Architect Archive
Thread: New Architect needs advice
Varies heavily by product and server as to what range of cpu you can sell. Even then if you find a happy compromise in pricing, you may find adjusting up/down will increase overall profit as well.
- Our products can use 'grind' quality in almost every aspect of crafting
- We tend to attract the undercutters of crafters which drive prices downward
- Lastly, we deal in bulk. And since we move such quantities, we can bring prices down while still making money (think wholesaler vsretail store)
Best advice I can give tho...
- Vendor location (get something close to a starport, more well travelled the better)
- Vendor well stocked (first impressions ARE everything)
- Competitive pricing (don't have to undercut, just be competitive - beingfair is relative to your server, so compare)
- Friendly customer relations (morons and jerks don't keep customers long. be helpful, friendly and informative)
- Advertise (don't spam, just let people know you exist)
- Patience - You won't make 25M in one day, your first day... you have to wait a little first. =)
- Enjoy it, don't make it a freakin job - hardcore crafters find themselves 'working' more than playing... avoid that.
Warning: And below are the ramblings of a tired and going tosleep player... read at your own boredom. =)
Personal experience on my server has shown harvesters to be biggest money maker and easiest product to move. Everyone needs harvesters to mine and usually constant influx of new crafters. Prices for heavies for example have gone from 180k down to 75k in span of a year. I've noticed products using large quantities of resources sell at lower cpu's while those using lower amounts sell at higher cpu's. Kinda goes for all crafters more or less. Arch's can see 2-8cpu on harvesters while 10-20cpu on furniture. Econ101, supply and demand can vary greatly and thus effecting what you can/will sell at. Rather depends on how many new people and population of the game. CU kinda killed my sales far as I noticed, while JTL saw sales doubling from everyone trying to grind out shipwright. Find your wave and ride it til you're comfortable and then try expanding a little into other areas.
It really varies by server so just do a vendor search via bazaar to compare. Just take notes of price ranges for anything you'd consider selling. Maybe look to sell stuff not many others are stocking. I only sell harvesters, which leaves open opportunity for others to sell housing and furniture for example. Find a niche or make one I guess. =)
Everything can sell tho, so I'd recommend selling what interests you and what you can 'afford' to make. Harvesters, housing and city structures tend to hog tons of resources so you'd need a large mining operation or huge bank account to afford it. Furniture deals in much smaller amounts, so lot easier to maintain inventory for those starting out I'd think. If your vendor stays small to medium sized, you could probably stock everything an arch can make.
If you get too popular, you'll find yourself spread thin. Half my vendor limit is used on just harvesters. I won't bother w/ furniture given the huge variety. maybe just doing master lvl stuff would be good tho. Paintings don't sell well, so I wouldn't bother at all. Only ever make those for yourself/friends.
Hrm, I kinda went overboard on answering your original question I guess. Let me know if anything made sense. =)
Message Edited by walcyradiant on 05-24-2005 02:22 AM
Thanks for the detailed reply, much appreciated
I have many, many rescources that I have collected since day one and see myself offering and smaller range of larger items (houses, civic structures, harvesters) rather than masses of furniture.
I have just moved to a location outside Kaadara asall of the popular locations (Theed, Cnet, MOP etc) seem to be pretty much full and I'm hoping a bit of forum advertising and competitive prices will see people visit me.
At present I am doing factory runs of walls, generators, power cores etc and hope to have some final builds on my vendors by the weekend.
Any other hints and tips allowing me to set up a well oiled operation would be appreciated.
Thanks!
is this
For this reason, established Masters rearely fly the prof name. But good way to generate business.
Oceaf
CEO JODZ Industries
12.1 pt
fortuneseeker wrote:
At present I am doing factory runs of walls, generators, power cores etc and hope to have some final builds on my vendors by the weekend.
Any other hints and tips allowing me to set up a well oiled operation would be appreciated.
Also, do yourself and everyone here a favor and dont join the ranks of the price-droppers. Hold to your guns and sell stuff at a decent price. Dont cut costs just because someone else does and you want more sales. This is a sure-fire road to burnout as you spend more and more time *working* to keep your vendor stocked, and making less and less money for your effort. This also hurts other Archies around you who may not have the masses of resources stockpiled. They have a slimmer price margin, and you can easily put them out of biz by lowering your prices to beat theirs. There is enough to go around as long as everyone stays sensible. IMO.
I am one of the most expensive architects on my server, and I still sell. I make as much as the few remaining long-time masters, yet I sell about half as much as they do. While they are slaving over several factories and a station, I am out playing with the other crafting prof, or maybe taking pot-shots at local aggro's. I have a lot of structures in my care (about 450k a month maint) , and even so it only takes a few things to sell to pay for my entire weeks overhead.
Just my humble opinion, heheh.....
Hey, how do you get "Master Architect" to go over your name? I recently got master rebel pilot so it probably says "Alliance Ace Pilot". How would i get it back to master architect and how could i check its there? And like you said, some masters get spammed with orders if their name is up there and take it of, so how do you take it off? This is prbably a really noobish question... but hey, thats not as bad as the fact that i accidentally deleted my vendor when i wanted to make four seperate ones when all the stuff was in it, a few hundred items of furniture actually..... Anyone have any suggestions as to how i can restock it without sitting at the computer for hours clicking and clicking and clicking.........
dkleinw wrote:
Cheapest and easiest way to advertise is simple fly the "Master Architect" over your name. If you stop for more then 30 seconds in a Space Port with more then 8 people in it, you will likely get a tell requesting items.
For this reason, established Masters rearely fly the prof name. But good way to generate business.
Oceaf
CEO JODZ Industries
12.1 pt
Akkori wrote:
Also, do yourself and everyone here a favor and dont join the ranks of the price-droppers. Hold to your guns and sell stuff at a decent price. Dont cut costs just because someone else does and you want more sales. This is a sure-fire road to burnout as you spend more and more time *working* to keep your vendor stocked, and making less and less money for your effort. This also hurts other Archies around you who may not have the masses of resources stockpiled. They have a slimmer price margin, and you can easily put them out of biz by lowering your prices to beat theirs. There is enough to go around as long as everyone stays sensible. IMO.
I am one of the most expensive architects on my server, and I still sell. I make as much as the few remaining long-time masters, yet I sell about half as much as they do. While they are slaving over several factories and a station, I am out playing with the other crafting prof, or maybe taking pot-shots at local aggro's. I have a lot of structures in my care (about 450k a month maint) , and even so it only takes a few things to sell to pay for my entire weeks overhead.
Just my humble opinion, heheh.....
I couldn't agree more! First of all, it amazes me to see archs make things below their cost? What is the logic in that? I've been in this game since the beginning and as an arch....Friendly advice- Make your special orders quickly, ppl come back that way. Keep your prices the same to all customers, be honest. Keep yourself stocked with all parts, parts are the ticket to all of our goods. Also keep yourself stocked in all high sr, hr, dr, ut resources, used to make the parts...don't even mine it, if below 900. You need alot of factories, have your guild mates, or friends lay them for you....structure and equipment to make all you need. I run over 20 ...and care for about 30 in my city....Advertise on your server forum, that has been my success, and 7 vendors that are usually stocked fully, that has been my partner's and my theme since the beginning..."Why search, we have it all". Being an arch is the most fun, you meet wonderful ppl you become friends with, you get to build someones dream city, and if you do it right and honest (not undercutting) you make alot of credits! Also along with Akkori, we are fairly expensive too, but we stop what we are doing to service our customers!
Smiles, Madi