Artisan Archive
Thread: Artisans: Whats up with Vechicle Pricing? 3 CPU?!
I asked for the breakdown because I rarely break it down myself, all I know is...
I put 1000 credits +/- in a Heavy I get another day or so...
I put 1000 power +/- I get another day or so...
I get about 10,000 units a day
So I guess my figures are around yours +/-
If anyone thinks a 100% mark up is enough, you will never do well in business.
Yes, in retail, 100% is wonderful, but thats AFTER it gets to the reatil store. Many other people have been paid to get that product to Wal-Mart WAY before the measly markups they tack on... that's whywarehouse stores claim better prices, they cut out the MIDDLE MAN...
The actual markup from initial production is (guessing) 5-600% (or much more than 100, dont flame my guestimate)
You think a Compact Disc by a Major Artist costs $20 to produce? try 10 cents MAYBE
So you buy a harvestor, get some power, buy ANOTHER harvestor or so, survey, find the resource, drop it, operate it, check it, get the resources, drive back to your house with a crafting station, use a crafting tool craft the item, put it on the vendor or bazaar, repeat...
Hasn't been a good dolovite spawn on Naritus in ages I think. Last I heard people bought what was left at 40CPU.
It's basic supply and demand really. Vehicles, like buildings, are one-sale items. Once the customer has it, they don't need another one unless they upgrade. The difference is that one person can have a lot of buildings, especially if they lot trade. Architect is another profession where the profit margin is really really low. Heck, most of them would probably make more money selling their ore instead of building buildings with it and selling the buildings.
I think a few of the people selling vehicles so cheap are newcomers who don't know better. To them it looks like a lot of money, and it is profitable as some have calculated in this thread. However, if we compare with an item like weapon powerups, which can be created very early in an artisans career (albeit with bad stats), those can be sold as high as 30CPU. Now that is an acceptable profit margin in my book. One would think that a limited use item would have less profit..
This really all goes back to the lack of a real mining profession that uses skill points up to be able to use better and better harvesters.
As it is now anybody can plop down harvesters and gather resorces at less then 1 cred per unit and any artasin can easly sell at 2 cpu and still make thousands per vehicle. a 10K unit item sold at 2cpu and cost less then 1cpu to make is still over a 10K profit. no mater how you look at it (and thats good profit for laber) I norm price at 2X cost to make. but again the prob is the cost is nothing for the people that mine themself worse yet with the masses of lots being used for harvesters that dont belong to crafters.
This is why I was so agenst them droping Mining (and industrialest)back in bete before it was even tested for its "fun" facter. the only wayto have a strong economy is if there is a good supply chain with people making profits all the way through it.
If you had mining, crafting(any type), industrialest, merchent and schematic revocation. people would have to pick what parts thay wanted to do (but could not do them all)
A miner, parts crafter (artasin non advanced), industrialest could do a lil merchent to sell the parts but would not have the skill points for an advanced profession to make a finnished item.
An industrialest, advanced crafter, merchant could make there advanced items but would need to buy resorces and parts from others (and would not be able to undercut as thay do by harvesting there own resorces)
and anybody could have 1 of them and also have combat skills as well. (this is what I would do hehe)
If the devs had stuck with there goals from back before beta we would not have the probs with the economy we have now. but Im guessing its way to late to fix it now because I dont see them adding back mining farming industrialest (for harvester/factory use) and revocation (that was one of the worst things thay droped in beta) and without them your stuck with the solo crafters that will do it for next to nothing. So get use to it.
Had a nice spreadsheet, can't post it here =( Anyways, this part of post covers the point well enough.
So, ask this question, did the 6k speeder guy make a profit on his bikes? Yes and No. He took a commodity with a common value of 3c and devalued it to .8c by investing time and labor into it. It would be like me investing $200 in harvesting oranges, but instead of selling them for $400, I turn them into orange juice and sell that for $220. Thats saying your time and skill is worth -$180.
Selling a swoop for 27-28k is still roughly saying, my time and skill is worthless.
As long as there are people willing to give away their time and effort, this will never change. Why this does not happen in Weapon and Armor crafting is simple, there are not enough willing to give that away to meet demand. If you took and put a PA on eachserver that could produce the quality and meet the demand, but sell their guns at 3c per unit, they would destroy the weapons market as word got around. The only thing that will impact that market is a competitor that can do just that.