ones that want to trade this house( of aplanet I rarely do business on ) for that other larger house with a few materials thrown in and a few other items ( that i dont want or need )."

I hate those. I have had someone want to do a flat trade. They wanted some generic planet house for a Tatooine house. I am on Corellia.

I was trying to figure what exactly did I get out of the deal...

Loss of a house that has a better chance to sell, for a house that probably would not sell at all... if someone is buying a house(especially a small one) for whatever planet, odds are that they will buy it on the planet they want to place it on.

hmmmm I hardly ever negotiate, I price a bit below the average ( which is not necessarily accurate ) and that is my current price. I’m like a Saturn dealer, all the price breaks are already on the sticker.

But I agree GMT, it isnt always easy to figure the average price because it floats a lot.

It's the players that come at me trying to get me to match prices against other arch's that I will not do. It's one thing to be competitive but to outright try to steal a deal from another arch that's working on the sale...no class there if you ask me, but then again in the real world that's a common practise. At least this is game and not the real world

Besides, you never know if they're telling you the truth. I have more of a tendency to cut some slack to people that want to upgrade, but cant quite afford the price yet. Payment plans, discounts, trade ins,etc..

Works very well for me. I've only been an arch for about2 weeks, and I already have a descent size clientale. I think it's the "integrity" of those people who are willing to work for what they want can't quite get there like most of the uber players. I'll help them out before any others. I've even given away a free house to a guy that just started playing on the server. Now he checks my harvesters for me, and is thinking of becomming an arch

I don't even attempt to sell houses on my server anymore; large, med, or small. For some reason all the newer architects want to do is sell housing on the cheap whereas I feel the better sales is in harvesters.

Right now I do about two larges a day for roughly 130K a pop. *sigh* the rest of my day is spent plucking harvester hoppers, running to my resource suppliers that can't make the delivery to where my house is, or haggling with people over the 5K I won't budge from on prices :/