Artisan Archive

For you harvester burners out there:

The sampling rate of your harvester decreased dramatically as it degrades. Sure, it may last 4 days before it poofs, but on two of those days you're going to get crap for resources.

So, feel free to let them burn, but adjust your calculations way way down on how profitable it is to do so.

I find myself building a lot of stuff knowing full well that it will be destroyed because I need the crafting XP and it wouldn't sell at a profit anyway. Given the new state of the game, a lot of people are in the mode of trying to sell everything they make. I have given away a few CDEF weapons but I suspect those people just turned around and tried to sell them or didn't use them. I am not too concerned about making a profit right now, I run cash missions and prospect for resources at the cities I know I can get materials at easily at the same time and it works out well for the short-term until I can get to the point where I can run harvestors.

I think the worst problem is not that people won't buy stuff at higher prices, but that so many artisans THINK no one will. Most of the pricing problems are not the result of buyers not being willing to pay--anyone running any reasonable number of missions has a pretty good glut of money on their hands--but from artisan misconceptions about both XP and economics.

For starters, the XP you get by dumping isn't really worthwhile. UXP isn't all that significant in the first place, and by exchanging the perceived UXP value for money to run a harvester with, you MORE than make up for it simply by having more time on your hands to actually craft instead of look for goods.

For another, many of you far underestimate what you can fetch for your goods. They look at the dumping prices in the big city bazaars and think "well, geez, I'd better match or beat these prices or I won't be able to sell anything!" But that is not true either, for a variety of reasons.

One, you need not compete in a market where you will lose money. There are under-served portions of the galaxy where goods are less common, demand is higher, and your items are more valuable than they are going to be in a starting city swarming with fresh crafters. Seek those places out--you can get better value for your product.

Two, there is a 'get what you pay for' phenomena that works in the game as much as in life. People, presented with a range of prices for a type of item, and unable to adequately differentiate (they don't look at the stats) will surprisingly often choose a higher priced good over a lower one. The perception is that low prices mean low quality. You cannot set your prices to drastically exceed the average, but you CAN sell above the average price because of this factor.

Three, don't under-estimate the value of marketing. If you are the average consumer in the real world, you buy all sorts of exorbitantly priced junk for which much cheaper alternatives exist, simply because you've heard the name somewhere. Don't deny it! It's true, or many well-known companies would be out of business today. The same thing is true in the game--in a sea of CDEFs, if someone sees one built by someone they have seen before, or heard of, they're more likely to scoop it up than the next.

As people have been saying, the market will set the price. But you have to give it a chance to do so, not undercut the natural ebb of it by underpricing yourself from the start. You can continue to believe that you won't be able to sell a CDEF for 100 credits, but using these techniques, I can fetch as much as 550 for them regularly. Make a genuinely good product, use a little marketing, and you have every opportunity to do the same.

I think that a good point was brought up earlier about educating people. Marksmen and the like are now wanting certain upgrades to their weapons, and it is random what pops out.

We need to petition for an in-game 'Catalog' of some sort that we can carry around to make things easier and easier for others to know what is what.

Ad far as people undercutting, I know it was discussed on my server board, (Corbantis) buy out the undercutters and resell. Until we start to see full fledged Merchants who WANT to spend their day selling crafted items from all different people, we will have to suffer for now until we can supply them.

>>> Q'Tessa

Xexy Corp. 'Making your life better, 1 item at a time'

How about this; I'm not in it for the money. I will charge what I wish and give away what I feel like giving away.

I play the game for fun. Not to make a fortune. You charge what you wish and if I undercharge you so what. Lower your prices or don't sell your stuff. It's totally up to you. It's called supply and demand. Basic business practices. Live with it.

I bet you're also one of those people that charge toteach others in skills.

Greed in life is bad enough. I don't need it in a GAME also.

Enjoy the game.

Yea, with a little marketing, your products will stand out more, and you can get away with charging a little more. Never put anything in the Bazar that has the default name, and you'll be more likely to sell things. Almost every CDEF I've put in the bazar has sold, and I've been pricing them at 150-160 depending on quality... may go a little higher now that I've got an even better quality product. But putting info in the name, like the damage range for weapons, helps too. Much easier when people don't have to look at the detail to get information.

The other thing, is don't put your discards on the market, have a standard, and destroy anything that doesn't meet that standard. If you put out good stuff, people might just remember your name, and come to you when they want something. Put out junk, and people will remember that the weapon they got from "XPcranker" wasn't worth a **edit**, and avoid your stuff.

One factor that hasn't been brought up here is the quality of the resource being sold. I for one sure as hell won't pay 3cr a unit for a resource of low quality. On the same token I will pay 10+cr a unit on950+ quality resouces that I know I will use to make products I plan to sell. The higher the quality the better chance you have at making a much higher end product when experimenting. Please correct me if I'm wrong but after doing many combines of the same product using different quality resources this is the conclusion I have come to. All those numbers asscioated with a given resource do mean something.

The market is so screwy because the game has only been out a week! Give it some time and it will balance out. I have no problem selling experimented weapons in the 100-700 range. Every night I fill up the max I can put up for auction and usually 90% has sold by the time I get home from work the next day. One marketing tip that works well is putting the damage rating in the title of your weapon. Is someone looks at 4 heavy axes that have not been experiminted on all with standared dmg and then sees one with a 37-147 ratting they will gladly pay the extra credits.

Lastly if anyone has a real good grasp on what each resourse attribute contributes to in crafting please do drop me an email.

Bravnik,

With all due respect, it is people like you that are recessing the economy. In order for it to work, there are some fundamental priciples of a REAL economy that must be in place in our virtual economy in order for it to work.

The rules of a real economy, i.e. supply & demand, value is what the market will bear, etc. exist because in real life, NO ONE IS IN BUSINESS ONLY FOR FUN. If you gave away all your stuff in business, you would go broke, get evicted, starve to death, and die. And that's not called business, that's called charity. And even charity gets funding from somewhere (usually diverted tax dollars - also a product of a healthy economy). And then you died of starvation, you'd be out of the market and not screwing it up for the rest of us.

So there's a natural correction mechanism in a real economy. Not so in SWG.

Please keep this in mind as you operate your SWG charity and do NOT die.

Again, with all due respect,

Ick
Ick Brothers Trading Company
[)|(]

using your equation, it is much more cost efficient to simply let the harvesters run out. at 2.3 credits per material you would spend 575 credits in materials to make the harvester. Now upkeep is around 1k per day... maintaining these things seems stupid to me when you can build two a day for the cost of supporting one. My suggestion: Make one a day for the next ten days and cycle them, destroy the oldest one each day and build a new one in its' place. or just build ten and let them run themselves into the ground. Either way, paying to keep these things running is just throwing your money away.

As for your pricing scheme. What about competition? I can't make a profit if everyone is selling for less than i am. So i sell my muzzle for 50cr well, all the next guy has to do is go to 49 and he wins. You MUST keep competitive. That guy sells his for 49, then you go to 48. After all, how much profit do you make by not selling it?

Hang in there FatherIck, business will get better. In the short term : diversify.

I don't mind sharing some trade secrets. Right now most crafters (and I'm not talking powergamers)are hitting Engineering III. I'm still at Eng II and almost hitting Eng III. Last night I got enough material to make my first set of Bone Armor boots. Then I look at the BOM and see I don't have fiberplast panels. Hmmm, problem I don't have Domestic I, and don't want to take it. I head off to the bazaar and could not find 1 fiberplast panel.Now, how many other Artisans that are heading up the Engineering tree are having this problem ? I would bet a quite a few.

Someonecould make some good cash selling fiberplast panels or even bone armor segments......hmmmm.

Zarghanon hit one nail on the head. I make a killing off of fiberplast panels.

But I didn't start that way because I didn't know what to charge. I started at 25 creds, moved to 30 now am upto 70 and they sell like crazy. The market needs to be pushed up not undercut. Even at that I sold a Travel Pack for 800cred when everyone else was selling for 350-600. Go figure.

I do think the market will do some economy balancing will happen as the game grows. Get you name out there and earn a rep. so when the new players arrive they are pointed in your direction by others.

Good ideas, guys. I'll throw one back to you. I checked the bazarre to see who bought my stuff. I then emailed them as "preferred customers" and said "Hi... I see you have been purchasing some fine Ick products. Is there anything else you need, and if so, may I take your order?"

It works. Makes it so they don't have to do any work to get the stuff they want.

Cheers,
Ick
Ick Brothers Trading Company
[)|(]

Also, if any of you are on Corbantis, RORI, please check my post there!

Man, I thought of doing that, but I didn't want to get accused of being the first to drag spam into the game mail system.

But now that you've started it, I can always do some finger-pointing if anyone accosts me.
)

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President and Owner, Moglin Heavy Industries
Crafters and Purveyors of Fine Blasters and Accessories
Tergill, Naboo, Starsider
5610, -3625 (Main Shop)