Armorsmith Archive
Thread: Need help pricing conundrum
when i do my mark up i like to look at what it has cost me so far and what it might cost me in the future if i dont have all the resources i need to make armour so if i have to buy a load of good resources it will cost X amount
also if a good hide spawn comes into play then im gonna want a lot of it and the only way to do it is to pay for it so upwards of 15cpu
i dont think 300k is a lot for capped armour not considering the effort and time we put into makig armour not only that you wont always keep the amount of money you have from selling that armour it will come and go over time
pykescylla wrote:
Even in real life, companies don't really set price by looking at a profit margin. The know what they need to cover costs, but they're really asking, "How much will people pay for this?" Once that question is answered, they then know what the profit magin is. Armor is not priced based on what it costs; it is priced based on what it is worth.
Yeah, the difference between a Corolla and a Lexus.
A Corolla is sold atnear cost where a Lexus hasa huge markup.
And like others have said, it's all supply and demand. I'm sure you know if you were a doctor selling buffs. If the person next to you is selling their buffs for 12K and has a long line, there's no reason for you to start selling identical buffs for a lower price. Youeither end up getting in a price war with that person, or you run out of buffs and the person will make more money in the same amount of time after you leave.
Also, don't go by your "actual" cost, but rather your cost if you were to "buy" the resources needed on your server. Your resource stockwill eventually go down forcing you to buy stuff anyway.
A wiseMerchant (my mentor after launch) once told methat in order to succeed as a Merchant in SWG, you MUST have a stocked vendor. No matter what you do orhow you price it, if your vendor is empty, you WILL lose potential repeat customers.
Put them on your vendor at whatever price you think is reasonable, advirtise on the forums, get some word of mouth by doing some custom suits for people while they wait and you won't have any trouble at all. Don't set the price based on profit margin, set the price based on how fast you can sell it and keep up with demand. Empty vendors are bad...not high prices.
Message Edited by JediMasterCarlito on 09-16-2005 03:43 PM
JediSpam wrote:
Also, don't go by your "actual" cost, but rather your cost if you were to "buy" the resources needed on your server. Your resource stockwill eventually go down forcing you to buy stuff anyway.
A wiseMerchant (my mentor after launch) once told methat in order to succeed as a Merchant in SWG, you MUST have a stocked vendor. No matter what you do orhow you price it, if your vendor is empty, you WILL lose potential repeat customers.
Good point on your first sentence, and it is something I always take into account. Though I mine most of my own resources and harvest most of my hide, I always use the figure of "if I were to buy it" instead of my actual cost. I've done this since launch with my other businesses, and realistically see it as the only way to do things because you do eventually need to buy some of that stuff.
And in regards to your second sentence, that is so true. In any SWG crafting venture I've taken, I've always had very highly stocked vendors. And while I have enough resources to make at least 3000 battle, recon, and assault suits (all protection capped), making them by hand because of that bug has been rough. I just don't want to offer "default" colors, it isn't my style. It makes me feel like my effort has gone to waste. So I'll continue making them by hand until I get enough stock so I can go public, and continue making more to keep my vendor stocked continually. It is much easier to continually stock a vendor like clockwork every week even if you have a good stock on there then to wait until that stock depletes or is extremely low, and then restock.
I'm pretty happy so far with my pricing though and have actually sold 18 suits of armor over the weekend without any advertising or announcement. That isn't including the 4 custom orders I did due to just walking around with my AS tag up. Man I can't wait until the color bug is fixed.
JediMasterCarlito wrote:
JediSpam wrote:
Also, don't go by your "actual" cost, but rather your cost if you were to "buy" the resources needed on your server. Your resource stockwill eventually go down forcing you to buy stuff anyway.
A wiseMerchant (my mentor after launch) once told methat in order to succeed as a Merchant in SWG, you MUST have a stocked vendor. No matter what you do orhow you price it, if your vendor is empty, you WILL lose potential repeat customers.
Good point on your first sentence, and it is something I always take into account. Though I mine most of my own resources and harvest most of my hide, I always use the figure of "if I were to buy it" instead of my actual cost. I've done this since launch with my other businesses, and realistically see it as the only way to do things because you do eventually need to buy some of that stuff.
And in regards to your second sentence, that is so true. In any SWG crafting venture I've taken, I've always had very highly stocked vendors. And while I have enough resources to make at least 3000 battle, recon, and assault suits (all protection capped), making them by hand because of that bug has been rough. I just don't want to offer "default" colors, it isn't my style. It makes me feel like my effort has gone to waste. So I'll continue making them by hand until I get enough stock so I can go public, and continue making more to keep my vendor stocked continually. It is much easier to continually stock a vendor like clockwork every week even if you have a good stock on there then to wait until that stock depletes or is extremely low, and then restock.
I'm pretty happy so far with my pricing though and have actually sold 18 suits of armor over the weekend without any advertising or announcement. That isn't including the 4 custom orders I did due to just walking around with my AS tag up. Man I can't wait until the color bug is fixed.
First off, I like your approach to having an armorsmith shop. Stocked vendors are very important. And having multiple (non-default) colors for sale is highly desireable.
But, depending on how much playing time you have available... I have to tell you that your plan about not stocking default colored armor is simply not going to work out.If you sold 18 suits in a weekend, how many do you expect to sell once word gets around that you have a stocked, variedand reasonably priced vendor?
I can make around6-10 suits of armor an hour by hand if I have all resources available, and besides the odd custom orders (energy layered composite, comp armor, health enhanced RIS) that take time to do, there is simply no way I can spare an hour every day handcrafting base armor.
Whathas worked well for meismaking factory runs of black marauder/padded, black tantel and white composite and using these suits as "base-stock" suits.With10 of each of these on the vendorI don't run the risk of having an empty vendor. Then I can spend what time I have available handcrafting when I feel to do so, with the certainty that customers will at least find something useful armor on my vendors.
Of course, your schedule may look different than mine - but there is no way I will ever hand-craft 30 suits to have a decent starting point for a vendor.
Message Edited by Nixen on 09-19-2005 05:45 PM
you say you have visited around 30 armor vendors around naboo and tatooine.... well then you now also how bad there stockt with a few exeptions
you proberly have seen my new shop in lianorm now put it whay back .... but my name is following me so that isn't helping mutch
I took my time for you to tell you some sales rate from last week
I sold 55 Layerd suits and 26 factional suits + 250 shields from monday to sunday... total value was 79,8mil.... thats around 920k a suit avarage.... layerd suitd 700k factional 1200k....
I hand craft the factional suits of course.
Now It comes I get complaints about my high prices.... its around 57cpu if you calculate it.... thats around 280k for unlayerd suit, I surly make a heavty profit on it doing so but, shoud I lower my prices to like what I still make a desend profit what will be like 450k a layerd suit, Im surten that I have to double my time I need to spend in making/stocking armor, pre CU I sold the around 200 suits a week making runs from 1000 chestplates of the same type and so on.... not realy want back to those days.
thats whay I have chosen to only sell layerd armor.... while every one makes unlayerd armor for vendor stock, making cap armor isn't realy hard lot of special resourses but because 94% of segments already have cap you dont need perfect resourses and a lesser spawn is still sufficiant.
No clue any more where my story goes to
getting lateBut think carfull on your pricing, if your to cheap and it get nown you sell like maddman, if you like please do because I want to slow down more armor lower prices so less sales for me
well even old competition will rise again good old doc times
hope I finaly get some layerd competition on stockt vendors..... and quality of it because having non get me rude to costumers some times
Starpilots wrote:
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