Armorsmith Archive

This topic is adressed to the other tailors who keep a vendor. I've been trying to keep a reasonable balance between big selection and what actually sells on my vendor for a long time, and I am now looking for some feedback. Also, I would like to know what you are personally looking for in clothes.

First, colors in general. How many different colors do you keep on your vendor? Is it the same selection of colors for women and men clothes? Are all your clothes available in those colors? What colors, in your experience, do not sell?

Now to be more specific - what about clothes that can be made in two colors? Do you just use one color for both, or do you use a particular scheme that seems to sell well? What clothes do you make sure to match in your selection? Which ones sell well, which ones don't?

Which clothes just don't sell at all?

What about wookie clothes? Which colors sell and which don't?

How big is your selection? What items regularly come back to the stockroom every month?

Ok after all these questions I will tell you how it works for me, with a bit of history, so you can compare more easily. I have been a tailor since august. First it was my main character, and I kept an inventory of 1200 items or more. Almost everything was available in about 7 colors (forest green, black, white, 2 purples, dark pink, yellow, blue, grey, red, orange), and I had a few more colors for some items (bright green was one of them). After a while I dropped tailor and stopped restocking my vendor. People were still buying but some clothes I just had to destroy - basically everything in bright green, lots of yellow, and lots of unsellable clothes even in black.

Two months later I decided to start again with an alt, but only to stock what would sell. I got rid of lots of clothes that never sold anyway (tons of dresses, vests, modest skirt etc), decided to stick to navy blue/black/white/forest green/grey for most clothes, and extended the women clothes to more than 20 colors, some being mostly for secondary colors (cream, ivory, silver). I got rid of the blue and yellow wookie clothes to stick to black/white/green/brown.

Dress slippers come in all the colors, light bustiers and fashionably pleated skirts as well. Belt in two or three colors, bodysuits about 4 (always some black/blue/green and I alternate the rest between purple, mauve etc). The main dresses I focus on are grand ball gown and patterned slip dresses, that come in about 10 colors. I use two colors for them, and change the secondary one when they get sold, so thatthere is only one of each of the main colors, but the selection changes. Same for tactical skinsuits, sport bustiers, pleated skirts. I try to match 10 pair of hot pants with some of the sport bustiers and low cut tops.

That's the general idea... Now, I could use some advice. First, I don't use bright green, just forest green and mint, as I can't stand the bright green. Do you all actually sell clothes in bright green? Also, should I bother extending my colors for most shirts and pants and add more peach/pink/yellow/light blue/purple etc or will it not sell? Should I make more one color sport bustiers, pleated skirts, dresses, or stick to 2 colors?

Finally, from everything that we can make, what doesn't sell at all and what will in what colors?

Sorry, it was long. I'm just extremely curious about how other tailors do their business. So please post and tell us more about it, no details will be too much

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Novice Lekku Stomper

A little history: My primary character on Bloodfin is Marah, who started out as a tailor. Eventually I drifted into the whole combat thing and bought an alternate account. I transfered Tailor and my shop over to my new girl, Shylen Zen. This was a few months ago... maybe two and a half? The past week I have been restocking clothes on my vendors, the majority of which were made by Marah.. So these items have been sitting on my vendors for at least two and a half months. (I did a huge restocking before dropping tailor with Marah.. it was at least a few weeks before I created Shylen Zen). I could even tell that some of them had been there since I opened up shop 6 months ago. I'm really glad you bring this up now, because recentlyI have been contemplating this same issue..

So here is my take: (remember, this is just Bloodfin..) (also, sorry.. these are in random order, as I could think of them )

Doctor's Dress

Dress Uniform Jacket

Comfortable Slacks

Desert Command Jacket

Thin Striped Pants

Striped Pants

Striped Slacks

Revealing Top

Revealing Bikini

Low-Cut Top

Paramilitary Camos

Infiltration Suit

Infiltrator Leggings

Tactical Skinsuit

Dress Slacks

Sunguard

Lekku Wrap

Twi'lek Noble's Crest (is that what it's called?)

Grand Twi'lek Headpiece (I don't think that's right, either)

Double Robe

Metal Bikini

Modest Skirt

Noble Skirt

Refined Skirt

Robe of Honor

Cloak

Gunman's Duster

Decorative Vest

Trim-Lined Shirt

Light Bustier

Muscle Shirt

Flex Form Shirt (not as well as Muscle Shirt)

Smock

Exquisite Gown

Pantaloons

Lined Shorts

Pocketed Shorts

All Boots

All Jewelry (except necklaces; on strike 'til they fix it)

All Bandoliers (mostly in black, white, silver, and the occasional brown)

All Belts

All Gloves

ALL WOOKIEE ITEMS SELL! (You just have to let them know about you! I have a vendor, "Zen Wookiee" ... they know they're going to find Wookiee stuff there!)

Black (sells very well)

White (though not as well as black)

Silver

Gray (I have a special vendor for all four of these colors! Gold is there too, but.. check the "don't sell")

Green (not the bright, not the tree, not the sage, the darker one)

Lilac (what I call the purple before you get to the bright, in-your-face purple)

Red

Wine (or burgundy, whathave you)

Khaki

Midnight Blue

ALL WOOKIEE COLORS SELL! (see above )

Decorative Dress

Loose Dress

Maiden's Dress

Trader's Flightsuit

Revealing Fleshwrap

Grand Healer's Gown

Hot Pants

Decorative Headdress

Simple Shirt

Robe

Plain Robe

Plain Short Robe

Spec-Ops Duster

Sleeveless Dress

Shortsleeve Shirt

Formal Gown

Long Vest

Mangy Vest

Padded Jacket

Reinforced Pullover

Long Formal Jacket

Tight Jacket

Suit Jacket

Decorative Skirt

Two-Tone Skirt

Reinforced Bodysuit

Women's Shoes

Dress Robe

Pleated Dress

Frock

Ribbed Shirt

Ribbed Pants

Slacks

Pocketed Work Pants

Casual Pants

Bright Green

Gold

Pink

Bright Purple and the two purples before it

Sage

Orange

Yellow

Navy (If you name the darker blue "Midnight Blue," it sells better! Some of my earlier clothes were named "Navy." I know because they're still there!)

Any of the "blah" colors near the top (I like them; no one else seems to)

Okay now.. a few more notes..

About color combinations: I like pairing the last color in a group with a lighter shade of that color,usually the third from the last,every now and thenthe fourth or second). And I would pluralize it.. Midnight Blues, Greens, Lilacs, Wines. I really like the look, and I really like the naming. These only sell so-so, some combos better than others (people seem to like "midnight blues"). Almost any color paired with Black or White will sell. A dark color (especially black) paired with Silver will usually sell. Clashing colors.. I try not to even make them. I thought Red and Bright Blue would sell, and made a bunch of different clothes in the combo. Most were still there. Combinations like Bright Purple/Magenta rarely sell. Orange and Yellow don't even sell!

On What I Like: My taste in clothing is different for each of my characters. Marah is a short Bothan and actually makes the Decorative Dress look good. She looks nice in some of the frumpy clothes and the lesser colors. I like this because she wears things most people want (I have a buttercup Pleated Dress she looks great in!) Shylen Zen has an edgier look. She's tall, so she doesn't look good in the frumpy stuff. And she actually looks good in pants! So she can wear almost anything, though I try to keep her classy. Too many females strut around the galaxies looking like strippers. Shylen Zen doesn't go for that. As for colors, in general I like Blues and Greens. Any shade will do, except for the Bright Blue and Bright Green, of course. Black and White look good on almost anybody; they're classics, so of course I like them.
On Gender and Colors: I always make more items and colors geared more towards females.

Sorry this isn't more organized! I hope I am of some help!

Marah (retired) ... Shylen Zen
Zen & the Art of Fashion
Ahriman's Keep, Naboo
/way -3179, 5275

I like to stock a good variety of colors, though I have a ton more of the ones that sell well than the colors that sell less frequently. Nevertheless my less popular colors DO sell and I think it's fun for customers to see a wide variety of colors. I do tend to stock more female than male colors so now and then I have to remind myself to make some browns/grays/navys/dk greens which the guys snatch up when they come shopping.

Colors that sell the best:

white

black

red

blue

purple

orchid (4th purple in the brightest row)

Colors that sell but not as often:

melon (a few boxes before red)

strawberry (box before red)

bright green

paprika (what I call the bright darker orange, name really helps)

navy

silver

forest green

Colors that sell less frequently but still sell:

yellow

brown

sand (a desert color)

plum (the Tailoring III or IV purple)

In general any color I put up gets sold within a few weeks. I have a big color display set up with 40 or so colors represented by plain shirts which I think really helps. They are arranged in lines according to color families and many have what I think are interesting names Customers have been far more likely to buy interesting colors since I put the display up, as well as custom order them.

Edit - typo

Kwee Glitterwing of Starsider
Ex Image Designer Correspondent ~ Elder Tailor
& Kwee-kwee ~ Master Image Designer
Gamer Girl Columnist ~ swg.warcry.com
Ivory & Topaz of TC ~ Elder Dancers, IDs, Musicians

I am a tailor by the name of Ariset on the server Radiant. I sell quite alot of what was listed above but i also sell some of what was listed as not to sell. On my serverrevealing flesh wraps actually sell quite a bit if you keep a nice wide variety of colors in it. Color wise i try to keep one of everything in black on my vendors for the simple reason black always sells. There are alot of items that dont move too well but if you are in a high traffic area you never know (and sometimes you can't account for taste *grin*). I have had people tell me that they have been looking forsome of thoseitems for ages. I stock alot of white also. I try to keep a wide variety of colors in the items that sell alot even colors that might not sell so well. I have never had much luck with browns or tans, but that may vary from server to server. My main suggestion is keep your prices reasonable for your server. That is what i keep hearing from my regular customers and I have quite a few of them. Good luck with the sales and dont hesitate to message me cross server with any questions

I find that I can sell most colours, if I give thema good name. My technique is to have certain colourschemes and name those.for example, MonoChrome (black with white details), WickedWays (black with pink), HelloKimo (Peach and White) or Dr FeelNothing (White and Light gray).

The advantages are that people are more likely to buy more than one outfit, because they can tell what's meant to go together and what isn't. I even have a seperate vendor for "complete collections" where I sell 12 items at 10K,making an average of 1-3 sales every couple of days (not bad for a small ton on the fa corner of Lok: ).

Disadvantages is that people are often unwilling to buy from the bazaar, because they want to see the words "Brown/Tan" as opposed to "SandStorm". Still, I'm making 4-10K on the bazaar a day, so I can't be doing too badly.

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Doing Bad Things Well Since 1976
L'Animal animé d'âme de luminosité